Leaving on a Jet Plane, I Do Know when I'll Be Back Again!

Where to begin? Well, These past two weeks back in New York have been a whirl wind. Coming home from a long period abroad is the weirdest thing. When people ask you, "How is it over there? Are you having a great time?" To try and explain to people such a massive part of your life in sentences is one of the hardest things about coming home. The other thing that was foreign was how little peoples lives had changed but for me, my entire life had changed, it's an describable feeling, at times you almost feel like a stranger or foreigner yourself. It wasn't bad, it was just an adjustment! While I was home home I received my acceptance letter to one of the best journalism programs in the country. So come August, I will become a resident of Minneapolis. While home I was able to see some of my family, my best friend and so many other loved ones! Including my kitty cat, Mr. Shark; he could totally kick your cats ass. Mr. Shark thinks he's a dog. He eats dog food and rolls around in the drive away like our dog, I'm waiting for him to start chasing after sticks, or rocks. It was awesome to see the store and restaurant, and see how much they have grown and changed. Unfortunately I have no epic experiences to tell you. All I have is an update to tell you where I'm at, actually I don't even know. I think I'm somewhere on the Hudson River between Albany and Poughkeepsie. But I could be mistaken! With my life I'm sure I will have an epic tale once I'm Back in Portsmouth, maybe involving me fighting off dragons or finding Jimmy Hoffa's body. But until then your lives are probably more interesting than mine!

I'm Coming Home, Oh Wait. I Am Home

Well I know all of you have been anxiously awaiting a new blog post, so, here it is. Where do I Begin? well Since the last time I posted I have been to Dublin, London, Bath, Stratford upon Avon, Ledbury, and Oxford and actually as I write this blog post I'm on the Ethan Allen service up to Albany. I will try to organize these bizarre series of events chronologically, but I'm not promising anything. I first started out in London with the arrival of my sister, Larissa. Now in my life I must always be fashionable, not always practical. Well, I purchased a new pair of shoes the day pryer for the occasion. Now I'm always lectured about this and still I never listen, but when you mix a full day of walking in London with new shoes and stereotypical English weather, you get an angry bipolar Josh, which apparently taxes everyone else. I refuse to see the correlation between the two. From there we set out to Oxford to tour my future home, Blenheim Palace. Whilst at my home we meet up with my neighbors whom we seem to only ever see while in England or some other exotic land. We were also able to take a tour of the private apartments of the Duke and his family whom still take up residence at the palace. Which was amusing to me. As you walk through the private apartments you are surrounded by some of the finest baroque design elements and some of the finest paintings in the world, which one room's paintings could equal a multimillion dollar fortune. But that isn't the amusing part as you walk through these rooms decorated in grandeur you run into evidence of the families presence. For instance in their living room they have a plasma television like most of us do, but it sits upon an 18th century Louis XVI styled chest that once was in the Palace of Versailles. Or in the hall you have portraits of Consuelo Vanderbilt done by Sargent and next to it is a pair of the Duke's boots. After Oxford it was off to Bath, and toured the Roman Baths. When you stand at the baths and really think about the knowledge that people had two millennium ago is mind blowing. The baths were in a bath house with vaulted ceilings that measured over 30 feet. The baths were also self cleaning and had constant fresh spring water circulating. Just to walk through the remains of the complex and around the bath itself, which still has spring water circulating through it although no one is allows to go in do to bacteria. But I thought if the Romans did it, I could. Well, after I put a couple fingers in, I couldn't do it! Due to the nutrients and minerals in the water my fingers turned orange and was not easily washable. But all of those things aside, the water was the perfect temperature and at the end of the tour you even got to drink it! As I grew up on well water it was just like being home! From Bath we went onwards to Redditch to recoup and prepare for my trip to Dublin. We all have our stereotypes of what we presume cities and people to be like. I personally found this to be half true in the case of Dublin. The Dubliners were as I suspected, they loved their Guinness. As for the city, it was not what I expected. Dublin is a economically thriving city, as most major corporations choose Dublin as their European headquarters because it's a tax haven. The city also had a very rich history and the people of Dublin were very proud of their heritage and their culture. While in Dublin some of my highlights that I toured were Dublin Castle, The Kilmainham Jail, and the Guinness brewery. We also took a bus tour of the entire city. On our last day in Ireland we went outside of Dublin and drive through the seaside and went to Powercourt, which was an aristocratic manor atop the hills outside of Dublin the looked over some of the most magnificent gardening and landscaping I have ever seen. I would have the audacity to say that their gardens trumped those of Versailles. Once back from Dublin we went to Stratford Upon Avon; the birthplace of William Shakespeare, for Easter and toured a couple other cute small market towns. Currently though I am making my way up to Albany for a couple weeks and then I'll be back to England. Now, I'm sure you all have been waiting for some of my brilliantly witty comedic satire and don't worry it sits two rows in front of me. It sits in the form of a hippy and his asian wife. Like John and Yoko, except they are definitely not as glamorous, they are quite possibly bat shit crazy and smell. John Jr., as we'll call him, he keeps bursting out on these rants about how he doesn't care what people think. Well obviously guy! You appear to be homeless, or possibly without plumbing facilities and you keep shouting about your thought. As for the asian wife she is the ball crusher of the relationship, like Yoko =o, yes I did acknowledge that Yoko is the reason for The Beatles dismemberment. But Anyways, as soon as she boarded my carriage she threatened him that she had her steel toe punk boots on and would use them. Well I'm glad at least out of the two, one knows about the existence of footwear. But the story gets better, the charming psychologist who is wearing a gorgeous Chanel suit in the row across from me and was discussing the two specimen with me earlier has had several verbally abusive outbursts on her cell to her poor understudy. Well folks, my train is coming ever so close to Albany and it's time to rap this up. I'll be performing at the Apple Barrel for the next two weeks so come on down and be entertained! tips are expected ;)