So Ted, what've you been reading this summer?

Great question, Mr. Blog. My summer's entertainment MVP has to go to my Amazon Kindle (graduation present from Mom and Dad, thanks!).

It feels just like reading a book (apparently there's some kewl technology involved), so I have no problem reading for six hours on a train ride, which wouldn't be feasible on a computer (headache and brain melt), and it's much easier to carry around the complete Game of Thrones series on the kindle than in my backpack.

Paid Amazon product placement over: time to get to the actual books I've been reading. First, the non-fiction.

Highly recommended: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. This book tells the stories of ultra-marathoners and a lost tribe of super-duper long distance running Indians in Mexico, but at the same time, it turns conventional running wisdom on its head. McDougall argues convincingly that the solution to our nagging running injuries is a return to barefoot (or near-barefoot) running, rather than more expensive orthopedics. His modern-day studies and examples (Roger Bannister ran the 4-minute mile training with not much more than a piece of rubber between his feet and the track) combine well with a telling of our evolutionary history as marathon-running predators.

Recommended: Those Guys Have All the Fun by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller. An oral history of ESPN? Aw yeah. For someone who loves ESPN, this interesting history of ESPN was quite entertaining. The beginning of the book is great, and the middle section is pretty good, but the end of the book starts flagging when it transitions from the story of a growing business to an account of pretty much every controversial thing that happened at ESPN over the last ten years. Hearing about every time an ESPN anchor said something he had to apologize for wasn't quite as entertaining as the rest.

annnnnd now: FICTION.


Highly recommended: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. AWESOME book. It's a slightly fantastical tale about a dude and his lost cat, his love life, and the Manchurian War. The whole movement of the story is good, but a few individual scenes (the Lieutenant's Manchukuo stories and the dream sequences) really push this one over the top. This book reminds me a lot of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, another of my favorite authors, with its own style of magical realism. 


Highly recommended if you have loads of free time to kill: the Game of Thrones series by George R.R. Martin (now a major HBO TV program!!!!). The series is technically called "a Song of Fire and Ice," but now that the HBO series has started, everyone will know it as Game of Thrones. Plus Game of Thrones is a much cooler title to begin with. The first three books are awesome: fast-paced, war, incest, etc. etc. Big things happen to compelling characters. Things stall in the fourth book when the focus shifts to two boring things: court intrigue and running around in the countryside away from or with bandits. However, the fourth and fifth books are still good, just not as mind-blowingly awesome as the previous ones. I have high hopes for the rest of the series.



I read some other books, but those are the ones that made the final cut of greatness. One final note: in an effort to make myself blog/write more, I will be doing one blog post each of the next four days. Even if it's just a picture of me sticking my tongue out at you, I will have four more posts.

back in Scotland

Hello intrepid readers, I am currently at the wonderful Wiston Lodge in southern Scotland (picture from their website). This is another place I found through Help Exchange, and I'm really enjoying it here. The lodge is on a very beautiful 50 acre wooded property, the work isn't strenuous, and the food is good. There are about 10 other staff and volunteers who live on the property, and most are British, though there is a girl from France and also one from Taiwan.

My basic schedule is 7 hours a day, 4 days a week, though that 7 hours includes lunch and a couple breaks. Two days a week I do housekeeping, the other two is either work outdoors or with the groups doing various activities. So far, I've done houseekeeping and grounds work. I have three days off in a row next week, so I'm planning to go on a little trip, but I haven't decided where yet. The possibilities: Glasgow, the far north, northern highlands. I'm thinking of going to the far north (beautiful scenery, loads of ancient viking sights to see) because it will be getting colder soon!

The Lodge is a charity that mainly does work with "at-risk" children. They do various activities with the kids that mostly consist of outdoors sorts of things. There's a ropes course, a canoe lake, fire starting, bridge building, those sorts of things. I haven't helped with any activities yet, but I think I will be a bit next week, which should interesting.

Also, I have now loaded more pictures onto facebook, which you all should be able to view: PICS

Belgium: the stakes have been raised

Spoiler alert: this story includes homemade wine, police, and lots of waffles.

Charlie and I left the farm last Friday and went into Brussels. It's a cool city--multicultural and very friendly. That weekend, we had an ultimate frisbee tournament where all the teams camped out at the fields. There was a party friday night, delicious food all day friday, a beer race that Charlie's team won on Friday (because the actual beer drinking was secondary), and more games on Sunday. Charlie's team won the tournament and mine got last!

Belgium is awesome: their specialties are beer (most delicious I've ever had), waffles (ditto), fries (double ditto) and chocolate (yum). After the tournament, we went to a music festival with a Belgian/Mexican couple we met at the tournament, and then the next day we grabbed some beers with a bunch of Belgian frisbee players. Tuesday night we spent at the parents' house of two of the frisbee players. They cooked Thai food with vegetables from their own garden and served us wine made by their grandfather in Italy. It was an idyllic house in the countryside that was mostly built by the father. We traveled there with some Austrians who we met at the tournament, and we have been road tripping with them since. Our goal: Amsterdam by Friday night (left Brussels on Tuesday).

Wednesday night we decided to try "wild camping," which may be mildly illegal. After having a picnic dinner in Ghent, we pulled off the highway and found a secluded little area. We set up our tent and played a German card game, then went to sleep. At 8:30 the next morning, I hear some people talking, then hear "bon jour, guten morgen, hello." our tent gets zipped open, and eight (!) Belgian police officers are staring at us in the face. We give them our passports and pack up our tent. The nice lady police officer tells us we're not in big trouble, but we were still sweating it a bit. After heading back to the car, they just say, "don't do it again, and have a nice day. By the way, do you need driving directions to Brugge?"

The answer was no, we knew how to get there, but thanks a bunch! It was good luck for us, but reflected really well on the Belgian police. Next, we went to Brugge, had another delicious waffle, then drove up the coast. We had a little picnic on a beach in the Netherlands. Afterwards, we found some wifi and decided that we wanted to stay legally in a building that night. Hostels in Amsterdam run at about 30 euros (45 dollars) a night, but we found a hotel just outside of the city for a little bit cheaper, so the two Austrians and us are staying in a hotel room and living it large tonight. Tomorrow we go into Amsteradam to play another camping ultimate tournament this weekend.

Finally, a little about the Austrians. We're traveling with a boyfriend and girlfiend, Flo and Caroline. They're both 23 and super chill. It turns out that Flo had already hosted one of my best friends Travis Martin after they met at a tournament a month ago in Hungary. Small world. Charlie leaves on Monday, and I go to Scotland to work at Wiston Lodge for a month.

working in Belgium!

Charlie and I've been working on a vegetable farm in Belgium for three days. It's been pretty nice so far: hard work 7 am - 1pm, then munching hard, then nap, then dinner, then chill with the other workers, then sleep. The farm is organic, and most of our work has been weeding in various variations: with this rolling wheel thing, with a hoe, with a different hoe, by hand. Yesterday we also harvested some gherkins (yes they're not just tiny cucumbers).  The farm is run as a CSA -- community supported agriculture. The members of the CSA receive a box with some delicious assorted vegetables each week. 

A few observations:

After having my hands in the dirt all day, I now truly understand the meaning of "scrub up." Someone once told me, "you're a white collar worker if you wash your hands after the restroom. You're a blue collar worker if you wash your hands before going to the restroom.

Organic farming is hard work. 

Raw zucchini is better than cucumber (what now cucumber lovers)