St. Louis - Gateway to the West
On my second weekend here, I joined the international undergraduate orientation programme for an excursion downtown to the heart of St. Louis. Before the pictures though, abit of general knowledge/history.
St Louis was founded in the late 1600s but the french and was named for the French King at that time King Louis (the dunno how manyeth). It was purchased by the United States President in 1804 in the first of several westward bound expansions and became known as the Gateway to the West (of the USA, not the world because to the Anglocentric cartographers, USA was already as west as you could get). The first large scale exploration past St Louis was, interestingly enough, led by Lewis and Clark. St Louis is sited on the west bank of the Mississippi river and is directly opposite Illonois.
Some interesting facts about St Louis:
Anheuser-Busch, the biggest beer manufacturer in the world and which produces Budweiser beer is from St. Louis.
So is TS Elliot and Tennessee Williams.
The uranium for the A-bomb was refined in St Louis too.
The world's first skyscraper (at a staggering 10 stories) was also built in St Louis.
Other than that, I don't think there's anything else really that interesting about it. OH!
The first black slave who sued his white owners brought his case to trial here and it went all the way to the US Supreme court who unsurprisingly decided against him.
What do I think about St Louis you ask? Well, it honestly isn't that fantastic a city, it's nice, ok maybe that would be a lie too because it has the highest crime rate in ALL OF AMERICA, but seriously, it's not bad, i like the open space, i like the vast number of cafes by the roadside (al fresco dining is big here) and because it's smallish, people are friendlier than one would expect in a big city. What i like the most about it though, is its history, I love how the city has found a way of growing into its history instead of out of it, using its gorgeous old buildings for modern day purposes with cutting edge technology instead of converting every single old building into a museum much unlike a certain island state that rhymes with schmingapore.
One last thought before the pictures (yes yes, I know no one really wants to hear my incessant ramblings) as I mentioned, this downtown fieldtrip thing was with the undergraduates. As most of you know, the law degree, the juris doctor, is a post graduate degree and having spent the past month amongst them whilst at the same time hanging out with some other undergraduates from other schools (they call them schools here, not faculties; faculty refers to the profs et al) I wonder if perhaps we too should make law a postgraduate degree because I've found that the maturity that comes with age and experience generally stands these JD candidates in very good stead (they call them candidates, not students and all their email signatures go so-and-so, 2008 J.D. Candidate. ISNT" THAT SO COOL!!!) and one immediately sees how age and experience and maturity would be greatly beneficial because I believe that more than intelligence, being a lawyer is about the moral person you are and while it might be a cliche, I think it to be much easier to draw your boundaries and mark your no-go areas when you've had more life experience then a wet behind the ears JC graduate. Also, from a practical point of view, having a prior degree will also greatly aid practice because lawyers essentially have to be experts in their chosen field of specialisation so a construction lawyer would definitely need to possess some techinical knowledge of things like engineering and the like whereas Louis, i mean, an FSD lawyer would need to know a little more about things like finance and economics (oh, silly me, he knows that already!) and generally most of the JDs here have had degrees in those fields they would be interested in practising in. And so, in antitrust class, I find myself surround by economists who can discusss this theory and that graph and marginal costs and variable whatever when all I can do is gape and think OH MY FUCKING GOODNESS WHY THE HELL ARE THERE GRAPHS IN A LAW CLASS?!! KNNBCCB!!!! whilst in International Human Rights class you find a vast majority of them being political science majors who can discuss the palestinian israeli conflict at the drop of a hat whilst i'm left repeating to myself, ok, one more time, the jews are in israel and the arabs are in palestine.
Phew. That was one major rant. Anyway, that's over and so here are the pictures:
This is the arch, the tallest American National Monument and it was built in the 60s using what was at the time cutting edge technology. i forget what it was but it was cutting edge. It's really breathtaking looking up from its base.
This is the view from the base.
This is the view from the top of the arch - we had to take this teeny tiny capsule lift up the side of the arch and because it's a curved, the lift basically moved upward through a serious of horizontal and then vertical movements. Vaguely remember faint sensations of nausea.
This is the view from the otherside of the arch, facing the Mississippi river. Across the river is east st Louis which is apparently even more dangerous than Queens and Detroit City. That's where most of the crime comes from. It is filled with strip bars and seedy joints and unfortunately is also where most of the big-name concerts are. the friend who picked me up from the airport told me how he got lost once and found himself in east st louis with 1/8 tank of gas. He declined to tell me details of the fateful night but I gather he's very grateful to still be alive.
This is the inside of the old courthouse where the slave-sue-owner trial was held. The old court house is actually pictured in the pic from the top of the arch. It's the building right in the middle. It is now a museum (yes yes, I know what I said, this is the only exception. I think. heh) and the undergrads were made to act out the trial. people were given scripts and roles and everything and it was generally hilarious watching awkward non-english speaking non-americans act out a very american skit in very american english. But i digress.
The Americans love their flags
SO that's about all from my downtown sojourn. Next up. I PROMISE. PICS OF BARNYARD EDUCATION SO YOU CAN LAUGH OK? OH AND WITH PEOPLE IN IT TO. I PROMISE.
St Louis was founded in the late 1600s but the french and was named for the French King at that time King Louis (the dunno how manyeth). It was purchased by the United States President in 1804 in the first of several westward bound expansions and became known as the Gateway to the West (of the USA, not the world because to the Anglocentric cartographers, USA was already as west as you could get). The first large scale exploration past St Louis was, interestingly enough, led by Lewis and Clark. St Louis is sited on the west bank of the Mississippi river and is directly opposite Illonois.
Some interesting facts about St Louis:
Anheuser-Busch, the biggest beer manufacturer in the world and which produces Budweiser beer is from St. Louis.
So is TS Elliot and Tennessee Williams.
The uranium for the A-bomb was refined in St Louis too.
The world's first skyscraper (at a staggering 10 stories) was also built in St Louis.
Other than that, I don't think there's anything else really that interesting about it. OH!
The first black slave who sued his white owners brought his case to trial here and it went all the way to the US Supreme court who unsurprisingly decided against him.
What do I think about St Louis you ask? Well, it honestly isn't that fantastic a city, it's nice, ok maybe that would be a lie too because it has the highest crime rate in ALL OF AMERICA, but seriously, it's not bad, i like the open space, i like the vast number of cafes by the roadside (al fresco dining is big here) and because it's smallish, people are friendlier than one would expect in a big city. What i like the most about it though, is its history, I love how the city has found a way of growing into its history instead of out of it, using its gorgeous old buildings for modern day purposes with cutting edge technology instead of converting every single old building into a museum much unlike a certain island state that rhymes with schmingapore.
One last thought before the pictures (yes yes, I know no one really wants to hear my incessant ramblings) as I mentioned, this downtown fieldtrip thing was with the undergraduates. As most of you know, the law degree, the juris doctor, is a post graduate degree and having spent the past month amongst them whilst at the same time hanging out with some other undergraduates from other schools (they call them schools here, not faculties; faculty refers to the profs et al) I wonder if perhaps we too should make law a postgraduate degree because I've found that the maturity that comes with age and experience generally stands these JD candidates in very good stead (they call them candidates, not students and all their email signatures go so-and-so, 2008 J.D. Candidate. ISNT" THAT SO COOL!!!) and one immediately sees how age and experience and maturity would be greatly beneficial because I believe that more than intelligence, being a lawyer is about the moral person you are and while it might be a cliche, I think it to be much easier to draw your boundaries and mark your no-go areas when you've had more life experience then a wet behind the ears JC graduate. Also, from a practical point of view, having a prior degree will also greatly aid practice because lawyers essentially have to be experts in their chosen field of specialisation so a construction lawyer would definitely need to possess some techinical knowledge of things like engineering and the like whereas Louis, i mean, an FSD lawyer would need to know a little more about things like finance and economics (oh, silly me, he knows that already!) and generally most of the JDs here have had degrees in those fields they would be interested in practising in. And so, in antitrust class, I find myself surround by economists who can discusss this theory and that graph and marginal costs and variable whatever when all I can do is gape and think OH MY FUCKING GOODNESS WHY THE HELL ARE THERE GRAPHS IN A LAW CLASS?!! KNNBCCB!!!! whilst in International Human Rights class you find a vast majority of them being political science majors who can discuss the palestinian israeli conflict at the drop of a hat whilst i'm left repeating to myself, ok, one more time, the jews are in israel and the arabs are in palestine.
Phew. That was one major rant. Anyway, that's over and so here are the pictures:
This is the arch, the tallest American National Monument and it was built in the 60s using what was at the time cutting edge technology. i forget what it was but it was cutting edge. It's really breathtaking looking up from its base.
This is the view from the base.
This is the view from the top of the arch - we had to take this teeny tiny capsule lift up the side of the arch and because it's a curved, the lift basically moved upward through a serious of horizontal and then vertical movements. Vaguely remember faint sensations of nausea.
This is the view from the otherside of the arch, facing the Mississippi river. Across the river is east st Louis which is apparently even more dangerous than Queens and Detroit City. That's where most of the crime comes from. It is filled with strip bars and seedy joints and unfortunately is also where most of the big-name concerts are. the friend who picked me up from the airport told me how he got lost once and found himself in east st louis with 1/8 tank of gas. He declined to tell me details of the fateful night but I gather he's very grateful to still be alive.
This is the inside of the old courthouse where the slave-sue-owner trial was held. The old court house is actually pictured in the pic from the top of the arch. It's the building right in the middle. It is now a museum (yes yes, I know what I said, this is the only exception. I think. heh) and the undergrads were made to act out the trial. people were given scripts and roles and everything and it was generally hilarious watching awkward non-english speaking non-americans act out a very american skit in very american english. But i digress.
The Americans love their flags
SO that's about all from my downtown sojourn. Next up. I PROMISE. PICS OF BARNYARD EDUCATION SO YOU CAN LAUGH OK? OH AND WITH PEOPLE IN IT TO. I PROMISE.
posted by dundundugi at 7:23 PM
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