|
t . h . e . l . o . u . n . g . e . a . t . A L E X A N D R I A the virtual lounge of the Alexandria Estate |
 |
|
"The lounge is where Alexandria's owner spends her free time. Many of her greatest loves can be found somewhere in this room. On the far wall, you will see a picture of the owner and one of her first dogs, a Welsh Corgi, named Pippins. From the pictures of Will Rogers on the wall to the rows of movies, television series, and music on the shelves throughout the room, you are sure to find her ecclectic taste will interest you. Please take care around the new stereo system -- we haven't quite figured it out yet." --- Lisa, Alexandria's head tour guide and historian; Station: Main Desk
Favorite TV Series: I'll Fly Away Will & Grace The West Wing Young Indiana Jones Chronicles The A-Team Quantum Leap The Black Stallion I Love Lucy ?? Cafe F-Troop The Twilight Zone Star Trek: The Next Generation Sliders The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Mystery Science Theater 3000 The Cosby Show The Golden Girls |
o
n l i n e . j o u r n a l
October 14, 2000 (Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) One grueling quarter down. Three to go. Theses galore -- if I ever get mine done it will be amazing. Classes this semester: International Political Economy (paper on Zim's financial crisis and the effect on the South African Rand), Senior Seminar in International Relations (paper on cultural ambassadors and circumstances that helped changed the U.S.'s foreign policy toward Apartheid South Africa), Intermediate French (no papers, just a lot of parler francais!), and finally, my favorite -- a class I get to share with my old roommate Meg Blocker over at Haverford, Buddhist Philosophy (Classical -- paper on experimental Buddhism, specifically on Buddhism and its relation to traditional Shaolin Kung Fu). That's my semester in a nutshell....next semester....well, I'll tell you about it if I make it. Work: That's a whole new question. I'm working at the gym in the Fitness Center, at the Front Desk, in Canaday Library in Serials (Periodicals), and at Wyndham doing their billing and working on a new website for them. All that with Praying Mantis Kung Fu at Kung Fu Academy I (I witnessed my first K.F. tournament a few weeks ago with them in New Jersey) on Saterdays. My life is fairly full, but as everyone who knows me knows, I wouldn't be happy if it wasn't. October 7, 2000 (Location: Washington, DC, USA) Back in D.C. again, almost exactly five years after journeying there to become a United States Senate Democratic Page, I met with some great old friends: Melissa Roy, Matt Vogel, Matt Ebert, Becky Brink (Becky, you are amazing, thanks for letting me crash), Kaiti Huchinson, Katie Pribyl, Katie Kingsbury, Charlie Swartze, Zach Goldberg, Kate Cramer, Vicky Fales and Tricia Neuman. Seeing 'Almost Famous' (which incidently donated our theme "Tiny Dancer" to the reunion). Can you believe it's been five years since we worked 87 hours during the budget crisis or counted Lula's outfits from day one? I miss those days, and I think about them a lot -- I'm really proud of everyone and what they have accomplished in five years and I look forward to where we will all be in another five. Tricia & Kate -- we must stop running into each other randomly on the Metro!!! May 11, 2000 (Location: University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa) After a fabulous stay at the homes of Brin & Judi Rebstein and Johannes & Jakubus Van Eeden, I am well enough rested to take on the final two weeks of the term. Cape Town has been filled with a variety of interesting experiences including a run-in with a minibus (well, it was a fatal collision for my motorbike, needless to say), an attempted mugging (we didn't let the thief get away, so he had to go to court and all that), a hike up Table Mountain (at the bottom of which is located my gorgeous campus), and a wonderful day of wine-tasting at Stellenbosch with a lovely picnic to boot. The first week I was here, we traveled to Cape Point -- the southernmost point in Africa, Simonstown to see penguins, to Hout Bay for seals, to the Cape Town's famous Waterfront and over to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and many other political prisioners were kept during Apartheid years. I have taken up the martial art of Kung Fu and my first grading is almost five days away. I am *not* looking forward to the promised physical from hell! With four essays due in the next two weeks, however, I'm sure I won't have much time to think about it.
c a p e . t o w n . & . t a b l e . m o u n t a i n
a n d e r s . & . I ( t o p . o f . t a b l e . m o u n t a i n ) January 8 , 2000 (Location: Trombo Annex, Navy Base, Key West, Florida) Today I said goodbye to my shipmates and sailing days on the Westward. We ended up with about 8.7 engine hours (Captain Pete's least ever) and around 3000 nautical miles logged. Our taffrail log (the second in two days) was tangled and fouled and we lost it overboard, leaving us to have to navigate our final two days with GPS. Our final mission of sampling for the Navy within a specified grid box on the chart was completed. We also had to write "SEA" in cursive on the GPS. It's funny what a home the boat was to me. After walking all day and having sores on my feet, I had to walk a few miles back to the boat. The only thing I wanted to see in the entire world were the Sweet Sister's two long, leaning masts, hidden behind the Fat Sister's body. As soon as I got back on the Westward, I threw my shoes off, the wood of the deck feeling like soft cotton. I looked at my hands today and noticed the callouses and hardened skin for the first time. They are the hands of a sailor who earned her keep on a tall ship, a splendid bark (or barky as we've called her since Cuba) for six long, hard weeks. These six weeks were the hardest thing I have ever done -- I can't imagine how sailors lived this life everyday for years on end. It is a hard life but one that has the greatest feeling of all -- that of being the only people on the earth. Because when you are at sea without contact with anyone else for two weeks at a time, you are the world. I will miss, more than anything else, the hours I spent on peaceful (drenched) bow watches, singing quietly to myself chanties and Loch Lomond. Loch Lomond Loch Lomand is the haunting melody of an individual whose lover has died. The song contrasts the beauty of Scotland with the void his lover's death. In the refrain, he tells his lover that he will meet her in Scotland -- she'll take the route through heaven, and he the one on earth -- but she will never arrive at their intended meeting place, since the hereafter and the known world are separate. Apparently, she died when they were separated -- but had promised to meet again. The man indicates that Scotland, specifically the area of Lomand, will always be beautiful; but because his true love is dead and he is forever in mourning, he will never again be able to appreciate the its beauty as he did when she was alive. He seems to indicate that Scotland was made beautiful -- and that he could appreciate it -- simply by her presence. By
yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes Oh
you'll take the high road, and I'll take the low road I
mind where we parted in yon shady glen The
wee birdies sing and the wild flowers spring -- Traditional Scottish, late 1800's November 22, 1999 (Location: Sea Education Association, Woods Hole, Massachusetts) I made a committment to do my Nautical Science exam today instead of tomorrow, in the thrid day of a stressful finals week, and I fulfilled it. So, the rest of the day has been filled with Oceanography -- something which is equally as hard for me to conceptually grasp. In short, though, I hate finals -- which I suppose all students do. Soon I will be on the boat and this will be behind me -- thank god! Although, Captain Pete says he values the struggle because it means you are learning things This, I believe, is true -- but this weekend has been filled with an ungodly amount of struggle.
Pippins & I, c. 1985 |
Favorite Movies: Adam's Rib Yankee Doodle Dandy Sneakers The Last Hurrah Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil The Power of One Mars Attack The Manchurian Candidate Arsenic & Old Lace Passion in the Desert Bringing Up Baby The Front Page (30's version) Fried Green Tomatoes Thelma & Louise Lawrence of Arabia Dr. Strangelove The Black Stallion The Black Stallion Returns The Fox & the Hound Star Trek IV: The Journey Home Dick Tracy (1990) Dick Tracy Meets Scarface Favorite Music: Ragtime (genre) Ragtime: The Musical Scott Joplin Boyz II Men Aretha Franklin Ella Fitzgerald Brian Adams Johann Strauss, Jr. Benny Goodman Squirrel Nut Zippers Will Smith Salt N' Pepper Power of One Soundtrack Dick Tracy Soundtrack (Madonna's and the original) Favorite Director: Zubin Mehta Favorite Songs: "Loch Lomond" (Scottish folk song) "The Rains Down in Africa" by Toto
|
||
| [ main entrance ] [ study ] [ lounge ] [ stable ] [ bedroom ] [ dock ] |
 |