maxwell arndt

MEGA PHOTO UPDATE

2009-05-27T04:51:00.002+02:00

And likely the last one for two months, as I head out for the Netherlands early Thursday morning, where I'm meeting Ben. Then, we've got a week and a half to make it to Berlin in order to catch a flight to Oslo, Norway, where we're meeting Andy to begin our extraordinary Scandinavian Adventure. Three boys, a tent, and enough freeze-dried food to make an astronaut envious.

I've posted these albums before, but now they've got a bunch more pictures, so I'm reposting them for your convenience.

Thanks for having an interest in my travels! The knowledge that you, my lovely family and friends, would be checking this blog has provided me with the motivation to document many interesting and beautiful things that I have encountered. This site provides more than just a peek into my life, it's a permanent record of things I have consciously deemed share-worthy, and therefore all those involved have contributed to my life in an unconventional and very fascinating manner. I'm very grateful not only for readers of my blog, but for others who have played a role in enabling me to take advantage of the incredible opportunities that seem to present themselves so regularly in my life. Most of all though, thanks Mom. The last few weeks have been a blast. You're a great teacher and you have an extraordinarily positive influence on my life.

Mom I (Barcelona)

Mom II (Italy)

Mom III (Austria, Switzerland, United Kingdom)

Austria, Switzerland, and the UK

2009-05-24T17:41:00.003+02:00

Mom - hope it's in time to show D & T! More will be added to this album, just wanted to get something up for you guys before you went home.

Mom III

Mom climbing mountains

2009-05-20T20:06:00.001+02:00

When my mom arrived in Barcelona at 8:00 am about a month ago (after a 9+ hour flight, excluding layovers), she probably wasn't expecting me to take her on the hike of a lifetime that left us both with legs that were sore for about a week. Well, I took her, and according to me, she loved it.

Mom II

Mom was here!

2009-05-20T00:05:00.002+02:00

And we traveled. Here are some highlights:

Mom I

My Great Grandpapa Balthasar

2009-05-08T10:36:00.006+02:00

Since leaving Barcelona about a week ago, mother and I traveled to Italy, stopping in Milan, Florence, the Cinque Terre (grave disappointment), and Rome (see my Colosseum photos on my public facebook album). Rome was great. We were there for 2 non-traveling days, long enough to be blown away by both the Colosseum and the dirtiest streets and public transportation system either of us have ever seen.

Then, we rode a train:

for 9 hours to Münster, Austria, a neighboring town of Weising, which is where my great grandfather Balthasar Wagner was born. We met lots of very cheerful and hospitable people. Here is a picture of the house Balthasar was raised in:

And the cheerful family-folk we met - Hans Wagner, Gabby Wagner, Mom, Me, and Mariane Wagner

We stayed at Hans' Hotel, the Hotel Hauserwirt, for a night and chatted, ate, and drank late into the night. The next day, we met with Herman, a jolly old fellow who is somehow related to us and at 84 years old is quite the historian and multilinguist. Then we were handed off to Gabby's husband, who took us to the top of the ski jump in Innsbruck, Austria, used in the 1964 and 1976 Olympic Games.

Before we had even left our ancestral home of the Tyrolean region of Austria, we had decided we had to come back.

Now we're in the Jungfrau region of Switzerland, where there are plenty of snow-capped mountains and (hopefully) lots of good hiking trails.

Vid-ee-ooooo

2009-04-29T01:27:00.002+02:00

Violinist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qxGLxT1YaQ

Breakdancing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-e9pLeMNog

Panoramics!

2009-04-28T02:31:00.003+02:00

Just downloaded some sweet panoramic-making software, these are the product of it (and my pictures, of course):

Panoramix

And so it begins... the great filling in

2009-04-24T02:36:00.003+02:00

What! Yep. Get ready, because in the next day or two you're going to learn a lot about what I've been doing in the past month! Starting with pictures from Justin (the person I've spent the most time with here)'s birthday at our favorite hangout, the Travel Bar. Also included are some shots of Lauren's first few days in Barcelona (the second time she's been here) and the beginning of our adventures in France.

Justin's B-day, Lauren, France

For Heather and T-Silky Bag

2009-04-20T05:22:00.006+02:00

Heather: I don't know you as well as I'd like to (yet), but you were totally included in that previous message, I just forgot to use your name! HEATHER's baked goods are the ones I hope to be eating when I come up (down? I always want to say up, regardless of which direction I'm driving). I've got a pretty mean burger recipe, and I hear you're good with the oven? I guess that puts Aaron in charge of drinks.

T-B: I miss our late night procrastination sessions that always involved playing Halo 3 for a million hours. Pretzel stogies, pretzel slims, chickadees, and ginger ale have not been consumed for the last time. You're a really nice guy while still being completely genuine - that's not easy to do. Oh, and I think you still have my mushroom stamp.

So my mom goes on local news station KARE 11 every few weeks to talk about MN State Parks, and I like to stay up to date on what she's got to say about them. In my most recent search for "Pat Arndt," this is what I got:

Apparently low-budget internal search engines know how to joke like 6th graders too.

I'm sorry, and a promise

2009-04-19T17:24:00.004+02:00

A shout out and a message to those likely to read this:

My cousin with unbelievably cool hair, Aaron Johnson. Your hair is black, and it is curly, and it never ends. I hope you haven't cut it since last time I saw you. You seem very content with your life, and I really really respect that. I hope to come visit you and the wifey sometime during this upcoming school year. We can make burgers and drink beer, and talk about what we're living our lives for, and then eat some delicious baked goods for dessert.

Aaron's parents, who also seem to be very happy with the way things are, Gaga and Dougie. Thanks for being so interested in my life, and thanks for reading this. Make sure you read the bottom of the post.

Mom. I'm not sure if you're the best mom ever (may be reserved for Mother Theresa), but you are definitely the best mom for me. I can't explain in words how much I appreciate your involvement in helping me become the person I am, so just connect with me via ESP whenever you have time. Also, I'm really really excited to start exploring Europe with you this week.

Anybody else? I don't know who checks this regularly. If you do, send me a line, I'd like to know who you are!

To all of you - I'm sorry for not being more active in my posting over the past few weeks. At the beginning of my stay here I was hoping to provide updates at least weekly, but I haven't done that for awhile. Last (read: last last) week would have been a great opportunity for me to upload some pictures or tell some stories because I was on vacation in France, doing nothing but reading, biking, and eating delcious food. But I didn't have internet. This past week, I've been working my butt off writing papers and studying for my final exams. I had a 25 minute presentation (in Spanish) about Colombian artist Fernando Botero. I was quite nervous for it, but it went pretty well. After I publish this post, I will be reading an article for and starting a 12 page paper on arbitrage. Yay. Then, back to studying for a Spanish art essay test that I have on Tuesday.

Botero's Mona Lisa:

I'm going to promise you that by this Thursday evening I will have put up some great stuff for you guys to check out. Actually I'm not going to promise that it'll be great, but it will be up by Thursday night. If this doesn't happen, it's probably because something extreme will have happened to me - in which case it'll probably make a good story, so you win either way.

Leaving you with a neat picture that I took of Lauren in St. Breiuc, France.

Sleeptalking with Lauren

2009-04-02T23:46:00.004+02:00

For those of you who don't know, my girlfriend Lauren is staying with me in Barcelona for the majority of her month-long trimester break from school in England. She's a regular sleeptalker, but it isn't often that I'm as awake as I was tonight while she's embarking on one of her oratory adventures. Fortunately for you, me, and Lauren when she wakes up tomorrow, I decided to write this one down (despite it being 14 minutes before I have a paper due as well as the eve of my Spanish final). So, here it is:

Scene: Max walks into his room after going over one of his Spanish papers in the kitchen with native speaker and fellow flatmate Arturo, and finds a very drowsy-looking Lauren curled into a little ball on his bed, buried in blankets...

Max: “Hello dear, Sydney sent me a message on Skype when I was going over my paper with Arturo, she says she went to Chipotle and will call you when she gets back”

Lauren: “That sounds weird right now”

M: “What does?”

L: “The language they speak at McDonalds.”

M: “What?”

L: “What’s the language they speak at McDonalds, Cata-ksodfm?”

M: “Catalan?” (The local dialect in Barcelona)

L: “Mmmmyea.”

M: “Wait, Catalan is weird?”

L: “Yea, whatever they speak at McDonalds, it’s weird”

M: “I think you’re still sleeping.”

L: “No I’m not!”

M: “Then what in the world are you trying to tell me?”

L: “Can I just go back to your room?”

M: “You mean the room we’re in right now?”

L: “Mmmmyea.”

Endscene: Lauren rolls over and goes back to sleep.

Pictures!

2009-03-19T00:56:00.002+01:00

Not very much time for words right now, but here are some pictures of my escapades over the past few weeks:

Brighton, Sagrada Familia, and Wine Tasting

Hope you enjoy!

Melon District: A Place To Live

2009-03-14T22:57:00.004+01:00

Due to some complications with my host family, I've moved into a new home! I'm on my own in a "residencia," which is more or less dorm-style living in an ultramodern community called Melon District. Their slogan, "A Place To Live," couldn't be more accurate - it is most definitely a place to live.

I've just wrapped up two weeks of midterms and papers, so now I get to relax a little bit. I was fortunate to be able to visit Lauren, my significant other, at here current home in Brighton, England. I got to meet her very international flatmates, and gained a little insight into how much I could possibly be gaining from my parallel experience in Spain. Until earlier this week, my living conditions had been restricting me from many things that I had hoped to be enjoying by this point - mainly freedom and inside access to other cultures.

I'm writing this from my kitchen/lounge area which I share with half of my floor - next to me are two people from Barbados, one from Colombia, and one from Cyprus. We're watching an Athens-Roma football (soccer) game. Although I'm not a huge fan of soccer, it's such an integral part of European life that I can't really avoid it. Plus, it's just what's on TV, the conversation is what's most interesting.

Needless to say, I'm very happy with my current surroundings, and I'm very much looking forward to my last month and a half here.

Here's what my room looks like:
And here's the pool on the roof:

Talk to you soon!

Mallorca + My New Homepage

2009-03-02T20:30:00.005+01:00

In response to a request from a very special someone,

Mallorca

I'm finally getting around to learning how to build the internets! Here's the current portal to the life of Maxwell Arndt: www.maxwellarndt.com

Girona, Besalú, Montserrat, and Carnival in Sitges

2009-02-26T00:24:00.005+01:00

So my life has resumed being very full and hectic, leaving me with less time than before to share my adventures with everyone out in the land of the internets.

Because I'm neck-deep in midterm papers right now, I'm going to leave you with a bunch of pictures and not very many words:

Girona & Besalú

Montserrat

Carnival in Sitges

Francisco Franco, Founding Father of Skype?

2009-02-12T20:40:00.003+01:00

Yes, you read that correctly - Francisco Franco, the (supposedly) dead fascist ex-ruler of Spain was one of the founding innovators of the market leader in consumer Voice-Over-IP technology, Skype. To understand the basis of my argument, simply have a look at the stunningly similar logos of Skype and the Partido Popular (the largest opposition party in Spain), which is "led" by the man who was Minister of Tourism during Francisco Franco's unforgettable regime:

Madrid is home to many of the world's best

2009-02-09T23:02:00.006+01:00

Last weekend I went to Madrid with the rest of the students studying in the CIEE program, and I experienced a number of the top something-or-others in the world. I'm not interested in finding out whether or not all of these claims have been verified by official ranking organizations, because that might negatively impact my storytelling. Also, I forgot my camera in Barcelona, so I borrowed a few photos in this post from my good friend Mr. Internets.

1. I took one of the world's fastest long-distance trains, the AVE, from Madrid to Barcelona (and eventually back again.) The train covers the 386-mile span in 2 hours and 38 minutes or less, and travels at cruising speed of 186 miles per hour. This was my first time jumping to warp speed without a seatbelt.

2. The world's largest collection of paintings on display, at the Prado Museum. The museum contains a bunch of works from the 12th to the 19th century, and features collections of commonly known artists like Velázquez, Titian, Goya, and Rembrandt. I enjoyed myself quite a bit here, and would not hesitate to come back. One of my favorites was "The Garden of Earthly Delights," a triptych finished in 1504 by Hieronymus Bosch that highlights the "perils of life's temptations." Check it out here if you're bored. Pictured below is Velázquez's "Las Meninas," another favorite.

3. The world's largest collection of armor, in the basement of Western Europe's largest royal palace, the Palacio Real. The interior of the no-longer-occupied palace was filled with incredibly decorated rooms that must each cost millions of dollars to furnish. Below, in one of the 13 basements was the armory, which was kind of interesting, but there was no live jousting so it wasn't as good as it could have been.

4. The world's largest flea market, El Rastro. There are as many as 3500 individual stalls selling fleas here every Sunday and public holiday that together create one of the most stimulating environments I've ever witnessed. The market covered multiple square miles of neighborhood streets, and was completely body-to-body, Minnesota-State-Fair-on-a-sunny-Saturday packed full of people by noon. I found a few neat and inexpensive items that were wonderfully-giftworthy, but there were also a lot of people who were selling absolute junk. For example, a man selling things out of a blanket tried to get me to buy a ripped and dirty metro map... That I could have gotten for free at the train station 150 feet away.

5. I ate at the world's oldest eatery (verified by Guinness!), Sobrino de Botín. Since its establishment in 1725, this restaurant has learned how to throw a great party - a pig party, that is. Six of us shared a whole suckling pig, and loved it - brains and all.
That's all for now folks! Talk to you soon.

It's Official

2009-01-21T20:59:00.006+01:00

We've got a new president - wasn't that inaugural speech incredible? I liked it. Barack was pretty straightforward with a lot of things, even at points throwing jabs at the Bush administration (none of which Georgie understood, I'm fairly certain). In total seriousness though, one of my favorite quotes was, in reference to Middle East leaders, "...people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy." I think I could live off of that one.Oh and also, GM has officially been bumped as the world's largest automaker, ending its 77-year reign. Who outsold it in 2008? Toyota. In case you didn't know, the Arndts are a two-Camry family (I still have a car, right Mom?).

All of the Barcelona and Spain newspapers (there are about 6-8 major ones) had front page features on Obama, which is pretty interesting to me considering Spain's communist history and our distance from the U.S. I was lucky enough to find out about a local inaugural bash hosted by the Spain chapter of Democrats Abroad. It was at Le Hotel Meridien on Las Ramblas, and tickets were 15 Euro a piece and included a drink and some delicious little snacks. Lots of people showed up - I think the final count was somewhere in the 400's. This was one event I was very excited to share with a large group of Americans, most of whom spoke English and had voted for Obama. Also, I had a pretty long and in depth conversation about politics with my host mother Carmen tonight - the hardcore commie has no love for the United States - her reasons being us sticking our noses in other people's business too much, claiming to be a democratic nation yet we don't allow anyone affiliated with the Communist party to be on our ballots, and our supposed separation of church and state. I couldn't argue much with her because I agree with her on most of those things, but one thing we weren't able to level on was whether or not Barack Obama would be that much different than George Bush for the United States and the world. I obviously think he will be, and she did not... We decided to call a truce with the words "vamos a ver," which is more or less equivalent to our idiomatic phrase, "only time will tell."

Oh! And I made it into Spain's national newspaper, La Vanguardia - I'm the one wearing the red, white, and blue shirt in the upper right hand corner of the picture (oh and, I'm clapping so much that you can't actually see my face).

New album up, including pictures from the inauguration and Montjüic:

Barcelona III

Jamón Ibérico

2009-01-16T20:41:00.014+01:00

Bocadillos, or sandwiches, are a pretty important part of the culinary culture in Spain. Between meals, instead of grabbing a bag of chips or some cookies, they'll often grab a bocadillo. A typical bocadillo is about 10" of a baguette sliced sub-style with olive oil and tomato rubbed into the bread, and some type of meat in between the two halves of bread, often cured ham. That's it. No lettuce, no cheese, no sprouts, no fat-free chipotle ranch topping. And they're DELICIOUS.

Bocadillos can be found in the majority of cafés and snack shops, and are usually no more than 3€. In my opinion it's the meat that makes these sandwiches as tasty as they are - my favorite is cured (not cooked) ham. I found out just a few hours ago that there are two different types of cured ham eaten here, jamón ibérico (o "de pata negra") and jamón curado (o serano).

As described by my host mother, Jamón ibérico, or in English, Iberian ham, is ham from the Black Iberian pig, who roams freely and eats mostly acorns in oak forests along the Spain-Portugal boarder. The "de pata negra" title refers to the black hooves these pigs have.

Anything labled simply jamón curado is pretty much the same thing, only the pigs would not have been grain-fed and would not have been free range.

The feature that makes these types of ham so unique is the Iberian Pig's capacity to accumulate fat under its skin and between its muscle fibres, giving the meat a marbled look.
So now I'm becoming pretty settled into my surroundings here, and I still like them. To catch everyone up on some things from the past week, I'll list some important or entertaining things I would like to share:

-I haven't yet gotten bored. I feel just as busy here as I was at home. At first I was somewhat frustrated with this, as I had anticipated plenty of extra time for introspection, but now I'm becoming more okay with it because after thinking about it, just "going to Spain" doesn't mean my life is going to change that much (and it hasn't) - I still have access to the internet, I still attend school, I still have plenty of people to interact with, and I have even more things that I want to see and do than I did before. So, here's to being okay with having a million stimuli...

-Earlier this week, a bird pooped on my shoe, completely unbeknownst to me until much later in the day, when I was sitting down and decided to look at my shoes. How did this happen? I don't know. Do birds in Spain have incredible aim and a better sense of humor than the birds in the States? Apparently so.

-The beaches here are incredible. Granted, it hasn't gotten much above 50 degrees here yet, the delightfully fine-grained natural sand, washed up jellyfish, and Afghani men selling beer all contribute to an atmosphere that is very conducive to afternoon napping.

-There is a lot of cool stuff here. Based on some very brief information given to us by four Dutch girls we had met earlier in the week, Justin and I went in search of the "Parc del Laberint" (Labyrinth Park). Neither of us had read about this place in our guidebooks or had heard anything about it from anyone else, so we weren't sure whether what we were looking for actually existed. Why were we looking for it? Because we saw pictures of this place and it looked almost... magical. Again, though, these pictures could have been taken anywhere, and for as interesting as this place looked we were pretty darn surprised we had never heard of it before. So, we took a train in the direction the girls had told us to go, and got off in western Barcelona, where the roads and sidewalks are very steep. We searched, we searched, and we searched. Along the way we found a Velodrome and some broken statues, even some stone grammar symbols laying on the ground (see photo album).

We eventually found the park, and here's what we saw:

Needless to say, the park was indeed pretty cool, so next time you're in Barcelona, make sure to visit Parc del Laberint.

New album up:

Barcelona II

Avinguda del Paral-lel

2009-01-10T01:22:00.010+01:00

This is my new home! I live on the south side of inner Barcelona, no more than six blocks west of the Mediterranean Sea, and two blocks north of the base of Montjüic, home of the '92 summer Olympic Games.

My family consists of Carmen, my host mother, and her two sons, Ilya (18), and Yuri (20), none of whom speak a lick of English. I live on the second floor of an an old pillared apartment building. My room is small but definitely habitable, the ceilings are high and have interesting designs and crown moulding on them.

I was nervous in anticipation of meeting my host family, but things got off to a flying start on the car ride home from the hotel when my host mother began by explaining that she is a communist and that she is sad that communism is no longer a strong force in Spain. I've since gotten to know her a lot better, and she is a very caring person who is also a great mother as evidenced by her extremely capable sons. Yuri is studying at the University of Barcelona, and Ilya plays for the equivalent of a farm team for FC Barcelona, a highly decorated football (soccer) team and the third richest club in the world.

Pictures:

1. My residence for the next four months (the building with the pillars)

2. My bedroom

3. Myself and excitable Carmen, my host mother

My latest photo album:

Espain

A new look! And the rest of London

2009-01-09T23:56:00.005+01:00

That's right, a brand spanking new layout, just for my lovely family and friends! It took me a rather long time to assemble (and it's still not complete), please enjoy!
So, our last full day in London was spent eating, going to the Natural History Museum, and sleeping on the train while in transit. We went first to the Natural History Museum to check out a special exhibit on Chuck Darwin, which turned out to be quite disappointing - Lauren and I both know the basics of evolution and have studied Darwinian theory a little bit but neither of us are experts by any means... and we didn't learn anything new from this exhibit. Okay so maybe it's understandable that there haven't been any recent revelations concerning Chuck, his life, or his theory, but I would have thought that the museum would have at least been presenting this information in an entertaining or interactive fashion? No, not really. So if you're in London and were thinking about going to this, spend your time elsewhere in the museum - you won't be missing much.We headed back to Leicester Square for "my birthday dinner" (we had yet to celebrate together this year), and ate at Thai Square. Lauren had pad thai and I had red curry, and we were both pretty satisfied with what we ordered. The environment, however, could have been better - we had tables so close to us on either side that both of us were sitting closer to other people than we were to each other! Oh well, neither of us have anything against triple-dates. So that's the end of our London, "city of crying babies" saga. Okay fine, I'll explain the crying babies. Lauren and I decided during this part of our journey that crying babies REALLY like us. Or they at least REALLY like to cry around us. There were multiple wailers on our 47 minute flight from Minneapolis to Chicago, the typical "I'm-going-to-cry-but-only-when-you're-trying-to-sleep babies" that I thought were only that annoying in movies. We were able to make it through that flight knowing that we had 8+ hours of transatlantic peace and serenity ahead of us on our Chicago-London flight. Well it turns out some of those very same poop machines were on that flight, and since this plane was about 6 times larger than our previous one, there was room for even more. I chose not to sleep for most of the flight so as to get a head-start on my circadian rhythm adjustment, but Lauren on the other hand did not choose not to sleep. Instead, the babies chose not to let her sleep! Needless to say, more than one person became rather fed up with these children, and one man even through a baby out the window. The rest of our 3-day stay in London was plagued with waaahhhs for some reason, from cafés to Buckhingham Palace - eventually resulting in our decision to never have babies ever with anyone ever.Pictures:
1. Me in front of the Natural History Museum
2. Lauren on the inside
3. Ice skating outside the museum at night!

More London

2009-01-06T17:05:00.007+01:00

Today was our first full day in London. We did lots of aimless exploring, beginning by getting on the tube and taking the Picadilly line to Hyde Park Corner. We saw a cool arch, which I'm sure was pretty historically important, then stumbled upon a neat German fair in the middle of the park where we bought mulled wine and a currywurst. I'm pretty sure the mulled wine was just hot wine, and the currywurst was a long German sausauge with curry seasoning on it - quite a simple little deal but it definitely hit the spot.

We meandered around Buckingham Palace just long enough to catch Phil (Queen Liz's hubby) mooning the royal guards. It was quite cold by then, so we decided to seek out an eatery. Along the way to Trafalgar Square (an area we knew had some restaurants) we stopped into the Institute for Contemporary Arts - nothing notable happened here. We found that most Asian restaurants were closed during the time after lunch and before dinner, and since it was around 4:30pm Asian was not an option. We walked and we walked, and we got cold and we got colder, eventually ending up in Leicester Square at a place called Gourmet Burger Kitchen. I ordered a Satay burger which ended up being nothing more than a hamburger with satay sauce on it - it was good, but not great. Lauren, however, ordered a camembert and cranberry chicken burger which turned out to be nothing short of phenomenal. With decently reasonable prices for London and knowledge of their potential, I would recommend GBK.

Lauren and I then found an internet cafe from which we called our parents to check in, and due to the bad connection, likely gave them even more to worry about.

After our stint in Leicester Square we took the tube to Hammersmith to visit my 9 months pregnant cousin Shanna and her husband Charles who have a delightfully pleasant place near the river Thames. We enjoyed their company over tea and crumpets (just kidding, beer, veggies, and little hotdogs), discussing politics, family, and babies. They ended up giving us a ride back to our hotel which was very nice, but Shanna was driving on the wrong side of the road the whole time and I don't know why - she said she hadn't drank anything because of the baby... All of our pictures from that day are on a disposable camera, so I'll post one of us trying to look European in our hotel room.

Day 1 - Arrival In London (1/1/09)

2009-01-05T02:29:00.007+01:00

Upon arrival in London Heathrow’s Terminal 1, we followed signs to “Baggage Reclaim” with the intent of well, reclaiming our baggage. After about 20 minutes of walking and a daunting leap through customs, we found ourselves at a baggage carousel that was spewing out luggage from an AirFrance flight and a Lufthansa flight, but no United 958 from Chicago. We asked someone why our baggage wasn’t there and they told us it was because we were in Terminal 2, and United only flies into Terminal 1. What the heck? Apparently somebody put up signs arrowed signs that read “Baggage Reclaim This Way” beginning right where we stepped off of the plane and ending in Terminal 2’s baggage claim area. So how did we get our luggage? We did exactly as we were instructed to do: We walked back to Terminal 1, dialed a five digit number on an unmarked yellow phone in a far corner of the airport, went through security again, got our bags, and went through customs again.

We asked airport employees what the best way to get to our hotel was – they said the “Hotel Hoppa,” which was £4 per person. We went to the stretch of road where we were to be catching our Hotel Hoppa, specifically, the H6. There are nine Hotel Hoppas, H1, H2, H3, through H9. As we waited for our H6, the following buses stopped at the station, in this order: H2, H7, H8, H3, H1, H2, H9, H4, H3, H5, H8, H6, H2, H3, and after about 25 minutes, our H6. This must have been London’s second test for American students.

Ate at The Pheasant Pub, a homey, multilevel chalet-esque restaurant and bar – We ate a seafood pancake (more or less a crepe covered in clam chowder), fried calamari strips, and vegetarian penne pasta. The first two were appetizers and rang in at around £7 a pop and were a great deal for the money – very large portions and pretty good flavor. We were so full from the appetizers (and free pre-appetizer rolls) that we didn’t get to the penne – so it’s sitting in our windowsill right now, waiting for breakfast to come around to free it from its Styrofoam and tinfoil home.

Photos:

London, early New Year's morn
Lauren and our full English breakfasts on our first morning
A hungry hunter at the Pheasant
Leftovers from the Pheasant in our windowsill fridge at the hotel

Classic Rehab (Re-Licked)

2008-12-05T04:01:00.000+01:00

Yup, they're at it again - this time featuring Vivaldi, Khia, Apollo 440, and Amy Winehouse. Classic Rehab (Re-Licked)

Souled Whisper

2008-11-30T05:52:00.000+01:00

Thanks Yael Naim and Ying Yang! http://www.last.fm/music/Traxdumax/_/Souled+Whisper?autostart

Neptune Mikey

2008-11-14T10:02:00.000+01:00

Good 'ol Cool Kids and their classy, introspective lyrics. Leave it up to the Neptunes to remix Air, giving us the materials for a funky little combo! Neptune Mikey

Work It Smoothly All Around the World

2008-11-11T05:03:00.000+01:00

Daft Punk, My Kojack Son, ATC, Telemetry and Diplo like to Work It Smoothly All Around the World

Rattlesnake Jive

2008-11-10T01:15:00.000+01:00

Dear Voltio and song number "05" on a mixed cd I ripped:

Thanks for letting me play with you, I had lots of fun. Sorry the end is so choppy, it was my first time!

Rattlesnake Jive

Drop and Gimme Heli

2008-10-27T00:14:00.000+01:00

I love music. I love mashups. After initially being completely consumed this year by the giant hairy twin monsters known as school and work, I've begun to find little snippets of time here and there to mess around with sounds, tempos, and effects. Check out my live (and therefore not necessarily perfect) mash of Mike Jones and Bloc Party: Drop and Gimme Heli

Maxwell Arndt

2008-06-30T17:12:00.001+02:00

This is a picture of Maxwell Arndt.

Maxwell Arndt is LinkedIn!

2008-06-30T17:07:00.000+02:00

Here are my credentials: http://www.linkedin.com/in/maxwellarndt

This is where I live

2008-04-02T23:10:00.000+02:00

So. Lots of things.

1. We're making a list today
2. I got a new camera
3. I'm obsessed with the Minneapolis skyline and history of the buildings that are a part of it
4. My health advocate is gay and is pursuing other men who may not be
5. I spent the weekend taking care of people with severe mental retardation
6. I quit the job that is #5
7. A girl got really really drunk and passed out in my room a few weeks ago - she lost consciousness and was choking on her vomit and turning blue - Steve and a barf-covered and adrenaline-filled me brought her to the emergency room across the street.
8. I have a cold and it sucks
9. I'm really happy with life
10. I was a model in the Women In Business' cancer benefit auction - my mom bought me for $80
11. I like this really cute girl named Lauren
12. Lauren and I were talking about going to France and working there, but that is no longer an option because of timing, money, and reality
13. I'm actively pursuing an internship for the summer - specifically with ING Financial, a number of connections that Lauren's dad may provide me, and hopefully Medtronic.
14. I confirmed my offer to be a CA (Community Advisor, a.k.a. Residence Assistant) in Sanford hall next fall
15. I bought 2 tickets to Lollapalooza this summer - hopefully Radiohead and Daft Punk will be there.
16. I've been inducted into the Golden Chapter of the National Residence Hall Honorary, and I don't really know what that means
17. I'm going to China in May

The band

2008-03-22T06:19:00.000+01:00

So me an' the guys (Forrest, Brad) decided to start a band. We're called RRV. Our stage names will be (according to Brad):

Forrest: Ranquillo-T ( SOUNDS KIND OF LIKE TRANQUILITY - THANKS FORREST)
Brad: Rizzle
Max: V-Maximus

I'll post tour dates soon.

Friday, March 21

2008-03-22T04:45:00.000+01:00

Typing today's date brings me to realize that I wrote the wrong date on the signature line while filling out a consent form today at Massage Envy. I've always enjoyed massages, but today marks the first day that I actually spend real money on one. And of course by real money I mean whatever my mom paid with. Especially compared to the mid-March snowstorm that was going on outside, the inside was magically peaceful... In a commercial way. It reminded me of one of those tanning salon chains. There was the same insincere, overtly conceited tan teenager taking my money, the same comfortable, contemporary waiting room that doubled as a showroom for their products, and the same atmosphere that seemed to embrace the overall desire to be cool. The only difference that I noticed was the service being offered.

I had Steven. He looked kind of goofy but upon ushering me into my serene massage room he shook my hand, so I decided I approved of him. He started by introducing himself and telling me to take my clothes off. Actually he said I could leave on however many clothes I was comfortable with and then left for a bit. I like to consider myself somewhat of a free spirit and a wild child so I took everything off. After all, what kind of self-proclaimed free-spirited wild child wears clothes while a stranger rubs them down for an hour and a half in a dark room that they've never been in? Shoot! I'm running out of time I thought... Steven was for sure on his way back to my room, but after seconds of deliberation I decided I wanted to put my boxers back on.

I made it in time. After doing this, I realized I had forgotten what my instructions were. Was I supposed to sit on this bed laying in front of me? Was I supposed to lay on it? Was I supposed to go under the covers or over them? I needed to act fast because time was running out. I decided to crawl under the unnaturally soft blankets - but only halfway. I pulled the covers just to the top of my butt, leaving a sliver of boxer in sight, just enough to signal that I wasn't up for any funny business.

The massage was OK. After the fact I had to wait in the supermodern waiting room for about 15 minutes for my mom. As soon as she came out our friend the uneducated desk girl was pressuring her to become a member and pay the monthly fee and what not. She was a terrible salesperson. Absolutely no persuasion skills whatsoever. While talking to my mom (who had also just been massaged) we decided that my massage was actually sub-par. She said she was going to call them back tomorrow to see if they would give me a free massage to make up for it. I've decided that that would actually be a very fair deal, seeing that as of right now I would never become a member at Massage Envy. If I scored a free massage and things went really well, maybe that would change.

Why did I get a massage today? Well I love being touched. Not necessarily by men, but sometimes. Also, since mother and I didn't go anywhere for spring break this year she suggested that we make today "Spring Break Day." So today's events went as follows:

1. Woke up, ate a really nummy keiche thing mom made, along with Simply Grapefruit
2. Finished painting my room (which is two really cool colors - something madiera (a dark purple) and a nutty color (almond or pecan or something)
2.5. Had a fairly in-depth text conversation with a potential business partner - about my cut in the sales of homecoming t-shirts to U of M. If profits meet expectation and this guy doesn't crap out on me this may turn out to be a pretty good deal.
3. Spent about 15 minutes deciding how long of a massage I wanted and whether I wanted a guy or a girl (yes I had the choice)
4. Went to Massage Envy
5. Went to liquor across the way from Massage Envy to purchase necessary spring break ingredients (no I'm not old enough so yes, mom bought them)
6. Went to Blockbuster with mom to rent some movies 7. Went to Chipotle to buy a necessary spring break ingredient (I kept telling the guy who made my burrito to add "more, more!" so he did. Then the other guys working there ridiculed him in Spanish for about 30 seconds while we were checking out, and I understood almost everything. I corrected them with a "no es tan mucho, es perfecto!" 8. Watched one of the best movies I've seen in some time, Fierce People.
9.Decided to act on my intention of finding a new outlet for my thoughts.