#20 RideForTheTrees.com

You may have all heard about the guy who is going to be riding his bicycle from Paraguay to the US.

If you haven't, his name is Samuel Hagler and he is a good friend of mine.


Samuel is about to embark on a 10,000 mile journey to raise money and awareness for Paraguay's endangered San Rafael Reserve in South America's Atlantic Forest.

It's a pretty cool cause and even cooler that he's going to be traveling through 10 countries in order to do something about a problem that affects us all: deforestation. Not only will he be riding, but he will also be giving talks and lectures to schools in cities throughout his trip.

Here is his route. Remember, this will be on his bicycle.


Here's a small promotional video Sam and I made to help get the work out for his trip.



If you want to learn more about Sam and the Ride For The Trees, visit >www.RideForTheTrees.com

And, of course, if you feel like donating, feel free.

Samuel's journey begins in January.

#19 Some Sights

This weekend I forced myself to go sightseeing. Yeah, it took me about 2 months, but I finally went to a London museum and saw some of the sites here in London. I went to Hyde Park, Harrod's, the British National Gallery, and Tower Bridge.

"What's Tower Bridge?", you might ask.

This is Tower Bridge:


And this is London Bridge:


See the difference? A funny story about the original London Bridge...

Apparently it was falling down. As you might have heard. This was caused by an increase in traffic over the years (since it was built a long time ago, when there were horses and not cars crossing it).

An industrious man from a small town in Arizona bought the unsafe bridge and moved it to Lake Havasu, Arizona (where the traffic would demand slightly less of the bridge).

I was in Lake Havasu about a year and a half ago and didn't know the history behind the curiously named "London Bridge" that spanned across a channel in that rural Arizona town.

I thought to myself: Why would they name this bridge London Bridge? One that is out in the middle of the desert, in a town that in no way resembles London and is also called Lake Havasu. Shouldn't they have called it Lake Havasu Bridge? Further more, London Bridge has two awesome towers.

I've posted some pictures in the My London Picture folder. Enjoy!

#18 David The Sweet Tooth

Hello, my name is David The Sweet Tooth and I am a viking.

Ok, I'm not REALLY a viking. That is just my viking name. For those who don't keep up with the blog, I was in Copenhagen, Denmark this past weekend.

My viking name was given to me by Soren and his family. They gave it to me because I ate 3 of these delicious chocolate deserts his family had bought. They were basically a creamy sugar marshmellow-y/meringue dipped in chocolate. Man, I wish I had one right now.

But that was Sunday.

When I arrived in Copenhagen, it was on Friday which so happened to be on J Day. J Day is a holiday in the same way Valentines Day is a holiday. This is the story of J Day:

Sometime during the month of November, a few years ago, Danish beer companies would release new Christmas brews that are usually darker and stronger than their traditional beers. These release dates were scattered, sometimes landing on a Friday, sometimes they landed on a Tuesday. People loved these Christmas beers so much that they would find out the dates and, the minute the beers were released, they would drink themselves under the table - missing their obligations the following day. This was especially true for the younger kids (let's just say Denmark has a liberal drinking age). These teenagers would miss school the next day, so the government did something about it.

In the US, you'd probably expect the government to change the drinking age for that day so that kids wouldn't be able to drink the stronger beer. But no. Instead, the Danish government told Tuborg (a Danish beer company) and the other breweries to change their release dates to the first Friday of November so that people of all ages can drink themselves silly and not miss school or work the following morning.

So when I arrived in Copenhagen and I got a taste of the Danish holiday season. Until 5:30 am.



The next day we hung out with Soren's family, had lunch and walked around the city. I've been to Copenhagen before and I've been to the city squares and some of the touristy places, so I took this trip as an opportunity to see some of the city's back roads while being led by locals.

Sunday we went to an FC København (FC Copenhagen) soccer match. They were playing this smaller and less talented team. They won 4-0. Soren said that since the opposing team wasn't very good, there weren't too many people in the stands. But they still sang some fun songs and had a very joyous spirit.



That night we had some delicious dinner at Soren's parents house just outside of Copenhagen. Bread, salmon, steak, potato, the works.

Something important to note. There is a very interesting cultural difference between the Danes and people in the US. And it has to do with babies. In Denmark, if a family is going to eat at a restaurant or a cafe and their baby is sleeping, they will leave it outside. Wrapped up in a blanket and under the cover of a carriage, sure, but outside nevertheless. Even when it rains, they just leave the baby outside, safe in its carriage. Here's a picture that I took right after a really heavy rain. The parents were in view of their sleeping child somewhere in the cafe, I think.



Hope you enjoy the pictures! There's more towards the end of my London pictures in this photo album .

#17 Off To Denmark

This week has been very busy. We got a really exciting assignment which kept us working pretty hard each day. Everything is due tomorrow, in fact.

With that said, it's a great time for a vacation. That's right. It's a great time for a vacation because Soren and I bought tickets to Denmark a few weeks ago.

So we're leaving tomorrow for Copenhagen and will be coming back to London on Monday.

Denmark, the land of vikings, a mermaid, and Hamlet. For more info, wikipedia.

This will be my second time in Copenhage and I really enjoyed it the last time. I'm excited to have a local Dane show me around this time.

While in Denmark I probably won't get a chance to update this blog, but here's a very general idea of what I'll be doing there.

David's general itinerary:

- See an FCK (Copenhagen Football Club) football match
- Go out at night
- Meet vikings
- Become a viking
- Practice my Danish (All I know how to say right now is "Hi my name is David", but I don't think I'm saying it right)
- Take pictures

When I get back to London, I'll tell you all about it.

(And don't worry about the assignments, we got 'em done.)

#16 The Election

So a lot of people have been asking me about how the people in the UK are taking the election. Surprisingly everyone is very interested. Leading up to the election, Obama and McCain were front page news and people were really excited about it. The majority of people here in the UK were Obama supporters.

And so now it's on the tip of everyone's tongues. As an American, a lot of people want to talk with me about it. Who I voted for. What does it mean that Obama is president. What kind of effect it will have and so on.

It's almost sad that we, in the US, give so little attention to politics in other countries while they are very interested in our politics...

I think John McCain ran a fine campaign and I think his concession speech reminded me very much of why I liked him 8 years ago and why I would have voted for him over Gore if Bush hadn't won the primaries.

Here's a video I made:



Yeah, it's a bit satirical. But like I said, I have a great respect for McCain. Palin, well she's another story. I think she probably lost the election for him.

And where did I put that... Oh, here it is. I just found that soapbox I've been looking for.

I'm really proud that Obama is our next president. And while we have leaped ahead and progressed in such a way that wouldn't have been fathomable 50 years ago, we still have ways to go. In this election, people's rights are still being ignored.

Call it what you will. Maybe being gay is deplorable to god, in your eyes. But the fact of the matter is this: in the US, everyone should have the same rights. Period. I don't think anyone can deny that. If you disagree with that statement please let me know why.

Thanks, I'll put this soapbox away now.

It's a great day to be a US citizen.

#15 Very Cold

I know that this isn't news to anybody. But I just wanted to confirm that it does, in fact get cold in London.

Last week, Father Winter (or is it Father Time? Eh, I don't really remember, you get the point. Some old guy who's in charge of the weather.) smiled upon us and sent London the earliest snow in about 30 years, I think. Here's the proof.

In other news, I'll be heading to Denmark at the end of the week. So you can expect a post regarding that trip.

Sorry that I haven't been updating the ol' blog as often. Really, nothing exciting has been happening. I'm going to try and do some sightseeing soon and I'll post pictures when I do.

Until then, cheers.