I lost

I didn't blog yesterday. To be fair, I was busy with making gingerbread cookies and catching up on Breaking Bad and going to bed early for today's bookstore shift. But this early into January I have already broken my resolution of blogging everyday for 366 days.

Oh well, it was only an idea. I considered making a random post yesterday ("...") or changing the date of a post to "January 11", but I didn't want to waste your time. With a blog like mine with no real focus and only a few readers, it might be better that I post only sporadically. Maybe it'll make those mysterious Russians showing up in my page view stats lose interest in me.

366 Days of Blogging

How about this for a challenge: blogging every day for a year. I'm sure it's been done before, but I want to try it. I feel like 2012 is going to be a momentous year for me, as I try to publish a novel and buy my first car. I may even move out on my own.

Even if I do skip a few days, I'll try and recap what exciting things happened while I was away--and they will be exciting things. Why wouldn't I blog unless I was distracted by doings a-transpiring.

Blog Revival

Sorry I haven't posted.

(Why is that site inactive? It was such a cool idea.)

I am back with a 2011 list or two, as well as an idea about where to take this blog. Stay tuned.

The Revolution Will Be Tweeted

Google tells me that Bono said something similar to this post title last week, so he obviously has been reading my thoughts. I'll have to think of some wicked new song ideas.

I'm reading Mike Rapport's 1848: Year of Revolution at the moment. I took it out of the library after being inspired by the Egyptian revolution and was struck by the similarities between that year and 2011. The Arab world is ruled by iron-fisted autocrats in power for decades, just like 19th-century Europe, and while the leaders enjoy untold luxury, large swathes of the population are unemployed and longing for basic freedoms.

When popular protests erupted in 1848, as in 2011, the governments promised superficial reforms. In reading Rapport's book, I was struck by how similar France and Austria's responses to the protesters demands mirrored, for example, Hosni Mubarak's: they fired an unpopular minister, or shuffled the cabinet, or announced from balconies that the people were "children" who needed to be protected by a strong leader. As you can imagine, the rabble wasn't too happy about all this patronizing. When France went, the dominoes fell, and the continent erupted just as the Middle East and North Africa are doing right now.

Anyway, there has been much discussion in the press about social media like Twitter and Facebook being responsible for the Arab revolutions. I think they are important players in the protests, but it's important to remember that those are tools and not the sparks of change. Twitter and Facebook have simply replaced pamphlets, telegrams, and horse-carried messages as the staples of revolution.

Yes, I am on Twitter, but I have a paltry three followers. That doesn't really bother me too much -- most of my friends aren't even on Twitter and I don't think they care that I've had a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. The reason I joined Twitter was so I could follow breaking news events as they happened. So far, it's come in handy when I wanted to follow protests in Iran, Thailand, and now Egypt and beyond. It's like a front-row seat to history.

From Georgia With Love

Just as a head's up, my brother has started a blog about his travels to the Former Soviet Republic of Georgia, Sweet Saqartvelo Brown. He's there to teach English.

You should all check it out and follow his blog. There's sure to be some post-communist hilarity!

Requiem for the Zoo

When I restarted this blog in June, I figured I'd be writing about my experiences at the zoo through August. October, at the very most. Somewhere around Halloween, when I was still scooping ice cream at the dairy store, I resigned myself to the fact that I would be at the zoo indefinitely, possibly through the summer of 2011.

All that's changed. After being called off from work on account of weather one too many times, I decided to search for another job...and found one. At a bookstore.

I handed my application in and was called on the very same day to schedule an interview. Two days later, after the interview, I was told to expect to wait two weeks or so to hear if I'd been given the position. Just 48 hours later, I got a call offering me the job. Now that's turnaround!

Next Monday I start at the bookstore. I will be doing an assortment of tasks, including working the cash register, restocking the shelves, and sorting the used books customers want to sell. I've always considered books my passion and looked on my high school library job as an ideal workplace for someone with my tastes. Perhaps this job will be even more meaningful, because customers at a bookstore want to keep what they find for much longer than three weeks.

So: "Wandering As A Cloud" is undergoing its third thematic shift in as many years. From England, to the zoo, and now to a bookstore. I will keep you updated.

Note: the picture is a rare look inside the Beloit College Library stacks. It's the only photo of bookshelves I own, but I knew I took it for a reason.

Blogging advice from Mark Twain

A passage from Mark Twain's bestselling autobiography, via Mark Liberman at Language Log:

Finally, in Florence in 1904, I hit upon the right way to do an Autobiography: start it at no particular time of your life; talk only about the thing which intrests you for the moment; drop it the moment its interest threatens to pale, and turn your talk upon the new and more interesting thing that has intruded itself into your mind meantime.

Also, make the narrative a combined Diary and Autobiography. In this way you have the vivid things of the present to make a contrast with memories of like things in the past, and these contrasts have a charm which is all their own. No talent is required to make a combined Diary and Autobiography interesting.

And so, I have found the right plan. It makes my labor amusement — mere amusement, play, pastime, and wholly effortless. It is the first time in history that the right plan has been hit upon.

Liberman calls this "the right plan for successful blogging." Perhaps I should take a page from Mark Twain?

Still here

Yes, I'm still alive. There hasn't been much to report at the zoo since the mad rush of a la Carte (oh, you didn't hear about that? My bad). In the future I'll try to report on the madcap hijinks that go down in the fall and winter, all in preparation for that brilliant three-act zoo play I'll write (no animals will be in the play, and in the end the message will be that humans are the real animals). Samuel Beckett mixed with David Mamet, anyone?

Once again on the subject of animals

Is this going to turn into a blog about the zoo? Or about the animal kingdom? Who knows, these types of things just evolve on their own.

Last week I finished a fascinating book that I recommend to all those reading this blog. It's called "Monster of God" by David Quammen, and it deals with humanity's relationship with big, man-eating creatures. There's enough history and travelogue and zoology in there to appeal to a lot of tastes.

And I have

I'm back after a year. Sorry it's been so long, but I was recently recalled to Washington over my controversial comments in Us Weekly.

Where will I take this blog? If possible, I may change its title to a clever, punny one not related to English poets. I may also use it as a place for ruminations of my life and the world. Right now I'm working at the Milwaukee Zoo and also writing a little bit of sci-fi.

Stay tuned.

The Rundown

I couldn't leave this blog without posting one last time, could I? I've been back in the States for about a week now and have decided to compile a little list of statistics about my trip. This idea is in no way stolen from my brother's blog about his trip to Ireland.

My study abroad experience

Days abroad: 161 (including 1 partial day)

Days in UK: 145 (including 3 partial days)

Days in continental Europe: 17 (including 2 partial days)

Earthquakes missed: 2

Favorite foreign accent: New Zealand

Favorite city visited: Rome

Favorite city visited (UK): Edinburgh

Cathedrals visited/seen: 7+

Favorite cathedral: Duomo

Castles visited: 3

Favorite castle: Cardiff

The UK

Classes taken: 4

Classes passed: 4 (hopefully)

Essays written: 4

Times had fish and chips: 3

Yorkshire Pudding: 1

Bangers and Mash: 1

Doner Kebabs: 1

Times said "Oh capital!": 2

Times laughed at for saying "Cheers!": 1

Times said "Cheerio guv'nor!": 0

Henge: Stone

Professional football games attended: 1 (score: 1-1)

Professional football games attended in lifetime: 1

Rainfall total: Incalculable

Sheep total: See above

People from Wisconsin at Lancaster: 7+

My place in Line of Succession to Throne: 13,480,582

Ireland

Years under British rule: ~750, depending on where you start

Preferred drink: Guinness

Price of Corona in Dublin Temple Bar: €6.10

Seconds our group discussed whether to travel to Belfast: 4

Times nearly missed train due to Daylight Saving Time: 1

Would have liked to have seen: Cliffs of Mohr

France

Work week: 35 hours

Strike week: 85 hours

Paintings seen: 13,422

Paintings truly appreciated: 407

Meals baguette served as main component of: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Commute time to Beauvais Airport: 1 1/2 hours

Times actually attempted to speak French to French people: 2

Italy

Governments since 1946: 62

Gaffes of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi: 0 (source: Silvio Berlusconi)

Cities visited: 3

Churches visited: Countless

Pizza places eaten at: 4

Gelato places eaten at: 2

Times actually attempted to speak Italian to Italian people: 0

Times used Spanish instead to talk to Italians: Enough to get me by

Places I would have liked to have visited but didn't
Isle of Man, Glasgow, Loch Ness, Nottingham/Bingham, Canterbury, Normandy, Germany

But as MacArthur said
I shall return

There be Wales here!*

Actually, there were. At the National Museum & Gallery of Wales.

Last weekend, to cure my desperate need to get out and do something, I travelled to Wales with my friends Cory & Ben. Specifically, we went to the Welsh capital Cardiff, which meant that I can now say I've been to all the capitals of the UK except Belfast. Despite looking fairly close on a map, Cardiff is actually a little more than four hours from Lancaster by train.

Once there, we took advantage of the warm and sunny weather and toured the grounds of Cardiff Castle, which predates 1066 and Uncle William by several decades. In my rankings of Very Old Constructions I've Seen in Europe I'd give it high marks, just above Edinburgh Castle. Among the highlights was the Norman Keep -- a hilltop tower with great views of the city -- and the apartments of the Marquis de Bute, whose exact importance I cannot grasp from Wikipedia but who was no doubt Important Enough to Have a Title. There were also some pretty neat tunnels along the walls of the place.

Our amble around Cardiff consisted mainly of pointing out odd instances of the Welsh language (actually, that was mostly me) and finding places to eat. I wanted to try laverbread balls, which is a Welsh snack made from seaweed, but none of the places we found had any. Instead I settled for Welsh roast beef, as well as my first taste of Yorkshire Pudding (verdict: rather underwhelming, actually).

We stayed overnight and luckily the price of the hostel was lower than what was advertised online. This seemed to be a running theme throughout the trip, seeing as on two occasions the cost of our meals turned out to be less than what was listed on the menu. Thanks, Wales!--it certainly gives you extra points.

On our second day we headed over to the National Museum and Gallery of Wales. I was surprised to find this was more of a natural history museum than a museum showcasing Welsh history, so there were no exhibits on the Welsh hero Gryfffflllyg (pronounced "Aaron") or on the myriad violent Welsh separatist movements. Still, there were some really cool ancient rocks on display and a model of a basking shark, the largest fish to live around Britain.

Besides from a walk through the vast Bute Park, this pretty much describes my time in Wales. The train ride home was even longer, about five hours, but we did get a stopover in Bristol which gave us time to walk around a bit and thus add the city to the list of places in Britain where I've been. Wales is a beautiful place, and I think it would've been a nice place to study abroad had I not picked Lancaster. I certainly would've felt at home, as from the train I saw more cows than I've seen for months.

So what has been going on in Lancaster? I've had two exams these past few weeks, one for Post-Authoritarian Transformation and one for Women Writers. I think Post-Autho went better than WW, if only because for the latter I only had to write one essay-length answer, which means my grade essentially rests on one answer. Man, it's hard converting every 'z' to an 's'... My next, and last, exam is June 10.

It's actually been quite sunny and warm the past week, and not just English Warm--I'm talking about highs in the 70s. I think the weather's supposed to stay nice pretty much up until I leave, so that's a nice bonus. I don't know if I'm going to do anymore major travelling in the two weeks. I definitely need to get to coastal Morecambe (pronounced "Morry Cambie"**), which is a few miles away, and see the beach. I may also go to Leeds, and possibly Hadrian's Wall or Glasgow, where, since it's June, night lasts approximately 17 minutes. I would like to have gone to the Isle of Man, but it doesn't look like that will happen.

Will there be another blog post from England? Only time will tell. In British news stay tuned to June 4, where the British National Party (motto: "Hitler Wasn't Such A Bad Guy") stands a chance of gaining a seat in the European Parliament.

*Thanks to Mom for the title
**Not really. It's "Morcum".

Return of the Blog

I haven't written on this in a while, mainly because not much exciting has happened to me in the past few weeks. Classes are interesting, as always, and this week I get a reprieve from three of them as it's "Reading Week" in the English Department (slackers). My most intriguing class continues to be History of Modern English, where random trivia and jokes continue to rule the day:

Whilst giving a lecture, a professor noted that ever language has a construction in which two negatives make a positive. But in English, he said, there's no construction in which two positives make a negative.

From the hall came an incredulous response: "Yeah, right."

Anyway. What have I been doing with my time in England? Yesterday some friends and I wandered down to the Lancaster Maritime Museum, which has a number of boats on display, though sadly none of them are on the water. Some of the exhibits were fairly interesting, though we were pressed for time since we got there a half hour before the place closed. Other adventures these past few weekends have included attending meetings of the Lancaster Writers Guild (the only society I've joined), seeing movies at the university cinema, and going to pubs engaging in friendly social interactions with local Britons.

Things will get more exciting in a few weeks. I am trying to recruit people for a trip to the Isle of Man, which through the campus travel office will cost only £37. On February 28-March 1 I will be taking a coach trip to Bath and then Stonehenge. A game of paintball is in the works. For Spring Break I plan to travel to Nottingham and the town of Bingham, then to London, and then to France and Italy with my friend Phillip (from Beloit). Fun stuff.

I'm not in Beloit anymore

Yep, that's the title of my blog. I'm paraphrasing the poem "Daffodils" by William Wordsworth, who used the geography of the Lake District as his muse.

I arrived in London without incident...unless you count being detained at Immigration. I handed my passport to the man at the desk, and after he brought my name up, he asked, "Have you ever been refused a visa?" I said yes, and explained to him that in October I hadn't filed all the proper paperwork for one, and was refused, but I really didn't need one anyway. He nodded politely and then filled out a piece of paper "detaining" me until he checked out my story in a back room. Detention consisted of simply sitting in a chair for ten minutes, but I found it both embarrassing and funny at the same time. Eventually, the officer told me there was no problem with me entering the UK, though I would be asked about the visa on future visits.

Other than that snag, the trip to Lancaster was a breeze. I had to take four trains to get to Lancaster, but this did include a walk through London with double-decker buses and black taxis (and a few scares while crossing the street). Big Ben and the Thames were AWOL, but I'll see them on later trips. Aside from a lot of brick and stone buildings, the outskirts of London look a lot like the outskirts of Chicago.

You can't appreciate (or not appreciate) how flat the Midwest is until you go to the British Isles and see just what you're missing. The countryside around Lancaster is hilly and beautiful, full of grazing sheep and horses. This would be a great place for sledding if the country got more than two inches of snow in the winter, a fact every Brit seemed to be complaining about. Apparently it's one of the coldest winters in decades here--and by "coldest" I mean 30°F. In the few days I've been here, it's only rained a little bit, though that's forecasted to change tomorrow.

The university itself is HUGE...and when I say HUGE, I mean, huge compared to Beloit. To some international students it's small. There are something like 17,000 students here, and too many academic and residential buildings to count. My college is one of the farthest from the center of campus, so it's going to be a trek to get to my classes. However, there is a covered walkway that runs pretty much the entire length of campus, and walking a long way every day is a lot of good exercise.

There are more than 100 other international students, and I've already made friends with several of them through all the events we get herded into. So far I've met five other people from Wisconsin, which is really quite surprising to me. This, and the fact that there are oodles of Canadians here as well, has drawn lots of quips about a Wisconso-Canadian cabal being the real power behind the university. At least, I wish there were such quips. They would be quite flattering.

I've only visited the town of Lancaster once, to buy a phone. There are so many narrow streets and cobblestone roads! The bus is only £2 for a round trip, and it goes right from campus to town; I definitely am going to wander the city someday, since there are castles, old pubs, Roman ruins, and some big churches nearby (one of the requirements to be labeled a "city" in England is for there to be a cathedral; there is one, but it's Catholic, not Anglican, so it doesn't count--though the city has technically been classified as a "city"). I'll take some pictures of it the next chance I get; unfortunately, I left my camera in my room when we went on a tour of the city.

Lost my wallet sometime on Friday. I was convinced I'd been pickpocketed by two people who stopped me to ask where a building was, and I tore apart my room looking for it. After going to security to report it, a friend and I went to relax at a pub...and who should I meet there but an American student who asked, "Did you ever get your wallet back?" I replied, "How'd you know?" and he said he was right behind me in the store where I left it, and ran to find me after the check out lady yelled "You forgot your wallet!", but didn't see me. Talk about your miracles!--I don't know if I would've thought to ask if they'd found my wallet at the store.

That's all about my first few days. I'll be back once I've gone to a class or two. Lectures! Tutorials! Seminars! These are unfamiliar concepts to me.