Well, Ireland isn't that small, but in comparison it is. It's not even been 6 days since I left Nottingham, and I feel I have accomplished so much. First stop was Galway on the western side of Galway. Got to know this attractive city pretty well. One thing I noticed, was not only how kind the Irish people are, but also how many Americans are here. Even so, Ireland has been amazing.
On my second day, Hilary, Mary and I took a bus tour out to the Burren and The Cliffs of Moher which was the main reason for the trip. Here is the quick, but still lengthy email i sent to my mum a few days ago....
It was a full day tour for a pretty decent price.
Absolutely an amazing little day trip. i am really glad I did it.
Beautiful pictures, you will love them when I can get them loaded up.
Basically walked around on some IRish cliffs that stretch almost a half
mile above the sea below. loved it, and then explored some of the
landscape called the Burren.
Today I think I walked 14 miles...no joke. This morning I got mary to
the bus station early at 8 and then spent the rest of the morning til
one walking along the bay of Galway exploring. I walked about 4 miles
out of the city and reached some far cliffs which were my destination,
and then headed back to meet the girls for lunch. Had my first
guinness in Ireland last night. I don't know if I've told you but
since I have tried it in England, I love it. Can't wait to visit the
Guinness factory in Dublin. It is a must for anyone who goes there
and it is my favorite drink. Thick, smooth, almost chocalatey with a
hint of coffee flavor. Sometimes tastes a bit burnt but always sweet
and tastey.
I've been taking tons of pictures! Speaking of which, tell Trina
thanks for the pics of Kadin.
Since then I have been in Dublin for Two days already. Just Hilary and I. We have done a ton of walking and have seen a lot of what this great city has to offer. Our first evening after arriving we were wandering around, and made our way into Christ Church Cathedral just in time for the evensong Service. A very good choir, and I hestitantly might say that it was better than my very own in England at St. Mary's. I very calm and reflective 45 minutes. We found a chinese resturant which was harder to find than you think as we were both having cravings. Yeah, I know it isn't all that authentic, but we had plenty of time to have some decent pub grub and most of their food is pretty similar to England's. A bit more seafood, and Guiness is much more readily available.
Before I continue further I should say how Hil and I got to Dublin from Galway. Not to scare you or anything mum, but we in a way hitchhiked. It was very interesting how it happened. on Hilary and I's rushing to catch the bus at noon, a man with a German accent approached us asking if we were students and looking for a ride to Dublin. He offered that we ride in a van that he and a friend had just rented for a much cheaper price. Well, as crazy as this might sound, and it does seem a bit sketchy a felt we could trust them.
They turned out to be pretty legit guys, scouting Ireland so that in a few months they could move to Galway permanently. When they went to rent a car, the company was all out, but had this big white, nine passenger TRANSIT van that ended up being cheaper. They then thought they would hunt around and find some people, especially students who were looking for a deal and would fill up the extra space. Well it was a good deal for everybody, and sadly the other two people they had lined up backed out, so here is Hilary and I bumping along across the center of Ireland in the back of this great white van. NO worries though, we are safe and sound in the Paddy's Wagon Hostel.
Today was a good one, but very exhausting as well. Hilary and i walked around the famous Trinity College, which had all the airs of the most prestigious of colleges. Pretty with trees budding and magnolia bushes in full bloom. Next was the big event of the day. The Guinness factory!!! I cannot express how excited I was to go here. It was everything I hoped it would be and is set up amazingly well for tourists. It takes you through all the different steps in the brewing process, shows how casks were made, a floor of all the history of the Guinness Advertising since it's beginning and the whole story of how Guinness came to be. At the top on the 7th floor you get your free pint and sit in the round observatory which gives some of the best views of all the city from above. Loved it all, and even had a beef and Guinness Stew for lunch with a heavy Guinness flavored bread. You can pretty much put Guinness in everything. Delicious! My favorite drink.
This evening at 7:30 we went on a musical pub crawl which was actually really cool. Two musicians take the whole group of us around to a couple pubs, play music, entertain and explain the history and background of Irish Music and all its misconceptions. Much of what we see is for tourists, and in a way they were too, but they were trying to explain to us the true nature of music and what playing is really about. Not for others but for each other. Musicians will just gather in a corner and play as if they are having their own musical conversation. Anyone who is even remotely connected usually has to bring something to the table and they ask everyone to play at a normal session.
This was no different. They asked the group of 60 of us to volunteer and take the floor. We were always crammed into some room on the top floor of the most authentic pubs in Dublin. Actually the two we went to were the only two to not be rennovated. anyway, no one was volunteering to sing, or play anything so Hilary convinced me and called attention to me. I went up amidst cheers and played and sang Passenger Seat by STephen Speaks for the whole crowd. When I was done, the whole room arupted in huge applause and I felt so proud. First time I truly got to perform in an open mic fashion. Felt good, but was dissappoionted that no one else followed. I thought I would get more to follow as our guides hoped, but no one volunteered and throughout the last hour I get another round of applause or two for being the only brave soul. I am so glad I did it and would have regretted the evening if I hadn't and we all know that I am not here to live with regrets. Got to make the most of all this and I am well on my way.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Where will I be all month?
This is more or less the final revised itinerary in summarized form. Toss a few more little towns in here and there and that's about it. Lots of beaches, hiking, and beautiful coastal sites. email me or leave me a note if you have any advice about any of these places that I'm going to...things to see, do, or experience. Cheers, and hope everyone has a great Easter holiday. I will be in Florence then.
March 25
Depart from flat, Flight @ 21:35
March 26
Shannon, Ireland (just for you shabby!)
March 26-March 28
Galway, Ireland
Stop on the way to Dublin and hike around for an afternoon…
March 29-30
Dublin, Ireland
March 31-April 1
Grenoble, Marseille, ? France
April 2-5
Nice, France Day trips to nearby villages and sites
April 6-9
Florence, Italy Day trips out to nearby sites
April 10-11
Cinque Terre, Italy
April 12-16
Malta, Italy
April 17-18
Sicily (Mt. Etna), Italy
April 19-20
Rimini, Italy
April 21st
Arrive Back at the Flat around 12:30 during the day
March 25
Depart from flat, Flight @ 21:35
March 26
Shannon, Ireland (just for you shabby!)
March 26-March 28
Galway, Ireland
Stop on the way to Dublin and hike around for an afternoon…
March 29-30
Dublin, Ireland
March 31-April 1
Grenoble, Marseille, ? France
April 2-5
Nice, France Day trips to nearby villages and sites
April 6-9
Florence, Italy Day trips out to nearby sites
April 10-11
Cinque Terre, Italy
April 12-16
Malta, Italy
April 17-18
Sicily (Mt. Etna), Italy
April 19-20
Rimini, Italy
April 21st
Arrive Back at the Flat around 12:30 during the day
Friday, March 23, 2007
Upholder of Democracy and All That is Beautiful
I am truly a university student now. I worked 12 hours last week in a temporary position as a poll clerk for the 2007-2008 Student Executive Elections. I basically, as you can see in the picture sat at a table that had the poll box and ran the paper ballot portion of voting. Not many students vote on paper nowadays and most vote online but I still was there for those who may have forgotten and wanted to at the last minute. I may have given out 20 ballots a day. You would think out of a school of over 30,000 students, we could get at least 10,000 to vote with plenty of campaigning. Instead they usually get around 6,000 every year. Even so I did my job well. I stood and handed out pamphlet's with the candidates manifestos inside, and tried to convince students who walked by in the main Portland building to excercise their rights and vote.
This was an interesting experience for me. This was the first time that I felt like a part of something bigger. Most everyone in the flat has fallen into the trap of living our lives out of the flat and making short excursions to campus to study or go to class and then come back to our home immediately. We aren't a part of the rest of the student population in that way that you live in halls and are always on campus. It's like living a dual life. Student, and traveller. Doing this job placed me in an involved role of student happenings. My face was out and familiear to people as someone who is involved in university activities and not only that but I am running the event. Even got a free t-shirt out of the deal...always a plus.
On the way to work, one day, or maybe it was play practice, but either way I was able to witness a very beutiful sunset. If only I could have been in Wollaton Park or The Arboretum so that a beautiful landscape coupled with these rosy skies instead of the row of houses, but it is in classic Nottingham style.
Last thursday Kevin, Emily and myself made our way just outside of Nottingham to Eastwood. We had a great time gathering in the sights and locations of all the different homes of D.H. Lawrence the author of the novel we currently reading.
What a great pic of Mark and I. I needed a picture with the man who supplied me beer at 11:45 in the morning. What a good man. Whew, look at my hair! It's getting longer and lookin good I should say!
Old mining works, made entirely of wood. This shaft is what created this town and gave a living to the men and women who lived there.
WARNING! THE REST OF THIS BLOG IS A JOURNAL ENTRY I WROTE FOR VISITING EASTWOOD. THOUGHT IT WOULD HAVE SOME NICE REFLECTOIONS THOUGH A BIT LONG AND DRY SEEING THAT I WROTE IT FOR AN ASSIGNMENT.
March 15, 2007: Eastwood- Hometown of D.H. Lawrence Brandon Becker
When you have lived in an area long enough, you become so accustomed to it that you feel that you have become quite the expert. It takes very little to shock us into the realization that we don’t know this place we live as well as we should. In the city of Nottingham itself, there are so many parts of the city that haven’t felt the ginger footstep of a timid American Norseman. Sadly, I think we have failed a little in exploring all that this city has to offer. West Bridgeford for one is an entire area on the fringes of the city, yet easily accessible by a city bus that I have always been meaning to visit and I am sure has much to offer.
Stretching ourselves further, when exploring our villages and green spaces, we were able to expand the limits or boundaries of what was to be seen here in our area of Nottinghamshire. I certainly realized that the opportunities to see knew things are exceedingly endless. Even so, without some gentle prodding from Mark or Carole Gilbertson, we may never have realized what lays just outside the city limits. I would venture to say that none of us have really seized it upon ourselves to become explorative and seize hold of our free days to make the most of them. I was proud to discover the little old village a while back in Strelley, and you would think that discovery would have spurned me on to bigger and grander circles of exploration. Another simple one is to ride the tram all the way out to it’s opposing limit in Hucknall. It’s a long ride and goes to show just how much space, people, and places are to be seen. I wouldn’t like to lie and pledge that once I return from our month holiday, I will tackle the city with new vigor but I wouldn’t be afraid to pose the thought that I will not take my last moments in such a new and strange (as it always will be when looking back at it from the comforts of the old home) for granted and that last month will be spent absorbing every bit of life untouched or unseen by myself from the city before I go.
Today was just another one of those moments where your mind gets shocked into a wider and broader range of thinking. I’ve grown comfortable thinking Nottingham to be just a big old city of Industry, and a large and prosperous as well as renowned University harbored in it increasing its nightclub appeal. No one really worth mentioning came from here except the exaggerated persona of good ol’ Robin Hood. Yet a great English 20th century writer live just outside the city in a small village, and gave the world a lot of good literature ranging from poetry and essays, through to a few of his well known novels, and even touching on painting and art. We are all familiar with Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy’s writings about Grasmere, and the pleasure that landscape brought to them. Easily understandable. It’s the Lake District, and millions of people flock there each year to hike in its beautiful hills and valleys alongside the many lakes dotting the landscape. Surely Nottinghamshire has nothing to offer like that.
David Hubert Lawrence wrote about Eastwood and the surrounding area as it offered as much joy and beauty to him as any grand sight on the top of a peak above Ambleside could offer. This was his home, and he loved it. “The country of my heart”. Our entry into the past world of Lawrence began at the Durban house renovated to house a museum to the man that had made this region seem special, and to the respect he paid to the mining industry. It was an enjoyable museum in that I felt that we were getting a nice intro into being able to understand this man and where he came from-the people that influenced his life, and the personal touches that made him unique. Complete with separate rooms dedicated to the wakes, and mining itself these were important things that made their way into his writing in Sons and Lovers.
His academic abilities must have been surprisingly far ahead of most of his class in the small town of Eastwood. What an achievement it must have been to be the first child to earn a scholarship to the Nottingham High School from that area. This was particularly interesting to me, and especially unique since I had taken a formal tour in January of the Nottingham High School today and sat in on classes. Another piece of history that I have a real mental image to associate with. I especially liked the quotes from his writing scattered throughout the museum. Little snippets of his voice were found there and on plaques all throughout the town. His voice emanated from the randomness of places and square blocks in the ground. The townspeople truly embraced what claim to fame they have.
“If I think of my childhood, it is always as if there was a sort of inner darkness, like the gloss of coal, in which we moved and had our real being.”
Mining was a tough way of life. I have a very arrogant, if that’s the word, sense of how different my life has been being a farmer. I am a tad haughty as to how properly a person’s character and work ethic is built about and beyond the “urbanite”. I have gone to school enough and met enough people to know this isn’t true, but there always lies a deep-set pride that isn’t easy to be rid of. The life of a miner, as seen through the eyes and feelings of Lawrence make me feel as if I have no reason to puff up so. Mining is the true tough life, and that is tough to argue with. I don’t like that he makes the farming community out to be one full of flowers, sunshine, ropes in haymows. There is all of that, but the work is tough too. I do admit, ashamedly that it is nothing compared to working in the heat and filth deep underground.
Eastwood has been able to throw off much of the tainting affects of a mining town. Today, it is a modern village with all technological advantages and rather clean. Seeing it and thinking of the book and the scenes described in it, my mind was able to play out different scenes with in the different settings we encountered. The beautified princes street did have some of the looks still of what would have been a more rugged and rough row of blockhouses. At the Breach I was almost able to imagine Mrs. Morel locked out of the house, or the little blue sack on a stick lying outside the backdoor as a reminder of Mr. Morel’s pathetic attempt of running away. Seeing that first home helps me now to have a place for all the characters to run within in my head. Though it has been altered much to represent a more typical late Victorian family life, one only needs to dirty up the house a bit in their heads, drop the temperature significantly and image black soot everywhere and I think we get the idea.
On our walk down main street, we passed an outdoor farmers market that was packing up, and one could really see that as the way it may have been 80 years ago. Vendors selling various goods usually produced by their own hands. This was just before we arrived at what was once the Moon and Stars or something like that. Out front where the Wakes would have been it is now a small parking lot. Not a very large area for a festival, but it was a small village back in the day, so they may not have needed the space. Ultimately with walking out to Hagg’s farm, seeing the homes Lawrence lived at various times in his life, and walking in and out of different parts the novel as they exist today, I think we get a pretty good idea what his world may have been like, and with his explicit descriptions in Sons and Lovers, our imaginations can be more vivid than ever.
This was an interesting experience for me. This was the first time that I felt like a part of something bigger. Most everyone in the flat has fallen into the trap of living our lives out of the flat and making short excursions to campus to study or go to class and then come back to our home immediately. We aren't a part of the rest of the student population in that way that you live in halls and are always on campus. It's like living a dual life. Student, and traveller. Doing this job placed me in an involved role of student happenings. My face was out and familiear to people as someone who is involved in university activities and not only that but I am running the event. Even got a free t-shirt out of the deal...always a plus.
On the way to work, one day, or maybe it was play practice, but either way I was able to witness a very beutiful sunset. If only I could have been in Wollaton Park or The Arboretum so that a beautiful landscape coupled with these rosy skies instead of the row of houses, but it is in classic Nottingham style.
Last thursday Kevin, Emily and myself made our way just outside of Nottingham to Eastwood. We had a great time gathering in the sights and locations of all the different homes of D.H. Lawrence the author of the novel we currently reading.
What a great pic of Mark and I. I needed a picture with the man who supplied me beer at 11:45 in the morning. What a good man. Whew, look at my hair! It's getting longer and lookin good I should say!
Old mining works, made entirely of wood. This shaft is what created this town and gave a living to the men and women who lived there.
WARNING! THE REST OF THIS BLOG IS A JOURNAL ENTRY I WROTE FOR VISITING EASTWOOD. THOUGHT IT WOULD HAVE SOME NICE REFLECTOIONS THOUGH A BIT LONG AND DRY SEEING THAT I WROTE IT FOR AN ASSIGNMENT.
March 15, 2007: Eastwood- Hometown of D.H. Lawrence Brandon Becker
When you have lived in an area long enough, you become so accustomed to it that you feel that you have become quite the expert. It takes very little to shock us into the realization that we don’t know this place we live as well as we should. In the city of Nottingham itself, there are so many parts of the city that haven’t felt the ginger footstep of a timid American Norseman. Sadly, I think we have failed a little in exploring all that this city has to offer. West Bridgeford for one is an entire area on the fringes of the city, yet easily accessible by a city bus that I have always been meaning to visit and I am sure has much to offer.
Stretching ourselves further, when exploring our villages and green spaces, we were able to expand the limits or boundaries of what was to be seen here in our area of Nottinghamshire. I certainly realized that the opportunities to see knew things are exceedingly endless. Even so, without some gentle prodding from Mark or Carole Gilbertson, we may never have realized what lays just outside the city limits. I would venture to say that none of us have really seized it upon ourselves to become explorative and seize hold of our free days to make the most of them. I was proud to discover the little old village a while back in Strelley, and you would think that discovery would have spurned me on to bigger and grander circles of exploration. Another simple one is to ride the tram all the way out to it’s opposing limit in Hucknall. It’s a long ride and goes to show just how much space, people, and places are to be seen. I wouldn’t like to lie and pledge that once I return from our month holiday, I will tackle the city with new vigor but I wouldn’t be afraid to pose the thought that I will not take my last moments in such a new and strange (as it always will be when looking back at it from the comforts of the old home) for granted and that last month will be spent absorbing every bit of life untouched or unseen by myself from the city before I go.
Today was just another one of those moments where your mind gets shocked into a wider and broader range of thinking. I’ve grown comfortable thinking Nottingham to be just a big old city of Industry, and a large and prosperous as well as renowned University harbored in it increasing its nightclub appeal. No one really worth mentioning came from here except the exaggerated persona of good ol’ Robin Hood. Yet a great English 20th century writer live just outside the city in a small village, and gave the world a lot of good literature ranging from poetry and essays, through to a few of his well known novels, and even touching on painting and art. We are all familiar with Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy’s writings about Grasmere, and the pleasure that landscape brought to them. Easily understandable. It’s the Lake District, and millions of people flock there each year to hike in its beautiful hills and valleys alongside the many lakes dotting the landscape. Surely Nottinghamshire has nothing to offer like that.
David Hubert Lawrence wrote about Eastwood and the surrounding area as it offered as much joy and beauty to him as any grand sight on the top of a peak above Ambleside could offer. This was his home, and he loved it. “The country of my heart”. Our entry into the past world of Lawrence began at the Durban house renovated to house a museum to the man that had made this region seem special, and to the respect he paid to the mining industry. It was an enjoyable museum in that I felt that we were getting a nice intro into being able to understand this man and where he came from-the people that influenced his life, and the personal touches that made him unique. Complete with separate rooms dedicated to the wakes, and mining itself these were important things that made their way into his writing in Sons and Lovers.
His academic abilities must have been surprisingly far ahead of most of his class in the small town of Eastwood. What an achievement it must have been to be the first child to earn a scholarship to the Nottingham High School from that area. This was particularly interesting to me, and especially unique since I had taken a formal tour in January of the Nottingham High School today and sat in on classes. Another piece of history that I have a real mental image to associate with. I especially liked the quotes from his writing scattered throughout the museum. Little snippets of his voice were found there and on plaques all throughout the town. His voice emanated from the randomness of places and square blocks in the ground. The townspeople truly embraced what claim to fame they have.
“If I think of my childhood, it is always as if there was a sort of inner darkness, like the gloss of coal, in which we moved and had our real being.”
Mining was a tough way of life. I have a very arrogant, if that’s the word, sense of how different my life has been being a farmer. I am a tad haughty as to how properly a person’s character and work ethic is built about and beyond the “urbanite”. I have gone to school enough and met enough people to know this isn’t true, but there always lies a deep-set pride that isn’t easy to be rid of. The life of a miner, as seen through the eyes and feelings of Lawrence make me feel as if I have no reason to puff up so. Mining is the true tough life, and that is tough to argue with. I don’t like that he makes the farming community out to be one full of flowers, sunshine, ropes in haymows. There is all of that, but the work is tough too. I do admit, ashamedly that it is nothing compared to working in the heat and filth deep underground.
Eastwood has been able to throw off much of the tainting affects of a mining town. Today, it is a modern village with all technological advantages and rather clean. Seeing it and thinking of the book and the scenes described in it, my mind was able to play out different scenes with in the different settings we encountered. The beautified princes street did have some of the looks still of what would have been a more rugged and rough row of blockhouses. At the Breach I was almost able to imagine Mrs. Morel locked out of the house, or the little blue sack on a stick lying outside the backdoor as a reminder of Mr. Morel’s pathetic attempt of running away. Seeing that first home helps me now to have a place for all the characters to run within in my head. Though it has been altered much to represent a more typical late Victorian family life, one only needs to dirty up the house a bit in their heads, drop the temperature significantly and image black soot everywhere and I think we get the idea.
On our walk down main street, we passed an outdoor farmers market that was packing up, and one could really see that as the way it may have been 80 years ago. Vendors selling various goods usually produced by their own hands. This was just before we arrived at what was once the Moon and Stars or something like that. Out front where the Wakes would have been it is now a small parking lot. Not a very large area for a festival, but it was a small village back in the day, so they may not have needed the space. Ultimately with walking out to Hagg’s farm, seeing the homes Lawrence lived at various times in his life, and walking in and out of different parts the novel as they exist today, I think we get a pretty good idea what his world may have been like, and with his explicit descriptions in Sons and Lovers, our imaginations can be more vivid than ever.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Black and White and Trying New Things
Saturday, Aaron abruptly or at least to the outside person appeared to randomly decide to test the fire escape system out of his room window. I don't know if this was a farewell gesture to his room before packing his stuff up and trading places with Kate, or he had a moment of heroism or masculine audacity to do something gutsy. It really is perfectly safe, but I was nervous and feeling all that apt to try, even with my adventuresome and hyper spirits accounted for. I don't do heights. He wrapped the rope around his body somehow and basically threw himself out the window, and unsurprisingly this safety escape system was safe as expected.
Aaron can't help but hide his excitement. Look at that face!
This is the weirdest thing ever. I don't know if this sort of thing even exists in the U.S. but I must say it is quite the unassuming little contraption. You never would guess that it could hold as much weight, nor work so niftily as it does.
Ryan, not one to be left out and feeling bold, belees (spl?) out the window with some assistance from Aaron below. Notice that form, he gets plenty of practice through his little spulunking and caving expedition earlier this year where they dropped down some nearly vertical cave shafts. Not for me.
With Aaron operating as our impetus, and coming up with such a novel idea, we finally after weeks of debate managed to have our Black and White party. Aaron first suggested it to me like a month ago in Starbucks. It didn't catch for a while, then I got Mary hooked on the idea to do it for Aaron's B-Day but folks were still a bit questionable as to timing and plans, and thus that following Saturday, Kevin motioned through a facebook invitation to have this fiesto, lest it will never happen. That's just the type of group we are. It's tough to make us move and come to a decision as a unit. But aren't all large groups like that?
Whilst (Using a bit of the old tongue, fancy eh?)most of the ladies minus Anna were in Lincoln repeating what us guys had done the week before (see previous blog) Kevin and I went shopping in town for decorations and booze. You see, we needed a bit of a variety of alcohol and enough of it to do this right. Not only were we to have a candelit dinner with some kind of Chamogne esk cheap stuff, but for drinks for the party, no usual beer, or lager was allowed, but instead fancier mixed drinks such as cosmopolitans, Sex on the Beach, etc. (Never mind the Un-classy names) and had a nice bonding evening. No TV, solely...fellowship.
He got a bit of a tongue lashing by some of the ladies for having Pink in his tie, but come on. It looks pretty dang nice!
Hey, hey hey!! It's the new couple in the flat, and looking oh so happy! Emily and Aaron have hooked up and thus have pushed Mary and I out of the new, exciting and cute relationship to more of the "old couple" status with these new arrivals. I wonder if Nottingham has ever had to relationships start at once in the flat? Wish them all the best!
The ladies vie for Kevin's affection.
Yes! This is a great pic of Mary with "the face". Something that is rarely captured in Photos, and I've only seen it on paper maybe twice before, or at least once. Something about her expression or smile in this way I just love!
Aaron can't help but hide his excitement. Look at that face!
This is the weirdest thing ever. I don't know if this sort of thing even exists in the U.S. but I must say it is quite the unassuming little contraption. You never would guess that it could hold as much weight, nor work so niftily as it does.
Ryan, not one to be left out and feeling bold, belees (spl?) out the window with some assistance from Aaron below. Notice that form, he gets plenty of practice through his little spulunking and caving expedition earlier this year where they dropped down some nearly vertical cave shafts. Not for me.
With Aaron operating as our impetus, and coming up with such a novel idea, we finally after weeks of debate managed to have our Black and White party. Aaron first suggested it to me like a month ago in Starbucks. It didn't catch for a while, then I got Mary hooked on the idea to do it for Aaron's B-Day but folks were still a bit questionable as to timing and plans, and thus that following Saturday, Kevin motioned through a facebook invitation to have this fiesto, lest it will never happen. That's just the type of group we are. It's tough to make us move and come to a decision as a unit. But aren't all large groups like that?
Whilst (Using a bit of the old tongue, fancy eh?)most of the ladies minus Anna were in Lincoln repeating what us guys had done the week before (see previous blog) Kevin and I went shopping in town for decorations and booze. You see, we needed a bit of a variety of alcohol and enough of it to do this right. Not only were we to have a candelit dinner with some kind of Chamogne esk cheap stuff, but for drinks for the party, no usual beer, or lager was allowed, but instead fancier mixed drinks such as cosmopolitans, Sex on the Beach, etc. (Never mind the Un-classy names) and had a nice bonding evening. No TV, solely...fellowship.
He got a bit of a tongue lashing by some of the ladies for having Pink in his tie, but come on. It looks pretty dang nice!
Hey, hey hey!! It's the new couple in the flat, and looking oh so happy! Emily and Aaron have hooked up and thus have pushed Mary and I out of the new, exciting and cute relationship to more of the "old couple" status with these new arrivals. I wonder if Nottingham has ever had to relationships start at once in the flat? Wish them all the best!
The ladies vie for Kevin's affection.
Yes! This is a great pic of Mary with "the face". Something that is rarely captured in Photos, and I've only seen it on paper maybe twice before, or at least once. Something about her expression or smile in this way I just love!
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Our Minds in Distant Lands
We have less than a month to plan for our full month long spring holiday trips. Everyone is feeling the pressure to start buying plane flights and train tickets, whilst booking hostels. I've done neither yet, but have got a pretty solid plan, though it's very liable to change. Anyone have any suggestions or places they loved near these areas, please email me. beckbr01@luther.edu I want to make the most of this final trip!March:
IRELAND:
26th- Fly into Shannon to Galway
27th- Day in Galway with Molly
28th- Day trip outside Galway, Night with Molly
29th- Travel to Dublin
30th- Day in Dublin, Guinness Factory
31st- Fly out of Dublin to southern france
April:
FRANCE:
1st- Day in French Village
2nd- Travel to Nice
3rd- Day in Nice
4th- Day trip out of Nice
ITALY:
5th- Travel to …………………….
6th- Day in ………………………..
7th- Travel to Florence
8th- Day in Florence
9th- Day trip out of Florence, Pratolino village, travel to cinque terre
10th- Meet Malta Gang, and start two day travels of Cinque Terre
11th- Day in Cinque Terre
12th- Train to Pisa, Flight out to Malta @ 15:30
13th- 16th- Malta, Chillin with my Pals
17th- Hiking around a mountain, Mt. Etna
18th- Adventureman
19th- Travel to Rome
20th- Day in Rome
21st- Flight back to London, Bus to Nottingham, Play Dress Rehearsal
To give her some credit, I can say for myself that that chair is very comfortable and the lighting in the libraryis perfectly dim for a drowsy environment, but she should be reading....tsk tsk tsk. We all are barrelling our way through Barchester Towers in just over a week, but as you can see it can be a bit much at times. I can't say anything, she's been working hard and is some 150 pages ahead of me. I just needed to put this pic up.
I am a temporary member of the Nottingham University's Varsity Volleyball team. I played a few weeks ago against Nottingham Trent University. Good experience but scary as hell and still a bit out of my league. I played Middle, a position I have never played before, and was basically taking a crash course in the position while in the game. Did all right, had a 7 serve streak going. Anyway, I just wanted a picture of our "Kit" before I gave it back for memories sake. Like the color. Yeah, the shorts are pretty dang short and not all that flattering on me, but it's all about the game, not your looks right! 
The colorful spring-like bouquet of flowers that I gave Mary for V-day have officially died off and look nothing like this anymore. Nature is providing many more here in England. Daffodils are sprouting out of the lawn all over campus in the randomest of places. Spring feels like it has arrived, though winter never seemed to have come but two nights with a bit of snow. 
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