A bit of a recap on the past few days, or weeks, or whatever it has been...

First of all, sorry for the lack of blogging... well not really, I have been in too many cities to count and internet isn't exactly cheap... except when it was free and then I was too busy seeing the cities. Second of all, the keyboards over here have switched the 'z' and 'y' keys so typing anything takes twice as long, even thought only two of the letters are switched... so if zou see (there it was...) a switched y or z just bear with me. Thirdlz, here is a bit of recap stolen from part of an email to the fam:

I am happily settled in Genéve for Christmas. We arrived here after a whirlwind tour of countless cities. While part of the group was in Chemonix, France, I was in Bratislava, Vienna, and Budapest with another of my flatmates. All of the cities were beautiful, but Vienna was my favorite (perhaps because of the opera the first night and the ballet the second night, both for ridiculously cheap tickets). I met up with the rest of my flatmates in Salzburg, Austria and we had a good time touring the city, enjoying the Christmas market and who knows what else. From there, we journied to Prague and enjoyed that city as well, celebrating Emily's 21st birthday at a wonderful French restaurant called Café Louvre, a bit of champagne in the hostel, and early to bed as we had a bunch of traveling to do the next daz. Emily left at some ridiculous hour to fly to England to meet her friend and we took a train (or several as the case may be) to Munich. We actually only spent around 16 hours there, but managed to see the wonderful Christmas market, complete with bratwurst and crepes with nutella, in addition so seeing some famous sights in passing. We also, of course, visited the Haufbrauhaus. All of us had a HUGE stein of beer... 1.01 liters to be exact. It was quite enjoyable and the boys had atleast one more each... anyway we met some very nice Germans who have been meeting at the Haufbrauhaus for over 20 years and one of their Bavarian friends (whom the English speaking doctor could not understand half of the time) kept buying us mulled wine. It was a true German experience, or at least we are pretending that it was. Wow, so, this morning, we woke up very early, again and hopped on a train to Zurich and then another to Genéve. The city is quite beautiful, but is surprisingly lacking in tourist attractions. We are in a hotel and are enjoying the idea of staying in one place for more than two nights and not being in a hostel for once. This evening was pretty relaxed and we have no huge plans for tomorrow other than seeing the James Bond movie (in the original format) and perhaps going to Starbucks for a Christmas Eve coffee, or late, or perhaps peppermint mocha... no we are not addicted. Hopefully, Brandon will not arrive too late and we will have a relaxed Christmas Eve.

As for Christmas, we don't have exact plans, but it will be relaxed, just as anz Christmas should be. So, in the event that I don't get the chance to talk to everzone, have a wonderful Christmas and an incredible New Year! I love and miss you all, but don't worry, I will survive and get to see zou all in a few short months. I will be thinking of zou!!!

Happy Christmas!!!

Wohoo!!

Ok, superfast recap of the past few days.
Bus to London Stansted, flight to Bratislava, taxi to hostel, good night of sleep, a little bit of walking around and then onto a train to Vienna.
Vienna proved to have the most amazing hostel ever... Kate and I saw Don Carlos the first night at the Opera House and the next the Nutcracker, we saw amazing things in the city and generally had a blast... oh, and the Christmas markets and museums were great too. After two nights, we took a train to Budapest.
Budapest is a beautiful city and has been a blast. We have met some really nice Aussies and Californians and our hostel is really neat (Aborigional Hostel). The baths were amazing and it was a great experience.
Tomorrow we get on a train to Salzburg to meet up with some more of the flatmates, it will be good to see them.
There has been so much more, but I just don't have time to write about it all.

I hope all is well with everyone, thanks for the emails! They are great :)
Cheers, Hil

Almost out the door...

So everything is set. I have flights, trains, hostels and my passport. Tomorrow morning, OK later this morning, I head out with Kate to begin our Christmas Holiday Travel. The itinerary is something along the lines of Bratislava, Vienna (2nights), Budapest (2nights), Salzburg (2nights), Prague (2nights), Munich (2nights), Geneva for Christmas (2nights), Cologne (2nights), Paris to see my cousin George and New Years (4 nights), Barcelona (3nights), and finally Madrid to see Brent (3 nights). On January 7 I fly back to Nottingham and stumble in the door to sleep...

The past few days have been crazy with laundry, packing, Mary's birthday (which was great!), Christmasy stuff at the flat including mimosa's and secret santas, the Cross Country Formal Meal (it was really quite posh), and who knows what else. It has been great to receive letters and emails from home, thanks to everyone for that. Incase anyone is bored over the holidays, letters would be greatly appreciated... and incase you don't happen to have the address handy... it is:

HLY
67 Homefield Rd
Nottingham
NG8 5GH
England

Was that too obvious? Sorry, it had to be done.

Anyway, since I most likely won't get to talk to many of you before Christmas, have a wonderful Christmas, a fabulous New Year and to all of those Luther students that are getting ready for J-term trips and Spring semesters abroad, good luck, have fun, keep in touch ... and you will be FINE... everything works out. Have fun and I love you all :)

and a very Happy Christmas to you all...

These past few days have been very close to the stereotypical British end of term time...
Courses finally demanded work to be turned in and I followed British Uni student practice with vigor. I had a paper due on Thursday (50% of my grade) and on Friday (25% of my grade). Needless to say, I procrastinated just enough to get very little sleep the two nights before. On Thursday, I biked to campus in the pouring rain, turned in my paper and biked home to work on homework for Mark and Carol. After a good dinner, we headed out with the Juggins to attend a Panto .

{Pantomime... Apparently, every organization in Britain, from schools and churches to professional acting companies, puts on a pantomime every year around Christmas. Each Panto tells a traditional fairytale with humorous bits inserted... some is slap-stick and the favoured bit is the part called the "dame" which is the middle aged man playing a female's part. The sparkling and gaudy costumes entertain and distract the young children just enough to prevent them from catching on to the political and other inappropriate jokes (which are much appreciated by the adults who are quick enough to catch up on them). For a month surrounding Christmas, large theatres close their doors to the normal performances and have six performances a week of a certain panto...}

We ended up seeing Cinderella and it was quite enjoyable. As the show was designed for children, it was split into three acts, so the intervals provided the opportunity to purchase chocolates, ice cream or drinks... between the little children screaming with delight and the elderly women giggling uncontrollably, it was a great night to watch the people and the show.

On Friday, I biked to campus again to turn in another paper, made it home in time for a nap so I could go back to campus for my last class of the semester for Islam and came home to watch a movie and nap a bit more. Friday night, the flatmates just relaxed and enjoyed each other's company. The project of the evening was a competition between Mary & Kevin and Brandon & myself creating a mix of our favorite music. We ended up with a great collection of music and ended up staying up late just chatting.

Saturday proved to be a relatively lazy day, but I did make it down to the city centre to take care of some Christmas shopping. The Christmas market, although the market square is still under construction, is really fun. Vendors selling crafts, jewelry, small gifts, candies and pretzels and other various foods lined the edges of the square. Small children caroled under the towering Christmas tree and despite the lack of snow, I felt quite in the spirit of the Holiday. After finding the perfect gift for the Secret Santa we are having in the flat, I made my way home in the dark (it was 4:30 and pitch black outside). The group headed back into town to see the movie "The Holiday". Despite the star studded cast, it was not all it was cracked up to be. Fortunately, Emily, Kate and myself had discovered the candy selection prior to the movie. Apparently, it is rather common for theatre's to have bins of all types of candy which may be mixed and matched and purchased by weight. After carefully choosing from the selection (which included licorice allsorts, white mice, fizzing boomerangs, and the like), I understood that the idea of Willy Wonka's candy shops and Hogsmeade's Honeydukes is not all that extreme. Post movie, we made our way to a new pub/bar/club that Brandon had heard about. Although there wasn't any live music by the time we got there, we enjoyed a pint before heading home on the last tram. It was a great weekend day in Nottingham, I look forward to more of those in the spring.

Today somehow managed to slip by without me noticing. I talked to everyone in my family, finalized most of my itinerary, skyped with both my Dad and Joel and ... well, I'm not quite sure what else I did. Well, Aaron, Emily, Ryan, Kevin and myself made our way out for dinner... it turns out that it was the first time any of us had actually eaten out in Nottingham on our own. We went out with Mark and Carol when we first got here and I have been out with Kim and Mom, but that is it. Sad, I know. I will work on that. We went to a noodle place just downtown called Wagamama. It was excellent food and gave me a refresher course on how to use chopsticks. Anyway, it is now much too late for my own good, but I suppose I am just too excited about break. I leave in less than 72 hours.

In the event that the next few days are too crazy for my own good, Happy Christmas and have a wonderful New Year. I miss you all and will be thinking of you - no matter where I am.

...I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten
and children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow.
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white.
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white...

...

Nothing much new at the flat, just wrapping up things for the semester. The final with Mark and Carol last night involved entirely too much writing, but it was fine. Anna's friend from home came to visit, so she will be around for a few days before they head to London to hang out for the weekend. We have a couple last minute details to take care of before we leave (in only SEVEN days) for our break, but otherwise things are OK. I have two papers left to finish and turn in by the end of the week and then I will catch up on my sleep this weekend. On Thursday night, the group is attending a Pantomime, a British Christmas tradition, with the theme of Cinderella. Next week, I will be doing laundry, packing, celebrating Mary's Bday and a semi-Christmas with the flatmates and attending the cross country Christmas Event. Before I know it, I will be gone. I hope everyone is doing well with finals and prep for Christmas. For those of you that are leaving for Spring semester abroad, don't worry about packing, you will be fine. Have a wonderful week!

more than a week...

More than a week since I last posted. Just over a week until I leave for Christmas break. This week, I have a final exam, two papers, and hours of other work to do. Am I stressed, only mildly, I feel as though it will not be too difficult (until about 4am on any given morning) and on the bright side, I got my Eurail pass today! But onto other news...

They boys started decorating for Christmas...

This past weekend, the group traveled to Stratford-Upon-Avon. Instead of all piling into our trusty coach with our speedy coach driver Roger, Mark and Carol rented a car. Carol drove the program car and Mark drove the stick-shift rental. We were ordered to pack light for the weekend, so we all fit everything we needed into the typical bookbag/backpack size bag. Plenty of room to spare in the cars. I found this extremely ironic as we all took our huge hiking packs on the first couple trips and couldn't fit everything we wanted to take in... hmmm... atleast we are getting better at packing more efficiently. Anyway, after an almost uneventful ride there on Friday morning (yeah, we missed classes, again. I wonder if that will be reflected in our Islamic Tradition grades?) we checked into our guest house and received our itineraries. Unlike other trips which had our every moment planned out, we had a list of places to visit and a ticket to get into all of them and two days to do it in. A quick take-away pasty lunch (a convenient way for Mark and Carol to save money... afterall, "It's December and we're low on money in the budget" as Carol said. Funny, they will pay for us to go into a costume Museum in Bath that was a complete waste of time and they have to scrimp later. No worries though, we all had plenty of food and I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed their pasty (from Thai chicken to Bacon, Cheese, and Leek to Apple, Rhubarb, Custard... it was good all around).

Stratford-Upon-Avon (which is getting annoying to type... I'll just call it Stratford from now on... OK? good :) ) is a nice small town. Small in comparison to Nottingham, approximately 25,000, so about the size of Freeport. As it was the first weekend of December, the Christmas decorations were out in full force and it was quite pretty, especially at night. Obviously, the town is best known for its link to Master William Shakespeare. I'm not sure if it is a good thing or not, but any and every house that could possibly be tied to the Shakespeare name ... has been tied to it. We saw his birthplace, the ruins of the great house he bought later in life, the house that was next door to that, Anne Hathaway's cottage (which he never lived in and probably spend little if anytime in...), his daughter's husband's house, his grand daughter's husband's house, the church his dad attended and his grave. Needless to say, I know a LOT about life in England around Shakespeare's life time. Once again, I learned that modern amenities are a wonderful thing. Aside from visiting Shakespeare related places, during the day, we walked through markets, cute little shops and one of the days I had lunch at a cute tea shop with Mary and Emily. It was a nice roomie bonding session.


On both Friday and Saturday night, the group attended a play performed at the SWAN theatre. Of course, before we came to Stratford, Mark and Carol prepared us for the plays by having us read the first couple acts and discussing both at length. We prepared ourself for the spoken Shakespearian word by watching "Shakespeare in Love" and a recent production of "Hamlet" with Bill Murray and many other popular actors/actresses that I should know. The first night, we saw Pericles performed with somewhat present day African influences. I know that sounds slightly odd, but it was phenomenal. I was completely engrossed in everyword after the first three lines and although it was nearly a four hour ordeal (including the half hour intermission), the time flew. To complete the night, we went out to the oldest pub in town afterwards and had a drink with Mark and Carol. The next night, we met for dinner at a great pasta place and then headed back to the SWAN for a performance of The Winter's Tale. This performance had influences of Europe in the 1940's, again it was an excellent performance. Although I was not as engrossed in this story, the acting was quite good.


On Sunday morning, the group attended church at the Cathedral in Stratford (communion was served ten feet away from Shakespear's grave... I found that awkward... anyway...). It was a cheerful service with a great deal of congregational participation. From Stratford, we journied to Chipping Campden. We had a great lunch of soup and bread and tea at a little tea shop (Mark and Carol even sprung for a slice of our choice of cake at the end...). We walked around the town and took in the surroundings and then spent some time in the cathedral. The oldest parts of the church dated back to the 11th century, but most of it was 16th century. A quick trip home with no major navigational errors and we were welcomed back to Nottingham by a cold, dark flat. The power was out. After lighting nearly fifty candles, the power came back on. We were happy to have heat and light, and perhaps most importantly... computers. (There are a few new pics on Picasa) This week will be interesting. I hope all is well back in the States and that everyone is enjoying the winter weather (Illinois has at least 8 inches of snow!). xoxo Hil

Another weekend has flown by...

The rest of the weekend was just about perfect.

Having John come to class with us on Friday was just like old times (when Kev, John, and I were all in the same religion class at Luther) and it was actually fun. From class, we came home to have a dinner of Thanksgiving leftovers with Mark, Carol, John, and Mary's parents. Brandon had choir practice, but after he came home, we headed out for the night. We showed John around the city centre at night (the Christmas market is in full swing and the decorations are fabulous) and took him to our favourite places to go out. Pitcher and Piano was classy, as usual, and Revolution was fun, as always, and we ended our night at Dogma, which was loud, as usual. It decided to start pouring, so instead of walking back from city centre which had proved to be a cheaper and enjoyable way to get home, we split into two groups and caught taxis back to the flat. Once again, we stayed up talking too late... I purposely did not look at my watch when I finally crawled into bed.

Saturday started with everyone waking up around noon. I actually woke up a bit earlier and went for a short run, which felt surprisingly good after staying up so late two nights in a row. We all raced to get ready and head out the door for the Forest football game. Along the way, we decided to have a pre-game meal/drink/ whatever, so we stopped in at the traditional place for Forest fans. Hooters. OK, I know, gross. It was my first time there and it was packed with football fans of both sexes and of all ages (a few months all the way upto around 80 years old). The boys got a drinks and wings and Emily and I split quesidillas. We met up with Mary and her parents just outside after we were done and we made our way to the game. We got there a bit late and ended up missing the first goal... it was Milwall against us. Fortunately, the Forest came back and ended up winning 2-1. We had heard tha Milwall was notorious for thier rowdy fans and noticed the excess of police and security at the game. After the last games events, we were surprised when no riots broke out. However, on the way back to the tram, we noticed that the entire contingent of Milwall fans was being herded by police and and police vehichles and police horses back to the train station. When I say herded, that is actually what I mean. The fans were kept in a group and were surrounded by literally hundreds of police. Traffic was delayed to keep the fans seperate and pedestrian traffic (of the Forest variety) was also delayed in order to keep the Milwall fans inline and on their way out safely.

Once home, we warmed up, had dinner, took naps, watched a movie and then headed out to the Lion for a quieter evening. David Juggins had told us that there was going to be a phenomenal band playing at the Lion on Sat. night, so we made our way there. The place was packed and the band was phenomenal. It was a traditional Irish band and the atmosphere which is generally so comfortable anyways, was even more so and it was an overall happy time. We met up with the Juggins, Mark and Carol and Mary and her parents later on in the evening. It was a great night with specialty cask ale pints, good music and friends and family. Suddenly, time had flown once again and we headed home around one and once we got back to the flat, stayed up talking again. This morning, everyone crawled out of bed to say goodbye to John. Kevin and I left with John at 8:30 to take him to the station and find him a ticket. We made it in plenty of time, and once again, I said goodbyes at the station. It is not getting any easier to watch friends and family pull away from that station, knowing that I will not see them for atleast seven more months. I came back to the flat with the intention of going back to bed, but wasn't sleepy anymore. I ended up watching a movie and once Kate joined me, and put in another movie, my sleep deprivation caught up with me. I soon fell asleep and actually slept for about four hours on the comfiest couch in our living room. After dinner, I've finally caught up on all of my emails and pictures (be sure to check my picasa page for new pictures) and am ready to start one of many large papers that are due over the next two weeks. I hope everyone had a fun and safe Thanksgiving weekend. Cheers.

Celebrating Thanksgiving in the Mother Country...

After much excitement, we Thanksgiving finally arrived. With the day itself arrived John from Switzerland (he finally arrived at 2am on Thanksgiving day) and a ton of great food. After staying up talking to John for entirely too long, I slept for a few hours. I woke up later that same day to start cooking. After making pie crust and pumpkin pie from scratch (I literally started with pumpkins because England doesn't know what canned pumpkin is) I started washing dishes and helping around the kitchen. Everything came together in plenty of time and it was a relatively relaxed day. We had hors d'oeuvres served at five and dinner was served at six. Our guests included (aside from the nine flatmates and Mark and Carol) Mary's parents (Frona and Ricky! they are so much fun...), Kate and David Juggins, and John. Even though the guest list wasn't that big, sixteen people is a lot of people. After an appropriate beginning of giving thanks, courtesy of Carol, we all dug into the food. The list of dishes we had is simply staggering, but included such things as: deviled eggs, mushroom rolls, turkey, stuffing/dressing. gravy, special mashed potatoes (with or without mushrooms), candied sweet potatoes (with or without marshmallows on top), green bean casserole (with or without oniony things on top), five hour rolls, cranberry sauce, apple pie, pumpkin pie, and rice pudding and wine and several other things I am sure I am forgetting. Needless to say, no one went hungry and we will be eating left overs for the next five days. It was an impressive spread and it was all served on beautifully decorated candlelit tables. It was so much fun to have so many people all together, eating, talking, and laughing. It was actually quite loud and a generally boisterous meal.

Today I have two classes, one of which John is coming to bc Kevin, Brandon and I (and Mary, Em, and Aaron) are all in and well, it will be somewhat amusing. After classes are done, we have a weekend of excitement ahead of us. The Forest/Milwall game on Saturday, a couple live bands are playing at our favorite pub, and who knows what else. (Homework? maybe? well, I guess that is what Sundays are for...)

I hope everyone at home had a wonderful thanksgiving with family and friends. I miss you all, but the comments, emails, and phonecalls are much appreciated. Have a great long weekend!

yay for visitors...

Another week of classes slipped by and suddenly, my Mom was here. It is impossible to describe how fast the time flew. It was fun to show my Mom where I live, work (go to school), and play (run and go out). We visited the Nott'm castle, had tea and scones, had Indian, French, and Italian food, saw an opera, walked all over creation, visited a small village outside the city limits and enjoyed countless other things too. It was nice to receive hugs (thanks to all of my family that passed hugs along via my mom, they were greatly appreciated) and just to talk. It was hard saying goodbye at the train station this morning, but I knew it would be. The rest of the day was filled with classes and organizing emails and paperwork that built up from the weekend. The next two days will be filled with writing papers and classes and then on to Thanksgiving (with John! who is visiting from Switzerland). I hope all is well in the states. More later, but now it is time for bed. G'night.

exciting!

Our trip to the Southwest was great. We stayed in a nice hostel and had fun wandering the city. We had interesting trips to museums such as the Roman Baths Museum and the Costume Museum. OK, the costume museum wasn't so much interesting as incredibly painful. Come on, try on corsets for fun? No thanks. To treat ourselves after the not funness of that museum a few of us went to a Starbucks. Sad, I'm in England and I went to a Starbucks, but it was delicious and worth every pence. Our evenings were filled with high class entertainment. The first night we had the chance to hear the London Philharmonic as part of the Mozart Fest. The second night, we heard Mozart's opera "Cosi fan Tutti" performed. Both performances were phenomenal. On Monday, we began our journey home. We stopped in Wells to tour the Cathedral and get a taste for the English school system (courtesy of a Luther grad who now teaches there). From there we drove to Stonehenge and literally looked at it through the grates of a fence. Apparently Luther College doesn't think it worth the money to let us into that incredible historical site, but deems a Costume museum an appropriate use of money. After using the services (facilities, loo, whatever you want to call it) and taking too many pictures of the druid ruin, we headed out yet again. We finished the day in Avebury (a town that was accidentally built in the middle of a huge stone circle) by walking amongst the stones and eating our sack dinner. We straggled back to the coach in the dark and settled in for the long ride home.

Once back at the flat, Kevin and I were greeted with incredible news, once again. Both the Luther XC men and the women placed 2nd at regionals (with many all regional performers) and qualified for nationals! I am so proud and so excited for them. A busy few days later, I am hurrying to write (OK, procrastinating) a paper for this afternoon's class with Mark and Carol.

In other news: MY MOM IS COMING TODAY!
I have been so excited. We will be spending four-ish days hanging out in Nottingham. An Opera, cream tea, and much walking is on the agenda as is a good Indian meal and dinner at the flat and who knows what else. As for now, I really should get going on that paper so I can go meet my mom at the train station on time. Oh, and be sure to check my photo page, there are plenty of pictures from our Southwest trip posted. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Randomness...

So, at long last, here is the tiny little bit of the London story that is left: Mary, Em and I got up early and collected breakfast, courtesy of the hostel, and made our way to the train station and enjoyed our breakfast there as we waited for Kate and Anna to arrive. With everyone safely there, we found our seats and headed home. Much less eventful than our trip there, that's for sure. On the way home, Mary and I decided how to get from the tram to the hotel our parents are staying at when they come to visit... so with our HUGE hiking packs we figured it out. Mom and Dad, you will be happy to know, the tram is about a 2 and a half minute walk away from the hotel. Perfect.
When we walked in the door, we were happy to see that the boys had not burned the place down while we had been away. Our euphoria didn't last long because we soon walked into the kitchen to see it literally filled with dirty dishes. There were NO clean dishes left. Fortunately, the boys had done that solely for the purpose of horrifying us. It worked. The dishes were soon washed and the bread and cookies that Kevin had baked were brought out to welcome us home. It was good to be back.
Less than an hour later, Mark Lund from Luther College came by to chat with us about how the program was going and to see if we had any suggestions for future years. It was nice to see a familiar face from Luther, even if he is a professor. That night I headed to campus to hear Aaron in his first orchestra concert. Despite his complaints about the group, Mar, Kev, Em, Anna and myself thought it was an excellent concert.
Fastforward through four days of classes, paper writing, and watching five episodes of LOST (at last!) all in one night, here I am typing away instead of working on the mounting pile of homework. I have booked my flight home, ironically, it is on the same flight that the group is taking home, and have yet to figure out exactly what is going on over Christmas Holiday. Today is Kim's 25th birthday (I hope I get to talk to her... she has been busy so far) and I found out last night that my cousin is engaged, how exciting! In other news, Mom is coming next Thursday (I have the tickets for Rigoletto!),Mary's parents are coming soon after, and John is flying in from Switzerland to spend Thanksgiving with us. All through this I have the most homework I have ever had before... scary, but it will, uh, build character... or something like that. Be sure to look at my London pics, they are up on Picassa now. We leave on Saturday morning for the Southwest (Bath and Wells) and will get back on Monday night, missing yet another day of classes for Luther travel. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. Oh, and story of the week: Emily has a friend who has the same name of a boy I was friends with in kindergarten, strange coicidence... right? It turns out it is the same guy, apparently he moved from Freeport to several other cities and ended up in Decorah and became friends with Emily. Anyway, he remembered me and so the two of us ended up chatting on IM for a while. Small world. So, now, it's time for homework or something. Have a great night and I'll talk to you all soon. Cheers!

Lodon, continued...

OK, after a beautiful bike ride to and from a decent psych lecutre, here is the rest of the story on London...
After finding tickets for the next night, we had dinner at a restaraunt on Leicester Square and headed to our theatre. Little did we know, there was an Apollo Theatre and an Apollo Victoria Theatre. Fortunately, after running up at down the street right before theatre time, we found a taxi and made it to the correct Apollo just in time. Even though our seats were incredibly high up in the balcony, Wicked was amazing. Idina Menzel played the part of Alfaba and was phenomenal. After many smiles, a few tears, and thundrous applause, we all headed back to our hostels. it was an excellent first day in London.
Saturday started out quite leisurely as well. Mary, Em and I eventually made our way to Camden Market and looked around. It was neat to notice the differences bettween Camden Market and Canal Street in NYC... Kim had told me all about Camden Market and I actually found the stall where she bought the ring she gave me... it was weird to think that we had both been there. Then I realized that my entire family will have been in London sometime within a five month span, just never at the same time. Weird. Mary and I each bought a pashmina (I love them!) and we grabbed lunch in the part of the market that has tons of food stalls. It was hard to choose with vendors yelling "You try some!" "Free, for you, good sample!". I eventually settled on a non descript Asian place. Only three pounds got me entirely too much food. A dish with half fried rice, half noodles, and topped with delectable chicken. We met up with Kate and Anna and shared stories from the morning.
From Camdentown, we hopped back on the tube and made our way to the Tate. Unfortunately, the guidebook I was using was written before the Tate Modern was completed... so we ended up at the Tate Britain. We looked at the gift shop, used the facilities, got directions to Tate Modern and left. The Tate Modern is located on on the Thames in a converted power plant building. It is hard to convey how amazing the collection of art is. The girls split up to enjoy the museum at our own pace. I loved every moment of it. Although I wasn't a fan of all of the art, so what. I saw some amazing things. The highlight of my visit was finally getting to see a Piet Mondrian... well, actually three. He was the first artist that I knew well enough to recognize (his work is pretty distinctive) and so it has always been close to my heart. Some of the most famous works or works that I enjoyed the most were by: Jackson Pollock, Picasso, Monet, Reindhardt, Andy Warhol, Piet Mondrian, Degas, Edvard Munch, and Matisse. It was an experience (once again, free).
Kate split off of the group as she had more time before her show (Avenue Q), but Anna, Em, Mar and I all stayed together. We walked along the Thames, by the Globe, and across the Millenium bridge as the sun finished setting and the moon became brighter. It was beautiful. We walked near St. Paul's and got on the tube back to Leicester Square to find some dinner. After dinner, Anna and Emily caved and went to McDonald's to get a McFlurry. They are only a pound. That is so incredibly cheap by any standards, it was hard not to get it. However, I have vowed NEVER to eat in a McDonald's if I am out of the US. So I abstained. We walked down to Picadilly Circus and parted ways. Anna left to see Patrick Swayze in Guys and Dolls and Mar, Em and I went to see "39 Steps". Another great night of West End performances was thoroughly enjoyed. We went back to our hostel, checked the internet, watched some British television and went to bed early again. It was another great day.
OK, so this is getting annoying, but I have to go finish up a paper before dinner, so the rest of the blog will be continued later tonight. Have a peachy day!

A great girls weekend out...

After our class with Mark and Carol on Thursday, we (the girls) threw our last minute belongings into our huge hiking backpacks and headed out the door. Before we could leave, Mark, Carol and all of the boys stopped us and gave each and everyone of us a hug. It was really cute. We made our way to the train station picked up our tickets, and about forty frenzied minutes later, we were on A train to London. Note that I said a train, not our train. The train ride was nice enough, we enjoyed our packed dinner and chatted and figured out our route through the tube. With our tired backs we made our way to our hostel. The Palmer's Lodge was set in a nice neighborhood just off the tube stop. It is in an old victorian building and appeared to very nice. After Emily, Mary and I checked in, we went back out with Anna to go to her hostel and meet Kate. At best, it was an exciting? no, perhaps heroing... experience. We were glad to see Kate and got Anna all settled in. After listening to a bit of loudly played jazz-like improv, Mar, Em and myself quickly made our way back to the tube stop and relaxed as we entered the more friendly part of London.
Our hostel turned out to be great. Although we stayed in an eight person room, it was comfortable, secure, clean and cozy. We thoroughly enjoyed the free internet and delicious continental breakfasts during our stay. The next morning was quite leisurely. We slept in a bit, got ready and headed out to meet Anna and Kate near Trafalgar square. The weather was cool and crisp, but it was sunny the whole day. Layering proved to be a valuable plan. We enjoyed the National Portrait Gallery (we had seen a special exhibit of some of the works when we were in York). It was fascinating to see how the works have changed over the years, from paintings that flatter the subject to realistic paintings and sculptures and today's artistic photographs and works in other mediums. Needless to say, it was fun... and thanks to the British Government, free. Excellent, it fit perfectly into my budget. We went outside to enjoy the weather and Trafalgar Square and found a bite to eat at a neat little sandwich place Emily had found during her JTerm trip last year. Afterwards, we made our way back through Trafalgar, avoiding the trash (OK, not trash, London was actually pretty clean... or atleast it seemed to be until you blew your nose. Last time I checked tissues shouldn't be black. But, trash, right... Em has a dislike for winged things that frequent big public places in big cities. Birds.) so we avoided the trash and made our way to the National Gallery. My favorite section was the display 'Manet to Picasso' so I spent a considerable amount of time there. Unfortunately, well maybe fortunately, it was understandably crowded so I soon made my way to some parts of the museum I might not have been to otherwise. The collection there, to say the least, is phenomenal. Seurat, Rysselberghe, Signac, Degas, van Gogh, Renoir, Manet, Monet, Picasso, Pissaro, Rembrandt and da Vinci, just to name a few. Once again, all of that was free to the public. Thank you England.

OK, once again, I lost track of time, I'm off to a psych lecture...
I'll write more.
Cheers :)

London!

The past two days have been filled with homework and classes and two amazing phone conversations with my parents. It was nice to just talk with them both for a while. Needless to say, I am rather excited for them to come visit (Mom in two weeks! and Dad in the Spring sometime). Both yesterday and today, it has been absolutely beautiful outside. Although it has been a bit chilly, the crisp air blowing around the {finally} colored leaves in the sunshine entirely makes up for it.

On Thursdays, since I have no classes at Uni, I get to spend the day in my pj's catching up on emails and homework. Today, however, I also have to pack. The girls (Anna, Emily, Kate, Mary, and I) are all leaving for London for the weekend. We are staying in hostels and going to see Wicked on Friday night. Beyond that we have no set plans. It should be a great weekend. So, I'm off to get some reading in and pack. Have a great weekend and be sure to look for pics when I get back from London. Cheers!

Happy Halloween...

This morning, it was cloudy and blustry outside, but still quite nice. I tumbled out the door and went for a nice run exploring new running routes and new parts of Nottingham (or Aspley and Strelley as the case maybe). I found a few new sports grounds and parks which aren't too far away and will prove useful for grass running, instead of hard pavement. It didn't really hit me that it was Halloween until I saw a huge black cat sitting on a fence next to the path. Huh, how appropriate. A couple miles later, I saw a sign for the parish church and remembered that Mark had mentioned the church in Strelley so I made my way towards it. It was a beautiful old church, or at least it had been beautiful in its day. There was a newer addition to the building that was in sharp contrast to the gothic style of the church and the older part of the church had had the windows cemented shut and barbed wire added to the edge of the roof. Needless to say, it looked pretty unfriendly. Oddly enough, the sign was well kempt and proclaimed that Eucharist still went on at 10:3o every Sunday. The graves in the church yard turned out to not be that old, dating back only until 1830. The most recent grave was from 1979. (OK, I realize that 1830 was a while ago, but by British standards, that is quite modern) Anyway, I went on my way and finished my run just as it started to rain. A good start to the day.

Psych lecture was fine, but meeting up with Em and Mar in the beautiful Art History building afterwards was much better. I also discovered that the cafe there makes a wonderful mocha. This may have to become a Tuesday tradition. With several topics discussed and two chapters of Oakland's book read, I made my way home in one of the sunny patches of weather. (It tends to change from rainy, cloudy, sunny, and windy - and sometimes all at once - several times each hour). Somehow the rest of the afternoon slipped by and it was time for dinner with our guest lecturer. The guest of the evening was Hetain Patel. He was absolutely fascinating to listen to. He is a British Indian artist who is the current resident artist at UNott. His website is definitely worth checking out:
http://www.hetainpatel.com
It was incredible to be around art that isn't perfectly streamlined with society's ideal of what art should be. It also reminded me that I haven't seen Kim dance in a very, very long time. This is a problem that should soon be remedied. Mom? Dad? We'll have to work on that. The irony of the day was when I was in the Art History building, I was walking to the bathroom and stopped to admire a photograph on the wall near the gallery. It was an artistically posed shot of a man with henna painted on his head and shoulders. I was impressed, but moved on and thought nothing more of it. Tonight, I realized and learned that that piece was indeed by Hetain Patel and the subject of the photo was the artist himself. Neat.

After the lecture, the group tried to figure out some basic plans for Christmas Holiday. It didn't work. Now that everyone is a bit stressed and entirely bored with the logistics of anything having to do with travel, we are finally trying to finish our journals and chronologies for Mark and Carol. Blargh. So, I'm off to work on a bit more homework before bed. Goodnight all.

Same trip, 36 years later...

The Lake District was beautiful {See new photos on Picasa web page... the link is right... there -->). After hiking across mountains, all the while seeking out sheep, National Trust houses, and dry places to sit while listening to lectures and Wordsworth poems, the group survived, had a good time, and came home a tired bunch. Ironically, we were more rested after the trip than the morning we left for the trip (Brandon's 21st birthday was the night before, we will leave it at that). Be that as it may, returning home was nice. It's official, the flat has become home.

As soon as the coach arrived in front of the flat, Kevin and I raced to the computers. Within a few seconds, we were yelling in celebration... the Luther Cross Country team succeeded in being CONFERENCE CHAMPS!!! Both the norsewomen and the norsemen beat Wartburg. All seven of the varsity women had stunning performances and finished in the top 15 - making the entire varsity squad All-Conference performers. What an honor. Needless to say, for the next hour, I was obsessed with checking the results and looking at friends pictures from the race, the award ceremony and the after party. Congrats Norse!

After I read my other emails, I learned that 36 years ago, a certain someone visited the Lake District with her sisters. It turns out that they too went to Grasmere and Windemere. They also stayed in a B&B and had some rather excellent gingerbread. Honestly, that's a little creepy Mom, we did all of that. I think it's kinda neat that I retraced my Mom's steps and at the same age.

Anyway, there isn't much else to tell. We visited William Wordsworth's home in Grasmere and we hiked. It was rather wet, as it always is in the Lake District, but that didn't manage to dampen our spirits. The paths were more often more like streams than walkways, but it was all in good fun. Along the foot paths, we stopped often to rest or take pictures. At the end of the day, Mark and Carol guessed we walked about ten miles. It was hard to believe that we had gone that far, but I guess if you are walking all day, it is pretty easy to get into the double digits. Fortunately, on Sunday, we had perfect weather for the hike. While we were hiking, we had a picnic lunch. We tend to that a lot, I like it much better than guided tours in touristy places. Good job Mark and Carol. After the picnic lunch, Mark lectured, Carol read literature aloud to us, and Brandon recited a poem. It was the epitome of a liberal arts education. Nice work Luther. Oh, and it conveniently happened that we happened to go to the Lake District at halfterm... so all of the hostels were full. Shoot, we stayed in a really nice B&B. It was rather fantastic. Down comforters on the beds, amazing french style breakfasts, and ensuite bathrooms all added to the cozy atmosphere of the quaint building.

After booking tickets to and from London for Mar, Em, Anna and myself, it is time to go to bed...

Tomorrow is Halloween, but I'm not sure if too many people will actually be dressed for the occasion in lecture tomorrow. Our flat is void of pumpkins and there will be no trick-or-treating... just the first of the subtly different schedule of Holidays in England. Be sure to eat some candy corn for me...

Thinking of Iowa...

As I sit in the Library, trying to study, my mind keeps wandering back to Luther. Mainly the Luther XC team since the Conference Championship meet is tomorrow. Over the past two months, I have been checking the results online, emailing and facebooking with much of the team and occasionally talking to them on the phone... needless to say, it has been hard. The women (and men) have been doing such a great job this season, times have been dropping, they have been running strong, and now all that is left is the Championship races.

I guess all that is left is to say is:

Here's to you ladies...
Tomorrow will be a great day.

Salvidor Dali...

About time...

This is the Dali I was talking about.

I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did (and do).

I would also like to point out that tonight's dinner started just before six and the lecture did not conclude until after 9:30PM. Needless to say, the roomies (soon followed by the rest of the flat) ended the night with chocolate and wine. Life is good.

Good night kittens, good night mittens. Good night knitting, good night chair.

Good night moon.

Chatsworth and time flying...

Sunday proved to be an interesting day. Chatsworth was great, but more importantly, the flatmates figured out a lot about eachother and I can honestly say, now, that I think that we are all the better for it. Either way, Chatsworth (one of the homes of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire) was a good experience. The house was entirely too elaborate for my taste, but it was interesting to see all of the artifacts and artwork that was contained in the house. The wanderings in the park/forest before lunch was also nice, a bit muddy, but nice. The entire forest and landscape surrounding the house had been designed by Capability Brown (a landscape architecht in the 1700's). The artificial lakes and aqueduct were all quite pleasing to the eye, but my favorite part was finally seeing some fall color. England doesn't quite do fall colour like the midwest. This is the most color I have seen yet, and apparently, the most I will see.

After a delicious lunch at a charming tea house in the village, we walked back to the house. Along the way, we saw the beginning of a hunt. (It would have been a fox hunt, but that isn't exactly legal now) The Duchess of Devonshire was there to send off the riders and we exhibited our best impersonation of tourists by taking tons of pictures. Here are a few:

The man in the red jacket blew the hunting horn and they were off. We followed at a much slower pace and made our way to the house for the tour. By the time we were ready to explore the gardens, it had started pouring. What's new? We went out in the rain and got wet. It was worth it. There is a special display of dozens of famous modern sculptures throughout the extensive gardens. We had a fun time sloshing through the puddles, taking pictures of the priceless works of art while trying to shield our precious cameras from the raindrops and noting places that were in the new version of "Pride and Prejudice". My favorite sculpture was by Salvidor Dali. I think it can explain itself.

OK, well, I can't get it to upload, but I will eventually post it on my Picasa page.

After a trek back to the cars, we tried to dry off on the long ride home. Once we were wrapped up in sweatshirts and thick socks, we settled in for another relaxing night. Suddenly, it is Tuesday night and the dinner bell just rang. Again. Where did the last two days go? Classes have been good and running has been great, but it is insane how fast the time flies. Ok, Mark and Carol are calling us, time to go to dinner/class.

What a weekend...

Where to start? The past 24 hours have been pretty amazing. Friday evening started out poorly when Mark gave us a long lecture about 'grand homes' and their respective gardens and surrounding grounds. After the lecture ran late, Mary threw together a phenomenal dinner. Things were looking up. We had penne pasta with freshly made pesto (fresh basil, pinenuts, olive oil, sundried tomatoes and parmesean cheese), a crispy baguette, and brownies served warm with icecream and chocolate and toffee sauce. Completely satisfied, we all settled in for a bit of downtime. I took an unexpected nap down in the library while talking with Mary and Kev, but soon, once we were all awake, we decided to go out for the evening.

Everyone, except Anna who is still battling with sickness, went out. We headed down to Lace Market at went to the Tantra Lounge. It was busy, but relaxed. The eight of us found a plush couch/cushiony area to sit and chatted for a bit. Aaron had to leave because of an early morning engagement, so our number was down to seven. From Tantra, we walked to Pitcher & Piano. This bar is actually a beautiful old church that has been converted into a very chic hot spot for young people on the weekends. Oh, and I should redefine young people. The age of going out people here is not 21-25, but something closer to 18-30ish. It is nice to see such an array of people when you go out. Anyway, even though the bar is in a church and it feels a bit wrong, it is a really fun place that all of us will end up back at. We stayed there for some time... we ran into some friends that Anna had made a couple weeks ago and met some new friends as well. Time flew by, at some later hour that I will not disclose, we left to head to one last place. Dogma was our last stop and it proved to be just what we needed. The first floor was a lounge area, the ground floor a bar, and the basement a disco. We stayed at the bar for all of two seconds and headed downstairs to dance. Mary, Em, Kev, Brandon and myself danced for who knows how long. Finally, for the sake of our ears and the girls feet (we were all in high heels), we decided to head home.

After walking to city centre and learning that a taxi will not hold seven people, especially when driving way up to Aspley (Where? Aspley? No we don't go that far), we finally found a van taxi, told the driver we only had six people and were on our way home. Once in the door, we walked up the stairs, looked through the pictures from the evening and headed for bed.

This morning... OK, this afternoon, I awoke to the phone ringing. As the phone usually only rings when Mark calls, a sense of dread rose from the pit of my stomach. I had horrible visions of more homework or some ridiculous request... fortunately, it was the program friend David Juggins. We had planned to go to the Forest game today which started at three, but we learned from David that we should leave no later than one. It was 12:30 when I woke up. One hour later, eight of us tumbled out the door with wet hair (from showering and getting ready quickly) and sandwiches in our hands. We made our way down to the city grounds.

After walking from the last tram stop towards the grounds, we became part of a rush of people and traffic moving towards the stadium. Vendors sold HAM burgers and chips, cheeseburgers, brats, and other sporting event foods, some sold scarves, flags and jerseys... the excitement was rising as young people (the ones NOT wearing jerseys) chanted insulting (to the opposing team) cheers as they paraded through the crowds. We finally qued (que means line, que takes all forms of the english language possible... que, qued, queing, etc.) for tickets. At only ten pounds, we were thrilled. We made our way around to the back side of the stadium and climed to our seats. There is not a bad seat in the house. The stadium was not packed, but still had atleast 15,000 fans. We reached out seats just in time to see the kickoff.

Bristol City vs. Nottingham Forest. The game was, for the lack of a better word, intense. We cheers and gasped in all the right places. Were appalled at some of the ref's calls and wondered at the words of the sing song cheers echoing across the stadium from the 'Trent End' and the visitor end. The Forest scored the only goal of the game early on, on a direct penalty kick. It was the perfect shot. The footwork and endurance of the players was something like I have never seen before. Football here is a lifestyle. (If you have to wonder if football is soccer or not, just remind yourself that the US is the only nation that calls the mindless - and boring - game of pigskin 'football' and the game I am talking about actually involves people using their feet to maneuver a ball). The fans, the teammates, the sponsors. The energy in the stadium is entirely focused on the game. Few people leave thier seats for beer or food or bathroom breaks. No food vendors wander the stairs selling popcorn, Coke, or hotdogs. There is no announcer commentating on the game constantly. There is no scoreboard and no instant replay and especially no jumbotron. It was simply football.

Nottingham Forest won and the fans cheered. We waited to leave and followed the crowds through the streets. Before we were too far away from the stadium, but far enough that the bobbies and police weren't around anymore, a fight broke out. The fight turned into a bit of a riot... and well... after several chairs flew through the air and a great deal of glass was shattered, police arrived from all over running, by van, and on horseback. To those of you that are concerned, I was atleast 200 meters away from the action and surrounded by other people who were avoiding the violence as well... most importantly, Kevin, Brandon, Aaron and Ryan were near by and were ready to save the ladies if it came to that. Boys are good for that when you're in strange places. Anyway, it broke up quickly enough and we were able to pass to makeour way back home.

After all of that excitement, I am at home, in my PJ's, on the computer. I had wonderful left overs for dinner and icecream for desert. Life is good. Tomorrow we head out to Chatsworth for a visit to the Lake District. Another fun filled day of education. Woo. As for now, I'm off to chat with a friend on Skype and then Dad. Oh, and Kev is working on cookies in the kitchen so we can have a snack for our movie night. Sleep tight and enjoy the rest of your weekends!

Robin Hood Pub Golf...

Wow.

What an evening.

A decent day of classes and then an evening of fun. Cross country was excellent. I got the chance to see almost all of Wollaton Park (and the deer in rutting season, a bit scary) and run with fun people. The day was concluded with an excellent dinner, courtesy of Em, Ryan and myself (Curried chicken and rice with naan and mango mousse). Soon after, Kev and I headed out for the XC social. After a rousing round of pub golf we headed to Isis. Overall it was a really enjoyable evening. Upon returning to Aspley, I had a good bonding session with Brando, Kev, Mary and Em. Now, at entirely too late of an hour, it is time for bed. Good night, sleep tight, and I'll talk to you all soon.

Cheers,

Hil

Tuesdady night class...

At 6:00pm our class began.
It is now 9:13pm and our guest speakers are still here.
Granted our speakers did not arrive until after dinner had concluded, but the dinner with Mark and Carol was basically class. As usual. Not to complain, but there you have it.
(Don't worry, the students were dismissed. It's time for adult talk. We are all gratefully hiding in our rooms, the basement or the kitchen cupboard... We wouldn't be rude. That's not what we do.)

Today was the third lecture for Cognitive Psychology. It was nice to be in a lecture and realize that I may acutally be in the right major. Not only did I know enough background information to breeze through the lecture, but I actually enjoyed it and eagerly lapped up the new material. After lecture I signed up for tutorials (the first is on the 27th and the rest will be held fortnightly until the conclusion of term). Much to my surprise, we have more than five books out of which we are to read several chapters prior to discussioni in tutorials. Apparently they do study over here. I am optimistic and hope that I will enjoy the impending reading.

Tonight, the agenda includes more homework, journaling, triming Kevin's hair, planning meals for the next two weeks and procrastinating, as usual. Another side note, bunches of people have been getting Skype so they can talk to all of their crazy friends that are abroad. It is really nice to hear familiar voices from thousands of miles away. Anyway, back to the books. Goodnight.

girls night in...

On Friday, after a sumptuous dinner of leftovers, the group headed out to The Lion, David Juggins' favorite pub. (Dave and Kate Juggins are long time friends of the program...) The music of the evening was a live jazz band that proved to be more loud than musical, but it was good fun none the less. As the night wore on, Kate and Anna headed out for a late night on the town and the rest of us made our way back to the flat.

Soon, a batch of chocolate chip cookies was baking in the oven and we were chatting about anything and everything. Suddenly, this morning at 4:30, the few that were still awake realized we should probably grab a few hours of sleep. A few hours soon turned into a solid slumber. The girls of the back corner room (Mary, Em, and myself) didn't wake up, or get up anyway, until around noon. Once we had all checked our email, had breakfast, checked facebook, showered, and read eachother's blogs, we decided we should leave for the day of shopping we had been planning for so long. Ironically, Aaron and Kevin were more excited about shopping than we were. None the less, we all managed to find something to eagerly pour our money into.

We made our way home and crashed for a few minutes. As the dinner was being made, I had the chance to hide out in our room and talk to Dad for a solid hour and a half. When I say talk, I mean video conference. The technology is ridiculous. Thanks to Skype, we talked to eachother through our computers (the audio fidelity was exceptional and the video wasn't bad either) from across an ocean for free. It blows my mind. (A side note, two days ago, Kevin, Brandon and I - all on seperate computers in the flat - talked to two of our friends who are studying in Lugano, Switz. and Dar es Salaam. It was a five way conference call. Again, on Skype, and it was free. Who would have thought?) Anna brought me dinner, so I enjoyed pizza while I chatted with Dad, it was pretty nice.

The boys headed out to hear a live jazz performance at a pub near the city centre (all except for Brandon who was at his first choir concert for St. Mary's). The girls had our first night in together. We settled in to watch Amelie with a nice cup of tea. I had forgotten how good that movie is. Maybe I am just a bit older and just maybe, I understood it all a bit better. Either way, it was a good night. Now, for the first time in a while, I'm heading to bed before midnight. Tomorrow, the group is singing an offertory at church (the Lutheran church next door). It is the least we can do for them letting us use the flat and church hall. We will see how singing goes as half of the group seems to be sick. Either way, the congregation will no doubt appreciate the young voices.

Oh, and after checking the results of the Jim Drews and Tori Newbauer Invite at UW LaCrosse, I was amazed! The Norse are having a great season. I am so proud of all of the Norsewomen and the Norse Horses... the PR's and improvements from last year, last month and last week are fantastic. Congrats ladies and men!

As for now, I'm headed to bed. Good night, sleep tight and sweet dreams.

A rainy day to commemorate a month in the UK...

It's official, the 2006-2007 Notters have been here for more than a month. In some respects, it seems like we have been here for longer, but somehow it still seems like we just arrived. Yesterday prooved to be a typical English day. Mark and Aaron went grocery shopping in the early hours of the morning so that Aaron could get to class on time and I could get the beef stew started before I left for class as well. Of course, five minutes after Mark and Aaron left, I realized that I had not put one thing on the list... beef. So, since Mark didn't take his cell with him, I biked to the nearest grocery and picked up 10 pounds (pounds as in money, not weight) worth of steak (they don't believe in any other kind here) and biked to John and Margarets to pick up onions, carrots, potatoes, and several other bunches of fresh produce. On my awkward bike home, I somehow managed to stay upright and arrived safely at our front door. I began the beef stew and got ready for class. Just as I was walking out the door, Mark and Aaron came in the door with all of the groceries. They had been gone for more than three hours. Needless to say, Aaron looked a little harried.

Mary, Aaron and I were all heading to main campus for Islamic Tradition, and it was late enough that we knew a bus wouldn't get us there in time, so we biked. Half-way to Jubilee Campus, it started to sprinkle, so we parked our bikes at Jubilee and decided to take the 'Hopper Bus' from Jubilee to Park (main) Campus. Unfortunately, it was not our day. The bus driver didn't seem to want to go anywhere, so after ten minutes of sitting on the bus, we decide to bike the rest of the way to class since it was about to start. We start out and immediately, it starts to pour. At first it is slightly funny, but soon we were completely drenched. We walk into class as it was starting (perfectly timed so that all of the class could see how ridiculous we looked) and sat through class with steam rising off of our clothes. Aaron stayed for baseball (which we later learned that they practiced sliding in the rain... so he was covered in mud and soaked), and Mary had to go to basketball at Jubilee, so Mary and I rode back towards home in the rain. We were cruising along, excited to be inside and in dry clothes, when Mary crossed a side street. When she was in the middle of the road, I saw a white truck speeding right for her. I yelled. The driver slammed on his breaks. Mary swerved. I played out the worst possible senario in my mind and slammed on my breaks. Mary scraped by and made it to the other side safely. I somehow was so worried about Mary that I forgot I was riding a bike. I ended up halfway on the ground... somehow. I was fine. Mary was fine. So, after seeing her life flash before her and coming out safely, Mary and I rode to Jubilee. She went to her basketball game and I rode the rest of the way home.

After drying off and warming up with a cup of tea, courtesy of Kate, I started cooking again. The beef stew was easy enough, but the pumpkin pie proved to be more difficult than anticipated as the British are too good for canned pumpkin. Emily and I dealt with what we had and cooked two whole pumpkins and made pumpkin pie from scratch, in it's truest sense. Much to our surprise and delight, it turned out very well. After dinner, I stayed in the kitchen to clean up. I also baked some little treats with the left over pie crust and made frosting to go along with. Then, Mary started making the lasagne for tonight, so I helped with that. Then, Kevin started baking. By the end of the night, Mary and I were sitting on the kitchen floor with her computer planning out our Christmas and Spring Holidays. It was exciting to realize just how much we could do in seven weeks of European travel.

We tried to go to bed at a reasonable hour, but after baking, cooking, doing dishes, and planning our breaks, we decided we should rig up a drying rack in our room as our jeans were still wet after three days of hang drying in our room. After fifteen minutes of climbing on furniture and trying to remember boyscout knots, we had a pretty effective clothes line across our room. Twice. Dad, you would be proud, it is so high that we can walk under it without running into clothes (don't worry i took a picture for you... check your email). Much later we finally stopped talking and went to bed. After a leisurly morning, it is unfortunately time to start the weekly paper.

A brief visit to Northern Wales...

On Friday, we left long before any classes started at the University. We all missed our first Friday classes of the semester, a great impression on our professors, that's for sure. A long drive, many reluctantly listened to lectures later, and after half of a day in Chester, the group arrived in Wales. The city walls proved to be good for walking at night and observing the full moon, the castle, and the occasional boat going in and out of the estuary. The first morning started with an excellent Austrian style breakfast (meusli, croissants, pain au chocolate, fruit, sliced meat, cheese, juice, tea, hard rolls, and various other breakfast foods). We were also treated to a lecture from Llewelyn Groom, a Welsh/English historian. Llewelyn also took us through Conwy Castle, sharing with us numerous stories and accounts of the history that we could have found no where else.

We spent most of our time in Conwy, but took a day trip to Llandudno (pronounced Clon-dude-no). There, we perused the shops, took a tram/cable car to the top of the Great Orne, hiked the long way back to town and finished the day with my group managing to pick the worst restaraunt. Ever. The experience became comical - no one could actually believe how bad it was. Many laughs later, we returned to Conwy and returned to the city walls. We met up with the rest of the group and sat for hours, the boys had cigars, the girls shared drinks. Once again, we watched the moon peak through the clouds and this time, the stars were out. After a great evening, we returned to our accomodations. The youth hostel was serenly set amongst the hills of Conwy and overlooked the estuary and peninsula. Although hostels are much different than any accomodations that anyone is used to, the group has grown accustomed to them and we are all starting to like the simple accomodations which force us to explore our surroundings, rather than sit inside and watch television or get lost infront of a computer screen.

Today was breathtaking. Words simply cannot do this place justice. I have posted an excessive amount of pictures on my photo page, so take the time to look at a few of those. I started the day with a long run out of Conwy and across the estuary onto the peninsula and back. It was wonderful to watch the town wake up and see the tide sweep across the sand. After another pleasant breakfast, our time was spent hiking and mountain climbing, traversing grassy hills and scaling rocky cliffs overhanging the sea (not really Mom, we were safe... most of the time), meandering through sheep and Shetland ponies that were munching on heather and thistle, and most importantly, enjoying our surroundings.

Now that we are back in the hustle and bustle of the city, we have all become attached to our computers. Tomorrow we return to class and the public transit of Nottingham. For tonight, I will leave you all with a picture of Llandudno and the Irish Sea.

Something a little different...

Slowly, the persistant wind has forced itself in through the cracks and the room is now cooling quickly. Outside, the lights of Conwy twinkle in the cold, almost crystaline, air. Some play cards, others are writing, and a few haphazardly watch a movie in the background. Of all the students, one sits apart, gazing into the blustry darkness, contemplating the profound differences between the throbbing metropolis of Nottingham and the ancient Welsh town of Conwy; occasionally jotting down a phrase or two to trigger memories, years down the road.

The day began with the students resisting the shock brought by the cold air outside the warmth of the bed sheets. Somehow, all nine managed to shower, pack their belongings, and ingest a meager breakfast in a single hour. Few paid attention as an excited professor told of the glory and wealth of centuries past at the day's destinations. The miles flew by as the coach driver careened through the buzzing traffic on the motorways and then through narrow country lanes.

Once in Chester, not quite in Wales, the group hurridly followed their leader to the cathedral refactory for lunch, oblivious to the cultural differences and wealth of history around them. Finally seated with their steaming plates of sustenance, the students began to appreciate their surroundings. The repair work in the great hall was properly done on the raised abbot's dining platform, but what peaked the students' interest was the carved inscriptions below each refurbished bit of the old cathedral. The workers had painstakingly chipped away at the stones to script dedications and commemorations as they improved their place of worship, work, and residence.

The appropriate setting for lunch prepared the weary exchange students for the day ahead. Wandring the city and its ramparts and walls gave some insight as to the military prowess held by the Romans, hundreds of years ago. Accidentally, a few unsuspecting students stumbled upon an ancient church. Different from the popularly visited churches of York and Durham, St. John's was truly a place of worship, uncorrupted by careless visitors snapping pictures and raucously joking, unaware of the graves from years past and unknown ancestors. The sanctuary of St. John's exuded a regal, yet welcoming feeling. The unrequested silence was broken by the sound of confident footsteps soming in from the street. The local vicar, eager to have visitors, shared some history with the girls. He was pleased to see the girls had learned some history of the churches of England, despite their varried and entirely unrelated majors. Soon, the aimiable vicar left to tend to his paperwork. The sturdy Norman arches, dating back to 689, once again commanded silence. The students explored, then sat in awe of the beauty, the history, and the sheers power of the stones arond them. In retrospect, the shops visited earlier in the day seemed trivial when compared to the church, ampitheatre and walls of Roman times. Somehow, the city of Chester managed to keep the modern shops, businesses and homes in line with the well preserved history of the ages. From the school children on field days, dressed in paper armour and plastic shields, learning of Roman and Norman conquests; to the tea shops in tudor style buildings along the river Dee, the city of Chester demonstrated its eagerness to share its prideful history with the public.

For some students, the time in chester was purely and assignment, for others, a few intricacies of the different styles of life and work stood out in their minds while strolling the ciyt walls, even more still on the journey to Conwy. For those few, the travel proved to be the perfect time for reflection and and excellent segway into what lay ahead.

The students were grateful to have the afternoon off. For the first time in a few weeks, the group of nine stayed together, only splitting for a few minutes to observe and explore the area before dinner. A sumptuous meal ina casual restaraunt relaxed the group and warmed each belly from the inside out. The group of nine set out inot the blustry evening. The sun had long since departed for the day, leaving the students to adventure in the darkness. Hesitantly, the young travellers ascended the stairs to the city walls. The steeply sloping walkways and worn fissures in the rocks caused them to fearfully proceed. None the less, each hand helpin ghte next, all nine reached the tallest tower to gaze upon the village, the castly, and most entracing, the bridge, sea water, and the elusive full moon. With shivering hands, friends photographed friends, but soon all nine were silently observing the simple beauty of night. Some huddled together for comfort and warmth, others off on a ledge, alone, lost in their own thoughts. Eventually, the spell was somewhat broken and the nine made their way around the periphery of the city. The slowly slanting, curving, and well worn stone led the wandering feet to an outlook. Out beyond the lights and the quiet hum of curved city lanes, each student came to a stop, enjoying the peace created by the wind and the waves.

Time had no meaning. The clouds moved past, the moon moved across the sky, and silently, a train sped towards its destination. For all, the opportunity to sit, and to simply be, was a welcomed treat. The occasional baot was navigated past - fishermen preparing for the next day's work. Occasionally, the click of a camera, the scuff of a shoe, or a contented sigh could be heard through the rush of the wind. Each student slowly brought themselves back to the surface of reality, but patiently waited for the rest of their new found family to come back to the present.

Back at the hostel, a lone writer sits. Every other student has quietly slipped out of the common room to rest their weary eyes. The card game is over, the journaling doen, and reading abandoned. Each student is asleep or soon to be there. All save one. One sits in complete comfort. Happy to hear the scratch of the pen on paper, satisfied with her account of a day in this year of change. Soon, the room will be empty, save the wind sneaking through to flutter the curtains. Soon there will be peaceful slumber.

First day of school...

I awoke to the sound of one of my flatmates leaving for class at 8am this morning. I soon enjoyed a simple breakfast of meusli and tea while reading the Daily Telegraph. I figured that I should somehow document my first day of class abroad... so I took a picture of myself in the flat. (Mom and Dad, I'll email it to you). I walked to the bus stop, iPod playing, and waited for the 53. I rode to campus and made the trek up the hill to Portland for Health, Risk, and Medicine (aka Medical Sociology). It was odd to watch all of the Uni students walking up to Park Campus, some from their flats and houses in Beeston, others from their respective bus stops, and others from who knows where else. Everyone was dressed in their best school clothes and was entirely too alert for a Monday morning, but who wouldn't be on the first day back from summer? As old friends greeted eachother and inquired about the past few months away from school, the freshers and international students merely watched from afar, some with curiosity, others with a hint of jealousy and sadness as they thought of those friends back at home. Either way, the hour soon approached and the sidewalks emptied, the occasional leaf fluttering across the now vacant cement walkways. Once inside the buildings, new notebooks were cracked open and the date, 2.10.06, was written cleanly and clearly across hundreds of blank pages. The school year has begun.

After making my way back to the flat, amidst a rainstorm while the sun was shining brightly, I prepared part of the dinner for the group and treated myself to a cozy nap in the common room. Kevin and I got ready for the first day of cross country practice. As we nervously walked/ran to the bus stop and got there just in time, we were both contemplating what was about to happen. Since we knew very little of the club and were half wishing we were back at Luther running with our 90 closest friends, needless to say, the bus ride to campus was relatively quiet. We got to campus, jogged to the sports centre and were happy to see a few people who could have been runners congregating at the assigned meeting place. After several awkward and nervous minutes, the officers took charge. A brief introduction was followed by the strange compilation of runners breaking into groups based on desired mileage. In my group, I noticed a girl wearing a Butler XC shirt and sure enough, she runs for Butler (in Indiana) and is in Nottingham for the semester. I spoke with several runners, all of whom were nice - of course - but ended up running with the girl from Butler, Kali. The run was nice enough, a bit tougher than I expected due to the fact that even easy training runs are apparently done with negative splits... none the less, it was great to get out running with other people again. After the run, the Nottingham University Athletics Club (NUAC) reconveined for a meeting. Kali introduced me to a runner, Debbie, from New Zealand (Mom and Dad, she wants to know where abouts you lived when you were there) and we had fun getting to know eachother. It was so nice to be with runners again... somehow it made Nottingham feel a little more like home.

We said goodbye to our newfound friends and took the bus to the city centre and then the tram home. We enjoyed the leftovers from dinner (Spaghetti ala carbonera, greek salad, garlic baguettes, and belgian chocolate cheesecake) and instead of studying, Kevin and I decided to bake. We walked to the Muggli/Gilbertson house to get some baking apples from their tree and came back and set to work in the kitchen. Now that it is one in the morning, we have five loaves of meusli/wholewheat/oatmeal bread. One has brown sugar and cinnamon in them, two have a delicious applesauce/applebutter in them and two are plain. Less than five minutes after they were out of the oven, Kevin, Brandon and I had sampled two of them... they are delicious. Thanks to Kevin's grandma for the applesauce/applebutter recipie and the oatmeal bread recipie (both of which we have been experimenting with just for the sake of variation). Flat life is good.

What did I learn on the first day of school? That class is only 45 minutes long, once a week and seminar is only five times per semester. We will see if this proves true for my two other classes at the Uni. To my surprise, my first lecture only had fifteen students and the seminar, only eight. The class should be interesting and compliment my major and minor as well as giving me a glimpse of life of a second year sociology student. At least this class is somewhat easier than the Luther courses. Tomorrow we have our second class with Mark and Carol (Paideia II... wo...hoo?) The lectures are interesting and very informative. It is the background reading and endless/miserable assignments that come with the class that are not so fun...

Today was a good day. Beautiful fall weather for the first day of classes, a cross country family away from home, and freshly baked bread - I am content. Much love from across the ocean and goodnight.

Exploring a village...

Today, to fulfill yet another requirement of our class (International Studies 135: Exploring Great Britain), everyone in the group was assigned a partner and a village outside of Nottingham proper and had to explore and learn everything we could about it. Mary and I were to find Cotgrave, how to get there and well, here's what happened...

Our trip was fine, we learned a great deal, were harrassed by a gaggle of adolescent boys, visited a church that dates back to the domesday book, spoke to several friendly elderly women who shared the history of the area, had a nice lunch at a pub and a lovely afternoon tea at a little shop. Our assignment was completed in plenty of time, so we treated ourselves to an afternoon of shopping near the Lace Market area of Nottingham. When we returned to the flat for the group dinner (with mandatory semi-formal presentations), we soon learned that the rest of the group had not had such an easy time. Kate was unfortunate enough to have bad luck with the bus system again... even though she left the flat at 8:30, she didn't arrive in her village (a mere ten miles away) until 1:30 in the afternoon. Most of the 'quaint' villages that were assigned were bedroom communities, aka, no one was around, at all. The majority of buildings were aparently residential... some locations only had one or two pubs... in two instances, the lone pub was closed. This posed a problem. How the hesitant and awkward American students were to approach complete strangers (who were not keen on talking to silly study abroad students in their home town) was a mystery to most everyone. Regardless of all the obstacles, everyone managed to find a place to grab some lunch, some amongst wedding parties - others with aimiable old men, and learn a bit about the history of the place... or atleast what was going on that night. Brandon, as usual, was exceptionally successful at finding the angle and talking to all sorts of interesting people. In the end, everyone completed the assingment and came home safely.

After a long discussion over dinner, Mark and Carol finally left and we started to settle in for the night. Anna, Em and Ryan went out for the night and the rest of us stayed at home. As we congregated in the common room, huddled over our laptops blogging, Kate finally convinced us to stop and watch a movie, have some chocolate, and best of all, share backrubs. So, before I waste anymore time, I am going to enjoy a relaxed evening...

randomness

So, after ten days, I am finally entering another post. Sorry for the lack of communication and information, but it has been rather crazy. I have completed orientation, registration, and we have gone on another group trip. The group has started to cook for eachother and the first two dinner meals have been quite successful (My cooking team made roast chicken, wild rice, glazed carrots, ceasar salad, and chocolate sauce pudding for dessert... of which I made another batch last night due to popular demand). For those of you who don't know, there are nine of us living in the flat together and then our two advisors join us for dinner M-F. We have been split into three cooking groups and are required to create a well balanced and delicious evening meal for 11 people (plus any guests) five nights a week. For breakfast and lunch we are on our own, same goes for the weekends. Once a week, Mark and Carol go grocery shopping with one of the nine. I was the first. It was insane. After three hours in the grocery store, and 200 pounds (approx 400 dollars) later, we drove home and spent untold hours fitting all of the food into the jigsaw of cupboards and refridgerators. Later that night, Mary and I spent a considerable amount of time sorting and reorganizing the entire kitchen. We threw away some three year expired spices, found four containers of nutmeg, found moldy lasagne (i didn't know that was possible) and finally got rid of all of the tupperwear without lids. Needless to say, the kitchen is now much easier to navigate.

Today we spent two solid hours of Mark and Carol teaching us how to clean toilets by hand... how to dust... how to vaccuum. It was invigorating.

Now that the pouring rain has stopped, we are off to explore Nottingham castle and some interesting neighborhoods. Complete with journal assignments and most likely papers to follow. On the bright side, our first test (or exam... maybe quiz?) was returned and the results were much better than expected. Contrary to everything that Mark and Carol have ever done in classes at Luther before, the grades were curved... I only hope they are so generous for the rest of the year.

I also wanted to say thanks to all of you for reading, leaving comments, and sending emails and letters. It is so nice to hear from home. It was a nice surprise last night when my mobile rang and it was a call from home... cheap for them and free for me... hint... hint... (07960040413) ...
but moving on, now that the weather has changed again and it is about to rain, if I go get ready to head out, then it will hopefully be clear again... oh England and its inclement weather...

Backtracking to the trip...

Where to begin? In five days I saw more of quite a few places than I have yet seen of my home for the next year. So, I'll attempt to recount a bit of each location we spent time in. The first place was York, only a bit over an hour away from Nottingham by private coach. As soon as we arrived, Mark and Carol handed us maps and a list of sights we had to see in the next two days. The dropped us off in the city and told us to go, just like that. We stubled around for a few minutes, getting our bearings, and eventually decided to spend some time in the City Art Gallery. The main focus of our attention there was to be the "Icons and Idols" exhibit, part of the Nat'l Portrait gallery. We spent some time pondering our assignment and once sufficient notes had been taken, I moved onto an quiter exhibit upstairs. At the end of one room, I found a solitary bench from which I could view the entire room, all of the art and people included. As I watched the people wander through the room, something suddenly dawned upon me. A sense of calm came over every person who set foot in the room. From the weary traveller to the tired toddler to the lontime patrons and art critics, all seemed to breathe a little slower. Each person was absorbing not only the colors on the canvas, but the emotion poured into each piece by the artist. It was humbling to be sitting in the presence of something that could unify all people so simply.

The group left the gallery for a group lunch at the University's refactory, complete with plum crumble and custard. We moved on and split the group in two for exploring the historic city of York. We saw the complete and extensive city wall, the Merchant Adventurers' Hall, Fairfax House, and of course, the Shambles - the one remaining street with many origional 18th century buildings. It was fascinating to learn of the history, stretching from recent all the way back to Roman 1st century. It was bizarre to realize that the people living in York know the 2000 year history of the land they live on. The day was spent going through museums and the occasional boring audio tour, but started to wind down in a jovial manner. Aaron had spent the day with the five girls, putting up with our jet lagged near hysterical laughter and randomness, and it only went downhill from there as we went to dinner. We decided to eat at this Italian chain restaurant by the name of 'Ask Pizza'. Once inside the towering doors, a grand entry way took us by surprise. The dinning room was in an incredible assembly hall with granite walls, marble pillars, and exquisite statues included. It was a pretty nice 'chain' restaurant if you ask me. Anyway, the dinner was excellent, and Aaron, once again, did a marvelous job of dealing with the five girls. Our laughter soon turned into tears as our fatigue caught up with us. I will have you know that this is the second time I have laughed myself into tears in Europe over dinner (Family, remember Zurich?). Soon enough, the other three guys walked into the restaurant and had a much more controlled dinner and we left together to head to the playhouse for the show "The Man with Two Gaffers". It was nice end to the night. Afterwards we walked to our hostel outside the city walls and soon fell asleep after a few scribbled notes in our journals.

The hostel proved to be nice enough. There were plenty of two inch mosquito-like bugs (except these were harmless), but it was a bed and a shower and a surprisingly good breakfast within walking distance of the town, so it worked out well. The second day in York was much more enjoyable. I got up earlier than any normal person should and went for a quick run with Kevin and Brandon. After a solid breakfast, we went out for day. As we had gotten most of the museum visits out of the way the first day, we were free to wander a bit more. We started the day with a tour of the towering York Minster. We learned that parts of the first Harry Potter movie were filmed there, this was one of the set locations we saw. The Cathedral and the history behind it are both beautiful and fascinating, but somehow, it had become such a tourist attraction that the sacred nature of the church was somehow lost. Regardless, it is still quite an impressive building. We spent the day exploring, shopping, eating pastys and fudge for lunch. As it started to rain, we decided to look in on St. Mary's church, which has been turned into an art gallery. The current exhibition was called 'Echo'. As we sat in awe of the bold, yet soothing display, we took a break, shared some Cadbury's and journaled. It was a much needed break from the hustle and bustle of the narrow streets of York. After a torrential rainstorm, inwhich a group of us took refuge in a women's toilet, we finally made it to Evensong at York Minster. It was an etherial experience to here the music of boys and men echoing throughout the walls of the 12th century Cathedral. The group left the Minster and walked to Tandoori Nights where we had the best Indian meal I have ever tasted. From coconut naan to chicken corma, every bite was wonderful. We discussed the experience of the past few days and plans for the rest of the trip. After a brief stop at the hostel, the majority of the group went out for our first night out. We found an interesting pub and ran into some people we had met over the past few days. It was a good start to a year of bonding. A quick walk back to the hostel, only held up by squishing the seven of us into a traditional red phonebooth, and into bed, ignoring the slight flutter of wings as we drifted off to sleep.


...the story of the rest of our trip to The North is to be continued.

A quick note before bed...

After a whirlwind five day trip to York, Durham, Alnwick, and everywhere inbetween, I just wanted to let everyone know that I am safely back at the flat for a few hours. Tomorrow, we pack up for three days and go stay in the dorms at UNott for orientation. Tonight was a flurry of making dinner, doing laundry, and sorting through 359 pictures. (Be sure to check my web album, there are some highlights of the trip posted) I will do my best to recap some of the the trip at a later time, but for now, it is well past my bedtime and I still have to figure out when I am going to meet up with Kim. For those of you who don't know, my sister Kim is currently in London with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and somewhere in our busy schedules, we are going to finagle some time to see eachother. As for now, good night.

Beyond the flat...

After and amazing nine hour nap, I started the day with a quick jog around the neighborhood. It was a little unnerving going for a run in unfamiliar territory, but well worth it. After a quick jog around the immediate residential area, I explored a bit further. I discovered a few things, a bus stop, a tram track, the green grocer stand (Margaret, one of the owners, suspected me a Luther student and waved), and perhaps most importantly, that not many people run around here... so I received a great deal of inquisitive looks, but I guess I get that in the States, too. The jet lag was mostly worn off by the end of my run, and the group met with our Mark and Carol to talk about travel, Nottingham in general, and the courses that we will be taking for the year.

After a leisurely lunch, we got our first tour of the area. While enjoying the scenery, I noticed a few things. Firstly, all of the homes here are very similar brick buildings built nearly a centure ago. These homes have since then been split into two, three, or four parts... each being a two story smaller home/apartment. Secondly, instead of large lawns, the yards are filled with gardens or paved by stones, occasionally a bit of green is present, but it is a finely manicured putting green quality grass that makes me emabrrased to call the plants growing in my yard a lawn. Thirdly, there are spiders everywhere. I don't mean your little jumping spiders or daddy long legs, I mean huge garden spiders with webs stretching as many as six feet, and tonight, Brandon saved my life by killing a ginormous brown spider with his bare hands. This spider was inside our flat! Apparently, as I read in a British newspaper, the number of spiders is the highest it has been in years. Fantastic. In addition to that, there have never been any spider fatalities in the UK. Until last year when there were 12, thanks to the wasp spider brought over from Europe over 50 years ago. Fine. Great. I am not the world's biggest arachnaphobe, but lets be clear, I don't love spiders. Beyond the domestic side of things, I realized that driving is not just a mode of transportation, but a competition to see who can exceed the speed limit the most, regardless of curves, yeild signs, or pedestrians. Lets just say that crossing any major roads is best done at a sprint.

On our brief tour of the neighborhood, we met the locals who have helped the Luther Nottinghamers for years. The first being John and Margaret, the green grocer owners. They were wonderfully hilarious. Aparently they give us all nicknames, but don't tell us what they are until the end of the year... I'm curious as to what they will come up with. They offered us all a piece of fruit on the house as it was our first day around town. Mom, I got a fresh fig, just for you. It was pretty good, but I think I'll stick to mangos for now. We also met our local newspaper and general shop owner who promised he wouldn't sell us any tobacco products, but advised us as to what would be the best cheap drink to put us in a good mood. One of the most interesting things about our neighborhood is the recreation ground which is right in the middle of an incredibly residential area. There is a surprisingly large field with atleast five soccer pitches, a playground, and a large expanse of lawn. That will prove to be an excellent place for a varried run. As our neighborhood is Northwest of the city centre, there are more local shops and a very homey feel.

For dinner, the group was escorted by our lovely advisors to the city centre. We took the tram, which will be dead useful (we will get unlimited passes soon) and walked around a bit to see the main sights in the city. We had dinner in the Salutation Inn, a pub who was kind enough to let us have the upstairs, due to the fact they ignored our reservation. I had fish and chips with vinegar and a light ale, Loxley (appropriate for Nottingham I thought). The rest of the group had puddings, mash, beef and guinness pie and all sorts of typical pub meals. It was a good start to the apparently poor British food. Mark and Carol left for home and the rest of us explored the city centre at night. We stopped at the oldest pub in England, Ye Old Tripe to Jerusalem (1189AD) and saw the old Nottingham Castle, complete with a Robin Hood statue. We navigated our way through the streets and made it back to the tram and home all in one piece.

After and incredibly full day, we packed and completed our first assignment for our International Studies course with Mark and Carol. We leave in the morning for York, Durham, Hogwarts (OK, the castle at Alnwick, but I can dream...) and Hadrians Wall. The weather looks bleak, due to the Hurricaine that just hit the States. Regardless, it will be exciting to stay in castles, hostels and gain some insight to Britain's extensive history. As soon as we return, we run off to UNott for orientation for a few days. Hopefully, once Kim is in London, I will be able to see her for a few hours or days if our schedule permits. As for now, it is well past my bedtime, and I still have to pack in the morning.

Even though just a few days have elapsed, the group has already started to mesh. Everyone is learning about eachother and it will be interesting to see how the group changes and we grow more accustomed to the eachother, the flat, and the rest of all of this newness.

Goodnight :)