A long but fruitful introduction

After about 5 days being in Bath I've finally figured out how to get around the place without getting completely lost. It's not on a grid system and there are tons of little alleyways and side streets that you wouldn't expect to offer anything but that's usually where the cheaper food places and thrift stores are. I've been enjoying myself at this local pub called the Royal Oak. It's a friendly place. I can usually just sit down to a table of people and just start talking and we have a nice conversation.

The other night me and some classmates went to a higher end pub that had 'Robert Burns Night.' Basically, at 8:30 a piper (bagpipes) came marching around all fancy like then they read an ode to haggis and then they served free haggis with scotch. If you can get past the thought that you're eating goo out of a sheep's stomach it actually tastes pretty good.

One of the best things here is the ale. They serve it from a pump and it's served more or less at room temperature. One of the worst things is the coffee. Most places either serve instant coffee or real coffee that somehow tastes just like instant coffee. The trick is to find a place that serves 'italian coffee,' but not a chain -- chains that claim italian still taste like ass. I've found a little cart only a few blocks down from where my classes are so I go there every morning and have a nice conversation with the person working then go to class. It's a nice little routine.

one of the weirdest things is the toilets. When they flush, it's not a gentle swirl that sucks your poo to the netherworlds. It's more like a gurgling waterfall splashing everything violently and somehow managing to keep it in the toilet. The other thing about the toilets is that there is no possible way to take a quiet poo. The water is about a foot away from your butt so it really works up its speed then splash!, and you're always pretty certain that even though the nearest person is three floors down, they just heard your bowel movement.

The first picture above is the front of the house I'm living in. Our side is actually just the left side. On the roof you can see three skylights. the left two are over my room and the one on the right is my bathroom.

This picture to the left is my bedroom. As you can see there is a skylight right by my head so when I wake up in the morning i look straight out over the city without having to even move. This other picture doesn't do the view justice, but you get the point.


One last thing, because this post is getting pretty long: Lola, the mom here, is Spanish so, unlike the British, she won't settle for bad food. And, yes, if you don't already know, most British food lacks in flavor. It's not aweful but it's not good. I guess that's why the eat a lot of curry.

a 2000 year old city (+/-)

Well, here I am in Bath, England. We arrived in London this morning at 10 am (2 am CA time), jumped on a coach to Bath and met up with out families. I could not be more excited about the family I'm staying with. It's an couple in or near their forties (Ian and Lola), a five year old boy (Joseph), and a baby boy (Hugo). I thought that a five year old with a British accent might be pretty cute but I had no idea. And it makes it all the better that he talks and talks and talks and talks.... The baby is only 7 weeks old so it's really not all that exciting.

My house is about a 5-10 minute walk to the town center, 1 minute to a pub, and 5 minutes to the skate park. It's pretty perfect.

I only got about an hour of sleep on the coach ride from the airport so I'd imagine I'm going to crash at some point. Maybe after a pint at the pub. Cheers!

New Orleans update 2

Here are some more pictures of the building and the property. I've also included a video at the bottom. It's Turner explaining the school.


This picture is from the back of the garden. As of the the garden is more of a mud hole but it's one of the projects of the projects of the school. The main strip of land on the left is the current garden project. The land on the right is a future garden. And of course there is the building in all its glory.







On the left is the main room. Right now we're trying to take the sag in the joists that run across. We have to get it straightened out so it can look good with drywall on it. We've been going around the neighborhood looking for straps and angle iron to hold the joists straight once we've jacked them up. It's kinda hard to get much done when you don't have money for new materials...but we're getting closer.

This is the upstairs room. Before we started jacking up the joists this floor had a huge arc to it. We also have to patch the leaks in the roof before we can hang drywall downstairs. That's the main thing I want to get done before I leave.

When we doing the last bit of demolition the other day we came across this bottle in the wall. Since it has been tucked away in the wall the water in it didn't evaporate. We're assuming it is flood water. It would be rad to get it tested for chemicals and heavy metals.

As soon as the water was pumped out a few weeks after the flooding rescue crews went from house to house searching for survivors and the dead. On each house there's a marking that indicates what they found inside. Most of them "TFW" - Toxic Flood Water. Because of the oil refinery and other chemical warehouses around, there was a shitload of chemicals that polluted the soil and poisoned animals and people here.


The stove on the left is our heat source. My friend John who is here was a squatter in NYC for years. He built a stove like this when he was living in the Manhattan Bridge. It puts out a ton of heat and we've got plenty of wood to burn. It's supposed to be in the 40s for the next few days so I'll be sleeping by that.


The tub here is the beginning of the garden. Most of this stuff we found growing around here so we just transplanted it. Oh...and the dog in the middle is Buddy. A crack head dropped him off to Turner because he heard that Turner took good care of the dog he already had.





Hopefully this link attaches the video. If not, just google 'school at blair grocery' and look for video results.

New Orleans - 2009

Well, I've been in New Orleans for about 5 days now. There is a group of students in from New York City who are working on various projects throughout the neighborhood of the Lower Ninth ward. Mostly they are working in the few blocks close to the School at Blair Grocery.

The School at Blair Grocery is a school that my friend Nat has started for kids who either have been kicked out of the regular school system or kids who simply would not be going to school if it were not for an alternative like this. The curriculum is everything from urban farming projects to regular school-like material.

Right now we are trying to turn the main room of the school into a more functional room. For the last few months the main room has been a bike shop, and workshop, a storage place for lumber, and a bedroom. The goal is to get it so the room can be finished off with drywall and electricity and can be a little better of an environment.

Nat's students painted the walls of the room and now my friend Jon and I are straightening the sagging joists on either side of the beam that runs down the middle.

If you want to see more pictures and learn some more about what's going on here with the school go to his blog.

Last night was pretty uneventful for a New Years night. We pretty much sat in the building all night. I had a few beers and listened to the gun shots going off around the neighborhood at midnight. There were fireworks and guns going off all over the place. I learned that there's a distinct difference between the sound of a gun and a firework. It was a fun game I was playing to pass the time.

More later.