His Holiness...
The Dalai Lama is coming to the UT campus on the 20th. Today at 7am they began handing out complimentary tickets. It's not everyday that the Dalai Lama speaks near my home, so I went out to get a ticket. Why not?
It was a madhouse! The line was enormous. Some people were waiting there since 12:00am the night before. It was like Star Wars. I had no idea the Dalai Lama was so popular here in America. I suppose I'm just out of the loop. He's a superstar.
You can see from this map how crazy long the line was. The arrow marks the finish line:
8000 tickets were being given away, max 2 per person. I was about to just give up, because it sure looked like at least 4000 people were in line, but I decided to wait for a while anyway. Eventually I got a voucher for my spot in line and I was number 2879. Yay! It took more than two hours to get to the ticket booth, but I made it there and got my Dalai Lama tickets. They don't allow cameras though. Even if they did, my camera is broken.
Because the line was so long, I had to miss my French class. One day won't hurt anything.
Later tonight I went to jiu-jitsu club. When I arrived, the other guys informed me that we got kicked out of the mat-room at the gym. Our jiu-jitsu club isn't officially registered with the school, so they have a problem with us rolling in there (body contact->injury->litigation). We went to another mat-room in another building where they had kicked us out last week for the same reason. :) It's a bit of a hassle, but at least it worked out.
Everyone in the jiu-jitsu club is much better than me. I have a big weight advantage though. I wish I wasn't so heavy, because its like a crutch for me. If I can make it to side-mount or mount, I can just drop my weight. I don't know any submissions, so I just lay there and its difficult for the smaller guys to move me. Technically I suppose that's good :), but as I said it's a crutch and I don't like that. Everyone's been really helpful and supportive though. It's a good group and I'm learning a lot.
It was a madhouse! The line was enormous. Some people were waiting there since 12:00am the night before. It was like Star Wars. I had no idea the Dalai Lama was so popular here in America. I suppose I'm just out of the loop. He's a superstar.
You can see from this map how crazy long the line was. The arrow marks the finish line:
8000 tickets were being given away, max 2 per person. I was about to just give up, because it sure looked like at least 4000 people were in line, but I decided to wait for a while anyway. Eventually I got a voucher for my spot in line and I was number 2879. Yay! It took more than two hours to get to the ticket booth, but I made it there and got my Dalai Lama tickets. They don't allow cameras though. Even if they did, my camera is broken.
Because the line was so long, I had to miss my French class. One day won't hurt anything.
Later tonight I went to jiu-jitsu club. When I arrived, the other guys informed me that we got kicked out of the mat-room at the gym. Our jiu-jitsu club isn't officially registered with the school, so they have a problem with us rolling in there (body contact->injury->litigation). We went to another mat-room in another building where they had kicked us out last week for the same reason. :) It's a bit of a hassle, but at least it worked out.
Everyone in the jiu-jitsu club is much better than me. I have a big weight advantage though. I wish I wasn't so heavy, because its like a crutch for me. If I can make it to side-mount or mount, I can just drop my weight. I don't know any submissions, so I just lay there and its difficult for the smaller guys to move me. Technically I suppose that's good :), but as I said it's a crutch and I don't like that. Everyone's been really helpful and supportive though. It's a good group and I'm learning a lot.