Ryan and Liz's Big Exodus

It is about that time my fellow Americans. Liz and I shall embark on an amazing journey to London. The trip will be long, arduous, and full of awesome British stuff. I wish you all much love and I can't wait to come back and show you all pictures!

Love,
Ryan

P.S.-I'm turning off my phone because international minutes are a nightmare, and I want radio silence for the first time in my life other than when I am hiking.!

CHEERS!

GOALLLLLL!

And the crowd goes wild!!!

That was how the air felt the entire time I was at RFK stadium in Washington DC. The US national soccer team played Cuba for World Cup qualifying. The fans were ridiculous, and my friends were even more outrageous. It was the best game I have ever seen in my life...Even though I will probably be saying this again a week from now when I see Arsenal play Everton at North London.


USA 6 : Cuba 1

This game my friends was not just a win, it was a definite stomping! Here's my pics proving I was there:

The Pain of Ignorance

The ebb of life flows on in my life! Earlier today I learned about the Treaty of Versailles (You know, the one that stopped the intolerable trench warfare of World War 1?). Anyways, what I came to learn about it was that it was merely an armistice: a cease fire if you will. When you get down to it, the Germans didn't even have a chance to negotiate. The Allies (mainly the Italians, French, Americans, and the Brits) drafted a treaty behind closed doors, handed it to the Germans and practically said, "sign this and end the war or reject this and keep on fighting [insert 'you bastards' here]".

I find this a bit disconcerting, especially since this was the same time that President Wilson was trying to spread the ideals of his Fourteen Points. From the get-go, it was a total corruption of what the US was trying to do democratically; we held out on a peaceful negotiation with the Germans.

*The image is a picture from the trenches at Verdun...to this day one of the bloodiest battles in history. More than 250,000 dead and about a million wounded, in not even a year (February 21 1918- December 18 1916)*

This type of prejudicing (and other factors) will be a nice paved road for the rise of Hitler, but that is beyond what I want to say about this... I hope that this type of carelessness with the German people will be the last time this happens. In World War 2 they learned their mistakes and tried different forms of justice.

But what about this Iraq war? And what about the ongoing battle for National recognition for an Israeli state? It seems as if Total Domination is the only key to getting what we think is "right". I hope that we can always keep the interest of the people whenever we settle foreign matters, in order to subvert another catastrophe like both of the World Wars...What do you think?

The Current State of Ryan Matthews Esq.

I was supposed to have travelled to Rockville, Maryland today to visit F. Scott Fitzgerald's grave... Unfortunately, the writings of Hemingway that I have to read for class have hindered me from this voyage. I think Hemingway would have liked to hear this though, seeing as they both had a bumpy friendship. However, it is my goal to visit the grave before I move out of Virginia.

There are tons of cool events on the horizon! This coming Saturday I get to be the soccer fanatic that I am! I get to see the US National team play Cuba for a World Cup qualifier. Then, as if one game was enough, I get to see Arsenal a week later in LONDON! God has blessed me more and more as I walk with Him.

It has been a running joke at my store that if somebody wants to find me I'm in either of three places: My Apartment, My Bathroom (and essentially therefore my Apartment still), or my Starbucks. I really do love it here though. The combination of fresh coffee, a multicultural base of customers and partners (we call our co-workers partners), and comfy chairs. This store is one of the first things that to my mind when I think of Richmond. It'll probably be the one thing I miss most though when Liz and I leave for Grad school.

I just recently made a new friend named Josh. Have you ever met a person and thought that you must have been twins and switched somehow during childhood? Well, that is what it feels like between the both of us. No homo... Here's a list of odd similarities:

-both are obsessed with Star Wars, Chris Thile, and Jesus

-we both lied to our significant others when we first met them (I apologized to Liz afterwards though, for my family readers out there)

-and other odds and ends that seem to go on forever. He is a great friend, and I think we will stay that way for a long time! It's good to find a Christian bro to lean on and hang with.