Oxford

We woke up and took our hiking backpacks into town, grabbed some pasties from Gregg's bakery and trekked to the rail station. By the time we got our tickets we had just enough time to get on the train as they blew whistles and we found seats after it started moving. From York we went through Sheffield and Birmingham to get to Oxford. This was Dad's first train ride and he liked how smooth and fast it glided. Not as much of a hassle as driving the winding narrow roads and roundabouts.

In Oxford, we took a walking tour around several colleges of the university. It is set up differently tan American universities and very hard to get accepted into. There was a church that John Newman preached at. We saw the college of Jesus Christ where Lawrence of Arabia studied. The great hall customs were similar to something you'd find out of one of the first Harry Potter movies. Actually alot of the movies were filmed in Oxford and around places I've seen in my time here in England, of which I'm not a fan of the movie anyhow.

We also saw gardens that influenced Alice in Wonderland...and English students were actually playing croquet in the same garden in the story. The writer was a professor there and later on in London, we saw his diary and his hand written book. We also saw the tree that inspired his poem, the Jabberwakee. We stopped at the pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and friends met every Tuesday morning...The Eagle and Child. Then we went to mass at the Oratory of the Blackfriars. This night was Dad's first experience staying in a hostel and it wasn't too shabby in the 4-bunkbed room.

Whitby, Rievaulx Abbey, York

We went to Gregg's bakery then drove onward to the lovely seaside town of Whitby - where Mom had been about 30 years previously. We toured the ruins of Whitby Abbey and walked along the river that met with the North Sea. There we had lunch at Humble Pies, a cute 50s pie cafe ran by a lady. We strolled to the waterfront and fed the seagulls and we saw Elizabeth the steam engine bus from Thomas the Tank Engine shows, only real life sized. We walked up to the lighthouse after I called my Mom so she could hear the sea and seagulls again and my Dad and her chatted a bit, they were both very happy. Bet she never thought that someday her future husband and kids would be seeing what she saw in England.

After leaving Whitby, we drove southwest to the ruins of Rievaulx Abbey. A huge 12th century abbey tucked away in the heart of some huge hills. It had a nice museum portraying monk-life as well as the destruction of king Henry VIII.

That evening we pulled into York and parked the car. We found a pub and had supper as we arranged our next 2 nights of sleep at the Travelodge in the city. The next morning, after a frustrating time getting around the city walls and finding the Avis rental place, we dropped off the little car and had some pasties and coffee to warm up. We toured the York Cathedral and its crypts. William Longshanks used the chapter room for his meetings against William Wallace back in the day. I found it to be one of my favorite cathedrals since it had the most original stained glass windows and gargoyles among statues on the outside walls. Though most of the saintly statues were smashed off during the reformation.

For lunch we went to a pub called the Golden Fleece, where I had lamb on a Yorkshire pudding as Dad and Matt had cottage pies. I had to have lamb since that is all you see in the English countryside and in York, why not have some good Yorkshire pudding? I'm gonna miss that stuff.

After picking up our jackets at the hotel we walked to The Shambles...(part of town where the olden butchers sold meat) and went to the shrine of St. Margaret Clitherow...who was martyred for housing priests and teaching Catholicism during the reformation. Then, to kill time we saw a tower and the garden parks where dad fed the pigeons. There were more abbey ruins and a low-budget movie was being filmed there, it was neat to see the actors and camera. We eventually warmed up by the fire in the Old Oak pub as Matt tried some traditional ale and Dad and I had Old Rosie's cider....the good tap stuff. For supper we had really Italian pizzas at a fancier restaurant, as we were sick of pub food then called it a day.

Lake District, Durham, and my 21st

With some effort on the narrow roads and fast driving English drivers, we eventually made our way to the small town of Kendal in the southern part of the beautiful Lake District. Figuring it was a small town that we could easily stop for a quick lunch we decided to drive down the steep hill to it, only to get confused about how to get to the town center, ending up back on the main road continuing to Keswick, in the north part of the Lake District. Along the way we stopped for a nature walk, the Lake District is beautiful with huge hills, trees, and streams.We found a car park and moseyed around the small cute town. Dad couldn't believe how narrow the old streets were, as most towns in the UK were built before the invention of cars. We had Hungarian Goulash at the Dog and Gun pub. It was a very cozy place that owners brought their dogs along in for a drink. We walked through the smallest alley-way Dad ever saw and he also took keen notice of how the buildings were all of stone and bricks.We drove northeastward up to Hadrian's Wall. It was hard to find but by the time we drove up to a Roman fort we realized that what we've been driving by was Hadrian's wall...short stone walls that were next to each other. Perhaps we've driven inside it a bit too.That evening we made it to Durham, and Dad was getting used to the roundabouts by then, as our Travelodge was after about 10 of them in a row. After getting settled in we went out for drinks in the quaint town with a huge cathedral and castle hovering above it. At The Swan and Crypt pub Dad tried his first cider and found a love for cider. I was happy since I enjoy cider more than beer. My snakebite drink was too sweet for Dad and Matt's taste. The next day we went to St. Godric's Church for morning service, and walked along the river to the cathedral. The norman, manly Durham Cathedral is the oldest and tallest north of the Alps. We walked up the 324 steps to the top of the tower and looked over all of Durham. When Matt and I turned around, we found Dad sitting by the door, the height was a bit too much to look down from for him. We also saw the cloister and monk's dormitory, which is now a library. In the castle, it is used by the university as housing, but the great hall was nice. The leaning stairway was also interesting to walk up. That evening we went to evensong at the cathedral and heard a mixed choir sing. Had supper at a pub and Matt had some epic information for me. Oh, and I almost forgot, it was my 21st birthday. Cheers to being a real adult (once I get back to America).

Sherwood Forest....the Hood of Robin

I took several buses to get from Lincoln to Ollerton (Nottingham is about 45min south of what is left of the forest) and walked around the southern part of lush, green Sherwood Forest. It was lush green and...since Robin Hood's coat was of Lincoln green...I was happy to be coming from Lincoln. From there I caught a bus to Mansfield (yes, where Jane Austen's book Mansfield Park takes place) then eventually found a way to a train to hop on to head to Manchester. I got off at Piccadilly station and found my hostel very easily. I bought some groceries and chatted with a guy from Hong Kong staying there to go to a Man United football game. At 1:24am I got a voicemail from my sister, Deanna, saying my dad and brother Matt got on the plane, but will be delayed due to the volcanic ash.

The next morning I roamed Manchester. Saw its courthouse and roman fort ruins then I met up with my dad and brother at the train station. It was nice seeing some familiar faces with the good ol' North Dakotan accent again. We were all happy to see each other. From there we rented a Chevy Aveo and had dad drive it around the parking lot a bit to get used to driving on the other side of the road, and on the other side of the car. With some grace, we made it onto the motorway (interstate) and headed north to the lake district.

Finals...what?

So...the end of my semester here in Lincoln pretty much consisted of spending all of April finishing a 3-minute cartoon with toys moving around a room making noise. And, a photograph-design book about a few things I've taken to heart here in Lincoln. Then, the first week of May I wrote 2 papers, about 2500 words long each. One was for my Globalization and Contemporary Culture class and I wrote about the Venus Project, how I went against a Florida guy's idea of making a world nation and doing away with cultures and religion. The other one was about Midwestern Gardens for my Culture and the Environment course. I was finished with everything by May 7th at 4:oopm. I had no exams this whole semester, which was the first semester of my life without any tests or quizzes. Though I did learn a lot through this system of pretty much self-motivation self-teaching, I do like the way I am used to in the American system. In America I do more work, but here I think I did more quality work, and had the freedom to experiment with the design programs. This picture is of my Design teacher Colin and my course friend Leanne, who will be in Australia for the coming year.

Cup Champion!

So, the cup championship game in my league I played a great game...only I ended up getting sent off the field with 20 minutes left in the game. I got a red card for what my teammates quote "rugby tackled" a striker that was right in front of the 18 yard box central to my goal. Neither of us were hurt and I honestly was gong for the soccer ball..only I ended up taking her down with me. Luckily the team didn't score so we won the championship game 1-0. Totally worth it. This was the first card I ever got and it was in an English game. My teammates said I would have to pay some kind of fee since I got carded....but being that was my last English game and I'm going back to America, I haven't seen anything to do with that so I doubt I'll really get fined, or pay for it.

Then after the game we went to support other teams from the University that were playing in the same town so during the american football game (my uni is not good at american football at all) I borrowed a football and showed my teammates how to properly throw a football. The girls pitched in and bought me a snakebite (cider, blackcurrant, and lager) and had me drink it as they cheered a chant due to the fact that I got red carded and sent off the pitch and made them all so nervous about the outcome of the game. Then I had to log roll down that little hill as a penalty. It was fun banter and no harm done. Hopefully I get the medal before I go back home.

France

My spring break lasted 2 whole weeks...so I went on a trip with my soccer team and other athlete teams to Spain. We drove down in a charter bus and it took us 30 hours to get from Lincoln to Salou, Spain (on the south side bordering the ocean) We went down around London and took a ferry to Calais, France from Dover, England. The white cliffs of Dover were really pretty and it was my first ferry trip ever. I walked to one of the decks with a few teammates and looked out to the English channel. It took about an hour and half to cross it. Then we arrived in France and it was interesting since I took 3 years of French in high school and could read the signs and understand the language so I was thrilled.

Our nice bus driver Dave drove us through Paris so we saw the sights at night beautifully lit up. The Moulin Rouge, Notre Dame, Louvre, Opera House, Arc D'Triumph (the mini one), and yes of course the Eiffel Tower. The city was gorgeous and the buildings all fit well together, I can see why Paris is such a nice place to see as a romantic city. The rest of the night we drove through France as we slept. When I woke up again we were somewhere in Spain and it was getting hot and was nice and sunny. Various parts of the Spanish countryside almost reminded me of the Black Hills since they were spotted with lots of trees, and were hilly.