better things...

*i feel it crash upon your skin*

*do you miss me like i miss you? do i miss you like you miss me?*

i think the subtitle to this post should be "from the beautiful beaches of scarborough to the deep, seedy underbelly of london."

i hope you are prepared, because i am about to take you on a fantastical, wonderful, radical journey in this edition of "plainrides." i hope you have your seat backs and tray tables in an upright and locked position.

day scarborough: when i last left you, i was filling your heads with visions of far off castles and my current life-long goal to someday live in a castle of my own.

well this is all true, and more.

scarborough was a fantastic day trip. i took quite a few pictures, which i will now share with you below.



view of the north sea ^



me (a rare cameo), dylan, dylan, jake ^



view of scarborough with castle in background ^



castle ^



lovely seaside scarborough ^

the castle was the main part of this trip, but that was the last thing we did. first, we walked along the shores of the sea, which was very cold (i had to feel the water). a few of us found some smooth rocks and skipped them in the water. i got only three skips, pretty shotty for a person that has a family cabin. we then wandered around scarborough where we found my favorite dollar-store-in-the-uk-name so far, "price pounder." i wish i could have taken credit for this, because it is brilliant. we then all ate at the golden grid, which is apparently famous for their fish and chips. i actually ordered it and surprisingly enjoyed it quite a bit (for those who don't know, i'm not a seafood fan). when we saw the actual castle, i knew that i needed to someday have one. or two, since i am american. jake and i talked about how this is what we thought england would be like. being on a high shore, looking out over the ocean with a cold wind whipping at your face. it was fresh, sea air. and it felt good. i loved the feeling. for the first time in the trip, it finally sunk in that i actually am in england. and for a while.

that night, a small group of us traveled to the lighthorseman to see the vikings v. cowboys, which the owner steve had agreed to put on for us. it was pretty awesome of him to put it on in a british pub. we all cheered the vikes on as they pummeled the cowboys and made it to the nfc championship game (which i will not mention again at any point in this blog).

the week was really action packed. at least it felt that way. on tuesday, we went to visit this old church, the holy trinity church. it was quite old and still in basically the same shape. i thought it was interesting that people were buried right beneath the stones inside the church. it felt almost weird walking over gravestones, but i guess when you are strapped for space, you need to do this. we then got a chance to go back to the minster and walk up to the tower, even though it was quite foggy. i still found it amazing, and we did get to hear the bell of st. peter ring, which is the second biggest bell in england outside of the bell at west minster.



stained glass in the holy trinity ^



the half-way point up to the tower at the minster ^



at the top of the tower, looking at the bell towers ^ (the big one is on the left)

dylan and i walked home from the minster together, with stopping at mcdonalds (to check the fries) and poundworld. (not as good as the price pounder). all of the snow had melted at this point, causing the river to flood a great deal.




here is dylan standing next to the bar we usually start at when we go out ^

note that the road goes to the end of the sidewalk and beyond. there is a road that runs left to right (on your screen) beyond the building. so the river ouse had flooded quite a bit. as of now (the 25th of jan. it is basically back to normal). no one really seemed to be fazed by the flooding and i heard that it happens quite a bit. they were more freaked out by the snow.

anyways, wednesday we visited a nunnery that was started by mary ward. it was really neat to see and the most wonder old lady showed us around and told us all about it. since there is a lot to talk about here, i will post a link to the wiki page so you all can enjoy the wonderful tale about this convent. i thought it was most interesting to see the actual hand of saint margaret clitherow. it is an actual hand from the 1580s and it is still intact. honesty remarkable. and she is now a saint. that's pretty sweet stuff. read more about both margaret and the bar convent at the links i posted above.

tired yet? since i am losing readers by the minute (or second) i will try to make the rest of this a little more interesting.

on thursday, i started my first day at the york city knights rugby league club. this is going to be an awesome internship. anyways, my match day was thursday night as the knights were playing the hunslet hawks. after a lot of boring prep-work, i was able to watch the match from the box seats that the directors of the clubs sit in. it was amazing. i really like the sport and it didn't take me long to get into it. most of the game was spent watching as well as simon or myself (simon is my boss and the commercial manager for the club) checking in on all of the box suites ensuring that everything was okay for them. they all loved the fact that i am american and gave me a little rubbing on now i am actually seeing real football instead of the wussy stuff with pads that is played back in the states. overall, everyone was extremely friendly and i had a wonderful time. i can't wait until the first real match v. leigh on february seventh!

friday was my first class of "middle english romance and popular fiction (john wayne to gawain)." there is only one other male student in there, and when we got the novels for the term, i sort of realized why. aside from zane grey and various popular movies and middle english texts, we have five romance novels to read. "king's pawn," "oh-so-sensible secretary," "her warrior slave," "nightcap," and my personal favorite "the sheikh's virgin." pretty exciting stuff. i do think the class is going to be great and all of my classmates seem to have their shit together, but i have never ever considered reading a romance novel, so this should be interesting.

friday was another night out with the crew (sans jake, who had traveled to london). i was meeting up with jake on saturday and going to see brand new at wembley area. i'll skip to the travel saturday as my mother thinks i write a bit too much about drinking, and, yes, friday night had a little drinking to go along with it (don't worry, i didn't spend any money. i two liters of cider to drink for the night).

saturday, i woke up nice and early and met up with vivian and joe (her friend from brighton). we were taking the coach down to london, which was only eight pounds. the train costs 23. so, we figured this was a good deal. and, let me tell you, the coach ain't too bad. yes, it takes five and a half hours, but we did get a break and, with a good romance novel assigned by my class from friday (i started with "oh-so-sensible secretary," by the way), the trip went by like that. when we got to london, we tried to meet up with jake and took a very nice long walk around london, by the river mostly. i saw it all, big ben, parliament, westminster abby, the millennium eye, the thames. oh yes. it was great. it took us almost an hour and a half to walk towards jake (whom we met by st. paul's cathedral), but it was worth it. i love london. and people said there is no such thing as love at first sight. i only took two pictures, but i will be back. and i was spending most of the time just enjoying the fact that i was finally in the city i have wanted to visit for ages. over anything. yes. i am a london kind of guy.



apollo victoria theatre ^ (i thought the wicked sign was cool and i really want to see it)



front door of westminster ^ (i like york's minster better)

*sleepyhead*

well, i am going to leave you with a cliffhanger here... i think the rest of the london trip will need its own post.

part deux: soon.

hey beauty supreme...

*yeah, you were right about me*

so week one in england really turned out a success. as my friend the rev (mr. derek dixon) pointed out, "glad you're taking the circus on tour." precisely, my friends.

clifford's tower is quite an amazing piece of historic architecture. it was really mind-numbing to see something so old, something that we can not experience in the states. when i think of old, i think of the cobblestone on main street or pracna. this tower is from around the 13th and 14th century. kind of different than the 1850's.



that is the tower ^



view of york from the tower ^



some hamline friends inside the tower ^ (jake, dylan, alyssa, erin, dylan)

after the tower, we hit it hard wednesday. i ended up going to the clubs with a few people, including tom, roberta, amy, and vivian. we actually hit a bar first, then went to a club but roberta couldn't get in because she forgot her id. i never get id'd here, mainly because i'm almost twenty-five and more than likely older than the bouncers that are checking the ids. we did order some pizza when we got back, and eventually decided on what we were getting after a little cultural barrier. viv, roberta and i were looking to get the pizza's together and share because it would be quite cheap, and they wanted to get margherita pizza. well, in the states, we know margherita pizza is served with big slices of tomato on it. as most know, i hate big slices of tomato. so i was pleading that we should get at least one just cheese. they couldn't figure out why i would want a pizza like that. turns out, the margherita is a cheese pizza in america. just tomato sauce and cheese. us americans and our crazy, fancy pizza toppings. side note: the pizza was ordered from "viking pizza" which helped me feel a little closer to home.

on friday, the hamline group toured the fabulous york minster. i really do not think words can describe how amazing this gothic cathedral is. amazing doesn't cut it. but it was. and more. it was really hard to take pictures in there due to the lighting as well as the day being quite dark and cloudy outside. i tried and managed to snap a few good ones. while we were there, a visiting high school choir from argentina performed an impromptu performance. it was just a great feeling to be in such a magnificent place hearing beautiful music. our tour guide told us that the minster has amazing acoustics, and that a certain note (he couldn't recall which one) can carry for up to seven seconds after it is sung. quite the place. you could probably spend a full eight hours exploring the minster and still not see everything it has to show. for some information on the minster, click here. i don't want to have to type everything i learned.



outside the minster ^



the nave ^



you can fit an 18 story building under this point and it would just touch the ceiling ^



the five sisters window ^



the ceiling of the chapter house ^



the main entrance to the minster ^

as you can see, my pictures are not the best. but check out the link i added to the wiki page. they have some great photos that do the minster much more justice than my photos.

friday night was one of the best we have had so far. we pretty much started the party again in derwent with most of the hamline crew and the derwent crew that we have been hanging with. we all decided to take the bus downtown to do a little bit of bar hopping. on the bus (a double decker one, and yes, we were on the top) we broke out in acapella karaoke (boni tyler-total eclipse of the heart and journey-don't stop believing). the group was getting rowdy. we chilled at the first bar a bit (i can't remember how long) and then went to our old faithful, the vudu lounge. there our group merrily drank away until around 3am, and then we cabbed or walked home. (this point of the night is a bit of a blur). the group weeded out a bit when we got back and only a few of us were left drinking in the derwent second floor (for you yanks third floor) kitchen. my back was hurting a bit (if you know me and my herniated disc, this means my nerve was getting pinched as well) and my thumb was getting a bit numb. viv, who was wearing my sweatshirt and military hat for reasons i can not recall, tried to pinch my thumb to see if i could feel it, which i couldn't really. then she (again for reasons unknown) bit it. well, it was a hard bite that actually punctured my thumb and caused me to start bleeding quite a bit. now this was all in good fun and i don't blame viv one bit for what happened (it was around 5:30am at the time). but needless to say, it provides a great story to tell my grandkids.

the next morning, i woke up and found that i was sleeping in jake's extra bed in his room because all i had was a t-shirt on. i basically had taken off all of my layers last night at various times (including my western shirt at the bar). well, the western shirt was still at the bar, and that meant that so was my id and bank card and student id and meal card were in there as well (i forgot to bring my small wallet and was using the snap pocket in my western shirt so i wouldn't "lose anything.") jake and i realized this as it was 1:30 in the afternoon. we first thought that viv must have had my shirt, but that ended up being false (she did have my hoodie and hat). after numerous phone calls, the club had found my items and through hamline teamwork, we recovered everything that evening (thanks alyssa).

that night (saturday), we all ate at the punch bowl and i had a pie (turkey, stilton cheese, and a port cream sauce). it was amazing. i have never had a pie like this (almost like a chicken pot pie). i can get used to this british food.

we went to scarborough on sunday and it turned out to be a pretty sweet day. i'll post more about this next time, with pics of a pretty sweet castle. i now know that one of my main goals in life is to live in a big castle. with cannons. and archers.

home is where the photobooth is...

*we stayed out for forever*

so, it has been a whirlwind of activity since my initial post and subsequent arrival at the university. i am finally getting settled in my "home away from home." the first day i moved in, on sunday, i sort of freaked out. i got to my dorm room and it was a fucking mess (pardon my french). the floor had never been vacuumed, nor had any of the surfaces been wiped down or disinfected. well, to get to the point, it was a long way from the third floor of the stone arch apartments. well after calming down and cleaning everything (i now know how my mom feels when she travels) i settled and found all of my classmates from hamline. sunday night, we went out for indian food in town and i stayed and had a beer at the pub (the lighthorseman) that i had been drinking at the two nights prior.

the nice thing about this trip is that most people from the group have been quite nice and hang out a bit. i have been spending most of my time in jake's room (a new friend from hamline who lives in derwent college). i live in langwith g block which is on the complete opposite side of campus. the entire group from hamline is amazing. i am so glad that each person came with and is here and has been so kind to me and all of my weird, strange, and old man ways. i'm keeping up with these young pups quite nicely. to introduce the crew, on my floor is miles, alyssa, nissa, and sam. caite also lives in langwith with us, but is on the ground floor. evan is another hamline-ite, but he is a hold over from the previous group. he also lives on the ground floor. jake, dylan h, dylan a, bryce, erin, and a.j. live in derwent, which is really where all of the action is. i must say, we are a pretty sexy looking crew.

anyways, monday night is really when things started looking up. i went over to jake's and we met quite a few kids from the university. they took our group of americans out to the bars in town and we really ended up hitting it hard. jake and i did quite a few shots with our new british friends at a club called the "voodoo lounge." i was able to talk some football (soccer for you yanks) with the brits and hold my own quite nicely. i guess the most humorous part of the night was when we were all trying to get home from the club and i was out in the road trying to hail a cab. everyone here waits in queue (or in line). well, i was hailing a cab as if it was bar-close on a friday night outside bootleggers in downtown mpls. i ended up getting escorted off the road to which i yelled at the police man (or bouncer i'm not 100% sure), "this is how you do it in minneapolis!" it was a good laugh for all.

everyone is so nice to us minnesotans, its actually very comforting. it helps me get over the fact that i am a long ways from home and is setting up the semester quite nicely. the group from derwent that we have met is quite a large group, and it would take forever for me to name (and i don't want to bore you more than i already am) so lets just say they all have fantastic names.

tuesday, jake and i decided to keep things a little lighter. we went to a trivia night that was happening in derwent. i only knew two answers, to music questions, but thanks to my parents i will never forget simon and garfunkel OR the red hot chili peppers. it was still a lot of fun. in the middle of the night, the trivia hosts needed two volunteers from each table to come up for a competition. i was "volunteered" from my group and a girl named roberta came with me. they then covered my face in shaving cream and roberta had to throw cheese chips at my face to try and see who could get the most stuck on their face. not sure what i got myself into, but roberta and i put together a valiant effort. we lost, but only because the team that won blatantly cheated. but, it was quite great overall.

now onto a little bit of info on what life is like here in york. the cafeteria food is okay. they serve a lot of chicken tandori (an indian dish). i'm pretty sure between the two places i can have dinner i could eat it every night. breakfast is great because you can either get tons of meat or cereal. they have soy milk here so i can actually eat cereal (first time in a year or so). i have always been afraid of soy milk but it is actually quite tasty. i have been drinking a lot of cider here instead of beer because not only is it cheaper, but it is also a bit stronger. my room is extremely cold, but it is something i am finally getting used to. the one thing i am missing as far as food goes is barbecue. i did find some bbq chips in town (very rare) but they aren't the same. a nice rack of bbq pork ribs from rudolphs would be pretty nice.

i'll post more next time, since i'm set to go out with the hamline group again. we toured clifford's tower yesterday, and today we are checking out some more shops and a bridge. friday we will be seeing the minister and saturday we are taking a day trip to scarborough. i am taking my camera, so pictures will be posted soon.

homesick at spacecamp...

*tonight i'm writing you a million miles away*

so, i made it. barely.

i began my journey at 6am (central standard time) on thursday the 7th. i woke to find that chicago o'hare airport had cancelled at least 200 inbound flights. that sucks for me because i flew into o'hare around 3:30pm. i quickly went online and checked my flight... sure enough it was cancelled. since i (smartly) booked my trip through orbitz, i called the customer service hotline to try and figure out what to do next. after being told to call back in an hour, and a subsequent call that lasted two hours, i was re-booked on a different flight that left at 2:15pm to chicago. well, this flight actually left, but not until around 3:40pm. i had a connecting flight in chicago to dublin at 6:50 (still all central standard time). now this flight left chicago around 7:30pm and was a seven and a half hour flight to dublin, so arriving in dublin at 9am (greenwich mean time). i had a connecting flight in dublin to manchester leaving at 9:30am (gmt). i still had to go through international customs and make my connecting flight. needless to say, i was running full speed the minute i hit the ground in dublin. (side note, aer lingus [ireland air] is really quite spectacular). i couldn't sleep on the plane so at the time i was awake for a grip of hours, and in not the best shape. i ran a mile through the airport in approx. 10 minutes (very fast for me). one point i want to stress: irish customs is quite simple. the man asked to see my passport and asked me how long i was staying in ireland. my reply: "15 minutes." he stamped away and i took off running another mile to where my gate was. when i got to the gate, the ground crew was just pulling the stairs away from the plane, with the plane door shutting at the same time. they saw me and after various radio communication, put the stairs back and let me aboard. this flight was delayed another hour though, and i arrived in manchester around 11:30am. i never went through customs in manchester, which is weird because i was asked only one question in ireland. silly uk.

the train ride in from manchester to york took about an hour or so. it was quite nice. comfortable, even though i was lugging around a 60lb bag, a smaller bag, and a messenger bag. when i arrived in york, i hailed a cab and proceeded to my b&b, chelmsford place. the room was fantastic and the proprietors, nigel and wendy, were more than hospitable. pics of the room are below.






as you can see, it was quite nice. i walked to town to find a cell phone because my internet was not working at the time and did at t-mobile. it was a quite cheap phone but i now have an english number! so "street cred." for me. the rest of my day was spent wandering around the city before i decided to have dinner and a few pints at the nearest pub, the lighthorseman. this bar was like a home away from home (for bars). steve, the owner, and jane, the bartender, talked my ear off for hours, which was great. all of the locals were drawn to me because of my "exotic" accent and tales of snow and cold that they could never even imagine. yes, to answer what you are all thinking, i was asked about "that movie fargo" at least five times the first night. i managed to say up almost 40 hours before i passed out. it was a good day.

the next day, i woke up around 8am for breakfast (full english breakfast) which was amazing. bangers, bacon (which is ham), poached eggs, tea, orange juice, and toast and jam. it was the best meal i have had in a long time! (probably because it was in england). i managed to sleep after breakfast for a few hours and then wandered the city again. i went home for one more snooze and then walked into town to have dinner at the "punch bowl." it is one of york's historic pubs. the food was excellent but i have yet to have a beer that i completely love. i am a big fan of IPAs and i have yet to have one in york. the ale is quite nice, so not complaining, but i like all those hops. after the punch bowl, i went to a local punk-rock concert at a place called the city screen basement. it is, like the name says, in the basement of a movie theatre. the show was pretty awesome. i bought a few pints and the first band had a female lead singer and bassist. the girl that sang was really good and she had the sweetest belt (made of gun bullets). the next band was a real throw-back. the lead singer reminded me of the rev. horton heat. they sounded more like the ramones, which is what they were going for, but that was still cool. they were older guys and you could tell they just loved playing music and it wasn't about how talented they were. the last band was by far the best, they sounded a but like the strokes or interpol. what was cool is that the lead singer was wearing a prince symbol necklace. after the show, i went up to him and told him i was from prince's hometown. they guy thought that it was so crazy someone from so far away was at the show and he introduced me to his wife as "tj from prince's hometown." after that, i went back to the lighthorseman and met the girl from america that steve was talking about the previous night. met a few chaps that want to take me to a york city football game and drank until i was nice and warm.

thats it for now, i'll update on my move into the university tomorrow, with more pictures.