Where to begin?

As my dear friend and housemate, the lovely Eleta Andrews, exclaimed rather randomly and endearingly last week:

I have so much to blog about!

That's her on the left.

First things first: I ran another cross country race last Saturday. I ran my 5K in a little over 20 minutes, that's like 6:20 miles or so. That's a great time for me, but it's pretty humbling when all of your teammates are running theirs in 16 minutes.

And, of course, it was my 21st birthday last Sunday. On that particular day, I decided I'm the luckiest guy in the world.

The festivities consisted of breakfast for supper (my favorite these days) and a cake that my housemates surprised me with, complete with a turtle made out of frosting. Lately, I've taken to shouting I LIKE TURTLES quite a bit. Too much, really, by any standard. But I still can't get over Jonathon. This is the best YouTube clip I've ever seen, just because it's 17 seconds long and still cracks me up every time.





Breakfast for dinner was stellar. Fried eggs, bacon, grits. All delicious.


Then we went out to our favorite little pub, St. Aldate's. In good ol' American
fashion, all my friends bought me shots all night. And, like a good Midwestern boy, I took them, and still walked home of my own accord. I didn't even have a headache for my lecture at 11:00 on Monday morning.

My housemates also made me a birthday crown. I have the best housemates in the world.

So that was that.

I also went to Dublin this weekend with my good friends Janeane and Tony. The Guinness was unmatched in quality, and, unfortunately, in price as well. I thought, hmmm, since it's the local brew, it seems like some of the pubs will have it pretty cheap. Not true. Not true at all.

Thumbs up, Christ Church!

What? Guinness Storehouse? Yes, please.

At the top of the museum, dedicated entirely to Guinness beer and its 250-year history, was a bar with a panoramic view of Dublin. The free pint was great; the view of the city was not. Dublin is a very dirty, industrial, drab, gray town. But you can't beat the beer, so that's how it goes.

This is a terribly undetailed post, and I apologize. I have a lot of work to do for my two tutorials this week, and I have, as mentioned at the beginning of this post, a lot to blog about. I'm getting further and further behind. But I'll get to it, just you wait and see.

Hope all is well back in the U.S. of A. I'll leave you with my other favorite YouTube video as of late:



PL&C

Allow myself to reintroduce . . . myself.

So it's totally been, like, a million years since my last post.

What motivated me to post today?

I can't really say. Suffice it to say, I feel like a million - nay! - a brazillion dollars. Or pounds sterling, I suppose, over here, but it still doesn't feel exactly like real money, even though it's worth much more than our tired, our poor, our weary Washingtons and Lincolns and Jacksons.

Since November 29, 2007, the date of my last post, I have had a couple experiences I'd like to tell you about. The first, obviously, was my little jaunt around northern Europe with my buddy Janeane and my brother bear. I told myself to jump back on the blog train when I got back here and post my pictures and tell everyone out there that reads this - which is probably somewhere between two and twenty people, most likely closer to the former, from what I surmise - that I had a great time and, against all odds, and despite a scare with an Italian escalator, came out of the whole ordeal (relatively) alive and well. And I did, indeed, have the time of my life . . . so far . . . ladies?

I've also had my share of sweet happenings since then. For instance:

1. There's a burrito joint called "The Mission" opening in Oxford. Probably the best news I've had since I've been here. Reading the items below, you may be confused as to why I put this first, but my burrito cravings get the best of me sometimes.

second-of-ly. I'm running in the London Marathon on April 13th with 46,000 of my closest friends. They're showing it on the television over here . . . maybe you can tune in.

3. I'm studying the New Testament and Political and Economic Transitions in Eastern Europe this term. New Testament is probably the greatest thing I've ever done, and my tutor is among the best teachers I've ever had. So that's nice.

4. I totally went to Bournemouth, on the south coast of England, last weekend. It was cold, and I felt like Joel Barish in the opening scene of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind all weekend. But it was really great to see the ocean and collect my thoughts.



5. I'm going to Dublin weekend after this one to celebrate my birthday a week late. It's going to be pretty Raven.

I may feel like a brazillion dollars, but I still don't feel quite up to the task of recounting the story of my trip yet. Soon, though. Soon. Stay tuned.

PL&C