Oh the Places You'll Go...

I know it's been 10 days, so I apologize to anyone who's checked my blog and been disappointed that there wasn't a new post recently. But here it is! The moment you've all been waiting for, my blog post for Sept. 26th. In 10 days, you would not believe what I've accomplished, I titled this blog post "Oh The Places You'll Go" after one of my favorite Dr. Suess books, only because I feel it's so applicable to my trip in London, and more so, greater Europe.

When I left you last, I had seen Buckingham Palace, Avenue Q, and Parliament. But in the last 10 days I've traveled quite a lot. We'll start with last weekend in particular when I traveled with five other Elon in London students to Paris, France. Of course, this was my first trip to the beautiful country of France, but you may be surprised all that I saw. On Friday, we woke up at 4am in the morning to catch a night bus to the Thames river, where we picked up our coach about an hour or so later and got on our way toward the Coast. I saw the cliffs of Dover for the first time in my life in the early morning hours after daybreak and that's the port where our coach drove onto an enormous ferry, which was our source of transportation across the English Channel. I've never been on anything like a cruise ship before, but the ferry was amazing. I got a number of good photos of the coastline of England from the top deck of the ship and of course, by the way, I collected quite a lot of photos over France-weekend regardless, 415 to be exact.

Anyways, we arrived in Paris later that day in our coach around 4:30-5:30pm, and drove straight to the heart of the city, near the Eifel Tower and got onto a riverboat along the River Siene to do a river cruise of the city. The first night, our group had already seen all the highlights of the city via boat. Notre Dame, the Louvre, Eifel Tower, all the many bridges built over the course of French history, the original island that Paris was discovered on, etc. Then of course we had some time afterwards to take our tourist photos in front of the Eifel Tower itself and then called it a night. On Saturday, we were up early and at it again after a quick breakfast at our hotel. I must say, I am not a picky eater, but the one thing that I will mention about food in Paris, and maybe some of the greater world, is that people are a fan of warm milk, I may be ethnocentric to some degree, but I must say, I'm just a huge fan of a cold glass of milk in the morning, or in my cereal or whatever, but needless to say, I managed anyways.

Regardless, Saturday was jam-packed. We started the morning at the Sacre-Coeur Basilica, which after a climb of all the hundreds of steps, overlooks the entire city of Paris as the sun was beginning to situate itself in the sky. Wow, what a humbling experience. Where the basilica is actually located is an artisan town, and it has been for hundreds of years. Street artists wanting to charcoal sketch your picture are everywhere, musicians in the corner streets playing their woes, and inside the basilica, you'd never expect the amount of faith that is present there. It's a very humbling experience to be around so many individuals with so much faith in what they believe in. Anyways, it was a great opportunity to reflect and just kinda chill out for some time. Following that, we took the back streets off the hilltop to see some of the original windmills that stood atop of Paris before the Basilica was built and following that, we went to see the original Moulin Rouge. The windmill on top of it, is actually a fake windmill, not a real one, or a working one, and no, we didn't go inside, it apparently is like 85 euro per person to have some sort of meal and see the can-can dancers, but regardless, it was a tourist attraction anyways, for better or worse.

Following that, we hopped back on the bus, and headed to Notre Dame Cathedral. WOW! What a place! I took a lot of photos there, not only of the cathedral, but of the people there too! I didn't climb to the top, because there was a fee, but it was so gorgeous. It's crazy that I always have to remind myself that history here in Europe is so rich, and ours back in the states is so young. These cathedrals and churches I've seen so far, took so many years to build, and have so much history within them as well, and in addition to being tourist hot spots, they're honestly fully functional churches with active congregations. Nevertheless, I've been so impressed by all of them so far. After Notre Dame and a quick lunch (by the way, I did have plenty of baugettes while in France, not too shabby) we were back on the coach and headed to Versailles. The guys on the trip decided that if we were going to France, and couldn't make it to Normandy, we were definitely going to Versailles, because we've learned about it so much in our history classes, we just had to see it.

The Palace of Versailles, is absolutely stunning, and did I mention ridiculously GI-NORMOUS! (I know mom that's not a real word, but gargantuan doesn't describe it effectively.) I couldn't even fit the entire palace in one photo frame, it took like 4, and I still haven't figured out wide-angle shots completely yet, but I'm pretty sure it can't be done anyways. King Louis XIV who had the idea of building the thing, knew how to live right, that's for sure. Talk about a wild MTV cribs video he'd have, the place is great. We didnt' actually tour the palace, or walk through it's two golden laid gates, but what we did do, is walk around the entire thing, to the even more impressing 200,000, yes, 200,000 ACRE gardens. Jeez, I would hate to be a landscaping crewman working for King Louie back in the day. Beyond the palace there is this giant fountain which starts the original terrace of the gardens, followed by a half mile walkway alongside of shrubberies and greek/roman inspired statues leading to the Grand Canal. There, we ate at a small authentic and pricy French cafe, people watched, which is very popular in france, and watched all the romantics and the families take boats across the canal, and of course, took more photo opportunities.

After exploring Versailles for the afternoon, we were back on the coach toward Paris again where we were dropped off at the Eifel Tower, and of course, our crew went to the very top. I used to have a severe fear of heights, but I'm getting a lot better, I mean, especially when you're in a rickity old-timey and shaking elevator traveling almost 1000 feet in the air. The view is phenomenal. We went up at sunset, and after the long wait, were up in the air 1000 feet for nightfall, and subsequently watching the city of Paris light up and become a firestorm of shining lights. The Siene is beautiful from the top, every bridge highlighting the water, Notre Dame and the Arc de Triumph can all be seen, and no matter where you're at, the view incredibly extends to the horizon. They actually serve champagne at the top of the Eiffel tower, which I thought was hilarious, but I believe it's due to the amount of people that propose to their girlfriends on the top of the tower. Which by the way, Paris, has a little bit too much PDA (public displays of affection) for my taste, but that's neither here nor there. Anyways, it was rather funny, because after seeing a couple in wedding attire ascend to the top of the Eiffel tower, a couple of the guys in our group staged a "wedding proposal" to the girls with us, and on both occasions that it happened, all of the people around us thought it was real, and as I took pictures of it, all of the other tourists thought they just had witnessed something magical, haha, I found it amazingly humorous.

Nevertheless, I didn't mention that I also saw the famous square in which Marie Antoinette and other famous French leaders were executed by guillotine, the prison in which they were held, the supposed resting place of Napoleon Boneapart, the Arc de Triumph, the obilisque donated by the Egyptians in peace time, as well as this giant monument built by Napoleon out of 230 some cannons solely as the foundation, which I found interesting. Not that he needed those 230 cannons at waterloo or anything, but those are just minute details. Anyhow, Sunday morning came around and we went to the Louvre for a number of hours. There are 250,000 exhibits in the Louvre, spanning thousands of years, and artifacts from all sorts of places across the globe. I got my picture in front of the Mona Lisa (a lot smaller than I imagined lol), Michaelangelo's Aphrodite, saw the Code of Hammurabi (one of my favorite exhibits. Wikipedia it later, but it was basically the first ever law/code written in the world actually down on stone by King Hammurabi, who was one of the credited rulers over like Babylon/the Middle East during the short time after the Egyptians and such...by the way, the laws included things like beating your wife and other such ones, it's quite comical by today's standards)...if you didn't already know, I'm a complete nerd. Some other highlights included an authentic medieval mote, paintings galore, the statue of Ramses II, mummies, sarcophogai, and plenty more. Of course I got my picture at both the outside of the main entrance to the Louvre, which is the modern glass pyramid, and also at the inverted glass pyramid, just like Tom Hanks from the Da Vinci Code.

So that was basically Paris/France in a nutshell, it was a crampacked weekend and I slept a lot in transit. After my return, I went back into work on Monday/Wednesday, and I must say, I'm absolutely having the time of my life at Xtreme Information. On Wednesday, I got to use some fun equipment and work on a product called "The Reel" that we put out every month, that highlights the best advertisements in the world and in the UK in the past month, and gives the contact and details of every production company, agency, sound editers, post-edit people, and directors as well. The ads are selected, and put on a DVD and then sent to our clients. Which of course, beside each description of the add, there is a picture thumbnail of the advert itself. Well, to make a long story even longer, if any of this makes any sense at all, basically what I did was viewed all 100-150 ads for the next month, and freeze-framed the commercial or short at a highlighted or artistic or graphic moment, and following that, I took a high-resolution photo of that moment as well. Basically what all of that means, is next month when the new issue of the Reel comes out, every single photo used in the product that will go out to the clients, was selected and made by me. Kinda cool right? It's awesome because I'm getting actual experience and my work is even getting published.

Last night I also attended the live recording of a BBC radio show entitled "The Chat Room" or something like that, which was hosted by Clive Anderson, who's the guy who was the host on the British Version of "Who's Line is it Anyways" if you've seen that. It was a satirical show about current events and pretty hilarious, it was cool to be apart of a studio audience for the first time.

Nevertheless, school is very hard, I have so much work and I'm trying to keep up as well as attempt to do a few things here and there and oh wait, live in a big city too. I hope you all have been entertained and that you'll tune in again soon, hopefully I'll post a little sooner as well. Please keep the emails and comments coming, it's great to hear from home. Take care all, and of course, as the Brits say, CHEERS!

Parliament, Buckingham, and a Trip to "Avenue Q!"

So I've officially been in London for approximately two weeks (tomorrow will be exactly that much time since I landed) and it's wild, I feel similarly to my last post. I feel as though I've already accomplished so much here in such a short time span but at the same time don't feel like I've done a fraction of anything! It's incredible how many sites are so close by, it really makes you stop and reflect and realize how much back in the states, we take for granted some of the sites (for me, it's the fact that I live 2 hours from DC, and don't think it's that cool, even though it really is.)

Anyways, to fill you in on what I've been doing lately, let me start where I left off, last Friday, on the 12th, I woke up and headed for a guided tour of Parliament. As a nerd, let me tell you how cool that place really is. I'm jealous of some of my friends here that get to actually work IN Parliament, however, I'm not jealous of the politics they have to put up and such. ANYWAYS, I'd say almost every room in Parliament has a large portion of the room covered in Gold, authentic 24k gold everything, if you see anything gold-looking, it's real. That's crazy. But on a more intellectual note than that, it was a really great experience to just see the heart of a different type of government. Although democratic, there are some interesting differences in the layouts of Parliament that made me think of home.

For instance, the House of Commons, is actually a square room, divided by a table (**FUN FACT** the debate floor is approx. 2 and a half sword lengths apart, because back in the day, they figured they didn't want to get anyone stabbed in the middle of debate if it got heated, if someone did get a sword through security) whereas back in the states, every large state or federal legislative building has the room set up in a circular pattern, so politicians just yap away about who knows what, and it's not even directed at anyone. Anyways, that was just an observation. Also, our tour guide told us a funny story, because one of the large processional halls is lined with gigantic murals of the English conquering the French hundreds of years ago (battle of Waterloo etc), and they normally use that room for individuals who want to address Parliament, and they have to put up curtains every time the French come to speak with British politicians, so it's not demoralizing, but they occasionally forget to, lol, guess it sucks to be French? I don't know, but I found it quite humorous.

Alright, so moving on, I've been keeping quite busy. On Saturday afternoon I traveled with a few flat mates and friends to Buckingham Palace to view their special exclusive showing of the Queen's State Rooms. These are the prestigious rooms dedicated to VIP guests of the Queen when she invites them over to her crib. Basically, it was gorgeous, from Rembrandt paintings, to Napoleons very own coffee table (took 6 years to make it, it's called the table of commanders, and is made from porcelain, with great generals from the beginning of time on it), to every room having a color scheme. I've never heard of so many different names for rooms. Not to mention they had a special exhibit on the Grand Ball Room, where they set it up, as if the Queen was hosting a special State Dinner, these are lavish and incredible affairs only for obviously very impressive guests of the Queen, and the amount of detail in preparations for this affair are wild! They take a ruler and measure the distances of every fork (x2), spoon, knife (x2), bowls, plates, butter dishes, etc etc etc...basically, something I was never used to back home haha. Anyways, it was a wonderful time and not too pricy surprisingly enough for being a student.

Wrapping up the weekend, Sunday was dedicated to homework, preparing for my internship (which is still amazing, by the way, and I've had a great time!) and Monday of course was my flatmate, James' birthday! After we finished intenrships on Monday, we all met at the flat, ate, and then decided to head to a show on a whim! We saw the production "Avenue Q" which I had never seen live, and oh my goodness, what an awesome experience. We walked in (I was wearing the blue sweater mom) all dressed up, asked for "student concession" seating which basically means that for a flat student rate, the box office will offer you the best seats they have that night in the house...and it just so happened, that our group of 7 was split up into VIP box seats on the sides of the stage. Pretty much you felt like royalty, for a cheap price. If you haven't already guessed, I'm getting really good at finding random lucky things like that. (I ate at a place in China town when I went exploring one day called Mr. Wu's, which was an all-you-can-eat buffett for £4.95, and of course, Mr. Wu only excepts cash, cause he runs a shady establishment, but it was lunchtime, and of course I was looking for a lot of food, so I didn't mind.) Anyways, Avenue Q is a histerical comedy/satire based on poking fun at Seasame Street, where all the actors actually also do voices of muppet-like characters, play multiple characters, and are just absolutely phenomenal. I couldn't believe the amount of talent the 6 actors on stage had, it was a West End production (similar to Broadway-level) back home, and once again, I was blown away and laughing for 2.5 hours straight. A must-see I must say.

So today I have one more class in a few minutes, and will probably be grocery shopping, doing laundry, and of course probably popping into the British Museum for the second time in a week and a half. (I've seen the National Gallery and The British Museum on afternoons when I was going from place to place only partially), so I might go revisit the Rosetta Stone, see a work by Da Vinci, or you know, do homework...but either way, I'll find something to pass the time. Regardless, I wish I could come up with something more incredible to talk about, but as you can already tell, my rambles explain quite a lot. On that note, any donations, contributions, or advice you would like to send to the Josh Tate Study Abroad Foundation, please email me, facebook me, or comment on this post. We're a non-profit, and always open for business, kinda like 7-11.

Oh yeah, and just to let everyone know. This weekend I randomly booked a 3-day excursion to Edinborough, Scotland (you know loch ness, and all that fun...don't worry I'll find bagpipers and kilts), and I'm heading to paris this weekend with a few friends, 3-days of site seeing, traveling and picture taking. We had an internet crisis in the flats last weekend, but all has been fixed, so I'll try to put up those pics tonight sometime and give you all my artsy shots that I've been taking around the city, as I try to become a metropolitan artisan. Miss you all and please keep the good news coming from the states! Tally-ho! And...as the Brits say...Cheers!

Xtreme London: Theaters, Sites, and Stars! - Plus I'm Really Ghetto...

Heya! Thanks for tuning back in...for my OCD mom, you'll be glad I updated (today I wore the blue sweater, just in case you were wondering), and to everyone else, I've got so much to tell!

Where to begin? Well, I started work on Monday for those of you who didn't know, and I'm working at a corporation called "Xtreme Information" (hence the title ;-)). What they do is actually quite a lot of different things, so it's a great fit for me, a communications major/a nerd, because I'll get to see a lot of different aspects of a company while I'm interning there. Xtreme Information is like the middle man or liason between large companies such as Sony, Coca-Cola, or Virgin Records, and media or PR organizations and also the go-between for marketing companies and their clients. So for instance, one of the services Xtreme provides for their clients, is a product called "weekly bulletin" which is basically daily updates on companies like, who's being promoted, what products and services are being released and when, contact information, trade news, and basically anything you wanna know and want to be up to speed on in the corporate world. The great part about it is, with Xtreme, all of the information is personally verified on the phone, not just read about or posted somewhere, and all of it can be delivered to you, the client, either in print form, or via email with daily alerts. Nifty huh?

So basically I have a baller job. I've been in suits the whole time, but it turns out they told me the first day, that I was way too overdressed, everything's casual there, and if I want to go into work in jeans and a hoodie, so be it. But I like keeping things professional and looking classy, I'm not gonna lie. Anyways, I've done a bunch of different jobs, from data entry, to research, to trip planning (that was on my own time), to finding out what the company does. It's pretty Xtreme if I do say so myself. Not to mention the people rule, are friendly, and are very helpful. I'm making great friends there.

Some more news in my life, is that it's only been 8 days since I left the states, but I already feel like two ways: 1) like I've accomplished so much, and that's awesome and 2) oh holy crap, I haven't done anything.

For Example...Sunday morning I got up early and took a trip down to Enbankment (the tube stop where Big Ben and Parliament are etc) and strolled up to Westminster Abbey with my friend Jenn from Elon. Walked right up to the guard, said hello and that I was there for the church service, and right away, I'm escorted in the side entrance of this amazing ancient cathedral and am seated for the end of the first service. Not only did I get into the Abbey free, which is clutch, but I got to hear the sounds of their traditional all-male choir lead the last half of the service in latin, a cappella, probably 6-part harmony. Heavenly. I was then allowed to sit in the CHOIR LOFT! (Amazing mind you) and see the second service first hand. It just blows my mind that in 2 hours time, basically 20 minutes away from me, I can go to a place where Lords, Dukes, and Kings have been crowned, and have the whole experience all at once. It was nuts.

Monday of course was work, but then since I had some time I left at 5, and went to a local park. Regents Park to be exact where I did some lovely site seeing on my own, photography (I think I'm becoming artistic...or just more nerdy), and people watching of course. Strolled through Queen Mary's gardens for a bit and then headed to the flat for dinner. I'm really awesome at making pasta by now, trust me.

Tuesday I had classes, which are going to be a lot of work, but I think worth it too. And uneventfully, I had to get groceries, so I didn't do something out of this world then, however, errands are always helpful.

Yesterday, however, was a great day. Not only did I finish another awesome day at work (day 2 done) but I stayed in my suit and headed back towards Enbankment to see a show as part of my theater class that I'm taking in London. Amazingly enough, (and for my camera too), it was Sunset along the Thames, and I got some more epic pictures (I know they're on their way mom...soon), and guess what else happened? Even before we walked into the National Theater, I'm taking photos along the railing of the beach, and low and behold, a movie crew is shooting a scene. I didn't realize it at the time, until I inquired later, but at the same time, I was probably an extra in a movie!!!! And guess who the actor was that was in it? Richard Bremmer. I didn't know it at the time, but turns out, that's the guy who plays Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies...crazy huh? Kelsey, you're probably really jealous by now, so I apologize, and unfortunately, I didn't get any photos with him, or of him, because he was acting in a show in the other theater near by, but I figured I'd mention it here anyways.

So then the play. (This is for mom especially) It was called "Some Trace of Her" and was an adaptation/impressions on Dostoevsky's "The Idiot" (some russian author's novel hehe). But the crazy thing was, it was in this very small black box theater, and on the stage, there were the actors, and a load of camera equipment, lights, microphones, and props. When the show started, not only were the actors below, doing scenes, and whatnot, but ALSO operated all of this equipment, which produced a movie, that was being shown, in live-time on a projector screen above them, that you watched. So it was a black and white movie (the play's a tragedy), that you watched all of the action as if you went to the big cinemas, but also a play. CRAZY!?!?!

Not only that, but the actors were incredible, the skill level was phenomenal, and though it was a grim show, I'm just blown away by the special effects, camera-work, and talent that I got to see. It probably doesn't sound like I'm actually doing much school stuff here, but trust me...the work is filled up during the day.

Anyways, I'm headed off to school to plan a trip with some flatmates and friends, I just finished doing my laundry in the bathtub, with hot tub jets on...yes, I am that Ghetto...and hopefully in the next few days I'll post some pics somehow so you can follow me around more! Thanks for tuning in and sorry I type so much...but once again, as the Brits say...Cheers!

Country Boy Goes to the Big City...

Wow! I've only been in London for the past 5 days, but I even remotely explain how amazing it is here. I was talking with my flatmates tonight and realized that every day here is so unreal because I feel like I can accomplish so many amazing feats in a single day, by 9pm, I feel like I've taken advantage of so much.

For example, Friday, day 3, barely recovered on sleep at all and stoked to have touched down safely, our group of 35 took off fast. We woke up early and started off the day with a walking tour around our general neighborhood of Little Venice, the reason it's called Little Venice of course is because there is a quaint little river that flows through the block with narrowboats in it, all of which look like gondolas from Italy. It's a beautiful, classy, and upscale place to live, and of course, if anyone was wondering, I live in...the Penthouse Flat. Yes, top floor of the 4 story building with a upper loft that has our Lounge and Kitchen areas in it. You could describe it as "pimping" or "ballin." Regardless, everyone in the building enjoys our flat and visits often. There's never a dull moment in Flat L, the Penthouse Flat.

After the walking tour, we followed it by a bus tour around the city, it was good to see all the big sites quickly and try to get some of our bearings on what we needed to take in while we're here. (Get the tourist stuff out of the way and acclimate quickly of course). So we saw the London Eye, Big Ben, the Tower of London, etc etc etc all in 2 hours time and called it a day. Flat L hosted some of the Elon students that evening to get to know each other (since we just met days before) and we even found a small pub down the street called the Warwick Castle where I talked to a few locals about football, directions, and pints.

Saturday, Day 4, was a trip that any history buff would have drooled over. We were up early, on a bus out of the city and ended up in Salisbury Cathedral, staring at the tallest steeple in all of England. Of course, don't worry, I took my artsy-photographic time and made sure I got lots of pictures. They also have in the Cathedral one of the best preserved original copies of the Magna Carta to this day (DC has a more recent copy, so obviously it's not as cool). I couldn't get over the fact that this amazing building was made by hand 750 years ago to this year (we're here at the anniversy of the church). Not to mention the stunning size, shear amazingness of the stained glass, and of course, the town of Salisbury is gorgeous. When I'm at age 40 and touring pubs with my folk band, I'm living there in my downtime.

Stonehenge was the next stop on the trip and some of the Elon kids thought it was lame, however, I found it absoutely stellar, and made sure I also took some great photos with it, and of it. Including a classy, "Zoolander" photo as well. Regardless, we had a great time, and headed to Avesbury, which is basically a 14 time larger version of stonehenge which was less tourist-like, and I enjoyed that a lot too. It rained and poured for a while in the afternoon, but contrary to popular belief, it doesn't always rain in London :-).

Lastly, for today's blog summary, I feel like I've already accomplished so much (as you can tell by the length of this). I woke up early this morning, hopped the tube with my friend Jenn from Elon I met here, and we went to 1.5 services at Westminster Abbey. We caught the tail end of the first service, which was a traditional latin service that is primarily sung by the choir (all guys mind you). Then stayed for the official service at 11:15am which is the Sung Eucharist service, and I must say the place is absolutely stunning. The experience is indescribable. Not only were we able to sit in the Choir Loft (which was epic) but we got to sit right by the choir, watched the whole service with people all over the world and also of course watched a traditional communion as well. It's crazy to think of sitting in seats that were once reserved for noblemen, scholars, dukes, earls, and of course used for all great big ceremonies. Naturally I felt like a rockstar. Additionally, of course Big Ben sits right beside the Abbey and Parliament and of course I got some nice photo ops as well. All of which happened before lunch time, incredible to think about since it happened mostly before anyone in the states woke up :-).

Tomorrow I'm heading for my first day at my Internship at Xtreme Information, school starts this week, and I'm pumped to be a city-goer and becoming more London-oriented, I rode my first double decker bus tonight, have settled down, and of course have cooked myself a lot of pasta lately, but it's all good, please tune back in for more long-updates and email me any of your fun adventures in the states, I miss you all and as the Brits say...CHEERS!

TOUCHDOWN!?!?....Literally...

I made it. I flew overnight and for a first-time international flight, I had a smooth ride for sure. I left Washington DC around 6pm and arrived promptly in London this morning at 6:30am as well. My approx. 7.5 hour flight was filled with a lot of fun for sure. I was sitting in between another study-abroad-to-be student from Oklahoma named Deseray and a good ol' quality Brit named Chris, which was great because not only did I get tips and pointers on where to go in London and what to see in Europe from an expert but also spent some quality time with another student too.

And what made the flight even better? The in flight movie was KUNG FU PANDA! It's destined that this adventure was meant to be because since the midnight showing this past summer that I saw, I haven't seen a much better flick.

Other than that, I'm all moved into the flats, got my suitemates, and am slowly acclimating to the London lifestyle. There are more trips, tours, and such in the next few days, but I of course wanted to make sure I blogged the moment I got settled in so that my Mom would be happy. Tune in again soon!

Ready? Set?...Goin' Goin' Gone!

It's almost 11am in the states, and I'm doing my last minute preparations. I have my bags packed (they're heavy, but under airline restrictions...I hope) and almost all set to go. I'll be flying out tomorrow night at 6pm and arriving in Londontown at approx. 6am on Tuesday, there. I'm absolutely stoked for my experience abroad this upcoming semester not only to learn a lot, but hopefully experience something called "leisure time" (what's that?) and travel of course too. Regardless, I'll try to post when I touch down and hope to catch ya on the other side of the pond! Cheers!