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.

TOUR, with the Sport Societies to Salou Spain

Summing up Spain in a nutshell, I swam in the ocean for the first time in my life. Played 2 days of 6v6 short soccer games, as well as a random game of beach soccer with some guys and teammates. I was exposed to lots of English banter and cheers and dress up theme nights. I had a free day so I went to Barcelona with a group and enjoyed that city a lot. (I didn't have a camera but click the links to see what they are) I saw the Sagrada Familia, Las Ramblas, Camp Nou, and a huge monument of Christopher Columbus where he set sail to America. I tried a chicken empananda which was yummy and I found that it really isn't hard to get around not knowing Spanish. Just hop on the metro and have a map and you are good to go. I bought a Sangria from the hotel bar while we waited for our bus to come pick us up to take us back to Lincoln and it was quite nice, like a fruity red wine. The trip home was nice because we saw France during the day, so between naps I got to see so much of Spain and France.

It was a great week and the second part of spring break was spent in front of computers working on projects. For Easter I randomly met a young woman from Romania that was a nanny in Lincoln in front of my church on Good Friday. I went up to the cathedral with her and heard a special requiem choir concert with her and I went to Mass with her Easter morning. I made myself a roast dinner and spent the weekend relaxing with my flat all to myself as my first Easter away from home. So that was my spring break.

Glasgow, Loch Lomond, and Dumbarton, Scotland

As I took the train north from Lincoln, the scenery changed from tuff grasses to short smart green grass fields with sheep and horses roaming here and there. Around 6 hours later I found my way to Glasgow, Scotland. I had a few hours to roam around the city, so I headed to its Museum of Modern Art, and onwards to the Glasgow Cathedral where St. Mungo was buried. Nearby the cathedral was a museum with a view of a Necropolis - a hilly graveyard for people who died of the smallpox. I then made my way to the hotel I was going to the SPUC International Pro-Life conference for the next few days. Throughout the weekend I found companionship with students from all over England and Scotland, I was happy to have some more good-hearted friends. I learned a lot about abortion and euthanasia and how it affects our world today and I hope to be more involved with pro-life organizations back at MSUM next year. I also tried blood pudding as well as hagis(on my fork in the picture) and I prefer the (very salty) blood pudding over hagis for sure. neither will I want to try again I believe.

After the conference I went into the city and checked into a guesthouse and strolled by a nearby park and enjoyed the Scottish families enjoying a sunny Sunday evening. The next day after a complimentary Scottish breakfast of coffee, toast, beans, ham, potato scone of some sort, and a fried egg, I took a train north to Balloch on the southern bank of Loch Lomand. There was a small castle a few minutes walk around the loch so I spent the afternoon enjoying the atmosphere. The morning started out being drizzly and overcast, but by noon it was nice and sunny. I of course listened to my music player and the Loch Lomond song half the time. It was pretty with hills and I will confess I kept a small pebble from the shoreside.

I then headed south again and saw a neat looking big town on the way back to Glasgow and I had time to kill so I hopped off at Dumbarton. I didn't have a map, but I had seen in a travel book that there was a castle here so I had lunch and asked for directions and I found myself walking up to a huge cliff/rock/volcano plug landmass. It was where Mary, Queen of Scotland sailed to France to escape when she was 6years old, and rumors have William Wallace being a prisoner there before he was sent off to be beheaded. The view from the top of that landmass was worth the climb and windiness. You could see Ben Nevis and, the Firth of Clyde as well as the small city of Dumbarton and the hills of Scotland. I was descending the castle stairway to leave right on time as the wind picked up and it started sleeting very hard for about 5 minutes. My trusty little umbrella surprisingly held out as I made my way 25 minutes to the train station to eventually make it back to Glasgow where I had time to visit the Kelingrove museum that holds Salvador Dali's "Christ of St. John of the Cross." Then I safely made it back good ol' Lincoln without trouble. Altogether a successful weekend.

Daytrip to Bradford

I spent a day in the red light district of Bradford, England with parishioners from St. Hugh's to visit the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal there. It was neat meeting some sisters from a nearby convent in Leeds, one of which knew a FOCUS missionary that I knew from NDSU. It's a small world. The drive back to Lincoln was even fun as the women in the group sang oldies from Dean Martin and even some Irish ballads and the ladies were fun to listen to as they joked around.

Dublin Part II

That night Sam and I went to several pubs in the Temple Bar area and had a great time with various Irishfolk. At one point we were cheered "to the hillbillies of North Dakota" (we found a bachelor party and they loved the USA) The next day I went to mass where it was spoken in Irish. Then Sam and I strolled several city parks and found the pub, Whelan's, where the bar scene from the movie PS I Love You was filmed. Though it wasn't open till later that evening...we decided to go back that night. We went to the Guinness Storehouse and found how Guinness was made, advertised, and even how to properly pour and drink a Guinness. The experience totally changed my views on Guinness and Sam and I savored our pints at the top of the building where there was the best city view of Dublin in the Gravity Bar. We chatted with 2 girls from Australia that were staying at our hostel and had a fun time talking to the Irish bartender. We went back to the hostel and asked the long brown-haired elvish looking Irish deskworker where a good place to go away from the tourists. He told us of a few pubs that were close to Whelan's and after grabbing supper we went to Whelan's and I saw where Gerard Butler sang his song to Hilary Swank when they first met and after listening to some indie music Sam and I went on to another pub where we met a nice Irish woman that noticed we were from out of town. The next morning Sam and I got up before 5:30am, briskly walked to the bus and arrived at the Dublin airport from the top of a double-decker bus. We both made it safely back to our universities and I still keep in touch with John Ruddy.

Dublin Ireland Part 1

Dublin was a great 4 day trip. I arrived on a Thursday night and hopped the bus. A nice local lady told me what stop to get off of and what direction my hostel was in along the River Liffey and I checked in and found my bed in the 12 bed room. Friday morning I woke up early, ate the continental breakfast and went to the tourist information center. From there I wandered the streets and took it all in, being a great tourist and taking plenty of pictures. I found my way to a train station and hopped the train to Dun Laughaire (yes talked about in the movie PS I Love You and it is pronounced Dun Leary) After I got off the train I walked around the harbor and had some great views of the Irish Sea and local dogs with their owners. I found some churches to take pictures of and a proper fish n chips shop where I took my fresh cod and fries to a park and had lunch next to the sea. I took the train back to the city centre of Dublin and found the Whitefriar Street Church where St. Valentine is buried. My friend from MSUM that was studying in southern England arrived later that night and we went to a pub called The Brazen Head where we had our first half pints of Guinness...which was splendid. The next day, Saturday, we visited Christ Church and St Patrick's Cathedral and made our way up north of the river to O'Connel Street where we met 2 guys Sam had met from England.

The group then went to Trinity College and we saw the Book of Kells and the Old Library where the second Star Wars movie - the library where yoda and the jedi masters were is based of of this library. In the library Sam and I commented how we wish we could take pictures but it was not allowed and a young gentlman behind me made a joke and I ended up talking to him for several minutes after the tour was over. Going into the gift shop there, he offered to give us a free tour of Dublin for the day as he had studied at Dublin University and was just visiting the city for the weekend. So the rest of the day we followed John Ruddy around the city and learned random trivia and historic things from an Irish guy. From Dublin Castle, to a marketplace, old Dublin walls, the place where Handel's first orchestra played 'Aleluhia' and a place where there was a viking settlement that is now marked with cobblestones we saw so much from a local viewpoint. We ended our adventure at an old church that was changed into a pub. John told me 'no worries, it used to be a protestant church' jokingly as we went in and he kindly bought us a round - Sam an Irish coffee, and me a pint of Bulmers Irish Cider. (earlier at a different pub I had tried and Irish coffee and it wasn't as good as I thought it would be) It was late evening and John wanted a battered sausage (he always gets them when he goes to Dublin) so we went to a nearby food joint. After supper we parted our ways and Sam and I went back to the hostel to get ready for our night out.

Twycross Zoo

So, for my Culture and Environment class I am doing a group presentation. The four of us decided to take a field trip to the Twycross Zoo over an hour away. All we had to do was pay for gas - we drove down and got in for free since we were interviewing one of the employees. This zoo had over 40 species of primates, along with Asian elephants, giraffes, penguins, sea lions, and flamingos. I ended up asking the zoo curator the questions as my groups members filmed it and it was a great experience. It was handy going the day we did since I got dropped off at the airport and flew out of East Midlands several hours later and went to Dublin for the weekend.

Women's Football (aka Soccer)

I am the goalkeeper for the women's team here and I paid £60 to play on the team, luckily I get to partake in several cup games before the season is over. We practice twice a week and have one game a week. There are over 20 girls that come to practices on occasion, yet there are 11 girls that play in the game and every week 4 or 5 girls are chosen for substitutes. The main difference is the girls play all 90 min of the game, in the USA we sub girls in and out alot in a game, were the main reason for any substitute is injury. Other than that it is the same 11 girls for the most part.
So far I've played against Leicester and won 3-1 (I was voted man of the match). We lost to Birmingham 1-2, and beat Coventry 6-5. As far as I know...we will play Birmingham for the cup championship sometime later. After our games we get a free can of redbull to re-energize with too...randomly not healthy if you ask me, yet pretty cool.
I pretty much get told the week we play a game when and where it is. The team is run wholly by students - they coach, plan games/transportation, and keep track of the budget. It is neat, yet I like having a full time coach at MSUM where its a bit more organized and respected. On the field, players get away with cursing and commenting on calls made by the referee, not something we have freedom to do in America.
For any fellow footballers reading this, I think the strikers on my team are very skilled and we play more direct rather than crossovers from the outsides. One or two of the girls could very well play on a D1 team in America, she's great to watch. We play flat back four and even this team has troubles getting split and staying connected with communication.
I'm getting used to the fun antics of the team and the more trips I go on with them the friendlier they get. Footballers stick up for each other and always like having good times.

Superbowl and Evensong

So, here's what I've been up to the past 2 weeks.
I went to the Australian bar called Walkabout where the 'American football' players put on a social to watch the Superbowl. There were mainly Saints fans because they were the underdog team. I got there at 10pm and stayed until about 3am to watch the whole game. I wore my gold USA women's soccer team jersey. It was fun, though we didn't have any of the Superbowl commercials from America so it wasn't the full experience here, but I met a guy that his dad used to play for the Bengal Tigers, and his friend was in the royal navy. They were nice and tried to be true English gentlemen.

I was working on a project in the library computer lab one afternoon when a random guy from London sat next to me and asked if I was a composer since I was trying to create a song for my DVD with Garageband on the computer. After replying what I was up to he realized I was American and we ended up having a conversation that covered politics and religion for over an hour. Then I met my two friends at a pub and had cottage pie again and tried some really good winter fruit cider. Every night when I get home I can find my flatmates watching their usual soap operas.

My design professor Colin is very hard to describe, but I will say imagine Hugh Grant with white hair, a tad shorter and stouter, and you've got Colin - similar accent and mannerisms. This professor kept telling me that I have to make it up to Evensong some evening at the cathedral to experience the heavenly voices. Thus, on a Thursday I ventured up to the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln. Scenes from the movie The Davinci Code were filmed there. I was in awe of how huge the Cathedral was, just about everywhere in Lincoln you can see it because it is on top of a hill. Since it is a part of the Church of England, no longer Catholic, it saddened me to see how empty if felt since there was no tabernacle or pictures of saints. I quietly walked to the area where the choir was singing and the organ's tune was powerful. This particular evening had a choir of 18 young girls and 12 middle aged men. (If you click the link scroll down and that is what they looked like) There was also a little prayer service between the songs. It lasted for about a half hour. (check out the video I made below.)

When I was in the lab at the library one evening, a few friends came by to work on their group design project. I then met one of their group members, Kylie, who I recognized from my Globalization class with the Scottish professor. We got to talking and I found she grew up in Lincoln a few miles from campus. She has a few show horses and seems to be more 'countryish' rather that a city girl. I was glad to meet her and made plans to experience some true Lincolnshire food and see the countryside a bit. I'm excited that she is so into learning about the Midwest rather than New York City and she wants to come visit me in America someday. She's going to ask her mom if she can bring me home with her sometime for supper too. After walking home from the library, and not getting much done (at least I have 9 weeks for this project) I went to the corner grocery store - Tesco - and bought a pizza to take home and bake, along with some peas (mom- I figured you'd like the fact that yes I bought some frozen peas to make, they are not canned peas and they are like our garden peas so I don't mind them - i still don't like canned peas.) Before I went to the checkout the security guard said "ah, its one of those nights" and we got to talking since I spoke up and he wanted to guess whereabouts I was from. He noted it wasn't Texas, Boston, or New York, then rattled off more southern states and I told him...more like Canada. ND/MN and he wanted me to guess where he was from. It wasn't too hard since I haven't heard anyone with his accent so I guessed Irish and I was right. He was surprised. When I got back to my flat, one of my flatmates was like "Yay, you're eating real food." (The first few days I was here I ate sandwiches, tons of tasty strawberry wholegrain (yes bits of oats mixed in) yogurt and Shreddies cereal, and I made lots of pasta. So this was new for me to be eating pizza. haha.) Though I have had some great meals, ex: I made eggs with mushrooms and toasted hot cross buns with orange juice and Cadbury hot chocolate.

Well, today is Valentines Day and I splurged and had some donuts after mass and I'm going to do some laundry - which costs 2.20 pounds to wash and 1 pound to dry so almost $5 total- talk about expensive, now spending $2 in the dorms to wash and dry clothes is not bad at all.

Tidbits of Info

So now that I'm getting established a bit, I'll talk of some random experiences I've had here thus far. There is one main shopping street - high street- and as you walk towards the city center it becomes just a pedestrian street. There are plenty of pigeons and birds that waddle around and today as I was doing some errands my head nearly got hit by birds on 3 different occasions several minutes in between each other. Also, I've seen a few homeless people as well as security patrolmen as it is a city. I now know where everywhere that I need is located...shopping, church, post office, school, and entertainment. I made first cut for the soccer team and would have played in the game against Coventry today, but it was canceled for some odd reason. I think they were just too scared to play us, their rival.

A few questions I've been asked here are:
Is high school like Mean Girls?
Does everyone drive a truck?
What age are you before you can get your driving license?
Are there really cowboys?
Are there yellow school buses that pick you up to go to school?
Why do parties always have red plastic cups? Are red ones for alcohol and blue ones for everything else?
Is everyone in America fat?
Whereabouts exactly are you from? - they never know where ND/MN are...so I started carrying around a map of America.
Have you been to New York City?

Some questions are easier to answer than others. My flatmates also ask me a lot about what I believe in and about how I was brought up. I also am kinda nervous about making food around them sometimes...so I'm sticking to things like pasta and sandwiches for now. Though I did buy some hot cross buns and they told me to toast them...they were de-lish.

I am not picking up an accent, but I am leaning words for things:
Nickers/underwear, lift/elevator, cheers/thanks or hooray, bursary/financial aid, boot/trunk, wheely can/trash bin, rubbish/garbage, pavement/sidewalk....and it goes on and on. I'll take notes of better ones I come across hopefully.

First Week of Class

Now that I completed my first week of classes here at Lincoln Uni, I'll explain what I'll be studying. On Tuesdays I have a digital multimedia class that I will be in a group creating an interactive DVD of some kind. On Wednesdays I have culture and the environment, which is a lecture class that is self explanatory. There are 2 assignments in the class, a group presentation due in 6 weeks and a final essay due in 12 weeks. On Thursdays I have a design class which hasn't met yet due to Prof Colin being ill. Through my emails with him he seems interesting and I can't wait to see how that class ends up. Though I'm sure it will be challenging. I also have globalization and contemporary culture on Thursdays with a professor that is Scottish. Kinda like the Irish guitarist guy on P.S. I love you. He brought up the subject of Americanism in world culture and McDonaldization already the first day, haha. I don't have class on Fridays or Mondays...giving me four day weekends. I really am not used to all the time I'm going to have. I found some books at the library and am planning to go to adoration at least once a week on Fridays. So between that and football 3 evenings a week I'm sure I'll make do ;)

Some other tidbits about campus...to get to campus, I cross the street (taking note of the English driving on opposite sides of the road as I'm used to) cross a railroad crossing hoping not to have to wait for a passenger train, then walk over a little bridge with swans and ducks floating around on the Brayford (what it looks like at night) and I'm on campus in a few minutes. Very convenient. I'm also close to a grocery store and other shops. I once walked into a "America Fried Chicken and Burgers" fast food place and the guy there was astounded that a real American ordered a combo meal. (it was not even that good of a burger...so i'm going to layoff on eating their processed beef for a while and they also serve it with grated carrots and a different kind of mayo not like miracle whip.) Tonight I'm going to a free buffet for international students at the Tower Bar so I'm excited for that.

Oh, and about the weather...it is usually overcast and rains from time to time on and off. The temperature is usually in the late 30 degrees Fahrenheit and it is chilly, yet no snow on the ground. Just dirt and green grass. Also, people smoke frequently here so it is hard coming from a no-smoking campus in MN to people smoking in front of the doors practically everywhere here.

First Weekend

This weekend was fun, I tried my first selections of cider and i like them a lot...they are like a cross of beer and wine in my opinion. I have yet to try any British beer though. I also had my first cottage pie and it was really neat - a dish consisting of beef mince topped with horseradish and parsnip mashed potato, and baked in an oven....i've not tasted anything like it and it was yummy. Though I'm glad i didn't know horseradish was in it when I ordered it...I had thought it was just garlicy.

I also went to 2 different dances and one had more techno songs (the Engine Shed) and the other actually ended the night with Disney songs from The Little Mermaid and The Lion King (SCREAM). I definitely liked my first impression of SCREAM. It also had music selections from the 80s and 90s.

It rains on and off here. So far its been overcast and sprinkly. It is not the same type of coldness you'll find in ND but it is a wet cold and I still bundle up with my coat and gloves. I haven't gotten used to remembering my umbrella, but I am taking it with me today as I explore town a bit more and go to mass this evening. My apartment is located across the Brayford river right next to my university and within walking distance of everywhere I'd go for shops and things. Though the cathedral is a bit farther away I will eventually get up to visit it and the castle one of these days.

Trip to England and First Few Days

Well, now that i got hooked up with internet and have enough time to start this, here is my epic adventure: England style. I started out leaving Fargo at 1:30pm and I arrived in London at 5am...which converts to be 11am. I met with a professor and ended up sitting in a coffee shop for 2 hours until the other 2 Moorheadians arrived. We drove north of London and I got my first sights of the country. The grass was green and short, it was a tad overcast and the houses were cute with their bricks and trim. Definitely could see that I wasn't in ND anymore since there was no snow at all.

A few hours later I found myself in Lincoln viewing the tremendous cathedral (larger than the castle next to it) and checking into the Junxion where the 3 of us live. It is not owned by the university, but it pretty much is student accommodation apartment flats in an 8-story-high building with a courtyard in the middle. So far I met 1 flatmate who was very helpful though she was caught off guard because she didn't know I was going to be moving in. I live next to 4 girls that are law and finance and accounting students from around England. We share a lounge with leather couches, flatscreen tv, kitchen, and dining area. I have my own room with my very own walk in bathroom and shower that is very handy - i'm so used to sharing that I feel spoiled.

I had a friend take me to pick up a comforter, cell phone, and a few things the first night and got sittuated and talked to my flatmate for a bit. Day 2 we signed up for classes and walked to a nearby convienience store. There I bought strawberry yogurt with wholegrain oats mixed in, which i didn't even notice until I tried it, but ended up it was the best yogurt I have ever had :) I met up with some acquaintances at the chinese buffet Yo-Yo's next door then that evening went across campus to the astro-turf soccer fields (will probably use the term footie in place of soccer now). I practiced with 8 girls and I fit right in since the warmup was similar to Moorhead's dynamic stretching and there were girls more out of shape than me from the break. We had a shooting drill where I did well in stopping shots then I got to play 4 v 4 on the wet turf (it did rain a tad) and found I had some ball shooting and passing skills that worked great and my team won by a lot. I'm excited for the next one on Monday. I walked back home with a Dutch girl on the team and she was great to talk to and was very helpful. I really like hearing the British accents and just being here.