The mystery book

Last Sunday, when my friends from Atlanta Georgia were in town, we rode the London Eye. To describe the London Eye, I’d have to say that it’s a big bicycle wheel, with 20 foot long pods all around the perimeter. First you wait in a half-hour long line, after that you get into the pods, on the ride you sit, or stand in the pod for 30 minutes while the pod goes round, kind of like a giant Ferris-wheel. In the pod we sat and looked out over the tops of all the buildings, we also had a contest as to who could name the most landmarks, I won with 11 total monuments. After we had ridden the eye, we went down to Wagamama (an incredibly good noodle restaurant) for lunch, to anyone who goes there I recommend the peach ice tea. So anyway, after a great lunch we headed down to the Tate modern. It was a sunny day, so we took our time getting there on the 20 minute walk on the side of the river Thames (pronounced t-ame-s). What we were walking on was not the actual bank of the river Thames, but a boardwalk on the side of the river, with street vendors and performers everywhere. While we were walking we stopped by an outdoor used book sale, there, lying in a discarded row of old books sat the most magical book of all, I was drawn to its musty smell, and old, beautiful cover. There in front of me sat William Cowper’s Complete Poetical Works, published in 1853! Here is a poem by Sir William Cowper himself:

The Maze
From left to right, and to and fro,
Caught in a labyrinth you go,
And turn, and turn, and turn again,
To solve the mystery, but in vain;
Stand still, and breathe, and take from me
A clue, that soon shall set you free!
Not Ariadne, if you meet her,
Herself could serve you with a better.
You enter’d easily-find where-
And make with ease your exit there!

I know the grammar is a little bit shaky, but I just guess that’s just how the wrote back in the 1780s (I know the book was published in 1853, but William Cowper was born in 1731, and died in 1800, so the book was published 53 years from his death). I chose to show this poem, because it is about my personal favorite Greek myth, that of Theseus and the Labyrinth.

P.S.
In case you want to tell anyone about William Cowper, read his poem aloud, or just say his name for the fun of it, it is pronounced William C-ou-per! I know this because his poems were so interesting we looked him up on Google, and found a wikipedia entry on him. Here is a link to it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cowper.

P.P.S.
Although he is an obscure, unknown poet today, back in the 1800s he was very popular. He wrote many poems, most about nature, or evil. Many historians believe this is because he had multiple mid-life crises. His only solaces were in writing poetry, and evangelical Christianity!

Meeting the Obamas

Last week on Tuesday the 31st of March President and Mrs. Obama came to my school (American School in London), and I met them! He was in London for the G20 Leaders summit and he wanted to thank the U.S. embassy in London staff for their hard work. The line to get into A.S.L. took about an hour and a half, because so many people wanted to go. It was really weird, since I never have to wait in line to go to school when there are lots of kids there, but then, at night when there are no kids, I had to wait an hour and a half to get in. It was supposed to be for the embassy families only, but I got to go since my dad was working directly for the White House.

A thousand or so embassy families gathered in the gym to hear Obama speak. First he talked about the good work everybody in the embassy had done, and then he shook hands with most of the embassy kids after his thank-you speech.

After the speech my dad had arranged for my family to meet Obama personally. It was a great experience, and we also got to ask Obama a question each. Since the entire 5th grade is studying Africa, and the topic I’ve chosen to focus in on is conflict diamonds, I asked; “I’m studying conflict diamonds in Africa, what’s your personal, and professional opinion on them?” President Obama looked a little taken aback by my question’s seriousness given that we were standing in the foyer outside of a gym where he had just finished a casual meet-and-greet with all the embassy kids. First he joked; “Nobody briefed me on this.” Then continued to answer; “But that is a serious question, and what I believe is that there are many countries in Africa and almost all of them have much strife related to conflict diamonds. The countries need to work together to help solve this problem. Both individuals and diamond companies need to make sure that their diamonds are conflict free.” I think that’s the great thing about Barack Obama, he can address a serious topic in a funny way, but give a true and meaningful answer!

After this wonderful experience my head is still somewhat spinning. I decided to add a page on “Barrack Obama’s opinion on conflict diamonds” to my report. My teacher has said that in terms of Africa projects she has seen, my page with an exclusive quote from the President of the United States of America was a first.

I’ll post a link to my report when it’s finished…

My feeling towards the whole adventure thing

Right now I feel all weird, kinda like none of this is ever really going to happen, but then again I know it will. I feel really bad for my friends, especially Matt, because both me and Jaret are leaving at the end of the year. It's going to be fun to see Jaret in New York, my parents told me that we might see him.

I think it's going to be really fun to be CFO (Chief Financial Officer), as CFO I will have to manage our budget. Just last week-end I got to be CFO for a little three-night trip to Paris, it was hard work, making sure we got a receipt for everything, and if not, to remember how much it was. In the end I think it was a good experience for me, because it really helped me to get an idea as to what I will have to do in the real trip. Plus I got an idea of how much things cost in comparison, which led to quantity over quality, or vice versa. Think about it -- a crepe on the street is about 3.50 euros, whereas an indoor one is about 7.30 euros. I think the indoor ones are more expensive because of heating costs and the chairs. But for some reason the crepes on the street taste better to me, I think this is because in the cold Parisian weather there is nothing like a crepe to warm you up.

To sum it all up; Being CFO is going to be a blast. I know it is a big step from a little three night trip to Paris to a year long experience, but I think I'm ready for it. I might not be eating crepes, but I know there will all sorts of awesome stuff to eat along the way.