Small town Mountain Man

Well, I am currently sitting in a tiny little town called Zakopane at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains that stretch between Poland and Slovakia in the south. As a matter of fact, today I was concquering some of my biggest fears and took a cable car trip up to one of the peaks in this range. It is one of the tallest in Poland, but pales in comparison to many others. It still was very sweet, about 2000km or so to Kasprowy Weirch. I had a hard time maintaining control of my fear as we climbed the mountain in this little metal box stuffed over capacity with 20 people, swaying and knowing that I am dangling over this massive forest of pines and cliffs below. Though I struggled, I think I'm stronger for it. The views from the top were amazing for a while with the sun out and loads of slick snow on the ground. Then the fog set in, so I had a bowl of soup before gathering my courage and making the descent in that tin can box.
To back up a bit, Warsaw ended very well. Dominika and Hubert the two folks I stayed with there were hard to leave. Over my three night stay they were so kind to me and did so much to make sure I was comfortable. Each night after school or work they would call me on the cell they gave me and either both or one of them would meet up with me and we would go grab a bite to eat or go get a drink. The second night was fancy cocktails after a grand driving tour of the outer edges of the city that I wouldn't see on foot. The third night, Hubert picked me up and he and I had supper in a nice little Polish resturant in the Old Town. Getting home we had some Polish Beer, and looked through pictures and talked for a few hours about his experiences in the States. Both of them were so eager to talk, I think just to use English a bit and keep it fresh in their minds. They are amazing people,a nd I can't talk them up enough. It's been a long time since i've recieved that much genuine kindness and charity.
They saw me off at the station to Krakow. I was sad to say goodbye, but new things were to come. I hoped Krakow would be decent and my living accomodations would be half as good as what I was leaving. Krakow surpassed all my expectations,a nd through a great hostel, interesting and entertaining city, and meeting some interesting and inspiring travellers like myself it made my trip to Poland worth it all. Warsaw is the Capital, and thus the largest city in Poland, and Krakow would have to be the one that draws the most tourists. It helps that just outside the city are two of Poland's biggest tourist attractions: Auschwitz, and the Wielicka? Salt Mines. I never had time in my two days there to see the Salt mines, though they are the only ones like it in the world complete with underground chapel and grand rooms carved into the salt. I knew that Auschwitz/Birkenau would be more important. It was about an 1.5 hour bus ride and I was prepared for a grim and moving day. Auschwitz/Birkenau for those who don't know is the largest extermination camp created by the Nazis in the world during WWII. There were many others, but this one played the biggest part in so many lives. To see the buildings that the people who suffered there had to live in and not just know but truly see all the devastation and killing that occurred was surreal and at times too much for your mind to believe. I couldn't and still can't fathom 8,000 EVERY DAY passing through the doors of the massive gas chambers and then to be incinerated! I get chills still trying to understand that. If I still have the numbers right about 1.5 million people whether they were Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, or any number of targeted races were killed in this camp alone. I saw the original buildings renovated to exhibit a room full of more than 40,000 pairs of shoes. Or another room full of mounds of female hair that was shaved off the women after the gas chambers and packed into bags and stored in warehouses to be sent to germany to make rugs and other textiles. Tons and tons of hair. How horrible. Clothing in another. A large pile of spectacles the germans saved, and another case full of crutches and prosthetic limbs taken from the dead. The Nazis saved everything. It's unbelievable! That is all I will say, though there is so much more like the torture and the wretched conditions, but this is something that a person, every person should experience at some point in their lives. It will forever hang with you. I have never seen so much brutality and also resiliance of the human spirit to live all at once.
On the ride back, I talked to a girl for the whole hour named Rachel from Virginia, doing her masters in Brighton England and travelling before going home. She is working with some environmentalist program, but has done some amazing things herself. I was impressed to hear she had lived in Kajikastan for a year and also Moscow. I was impressed, and then I met her two travel friends Chloe, an Australian who was on her second month of backpacking around the world! Can you imagine. This was definetely eye opening. I never knew people actually did this. Their third friend Stuart was from England and was finishing up his year long stint travelling the world. 12 Months! Think about that. That is so much time to never see home, never stay in the same place, always have the same set of clothes and whatever else you can fit in your backpack. Incredible. Here I was talking to a guy who had been in the forests of Central america, floated down the rivers in south america, talked to natives in africa, walked the wall, and did so many other things that most people would never dream of in their lives. I asked him if he was anxious to see home again for the first time in a year, and he honestly answered that he didn't want to go back to a real and normal life. Travel becomes adicting, and his world has been a constant adventure full of new things and people to meet everyday, it will be hard to settle down. Chloe agreed. I just stared at these people and asked tons of excited questions. We had a good time going out for supper, splitting a bottle of wine and chatting for a few hours. I loved these people even after a few hours and it was tough to say goodbye.
I also made two closer friends in my hostel. lMy roomates both happened to speak english. A girl named GEorge from Australia, and Chris from Wales. It was fun getting to know them, and both my nights there were spent out on the town with them. The first night we had a few .5 liters in a crazy metal pub with organ pipes above the bar, and metal music complete with screaming pumping out of the speakers. It was a neat atmosphere nonetheless and we had a good time chatting and getting to know each other. The second night we hung around the hostel for a while watching music videos in the eveing and then ventured out to a pub that is one of the last private brewers in the country, and managed to find it enjoying different varieties of this CK Browner beer, we then proceeded to a vodka bar and became acquainted with Polish Vodka. These two are very outgoing folks and lots of fun. Chris teaches English in Japan for the last 7 years. He is 31, but seriously looks like he is mine and acts like he is 8. Funny guy, your typical drunken Welshman. When I first met him, he had been drinking at different pubs in the city since 11 in the morning that day, and I met him after about 8 different pints and shots throughout the day. He knows about tons of differnent beers and ales from all over the world and that is his basic goal as a traveller. He goes to different places, even researching before he leaves all about that country and each cities particular brews and such. He even takes notes sometimes. He knows his stuff. I don't want to paint a bad picture of him. He is a good guy with a pretty decent head on his shoulders, but with some interesting habits. don't worry, they haven't rubbed off on me. Drinking like that would drive me poor so quickly! Oh, yeah, and George is a horse trainer, particularily show jumping, and has worked in both Germany and England for a year doing so. Spunky girl, and easy to make conversation with. The three of us were a good trio.
Well, I do believe I'd be impressed if your still reading this right now. There is so much more to tell, and so many details I am leaving out, but I need to get away and make more of them instead of spending this time in front of a computer screen. Hope gift-buying and house decorating is finally complete for everyone, and we can all find ourselves in that relaxing, lazy downward slide into the holiday week!
Dohveetsehnah!!

Gjhen Dobre, Greetings from Polska

I shouldn't be writing this write now. I am sitting in a gorgeous 9th floor apartment outside the center of Warsaw, Poland, the capital city with a great skyline view of everything. It is now 2;15 in the morning and I should be resting before my train ride to Krakow, but this is the last that I have free internet so I'm gonna use it. Can't do pictures though so sorry! It has been an interesting last couple days to say the least. I left the flat officially at 7 on wednesday night. It was tough to go. This was now my home, and held all that felt safe and secure, and I was about to embark on a journey living out of a backpack for almost a month. Not to mention that the first week I would be all alone. Caught my bus to london at 7:30 and comfortably made it to Irene my luther friends london flat to sleep over. Connections are everything! Got up before the rest of the house, and jumped on a 1.5 hour bus ride to Stansted Airport for my flight to Poland. I got up plenty early, and was in the highest of spirits and was determined to start my day out right as I did, but it only went downhill from there.
Our plane left an hour late, which was ok seeing that the flight to poland was apparently downwind and thus an hour and a half shorter than flying to London (go figure). As we were coming in to Poland, I could't help but notice that there was no buildings or any signs of a city. I could see below the tops of trees flicking past as we decended into a heavily wooded area, with shacks and random little roads crossing the forest. As we landed we past some hangers with grass growing on top for camoflouge, and a fleet of polish fighter jets (small ones) all lined up outside these buildings. At the end of the runaway was a small little building which was our airport, and men in uniform were wandering around as our airport personel. I guess I just landed in a military landing or something, but things didn't look too good.
I get off the plane, and a lot of families are reuniting and going god knows where. I exit the building expecting a bus or something to the nearby city, but all I see are a few huge vans almost full with luggage and people and 2 taxis. I talk to the first driver, but he doesn't understand me and just ignores me. I am getting scared seeing very few possiblilties around and it's getting dark. The second driver, I try to communicate with. No English whatsoever there either. I don't know what I expected, but I figured that a few people would speak the language like my Polish friend back home. This was a foolish notion as I learned over the next few days. He agrees to drive me after I convince him with train noises and motions, and showing him phrases in my book, and he convinces me to pay a ridiculous amount of money. i agree because I am scared and desperate and don't want him to leave me stranded. The ride was a whole whopping 45 minutes to the city through all these woods and open land. No city to be seen!
He takes me to the central station, and I excitedly get in a lengthy line, and manage to miss my train to Warsaw by 5 minutes. When I get to the front, a grouchy lady frowns at me, and shoos me away motioning that she knows know English. I am already scared again, as I notice the cruddy doors hanging off of the building, graffitti all around and chipped paint. The place looks like a shit hole, and it's the first thing I see of Poland, after the military base,a nd neither paints a pretty picture. No one speaks my tongue,a nd I find the schedule and learn that I must wait 7 hours for the next train. That is almost 11 at night! What am I gonna do!?? Seriously wanted to sit down and cry. the whole world was against me, and I haven't met a single person who understands what I need. I have never ridden a train and don't know how to get my pass stamped and no one is there to explain. Let me just say, this was one of the scariest few hours of my life...really. Not as in fear of death, but so utterly lost and dazed that I just wanted to give up. But... I didn't cry, nor did I give in.
I called Hubert. He is the man I was supposed to meet in Warsaw and would be staying with for the next few days. Kat, my Polish friend from the Bakery back home hooked me up. Through a pay phone and a special card I got a hold of, hubert was there and picked up. What a joyous moment! Someone to talk to and to understand me. He assured me that I could be in a worse position (hard to believe) annd would pick me up in the station at 6 that morning. A huge weight felt like it had just been blown off by Hubert, and I hung up with better spirits. I stowed my luggage in the locker, and hit the city to explore and grab some grub. The first few blocks were gross and intimidating but it got nicer nearing the center, and I started to feel comfortable, then my new bracelet broke and I lost a piece on the sidewalk throwing me into another temporarily foul mood. it was dark so the atmosphere was a little nerve wracking wandering around but nice. Found a nice Jazz Cafe to eat and read at, and with a full stomach felt much more comfortable.
Found my train just before 11. I settled in for the long 7 hour journey through the night, till last minute, to young (16-18) polish girls asked in jibberish if they could sit in my booth. I gestured that it was alright. Two more people...know big deal I thought to myself. Two minutes later, another two girls of about the same high school age show up, and now I have this little train booth with four jibbering and chattering teenage girls, and I can't understand a word. I figured out that they could speak a little English, and tried to make conversation. Showed them my book Eragon, and that peaked their interest for a while, but they weren't too interested in trying to talk English. I then asked them if they could ask the man next door if he would let me stay with him, so they could have the booth to themselves, I just wanted to sleep really, and wanted a bit more of a relaxing journey, but they misunderstood and insisted that I stay with them. Well that was that, and I spent the night trying to read, listening to music and staring blankly into nothingness. Managed to grab a couple hours of shuteye but that was all.
5:50 rolls around, and we have arrived! I jump out and make my way to the waiting area. Hubert comes from behind me and says my name, and as soon as I hear that, I know life will be better. Someone is here to take care of me, and that he did. Both he and his girlfriend Dominika are wonderful people and more than helpful. He gave me a key to his great apartment, a local polish cell phone so I could call him or her anytime and to be in touch. And helped me with some maps and getting a tram pass. They are truly godsends the both of them! I then crashed around 9, and accidently slept til 2. Well deserved I think though!
Well that was the great calamity of day 1, but that was 2 days ago but I also need sleep so I must bid farewell for now and will make all known as to the positive and enjoyable experiences I've had here in Warsaw!
Dohveetshehnah!!!!!!

Our Little life is Rounded in a Sleep

Hmmm...I think this is about where Nottingham would be. Not sure, but this sculpture is pretty cool. The discarded cutout pieces are splayed on the ground behing it where I'm standing. Sweet idea. I have finally made my pilgrimmage to the hometown of Shakespeare, and now can say my life is complete with nothing more to hope for... well...actually the list of things to do in life is just too long to number, count or remember, but I can at least say that I have made it to Stratford on Avon in order to see some of the now dormant places where the great genius that is William Shakespeare, great poet and playwright of England, and probably the greatest writer the world has ever seen, resided and worked for some parts of his life.
I must be full of myself, but I always have to throw a random picture in that seems to have no bearing as to where my surroundings might be and of no importance to the actual trip. Either way, here's another to mark the beginning of our fourth month in such a wondrously new world.
I love Shakepeare's work, and spent all of last semester at Luther reading some 8-10 plays of his, and analyzing them like a mad fiend, and loving every second of it. Analyzing literature is what I love to do most, and is the whole reason I aspire to be a teacher. Not for writing, not to be able to be the center of attention for hours on end, nor to relive my high school days now long forgotten, but to be able to get excited and share my passion for great works and to try and get kids to love it too. Almost an impossible feat, but I look forward to those little breakthroughs that are bound to occur. Dang!! Just writing about teaching is getting me excited to get out there to see what I can do. but that will have to wait, and all the stress and anxiety that goes with it gladly.

I really loved Stratford on Avon. As far as the "urban" town comparison complete with cute little shops, with the randomnest things to see, and a big old antique mall (Oh Yeah, I was sure to spend some time there, again another dorky obsession looking at old postcards, stamps, and other dusty, old discarded items that are at times priceless at times, and time has made them unobtainable for a poor college student like myself.) This place wins the cake. Just so much to see and do. I also managed to find a really awesome used bookstore with Kate, and bought a few really good books for an amazingly cheap price. All reading material for those long rail rides through Europe which I will be experiencing in exactly one week! Hard to believe I will once again touch an even more foreign soil than what I find myself living in already. Better start learning Polish! Rambling, I heartily apologize.
Great festive atmosphere here too especially at night!

We spent these couple days meandering through the restored yet depressingly quiet buildings of all that is Shakespeare and even homes of those closest to him. Let's see, first it was his actual birthplace and the Shakespeare Center...

The Next morning we went to visit the childhood home of Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare's wife. A beautiful little place with some great gardens, including a grove of trees called something lame like the Shakepeare Orchard, and some scultptures and plants with different parts of his play quoted around them. Hard to explain really, but kinda cool for dorks like me... The rest of the day I kinda went off on my own to explore. Had a nice time walking along the river
This fine gentleman here is Falstaff. He just so happens to be my favorite Shakepearean Character, a man of excessive stature, girth, and an obnoxiously loud and jovial personality. He makes for a hilarious character and the brunt of many jokes from his fellow friends in the play Henry IV. Through his ridiculous traits and seemingly idiotic and unimportant rambling he often manages to say some pretty wise things under the veil of his foolery.
The theater is very interesting to behold both inside and out. I have not seen a theater in quite the set-up that this one was. We went to a show put on by the world's greatest players of Shakespeare, The Royal Shakespeare Company, on both friday and saturday night.
We saw the shows: A Winters Tale,a nd Pericles. Both were great performances set in some very interesting historical settings very different from Shakespeares intended time. One was set in the central conflicts in the African society during the middle of the 20th century. The other, Winters Tale, one of my favorite Shakespeare plays occurred in the 1940's through to late 70's or so. This night, Ryan and I didn't go back to our seats on the third floor, and craftily snuck our way into the theater below which was standing only, but all the people were part of the show. The actors would often move and rush around past us, and we were oftentimes a part of the celebrations of weddings and ceremonies, as well as the deep moments of unveiling near the end. Even managed to get fed some food they had on stage. It was some sort of sausage and tasted all right I guess. Can't expect much out of stage food when it is real.

Though it wasn't the last thing I saw, I figured it would be appropriate to mention visiting Shakespeare's grave last. Not a whole lot to see there really, though that may be appropriate. It was just that I was expecting some grand monument, basically a great tomb devoted to him, but instead it is a simple stone slab placed in the altar of Trinity Church. Nothing too extravagant, but at the same time, he has this whole town practically devoted to him, and theaters and resturants all over the world with his name smeared across their signs and windows. It is a respectable grave in the hometown of the man who has and will always continue to inspire writers and lovers of literature and will cease to amaze us.

This is a shop/store that sells...well...take a guess. Looks really sweet, creamy kinda, and in the form of a liquid.
It's actually a whole chain of stores that sell liquors of all kinds of crazy flavors. Kinda like a grown-ups candy shop, buying things by the shot, as if they were gumballs. We actually didn't try anything though, just sat with our shriveled wallets and gaped in awe at such a crazy concept.

I also need to include this amazing picture of my new family. This might be the first we've taken, or at least the first quality photo we've had with mom, dad and all the kids. Hard to do, but here 'tis!


Happy St. Nick's Day Folks!

Gobbling up Turkey with an Old Friend

Ooooooh soooooo claaaaaassssy!!!!!! Heck yeah, that is me in my new coat. Pretty spiffy, huh?! Officially that is the first suit jacket that I have bought in my life. I guess that means I've entered a new rung on the social class ladder, making me a sophisticated fellow. No longer am I a simple farm boy, but now a simple farm boy dressed in a sharp jacket! It is hard to see in this picture but it is a beautiful deep hue of navy blue, and has pin stripes. Pin stripes are key to it all, gotta have them. Kevin and I found these hats a few weeks ago, and I do believe it completes the outfit, at least for this evening. This was a wednesday evening a few weeks ago before I left for a social night out with the rowing team. The Theme was Gentlemen and Ladies, and everyone dressed in various fashions. My favorites were flowered shirts of browns, and gaudy brown waistcoats, and then socks pulled up to the knee like Knickers as a few guys wore with the classic old englishman cap. Needless to say, with the rowing team, though we don't have socials often enough, it was a brilliant time!
HAPPY BELATED THANKSGIVING YA'LL!!!!!!!!!!

Though it is not a celebrated tradition over here in the UK, for the obvious reasons that the Pilgrims were LEAVING this country for the new land, we made the most of it ourselves. Everyone signed up for different cooking duties and such. I deftly sidestepped that stressful chore for doing decorations instead with Miss Mary. As always, when allowed to be crafty or creative, I got a little carried away.

I actually researched all these different leaves on google images, sketched them as best I could from the computer screen, stacked up all these colorful sheets of paper and carefully and meticulously cut out these lovely leaves. Absolutely Unecessary I know, and rather dorky, but I was proud of them. Pretty close to life if you ask me. For those of you who aren't tree huggers enough to tell these different leaves apart (as I wasn't) they are starting in the upper left going clockwise: Random bush leaf as filler, Maple Leaf, another bush, ghinko leaf, walnut leaf, birch, oak, and CAnadian shaped maple leaf. Crazy but cool!
We had the traditional meal with turkey, green beans with what tasted like funnions? on top of it, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes with mushrooms and gravy, homemade bread stuffing, carrots, salad, and various deserts of apple or pumpkin flavor, and rice pudding. A great meal with some extra guests in the flat. We had the Juggins, who are neighbors to Mark and Carole our directors, and friends of this program ever since it's beginning decades ago. They are our inside scoop to everything we might want to know about Nottingham as they have lived here their whole lives, and are avid Forest (soccer) fans and are season ticket holders, so they keep us in the know on all thats going on. Really cool folks. Mary also had her parents Rick and Frona here visiting which is nice for her to have some real family around, and they are extremely kind folks as well with all of us enjoying their company. (Not to mention that they bought us 6 bottles of wine to enjoy the leftover meal the next evening, as well as cigars for all on another evening excursion on the roof of the flat.) This is just a special occasion thing, not a habit.
Best of all, John Meyer, a great friend of Kevin, Hilary and myself was here from thursday, all the way through sunday morning. It was great to see him, and have him around to mix up the group dynamics a bit add he's cheery zest to the mix. He is currently studying in Switzerland for the semester, and made his way up to see us for the weekend. For all who doesn't know him, he was my freshman year roomate with Andy, and made for a great first year at college. That bond will be tough to break. I miss him already.

Another game, another victory. Saturday was yet again a big event. We went to the Nottingham Forest Vs. Millwall game, but not before pre-gaming it at Hooters. Yes we found one right here in our town and not far from the stadium. I was really looking forward to some delicious buffalo/chicken wings...and that's really all. Honest.... Well good food, and a pint of Worthington's got the lot of us prepped for the game.

We were off with 10 minutes til kickoff and about a 15 minute walk to the ticket booth before walking around the stadium. Late once again, keeping with our record of never attending a kickoff, we managed to miss the first goal in five minutes scored by...boo...Millwall.
A rather uneventful first half, left some major catching up for Nottingham, and that they did. They were expected to stomp Millwall, but only closed the game with a 3-1 win. Oh, well...all's still well and good, and was a really fun game, especially with our special guest and avid football fan and player.
We always manage to come on pretty decent days, and here the sunset is just peaking around the stadium, and you can see a sliver of the moon up above.... um....so... back to the game. That's what I was watching...really... I never even noticed how pretty the sky looked in it's mild shades of pink and orange, or even that the moon was there....matter of fact I did not tilt the camera at such an angle to catch most of the sky in just the right way. Just Coincidence....Honestly!
GO FOREST!!!!!!!!

London's Calling....

Kickin' it in London is the way to go! Just got back late last night from a great couple days in London, and I already miss it. How cool is it to be able to hop on a train or bus, ride for a few hours and be in LONDON! One of the great cities of the world, catch a few museums, musicals, and plays, and then head back home a little wiser for it. We are very priveleged. Nottingham is about a 3 hour bus ride with a few stops in between, and under 2 hours by train.
This weekend was the men's turn to head to London and leave the ladies to their sleepovers, makeovers, and girls night out, and other good times like baking bread, and delicious deserts. Seriously, when I got back, before all the other guys saturday night, they had mattresses strewn across the center of the living room, and were having a cute little slumber party, watching breakfast at tiffanies, and had all sort of party snacks of cheeses and crackers, cookies and homemade mini-cheesecakes. Pretty dang "cute" I guess. Mary went nuts in the kitchen baking apple crisp, five or so various homemade breads of apple, cranberry and other things, and cookies. They also dined well with shrimp and other gourmet finger foods for meals. They sure know how to pamper themselves, I just don't see why they can't do all these wonderfully extravagant things when the boys are around. We would enjoy it so much...and would be most grateful. Needless to say, when I arrived there was not loads of dishes overflowing out of the sink and across the stove as the guys had done a few weeks earlier. What a great gang of girls. They are always impressing you in new ways.

Well, anyway, this was all after I got back. Now back to London itself. Kevin and I stayed with a friend of mine, Irene, who lives in London for the next year or so as a postgrad student in theater. She is studying at a very selective and competitive acting school and undoubtedly is going places. I met her a few years ago, my freshman year in my first college play, "Tales from Ovid". She had done the Nottingham program I am now doing the year before that. It was really great to see her. She picked us up at the bus station and we ate at a portuguese chicken resturant called Nandos chatting excitedly about changes in the program and to hear experiences she had and advice to give in retrospect from her year in Nottingham. We slept over in her flat, and had the pleasure to meet two of her other roomates, also theater majors. Imagine the drama with all these divas under one roof! Actually they were all really nice girls, and it was good accomodations overall, especially since it was free. It's cool to see the power your connections can have around the world. Connections in life are everything, you never know when they may come in handy, so get to know all the people you can.

Irene was great. She helped us the next day, get acquainted with the extensive tube system and took us to Leister Square where we picked up tickets for the show "Bent" that night. Bent is a show about homosexuals in WWII, and is extremely gorey, and very vividly emotional and raw. Some nuditity but was necessary and effective making for a very powerful show.

The next evening we went to the highlight of the whole weekend. The ladies had seen this show a few weeks before us, and I have been hearing about the music from this musical since freshman year. Yes, the new big thing after Rent, Wicked. It was amazing! Absolutely incredible, right up there with Lion King. One of the best shows I have and may ever see. great music and an awesome story. Basically the premiss is the backstories to the Wizard of Oz, focusing around the good Witch Galinda, and The Wicked witch of the West and their lives in school and growing up. Love, denial, twists, and a whole new way to look at the wizard of Oz made it to be so enthralling all the way through, and with the incredible music, I continually had goosebumps through the whole show. It shows how the scarecrow came to be before dorothy found him in the field, or the tin man, and the beginnings of the cowardly lion as a cub. Pretty awesome concept really.
These shows are the main reason we made a trip to London, but we also just wanted to get away from the flat and explore a little. Kevin and I managed to avoid most of the touristy places as we will return with the group for sure in february, so we basically wanted to see everything we could that was free, which includes a lot of museums and wandering the streets soaking it all in. Tate Modern, The National Portrait Museum, and the National Theater Museum.


London was covered in ads all over the "Tube" and posters showed many new ideas, and movies and music that came out, like my new favorite cd, Damien Rice's "9". it is absolutely amazing and is pretty much all I listened to on the long 3 hour ride to and from London. This one I saw quite a few times.

Went walking through Notting Hill. Great area for antique shopping and just a chance to see some of the upper crust of London Living.



West End in London is packed with theaters. there is always one in sight no matter where you turn, meaning there is always the oppurtunity to see 20 great productions at the same time. So hard to choose... but always impressive!

The Seasons are a Changing....

Well, I have been moaning and groaning a lot, starting just over a month ago when I expected the trees to change colors. Leaves weren't falling, and greens were fading to a sad brown here and there. These last couple of weeks have shown me that all I really needed was a bit of patience and faith in mother nature to come around and feed the soul once again with the autumnal beauties of dying leaves. Never thought so much beauty could come from death, but I welcome it. England has finally found fall in full swing, and it is just as beautiful. I can't believe it's taken this long, with it being the middle of November already here, and the weather is still moderately comfortable with the occasional frigid day, or that ever present dampness that seeps in everywhere. It still isn't as bad as I expected. You must excuse all the pictures that seem repetitive. I got rather trigger happy taking pictures of myself expressing my joy for nature.

On thursday, I took some time for what I thought might be one of the last sunny days in Nottingham to enjoy this weather, but most of all the season itself. Very near the center of the city there is a park called the "Arboretum". I don't know why I haven't visited there sooner, but it was absolutely beautiful. A nice place for a walk. Also a suprising escape from the city, without ever leaving it. Like a mini-central park here in Nottingham. It is well tended to with its own gardening staff, and includes many different areas such as rose gardens, an aviary, a pond with fountain, and more.



Another little joy that has been brought back into my life is nothing less than the sight of the blue box. This isn't just any blue box, but contains certain crescents of tubular goodness, with the best powdered cheese known to man. Yes, Kraft Mac and Cheese folks.

It truly is the food I miss most. Sadly this is not one from all of you in the Becker Clan who sent me my package. I am still anxiously awaiting that. Instead, this was like a Blue Box advance from Anna. She got some of her own in a package and graciously shared one with me on the grounds that I return the favor if and when my shipment arrives! We were ecstatic and documented every stage of the complex process of making our well-missed pleasure, and I think the pics tell it all!

This is a first for me. I am writing this blog THE DAY I got back. We rolled into Nottingham this evening around 9, and I am cranking away at this thing. Took a break to watch the Pianist, an amazing war movie set in Poland surrounding the life of a Jewish Polish Pianist who avoids concentration camps, and barely survives in hiding from the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. I am sure most of you folks have heard of it before, seeing that it won so many awards, but I've never seen it before and highly recommend it.

This weekend we spent most of our time in Bath. For some strange reason, the strongest memories, or those with the most clarity from my Boy Choir trip so many years ago, is of this city. I had a lot of moments that I would turn a corner and feel this sense of Deja Vu which wasn't so off the mark. Saw the standards of the city such as the Royal Crescent,

even touring the inside of one of the homes within it, and what it would have been like in the 18th century. The Bath's were an obvious location to tour, and it was all just as I remembered it. The rocks didn't appear any less worn than 6 years ago! We had tea after our tour in the Pump Room, which thus far has been the finest of high tea we've had in England, with finger sandwiches, and tons of various sweets. It was very nice, with a live little trio playing classical music to complete the atmosphere.



Our first evening in the city, we went and saw the London Philaharmonic perform in the concert hall for the Mozart Festival in Bath which happened to be occuring over the whole weekend that we were there. One of the finest orchestras in the world, and it was stunningly incredible. The precision and perfection of which they play is so astounding. Our second night, we were able to choose to see the Opera, which 6 of us attended and that was equally impressive, with some fine singing, especially from the tenor, who I idolized. This wasn't a full opera in that they dressed up and all, but it was a performance of Mozart's work, with the singers moving around a bit in front and offering some expression. My only qualms with the show, was that it dragged out for a whopping 3.5 hours, which is just a bit too much for me. I was ready to go at intermission really.
We did lots of walking in Bath overall. Exploring at night time in smaller groups, and spending my sunday morning before church in the Cathedral taking a nice stroll with Mary, discovering parts of the city thus far undiscovered. This spot here was one we passed many times on the way to anywhere, and walking along the river, both morning and night was a popular pastime for us all.

Monday morning, we moved on from Bath, making our way to Wells, a smaller town to observe in classrooms there for a short period of time. this is a specialized school particularly for Music students but it accepts students of all interests and prepares them for the best schools in the country and the most specialized conservatories in music. I sat in for about a half hour with a music theory class. These kids are only juniors in high school, and they are able to analyze and tear apart a piece of music better than most music majors after two years at luther. With my little bit of studies in music, I could just barely follow along, but knew enough to be impressed. What's more is these students are passionate about music, and were eagerly participating and obsessively talking about music. I was blown away.
The cathedral here is very unique. It's front west wall seen here has over 300 statues in it's face which is more than any other cathedral in Europe.



Wells' natural well, that springs from the earth, considered holy ground with a chapel for the virgin built around it, and Known as the Well of St. Andrew.
You can't be in this area of the country, and not stop to see stonehenge. Nice to look at, but in the end not much to see. We didn't even pay to actually get inside, just gawked at it for about 20 minutes, took some pictures to prove our presence in the midst of this ancient stone, and embarked for home. Places like this, change what I view as old, and how I'd seen it all my life. It brings a whole new meaning to "ancient". The more time I spend here, the better sense of time human history covers in relevance to the world. Something you can never even remotely sense in the measley 500 year existence of the US, and the even shorter span of establishment. Everything is basically new in comparison to all we see here. It's like getting to play with all my dad's old tractors and toys, after being only able to play in my modern plastic playground for so many years. So many more possiblilties and exciting thoughts are opened up, and so many more to come.....stay tuned.....

Filling My Heart with Pleasure

I am a bad blogger. It has been almost two weeks now, and I have left my usually riveted audience with nothing to read and enjoy in my exploits of these last two weeks. There is too much to write that I can't even catch up, but I will devote this blog to all that we saw two weekends ago in the Lake District, another major house trip we embarked on. Some of this is snippets from my travel journal just to make it easier.


After my birthday, we had our weekend trip to the lake District in England. This area offers some of the most beautiful landscape the England has to offer. We were right in the thick of this wondrous landscape of mountains and quaint villages nestled in each little valley, along with a still and serene lake for the perfect picture effects. This 3 day trip wasn't the usual museums and discover some other little known historical fact. We were seriously roughing it as far as rambling goes. All those other walks over various types of pastureland, and country roads, no matter how far, could equal the magnitude of our Saturday hike. We were walking for about 6 hours or so, and scaled an entire mountain and then back around it. It truly was amazing, and the sights the sunny day afforded us at the top were well worth the grueling ascent. We also read a bit of William and Dorothy Wordsworth's poetry at the top, during lunch as a kind of reflection time. I spoke the "Daffodils" Poem from memory to the group, it is one I actually memorized like a year ago being the English dork that I am.

"Daffodils"
By William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

We finally got to explore a bit of Ambleside. Allen was our host at the B and B named Allen was a very hospitable man. He was a very gentle fellow with small, dark deepset eyes with a slightly crooked and large nose. He was from Bradford and Leeds, and had spent thirty years teaching art to children. Owning this B and B was his dream, though it is very expensive. I loved the atmosphere of the place and the close relationship we were able to hold with it’s owner. All the rooms as well seemed to take on a character of their own. Private bathrooms in all, but oftentimes the room wasn’t much bigger. OK with me, with my cozy little nook in the top of the house.

This is the view out of the top floor where I lived of our little Band B, overlooking Ambleside.



Despite the misty wet weather, it was rather warm I found. At no point at all did I ever feel cold or get all that wet. The air was really warmer than in Nottingham though it is so far north. Just walking to the bus stop today on Wednesday for class was unbearably cold, while in the mountains, it was always comfortable walking weather, rain or shine. We took a jaunt out of the village to a farm renovated into a hostel. A beautiful little place nestled up on the hill. We were here at Broadrayne to talk with a very interesting local man to get a sense of the personality, and flavour of the history of this place and a bit of the sentiments of the people. All in all, he was a wonderful man, that truly instilled in me the understanding of the sense of pride and attachment these people have for their beloved mountains.

All the while he was talking, a darling little girl, I think it was his daughter, was bouncing around playing outside and trying to draw attention. She looked to be about Kadin’s age and reminded me very much of him. She was adorable, and seemed to be very much a girl of the mountains, and in fact her mum told us how she had already managed to walk one of them. After everyone was waiting around and had started back to town, I took the opportunity to talk to this little girl. Her name is Anoona and she kept saying she was three and then would 2nd guess herself. Her mom assured me she was four. Anoona and I talked for a little bit, and I had her show me her bike and helmet out in the shed and chatted about Pooh a bit til I had to leave. It was very refreshing to talk to such a young, innocent child and be reminded of their simple joys. Back home I had my little brother around to remind me of it daily.

When exploring Ambleside, the men of the group discovered a museum dedicated to everything football (soccer), with photographs through time. Aaron spotted the foosball table upstairs, and nonchalantly asked while we were downstairs if anyone wanted to play him. We have a table at home, and I was fairly confident that he didn't have a chance, though I am not a great player. Sadly I failed to score a single point in the first game. Aaron creamed me all the way through the second game. I was just too darn cocky and didn't realize I was going to play against a pro. He played a lot back home with some friends, and I guess practice can make you pretty good at this. Shannon....we are going to have to start using that table more again so I can practice up and kick Aaron's arse someday when he and I meet face to face across a table of spinning men.


The grass is just too green, and the sky so perfectly blue, with just the occasional wispy cloud, and with it all good friends to go with it!