Fischberg Flashback 2: Over the Pond

Note: this was originally posted in Fisch and Chips on September 8, 2013 under the title "From U.S.; To: U.K."  My internal lawyer/law review editor has insisted on making a few changes here, especially the colon-heavy original title.

I’m finally here in England.

It’s been a topsy-turvy, wibbly-wobbly two days, but here I am, typing this from the London suburb of Eastcote.  Specifically, I’m sitting on the cozy-looking bed given to me by my fantastic host mother while in the process of unpacking my suitcase.  It’s hard to believe that it’s been over an entire day since I woke up and headed for the airport with only four hours of sleep in my system (I had stayed up late finishing The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on Game Boy Advance, because I apparently had been in the mood for an added handicap for a red-eye flight), but that’s how it is.  After triple checking to make sure everything was accounted for and saying goodbye to my parents, I began my multi-hour journey within a journey.

The first flight was over quickly.  I had a complimentary glass of ginger ale and went promptly to sleep for roughly five hours.  Outside of one or two dreams featuring Francisco Scaramanga (he’s a James Bond villain; look him up), it was a fairly uneventful flight.  Once in San Francisco, I purchased and summarily devoured a pound of sourdough bread and waited for nearly four hours in the international terminal, alternating between reading The London Hanged: Crime and Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century (a history book recommended by my advisor that discusses capital punishment in eighteenth century London in a socioeconomic context) and playing Mario and Luigi: Dream Team on my 3DS.  I think the fact that I spent an equal amount of time doing both of these activities while waiting says a lot about me.  Curiously enough, it was the ten-hour red-eye flight to London where I had more difficulty sleeping.  I alternated between gaming and closing my eyes while trying to rest.  Maybe it was just the sudden change in time, but the flight was over before I knew it.

Fast-forward a few hours, and I find myself in Eastcote preparing for the next few weeks in England.  Classes start this week, so I’d better get used to traveling around and I’d better mentally prepare myself for all the usual components of academic work.  One final thing before I go: I experienced what could be my first bout of culture shock while waiting for my baggage.  Due to the slight raciness of what I saw, I will be using white text to disguise it from my more sensitive readers.  While leaving the restroom, I noticed what appeared to be a vending machine close to the exit.  Upon closer inspection, I noticed that it sold condoms.

I will repeat that.

There was a condom vending machine (that also sold lube and something called a “vibrator ring”) in the men’s restroom at Heathrow International Airport in London.  I’ve already noticed plenty of differences between the U.S. and the U.K., such as slang (“loo,” “quid,” and “the States” have rapidly entered my vocabulary) and driving on the left side of the road, but so far, the airport bathroom condom machine takes the cake.

And with that weird note, let the Study Abroad adventure begin!

Reflections from Future Ben:

Oddly enough, my flight to England was fairly uneventful; I think I covered everything here.  Even customs, processing my visa, and finding the arranged cab was less stressful than anticipated.  Traveling between college in Oregon and home in Hawaii has made me good at sleeping on long flights.  For the record, the dream with Francisco Scaramanga had us waterskiing together.

I recently completed another playthrough of A Link to the Past, this time on Nintendo Switch.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Fischberg Flashback 1: Who, Why, Where, How, and What the Heck?

 Original date of post: August 30, 2013

There’s a half-packed suitcase in my living room, a couple of guidebooks on my desk, and excitement in my heart.  What does this all mean?

Simple: it means that I, Ben Fischberg, will be traveling to London in less than two weeks to study abroad!

As someone who has never composed a blog, I feel somewhat obliged to explain my reasoning for creating one out of the blue.  I am starting this blog for numerous reasons (in this case, numerous means three):

1.  This blog is meant to appease my occasionally voracious ego.  Given that this is a blog, that pretty much goes without saying.

2.  This blog is meant to provide informative (and hopefully entertaining) updates on my life, studies, and experiences in London for friends, family, and anyone else who has stumbled across this page and now has developed an interest in following me.

3.  Finally, this blog is meant to provide a (hopefully) definitive account of my adventure abroad.  This way, I can look back on all of this fondly in 30 years and read up on what I experienced and how I looked at the world at the time. (Hello, 50-year-old Benjamin Fischberg!  Hopefully, I won’t be too much of an annoying pipsqueak for you.)

Alright, now that I’ve justified myself for writing this blog, it’s time for me to explain why I’m going abroad and give a run-down on what to expect in this blog! (Hopefully, my future entries will be shorter and less expository.)

To put it simply, I chose to study abroad in London because I speak the language, I’ve heard good things about the program, it has a rich history in law (the United States legal system is a common-law system descended from the English model), and it plays into my academic interests (I’m a History major with a specialty in political history, which the United Kingdom has in spades).  I chose to study abroad in general because in recent years, I’ve been feeling a bit of a hunger for adventure.  Maybe it comes from my success at integrating at college; maybe it comes from boredom resulting from a mostly uneventful youth.  Hopefully, my time in Great Britain will be a fantastic adventure, filled with educational opportunities and fond memories.  I’ll do everything I can to make sure that these opportunities and memories are properly represented here on this blog for all to see and enjoy!

There is one final thing I would like to note about this blog.  As part of my interest in law and history, I have decided to embark on a criminal justice-themed pilgrimage.  This being Great Britain, home of the Tyburn Tree and the Halifax Gibbet, many stops on my criminal pilgrimage will involve lurid accounts of murder, detention, prosecution, incarceration, torture, and execution.  Because I anticipate that not everyone reading this shares my academic fascination with the macabre, I will be taking a simple precaution to conceal what I write when it becomes potentially upsetting: using white text.  In order to see what I type in full, you will need to highlight portions of my writing with your mouse, like this.  If you’re reading this, congratulations, you cracked the code! In case you didn’t know and were wondering, the Halifax Gibbet was a beheading device (similar to a guillotine, but with more of an ax-like blade) that was used in the English village of Halifax.  As for the Tyburn Tree, I’ll be bringing that up in another post.  Thank you for the inspiration, TV Tropes!

All in all, I’m looking forward to the semester of a lifetime in Great Britain.  Being home to such fascinating historical figures as King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I, Oliver Cromwell, Winston Churchill, and Margaret Thatcher (all political figures, in case you forgot my area of interest), along with such luminary fictional characters as Sherlock Holmes, Horace Rumpole and Harry Potter (before my Whovian friends start asking, I didn’t include the Doctor because he’s actually from Gallifrey, though he might as well have his mail forwarded to London), I’m looking forward to a very much real and recorded, yet unbelievable and fantastic time overseas.  There will be trials (in and out of court), culture shock, work, play, excitement, exhilaration, exhaustion, weird food experiences, jet lag, public transit, personal growth, and so much more over the next four months.  It’s the chance of the lifetime and all of the UK is my oyster.

Now, I just need to get all this packing done.

Reflections:

Here it is, my first ever blog post!  I'm pleasantly surprised on the quality of this early writing, as I don't see any things that make my inner law review editor grumble.  I've heard that most content creators are embarrassed by their early works, but that fortunately isn't the case here.  It's interesting to see how I saw the world back then; I was definitely still getting used to adventures in my young adulthood.  Obviously, this semester abroad was just what I needed.

I also laid out the Criminal Justice Pilgrimage here, which would be a major motivating force in my weekend excursions throughout the semester.  I eventually went to twenty-one major locations (along with smaller stops along the way), which gave me lots to work with.  I'm kind of pleased with myself for borrowing TV Tropes's method of hiding spoilers (white text) for hiding grisly things.  Ironically, I believe TV Tropes somewhat changed its format for hiding spoilers (you now click on the text to make it visible and don't have to highlight it), so this is a relic from 2013.  I expect to see more such relics as the flashback posts continue.

And Now For Something Completely Different

 

Longtime readers of this blog may have noticed that I haven’t been writing as much lately as I have in the past.  It isn’t for any sad reason; it’s just that I haven’t had many interesting things to write about that I can share.  Most work-related matters are privileged, and the most interesting things to happen outside of work are in connection to other people (and therefore private), have to do with me getting new glasses (which no one at work has noticed for over a month), or are related to video games (which I’m sure most people don’t want to hear about).  It’s hard to create quality content on a semi-regular basis when there’s only so much source material.

As such, I’ll be trying something a little different at the end of this month.  As long-time readers may remember, this blog isn’t my first rodeo.  Ten years ago, I first tried my hand at blogging during a truly pivotal journey in my life: when I studied abroad in London for the fall 2013 semester.  It was one of the greatest experiences of one of my greatest years, so it was certainly worthy of recording electronically.  In the years that have passed, my old email account used to make that blog expired; since I didn’t have the foresight to make necessary adjustments, my blog died with it.  Thankfully, after a host of digging through old files, I found my original word document that I used to draft blog posts!  As such, to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of my studies abroad, I’ll be reposting my old blog entries in a new feature: Fischberg Flashbacks!

Here's the plan: I’ll be reposting most of my blog posts on the date they were posted.  I’ll try to make sure I include the relevant photos for the posts in question (if I still have them), and I’ll keep the posts as I wrote them (unless I notice a glaring grammatical/typographical mistake that makes the post difficult to read).  Think of these posts as a portal into my old ways of thinking and writing; I’ll probable also include some reflections I’ve had 10 years later.

As August comes to an end, keep your eyes open for the debut of Fischberg Flashbacks!  I’ll keep writing entries from the present if anything interesting happens, but I’m looking forward to having a lot more content to share soon. :)

Trip to the Tropics

 

[Editor’s note: the vacation described in this blog post was less about traveling to landmarks and more about chilling and catching up with some friends.  This means that I took fewer photos than many would take in Hawaii.  As such, I will be using screenshots from video games with Hawaii-ish settings to punch up this post.  Thank you for your patience.]

 

It's no secret that being a lawyer can be a pretty intense job.  Even the weeks where you aren’t dealing with violent or unpleasant cases, there’s always plenty of pressure to get everything right.  Given that I hadn’t had a proper vacation since last year (and given that COVID-19 continues to wind down), it felt appropriate to take some time off at the end of May and come back to Hawaii to reunite with my parents.

Cthulhu couldn’t join me this time due to work obligations, but I was still able to enjoy myself on this much-needed break.  Normally, I spend breaks like this hitting up the various landmarks of Oahu (including my beloved Kailua Beach).  Due to time and environmental constraints, I had to scale back on that; this instead became a journey to catch up with old friends and enjoy as much delicious food as possible!

One night on the town saw me going to a silent disco with a friend.  Here's how the night began, with a drink in hand...

...and here's how the night ended after a night of dancing.

Even though I only passed through it a few times, Delfino Plaza Honolulu is still beautiful.

The ocean waters were as pretty as ever, but most of my swimming was done in a pool.

The slopes of Ten Carat Hill Diamond Head beckoned to me, but I wasn't much for hiking this time.

One thing I was up for was hitting up the Ward Farmer's Market!

At one point, I took the scenic route to the north shore...

...home to one of my favorite nostalgic restaurants with fantastic fries, Kua Aina!

Alas, all good things must come to an end.  This includes my trip to Hawaii, and I soon found myself back in Tillamook.  Thankfully, this little recharge is just what I needed; I’m back in the swing of things and filled with renewed vigor.  It’s back to doing what I do: defending the guilty, protecting the innocent, and sticking it to the man!

Tener Que Capturar Los Todos

 

In the life as an Oregon defense attorney, you get a lot of new experiences on a regular basis: new cases, new clients, new laws to memorize, and new hellish weather patterns (see my previous post).  While these new experiences can be engaging and exciting, they can also be exhausting.  As such, it’s nice to be able to revisit the occasional familiar ground.  For the past few months, I’ve had two persistent blasts from the past to help me decompress: studying Spanish and playing Pokémon.

At first glance, it seems a little counterintuitive to see learning Spanish as something remotely relaxing.  However, it takes me back to simpler times: trying as a child to understand my father whenever he spoke Spanish, learning the basics in high school, further learning in college, etc.  For the past two years, I’ve been using Duolingo to refresh what I learned a decade ago and give myself daily chances to practice.  Not only does this give me a daily feeling of accomplishment, but it’s also become useful for work.  As it turns out, I apparently speak (marginally) more Spanish than most lawyers in Tillamook County.  As a result, I tend to be assigned to a lot of clients who primarily speak Spanish.  While I certainly don’t speak enough Spanish to be able to communicate complex legal issues (and need an interpreter for client meetings), I feel a little pride in knowing enough Spanish to set up office appointments with clients.  With lessons from the past, I stay engaged in the present and work towards furthering my future career.

A cat buying groceries--a typical day of learning Spanish in Tillamook.

Compared to self-imposed Spanish homework, playing Pokémon video games seems like a more likely means of relaxation.  Indeed, a good deal of my post-work gaming last year involved catching up on the past few years of Pokémon titles.  With a new game having come out recently (“recently” here meaning six months ago; I tend to be late to the party), I’ve been spending a good amount of time after work playing Pokémon Violet.  It’s a little unusual in that it’s a far less structured game than previous Pokémon titles and has a mostly open world.  When I first started playing video games, I was blown away by the sheer scope of worlds to explore, especially in role-playing games like Pokémon.  At a time in my life where I am used to identifying game formulas and usually being used to the ebb and flow of gameplay, Pokémon Violet comes the closest out of most recent games to recapturing that feeling from childhood.  Everywhere I go on the world map leads to unknown challenges and I frequently know what to expect.  In short, it’s the perfect way to relax at the end of the day after several hours of legal wrangling and reviewing Spanish.

Enjoying a picnic with my electric sheep, fire crocodile, and dragon motorcycle--a typical day of traveling in the Paldea region.

Unrelated to the rest of this post: my regular diet has gone through a subtle change.  Where I once ate pasta with olive oil as my default dinner, pasta with ricotta is my new supper routine.

Frozen

 

Having grown up in both New York and Hawaii, I’m used to a wide array of weather patterns depending on the season.  New York is too frigging hot during summer and too freaking cold during winter (with the snowy season stretching into April one time I can remember).  Hawaii usually has a late spring/early summer feeling year-round (albeit with five minutes of light rain a day), though it gets really hot in October and rains a lot in winter.  Still, even though I’ve pretty much spent my entire adult life in Oregon, I still find myself caught off guard by the intense weather that changes every instant.  This is the state where I’ve encountered snow, rain, sunshine, and snow again all in the span of 90 minutes.  Therefore, I shouldn’t be surprised that a freak snowstorm hit Tillamook County and most of the Portland area last week.  What got me this time was the chaos that resulted.

It all started innocently enough: it had been snowing for most of late February on and off at various levels.  Given that it had also hailed and rained in intense bursts, snow was the least of anyone’s concern.  Yet, as I drove home Wednesday night after a long day of work and at the movies, I noticed that the snow was a lot thicker than usual and was sticking to the ground.  I figured that there would be a nice coating of frost dust in the morning and thought little of it as I wound down for the night, playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons and reading about the Boston Massacre.  I went to bed blissfully…and then woke up to this:

As you can see, we got about a foot of snow.  Not thinking too much about it, I suited up for the day and hopped into my car…only to realize that my windshield was covered by multiple layers of snow and that my wheels couldn’t move at all.  What should have been a typical Thursday with a few court hearings was now a “work from home” day.  Fortunately, I didn’t miss too much; the court was closed for business, so the entire Tillamook legal world was working from home.  It’s been years, possibly a decade, since I last remember having a snow day from school/work.  While it’s always a little relief to be able to do my job without having to wear a suit, it gets a little aggravating when you realize that it’s keeping you from accomplishing vital goals for vulnerable clients.  Still, it could have been worse: some areas around Tillamook lost electricity or running water for hours or days.  Thankfully, my utilities stayed on even when my suit stayed off.

While the snow did let up a little that night, Tillamook remained frozen the following day.  My driveway was cleared by a passing good Samaritan, but the court remained closed all Friday.  While the streets were icy and the temperature made me want to hibernate, I completed an honest day of work as best I could by sending out emails and visiting clients at jail.  As luck would have it, the highways around this time had mostly been cleared, meaning I had a path out of here.  Knowing that Salem had been hit by far less snow, I got out of Dodge after clocking out for the week and spent the weekend in the tentacles of Cthulhu and cuddled up with Cthulhu’s cats.

When I came back to Tillamook, a lot of the snow had cleared up.  There were still some closures and delays around town, but work trickled back to normal.  Although there have still been some bursts of snow and rain, the weather has stabilized in time for March.  Since spring should be rolling around this month, I don’t expect any snowstorms soon.  Still, there’s nothing like a massive show of nature to show just how easily order can be torn asunder.  I’ll just need to be ready for the next disaster, be it a blizzard, hurricane, inferno, or anything else Oregon has up its sleeves!

How Tillamook looked for most of this week throughout recovery.

 

23, 30, and 23

 

Happy New Year!  What’s that?  It’s already the middle of February?  It’s still the first blog post of the year, so Happy New Year nonetheless!

The year 2022 ended comfortably enough, even if I wasn’t in Hawaii.  Cthulhu and I rang in the new year in the company of friends, enjoying traditional yearly reminiscence and playing some traditional Star Wars: Republic Commando (a tradition that Cthulhu and I have developed over the years).  And lo, 2022 faded into the ether with 2023 emerging like a phoenix from the ashes.  I developed some resolutions (clean more, read more, save more, eat more healthy, play more video games, etc.) and I’ve already been working on them.  Last year was a year that saw me finish several long-running cases and return to Hawaii for the first time in three years.  I can only hope that 2023 will bring similar relief and enjoyment by the next time I sit down for resolutions and Republic Commando.

As is usual in January, my New Year’s celebrations were barely over when my newest cause for celebration rolled around: my birthday!  However, this birthday carried a tinge of bittersweetness: it was my 30^th birthday.

My 30^th birthday.

Much like Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby, I’ve seen my 20s slip by in an anticlimactic fashion, leaving me at an age where Zippies would automatically distrust me.  Where I was once an idealistic twenty-something, I’m now a more mature (hopefully still idealistic) lawyer who can look back on my decades of youth while making obscure literary and historical references (see the first sentence of this paragraph).  Like many folks who reach this age, I feel some melancholy when I think of my wild 20s being over.  It can be a tad gloomy when I realize I spent most of my wild years working and being in school.  While this makes my life seem boring compared to some, it has a flipside that makes me a little proud: I was able to go my entire 20s without getting arrested or hungover!  My birthday celebration itself helped me realize that; as I sat around eating, drinking, and chatting with friends, I realized my youth so far has been fruitful: I’ve studied abroad, gone to conventions, worked odd jobs, maintained a long-term relationship, expanded my culinary aptitude, and achieved my longtime goal of becoming a lawyer (with a private office out of law school to boot).  Most importantly, I still feel young; my worldly adventures have only just begun!

My 30s got off to a decent start: after several slow weeks of reschedules and resolutions, I held my first trial of the year!  Furthermore, this was the 23^rd trial overall of my career (not counting probation violation or contempt hearings, which have mostly been remote and are generally simpler)!  Will I share the juicy details of this new trial?  No, because I still try to have some professional standards!  All I will say is that it ended with an acquittal, a happy client, and a need to decompress at Denny’s.

Pictured: decompression via pancakes

And so, as 2023 rolls on, I venture further into the unknown.  I expect 2023 will be a year filled with professional opportunities, room to grow, and (with COVID getting weaker than ever) time to party.  As per usual, it’ll up to me to roll with the punches, continue growing, and proceed on my path to being a fine lawyer.

Also, I’m going to try some more cooking.

Fried gnocchi, my newest successful experiment.  I look forward to seeing what I can do with it...