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.