Completely forgot I had a blog.

I realized I haven't blogged in quite a long time, and I have a lot to update. The problem is that it's been so long that I can't remember details of my life for the past month. So i'll just do the best I can. I suppose i'll start with Italy. Overall Italy was AMAZING. Rachael and I flew into Pisa, then met my other roommates (minus Casandra) with our friend Chris. We walked the streets of Pisa until we came to the leaning tower and that huge... church... thing. I don't remember what it was called but it was big and religious (like Texas). We got some good pictures at the tower, along with the 400 other tourists that were there as well. Then we walked back to the train station (after getting gelato) and made our way to Florence. I do not speak a lick of Italian so getting places was a tad difficult, but we managed. We walked the streets of Florence attempting to read the grafitti. Italy is covered in grafitti. We saw the statue of David and other famous paintings and sculptures. That was very cool considering in Buffalo I see a replica of the statue of David every time I get on the 198. Our hostel was very nice that night, and the elevator was very old school. I had a small feeling that I was going to meet an untimely end in that elevator but obviously I survived. The next day we went to this look out high above the city and we had a great view of everything. I have pictures of it up on facebook, I think. We also went to a botanical garden that was HUGE. Lots of sculptures, large bushes, and rocks. That night we made our way to Venice, which is without a doubt the most beautiful city I have ever seen. It was a very interesting city to explore with all the canals and little alleyway streets. One thing I noticed were the absurd number of Americans. You'd think we were invading or something with the amount of American travellers wandering the streets. I think we had the best food in Venice as well. I know I had the most fun in Venice out of any other italian city. Just wandering around, taking in everything in that city was so much fun. I don't really remember anything too interesting of note that we did, it was a whole lot of wandering. We even made a friend named Fabrizio! I'm glad I got to Italy while in Europe, it was a great country to be in.
Skip ahead skip ahead blah blah blah, life continues as usual in Manchester till a couple days ago when I went to Holland. Sean and I flew into Amsterdam airport (which by the way is like a mall with an airport and a train station). After a few hiccups in the plans we made our way to the hostel and proceeded to get lost. Sean and I walked in the rain in the residential part of Amsterdam until 2 a.m. It was a tad miserable but it could have been much worse. The next day we walked around pretty much the entire city. Amsterdam is a lovely city that meets up to it's reputation. Luckily everybody spoke English as well as Dutch so it was easier to get around than in Italy. Now on the subjects of the legalities of what Amsterdam allows, prostitution is legal and creepy. The red light district is absolutely crawling with legal brothels with women in the windows looking for "customers". It's almost scary and it was awkward on the off chance that I made eye contact with them, but I still laughed. Marijuana is also tolerated in Amsterdam in coffee shops. These coffee shops were very funny places, and you can't really imagine it till you have seen it first hand. We also went to the Anne Frank museum which was actually a pretty sad place. Not that it would be a happy place, but just looking at the authentic things really brings you down. I have offically seen Anne Frank's actual diary. That was surreal. Also everybody in Amsterdam rides bikes. The city center was like a giant bike parking lot. It was insane, you had to look every which way before crossing the street. Amsterdam's tourism industry probably makes that city tons of money, half the people I heard talking probably weren't even city natives. Overall Amsterdam was a ton of fun, and not as expensive at Italy.
My time overseas is winding down and I am going to miss the friends i've made here and the times i've had. I have a lot of essay work to do this week but i'm going to make sure I see the rest of Manchester that I haven't seen yet before I depart. Until next time. Goodbye.

Update on my life.

I haven't blogged in a while... so you think I would have a lot to say; but I don't. Life in Manchester is still pretty fantastic. I still haven't had one bad day yet while i've been here. School is going ok, but I hate going because i'd rather be doing other things. The people here have been great, although I get some strange questions. For example I was asked on Halloween if "there are Mounties in Buffalo." Not sure if I spell that right but, you know, those CANADIAN police who ride around on horses, thats what I am talking about. That girl thought since we are so close to the border that we would have been influenced by our Canadian friends. Her friends made her feel stupid before I had the chance. Also when I say i'm from Buffalo, NY, people always say how much they love Brooklyn and how scary the Bronx is. I let all that slide though and just agree. Last week I saw two amazing bands both starting with the letter P. Phoenix and Portugal. the Man were both amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better time. For Halloween, I didnt really have a costume so a friend of mine and I went to the costume store and I picked out random things. I had people who said I looked like Zorro and I had people who said I looked like the Hamburgaler. There are/will be pictures on facebook so you can make your own decisions. I still have more pictures from Liverpool that I need to put up... i'll get to it. I'm going to Italy on Friday with Rachael, we'll be meeting Sean, Lindsy, Lenora, and our friend Chris there. I think we are going to Pisa, Venice, and Florence. Also in December I'll be going to Amsterdam with Sean, Cassandra, and our friend Tamara (hopefully I spelled her name right, too lazy to look it up.) It's my reading week (aka a week that we are given to catch up on homework, but since I don't really have any it's a week to sleep until 2 or 3), so that should be pretty neat. I miss my telecaster a lot. It sucks only being able to play my acoustic all the time, but without it I probably would have tried jumping out of my 4th story window (its 3rd story in England because they have the "ground floor" then the next floor up is the 1st floor). I still have not eaten a crumpet. I do not have swine flu. My room is a mess. I'm still not one hundred percent sure what people here are saying all the time (for instance I met a kid from Wales on Halloween, I understood about every 7th word he said... nice person though.) Thats about it. Until next time.

PS. All my roommates and a friend of mine said I had a horrible diet because everything I eat needs to be microwaved. So I cooked my own dinner tonight. Rice, cucumber, onions, yellow peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes with salmon and Thai chili sauce. It wasn't terrible, but it could have been a lot better if I "read directions" or "looked up how to properly cook the meal."

Liverpool.

Just to get it out of the way... the bills suck and it's time to rebuild again. Thats the end of that. Anyways my roommates Rachael, Lindsy, and Lenora visited Liverpool last weekend. It was a blast! It is the Mecca for all Beatles fans. It was two full days of the Beatles (with an hour set aside to go to a slavery museum... i'll talk about that later). We went to authentic Beatles shops, a Beatles museum, took a Beatles cab tour around to where they met, and where they grew up. We spend some time on Matthew Street which is pretty much an entire street dedicated to the memory of the Beatles. We went to the Cavern Club, where the Beatles played 292 shows, and saw a John Lennon impersonator who was very good. We also went to a John Lennon memorial museum that had postcards he had written to his family, clothing he had worn, and all sorts of other stuff. I pretty much filled up my 2 gig memory card in my camera on Beatles stuff. As soon as we get the internet at our place i'll be putting up my London and Liverpool pictures. The phone company pretty much screwed us over. We have a phone line but they gave us the wrong plan or something to it costs a ton to call internationally, and they said they couldn't install internet for another three weeks; even though they were supposed to do it on the 5th. Our landlord is probably going to take the company to court. Anyways... the slavery museum... it was exactly what you would expect. Relics, testimonies from slaves, diagrams, maps, models of plantations, the whole bit. Thats really all I have to say about that. As far as life goes... it's good. I'm really enjoying my time here. Mostly everyone I have met has been very kind. School is going well... although I never really want to go. I'd rather walk around the city or enjoy awful British television. It's probably going to rain soon which is not cool. I really don't have too much more to say right now. 3 hours of talking about The Cold War would tire anybody out. So until next time... goodbye.

I'll keep it short and sweet. I am a Bills fan, and it's hard enough being away from them. But come on, I wait all week not even to watch the games because I can't but to just get on nfl.com and watch highlights and check stats... and we lose that bad to the Dolphins with a second string QB in? Really? Come on. Seriously.

Classes thus far

Classes here are a tad different than in the states. First of all after every hour long class students have to attend seminar which is pretty much comprehension and actual class work. It's kind of a drag because it will be like going to a two hour class but I really can't complain because i'm only taking three classes. I will be taking American Ordeal- The American Civil War, Medieval England, and Conflict and Contagion- The Cold War. First of all i'm very excited to take an American Civil War class because... lets face it... I will probably know a lot more about the civil war than most other people in the class. It's also funny listening to someone talk about American issues not speaking in a we sort of way, but in more of a they style. Medieval England will probably be a bit of a problem because everybody in the class is a lot more familiar with the material than I am, and the professor speaks far too quickly like she's going to win something for finishing her lessons early. Cold War i'm not too sure about yet because frankly we did nothing in class today and seminar was cancelled. From what I grasp these classes will be a lot of reading but not a lot of writing/homework. I'll have to do one big (3,000 word) term paper to be completed by the end of each class and thats about it. In other news I hopped on the wrong bus last night and didn't realize it until I had no idea where I was. I ended up in the borough of stockport... not stockport road where I live. I was only a 7 minute cab ride (I had to call a cab to get home because the buses that go where I was do not go to stockport road) away but that was a bit annoying. Also for my friends... look it up online... The Black Keys are making a hip hop record with such artists as Mos Def, Ludacris, RZA, and others. There are youtube videos up that show them in the recording studio with Mos Def (whom by the way is a big fan apparently). It sounds pretty sweet thus far. On a different subject we should be getting wifi and an international telephone on monday the 5th which I am very excited for, for two big reasons. One, i'll actually be able to contact my family/friends rather than via facebook, and two I'll be able to keep track of the Monday night game between the Packers and Vikings. I'll have to stay up till past 1 a.m. just for the kickoff but it will all be worth it. Until next time. Goodbye.

London!

My new friends and I visited London for the weekend, and we had a blast. We took the bus there, which was a four hour bus ride. After taking a couple buses within the last couple weeks I have realized it is impossible to sleep on a bus. Anyways when we got into London we took the "tube" aka the subway to get on another bus to get to the bed and breakfast we were staying in. From what I observed we were staying in a West Ham supporting bar. For those of you who don't know... West Ham is a soccer (football) team in the English Premier League. I'll be honest... we weren't staying in the best part of town but it was the cheapest place we could find. We woke up very early both days to catch a lovely breakfast provided by the nicest old woman we had ever seen. On Saturday we took the train back into London and we did bus tours. We saw pretty much all the major parts of London in which when we get wifi at our apartment I will be posting over 200 photos. When evening came we decided to take a ghost tour of London, in which our tour guide Phil took us around to famous places in London and Westminster where ghosts have been seen, and also to his favorite pubs. The pubs were not included in the tour guidelines but I think Phil just likes to drink on the job. None the less we had a great time listening to his ghost stories and grabbing beers with him. He took us to a Sherlock Holmes pub where I had a Sherlock Holmes ale... which was delicious by the way. After getting a couple more beers and dinner we headed back to our place and crashed. On Sunday we did a very long Beatles walk which was guided by a slightly hung over Phil. We saw many monumental places in Beatles as well as rock history. We saw places the Beatles played, where the Stones were discovered by record labels, the venue where Jimmy Hendrix did his last live performance 2 days before his death with the singer from The Animals, which is ironically the same place where The Clash members Joe Strummer and Mick Jones started The Clash waiting in line to see Tom Waits... and the same place where Genesis signed their first record contract. We saw the old Apple studios where The Beatles played their last live performance, and the studio where amazing bands such as Queen, Elton John, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and many others recorded some of their most popular hits. If you couldn't tell... I really enjoyed this tour. We also went on the London Eye, which is pretty much a very large Ferris wheel that you can overlook all of London on. That was pretty neat. Overall I had an amazing time. It couldn't have been better in my opinion. In other news I start classes tomorrow at the crack of 1 p.m. which is nice. My other two classes will start at 10 a.m. on Wednesday and Thursday which is quite early considering I have to catch an hour long bus ride to school but oh well. It's only one class each day. On a separate subject can someone please let me know through any social networking portal how the Bengals beat the Steelers? In what crazy, upside down world did that happen in? Also even though the Bills lost, everyone knew it was going to happen so I am not that disappointed. I would also like to commend the Detroit Lions on their victory. I never lost faith. That's all for now. Ok bye.

The Mullet finds a home.

I arrived in Manchester a couple days ago. It was strange because there wasn't anybody in the customs area so Cliff and I pretty much walked into the country unnoticed. After catching a cab I finally arrived at my new apartment. I mean no offense to my home in Buffalo because it is my HOME and there is no other place I would be more proud to call my home, but wow this place is much nicer (and much more expensive). I now live pretty much a duplex house with 5 other (amazing) people. It's funny how comfortable I feel around my new roommates, and I am not complaining about that. I have a feeling we are going to get on just fine as long as i'm not to much of a bother. My room is on the third floor and it is HUGE. I have a big bed about quadruple the closet space I would ever need. I even have a vanity area! I doesn't think ive looked in the mirror yet but I feel like i'll have to at some point. We live in a very nice area of town full of little shops and pound stores (kind of like a dollar store). We live in an area enriched with Muslim culture which I am very excited about. Apparently a couple of politicians live near us and apparently we live about a 5-10 minute walk from where some of the members of Oasis grew up. I don't really listen to them but it's cool none the less. As far as school goes, I am excited to start. The school is centered in downtown Manchester, about 40 minutes away from where I live. The public transportation here is amazing though so it is not a problem getting here. Downtown Manchester is... how should I put this... spectacular? Better than spectacular? I don't know... but you get the point. I talked to a guy who was helping out with orientation who used to be in a band and he informed me that the local music scene here is fantastic. I'll be taking his reccomendations on places to frequent while I'm here. Plus Regina Spektor, the Yeah Yeah, Yeahs, Phoenix, ETID, and others will be playing local venues during my stay here. Excited? You bet your ass I am! Until next time... so long.

Final hours in Ireland

Time: About 4:30 P.M. September 20th
Place: Eatery in the Shannon Airport, Ireland
Status: Bored (Hence the Blogging).
To whom it may concern,
I am spending my last hours in Ireland as I type. We have been in this airport for almost an hour and a half, and our flight does not leave for another 3 ½ hours. We had to make the choice of either arriving as early as we did or risk arriving about an hourish before our flight. In hindsight I wish we would have chosen the latter. This airport is dead and when we came into Ireland we found out the Irish customs system pretty much asks “Do you have anything with you that you think wouldn't be allowed in the country?” The correct answer was no and we were on our way.
To recap my stay in Ireland, we arrived on the 16th very early in the morning and pretty much walked from the plane to the bus. We were on the bus for about four hours until we reached the town of Westport. It was a lovely little town. We were met by Clifford's friend Donal minutes after we exited the bus and he showed us around Westport with his girlfriend Roison. Don't worry... if I saw a name typed like that I wouldn't be able to pronounce it either. The correct pronunciation is Row-Sheen. Anywho after a short stay in Westport we hopped on the ferry to the island that Donal lives on off the coast of Ireland, Clare Island. I don't really feel the need to go into detail about the scenery of the island because I think my pictures will do it justice. We met Donal's family whom were all amazing people, and incredibly hospitable. We spent our days on the island hiking around, taking pictures, and avoiding stepping in sheep droppings. Yes, this island probably had more sheep than people. Actually now that I think of it that island has tamed animals everywhere ie donkeys, dogs, obviously sheep, chickens and cats. My favorite sheep was Steven. All I can say about Steven is he is a girl, but they still called him Steven which I enjoyed very much, he/she was a fighter, and his/her sister tasted delicious yesterday. I must say the food Donal's mother Elizabeth made was delicious. Everything I ate I absolutely loved, and I'm not just saying that. We met many of Donal's friends whom were all great people, and we shared an unforgettable night (well I can't really say unforgettable, I remember most of the details but due to Guiness and Jameson some of the smaller notes get a bit fuzzy) at the local pub. We sang, Cliff danced, and Cliff made a huge impression on the Irish women. By the way, we arrived just in the nick of time to enjoy the simple pleasantries of “singles weekend”. Singles weekend is when all the singles on the island get together to enjoy the company of other singles (ages 35 and older... much older) and pretty much drink a ton. It was pretty hilarious if I do say so myself. So after four fun filled days of living up to the title of “tourist” Cliff and I packed our bags and headed for the ferry, back on the bus, to there airport where I sit now.
Overall out of ten I give my stay on Clare Island an 11.4. Yeah... it was that cool. I really enjoyed spending a couple days in a very rural part of Europe before I arrive in Manchester. Although I am also very excited to arrive in Manchester, get into my new apartment, and start school. We'll see how things turn out. So until next time I get bored enough to inform everyone of what is going through my brain, so long and see ya when I see ya.
Tony Fisher

ps. Start using the word gobshite. It's a very worth while word that you may want to add into your vocabulary.

Pps. The worst thing about not being in the states (other than not being with my family and friends whom I love very much) is missing everything the entire NFL season. If the Lions don't win a game this entire season again I will blame it on my absence. Go Bills!