The Big City Gets Bigger

In the best possible way, Kuala Lumpur is quirky. It is stores like "Goo Goo Wonderland" (in English: Party Depot) and dishes that bear the title of "supreme," and candy shops called "Chocolate Kingdom." It is open-air markets with smells wafting and stinging the nose, and residents whose direction-giving abilities rival only the Romans. It is flashy shopping malls with more designer shops than Fifth Avenue, and then a million knockoff stands fifty yards around the corner. Most important, though, it is corporations whose taglines claim the effort of companies rather than the quality of them: the Pavilion Mall calls itself "The second-best mall in Southeast Asia;" a coffee shop brags that it is "striving" to make the best coffee in KL; even Kuala Lumpur itself claims to be "on its way" to becoming Asia's most important city.

A woman getting street food in Kuala Lumpur

We are surrounded by storefronts, shopping malls, restaurants that boast not what they are but what they hope to become, advertising their aspirations just below their names. We are surrounded by en-route-ness, by not-yet-ness, by still-trying-but-fear-not-it-will-happen ambition. Yes, KL is plenty quirky, but its refusal to nonchalantly accept complacency is contagious. As a fellow Fulbrighter reminded me, "This city is still a baby." It is growing. And we have found ourselves in the middle of its becoming, building, bettering glory.

The Petronas Twin Towers

Could anyplace be more appropriate for us newly-arrived Fulbrighters? We, too, all seventy-five of us, are working to realize lofty (but entirely possible!) aspirations. We are teachers, advocates, writers, scientists, researchers, learners. We, too, are becoming, building, and bettering; not focusing outward and posting it on billboards as is KL, but working just as adeptly on an internal level, a level that can only be understood personally. We have been in Kuala Lumpur for two days, long enough to achieve jet-lag and a vague familiarity with the city. Our Fulbright grants are now beginning. I can't wait to see what these next ten months of teaching and learning, of building, becoming, bettering Kuala-Lumpur-style, will bring.

A mosque in downtown KL

Fun, Fun, Fun

I am going to miss these folks terribly in t-minus 24 hours.

Photo c/o Naima Coster

Over the past six weeks, they have blessed my life with laughter, understanding, and goofiness that is hard to come by. London itself has been a great experience, but they made it so memorable, and fun! Here's hoping that we put aside at least a few nights to spend together once we return to the Bronx.

A City of Death

I landed in London on July 6 with one stuffed suitcase, two extra heavy carry-on bags, and a scapular around my neck. “Wear a scapular,” said Joe, my ex-housemate who plans to enter the seminary post graduation. Anxious about lofting 30,000 miles over the Atlantic for six hours in a narrow, plastic tube, I went home and ruffled through the collection of scapulars I had accumulated from both of my Italian grandmothers that had remained untouched, and unwanted, until now. I picked a red scapular out from the tangle of brown strands; the Passion scapular, as it is known, had more intricate images on its panels and also had scripted on it a brief plea for protection. I’m not sure if I believe that scapulars will save their wearers from purgatory as does my housemate Joe, but I was certainly willing to subscribe to a divine protection plan and hope for the best.

London Pride

As I boarded my flight to London with fourth-of-July fireworks still ringing in my ears, it occurred to me that England does not have an independence day. “No,” said the woman next to me on the plane, who was, by chance, a Londoner, “we’re the ones who gave everyone else their independence.”

Paris, Je T'adore

I instantly fell in love with this city. Like I-want-to-go-back-this-minute-and-never-leave love. I don't know if it's the old-school Europe feel, the people lining the sidewalks sipping cafe on iron chairs, or if it's the on-the-water feel, the many veins of rivers winding through the heart of the city, or if it's just the many walks of life that buzz through the streets, a welcome change after London's young sleekness. Indeed, Paris is anything but sleek: the streets are dirty in some places and gaudy in others, with darkened statues on the tops of buildings, intersecting roads, and everywhere in between. All in all, the city has an element of realness that I've missed whilst in London. I've missed old ladies shuffling down the sidewalks half hunched over. I've missed graffitied subways that smell like an odd mixture of urine and death. And I've missed being stared at, laughed with, and all around consumed by a city, though this time it happened in French.

Paris Preview

The King of Syon Park

In the eyes of my American classmates, Christopher King, our tour guide at Syon Park, was just a cranky, American-hating man. “He was just rude,” remarked one student during our post-tour lunch conversation, which revolved entirely around him rather than the actual attraction. “The more I tried to seem engaged, the more he was disgusted by me,” added Brian Rose, a professor on the trip.

Sitting amidst a sea of complaints from my New-World peers, I couldn’t help but wonder about Mr. King’s side of the story. Why was it that he came off as cranky? Did he really hate Americans? And what was a seemingly unfriendly man doing giving tours of Syon Park, the London mansion of the Duke of Northumberland? With the help of my professor, I left our luncheon and wandered back into Syon House to interview him and get some answers.

Erin go Braugh

Sweet Irish Air

"In London you live; in the country you breathe…" -Eliza Lynn Linton, writer, 1893

The Magnificent Museum of London

The Museum of London offers a multi-dimensional mosaic of London’s history. It presents a narrative of London from as early as 300 BC, chronicling both the city’s feats and great misfortunes. It is also extraordinarily interactive (even for a museum) allowing visitors to take a stroll through a life-sized Pleasure Garden, watch a film of the London fire blazing complete with eyewitness accounts, touch a prison door, and listen to a narrative of communication in London through the receiver of an antique telephone. Peering through the window of an antique glass shop on one of the museum’s many true-to-life streets, I felt just plain overwhelmed. Standing amid centuries of London’s artifacts, I recalled Henry James’ take on the city: “It is not a pleasant place; it is not agreeable or cheerful or easy or exempt from reproach. It is only magnificent.”

Lessons From Ireland

Photo c/o google images

1. Smithwicks Rocks. 
2. So does Jedward.
3. The Cranberries are worth falling in love with all over again.
4. Chips in Ireland are WAY better than chips in England.
5. Chocolate in Ireland is better than chocolate (almost) anywhere.
6. Coffee in Ireland is absolutely better than coffee anywhere (it's alcoholic).

Had an awesome weekend in Kildare. Pictures to come soon!

Fullness

"[London] is the great beehive of Christendom…she swarms with people of all ages natures, sexes, callings…she seems to be a glutton, for she desires to always be full." -Donald Lupton, London and the Country Carbonadoed, 1632

Tower Bridge

Pondering

I've been doing a lot of this here.

Noah and the Whale

And I'll remember all these moments but they're just in my head
I'll be thinking about them as I'm lying in bed.
And I know that they might not ever come true
But in my mind I'm having a pretty good time with you.

Oh, in five years time, I might not know you.
In five years time, we might not speak, oh
In five years time, we might not get along.
In five years time, you might just prove me wrong.

Oh, there'll be love, love, love, wherever you go.
There'll be love, love, love.
Wherever you go, there'll be love.

Noah and the Whale rocked Camden tonight. Time for a new favorite band?

The Thames from the Tate

Thanksgiving

What is one to think as one sits on grassy Parliament Hill overlooking London? Buildings of once brick and steel now steeped in gray sunlight resting under a sky of cotton-ball clouds, blue for the first time this week. The man with his dog writes, a woman in a red cap pretends to read, tourist families photograph, couples lounge on blankets sharing lunch. The sun licks us all -tasting us, tanning us- as the grass sweetly buzzes the melody of excited cicadas. Who are we, this group of strangers, sharing an objective view of this city for just a moment? Are we lonesome pilgrims, each humming to our respective tunes of thanksgiving? For we are all thankful- we must be. Even if we chose to ignore it, it returns. It prods us through the sunshine. It swarms around us with the bees. It tickles our ears through the ostinato of the cicadas. Reminding us, always, enchanting us, you are here. You are here.

How Authentic

"I guess campers that love it they think ‘Oh, it’s like the settlers, the explorers, the pioneers!’ I don’t think so. I think they did what they had to do. They built a foundation for us to live on, not in tents. If Lewis and Clark saw a Hilton, they wouldn’t have camped." –Comedian John Pinette

Attending a play at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre is, without a doubt, a culturally enriching experience. The theatre has been a London landmark for over four centuries: located just south of the Thames, the modern replica was reconstructed in 1997 after the original burned down in 1613. As if staging plays by a great playwright weren’t enough, the theatre prides itself on true authenticity: the modern monument was erected only 200 yards from its original site and was built with materials and techniques similar to those employed in Shakespeare’s day. The materials are so historically accurate, in fact, that the Globe is considered a fire hazard even today.

These Guys

So I'm pretty much obsessed with these guys. Can't wait for the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham!

Guided By Law

Before you dismiss the scrappy, dark man audibly sniffing like a hound dog on the corner as a random crazy Londoner, think again; he’s actually actor-turned-tour guide Simon Law giving a London Walks “Jack the Ripper” tour. Miles removed from a dry, historical walk, the “Jack the Ripper” tour gives visitors a compelling narrative of the Ripper’s killings interspersed with stints of improvisational theatre.