So I guess you might be thinking, what has he to talk about, if he has done nothing? Well, you see doing nothing is an art, my friends. Some of you appreciate this I'm sure. For instance, you just read three sentences that had absolutely no relevance to anything in this blog. Now you've read four. This one makes six, and I hope you get my point. Monday was a loss, I continued my extra sleeping. I also believe that was the night that I met up Sarah and tried out the other late night food trailer, the trailer of life. Oh yes, this was the night indeed. I got an egg burger, and Sarah and I went and found a nice bench in the middle of Pembroke College facing the lawn to eat. She had some sort of spicy sausage. We ate and talked and talked. Well I say talked, but I believe a large part of it was me telling motorcycle road rage stories. At 1 in the morning, in the (now Tuesday) morning on the Pembroke lawn, surrounded by student housing. And if you've ever heard me tell these stories before, you know I use emphasis. If I woke anyone, I do apologize.
BTW, Uncle Franks > Trailer of Life. That egg burger couldn't hold a bun to the cheeseburger from Uncle Frank.
Tuesday and Wednesday I drank absolutely nothing! This is rare, I usually at least have beer. Tuesday night I decided I wanted some tea though, so I went out and bought some tea bags, sugar, milk, and a mug. The milk, oh god the milk. In America their standards are just too high. Here you have several brands of Un-Homogenized milk to choose from. Yeh, not separated at all. The pure thing. I'm talking milk fat and everything just right in your glass. It is a but surprising to drink, I guess you might say, as you get these chunks of fat in your mouth, but it is delicious. And it is the richest creamer ever. Not to mention that I noticed today the 2% milk here is "Semi-skimmed". My conclusion has to be that we as Americans are not fatter because of what we eat. It is either the amounts we eat, or our sedentary life styles. If anything the people here eat much worse things.
Wednesday I decided I needed to find something more useful to do with my time, so I visited the local book store (so much cooler than Barnes and Noble, though probably primarily because of the layout). I picked up "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin. It is a fantastic book. Since Wednesday afternoon I have read more than half the book, over 400 pages. That is a lot of reading, for me anyway. That is what I have mainly been doing with my free time these past few days, just reading. I have thoroughly enjoyed it, I haven't enjoyed reading this much in a few years.
Tomorrow (hopefully) I am going to London with Sarah. We have a pretty full itinerary planned. However she has come down with some sort of stomach bug the past few days. I took her some chicken soup this evening and she has since been feeling a bit better, we are hoping to make a 9 am train instead of the 7 am train. Crossing our fingers.
One more quick note and then I'll get on to something a little more interesting. I had always thought that homesickness happened soon after you arrived to a place, and then subsided. I am now only really wishing I could just go home. I hate the hot sticky heat of South Carolina, but I love the rain and the thunderstorms, the sound of the bugs. I miss annoying my cats, kissing my girlfriend, and the comfort of my family. I've been so busy with classes I guess I didn't have time to stop and think, but now that I have no real challenge its flooding back. Oh well, 23 days till I'm back.
Alright, so a look at my Art and Satire class. Plate 1 of "A Harlot's Progress"
Take a moment to examine this picture, with the following in mind. This set of engravings was done by Hogarth to illustrate the fall of a common woman (named Mull Hackabout) into the life of a Harlot and ultimately her death. Examine the imagery!
Done? Alright, lets see what you've found. Obviously in the center left of the picture you see Mull. She has gotten off of the wagon on the wrong stop. She is being sized up by Madam Needem...can you take a guess at what her profession is? One key characteristic of Hogarth's work is that black spots on characters very often indicate STDs, primarily at this time Venereal Disease (called the French disease when it first broke out--the first recorded accounts of it were due to a French military invasion).
Mull's letter of recommendation. Note that he doesn't do anything to help her--this is a stab at the church.
You'll notice that the stack of pots next to the vicar have just begun to fall, just as Mull has just begun her downfall. On the bottom right of the illustration you will see a dead goose in a basket. Have you ever heard of the phrase, "Her goose is cooked?" Now for the grand finale, do you see the two men on the steps to the right of Mull and the Madame? The man on the left was a known sex-offender at the time, the man to his right was most likely his servant. See where the man on the left's hand is? I will leave you with a quote from my teacher about what is going on here.
"Well, look at where his right hand is. He is having a good wank, as you might say."
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