FOUND: My photo ID for London’s public transportation during my 1991 semester there. The greatest system in the world — one flat monthly fee gets you the photo ID validated for all Tube and bus use.
And with it comes a cold rush of nostalgia to the head …
Five of us living in a flat above an Indian grocer one block from Hyde Park … an insane extended weekend in Amsterdam … an unpaid (unexpectedly) internship at Arena magazine … meeting Al Jourgensen in a bar and seeing Revolting Cocks live the next night … passing up on Front 242 tickets to spend Easter weekend on the Scottish isle of Iona, where about 250 people live with one pub and nobody locks their doors … spring break in Italy, calling my parents from Venice swearing I’d never come back to America … standing next to Billy Bragg on a platform in Trafalgar Square as he lead thousands in song during a protest of the first Gulf War … attending a secret REM gig (billed as “Bingo Hand Job”) with special guests Bragg and Robyn Hitchcock at a club that holds fewer than 300 people … doing any shopping on Portobello Road … downing pints with a squatter named Phoebe and her pet rat at The Intrepid Fox … skipping class to go to Canterbury just because Chaucer rocks … scaring people in my writing studio with an essay about why Toilet Duck kicks ass … roommate head-shaving parties in the bathtub … two nights in a row of The Replacements at the Marquee … running around Brighton Beach taking photographs during a weekend field trip while the photography professor gets loaded in a pub … drinking cider for the first time … valuable cultural exchanges: my Dominican roommates would cook plantains for us; I would make Spam dinners … feeling all-around infinite and international.
sid world headquarters
tom | 27-Jan-04 at 10:40 am | Permalink
Sid: adulthood is easier to reconcile once you get over your nostalgia about how much fun childhood was.
this is what I keep telling myself, in any case.
Mala | 27-Jan-04 at 10:59 am | Permalink
I didn’t do the semester abroad. I’ve traveled a lot, but wish I could go back in time and do that one thing over again.
At the time it was between an internship with a prestigious firm or semester abroad….. and I ended up forgoing law school.
But then again - if I HADN’T taken that internship, I might not have realized how miserable I’d be working in law and spent $150,000 on a graduate education I’d never use. So I guess every regret has its silver lining.
Mala | 27-Jan-04 at 10:59 am | Permalink
I didn’t do the semester abroad. I’ve traveled a lot, but wish I could go back in time and do that one thing over again.
At the time it was between an internship with a prestigious firm or semester abroad….. and I ended up forgoing law school.
But then again - if I HADN’T taken that internship, I might not have realized how miserable I’d be working in law and spent $150,000 on a graduate education I’d never use. So I guess every regret has its silver lining.
shane. | 27-Jan-04 at 12:47 pm | Permalink
Dead sexy! Hey, I’m just saying what everyone else is thinking.
Mike | 01-Aug-04 at 1:53 pm | Permalink
Hey, I saw Revolting Cocks in london in Jan 1991, met Al Jourgensen, too, the night before at Hard Club on Meard Street and Dean in Soho. Was a skinhead back then. Weird thing is, I think I recognise your London Underground photo. Hmmm. Small world.