Here Goes Nothing.

I'm off to see the world.

Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Munich, Venice, Rome. Home on Christmas Eve.

A laundry list of European cultural centers. Your prayers are appreciated. Off I go . . .

P.S. This is the greatest shirt I've ever owned. It's a bit small, but who am I to complain? Thanks, Aunt Janna!

Pick up the Bags, Get in the Limousine

That's from 'You Never Give Me Your Money' on Abbey Road, in case you're wondering.

One sweet dream
Pick up the bags, get in the limousine.
Soon we'll be away from here
Step on the gas and wipe that tear away.
One sweet dream
Came true.
Today.

And how!

Zach and I left for Liverpool on Sunday at one o'clock in the morning. There really weren't any great options for getting there. The other buses got in at 1:00 in the afternoon, and the trains were the same story. So I thought we could get some sleep on the bus and make it through. We didn't get any sleep, but we made it through.

Believe it or not, there's not much to do in Liverpool at 6:00 on a Sunday morning. The streets were empty. So we sat in a McDonald's for an hour and a half, then made our way down to Albert Dock. Back in the day, Liverpool was a booming port city, and the buildings that make up what is now the cultural center - where the museums and fancy restaurants are - were, ironically, highly unglamorous warehouses. It was freezing cold and rainy when we got there and the rest of the time. But that didn't stop us.

We went to the Tate Modern Art Gallery first. Pretty cool, though much of it is way too artsy for me. A blue canvas? That's it? It expresses something . . . I'm not quite sure what . . . but I'll be damned if it's not prestigious art. The minimalist stuff is beyond me, but we got to see some of Andy Warhol's first prints. That was pretty awesome.











Here's me with Marilyn Monroe.
And the Chairman. No, not Sinatra.

After that, we set out on the Magical Mystery Tour, a bus tour of Beatles sites in Liverpool. So we saw all of their childhood homes. John's is now in the National Trust, a government organization that usually only buys old Victorian-era houses and the like. We couldn't go in, because it's closed for the winter for some reason, but it was really cool to stand there and see where John and Paul wrote so many of their early tunes.

We also went to the church where John and Paul at a picnic one fateful afternoon . . . CRAZY!

And, of course, Strawberry Field and Penny Lane.




















Seeing these places sent chills up my spine. We also went to the Cavern Club on Mathew Street, where they performed 292 times in the course of two years before they invaded America. This is me on Mathew Street.



And, finally, the Beatles Story, a very touristy 'museum' of artifacts and cheesy mannequins. It was alright, I guess, but a little disappointing. It only served to make me wish I had been born 40 years earlier and in Liverpool. But it was a great couple of days and well worth the trip.

Hello, goodbye.

PL&C

And(rew) Bird Can Sing.

But he can't see me.
He can't see
Meeeeeee
(George Harrison guitar lick)

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A few of us went into London on Friday to go to a concert by Andrew Bird, violinist, whistler, and guitarist extraordinaire. He did not disappoint.

But more on that later. First we went to the British Museum (my second time, but their first) and, believe it or not, I had my camera with me and charged. So I got pictures of my favorite works of art and history. Here are some of the highlights:

It's huge. Like, 18 acres huge.

Oh! The grandeur.

This is the Cyrus Cylinder. On it, the king of Babylon is proclaiming he's king of the world. We learned about this in my religion class. That is neat.

My favorite section was the clocks. They were all built centuries ago, and with a little help, still keep perfect time. The various parts show the day of the week, month, and year, a zodiac calendar, and, of course, the time of day. Pretty incredible.

They have stuff from every continent at the British Museum. This is from South America. I'm pretty sure they got the art at Chipotle from this thing. And thus began a new round of burrito withdrawals.

We thought this sculpture's face was great, so Mikey and I tried to imitate it.

I'm not really sure what it's trying to convey. My theory? He fussy, 'cause he a baby.

After a stroll through the Camden markets, which were very cool, we went to the concert. The venue was AMAZING. It seemed to be an old opera theatre with four levels, packed to the top. The disco ball work was exquisite.

Dot took this picture. Great shot, Dot.

So Andrew Bird went to work plucking and bowing on his violin, then stomping a pedal to record it and play it back, over which he would play some more violin, or whistle and clap, and play his guitar and sing. You have to wonder what's going through his mind - how he could have all of those parts in his head, all at his disposal at any time, ready to whip out a violin or guitar and just play his heart out. It was just jaw-dropping to watch.



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A little less impressive, but he was also proficient at this thing. The rooster says: a brilliant show, and a wonderful afternoon in foggy Londontown.

PL&C

Hills! Water! Mud! Running!

I ran in the Birmingham Cross Challenge this weekend. It was a lot of fun. It was what our captain called a 'proper cross country race,' with lots of hills and a jump over a big old puddle of water. Or, for the rest of us, a run through it. There were, oh, about 600 people running. There were teams from universities around the area, but most of the guys were older - like 40's, 50's, and some of them were probably in their 60's. I got beat by A LOT of those people. It was a 10K (about 6.2 miles), and I've never raced at that distance before, much less on ridiculous hills over the entire course on a chilly day.

Coming in to the race, I had two goals:
1. Don't get injured.
2. Don't finish in the last 10%.

And I accomplished both of them! Hooray!

It was a tough race, but it was great to be in a competition like that again. And words can't describe how much fun it was to run through that puddle of mud, everyone cheering you on, though really hoping to see you face plant into it . . . you could tell from the other side of the park when someone had fallen in from the huge cheer that went up. One of my teammates did, he told me after the race. It was pretty obvious, because he was covered in it. Pretty funny, glad it wasn't me.

The winner ran a 29:41 10K. RIDICULOUS! I finished in 42:25, which I was really really happy with - 6:49 miles, and with less than optimal training and preparation. Here are my results . . . they kind of slaughtered my name. 'Ryan Gebtzier.' But I don't do it to be famous, so I think I'll be alright.

And yes, Mom, I was the cutest one out there.

















PL&C

Big News, Faithful Readers.

I made it onto the Global leader board for Scrabulous. No small accomplishment, if I do say so myself.





It's hard to see, but that's my name. Possibly my proudest achievement ever.

Let's see . . . I got two packages today, one from my best friend and another from Jewell's Christian Student Ministries. I feel very loved.

The race is tomorrow. I am excited.

Oh, and I emailed Chipotle last week asking how fast they could open a restaurant in London. I got a reply today:

Hello Ryan,

It is going to be a while my friend. Right now, Chipotle is focusing on expanding our business domestically and pursuing American markets that have not yet been explored by us. International expansion is way out on the time line and I am told that may take many years to accomplish. But I hope you will visit the states soon and enjoy another burrito. We send our International Burrito Love.

Sincerely,

Ken Marley
Chipotle

I still love you, Chipotle.

I'll update tomorrow with news about my race. Until then,

PL&C

Today I Woke Up Late, Again.

I tucked in at 1:00 last night, which is much earlier than usual. Still, I couldn't make it out of bed before a few minutes till noon. I'm going to need to figure out this '24-hour-free-time' thing before it gets out of hand.

A few of us went to London on Saturday. It was, all in all, somewhat disappointing - no one was really in a good mood, I was pretty tired, we didn't have a plan, etc. But we went to the British Museum, which is massive. MASSIVE! We saw mummies, statues, old books, clocks (really cool, old ones), and all sorts of Roman, Greek, and Egyptian junk. The Rosetta Stone is now kept there too, which was really cool to see. Didn't make it down to Parliament and Big Ben . . . that's for another time.

Mikey, Dot, and I went to see 'if....' with the Magdalen Film Society last night. It was weird, but at least it was in English, unlike the first three films we saw with them. It was about a boarding school in England in the 1960s, and the protagonist ends up going on a shooting rampage. Creepy, to say the least. Tonight is a double feature of The Big Lebowski and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I haven't seen either before, but I've heard very good things.

My first OUCCC race is at Birmingham this weekend. It's an open race, so that means I'll be getting beat by 14-year-olds and senior citizens alike. A guy on my team said it's probably going to be a field of about 400. Which is pretty big for a 10K race. I think the St. Louis Marathon had something like 8000 when I ran this April, but that's quite different. I'm looking forward to it, though it'll probably be pretty intimidating. I'm not In It to Win It, as my shirt used to say, so no pressure.

Because this post is pretty boring thus far, here's a song I like. It's called Restaurant.

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Well, I have another cross country run in a few minutes, so that'll be it for now.

Peace, Love, and Clyde.

Oh Yoko!

As a devoted Beatles fan, it may be sacrilegious to love this song as much as I do right now.

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Muzingz

We went to Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill, on Saturday. I really enjoyed it. Especially since I learned during my tutorial on Thursday that Churchill, known as one of the greatest (if not the greatest) Tory (that's conservative) parliamentarians of all time, offered to merge England and France in 1940, just before Hitler invaded, to keep him out. That completely blew my mind. I wonder what they would have called their new super-nation, and if they really could have kept Germany from occupying France. Moral of the story: history is very interesting. It might just be me, but history is much more interesting here than it is back home.

Anyway, Blenheim Palace was very enjoyable. My camera, unfortunately, ran out of batteries right as we got there, so these pictures are stolen from my colleagues.





Our first stop was at Sir Winston Churchill's gravesite, Bladon Church. Photo courtesy Janeane Lage.

Janeane and I at the gate.

It seems to be that beautiful gardens are a necessary component of palace grounds. I'm not complaining.

Just getting some lunges in.





















I have my first Marxist Critique of Capitalism tutorial today. The more I read of Marx, the more he seems like a more articulate, though no less crazy, version of the guys who wear signs that say "The End is Near" and yell at people on the streets. His completely irreverent beliefs are somewhere between tragic and comic, but they seem closer to the latter more often than not. Anyway, after this, I'm probably going to be very familiar with his crazy notions of human freedom. All too familiar, maybe. But, here we are.

Peace, Love, and Clyde.

Freestylin', just sayin' whatever comes to the top of my head . . .

I rearranged my bedroom yesterday because my head, as I slept, rested against the heater in my room, which got uncomfortable when it kicked on. When I moved my armoire, I found this sign, which I found eerily appropriate considering my last post. So, there it is.

When I took this picture, I was in the middle of a long writing session for the paper mentioned in my previous post. I had been up for awhile, and everyone knows nothing's more comfortable than sweatpants . . . except no pants. I didn't feel like putting any on, so now you've seen me in my underwear. Rest assured, I set the timer on my camera to take this, so it's not like I asked someone to take it for me. That would be creepy.

I also bought an electric kettle for tea. This is the battlestation in my room. Late night study sessions, fueled by Sainsbury's FairTrade Tea and several Beatles albums.




By the way, I got the paper done. And it was fantastic.

I think that's all for now.

Peace and Love.

OUCCC

"Now, it used to be, I ran to get where I was going. I didn't know it would ever take me anywhere."

So I was losing sleep two nights ago, wondering how I could meet and befriend some British people and get the Oxford experience to an adequate degree. I flipped through the directory of clubs here, and I happened upon the Oxford University Cross Country Club. The directory was from 2002, but the club is still alive and kicking, as it were. So I emailed the guy I found on the website, and he informed me that training had already begun, and would you like to join us on our run from Radcliffe Camera tomorrow evening? I said, "Yes!" in my head, quite enthusiastically, and showed up yesterday with a jump in my step and a can-do attitude. They said it was a 'recovery run,' an easy paced 4-mile run between harder workouts. Two groups, one slightly faster and one slightly slower.

We set out at a pace quite faster than what I'm used to, but I thought, hey, I've done marathons, I can do this. About a mile in I got a sideache, the first I've had in quite awhile, due to the abnormal pace. I was hurting by the end, but I kept up with them, dadgummit. But it was a recovery run, an 'easy' run, so that should have prepared me better for what happened today.

But I jump ahead. I went to 'Freshers Drinks' last night to sign up and pay my ₤30 membership fee. The drinks were rather disappointing/disgusting - Tupperware bins filled with imprecise combinations of gin/tonic, Coke/rum, and vodka/OJ. I hesitatingly partook and felt a little icky for having done so.

So that was that. I found out about the club and within 20 hours had invested in it. Call it impulsive, I think it was more like a Zen thing, like how many babies fit in a tire.



My housemates and I have been quoting Waiting for Guffman a whole lot recently . . . it just comes out. I can't control it.

Anyway, today was a very rainy, very muddy, and perfectly gorgeous day for running the speed workout, which they promised yesterday would be the 'best' and thus 'most painful' day of the week. And it was. I don't do speed work - I know I should, but I don't. So the repeated two-minute up-and-backs were painful. I was very easily passed up time and again by nearly every girl, most of whom must have avian bone syndrome for as tiny as they were. It was good motivation, though. I was hurting, but it was a pretty quick and relatively painless recovery for me. I guess that's one thing marathon legs do for you. Take away the speed, give you endurance probably not helpful in competing at 9K and 10K cross country races, but helpful afterwards when you finished last but your legs don't hurt. That's what I learned today. That picture at the top is me and my house, if you haven't figured it out yet, taken today after my run.

The back of my shirt looked like this. The mark of a great run.

It's a very relaxed club, and members are encouraged to run whenever they feel like it. It was a small turnout today compared to yesterday, so I guess it would make sense that only the most dedicated and thus best runners (plus the American guy trying so desperately to fit in) would be there on such a rainy day. Anyway, bottom line, I'm probably going to be in much better shape this term and this year, but maybe not in marathon shape. But I also learned last night that the OUCCC has (according to different accounts) six to ten guaranteed spots in the London Marathon . . . so I'm keeping that in mind. And they said they rarely have more applicants (it's chosen by a random draw) than spots, so that's potentially exciting.

Other things happening:

I saw Across the Universe a couple weeks ago, which I failed to mention in my previous post. It seems as though it's the only movie that's been widely released here before the US, so that was exciting. It was brilliant - Moulin Rouge meets the Beatles for a beautiful movie. Anyway, there hasn't been a wide release date set for the US yet, which is too bad. Here's the trailer . . .



I also learned today that I have a 2000 word essay due Thursday. The three people in my tutorial all understood there wasn't one due the first week . . . but I got a call today informing me that there is. So that's a little stressful. But I'm cool under pressure, so you know . . . no big deal.

Got a package from home today - mom's cookies always do the trick. Soooo good.

Peace and Love.

Finally, my first post.

It's hard to grasp that I've been here for three and a half weeks already. The time has flown by, getting used to a new culture, new people, et cetera. It's been a great experience. I feel like I'm settling in well. Tutorials start next week - I'm taking my major (an essay every week) in Britain and the EU, a study of the political relations between the two, and my minor (an essay every fortnight) is the self-explanatory Marxist Critique of Capitalism. I hope they're interesting, if nothing else, because I'm not planning a future in international politics or political philosophy.

A pictorial narrative so far:

It was a long flight. Our flight from Philadelphia (that's Pennsylvania, Janeane) was delayed an hour. Given the travel horror stories I've heard, we got pretty lucky.

My only regret about my time so far is not getting a better picture of the guy on our flight that looked EXACTLY like Mitt Romney. We were standing in the half-mile-long line at customs, which took us an hour and a half to get through, when I took this picture. It was boring.

But we finally made it to the bus and got to Oxford about 3:30 in the afternoon. I think we calculated the travel time from Kansas City to Oxford at 18 hours.

Oxford is very old and very beautiful. Here are some pictures:

Our program here at Oxford is called the Oxford Overseas Study Course. Part of the program has taken us on excursions to places of interest in British history. We started out going to Hampton Court Palace, a big ol' place where Henry VIII and his seven (I think) wives (one at a time, divorced or killed for being unable to produce a male heir for the king) hung their hats. It was very large and very royal.

I don't really have a lot to say about it, except that it was a nice place.

The gardens were beautiful.

So that was that.

Then we went to London and saw The Merchant of Venice performed at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Rebuilt by Americans, of course. This is me at the Globe.

It was a great show, I really enjoyed it. We were only in London for the evening, though, long enough for the play and a quick sit in the most uncomfortable sitting area EVER.

Our last excursion took us to Warwick Castle and to Stratford-upon-Avon. Warwick Castle was one of the first castles built by William the Conqueror after he took over England in 1066. The oldest part of the castle (behind me in the picture below left) was completed in 1068 - yes, that's almost a thousand years ago. Since then, it's been bought out by Madam Trousseau, the wax museum in London, and thoroughly Disneyized. It was a little hokey, but still amazing to think that it was there about 700 years before America existed.

Like I said, the wax figures were a little hokey.

But the view from the tower was pretty good.

Then we went to Stratford for all kinds of Shakespeare-related historical tourist attractions. We also saw Twelfth Night performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in an uber-artsy production which I thoroughly enjoyed. John Lithgow, the guy from 3rd Rock from the Sun and Lord Farkwad in Shrek, was in the play, and was hilarious. But anyway . . .

The church where the Bard was baptized and buried . . .























Shakespeare's epitaph. "Curs'd be he who moves my bones."

That's all I have for now. More in a bit. Hopefully I'll figure out the layout soon so it doesn't look so messy . . .