Home again, home again, jiggy jigg!

I am home now in Castle Rock Colorado. I spent a week in Montana, visiting friends, and visiting my mother. My stepfather is the State Commander for the American Legion in Montana. He invited me to sing the “Star-Spangled Banner,“ at the Korean Veterans Memorial add the National Cemetery in Laurel. It was my honor to do so! I felt it was a wonderful way to come home to the United States!

Now I’m home and I am must harvest the cherries from our tart cherry trees, and work on finding a new job. The cherries are at peak of rightness, and I am learning how to make preserves. The job market is reportedly very good, so I should find something in my technical specialty.

Thank you for joining me on this trip to Europe! It was transformative for me and I hope I maintain the new ways of thinking as I move forward in my life; Keep it simple, keep it clean, always say Yes, and be flexible!

Marian the Librarian-or not

I spent my last day outside of the US in London. I went to London via the channel tunnel train from Paris. It was about two hours, and in my mind, much more enjoyable than flying. They had movies available via wireless, a club car where I could order lunch, it was quiet, clean, and fast. I got to see the countryside in France and England. The portion that went under the English channel was fast and I didn’t even really think about how deep we were under the earth.

I arrived at the St Pancras station in London. My hotel was only two blocks away so I checked in quickly and got back on the street. I traded about €20 for British Pounds, and that was more than enough for my day.

The British Library is three or four blocks away from my hotel and I made a beeline for it! A friend in Paris recommended it when I mentioned that the library was close by. I’m so glad I went! It’s a library unlike any I have ever experienced. The books are old, and you can’t really check them out. You can register to read them while in the library. So I don’t know if Marian is a librarian here, or if she is a curator!

When I got there the first thing I saw was a big plaza. People were hanging around socializing and studying. It has a café in the middle. There’s also a large bronze statue of Sir Isaac Newton hard at work. It’s got a QR code that you can read with your phone and go to a website where you can hear Sir Isaac Newton talking about his life-it was terrific. I learned a lot about his childhood, it was a very difficult time he was not happy and his family life. It talked about his discoveries being the foundation for everything we do now, including the very iPhone I used to listen to the speaking statue.

I read every single word in an exhibit about restoring all the books. I learned how to take them apart, repair them, and put them back together as good as I’ve been or better than-new. I listened to poetry about the black experience in England. There is a huge exhibit about that. There is another big exhibit about manuscripts. We saw a Music, holy books, literature, maps, and more. The manuscripts are probably priceless. They are protected behind glass. That exhibit also has headphones by each subject where visitors can listen to audio having to do with each portion of the exhibit. Of course I stopped and listened to some of the Beatles in the music exhibit!

The library has numerous study areas, a ticketed exhibit, several cafés, and a full restaurant. I went to the restaurant for lunch and had cream tea. I went for the full thing and even had a small Prosecco. I started with the sandwiches then ate the scones with clotted cream and jam, and finally the sweets. They washed down wonderfully with Earl Grey tea. The restaurant was full so I shared a table with another lady. She is a scholar and we talked about psychology and anthropology.

I spent the entire afternoon and early evening there, I didn’t leave until the exhibits closed at 8 o’clock.

Then I went to a grocery store and bought items to eat for supper, breakfast, and lunch. I slept very well at the Belvedere Hotel. I had a tiny single room, and shared a bathroom on the floor. It was quiet safe and close by The train station.

The next morning I took a train directly to London Gatwick airport and got on an airplane to come home. It worked beautifully. I think I’ll try that train combination again the next time I go to Europe: Chunnel then ThamesLink.

I am back in the US now. I will visit my mother in Montana, and then settle in back at home by the end of July. August 1 I will hit the job trail again. 

Next stop, Montana, to see my Mom!

Liberté, égalité, Mbappe!

My apologies about this post. I wrote it and published it and there was some error in the app API and it lost everything except one picture.  So I am re-creating the post. 

I spent one week in Paris. I enjoyed several major activities: including Bastille Day and the final World Cup playoffs. 

Since I was in Hungary for the American Fourth of July, I missed the fireworks. But I got fireworks on Bastille Day! Our gang set up with hundreds of Parisiens on the cobblestone square at the foot of the Pantheon. We looked down the street and saw fireworks set off from the Eiffel Tower.  The designers used the entire height of the tower in there fireworks display. Fireworks ran up and down the entire length, bursting from the top and the sides as if the structure had been designed for it.

Football enthusiasm in Europe is everything I’ve been led to believe by the media. I experienced the final playoff football game between England and Croatia and then the final match between France and Croatia. In the final playoff game most of Paris was rooting for  England because they wanted to see a France versus England showdown in the ultimate match. That was not to be. Instead, it was France versus Croatia, which France won.  

It was such a unified cacophony! Music blared from a car parked outside the bar. Arabic youths sit on the car rock out with Coca Cola. People blared vuvuzuelas! They sang, they hollered! The people shouted, Allez les Bleus! Viva Griezmann! Viva Pogba! Liberté, égalité, Mbappe!”

I’m awfully glad France won! Not just because I was there and it made everybody happy, but because the feeling in the streets after the game would have been much different if they lost. As it was, everyone was happy, cars honking, people singing, people marching. I saw a guy rolling by on a one wheeled scooter waving a giant French flag, it was amazing! People partied all night long, some of my gang didn’t get home until daylight.

My favorite thing about Paris is la Défense. It is a new modern area of the city. A bit west of Central, it rises like science fiction out of the city. A vast plane surrounded by tall modern architecture built by some of the greatest multinational firms. All sorts of activities happened there. There are concerts, and right now a big playground with games and music, stalls for food, and goods from all over the world. I spent two days there I liked it so much. There are shops in the surrounding buildings, clothing, makeup, food, a big mall.I even went to see a movie, the Incredibles. 

This is where I will come the next time I visit Paris. But now my thoughts are on London. I have one day there and then home to Colorado.