Our Hearts Speak in Silence

Tis the Season

2011-12-21T21:22:00.000Z

Classes are done and all assignments turned in, except for a paper due January 10th. That means it's time to enjoy the holidays with Seth and take a bit of a break!

We have a dinky little Charlie Brown tree set up on the side of the desk with a small pile of packages underneath. We've gotten some packages in the mail from our families, and the rest of the boxes are presents we bought for each other. While we were together. So there won't be many surprises this year since I know exactly what Seth bought for me, but it was really the easiest thing to do. When you can't just hop in a car and drive to the store, it's much nicer to have company during the walk into the city centre.

Christmas really isn't about the gifts this year (not that it is any year, but even more starkly this year). There's no point to accumulating "stuff" for Christmas when we won't be able to bring it back home. We bought each other things that were either edible or small things that we needed (a 2012 daily planner for me, new slippers for Seth, etc.), and asked for things we missed from home from our families (Kraft mac & cheese, Caribou Coffee, etc.). Our real gift to each other is a trip (hopefully) to Edinburgh, Scotland for a week. Since we're living off of loans anyway, we might as well enjoy our access to travel that we won't have again for ages.

But Christmas itself is going to be most likely the only Christmas that will be relaxing and commitment-free. It will be just Seth and me - nowhere to go and no one to see. In all actuality, as much as we're going to miss our families, we're really looking forward to Christmas. Sleeping in, opening gifts together, cooking Christmas dinner... that kind of relaxed holiday doesn't come around that often.

Last Sunday, we went to a candlelight Christmas carol service at Ebrington. It really was a beautiful service: carols alternating with scripture readings and accompaniment by a Flute band. Since church is at 10am (instead of 11:30am) on Christmas day and we have a 45 minute walk, we're not going back until after Christmas and going to that service was a good reminder to get my priorities in check for the Christmas season. Hopefully, having a nice quiet Christmas will also give me the opportunity to reflect on what Christmas is really for without all the normal distractions.

So, here's to a Christmas season of firsts: first Christmas with Seth, first Christmas away from home, first Christmas in another country. God has done so much for us this year, and I know we'll be in good hands for 2012. :)

It's Winter Again

2011-12-04T16:47:00.001Z

It's getting to the point of my time here that the romance of being newly married and living in Northern Ireland is drifting away. Now, that's not to say that I regret anything: absolutely not! I married the man I love and I know I'm following God's plan, but it seems a lot more like everyday life than an exciting adventure right now. It's not "new" anymore.

I think it's because it's December now, and winter has a whole different feel than the fall. Going out to the grocery store is no longer an enjoyable walk that we can do together; when the rain and icy wind sting your face and hands when you go outside, staying in sounds much more preferable. Waking up for class seems much more like a chore when the daylight is no longer creeping through the curtains when I have to get out of bed. The semester is drawing to a close (bringing more intense coursework) and the holiday season is just around the corner. As excited as I am to have a quiet Christmas with just Seth, it will still be my first Christmas in 23 years where I won't be with my parents and family. The same goes for Seth, too. Christmas will be small, quiet, relaxed, and likely stress-free - hooray! - but possibly a little bit lonely in the deserted dormitories.

I know this post seems like I'm feeling down, but I'm not. I love where we are and I love living with Seth (even if he is currently snoring during his afternoon nap while I'm writing this), and were I given the opportunity to change anything, I'd still be here, with him.

Fortunately, we've had more of an opportunity to travel in the last month. At the beginning of November, we went with the Magee Christian Union to Ballintoy, which is on the northern coast of NI. It's right by the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, and Seth and I made sure to go and see it while we were nearby. The coastline there is amazing - one of the most beautiful places in the world.

It was a busy weekend, but it was blessedly free from rain all weekend. I may not have been here long, but I've been here long enough to know that beautiful weekends like that don't come around too often.

There are a lot of good people in the CU too, and I think both of us enjoyed getting to know them a little better over the weekend.

A couple weeks later, Seth and I took a day trip in to Belfast. It was the day of the Christmas light switch-on and the first day of the Continental Christmas market (and a Saturday), so the whole city was flooded with people. We made it a touristy day and took a bus tour of all the landmarks in the city: Seth has never been there, and I was there with a host family on England term so I saw some parts of the city but not others. It was good for both of us to be able to do the tour together.

The Christmas market was by the City Hall, right in the center of the city. We stopped by to explore after we ate an early dinner (TGI Friday's - sometimes, a little taste of home is appealing) and the market was a mass of people. I had to clutch my purse to my chest because there would be no way to notice pickpocketing, and if someone with a baby stroller stopped in front of us to give their kid a sweet (which they did - a lot), we'd be trapped for several minutes until we could shoulder our way into the crowd slowing parting around them. Still - mulled wine and fudge made everything better.

It was an exhausting but fun day, and we're hoping to get back to Belfast sometime when the holiday shopping season isn't in full swing.

So there's a brief update - I'm off to take my "Sabbath evening of rest" after typing up an essay outline earlier. A little relaxation can go a long way for morale.

Diving into schoolwork

2011-10-24T13:56:00.001+01:00

It's been a couple weeks since my last update, and in the true spirit of being back in school, I'm updating my blog instead of starting in on my homework for the day. Once a student, always a student, I guess.

So I left off on my last post saying that I had a part time job, and there's actually a really funny story about that. I'll preface this story by saying that when they called me to tell me when I was starting, they said, "We'll have you start this weekend. Why don't you come in Friday morning for some training?" Maybe my definition of "training" is different than other people's - and from talking to a lot of people it's not - but usually "starting this weekend" and "come in for training" means that yes, you have the job.

Clearly not. I came in and worked for five hours that Friday morning, and they had me working the sandwich/bap/panini station during the lunch rush, which I've never done before. Not to mention that I had to learn a new language of sorts - it's white, brown, or granary bread, not white or wheat. I had to catch myself all the time. But at the end of my five hours, the owners pulled me into the kitchen (since they didn't have an office).

They told me that from my CV (resume) they were expecting far more out of me, someone who could jump in and just start running since there would be less people working on weekends. They also said that I wasn't outgoing enough and that it wasn't going to work out.

They paid me (cash in an envelope), but isn't the point of training to train? I know coffee, and I know customer service, but at a new job, policies and equipment are always different. Learning a new job is always a process of adjusting what you know to how things work at the new place. I'm sorry if asking questions about where things were and how to make things according to their standards wasn't good enough for them. Fortunately, I can take the word of my bosses at Dairy Queen (where I worked 5 years) and at Uncommon Grounds (where I worked 1 year) over the words of some people for whom I worked for five hours. I know I'm a good worker and friendly with customers.

Chances are that there was something going on behind the scenes and they had decided not to hire me before I even started. I just wish they wouldn't have told me I had the job - knowing that they were just testing me out would have been a whole lot better instead of deceiving me. I wouldn't have done anything different - I did my best - but at least it wouldn't have been such a surprise.

The plus side of not working is that I get to spend a whole lot more time with Seth and that I have much more time to work on my schoolwork. The first week of November I have two papers due (one in each class), one of which is 30% of my mark and the other which is 50%. They're really important, to state the obvious.

Last week I finished the draft of my first paper, a critical review on an article. This weekend I've been reading and researching for my second paper, an essay on why some nonviolent campaigns succeed whilst others fail. It's only 2,500 words, but it should have around 10 sources and since it is half my mark, it has to be really good. So I'm aiming to finish writing that by the end of next weekend so that I have time to do some editing on both. I've always done well in the world of academia, so hopefully I'll be able to pull these off. Come on, English degree. You've got to be useful for something, right?

So that's what I've been doing lately. I'm really looking forward to when I turn these papers in, because then I'll be able to take a short break before working on assignments due at the beginning of December. Plus, since I'm not working weekends, Seth and I decided to go with the Christian Union on a weekend retreat on the 4th to 6th of November, conveniently right after my papers are due. It'll also be the first time we're getting out of Derry, so it's kind of exciting. Hopefully we'll get to start doing a little bit of sightseeing soon. It would be a shame not to see some of Ireland and Northern Ireland while we're here.

But I should stop procrastinating and get on with my reading. I still have three books I want to get through today so that I can start doing some outlining and brainstorming. So until next time, I guess. :)

Finding a rhythm

2011-10-12T22:16:00.000+01:00

Seth and I have been living here in Northern Ireland for several weeks now, and it seems like just recently that life has started to seem normal again. But with the rate that things are changing, it's only a matter of time until that's thrown off again.

This semester I only have two classes - or modules, as they're called here - and the semester lasts through January. The weird thing is that even though winter break is over at the beginning of January, I really don't have any obligations except for turning in one paper. A lot of that time is for final exams, and my modules are graded only on coursework. It may sound nice, but for one module, I'm only graded on two essays. That means each essay is worth 50% of my grade, and when I'm writing for a new professor at a new school in a new country, it's a little nerve-wracking. I'm counting on my English Lit & Writing background to save me in that field, so hopefully everything will work out.

On Tuesdays, I have one class - The Northern Ireland Conflict - from 10:15-12:05 and then 1:15-3:05. We've started out learning a lot of Irish history and history of the Northern Ireland conflict and we'll be using it as a kind of case study as to how negotiation and peace process work in a conflict.

On Thursday, I have Peace and Conflict Research from 9:30am-1:05pm with a few short breaks throughout. That class is focused on learning the basic theories and ideas in the academic field of peace studies, how the study has developed, and some of the problems and advantages of peace studies as professional discipline.

I've been doing a lot of reading outside of class, most of which is self-directed. My first essays will be due the first week in November, so I'll have to start working on those pretty soon.

Seth and I also started going to the Christian Union here on campus, both to expand our social life and to find a good young adult group to encourage us in our faith. It meets every Tuesday night and focuses on Bible study, prayer, worship, developing friendships, and evangelism. We also joined small groups that meet on Wednesday nights; I just got back from my first meeting and Seth is still out at his. I'm encouraged by the faith and sincerity of the people involved at CU, so hopefully good things will happen this year.

One of our biggest struggles in these first few weeks has been a lack of money. Once I arrived on campus, I had to get a form from the international office, fill it out, bring it back to them so they could write an official letter to a UK bank, bring the letter to the bank, set up an account, and send my account information to the financial office so that my US loans could be transferred to my UK bank account. Until today, we still had no money in that account and were looking at maxed out credit cards and about $500 in each of our checking accounts. It wasn't so low that we couldn't buy food, but it was low enough that we had to be really frugal on what we were buying. (This was a result of paying $1,700 each for accommodation in August, our wedding, our honeymoon in London, and buying a lot of necessary things we were not able to bring with us in our suitcases.)

But - thanks be to God - the money was in the account today! We still have to work out a budget, but we can at least afford the luxury of a coffeemaker, which we bought today as a celebration. (A whole £15, woohoo!)

We've also improved our relationship with our flatmates. Last Wednesday, instead of leaving the kitchen after we cooked dinner, we sat around and talked with them and actually got to know them. We still haven't spent a lot of time together, but at least we're past the awkwardness where we only say "hi" in the kitchen and that's it. They were all curious about Thanksgiving, so we're planning to have a Thanksgiving dinner together as a flat. It won't be the same as a family Thanksgiving, but it should still be a lot of fun.

The next big hurdle we have is jobs. I was lucky enough to get a job at a coffee house really close to campus - just a 10 minute walk from Duncreggan. I start training for a couple hours Friday morning and then start working on Saturday and Sunday, and hopefully I can work that into my weekly rhythm. So far weekends have been quiet, low-key, and quite relaxing, but now I'll have 18 hours of work to smoosh in there. It'll be a couple long days - 8am-6pm on Saturday and 10am-5pm on Sunday, but that means work will not be a concern for the rest of the week. I'm legally capped at 20 hours anyway, so it's a pretty good situation.

Keep praying that Seth will be able to find work, though. We're not exactly certain on the status of his visa since it doesn't give him a number of work hours like mine does, so we don't know if he has to apply for some sort of work permit (or how to do that if he does) or if it's just assumed that he can do 40 hours since it's an 18-month visa. It's confusing.

So now that the loans are dispersed, the classes have started, and our social life is picking up, I think we're finally starting to settle in to our life here in Derry. It's almost starting to feel like home, even. Not quite - since I have no kittens to cuddle - but almost.

Moving to the UK

2011-09-20T22:27:00.002+01:00

What a way to start a marriage!It's been a crazy week and a half since Seth and I left everything and everyone we knew at the MSP airport. We took a honeymoon in London, and while it was a lot of fun, it was far from relaxing.

Our hotel was just outside of Heathrow and we had to take the tube into the center of London every day, which took about a half an hour. We came home each evening with throbbing feet and calves from walking around all day. I really enjoyed taking Seth to some of the places I had loved in London - Covent Garden, Russel Square, St. Paul's Cathedral, The Globe Theatre, The Tate Modern, Buckingham Palace, etc - as well as experiencing a few new things that I hadn't ever done before - The London Eye, getting lost, new pubs, and an under renovation Platform 9 3/4.

Basically, all of London was under renovation in preparation for the summer Olympics in 2012. The Piccadilly Circus screens were covered up, tube stations were temporarily closed for elevator renovations, and almost every building was covered in scaffolding. I guess London will look ship-shape by next summer.

On Monday when we left London, we got up way before the sun and barely squeaked by every deadline for the flight. There were some extraordinarily long queues and by the time we got our baggage checked (only a few minutes before the 40 minute cut off) and got through security, we had to run to our gate since the flight was on "last call" for boarding. But we made it!

We took a taxi from the Derry airport straight to our housing at Duncreggan Student Village. Then we had to go back and forth from office to office to collect our keys, but we finally made it to our top floor suite thing. It's a little cramped: we had to push our two single beds together in order to get a bed, but we still have a lovely crack down the middle. The bathroom is there, but just barely. The shower is right next to the toilet with just a shower curtain separating them, so if we don't towel off the floor after showering, we're left with wet feet every time we use the toilet.

Our room certainly isn't deluxe, but it isn't too bad. We share a kitchen with 5 other rooms, and we met a couple of the girls yesterday. They've been really nice so far, so hopefully everything will work out just fine.

Duncreggan Village is certainly the hot party spot, which is a huge adjustment from Bethel. I'm pretty sure there were small parties going on in just about every kitchen on campus (including ours) so it was pretty noisy last night. It should be an interesting year; that's for sure.

I started some international orientation this morning, and I actually met a couple other American students who will be in the same program as me. It's reassuring to know that I have a few people who have to register for the same courses and will probably have some of the same problems as me.

I have more orientation during the rest of the week, longer on some days than on others. But it usually doesn't go much further than about 3:30 in the afternoon, so Seth and I have been spending most of our free time out shopping and trying to find what we need to make our small room homey. It's really been quite the adventure to have to walk to every store and carry everything we buy all the way back to our room, so it's taken many trips out and a lot of leg and arm muscles with all the walking and carrying. Maybe I won't really need to worry about working out much this year.

One thing we're lacking is a coffee maker. Clearly, coffee isn't a priority in the UK. I knew they were big on instant coffee, but I had thought that normal coffee beans would at least exist. But no, so far all we can find is electric kettles and instant coffee. And buying a cup of coffee somewhere certainly isn't in a grad school budget. We'll keep looking, but we caved and bought some instant coffee (but not the cheapest, because we're hoping it will at least be somewhat good).

So life is different, and somewhat confusing right now as we try and settle in, but so far both of us are enjoying it. Hopefully things will smooth out a bit soon as we figure out a routine and how things work around here.

Preparation for Ireland in Illinois

2010-06-25T23:15:00.002+01:00

I don't have a lot of time to update, but I'm here at training camp in the middle of nowhere, Illinois, preparing for the Royal Servants students to arrive. It's been a pretty intense week: I didn't know anyone on the team before I got here, but now it seems like I've known the rest of the summer staff for months.

After today, the schedule's going to take off again. With the students here, we'll be going non-stop until the end of the summer. But I'm so excited, and I know God has big plans for our team.

If you want more information on what the team is up to (although it's much less personal), you should subscribe to the weblog at www.reignministries.org. I'll be writing those updates, which will make updating this blog more difficult.

Love you all!

Home, one week later

2009-12-11T05:20:00.003Z

Today, I've been home for one week.

Today, I saw my grandma for the first time since August. Unfortunately, circumstances dictated that I had to see her in a coffin, her usually pale skin bronzed over with makeup and an uncharacteristic frown pulling at the corners of her mouth. The still body in the funeral home didn't look like my grandma. It was hard to see her like that, especially since I never got to say goodbye. At least I know that she's with Jesus now - and finally, she can run and jump without feeling any pain after so many years of suffering.

Today, I saw my grandpa for the first time since August. He was at the visitation, and was going to be leaving just as I arrived. I'd been thinking that it would be the other way around, that my grandma would be brought to his funeral. I had actually been preparing myself to hear the news in England, where I would be unable to get home to say goodbye.

He sat in his wheelchair, unmoving, eyes closed and head tilted slightly to his left, in much the same state as he was when I left. "Hi Grandpa," I said in his right ear - his good ear. "It's good to see you again." I put my hand on his shoulder to let him know I was there. His fingers started twitching in his lap.

"It's been a long time since I've seen you, Grandpa." I looked at his face, and I saw his eyes open. He knew I was there. It may have only been a few seconds, but I knew he could hear and understand me.

"I love you, Grandpa. I hope to see you again soon." I gave his shoulder one last squeeze and let my Aunt Becky and Aunt Susan put on his knit hat and earmuffs and wrap him in fleece blankets to go outside.

Today, it's been one week since I stepped off the plane. I've never been so grateful to be home with family, especially since this will be the first Christmas without the whole family (as I've known it) here.

Tomorrow, we're going to bury my grandma. I'm going to fulfill her request and play "Amazing Grace" on my Flute, and I can only pray that it holds a candle to how I wish I could play it for her.

Tomorrow, I will say my goodbyes to good times gone.

The last post from England

2009-12-09T17:26:00.001Z

Monday, November 30, 2009

Right now I’m back in London and completely done with classes for the semester (I handed in my last two papers today). It’s really weird to think that I only have three more nights in England, especially after I’ve been here so long. But, it’s time to go back and try to catch up on my last bit of time here. I guess I left off at Lyme Regis.

Thursday the 19th was our only full day in Lyme. We started the day by going out on the Cobb (a big stone walkway constructed to make a harbor) and re-enacting a scene in Persuasion by Jane Austen that takes place on the Cobb. After that, I went back to the Mad Hatter with Melissa H, Zach, Kaari and Evie and had a delicious cream tea for tea time. For dinner, I went out with Kaari and Evie to a pub called The Royal Standard. And for an interesting side note, I also learned that Charlie Watts, the drummer for the Rolling Stones, was staying at the same hotel as we were.

We left for “Plymouth” on the 20th, so that morning was the last time I had internet for a while. (I say “Plymouth” because the house we stayed at was in the middle of nowhere, somewhere outside of Plymouth.)

On the way there, we stopped at Cadbury “Castle”, the reputed site of King Arthur’s Camelot. Really, it was a big old field that could have been anything. Let’s just say that Monty Python jokes and songs were prevalent that afternoon – “On second thought, let’s not go to Camelot. ‘Tis a silly place.”

Then we were off to Battisborough House, our home for the next week. We stopped at Tesco on the way there to buy a week’s worth of groceries, because the house is so remote that there is no way for us to get to a grocery store without hiring a taxi.

Battisborough itself was awesome. It was right on the coast, so we could easily take a walk down by the ocean on some beautiful cliffs. Plus, we had the entire house to ourselves so it was filled with endless England Term bonding. I shared a room in the annex with Melissa K and Nelly – the three of us had five bunk beds to share (that’s 10 beds for 3 people!). Plus, it had an awesome stock of videos, so the first night I watched some old Power Rangers episodes (the good stuff) and Monty Python’s “The Meaning of Life.”

On Saturday (the 21st) we took a 2.5 hour bus ride out to Penzance, Land’s End, and St. Ives. It was a really windy day, so we didn’t actually get to stop in Penzance because the ocean was too aggressive and everything that we could have done would be closed. So I saw Penzance through a coach bus window, which I suppose counts for something.

Our next stop was Land’s End, which is the westernmost point in the UK. It was incredibly windy: I had to walk leaning at an angle in order to make any sort of headway against the gales. But it was still worthwhile to go, if only to say that I’ve been there.

St. Ives was entirely unplanned because it was a spur-of-the-moment addition after we couldn’t stop in Penzance. I spent my time writing a couple postcards in a small café since we were only there for an hour or so.

After our day trip, it was 2.5 hours back to Battisborough – I was certainly glad that I had charged my iPod. Then I spent my evening making a triple batch of cookies with Hannah and Erin (and a few others who helped for a while).

The rest of the week at Battisborough involved a lot of class time, writing, walking outside, cooking, acting Shakespeare scenes, and just hanging out and bonding as a group.

Since we had a full kitchen, I had bought food with Melissa K and we cooked our meals together. It was mostly pasta, but we also had a lot of veggies that we cut up and added to the pasta to make it delicious. But we did well at planning – there really wasn’t that much leftover food by the end of the week and we never went hungry.

Another big part of Battisborough was our Shakespeare scenes. As part of our Drama in Great Britain class, we had to act out a scene from one of the plays that we’ve read and then write a reflection paper about the scene. I did the tail end of Act IV, scene 4 in The Winter’s Tale, with me as Autolycus, Carrie as the clown, and Anna S as the shepherd. So we spent a good deal of time rehearsing the scene until we performed it on Wednesday night (the 25th).

And how can I forget Thanksgiving? Since we had the facility, we all chipped in and made a homemade Thanksgiving dinner – most of the items from scratch. We had three turkeys, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn bake, green beans, cranberry sauce, and sweet potatoes. And amazingly, everything turned out to be delicious – we had to improvise on a lot of recipes.

We left Battisborough the day after Thanksgiving. It was a three hour trip to Salisbury to the Hayburn Wyke B&B, where I ended up in the annex (again!) with Allison, Anna S, Annie, and Erin. But really, it was the place to be. We had our own kitchen (complete with fridge!) so we could save money on food for a while. The only strange thing was the awkward shower, placed right in Anna and Erin’s bedroom like it was some sort of furniture decoration. Just imagine a glass shower box placed in your room like a wardrobe – nothing else around it, just there for everyone to see. But we had some good times in the annex – a couple girls’ nights in playing cards and talking.

The main point of Salisbury was (of course) Stonehenge. It’s one of those things that you’re almost required to see if you’re in England for any decent amount of time, especially if you’re there three and a half months. So I made my pilgrimage to Stonehenge, and it was, as the name suggests, a pile of rocks. Don’t get me wrong: it was cool and all – it IS Stonehenge! – but if it wasn’t so famous I probably wouldn’t have cared. We got off the bus, circled Stonehenge and took pictures, and got back on the bus. Other than being there and seeing it in person, there really isn’t anything else to do.

I took Sunday pretty easy – sleeping in, relaxing, finishing up my papers. So that was the extent of Salisbury. We left Salisbury this morning and traveled two hours back to London, and it’s like being home again.

I’ll write about London again later, because right now I have to run out and grab some food. I’m getting kind of hungry.

Less than one week to go

2009-11-28T16:47:00.004Z

Say Goodbye by Sanctus Real
So say goodbye 'cause you'll be leaving soon
I know it's hard, and I'll be missing you
I know it's time to say goodbye

I know the road, has worn you down
You never broke, you always held your ground
But now it's time to say goodbye

And I know we'll meet again,
But I wish it'd never end
You don't mean to make me cry,
But it's so hard to say goodbye

Say goodbye
Say goodbye

And thought you're gone I remember now
The time we shared, your words still ring out
You're never far, you're in my heart

Someday we'll meet again,
'cause that's how the story ends
It's so hard to say goodbye
Say goodbye

I was writing out one of my last papers and this song came up on iTunes shuffle... it seems to reflect the bittersweet feelings that I'm getting about leaving the UK soon.

It's going to be really hard to leave here on Thursday, especially since I don't know if I'll ever be able to come back again.

Bath and a little Lyme

2009-11-28T10:32:00.001Z

Monday, November 23, 2009

Another week has gone by, and I’m another week behind on my blog. But this time I got smart (after 3 months of travel) and started jotting down a few notes about each day in my notebook. So at least I won’t have the typical problem of trying to remember what I did. Too bad I didn’t think of this system earlier!

I’ll start back on the 17th, on our second day in Bath. That’s when we did the typical things that people do in Bath – tour the Roman baths and go to the spa.

Let’s see… Roman baths. The baths were surprisingly well intact considering that much of Bath was built on top of them. The water was green and didn’t look too inviting for bathing, but it was still steaming and bubbling. Plus, we got to walk around the baths with awesome audio guides held up to our ears – some of the commentary was actually entertaining in that there were ridiculous trumpet calls that made it so I had to move the audio guide away from my ear because it was so loud.

After touring the Roman baths, we all went to lunch in the Pump Room. When I thought of “pump room,” I thought about some mechanical pumps in a hot, steamy, loud room. I thought, “Why would anyone want to eat lunch in a pump room?”

Well, the Pump Room at Bath is a prestigious restaurant that’s been around for quite a while. We had a three course meal (I had mushroom soup, pumpkin penne, and a white chocolate torte with chocolate sauce) while a musician played classical piano in the background. The room was white with a huge, glittering chandelier in the center. I also got to “take the waters” – meaning I had a glass of the natural spring waters from the Roman baths. The water was treated for diseases and such, but it was natural. I think the most disconcerting thing about the water was that it was warm – it tasted mineral-y, but other than that, not bad. Apparently the water is supposed to have healing powers, so we’ll see if it holds off any sickness.

After lunch was one of the most exciting things about Bath: the spa. We went to the Thermae spa and had a two-hour session. Let me tell you – the spa was absolutely fabulous at this point in the trip. Three months of travel really makes a person appreciate time to sit and soak in warm water.

The Thermae spa had three main attractions: the rooftop pool, which was outside and still warm enough to swim in even though it was November (“and we can swim any day in November” – Postal Service, anyone?); a hot bath, which was a beautiful indoor pool with (again) warm water and a partially separate area with jets and bubbles; and several steam rooms, each of which were scented with different fragrances (the only two I remember are frankincense and mint, though there were four rooms). One of the steam rooms was so hot that it was difficult to breathe, but it was so wonderful. I was content just to be back in the water – it’s been so long since my swimming days, and I was more relaxed to swim back in forth in a partial breaststroke than to just sit and float. I miss spending time in the water; I just feel so much more coordinated and natural when I’m moving in the water.

The only downside was that about 10 minutes before I left, someone stole my towel (that I had rented from the hostel for 50p) right out from under my shoes. Granted, all the towels there were white, but my shoes had been directly on top of my towel, and when I looked to grab it, my shoes were on the floor and out of the mesh cubbies. It’s not like the Bath hostel had any way of knowing who had rented towels, but I felt bad that they were going to be short one towel because someone took it from me.

After the spa, a majority of people went to Starbucks for a cup of Christmas – a gingerbread latte. I had to grab mine to go since I had a Skype date with Seth, but no one else was ready to go so I walked back up the hill alone in the dark. Since it was kind of a back roads trail, I was a little nervous that I was alone, but fortunately I made it back okay, even if I was still a good 20 minutes late for Skype.

That night was also Kaari’s birthday, so we had cheesecake and wrote her Jane Austen-esque compliments to celebrate.
Wow, I can write so much more about each day now that I’m keeping a few brief notes. I really wish I did this earlier…

But on to the 18th of November, the day we left Bath for Lyme Regis. I had no idea where Lyme Regis was except that it was in Jane Austen’s Persuasion, so it was kind of a surprise.

But first – our stop on the way to Lyme Regis. Our deviation this time was to Glastonbury, the reputed site of King Arthur’s grave and the location of Glastonbury Abbey, which is supposed to be the monastery that the Knights of the Round Table went to after Arthur’s death. I visited Glastonbury Abbey long enough to see Arthur’s “grave” (I’m not sure how much I believe that) and then went out into Glastonbury for lunch. I went to the Mocha Berry Café with Erin, Hannah, and Alea for some coffee and light lunch. I’m sure Glastonbury would have been cool to explore, but I was a little thrown off by the absurd amount of magical/mystical stores.

After that stop, it was onward to Lyme Regis. We stayed at the Alexandra Hotel, which was absolutely wonderful after staying in hostels. I stayed in a room with Evie, and we had a big fluffy bed and a seaside view. The bathroom was shiny, clean, and appealing to the eye. The towels were fluffy and huge, and we were even provided with towel bathrobes.

A little bit after settling in to our room, Evie and I went out to explore. To me, Lyme Regis felt like a combination of Amalfi and Sligo. I think it reminded me of Sligo just because the ocean was just a short walk from the place that we were staying, but it was incredibly like Amalfi because it was an off-season tourist destination. A lot of the stores and restaurants were closed early because nobody goes to Lyme during November – it’s a lot more popular when it’s warm out. But it also resembled a California beach town since all the buildings were painted pastels: blues, pinks, yellows, greens, lavenders.

Apparently Lyme is also known for a bunch of fossils – Evie and I ran across a place called “Dinosaurland” when we went on the “Riverside Walk.” It was worth it though – I did find a very friendly kitty with beautiful green eyes as we walked along the path.

After our adventures, Evie and I went to the Mad Hatter for tea. It was just a few yards down the street from our hotel, and it was called the Mad Hatter. Really, that’s the main reason that I wanted to go there.

Mmm well that’s all for now – I had a conversation with Evie and Melissa and it’s now 11:35 pm – time for bed!

The land of Shakespeare

2009-11-17T19:34:00.001Z

Monday, November 16, 2009

Last Tuesday we left Oxford and traveled to Stratford via the “Cotswolds.” If you’re anything like me, you have no idea what the Cotswolds are. Like Mark Bruce said, “We’re only going there because they’re pretty.” And really, that was it. The Cotswolds are just quaint little villages with pretty rivers, hills, and trees. I think they were important somehow in the production of wool, but I don’t remember the details. I did find a pair of mittens (finally!) at the Edinburgh Woolen Mill, though.

Stratford was busy, but it was a lot of fun. We spent most of our days at the Shakespeare Center taking classes from and having discussions with RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company) associated people.

The most memorable part of Stratford was going to see Twelfth Night performed by the RSC. I’m not kidding – these amazing performances of Shakespeare may ruin my opinions of future Shakespeare plays. First it was As You Like It at the Globe, and now Twelfth Night by the RSC. This is quality stuff right here. Plus, we got to see Twelfth Night twice – once with the main cast, and once with the understudies. It was really cool to see how just switching the actors and actresses could change the performance. And anyway… Shakespeare is just great to start with. Add an amazing cast, amazing location, and an amazing set and director, and it’s golden.

I also spent a few nights at the Dirty Duck – officially called the Black Swan, though no one else calls it that. The Dirty Duck is the pub that all the RSC actors and actresses visit right after their shows, so obviously it was a great spot to hang out. But despite that claim to fame, the Dirty Duck really wasn’t all that crowded. The only time it seemed crowded enough that you might have to search for a table was on Saturday night – but that could be because the RSC actors and actresses had Sunday off and were there for a lot longer than other nights. Who knows. But because it was really easy to get to (it was just a couple minutes walk from our B&B) and there was lots of room, the Dirty Duck was probably another one of my favorite pubs. Plus, they had a countdown to Christmas and some fun Christmas decorations, including a 4-foot high dancing Santa.

Another highlight of Stratford was our stage combat class with Jean-Marc and Ivan. Both guys worked with the RSC and had a lot of experience and training in stage combat. Jean-Marc actually played the part of the young Prince Caspian in the 1989 BBC version of the Chronicles of Narnia.

We spent the first part of stage combat doing fencing and we learned a choreographed fight from the end of Hamlet and the second part learning a choreographed wrestling match from As You Like It. Surprisingly enough, I had a lot of fun with it, even though I wasn’t very good. I do feel like I could get a lot better with the fencing if I had more time to work with it and practice – since we only had three hours, it was more of a crash course than actual learning.

That’s Stratford in a nutshell – Shakespeare, Shakespeare, and more Shakespeare. Especially since I also visited the birthplace and grave of Shakespeare. All of the Shakespeare was so much fun, and I think I have a whole new appreciation for his work. I actually want to read a bunch of the Shakespeare plays that I haven’t read yet, so hopefully I’ll get on that once I’m back home.

Yesterday we left Stratford and traveled to Bath, stopping at Tintern Abbey along the way. All I knew about Tintern Abbey was the Wordsworth poem… probably all anyone knows about Tintern Abbey. It turns out that Tintern Abbey is actually in south Wales, so yesterday I took a jaunt over to Wales for the afternoon (I feel so weird saying that).

Tintern Abbey is the ruins of an Abbey (surprising, right?). Just the stones are left, though it’s eerily cool to wander through the main hall with all its pillars and big windows, though the roof is gone and there’s grass growing inside.

I did buy myself a £2 mood ring with the red Welsh dragon on it – don’t worry, it’s awesome. I hadn’t gotten myself anything from Wales, so the mood ring was the way to go.

Right now I’m in Bath. We’re staying at the Bath YHA Youth Hostel, which is actually up a hill and about a 10-15 minute walk from the centre of Bath. It’s probably a good thing… I don’t feel like we’ve done quite as much walking in this second half of the trip. Best to get my legs back into shape again before everything is destroyed during the Christmas season at home. Because it’s literally uphill the entire way back to the hostel.

I enjoy Bath, but it’s probably not my favorite place. It’s cool and all, but if we were here more than a couple days I’m not sure what I would do. Today we went on a walking tour, so we saw a lot of the places that Jane Austen uses in her novels (including Persuasion, which we just read). So we saw places like the Royal Crescent, the Circus… places where 17th – 18th century aristocrats would hang out and socialize. Then I went with Joel and Melissa to see the Abbey, which was kind of a strange experience because it was the first old cathedral building to have modern equipment like TV’s for the pews with a view blocked by pillars. On the other hand, it was the first old cathedral building to have a prayer walk and actually encourage tourists to use the building for a spiritual purpose rather than just looking at pretty architecture.

Tomorrow we’re touring the part of Bath that everyone else thinks about: the Roman baths. Plus, we’re spending some time at the Thermae spa, which should be an excellent time investment.

Well, I’m finally caught up. Not for long, though, I’m sure. Oh well – as long as I get there eventually.

Two weeks too late

2009-11-16T19:28:00.002Z

Sunday, November 15, 2009

It’s been two weeks since I last did any sort of blogging or journaling. I’m sure I say this just about every time I start a post, but I’m feeling incredibly intimidated. Somehow, I need to write about Canterbury, Oxford, and Stratford as I sit in the lounge of the youth hostel in Bath. To help me out, I’m going to post a very rough outline of my days and elaborate off of that.

CANTERBURY:
Wed. Nov. 4: Left Salomon’s for Canterbury. Stopped in Ashdown Forest to visit the Winnie the Pooh bridge and play Pooh sticks.
Thurs. Nov. 5: Morning class, then shopping with Melissa K. Watched V for Vendetta.
Fri. Nov. 6: Morning class. Tour of Canterbury Cathedral.
Sat. Nov. 7: Morning class, then walking on the medieval walls with Allison, Kaari, Anna S, and Nelly. Bonfire night / Guy Fawkes day bonfire and fireworks.

OXFORD:
Sun. Nov. 8: Left Canterbury and stopped at Blenheim Palace. Arrived in Oxford and went to dinner at the Eagle and Child.
Mon. Nov. 9: Morning trip to Café Nero to work on my paper. Tour of Oxford colleges – Ben’s Cookies and Cake shop. Dinner out again at the Eagle and Child.

STRATFORD:
Tues. Nov. 10: Left Oxford and drove through the Cotswolds – bought scarf and mittens. Arrived at Stratford and stayed at Forget-Me-Not B&B. Spent the night in relaxing.
Wed. Nov. 11: Morning classes at Shakespeare Center – discussed Twelfth Night and saw some archives. Visited Shakespeare’s birthplace. 7:15 performance of Twelfth Night by RSC at the Courtyard Theatre.
Thurs. Nov. 12: Voice class. 1:30 understudy performance of Twelfth Night. Evie’s birthday – dinner out at the Dirty Duck.
Fri. Nov. 13: Twelfth Night discussion and Q&A session with Miltos (plays Feste). Visited Shakespeare’s grave. Three hours of stage combat with Jean-Marc Perret (Prince Caspian) and Ivan. Watched Charlie and Lola. Went with Evie to the Dirty Duck.
Sat. Nov. 14: Laundry day. Chinese food for dinner. Went back to the Dirty Duck.

As you can tell, I’ve been busy. So I’m going to do my best to pick the highlights of these cities and write more than just the itinerary. =)

So… I’ll start with Ashdown forest. Can I just say that it was awesome to go to the 100 Acre Woods and play Pooh sticks? I’m not sure what else I can say about that – we had a tour guide who wore all purple, but I don’t think she told me anything I didn’t already know. I brought a bundle of sticks and we had some pretty intense competitions – I finally won a game near the end, once the games dwindled from six or seven people to just two. Plus, we visited Piglet’s house, which was a tiny door on a tree nearby the Pooh bridge. So nerdy, but awesome.

Canterbury was and awesome city. It’s one of the few cities that still has all its medieval streets, so all the streets were narrow and winding. We stayed in the Cathedral Lodge in the Cathedral precincts, so we were actually right next to Canterbury Cathedral. It makes me feel like I’ve been here too long, but it just seemed normal to be able to look out of my window and see a huge cathedral.

Canterbury was also a great shopping town. Since we were right in the center, there were stores everywhere – it was hard to resist spending a bunch of money I didn’t have. But I contented myself with just doing a lot of window shopping. Plus, Melissa and I got to have a great time hanging out and talking over some coffee.

One of the great things about Canterbury was that it was the 5th of November – remember, remember the 5th of November, the gunpowder treason and plot. I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot. The only thing cooler would be if we were in London, but just being in England was pretty cool in itself. We marked the date by renting V for Vendetta off of iTunes, and the official celebrations took place on Saturday night, since Thursday is part of the work week. Though people do call it Bonfire Night instead of Guy Fawkes day. So a few of us (the Bruces, Evie, Erin, Dan, and I) went out to a huge bonfire on – Tyler Hill, I think? Something like that. But there really was a huge bonfire… we could see the flames flickering over the rooftops of the houses as we approached. Then there was a fireworks display, which was really long and set off to a music soundtrack including The Beatles and Michael Jackson. If the English do anything well, it’s bonfires.

As far as literature… Canterbury was where we studied the Canterbury Tales, believe it or not. It was kind of weird to study them while we were right outside Canterbury cathedral, since that was the final destination of the pilgrims, though they never make it to Canterbury in the tales. When we toured the cathedral, we saw the shrine for Thomas Beckett, which is where the pilgrims would have come at the end of their journey.

A week ago we left Canterbury for Oxford with a stop at Blenheim Palace on the way. Apparently, Blenheim Palace is the home of the Churchill family – including the one and only Winston Churchill. So we hung out there for a little while, wandering through the state rooms as well as an interactive ghost exhibit on the second floor. That was an exhibit with moving displays and narration about the history of all the people who have lived at Blenheim. I also visited the secret garden – no, really, it said it was the secret garden on the map.

Oxford was excellent, even if we were only there for two nights. I’m going to generalize and say that college towns are always fun, if only because I feel like I fit in better because I’m in the right age range. We stayed in the Oxford YHA Youth Hostel – it was quite nice for a hostel, but I’m glad we were only there two nights. It sucks showering with a hand towel instead of a bath towel and having very little room for suitcases. Other than normal hostel not-quite-as-nice-as-a-hotel-ness, it was great.

I spent a lot of time at Oxford hanging out at the Eagle and Child. That’s the pub that CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien would spend time in and discuss their writing and such with their group – the Inklings. It was totally worth it to go and sit in the same pub for dinner and channel the creative spirits of such great writers – the groups I was with actually had some really great conversations while we were there. I could definitely see why Lewis and Tolkien chose that pub – it had great nooks and crannies, wood paneling, dim lighting, and plenty of small tables tucked away in the corners. On the second night, Evie, Kaari, and I actually ate dinner in the Rabbit room, which was the actual room of the pub where Lewis and Tolkien would meet. They called the pub the Bird and the Baby as well. Actually, this was probably one of my favorite pubs in England. (Obviously Dublin has my top favorites overall.)

We didn’t do a whole lot more outside of our tour of the Oxford University colleges, so I think I’ll finish up for the night. I’m exhausted. I’ll do my best to finish up with Stratford soon.

Sleepy Sunday

2009-11-02T17:38:00.001Z

Sunday November 1, 2009

Fortunately for England Term, Salomon’s really is a great place to rest. Lots of people have been hit with colds and are either ill or recovering. As of today, I’ve avoided the worst of it, but my time may still be coming. I did have a cold back in September, and I’m hoping that’s enough to pull me through the rest of the semester without catching another one.

But I’ve really been taking it easy this week. I didn’t bring any of my own books, so I’m getting ahead on class reading. I figure that it’ll pay off once we leave this place – there has to be more to do in Canterbury than here. I’ve been getting to bed early or on time, and I’ve just been relaxed in general.

If anything, though, my schedule at Salomon’s is centered on food. Some days – especially today, since it was Sunday – I consider sleeping in, but then I remember how wonderful the breakfasts are. I really need to stop eating three big meals a day, but it’s there, it’s free, and it’s good. And after just scraping by in London, it seems to be a waste if I don’t eat it.

Today is Sunday, and it’s been rainy and drizzly all day. It’s just one of those days to do absolutely nothing, and it’s been wonderful. I finished watching the two most recent episodes of Heroes with Alea, so she’s caught up on season 4 as well. We actually had a long discussion about what’s going on in Heroes when we finished, which was a great relief after keeping all my theories to myself for the beginning of the semester. I even pulled out the English major card and related some of the characters to the works we’re studying (Othello, White Teeth). Oh! I know this makes no sense to anyone who doesn’t watch Heroes, but I need to tell Alea: maybe Gretchen is somehow in league with Becky? I’ve got to pass that one along and see what she thinks.

Yesterday was Halloween, and even though we’re all living out of suitcases and don’t have costumes, we still found fantastic ways to dress up and celebrate. We all invented costumes for dinner yesterday, and the results were amazing, considering our limited wardrobes. I went with three other girls as grapes: we dressed in all purple (except me; I was the rotten grape so I wore black with a little purple) and formed a grape cluster with a green scarf for the vine. We also had Joel Slotman dressed up as Jesus, which was probably the best costume. Anna Wilson was a Russian spy, Emily Wick was Emily Dickinson (also one of the best costumes), Nelly was Annie Taylor, Annie Taylor was a menorah, Zach was Aladdin, Carrie was Harry Potter, Emily Coleman was Draco Malfoy, Erin Buchen was Ron Weasley, and Melissa Haunty was someone from the 70’s (I’ve never seen her comb her hair into a fro, but it was awesome!). I know I’m missing some people, but it was a pretty awesome costume collection.

After dinner, we stopped back in our rooms so that Rhiannon could come around trick or treating (Mark and Julianne had given us some candy). After that a bunch of us went back to our classroom for a Halloween dance party. It took a while to get going because we had to figure out how to get the music to play from the speakers in there, but after that, it was pretty awesome. Granted, none of us were fantastic dancers, but we still had a great time.

Let’s see… what else have I been up to? Oh! Funny faux-hawk and pigtail story from Friday. It was after I was done on my laptop, and I was walking back to my room to put it away before dinner at 7:00pm. There’s not a long distance to walk, but on the short walk up the hill, a car stops next to me.

“Can you tell me where the Science Theatre is? Where the show is tonight?” the guy in the driver’s seat asked.

I dutifully explained that it was just down the hill and in the doors. Then the guy asks me where parking is, causing one of the girls in the back to start laughing. “It’s just that you have an American accent and we’re asking you for directions!” she said in a proper English accent.

She’s right; it was funny. But I told them where I thought there was parking available and then continued on my way. But as I was walking up the stairs, it struck me: I still had a ridiculous hairstyle. Those poor Brits probably have a terrible image of America now!

Ohhh well. It was entertaining for me, at least. And apparently for them as well, if the girl in the back was any indication.

The rest of the week is mainly classes and homework, though we are having another talent show on Tuesday night. Shoot – that means Kaari, Evie, and I have to get busy writing tomorrow. Then we’ll leave Salomon’s on Wednesday and head off to Canterbury. I’ve started reading some of the Canterbury tales to get ahead, but I don’t think it’ll ever be the same now that I associate Chaucer with my goldfish.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Hopefully this relaxing stay at Salomon’s will give me the energy I need to enjoy the last month of England term.

The end of the Roman holiday and the return to England

2009-10-30T16:47:00.001Z

So as usual, I’m terribly behind on this blog. I’m going to do my very best to catch up so that I can start journaling about things that are actually happening rather than things that I did weeks ago. I apologize if I gloss over some things: at this point, I just need to record an outline of my days so that I can remember it in the future. My benefit, not yours. =)

Rome: Mon. Oct. 19 – Tues. Oct. 20
We spent our last day in Rome at the Rome City Hostel on the opposite side of the city from our previous accommodations. It was actually pretty nice to see a different area. It was definitely a unique experience: unknown to us, we were actually staying in a mixed dorm, so our room was the four of us plus one guy from Canada. I think he was intimidated by us at first; we had a bad first impression of him when he walked into the room, grabbed a sweatshirt, and walked out without saying anything to us. He did redeem himself later – his name was Cody, and fortunately, he was not a creep. On the other hand, the four of us were kind of glad that we were only there for one night. Part of that was due to the fact that there were no towels provided for free, so none of us showered on Tuesday.

We left our luggage at the hostel in the morning and spent the day seeing a few more Roman landmarks. We stopped at the Pantheon (which was sweet) and ate one last lunch outside, where I had real Italian lasagna. Then we walked down to the Spanish steps and just sat and enjoyed the sunshine. Our final stop for the day was the Trevi fountain in the daylight, where we had our last cups/cones of gelato.

By that point, we had to get back to the hostel and pick up our luggage so that we could get to the airport shuttle on time. It’s a good thing that we did, because the shuttle was extremely crowded and smelt like BO from all the people. Then we got stuck in rush hour, so Kaari and I had a great time window shopping from the bus windows (yes, it was moving that slowly).

We made it to the airport in plenty of time – Ciampino airport, I think. Something like that, anyway. We checked our bags and had enough time to eat some airport food, and flew RyanAir for two hours back to London Stansted airport. Our plane landed by 11:30pm just like it was scheduled, but apparently London has the strictest customs of any place we’ve been so far. So we had to wait in an endless line, and it was sometime after 1:00am by the time we made it through.

At that point, none of us wanted to deal with trains and buses and trying to figure out how to get home. So we took a taxi all the way back to the Celtic Hotel, which cost us a grand total of £99. At least there were four of us? But we got back the quickest way possible, and at that point, the time was worth the money.

London: Wed. Oct 21 – Tues. Oct 27
Like I said in my last entry, coming back to London was a relief. I didn’t feel like I needed to go out and see everything, and it was okay to spend an afternoon in London at the laundromat. And after being in Italy and France, it was really nice to be back in a city where most people speak English. I’d forgotten how easy it can be to ask questions when the other person can actually understand what you’re saying.

I actually don’t remember a whole lot of what I did in London, just because my days all blur together. I really just kept the whole week or so pretty low key. And because I don’t know if I’m ever going to finish if I write this out in detail, I’m just going to record a line or two about what I did each day. Terrible for my writing, I know. But like I said, it’ll help me remember it in the future.

Wednesday: laundry day! Catching up online, talking to the rest of the group about free travel experiences.

Thursday: Class. Got a letter from Seth. Went with Erin to Ben’s Cookies and Primark. Evening trip to the Agape center.

Friday: TS Eliot walk with Dan Taylor. Went with Alea to the Imperial War Museum.

Saturday: Seth and I have been dating 5 years! Class. Went with Kaari to Camden markets. Erins’ night out.

Sunday: Coffee, devos, and blogging at Café Nero. Afternoon performance of Beowulf by Benjamin Bagby at the British Library (in original Old English with a six-string harp).

Monday: Class. Evening trip with Evie to Kilburn for dinner and the 8:45 showing of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus at the Tricycle Theatre.

Tuesday morning we left London for Salomon’s in Tunbridge Wells, just an hour or so south of London. On the way there, we stopped at Penshurst, an old estate and gardens. It featured in several poems (“To Penshurst” by Ben Jonson; home of Lady Mary Wroth) and was actually the filming location of a few scenes of The Other Boleyn Girl – a movie that I feel like I need to see now that I’ve been to Penshurst. But while we were there, it was the perfect autumn day: sunshine, blue skies, brightly colored trees, warm air with a crisp fall breeze.

And actually, that’s been the weather for the majority of our time at Salomon’s. Sometimes it’s cloudy, but in general, the weather is just perfect for autumn. Salomon’s is a big retreat center, so there’s really not much to do here outside of reading, writing, sleeping, and eating. And let me tell you – we certainly get to eat! We get huge meals of amazing food, and somehow, I’m still hungry for the next one. Who knows how that works.

On Wednesday, we did a ropes course here. I had no idea what I was getting into, but it turned out to be a lot of fun (no lame spider webs or trust falls). We did Jacob’s Ladder (a huge ladder where the next rung up was at my neck), a big pole with a small platform at the top that we had to get three people on, another big pole that we had to get two people on, who then jumped for a trapeze, a zip line, and rappelling off a 100 foot clock tower. I think the rappelling was my favorite: I got some sweet jumping action going by the time I made it to the bottom.

Other than that, though, it’s been mainly classes and free time for homework and relaxation. I’ve actually gotten ahead (for once) on my reading and I’ve even had time for a nap. And, as you can see, I’m finally catching up on my blog.

Today is Melissa K’s birthday, so she requested that it be faux-hawk and pigtail day. So, since my hair is physically able, I’m sporting a faux-hawk and pigtails today. I think that it has officially convinced me to never get a really short pixie cut, because since you can’t see all my hair when it’s back in pigtails, the faux-hawk makes me look awfully man-ish. Especially since I experimented by putting on aviators and popping the collar to my leather coat for a few minutes – bad idea. I definitely looked like a man, and I’m pretty sure this look is never going to happen again. Ah well, it’s an experience.

So that gets me back up to the present, so I’m going to end this blog entry here. I think I’ll head off to the classroom building and go on a search for an Ethernet jack and get internet on my laptop so I can call Seth again. Farewell for now!

More from Italy

2009-10-25T12:52:00.001Z

As of right now, I’m back in London. I actually have been for a few days, but it’s just taken me this long to sit down and take time to journal.

Before I go back to talking about Italy, I need to write down a few of my current thoughts. This morning, I was struck with the realization of where I am. I was sitting at breakfast by myself, enjoying a cup of coffee and listening to morning conversation floating around me. And suddenly, I realized where I was. I’ve been living out of a suitcase in England for over two months now, and life just seems normal. I wake up and spend a day hanging out in London, and since I’ve been here before, the pressure to see and do everything has just dissipated. I can look at a day here with absolutely no plans and just go off and do whatever I feel like.

And beyond the physical location, too. I suddenly realized where I am personally. I’m here in London: independent, attractive, and competent. And to such a degree that I haven’t really felt before in my life. I took off on a road trip to Italy with three other girls, and we all planned and paid for it by ourselves. I’ve never done anything remotely like that in the States – not even a weekend to Duluth with friends. I’ve had to watch my own money and deal with problems on my own, even though I did have to ask for help on the check card dilemma. I love and miss people at home, but I have the ability to live on my own without seeing them. Sure, sometimes I still feel inadequate and out of place, but I don’t think that I’ll be the same when I get back home. I don’t think I can specify how life will be different right now, but I can’t imagine coming back home without anything different.

I’ve also seen God in my life in ways that I haven’t before, which is what brings me back to Italy. I left you off last time with a tour of the Vatican, halfway through our first time in Rome. So I’ll finish up with Rome, and then move on to Amalfi – where God brought us safely with the help of several Italian angels.

So after the Vatican museum, we walked around in St. Peter’s Basilica, which is over the supposed location of Peter’s grave. Who knows if that’s actually true, but that’s the theory. That’s also where Michelangelo’s Pieta is, so it was pretty awesome to see it in real life.

We took the rest of the afternoon off, and spent the evening in. We cooked our own dinner and then had a girl’s night involving chocolate. So much fun, and a great bonding time for me, Kaari, Evie, and Anna.

Thursday was another good day. We went out to an outdoor market for the morning and did some shopping. Sometimes going to a market is a little stressful, with all the shopkeepers pouncing as soon as you stop to look at some of their products. (“For you? Great price, only 4 euro.”) I did land a hat, shirt, and some awesome leather boots. I was hoping to find boots for a great price in Italy, just because then I’d always remember boots = Italy. Because Italy is shaped like a boot. Sometimes, I just feel so clever. =)

Then in the evening, we dressed up for a nice dinner out in Rome. We decided to stop out at the Trevi fountain so we could see it at night, and from there found an Italian café. We sat outside and had our pasta and tiramisu, but the best part was our waiter. At one point during the dinner, he stops by and places both hands on our table, fingers spread. “See this?” he said. “This means I am not married.” Then throughout the rest of the night, he would make similar comments. “Afterwards, we could go out for champagne. If you say no, I am kidding. If you say yes, I am serious.” And I could never forget: “For you, I will change my religion and marry all of you, as long as you do not fight.” It was quite the entertainment.

On Friday, we left for Amalfi. We had bought train tickets from Rome to Naples earlier in the week, though fortunately the price this time was only €19.50. We were on an Intercity train instead of Eurostar, which was probably the price difference. But the journey itself was slightly less pleasant, so I was glad it was only about two hours. We were stuffed into compartments of six, kind of like the Hogwarts express (I even saw a food trolley pass by in the hallway – go figure). But the guy sitting across from me was really awkward – he wore camouflage sweatpants and stretched out so much that my legroom was severely impeded. He also had a bad habit of scratching himself in unmentionable places consistently throughout the journey, so I tried my best not to pay attention. I was actually hoping to write about Rome during that train ride, but there was no way I was going to get my computer out. Oh well.

We made it to Naples, though, and our next task was to get tickets for the Circumvesuviana train and get off at the Castellammare del Stabia stop. Sounds easy, right? Not so much. We got our tickets, and dragged our luggage down to the platform to wait for a train heading to Sorrento. A train came up that said Sorrento on the front, so we got on. But once we were on the train, a bunch of people seemed to think that it wasn’t heading in that direction. Once the doors were shutting, a lady kindly told us that no, the train wasn’t going to Sorrento, so we should get off at the next stop and wait for the next train. So we did, and we sat out in the sun for a long time waiting. It got to the point where several trains had gone by and none were for Sorrento, so we decided to just get on the next one that came (don’t ask me how we came to that decision). After we had lugged our luggage aboard, a guy on the platform waved to us, saying, “No Sorrento! No Sorrento!” We looked at him helplessly as the doors shut, and I saw him walk away shaking his head. Oops.

So we got off again at the next stop. We waited a little bit longer, and finally, we got on the right train. But it was really crowded, so we had to stand in a clump with our luggage for the next 40 minutes or so (it was a long train ride). Not the best for our morale, but we made it.

Once we got off the train at Castellammare del Stabia, the directions told us to take the blue Sita bus, which would drop us off in front of the B&B. Our first problem is that we couldn’t find a bus stop. We wandered around for a bit (with our luggage, mind you) and eventually saw a green Sita bus going around the corner by the train station. It was a one way road, so we went back and sat outside and waited. It’s so fortunate that it was nice weather, because we were probably waiting for a good hour or so. Finally, we see a blue Sita bus coming around the corner. It was going slow since it had to turn, but it was obvious that it wasn’t going to stop for us because we weren’t at a stop. Evie took a half step forward and pulled out a pathetic, “Scuzi?” Fortunately, an Italian man nearby noticed our panic and quickly determined that we wanted that bus to Agerola and stopped it for us in the middle of the street. We boarded the bus with all our luggage, probably hitting just about every passenger as we walked through the aisle. But we made it on.

The next problem was that we didn’t know where to get off or how to pay. We started asking some of the other people on the bus, and one man who spoke rudimentary English told us that Campora was after the tunnel. Half an hour later, we drove through a tunnel near the top of a mountain. We perked back to attention and started trying to figure out where our stop was. The problem was that the bus didn’t stop unless someone had pressed the stop button or if someone was waiting, and the stops had no labels and were often hidden so you didn’t see them unless you were looking for the “Fermata Sita” signs that looked an awful lot like a laminated piece of paper.

Our next angel was an elderly woman who jabbered on and on to us in Italian, trying to give us directions to our stop. She was pointing things out with her hand, but none of us had any idea what she was saying. We picked up on a few things like “around.” But when it was our stop, she stood up and called out the bus driver so that he stopped in the right spot, so we left the Sita bus on the road right in front of our B&B.

The next problem was getting there. Evie walked over to a couple of people out on the street and asked where the B&B Il Sentiero was – they told her that it was just up a side street, but the owner Teresa, wasn’t in and we should walk 10 minutes up the road to a Tabacchi to use a phone to call.

So we started walking. We got maybe halfway when we paused by a church for a break. Suddenly, we looked up and there’s a car there. “Il Sentiero? Come, I will take you.” So we loaded the four of us plus our luggage into a tiny car, and the guy started driving. The irony of it all was that he drove back down the road and stopped right where we had gotten out of the Sita bus just a little bit earlier. So our walking was in vain. But he brought us up to the B&B and gave us our key. We had made it! (Though we never did pay for our ride on the Sita bus. Seems to be the Italian way.)

After we had our room, I’m pretty sure the guy that brought us there left. So there was no one working at the B&B that night, and there were no other guests. We were the only ones. The room was really nice, with a queen bed and a bunk bed. The problem was that it was pretty arctic in the room – there was a heater on the wall and we plugged it in, but we could not figure out how to work it. So we spent the nights under piles of blankets (thankfully the wardrobe was well stocked) and still woke up cold in the morning. It was really funny, though, because we woke up at 8:50 or so (breakfast was at 9:00) and just started laughing because we knew we should get up but it was just so cold.

Teresa was there in the morning though, and we had a nice breakfast of chocolate filled croissants and toast biscottis. Not very filling, but it was still breakfast. We paid for our stay and asked Teresa how to work the heater. Apparently there was a remote for the heater in the drawer in the bedstand. Go figure. After we figured out the heating, our room was much more pleasant. Though the hallway and the bathroom were still pretty arctic, so it was a little unpleasant to make trips to the bathroom or to take a shower. We did have hot water (most of the time), so that helped.

The unfortunate part of having heat in our room was the flies. There were flies hanging around, but while it was cold, they were sluggish and took to walking on the floor instead of flying (if that doesn’t tell you how arctic it was, I don’t know what will). But once it warmed up, they were flying around and obnoxious again. Oh, well. Flies are just obnoxious, and there were only about five of them in our room.

Our time in Amalfi/Campora/Agerola was pretty low key and relaxing. We were on the top of a mountain in a little Italian town, where we got stared at as we walked down the street because everybody knew everybody and we were very obviously not from there. We did find a pizzeria just seven minutes from our B&B, though, so we went there every night for dinner. It had great pizza and it was only €3.50 for a big prosciutto pizza – and it was open. Eating there was really strange – many places were closed, and it seemed that restaurants for dinner only opened at 7:00pm and were closed until then. So every night at 7:00, we showed up at our pizzeria. By the second time, they recognized us and expected us, and a couple of the employees would wave to us if we passed by on the street. They were great, though.

On Saturday we took the Sita bus down to Amalfi town, so we did get down to the coast. Our Sita bus driver was awesome, and since we were in the front, he started talking to us in Italian for a few minutes. We smiled and laughed like we knew exactly what was going on, until he asked us if we spoke Italian. We laughed and said no. Evie told him that she spoke a little Spanish, and I think he thought we were Spanish after that. Oh well. He started singing as he was driving, so it was a great time.

We spent the day wandering around the town, but it was very obviously a town where cruise ships stopped. There were a lot of expensive, brand name stores for the cruise ship tourists who had money to spend. Plus, there was a cruise ship anchored out in the sea while we were there.

Amalfi was absolutely beautiful, though. Chilly as well, and we spent the day with jackets, hats, and scarves. But it was endless blue sea that ran right up to the mountains, covered with cute Italian buildings. Just gorgeous.

On Sunday we slept in (Teresa had left our breakfast out in the hallway the day before – we didn’t see her again until Monday morning at breakfast). Then we had devotions in our PJ’s – basically we all took time to talk about how we’ve seen God working and how this trip has been changing us. I think that it was just what I needed. We took a walk to Agerola in the afternoon, and after our traditional pizza for dinner, we spent the evening in.

We left Amalfi on Monday morning, so that was Amalfi in a nutshell. There are just so many memories from that part of the trip – what an adventure! I was kind of relieved to get back to Rome on Monday morning, but I wouldn’t trade my adventure off the beaten trail for anything. I felt like we got to experience a part of Italy that not as many tourists experience.

I think I’ll finish up with Italy later, since we still had one more day in Rome before we left on Tuesday night. But I’m running a little short on time right now, so I think I’ll leave and post this online when I get back to the Celtic Hotel. (I’m at Café Nero right now.) But I don’t have huge plans for the day, so hopefully I’ll get this caught up later this evening. We’ll see.

Italy part 1

2009-10-21T22:15:00.001+01:00

Saturday October 17, 2009 – Sunday October 18, 2009

When in Rome… buy a sweatshirt!

Right now I’m in Campora, an area in the mountains right by the Amalfi coast. And I wish I had bought a sweatshirt when I was in Rome!

But Rome was a great experience, for the most part. The only damper was my check card. I couldn’t figure out how to use a pay phone, even after I switched the language to English. And by not figuring it out, that means that I couldn’t figure out how to make my phone card work, because I didn’t want to pay international fees to call the bank only to have them put me on hold. But Mom was great – I emailed and Facebook chatted about the problem, and she made the necessary calls to change my PIN and make it so that I could access my cash. But that wasn’t until after our first full day in Rome, and everyone else had to pay my entrances into things and for our accommodation. But I’m completely paid off now, so I feel better.

So, Rome. We arrived via train on Monday to a windy and rainy city. We left the Metro at the Ottaviano stop, right near Vatican City. A few blocks up the street, we found our apartment at Michelangelo’s House. Since my check card was still frozen, I was wet, tired, and crabby. But the apartment was amazing, and only about 25 euro per night. We had a kitchen, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms. Plus, even though there wasn’t technically wifi there, we did find several networks throughout the apartment that had high enough signals that the internet worked. Free wifi for the first time since Bayeaux!

Monday night was a low key night. We spent most of our time in, settling in to the apartment, catching up on email, and other such things. We did go out to find some dinner, since the supermarket was closed once we were hungry.

Tuesday was our first full day in Rome. We did our grocery shopping in the morning so that we could save money on food, and then we went out for the day. Our plan was to tour the Colosseum and Palatine Hill nearby. Generally, that wouldn’t be a problem, except my check card was still frozen and I only had €10 of cash on me. I thought that somewhere big like the Colosseum would accept credit cards, but they didn’t. So I had to borrow even more money from Evie.

Even though I hate being in debt, I was still able to enjoy the afternoon of sight seeing. It felt almost unreal – how often do you wake up in the morning with no plans, and just decide to go see the Colosseum? I mean, even now it seems weird to say that I was there, where ancient Rome held huge gladiatorial events. And today, the Colosseum is just a shadow of its former grandeur.

Our tour guide for the Colosseum was named Aldo, and he was an older Italian man – maybe in his 40’s or 50’s. To be honest, I’m pretty sure I would have enjoyed the Colosseum more if we had a different tour guide. Aldo was interesting for a while, but he had the tendency to elaborate on one detail for so long that I grew bored from hearing the same thing over and over. He also enjoyed standing in one spot and talking for a good 45 minutes there, instead of moving around from place to place and pointing out different things in each location. Maybe it’s just my personal learning style, but oh well.

But our guide for Palatine Hill was much, much better. His name was Steve, and he was from Boston. And he definitely made the tour much more interesting. He was enthusiastic about his job and the subjects he was talking about, and he had the skill to combine historical facts with interesting anecdotes. A winning combination.

But Palatine Hill was really cool. It was all ruins of the former glory and power of Rome, and it was weird to thing that Rome used to be the world power, and this is all that’s left. Plus, it was also weird to thing that this was the center of all of Rome’s power, and this was where huge parts of the New Testament took place. I mean, this is where Peter preached and later where he was crucified upside down. We also saw the spot where Julius Caesar was cremated, and Romans today still leave flowers on the spot. Crazy.

That night was when I was figuring out my check card fiasco. But after Mom got things figured out with the bank at home, I haven’t had any problems.

Wednesday was another good day. We had reserved a spot with Steve for a tour of the Vatican Museum, since he advertised it after our tour of Palatine Hill and we all enjoyed Steve’s tours. It was €35 total, but it was money well spent.

We started off bright and early at 9:30 am to gather the group together. Then we walked in to Vatican City in order to see the Pope. I’m not Catholic and generally don’t care what the Pope is up to, but it was really fun to say, “I’m going to see the Pope!” So it was really exciting to see him driving around in his popemobile.

“Ten minutes after cheeks touch the chair, we’re meeting back outside.” That was Steve. So we watched carefully for the Pope’s cheeks to touch his chair (Kaari: “Is it sacrilegious to talk about the Pope’s cheeks?”) before going back outside Vatican City to walk around to the museum. That’s when we got our headsets so we could listen to Steve’s voice “speaking softly in our ears.” (Steve’s words from Tuesday.) So yes, we were one of those awesome tour groups with the headsets.

But I was thankful for the headsets once we got going on the tour, since there were so many people there. It would have been awfully hard to hear everything Steve was saying if we didn’t have headsets on. But it was great to have a tour guide: I never would have found everything that was interesting if there wasn’t someone there showing me where it all is. So we did get around to see Raphael’s rooms (School of Athens) and the huge galleries of the Hall of Tapestries and the Hall of Maps. And, last but definitely not least, the Sistine Chapel. It was utterly amazing to actually stand underneath Michelangelo’s paintings and see the original artwork. Scenes from the Sistine Chapel are so often reproduced that it seems like old news – but it’s so astounding in reality. We weren’t allowed to take pictures (though I did sneak a few covert-ops photos) and there were professional shushers, but it was so cool. Definitely worth the money.

This is an awkward ending, but it's all I've got so far. More to come!

A much-needed update

2009-10-12T21:51:00.003+01:00

Sunday October 11, 2009 – Monday October 12, 2009

Where do I start? I have so much to cover – the last time I wrote was in Sligo. Somehow, I’m going to attempt to cover Derry, Belfast, Bayeaux, Paris, and Venice. I’m feeling a little intimidated… so be warned, this entry is going to be really, really long.

There wasn’t much left of Sligo after the last blog post – we made a trip to the Lissadell house, a house that Yeats used in a poem. We took a boat trip out in the lake and saw (through a rain-covered window) the Lake Isle of Innisfree. I also spent an entire day writing another paper.

After Sligo, we left for Belfast. On the way we stopped in Derry (or Londonderry). That’s the city where Bloody Sunday happened – the British Army opened fire on a crowd of unarmed marchers (13 dead, many more injured). I wrote a paper on it in Paris, so if you’re interested you can ask to read it. We went in to see the Free Derry museum about it, which only opened in 2005 even though Bloody Sunday happened in 1972. It was really moving – I had no idea that Bloody Sunday was still so fresh in their minds. The guy that was working there was named John Kelly, and his younger brother Michael was killed on Bloody Sunday at the age of 17. He pointed out the baby clothes in the museum that had been used to pressurize the gunshot wound and where Michael had been killed out on the street. He also told us how three people had been killed right outside of the building where the museum now resides.

After Derry, we drove to the Giant’s Causeway. It’s a huge beach of hexagonal towers and it looks an awful lot like – surprise, surprise – a giant’s causeway. We were only there for about half an hour before we had to leave to get to Belfast.

Belfast was amazing. After the misty/drizzly days in Sligo, Belfast was sunny and beautiful with a crisp fall chill. We were dropped off at Fisherwick Presbyterian Church to meet our homestay families. I stayed with Kaari, and our family was the Wilson family. It was Jonathan (37), Shona (34), Nathan (14), Megan (9), and Benjamin (6). They lived in Lisborn, a suburb just outside of Belfast.

In short, it was amazing. After dinner every night, Kaari and I talked to Shona for a couple hours. Shona had endless interesting stories about religion and her past. She grew up as a Catholic during the Troubles, and Jonathan grew up Protestant. Again, I added some tidbits about her experience in the paper I just wrote in Paris.

I feel like a huge fail right now because my homestay experience was so amazing, but the details of it are already fading. I remember we went to Ulster Folk park (a park where they had set up old buildings from Belfast, pre-Troubles) and drove through the main Troubles areas (Shankill for the Protestants, and The Falls for the Catholics). Then that night we volunteered at the SOS bus until 2:30am, a bus that Fisherwick parks out by the pubs and gives out free coffee, tea, and biscuits to the drunks. There’s also a minibus to help people get home that otherwise can’t. Then on Sunday, we went to church in the morning, took a nap for a little bit, went back to Fisherwick for a lecture, and then went to the evening church service. Then in the morning we went to the airport.

That information doesn’t encompass my homestay experience. It was so much more than just seeing or doing things, but my motivation to elaborate is practically zero. So you’ll have to settle for the shortened version, and I’ll have to keep Belfast in my memories.

We left Belfast Monday morning and flew in to Paris, France. We didn’t stay there yet, though, and drove out through Rouen to get to Bayeaux. We didn’t get in on Monday until late, so we went to bed pretty soon after.

On Tuesday, we went on a tour of the Normandy beaches. We got to see Omaha and Utah beaches. I know several of people got really bored, but I loved it. We visited the American cemetery at Normandy, and the rows of white crosses (and stars of David) went on forever. Best part of all? Driving through Carentan (Band of Brothers) and seeing Drop Zone C (where the 101st Airborne was supposed to land on D-Day). We also went to Ste. Mere de Eglise, which is where the 82nd Airborne landed. And we walked around on Ponte de Noc (sp?), which was the location of six German guns that the Allies bombed to hell. So the remains of the guns and bunkers were still there, and the land was covered in countless craters.

After our tour of the Normandy beaches, we went out to a restaurant for a banquet. It was a lot of fun – we all dressed up got to spend one last night together. It was Allison York’s birthday so we celebrated that, and since it was the last time we were all together as a group, we said goodbye to DR and Judy.

The next day we saw the Bayeaux tapestry in the morning, a huge tapestry with stories about William the Conqueror. Then around noon we left and drove back in to Paris. But on the way we stopped at the Palace of Versailles. The inside was so gaudy and ornate it was almost sickening. Pretty sure I wouldn’t have been able to live there ever. The gardens out back were gorgeous, though.

Paris was nice, but I’ve decided that I don’t like living somewhere where I have no idea what people are saying. Ordering food sucks; I felt like an idiot pretty much all the time. I’d much rather live in an English-speaking country or a Spanish-speaking country. French just doesn’t work for me. I mean, I can’t even do basics like “This one”, “How much?”, or even count past three. And forget pronouncing things off a menu.

Paris was pretty decent, other than that. I spent Thursday doing all my touristy things: we saw the Louvre, the Arc du Triumphe, and the Eiffel Tower. It was a gorgeous day most of the day, but it got cloudy when Anna, Kaari, and I went to the top of the Eiffel tower. We were a little concerned that it was going to rain, but it didn’t. We did get to see a cloud pass by while we were up there, so we were in the clouds for a while.

The Louvre was pretty excellent. It was so much fun to see original works of art instead of reproductions. So we saw the Cupid and Psyche, Mona Lisa, Hammurabi Code… it was awesome. The Arc… to be serious, we just stopped by there to say that we were there. It kind of felt like a “checklist” day:

Things to do in life:
-See the Mona Lisa at the Louvre (check)
-Go to the Arc du Triumphe (check)
-Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower (check)

I mean… those are things that a lot of people want to do sometime in life. And I did it all in one day.

Thursday evening was pretty stressful. I meant to get a good start on the paper due Friday, but I checked email only to find that our Venice accommodations had had a “server error” and they really didn’t have room for us. And we were leaving for Venice in three days. So since Kaari and Evie were out of the room somewhere, I was frantically searching online for somewhere to stay while trying to Skype with Seth and communicate with Anna about accommodation possibilities. I started getting really stressed and snapped at both Seth and Anna. Really, I was not pleasant to be around that night. Surprising that either of them liked me the rest of the night. I did find us a place to stay, but I didn’t get very far on my paper.

On Friday morning, we met for the last time as a group for a Hemingway walk through Paris. It was nice, but I wasn’t entirely pleased with it when I had a paper to write and turn in before bed, and we had to walk for four and a half miles around Paris for a few hours.

After the Hemingway walk, Kaari, Evie, Anna, and I went to an internet café to print important free travel information: boarding passes for our RyanAir flights, hotel information, and directions to our accommodations. I think we all felt a little more confident after that was done.

Instead of working on our papers, we did a little bit of shopping in Paris. Possibly bad academic planning, but it was totally worth it. We got back to our hotel at about 5:00pm and got right to work on our papers. I had about 1500 out of 2000 words to go, but I finished writing before 11:00pm. I took a break to Skype with Seth, but then I had to handwrite my paper in my notebook in order to turn it in. So I didn’t get to bed until about 1:30 am, which wasn’t exactly ideal. But I finished my paper and turned it in.

We got up on Saturday on our first day of free travel. We checked out of the hotel in Paris, but left our luggage there for the morning. We took the Metro out to Mont-something (don’t ask me how to spell or pronounce anything in French), which was the location of a cathedral called Sacre Coeur (again, something like that). It’s also where the Moulin Rouge was. We finally had a nice lunch out at an outdoor café, something that I had wanted to do while in Paris. Plus, I ate a crepe in France. It was excellent.

After lunch, we took the Metro back to Odéon (our stop for our hotel) to go recollect our luggage. Then it was time for a day of dragging luggage around, making all of our connections and hopefully making it to our hotel in Venice that I had just booked a day and a half ago.

Our first task was to get our luggage from our hotel back to the Metro. We took the fuchsia line to the Severus Babylon stop (that’s my interpretation of the French…way easier to remember) in order to switch to the yellow line. Then we got off at Ponte Maillot. We wandered around out there for a little bit, looking to find where the RyanAir shuttle to the Beauveax (sp?) airport for our flight. Eventually we found the blue signs directing us to the correct location.

So we bought €13.00 tickets for the bus, which left at 3:50pm. It was about an hour bus ride, so we arrived at the airport at 4:50pm for our 6:50pm flight to Venice. After that we just had to check our bags and grab some food so that we would get dinner at some point.

We made it on our plane just fine, and I finally got to watch last Monday’s Heroes episode that I had bought off of iTunes and had slowly downloaded during my expensive internet hours in Paris. It had a most excellent ending, by the way. I was missing Sylar throughout the whole episode, but he didn’t let me down. Now since it’s Monday again, I’m going to have to find internet to get the next episode.

Anyway… we landed safely in the Treviso airport in Venice. We got our checked bags and went on a hunt for tickets for the shuttle from the airport to Venice. Thankfully, these tickets were only €6.50. So we got on the bus and hopped out at the Venice-Mestre train station.

This was when our first adventure started. The directions from the hotel’s website that I had written down said to take the no. 9 bus from the Venice-Mestre train station, and it would drop us off in front of the hotel. What they didn’t tell us was that the no. 9 bus only ran until 9:05pm. It was 9:20pm.

We looked at the bus line, and it looked like our stop was only three stops later. (Side note: from the buses we took later on, I think the route sign that we looked at only shows the major stops.) We didn’t want to pay for a taxi, and it wasn’t that late. We had a map we had printed off the hotel website, and even though it didn’t have a scale, it didn’t look like the hotel was too far. We took a gamble, and decided to walk.

Bad idea. Before you freak out and tell me how unsafe that was, I’ll point out that we’ve learned a lesson. “It’s only three stops; let’s walk” is a bad idea when you’re carrying luggage. Two days later, muscles in my arms, legs, and back are still protesting. Plus, it was a long walk and it was dark out. That was a really dumb idea, but at least we’re okay.

We eventually found the hotel after a few mishaps. We walked too far in one direction and had to turn around. We took a gamble and made a right turn onto a main road, and after walking a while we stopped at another hotel and asked directions. We were told that we were walking in the correct direction and that it wouldn’t be too much farther. I think that was also very relative, because we were still walking for a good half an hour after that. About 15 minutes away from the hotel, the shoulder strap on my duffel bag (that I bought in Ireland) snapped. So I’m really hoping I can carry it alright for the rest of free travel.

When we got to our hotel (Elite Residence Hotel), we had probably been walking through Mestre for about an hour and a half. We were sweaty and exhausted, but we made it safely. It was probably about 11:00pm when we finally got there.

Yesterday (Sunday), we had an entire day in Venice. It was a gorgeous, blue sky and sunny kind of day. Maybe around 70 degrees as well – not too hot, not to cold. Just perfect. We walked from the Piazzale Roma through the streets, looking in various stores, until we reached Piazza San Marco. Oh! And I had the world’s most winning gelato combination: raspberry and mango. Absolutely amazing.

It was a really low-key day, just meandering around Venice and stopping to admire the countless canals and the gorgeous masks adorning just about every store. It was almost unreal: all of us said (repeatedly), “Guys, we’re in Venice right now. We don’t have any homework to do. We’re on vacation!”

The only disappointment was the Bridge of Sighs (Ponte de Sospiri). That’s the one thing I remember Seth telling me to see in Venice, so I really wanted to go. We found it, but it was under renovation. So only a fraction of the bridge was showing: HUGE FAIL. I was so excited to see it, too.

We took the water bus (vaporetto) back up to the Venice train station and did a bit more shopping in the area we had first walked through. Anna wanted a mask and Kaari wanted a postcard. But at that point, I was getting a little crabby (not too bad) because I was hungry. I hadn’t eaten anything (except gelato) since breakfast, and it was about 7:30 by the time we finally sat down for dinner. (In my defense, we all ate a big breakfast since it was free at the hotel. It’s one way to save a little money, at least.) But we had our first Italian pizza for dinner, and it was absolutely amazing. Much better than American pizza.

We got back to our hotel a little bit later, and Kaari, Anna, and I chipped in to buy an hour of internet. It was €8.00 an hour for wifi, which was a little ridiculous. So we had enough time to send out necessary emails, and in my case transfer money from savings into checking. We’re all hoping for some free wifi in Rome – if we don’t find it, you won’t be hearing very much from me this week.

Today is our travel day. We checked out of our hotel this morning, after another big breakfast (and sneaking a few sandwiches we made out of the breakfast room so we would have some lunch). We took the bus back to Venice and went to the train station, where our train for Rome left at 11:43am. (It was a €65.00 ticket, which sucks, but it’s getting us where we need to go, when we need to go.)

But here starts my saga. Our accommodations in Rome say that we need to pay cash upon arrival, which shouldn’t be a huge problem. I have money in savings. But the huge problem comes when I try to access it: my pin number is 8 numbers long, and I use letters to remember what it is. I tried to get some money out at the ATM near our hotel, but when it came time to enter my pin, it cut me off after 6 numbers. Plus, the buttons didn’t have letters on them, so that was hard enough. It took me to the screen where I could select the amount of money, so I thought it had been okay. But then it told me my pin was invalid.

I couldn’t get it to work, so I hunted down an ATM in the train station. That one had letters on the keys, and I noticed that the letters associated with numbers are different here than they are at home. It cut me off after 6 numbers again, and then a screen showed up that said “A message from your bank” and then a paragraph of Italian. I had no idea what it said, so I hit okay. I selected the amount of cash that I needed, and this time it spit my card back out with a message that said “Invalid card.”

Right now I’m on a train to Rome with only €20.00 in cash. I’m pretty sure TCF has blocked my card by now from all the “invalid password” attempts to get cash, and I have no idea how to get at it before we get to our Rome accommodations in a few hours.

Everyone keeps telling me, “Oh, we’ll get it. We’ll stop at a bank. It’ll be fine.” But it doesn’t help at all. Even if I do go to a bank, there’s still the problem of my pin being too long even though I’ve used it at home all the time. I’m not an idiot; I know my pin number. I have no phone to call TCF and ask to unblock my card or ask to change my pin, and I have no idea how to get internet once we are in Rome and try to do it online.

What is a bank going to do? “Oh, looks like your bank has blocked your card. You’ll have to contact them before we can do anything.” And no one has the money to cover four nights in Rome for me while I try to get at my money. I’ve been freaking out internally all morning, and I remember saying, “I’m going to get booted out of the apartment because I can’t pay.” Everyone laughed like I was joking, and said, “No you won’t.” But I’m serious; I’m kind of worried about this. And it’s really frustrating because I have the money, but I just can’t get it in cash. And I’m in a foreign country with a foreign language with no phone and no internet. I’m going to a city where I have no idea where anything is.

So now I’m listening to Avenged Sevenfold as I type out my last few days because I’m stressed, anxious, and just pissy in general. Really, Avenged Sevenfold (Self-titled) is a great CD for people who are traveling, missing someone at home, and in a bad mood (unlike how I was yesterday). The entire album caters to those feelings.

It’s now about 1:20pm, and our train is supposed to get to Rome at 4:10pm. I should eat, but I feel anxious enough that it doesn’t sound appetizing. Sometimes it sucks being independent; I don’t have anyone that can tell me, “It’s okay. I’ll cover that payment for you. I know you can pay me back, so don’t worry about it right now.”

But I’m down to about half battery on my laptop, so I’m going to finish this up so I can conserve it, just in case I can get internet in some café but there are no outlets. I really, really hope that I can figure something out.

The start of Sligo

2009-09-29T18:18:00.001+01:00

Monday September 28, 2009:

Saturday was filled with random stops on our way to Sligo. We stopped at Knowth, Newgrange, and the Hill of Tara. All of these were ancient Celtic sites. Knowth was a site of passage tombs that predate the pyramids of Giza. It was really a huge lump of grass surrounded by a bunch of smaller lumps, but there used to be tunnels. The main lump had tunnels deep inside, where ancient people would put the ashes of their dead. It was cool mainly because it was so old.

The next stop was Newgrange, but we really only stopped at the visitor centre. This one was more of a glorified lunch stop, and there was a huge hassle getting us in to see the exhibit because DR went to eat lunch and wasn’t there right away. So we were really only there for an hour or so, and half of it was waiting around for DR.

A little bit later we stopped at the Hill of Tara. This was a grassy field of lumps. This was the site of something to do with Queen Maeve, and also where St. Patrick had reputedly illustrated the concept of the trinity using a clover, causing the shamrock to be a symbol of Ireland. The history was cool and all, but it was still just a lumpy field. There wasn’t a whole lot to see, and I was tired and ready to be at Sligo.

After stopping at Tesco for food, we finally made it to Sligo just after sunset. We’re staying at a house with several self-catering cottages, and it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere about a half hour’s drive out of Sligo. On the plus side, we’re right next to the ocean, so it’s really easy to go for quiet walks on the beach. I’ve been making full use of that opportunity.

I’m actually staying in the house itself with Kaari and Melissa H, so I have to go to a cottage to actually make food. It’s not bad at all though – our room has a great view and old Victorian furniture. Plus, our shower has hot water and no bugs, which seem to be problems in some of the cottages. We also get breakfast provided in the morning when everyone else has to make their own, so it’s really nice to have an easy hot breakfast and French press coffee.

Oh! And there’s also a kitten that lives here. His name is Jacko and they got him just after Michael Jackson’s death. He is such a sweetie: playful and cuddly all at the same time. I got some fantastic pictures as he was playing with the strap on my camera yesterday. And today, he followed me. We had just gotten back from buying more food, and he was hanging around but I couldn’t pick him up because my hands were full. But when I opened the door to the house, he slunk in. I walked up the stairs. Jacko followed. I opened the door to our room. Again, Jacko followed. I put my stuff down and went to pick him up, but he hid under the bed. I opened the door to the bathroom because I really had to pee, and Jacko scampered in. So when I finished, I opened the door holding a lovely kitten, giving Kaari and Melissa (who had just walked in) quite the surprise. Then I walked back outside and had some cuddle time with a kitten until he got distracted by some other people walking around and jumped down. There are also two black labs that live here and nearly always greet whoever comes up the road, but dogs aren’t as exciting, especially when there’s a kitten. So we’ll just leave it at that.

Yesterday was pretty relaxing: I had a walk on the beach and wrote a paper. I had internet for about an hour, so I got to talk to Seth for about 10 minutes when I finished my rough draft and had a little time before dinner. I haven’t had internet since.

Today, we had class at the Yeats society in Sligo. A woman (I can’t remember her name) talked to us mostly about the history of Yeats and his family and how he was heavily influenced by Sligo when he wasn’t born here.

Then we bussed over to Knocknarae, a mountain that’s just outside of Sligo. Fortunately, it’s no Mt. Snowdon. It only took us 30-45 minutes to climb to the top, where there’s a large lump of rocks that’s supposedly the burial site of Queen Maeve. And when I say large, it really is large: you can see the lump from here at the house – I mean, at least when you walk down to the sea where you can see the mountain.

I did some reading afterward and then went over to the cottage where I’ve been having dinner with Allison, Nelly, Anna, Melissa K, and Evie. I love having dinner with them; they’re such great girls. We actually ended our dinner with a “fuzzy circle”: we took turns saying compliments and things we liked about each person there (Kaari walked in not too long after this started). To be honest, I actually enjoyed saying nice things more than I liked receiving them. Not that the girls didn’t have great things to say – because they did – but it just seemed to emphasize the fact that I don’t have a best girl friend who knows me inside out. (There were several “besties” pairs: Kaari and Evie, Nelly and Allison, Nelly and Melissa.) The only person who really knows me is Seth, and he’s way across the ocean. So it was great, but a little disheartening at the same time because I don’t have that kind of relationship on this trip.

I finished off the evening with a bonfire on the beach. It was a little chilly, but it was just us, the fire, the ocean, and the dark.

The internet here’s been rather lousy, so I don’t know when these blog posts will actually happen. I love it here, but it’s kind of hard being so out of contact. Oh well – it does make my productivity level a little higher than it would be with internet. So maybe it’s a good thing.

The rocky road to Dublin

2009-09-29T18:15:00.000+01:00

Saturday September 26, 2009: The rocky road to Dublin

So what can I say about Ireland except that it’s even better than I hoped? I love Ireland. On Tuesday afternoon when we flew in to Dublin, I was pumped. And rightly so, because Dublin is probably one of my favorite cities so far. It’s not the cleanest, the smallest, the biggest, the nicest, or even the most easily navigated, but it’s Dublin.

On Tuesday night I went out to a pub for dinner right away – and what a great start to Dublin! I had great company, good food, and live music in a pub atmosphere. Words can’t describe how content I was.

We started Wednesday morning with a James Joyce walk. The James Joyce centre wasn’t far from our hotel, so we walked a couple blocks over to meet our guide for a walk through the streets of Dublin. We got to see Belvedere College, where Joyce went to school, as well as many of the locations he used in Dubliners. We ended the tour at Trinity College around noon or so and then had the rest of the day free.

I spent time with Erin and Evie, walking down Grafton Street and looking in a few stores. We also got over to see St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which is (I think) the biggest cathedral in Dublin and supposedly the one St. Patrick used. It was beautiful inside, as are all cathedrals.

We meandered back to our hotel (Cassidy’s Hotel on Upper O’Connell Street) around 4:00 or so, and I decided to go out and get a hair cut before dinner. The haircut prices around our hotel weren’t extremely cheap, but I didn’t feel like wandering all over creation to find somewhere cheaper. So my cut ended up at €24.00, but for the service I got, it wasn’t too bad at all.

I went to a salon called “Charmed” that was just a block or so from the hotel, and it was way up on the 3rd floor of a building. I’m pretty sure it was family owned because all the employees were Asian and there was a little boy running around. While I was sitting and waiting, I was offered a cup of tea – so really, the price entailed the haircut and a cup of tea.

Then I got my hair cut, and the girl was great. She did what I wanted and took her time making sure it was done right. I talked to her a little bit, and she said she had been here 3 weeks – she used to cut hair in Malaysia – and she was studying language. I was pretty impressed with her English skills. Then after she was done, she took a lot of time to blow dry my hair so that it curled in the right directions. I’m not kidding; it was probably a good 10-15 minutes of blow-drying. But my haircut turned out great, and now I can tell people that my last haircut was in Dublin.

Later that night I went out with Erin, Evie, and Kaari to an “Irish traditional music pub crawl.” It was a lot of fun – we had two musicians that acted as guides, taking us around to three different pubs. We started at Oliver St. John Gogerty’s, then the Ha’penny Bridge Inn, and then one more that I can’t remember (but it was near our hotel on a side street just off of O’Connell). There was a girl who played accordion and a guy who sang and played guitar. The two of them would perform several traditional Irish songs, sometimes involving the audience on the choruses, and then explain about their instruments, the history of the music, and the songs in general in between songs. So it was both entertaining and informative, a combination that guaranteed a great night. Erin and I topped it off with an Erin’s night out to the Palace Bar to see a live session. There was a huge circle of about 10 musicians just rocking out – we only stayed for a half hour or so, but it was really cool.

Thursday was the 250th anniversary of Guinness, so it was a big day in Dublin. There were banners on the street lights, posters on phone booths and buses, and advertisements in every pub window. So naturally, we took a day trip to the James Joyce tower in Sandycove and then to the monastic ruins at Glendalough.

To be honest, the James Joyce tower was not very interesting. It was a tower that he lived in for a week or so, and we climbed to the top and could see a decent view. Then we went down to the shore and played around on the rocks for a while.

Glendalough was a lot more interesting. Our tour guide was so “I hate my life because I’m doing this stupid job,” but he made it entertaining for us (and he had a fantastic Irish accent). Glendalough used to be the monastery of St. Kevin, and was apparently a huge landmark for a long time in Ireland. It has a cemetery, an Irish round tower, and the ruins of a couple cathedrals. Plus, it was out of the city and in some beautiful, green, foresty landscape. After the tour, we had a little while to walk around.

When we headed back, it was dinner time. I had really wanted to get to a pub by 5:59 for the worldwide Guinness toast, but we didn’t get back til about 5:15. And since the people I was with were more intent on getting food, I missed seeing the toast live from Dublin. Oh, well. I spent a couple hours of my evening in at the hotel, but then I went out with Joel and Evie to people watch on the streets.

Let me tell you: Dublin was 95% intoxicated that night. The Temple Bar district was packed with couples weaving around, rowdy guys yelling as they crossed streets, and some who needed help to even stand up. Breaking glass was the sound I heard most often (other than yelling or singing). The three of us nipped in and out of a few pubs to catch some music, and one pub was ten degrees warmer and my shoes skritched on the floor from all the spilt beer. Plus, at that pub (OSJ Gogerty’s), Evie got asked (pulled in) to dance by a random guy who was completely wasted. After they danced next to each other, he left to talk on his phone. But soon he came back and slurred something none of us could understand but started with, “I hafta apologize…” Then (since Evie had been temporarily holding my coat, draped over her arm) he picked up my coat and sniffed the hood. A second later: “That’s not even your hand.” I’m pretty sure he was attempting to kiss her hand goodbye. =)

It was kind of an interesting experience seeing the festivities from a completely sober point of view. The excessive drunkenness was disgusting, but fascinating in a weird sort of way. Someone (I can’t remember who at this point, so take it with a grain of salt) said that it was comparable to Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day. It was a life experience, that’s for sure.

Friday was my last full day in Dublin, so I made the most of it. Kaari and I hung out most of the day, and we started by touring the Guinness brewery. I’m pretty sure that’s practically required if you visit Dublin. Let me say that even though I know hardly anything about beer (the right combination of hops, barley, yeast, and water goes right over my head – they all seem the same to me), the museum was incredibly informative and interesting. It encompassed all learning styles: there were things to read, things to watch, lots of pictures, and there was an easy-to-follow movement throughout. It actually kept my attention throughout the whole exhibit, and I’m one of those people who gets bored after too much museum time.

Afterward we grabbed lunch and looked in a store or two before heading back across the Liffey to visit the Jameson whiskey distillery. Unfortunately, the price was €10, and after we had just paid €11 for Guinness and realized that the next tour was in 26 minutes, we decided against it and just poked around in the gift store.

Then Kaari and I shopped a few souvenir stores, and I’m proud to say that I’ve actually started Christmas shopping at this point. (Though I’m finding it hardest to shop for my own family: if any of you read this, can you give me ideas of things you might like from this part of the world? That would be great; thanks.)

But the evening was probably the most memorable. I went out with a group of people for one last dinner at a pub (I was getting tired of eating cheap: aka Subway). It took us a while to find a table, but we eventually ended up at the Purdy Kitchen again (really, they have some decent dinner prices). We thought about doing something for Culture Night (it was Culture Night in Dublin and there were things going on all over), but there was nothing we really wanted to see in our immediate vicinity and it was nearing 10:00pm. So we decided to go back to the Palace and see if there was some Irish traditional music happening.

Sure enough, there was: a smaller group this time, with only three musicians (though it was four by the time we left). The night ended with Evie, Kaari, and I talking to a few middle aged guys (probably ranging from mid 30’s to 40’s, though one guy was probably still in his late 20’s): Johnny, a curly haired guitarist from England; Chris, a younger guy who had just joined the navy from England; Ken, a lawyer from Wales; and another older guy who I can’t remember his name from Dublin. They were all from the Bath/Bristol area and in Dublin on holiday. They were all a little intoxicated (Johnny mainly: “I’ve got Guinness in my toes, Guinness in my ears, Guinness in my eyes… all I can see is Guinness! I can’t physically fit any more Guinness inside me!”), but they were all gentlemanly and not creepy in any way. They just wanted to talk, and it was a lot of fun. We didn’t stay out late though – I believe we got back to our hotel and midnight.

Then on Saturday morning we left for Sligo, and I cried a little bit inside as we left Dublin. I will certainly miss this city.

Looking back to Cambridge

2009-09-24T20:38:00.004+01:00

It has been a long time since I've written a blog - yet again. I'm not even sure where to start! Guess I'll go back to Cambridge - that was our next stop after High Leigh.

We stayed at Corpus Christi College for two nights, Sunday and Monday night. We didn't have any internet during our stay, though, and there were hardly any internet cafes to be found. But during that time we took a tour of Cambridge University. I had no idea how the University worked, so it was actually pretty interesting. Turns out that Corpus Christi was just one of many colleges in Cambridge University - kind of like a dorm but an autonomous community of students, fellows, classes, and accommodations. We also got to go see King's College Cathedral, where there's a huge Christmas concert every year. And the college that John Cleese and Hugh Laurie went to. =) I actually don't remember which one it was, just that I was there.

Cambridge was a fun college town, even if the students weren't back yet. I went to a church service at St. Andrew the Great's and actually got to talk to a few people. One lady that Melissa H and I talked with was originally from Northern Ireland and knew some people at the church that we're doing homestays at in Belfast. So it was really interesting to talk to her.

And on Monday...? Oh yeah! We went out to Little Gidding for a daytrip to see where TS Eliot wrote one of the Four Quartets aptly titled "Little Gidding." It was a former religious community that is still really small, quiet and peaceful. We got to have a time of silence in the cathedral, which I was really excited about, but then the "time of silence" turned into "let's not talk for 10 minutes." I guess my idea of true silence entails a bit more solitude and a bit more time. Oh, well.

So that was our time in Cambridge. On Tuesday we flew into Dublin, Ireland, which is where I am now. But I'll have to blog about Dublin later because I'm about to head out for the night. Evie, Joel, and I are about to go out wandering and looking for a pub with a good Irish music session going on. Promises to be an interesting night, at least, since it's the 250th anniversary of Guinness. And it's Dublin. =)

Leaving London for High Leigh

2009-09-19T12:46:00.004+01:00

Time for a quick update on what I've been up to since London!

I've put up a lot of pictures on Facebook, so I'm sure you can guess most of it. But on Monday morning, we went on a "Mrs. Dalloway" walk through London. (It's a novel by Virginia Woolf that takes place in London.) So we started at Westminster and followed the path of the main character, Clarissa, through St. James' Park, Green Park, and Bond Street, reading out loud from the book as we went. Nerdy and literary, but it was pretty fun.

After the walk, most of our group went to Ben's Cookies. It was round 2 for me, but they were still as gooey and fantastic as last time. Then I went to the British Museum and saw such classic wonders as the Rosetta Stone, Elgin Marbles, etc. Plus some mummies. It was free, so that was a definite plus.

That night I went out for dinner with Kaari, Evie, and Erin. We went to a place we found in Covent Garden called Cafe Pasta and it was a great time. We dressed up for the occasion and splurged on dinner, dessert, and drinks. It was nice to have something other than a sandwich and tap water. =)

Tuesday was our day at the Globe. In the morning we had a session with a guy at the theatre who told us about how Shakespeare wrote and how the actors rehearsed (or in this case, didn't rehearse). Basically, Shakespeare wrote to get money and to please the crowd at the Globe. That means that they had a different show every day, so they had the morning to rehearse for an entire Shakespeare play. So Shakespeare wrote cue lines, so that each actor would listen intently for a specific three word phrase and then go. And instead of stage directions, the directions were written into the lines. It just amazes me how well the actors then had to listen and work together.

We had the afternoon off, so I went back to the hotel and did some journaling. I had hoped to go see the Tower of London, but it was raining and our journals were coming due, so I sat outside at a table under an awning and wrote. It was rather therapeutic and relaxing.

Then I went back to the Globe to see "As You Like It." Oh. My. Word. That was probably the best I've ever seen Shakespeare in my life! The actors and actresses were fantastic, and really, Shakespeare did write for the Globe. No roof, three levels of seats in the stands, and people on the ground like at a concert. Best part was that it was still raining, so everyone on the ground got wet (if they weren't wearing rain coats or ponchos). The actors and actresses were even out in the rain for part of the performance. I was up in the stands, so it was okay. But these actors really brought out the comedic elements of "As You Like It." Touchstone? Absolutely hilarious. And even though I had never read the play, they all acted in such a way that I got the jokes. I'm not sure I can watch normal presentations of Shakespeare ever again - it was that good. A great way to end our time in London.

On Wednesday, we left London for Hoddesdon, a tiny town an hour or so north of London. We stopped on the way at Keats' house, which was cool. But now we're staying at the High Leigh Conference Center, which is a nice change from London. I've got my own room (with two beds) and wifi in my room (if it's working). We get fed all our meals and then some. Actually, here's a typical day here:

8:30am - breakfast
9:30am - class
11:00am - tea and biscuits
11:30am - class
1:00pm - lunch
4:00pm - afternoon tea
7:00pm - dinner
9:15pm - evening refreshment

So really, I have 6 different mealtimes. And my caffeine addiction is getting worse quicker than it's getting better. Today (so far), I've had 2 cups of coffee and 2 cups of tea. And it's not even 2:00pm.

Oh well. I do have a paper to write today. I'm hoping to finish drafting by afternoon tea, so that I can edit and start handwriting later. And if I'm feeling so ambitious, I may start planning for my next travel writing paper, since it's due the day we leave Dublin. And it would be a shame to spend my last day in Dublin writing a paper.

Last night, Kaari, Evie, Anna, and I started planning for free travel (and we realized it's going to be a lot of work and money). So I'm pretty certain that I'll be going out to Italy, though the exact schedule hasn't been set in stone. We've got a tentative plan for one night in Venice, 3 days in Rome, and then a round trip down to the Amalfi Coast for a few days before coming back to Rome in order to fly back to London to rejoin the group. We'll see. It'll be expensive, no matter what we do. Good thing I haven't dipped into savings yet.

But that's later. On Tuesday next week (after a couple nights in Cambridge), we'll be heading out to Dublin and I'm PUMPED. I've already been browsing my Lonely Planet guide, which lists a bunch of pubs to go to in order to catch some live music. And that's my plan for the evenings - hanging out in pubs with some good Irish music (and Irish accents!). Or at least for one night.

So I've got a lot to look forward to. But that means I should get writing on my paper - I've got about 2/3 left to go. If I work really hard these next couple days, then I'll be a little less stressed in Ireland, which will be great. It's the land of Erin after all! ;D

Evening frustrations: A whiny rant

2009-09-18T15:03:00.002+01:00

I’m at the end of my rope as far as coping with internet connections over here. Right now, I am just so entirely frustrated that I can’t focus on anything else. Right now, my computer claims that it’s got a great connection to the internet here at the High Leigh conference center, but neither firefox nor internet explorer is functional. And it’s not just me – no one else can connect right now either. And it just makes me so angry because this is the second night in a row that I’ve missed a Skype date with Seth. Yesterday it was a random group meeting, and today – when I would have had plenty of time to talk – the internet is out. And there’s no way that I can contact Seth, so I know he’s sitting there waiting for me to come online. It’s been an hour since I said I would be online, and I’ve been trying the entire time.

And to make my life better, I sat down on my bed – and my favorite pair of jeans on this trip split across my right knee in one foul rip of fabric. It wasn’t worn or anything – there was absolutely no warning. And now my nicer pair of jeans is ripped, so I feel like I should buy another pair once I get to Dublin. Because my other jeans are just… scruffier. That’s fine for these conference centers and for hiking and other such activities, but it’s nice to have a nicer pair of jeans for the cities, especially since Europeans in general dress up more than Americans. Think skinny jeans, boots/flats/chucks, long blouses and sweaters… there are no scruffy jeans and t-shirts to be seen.

I know I should be thankful that I’m over here at all… but I am just in a foul and cranky mood. I’ve been looking forward to talking to Seth for three days, and twice now I’ve just been disappointed. And that’s what makes me the most angry. Had I known I couldn’t talk to him for several days, fine. I can live with that. But I’ve been planning on it all day, and now I watch the clock on my computer tick closer to 4:00, when I know Seth will be gone and at work. And I still can’t get online. Actually, he’s probably giving up at this point. It’s 3:11 pm at home.

Kudos to anyone actually reading this rant. I know I sound whiny, and I almost apologize for that. But I have bad days at home, and in 3 ½ months, I’m going to have bad days here. Being in the UK does not make bad days much better.

I really should write about my last couple days in London, but I fear that being cranky will ruin it somewhat. Plus, I posted my last blog entry directly online, so I don’t remember where I left off. And the internet’s still out so I can’t check and I’m still angry. Suffice to say that seeing “As You Like It” at the Globe was utterly brilliant, and I hope to do it more justice when I’m in a better mood.

Well… it’s 3:30. Seth will have left for work, so I guess I don’t get to talk to him AGAIN today. I’m going to end this blog post, change out of my ripped jeans, and bury myself in a book until I fall asleep. Then maybe tomorrow will be better.

Life in London

2009-09-13T20:14:00.003+01:00

So I'm well aware that I have not updated in forever, but between being sick and then being in London, I've been busy. So I'll do my best to give you an overview of what I've been up to in the past few days - week, actually.

First is York. We drove to York the day I was sick, stopping to tour the Bronte house in Haworth on the way. When we got to York, we had a tour of the York Minster Cathedral - which was absolutely beautiful, by the way. But standing so long for a tour was incredibly draining, so I went back to my hotel room. Since I was sick, I did have my own room, so I went to bed pretty early.

The next day I felt significantly better - I think half of it was due to getting some sleep that night. My appetite wasn't quite normal yet (I still think I'm working on getting it fully back), but I could enjoy the sights of York more. We spent the morning touring the Jorvik Viking Center, which was really cool. They had a recreation of the old Viking city of Jorvik (now York, obviously) - and we got to sit in little pods suspended from the ceiling to ride through the recreation. Plus, the pod spent an incredible amount of time at a recreation of a man sitting on a toilet - sounds and everything.

After the center, I walked around York with Melissa H to do some window shopping. We had to leave by 1:00pm, so I didn't get to see much of York. Which really sucks, because according to the Ghost Research Foundation International (and the website I looked at), York is the most haunted city in the WORLD with a total of 504 recorded hauntings. And I didn't get to go looking because we were there for only one night, and I was sick. Lame.

But at least our next stop was London. Aaaand it's amazing in London. LOVE it. Once we got to the Celtic Hotel (it's in Russel Square), we headed out to get our tube passes (Oyster cards). The London Underground is a little intimidating at first, but it's pretty self-explanatory once you use it once or twice. I'm pretty confident that I could navigate it anywhere on my own (not that I would go out on my own) - except for when there are lines closed, because there's always something closed. Usually it's the Victoria line.

Anyway, that's about all for the first night. The next day (Friday), we all took a "Hop on, hop off" bus tour of London. I didn't do a whole lot of hopping off, and stayed on the bus with Kaari and Evie to get a general picture of the city. So since it was an open air bus, I got a few pictures of the main tourist attractions: Big Ben, Parliament, Tower Bridge... all that good stuff. We ended up getting off the bus at the Tate Modern, a museum of modern art. We spent a few hours there - saw some Picasso, Monet, Andy Warhol, Joan Miro... lots of good surrealists, impressionists, and modernists. And when we left, we walked across the Millennium Bridge - that's the bridge that the dementors destroyed in the 6th Harry Potter movie. I was excited about it, at least.

After the Tate, we went to the evensong service at St. Paul's Cathedral. It was a choral evensong, so it was beautiful to hear the full choir with men and boys (I don't think there were women). Then Kaari, Evie, and I went to dinner at the Tipperary. Which, if you don't know the song, was the first Irish pub in London. And also the first pub to sell Guinness. I know Flogging Molly used the song in a live version of one of their songs that I have - "It's a long way to Tipperary..." So people would come from all over London for their Guinness. So, it was a lot of fun to be there with so much history - and even though I really wanted to order a Guinness (even though I don't even like beer), I didn't. The Tipperary was on Fleet Street as well - I made sure not to order any meat pies. =)

Yesterday I went out with Allison and Erin and aimed to go see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, we underestimated the time it would take to find our way to Buckingham Palace, so we missed it. But since we were nearby a group of museums, we went into the science museum. It was pretty good - we paid a little extra to go see a Wallace and Gromit exhibit. It would have been £9 a person, but there was a student discount and a 2-for-1 deal, so between the three of us it was £14. There were a lot of hands on exhibits for kids, but we had fun. They did have some of the sets - like the kitchen, the living room, etc - that they used to make the Wallace and Gromit movies. Most excellent.

After that, we headed out to the Agape Arab Christian Centre - just off the Hammersmith and City line at the Royal Oak stop - and got to hear about some of the problems the Arabs (from a mainly Muslim culture) face as Christians. I was under the impression that it would be more 1-on-1 talking, so it was a little disappointing that it was mostly sitting and listening. But it was still interesting to hear about it, at least.

On the way home, though, Anna, Carrie, Emily, and I stopped at King's Cross Station. And we hunted down Platform 9 3/4, which was super nerdy and awesome. Plus, we definitely took pictures. =)

Today was a good day. I got up early and went to church at Holy Trinity Brompton, which was good. It was a lot more modern than the services I've been going to at cathedrals, so it was nice to be at a church more like home again. Then Kaari, Evie, and I went walking through Kensington Gardens - Sunday afternoon in the park. It was full of people running and walking their dogs - quite relaxing.

Then we stopped back at the Celtic Hotel. Then Kaari, Erin, and I went out to Oxford Circus to look for Ben's Cookies and go window shopping. (Ben's Cookies was recommended to our group by former England termers, and since some other girls found it and said it was great, I wanted to go try it.) It took us a while to find it - Ben's Cookies was a lot closer to the Bond Street underground station than Oxford Circus. Oh well - we did have some great window shopping, though the prices on Oxford Street were pretty high. And Ben's Cookies? Fantastic. They were poofy and gooey in the middle - just how I like them. I had a milk chocolate chunk cookie and a white chocolate chunk one. If you're ever in London, I'd recommend Ben's Cookies as well.

I think that will just about catch you all up. We've only got tomorrow and Tuesday left here, but fortunately we'll be back in London after free travel. I could definitely spend more time here - I haven't gotten close to seeing everything I'd like to.

The calm before the storm

2009-09-08T18:23:00.003+01:00

Tonight's our last night at St. Deiniol's Library, and after we leave, it'll be nonstop until High Leigh (September 16th). Tomorrow we're heading up to York for one night, and then we're going down to London. As much as I love staying at a library (!!), it'll be nice to get into a city again. I've discovered that I'm more of a city girl than a small-town girl.

On the other hand, it also worries me that we're going to be busy in a city again. This week was supposed to be restful and I was going to have all this time to catch up on homework, but that didn't happen. Well, I guess it was restful. But homework catch-up? Not a chance. Just now I finished scrawling out a (crappy) draft of a Wordsworth paper we have due tomorrow morning that I've known about all week. Did I work ahead? Nope. How will I ever keep up once there's a bajillion things to do in a city again?

In any case, it's been a great week and I'm truly going to miss St. Deiniol's (even if it may or may not be haunted). I've become addicted to my tea time during the break in class - and once I have to pay for my tea again, it may become a more expensive habit. But seriously - 10:30 or 11:00 am rolls around, and I can guarantee that I'm thinking, "It's tea time!"

On Sunday afternoon we went to visit Bodnant Gardens. It was beautiful! 90 acres of organized lily gardens, rose gardens, terraces and such as well as a stream with redwoods and other "wilder" gardens.

Then yesterday, I took the bus out to Chester with Evie, Melissa H, and Dr. Ritchie. Most people elected to stay home and work on their papers, but I don't regret going. It was good to be somewhere with stores and restaurants again, even if it was a pretty small city. Actually, the prices at the stores were most excellent. I splurged and spent some of my extra food money on a casual dress (black with blue roses), footless tights, and a pair of flats - and all for only £31! I'm really excited about it too - the dress looks shapeless on the hanger, but it actually flatters me rather well. Plus, I feel like I can fit in with the fashion here a little more. No place to wear it yet, but I'm hoping for a night out in London in a few days.

Oh! I also went to a place called Funky Cow in Chester - it's a milkshake bar. It has - and I'm not exaggerating - 160 different flavors of milkshakes! You can put candy, biscuits, cake, or cereal in them - it was probably the most overwhelming decision of my life. I ended up with a Terry's Chocolate Orange shake, which was fabulous. I SO wish we had one of those back in the States! (I think it would top out DQ every time, except for cakes.)

It's a shame to leave here, though - I'd love to spend more time with the library. I haven't gotten to read any of the books here at all because I have homework to read, and that's what gets to me. (I could have read some on Wordsworth, but it's not required for the paper... and I feel like I'm going to need the time tonight to do my editing and then re-write the essay from my computer into my notebook. BOO handwriting!)

Well... time for dinner. I'm going to take the time to not think about my essay at all, so that I'll have a clear(er) mind to edit. And then I have to handwrite it. Ahh, well. Handwriting is mindless, at least.

Next time you hear from me will probably be in London - I doubt I'll want to take time away from my one night in York to write a blog. =)

The climb up a mountain

2009-09-04T20:25:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we climbed Mt. Snowdon. Basically, it's a really big mountain in Wales - 1,085 meters (who knows how much that is in feet). And I made it to the top.

The ascent itself was strenuous, wet, and miserable. The peak of Mt. Snowdon goes above the cloud line, and since this is the UK, it's always cloudy (except for today). At first it was really cool - "Hey, we're walking in the clouds!" But the last quarter of the climb was pretty miserable, mostly because it was really windy and cold. And since we were in a cloud, it was wet. So as I was climbing up a steep, loose rock trail, the rains came in the wind. It came straight in from the right, so one side of my body was soon entirely soaked with the painful needles of the wind-swept rain. But we made it to the top, and there was a wonderful cafe where I ordered a hot chocolate. Best idea ever.

It was the way down that was absolutely magnificent. Evie, Kaari, and I were the last ones to leave the top (there were some other girls too, but since Kaari's knee was hurting we had to go a little bit slower than usual).

Actually, wait. Let me start over. We left in a group - maybe about seven, and since we were walking in a cloud it was hard to stay close to everyone. So we ended up stringing along the path. Evie stayed back with Kaari so that she wouldn't have to walk alone. I went ahead with the rest of the group, but I started feeling like a terrible friend for walking ahead just because I didn't want to have to walk slower than I could have. I already felt bad for letting Erin B walk back down the mountain alone to look for her camera earlier, and I knew Kaari would appreciate it. So I stopped next to a pile of rocks that broke the wind a little and watched Allison fade away into the mist in front of me.

Suddenly I was entirely alone. I was surrounded by cloud, and I couldn’t see or hear anyone in front of me or behind me: all I had going for me was the faith that Evie and Kaari were still coming. It was just eerie and a little scary, especially when it took a few minutes for me to see Kaari and Evie emerging from the mist. For those few minutes, I was entirely alone on a cold, windy mountain where I couldn’t see more than a couple yards in front of me.

But they appeared, and we continued our trek downward. And then, on the steep slope where we had been the most miserable as we were pelted with rain on the way up the mountain, we stopped. “Look, you can see a mountain!” Evie said.

Sure enough, there was a vague outline of a mountain through the cloud. I took out my camera and started to take pictures. Then out of nowhere, all the clouds parted and our vision was crystal clear. We could see the entire landscape, and it was beautiful. There are just no words to describe the incredible… awesomeness of that sight. We could see the mountains, the valleys, the lakes… and all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. And since we were at the tail end of the group, we were the only ones who got to see such a sight – everyone else was already down too far to see the ocean.

And let me tell you – it was that moment that I was completely overwhelmed with the presence of God’s majesty. He literally opened the heavens, just for us.

I know God spoke to me yesterday. This is what he told me: “I just need you to trust me. It’s going to be scary and lonely, but I want you to step away from what you think is important and have faith. I will keep you company, and you won’t be alone forever. And just wait – I have something so much better in store for you! You just need to listen and obey, and then I will show you how much better life can be.”

There are no words for that experience. The three of us were struck silent for several minutes as we just stood on the slope and took in the landscape.

And once we had walked back down below the cloud line, we looked back to see that the clouds had swept back over Mt. Snowdon, hiding God’s majesty once again.

I’m going to post pictures later on Facebook, but just know that they don’t even come close to the indescribable beauty of what we saw.

"Sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun..."

2009-09-02T16:07:00.006+01:00

"...if the sun don't come you get tan from standing in the English rain."

Ha. Thought I'd start out with a fitting lyric from The Beatles - I've had their songs in my head for the last day or so. Mostly because we stopped in Liverpool for a far-too-short visit - only a few hours. We did get to visit the Beatles Story museum, which was awesome. They recreated a bunch of important places from their history, like The Cavern. Plus, I got to go in a yellow submarine.

After we toured the museum, I went with Allison, Corbin, and Zach to Pizza Express. We thought that the name of the place meant that we could eat and get out and see other things in Liverpool, but apparently the "not" is silent in the name. It took us a good two hours to order, eat, and pay. It's highly likely that this was just a culture clash of American standards of service and speed against UK standards, but still. By the time we left, we had about 40 minutes to wander around Liverpool. Consequently, I feel like I barely saw the city and I wish I could go back for a day or two.

But then we got to St. Deiniol's, which is pretty much an English major's dream. It's a big ol' library in the tiny town of Hawarden in Wales. Except Hawarden is another silent 'W' - which I have yet to understand - so it's pronounced "Harden." The English (and Welsh) are weird, I guess. Anyway, back to the library. It is EPIC. I know I use that word a lot, but what else can I say? Legendary... magnificent... extraordinary... it's everything a library should be. And I'm living here! It's got an entire wing for accommodations, and nearly everyone on the trip has his or her own room. That means I have my own bedroom with wifi (even though the signal is low in here, it's still functional).

Today's been pretty low-key: class in the morning and a tour of the place at 2:00pm. I'm trying to take it easy, too, since tomorrow we're climbing Mt. Snowdon, which is the 3rd or 4th biggest mountain on the entire island. (I think.) In any case, it's supposed to take us 5-6 hours, and especially if it's raining, it's going to be difficult. And it's been raining a lot. Oh well, should be an experience either way.

The last day in Keswick

2009-08-31T23:04:00.003+01:00

Two last days in Keswick, and I really haven't done a whole lot. I spent a lot of today and yesterday working on a travel writing essay that's due tomorrow. Fortunately, I finished it tonight and hopefully it's good enough.

Yesterday, though, Erin and I had quite the morning. I woke up, showered, ate breakfast - normal morning. But when I came back to the room, I found Erin sitting in the middle of her bed with wide eyes and a camera in her hands. She looked at me and asked, "Are you scared of spiders?"

Turns out there was a huge spider living inside her shoe, which was still damp from Hadrian's Wall. And when I say huge, I really do mean HUGE - it was a really, really big spider. Big ol' brown one with creepily long legs.

I'm completely fine with small spiders. If they're hanging out on the ceiling, fine. If they come near me, I'll squish them. But this one? I know I would have felt it squish in my hands had I tried to kill it. So NO WAY was I nearing this one!

Turns out Nelly was the one to save our lives. She suited up by borrowing Erin's gloves and grabbing a notebook. Then she tipped the shoe over and poked at it until the spider crawled onto the floor, when she then slammed the notebook down and proceeded to jump up and down on top of the notebook a few times, just to make sure.

The spider was truly smushed, and now we have spider mush in the carpet to prove it. Neither of us are too keen on scraping that up - plus, I'm pretty sure it's ground in to the carpet and would take a little effort to remove.

Later I went out to Java and Chocolate with Kaari, and we sat outside with our coffee for a while doing some devotions (since it was Sunday and all). I spent a good chunk of the afternoon writing, but I went back into Keswick later with Carrie and Emily C to look around in stores. We also dropped in at Costa Coffee around 5 and had a great time talking.

Today was much the same in that I had a pretty laid back day. We had class in the morning from 9 - 11:10, and then I finished up a draft of my essay. Then Kaari and I went out to the Wild Strawberry Coffee House, where I had raspberry tea and a cheddar cheese scone. It was absolutely delicious. =)

Seems kind of lame to spend my last two days in the Lake District indoors, but in my defense it's been really rainy. Especially today - it hardly stopped raining all day. It would have been nice to go hiking somewhere else, but in the rain and mud, it probably would have been unpleasant.

Tomorrow we're heading to St. Deiniol's in Wales. It's a giant library, so it should actually be rather relaxing. Plus, we're stopping in Liverpool on the way to see the Beatles museum plus spend a few more hours hanging out. I'm excited, at least.

Just another day in the Lake District

2009-08-29T21:59:00.004+01:00

Today was Saturday, but we started off with a couple classes. Actually, it could be worse. Classes seem a lot more low key when they take place in the dining room of the conference center. Most people just roll out of bed and grab breakfast before class. We do learn, but it seems less like a class and more like learning as a group, if you understand what I mean.

Then after lunch a group of us decided to hike out to Castlerigg. It was only a five mile hike, and a lot of the trail crossed through fields and used roads. But it was fun - since we were a group of nerdy English majors, we decided that "We Are Seven." (I know no one else will get that AT ALL - just know that it's a reference to a Wordsworth poem with the same title.) Because we were seven, after all. Then we argued about who would have to go lie in the churchyard.

Since it's been raining a lot, some of the fields were rather muddy. For the most point, we could avoid the mud puddles, but one time it was inevitable. We squished through the mud, lifting our feet with a gross suctioning sound. So my shoes are finally starting to look used rather than brand new.

Castlerigg is a neolithic stone circle, kind of like Stonehenge. Except the stones aren't as big, and you're actually allowed to climb around on them. It was fun to see, in any case, and it was good to get out walking to explore the nature in the Lake District.

The rest of the day I've attempted to work on homework, but really failed. I'm putting my faith in tomorrow, since one group of people is going to Beatrix Potter's house and another is going horseback riding. The Conference Center should be a little more empty, so I'm hoping to actually get a rough draft of my travel writing essay scrawled out.

My 21st birthday and a day of ghyll scrambling

2009-08-28T22:44:00.001+01:00

Where do I even start? I’m in the Lake District now, and it’s absolutely beautiful. Mountains, trees, lakes… it’s like Colorado x10. Plus, it’s also where I spent my 21st birthday, so it’ll always have a special place in my heart.

But first – I must tell you what we did the day before my birthday (Wednesday) on the way out here. We stopped in at Hadrian’s Wall, which is the wall the Romans built way back in about 100AD to separate the Scots and the Brits (not that they were called that back then, but close enough). It was on and off rain, so we were hiking up and down big hills in the rain, which was pretty epic. I felt cool, at least. Then we went to a museum at Vindolanda, where they’re still excavating an ancient Roman fort. Apparently there’s been about 9 forts built on top of each other, and so some of the layers have gotten anaerobic conditions, so there have been a lot of old Roman artifacts found. And they’ve only gotten a small part of it actually excavated.

Then on Thursday, I turned 21. I still appreciate the irony that I turned 21 in England, where no one really cares. But I got up early (I went to bed at 10 the night before, so it was rather nice to be up) and went to Costa Coffee and got a mocha. We had to have class at 10am, so I figured it would be a much better day if I started out with some coffee.

We then had class for an hour or so, plus a quiz. Thankfully the quiz was easy – one short answer and some multiple choice. We also learned the wifi password for the wifi at Keswick Conference Center, which is where we’re staying for the week. So I had time to send out a quick email to Seth so I could be sure that he could be online for a Skype conversation later.

Our afternoon activity was a bus trip up to Grasmere to see Dove Cottage, the house where William Wordsworth lived for a good portion of his life. While we were out on our walk in the area around the cottage, everyone else gave me a birthday “surprise.” It was actually only a partial surprise, since on the Wednesday bus ride I saw a yellow piece of paper getting passed around the bus to everyone but me. I’m not entirely oblivious or stupid, but I pretended not to notice. On the other hand, I didn’t know what they were planning. Turns out they wrote me a birthday poem, as nerdy English students are wont to do.

“To the most excellent, edifying, extravagantly beautiful Erin Gardner,
We wish to celebrate you on this glorious day.
Where upon treading the epic cliffs of Scotland,
You stopped to admire all the slugs. (Kaari)
For your renowned rubber ducky collection,
Which has been an inspiration to all. (Melissa K)
Where upon finding Milton unread,
You bravely skipped chapel and read valiantly in the English Corner. (Joel)
Where upon the halls of Hogwarts,
Your eyes lit up like Goblets of Fire. (Erin B)
Where upon braving wind, rain, and heights,
Climbed Hadrian’s Wall with style.
Where upon reaching the summit of Hadrian’s wall,
You proved your dedication by struggling though muddy fields.
Where upon wandering through the Roman ruins,
You were ever faithful to still be carrying your Dr Pepper.
Where upon we haven’t talked that much,
But you seem bomb – let’s be besties and kick it.
Where upon you made the most rockin’ brownies Edinburgh has ever seen –
And you eye-balled it."

So that was my poem. Only some of them were signed, and I’m pretty sure that whoever wrote the one about muddy fields and Hadrian’s Wall confused me with the other Erin (because she was the one who did that), but it was still entertaining.

Then we had a super nerdy lecture about Wordsworth, but we did get to see some extremely rare copies of Lyrical Ballads. Think about 1 of 4 copies or 1 of 6 – let’s just say they were about £10,000 books. It was awesome!

The funny part of the day was our attempt to catch the bus home. About 14 of us got out to the stop by Dove Cottage in plenty of time for the 4:08 bus, and as we were watching it drove right past the stop without even slowing down. To make a long story short, we walked down to the next bus stop and waited a wonderful 30 minutes for the next bus, simply hoping that it would actually stop. We really did look like a mob of tourists. But we got the bus, and we made it safely back to Keswick (though slightly later than planned).

After we got back, I decided that it would be lame to eat in on my birthday, so I went out to eat with Erin, Melissa H, Melissa K, and Carrie. I ordered my first fish and chips of the trip, and it was delicious. We even ordered a piece of chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert, and split it between four of us – Melissa H has a peanut allergy and didn’t want to risk it – and they didn’t let me pay for it.

And when I was finally in for the night, I got to have a nice long Skype conversation with Seth. That’s what I really wanted for my birthday, so I was glad for the wifi in the Conference Center. Otherwise I wouldn’t get to – everything closes here between 5 and 7 pm (except for pubs).

So it was a wonderful day overall – I mean really, there are a lot worse places that I could spend my birthday.

Today, then, was our outdoor adventure day. I was a little sketchy about it at first, especially since the weather forecast was “heavy rain.” Lovely. But it was actually a lot of fun, though I’m sure I’ll be sore tomorrow.

First, we had to get outfitted. We all got set up with a set of waterproofs – waterproof pants and a jacket (with hood) in either a classy shade of purple or blue. I was one of the purple crowd. Then we got to put on a pair of Wellies – and now I have a very healthy respect for Wellies. They kept my feet dry and feeling great. Then we walked down to a cottage and got a lifejacket. So now picture this: I’m now wearing bright purple pants and jacket, a classy pair of Wellies, and a sea green lifejacket. And every other England Termer is looking the same. It was great.

Our first scheduled “activity” was raft building. I was expecting to go collect wood in the forest, which would be lame. But we just tied two canoes together with a couple boards and rope and then had fun canoeing out on the lake as it was raining off and on. But we had our waterproofs, so it was good.

We had about four rafts out, and were split up into two teams. My raft had 6 people, and we paddled to the chant of “Mark… Bruce! Mark… Bruce!” Once we got out to an island, we were supposed to rotate clockwise around in our raft. That meant climbing out onto a skinny board over the lake to get into the next canoe. Then when the other raft in our team was there too, we had to swap places with them, so that meant climbing into another canoe. Then we had to get back to our original spot, but we could only go clockwise. Luckily we had no men overboard.

Then we ended up playing a game that was sort of like canoe Quidditch, except without the snitch and without beaters. Just a quaffle and two goals. I don’t know. It was just a lot more fun than I expected, though my arms are going to hurt tomorrow since they’re not used to paddling.

After that we ate lunch, and then we split up: some people went to do archery and orienteering, and the rest went ghyll scrambling. I decided to do ghyll scrambling, and it was great fun.

First, we had to get re-suited. This time, we stripped down to underwear and put on a wet suit. Then we put our waterproofs back on, then the Wellies, lifejacket, and a helmet. Essentially, ghyll scrambling is playing in a mountain stream. That’s actually what a ghyll is – just and English word for stream. So, we went scrambling in a ghyll.

Since it had been raining a lot lately, we didn’t get the full ghyll scrambling experience. Our stream was more powerful than usual, and a lot more dangerous. We did get to climb up a little waterfall (sort of) and jump into a deep pool and float to a shallows. Let’s just say that the water was quite chilled, too. Especially the first wading – once the water reached the top of the Wellies, it got in the boots to stay. Mine were pretty much sealed around my calves, so I had a slow trickle of cold water, but a lot of people got a sudden flood. Plus, we had to do a little bit of hiking to get to the safe spots of the stream, so I got to walk up muddy slopes with a lake in my Wellies.

I’ve been taking it pretty easy the rest of the day, since I’m pretty beat. I’ve done a little homework, written this… I don’t know. I think I’ll head into the dining room to get good wifi and post this, and then maybe go to bed early.

From Tuesday

2009-08-27T20:31:00.001+01:00

Tuesday August 25, 2009

We crossed the border into England yesterday, and I feel like I’ve already had an authentic English experience. I’ve already had tea and biscuits, and cold toast for breakfast. And while I’m typing this entry, I’m listening to The Beatles.

Before we left Scotland yesterday, we visited the home of Sir Walter Scott in Abbotsford. I didn’t know what I was getting into since I equated a writer’s house with a small cottage. In reality, Sir Walter Scott’s house was more like a castle. It had an epic study filled with books AND a library. He also was an avid collector of historical items, like a clock that belonged to Marie Antoinette, armor from the battle at Waterloo, a lock of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s hair, and many other things. Plus he had beautiful gardens and was right on the River Tweed.

Eventually we bussed over to the island of Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island. It was actually nice to get away from the bustle of Edinburgh, even though I loved the city. This morning I did one of my “official” journal entries on the beach as I watched the tide go out. (One of our assignments is to write travel writing journals, but part of travel writing is that it isn’t supposed to be a personal account of your travel. So I have to do a separate batch of journal entries from the ones that I post on my blog.) In any case, I think the one I wrote this morning give a decent picture of Lindisfarne, so I’ll type it up here:

It’s hard to imagine that a small island off the north-east coast of England was once the center of Celtic Christianity. Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, is only about 2 square miles and accessible only during low tide. Otherwise the high tide sweeps over the causeway and Lindisfarne is an island once again.

I can’t imagine that there are many permanent residents here, and once the summer crowds leave at 4:00pm, the island seems empty and cut off from the world.

It wasn’t always this way. Back in the 7th century AD, a group of Irish monks from Iona chose Lindisfarne as the center for the first monastery in England. They needed a location that was accessible for the people so they could introduce the people of England to Christianity. And it was the island of Lindisfarne that they chose.

Today, Lindisfarne seems almost forgotten from the books of history. Places like Durham Cathedral, where the remains of St. Cuthbert were moved after the Vikings ransacked Lindisfarne, are much more well known and visited than this small island.

But if you’re looking for a place of rest and contemplation, the Holy Island is the best place to go to encounter God. When the tides come in and flood the causeway, any desires to get up and travel are temporarily swept away with the water. After all, unless you’ve got a boat or dare to swim in the icy waters of the North Sea, you’re staying for the night. Soon all you’re left with is the silence of the wind and waves.

So take the time to follow the example set by the Irish monks of the 7th century. Find a spot on the beaches of Lindisfarne and sit and enjoy the silence. Listen to the waves retreating, the sea birds calling, and the breeze tickling your face. Listen and meditate, and when God speaks to your soul, obey.

So those were my thoughts this morning. It was just so peaceful to sit out on the beach and listen. I probably could have used another day or two there, because it finally gave me a chance to catch up on some homework. The busyness of Edinburgh made it really hard to do any reading or writing since there was always something else I could be doing that I would never have the chance to do again.

We left Lindisfarne this morning at 11:30am, after the tides had gone down and opened up the causeway again. Our destination was Durham, but on the way we made a detour at Hogwarts. Yes, you heard me right: we went to Hogwarts. Ha. By that I mean that we drove by Alnwick Castle, which was apparently used to film some of the Harry Potter movies. So being the English nerds that we are, we stopped and took nerdy pictures in front of the castle for a couple minutes before hopping on the bus again and heading off. It was fantastic, really.

We got to Durham early this afternoon – about 2:00pm, I believe. We’re staying at a dorm at St. John’s University, which is a pretty decent accommodation. It’s only two to a room, in any case.

Then we headed over to Durham Cathedral for a tour. This is where the remains of St. Cuthbert were finally buried, so it was really cool to visit the shrine in the cathedral where he’s buried and where people today still make pilgrimages. Apparently Cuthbert is buried with the head of King Oswald as well, which is kind of weird. But it’s legit, since Oswald was the one responsible for allowing the Irish monks (and St. Aiden) to start the monastery at Lindisfarne and therefore bring Christianity to England. I’ve actually come to admire Aiden and Cuthbert a lot – go look up some of their history; it’s pretty interesting.

And believe it or not, Durham Cathedral is actually Hogwarts as well. The courtyard at the south end of the cathedral was used to film parts of the first and second movies, so of course we took more nerdy Harry Potter pictures.

So that’s about all I’ve seen of Durham, because after the Evensong service (done by 6pm), most places were closed. We were planning on fish and chips for dinner, but all those places were closed so we got pizza at a café. Oh well.

Plus, we were told that we got wifi in our room and all we needed to do was get a guest logon pass at reception, but that’s a lie. I technically got a signal, but I could only get the very weak signal by placing my laptop in the window. I tried anyway, and connected to “Durham University Authentication.” I opened Firefox and a page opened where I could enter my guest login ID, but it only directed me to a security fail page. It said that it was not a secure connection and that I should not make an exception for the firewall blocking unless I trusted the wireless. Since I don’t technically know their wireless, I figured it would be better to forgo the wifi and save my computer the possible virus. I’m sorry, Seth – I really tried to get out at least an email.

Tomorrow we’re bussing out to the Lake District, so hopefully I’ll get access to wifi at some point in time tomorrow. Seems like I’ve been out of contact for a long time after stopping at Metropole almost every day while I was in Edinburgh.

From Sunday

2009-08-27T20:30:00.000+01:00

Sunday August 23, 2009: The Supernatural and Spiritual Side of the City

The last 24 hours have been pretty intense. For one thing, I went on the underground tour of the vaults of Edinburgh with the City of the Dead Tours. It was pretty fantastic, even if I didn’t see any ghosts or have any “occurrences” with the poltergeist, known as the “South Bridge Entity.” I went with Evie and a random assortment of people I didn’t know – maybe about 20ish people total. Our tour guide’s name was Remy, and he was dressed for the part – long black leather trenchcoat, black button up, black jeans, black shoes. Evie asked him how he got the job, and he told us he’d been doing underground tours for about 2 months and got the job by sending a “bullshit email” about being a good storyteller and such. I’m inclined to believe that, since the stories on the tour were quite entertaining (though not without a little embellishment on the truth).

In any case, the legend of the underground city is that there’s a poltergeist that lives in one of the vaults. The vaults were filled with people (mainly criminals and pregnant women, since at the time pregnancy before marriage was cause to run away from home) who lived in there until (I think) the 1870’s or so. That’s when people started realizing that people in the underground vaults were still living in medieval times while everyone else was living in the “Athens of the north”, so everyone was flushed out and the underground city was boarded up. 100 years later it was rediscovered, and now there are tours down there.

I tried my hardest to find a ghost, I really did. In the last vault, which was apparently the most haunted, Remy asked for a volunteer. After about 10 seconds, in which no one else said anything, I volunteered.

Naturally, I had volunteered to stand with my back to what’s apparently the “most haunted wall” in the vault while the rest of the tour group stepped back several feet. (We were told about some history with devil worshippers and a giant mirror on the wall that they had to remove due to a mysterious yellow ooze.) And of course, the South Bridge Entity was not a “cheeky” poltergeist. Then, as I held the torch, Remy counted down and I clicked it off. So now, just to recap, I’m alone by the most haunted wall with no lights. Brilliant idea.

So for about 10 or 15 seconds, I stood there waiting for a cold chill or an unnatural burning sensation before I was told to turn the light back on. Other than a slightly higher heart rate and a rather startling drop of water on the center of my forehead, nothing happened. Maybe I’m ghost-repellant or something because I have yet to find a ghost.

That was the end of the tour, and no one in the tour reported anything happening (at least not in front of the group). At least it was entertaining, even if I failed in my ghost hunt.

After the underground tour, Evie and I decided to see a Fringe festival show. Since it was 10:30ish and we were starting to be cramped for time, we made an impulsive decision to see a musical called “Hey Sister.”

…It was terrible. Suffice it to say that we would have walked out if we hadn’t paid for it and if the crowd wasn’t small and well lit (I couldn’t bring myself to be so rude). Afterward, we decided to blame the South Bridge Entity. After all, it supposedly leaves a curse and maybe it knew that bad theatre and no “encounters” would be worse than a few scratches. Maybe we really were haunted after all – perhaps it’s planning to cause any and all bad luck for the rest of the trip. Evie and I have decided to give it the blame, anyway. =)

This morning I attended church at St. Giles Cathedral, a big old gothic cathedral on the Royal Mile. There’s a lot of history there, too – I think several Scottish kings and queens have been crowned there, and it’s known as the “Mother Kirk of Presbyterianism.” (Kirk is another word for church.) This is where Presbyterianism started after John Knox brought about the Scottish reformation. It’s also absolutely gorgeous inside – stained glass, arching ceilings, intricate stonemasonry, and a shiny silver organ.

It was just so surreal to be in a beautiful building with so much history and yet (still today) to feel God’s presence fill the building as the choir’s voices resounded throughout the church and the congregation sang hymns of praise. It was a far cry from being back at Grace, and it certainly gave me a new dimension to Christianity.

I spent the rest of the day relaxing for the most part, hanging out in Metropole until my computer battery died as I wrote, uploaded pictures, and had a Skype conversation with Seth. It was good to relax, though I wish I didn’t have to leave Edinburgh. I really do love this city, and if we weren’t going to all these other amazing places, I’d be content to remain in Scotland. I wish I knew more about my Scottish family history, though, because it’s cool to see how the Scots take pride in their clans. And it would be fascinating to know how my ancestors fit in to all the history I’ve been learning about.

While England term has already become one of the most amazing experiences of my life, it could be dangerous for me to become attached to all these cities. If I’m in love with Edinburgh and I’ve only been here a week, I can’t imagine how I’m going to be able to leave the UK at all. It’s going to be tough, that’s for sure – but at least I’ve got a great place to come home to in a little over 3 months.

And from today!

2009-08-22T18:46:00.001+01:00

Saturday August 22, 2009, 5:45pm

I definitely have a cold. My throat feels a lot better, but now my nose is all stuffy and I’m not feeling at my best. Fortunately, a cold is a manageable ailment, and there are so much worse things that I could’ve come down with. At least I can still function with a cold.

Today we got to tour a couple castles just north of Edinburgh. First we stopped at Linlithgow and saw the ruins of the castle there. It was actually a lot of fun climbing in all the towers and hallways. And I did make it up to the highest room in the tallest tower. =) It was the only tower open all the way to the top, even if all four were about the same height. Then there were green rolling hills all the way down to the lake, where I saw a couple swans swimming around. Next door was St. Michael’s Kirk (church) with beautiful stained glass windows and a fairly extensive graveyard surrounding it. I actually found a Gardner gravestone – maybe some long lost relatives?

After a few hours at Linlithgow, we bussed up to see Stirling Castle. It was surreal to be there where many kings and queens lived and to be near the site of the Battle of Bannockburn, where the Scots defeated the English against astounding odds (led by Robert the Bruce). Although I was a little miffed to hear that William Wallace was really fighting for the displaced King John of Scotland instead of for freedom. I mean, I know that Braveheart doesn’t show how it really happened, but still. It would’ve been cooler if it had happened that way. I did learn that the real William Wallace was 6’7” and apparently his sword is at the William Wallace monument (which I didn’t get to see, but it was an imposing tower visible from Stirling). So I guess that makes him an awesome guy again. I wouldn’t want to meet him in battle, that’s for sure.

What I’m really looking forward to tonight is an underground ghost tour. Apparently Edinburgh has a network of underground tunnels with a sketchy past where there may or may not be ghosts. Evie and I are going for sure tonight, as well as a few people who might go with us. I’m really hoping some ghosts show up. =)

From Friday

2009-08-22T18:45:00.001+01:00

Friday August 21, 2009, 9:30 pm: The day of epic cliffs and epic tiredness

It’s getting to the point where I’m starting to wear out. As of last night, I started to get a sore throat, though I’m still not sure if it’s because I’m getting sick or because I’m getting tired. It’s just been lingering all day long. My plan tonight is to go to bed early, and hopefully I’ll feel better tomorrow.

So where did I leave you? Oh yes – the Military Tattoo festival. It was absolutely fantastic! (BBC was recording it the night I was there, too – I think they said something about August 29th?) Anyway – SO COOL. I’ve never seen in broadcasted on TV before, so I had no idea what to expect. But in short, it was a band geek’s dream. Think international, ethnic marching bands. It started out with an entire marching band of bagpipes and drums, which each guy wearing full Scottish garb (yes, that means a kilt!). I just about died of happiness then; it was that epic.

The rest of the festival consisted of marching bands / drum lines / dancers from Scotland and a few other countries – Switzerland, China, and a country in Africa that I don’t remember the name of were a few. Plus a few Robert Burns songs, being as it’s the 250th anniversary of his birth year. And all of this was right in front of Edinburgh castle.

Then Kaari, Evie, and I wandered around the Grassmarket for a while. We stopped in a pub (The White Hart Inn), which was probably my dream pub. It was absolutely packed, and there was an accordion and everyone was singing Scottish songs. We hung around a while, but left eventually because we felt a little strange since we couldn’t order any alcohol. Earlier we would have been fine with coffee, tea, or hot chocolate, but midnight? Not so much. Silly Bethel.

When we were walking home later, my throat started feeling a little sore. I thought maybe going to bed would help, but when I woke up in the morning it was still there. It’s gotten mostly better throughout the day, but it’s still lingering in the background, so that’s why I’m not sure if I’m sick or not.

This morning we had class over in the conference room at Edinburgh University, but it wasn’t really class class. We had a Burns impersonator come in, so all we did was learn about Burns and hear some of his poetry and songs as they should be read – in a fantastic Scottish accent.

The highlight of the day, though, would have to be climbing up to the top of Arthur’s Seat. Basically, Arthur’s Seat is the pinnacle of a big hill (I don’t think it’s quite a mountain) in Edinburgh’s backyard. The hike itself wasn’t that long, but it took a little effort since it could be pretty steep in parts. The view at the top was absolutely astounding. It was a clear sunny day (just a few clouds in the sky) and you can see all of Edinburgh. And the best part? An abundance of dramatic cliffs! Seriously, there were cliffs everywhere, and the gusting winds made it perfect for the ideal dramatic cliff photos.

After that, most of the group went to one of the Fringe festival shows, Iago. The entire thing was one guy acting out all of Othello from Iago’s point of view with no props (just a white sheet on the floor). Although I’m slightly ashamed to admit it, I’ve never read Othello. So while it was good, it wasn’t anything extraordinary. I was distracted by the fact that the guy stepped on a daddy long legs during the performance, so it sat there on the white sheet with its legs twitching for a minute before it finally died. And then it was just sitting there, squished, on the sheet. Gross.

I’ve just been relaxing for the rest of the evening, mainly because I started feeling a little more worn out. I stopped by the Metropole for some wifi again, though the internet there has been off and on for the past day or so. So I didn’t get internet right away, but I did enjoy a hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows and some live music. This time it was a couple guys, one on bass clarinet and the other on a sort of kettle drum. It sounds like a weird combination, but it worked really well and I enjoyed their music. Especially when they played “Eleanor Rigby.”

When it got to be about 8:45 and I realized I still hadn’t eaten, I figured I should leave. I stopped by the grocery store and bought milk, butter, and a box of Kraft “Cheesy Pasta.” Obviously, it wasn’t as good as the American blue box, but it was passable. A good supper, at least.

It’s almost 10pm now, so I think I’m going to head off to bed. We’re meeting at 9am to head over to Stirling Castle and the Bannockburn Heritage center, so I want to get as much sleep as possible.

From Thursday

2009-08-21T20:02:00.000+01:00

Thursday August 20th 2009; 6:15 pm

Well, I’m here. I’m really not sure where to start: it feels like it’s been a week since I left Minnesota, but it’s only Thursday. (My Monday and Tuesday merged together since I lost 6 hours of my life in time zones – and most of that time was my sleeping hours.)

I think it’s pretty safe to say that I love Edinburgh. As excited as I am to go see everywhere else, it’s really disappointing that we’re only spending a week here. I feel like I’m missing out on so much.

One of the most intense parts of Edinburgh this week is the crowds for the multitudes of festivals. For one, it’s the Military Tattoo festival, which I’m going to see tonight. But at the same time, it’s the Fringe festival, a huge drama/film/theatre festival. It’s actually pretty intimidating – if you walk down the Royal Mile from the castle, you get handed endless flyers from strangely dressed people advertising their performances. So many buildings throughout Edinburgh are “Fringe venues”, where the performances take place.

But seriously – I love this city. Our flats are right on South Clerk Street, which is within walking distance of most things. Although I have been experimenting with the bus system (£3 for a day pass), because sometimes it’s nice just to sit down for a while. (And yes, I have ridden on the top of a double-decker bus. A necessary experience, I must say.)

So far I’ve really only done the main touristy things. Yesterday I went with Melissa H. on the 37 bus to North Bridge in order to head up to the Edinburgh castle. It’s almost a requirement to go see the castle, though, and it was actually a lot of fun. We got to see the Scottish crown jewels, the old royal apartments, the dungeons, and lots of other cool exhibits that they had set up. Later we walked down the Royal Mile on High Street, which is a long downhill road lined with tourist shops. We also stopped by the Grassmarket, which used to be the location of many public executions. Now, though, it’s generally just a street of restaurants, so we didn’t stay there long.

What I enjoy about Edinburgh is the excessive amounts of independent coffee shops. My favorite haunt is one called Metropole, just a few blocks down from our flats. It has free wifi after a purchase, so I’ve already been in there 3 times for wifi and a mocha. It’s just the right amount of coffee shop casual atmosphere – not too fancy, but not a sketchy place I wouldn’t want to hang out in with my computer. And unless there’s live musicians (which there was one time – a guitar and a string bass), it’s generally quiet enough for a Skype conversation.

I also got to go to the Elephant House, another independent café. But this one is special: it’s the café in which JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter. So, naturally, the have “The birthplace of Harry Potter” written on their window and on the employees’ shirts. Melissa and I liked to imagine that JK Rowling wrote at least part of Harry Potter at the table we were sitting at. It’s easy to see why she picked the Elephant House, though – there was a fantastic view of the Edinburgh castle from the window. Just like Hogwarts, no?

Food here is pretty great. The first night (Tuesday) I went with a few other girls to The Abbey, a Scottish pub. There I ordered bangers and mash with Yorkshire pudding (translation: sausage, mashed potatoes, and breadbowl-ish things with gravy), and tried a bite of Evie’s highland chicken (chicken stuffed with haggis). And to tell the truth, the haggis wasn’t all that bad. I might be able to eat it on its own.

But in general, we’ve been cooking our own meals. Yesterday we went grocery shopping, and got about 3 meals worth of food for about £5 a person. And I made some experimental brownies (I hate cooking and wanted to feel useful). We had no brownie pan, so I used the lid of a glass casserole dish. We didn’t want to buy vegetable oil, so I used olive oil. We had no measuring cups, so I had to estimate 75 mL of water and 30 mL of oil. And then I had to guess on the cooking time since it was a weird pan. Fortunately, I didn’t burn them and they turned out delicious.

And the Dr Pepper here? It’s weird. I bought a bottle just because, and the label said it was “a fruit flavoured soft drink.” Dr Pepper = fruity? Not that I can remember. So I tried it, and it did taste a little different. At first I thought that it was just because it was real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, but the more I drank it the more I detected a hint of pineapple flavor. I know it sounds strange, and it’s nearly impossible for me to put my finger on the difference, but it just seemed a little more cherry-ish with a hint of pineapple. But it still manages to taste (mostly) like Dr Pepper.

Well, it’s nearing 7pm here, and I’m starting to get hungry. I think Evie and I are going to go grab a sandwich or something as we make our way to the Military Tattoo tonight, since we’re supposed to get there around 8:15-8:20. Plus, I want to get a Scottish plaid scarf. They’re everywhere, and look really warm. Since I have to head back up to the castle anyway, I might look in a few stores along the Royal Mile.

On the eve of departure

2009-08-17T03:31:00.003+01:00

This is it. 24 hours from now I will be on a plane flying out to Amsterdam before connecting to Edinburgh. Although I've been waiting for this moment for 3+ years, it's a little terrifying right now. I've been packing, planning, and preparing all week, and now that the moment is here, I still don't feel ready.

I'm not ready to say goodbye to my family and boyfriend for a whole semester. For that matter, I'm not ready to say goodbye to my grandparents, who may or may not still be alive when I return. Who knows how long they'll still be around? Three and a half months is a long time, especially with no phone calls and sporadic internet access.

My cat and my fish may or may not be here either. (I know losing a cat doesn't seem like a big deal, but we've had her since I was 3, and I honestly don't remember life without her. Since she's about 18 years old and has recently had health problems, it's possible that tomorrow is the last time I'll ever see her.)

I don't know. Knowing that I only have 24 hours left leaves me with a mix of emotions, ensuring that I settle into a restless funk. I'm so excited to leave, but this goodbye thing doesn't work well with me. I think it'll be a relief to be on the plane and have the goodbyes over and done with - then I can move past the leaving and start thinking about what's ahead. Because I'm sure God has amazing things in store for me in the coming semester.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

2009-08-15T02:49:00.000+01:00

It's now approaching the 3 day mark - 72 hours until I leave - and I'm finally making progress on my pre-trip reading. For the past couple days, I've been immersed in James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Unfortunately, I was unaware of how long of a work it was, so I've had to spend most of my evenings reading (when I'm not packing).

To be honest, I hadn't really gotten into it until tonight. But all of a sudden one of the passages struck me: "Now what is the meaning of this word retreat and why is it allowed on all hands to be a most salutary practice for all who desire to lead before God and in the eyes of men a truly christian life? A retreat, my dear boys, signifies a withdrawal for a while from the cares of our life, the cares of this workaday world, in order to examine the state of our conscience, to reflect on the mysteries of holy religion and to understand better why we are here in this world" (Joyce 362). As I read that passage, I realized that that is what I was hoping for during England term. I'm essentially going on a very long retreat - a clean break from everything "normal" in my life - and I'm hoping that it will be a time of spiritual growth.

The following 40 pages contained a detailed hell and brimstone sermon. Maybe it's my protestant background, but from what I can remember, I've never actually heard a sermon so full of condemnation. Yet in Joyce's novel, it's exactly what Stephen Dedalus needs, and Joyce crafts Stephen's guilt so well that I was pulled into the sermon and could feel Stephen's shame (my shame) so clearly.

I just finished chapter III, which ended with a beautiful and well-written example of God's forgiveness toward Stephen. Somehow, through what should have been an eternally long sermon, Joyce illustrates Stephen's shame, guilt, and eventual repentance so accurately that it's almost discouraging to me as a writer. I don't think I've even come close to putting words to such feelings without it sounding cheesy and trite.

I haven't read much Joyce until now, so ususally I equate Joyce with stream of consciousness writing and an overall sense of rambling confusion. Tonight, at least, I've come to respect him so much more as a writer, and I'm excited to study him more closely in Dublin.

--

In other news... today I finished my last day of work at Dairy Queen before I leave. It's a little disconcerting to think that I probably won't be getting another paycheck until the end of January 2010 - unless I'm able to procure a job when I return at the beginning of December. So far that's seeming unlikely. Otherwise... what I see is what I've got. And I'm hoping and praying that it'll be enough.

Only 72 hours left until I leave the country, and although I'm making progress, I still have a lot to do before I'll be ready.

Scotland accommodations

2009-08-10T03:22:00.000+01:00

Well... England term is a week from tomorrow. One week to go, and I still have far too much to do.

Anyway, here's where I'll be staying for the first week while I'm in Edinburgh, Scotland. I'll keep you all posted as to where I'm staying later since I doubt anyone besides me will remember beyond the first week right now.

Edinburgh, August 18-23

Edinburgh First Accommodation Services (University of Edinburgh)

We will be staying in apartments on S. Clerk St. on the grounds of the University of Edinburgh

It is not advisable to try to mail letters to this venue

011-44-131-651-2189

Also... got myself a webcam today, so I'll be up for Skype video chats while I'm gone. ;D

The Itinerary

2009-08-04T23:40:00.000+01:00

Well, here's my initial itinerary for England term. Obviously I don't have exactly what we're doing each day put in here or listed any accommodations, but this should give a pretty good idea of what country and city I'll be in and when. So if you happen to be in Europe this fall (especially October 10-19!), feel free to track me down. =)

ENGLAND TERM 2009

AUGUST

Mon 17: Depart 9:15 p.m. Northwest Flt 56 (Arr. Amsterdam 12:30 p.m.)- Lindbergh Terminal
Tue 18: Dep Amsterdam NW 8555 3:15 p.m., Arrive Edinburgh 3:40 pm.
Wed 19: Edinburgh - Sometime this week, see “Iago” (Fringe Festival-Zoo, 5:45 pm)
Thurs 20: Edinburgh—9:30-11 class/debriefing; Tattoo (9:00 p.m.)
Fri 21: Edinburgh— 10:30 a.m.-12:30 class with Burns Interpreter, 5:45 p.m.—17
students + Prof. Bruce to “Iago” at Zoo theatre (The Pleasance St.)
Sat 22: Edinburgh— daytrip org’d by Mark to Stirling Castle/Bannockburn Heritage Centre
Sun 23: Edinburgh - 5:45 p.m.—5 students + DR to “Iago”
Mon 24: To Lindisfarne, possibly via Abbotsford. M Bruce returns to US
Tues 25: To Durham—afternoon visit to Durham Cathedral
Wed 26: To Lake District via Hadrian’s Wall
Thurs 27: My 21st birthday! Lake District—afternoon visit to Dove Cottage, Wordsworth Walk
Fri 28: Lake District—Outdoor activities day – Derwentwater and surrounding area
Sat 29: Lake District— two morning classes
Sun 30: Lake District—optional afternoon trip to Beatrix Potter’s House and Hawkshead
Mon 31: Lake District - Two morning classes

SEPTEMBER

Tues 1: To St. Deniol’s (Hawarden), via Liverpool (Beatles Story, Int’l Slavery Museum)
Wed 2: St. Deniol’s
Thurs 3: St. Deiniol’s—Hopkins talk (St. Beunos); hike up Mt. Snowdon
Fri 4: St. Deiniol’s
Sat 5: St. Deiniol’s
Sun 6: St. Deniol’s (church @Chester, then to Bodnant Gardens)
Mon 7: St. Deiniol’s
Tues 8: St. Deiniol’s
Wed 9: To York, via Haworth (Brontë home); 5:15 evensong @ York Cathedral.
Thurs 10: To London (Celtic Hotel) after morning visit to Jorvik Center (Viking museum). Late afternoon tea/orientation to London - get underground card
Fri 11: London – Morning: “Hop on, hop off” tour of London. We’ll take tube as a group to Piccadilly Circus & take “Yellow Tour.” (You must make at least 5 stops and tour one of the museums)
Sat 12: London – Judie arrives (12:15). 3 pm Meet Wagih Abdelmasih – Agabe Arabic Christian Centre 11 Porchester Rd (near Bayswater & Royal Oak Underground)
Sun 13: London – Church suggestion: Holy Trinity Brompton
Mon 14: London – Morning – Mrs. Dalloway walk
Tues 15: London – Globe Theatre 10:30 – noon acting instruction; 5:30 return to Globe for pre-performance lecture, presentation of As You Like It
Wed 16: To High Leigh, perhaps via Keats’s house –Hoddesdon
Thurs 17: High Leigh
Fri 18: High Leigh
Sat 19: High Leigh
Sun 20: to Cambridge –Corpus Christi College
Mon 21: Cambridge – Day trip to Little Gidding. Extra luggage/books to be sent to Celtic Hotel, London.
Tues 22: Transfer to Heathrow Airport for 2:50 p.m. departure to Dublin (arr 4:15 p.m.) British Midland Airways, Flt BD 0129. Max checked luggage: 44 lbs.
Wed 23: Dublin—Joyce walk
Thurs 24: Dublin—Day trip: Joyce Tower, Glendalough
Fri 25: Dublin—
Sat 26: Sligo self-catering, via Newgrange and Hill of Tara.
Sun 27: Sligo (rest)
Mon 28: Sligo – Day trip: lecture from Yeats Society + climb Knocknarae
Tues 29: Sligo - early afternoon visit to Lissadell House
Wed 30: Sligo – second lecture from Yeats Society + afternoon @ Lough Gill

OCTOBER

Thurs 1: Sligo –
Fri 2: to Belfast, via Derry and Giant’s Causeway. Homestays through Monday morning. Half of group does evening outreach ministry (until 2 a.m.)
Sat 3: Belfast—homestays. Other half of group does evening ministry
Sun 4: Belfast – Worship at 11. Late afternoon seminar on Belfast ministry
Mon 5: Morning flight, Belfast to Paris. Afternoon transfer to Bayeux via Rouen Cathedral. (Aer Lingus flight EI 0058, Dep. Belfast Int’l (BFS) 11:50 a.m. (arr. at airport by 9:50 a.m.) Arr. Paris (CDG) 2:30 (no meal) 44 lbs. luggage
Tues 6: Bayeux – Tour of Normandy Beaches; Evening Banquet.
Wed 7: Paris – To Paris, Hôtel des Balcons, via Versailles Palace
Thurs 8: Paris – Hôtel des Balcons. Paris in the ‘20s tour (morning)
Fri 9: Paris – Hôtel des Balcons
Sat 10: FREE TRAVEL BEGINS
Sun 11: Free Travel
Mon 12: Free Travel
Tues 13: Free Travel
Wed 14: Free travel
Thurs 15: Free travel
Fri 16: Free travel
Sat 17: Free travel – Ritchies return to U.S.
Sun 18: Free travel
Mon 19: Free travel
Tues 20: London, Celtic Hotel, London. 61-63 Guilford St, Russell Sq
Wed 21: London, Celtic Hotel
Thurs 22: London, Celtic Hotel - 3 pm-interaction with Agape Arabic Christian Centre (11 Porchester Rd (near Bayswater & Royal Oak Underground))
Fri 23: London, Celtic Hotel
Sat 24: London, Celtic Hotel
Sun 25: London, Celtic Hotel
Mon 26: London, Celtic Hotel
Tues 27: Tunbridge Wells
Wed 28: Tunbridge Wells
Thurs 29: Tunbridge Wells
Fri 30: Tunbridge Wells
Sat 31: Tunbridge Wells

NOVEMBER

Sun 1: Tunbridge Wells
Mon 2: Tunbridge Wells
Tues 3: Tunbridge Wells
Wed 4: Canterbury
Thurs 5: Canterbury
Fri 6: Canterbury
Sat 7: Canterbury
Sun 8: Oxford
Mon 9: Oxford
Tues 10: Stratford
Wed 11: Stratford
Thurs 12: Stratford
Fri 13: Stratford
Sat 14: Stratford
Sun 15: Bristol/Bath
Mon 16: Bristol/Bath
Tues 17: Bristol/Bath
Wed 18: Lyme Regis
Thurs 19: Lyme Regis, via Cadbury
Fri 20: Plymouth (Battisborough House)
Sat 21: Plymouth
Sun 22: Plymouth
Mon 23: Plymouth (Visit Tintagel, St. Ives, St. Michael’s Mount)
Tues 24: Plymouth
Wed 25: Plymouth
Thurs 26: Thanksgiving! Plymouth
Fri 27: Winchester, via Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral
Sat 28: Winchester
Sun 29: Winchester
Mon 30: to London, via Chawton (Jane Austen’s house)

DECEMBER

Tues 1: London
Wed 2: London
Thurs 3: Depart London (Heathrow) NW Flt 103, 9:40 a.m. arr. MSP 12:55 p.m.

My goals

2009-08-03T16:30:00.000+01:00

I've started realizing in the last few weeks that my priorities are not where they're supposed to be. I've been placing other people and things in front of God and paying far more attention to them than I have to him. It's a little bit disconcerting, especially since now it seems obvious as to why I've been feeling distant from God.

So now it seems as though England term is taking on a new meaning for me. Sure, I want to go and geek out about literature, explore new countries, and go on extraordinary adventures, but that's not going to be my primary goal. For the three and a half months that I'm gone, my goal will be to surrender myself completely, fully, absolutely to God. I'm hoping that in getting time away from the people, places, and things that have taken over my life, God will give me the strength and courage to set things right when I get back home. I know I haven't been living up to God's will for me and I haven't been relying on him to sustain me as I should. If I'm going to be honest with myself, my life this summer has been about me, not God.

And it's time things changed. I know God has better plans for me than I could ever dream of, and it's up to me to listen to him.

I've got it!

2009-07-22T03:44:00.000+01:00

As England term approaches, I've been thinking to myself: what would make a great souvenir? (I know - out of all of the things I could be thinking about, I pick this one.)

And tonight I got a great idea: I'll get myself a pair of Wellies. Not only will they be useful, but also a great reminder of the UK. The only problem will be finding room for them when I'm not wearing them...

Only 3 weeks and 6 days until I leave!

Go to livejournal

2007-10-25T01:53:00.000+01:00

I post much more frequently on livejournal, so you can go there if you want to keep up with me.

http://frenzyfan78.livejournal.com/

My entries (at least the more recent ones) are locked for friends only, so you'll have to start an account and ask to be my friend.

-Erin