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.