Battle, KCL Cross Country, and Wimbledon

Hey yall,

Here's to catch up on the last week or so.  Two Saturdays ago, I went to the town of Battle, England which is the site of the Hastings battlefield.  I chose that day because it was the anniversary of the 1066 battle and for the occasion a reenactment was being put on.  The first half of the day was mainly spent walking around the abbey and battlefield.  The abbey was built by the victorious William the Conqueror after the battle as penitence for all the Englishmen he had killed.  I ate my lunch sitting on the famous Senlac Hill where the battle was fought.  Again, for a self-proclaimed military history geek, it was pretty darn cool to be sitting on the hill.  Before the reenactment, there were various demonstrations such as how armor was made and how infantryman and cavalry fought during the time period.  Everyone even spoke French in the Norman encampment.  The battle itself was pretty cool, although the troop movements were in the wrong direction. (for event logistic reasons).

On Wednesday the 19th, I had my first cross country race in the red and blue striped King's College uniform.    On the chest are the letters "KCL" and the college's shield.  The 5-mile race was held at Parliament Hill on the south side of Hampstead Heath.  The course is considered the most famous in England, which is cool, but all of the hills were not.  It was a very hilly course.  After my season last year at Carolina being derailed with a broken foot in the first meet, I really just wanted to come out and run a decent time after a year since my last cross country race.  I ran a 28:56 which I was pretty happy with, especially considering the terrain and being early in the season.  That time should go down a good ways with more races and flatter courses.  Best yet, I finished #1 on the team and we beat our rivals over at University College London.

Then last Saturday, I stayed in London and went to see Wimbledon over south of the river.  With the subway closing large portions of the lines on weekends for maintenance, I had to get creative with how to get there, but I got there sure enough.  First off, I took a guided tour around the grounds.  The tour took us to see, among other sites, Centre Court, the interview room, and Court 18.  Centre Court is what it is.  In the interview room, I got to sit in the same chairs at the very desk that names like Federer, Nadal, and Sharapova have sat in.  But, for me, the highlight of the tour was, without doubt, Court 18:  famous for being the court where Greensboro Page alumnus John Isner played the longest match in history.

Class has been going well so far.  I must say I hate my class on War and International Order, as I really don't care what Hobbes, Rousseau, or Kant thought about the state of nature.  However, my War and Intelligence class is really cool.  My lesson this past week was on "Strategic Deception" which was really interesting.  My professor actually spent 20 minutes of the lesson instructing us how to craft an effective lie.  I promise, I'll only use the skill against bad guys in my future career.

Yall take it easy,
Will

Oxford and Brussels

Hey y'all,

So yeah, it's been a couple weeks since my last post, I apologize.  I'll give my dad credit for his blog, it takes some being intentional to keep these things up to date.  Anyhow, I've been busy the last couple weeks, but I'll try to keep it short.

Two weekends ago I went with four other Tar Heels to Oxford.  We left Victoria Station in London around 8:30, albeit I left slightly later on account of having a bad ticket.  Long story short, I got there 30 minutes behind everyone.  To be honest, I didn't think the university was all that interesting.  I skipped the long tour in preference for the 1 pound tour of the Divinity School.  Harry Potter fans would recognize it as the scene for the Hogwarts infirmary.

Best part of the day was by far the afternoon.  Two of my friends and I walked over to the River Cherwell to investigate "punting."  Punting is essentially an English version of riding a Venetian gondola.  The design of the boats and method of propulsion are the same; long length to beam ratio with a large pole to move and steer.  It took a couple minutes getting used to, but once I did, it was a lot of fun.  We got to float up and down the river for well over an hour.  After dinner and a walk down the (upstream) River Thames, I returned to London around 8 PM.

Last weekend I made my first international trip while abroad.  Destination: Brussels, Belgium.  This was also my first experience on-board the Eurostar, the high-speed train which runs underneath the English Channel over to the Continent.  My train left from St. Pancras International Station early in the morning on Friday.  The station was already prepared for the Olympics, with massive Olympic Rings hanging above the tracks.  We made stops at Ebbsfleet, England and Lille, France before reaching Brussels-Midi Station.  I spent most of my time Friday and Saturday walking around, seeing the sites of Brussels.  I saw the Berlaymont European  Union building, the Grand Place (considered one of the three most beautiful squares in Europe), and NATO Headquarters just to name a few.  Unfortunately it rained all weekend, but that didn't stop me (although it's left me with a cold this week).  Neither did the combination of having everything written and spoken in French and Dutch present too much of a problem.

Belgium is known for its food.  My initial experience on Friday was disappointing.  But I gave it another effort for dinner on Saturday and I'm sure glad that I did.  For dinner, I had Carbonnades Flamades, which was basically Flemish beef stew and it was excellent.  Then for dinner, the Belgian waffle entered my life.  Belgium has two main kinds of waffle, Brussels (light and crispy) and Liege (soft and sweet).  I got a Brussels waffle with hot chocolate syrup, powdered sugar, and chocolate ice cream and it was absolutely incredible.

The highlight of Belgium for a Peace, War, and Defense major, however, was a visit to the Waterloo Battlefield on Sunday.  I woke before the crack of dawn to get a train out of Brussels-Midi station bound for the small town of Braine l'Alleud, just 10 miles outside capital.  From there, I walked around 3 miles (through the rain) to reach the battlefield.  This is the history geek in me, but to stand on the same soil where possibly the most important European battle was fought was breathtaking.  To walk in the footprints of Napoleon, Wellington, and Blucher is a moment I'll never forget.  At the battlefield, I hiked up 290 stairs to the top of the monument and went on a guided tour of the battlefield on a tram.  For lunch, I ate at the Wellington Cafe, situated roughly where the center of Wellington's line would have been.  It truly was hard to leave, but I had to get back to Brussels.  After dinner, my return train left Brussels bound for London.