Didn't believe that DJ line huh? I practiced and recorded mixes in my room.
At the time this was taken, May 2009, I was around 130~135 lbs. Not cycling btw...still JUST running.
A bunch of images I 'print-screened' off the page of the SF marathon album. One arm sleeve? I got the inspiration from Nelly. Thanks.
At Bay2Breakers 2009. That's a sweet pair of nikes huh? Loving the neon green.
Ever the portly one...there I am...190 lbs of flab in a rugby uniform. There's a perfectly good explanation for the rather in-auspicious title of Part 2 of my 5-part epic blog series. Long about the time I got shipped off to Englandshire, 50 Cent's second album, The Massacre, came out...and boy was I hot-to-trot. I idolized Mr. Cent and if he offered, would probably have his children. Seriously. I bought VitaminWater Formula 50 just cuz 'Fiddy' endorsed it. Heck, I even wrote to him and Lloyd Banks at G-Unit Records but got nothing back in return. I'm still waiting in fact....:-(
Anyways, I was going through this interesting phase where I was infatuated with heavy drums, rappers and especially people who sagged their pants, walking around as if they had a .45 tucked in them. Thank the lord I'm past this phase. Hard to believe that the fatastic boy suddenly wanted to become a hardcore rap fan...Air Jordan's and all.
Getting back to the UK....ahem....I went over thinking I would be hotter than a tuna-salad-panini from Benji's. Boy, was I mistaken. Instead, I was greeted with hostility given my 'Yankee-ness'...this was also at the height of the George Bush shit-show so EVERYONE had it out for us. It was so bad, even the coordinator for foreign studies told the americans to act 'Canadian'. I didn't really drink Molsen Light and my accent was piss poor so I stood out eh? What made this time also difficult for me was the fact that most of my closest friends at Brown were all a year ahead of me. So I was foresaking Brown for an entire year to study aborad while my friends had their Senior year without me. Devastated, I turned to rap music, XL t-shirts and a subscription to XXL magazine...sigh...
That was a ridiculous time period and it got so odd, I was even a DJ for the LSE's radio. To my credit, I like to think I introduced the Brits to the angelic voice of E-40 but probably not. Things started to turn around for me in the spring time when I joined a gym and started to lose some solid weight. Part of it has to do with the GBP being so much higher than the USD...the exchange rate was so ridiculous I was eating less out of necessity! Sadly, some of the cheapest food in the UK was also the worst: fried chicken, subway sandwiches for 5-quid and lots of lukewarm beer. I joined this chain of gyms called Fitness First and met some solid guys - all PT's [physical trainers]. They were good blokes and could bench press a ton of weight. I got serious about wanting to bulk up with muscle so I went the atkins route and proceeded to down cans of water-packed tuna and eggs. I continued to lose weight and dropped to a new low:
Junior Year Weight: 165 lbs.
What was also interesting was to observe the Brit's and for that matter, Europe's passion for futbol. Safe to say, they make EVEN THE DIE-HARDEST Raider fans want to cry 'Uncle'. I remember sitting on the tube on the way to Uni. To my left and right were two scaffolders...both with the flag of England hand-painted on their faces. How surreal is that. It was also in London that I discovered the joys of Indian food and in particular, Chicken Tikka Masala - the 'national' dish of England given the heavy Indian population there. Man, that was good - of course, the vegan version is BETTER but yea...I got that a lot for take-out.
Studying was a whole new ball game in the UK. As there is only one exam for each class at the end of the year, shit was INTENSE. The LSE library had a seperate room for sleeping! Some kids brought their own microwaves cuz they wouldn't leave the place! Yes, it was that intense. Probably the single hardest 4 weeks of my entire educational career was at the UK. Stress levels were through the roof...heck, it got so bad, I started to go to church! I figured it couldn't hurt. :-)
I finished my year at the UK with a renewed love for Kendo, a somewhat lean body, a huge respect for international kids [before this, I thought they were a stuck up bunch who played futbol a lot, sported Euro-hawks, and wore flamboyant scarves] and a serious desire to perform well academically. Mentally though, I was totally shot and I came back to Brown for my senior year a totally different guy. All of my good friends had graduated and so there was very little left for me except a few close friends. Outside that, I had my classes, my senior thesis and an empty question mark about what to do with my next step. But that's for part 3...;-)
Until then...dont touch that dial and dont click the back button. Keep it locked...
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