National Socialist Movement March in Columbia Missouri

There was a parade in columbia missouri on march 10th to protest what the national socialist movement called the teaching of marxist views at the University of Missouri Columbia. They were escorted on their parade route by Columbia Police, County Sherrifs and the Missouri State Police. Columbia approved the permits for the parade in the intrest of Freedom Of Speech. The parade which was supposed to last for an hour was cut short when several protesters became violent and the police had to use pepper spray. 7 of the protesters were arrested. None of the Nazis were arrested. The people of columbia were urged by local officals and police to simply ignore the march which i think would have been a much more effective statement than physically attacking the marchers. but protesters can never seem to behave themselvs. i think both sides were stupid. but i guess both achieved their goals. whatever....

St.Louis Art Museum

(St. Louis Art Museum and Forrest Park)

This past weekend I made it into St. Louis with my sister and her family, for a day at the art museum. The museum building was built in 1904 for the Worlds Fair in St. Louis. My sister was there for a guided tour with one of her college classes. I stuck with the tour for the first half hour or so, until I realized how much there was that I didn't really care to know about art. So I wandered around the museum with my niece Hannah and my sisters husband Bill. The exhibits at the museum were amazing. They had pieces on display by Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso, Dhali, Degas and Rodin. There were also large sections on ancient Central and South American art, Egyptian art, and Chineese, African, and Indian art.































Van Gogh































Monet


some more pictures....











I would have to say all of the collections at the museum were great, with the exception of their moder art gallery. But then again I hate modern art, mabey i just don't get how a pile of broken glass or a piece of wire tacked to the wall is art. I think I was most impressed with the Asian and the Central and South American galleries the most.
I am planning on going back later this month to take some more pictures when the museum is less busy. I would alos like to check out some more of Forrest Park. It is a huge park right in St. Louis and is actually bigger than Central Park in NYC. There seems to be allot more to see there. there are a couple more museums and the St. Louis Zoo is there also, along with a golf course and miles and miles of paths for biking or you can rent a Segway to cruise through the park on, that sounds like fun.

ok so i reposted my blog from the other day which the people from this site so kindly deleted all of the pictures from, hopefully they wont do it again. you can scroll down to see it, and you should be able to see bigger pictures if you click on them.

today i went to see the Geological sciences building. it is one of the older buildings on campus and it is quite dirty, but thats ok seeing how its full of rocks and dirt. they have a big mineral collection and dozens of research labs. overall it looks pretty nice. in a few weeks i will be going to meet with someone in the department to see which of my credits will transfer. i will keep you posted.
right near the geology building i found this statue
is of thomas jefferson sitting and writing. he's looking accross a small square at his grave stone which is on the other side. its his origional grave stone from monticello which was donated to the school by his family. i thought it was kind of cool so i took a picture

Mizzou

well i have finished my first week of classes at the University of Missouri Columbia and i am settling in well down here. things are a bit strange out here in Missouri but i think it shouldn't be that hard to get used to things here. there are churches everywhere out here, some of the biggest ones i have ever seen and they sell hard liquor in the gas stations and walmart. i thought that was kind of odd.
The campus at Mizzou is allot bigger than i expected. and they have all type of interresting things going on there. there is a huge football stadium where the Mizzou Tigers play. Right behind the stadium they have the largest nuclear reactor of any college or university in the country. They also have their own power plant on campus. They have a huge hospital here, with a mental health facility that is surrounded by a big iron fence with spikes at the top, so i assume they have some patients in there they don't want to get out. they have a cancer research center, a center for nuclear medicine, a pediatric center and an emergency room. and right in front of the hospital they have their own helicopter pad with a huge University of Missouri Columbia rescue helicopter painted with the school colors and everything.
The campus is beautiful. they have more than 6000 trees planted on campus and even though its winter and there are no leaves i can only imagine how nice it will look in the spring. the architecture here is pretty cool also. here are some picture i took of the campus.





So far my classes have been going well. my history class seems like it should be fairly easy, just alot of reading. all my tests are essay tests which i always worry about as far as grading goes, but i think it should be OK. My calculus class i am slightly more worried about. last time i took this class i had a Chinese teacher with a heavy accent and always struggled to understand what she was saying, which i think contributed to me failing the course. This semester i have a chineese teacher with an even heavier accent. im starting to get the hang of it though and when i really cant understand i have a really cool cd with video lectures for every section of the book that i have been using to help me out. its kind of like having 2 teachers. all in all everything has been good down here. i still miss new york and all my friends and family, but im starting to get used to things and from what i have see so far i think im really going to like it at the university of missouri. hope to see every one this summer. bye :)