Thomas Duesing

For those of you who aren't my immediate family and don't already know, I arrived safely back at home yesterday at around 8:00 in the evening. I ended up taking 3 trains, 2 planes and 1 car to eventually get back to my house in San Antonio.

Next Monday I start my internship at USAA. For school, I'm required to keep a journal to submit for credit in the fall. You might see some of that on here over the next 10 to 12 weeks. Also, over the next week or two I'll update my Flickr photostream with my last pictures from Bath.

Thank you all for reading about my study abroad adventure, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. After returning to The States I miss Bath a little bit already. I think I'm ready for Texas again, though. Home sweat home.

I'm writing this in my last few hours in Bath. It's sad that it has gone so fast, but I think I am ready to get back to Texas.

I'm really sorry I didn't write more after Easter break, but I hope you all enjoyed the photos. I'll post the last few batches once things settle down after reentry.

At 5:43 British Summer Time, I'm taking the first train out of Bath to London Gatwick Airport. If all goes well, I'll be in Atlanta, then San Antonio by late this evening. Unfortunately, I ran out of credit on my mobile here, so I won't be able to update Twitter unless I can get an internet connection or until I get to the states.

I can't wait to see you all soon, and until then I love you all!

Wow, I'm really sorry for keeping everybody out of the loop here. I'm kinda in a rush now, unfortunately, but I'm off to Edinburgh, Scotland. I'll spend 5 nights there, with day trips to Glasgow and Aberdeen. From there, I'm off to visit the Schörpf family in Austria for a week. I'll have my laptop with me, so I'll try to update on the road.

Again, I'll keep my Tiwtter account up to date via text message: twitter.com/TFDuesing.

Cheers!

I'm headed for foggy London town again this weekend, this time with 100% more Carrie. If all goes as planned, I'm going to meet her at 11:00 tomorrow somewhere in Victoria station and spend 2 nights in a hostel room with 18 other people! I'm not entirely sure what we'll be doing in London, but I'm sure it with be lots of fun.

Also, I'm going to try something new online this time around. Recently, I set up a profile on Twitter.com, which lets me tell you what I'm doing when I'm not sitting in front of my computer. Check out twitter.com/TFDuesing over the next 3 days for updates that I'll post from my mobile phone. My latest message on Twitter will also show up as my away message on AIM and Google Talk. If this stuff works out, I'll keep using it on into Easter break and beyond!

A little over a week ago on Friday 2 March, I met Rob (from The Netherlands) and Jai (from Australia) at the Bath Spa rail station ready for another adventure. This time we were headed straight for London's Paddington station on a standing-room-only journey. When we arrived in London later that evening, Rob went to hang out with his investment banker friends from home, leaving Jai and I to find our hostel and explore London together. It took me a while to wrap my mind around the London Underground system, but once we bought our Oyster cards, we were off!

Our hostel, St. Christopher's Village, was in the section of London known as Southwark, or simply The Borough, near London Bridge. After we checked in and stowed our luggage, we hopped on the tube going to Piccadilly Circus. From Piccadilly, we headed for Trafalgar Square and the nearby Texas Embassy Cantina, to celebrate Texas Independence Day. It was comforting to have queso again, and in such a homey atmosphere to boot - except for the Aggie who greeted me at the door. Since the tube shuts down at 12:30, we walked to our hostel, passing Big Ben (technically speaking, it's the clock tower at the Palace of Westminster - Big Ben is the name of the clock tower's largest bell) and the London Eye on our way back.

The next day, Jai and I headed straight back to the London Eye to pick up the tickets we bought online beforehand. Our "flight" started at 11:00 and lasted exactly half an hour. From our capsule in the Eye, we could see as far away as Wembly Stadium and Crystal Palace and had amazing views of Westminster and The City. It was great to get a bird's-eye view of London before we started walking all over the place later that day. When our flight was over, we met up with Rob and the girls (Elissa and Kristen from UT, and Ashika and Minouk from the Netherlands) on the south bank of the River Thames, where there's an impressive array street performers. Fortunately, the sky was clear and the weather was beautiful, so we could walk everywhere without having to take the tube. We started our tour with Westminster Palace and Westminster Abbey, continuing through St James's Park to Buckingham Palace. Then we walked past the Commonwealth Memorial Gates and Wellington Arch and through Hyde Park to Speaker's Corner (minus the speakers), Marble Arch and Oxford Street, finally turning on to Regent Street. Regent Street took us once again to Piccadilly Circus, but this time we had a mission: find cheap tickets for a West End theater production. We followed the advice of the locals and headed in the direction of the many discount ticket booths of Leicester Square. After a bit of negotiation, the girls were able to secure us 6 box seats (3 in the Royal box) for Saturday night's showing of Avenue Q at the Noël Coward Theatre. If you're not familiar with Avenue Q, watch this YouTube video to get an idea ... it's hilarious! After the show, we went to have a few drinks to celebrate me being able to legally drink in the States, and ended up taking a cab back to the hostel.

Sunday started out quite a bit cloudier than Saturday, when Jai and I went to meet up with Rob and the girls at St Paul's Cathedral. After poking our heads in St Paul's, we took the tube to Harrods, only to be completely blown away by the sheer volume of expensive stuff. To be honest, though, I found Rolex's current offerings very bourgeois; it's really all about the toy floor. For lunch, we opted for Harrods 102, a cool cafe across the street from the mothership. At 3:30, Kristen, Jai and I attended evensong at Westminster Abbey, which was an amazing service in an amazing space. They didn't charge us for the service, but the overall attitude and commercialism at Westminster Abbey was a bit of a turn off. For instance, it's £10 for admission on any day but Sunday, and even then they wouldn't let us wander around after the service. Of course it was fine for us to browse the extensive gift shop, though. Following the service, we walked up Whitehall Avenue, the nerve center of the British government, back to Piccadilly Circus to meet up with the other girls. They ended up leaving from there, since they had to catch a coach back to Bath. Jai and I took the tube to meet Rob at King's Cross station, which we found was much easier said than done. Once we found Rob we headed toward Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, in the rain. Despite the precipitation, the famed Tower Bridge was just as impressive and quintessentially London as ever, especially at night. From Tower Bridge, Jai and I went back to the hostel to pick up our bags, eventually meeting up with Rob again at Paddington station before quickly boarding our train back to Bath. The train ride home was a little on the uncomfortable side, probably because I was so exhausted. I definitely collapsed the minute I got back to my flat.

For a few more pictures of my trip, check out this Flickr photoset and this Facebook album.

Since then, I've mainly been recovering and relaxing until Carrie comes to visit this weekend. I did get to go to a Bath Rugby match last Saturday, that was an interesting cultural experience on a beautiful day. Bath Rugby is a professional rugby union team (as opposed to rugby league - different rules) that plays in the English Guinness Premiership, and has historically been very successful. I can't say I understood 100% of what was going on, but I found that I could follow the action pretty well. Also, it was unfortunate that the action tended to be on the opposite side of the pitch, even though they switched sides at the half.

I hope everybody back home is having a great Spring Break. Cheers!

Happy Texas Independence Day, everybody! For a historical background, you should all check out the Handbook of Texas Online entry about theTexas Declaration of Independence.

To celebrate, I'm going to the Texas Embassy Cantina on Trafalgar Square tonight. I can't wait! After that, I'll be in London until Sunday, doing everything that all the tourists do, and celebrating my 21st birthday on Sunday.

Cheers!

Last weekend, as I mentioned earlier, my friends and I traveled to Cardiff, Wales. It was a great easy trip, only a 2 hour journey, and Cardiff is a lively city full of Welsh culture and heritage.

To begin, we left the Bath Spa rail station bright and early and headed for the Bristol Temple Meads station by train. At Bristol, we changed trains so we could go to ... Bristol! (Bristol Parkway station, to be exact.) Apparently, there was a portion of the normal rail line that was not being used that weekend. I think it was due to construction, or some such rubbish. So, in order to get us to Cardiff, Great South Western bussed us from Bristol Parkway station to Newport Gwent station, where we boarded our final train to Cardiff Central station.

The first thing I noticed about Cardiff, and Wales in general, was their crazy language: Cymraeg. Never before have I seen so many consonants jammed into one word. Neither myself nor any of my (very multilingual) friends could begin to pronounce it. Even though it's not heavily spoken in Cardiff (it's most heavily spoken in northwest Wales), all of the signs were written in Welsh as well as English. Apparently, it's even taught in schools and there's a Welsh-language TV and radio station. Also, the iconic red Welsh dragon and Welsh flag were everywhere. I can only assume that the Welsh are very proud to be Welsh, and I'd bet that they'd get might testy if you called them "British".

Once we found and checked in to our hostel, we went straight to Millennium Stadium. Taken by itself, Millennium Stadium is just another big mixed-sports and concert venue. I mean, it's pretty big, and it does have a retractable roof, but these things are a dime a dozen in the States, right? Well ... this is another issue you probably shouldn't take up with the Welsh. First of all, the 72,500 seating number that gets thrown around refers to the actual number of individual seats in the stadium - there's not one bleacher in the place, so the person-density is much lower than American stadia. It's also right in the middle of the city, on some prime real estate on the Taff river, not unlike the the Roman Colosseum. The main importance of Millennium Stadium, though, is the events it has hosted. The tour brochure describes it as "The official home of the Welsh Rugby Union and the spiritual home of Welsh Football ..." The stadium has also hosted final matches for the FA Cup (while Wembley Stadium is under construction in London) and the Rugby World Cup as well as Madonna, U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Rolling Stones. It's also slated to be a football venue for the 2012 Olympics.

From Millennium Stadium, we headed to Cardiff Castle. Apparently, Cardiff Castle has existed in some form or another since the 3rd century AD, but most of what's there today was built by the coal-rich Bute family of Scotland in the late 19th century. The 12-century Norman keep in the center of the courtyard was the main exception, and my favorite part of the castle. It was everything I ever expected a castle to be, going back to my Lego days. It had a moat and everything! The interior of the rest of the castle was impressive as well, lending an interesting view into the romanticized image of the middle ages held by Victorian England. In a separate museum that was attached to the castle, I also learned everything I never wanted to know about Welsh military involvements.

On Sunday, we started out with the National Museum & Gallery Cardiff. The museum was quite comprehensive, and included collections of Welsh history, natural history and art. I was most impressed by the art gallery, as it is supposed to be the largest collection of impressionist works outside of Paris, featuring works by Monet, Cézanne, Matisse, Renoir and van Gogh, among others. The rest of the museum was fairly standard, world's largest turtle skeleton notwithstanding.

We ended our trip with a walk down to Cardiff Bay, which is separated from the city centre of Cardiff by about a mile. The coolest thing about Cardiff bay was definitely the architecture. The Wales Millennium Center is a large copper-colered building with large words carved in it's front, in Welsh and English. The Welsh National Assembly building was also a very impressive structure, with an amazing wavy wooden roof. (It does not appear, however, that the 60-member National Assembly for Wales is quite as impressive: the central government in Westminster still controls the budget, taxes, foreign policy and defense.) Cardiff Bay is also home to Roald Dahl Plass. While I'm still not quite sure what a plass is, the area commemorates the life and works of the author whom I didn't not know was born in Cardiff.

For more photos, please take a look at my Cardiff photoset on Flickr.

As for the rest of week 4, it's pretty much been business as usual. I've put a good deal of effort into planning my trip to London next weekend for my birthday, and I also booked my plane tickets to Austria, so I can visit Sebastian and the rest of the Schörpf family over Easter break. Today, I attended choral evensong at Bath Abbey, which was a fantastic service in an amazing building. The traditional men and boys choir brought me back to my days as a first soprano.

That's all for now, folks. Thanks for reading and have a nice week!

I'm headed off to bed now, because I leave for Cardiff tomorrow morning. I suppose it will be the first country outside of England that I'll have seen since I arrived here, that is, if Wales counts as another country. I'm really excited about seeing Cardiff Castle, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Bay, and whatever else awaits me. If I feel extra adventurous, I might make it to Llandaff Cathedral or even Castle Coch. I'm going with a group of friends of mine from France and the Netherlands. We'll be spending Saturday night in Cardiff, and arriving back in Bath at 22:33 on Sunday. Look for my story and pictures here on Monday.

Also, have a look at my pictures on Flickr. I uploaded all the good ones from Bristol, and some recent shots from my life in Bath.

Hello again, everyone! It's been another exciting week here in Bath, jammed packed with adventures. Last Saturday, I took a university-sponsored trip to Windsor Castle, this week at school was busy, and this Saturday, I took a trip to the nearby city of Bristol.

First off, I have to say that the study abroad people here at the uni really have their act together. They're offering 10 or so trips to points of interest in the region this semester. While I unfortunately was too late to sign up for the trip to Cardiff, I was able to get on for Windsor Castle and Stonehenge. The Windsor Castle trip was this past Saturday (2nd February) and it was absolutely fantastic. Never before have I seen such palace. There's certainly noting like it in the US, with it's 900 or so years of history behind it, while still being used as an official residence for a monarchy today - I'm still getting used to the fact that this country has a monarchy. It was also interesting to tour the castle with a group of my friends from The Netherlands. Occasionally, they would spot a member of their royal family in paintings around the castle, and many of the works of art are Dutch as well (notably Rembrandt). Also of note is that Windsor Castle and St. George's Chapel are the chivalric and spiritual homes to the Order of the Garter, which is the highest order of knighthood in the UK. I was disappointed to learn, however, that this is not the same knightly order that Mick Jagger and Elton John were inducted into recently. One thing that I'm still not sure about, though, is the connection between the name of the castle and the currently ruling royal family, both named Windsor. I've read that the Queen favors Windsor Castle, and I'm not sure if it's because it's a really cool place to be, or because it's her family home or something like that.

For pictures of my trip, check out this photoset on Flickr.

As for week 2 at school, well, things were pretty much business as usual. I had a presentation Thursday in my British History & Society class about Anglo-Saxons, Normans, class and language. I focused on the British Isles before 1066 AD, covering the Roman rule, Angles, Saxons and Vikings, while my partner (from UVA) focused on the Norman invasion of 1066 and the Battle of Hastings. Also, last Monday the other Texans and I cooked fajitas for our friends who had never experienced Tex-Mex cooking before. Era muy delicioso.

Then this Saturday (10th February), I went by coach to Bristol, a very cool, young harbor town. It rained on and off, but that didn't seem to affect Bristol much. Apparently, Bristol has been a large commercial port (at the convergence of the Rivers Frome and Avon) for a while, and because of that, it sustained heavy damages in Nazi bombing runs during World War II. So with the exception of most of the churches, Bristol is a newer city, with most of the development coming within the past 10 to 15 years. For the most part, our sight-seeing consisted of the Bristol Cathedral and the church of St. Mary Redcliffe. Both are incredible old buildings with quite a bit of history. I'll do my best to post my pictures of these churches tonight or tomorrow.

As far as this journal is concerned, I think I'm going to try to keep the pace of about 1 post per week, sometimes more, sometimes less. So don't be alarmed if I am delayed in keeping you all up to date. Finally, don't forget to check out my photos on Flickr, since I update that more often, and sometimes I put up pictures there that I don't mention here.

I hope you all have a great week, and feel free to leave me a comment or shoot me an email!

What a wild week this has been! It's hard to believe I've only been away from the states for seven days; it feels more like a month has gone by. I gave you a little preview in my last entry, so I'll try to expand on that without boring you.

First, let me say that after my first day and that rough patch, everything has gone better than I honestly expected. It sounds cliche, but it's so true. Everyone I've met here has been incredibly friendly, whether they're from the UK, UT, UVA, Nebraska, Purdue, Canada, Australia, Holland, France, or anywhere else. In fact, I really didn't expect to become close friends with other exchange students, especially so quickly. My initial thought was that I would make more British friends, which I have to a lesser extent. But we've already formed a close-knit group that goes everywhere together. Tuesday night, the Dutch students from Erasmus University Rotterdam cooked spaghetti for us. Wednesday night, some Bath students took us to their local to watch the Liverpool v. West Ham football match. And last night, we all went dancing. Good times.

As for school, well, it's the same in many ways, but different in some other (fairly significant) ways. Before I list my timetable, I should tell you that lecture classes only meet once a week, typically for 90 minutes at a time with a short break midway through. Some classes have an additional seminar class meeting. So, here's my timetable:

Monday

11.15-13.15 Advanced corporate finance

Wednesday

9.15-11.15 Ecological thinking & action in management

Thursday

9.15-11.15 IT & its business context

14.15-15.05 British history and society lecture

16.15-17.05 British history and society seminar

The other major difference between Bath and UT, besides the timetable, is the assessment. Most of my class grades will be based on one or two exams or major writing assignments. In my finance class, I only have one exam at the end of the course. The thought of taking that exam frightens me already. My other classes have at least one more grade, but all of them have fewer opportunities to redeem myself than my classes at UT.

The university campus itself is very compact and not too much to look at, except for the new-ish library. Thankfully, the food on campus is reasonably priced, unlike everything else priced on the bloody Great British Pound.

At my flat, I'm finally getting settled in for good, except I can't find any cheap hangers around here ... oh well. I've become familiar with my walking routes to the bus stop and Sainsbury's super market, but I'm still learning how to navigate the city. The city centre of Bath is very irregular, especially compared to downtown Austin. The streets are short, rarely straight, and change names seemingly at random. On top of that, most of the buildings look the same, since they're mostly of the same era.

This weekend, I'm going to Windsor Castle on a trip offered through uni. I can't wait to see more of the isles - off I go!

Hello, all!

Just a quick post here, to say everything is going well. It's been pretty hectic settling in here, what with orientation, class registration, getting a library card and bus pass, registering with the health center, meeting new people from all over the world, arranging my local mobile number, planning ahead for traveling later on, and all that nonsense. (Not to mention finding the best pubs in town *wink*.) I have to get up early for class tomorrow, but I will do my best to update you all with a good post and pictures of the area around my flat as son as I can.

I really do miss you all very much. Oh, and if you have a favorite Texas-style recipe that I could cook in England, please leave it in the comments. Thanks, cheers!

For those of you who are arriving here via my latest email, welcome! I'm happy to see you found my journal.

If are looking for the "Subscribe to my LiveJournal" link as I described it, it's actually on the left side of your screen, not the right. And as you can see, it's still under the "Links" section.

That being said, I highly recommend you click on it and subscribe to my journal. You can subscribe by either by email messages or an RSS feed, both of which send updates automatically whenever I post a new entry in my journal.

I don't want to be so pessimistic as to say that things went downhill after my previous post, but I can't say things went quite as smoothly.

When it came time to get ready for the train I had bought tickets for (although I discovered later that the time doesn't matter on these trains, mostly), I found my way down to the platform below the waiting area where I spent the previous four hours. I looked at the monitor, and thought there were two trains that were to pass by before mine came at 11:05, which was two minutes later than its scheduled time of 11:03. Unfortunately, when my First Great Western train did roll up at 11:03, and only after one train passed through the station, I didn't have the wherewithal to get on it. So, I waited one more hour for the 12:03 train to Reading, after talking to a ticketing agent, and learning that it was okay to use my current ticket for the next train.

After being shaken up a bit there, the train rides to Bath were nicely calming. The whole time, I had a great view of the English countryside, and the train makes for great people watching. The funny part was how incredibly adverse the British are to making eye-contact. On my second train, from Reading to Bath, a small boy and his father came down the aisle to talk with the girls they I happened to be sitting by.

Upon arriving at the Bath station, I was just a tad bit disoriented. Finding the off-campus housing office wasn't too bad, but once I got my room key, I was hopelessly lost. The map I had been given was too vague to be useful, and the location I was told to go to ended up being a park. So, I wandered around Bath aimlessly, with all of my luggage, for a while. Fortunately, the third person I asked did in fact have a vague idea of where I wanted to be. To make a long story (well, at least it felt like a long time) short, I got to my room. Not the most welcoming site, but hey, it's home, and I have it all to myself.

After taking a while to get settled, and get my wits about me, I knocked on the door two doors down the hall from me. It turned out to be a girl from Hong Kong, who is here for what they call their "foundation year", which I think is something like a freshmen year. She is very nice, and was able to show me around town, helping me buy bed sheets (I finally learned what a duvet is) and other necessities that I didn't bring over. I'm pretty sure I talked my new friend's ear off last night, but I hadn't really talked to anyone in person since I left San Antonio. I hope she didn't mind. I also discovered that I have an American (or half-American, I think) living next door to me. She helped me get my Internet hookup activated, which helped me greatly, since I could finally call home.

While the day certainly didn't go my way for a while, I have to say that things picked up, and I feel so much better now. It also helped that I had McDonalds for dinner (the closest thing I could find to comfort food) and around 12 hours of sleep last night. I'm going to explore the city today, the study abroad students have an orientation tomorrow, and classes begin on Monday. Sounds like a whole new adventure to me!

I have to get this off my chest, or I'll be tempted to brag about it for the rest of the semester: first class is amazing! Because I was flying Delta non-revenue standby on my uncle's "buddy pass", I was able to be bumped up to Delta's "BusinessElite" class. That's their fancy name for the international first class cabin. I've never flown first class before, and I'm not sure if I when I will again (at least in the foreseeable future), but it really spoiled me. The legroom and seats would have been enough, but I also had a flight attendant who knew my name, a full dinner and breakfast, and my own LCD screen that could play movies, TV shows, and games. It was really more that I had expected. See this Flickr set for the pictures.

Enough of that nonsense. It's snowing here in south London at the Gatwick airport, and I'm waiting for my 11:03 train to Bath, through Reading, on First Great Western railway. I'm so thankful that I arrived safely, customs was easy, my luggage was waiting for me on the carousel, Gatwick has great signage (although it's not too much to look at), and I have my train ticket in my pocket. So far this trip has been nothing short of perfect.

I'm running out of battery power now, but I'll update all of you as soon as I get situated in Bath. Cheers!

Free WiFi! And with that stroke of genius, Atlanta's Hartfield-Jackson International Airport is back on my good list. Well, at least Concourse E. The rest of the airport is boring and has inadequate signage.

Anywho, currently, I am eating an Arby's turkey, ranch, and bacon masterpiece, and drinking what has to be the sweetest sweet tea ever, while waiting on my flight to show up on the monitors. My flight's not supposed to leave until 5:35 PM EST, so I've got some time to kill, and from the flight data my uncle (the Delta pilot) relayed to me yesterday, it looks like I'll definitely be on that flight. If I'm really lucky, they can bump me up to first class - a guy can dream, right?

London Gatwick Airport, here I come!

I'm not actually writing this post from Bath yet. I'm still in San Antonio for tonight, spending one last night in my bed before I jet off across the pond.

For those of you that may not be aware, I'm going to be studying abroad at the school of management at The University of Bath in southwest England (in the county of Somerset, actually). I'll be there from the time I arrive on the 26th of January until June 4th.

While I'm abroad, I'm going to try to keep up this journal as best I can, in lieu of mass emails. Feel free to subscribe to my journal by either email or RSS by clicking on the "Subscribe to my LiveJournal" link at the bottom of the "Links" section on the left side of the screen. I highly recommend it.

In addition to this journal, I'll be updating my Flickr photostream, care of my new digital camera. If you want to reach me, the usual digital channels are still wide open: Facebook, AIM, my Gmail address, comments on this journal, etc. However, I have changed my phone number while I'm abroad. If you want to call me in England, you can dial (210) 268-1123 on any ol' phone, and I'll answer if I'm near my computer, or my voicemail will answer for me. Don't worry about international rates or anything, it's just like any other local call for you, and it's only 1¢ per minute (and sometimes it's free) for me. I'm using Gizmo for all this, so if you want to download it and join me, my Gizmo ID is TFDuesing.

Thank you for all of your support as I leave behind you, my family and friends, for this adventure that lies ahead of me.

Only 130 days, 22 hours, 14 minutes, 18 seconds left.

2 B OR NOT 2 B TAHT SI DA QU3STION
WH3TH3R TIS NOBLAR IN DA MIND 2 SUF3R
THE SLNGS AND AROWS OF OUTRAEGOS FORTUN3
OR 2 TAEK ARMS AGANEST A SAA OF TROUBL3S
AND BY OPOSNG 3ND TH3M???!??!! OMG LOL


With thanks to The AOLer Translator and apologies to Billy Shakes.

If anybody's in San Antonio right now, drop me a line!

I just got in tonight and will be here until late on Thursday. If I don't get to talk to you over the break, have a happy Thanksgiving anyway.