Mulberry Harbour

Here's a history lesson:

During World War II, it became pretty clear that when the last invasions were to take place to oust the German's of their control, having a blockade that stopped their air raids would not be enough - the seas would need to be blocked as well. Seems, pretty obvious, yeah? Well, constructing a harbour that didn't exist to block German ships from the shore that was already under siege was a great idea, but hard to actually do. If they landed on the beach where the attack would occur, they'd come under attack. So the idea to build two artificial harbours elsewhere (the UK) and then float them into place (at Normandy) came to be. These were called the Mulberry Harbours. [Source]

Between Bognor and its suburb Aldwick, one of the pontoons from Mulberry Harbour, which didn't make it accros the channel as it was towed toward Normandy, washed up shortly after D-Day. It's just sitting there on shore and can be seen at low tide. [Source]

It's pretty cool, I gotta say.

Joke of the day: 

Where do you learn about famous pirates?

In the pirate ARRRRchives!

Ballin' in Bognor

Yesterday I made plans to meet up with my friend at Clapham Junction station. It should have been easy - get a ticket, ride a few stops, get off, meet friend. When I got to the station near where I'm staying in Mostpur Park, I learned that the southwest trains were all backed up due to a trespasser on the lines. Though the trespasser was taken care of, all the lines in and out of Waterloo station were crazy off schedule. One of the things I love about British transport is that they are always telling riders the status of things and apologizing "Very sorry, there was a trespasser on the lines earlier, and though it was dealt with, it has caused some congestion on the tracks, so we will be on our way shortly." Always so polite.

Well, once I got to Clapham Junction, I wasn't sure if my friend had arrived earlier than me, or if she was delayed as well, or where she had been delayed at that. I hadn't yet gotten a burner phone, so we weren't able to contact one another either. I also went out the wrong exit, so I walked around the block to the more active exit, but when I didn't see her, I just assumed she was late and popped into Sainsbury's to grab a bite to eat. The pizza onion rolls are heavenly. I hung around the exit stalls for a bit and was happy to see she was late as well, and managed to meet up with her smoothly from there. She took me to this bar, "The Sugar Cane" which is Caribbean themed, to join her for drinks at a going away party for one of her church friends. That was pretty fun. 

After, she and I went back to Motspur Park, grabbed some fish'n'chips and caught a ride down to Bognor Regis with her boyfriend (who is super nice).

Today was spent in Bognor, which is just lovely. Woke up and watched the last half of a Tinker Bell movie and then Frozen, with the Boyfriend's niece (such a cutie), and ate a delicious breakfast of crescents with jam, strawberry yogurt with granola and fruit, and orange juice. After that we headed to the beach. Personally, when I think of beaches, I think of sandy shores, dunes, and fresh water. I know that the English Channel is salt water, but somehow it still surprised me a little when I licked my lips and tasted the brine coating them. Though the Channel was not as cold as Lake Superior, it definitely felt like Lake Michigan before it really warms up. Still, after the initial chill, the water was absolutely gorgeous, and we swam around for awhile. The beach was composed of rocks and seashells. I found several cuttlefish bones, which was pretty nifty. I really like cuttlefish. I think they are awesome creatures. They taste terrible, though. 

After swimming, we took showers, had a light lunch, and headed into town. Bognor Regis is adorable. It's got a very pedestrian friendly center, lots of shops - charity shops, kitschy shops, clothing stuff, sweets, you name it - and feels kind of like an old school beach side faire. We wandered around, grabbed some ice cream (I had honey ginger because it sounded interesting, and it was amazing), and then my friend and I got mani-pedis. It'd been so long since I'd had either, and it just felt so nice to be pampered like that.  Now I've got classy looking nails:

For dinner we headed to this family owned Thai place, "Tuptim Siam" which was just brilliant. I love Thai food. I love food. And this was delicious food.

Tomorrow it's back to Motspur Park to finish my web 2.0 project, but I do believe we're taking a morning walk down to the Channel one last time. I'll be sure to remember my camera this time!

JOKE OF THE DAY:

How do pirates know that they are pirates?

They think, therefore they ARRRR!

Landfall in London and the first days

Wow. What an adventure so far! My housing has been kinda touch and go as to where I'd be staying for the week and a half prior to the school flats opening, but today it's finally settled. What a relief.

For the majority of the time I'll be staying at a friend of a friend's place. I've made friends with his cat. I have no idea what the cat's name is, but I've been calling him Max, because he looks like a Max, and he's been answering to it.

This is Max --> <-- and that is a wall of manga behind him. I was kind of glancing at it, and then noticed that there is the rest of a series that I haven't finished in those stacks... I may have gotten distracted this afternoon. 

(UPDATE!: The cat is a girl, and her name is Lexi)

Yesterday after I landed, I took the Tube into the city. My friend said she could keep my luggage with her at work while I waited for her to get done, so I met her in Russell Square to drop it off. Another of my friends, Katie, makes delicious scotch eggs. I'd say they are pretty on par with the scotch egg I got at the Friend in Hand pub around the corner from Russell Square station. I needed to find a place with WiFi and after wandering around, that was the spot! 

My next challenge was to find a sim card so I could use my phone. I found that, but alas, my phone hasn't been "unlocked" so I was out of luck on that front. My friend's guy has a spare phone, however, that he'll let me borrow for the time I'm here. That was good news! Most of my day yesterday was spent wandering around, remembering how London works, dipped into the British Museum, wandered past the FSU Study Center so that I would know where it was (literally down the street from the British Museum - SO easy to find), and then camped out in a Starbucks for wifi and espresso. I am happy to say that I am on GMT now.

Today was spent at my friends' place working on an assignment since most of my week has been eaten up by travel and packing and such. But I got a fair amount of that worked on, so I'm heading out for food and drinks in Clapham Junction and then heading down to Bognor Regis for the weekend! Gonna go swim in the Channel!

Before I left, another of my friends said to me, "Your blog posts are great and all, but... uh... WHERE ARE ALL THE JOKES?" I did say I would still be sending him jokes, so I'll work on that. Here's one for today:

A high school senior is getting ready for prom. He first heads to the tux shop to get his rental, but there's a huge line at the tux rental place. He stands in like for what feels like forever, and finally picks up his tux. Then he heads to the florist, because one must always bring flowers for one's prom date. There is a super long line at the flower shop as well! He waits in line, patiently, until finally he has his flowers. Finally he goes to the limo place to make sure he'll have a limo ready to pick him and his date up for prom. The limo line is longest of all, but after all his waiting, he's used to it, so he waits some more until he's got a limo all set up. The night of prom comes. He's wearing his tux, his date loved her flowers, and the limo picked them up right on time. They are dancing and having a good time, and then his date asks him to get her a glass of punch. He heads over to the punch table, and there's no punch line.

Pack, Pack, Pack It Up

Holy crap! I leave in a day and a half, and I've put packing off as long as possible (if I put it off any longer I might actually panic, but that's rare for me). I've always been pretty good at packing light. I remember short weekend trips with friends where I would have just a backpack and they would have a suitcase. Now I'm packing for a full month and trying to figure out what is the right balance. I might be pushing it a little bit, but I think I've pared it down to the right amount of layers and combos. The true test will be fitting them into my bag.

 (Yes, I have a London pillow. I have mentioned it's my favorite city, right?)

_____________________________________________________________

So, I took a break to procrastinate, paint my nails (and then mess the up, so I'll have to do them again sigh), and eat dinner. When I came back, I decided to put everything in my bag and see if it was too much. NOT EVEN EXPANDED! everything fit, and I'll still have to take out an outfit to wear, and pack my carry on. I have no idea if they will allow me to carry this one on as well, or if I get just the under seat. The bag is made to be a carry on case, and I've only had to check it twice tops simply because the plane was either too small or too full. I tend to check at the gate if that's the case because, hey, free checked bag! So, I'll find out when I get there. I'm pretty ridiculously laid back when it comes to this kind of thing.

I'll have this bag, and my shoulder bag which will have my laptop, all my important documents, camera, phone, paperback novel (always gotta travel with one!), etc. Now I just hope I haven't forgotten something vital, but I have a checklist that I will go over at least two more times. For now, I'm happy to call it a night.

Oh, Kalamazoo...

So in my video I talked a bit about Kalamazoo being a pretty nifty place. I stand by that. This list has been popping up all over my Facebook lately and I wanted to share it with everyone because it's completely true:

10 Stereotypes About Kalamazoo that are Completely Accurate

Today's joke:

What's red and bad for your teeth?
A brick.

Video Exercise

This whole filming oneself and talking to a camera thing is new to me. It's kind of nerve wracking...

Audio Exercise

This is my first attempt at creating an audio track. As I tend to do in life, I decided to tell a joke. The music is attributed to Martijn de Boer (NiGiD), which I found on ccmixter.org

Photo Editing Exercise (edited with iPhoto)

One of our assignments was to take a photo and manipulate it some. This handsome boy is Marvin. (Originally his name was Ragamuffin, which then became Muffin, and then it slowly morphed into Marvin, which is the only thing he actually answers to.)

ANYWAY, here's the original picture of Starvin' Marvin begging for his dinner:

In this next picture, I raised the saturation, definition, and added warmer shades.

And in this one, I put a cool tone filter on it until it almost looked like a B&W photo but kept the hint of teal in his eyes, and the color of his bowl. I also added a blurred edges effect to the border.  

Meet my companion!

Meet Floyd Raccoon. He will be my travel companion this summer. Floyd lives at the Kalamazoo Public Library where I work, and whenever someone from KPL goes on a trip, Floyd likes to tag along. I'm really excited to be traveling with Floyd and getting lots of pictures both of me and of him. He's especially excited to visit the Bodleian Library in Oxford. I'm hoping to check out The Eagle & Child Pub where J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis used to meet up.

Departure is fast approaching! Looking forward to it!