Walter Cronkite and My Journalism Kick

More stories to come out of Europe. But for now....

I've been on a journalism kick lately. As in, appreciating it. It all started with my graduation from BYU and subsequent move to Seattle. I wanted to continue to learn and to grow. The way I saw it, my learning should continue not only through my years of formal education, but forever. As such I made plans to continue to learn, weather it be through classes, (yeah free education paid for by boeing!) reading, whatever. Must continue to learn. This goes along with a verse of scripture I read the other day:
"Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly ...of things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms-That ye may be prepared in all things..."(D&C 88:78-79)

My first book to read was a biography called "A Reporter's Life". It was an autobiography, actually, written by Walter Cronkite. While it started off a little slow (most memoirs usually do), once he began to be a reporter in Europe during WWII and in Post-WWII Moscow, things became very exciting. I would take the book to read at work, stealing a half hour outside my building, enjoying the sun, my peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and my endeavours through the eyes of Walter.

I think the most important thing I took from the book is the need for unbiased news. Don't get me wrong, I love opinions. My favorite tv show? Pardon the Interruption.

(Yeah, it's about sports, but whatever. I love it because of Tony and Michael's opinions. And I wanted to have a picture in this blog entry.)

I value the opinion of people who I usually agree with...and I really value the opinion of those who I don't agree with (knowing both sides of an issue and really thinking about it..I've changed my thoughts on a couple of things. Oh and as such, I don't hold it against a politician when he or she changes his/her mind. It happens sometimes, I think. At least it happens to me). However, after watching a little bit of tv news (my grandparents watch it every night) and with the little bit of internet surfing I do to find my news...I found myself wanting more. I felt the need. The need for unbiased journalism, but yet intensive enough to go beneath the surface.

I found the answer to my desire one morning while I was trying to put in my iPod on the way to work. My Guster kept cutting out as I drove down the road. Finally, I gave up, turned Candace off. (candace is the name of my ipod) and all of a sudden, a channel came through, crisp and clear. NPR! National Public Radio. That morning they told me about Seattle and some of the local issues with which the city has been dealing. They gave some insights into the Obama presidency. Best of all...it was refreshingly clear of bias. Just the news. Just the facts.

NPR has become sort of a ritual in my car, now. While I still enjoy a good Justin Timberlake on the way to work, and I usually talk to Torrie or the family on the way home...when those aren't going on, I listen to NPR. Today they had an interview with the President of Estonia, and how he was viewing the Georgia-Russia situation (which I know all about, thanks to NPR). His opinion was insightful, being a head of state of another small country that was once under the Soviet umbrella. I came home knowing more than I did before. Thank you, NPR.

Ireland is Green!

After being misidentified is Irish, I was pretty excited to get to Ireland, as you can see:

The following in an abridged excerpt from my journal written that night:

We woke up, had breakfast, and made our way to the Dublin Train Station for a trip to Cork. Well, first we went to the wrong train station. Then we took the tram to the right train station. We got our rail passes validated and made our way to the train...which happened to be full. (What! Such a thing would never happen in italy. They would have just piled us on and we would have stood the entire way. What has civilization done to society?) No room! They said there was no room on the train. I still don't know if I believe them. So we had two hours until the next one, so we walked around this little outskirt of Dublin, saw the Guiness factory.....yeah. Our train finally came, and we left through the Irish countryside for Cork.

Good thing we brought our stash of McVitties caramel cookies. mmmm....so good. That's seriously all we have eaten for the last two days.

Once we got to Cork, we went about finding the way to Blarney Castle, Amazing Race style. The train station lady told us to go to the bus station, 5 blocks away, who directed us to the right bus...perfect!

Cork is a cute little city. Very clean, a river down the middle...The bus ride was nice, just like the city buses in Rome. Also just like Rome, we got off at the wrong stop. While backtracking, we walked through the town of Blarney and saw the castle in the distance. A castle! Not just a big in the middle of the city castle like the Tower of London, but a straight up in the middle of the forest castle. So cool!

The coolest thing was...we were able to explore it! We paid our entry free and they just let you go! We climbed into the sentry posts - both human and dog - and crept on our hands and knees through the dungeon. As we scaled the castle we were free to climb on the walls, peek out the windows, all unsupervised. It wasn't too crowded either, which made you kinda feel that you were discovering it all for your own. Very cool. It was literally a dream come true. I've wanted to do this all my life!

It was so much fun climbing and playing in a real castle that I almost forgot the whole point of going specifically to the Blarney Castle. The Blarney Stone! Its gift is eloquence to all those who kiss it. As you can tell, it has totally worked. To give it a kiss, you have to lay down and kiss the stone upside down while hanging over the battlement. It's a pretty intense process (there's a guy helping you) but all totally worth it.
I need to underline the fact that I totally went for it as I kissed the stone. No going half way. All the way. Go big or go home.

We played on the battlements and explored rooms before we had to leave. Same process, only backwards - bus to Cork, walk to train station, where we missed our train by like two minutes. Blast! We looked up at the schedule and saw there was another Dublin train in like a half hour. Not too bad...until a half hour later when we realized that was the arrival of the train, not the departure. That only made me feel slightly stupid, compounded by the fact that I had to ask the train guy three times in order to understand his accent. I guess I'm not too Irish after all...

Another ride through the Irish country, with tons of green and cows on either side, accompanied by lots of U2, Tonic, and the Cranberries by my IPod. I have been doing my best to make myself associate Irish music with Ireland, that way whenever I hear these bands in the future, I will think of the beautiful green fields of Ireland (it worked, by the way.)

We found ourselves back in Dublin, but at the faraway train station. That's ok. We had return tram tickets. Well...one. I couldn't find the other one, so I rode illegally. No European trip is complete without breaking the law! (This is something that would be repeated several times throughout our trip.)

Overall assessment of Cork and the Blarney Castle: LOVED it. On my next trip to Ireland, I plan on renting a car, which I think will make it easier to explore the country more, and see more out of the way castles and other impressive sights that were somewhat hard to get to on public transportation. We only had two days in Ireland, so we only got a taste, but it sure was a good one. mmmmm

Wales, Land of Milk and Plenty

So I have moved to Seattle and started work at Boeing. While that is all very exciting, I am tired after a full day of buying a bed and moving into my new house. I pretty much got my room set up with the basics, though I still need a dresser and probably a bookshelf...well, a nightstand will probably do. My house is sweet and I will write more about it later.

I want, instead, to tell you about Wales.

Our trip did not allow for us to spend a lot of time in Wales. In fact, all we did was take a train through the southern part of Wales through Cardiff and Swansea to the port of Fishguard, where we embarked on a ferry that took us to Rosslare, Ireland. We didn't see any Welsh sites nor eat any Welsh food. However, we did meet some Welsh people....and oh boy were they a hoot.

Our first encounter of the Welsh kind was in Bath, England. Torrie and I had just gotten back to our hostel, the local YMCA - cue the music, please - and we were just grabbing some stuff before going on a walk of the town.

Here is a picture of said town: Bath, England.

So while Torrie was getting something out of her bag, I said hi to a guy in the corner of the room. I tried to do this pretty often, partly because I want to give a good impression of Americans to the outside world, but really I am just a friendly person.

He was a pleasant looking guy, probably in his thirties, and we soon found out he was from Wales. We also found out that he was a stonemason. (I think his name was John?) Yes, they still have stonemasons. When then found out a LOT about this guy. He just kept talking and talking. Doesn't like the royalty, thinks it's a waste of time. Likes the tradition of Wales though. (Isn't royalty a part of Welsh tradition? Can't pick and choose, buddy....) Doesn't speak Welsh, but is glad they teach it now in schools. Likes the environment. Likes Gaelic football, thinks I would be good at it. On and on and on......man! All we wanted was to get our stuff! He asked us what we did, and after he found out Torrie was a food and nutrition teacher, led to the best part of the conversation:

J:"You're a nutrition teacher? So you must eat pretty healthily, eh?"

T: "Yeah, well mostly."
L: "Yeah we do! We even had yogurt for dinner. (I didn't mention the caramel mcvitties that we had with them. That would have ruined my comment.)

T: "Oh YEAH! That yogurt was SO good. I LOVE yogurt." (Torrie loves yogurt, she really does.)

J: "Oh yeah? Yogurt, eh? How long have you been on the yogurt?"

T: "Well, I can't remember of a time when I haven't eaten yogurt, so pretty much all my life."

J: "Wow! I just started the yogurt a few months ago and it's had a big difference."

L: "Alright, well we have to go......"

Way funny, and it has inspired me to be on the yogurt more often.

Welsh Story Number Two!

So I mentioned that we took a ferry from Wales to Ireland. While watching a game of cricket (i do NOT understand that sport) I decided that I needed to charge Candace, my iPod. I finally located an empty outlet near these four ladies. I decided to go for it. As I made my way over there, I smiled and asked how they were doing. Pretty well, I had guessed, from all of the drunk cocktail glasses and a few cigarettes, and I was correct. They let me begin to charge my iPod, and I sat down next to the plug, cause I didn't want to just leave it there. A few minutes later they told me that I could sit down and next to them.

This I did, thanking them, and the first question they asked me was: "So what part of Ireland are you from?"

For a second I wanted to tell them Killarney, but I had never even been to Ireland before, so I sheepishly answered that I was actually from the United States.

"Oh! But you sounded Irish! Your voice was a wee bit soft, with a bit of a lilt to it..."

I had never heard that before, but I am definitely going to take it as a compliment, I told them, after which I asked where they were from.

"We are from Wales!"

I had ancestors from Wales, and after I mentioned where they were from and my mom's maiden name of Morgan they replied, "Oh! We are from there! We know plenty of Morgans!"

The next two hours or so were spent talking about Wales and America, Tom Jones, Bill Clinton (they liked him, he was a good-looking guy, apparently), Donny Osmond, Rugby, and Scarlett O'Hara. After awhile they invited Torrie over, but she didn't enter into the conversation much, mostly because every time she talked...no one could understand her. That was pretty funny.

Anyway, after a whole lot of pictures at the end, they let us go. Lovely Welsh ladies. I got a lot of pinches on the cheek and a lot of "Aww....my little Billy Clinton...I could be your grandma..." but then it was time to go. Wowza.

Here's a picture!!

The Welsh are incredibly friendly! These two experiences alone has made Wales pretty high on my list of places to go back to.