The Wind Through the Keyhole (Dark Tower 4.5) by Stephen King (2012): 3.5/5 stars

Lauren (thebestpossibletime.com)3 Comments
The Dark Tower 4.5
The Dark Tower 4.5

It’s no secret that I’m a big Stephen King fan. It’s even less of a secret that I’m a big Dark Tower fan, given that I have the Sigil of Eld tattooed on my wrist (although I suppose one would also have to be a big Dark Tower fan to recognize it as such). Therefore, I was excited when I heard that King would be releasing a new Dark Tower novel this year, if “excited” is a strong enough term. I was even more excited when I found out it was to be set between the fourth and fifth novels (Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla), an excellent place for a little more information about Mid-World and Roland Deschain’s ka-tet.

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I Heart Europe

Lauren (thebestpossibletime.com)1 Comment

Well, I’m back in the United States, and I’m looking back on the amazing time I had in Europe. This past semester in Sevilla has been my second study-abroad experience; last spring I studied with the Ithaca College London Centre in England. At the end of my semester there, I knew I was going to miss Europe when I went home, but I was also nearly positive that I would be studying abroad again this spring, so I didn’t worry too much about all the countries I wanted to visit that I had yet to see. However, this semester (with the CC-CS program in Sevilla) was different. Although I’m sure I will return to Europe someday, with my senior year coming up and who-knows-what on the horizon after that, I have no idea when I will find myself on the other side of the pond again. I tried to make the most I could out of the thousands of amazing things Europe has to offer and now that I’m home, I’ve been reflecting on my favourite places I’ve visited in the continent (in chronological order of when I visited).

Top Five Cities I’ve Visited in Europe:

London, England

Oxford Street decked out for last year’s Royal Wedding-palooza

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Por eso le llaman el Boss: Bruce Springsteen, Estadio Olímpico Sevilla

Lauren (thebestpossibletime.com)1 Comment
apologies for the extreme awfulness of my mobile’s camera

Let me start by saying this: if you’re looking for an unbiased review of last night’s Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band concert at the Estadio Olímpico in Sevilla, go somewhere else. He could have played twenty minutes and done only songs from Human Touch and I would’ve still thought it was a great show. As it is, the three-hour concert featured old hits and new favourites. The show began just after 9pm with “Badlands,” (click to watch a video) and then two of the highlights from Springsteen’s latest album, “We Take Care of Our Own” and the title track, “Wrecking Ball.” The stage was simple, apart from the different levels to accommodate the numerous members of the E Street Band, and the effects mostly took the form of spotlights and the platforms in the crowd Springsteen often ran to for parts of songs.

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ynwa

Lauren (thebestpossibletime.com)1 Comment
What actually happened yesterday

Yesterday, Liverpool FC lost a big game, the FA Cup final, to Another Team. I watched it in a pub in Sevilla that had far too few fans in red and far too many fans of that other team. It wasn’t a good loss, either; LFC played well during the last 30 minutes but that wasn’t enough to save the results of the dire first 60. Then, as I was leaving for home, the stormclouds came and I walked home in the rain like every sad person cliché.

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You are a Tourist // Morocco

Lauren (thebestpossibletime.com)1 Comment
Is this the “””””real””””” Morocco?

I recently read a list of tips for travel bloggers and some of them really stood out to me. I don’t mean tips like “take a lot of photos” (duh); I mean concepts like “don’t romanticize or idealize the culture you are visiting” and “remember that the city is not there for you.” I think it’s something a lot of us forget, that our vacation spots aren’t putting on a show for our benefit. We’re on vacation, but for most of the people we’re visiting, this is their daily life. At the same time, just because we’re viewing someone’s daily life doesn’t mean we are going to come back experts on whatever country we’ve visited. It’s definitely something I thought a lot about when I was writing my post on history in Germany and Prague, and it’s something I thought about more this past weekend, which I spent on a trip to Morocco.

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“What do Germans eat?” “Sausage and beer.”

Lauren (thebestpossibletime.com)1 Comment
We didn’t ride the “bierbike” but it looked hilarious.

Previous Posts: Berlin, Germany; Prague, Czech Republic, Munich, Germany and Salzburg, Austria; History

Inside the Hofbräuhaus

This’ll be my last post about spring break (are you bored yet?), and hopefully it’s a fun one: food! Food is something I didn’t really think about when I decided to go to Germany and the Czech Republic for spring break, and maybe I should have. As it was, I asked some people a few days before I left what people eat in Germany and all of the answers were the same: meat. Googling “traditional German foods” gave me the same answer. Perhaps I should have given this a bit more thought. Spain isn’t exactly a vegetarian-friendly country either, but at least in the south fish is a main staple of the diet, so once I decided to go pescatarian for the semester (and I’m probably going to stay this way when I go home; I like fish a lot) I was doing just fine. However, although I’m sure that the Germans eat fish, most of what I found about German cuisine went something along the lines of sausage, sausage, beer, sausage. Luckily, throughout the week I was pleasantly surprised to find delicious food that I could eat. Here are a few of my favourite meals:

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