My Favorite City

Well, had an awesome trip to New York last week. Me and Noah touched base with our thug side. I particularly like the girl that is right between us in the background. This was right after we saw the new broadway play called the Pirate Queen. It was pretty good, and it had some really awesome Celtic dancing that Noah and I were pretty excited about. (that isn't a joke). The music was done by the Les Mis guys, while the dancing was done by none other than the riverdance people.
We really had a great time though. Spent Thursday-Saturday in the dust whole working and destructing. Crow bars are a great invention. We got the kitchen all ripped out and ready to be raised up, so the plumbing could run under it as they relocated the sink, in prep for the pictures Noah sent over the last couple of days. We did a lot of mudding and sanding getting the walls ready to paint. Old buildings have really crooked walls if you didn't know that. We worked on the baseboards and crown moldings and just had a good time talking and laughing as we did it. Noah is such a good guy, such a good brother, and now husband and father to Kristi and Little Mac. It was fun to talk about everything from the Jazz, to jobs, to our future business we are going to start someday, to which angle would be best to cut for the moldings. Oh man I wish you all could have seen us when we were carrying lumber back from the lumber shop. We had two huge 8x5 pieces of plywood that were very awkward and like 8 10 foot 2x4s and then some baseboards. We we had to walk 10 blocks with the stuff. We started out with just one on each end, but only made it about a block, it was way to heavy. So we were sitting there on the side of 2nd Avenue with all this wood balanced on a garbage can. We finally came up with the idea of putting the 2x4s underneather the plywood pieces, they stuck out a bit as they were 2 feet longer than the plywood, so we put them under, then crouched down and made it so there was a piece of plywood on each of our shoulders and then lifted the whole thing up. Image the ancient times when people would carry the kings around, you the men would hold the thing that the king sat on on their shoulders. I hope that made sense, it was harder to explain than I thought. Nonetheless, we got some really funny and weird looks from people as we were walking down this really busy New York sidewalk. We were laughing so hard too. I was really excited to get to Noah's though, I thought my back was going to break.

So these are pictures of the office in which I had one of my interviews. This builiding is Chelsea Market. Over on the west side of Manhattan around 14th street and 8th and 9th Ave. there are a lot of old warehouses that are being turned into offices. A lot like Gordon's office for those of you who have been there. It was an awesome building though, the first floor was all little restaraunts, boutiques and bakeries, then the above floors were offices. The offices are really cool kind of contemporary on the inside, but they just picked to leave the outside, grafitti as it was. Anyway this was a really cool marketing company that I am pretty interested in. The problem though is that they are hiring for a job that will start on June 1st, with a new account they are starting. So that kind of sucks. But they guy told me they may have something going in July as well when I get back from Jerusalem. So I will stay in contact with him. The other interviews went well also, they were companies that were a little smaller and not exactly what I saw myself doing. More sales stuff than marketing.

The interviews were great experiences though, hopefully something will materialize out of them, but if not, I am content with the experience. I will just have to keep on looking. Oh baby, life is interesting. This buiding here below is just one we passed on the train out to Queens for one of my interviews. Quite a city. That is one thing I noticed in particular this time as I was there. The diversity. Me and Noah were on a train and I just marveled as I looked at the people...there was someone on there of every race and culture it seemed like. Awesome stuff. So, I am hoping and praying something will work out and I will be able to live in that great city for a while. Oh ya, last thing is that on Easter Sunday we went to the singles ward where Noah is in the Bishopric. He was the only member of the bishopric there, so he conducted and everything, it was awesome. He did a great job, the members of the ward really love and respect him, I could tell. There was also an awesome Easter musical program they put on that blew us all away. Good times. Sure love you all, hope the springtime is treating you well. Now I embark on my last week and a half of college!!

RIchard Eyre - Oral History

Richard Eyre Oral History Project
Interview with Richard Eyre
Date of Interview: 25 March 2007, Salt Lake City, Utah
Interviewer: Eli Eyre
Transcriber: Eli Eyre

Eli: This is Eli Eyre here with my father, Richard Eyre. We are going to do an interview reflecting back on my father’s life and his experiences with media. Thanks for doing this dad.
Richard: No problem
Eli: Okay let’s start with your family; tell me a bit about them.
Richard: Well, I grew up in Logan, Utah and was the oldest of four brothers and we had a little sister. While I was born in Baltimore and then lived briefly in other parts of Utah, I grew up and most of my childhood was in Logan, Utah.
Eli: And you were the oldest of the kids?
Richard: That’s correct.
Eli: I want to hear about you experiences with the media in your childhood. My life has been different I have had the internet and now things like HDTV. Tell me about your first experience you ever remember with media.
Richard: Well, when I was a little boy even before I started school. I used to love to listen to radio programs; radio adventure shows if you will and I would go in and lay down on the carpet in front of the big console radio, the radio must have been, I would guess it was as big as a standard cabinet today. Forty-five inches across and maybe three feet high and it has some big knobs up near the top of it and the speakers were down by the floor. I would lie on the floor and listen to some of my favorite shows, some of my favorites were Sky King, a cowboy who flew on an airplane to catch the bad guys, then there was Batman, there were a lot of sort of comedy shows like the Howdy Dudey show. I think the interesting things about listening to radio for a child is that you had a monitor but the monitor was in your own head Eli, it was in your mind, and you would see it. I would see the cowboys, I would see Sky King get in his airplane or getting on his horse, I would see Roy Rogers and Dale Evert and Trigger the Horse and Bullet the Dog. I’d see the Lone Ranger and his loyal sidekick Tanto who called the Lone Ranger Kimosabe, but I would see them in the monitor of my mind.
Eli: It’s interesting that you remember seeing all of those names without ever even actually seeing them. Did you ever used to listen with your family, with your brothers and sisters? Or did you like to do it on your own?
Richard: I don’t ever remember listening to the radio with my family, but what I do remember is later in life when they had some of the same shows on television I remember looking at them and saying to myself, “Well that’s not how the Lone Ranger looked, that’s not how Kimosabe looked” because I had a different picture in my mind than what they put on the T.V. and invariably I liked mine better, I liked what I imagined them as better than what I saw on T.V.
Eli: Do you remember a lot of your friends being into radio? Would you go and listen together with them?
Richard: Well those earliest memories were by myself but, as I got older, what I remember listening to most was baseball games. And as a third or fourth grader I had two favorite teams; I had the Cleveland Indians in the American League and the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League. That’s when there were only eight teams in each league, and I would listen to baseball games all the time. I would sometimes listen to them with my friends. We also had baseball card, and our visuals in those days of radio were baseball cards. So we would have baseball cards there as we listened to the radio. So if Stan Musial was batting, I would have his baseball card there and I could see his picture and I could turn the card over and see his batting average and how many home runs he had hit. I would trade cards with all of my friends and we would compare notes on having listened to the games. And the announcers then in the days of radio were much better than the ones on television, because of course they would describe everything they would only say “here comes the pitch, it’s a ball the count is two and one,” they’d say, by the way “so and so is up warming up in the dugout and here is one of assistant coaches on third base giving the sign to steal second.” So they would tell you about the whole baseball game, all of subtleties as they were your eyes. They had to tell you everything you couldn’t see.
Eli: That’s fascinating. Okay, so you had the radio, and then along comes the television. Do you remember the first time you saw a television and where you were?
Richard: I think the first time I ever saw a television or at least paid any attention to one was at my friend Craig Peterson’s house. He lived through the block and we were friends, and I remember going to his house one day and there they had a television. It was one of those really old ones with a round screen and a very snowy picture. He was over there watching Howdy Dudey on TV and I thought it was pretty amazing, everyone thought it was amazing. A couple of years after that, maybe less than that, we got our first TV and it was a little bigger as they had progressed a bit, it was maybe 10 inches wide and they were starting to try to make them into a square. The top and bottom were straight and then the sides were still round. It was like a round picture with the top and bottom cut off. And then my family started watching together. We would get our dinners, we thought the coolest thing of all was getting our dinners on TV trays and go in the living room and sit with our TV trays and sit and eat, sometimes we would even have TV dinners and they called them, which were dinners that you could, it was before microwaves of course, but you could put them in the oven and warm them. I remember we always used to watch the “Lawrence Welk Show”, that was a variety show that would bring on different singers and acrobats and different things and we would sit there and watch and I remember they had a bubble machine on the show. When Lawrence Welk would come out he would say “turn on the bubble machine!” and bubbles would come out and across the stage and then he’d announce his first act.
Eli: So it was kind of like a talk show of today?
Richard: No, not a talk show a variety show. He was just the announcer who would bring on singers, dancers, trapeze artists. I remember he had one singer that I really liked who had a very deep voice, his name was Larry Looper. And he’d say “please welcome Larry Looper,” then Larry would come out and sing a song about to octaves lower than anyone else could sing. Then there was another comedy show called the Red Skelton show, he was like a Bob Hope type of guy only much earlier. He would basically come out and tell jokes.
Eli: So you mentioned you liked baseball on the radio, do you remember the first time that you saw it on TV?
Richard: Yes, it wasn’t long after that, maybe a couple of years after I first saw TV. You would occasionally get a baseball game on TV. I think it was only the World Series though. I don’t think we saw much of the regular season. When TV started there were only three channels. In those days it was ironically the same channels as the network channels today in Salt Lake, there in Logan. It was channel 2, 4, and 5. And they each had their own lineup of shows. They were CBS, ABC, and NBC. And they started producing baseball games once in a while, but really only the World Series. It was kind of hard to see the game though because don’t forget we are talking about black and white TV with a lot of snowiness. In Logan, where I lived rabbit ears wouldn’t do it; you had to have an antenna on top of your house. And you couldn’t control it from inside the house. So you had to set it the best you could and some stations were clearer than others. I remember you could not actually see the ball. You could see the players pitch the ball, or the players running, but you couldn’t see the ball because it was too small and it was white like all of the snow on the TV.
Eli: When the TV came out did you find yourself going away from the radio or did you still go back and listen to the Lone Ranger every once in a while?
Richard: That is a very good question, I think that the TV did kind of pull kids my age away from the radio, although like I say, especially with the unclear pictures of TV, the monitor in my brain was vastly superior to what I saw on the TV screen but you know how technology is, when there is something with a picture on it everyone wants to see that instead of using the radio. Probably the only kids who would listen to radio by then were the ones who didn’t have a TV.
Eli: What did you parents think about TV, did they allow you to watch? When I was growing up I never got to watch until I was done with my homework.
Richard: No, in those early days when TV was so new that I don’t remember any rules, it was like they would watch it with us.
Eli: So nowadays in people’s lives, especially in kids it seems like they are consumed by television to the point where it is degrading. Was it like that at all?
Richard: No I think that the interesting thing about early radio and TV is… of course radio, going back to radio for a minute, before television people listened to the radio a lot and they would listen actively. Now we think of radio as something that can go on in the background. We’ll have it on while working, reading or studying. But in those days radio was something that you gave full attention to. You would sit down and listen to the whole baseball game or the whole adventure show, or you would sit down and listen to music and you would just sit there and that would be the thing you do. And there were a lot of radio stations, well not tons, but they were all AM so you couldn’t get them from very far away. So each town only had a couple, maybe only one if it was very small. Logan finally got two radio stations so they had to put a variety on. You couldn’t have a station that was just country music or another station that was just sports or something. They would have to program a large variety so you would get the schedule which often was in the newspaper. And you would say “Okay well here is my favorite sports show, or Sky King or Lone Ranger” and you would find out what time they were. They would usually be on at the same time each day. But I don’t think parents were too worried about content because it was just a variety of things they didn’t care if you listened. Television was the same way in its early days, three channels that didn’t broadcast all day. Some of the stations only came on from like five in the evening until ten at night and I remember watching the end of the news and then there would just be a test pattern on the TV and it would be over for the day. So there wasn’t enough on there to be specialized or to have stuff that parents would worry about. Now maybe some parents were worried, but not many because the parents would be right there watching with them.
Eli: Interesting. So here’s a question. You were a little boy; you remember seeing a baseball game on TV for the first time. What do you think your reaction would have been if you saw a game on in HD when you were that age?
Richard: Ha ha. Well I do remember the first time that I saw color television, and I was like “whoa! What is that?” I was actually up in another town. I was a newspaper boy and I was out in the evening trying to get new subscriptions to the Logan Herald Journal, we were up in Preston, Idaho of all things. And somebody had a color TV, a really early color TV. And these early color TVs were really horrible color, but were very bright, you couldn’t miss one. I went in to this house and saw the TV and these yellows and blues and stuff on there and I couldn’t believe it. I thought that will never take off, it was too exotic and colors were too hard, so I was really amazed the first time I saw color TV. So if I saw HDTV as a kid I would have gone nuts.
Eli: A lot of historical events have occurred during your lifetime, do you remember any one of them in particular that you first heard about via the media? Something that really amazed or surprised you?
Richard: Well, see most of these things I have been telling you about happened in the 50’s. And in the 50’s the Korean War was going on but I do not remember any news casts. I am sure TV got started on news casts then, but on radio there was always news. If you wanted to see visuals of news then you would actually go to the movies. Did you know that at the movies in those days before the movie would come on you would always have a cartoon and then a newsreel? And the newsreel was filmed news footage from the Korean War or wherever the news was taking place. Why didn’t they have more news on TV in the early days I am not sure, but I think perhaps in those days film and television were pretty separate. In the TV shows you would see like Lawrence Welk, they were not filmed, they were live shows that the TV would pick up out of the air. And I don’t think they had figured out how to use film and send it out over the air. I do remember a little later, news getting started on TV; Walter Cronkite and other newscasters that you would watch on TV. But still most people got their news from newspapers and not from the electronic media at all.
Eli: That’s very interesting. The last question I have is… I know you have seen a lot of things on the media in your life, TV, radio, all sorts of media, but is there one particular thing or innovation that has happened that really just stands out above all the rest?
Richard: Well, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon…and it was televised. That is the amazing thing. We are talking about 1969 in the summer and by then I was a college student almost to get married by the way. And we watched on live television as Neil Armstrong stepped out of a spacecraft and put his foot down on the moon and said live, we could hear him say this live on TV. “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” And it was like a moment like none other because not only was it the most amazing thing that I had seen, but I was actually seeing it as it happened. And so that was pretty amazing.
Eli: So everyone was just blown away?
Richard: Yes, and I don’t know the numbers, I don’t know if they tracked numbers there, but I bet everyone in America with the exception of people who were sick or blind, they were all watching Neil Armstrong.
Eli: Well thank you, that gives us a picture of what media was like for you as you were growing up, and how it has evolved up until today. It will be great for your grandkids and my grandkids as well to listen to and hear of your experiences.
Richard: They’ll interview you and say “What was it like when all you had was some silly high definition television? When you didn’t have virtual reality.”
Eli: Well, thank you very much.
Richard: You are welcome.

Moon over P-town

Hey Everybody. It's Eli here. And contrary to popular belief, Provo is a beautiful little spot. Especially now that the weather has been warming up. 60's baby. Can't complain about that. Even though you can see 16 fast food restaraunts from my window, you can also see these incredible mountains. Hopefully these will give you a little idea of what it looks like out my window. It ain't London, but it is beauty.

Every morning I wake up and have a look at the mountains and they tell me what the day is going to be like. If I can see them, great, it is going to be a beauty day. If I can't see them, then crykee it is going to be cloudy and cold, pretty simple huh?

Life is going really good. It is a crazy time, and a time where I am doing a heck of a lot of thinking. But that is what makes it fun. Who wants a predictable life right? Job search is going well, there are definately a lot of jobs out there. I am learning that quickly as I look around, it is a matter though of finding the one that is right for me in the right place. I am running into a bit of a problem with some of them as they are hiring right now, and well, I am not available right now. So we'll see. I am praying to have something lined up and ready before I go to Jerusalem so that I will be ready to roll when I get back. I am doing all that I can and then praying that Heavenly Father will help me in any way that He can. (Which is a lot).

I broke up with Jessica a couple of weeks ago and feel good about it. She is a great girl with a lot of awesome qualities, but I just couldn't see a future in it. So, I am learning little by little more and more about what I want and more importantly what I need in a wife. Other than the cankle thing which I have know for a long time. ha ha. I am trying to make sure that I do all I can to find a girl here in Provo if I am supposed to. I have a good feeling about Jerusalem too. You know any girl who is courageous enough to go study in a war zone (well not really) but a fairly risky place is what I am all about. There will be 2 girls to every boy there, so I am excited about that.

I went and reserved a cap and gown the other day and took a sweet picture with Cosmo the BYU mascot, but I don't have a digital copy of it to put up. So just imagine me with a stuffed cougar making a tough face. I can't believe that I am about to graduate from college! April 26 is the University commencement and the 27th is the one where I walk with the other graduates in my College (communications) so that is pretty exciting eh? Anybody who wants to come is more than welcome. I realize that you probably can't but the invite is there. Crazy!!!!

I ran into an elder that I taught in the MTC earlier today. He was a great elder and has now been home for 8 months, which means I have been back for a long time now. But as I talked with him and reflected on the things that I have been able to do over the past 2 and a half years, I gotta say that I am pretty dang lucky. Holy Cow. I lived a lucky and blessed life. And I have the most amazing family there is. From M&D changing the world to Charity "dripping with passion" in Jerusalem to Noah and Kristi in the dust in NYC to everyone in the desert to Saydi and Jeff hanging out with their African neighbors is Malden. What a family eh?

Had a great dinner up at my friend Ashley's house from London tonight. Her parents invited a bunch of us from Londy up for Steaks tonight. mmm boy. On top of the places I have been, I have really met some incredible people, friends that will last a long time. Well, it is late, got lots of reading and writing to do this week and the Pothiers are coming to Ptown for a visit on their way up to SLC tomorrow. Life is beauty. My hair is really long to the point where I get looked at funny on campus. I have a phobia of haircuts. It is those darn Japanese haircutters. Love you all.

Dude, what happened to my face?

This is what I look like on drugs. This is on the White Cliffs of Dover lookout points with insanely high winds, my camera only flew out of my hand. This one gave me a laugh and I thought it might supply you with one as well. Well, on our last bus trip out of London we went to Dover and Canterbury, two more incredibly beautiful spots in England, on the coast to the east of Londy. It was clear enough that you could see France across the English Channel there. We went through Dover Castle there and got these shots here on the cliffs overlooking the Channel.
I put this other one of me and these girls here because it was so windy that if you look closely at our faces it looks like we all have minor retardations, some more than others. Go ahead, have a chuckle. Man that place was beautiful, the lighting was amazing as well, just made it seem like we went back to midevial times and the days of old Henry the VIII who lived there, you know the crazy guy with all the wives?
Then the picture down at the bottom is Canterbury Cathedral. Another absolutely amazing cathedral. If those guys would have spent as much time on the doctrine as they did on their churches, maybe the apostasy wouldn't have been so deep. Canterbury, like Oxford was another beauty little English town, full of little shops and sweet British people. And lots of Asians on tours. I love walking around and seeing the little people in huge clusters sticking out worse than Americans do shouting in crazy languages at each other. Gotta love those Asians. Anyway, Canterbury is up there on the list of great little English towns. And it was all decked out for Christmas.
I swear every day goes by a little faster here. It is killing me. Absolutely killing me. We are down to two weeks left. I love this place, love the people, love the melting pot of cultures that reside in this city. I swear you can see people from every part of the world by simply walking around town for 10 minutes. Love the architecture, love the parks, sometimes I don't love the tube though cause it gets delayed a lot. Love these people here in the program. Living with 35 20 year old girls is something that is absolutely unexplainable/indescribible. It's great though. I have learned a lot of the dos and don'ts with girls. Gotta love the weird food they eat here, its like they like feeling heavy after they eat you know, instead of light like Japanese food. Gotta love walking along the Thames at night, the lights of the city. The list doesn't eng. I have come to love this city so much. I don't think this is the last time that I will live in this place. I might have to earn a bit of cash to support myself first, but then we'll see. It is amazing to see the roots of where much of our American culture started. Well. gotta live it up these last two weeks. As you might imagine the professors are hounding us with work and finals and papers and all that sweet stuff, but hey, it's all part of the game. It's gonna be crazy. Philosophy is the weirdest thing that ever happened to the earth. It is just like "hey guys, it is how it is because it is, quit trying to overanalyze everything." But then, I guess some like to overthink things.
Anyway, just wanted to let you all in my head for a minute to see what I am thinking about at this incredible time in my life. Love you all. Heard it was 4 degrees in SLC this morning. Yikes! It has been really mild here. Can't complain. You all are the greatest. Love from Londy!! Happy Christmas!!!!
Eli
There's a fewe more pics below to look at, have a gander

Christmas in Londy

Christmas is on. This is on Oxford Street, kind of like the Fifth Avenue of London. Hamley's, the giant toy store is there on the right.










Oxford. What a place. It was cloudy and overcast so that hastened the trip a little bit and screwed up the pics a bit, but oh well. That sure is a beautiful little town. If I had to put a picture in the dictionary next to English towns, I think this one would be it.








This is me and my friends standing half in the eastern hemisphere and half in the western hemisphere in Grenwich. Well, actually I think I was more than half in the eastern, but who's counting right?












Dover Castle. Something about the ocean and the cliffs and this beauty castle. It just took me away. The lighting was amazing. 

Par Le Vous Francey?

well. Paris. It is quite the city. Man oh man. We got there last Monday and stayed until Saturday and I swearwe didn't stop going the whole time. Every morning we would go somewhere together as a group, and then theevenings were our own to go out and explore. On these little group expeditions, we went to Shart,a little town with a sweet famous Cathedral, the Musee d'Orsay, (my favorite of the museums in Paris, full ofimpressionistic paintings), Versaille where me and three others decided the most effective way to see all of itwas to rent a golf cart they had there, so we cruised around on that thing and saw the place. Man, what a place thatwas, it made me realize though that some people just have way too much money. Spent a lot of time at the Lourve, saw old Mona Lisa, which was surprisingly small and not really that impressive, well I guess it was, that and thefact that it was covered by bullet-proof glass. But some of the big old french renaissance paintings they had therewere very impressive, like 12x12 or bigger. Had a trip up to the top of the Eiffel Tower, you all know how much I love big buildings. That was awesome! It seemed like we just kept going and going. Spent a while up there taking pictures and enjoying the view. I don't know if you all saw it do the sparkle thing when you have been there, but on the hour, the whole thing sparkles for 10 minutes or so. It was just cool to see the tower and go up it, I guessthat is how it was with everything in Paris. You know, you see the stuff and hear about it for your whole life and then, bam there it is right in front of you. I ate a lot of Crepes. Those things are tasty I tell you what. They have everything, and I ate everything from French, to Greek, to Mexican to Italian food there. It was quite nice. The pastries are pretty nice too. So anyway, I will let the pictures tell you the rest, but Paris is sweet just for the record. I questioned at first why everyone always says that Paris is so romantic, but over the time there I realized why. It is quite a city withthe Seine River and all the amazing architecture. Went to a Pablo Picasso museum full of his personal collection, nowowned by his family. Man that guy was crazy, he had a lot of really weird stuff going through his head, but I reallyliked it. Went to the Catacombs, a place where the bones of 6 million bodies are organized into rows and stacks 60 meters under the ground. See the picture if that really confused you. It was pretty morbid and weird, but ratherinteresting. Pompodou. Modern art, the weird stuff at its finest. I liked the building more than the inside to behonest. Sweet Architecture. Basically we saw all that we possibly could, and tore the city apart. Now we are back in London, and I have a lot of stuff I have to got to see and do in the last month here, along withall the school garbage they are making us do. But hey, I am culturing myself and learning so much. It is finally really getting cold here. I am hoping for a little snow. It is weird it took forever but the trees are finally changing and all the trees around, especially the parks look so beautiful. Christmas is pretty much on here as there isn't any Thanksgiving. We are going to go and look at the lights for FHE tonight (yep, even here we have FHE groups, can't get away from that at BYU). But they are going all out. Harrods, Hamleys, all that good stuff. I am realy excited about that as you might imagine. Life is incredible over here, this is such an amazing experience. Yesterday at Church they asked me on the spot to teach the investigator class, and it was on Families. Eternal Families, how amazing is that. It made me miss you all a whole lot, and also it made me realize even more what an incredible family that I have, what incredibleparents that I have. Man oh man. The gospel is amazing. It helps us become better and better. I know that sounds simple, but it is pretty darn amazing. I love you guys sooo much. It is the Holidays! Let's all try to be more likethe Savior and really watch out for those Christmas moments where we can help others out as the Savior would. Just like Mom and Dad did with that little old lady from the airplane the other day. Love from Londy!Eli
Keep reading on for more pics below. Here is a bunch of at the Louve, a pic of the Louve remember from the Da Vinci Code and then a view from atop the Eiffel Tower of the city.
 

pretty leaf

Check out the leaves at Versaille here on the left. Then there are some of the 6 million bodies of bones that I saw. Then there is La Defense this building down in the downtown area that is supposedly the modern version of the Arc De Triumph. Then there is my favorite gargoyle on the top of Notre Dame in a pensive mood overlooking the city of Paris.


 

I can't speak french.

Can you name the places? Eiffel tower, if you didn't know that, well, you should have. Notre Dame. Saint Chapell, a chapel built inside of Louis the 14 palace full of stained glass. And Sacre Couer a big cathedral up on a hill overlooking the city.

 

Can you say Stonehenge?

Hey you all. I went to Stonehenge. Wow. So many years of seeing it and hearing about it and then all of the sudden, kabam there it was right in front of me. It was a fun day there, a little cloudy but still quite nice. This is me and Kent and Erika reinacting Stonehenge. It was a good one, we started off at Stonehenge, then went to Aveberry (another old ruins place like stonhenge), then we went to Bath. Remember when we went there when we came to pick up Jonah? And the story about our ancestor who went from Bath to America but then came back to bath in search of healing in the roman baths there?
It was pretty cool to think about that as I was there. It was also interesting to think about Stonehenge and the mystery that it is. All these years, all these scientists, yet no one knows what it was or what it was used for? That shows man, we can't do it all you know what I am saying? I personally think that it is the end circle of a big old maze of rocks. but all the other ones are gone now. Anyway, it was a fun week in London, saw an Alfred Hitchcock movie turned into play called 39 Steps. An entire play done by 4 people playing like 100 parts. Saw an old Agatha Cristie play called Mousetrap as well, murder mystery.
We are headed off to Paris first thing in the morning for the week. I am so excited. Paris, ya boy. If you have any suggestions for there send me them, we'll be there all week and we will have some free time. So send them my way. Man this trip is amazing and it just keeps getting better even though it is getting colder. These other pics are of Bath and the river Avon there at night. I love you guys so much! More info and pics on the way from Paris or as soon as I get back. They are already putting up the Christmas Lights here and ooh baby. You know me, I love this stuff. You should see Harrods. I get an extra 3 weeks of it this year cause there isn't any Thanksgiving to celebrate here. Love you all. Praying for you.
Eli
 

Firenze - Italia

Bongiorno. Hey everybody. We are watching the 5 hour version of Pride and Predjudice for one of my classes right now (it's sunday night) Shoot me please. Just kiddin. But I do have a while to write some stuff. Well, we went, we saw, we conquered. We packed about as much as you possible can into the 3 days we were there. Found a sweet little hotel for 25 bucks a night, right there in the city. Highlights included: A trip to Pisa (see below pics and words), wandering/exploring the incredible streets of the city, Going to teh Accademia and seeing the David. Michaelangelo's big old naked man. I always thought that was a little weird, but I must say it was pretty amazing to see. He sculpted that 13.5 foot tall man all the way down to the veins. Just sat there and looked at it for a while and listened to the ladies yell, "no fotos!" .
A lot of amazing statues there in that place. The Ufizzi Gallery, which was also pretty sweet. My favorite part there was this huge old exhibit they had on Leonardo Da Vinci. A lot of his drawings and ideas all made interactive. It was really cool. That man was a genius, he had to have been inspired in some way.
That night we went up to the Piazza de Michaelangelo, this big hill overlooking the city, where these pictures were taking. I love the city there, the red roofs, the river, the hills.


That night we went to this amazing restaurant that was recommended by one of the girl's parents. It was a family restaurant that was like 100 years old. Best pasta I ever had, and me and Chris and Lyndsay split a steak that weighed a kilogram (no exaggeration) it was the bloodiest most rare steak I ever ate, but it was really really good. Dad, you would have loved it. Man those Italians know how to cook.
It was really cold so we would eat dinner late and spend time talking and eating. then stay out as long as we could bare it, then go back to the hotel.


The weather was beauty, never saw a cloud, but that also made it pretty darn cold. Can't complain though. Went to an awesome market there with all the leather goods, italian silk ties, and stuff you could imagine. Got me a nice silk tie to go along with all of my polyester Japanese ones. Can't wait to go back to Italy again soon, what a place. I might have to learn some Italian first though, I swear no one there speaks English. Keep reading on and looking, more pictures below. 

Firenze Fotos

This is the little square in which we had dinner one night, complete with an Italian band acordion and all, and a carousel.










Can you say sweetness. Here is the Duomo. (Florence Cathedral)













What is it about European cities and these amazing rivers going through them.











They were having a big commemoration of a big old flood in Florence. We happened on to the big ceremony. complete with firemen repelling down this building unveiling the flag. This building is right next the to Ufizzi gallery, rememer it? 

A little place called Pisa.

Well. We flew into the Pisa airport which was conveniently right by the old Leaning Tower of Pisa. I gotta admit that it was pretty sweet to see it after years and years of looking at in textbooks and seeing it in movies. The little town was really nice and there we had some of our first tastes of good old italian food and gelato. It was awesome the girls with us couldn't go longer than an hour without gelato, so we ate plenty of it on the trip.
You know how you always see people holding up the tower in the pictures they have there, well I decided that I wanted to take a picture with me holding it up by my feet. It took a while and a lot of people looked at me rather funny, but hey not bad eh?
Man I just loved Italy, the way it was. It just had a feeling about it. The streets, the narrow cobblestone roads meandering through the city. I loved just wandering through them and seeing what was around each corner. I have barely cracked the surface in Italy, and I will most definately be back. Especially to spend some time on the Mediterranean, we flew over it on the way in and oh baby.
Love you all. This place is amazing. We have a week here in London and then next week we will be in Paris for the week. Not bad eh? I am pretty excited. We are going to Stonehenge and Bath on Wednesday and then maybe Cambridge on Friday. Whoa, that got me excited just writing that, didn't realize we were doing all that.
It is getting cold cold in Londy. It was Guy Faux day. You can hear fireworks shooting off all over the city and there is a smell of fire because of the bon-fires. wahoo.