Fischberg Flashback 29: Aloha

Original date of post: December 23, 2013

…It’s over.

Even though I still mentally calculate prices in pounds, even though I still use words and phrases like “loo,” “quid,” and “the States,” and even though I still have the urge to grab some chips and a pint at a J.D. Wetherspoon (Quick note: This is a chain of pubs across England.  Each location has a unique name and the menu slightly varies, but the food and drink is always top-notch.) or a hot chocolate at Café Nero (the English Starbucks), there’s no use denying that my three months abroad have come and gone, leaving me with nothing but an immense wealth of memories, no end of stories, and the currency and stamp collections I have officially started.

With the conclusion of my travels, all that is left for me is to finish up my official record of them: this blog.  Because this blog has been a borderline major factor in my life for nearly four months, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how best to wrap this thing up.  To keep things simple, yet appropriate, I’ve decided to finish my blog by going back to its beginning.  In my very first blog post, I wrote about why I was going abroad, why I was writing a blog, and what I was expecting.  As such, it’s only appropriate that my last blog post fill focus on how my expectations were met, what I thought about life abroad, and how I feel about officially being a blogger this semester.

One of the main reasons I decided to study in London was that it played into my academic specialty: political history.  Because England has been so influential on the world stage for centuries, I hoped that my studies there would provide me with all kinds of new facts and perspectives.  In the end, I didn’t get quite what I was expecting…but it was a triumph nevertheless in this department!  Rather than learning about England’s history on a large scale per se, I learned about the evolution of the British system of government, the history of London throughout the ages, and about the history of the European Union from my classes.  Though this wasn’t quite what I expected, it was all still amazing and fed into my interests all the same.  Though I haven’t received my full grades yet, the fact that I got As on all my assignments and smiley faces on my two Shakespeare quizzes is proof that I was certainly interested enough to work hard and that I learned plenty.

The side activity that I was looking forward to most in England was the now infamous Criminal Justice Pilgrimage.  As with academics, this has also been a triumph: I walked through Whitechapel, took a trip to Tyburn, watched a murder trial at the Old Bailey, saw the Scottish Maiden, and wandered through more places of execution than you can shake a fasces at.  By the end of my trip, I had formally documented visits to the Tower of London, Scotland Yard, British Parliament, Scottish Parliament, 221B Baker Street, the Old Bailey, the Royal Courts of Justice, Lincoln’s Inn Field, the dungeons of Edinburgh Castle, the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh, Smithfield, the Giltspur Street Compter, Newgate, London Bridge, Warwick Castle, Whitechapel, the Clink, Tower Hill, the London Dungeon, the Banqueting House of Whitehall, and Tyburn (I’m getting all nostalgic just typing this up…).  Have you enjoyed this white text?  I don’t have anything gory to say, I just felt like using this trick one last time.  In other words, I saw everything I meant to see, and then some!

Without a doubt, the most notable impact that this whole journey has had on me was neither academic nor tied to the macabre: rather, while abroad, I achieved undoubtedly the greatest degree of independence I have ever had.  Every night, I was more or less responsible for feeding myself-no parents, no dining hall.  I experimented with the Tube and other methods of transportation and planned out most of my excursions in great detail ahead of time.  I took chances and tried new things, from fish to scotch.  I know that to many people this may seem trivial, but to me, it’s quite a big deal.  I have tasted the sweet sap of independence-who would have thought that an American would find independence in Britain?  I expect to step up my independence more soon…after a few weeks in the loving control of my parents.

Well, that’s pretty much all I have to say regarding my travels abroad!  The only loose end I have left to tie up (aside from the jingly bells I discussed many posts ago-I returned them to AHA) is this blog itself: namely, by examining my original motivations to blog and coming to a conclusion (I’m sorry if this seems tedious, but part of me doesn’t want this blog to end and I’m kind of stalling at the moment.)!

1.  My first reason for writing was to appease my sometimes large ego.  When I look back on all these blog entries I’ve cranked out over the months, I feel an immense sense of pride.  Therefore, I consider it a success in that department (although I sometimes worry that my ego has gotten bigger as of late…).

2.  My second objective was to provide informative and entertaining updates on my adventures for family, friends, and creepy stalkers alike.  I feel that I’ve been very forthcoming with information (and may have actually provided a little too much information at times) and was able to stay current with my constant updates (38 in total--39 now.).  Whether or not this blog was sufficiently entertaining is up to you, dear reader.

3.  The final objective of this blog was to create a definitive record of this journey that I could look back on in years to come.  I think I’ve jotted down all my memories and thrown in plenty of pictures, so I’d have to say this is fairly definitive.  Also, the various little jokes and pop culture references I’ve made give a excellent insight into my mindset/maturity level at this point in my life, which should be useful to myself and anyone with a burning desire to profile 20-year-old nerds.  I hope you are satisfied, 50-year-old Benjamin Fischberg.

All in all, I’d have to say that this blog has been quite successful over the months, and frankly, I’ve had quite a lot of fun writing it!  As a result of this newfound enjoyment of blogging, and in part thanks to persuasion from a few regular readers, I’ve decided to continue blogging!…once I have something exciting to write about.  Given that the upcoming year of 2014 will feature writing my thesis and endeavors to achieve more independence, so I should have plenty of adventures to write about in the not-too-distant future…

So, there you have it!  Three months of adventures, excitement, and observations, coupled with a blog recording it all, have now officially come to a close.  The results of all this adventuring consist of personal growth, continued academic excellence (I still need to keep that ego in check), a whole lot of criminal justice-inspired pride, no end of fun memories, and several newfound hobbies, blogging chief among them.  I can definitively say, without fear of contradiction, that this has been the incredible journey of a lifetime, a major success, and something I will never forget.  Thank you, everyone, for following, supporting, and (hopefully) enjoying Fisch and Chips!  I couldn’t have done this without you all!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a craving for some fish and chips.

Reflections:

There's not much to add here that I haven't already said.  I hope y'all have enjoyed this look into ten years ago.  I certainly have!  Happy Holidays!

Fischberg Flashback 28: Straight Outta Eastcote

Original date of post: December 16, 2013

I’m home!

As I post this, I’m sitting on my own bed, where I first started writing this blog three months ago.  It’s been a crazy past few thirty hours or so, filled with all manners of travel, but I’ve finally made it back to my homeland, where I will need to rest in the wake of this amazing adventure.

This finale began when I woke up early in the morning, ate a hasty breakfast, put the final touches on my packing, and said my goodbyes.  I said goodbye to my host mother, to Eastcote, to the airport bathroom condom machines (yep, they’re still there), and to London itself as I rode into Heathrow Airport, breezed past security, and boarded my return flight to the U.S. of A.

The first leg of my journey home was a grueling 10-hour flight from London to L.A.  And how did I pass the time on this long-@$$ flight?  Sleeping (which I desperately need)?  Gaming?  Reading?  None of the above--I hunkered down and watched the entire Dark Knight trilogy!  What better way to say, “Welcome back to America!” than 7.5 hours of Batman?

After that not-so-little flight, I breezed past customs and immigration and prepared for my next flight, enjoying some fattening American food while waiting (it’s good to be back!).  My second flight was short, and it felt even shorter, as I don’t remember most of it.  This may have mostly to do with the fact that I nodded off for about three hours.

Whatever the case, I soon found myself back in the Aloha State, where temperatures are warm and long pants are unnecessary.  Greeted by my warm and loving parents with hugs and a lei, I let out a long exhalation of relief.  The work, the traveling, the unfamiliarity, everything remotely stressful--for now, they’re gone.  Now is the time for relaxation.

Like Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins, I have finally arrived in my hometown after an extended period away, having absorbed amazing life experiences and trained with the League of Shadows (OK, that last part may not be true…may not).  What sorts of experiences have I truly taken away from all this?  I’ll be glad to share!…in a while.  First, I need to do something I haven’t done in a long time: sleep to my heart’s content, with absolutely no alarms to disturb my rest.  I’ll spend the next two weeks or so sorting everything out, putting it down, and organizing it into one final blog post.

Stay tuned for the kind of-sort of-not really dramatic conclusion of Fisch and Chips!

Modern reflections:

There are few feelings as amazing as coming home after three months away.  No matter how fun the adventure, the sheer feeling of relaxation that washes over you when you're back in your own bed is truly one in a million.  Bonus points if your home is in a warm place and you've just left a cold place in winter.

Aside from watching the Dark Knight Trilogy (three of my all-time favourite moves) back to back, the flight was memorable for the food options.  I requested the vegetarian option (as my pescatarianism was still in development) and it turned out to be a selection of curried vegetables.  I'm usually adverse to curry and spicy things in general, but I found it somewhat palatable (albeit with a lot of added salt).  I picked up three things from this experience: (1) my palate is constantly changing, (2) there are few things salt can't make better, and (3) when I'm hungry, I become much more agreeable to diverse foods.  All these lessons have stayed with me throughout my travels and cooking experiments.

Fischberg Flashback 27: Eye for an Eye

Original date of post: December 13, 2013

Packing?  What packing?  Oh, that packing!  Er…it shouldn’t be too hard.  It certainly hasn’t kept me from enjoying myself last night and today!

Last night, I went to the pub for the possibly last time (though I probably will go again tonight) with a large percentage of my fellow AHA students.  It was a wonderfully emotional final get-together, complete with drinks, reminiscence, Cards Against Humanity, and lots of hugs.  In case any of them are reading this night, thank you for the wonderful memories this semester!

Today, I decided to take one final excursion out into the urban jungle of London.  There was one thing I had been meaning to do for the last three months…ride the London Eye!

Retreading old ground by passing Parliament and crossing the Thames, I finally came face-to-face with this famous Ferris wheel on the South Bank.  The ticket was a tad expensive, but the view could not be beat.  I’ll let the pictures I took speak for me:

On my way back to Eastcote, I stopped in at a Café Nero for the presumably last time, feeling wistful as I consumed a large hot chocolate.  This wistfulness continued as I took the Picadilly Line home for the presumably last time.  I truly have been a lucky guy to have had London as my playground for the last three months.  That being said, I’m more than ready to head on home…once I’ve finished packing (déjà vu…see my first two blog entries to see what I mean).

One last thing: Remember the London Dungeon from four posts ago?  Well, it turns out its new location is right by the London Eye, so I nabbed myself a selfie.  NOW, I think I’m done with the CJP.

Modern reflections:

As much as it seems like a tourist trap, the London Eye was definitely a worthy site to see.  In a semester filled with climbing various tall buildings, it felt nice to wrap it up with an experience where a machine did the climbing and gave me a truly tremendous view.

Unfortunately, I didn't able to have one more night at the pub, as the nearby pub actually started carding people at the door that night and didn't accept my student ID as valid proof.  At least my last pub outing was a social experience with friends!

I haven't mentioned it in any flashback posts, but Café Nero is a chain of Italian-style coffee houses that is basically the English equivalent of Starbucks.  They have good coffee, great hot chocolate, excellent mochas, and outstanding chocolate-covered coffee beans (which I was constantly seen snacking on in the University Center).

For those wondering why the formatting looks a little weird compared to the last few posts, it's because I've decided to transition from double spaced to 1.5 spaced to be more in line with my usual single-spaced blog posts.  I'll likely use 1.5 spacing as my standard from here on out on all blog posts.

Man About Town

Surprise!  I’m still writing blog posts here in the present!  For the past four months, I’ve been posting old blog posts from last decade due to little of note happening in my current professional life (that I’m allowed to discuss).  However, that changed in the past few weeks as I’ve turned my focus to out-of-court Tillamook.

Though I’ve lived in Tillamook for four years, I’ve spent relatively little time in the town where I live and practice.  Most of my time in town is spent at work, and most of my free time tends to be out-of-county (either visiting Cthulhu in Salem or vacationing on Oahu).  I spent a lot of free time in Tillamook County during the COVID pandemic, but I was isolated indoors for almost all that time.  I finally got my chance last weekend: due to a combination of hazardous weather on the roads and sickness in Cthulhu’s neighborhood, I was isolated in Tillamook County.  Seeing some opportunity, I decided to step out of my usual routines and check out what this humble town had to offer for sightseeing.

My first major sightseeing stop was the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum, a museum built out of Tillamook’s first courthouse mostly dedicated to local matters.  The fact that I hadn’t visited here sooner is noteworthy as it’s right across the street from the current Tillamook County Circuit Court.  This museum has been right under my nose for four years, but it’s mostly been off my radar.  Last year, when my parents visited Oregon, my father visited the museum and highly recommended it.  Now, it was time for me to see it for myself on one cloudy Saturday afternoon.

I could go through the museum exhibits in the order I visited them, but I think it makes more sense to go down thematically.  Aside from an exhibit on Abraham Lincoln and a Victorian bedroom replica (located in Tillamook County’s first District Attorney office), the upper floor of the museum is dedicated to natural history, containing rocks, minerals, fossils, preserved butterflies, and taxidermized animals (especially those found in Oregon).

Meanwhile, the ground floor of the museum is mostly dedicated to human history in Tillamook and its surrounding areas, ranging from indigenous tribes to the founding of Tillamook County as a county of Oregon.  Part of this involved detailed descriptions of individual settlers and their families who shaped Tillamook as the agricultural community it is today.  Overall, there were two main takeaways from looking over Tillamook’s human history.  First, I noticed that many settlers followed a similar pattern: they were usually born on the East Coast, they traveled west for job/fortune prospects, they landed in modern-day Tillamook County because of opportunities that suddenly sprang up, and after years of work, they usually traveled to other places as fortunes took them.  In other words, their journey mirrored my own!  Like them, I was born on the East Coast (New York City, to be exact), I moved out west to find my fortune (my family went to Hawaii for job purposes, and I arrived in Oregon to seek higher education), I came to Tillamook because of an opening in Tillamook County’s public defense needs, and I will likely leave Tillamook when my fortunes change and new opportunities arise.  In that way, I feel comforted that I do belong here, as I’ve walked the path of many of Tillamook’s most distinctive citizens.

The second takeaway is that Tillamook’s first white settler (and first schoolteacher/county clerk), who was awesomely named Joseph Champion, spent his early days in the area living out of a hollowed-out tree stump, like a kind of educated forest troll.

You thought I was joking about the stump?  Nope!  The museum has a replica and photos of Joe Champion's "Castle," as he was known to call it.

There was one other exciting part of the Pioneer Museum that deserves describing.  Located in what used to be Tillamook’s first county jail was a wide collection of guns, ranging from early muskets to modern semi-automatic rifles.  Being a firearm history enthusiast (due to my love of history and Red Dead Redemption), I snapped several shots of some of my faves!

The next day, I sought out Tillamook’s other major landmark I’ve been meaning to see: the Tillamook Creamery!  If you’re like most people, you most likely associate “Tillamook” with cheddar cheese and ice cream.  That’s thanks to the Tillamook Creamery, one of the largest employers in Tillamook County.  Aside from being the place where they mix ice cream and cut the cheese (ha ha), the Tillamook Creamery has a small museum that goes over what goes into making dairy products and provides an overview of the area’s history.  While not as detailed or gun-filled as the Pioneer Museum, this offered another nice look into what makes this county tick.  I’d been here before fourteen years ago when visiting with my parents, but it was good to see it for myself as a current resident of the Dairylands.  Furthermore, the Tillamook Creamery has a MASSIVE store area where you can buy just about every flavor of cheese, ice cream, and yogurt you could desire, including those not found on many store shelves.  I have a hunch I might need to come back here again…

Tillamook Creamery

Tillamook Crematory, which has absolutely nothing to do with the Tillamook Creamery, but is close to where I work

 

Such was my weekend of exploration in Tillamook County.  It turns out you can have a lot of fun if you take the time to explore the small town you’re living in, even if it takes you years to get around to it.  I’ll keep my eyes open for other things to do around town as time goes by.  In the meantime, I’ve got two other local aspects I’ll be sure to milk: I’ve found the nearest liquor store (quick note for non-Oregonians: it is illegal under Oregon law to sell anything stronger than wine at grocery stores, so if you want primo rum, gin, or vodka, you need to find a specialized location) and I got a local library card (which took a surprising amount of difficulty to get due to my driver’s license being issued prior to moving to Tillamook).  With booze and books, my free time here is sure to continue being interesting!

Fischberg Flashback 26: Go West, Young Man

Original date of post: December 8, 2013.  As per usual, minor changes have been made.

Alright, readers.  This blog post is going to prominently feature capital punishment-namely, that of the noose-and-gallows variety.  So be ready to highlight some white text if you plan on…hanging around. *rimshot*

…Wow, that was bad.  Please excuse my nasty sense of…gallows humor. *rimshot*

Ack, I’m sorry for being so knotty!  I promise that I’ve got good noose!  Gibbet?

*gunshot*

O…OK, I promise I’ll stop now.  Anyway, you have been warned!

Anyhoo, this weekend has been going quite well for me.  I finished up my final paper for theater class (and the program in general!) and my finals are looking manageable.  I’ve made arrangements to go to the airport and even packing doesn’t look like it’ll be too much of a hassle.  As such, I decided to relax a bit this afternoon and head on over to Hyde Park with my comrade T.  Our primary objective for the day was to observe one of London’s most peculiar traditions, orators speaking at Speakers’ Corner!  Every Sunday, at around 12:30, people from all across the London area gather at this little space and will deliver loud and incendiary speeches about politics and religion.  Today was no exception, for when T and I entered the park, there was a full-scale argument going on between a Christian preacher and a militant person who believed that all religions are the work of Satan.  Both parties were constantly referring to each other as being possessed by demons and an American in a cowboy hat embroidered with a gold cross joined the fray, using a rubber chicken and a loud whistle to great effect.  It was…quite the sight to behold.  In all honest, this display of religious fervor was much more intense than anything I had seen in the United States (outside of the movie Jesus Camp).

After that…theological discussion, T and I scoured out the other main point of interest in Hyde Park (for me, at any rate): Tyburn, the final stop on my Criminal Justice Pilgrimage!

Observant readers of this blog (or at least ones who read my first post four months ago) may remember that I mentioned the Tyburn Tree, but only teased about what it was.  Well, as this blog comes closer to an end, here is the answer (in all its white glory): Tyburn was a suburb of the City of London that was a major place of execution.  The main gallows of the London area was the Tyburn Tree, a specially built triangular gallows that could be used to hang twenty-four convicts at once.  During the European Renaissance and Georgian Period, dozens of men and women throughout London were taken here and forced to dance the Tyburn jig, as it were.  These ranged from legitimate monsters, such as Jonathan Wild, and (supposedly) loveable rogues, such as Jack Sheppard, to Catholics convicted of heresy and poor working-class souls convicted of what would be considered petit larceny today.  The public hangings were always huge spectacles that attracted large crowds, especially during the procession from Newgate Gaol to Tyburn, where the cart carrying the condemned would stop at several pubs along the way.  By the time most convicts reached the Triple Tree, they were drunk off their @$$es (still, many of them gave impressive last speeches to the spectators, leading to the tradition of Speakers’ Corner in this area).  Eventually, as more and more working-class people were executed for theft, the crowds became rowdier and even cheering for the condemned, which is not exactly what authorities want in a public execution.  Fearing a potential riot, the authorities dismantled the constable’s picture frame in 1783 and moved all executions by hanging to Newgate Gaol.  Today, the only indication of this once-notorious gibbet is a simple inscription in the pavement of a (appropriately triangular) traffic island just off of Hyde Park.  As with Tower Green and Tower Hill, I paused a moment here and reflected somberly that I was now standing in a place where so many had ended their days at the end of a rope.  This felt oddly emphasized by the fact that the traffic island is triangular in shape, just like the three-legged stool (Yes, these phrases I’ve been using are actual euphemisms for the Tyburn Tree).

We both had plenty of fun out today, but T decided it was time to go home.  As for me, I still wanted to see this green oasis in the urban desert, so I took a pleasant walk across Hyde Park until I arrived at a Tube station in the southeast corner of the park (the name of the Tube stop is “Hyde Park Corner;”  I wonder how long it took to think up that one).  The park was all manners of green and orange and felt quite peaceful (outside of Speakers’ Corner, that is), reminding me of Central Park in my hometown of New York.  It was certainly the sensation of tranquility I needed after all this work and before all these finals!

And with that, my Criminal Justice Pilgrimage comes to a conclusion.  What better place to end a criminal-related pilgrimage than a place where so many criminals ended up/came to an end?

*gunshot*

Sorry!  Anyway, all that’s left is a few classes and finals.  I probably won’t have much to write in the meantime.  May Fortune favor me…

One final thing: In case you were wondering what the pun in the title of this entry is, “going west” was a euphemism for being hanged, as the procession from Newgate to Tyburn was indeed west (Tyburn itself being west of the City of London).  It also hints at what I’ll being doing in six days via airplane…

Modern reflections:

Here's a really memorable trip!  Not only was Speakers' Corner quite the memory in and of itself, but Tyburn was a trip I had been eager for all autumn (unlike most people who took a trip there).  I actually started writing parts of this post (specifically the humorous opening and the description of the Tyburn Tree) over a month before my excursion.  Happily, it lived up to my expectations.

Fischberg Flashback 25: Gaolhouse Rock

Original date of post: December 1, 2013

Remember how I ended the last blog entry on a nervous note about my upcoming papers?  Once again, I have been more cautious than necessary, as I have finished one of my papers and written out outlines for the other two!  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that I got nothing done today.  The great news is that I enjoyed my time outside, scoring three more quick stops on my Criminal Justice Pilgrimage!  These stops will be mentioned in white text when appropriate, so highlight away!

The first place on my agenda was Tower Hill, a place I have passed by and through on several occasions.  As the name implies, it is a hill overlooking the Tower of London (special thanks to Captain Obvious for writing this sentence).  During the Late Middle Ages, European Renaissance, and Georgian Era, it was a place of execution, where noble prisoners of the Tower of London convicted of treason or other felonies were beheaded.  I had wanted to find the site of the scaffold to both document it for the CJP and pay my respects, but I had been unable to find it the last couple of times.  However, I had done my homework this time and was able to locate it in a park next to the nearby Tube station (that I had arrived in, playing video games on the ride) that was filled with all sorts of war memorials.  As you can see, the site is somewhat pretty and is filled with lovely greenery.  In particular, I was struck by one tiny blood-red flower that was poking out a mostly barren patch of space, filling that tiny section of the park with color.  I’ll leave it to the poets to figure out the meaning of that.

After photographing to my heart’s content and allowing for a moment of respectful silence, I headed down to where the Tower of London is, passing by a completely different kind of scaffold along the way.  I chose this moment to embrace my inner psycho headsman/horror movie villain.

I was slightly tempted to go into the Tower and see the Bloody Tower and Crown Jewels, but visiting the Tower is an all-day affair, and there were other things I wanted to do.  I ate lunch in the space beside the Tower, which was…interesting (I’ll explain why in a bit), and I observed with some amazement the ice-skating rink that had been erected since my last time in the neighborhood.  I was tempted to skate, but, once again, that was a kind of all-day event, so I crossed the River Thames to the south and sought out the next CJP stop: the Clink!  The Clink was a notorious medieval prison in the southern London area that existed well into the Georgian Era before being burned down by the Gordon Rioters.  For centuries, it was a place of unspeakable cruelty, barbaric torture, squalid living conditions, vermin infestations, mind-boggling corruption, and religious persecution.  Suffice to say, bad things happened in this place.  Today, the site hosts a museum that claims to replicate the original conditions of the prison (including interactive torture exhibits).  I say “claims” because I never went inside to check for myself.  I was in a bit of a rush, and I was more than happy to enjoy the Clink from the outside…for now.

My third and final CJP stop for the day was quite different from the prior two historical sites: the London Dungeon, a hybrid between a haunted house and a museum that explores aspects London’s sordid past, including executions, witch trials, Black Death, the Gunpowder Plot (Remember that from the Guy Fawkes Day post?  Good times.), and Jack the Ripper’s rampage.  It is one of the most widely advertised attractions in London (See the photo of the weird pillory/chopping block above.), which made it all the more infuriating when I kept having difficulty actually finding it.  After about 30 minutes of wandering around South London (which, given the place’s reputation, is more time spent there than I would have liked) in circles, I FINALLY found a billboard announcing it…’s relocation.  Peachy.  Actually, that was OK; as with the Clink, I was more interested in finding and documenting its location than actually visiting.  Because an abandoned Dungeon is still a Dungeon, I took the time to take some frightened selfies next to the statues and portcullis left over from the moving.

After that nice long trek, followed up by a long Tube ride (complete with more gaming--I game a lot is the point I’m trying to get across…again), I made it home safe and sound.  All in all, a good day…with one additional twist.  You know the lunch I was vague about 2 paragraphs ago?  What exactly did I eat?  I had…fish and chips!  For those who don’t realize that significance, I’ve been a vegetarian for 16 years.  I have a few moral and health-based reasons for not eating meat, but my primary reason is simple: the flavor and texture of meat trigger my gag reflex, making it virtually impossible to force down animal flesh (sorry if that was too much info).  However, in the last year or so, I’ve gotten tolerant of certain forms of meat (I can have chicken broth and eat salmon, as long as it isn’t too smoked).  In the spirit of being adventurous, I bought some (rather expensive) fish and chips near the Tower of London and ate it there.  Though it was quite greasy and the flavor wasn’t something I exactly crave, my gag reflex hardly triggered at all and I found myself actually enjoying its texture!  This marks the end of my 16-year experiment with vegetarianism, as I now feel encouraged to go try other types of fish out there.  I still plan on mostly having a plain pasta and vegetable-based diet, but at least more options are available for me.

(Quick side note: wow, compared to the photos I took at the beginning of the term (see previous entries for proof), my hair has gotten long!)

Three CJP stops and a complete lifestyle change (albeit a steady one).  How’s that for an adventure?

Happy 5th night of Hanukkah, everyone!

Modern reflections:

In retrospect, this day may be the most important one I documented throughout my travels.  Most of my Criminal Justice Pilgrimage stops were dreams come true, but becoming pescatarian opened more doors for me than I thought possible and has made eating out infinitely less stressful.  For this reason, the ice rink by the Tower of London will forever remain a memorable place for me.

Also in retrospect, the fish and chips I had that day was somewhat subpar compared to most others I've had.  If I ever return to London, I'll want to try out the local chip shops in various areas.

Fischberg Flashback 24: Ivory Towers

Note: this was originally posted to Fisch and Chips on November 29, 2013.  Along with the usual grammatical cleanup, I've added captions to some of the photos.

I leave England in sixteen days.

I have three papers due in two weeks.

I still have places I want to see for my Criminal Justice Pilgrimage.

My time abroad is coming to a close-time for me to step it up!

Alright, that’s enough nervousness for one post.  Let’s talk about today’s adventure!

Today, the AHA group and I traveled by bus to Oxford, home of the massive Oxford University, a collection of thirty-nine different colleges, all sharing considerable prestige (It’s the oldest university in the English-speaking world.).  It’s also where several scenes in the Harry Potter movies were filmed (guess which aspect was more interesting for a good deal of the group).  The whole day was one big whirlwind of museums, libraries, chapels (more beautiful church décor!), stairs (more climbing!), and potato crisps.  It would take too long if I tried to elaborate on everything, so here’s a large collection of pictures.  As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.  Enjoy this gratuitous antique university porn, and try to guess which of these settings are where Harry Potter was filmed!

Christ Church College

Christ Church College dining hall

Chirst Church Cathedral

The Radcliffe Camera, a private library at the center of campus

Pitt Rivers Museum

Pitt Rivers anthropology exhibit

Ashmolean Museum

interior of Bodleian Library

I hope that was fun.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to buckle down and get to work.  These papers aren’t going to write themselves, and I still want to take a trip to Tyburn…

Happy 3rd night of Hanukkah!

Modern reflections:

I don't remember much of Oxford aside from the gorgeous architecture/scenery.  This post was mostly an excuse to show off the photos I took.

For those curious, I loosely based the title of this post off the British sitcom Fawlty Towers.  A lot of my blog post titles are very loosely based off of really obscure pop culture references.  My posts' contents are meant to entertain/inform you, dear reader, but my posts' titles are often a challenge to myself in clever creativity.