The End of All Things

This will probably be my last blog entry from Europe. It's hard to wrap my mind around that. It seems like just yesterday I was sitting in the airport terminal in Indy with my mom and dad, being nervous about flying for the first time. Yet now, here I am almost 4 months later, and it seems like no time has passed between the two events, coming and going home. However on the other hand it feels like I've been gone from home for about a thousand years. Funny how that works. Well, Barcelona was very fun. It was a very short trip, but it was well worth it. The weather in Spain was great, not hot, but definitely not cold. It was in the mid to low 60's during the day. We got to see a lot of things in Barcelona, and basically we were doing things the whole day. The first day that we were there we saw 2 cathedrals, the Barcelona Cathedral and the Cathedral of St. Mary. Both were beautiful, and we were able to go up to the roof on the Barcelona Cathedral and get an amazing view of the city. Unfortunately the batteries on my camera died while we were still in the cathedral, so I wasn't able to get any pictures from the roof. The next day we had an intricately planned trek across the city to see all of the sites that we wanted to see. We started out exploring the main park in the city, which was very pretty. Then we went to the zoo, because we all said that we hadn't gone to a zoo in Europe, and that we should have that experience. It was mostly a joke, but we went with it anyway. The zoo was neat, because it had been a long time since I had been to a zoo even in the States. We even got to see some animals from home, which was somewhat comforting, in a weird "these-animals-are-as-far-away-from-home-as-me" kind of way. After the zoo we went to see the bull-ring of the city. Unfortunately it wasn't open, but we did get to see the outside, which was at least something. We then went to one of Barcelona's main attractions, La Sagrada Familia. Started in the early 1900's, it looks like the architect used some questionable mind-altering substances while listening to Pink Floyd (or maybe the grandfathers of Pink Floyd, given the time) and set to work designing this cathedral. It looks like the cathedral used to be a giant candle and it was half-burned, and then lots of religious figures were shaped in the melty-wax. It was weird and pretty at the same time. The other weird thing was that the cathedral was only about 1/3 built, just the front and back, with the middle still under construction even today. They hope to have it completed within the next 10 or 20 years. After that we went to a park that was up on a hill and offered a great view of the city. It was a long walk, but the view was worth it. We then walked to the Archaeological Museum of Barcelona. It was pretty interesting, although there weren’t a whole lot of artifacts. Most of the museum was full of Roman artifacts, as the Romans did colonize Spain right around the big BC/AD switch. After that we made a long trek to the Olympic Stadium, as the Olympics were held there in 1992. By this time it was dark, so we just snapped a few pictures and left. The last thing we were going to do was to see a musical lighted fountain show in the main plaza, but we found out that they only do that in the summer/fall time. So that was Barcelona. I really enjoyed it, and I would go back in a heartbeat if I had a chance. Here at the manor things have been winding down. I got word about a week ago that I got the job as an RA back at Evansville, so come January I will be living in Hughes Hall with a single room in charge of about 20 or so guys. I was really excited about that, because it means that I can spend more time on campus and maybe actually be involved a little more. It also means that I have more freedom to go home when I want to and also to visit Olivia, so that’s good. I’m done with both of my independent studies, Greek and Latin, except that sometime over break I have to take my Latin final by e-mail. We didn’t have enough time to get it set up here, so it was pushed back. I have my British Studies final tomorrow, and then I’m done with school here altogether. I’ve been packing little by little, so I’m about halfway done or so. Thursday my friends and I are going to leave on our trip to Italy and Greece, and then we will leave for home from London the following Thursday. I’m very much looking forward to Italy and Greece, because now I’m actually going to see the places that we’ve talked about in my classes and such. It will be amazing. However it’s kinda depressing to think about leaving, but it’s also a happy time because I get to go home to all of the people that I care about. Not that there aren’t people that I care about here; I have my friends that I came here with, and I’ve made lots of new friends, both from other schools and from my own, and I’m really glad that I’ve met these people. I will miss the people from other schools a lot, and I hope that I will get to see them at some point in the future. It’s nice that I have a wider friend-base at Evansville also. But I’m really glad to go back to the familiarity of home. I’ve missed my family and friends a lot, and I guess I sort-of missed my girlfriend. Ok, so I missed her a lot, and I’m really glad that I will get to see her again :). All in all coming home will be a great thing, especially being back for Christmas, when I can see all of my family at once. I’m really thankful for the time that I had here, the people that I met, and just the overall experience. It will be bittersweet going back home, but there are definite pros to make up for the cons.

Czech-ing Out Prague and Other-Type Catch-Up Things

I've been pretty busy lately, and so I haven't had a lot of time to keep this up for a week or two. I apologize to my faithful readers, this was a long time coming, so now we have it. As I said in my previous post, I was going to Prague on one of my last trips. Well, we went, and Prague was Prague. We really didn't do all that much. Prague was only about an hour and 20 minutes away flying there with the wind with us, and then an hour and 40 minutes on the way back with the wind against us. We got there, and the exchange rate feels like you're getting rich, even though we really aren't. In their currency, 20 koruna are equal to about $1. So when you have 1000 koruna in your wallet you feel pretty loaded, but then you realize that it's really only $50, and you're brought back to reality. Prague is a very pretty city, where almost all of the buildings have some sort of decoration. The sights we saw were a museum of Communism in Prague, the castle, a church dedicated to baby Jesus, and the National Museum. The museum of Communism was interesting, but it was mostly reading plaques on the wall, and looking at a few items from the time periods. The castle was a bit misleading, because the actual castle was destroyed in the early 1900's, and so more modern structures have been built in it's place. Those buildings form a circle, and then on the inside there are some older buildings, one of them being an old cathedral which was very beautiful. The church dedicated to baby Jesus was interesting, and pretty funny. Ricky Bobby jokes were flying the entire time, describing what we liked to think of baby Jesus as. It turned out that baby Jesus was a doll that had quite an extensive wardrobe. Mary really knew how to dress our Lord and Savior. The National Museum was a fairly quick run-through. We got there an hour before it was going to close, because we didn't know the times. They didn't have all that much of interest though, so it was alright that we didn't have much time there. They had some neat anthropology stuff, but that was about it. We were going to see some sites in the Jewish-quarter of the city, but we didn't think about it and went on a Saturday. We got there, and to our surprise nothing was open. When we stopped to think about it, the Jewish Sabbath is on Saturday. Duh. I suppose we were a bit religiously-ignorant. Lots of shopping went on, which I didn't take much part in. It was a good trip, not great, but I can say that I've been to an Eastern European country. A few new things have happened here around Harlaxton. First of all, I got my second British Studies Exam back, and it was a B, which is what I got on the first exam. I'll take it, although I felt like I had done better on this one. Friday was our Costume Ball/Date Auction. It was really fun, and I think everyone had a good time. I went as Walker Texas Ranger, I'm pretty proud of such a brilliant idea. I ended up being auctioned off (it was a silent auction, so no yelling and getting embarrassed) for 40 pounds, or about $80, to my roommate Chris, his girlfriend Kirsten, my neighbor Drew, and his girlfriend Katie. They all pooled their money, so now I have to take them out sometime. Luckily the rules are that I only have to pay for one of them, so I thought that I would just spread it out with something little for each of them. On Saturday a group of us went into town to see Casino Royale, the new James Bond movie. It was really good, and I would recommend seeing it. It's somewhat of a reboot of the series, showing Bond's first real mission. It wasn't just a good action movie, but a good all-around movie. Monday night was our Lord and Lady of the Manor competition. It ended up being really fun, even though I was in front of lots of people. First we had to sing a song with 5 mandatory words in it. I did mine to the tune of Afternoon Delight from Anchorman fame. I was nervous because I don't usually sing in front of people, but people laughed, so it was ok. We then had to dress up like a British character, and then be interviewed. I came out in my black suit with a white-shirt on under it, and a bow-tie. They asked me who I was, and in my best Sean Connerery accent I said "The name's Bond. James Bond." The audience erupted in cheers and applause, so that was fun. One of my questions ended up being an impromptu discussion of how would win in a fight between Chuck Norris and James Bond. I had to think fast, and after a drawn-out story I declared Chuck Norris to be the winner. We then had a short intermission, and then a dance number. The guys and girls were split, and the girls went first, then the guys. We had been taught this dance number in about 10 minutes, an hour before the event. Therefore it was a little sketchy. The girls did pretty well. Us guys got out there, did about one move, and then completely forgot the whole thing. So we just free-styled it, it was basically amazing. After that, two guys and two girls were eliminated. I was in the final 3 guys. We then had to do a mystery event, which was different for everyone. I got to play Pictionary, and tried to explain the concept of a nursing home to some members of the audience through the use of drawing. I thought I did a pretty good job, considering I did my best to draw a diagram of a bed-pan being used as one of the pictures. Someone said retirement home, but my time ran out before I could get them to actually say nursing home. That was the last event, and then we found out who had won. Sadly I did not, but my friend Josh won for the guys, so I was ok with that. Overall it was really fun, a lot more fun than I thought it would be. There are pictures of it all, so maybe you all will see them sometime. I've fallen horribly behind on my photo album, and I apologize for that. I've got all of the pictures on my computer, and so I could just upload them, but I want to have time to give them captions if they are needed. So eventually I will have my album up-to-date, but whether that happens before I come home, I don't know. Time is dwindling down here, and I'm just now realizing that I'm not going to see the people from other schools on a regular basis anymore. It's sad. But I will be glad to be home. It's hard to be away from my family and friends at home for so long. It'll be bittersweet. This weekend me and two friends, Shannon and Bethany, are going to Barcelona Spain. I'm pretty excited about it, because Spain is one of the places I really wanted to see while I was here. Well, there's your update, thanks for reading.

London: The Sequel

I've got a bit of catching up to do. There are a few noteworthy things that have happened in these past 2 weeks. We took our 2nd British Studies exam. After taking it I felt pretty good about it, even better than the last one, and I got B on the last one, so hopefully Exam 2 will be better. I've been getting A-'s and B+'s on the in-class quizzes, and I got an estimated B/B- on my rough draft for the first paper that's due , so I think I'm doing pretty well overall. I found out about the second thing that I was voted in for other than the Date Auction, called Lord and Lady of the Manor. Basically the best way I can describe it is a "creativity contest". We have a few categories: a make up a song that has to incorporate a certain few words related to out stay here, we have to partake in a group dance, there will be an interview, and we will get judged on wearing formal-wear, I think. Oh, and we have to dress up like a British historical character for the interview, but we don't have to answer as the character. It should be interesting. Last Friday we went to London as a British Studies field trip. In the morning we saw Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. Then In the afternoon we saw St Paul's Cathedral. St Paul's is the biggest Protestant cathedral in the world, built to rival St. Peter's in Rome which was built just a few decades before it (St. Peter's was built a few decades before St. Paul's, not Rome; Rome was built long before either of them, to clear up any confusion). It was pretty amazing to see. There were murals and frescoes decorating all areas of the church. We climbed up to the top of the dome using roughly 78 thousand flights of stairs (maybe a little bit of an exaggeration), and we got an amazing view of the city. After we were done at St. Paul's late in the afternoon we were free to go. Some people went back with the school but my friends and I stayed in London for the night and most of the next day. There were 6 of us, me, Ange, Dani, Brandon, Bethany, and Lisa. Lisa and Ange went to see Mary Poppins at a theater, and the rest of us went around town. We thought about seeing a movie, but prices were very expensive and most of the shows were sold out anyway. So we went back to our hostel and went to bed. Ange and Lisa came back sometime in the night. The next morning we split up. Bethany was just staying with us for the night, and then she went off and did her own thing; Dani went to visit her mom's college roommate who lives in London now; Ange went to see Buckingham palace and then go back to school; Brandon and Lisa went to Westminster and then the Imperial War museum; and last but not least our hero went on a trek by himself. First I went to the Victoria and Albert museum. It was recommended to me by some Londoners whom I met while I was in Salisbury. I didn't really understand the layout, because it was under construction and everything was everywhere, so I didn't stay long, just about 10 minutes. I then went to see Westminster Abbey, though only the outside because you have to pay to see the inside. I also saw Big Ben and Parliament. I then grabbed some lunch and went to see the British Museum for the second time. At the museum I looked at some of the rooms that we hadn't looked at when we were there before. These included rooms about: the Enlightenment in England and it's Classical-era influence, this is where much of the interest in translating Classical works came from; Roman Britain; Central and South American history (Aztecs, Maya, etc.). I also looked around at some of the stuff we had already seen. I found out that downstairs there were rooms dedicated to Greek and Roman inscriptions, which I don't remember for sure but I don't think we saw that the first time. Unfortunately it was closed. I was so heart-broken that I almost cried. Or maybe not. I then met up with Brandon, Dani and Lisa in a comic book store across from the museum that Brandon and I had found on the first trip. We looked around for a bit and then went to the train station. We got back to the manner early in the evening, and I think we watched movies for the rest of the night. It was fun to go back to London, to see new things, but also to revisit former sites of interest (ie. British Museum where I could probably spend the rest of my life and still not study everything as much as I would like). Tomorrow we are going to Prague in the Czech Republic. The first (and only) eastern-European excursion. A full report on that trip later.

So It Does Exist

My weekend to Germany went quite well. It was a lot of traveling, and a little bit of sight-seeing, but overall it was good. As it turns out, the city of Rothenburg (notice the corrected spelling) is a real place, and not just some myth that leads one on endless searches on the internet. Our journey started on Thursday a little after 4pm, taking a shuttle into the train station to catch a train a little after 5. We then took the train and made it to the airport and had to wait for a few hours before boarding our plane. All in all, using planes, buses and trains we were traveling until about 9am the next morning. We were all dead tired. The bed and breakfast that we were staying out was run by an old couple that if they weren't grandparents should have been. The husband picked us up at the train station and then we went to the bed and breakfast. The lady was very apologetic because she didn't expect us as early as we had gotten there, and so one of the rooms wasn't ready. So while that was taking place we had some breakfast. Every morning that we were there breakfast was amazing. They had everything you could ever want, from meats to breads to eggs to sweets. Needless to say breakfast was always a drawn out and filling event. After we got done with breakfast we took about a 3-hour nap and then decided to explore the town. We walked around for a while after meeting up with the 5th member of our party, Rachel, who was staying at a different place than us. First we went to a medieval torture museum, which was interesting, to say the least. Very morbid, but interesting. We then basically walked around for the rest of the day, checking out shops. We tried a traditional German sweet, called a snowball (I don't remember how to say it in German), which was basically fried bread with sugar on it. It tasted like Pop-Tart crust with sugar on it. It was alright, but nothing spectacular. The medieval wall is still up around the inner-city (which isn't very big, maybe 2-miles in diameter), so we walked around that a little bit. The city was very pretty, just a quaint little out-of-the-way town. We then went back to our respective housing and went to bed fairly early. The next day we all met up at the Rothenburg city museum. That was pretty interesting, with the museum being in what used to be a convent. It covered all eras of the city, although it was severely lacking in the Roman-era, which was a little disappointing. We then basically window-shopped the rest of the day, with a stop into the Christmas museum. Apparently the Germans think they invented Christmas. Ok, so not really. They were the first to use Christmas trees though. Another interesting anecdote was that Santa Clause used to have a helper, who's name escapes me right now. Anyway, this helper looked like the devil and was basically around to eat the kids that were bad. Fun stuff, I'm glad I never had to worry about Santa's demon-minions devouring me. There's not much else to say about Rothenburg. That Sunday was just spent traveling back to Harlaxton, from about 8:30am to 11pm. Long day. But it was a fun city, and we mostly just walked around and shopped. It was relaxing though, which was needed. I will be writing up another entry shortly about our trip from last weekend to London. Then I'll be all caught up. Of course I also have pictures that need captions, as well as pictures that need uploaded, but that's another story.

Weekend of Nothingness

Not much new to report. This weekend most of my friends went somewhere, but I stayed here at the manor. It was actually pretty nice. I really didn't do a whole lot of anything. There was homework that I had, and I got that done within due time, but the rest of the time was just relaxation time. It's nice to be away from the go-go-go attitude of travel. It's nice to just sit back and do whatever I want, whether it be to read a book, watch a movie, hang out with people, or to just sit and think. It's a very nice sort of freedom. Friday night I watched some movies. Saturday I did homework, went into Grantham to take pictures of the church they have there (apparently the 6th tallest in England), then attempted to play a game called Dragon Quest in the evening with Dione, Robert, and Catrese. It was pretty well hilarious. It was a Dungeons and Dragons-type game, which none of us had much experience with. At first we were actually going to try and play it, but then we found out that it was missing some cards and a necessary 20-sided die, so we really couldn't play. After that we basically just tried to make up rules to play the game, but we never really got into playing it. Just the set-up experience was good enough, we didn't need to actually play the game. On Sunday I tried out (sounds like a new product or something) the Baptist church in Grantham, which I had never been to. I didn't go to Harlaxton church because no one else was going, and I didn't want to go by myself. The Baptist church was alright, there was lots of singing songs that I didn't know, and lots of overly-happy people. I just didn't get much out of it personally, although I'm sure for many people it is right for them. I like Harlaxton's services better, maybe because they are more simple, and there's less overkill, I guess. I like it when things are to the point, and that's Harlaxton. I don't know if I'll get the chance to go to church again. We're travelling almost the rest of the semester, but I hope that I get at least one chance to go back to the Harlaxton church. So a funny thing happened last week. I got nominated to be in a date auction here on campus. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but I'll go through with it because it's for a good cause, helping British children in need. I'm not actually sure if I'm in the auction yet, as we have a meeting tomorrow, and I've heard that we find out there who's actually in the auction. There wasn't much explanation to it, so we'll see what happens. I almost wonder if me being voted in was a joke, that lots of people could've put me down as "the unlikely candidate" just to be funny. Regardless of if that's the case or not, like I said, it's for a good cause, so if I'm actually in it I'll go through with it. I'm sure it will be awkward, but I'll make it through. I also got nominated again for some Lord and Lady of the Manor competition, which I'm not even sure what it's about. Again, I'm suspicious of the nature of my being voted in, people probably just want to see the awkward guy do something, who knows. Nothing else to report, really. This weekend is Rotenberg, Germany, and I'm looking forward to it as I haven't been to Germany yet. I hear that it's nice there, so we'll test that out.

It's All Greek To Me, Really

Just thought that I would give this update. I got my first Greek Exam back today and I got an A on it! I was really excited about that. It must mean that I'm learning everything that I'm supposed to learn, and by myself, no less. Granted, I can e-mail Dr. Ware questions when I have them, and I've done so a few times, but otherwise I've been teaching myself based on the book and my previous 2 semesters. I hope I can keep this up. I'll find out how I'm doing with Latin soon, as I sent in my first mid-term today. This week has been and will be fairly lax. I have another Greek exam to do sometime this week, as well as two chapters of Latin homework, but other than that there's not much else. It'll be nice to just relax this weekend and not have to worry about the hustle and bustle of travel. Maybe I can get back to reading Plato's Republic, which I've gotten about 70 pages into but haven't read for about a month or so. That or I can start my other paper for British Studies about Roman London and how it shaped the city as multicultural. Regardless, I have some options, and I like that.

The Lake District: A District of Lakes and Cold Wetness

The Lake District went really well, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. We got there at around midnight Thursday night, so we basically just unpacked and went to bed. The next morning we ate breakfast and then decided to go explore the nearby town of Ambleside. It was about a 10 minute walk to get there. During the morning we looked around at some tourist-shops, as well as some outdoor shops, looking for any items for the next days water activities that we hadn't already gotten. We also found a deal that we took advantage of for the evening where we could get a 2-course dinner and a movie for about 16 pounds or $30 more or less. That might sound a little expensive but for the prices here it was really good. We then walked back to our hostel and had a packed lunch on the dock, as our hostel was literally right in front of a lake. On the dock there was a swan that kept floating around and trying to get our food, so we verbally abused it. We then split up as a group, with Lisa and Dani staying back at the hostel to watch Grey's Anatomy, and the rest of us (me, Brandon, Drew, and his girlfriend Katie, who is also a Katie Lynn like my sister) went back into town to look at some books shops and to just walk around town. It was a very nice and quaint town, mostly made up of shops for the people who came there for the outdoor-sports. We also looked around the cemetery of a church towards the edge of town. It was really eerie because we happened to be there when it was on the hour, and so out of nowhere the bells started tolling, and we weren't expecting it. We then met Dani and Lisa for the dinner portion of the evening. It turns out that it was a vegetarian place, but we made do. The food was actually really good, although it lacked a certain meatiness. We then saw Children of Men, with Clive Owen, which was a really good movie. It was about the near future where the world has gone sterile and no children have been born in 18 years. The human race is killing itself and then Clive Owen's character happens upon a group that is harboring a girl that is pregnant. The movie then goes through Clive Owen's efforts to get her to a Human Project where scientists will discover what is different with her. I really liked it, but the war scenes were pretty intense. We then went back to the hostel and went to bed fairly early in anticipation of a day of water-sports. The next morning was kayaking, and then ghyll-scrambling in the afternoon. The kayaking was really fun. I've only ever been canoeing before, and so it was different to be one person doing the job of two. It was really fun when I got the hang of it. It wasn't that cold in the morning, so that was good. We were on the water for probably about 3 hours or so. We then had enough time to eat lunch and get ready to take a bus to go to the place where we would go ghyll-scrambling. Ghyll-scrambling ended up being pretty fun, though cold and wet. Basically we put on harnesses and helmets and then started jumping from rock to rock across a small-ish river. The when we would get to a waterfall we would climb up it to continue down the river. We only hit three or four, and most of them were only about 10 feet tall. The last one was probably 15 or 20 feet high, and that was really exhilarating, climbing that high with cold water splashing down on you the whole time. There were a few times where we were almost completely submerged, so it was freezing cold by the end. The shock of that water was amazing at times. I came away with some cuts on my knuckles from the last climb, but other than that I was relatively unscathed. We then had a few minutes to change and then get back on the bus to go back to the hostel. After everyone showered (mostly to get warm, and secondarily to get clean) we went into to town to get dinner. We were all so tired that we just basically ate in town and then went back to the hostel and slept. The next morning we got up and had breakfast and then got ready to go back to Harlaxton. When I woke up I discovered that my triceps were killing, as were my legs. They still ache even today. We then had a short bus ride with a few stops for scenic pictures, and we then stopped at a small town to have lunch. After that it was about a 5 hour ride back to Harlaxton. Riding that whole way with aching muscles wasn't the most fun, but we made it. When we got back I ate supper, unpacked, and then straightaway jumped into the rough draft that I had put off and had due for today. I ended up picking up the research that I had been doing before I left at about 7 and then finishing around 10. From then on I was writing my paper until about 3:30 in the AM. The paper ended up being 7 pages, which was right at where I needed to be. Needless to say, I'm glad to be done with that, and I'm very tired today. I still have laundry to do, and I have a meeting for one of my classes after dinner. But later this evening, I can go to sleep and be asleep for a good while. England is tiring.

Water-Weekend

This weekend I'll be going to the Lake-District in northwest England. It's a national park or sorts, with lots of lakes (hence the name) and wilderness. I'm leaving in a matter of just under an hour. It will be a fun 5 hour bus ride, so I'll have plenty of time to get some homework done. At the Lake District I'm going to do some kayaking and ghyll scrambling, which is basically jumping from rocks in a river and then climbing a waterfall. It should be fun but wet. To catch up a bit on the week, this Monday we had the opening of the Bistro here on campus. It's a coffee shop by day and a pub by night. At the opening party we had a best-dressed contest. During the Edinburgh weekend I had bought a kilt at Scotland, and so I wore it to the party. This got me nominated for best-dressed, and I ended up tying for first place. It was fun, and I got to wear a kilt. Then yesterday I got my first British Studies exam, and I got a B on it. I was ok with this, because the highest grade was an A-. There were 3 sections on the exam, and I got a B+ on the first and last sections, and a B- on the middle section, which had already expected. Well, I need to get ready to go, so I'll end this. There will be a full report when I get back.

Edinburgh, Home of Many Kilt-Stores, a Castle, and Some Huge Hills

My weekend in Edinburgh was great. It ended up only being me and Lisa and Shuan that went. Josh didn't come, because, as we found out later, he had to spend all of the money that he had getting things figured out with in London. The weekend before Josh had gone to Ireland with his parents who were on vacation. Somewhere along the line he lost his wallet which had all of his personal stuff like passport and driver's license and credit cards in it. So he had to go to the US embassy in London to get things straightened out with his passport. So, long story short, he didn't end up joining us. We left to go to the train station at about 7am, which wasn't great because I had been up until about 2am talking on the internet. So I was fairly tired. Our train ride took a while, as we got to Edinburgh at about 11:30. By this time we were all starving, as we hadn't gotten any breakfast, so we decided to go to our hostel, drop off our stuff, and then find somewhere to eat. Otherwise I know that I for one would've resorted to cannibalism. At this point we got our first look at our hostel, which wasn't great, but wasn't too terrible, I suppose. The room we were in had the beds for 38 people, but it was by no means full, so we were ok. Lisa brought a lock for a locker and so we kept all of our valuables in it. After settling down in the hostel we went out looking for lunch. We eventually chose a TGIFriday's (ironic, I know). They had a decent lunch menu, so it was good. After that we looked around a little bit at the touristy-shops, all of which sold Scottish-clan merchandise out the whazoo. They were fun to look around in. We then went to find Arthur's seat. This is a large hill just outside of the city that is climbable and almost 800-feet off of the ground. It was already to trek to get there, and on the way we stopped at a cemetery with an obelisk in it, as well as the ruins of a classical-style Roman-imitation building. We then walked down into a little section of the town, across it, and then we were at foot of Arthur's Seat. It was a daunting climb, but enjoyable. I was really glad that I had opted to bring the hiking boots that I bought in Grantham a while back. They came in very handy. It took us probably a half an hour to climb all the way to the top, as there were actually two hills to climb up, one after the other. The views on the climb as well as at the top were amazing. I got as many pictures as I could. It was like we were standing on top of the world, and indeed Shaun and I hypothesized that if we lifted our arms that our hands would be outside of the atmosphere. Once we got to the top it was fairly cold and very very windy. I'm pretty sure that if I would've jumped off and spread my jacket like wings I could've flown. But I didn't try that, because then people would expect me to fly everywhere, maybe even wear a costume, and I'm just not ready for that. After we were at the top for a while, both resting and taking pictures, we made the trek back down and then at the bottom we stopped at a small cafe to get some liquid. I was so thirsty that I bought both a half-liter of water and a bottle of Sprite. After we were hydrated again, we decided to walk back into town and shop a little, then go to our hostel and just relax for a little while before we went to dinner. For dinner we decided to go to a cafe right next to our hostel. It ended up being moderately priced and had good food. After that we looked around some more, went into a few shops, and then saw what the night-life was like. It wasn't half as bad as Dublin, I wasn't afraid that I was gonna get jumped most of the time. We then called it a night, and went to bed at an early 9:30-10ish. The next morning we got up in time to have a quick breakfast of lukewarm milk and cereal, and then got going to go to Edinburgh Castle. The castle was a neat experience, because it was right in the middle of the city and on top of a hill, so you could see the surrounding city very easily. Good defensive spot. There were some interesting places in the castle, such as a prison and a graveyard for soldier's dogs (no joke), but it was a little pricey, about $20 or so when converted. So it was interesting, but not $20 interesting. After the castle we walked around to find a place to eat lunch. We ended up going on a side street and finding a restaurant on top of a pub. It was "Edinburgh's Best-Kept Secret" according to the sign. Apparently the sign-maker didn't think that they wanted to keep it a secret. It was good food, so I was pleased, and if they keep it up, they won't be a secret anymore. We then found a bus to take us to Rosslyn Chapel. The chapel was about 6 miles away from Edinburgh, so we definitely weren't going to walk. The chapel was built in the 1400's and it is probably one of the most decorated chapels ever. Almost all of the stone is covered in some sort of carving. It was really beautiful. They had an awning over the whole chapel because some of the restorations done to it in the 1950's caused the stones to retain water, so they have to be aired-out over a period of time, and then they can remove the awning. The plus side to that was that there was a scaffolding that allowed you to walk around the top of the chapel. It was really amazing to think that all of it was made in the 1400's, it seems unreal. After seeing the chapel we took the bus back to Edinburgh and finished our shopping, as we were going to ship out early the next day and wouldn't really have time to do anything. The school had also taken a trip to Edinburgh, so for diner we met up with a friend of ours, Robert, who is also my friend Brandon's roommate. Robert had told us of a good restaurant to go to, and said that he would go again to take us there. Well, that fell through, because the place closed it's kitchen after 7, and it was 8. So then we looked around for another place to eat. We then found a pub that was still serving food, as most of them were the same way as our first attempt, and all of their kitchens had closed at 7. After we were done eating, we got to the heart of the evening's activities: the City of the Dead tour. It was a ghost-tour that we had heard about. Apparently there are accounts of over 200 people being attacked by a poltergeist on the tour, as well as over 800 people who went on the tour and then found unexplained marks on them either during the tour or the next day. I'm a skeptic, so I don't buy it from the beginning. Well, we went on the tour, and as I suspected it was basically a sham. The tour guidess (I don't think that's a word, but I just used it) told us stories that probably weren't true (one story was proven false by another tour guide whom we asked after the tour was over), and then tried to back everything up with sketchy science. Apparently poltergeists feed off fear and are attracted to weak people who are separated from the group. That didn't happen on the tour, even though the tour guidess said that she felt a drop in temperature, which was supposed to signal the presence of the poltergeist. It was actually more fun making fun of the tour after it was over than the actual tour was. I decided that I was gonna start a skeptic's ghost tour, where I just tell people how it is. I don't think I would make much money, but it would be fun regardless. We then went and got ice-cream at McDonald's (again, more American-conveniences in foreign countries irony), which is when Shaun and I decided that at the end of my tour I should serve people Poltergeist-Cream, a clever play on words, so that at least they would get something out of the tour. We then walked with Robert back to the hotel and said good-bye. It was then our turn to walk back to our hostel, and go to bed. It was weird because usually I have had trouble sleeping in the hostels that I've been at, I think because I feel odd about not knowing where I am, but here at the crazy-number-in-one-room-hostel I slept fine. We then got up the next day to catch our train at 10, which actually turned out to be a bus, because there was work being done on the railways. Being on a bus it took longer for us to get home, although the bus didn't go all the way to Grantham, we were only on the bus for about 3 hours and then a train took us the rest of the way home. Overall it was a very fun weekend. If I have the chance I would love to go back and see the Highlands, like the lochs (that's right Nessie, I'm still out to get you) and some other random stuff like the William Wallace monument. Scotland is an amazing place, one of my favorites so far.

Aye, I'm gun ta Scotland (Translation: Yes, I'm going to Scotland)

So the accent doesn't really go over well on the internet, but that's what the title was about. So tomorrow I'm leaving on a train at an extreme early hour (ok, so 7:30-ish isn't that early, but then again, it is) to go to Edinburgh. I'm going with 3 other people: Lisa, Josh, and Shaun. We all have a hostel booked in Edinburgh, and another girl from Harlaxton, Rachel, might be meeting us there. The bad news: we booked a 38-person room in the hostel. I didn't think it was such a good idea at the time, but everyone else seemed to think it was great. We didn't even really save money, as the next lowest number, a 12-person room, was the same exact price. So this will be interesting. In Edinburgh we're planning on seeing Arthur's seat, which is a natural rock formation that from the top of you can have an incredible view of the whole city and country-side. We were also planning on doing an underground chamber tour, kind of like a haunted tour I guess, although I'm not sure how many ghosts we'll encounter. Not on my watch anyway. We are also going to go to Rosalind Chapel, which is a very decorative medieval chapel near Edinburgh, I think. Another thing that I hope to see is the remaining part of Hadrian's Wall, which is a wall built by the Roman emperor Hadrian (big surprise) that formed the border between Roman Briton and modern Scotland, which was populated by the Celtic tribes. So probably no Loch Ness excursion, but hopefully I can get that in before the semester is over. I really want to get a photo that I can sell to the tabloids, because I'm actually gonna remember to bring my camera to the rest of the trips. Here at school I have some work piling up, so I'm gonna have to work a little more on time management, but it's not terrible. I just have to get motivated. Well, here's to Scotland.

Moral of the Story: A Big City is a Big City

Well, my trip to Ireland went well, with few complications. Ok, so that sounds like something a doctor would say after a birth, but anyway. We got to the airport by the train and then waited there until about 8 when our plane left. I didn't sleep any because I have a hard time falling asleep when there is noise and light, and there was an abundance of both there. On top of that I had started to get a cold. I got some Sudafed at the airport and started taking that, so I got a little better, and I took it throughout the trip. At this time I also realized that I had forgotten my camera, so I would have to rely on the pictures of friends. It was a short flight, just a little over an hour, and then we were in Dublin. Since we were an international flight we had to go through the whole customs and passport check, so that took a few extra minutes. We then got a cab to the hotel but we weren't able to check in for a few more hours. So we left our bags there and so the town of Dublin. We ended up staying in the city for a few hours, just basically looking around, and we didn't find much. As a city, it was basically any big city. I'm not saying that to insult anyone's city, I'm just saying that you can see similarities in human behavior and planning. The similarities of cities that are thousands of miles apart just goes to show you that at the core, humans are all the same. Once we got done with our city-exploration, we went back to the hotel because it was past the time that before which we couldn't check in. We then all got showers and took about a 2 hour nap. After that we were going to go back in town to eat, but we waited for the bus for a while and it didn't come. We didn't want to wait anymore, so we just went back to the hotel and had dinner at the hotel's restaurant. It was fairly expensive, so we didn't do that again. It would have been the equivalent of about $20 for a bowl of pasta and vegetables. Then we went to bed, and I had no trouble falling asleep then. We got up to go a little after 7, because we were hoping to catch a 9 or 9:30 train to Cork. Ange, one of the girls that I was with, wanted to go to another town called Waterford to check out the crystal factory that they have there. Dani and Brandon didn't want to go, so we split up and me and Ange and Lisa went to Waterford and Dani and Brandon went to Cork on a round trip ticket. We said that we would meet up at the rail-station in Cork to go to Blarney Castle together. However we didn't know the times for the castle, nor did we set a meeting time, so we were basically in the dark. None of us thought of it, though, at the time. Waterford was great, I'm really glad we went. We looked around and got some touristy things at the shops. We had dinner at a small sandwich shop, which had great food and reasonable prices. We didn't take a tour of the crystal factory, we just went to the gift shop. The crystal was amazing; they had everything from bowls to wine-glasses, and it was all moderately priced, and somehow tax-free, which even held up at the check-out. It was all very pretty. We were then going to get a train to go to Cork, but the train station told us that there was no good way to Cork from Waterford, so we would be doing a lot of switching, and thus a bus from Waterford to Cork would be a better idea. We took the bus, the only problem being that Dani and Brandon were expecting us at the train station, but we figured it wouldn't be a big deal to just go and find them. The bus ride took about 2 1/2 hours, but it was more than worth it. The views alone were amazing, with huge rolling hills in the distance and green everywhere that you looked. We even got to see the ocean for a brief time. It was very pretty. We then got to Cork and asked a man working at the bus station when the castle closed. We thought he said 7, and it was about 6:40, so we had to make a decision. Through train times and the power of deduction we figured out that Dani and Brandon would've been there about 3 hours before we got there, and so most likely they would've already gone to the castle, because being on a round trip ticket they would have to go back or they would waste their money. So we left and went on a bus to Blarney, hoping to get into the castle. It turned out that the castle closed at 6:30 and the last tour had been at 6. So we missed it completely. We then had to figure out what to do from there. We figured that it would be silly to go back to Dublin, as we were already there, so that we could just see the castle in the morning and then leave. So we went to the rail station to find Dani and Brandon and talk things over with them. We looked around at the station and couldn't find them, and then realized that the last train for Dublin had left about a half hour before we had got there. So we made the executive decision to find a bed and breakfast and just sleep there for the night and see the castle in the morning. Then we would go back to Dublin to meet back up with Dani and Brandon. We found a fairly cheap place on the second try. We went into one and the price was more than we wanted to pay, but the second one was a better offer. So we got the key and then went in town to get some food. We were starving and so after looking around for a short while we settled on a pizza place. After we ate we found and internet/phone cafe where you would pay for said usage by the half hour. We looked up the number for our hotel and left a message for Dani and Brandon that we were ok and would see them tomorrow. We then went back to the bed and breakfast and went to bed. The castle opened at 9, and we got breakfast from the bed and breakfast (hence the name, go figure), so we got up in time to eat a little and then go to the castle. It was great, my favorite castle out of the 3 that I've seen. I think what I liked about it was that it was basically ruined; there was no roof, and the rooms where the floors would've been wood were gone. The others castles had lots of reconstructed stuff, and while I'm sure they looked as they would have in their time, it was just nice to see a castle that hadn't had anything done to it. You could see how time had affected it. The area around the castle was also very beautiful. We didn't have much time because we had to check out by 11. So we went through the castle somewhat quickly, but still getting to see what we wanted. At the top was the famous Blarney Stone. For those of you who don't know what it is (I didn't, I just knew that it was some rock that you were supposed to kiss), legend goes that the king of the castle had a stutter. One day he saved a witch from drowning, and she said if he would kiss a certain stone at the top of the castle that he would lose his stutter and speak normally. It is said to have worked, and so you are supposed to kiss the stone to speak better. I don't think it worked. We then went in town to try and get a taxi back, which took longer than we expected. So once we got the taxi it was basically 11, so we were afraid that we would be charged extra for the room. Also we had found out that the train for Dublin left at 11:30. So we were crunched for time. Our driver was really nice and was driving faster than he probably should have been to get us there. When we got to the bed and breakfast Lisa and I ran up to the room to get our stuff while Ange went to the train station to buy our tickets. The guy at the desk didn't act like anything was wrong, so as far as I know our slightly late check-out wasn't a problem. We then jogged across the street to the station and made it on our train with just a few minutes to spare. When we got back to the hotel Dani and Brandon weren't there, but they had left notes telling us that they would be back at about 5:30 to meet us for dinner. So we got cleaned up and tested until they got back. We then got both stories, and luckily everything had worked out. They had gotten to see the castle the day before, like we thought. We then went out for dinner with plans to take a Ghost-bus tour of Dublin, where you get on a double-decker bus and drive around and are told about the supernatural history of Dublin. Well it just so happened that as we were looking for somewhere to eat we came across said bus, and they were getting ready to leave for the tour. So we got on and paid ad decided to eat dinner afterwards. It was an interesting tour, but it was more just a guy telling stories. We got off the bus in a few places to check things out, but that wasn't really all that exciting. I'm not really a believer when it comes to ghosts. I certainly believe in a supernatural world, but not one populated by translucent people. It's much scarier than that, and that's why ghosts would be the last thing I'm worried about when it comes to the supernatural. But anyway, it was a little expensive, but they stories were very interesting. We then got food at a food-court type place and then went back to the hotel. We had to get up very early to get to the airport on time, 4:30 in the morning. Our flight left at 6:30, so that was a very early morning. We got back just fine, and when we got to Grantham we had lunch/dinner at a pub called the Whetherspoon, which we lovingly call the "W", which is very reasonably priced and has great food. We then made it back to the manor and basically did nothing productive for the rest of the day. All in all, Ireland was beautiful, and the weekend was great.

Prelude to an Irish Adventure

So I just got done taking my first British Studies exam. It really wasn't all that bad. The best part was that it was more a matter of giving your opinion and backing it up with factual examples than just 'when did this happen?' or 'who did this?'. I like those kinds of exams better because I get the chance to use creativity and tie things together that allow me more freedom to answer a question. I think I did pretty well on it, but I'll see in a few weeks if that is true or not. I'm all packed and we are going to leave to go in town to have dinner a little after 5 and then wait on a train for a while. We are then going to spend the night in the Stansted airport. We then have a flight early in the morning to Dublin, where we will be staying until Sunday morning. It should be pretty fun, this will be my first venture outside of England. Maybe I will find a leprechaun and he will take me to his pot of gold, or maybe just to a bowl of Lucky Charms. Either way would be ok, because I miss sugary cereals so much! Well, here's to going to the Emerald Isles.

An Epic Quest Worthy of a Peter Jackson Movie Treatment

So I went on my weekend pilgrimage, saw everything that I wanted to see, and returned unharmed, victorious over the UK landscape. I was very satisfied, and I suppose I would even go so far as to say that I am proud of myself for accomplishing such a feat. It all started on Friday morning. I was going to leave from the train station at around 10, but there wasn't a shuttle to get in town from the manor until 10, although I thought there was one at 9, but I was mistaken. So My trip was delayed for an hour, which was actually good, because it gave me time to do a little more research about where the individual places were that I wanted to go to. So then I made it to the train station and the whole time I was thinking, 'this is it, I'm out on my own.' So I made my way to Kidderminster first, and I had to make 2 train changes in the process. It was raining basically from the time that I got on the train (but not before, luckily), and this phenomenon will come back later. I got to Kidderminster and had to wait around for a taxi to take me to the country. I finally got one and then went out to the church where John Bonham is buried. That in itself was fairly exciting, because I just got this feeling of 'I'm going to see something special.' I looked around for just a few minutes, and then I came to it, the grave itself. I just stood there for a few seconds, in awe that I was actually there; standing where the drummer from my favorite band ever was buried. I then thought, the other band members have probably been to this exact spot on more than one occasion, I'm standing where they have been. It was just this incredible feeling of something that had been abstract becoming tangible. I took lots of pictures, and then I thought, 'hey, my camera probably has a timer on it, I could get a shot of me with the grave.' So I did, and now I can prove that I was there. The whole time I was basically in disbelief, thinking, this isn't actually the grave of the legendary rock drummer, it can't be. It was so surreal. I then called the number that the taxi-cab driver gave me, to get another taxi to come and take me back to the rail station. But there would be no such journey. I called but they said that it would take a while for anyone to get out that far, so it was better for me to just find a local cab. Well, it turned out that local meant walking about 4 or 5 miles. And even then, after walking through numerous fields and asking a few people directions, I still wasn't in town. It had been raining (per earlier in the story) and so my shoes and my pants had become quite muddy, and my shoes were soaked. I finally stopped at a small shop selling vegetables and other such country commodities and asked if they knew the number for a local cab service. The lady there id, and so she brought out here home phone and I called the cab. She told me to tell them to meet me down the road at a local pub. So I walked about another half-mile to this pub, and got picked up. I asked the driver where a good place to eat would be, and he gave me a few options, but recommended on place in particular, so I went there. I don't remember the name of the pub, but it had amazing food. I got some chicken smothered in cheese and bacon (English bacon is more like slightly-crisp ham, but it's still bacon) and mushrooms. I also had mashed potato (singular in Britain) and some vegetables, which I ate all of, thank you very much. I was so thirsty I just got water to drink. So then after I was done I walked to the rail station and got a ticket to go to Oxford. This was supposed to involve 2 train changes, but ended up being a bigger hassle. The train that I was supposed to take to begin with ended up being about a half-hour or so late, and so by the time I got to the station where the train was supposed to take me to Oxford, the train was on the platform but it was pulling out, and I didn't have time to realize that that was the train that I needed. So I was stuck, and I asked the workers what I should do. They initially told me that the next train wouldn't come for over 2 hours. A little later I saw another guy who had missed the Oxford train talking to a manager, and he got put on another train. So I asked the manager about it, and he said that if we went to this other station that we could get an earlier train out. So everything ended up alright, and when I arrived in Oxford it was just a short walk to my hostel. I then called home to let my parents know that I had gotten there safely, and then I went to bed. I've never really been able to sleep at hostels so far, I think it's just because it's somewhere unfamiliar, and I don't like not knowing where I am. So I'm sure I slept some, I'm just not sure how much. The next morning I got up and had a continental breakfast (which consisted of cereal and a croissant) and then got going. The first thing that I decided to do was go somewhere to get some new pants, because I had only brought that one pair for the weekend, and now they were all muddy, and I didn't want to look dirty, so I got a new pair of pants at a shopping center. I looked around a little bit, and then I went to a bathroom and changed into these new pants. By this time it was almost time for lunch, so I thought that I would look for my first stop which would be the Eagle and Child, the pub where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and their friends would go to eat and talk. It wasn't hard to find with the maps that I had printed out, and so I went inside to see what it was like. From the outside you would never know that it was somewhere even semi-famous. It was just on the inside, in the room where the Inklings, as the guys were known, met that there were pictures and plaques and stuff. I took pictures of everything, and then ordered some food. It was one of the best burgers I've ever had, and the fries were great too. It wasn't at all like fast food. I then got one of the bar-tenders to take a picture of me sitting there, and then I left. My next stop would be Wolvercote Cememtary in North Oxford, where Tolkien was buried. I looked at the map to see what I was supposed to be looking for, got on the right road, and just started walking. I neglected to look at the part of the map where it said that the route would be a little over 3 miles. So that was a fun walk, my back and shoulders were aching from carrying my backpack, but I got there. There was a sign on the outside that said to just follow the markers to find the Tolkien grave. Sure enough every 15 feet or so there was a marker pointing the way to the grave. I got to the grave, and it was highly decorated with flowers. The grave was of Tolkien and his wife, and under their names were printed the names Beren for Tolkien and Luthien for his wife. These were the names of a man and an elf who feel in love from Tolkien's book the Silmarillion, which was like the Old Testament to Lord of the Rings as the New Testament. It was really awesome to see. Here was the guy who had written the books that had really started me reading adventure books, as the Hobbit was one of the first adventure stories that I ever read. After taking all of the pictures that I wanted I left and caught a bus to the town center. I then looked for a cab for about a half-hour, because I couldn't figure out where they were parking, and unlike in America you don't just flag one down, you have to wait until they are parked. So then I got a taxi, and had the driver take me to the Holy Trinity Church, where C.S. Lewis was buried. This church was fairly small, and so the grave was really easy to find. There was one sign pointing to where it was located. The grave was different than the others, in that it was just a flat-slab on the ground, with the names of Lewis and his brother on it, and an incised cross towards the top. Again, it was a surreal feeling to think that I was standing so close to the body of someone whose work I had read, like his Space Trilogy, and Mere Christianity. This was the man that wrote those things, and I'm looking at his grave. I took a few pictures, and then went to a small pub that was very close to the church. I asked if anyone there knew the number for a taxi, and then owner was very nice and called the taxi on his cell phone and told it where to pick me up and that I wanted to go to the train station. So then I got to the train station, and I was going to have 2 train changes in order to get to Salisbury, my next stop. No train delays this time, and so I got to Salisbury ahead of schedule. I wasn't supposed to check into my hostel for about an hour and a half more, but I went ahead and got a taxi to take me out to the hostel anyway. It was a few miles into the country side, so the taxi cost over 20 pounds, which would be about $40, so that was a bit steep. I got to the hostel, and the check-in guy wasn't around, so I called the mobile number that was left on the door, and I had to wait just a few minutes longer and he showed up. He was a younger guy, probably not much older than me, and he was really nice and helpful. He got me all set-up and even got a taxi for me in the morning to take me to Stonehenge (which was one of the major reasons I went to Salisbury, that and the cathedral). So it was really nice to have everything ready to go, so that I could just sit back and relax. That night I didn't have anything to do, being so far out in the country, so I just laid in my bed and read some of Plato's Republic, which I have been reading off and on for a few weeks now. I was also waiting on a phone call from home, because I was going to talk to my grandparents who were up for a funeral, sadly. As I was reading, the two other guys that were sharing the room came in. They were really interesting, and in a good way. They were friends from London, Simon who was 38 and Steve who was 41. They were out for a weekend away from the city. They were both into music, with Simon being a producer and Steve being a DJ. They were really interesting to talk to, we talked about a full range of subjects, including politics, philosophy, music, history, and our own respective countries. I then got the phone call and talked to my grandma and then my mom for a little while. I then went back to my room and talked to Steve and Simon some more, and then we went to bed. I slept really well that night, because apparently there was a really bad storm, on of the worst that they've had this year, and I didn't hear a thing. In the morning I got up and got ready and then went downstairs to eat my cereal again. I then waited for my taxi to come. When it arrived, the driver took me Stonehenge, per the previous night's agreement. I saw Stonehenge on the horizon, and it was really an amazing experience. I was dropped off, and it was just awe-inspiring. I mean, the stones themselves weren't all that amazing, it was just the whole experience altogether. It's just like when I was at Bonham's grave, I got to thinking about where I was, and who had been there before be, and I thought 'people thousands of years ago put these up, and they are still here, that's amazing in itself, even if the stones themselves aren't all that amazing.' I also got some really good pictures, because the sky was amazingly beautiful that day. I was lucky because I got there right when it opened (an open air structure has opening times, go figure) and so I was able to get through and see the stones without a big crowd. The way it works is that you pay your admission on one side of the road, and then you go through a tunnel under the road and you see the stones that way. After I was done I had to wait about an hour for a bus to go into town. When I got into town, I was going to leave straightaway to go back to Grantham, but then I remembered that lots of people had said that the Salisbury cathedral was beautiful, so I thought that I should check it out. I just had to walk a short distance, less than a mile, and there was the cathedral. It wasn't hard to find, as the spire towered over the rest of the buildings, so I just kept walking towards it. When I got to it, it was pretty awe-inspiring. It wasn't as big as the Lincoln cathedral, but it was still pretty big. On the inside there was a service going on, but I took pictures anyway, because at first I didn't realize that a service was going on. One of the usher guys kept giving me funny looks, and at first I thought that it was because I had forgotten to take my hat off, so I did that. And then on the way out of the sanctuary I noticed a sign that said that photography was ok, except during a service. Well, I couldn't really take it back, so there was nothing I could do. I walked around and saw all there there was to see inside. They had one of the Magna Carta copies displayed, and this one was in even better condition than the one in Lincoln. Of course I couldn't take pictures of it, but I had come to except that. The room that it was in was beautiful, much like the domed-room in the Lincoln cathedral. This one had restored stained glass windows all around, and lots of painted architecture. It was so pretty, but I couldn't take a picture of it, which was too bad, but I understood. After I had seen everything, I went to the train station and got a ticket to Grantham. The actual journey itself took shorter than I expected, Because I was expecting to go back that way that I had come, but that wouldn't make sense because the route that I took was out of convenience to go to the site that I wanted to see, so it wasn't exactly the most efficient route. So I went to London, took the Underground to another train station in London, and then after one train-change I was back in Grantham. All in all, it was a good trip, and I enjoyed the freedom so much. I would do it again in a heartbeat, but we'll just have to see if I have the time or places to go.

This is My Quest

So this weekend will be a momentous event in history. I'm going on a trip in a foreign country, by myself. I'm a little nervous, but it's something that I really want to do. My trip will start on Friday, as I will be leaving from the Grantham train station at about 10am. I'm then travelling to a train station in a town southwest of Birmingham called Kidderminster. I'm going to Kidderminster because it's the closest town to a smaller town called Rushock. What's in Rushock, you ask? Only the grave site of the best drummer from the best rock band in the history of music: John Bonham of Led Zeppelin. Unfortunately, we lost Mr. Bonham to a night of heavy drinking, followed by sleeping on his back and then choking on his own vomit in his sleep. A very sad way to go, and just as sad that it caused the end of Led Zeppelin. I wanted to go and pay my respects to this pioneer of rock history. Then the same day I'm going back to the station to catch a train to Oxford. In Oxford on Friday I'm basically just going to my hostel, which I've already booked. I might see a few things at night, I don't know, because I don't really know what's in Oxford other than what I'm going for, which I will see the next day on Saturday. Saturday I am going to see some more historical sites with personal importance. I'm going to see the graves of J.R.R. Tolkien, the writer of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy among other books, and C.S. Lewis, the writer of The Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity, and many others. They are both buried in Oxford, although in different places. I'm also going to see the pub called the Eagle and Child where Tolkien and Lewis and their other friends would go to hang out. I guess not many people know about it, basically just the fans of these two authors. I'll then see whatever else I find in Oxford, and then at night I'm traveling from Oxford to Salisbury, and staying overnight at a hostel close to Salisbury. Then Sunday morning I'm going to see Stonehenge; maybe if I get myself up early enough I can see Stonehenge at sunrise, although we'll have to see about that. I don't know if there are any other sites to see at Salisbury, so when I'm done there, I will take a 6-hour train ride back to Grantham, and then a short taxi-ride back to the manor. I think it's going to be a really fun trip, and I'll get to see things that have significance to me personally. I'm looking forward to it. Plus, it's an adventure to be had, a trek across England. A quest, for the Holy Grail. Well, probably not the Holy Grail, but I suppose it's still a quest. I will take lots of pictures, and write all about it when I get back.

Weekend with the Classics

Not much new to report for the week. Basically, it's all been about getting work done, so that I don't put it off to the last minute. I've actually been really good about not procrastinating while I've been here. That's one thing I will say about the way things work here, it's easy to not be distracted. When I was at UE, I had my laptop with internet connection in my room, I had a TV, a DVD player, a microwave and fridge, Mario Kart 64, all things that easily distracted me, and thus my work was always put off until the night before it was due. Even big papers I would have a hard time starting until I got "the fear". That's the term that my friends and I gave the feeling of anxiety you get when you realize that you have a 10-page paper due tomorrow and you haven't started on it. Here, there are so fewer distractions, it's so easy to get work done. My Greek and Latin homework aren't due until Thursday and Friday respectively, and except for a page-long translation for Greek that I will do today, I'm done with all of it. This is a feeling that I've never really had before, getting something done early, and then just having time to relax and not worry about it. It's nice, and I hope that I can continue this for the rest of the semester, and even when I go back to UE. So speaking of Greek, I had a dream last night that I was in Greek class, and instead of Dr. Ware I had Tom Cruise as my professor. He was a real jerk. Plus, he was wearing sandals and socks, and one of his socks had a big hole in it. I had done all of the homework, and then he told us that we actually only needed to do very little of it, and that most of it wasn't important or was too hard. So I was mad that I had done all of my homework and hadn't needed to. Weird dream, and I can't for the life of me see Tom Cruise as a Greek professor, or a professor at all, for that matter. Although it did seem to be true to life, that he was still a jerk. Next weekend may or may not be different than this weekend. The only thing planned right now among my friends is that the school is going to a football (that's soccer in America, but they do bring up a valid point: in American football, the foot isn't really utilized, so why call it football?) game on Friday, although I wasn't planning on going. Being in a loud noisy stadium watching something that I don't particularly care for doesn't appeal to me. So I think that I might try and find some other people and go somewhere, or go by myself if I have to. It just seems like such a waste to be over here in Europe and not take advantage of it. We'll just have to see where things pan out. There are lots of places that I want to go just here in England that I don't think that my friends want to go, and I refuse to neglect the opportunity. I went to church this morning at the Anglican Church here in Harlaxton. It's a nice place to go, and all of the people are very friendly. The minister there is a woman, which is different. Now before anyone jumps on my back and accuses me of looking down on or demeaning women, I'm not saying that it's bad or that I'm against it; no, I think it's fine, I've just never had a woman as a minister, so it's just different. Something new to experience. Anyway, during the service we even sang a few hymns that we would sing at my home church, so that was a nice feeling of familiarity. The service itself is basically the offspring of Catholic and Protestant services, with a fairly even mix of the both of them, although I've only been to one Mass, so I suppose I can't say that with certainty. But the service is all read from a small booklet, with responses and everything, except that a few of the prayers and the sermon are original. I don't have anything against that sort of thing, I've seen it done both ways and don't mind. Just as long as the correct basic truths are given, which they are at this church; so that's all that really matters. Sometimes I feel like Christianity having so many denominations is just so petty and I'm sure that it looks bad to anyone on the outside. How can we profess to be a faith of unity when there are only a handful of things that everyone agrees with, and the rest is fervently argued over? Anyway, that's all the further I'll go, as I'm not going to write a dissertation. Today should be fairly easy-going, and maybe the same will be true for the week to come. I'll leave you with this joke that the minister told to open the sermon: A man from another country came to America, and while he was there he went grocery shopping. While shopping he saw that they had powdered milk; you just add water and you get milk. He was amazed by this. He then saw that they had powdered orange juice; you add water and you get orange juice. He was still amazed by this. He then saw that they had powdered baby formula, and he just couldn't get over that.

The First Adventure: Museums, Castles and Dungeons Are No Match For: SuperTourist!

So this weekend I had my first real trip in England. The first one on Friday was a school trip through the British Studies course that everyone takes. We left in the morning and were split up into groups so that not everyone was doing the same thing at once. My group was scheduled for self-guided touring first, and so we decided to walk down Steep Hill. That's the actual name of the street, and it's not a misnomer. It is definitely a steep hill. Going down was no problem, it was walking back up that made me want to stay at the bottom. While we were down there we looked around at the different shops that they had, and we were going to go to an archaeological museum, but it didn't open until after our free-time was over. That was disappointing. I almost stormed the place, but then thought better of it. We did get to watch swans fight each other for bread, which was fun. We made up commentary for what each swan was thinking, and it would've made a good movie. It was then time to go back up to the next phase, and so we trudged up the hill like expert-trudgers and met up with the rest of the groups. We were then supposed to go to Lincoln Castle. It would be the first British Castle that I would set foot in. It was a momentous event, marked with trumpeters sounding and people cheering. Ok so that didn't happen, but it was exciting. We didn't get to see the whole castle, but we did see most of it, however quickly. We even went down into a small dungeon and up into an observatory. The observatory was amazing because we could look over the whole castle-grounds, as well as getting a great view of the rest of the city of Lincoln. There was a building within the castle that held one of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta. That was neat, seeing a piece of history like that right in front of me. The same building used to be a prison, and so we got to tour some of the facilities. We got to see the chapel, where the prisoners were basically put in stalls and had to wear masks. They would then be preached a fire-and-brimstone message, to get them to repent. Really creepy. We also got to go up to a small keep up some stairs that would've been the place where the inhabitants of the castle would go if they were overrun, to hold out against the enemy. There was also a small graveyard there, where some of the prisoners were buried. We then left the castle and had lunch for about an hour. We then went to the Lincoln Cathedral, which was absolutely amazing. For one thing, the sheer size of the church is enough to make your jaw drop, but then you see the decorations both inside and out, simply amazing. I took quite a few pictures. Everywhere you would look there was some sort of architectural beauty. We even got to see the Lincoln Imp, which is something worked into one of the decorations on a wall. It is said that a craftsman's apprentice decided to take some liberties and carved a little demon on the wall with it's legs crossed. The imp was said to have caused mischief in the church, until God turned it to stone. Fun story, and the cathedral sure does capitalize on the little guy in their gift-shop. After we were done in the cathedral we went on what was called a Roman Walk, where we went to different sites in the city and saw the ruins that are still left from the Romans. It was interesting, but there wasn't a whole lot left. It was then time for everyone to go back to the manor. From there, Brandon, Dani, Lisa, Ange and I called a taxi and went to Grantham to leave for London from the train station. The train took a little over an hour to get to London, and then we were going to walk to our hostel. Well, it turned out that our hostel was farther away from the train station than we thought, and so we took the underground trains to get closer. We then spent an hour looking for it and getting lost until we actually came to it. We then put our stuff in our room, and met our 6th person (they were 6 person rooms, and we only had 5 people). His name was Santiago and he was from Mexico City. He was travelling abroad trying to decide what he wanted to do in college, being fresh out of high school. He was really fun over the weekend to get to know. After meeting him we got some food at Yellow Belly's (Subway knock-off, which makes me wonder if they have their own Jared, who walked there instead of taking the train). We then turned in for the night. The next morning we got up early and went to a Starbucks for breakfast, and then planned where we were gonna go for sure. We decided that first we would go to the Brisitsh Museum. On the way there we stopped to check on show prices to see if there were any plays or musicals that we wanted to see, however they were all really expensive, so we threw that out. We then went to the British Museum, and let me say, it was great. It was so huge, and it was filled with things that I've always wanted to see. We mainly looked at the Greek, Roman and Egyptian exhibits. We were basically walking from room to room, trying to take in everything. We saw lots of things that we had seen in our textbooks and that our professors had used for slides. That was really neat, seeing something in person that I had only seen pictures of before. We spent around 4 hours there, and I could've stayed a lot longer. I hope that I get to go back again, it was so great. We then had lunch at a small sandwich shop, and then took the underground to go to the Tower of London. It was pretty amazing too, but not as much as the British Museum. The Tower was originally built by William the Conqueror after the initial invasion of the Normans from France into England, which was around 1066. It was originally a castle to live in, but quickly turned into a prison for the enemies of the royalty of England. It was a really big structure, but there wasn't a whole lot to see. The structure itself was the main attraction, and there were little exhibits in some of the rooms that you could go into. It was all very interesting. We also got to see the Crown Jewels of England, which are housed there. After we were done at the Tower, we decided to go a park that was close by to just sit for a little while. On our way we went by Westminster Abbey, and we could see Big Ben in the distance. The Abbey was amazing from the outside, and it'll be great when we see it from the inside on a British Studies trip in November. The females of the group then demanded that we go to a mall close to our hostel to shop. Never, ever come between females and shopping. Brandon and I knew this and so we quickly agreed. While they were looking at clothes Brandon and I went to a bookstore and looked around. We then all met up and ate dinner at a restaurant that was on the 3rd floor of the mall. After that we went back and hung out in the room with Santiago, getting to know him. I was really glad that he was the 6th person in our room and not some psychopath. We then went to bed and got up the next morning in time to get ready for check-out at 10am. We then said good-bye to Santiago and used the underground to get to our train station back to Grantham. We waited for probably an hour for our train, and then it was a little over an hour back to Grantham. We took a cab back to Harlaxton, and then it was back to business with school. All in all, it was a very fun weekend, and I would definitely go back to London again.

Connected Again

So yesterday two of the greatest things ever happened. Ok, so I'm partially kidding on both accounts, but things did go pretty well yesterday. I got a phone! I had heard about people getting pre-pay phones that had very reasonable international rates. At first I thought that it was most likely too good to be true, so I didn't raise much hope. However my friend Lisa was going to get one, and so I thought that I would go with her to check it out. We looked at the phones and the advertised plans, and the phone was gonna be 20 pounds ( $40), with each minute to the US costing 5 pence (10 cents) a minute. Again, it seemed good, but I was still reserved about it. We went up to the counter to talk to the salesmen, and he was really nice. He said that he got Harlaxton kids in there all of the time, getting these phones, which I knew to be true from the things that I had heard at the manor. So we asked him about what deals we could get and such, and he told us that if we got 50 pounds worth of minutes then we would get the phone for free. So that was a phone and 1000 minutes to the US for the equivalent of $100. So it was a really good deal and I got the phone. Now I have a way to be connected to my family and friends even when I'm travelling, and when I'm at the manor I don't have to wait for the phone booths to open up. It's just more convenient. Also, when people call me, it doesn't take away from my overall minutes, just when I call out. I'm glad I checked this out. The other thing was that I finally watched the movie that got an Academy Award for best movie ever: Highlander. Ok, so the Frenchman in Talladega Nights was right, it was not that good. Being from the 80's, it had so terrible special effects. Plus, the acting was laughable in most places. It was just an all-around fun movie to watch, because it was so bad. I rather enjoyed it. Tomorrow we are going to Lincoln to see the cathedral there, as well as some Roman ruins. There are also historical places and museums that we can go to. It should be a fun time, and I'll try to get lots of pictures. Then, contrary to what I said before, we are coming back to Harlaxton rather than leaving for London straight from Lincoln, because it's cheaper to come back and leave from the neighboring town of Grantham. So we are still going to London, just a little later than originally planned. This weekend should be fun, but then I just have to come back to lots of work. I have a PowerPoint presentation that I'm supposed to make for class on Monday, in which I'm taking all of my group's research and putting it together for the PowerPoint, but I don't have everyone's research and so I'm gonna have to do it all Sunday night. Then, I have eight quizzes to do for Greek, because I turned so many chapters in at once. Those quizzes cover review and three chapters. Then, on Tuesday, after I turn my latest chapter in, I will have a test over all of those chapters that I've done thus far. So I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. Add on to that the fact that I have two research papers that I could be starting research on, plus I'm supposed to have Henry IV, which is about 100 pages, read by Wednesday. Lots to do, and not enough time to do it. I might have to pull the Superman cop out and fly around the world at super-speed and go back in time so that I have more time to get everything done. If only everyone had superpowers...........

Technological Frustrations: Both Reality and a Good Name for a Band

So not much is new here. Still doing homework, only now instead of Greek (which I got all done and am waiting to see if all of it got faxed to Evansville alright) it's British Studies. I have two papers that I'm doing preliminary research for, and a group project about the evolution of the city of Bristol. For that project I have some research to do and then I'm going to compile the whole group's research into a PowerPoint presentation. That should be fun. Friday we are having a school field-trip to the city of Lincoln. Brandon, Dani, Lisa, Ange and I have decided that after the field trip is over we are going to leave from Lincoln and go to London for the weekend. We think that we are definitely going to the Tower of London and the British Museum (which is free; thumbs up). There are a few other places that we're not sure about, like this London Dungeons tour which looks to be one of those stupid haunted-house things that come around every Halloween only with some (very-slight) historical significance. We'll see what ends up happening. We already have our hostel booked, and it was very cheap, so that was good. Now, with regards to the title of this post: I hate technology. Actually, I take that back. I love technology; when it works. The network we have here on campus is the worst one ever. They have a few Wireless Access Points that allow those with laptops to access the network, but no server plug-ins in the rooms. Meaning to get on the internet I have to go and sit in the common room in the carriage house. And that's not even my main complaint. I would be ok with that, if it worked most of the time, but it doesn't. I don't know how many times I've heard people say "the internet's down" and everyone just sighs and rolls their eyes. It's a frequent occurrence, which is kinda ridiculous. They should have a network that doesn't stop working when someone breathes the wrong way. I don't know how many times I've been in the middle of a conversation with someone on AIM and all of the sudden it says I'm disconnected, and then I can't reconnect. It's annoying, because usually, I won't be able to get back on the network for the rest of the evening, until it gets fixed in the morning. Now on to a certain website called facebook. Facebook has become an evil entity, one that lets everyone know everything that you've ever done. It is now a totalitarian regime, broadcasting your life to everyone who has an account. Ok, so maybe it's not that widespread, but it's ridiculous the amount of information I can get just by going on the homepage and looking on the news feeds. Stuff that you would normally have to look for is right there in front of you: who joined what group, who has gotten into/out-of a relationship, who added who as a friend, who wrote what on one of your friend's wall; all broadcast. I don't like it, and I told the development team so. There are also numerous groups on facebook doing the same thing. Hopefully we can get this changed, but if not, I will not be using facebook anymore. It used to be so simple, but now it's just a stalker-tool. To paraphrase V for Vendetta: people should not be afraid of facebook; facebook should be afraid of people Well, that's my rant about facebook and the campus network. Back to motivating myself to do homework.

Catch-Up; Sort-Of

Well, I haven't posted anything for a while now, and there's a good reason behind that, being that nothing has really been going on. I mean, this week has basically been dedicated to doing homework. I dug myself a hole putting off my Greek homework that I gave myself over the summer, and so I've had to put myself back on track. Which I am very close to doing, by the way. I've been telling people that I feel like all that I've done this week is done homework and ate in between. I figure thing will get better from here, since we will be doing some travelling in the coming weekends and my homework load should go down from here, at least somewhat. I did have some fun with the group that stayed back this weekend, with everyone else having gone on the school-sponsored London trip. On Friday we woke up to have lunch, and then after lunch we went into town to get some stuff. We finally made it to ASDA, which is the British version of Wal-Mart, and I do mean Wal-Mart; they have the "always low prices" slogan and the little yellow happy face mascot. Wal-Mart is everywhere, an international presence. They sell basically the same things, only they are British brands, and the merchandise is a little different, for the British folk. They even had two floors connected with an escalator, which didn't turn into stairs as it went up but was just a moving ramp. That was a weird experience, expecting the steps to come up but it never happening. Anyway we came back from there and went up to a small clearing at the top of some hills on the manor grounds where we played frisbee. It was fun because none of us could throw or catch so we made fun of each other the whole time. Not much else really went on, so it's been mostly Greek and little human interaction. Tonight some friends watched a movie altogether, but that was after I had done more homework. Tomorrow is gong to be somewhat action-packed as well, but tapering off a bit. I must say, it is nice basically having the grounds to ourselves with most everyone gone on the trip, but it does get creepy. When it's just a few of us, you start thinking that you hear and see things that aren't really there, and get yourself psyched out. So it'll be nice to have more people back to cover up the eerie silence. Well, that is about all I have for all of you, and maybe things will get more exciting in the days to come.

Downtime- Whole Lotta Nothing

So not much has been going on for the past two days. The most notable happening was that the interenet server was down for most of last night and today until about 4 or 5 in the afternoon. Yesterday I mostly did reading for British Studies, with eating in between. I hung out with friends also, and we played cards in the evening. Today, I had to wake up early for British Studies Lecture and Seminar. Then in class we all had short presentations to give on Alfred the Great (I'm sure everyone is enthralled at this point). After that it was lunch and then some of us went into Grantham. I didn't need anything, but I went along because I didn't want to stay on campus. We all walked around and everybody found the stuff that they needed. I didn't need anything mostly because I packed basically everything that I would need over here, which took up lots of space, but also meant that I wouldn't have to buy the expensive stuff over here. We then came back to the manor and had dinner. After dinner we had a meeting about how to go about travelling independently of the school. It was somewhat informative, but lots of stuff we already knew. After that there was some homework time, and then some of us went and played cards again. After cards I came back to the Carriage House where I am staying, and wrote this. Tomorrow will probably be most of the same thing, and then me and most of my friends are staying here for the weekend. So not much is really going on. Maybe I'll make something up to get interesting things on here, about Sasquatch or something. We'll see.

British Studies 382 + 2 Classical Language Independent Studies = Not Much Fun

So today was the first day that I had my British Studies course. As I said earlier, it consists of a large lecture with all the Harlaxton students for about an hour, and then you break up into small groups to have seminars. My professor happens to be the one who will be giving most of the lectures, because this is primarily a history course and he is a history teacher. He is a very interesting guy, because he of course has a British accent, but a also has a speech impediment so that is r's come out w's. So instead of the British, he talks about the Bwitish. Now I'm not making fun of his speech, I'm just saying that it's sometimes hard to understand British accents, but then add on top of that something else that makes communication difficult. But he's a really great teacher so far, and I think I'm really gonna like his style. By style I mean the fact that he's very sarcastic and likes to make intelligent jokes all of the time, and he also knows what he's talking about when it comes to academics. Today was just preliminary stuff, such as what the course would be like and how tests and quizzes would work, and what papers would be written; that sort of thing. I then found out that since I'm taking the class as 382 and not 282, that I would have to end up writing two 3000-word essays, one having to do with Oliver Cromwell (the name that I drew from a box) and the other having to do with anything connected to the city of London. It's going to be a lot of work, which is why I'm worried, because on top of those things I have my 2 Independent Studies: Greek and Latin. I messed up a little because I made my own schedule for when I was going to do what chapters in Greek, and I had myself doing two chapters over the summer and then starting the next when I got here. Well, I didn't exactly do two chapters over the summer, so now I have to do 3 chapters by next Monday. I have one done, that I completed today, but all in all I probably spent about 5 to 6 hours on it, between today and a little on the plane and a very little bit at home. So that means I have two more to go. The good news is that Latin doesn't start until about the middle of the month because until the class in Evansville is just reviewing (which I should do some of too, but that won't take much time), and I'm not going on any big trips this weekend, just maybe into Grantham or something like that. So I should have plenty of time to get all of my work done. When I had been doing Greek for about 3 hours or so, I was just fed up with it and I had to get out. So I went outside and walked around the Manor. I had explored a little bit before, so this time I went to some of the places that I hadn't gone before. It is a breath-taking place, and there are so many spots where I could go and just sit, or stand or even walk around, and I would be surrounded by trees, but still have an amazing view of the country-side. During that time exploring I really felt peace and contentment, and it was a good feeling. After that it was work for the rest of the night with a substantial break to hang out with friends, and I even managed to make a call to a certain special someone. Now I'm writing this before I head to bed. Even though I don't have any classes tomorrow, I should still get up at a decent time, I have things to do. Well, here's to long nature-walks.

Sunday: The Day of Rest..... Sort-Of

As I said yesterday, I went to an Anglican Church service today. It was actually very interesting. The president of the college (who preached) said that it was probably closest to Catholic, Lutheran, or Episcopalian services. It was very structured and we read most of the service out of a small booklet. I liked it, although there are other local churches that I was wanting to check out, so we'll see where I end up. When we got back we ate some lunch and then did a lot of administrative stuff like turn in papers and such. We also had some meetings, one which was about security on campus. This was really bad and I almost feel asleep quite a few times. I know that it is necessary and that they have to do it to cover themselves for insurance reasons, but it was incredibly boring. Anyway, after that we had a fun boy/girl separated talk about drinking, fighting, and sex. It was another one of those mandatory things that they have to do and is just awkward for everyone involved. After that we had some free time and I walked around campus and took lots of pictures. I still haven't been everywhere, but I plan on having photos of basically everything before it's all said and done. I then had a meeting with my class and professor for British Studies. They way British Studies works is that we have a big lecture with every student here at 8:30am, and then you split up into small groups, each having its own professor. So this was the first time that the class and professor had met together. I knew a few people in my class, and the professor was a really funny and sarcastic British professor of history. After the meeting I went with tow guys from my class to see a secret stairwell. You open a corner of the wall in the Long Gallery (the room that we had the formal dinner in) and there is a set of metal stairs that goes up to the top floor and down to the basement. It was cool to see. I then hurried to catch the end of dinner and met Dani and Brandon and Sam there. After we ate (which was turkey with gravy and potatoes) I waited for a phone in the phone-booth room. While I was waiting I met a girl named Amy from Marion College in Wisconsin. We talked for a short while until she took the first available phone booth (she was there before I was, after all). I was then able to get a booth myself and called home to talk to my mom and sister. That was nice to hear their voices. I then came back to my room and got my laptop to get on the Internet. I'll be going to bed soon, because tomorrow is the first day of classes, which will be my introduction to British Studies. Fun, I'm sure.

Double Days: Waiting, and then Get-To-Know-You Day

So it's been a while since my I wrote about what I was doing, and my last post explains why. Now I have power, but no wireless in my room. I have to go to a little rec room just a few rooms down from my room to get a wireless connection. So now I have a connection and power to work with. So here goes. Me, Brandon, Dani and Shannon woke up at the hotel we were staying at, had breakfast, and then got ready to go. That's when the waiting started. We had to wait about 10 or 15 minutes for our driver to take us to the airport; that was only a small foreshadowing of what was to come. We finally got to the airport and got unloaded and then went to meet the group. When we got there at around 9 only two other people from the group had gotten off of their planes, and we were waiting on the rest, which was about30 or 40 people it seemed like when everyone finally got there. However at that point not everyone was there, and that's the way it stayed for over 3 hours. A few people would trickle in here and there until finally everyone was there. We then had to take all of our luggage back down to the pickup area to load it into a truck and then get on a large fancy bus. We then got on what we thought was going to be a 1 hour bus ride; this turned out to be false. It is 1 hour from Gatwick airport to Harlaxton; but that's by train. And we were on a bus that had to get stuck in traffic, a lot. So all in all it took over 4 hours. It wasn't that bad for the 4 of us, because we had had a full night's sleep, while the rest of them had just gotten off of their respective planes. So at one point there were only 5 people awake on the bus. People would drift in and out and talk some and then fall back to sleep. We almost killed a few motorists because our bus was so big and in a few of the towns the roads were really small. It was a fun, if long ride. When We finally got to the manor it was really amazing, because you saw it from a distance and it looked huge and the closer that we got the bigger that it got. We then got off the bus and went inside to have dinner, which was fish and chips (I kid you not). After dinner we had a little bit of time to bring our things to our room, but not much time to unpack. We then had a short orientation session with randomly-chosen groups. After that we had more time to unpack and free-time for the rest of the night. My room-mate had gotten there before I had, and already had his stuff unpacked, so I didn't meet him at all that day. I explored the manor a little (mostly because it's really big and easy to get lost in) and then met up with the usual group. We then looked around as a group and picked up a new-comer named Josh who was cool. After we were done exploring we watched a little TV (a little ironic, I know) and then I turned in pretty early at about 11, and then slept until about 7:15. My room-mate and I both woke up at the same time so I finally met him. His name is Chris and he seems like a good guy. I then got ready for breakfast and left to meet Brandon, Dani and Shannon. We ate breakfast and then explored the manor a little bit more. We even took the lift (elevator) up to the fifth floor which is where Shannon lives. It is old but still works, although very slowly. We then had our first formal meeting as a class, with introduction to faculty and an address from the president of the college. We also had to sing a song about a garden growing about 10 times, so that was interesting. After that we had about an hour of free-time. It was then time for another meeting where we talked about school rules and policies, the bureaucratic stuff. We then ate lunch which was American-style chili-dogs and curly-fries. After lunch we waited for a little while and then went to wait in line at the bookstore to buy our textbooks. Mine only cost about $70 (35 pounds or so) because I only needed books for the British Studies course; I already had the books for Greek and Latin. We then had some free-time during which we chose to go into Grantham (during my last post I erroneously thought we were going into Harlaxton village). We took a shuttle into town, only Dani and Brandon didn't go because Brandon wasn't feeling well and so was going to lay down for a short while for the next shuttle which came sooner than we thought. So Dani went to get Brandon to get on the next shuttle and Shannon and I went with Drew and Katie, some friends. Drew was in my small group from orientation my freshman year, so I knew him but not Katie who is his girlfriend. We walked around town looking for odds and ends that people had forgotten. We said that we were on a "quest". We then decided to look for the ASDA, which is the British version of Wal-Mart. We couldn't find it and so Drew asked for directions. He then led us and said that he was the "questor". After wandering I said that he didn't know where he was going, and he said that I should trust him as questor. It turned out that he didn't know where he was going, and said that he had let me down. We were joking, of-course, so we made jokes about it for the rest of the day. We went back to the manor on a shuttle in time to have another small orientation meeting about our expectations for Harlaxton and a little briefing about British culture, mostly humorous. Our leader passed out cards with common British phrases on them and we had to guess what they meant. The best one was "yob" (pronounced yawb), which is simply boy backwards. It means hooligan or ruffian, and so we used that about each other for a while. I think it will stick. We then had some time to get ready for our first formal dinner. Everyone was dressed up, and we were split up to random tables. I forgot my camera so unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. The meal was decent, but it took a long time between courses. I got to sit by Ange Drapp, so I was happy that I knew someone. I've been meeting lots of new people, but it's nice to have that comfort of knowing someone well. So far all the ceremonies have been started and ended with a man playing the bag-pipes, which is just about the best thing ever. After the meal ended we were free to go for the night, and I chose to come back to my room and type this. As I was sitting in the common room (which is the place where I get signal), a bunch of girls came in and wanted to know if I would play Taboo, which is where you get a card with a word on it and you have to get your teammates to guess it, but there are also words on the card that you cannot use to help them guess. It was fun and we eventually had about 10 people playing. After that distraction (although it was nice) I sat down and finished this post. After I am done I am going to go to bed and sleep so that I can get up to eat breakfast and then go to the local Anglican church for a welcome service. That should be interesting. Well, there we have two days wrapped into one post, and since it's so much I probably forgot something, but the big stuff should be there. Should be more to come tomorrow.