I get knocked down, but I get up again

~Chumbawamba

Sunday was AMAZING! I mean, it was alright.

Sunday I went hiking in the Peak District with a couple friends. Let me start off by saying the peaks here make the mountains back home look huge! But it's still nature, and nature is beautiful, so it was still a breathtaking sight.

We set off from my place at 8AM and arrived in Castleton around 10, I think. It was cold, below freezing, but once we got going we quickly warmed up. We started our walk by walking through town to a small farm. While passing the sheep that were grazing, Andy reminded us that the book stated these sheep are hostile in the winter. So, of course, we started trying to talk to the sheep, whom decided to stop grazing and stare at us.

After walking through a few fields, past a farm, over a small footbridge, over a creek, and up through another field we started to ascend Lose Hill. While looking at the hill I couldn't help but wonder if there was another way up, but regardless, I pressed on and before I knew it I was enjoying this view.

After throwing a rock on top of the beacon, we began walking across the top of the ridge towards Back tor. The path was really slippery, with snow, ice, mud, and the occasional deep puddle that Andy so nicely entertained us with by stepping it in. We got a good laugh out of that, but as we all know, karma sucks!!

So, we continued along the ridge and eventually made it to Back tor. Here we enjoyed another wonderful view. The book said that we were supposed to follow a steep path down from here. As we were beginning out descent from the top of Back tor I fell in the mud. It was a bit funny. Not too messy. Once we made it down Back tor we all turned around to see the path we had just taken. Quite steep!!

After Back tor we continued along the ridge towards Mam tor, apparently the highest peak. Along we way we past some mountain bikers, brave mountain bikers, biking up an icy stone path. It was a very difficult climb to get to top of Back tor, and really really windy and cold at the top. But the views were once again beautiful. I LOVE NATURE!!

Coming down Mam tor I provided more entertainment for the crew by falling again in the mud. This time I thoroughly covered by butt with mud. It was funny, and painful all at once. We headed through some more fields, past some huge sheep, and down into a steep ravine. It was all so amazing! I can't wait until I go hiking with them again!!

All in all, I had a great time and really hope that in the new year I'll be able to spend a little more time exploring this country I'm living in.

For Carrie

This post has nothing to do with England...nothing at all. But after the night I've had, I needed to post something to make people laugh.

Regardless of your political views, this is funny...admit it! It's Nicole Parker (from MadTV) singing the song "Defying Gravity" from the musical Wicked in the style of Sarah Palin.




And in case you don't know the real song, here it is with Idina Menzel.



Oh! AND! I get to see Wicked on the West End in less than 2 weeks!!!!! (See, I just made it about England!)

I've got a gift and it blew me away

~Angels and Airwaves

I'm a little late posting this, but it's been another one of those weeks here in the UK. Being a full time grad student is a lot different than I expected. I mean, for 3 years I was a full time employee and a part time grad student. I had very little free time to deal with so I just knew what I had to do to get things done. Being a full time grad student leaves me with free time, but not too much. It's tough because I have deadlines for assignments, I have classes to attend, and I have studying to do, but I always seem to push things to the last minute without really doing anything else. I just wonder where all the time goes. But that's not the point of this post...

Saturday was Thanksgiving, well, when we celebrated it. I hosted dinner with several of my friends from class. It consisted of the 3 Americans, the Swedish twins, and 1 Brit. We had a blast! The guys came over early to start with the turkey, since I put them in charge of that. They got really into the whole thing, after a short explanation of what Thanksgiving is really about. Granted I always focus on the fact that you spend it with family, but in a way, these people have become my family here, which made it even more amazing. Anyway, our dinner consisted of turkey, mashed potatoes, Stovetop stuffing (thanks mom!), roasted veggies, succotash, cornbread, gravy, pie, and pumpkin cupcakes. It was all absolutely mouthwatering. The guys even decided to make frills for the turkey.

In an effort to make the experience truly authentic of a present day Thanksgiving, we did what anybody else would do, and watched football (American style) during dinner. I managed to find a way to watch NC State beat Miami on Saturday on my laptop. It was great! I spent most of the time trying to explain things to everyone else, like "what are those lines on the field for?" But it was fun watching the game. At the same time, we had the "All Blacks" rugby match on the TV playing. You can really tell the differences between the sports when you watch them side-by-side.

After dinner we all headed out on the town to celebrate the 3 birthdays from my class from the week, mine included. All in all, it was a great day/evening but if I had to do it again, I'd still rather spend Thanksgiving with my family. Although, this one sure was special.

Say a prayer and let the good times roll

~Fall Out Boy

It's very strange not being at home with my family on Thanksgiving. It's the first time in my life that I haven't been there. I was even brought home from the hospital after I was born in time for Thanksgiving. So, it's really strange. But as I speak, I'm 'having' Thanksgiving dinner with my family, via webcam. Granted, I can't see each item of food on the table or taste it, but I can see my entire family eating together, which is something I haven't seen since right before I left for the UK. I can't wait to be home for Christmas!

So, Happy Thanksgiving to all of my friends stateside! I hope you cherish the time with your families. And no worries on my part, we're cooking Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, and making it a truly multicultural event (with 2 Swedes, 3 Americans, and 2 Brits).

Cheers!! Or Gobble Gobble!!

Buon Compleanno

I was honestly a little concerned about spending my birthday away from home, but yesterday was amazing!!!!!

The festivities officially started on Sunday. Mary invited me over for lunch, where we proceeded to eat way too many pancakes with strawberries and honey. It was so good. I'd been thinking about how much I wanted pancakes on Saturday. She must be reading my mind. After lunch we baked cupcakes. She even decorated 2 special for me.

I've been sick for a few days now. I was feeling better yesterday, but today I felt worse than any other day. At least yesterday I felt well enough to leave my room. I went to class to find that 2 of my coursemates had baked cakes for me. One was a walnut poundcake. Since I can't eat nuts, Daniel pulled all of the nuts out of a piece and gave me a small bite so I could at least taste his cake. Ed's cake was a 2-layer sponge cake with whipped cream and berries between the layers...mmmm...

Once I got home, Megan called to take me out for a little while. I met her on campus and we had a good time just relaxing and talking a bit about classes. I should hang out with her more outside of class, but we're always soooooo busy.

After campus I went out with my European friends. When I arrived, Christian gave me a huge hug and a present. I wasn't expecting presents from people, so it was really cool that he thought of it. It's apparently from a German movie. I like the flowers as well...they are real.

Then Alessandro came up behind me and said happy birthday, only to present me with my third birthday cake of the day. It was an apricot pound cake. Soooooo good!

Just when I thought my birthday was over, my co-worker and one of her flat mates brought me mini chocolate cakes to work tonight. :-) Who doesn't like chocolate?!

For these are the days when injustice will fall at the coming King

~Delirious?

Sunday night I decided to watch some TV for a change, instead of studying or listening to the trusty itunes playlist. It's the first time I've gone to bed truly angry at people in the world. It all felt kind of fitting though, with everything that had happened that day. Let's start from the beginning.

Sunday morning I went to church, as usual. Church has been rather interesting lately, and not in a good way. It's much different than what I'm used to and it really puts me off. Much different would be an understatement actually. For those that know me, you know how important my religious beliefs are...so this is a huge thing. Sunday they had a guest speaker who talked about how we're all products of our culture and we should strive to live more like the gospel showed us. Which makes sense.

At the end of the service the guest did an invitation time. Now, this church is odd in it's invitations. They do them every week. Anyone that would like prayer to be better in whatever they talked about that week is invited up front for prayer. The thing is, every week, it's the same people. And it's always the same people up front first. It's almost like folks are just seeing someone they view as spiritual wanting prayer so the others just follow thinking it makes them more spiritual. Or, maybe that's just my outside opinion.

Anyway...Sunday was by far the most uncomfortable situation I've been in. It was full on people violently shaking, screaming, crying and laughing at the same time, and falling to the ground. I almost ran out of the room.

Then came Sunday night and the TV. There was a documentary on about a very serious issue in Nigeria. Now, we all know how drawn I am to Africa, particularly children. This particular program was highlighting the issue of witches and wizards in Nigeria. In this culture, they believe that anything that bad happens, someone dying, someone becoming ill, or someone losing a job, is a product of witchcraft. The really sad part, is that the leaders of the churches are claiming to know who the witches are, and they point to the children. These children are then either abandoned by their parents, given to the church along with a full year's salary where the church claims they will cure the child, or mutilated or killed. Children! It's really sad and breaks my heart.

But looking back at the entire day I see how it's all so similar. People believe what people tell them to. Too often people take things at face value, based on what someone in power tells them, without ever figuring out what they believe. So in the end, we end up with abused children accused of witchcraft, people screaming out like they're possessed, or people drinking poison, all because the leaders told them so. Today is the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown cult mass murder-suicide. When will we learn?

Time to breathe in and let everything out

~Sanctus Real

Last week was the end of my first two classes here at uni. Have I really been here long enough to have completed 2 courses? I guess when the courses are only taught for 5 weeks, time does go by. I can't believe it though. I had my exams last week. It was great. So great in fact that I likely failed because every time I think things have gone well on a test I end up really upset with the grade. But that's OK, I also made an A* on an assignment. That's right, A*...which is better than an A+. Who knew? Just to top off my week I received by far the best piece of mail so far this year (sorry mom...but how do you top getting this from a 5 year old?)

Yesterday I went to Cambridge for the day. It was a pretty great trip. I'm kinda glad I'm not going to school there. It's a town packed with tourist. I bet the students feel like animals at the zoo. But, it has some amazing architecture. I saw several of the colleges, went into the Chapel and King's College and even got to listen to the organist practicing. Yes, I'm still a music dork! I probably could have sat in there all day just listening to that pipe organ.

We went to the Fitzwilliam Museum as well. They had an exhibit from Egypt, including real mummies. They also had quite a bit of Roman and Greek artifacts, which of course made me happy. The highlight of the time in the museum though was getting to see real paintings by Monet, Degas, Renoir, Matisse, and Picasso. How often have I had the chance to do that. I've never really considered myself as someone that likes Monet, but after standing in front of his artwork and really considering it all, I found it truly mesmerizing.

The only thing I didn't get to do in Cambridge that I had really hoped to was punting on the Cam. I did watch someone fall into the river though, so that was almost worth missing out on the experience. But the rain kept me from wanting to spend too much time near lots of water. Great trip overall, and I can't wait until I get another day to travel somewhere new. Oh! I almost forgot, I also saw the apple tree (or part of the apple tree) where Sir Isaac Newton first learned about our friend gravity. (That one is just for you, Carrie.) More pictures are up on flickr (click on the image to the right).

This country is amazing. The people are really nice, not anything like I had been told. I'm making some amazing friends and I'm learning new things about myself everyday. I'm just doing my best to take everything in that I can, and soak up this awesome opportunity.

'Til next time!