Mexican Wrestling and other July excitements

Hello there everyone!
Since we've moved into our new place, time has been moving quickly by! With a string of good weather, broken only by a series of rain showers this week, Ryan has been very busy at the shop selling lots of bikes. On the side, he has been steadily buying gear and giving tuneups to our own 'fleet' to ensure all is in excellent working order, as with the good weather we have been giving our own bikes plenty of use.

I am now in the process of writing my dissertation, which means I spend my afternoons closeted upstairs in our bedroom with my laptop and books. We are on the top of the house and so I have a nice view, and since for the most part the house is empty during the day, it makes for a nice work environment. Then, in the evenings, before Ryan gets off work, I head out for my daily workout.

Presently, I am training for my first triathlon, which is very exciting. I am currently working on a routine of running three times a week, swimming twice a week, and cycling one-two times a week. Since taking lessons during the winter, my swimming is much improved. Doing freestyle, I can swim a 25 meter pool length in less than a minute pretty easily, with my time for 400 meters coming in at around 12 minutes. There is a pool down the street from our house and I am looking into joining their masters swimming group, which does triathlon training as well. As for my cycling, when Ryan has a day off we go to Regents Park, which is circled by a fairly quiet, flat road and do time trials around it. I am working toward being able to comfortably sustain speeds of 18miles/hour for 15 miles straight, and am getting close! He also is helping me work on my technique and posture, which is great. On the running, front, I am plugging along as slow as usual. I am signed up for a half marathon in a couple weeks, which will be fun, but still I need to work on getting faster! Overall, I am really enjoying blending the three sports and so my plan for the next year is to focus on triathlon working up to an Olympic distance race. In the process, I think I might invest in a sleeker road bike to help me get really fast, though the Specialized Tricross I currently ride on is proving to be an excellent training bike.

Lets see, what else? On the 4th of July we had a great time hanging out with a whole slew of Americans from my program at LSE up on the Hampstead Heath, and then went in the evening to hear some great live music in Camden, where my friend Tom's band the Navarinos were performing. (They are REALLY great, by the way. Do click on the link and check our their myspace!)


On Sunday night, we went to see Lucha Libre, an exposition of Mexican pro wrestling (like WWF but with tights and shiny masks) at the Roundhouse theater. Which was extremely cool, I might add. It was my first time ever seeing something like this, and it was really exciting. The wrestlers were really different from anything you would see in the US. They were really big guys but not at all musclebound. In fact, quite a few of them were pudgy! They all had these really fantastic outfits, covered in sequins and lightning bolts! You could tell that they had to work together a lot to make the most impressive moves work. However, they also really smacked into each other, often going right out of the ring and into the metal dividers between the ring and the crowd! They also did a great job playing up the different characters, between the good guys ('technicos') and bad guys ('rudos'). All in all, it was a great night!
This is Solar, one of the wrestlers we saw last Sunday!


Other than that, life goes on as usual in London. I have been working a bit everyday on the garden and begun to tease so nice looking flowers out of it. This next Sunday I am attending my first meeting of a new book club I have joined and Ryan is going to play ultimate frisbee with some Americans we have met. For the most part, though we spend our time these days relaxing and hanging out with our housemates. Last night we played dominos together until almost 2 am!!

Till next time!
love alletta

Long Time No See

Hello everyone. This is Ryan, the bad blogger.

It has been some time since I last made a visit to the bloggisphere. And lots of things have happened. In May, we had the Marathon on the Isle of Wright. My parents came to London for a visit and Reanne, my sister, even stopped by. I also turned 24 years of age. Needless to say May was a very awesome month for Alletta and I.

June has proven to be a interesting month. It started with our flatmates telling us they wanted us to move out by the end of June. (The record should note that we are leavening the country in September anyways). Its always been a bit of a drama with them, and so while really irratated about their decision to just give us the boot with no warning, it is also a bit of a relief. I won't get into the whole story because its long and I don't really care to go into it anyways, but it led to a very rough couple weeks, as they decided to dump this on us right as Alletta was starting her exams, causing a heck of a lot of stress you can imagine. Instead I will focus on the positive. We are moving to a new part of London in a few days time, June 13th to be exact.

Our new domicile is in a part of north London called Islington. We are going to be staying in a house with four other people. It worked out really well for us and for Natasha who we taking the room from. The house had been home to students before us. Now the agency that owns the house is selling it on and every one needs to leave in September. PERFECT! It a charming new-ish house in a former industrial part of London. However, the factories have all been knocked down and its mainly a quiet, residential area now. It is very spacious and bright house and has spacious common areas, including both a lounge and a dining room. Also there is a really nice, private garden, which Alletta is very excited about. This new place is only about 2 miles from our current flat, so moving will not be too much of a hassle. We are going to try and do most of it by bicycle! Plus it only adds about couple miles to my commute, making it about 4 miles one way. Alletta really got lucky, because she is actually closer to LSE. Or at least it its more direct for her to get there on her bike now.

Despite the inconvenience of having to change flats so soon before we move out of the country, I think that this will end up working out for the best. We should be able to have a fun, relaxed, and all around pleasant summer.

I just want to say thank you to my parents for visiting, and being so awesome.(Thanks for all the dinners and beer as well!)

Also thank you to Reanne for coming to visit too! It was real cool to have you. Even though you couldn't ride a bike!

Finally, I want to take a moment to give a shout out to my cousin Wil Keohnke, who is graduating High School! Well Done Wil!


Thats it for now!

Talk to you all later!

Ryan of 'Ryan and Alletta'

Riding and running around the UK

Hey there folks!! So much news to share...

At end of April, Ryan and I participated in a charity bike ride to raise money for sustainable development programs in Darfur, Sudan. Riding along with fellow Marshall scholar Dan Weeks, the ride went across Scotland from east to west, from Northern Ireland to Dublin, and then from North Wales all the way south to Oxford. Along the way we camped, enjoying both fair weather and torrential downpours! We covered more ground on this trip than Ryan and I had ever done before in one week straight, averaging more than 50 miles per day! Unfortunately, due to problems with my left knee that were making riding very painful, Ryan and I caught a train and returned to London only halfway through the trip, as with the marathon coming up I didn't want to injure myself. Still, we had a fantastic time and enjoyed a lot of beautiful scenery. Dan continued on without us and finally rode into Oxford exhausted and happy 6 days later.

Pausing for a picture in southern Scotland.

Last Sunday I ran the Isle of Wight Marathon. Ultimately, this marathon was very different from my first experience in Edinburgh. Aside from the radically different course and weather, it was a very small race with less than a hundred runners. Often I was by myself running along the side of the road out in the country. Because of this I found it to be a very psychological race, where I had to draw deeply on my own will to just keep going and to create from within my own excitement and enthusiasm for what I was undertaking. In many ways it was not as fun as Edinburgh, but in the aftermath I feel that I was a real opportunity not just to test myself physically, but to dig deep mentally and discover more about who I really am. If you want to learn something new about yourself, I highly recommend running a marathon!

As expected, the Isle of Wight was a REALLY tough race, which over the course of 26 miles included more than 1500 feet of hill climbing! However, what really made it difficult was the HEAT. After training all winter in pleasantly cool if not cold weather, it was a huge shock to my system to be running in 80 degree heat under the full sun! As a result, it was a major struggle throughout the race to keep from overheating and likewise because my body was working much harder than usual from trying to keep cool I had to run considerably slower. A second problem was my left foot, which I managed to sprain very badly about half way through. By mile 20 I was in terrible pain and did have to walk a couple miles, but thinking I was just suffering from bad cramps in the sole of my foot, I was determined to finish and in the end ran the last 4 miles pretty solidly. Ultimately, despite all these problems I managed to finish the race in about 5 hours 45 minutes. This was considerably slower that my goal, and much slower than my training times, but in the end, considering how difficult the conditions ended up being, I felt like it was a real victory!!


Crossing the finish line!


Now almost a week later I am slowly on the mend. My legs are just fine, though my foot is very much injured and requiring a lot of r & r. Hopefully if I stay off of it, I will be able to go back to running again in a few weeks.

Thanks to everyone who sponsored me for this race! When the going got really tough it made a big difference to know I was running for a good cause. If you haven't yet, you are still welcome to make a donation. Just check out my last post for instructions. Also, I have to send out a major thank you to Ryan and his parents, who are visiting the UK, for taking the time and resources to drive down to the Isle of Wight and act as my support crew!

Aside from the big news of the marathon, there has also been lots of other things going on! As already mentioned, Ryan's family is here staying with us and traveling around the UK. Last week we went to see Stonehenge and this weekend we are up in Edinburgh. It has been more than a year since we last saw his family and so it has been a massive treat to have them with us.


Finally, in the realm of my studies, I have just received the fantastic news that two different essays of mine are going to be published in peer-reviewed academic journals. The first, "Speaking of 'Respect for Women': gender and politics in US foreign policy discourse 2001-2004" will be published in the journal of the Women's Studies Association, and the second "Utilitarianism and Human Rights" will be published in Rerum Causae, the philosophy journal of the LSE. This is a massive thrill for me, for as a student it seems like I am pouring my soul into writing things constantly but never getting any pay off in terms of actually contributing to the world of knowledge in a meaningful way. Having two very different pieces selected for publication in such a short period is more than I could ever ask for. This has been a major boost as I set about working on my dissertation, which this year is going to be on the use of torture in the "war on terror" and the implications this poses for the future of human rights as a basis for a universal moral framework.

As always, Ryan and I hope you all are happy and well wherever in the world you may be.
Peace and love,
Alletta

Sponsor me please!!

Ok kids, here's the scoop... I've got everything arranged and am now in the process of raising money for my marathon!

For those of you out of the loop... Last May I ran my first marathon in Edinburgh and despite being ill most of the winter and poorly trained, managed to finish on my own two legs with a respectable time of five hours and forty-eight minutes. This year on May 11th I am giving it another go, except this time I am taking on a much more difficult race on the Isle of Wight and aim to shave more than an hour off of my time to finish in four and a half hours instead.

Running a marathon last year was a life-changing experience. Though becoming increasingly active in recent years, I never considered myself to be athletic. Suffering from asthma and frequent migraines, I have often found strenuous exercise to be very challenging. A few years ago I would have never thought it possible that I could run at all, let alone run 26.3 miles. Now I have been awakened to the possibility of pushing myself in totally new ways and deeply inspired as to what we are all capable of.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am using my running of the Isle of Wight marathon this year as an opportunity to not only challenge myself, but as a chance to contribute something good to the world by supporting a charity that is close to my heart, the London Migraine Clinic.

The London Migraine Clinic, where I myself am a patient, is a world-class non-profit institution that seeks to help individuals suffering from migraine to find the root causes for their pain and to help them better manage these triggers. In addition, it supports important research into why migraine happens and how the millions of us who get these debilitating headaches can better take control over our health and our lives. To learn more about the Clinic's work click here.

Please support me this year in my quest to run the Isle of Wight Marathon and help the London Migraine Clinic in its work by making a donation! Just go to the following link: http://www.colmc.org.uk/ and click on the left-hand tab of "How We are Funded" then on "Donate Now." Sadly there is no space to leave messages when you donate so please drop me an email when you do!

love you guys and thanks in advance!!
Alletta

Visits and Vacation

Hello there. Since the last post we have had a bit of excitement (though not too much!). I have finished Spring term and am now on vacation, though busy writing term papers and getting to work on my dissertation. Ryan has been working away at the shop, and has been promoted to 'keyholder' which means he gets paid slightly more to open and lock up the shop.

A couple weeks ago I went on a class trip to Geneva, and had the privilege of visiting the United Nations, as well as a number of international non governmental organizations in the city. Overall the trip was great. All of the places we visited were very interesting and we learned a lot about human rights in practice. Of particular interest was the OMCT (world organisation against torture), who offered us internship opportunities as well as a plethora of free books, and the UK delegation to the UN Human Rights Council, who gave us a government's perspective on the international human rights system. After a year of theory and criticism, this trip was really an inspiration for me--an opportunity to remember why I care about human rights and how it is possible to make the world a better place after all.

A funny big chair outside the UN, meant to draw attention to the problem of landmines. (Notice it is missing one leg in the rear).

Soon after I returned from Geneva, my sister Kendra and her husband Chip came to visit us. We have been thoroughly enjoying having them with us in the UK. Last weekend they went up to Scotland for a three day tour of the highlands, and then on Sunday we went up to meet them, staying for a couple of days with our friends in Dunbar and showing them around Edinburgh. Now we are all back in London where they have been setting off from daily on little trips to the surrounding area, including Dover on Wednesday, Cambridge on Thursday and Stonehenge and Bath today. I went along with them on the trip to Dover and had a great time at the castle, which included a fascinating tour of the complex's extensive underground tunnels, which were used as a hospital and command center during WW II.

Over the weekend they are moving to a hotel near Hype Park, but we will continue to show them a good time around town!


Here I am at the edge of Dover Castle and the edge of England. Notice the coast of France off in the distance behind me!!

A big catapult inside Dover castle.


The castle gatehouse.
The castle keep.


Aside from all this, I am now in the thick of training for the marathon I will run on May 11th on the Isle of Wight. This week I will run 18 miles, and then next week 20!! I have been steadily building up distance and fitness with lots of running, as well as strength training and cross-training on my bike and in the pool. My goal this year is to finish a whole hour faster, in around 4 hours 30 minutes. I can't wait for the race to see how I do this year!

Finally, Ryan and I are packing our bags this month to head out on a cycle ride from Scotland to London (or as close as we can get in 7 days) going along the famous Pennine Way to raise money for development work in Darfur, Sudan. Wish us luck along the way! It is sure to be lots of fun.

love as always,
Alletta (and Ryan)

Two completely random pictures

Hello there,

I meant to post these earlier and forgot...


This (above) is Christ Church in Spitalfields, built by famous English architect Nicholas Hawksmoor. Anyhow, it was a nice day and Ryan snapped this picture, so thought I'd share it.


Also, these are some meat-free 'balls' that Ryan and I picked up at the shop. I know its juvenile, but really, you think that the marketing people could have done better than this? Maybe they can't even imply 'meat' since there is none, and it would be misleading consumers. In any case, I think the effect is pretty hilarious.

Feburary News

Hello friends, before the short month of February eludes us, I thought it was time to finally make another update to the blog!

Since the last posting, we haven't had too much excitement. Our short trip to Cambridge was very enjoyable. We met up with family friends Carol and Brian and enjoyed a pleasant lunch in their home and a relaxing tour of the town and several colleges. Brian, who is a retired physics professor (and a nobel laureate I might add), is a fellow at Trinity College, so we were treated to a bit of a private tour of the college's grounds and buildings and even got to walk across the quad grass! (a privilege reserved for fellows and their guests only). In the evening we were introduced for the first time to crumpets (a sort of spongy muffin with lots of holes in it, served toasted with lots of butter and jam!), and the Church of England, as we attending the evensong at the Trinity College Chapel. I found the service to be quite interesting. It was very similar to a Catholic church service, except the theme of the lessons and sermon were excerpts from Shakespeare, that week in particular being King Lear! The college choir sang lots of Latin songs and with the amazing acoustics in the old stone chapel with its high vaulted ceiling (I would guess the building is at least 500 years old), it was quiet impressive.

Ryan and I with Carol and Brian:

The gate at Trinity College:


After spending a day with Brian and Carol we went to stay the rest of the weekend with a fellow Marshall Scholar, Jamie, and her new husband Jessy. Jamie is a student at King's college and so the next day we enjoyed once again some campus tours, including to see the famous King's College Chapel, built by Henry the VIII. The rest of the time we spent wandering around the delightful town centre, visiting the market as well as several excellent bookshops, and examining with some interest the thousands of rusty old bikes parked all over the city! For Ryan's part, the sight of so many poorly maintained student bikes was particularly painful I think! More than one was so rusty it seemed to have grown attached to the iron railing it was leaned against!

Some pictures of the King's College Chapel:


Not sure what college this is:

A Cambridge street view:

Other than our little trip to Cambridge, we haven't been up to very much. Ryan has been working quite a lot, and for my part, I have been pretty occupied with my studies. For Valentine's day we went out for a quiet dinner at a local pub and had a night at home watching telly.

One area of news, is that after having taken some swimming lessons from my flatmate Dan, I am finally able to do a proper crawl and have been getting progressively better! Also, I am now in the full throes of training for this years' marathon, which will be May 11th on the scenic Isle of Wight. As you all know, I have been a sufferer for many years of severe and frequent migraine headaches. This year I have decided that I would like to use my running a marathon as an opportunity to raise funds for the London Migraine Clinic, which is a world class institution in London that offers medical advice and care for migraine sufferers as well as conducts important research into understanding the causes of migraine. I am a patient at the clinic, and have experienced first hand the amazing work they are doing everyday to help make life better for ordinary people like myself--work they often do entirely free of cost. As a charity the clinic relies on donations to keep afloat, and so I am hoping to use this opportunity to contribute what I can, with a goal of raising 300 Pounds. Once I get things set up with the clinic, I will let you all know how to sponsor me!!

Well, that's all for now folks. I hope life is treating you all well, wherever you are.
Wishing you all peace and joy in the month of love,
Alletta

New Year and New News

Hello everybody!! Hope you all are well in the new year! We had a pretty quiet time here in London. We attended a house party and watched some fireworks. Soon after, I began spring term at LSE and now we are fully back in the swing of things. This term I am taking: Foundations and Key Issues in Human Rights, Terrorism and the Rule of Law, Managing Humanitarianism and Arabic.

Of all of these, I have to say my Terrorism class is my favorite. So far we have spent most of our classes talking about political discourse in the West and how 'terrorism' as a label, concept, and method underlines our understanding of political violence. One particularly interesting aspect has been examining how 'terrorism' has evolved in the last three hundred years as both a descriptive term and a strategy for violence--from the French Revolution to the War on Terror. President Bush has often made the claim that we are engaged today in a 'new' war unlike any other, but when one looks back critically at this sort of violence, even within the last hundred years alone, it soon becomes evident that in fact it is nothing new at all. We have seen it all before, just maybe not with the same kinds of labels and meanings attached.

My enjoyment and interest in this class has led me to modify my proposed dissertation topic. And instead of looking at Arab media, I am going to do instead a comparison of US and UK anti-terrorism laws and policies with regard to human rights issues. Considering that one of my professors this term is one of the world's foremost scholars on these issues I am very optimistic about the degree of guidance and expertise I will be able to draw upon, and thus as well as to the quality I will be able to produce. More importantly, I believe this topic will be not only highly relevant to the political situation today, but a useful analysis that might lead to some really interesting ideas about how we can better protect human rights in the midst of this so-called 'War on Terror.'

In other news, it is now confirmed that I am going to run this year in the Isle of Wight Marathon on May 11th, and so I have begun training once more in preparation. Having decided to make good on my desire to do a triathlon, I have also begun taking swimming lessons and hope to compete in the London Triathlon in July. Just this week Ryan and I got some new bikes and so once I can learn to do a crawl properly I will be all set to be a real competitor!

The biggest news of course is that I did Tough Guy on Sunday. As many of you know, I have been training pretty intensively for months to get ready. Sadly, this last Friday I came down with a nasty cold! Still I went for it anyway and even though I was feeling rubbish, managed to do pretty well, albeit moving much more slowly than I would otherwise. Unfortunately, when I was very close to finishing the race the wet, cold and physical stress finally got the best of me. After jumping into one freezing pond too many, I had a severe asthma attack and the race marshall pulled me out of the competition and sent me off to the medical tent. Within moments hypothermia set in (I probably had a bit of it already but hadn't noticed) and it was clear that there was no way I would be able to continue on. Oh well, I gave it my all and even though I didn't get to finish and earn that coveted medal it was one heck of a deal to go out there and get as far as I did, considering the circumstances. On the good side of things, my fellow teammates all finished just fine and gave me only a minimal amount of guff about getting pulled out. In any case, I really enjoyed (if you can believe it!) myself and Ryan got some great pictures of me during the race. (click here to see the whole album) For sure, if I can I will give it another try at the next Tough Guy in July and hopefully then I will behold the glory of the finish line!






In other news, we went to see a concert this week here in Camden, a fantastic group called Stars. I first heard them some years ago in Washington D.C. at The Black Cat, as an opening for Broken Social Scene. I really liked them back then and so when I saw they were going to be playing at one of London's coolest music venues, the Koko, we got tickets right away. Needless to say, it was a great show. Just to give you a picture, the Koko is set up inside like a small opera house with a rounded stage and multiple levels of curved balconies going high up into the domed ceiling, each adorned with beautiful wrought iron railings that bow outward. The walls are deep red and decorated with white and gold plaster reliefs of meandering vines and young women, and all along beneath these are small crystal chandeliers lit with red lights. Absolutely stunning. Standing along the railing on the second level it felt as though I could reach right out and touch the band. Stars was great as always and just as humble and interesting as I remember, which is a treat in rock stars.

This next weekend we are going on a little trip to Cambridge to visit some friends studying there. While we are at it, we are also going to pay a visit to some friends of my parents, Brian and Carol Jospehson, which promises to be very interesting as I have heard a great deal about them but never met in person. Hopefully, if the weather is nice, we can sneak a nice little bike ride in too!

Well, until next time..
love, Alletta