First Post

I am terrible at making blogs and keeping up with them, so bear with me. I arrived in beautiful, rainy London at 7:40am on Thursday January 6th. After getting through customs (they let me in!) I tried to figure out the Tube and successfully made it to Kensington, where I am going to be living for the next 4 months!

From there I met my lovely roommates, Annsleigh Carter and Morgan Immerman! We live in a triple but our room is a good sized and we have a bathroom. I also lucked out by getting the single bed!

(Me, Annsleigh & Morgan at the Natural History Museum)

The next few days included orientation stuff and exploring! Naturally, I lost my umbrella on the first night there. So sad. Luckily, since rain is quite common here I was able to buy another one for pretty cheap.

FIE provided us with a coach tour of the city as well as a walking tour of the local area. I have about a million pictures so I'll save you the pain of posting them all here since I forget what most of the buildings are. But, the tours were very interesting and the tour guides very knowledgeable.

In terms of nightlife, we have checked out Piccadilly Circus for different pubs and clubs. Piccadilly Circus is a fun area, lots of people and lots of bright lights, but definitely on the more expensive side. However, it's London and everything is expensive.

Finally, last night FIE hosted a Welcome Reception for us on Imperial College's campus. It was a great way to meet some other people in the program. After, a couple of us went to Imperial College's campus pub and mingled with real life British students!!

Boston

I was born and raised in Boston, MA and although I spent my whole life there everytime I go home to visit I am still amazed at all the history this city has to offer. Here is a map of some historical places in Boston. Remember, the Revolutionary War, the Boston Tea Party and the 2004 and 2007 World Series Champions the Boston Red Sox are all native of Boston.




View Historical Boston in a larger map

Tragedy at the Olympics

Friday February 12th, the Olympic Opening Ceremony was filled with excitement but the lingering feeling of sadness filled with stadium as the athletes and audience members remembered 21-year-old Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed while taking a test run on Friday morning. Deaths at the Olympics are rare because these althetes are so well trained faults generally do not occur. However, Nodar Kumaritashvili is not the first lost Olympian.

Previous Deaths

• 1964: Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypeski, a Polish-born British luger, died while training on the Olympic course in Austria two weeks before the opening ceremony
• 1964: Ross Milne, 19 from Australia, died after slamming into a tree when he flew off course during a training run. He was a downhill racer.
• 1992 Albertville Games, Swiss speed skier Nicolas Bochatay died ater colliding with a snow-grooming machine during a practice run.
• 1960 Summer Games: Knut Jensen, a Danish cyclist, died after fracturing his skull when he collapsed during a road race at the Rome Olympics.
• 1912 in Sweden, Francisco Lazaro, 21 year old marathon runner from Portugal, died after collapsing from sunstroke and heart trouble.
  
  For more information about Olympic Deaths check out this link
  

Let's Make It Better!

How could I take this wonderful multimedia production skills blog and make it even better? By embedding videos, chart and maps into my blog!

So, as I'm sure all you D.C. folks know we had some crazy snowstorms over the past week causing the Federal Government to shut down for four work days, for D.C. public schools to be closed all week and for AU to be closed for most of this past week. On Saturday many people braved the cold, wind, snow and Metro to head over to DuPont Circle to take part in a giant snowball fight! Check out the video:



There are plenty of places to play in the snow, even right at A.U. Check out this interactive map where I've pointed out my three top places for snow adventures!


View Snowy Days in a larger map

Test Chart

Test Map

View Lauren's Map in a larger map

"Homes Not Games"

Downtown Eastside is the poorest zip code in Canada. It is also located just five blocks away from where the 2010 Winter Olympics in going to be taking place. This slide show depicts the poverty this area faces as the rest of Canada prepares for their moment in the spotlight.

The first image in this slide show opens by showing a man walking through an alley that is covered with graffiti. One image that sticks out in particular is "Homes Not Games." These images incorporate the rule of thirds. And the background speaks a lot of the subject matter of the photography.

The photographer uses the natural lighting and appears to be shooting earlier in the morning or later in the afternoon. The third picture is very interesting because of the shadows of the subjects he has captured.

Going through the slide show is like taking a walk through the neighborhood. You witness the homeless people trying to fend for themselves on the streets and you observe a woman smoking crack on a street corner and you continue on to observe a man getting arrested.

Some of the images are perfectly situated within their background. However, with some of the photos it is hard to tell what is going on. Image number two, for example, at first looks like a normal street but reading the description you discover that this is the aftermath of a fight outside of a drug rehab. In some cases I think the photographer missed the opportune moment to capture the story.