Feeling Irish!

This past week was a plethora of celebrations. Last Thursday, I celebrated turning two decades old. Then when the weekend came, I celebrated St. Patrick’s Day properly in Ireland.

Thursday morning I woke up and made myself a nice birthday breakfast to start my day and went through cards and presents I had received from friends and family back home. Little did I realize that the love I felt from back home at that time would be reciprocated throughout the entire day by the people in my home at Chester. After lunch, Andrew, Brian, and I went into town and saw the movie “The Woman in Black”. Those of you that know me well enough would know that I hate scary movies. I don’t like to pay to get scared nor do I find the thrill of being scared enjoyable. So the only reason I walked into that movie was because I didn’t know it was suppose to be scary. Andrew and Brian claimed it wasn’t as bad as I made it out to be but let’s just say that I was happy no one else was in the theatre so I could move around and talk through the movie. After dinner, I came back to my house to find a cake and ice cream on the table and friends to share it with. I was also given multiple cards and gifts throughout the day by my friends which was completely unexpected. To finish of my birthday, a group of nine of us went to a pub for a few hours. I still can’t get over how blessed I felt having friends and family giving me well wishes throughout the world. Being away from home on my birthday cemented in my head the love that this world has to offer.

Friday night rolled around and as John came into my room we decided to take a look at our bus tickets for Dublin. My jaw dropped when we noticed that I had put down the wrong return date for the bus. I tried to call and change the date but the Sunday night buses were already booked full. So that presented us with another day in Ireland – which isn’t too bad of a consequence! Courtney, John, and I boarded our bus around 11pm Friday night and arrived into Dublin around 6:30am. As much as I wanted our bus to swim, we had to load a ferry to get across the water.

We waited for a couple hours to ensure a front row view for the parade. The parade was unlike any I have ever seen. It was a mix of modern things in very old styles. I can’t really describe it but simply put, the costumes were the best part of the parade. Afterwards we roamed the streets all day, hitting pubs and taking in all the greenery (people watching). In the evening we sat in a pub that had live Irish music in the “Temple Bar” area of Dublin. Hostels were booked months in advanced so we had planned to sleep in a park or pull an all-nighter. When the time came, the weather wasn’t looking promising so for the most part we pulled an all-nighter, staying in a McDonald’s for over three hours between 1am and 4:30. The next morning we went to mass then walked through the Guinness Storehouse. We got to our hostel in the late afternoon and crashed for 4 hours before making dinner and taking it easy that night. 

St. Patrick's Day Parade Dublin

Live Irish music in a pub in Dublin

With our extra day in Dublin we decided to go Belfast, Northern Ireland. None of us knew much about the city so I can’t report any noteworthy places we hit. Belfast was even more Americanized than Dublin in my opinion. Nonetheless we saw the future home of a Titanic museum and ate Ireland’s largest pizza – 24 inches in Belfast! 

Belfast City Hall

A bus took us back to Dublin then we trekked back to Chester and arrived at 3am today. Lots of things to do this week before I start Easter break travelling! 

Random Epicness

Part of me just didn't feel like blogging last week and another part of me really just didn't know what I would talk about. The last two weekends I didn't do any traveling which is my favorite thing to write about in the blog. I took the last two weekends easy in anticipation of what was ahead. This weekend I am going to Dublin to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in proper style. Then the weekend after is the start of my Easter break and I will be going to mainland Europe with my roommate Brian for two weeks. Nonetheless, I bring you this blog about random topics that I decided to make epic. 

My last blog promised that I would explain the concept of "going out" so here it is! "Going out" is a massive part of university culture. The night out starts with a house party for a few hours before hitting a few bars on your way to a club. Some details that make going out a little more interesting... Students go out on school nights, not on weekends. I guess weekends are too overrun by older people. It isn't uncommon to go out twice or more in the same school week. You might start the house party around 10, get to the bars around 11:30, then be in the club at midnight. From there, the night might take you to 3am or later. Then class in the morning! I still don't understand where the students get their money to pay for their crazy nights. I've heard stories of people paying well over 50 pounds in one night (close to 80 dollars). Also, students utilize the campus bar for a good time which I still can't get over the fact that there's a bar on campus. There's a company that the University uses to organize parties for the university. Clubs and organizations for the most part will go out on Wednesdays after their sporting event. Going out is too boring as it is so themes are a must. Pirates, gangsters, mimes, army men, cavemen, etc. whatever you fancy.  I should throw in this final comment - I haven't embraced this side of British culture and I'm not a raging alcoholic. 

Many of you may know my extensive knowledge of fashion, from sweatpants to sports t-shirts to the all important pair of tennis shoes, so I thought I would share my thoughts on English fashion. I can describe their fashion in three words: tight, dark, and always. The first two words are easily put. At least from the first months I've been here, I've observed much more fit clothing. Skinny jeans are more common and jackets or shirts are tight to your body. The clothing is predominately dark in color and I seldom will see bright colors or even simple white shirts. The last word I chose was "always" because they ALWAYS where clothes like this. Even if you are just going to be around the house for the day or maybe go out for an hour, they still get their fashion on. I have never seen a student wear sweatpants to class. To American students, that goes against everything we stand for. 

Basketball is slowing up. We lost a cup game last week so we're out of the tournament. The loss came from the hands of Lancaster Uni by one point which was disappointing, but a massive improvement from the 40 point loss we had received from them the week earlier. We have two games left in the season before it's finished. The team has been a lot of fun and great way to hang out with some British guys and I've really enjoyed joining. Another big benefit has been that it's kicked me back into shape. I needed something to chisel muscles back into my body.

The last random topic is the epic campus of Chester University. In terms of size, there is over 16,000 students, making it bigger than Wichita State University. Chester University is broken up into four campuses and even though I'm on the main campus, it feels like less than half of the size of WSU. I love the campus for that reason, it's small and personable but still has all of the amenities of a large University. The library is my favorite building on campus which causes me to squirm admitting. In all seriousness, the library is easily the best place to study and you have to check out all of your books since they don't just use one textbook. This last week I started taking advantage of their CD section. I've added seven albums to my iTunes already. 

I don't have many pictures to represent the topics above so I'll follow the random theme and post some random pictures.

Walking along the Chester canal

Graffiti - Notice the spelling of "mom"

Riverside Chester on a Saturday

Looking forward to Dublin this weekend and Easter break! 

The English's English

Thankfully I didn't have to encounter a significant language barrier studying abroad. But I will say that the language isn't the same and sometimes British accents can be a little heavy. Just last night I hung out with some basketball guys watching the NBA All-Star game and I had to ask guys to repeat themselves due to their accent. I list a few words below with their (American) English translation.

mate - friend

mince - ground beef

zed - the letter "z"

fag - cigarette 

ta - thanks

quid - money like we use "bucks"

bloody - sometimes a cuss word or sometimes not as vulgar like "freaking"

rubbish - trash

lecturer - professor

cheers - used as "have a good day", "thanks", "hello", "bye", and for dozens of other variations

Last Saturday I went to York for the day. Just like my home city of Chester, York is a Roman walled city. The walls and streets are very similar to those I see here so I wasn't in love with the city of York. I think Chester pulls off the walls a little better and the city has a more homey feel. When we arrived in York we went into the Jorvik Centre for an hour which is a small museum and recreation of viking life that inhabited the city over in the 9th century. I was very impressed with the church York Minster. The cathedral, built nearly 1000 years ago, is the largest Gothic style church in Europe North of the Alps. Inside the structure, the walls are filled with over 200 stained glass windows and on the East side of the church lies the world's largest medieval stained glass window. Although York wasn't incredible impressive, York Minster was its redeeming grace. 

York Minster

The naive 

The picture only includes 40% of the cathedral

School is picking up and I have my first essay due March 1. Lectures have been pretty standard. It's nice only going to each class once a week but at the same time I think going to class a couple times a week is better for learning the material. 

As I write this blog, I can hear the Brits loudly walking by my window to "go out" for tonight. 11:30pm and their nights are just getting started. I'll be sure to expand on the "going out" phenomenon in a future post!

 

Kilts and Bagpipes

In England they have what is called "half term" which is halfway through the school year and everyone gets the week off from school. At the university level, they turn this week into a "development week" and have various seminars about different subjects throughout the week. To most, it's a time to go home, to travel, or to work so back in January a group of eight of us booked a trip to Scotland. So we spent the week developing not in the university, but in Edinburgh and in the Highlands!

On Feb. 12th we left Chester and arrived in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. After finding the hostel and checking in, we looked around the city and walked the "Royal Mile". Then for dinner we ate at The White Elephant which is where J.K. Rowling spent many hours writing Harry Potter. When it became dark outside, five of us went and climbed a big hill that looks out over the city before calling it a night and preparing for our five day tour of the Highlands.

Edinburgh Castle

On a hill overlooking Edinburgh

The next 5 days we were on a bus with our tour guide Neil and about 20 others. Neil was a great guide and very funny in the way he could tell stories of Scotland. Although he didn't really have a stopper on his cussing, his knowledge and ability to wear his kilt with class made him a very enjoyable guy. The next paragraphs will be a brief overview of what all I saw in that day and a couple of notes to go with them. 

Day 1: We started by going to the small town of Dunkeld before going to see the ruins of Ruthven barracks. We had a picnic on the beach of Loch Morlich then to the Culloden battlefield where the English defeated the Jacobites. Our last stop for the day was at Balnuaran of Clava to see a cemetery and standing rocks that are believed to have been used as a calendar. We finished the day in Inverness which is one of the biggest cities in the Highlands. We just walked around Inverness until dinner time when we went to a pub for a ceilidh, a social gathering for a dance. I was able to pick up a few Scottish dances and tried haggis for the first time. The dance was a lot of fun and the haggis wasn't too bad. Later in the week I tried canned haggis and haggis in a roll but this haggis from the first night was the best.

Ruthven barracks

The beach of Loch Morlich

The river in Inverness

Day 2: Our first stop on Valentine's Day was at Loch Ness where we did a little Nessie hunting and came up short. A man actually lives by the lake in a trailer and has lived there for 20 years Nessie hunting full-time. We took a short hike through a forrest in Farigaig before going to the Falls of Foyer. For lunch we ate in a small town then stopped in Drummadrochit where I got a picture on top of a Nessie statue. A little while later we saw Eilean Donan Castle where scenes from Highlander and Made of Honor were filmed. Our hostel for  night two and three was in Kyleakin. Fun fact: "Kyle" means a straight of water so Akin is a city on a straight of water. "Loch" means lake so Loch Ness is Lake Ness. There are hundreds of words like that used in front of places.

In the Farigaig forest  

Caledonian Canal

Eilean Donan Castle

Touching a bridge and turning into Harry Potter. You could call it magical. 

Day 3: We started the day by going to Sligachen which is by the Cullin Mountains and I put my face in a stream for seven seconds because it supposedly makes you more beautiful. Hope it worked! After drying off my refreshed face we went to Portree that has a line of colorful houses along the water. Next was probably our longest hike of the trip and we went to see the Old Man of Storr. Shortly after we saw Creag an Fheilidh which is a cliff that looks like a kilt so is nicknamed "Kilt Rock". We then walked around the ruins of Duntulum Castle before going to Uig where we walked around the hills and heard stories of ferries running the place. Brian and I tried to get close to some sheep but were unsuccessful. Then back to Kyleakin for the night!

Becoming beautiful

Colorful Portree

Old Man of Sorr

On top of a hill in Uig

Day 4: The day started with The Five Sisters of Kintail hills then we made a toilet stop in Spean Bridge Mill. At 11am we went to the Ben Nevis Distillery to learn the whiskey making process and sample some that they make. My favorite thing I learned was that the process starts with 42,000 liters of water then after four stages the water will become 4,000 liters of whiskey. We then went to the Glennfinnan Viaduct which would mean nothing to you until I add that it's the bridge that the Hogwarts Express goes over. I took some funny pictures and even transformed into Harry after touching the bridge. Carrying on, we saw the ruins of Inverlochy Castle then stopped to see the scenery of Glencoe. We drove by the castle that is used at the end of Monty Python and the Holy Grail then ended up in Oban for the night. Around 9pm I went to another ceilidh so I've mastered some Scottish dances or at least I like to think so. Watch out America! Scottish dancing is coming back with me!

Wizards doing what wizards do

I touched the bridge and turned into Harry Potter. You could call it magical. 

Oban

 Day 5: The first stop was at Carnasserie Caslte then to Dunado. Most of the day was spent driving back to Edinburgh with a few other stops on the way. In the afternoon we saw Loch Lomond which has a song featuring it. My favorite part of the day was seeing William Wallace country and the monument built in honor of him and his rebellion against the English. This is the man that Mel Gibson portrays in the movie Braveheart. I learned that in reality kilts were only worn in the Highlands and Wallace wasn't from the Highlands so he wouldn't have worn a kilt like the movie portrays. The painting of the faces in the movie was taken from another time period so that's not accurate either. We made it back to Edinburgh and ate dinner at a very authentic Chinese restaurant and called it a night.

Jumping in Dunado 

The Wallace Monument

The next day I visited the National Museum of Scotland which was great then went to the National Gallery and got to see work by Raphael, Titian, and Van Gogh. I hopped on a train around 5pm and got back to Chester around 9. I must conclude the post with saying that Scotland was absolutely amazing and I loved the Highlands. I feel so developed! 

American football to English football

I don't have much for this post mainly because I know I'll have a long post coming about Scotland in the next 48 hours but here are a few things that I experienced before Scotland...

The Student Union bar, a bar literally on campus for the students, played the Super Bowl on a projector for us. It just wasn't the same. For one, most of the people watching didn't know what was going on. Two, part of the Super Bowl tradition is all the food that comes with watching the game and I had nothing to snack on. Dillon needs food to be happy so food happiness was not fulfilled during the game. Yes, I did just refer to myself in third person.  Finally and most importantly... commercials! You don't realize how much time of the Super Bowl is commercials until you have to watch BBC commentators talk at every commercial break. I was able to catch up on the commercials the next day on the internet but this year I don't think I missed much.

I played in a dodgeball tournament for charity about 1.5 weeks ago with the basketball team. We almost completed an undefeated run but were upset in the championship. Really the only reasons I'm posting about the dodgeball tournament are because I found the nature of the tournament very fun and friendly, they gave away alcohol as a prize which would never happen back home to college students on campus, and I needed to fit in a shout-out to Clyde from the basketball team!

Saturday the 11th I went to Liverpool again to go to an Everton football game. Two friends went with me and we explored Liverpool briefly before finding the stadium and watching the game. Everton, which was ranked 11th out of the 20 teams in the Premier League, upset 4th ranked Chelsea 2-0. The stands were full with about 40,000 in attendance and random chants would carry through the crowd. The best of those chants was "Ladyboy! Ladyboy! Ladyboy!" or at least they thought so because they used it a dozen times. To our surprise, Americans Landon Donovan and Tim Howard play for Everton so the USA presence was definitely relevant at the game. We supported Everton from the beginning and even considered painting our faces. The paint idea was thwarted after seeing how cold it was and that no one was painted up. Overall an experience that has me agreeing with the rest of the world... the term "football" should probably be left to the sport that uses their feet.

The view from our seats

John, Marvin, and me before the game

Living it up in Liverpool

So as if getting the fire department to come to our house wasn't enough, I got to take a little visit to the local hospital last week. Luckily it wasn't for me, rather an American friend who hurt his shoulder in our basketball game. After figuring out where the hospital was located, we entered into the "A&E", Accident and Emergency, to get my friend assessed by a doctor. He didn't have any form of ID on him (not that they even asked) yet we still got to see a doctor about 75 minutes later. The diagnosis was that he tore a ligament in his shoulder so the nurses gave him a few pain pills - for free. I've talked earlier about socialized education but I'm glad I got to see how easily accessible medicine has the capability of being. I'm not taking sides on the issue of socializing health care, but in this case, my friend and I were happy to let Britain's taxes pay for the doctor visit, the X-Ray, and the pain medication.

A group of six Americans went to Liverpool last Saturday, February 4. We decided to go early to walk around and not have lots of people around. By early I mean that 9:15am is early to them and as you can see from my first picture below, no one was really out and about. We went to several museums throughout the day. Our morning was spent in the Museum of Liverpool which opened last year then we went to the Merseyside Maritime Museum followed up by the World Museum. We didn't spend very long in the World Museum because it was overrun with energetic children and cranky parents so we spent the rest of our afternoon in the Walker Art Museum. For dinner we went to a local pub then finished off the day going to The Cavern Club. If you've never taken Beatles History 101, The Cavern Club is where The Beatles got their start. With that said, hearing live Beatles music in that historic atmosphere was easily the highlight of the day! Another note about Liverpool is that I will be going back this Saturday to watch the Everton vs. Chelsea football game. Details to come. Pending I make it out alive.

Me planking in the wee hours of the morning.. cough cough 9: 30am

We may have inspired the sculpture behind us

Streets of Liverpool

Walking into the same place that the Beatles were discovered. I'm practically a Beatle now. 

Random notes...

I eat in the cafeteria on campus Monday through Friday for lunch and dinner. Unfortunately the food isn't buffet style but nonetheless its tastiness has impressed me. I'm on a perfect record so far... a happy plate for every meal I've had. 

Being next in the "queue" does not mean your Sleepless in Seattle is next to come in the mail from Netflix. It means to "wait in line". You always mind the queue and don't break it. They seem to really like queuing here and you join the queue everywhere. 

"My love" is a term that I would usually use sparingly but it's been used on me at least five times since I've been in England. All five times have been in a Tesco's grocery store by a lady older than 40. Don't be alarmed, it's nothing creepy. Saying "Hello my love" is just a welcoming term almost like saying "hey man" or "hey pal". Another thing about cashiers is that they have said "thanks very much" nearly ever time they take my money. It's not much of a thing to notice, but watch what cashiers do the next time you go to a store. 

Last, there is almost a paranoia about safety and more specifically, fires. Signs here. Signs there. Signs everywhere. Dr. Seuss could write a children's book about how many signs are posted. Every door has a sign that says "Fire door keep closed" to remind you to shut your door so you slow down the fire from spreading room to room. There's even a sign outside our house that has a picture of two people with four arrows pointing to them and reads "Fire assembly point". A little much? Maybe. I've learned to accept the significant meaning to the simple saying "To each their own".

Don't judge our singing! Money can't buy us love but maybe it could buy us better voices. 

Manly Chester and the Chinese New Year

I would like to start by saying that hopefully I didn't make my blog expectations too high in the first few posts. There is so much to write about but often times when you sit down to write, the thoughts may not come easily or when they do it can be difficult to write them when they consist of random thoughts or happenings. So unless I'm traveling a lot, my posts will probably involve just random thoughts and an update of what I've been up to lately.

On January 25 (or 25/1/12 as they would write it) I had my first basketball game with the University. I was told that we would have "cheerleaders" for our game but I just thought it was the English way of saying "fans". I was mistaken. There were more cheerleaders in the cheerleading club than both basketball rosters combined. As far as the game went, it was just as physical as back in the states and I gracefully fouled out of the game with about about a minute left in regulation. Our team ended up winning by one so I can now say I'm undefeated playing basketball in England. You don't realize how wonderful wood floors are in gyms until you take a few tumbles on the floor we play on over here. By the end of the game I had some nice floor burns and a little blood but that's all a part of the experience!

I'm taking a Cell Biology and Biochemistry class and I had my first lab last week. I found the labs to be nearly identical in setup as back home and luckily there was a girl that was willing to be my lab partner otherwise I would've been a little lost. It's been difficult walking into a year long class halfway through. 

To save money on the weekends, we try to cook when we get the chance. The keyword in that sentence was try. Last Saturday when preparing pancakes and bacon, we set the fire alarm off due to steam. It's not just an alarm you can shut off by a button or by fanning the steam out of the room. You have to wait for the campus security and the fire department to arrive. So my first attempt at cooking a legitimate breakfast in England was accompanied by a conversation with a few fire fighters. On the note of fires, they seem paranoid with fires over here. Every door has a sign that says "Fire door keep shut" and signs in general are never in shortage. 

We ate the plate of pancakes waiting for the fire department to arrive

A deck of playing cards has been a great way to get the international students together on weeknights. I think we've playing at least 10 different card games and the other night we had a brain overload of mind games. Another way I've passed time on weeknights has been to watch "How I Met Your Mother" or recently I watched the TV min-series of "Pride and Prejudice". Don't judge me for the second one. You always need a good fix of chick flicks. 

I went with a group of eight internationals to Manchester last Sunday to see the Chinese New Year festivities. A friend studying in China informed me that the new year actually started a week prior to our festivities so English China does what it wants when it wants. I joked before arriving in Manchester that it is the more manly version of Chester but after seeing Manchester I think that I would gladly live in the less manly Chester any day. Manchester has older buildings and the history but just walking around it resembles America with all of its newer, taller buildings. The Chinese celebration was a very cool touch to the trip and from what I've read, over 70,000 people were in Manchester to see it as well. 

Me in Manchester

Chinese New Year Celebration

I had trouble embedding this video so here is a link of video I took at celebrations in Chester and Manchester..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hal4TixibU0