Day 80: THANKSGIVING AT THE PHOTO HOUSE

(A traditional turkey chicken dinner- with a side of photos)


What's a Thanksgiving dinner without crossaints, chicken and photography?

Celebrating Thanksgiving can prove to be difficult in Europe. The tradition of honoring the pilgrims for slaughtering feasting with Native Americans is not too important to British culture BELIEVE IT OR NOT!

But that's fine by me since everybody knows Thanksgiving is my least favorite holiday. I hate 90 percent of the food, I have to watch the ***** Lions play football and plus I don't need a holiday telling me when I should be thankful. Instead, I believe we should just be thankful everyday. (That's my justification for disliking this silly holiday. It's not a very good justification. shhhh...) The good news is in London it's actually easy for me to follow my "always be gracious" mantra.

This would normally be the point where I list all I'm grateful for here in London. Eh, but it's too cliche. OK, I'm actually not doing that because I'm too stuffed from eating pies. My favorite Thanksgiving treat. Still, it's true from the new sights every day to the accents to the history to the theatre to the doner kebab, it's impossible to not to feel so lucky and privileged to be spending four months here. Now if we could only find some damn pumpkin pie?

For Thanksgiving dinner at the house, it's been almost impossible to find any of the traditional Thanksgiving food. That's good news for me. Our resident chef Will Halsey led the charge in cooking the meal. No turkey. Instead tastes like chicken! Apple pie replaces pumpkin pie (all pie* is delicious, so this is acceptable). No stuffing, but there is sweet corn. No, um, turkey. But there are choreos. Mmmm. Now this I can appreciate. And we still managed to keep the Thanksgiving tradition of nearly burning down the house.*

Living in the photo house has been an interesting experience. Nine people. One house. One non-photo major (me). The goal I wanted to accomplish this semester was to see the world from completely unique perspective. From another culture's point of view. And hell, that was even possible in my own house. The age-old battle between photographers and writers (me) still rages on, but learning to see the world through a lens is something I struggled with in past classes. To not only spot a brilliant image, but to have the guts to get right in there and snap that shot and to frame it just right - you must see the world with both an artistic and frantic eye.

And while, I might never take one photo as good as any of them. I believe I'm learned from seeing my flatmates shoot thousands of pictures of the semester. I ask questions, and little by little I'm feeling more like I'm seeing the world better through the camera's eye. So thanks for that. I'm impressed by what y'all do.

Furthermore, while I have trouble taking photos of cool images. I have managed to find success taking photos of photographers taking photos of cool images. Taken from throughout this current semester, here are shots of photogs making memories: (Except Sarah, who managed to be elusive enough to escape everyone one of these photos.)

The cast of "St. Mary's Mansion Photo House"


The obligatory "British soldier" shot


Haircut in da house!


Brad surveys a good location for him to rule London from.


Dat's good beer.


That face says it all: "I've taken zero good photos at Hampstead Heath."


Tower of London


Bahhh.

I think I was in the way on this one.


Work that chicken, Will.


Halloween.
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Foot notes

*What's better pie or cake? Overall, I feel there's a greater quanity of delicious pies (pecan, pumpkin, pudding, apple). But nothing is more savory than a rich, moist slice of chocolate cake. Let the age-old debate rages on.


*

This photo may look out of focus, but it's actually all the smoke in the room. And this photo is out of focus.

Day 76: HAVE A LOOK, HAVE A LOOK

(Exploring the markets of London)

"Wakey, wakey. Have a look. Have a look. All this for only 10 pounds," the vendors would shout at the crowds shuffling through the marketplace. Don't make eye contact. Or you're coming home with a pair of wool socks or a miniature double decker bus.


Cheap, gross clothes available at the London markets.

London is well-known for its open-air markets, and I finally decided to explore the bigger ones last weekend. On Saturday I hit up Portabello Road, a massive street with all types of goods. Most of them useless. And also fudge.

The best parts of these markets is most definitely the cheap, exotic and always-delicious food. Sure, the festive atmosphere that came out in Petticoat Lane Market after the rain stopped was exciting. Someone even called another guy, "Mr. Bollocks Chops."*

But the food at the Sunday UpMarket was almost too delicious. There were eats from Portugal, Japan, Brazil, China - pretty much every Asian or Portuguese country. I bought a Dragon Tail for a pound 50, while checking out all the hipster designer t-shirts. Finally, from there I headed to Brick Lane. It was closing up when I got there, but I still had time to grab a cream cheese beigel from the best beigel place in the entire world. And picked up a pair of five pound shoes called Plimsolls. Suck on that Starbury.

Photo montage. With no discretion at all. I just threw in everything, which includes like two good photos. Hooray.

Portobello Road:

Big-ass seafood paella.


Fudge. Delicious, delicious fudge.

Petticoat Lane Market:

I came to Europe for the Houston Cougar sweatshirts. Bugger off, McNabb.

UpMarket:

Asian food inside the Sunday UpMarket. mmmmmm.


Here's the Red Dragon's Tail I ate (prawn, rice, seaweed, spiciness).


Inside the UpMarket tent carom tables were set up. A game that involves caroming.


Chowing at the UpMarket. Look they even have Hippie Bites!

Brick Lane:

Executions and oriental cuisine?!!? This market truly is the greatest.


Om nom nom.


More graffiti around Brick Lane.


The second most famous beigel place on Brick Lane (and my favorite).


Creepy dolls are available for cheap at Brick Lane.

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Foot notes

*Someone screamed this name out, and everyone within earshot stopped. A guy not named Mr. Bollocks Chops turned around and asked "Are you talking to me?"

"No, him."

"Oh ok. Sorry"

okkkkkkkkkkayyyy.

Day 35: NBA IN UK

(Also, the first NBA game I've attended in more than a decade)


Vince Carter lookin' British.


The O2 Arena lookin' snazzy.

LONDON - I made it to the O2 Arena for the Heat/Nets preaseason game with one out of two contacts. Not bad! I was covering the game for the Palm Beach Post. Even with perfect vision in one eye, I still couldn't find my seat. The NBA had forgot to provide me with one. Once that problem was solved, awesome times ensued.

The New Jersey Nets won 94-92 in front of 16,500 fans, but as you'll see below not even NBA commissioner David Stern cared too much about that. The fans did get into the game after the Heat rallied from a 19-point deficit, but for awhile all they cheered for was fan-favorite Dwyane Wade, crazy dunks and the Heat dancers. Nevertheless, I'd say the night was a success.

Here's what went down. In order of most exciting to least exciting.

-JAY-Z USED MY PEN!

No I didn't ask for his autograph. Even in the presence of Hova, I had to maintain a semblance of professionalism. Even better, I was being a Good Samaritan. Some kids next to where I was seated asked if I had a pen. I gave them one. Two minutes later, I look to my right and Jay-Z is next to me - signing an autograph with my ex-pen. It was the only autograph he signed. I kinda wanted my pen back.

Jay-Z* received a huge ovation when shown on the big screen during the game. With the exception of possibly Wade (thanks to his gold medal in Beijing), Jay-Z was probably the only celeb there who's a megastar in both the United States and Europe. Beyonce showed up, too.

-Other celebs ranged from ex-NBA stars like Darrell Dawkins and Kenny Smith to football (soccer) star Darren Bent to this albino dude from Big Brother UK. Also, the Brits love Phillips Idowu, a Dennis Rodman doppelganger who won the Olympic silver medal in the triple jump* for Great Britain in Beijing.

-This is probably the first sporting event I've been to that involved a Florida team, but did not involve fans wearing jorts.* Instead, the British made basketball jerseys look sleek. Some Englishmen paired jerseys with well-fitted jeans and a faux hawk. The most common jerseys were D-Wade and Vin-sanity. Also, England's Luol Deng. But there was one guy with dreads who sported an Arvydas Sabonis jersey. Yes, the Lithuanian fans were out in full force Sunday.

-The media food presented England with a chance to disprove American stereotypes - or reinforce them. Alas there was no fish n' chips. There was this gross looking chicken in sauce that tasted pretty damn good. Some rice. Some beef. Some strawberry dessert. And finally, the most loved food in all of Britain - the jacket potato. Seriously, every food establishment in London offers jacket potatoes and/or sweet corn. Even Subway here offers sweet corn instead of banana peppers. It's unfortunate since banana peppers > sweet corn.

-I attended a press conference before the game with Stern. The comish was his usual gruff, non-nonsense self while talking about how Europe is screwing up his plans for basketball to take over the world. He also ripped on London for its perceived plans during the 2012 summer olympics to host every round of basketball except the semifinals and finals (which will be in the O2) in outdated venues.

His straight talk is refreshing, and the reason I respect him more than any of the other major league commissioners (although Goodell should surpass him soon). Still, Stern did have one awesome flub when he referred to the Nets as the New Jersey Jets. Granted, it's forgivable since the Jets had just kicked off against the Bengals. And what's more exciting: Brett Favre or the NBA preseason?

-After the game I attended press conferences with Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, Wade, Michael Beasley, Carter and Nets head coach Lawrence Frank. The only newspaper that could afford to send a reporter overseas was the Miami Herald. It's sad because five years ago this would've been a glorious road trip for any NBA beat writer. But the newspaper industry's loss was my gain (although not in the long run).

Here's my story. It got chopped up a bit in editing (ahh, my game coverage is so rusty), but hey, London dateline. That's worth something.

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Foot notes

*Although roommate Taylor wonders: is Jay-Z called Jay-Zed in the UK? (and whether 50 Cent is 50 Pence?) The British pronounce their Z's zed not zee. I was caught off-guard by this for a little bit since I always thought of zed as Lord Zedd. The most awesomest Power Rangers villain ever.

*On the other hand, I didn't even realize the triple jump was a sport. But it is. Apparently, one where you jump. Likely three times.

*Apparently, auto racing is pretty big in the UK, which makes me wonder do the Brits allow themselves to dress anything like NASCAR fans in America. Also, I cant decide if this is funny.

DAY 34: PAR-TAAAAAY

(Wooooooo.)

The streets were packed. Ramadan had ended. And I had never seen Edgware Road, where I lived, so alive before.

Along all the Islamic stores lining the streets, hookahs (shishas) were smoked, families were devouring meals at the delicious Lebanese restaurants*, and everyone appeared in a jolly mood. (and by jolly I mean...Paaar-tay!)

I wish I could've done more as weaved my way through the crowd. It's a culture I never see in the parts of America that I live. And what better way to be a part of that culture for the first time than than with a massive street party. (Wooooooo.)*

Oh well, here's a photo from the good times. Looks like a red carpet affair.


Sarah Minor / Instead of a caption, I'm just gonna plug Sarah's blog.

--
Foot notes

*Actually that photo just looks like hummous, and it looks a little gross. But seriously, come to Edgware Road for the lamb shwarma.
*Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!