Greece trip, part 1

WARNING: this post is long. However, it is worth the read; please read it. I have posted it for you.

I think I will post one day of Greece each day, or more, depending on how bored I am. I will try to include as many pertinent pictures as I can; after this journal is finished I will get most of my pictures on Facebook and I will let you know when that happens. You should look at them because they really go hand-in-hand.






London from the plane. That's the Thames River.


Me n' Big Ben!


Westminster Abbey


Stained glass in Westminster Abbey


Athens at night (2:30 AM)

Day 0: Friday, March 20 and Saturday, March 21
Seatac, London-Heathrow, Athens

I took several days off school to prepare for the trip. My mom was not very happy about the fact that I got my travel insurance the day of our departure, but I didn’t suffer any harm so I think that turned out all right. We arrived at the airport several minutes late due to traffic, but it turned out all right since everyone else was having the same problem. As I stood in a circle with the others, I wondered what kind of a relationship I would have with them at the end of the trip. Everyone says that traveling with someone produces a special bond, so I was excited to see whether I would get 14 new best friends. Security and boarding were uneventful, but the flight was dreadfully long. I got a chance to talk with some of the group, and I did get some sleep, but the flight was still about six hours too long for my taste. I wondered why the stewards made such a huge fuss over closing the windows several hours in; later I realized it was because we were flying through an area that was experiencing day when we should be experiencing night (!)—very interesting. I was tired but excited to arrive in London. This was my first time on non-US or Canadian soil, my first trip abroad (because Canada really doesn’t count). When we stepped off the plane, I was amazed at how large and modern London-Heathrow is, and at the racial diversity there (from all of the Crown’s colonies, perhaps?). It was fun to try out my terrible British accent and to say things like “mind” and “hand baggage.” After getting off the plane and making our way through the airport, we boarded the Tube to see a bit of London. I will admit that I got quite a laugh out of the name of our Tube’s destination, though after the sixth or seventh stop Dr. Pappas shot me a look that plainly said, “stop being juvenile.” We got off at Piccadilly to see the sights. We started at Green Park, a beautiful park full of lush grass, flowers, and birds, and bursting with verdant energy. We continued through to Buckingham Palace Square. The palace was beautiful, ornately built and surrounded by elegant gardening and sculpture. Next we saw the old barracks and continued past more government buildings to Big Ben and the Parliament building, as well as the Eye of London. I was really hoping to get a glimpse of MI6, the British equivalent of the CIA; my friend told me about it before the trip. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite where I thought it was and we didn’t have time to look for it—next time, though!!! I didn’t catch the names of many of the things that we passed; I was in the back taking too many pictures, a habit that I thankfully curbed before we got too far through Greece. Next we went to Westminster Abbey, where Muzio Clementi, father of the pianoforte, is interred. I rather wanted to see all the tombs, but we didn’t have a lot of time and I’m sure they wouldn’t have let us anyway—Ashley did enough to tick them off when she asked for that official to pose with her sock monkey. We passed by Scotland Yard, which was neat, as well as the statue of Lord Nelson, which was tall. We tried to get into a pub for dinner but it was too full; instead we ate in the basement of Italian restaurant with a Romanian hostess who spoke 12 languages. We hurried back on the tube (some Brits “loffed” (laughed) at Dr. Pappas’ directions on the way) and made the flight with not much time to spare. I don’t remember a whole lot about London. Everything moved too fast and it was more of a blur for me, which is funny because some of us (and here I poke fun at a certain Miss Holmes) thought it was the best part of the trip.

Things and some stuff

So, a lot has happened since I last posted. Mainly, I went to Greece. I am currently finishing up my journal of what happened on the trip; once it is done I will post it up for you guys so you can all read it in its probably-12-pages-single-spaced glory. For now I will leave you with this: I fell in love with Greece. That trip was the best 11 days of my life. I wish I could live there forever.
It was a shock to return home and have to get right back into the swing of things. Our flight home was delayed so we got back the day before classes started, not two days before as had been the previous plan. I drove over in the morning with Charlie, just in time to make my Music Theory class with my Russian professor(who is such a badass that she deserves her own series of blog posts, which I will ge to some time in the future). I am really busy this quarter. I have 17 credits and I have applied for a job as a tutor, so I will be doing stuff pretty much all day every week day. However, I have started to figure out tricks about what stuff to practice and what stuff to wing in music and choir, so I think that I might be able to make it through okay. That's good, since I have been hanging out with people from the trip almost every day since we got back. ALmost everyone on the trip was cool and I made two really good friends, both of which are girls and one of which I am dying for. So I am back in "the game," I guess; it kind of sucks because this girl is really hard to read and even my other female friends can offer at best tentative advice. I have been listening to a lot of rock and punk music, especially Less Than Jake, blink 182, and The Descendents. They are specialists in being a really nice guy but having no confidence with girls. Things seem to have been going pretty well though, so hopefully something will happen...
That's kind of my main concern right now because I REALLY like this girl. Enough of my drama.

This quarter I have choir, music theory, composition, voice lessons, English 102, and my DHC classes, as well as yoga. English 102 is made for morons. The professor is really boring and he elaborates on pointless things. THe course is about how to write an argument, which is something that I have been doing pretty well for several years. Also, AP English gave me credit for ENglish 105, but for some reason it woudln't count for 102. Bleh.
The other new things are voice lessons and composition. I have decided to focus on singing since I won't be able to reliably piay the piano any time soon. I'm really excited. I'm singing in a jazz combo now, so I won't be able to make fun of jazz singers anymore; conversely, it's actually pretty difficult and really scary so I have more respect for them anyway. Composition is really cool. The professor is an aweosome compoer and she knows a lot about music history. We get to write our own stuff as well as analyze the big guys. At the end of the quarter we have a recital where people play the stuff that the composition studio has written.
So classes are good for the most part, but I'm just really busy and trying to figure out my girl situation so I have a lot of things on my mind right now. I am also still negotiating the transfer to Eastern. My mom brought up the idea of buying a car and commuting to Eastern for my piano lessons while staying at Central, so now I'm really conflicted as to which option is the best way to go.
Basically, I have a lot of stuff on my mind right now. Sometimes I feel like I could use a hug. Either that or an instant cure for my hands. I will have to post up some pictures of my Greece trip when I get my journal online.

Proof that Compare People is stupid

Okay, I owe you all a good post. I think I will try to post every weekend because that is the only time I will have time. Look for a post by Sunday, and heckle me if it is not done.

Hark! I doth post

All right, I have decided to make a short post so that you can all read about how I am doing.
I have been very busy for a long time, mainly negotiating my transfer to Eastern, which involves applying for new scholarships and housing and admissions and talking to all sorts of people here and over there, so it has been very harrowing. I've also had a pretty heavy load of classwork and tests to get through so frankly it has been tough. I got pretty sick on Tuesday so since then I have pretty much stayed home and played Fire Emblem and read and watched A LOT of SC (OMG BIsu, what happened?!?!?!?!). It has been good to get some R&R, but I am still feeling pressured because I need to get rid of this cold by next week, before I leave for Greece. We will have several extended flights and I will no doubt be very tired, so I want to be as well as possible for that. I'm very excited and I will try to send everyone postcards, which brings me to another point:
SEND OR COMMENT YOUR ADDRESSES. UNLESS YOU DO NOT WANT A POSTCARD FROM AGAMEMNON'S TOMB (hint: you do because he's a badass).
I have only three finals this next week, and I will be taking one of them early in spring quarter so I really only have 2. I have really needed this break over the past few days...I've been pretty stressed out for a long time and mainly now I want to sleep. I'm still struggling to deal with this tendinitis; it will seem like I'm okay for a few weeks and then the next few weeks I will be depressed. I know that it will work out in the end but right now it's nigh unbearable...it's going to take at least another 6-8 months, possibly even a year or two before I can function with the piano, videogames, and daily life like I used to. I think it just seems like it's gotten worse becuase my pain thresholds are up because of my cold, but it is still very discouraging...it's hard to know that you guys are still playing without me; it feels like I'm just watching my life drain away before my eyes. EMO FACE!

I'm also bummed that I won't get to really see you guys until the summer, when I will hopefully but damnedly have a steady job. This brings me to my next point: online DnD. We should definitely do it! I have sent out an email to remind you; let's get this up and running and have some fun! I have a lot of ideas for adventures and also how to make it a better experience for everyone.
Okay, I think that's all you get for now. Orion, I count on you finding the best way to play DnD online. Sai and David, I'm excited for Regigigas next week, however brief it may be. Steven...shoutout for you? You can come to R-Gigas if you want, too.

"Do it.
"Rorschach...?"
"DO IT!"

Also this

Very last entry of "did you know?"

Something quick

All right, here is something for Orion. This is how far it is from NYU to the Village Vanguard jazz club. Not even 20 minutes of walking!! It is a good place for awesome music and you should go there. Take KK? Or maybe some other chica caliente?

I love my roommate

This is what Travis had for breakfast one day last week. It's a monster made of "farm bread," peanut butter and jelly, and Cheez-its. Yum?

So, things have been basically the same since you guys all visited here. My class schedule this quarter is both better and worse than last quarter. I have music theory at 9 every day, and we have to sing in front of the class every Thursday. I have choir at 11 and then Renaissance Art History at 12. Choir is really fun and very trippy coming from an instrumental side of things. Art is intellectually interesting, I guess, but it is slides in a dark room for 40 minutes so I usually have to work to stave off sleep.
On Mondays I also have my yoga class at 2 and then my honors colloquium at 6; Tuesday and Thursday I have my honors lecture at 5. I have no class on Friday except for piano lessons (half hour) at 11, so I have a lot of time to myself this quarter.

But let us get back to the point, which is Travis.

On Thursday night Travis introduced me to a game that he made up. We were standing in front of Justine's room. The idea was to get really dizzy and see who could run back our room first. We spun around fast until Justine counted to 20, and then we leaped out! It was really hard to avoid falling down, and when we were about halfway there he grabbed my sleeve and pulled himself ahead of me, sending me careening into the fire extinguisher mount on the fall, for which I still have bruises. John ran up startled and confused at what had happened, and angry that we were running in the halls (apparently we made a lot of noise). We weren't running, I told him; we were staggering quickly.

On Friday night I didn't hear from Travis except for a call that he wasn't going to be home that night because he was going to beer pong. On Saturday I woke up and took a shower and when I got back he was there in his bed. He told me the story of how he played beer pong at the party and got some chick to be impressed with him because the two of them made a team that owned all, apparently (Travis is really good at beer pong, also apparently). So she was making out with him and stuff and then he says he can't remember anything much after that. He says he woke up in his friend's bed with her next to him and a headache. He's not sure what happened, and he still can't remember. The funny part is that when we were turning in for the night he related the exact same story to me because he had still been slightly drunk in the morning and he couldn't remember! I laughed hard when that happened.

The next night, Travis asked me to open the knife blade on his multitool and throw it to him so that he could catch it. I said something to the effect of "are you crazy?," but he insisted. I told him I wouldn't but then as he was coming to take the knife I decided that I would after all. Lately he has been very keen to prove to me how great he is at catching and throwing things, so I figured he could do it. He steeled him self and I tossed it lightly underhand. As soon as I did, he jumped away, yelling: "What the FUCK? What the FUCK? Don't throw a fucking KNIFE at me! What the hell is wrong with you! I was just kidding; you're supposed to be the responsible one around here!!!!!" Needless to say, it was quite humorous and it made a lot of noise for being 12:30 at night (quiet hours).

Also, early last week Travis bought a crappy Nerf knockoff pistol for the express purpose of shooting me when I'm not looking. I think he's trying to figure out my threshold for dumb stuff that he does to me. Today he bought some sort of electrical shocking apparatus that he hinted he would place around the room and shock me with. But, he left it out on his desk and now it's mine to use against him later.
Oh, I take it back. He just walked in with another one. So I guess we each have one now, at least until he zaps me with it and I get it for myself. He did mention that he spent "thirty dollars to buy this little shocking thingy." I don't know if it was that much, but the thought of him spending money to get me and then being foiled it pretty good. Now I just have to find this next one before he gets me with it, and then every one after that.