From 30k Feet to Brussels

June 5th, 2004 • Comments Off Marshall Memorial Fellowship

So all the Marshall fellows piled into a bus to go from the hotel in Washington, D.C. To Dulles airport. Unfortunately, we had a rough patch right out of the gate. One fellow told another that he was too big and he regretted sitting next to him. Not sure what that was about. Do you have any idea, Lute? :-)

Anyways, tempers were calmed (okay, so they never flared and it was really me just egging on people) and we left for Dulles. All of the fellows were on a United flight from Dulles to Brussels. The flight was uneventful but I still have interesting tales from the flight.

Like sitting next to the referee from the WNBA on my previous flight, I sat again next to another interesting character. This guy sits down next to me and apologizes in advance because he was nervous about flying and he hated planes. So I asked where he was going and for what. He told me he was going to Rawanda as a missionary. If nothing strikes you as ironic about those previous three sentences, read them over and contemplate them for a while.

Once we landed, we had a bus driver waiting for us on the other side of customs. I had considered on the plane that our little group had the form of a reality show but in a warped way. Throw 19 people into Europe, all with different schedules, but with a number of common meetings, and then watch what happens. The bus on the other side of customs was a mac daddy bus with tables and meeting space throughout. I instantly flashed on Road Rules. Fortunately, there was not some hidden unknown agenda of keeping us on the bus and we were delivered to the hotel.

I think in these few short days I have realized that I’ve over packed. I’m now contemplating shipping stuff back home and biting the bullet on the cost. This is just too much to lug around Europe even though I thought I packed light.

Finally, we did a walking tour of Brussels today. We saw the peeing boy status, the king’s palace, and a lot of other things in between. I also realized that my group of fellows is a bunch if freaks. Really fun people but a bunch of freaks. So I fit in well.

Dinner was stimulating and the debate was insightful and interesting.

I’m off to bed. We’ve got a walking tour of Ghent tomorrow. Should be fun. That is, if I’m not sore from today….

The Trip Begins

June 3rd, 2004 • Comments Off Marshall Memorial Fellowship

So the trip begins. I took a flight from Atlanta to Washington, D.C (Reagan National), I sat next to a guy who had a pretty interesting job - he was a ref for the WNBA. I also found a kindred gadget geek in him and got a look at the new Sony T1 5 megapixel camera that he had. This thing has an amazing form factor and the performance looked really good. The LCD on the back was very bright and large. I might have to look into getting one of these in the future.

So the first travel mishap has happened. My carry on bag (a Samsonite Silhouette side roller) was a little big for the overhead compartment. So I removed a bag on the outside compartment. Once we landed I tried to stick the bag back into the carry on and half the zipper broke off. Grrrrr. I guess I’ll have to get it fixed once I get back thanks to Samsonite’s 10 year warranty. Hopefully that will be the last bag/travel mishap for this trip.

From Atlanta to Nashville to the Parthenon!

June 1st, 2004 • Comments Off Travels

So we’re back from our little road trip to Nashville. We went for a friend’s wedding but took the opportunity to see the sights of Nashville.

So the sights and sounds that we took in were quite normal, I’d say. We ate at the Nashville Public Library (good food and bread for cheap!), went to the Nashville Zoo, and what else…. Oh yes, we saw the Parthenon. I know what you’re thinking. “Isn’t the Parthenon in Greece?”. In an attempt to protect the Parthenon from any “bad guys” during the upcoming Olympics, they moved it to Nashville because, well, who would expect it there? Okay, I’m kidding. A full scale replica of the Parthenon was built in 1897 in Nashville for their Centennial Exposition. Kind of an odd sight since you can drive from the Parthenon to Opryland in 25 minutes. If you get a chance, make sure you see the Parthenon since it’ll take a lot more time and money to see the real one. And this one isn’t falling apart. ;-)