Nocturnal Yet Again

I've begun going to bed at 4 and waking up at 2 again! Yay! :-P

Ever since classes ended I've been goofing off watching movies, hanging out, throwing dinner parties, going on random trips and staying up WAY too late. It's been fun, but I'm ready for normal life to resume soon. I can't wait for Lyss to get here (in about TWO AND A HALF DAYS!!) and to travel around and have adventures with her. We're gonna stay around here until Friday afternoon because I have finals, but then we're going down to see Sarah, and then up to Loch Ness and the highlands! And then to Edinburgh, and then we go HOME!!! YAY!!!

I'm SO ready to get home. I love Scotland, and I've had a great semester here, but it's time to go home now!

Anyway, for a quick update on last weekend when I went to see Sarah in Oxford:
I took a train down on Saturday (and forgot my camera!! Can you believe it???) and we spent that night out on the lawn of her college (there are about a million colleges that make up the whole of Oxford University) playing music with a bunch of cool people! I haven't held a guitar since I left the States, and my fingers were just itching to jam. It was great times.
We spent the rest of the weekend going to fancy Oxford meals in ornate wood-carved halls, reading and discussing poetry, running errands and shopping (I bought a bunch of amazing books), and staying up late talking about life. It was so great to feel the academic life there and pal around with Sarah for a few days.

On Tuesday morning I left Oxford on a train bound for York and arrived there in the early afternoon for some lunch and a look at York Minster Cathedral, which was stunning. I love huge old churches, and this place was breathtaking. I also walked along the road where Guy Fawkes was born, and saw the church where he was baptized. Of all the cities I've seen while I've been on the British Isles, I think I'd most like to live in York or Galway, with Edinburgh a close runner up.

So then I took a train from York to the tiny town of Thirsk in Yorkshire, which is James Herriot's "Darowby." I had to walk about forty five minutes from the train station into the village, but it was worth it when I got to see the clock tower where James first came into town, and finally his house and veterinary practice, which is one of the best museums I've ever seen! It had the house just as James, Sigfried and Tristan used to keep it (with the phone in the hall that they used to have to run down the stairs to get to at night!), and all the medicinal and examining rooms (just so tiny and non-sterile! Crazy, by today's standards), not to mention the courtyard which had the old car that James used to drive, and it still works! From there you got to go into an exhibit of the sets for "All Creatures Great And Small" and it looked just like the show! The last set of rooms was an exhibit of all the veterinary tools and methods that used to be used, and how they vary from today's methods. The whole thing was just fascinating, and totally worth it for any Herriot fan out there.

And finally I got on a set of trains back to Stirling, and it was nice to be back in my Scottish home. Even the Dales in England are nothing to the hills and mountains here, and I missed the rugged outdoor-ness of the Scottish lands. Everything down in England is soft and man-made in a way, and while I like it for a short period, I'd much rather have the Scottish Highlands any day.

So now I've just got a few more days to hang out and study before Lyss gets here and we'll have awesome new adventures. In the meantime, I'd better try to get back on a daylight schedule. :-)

I'll see you all soon!

What's Up

I'm updating because I haven't in a while! Yay!

Let's see. What's new?
Well, I'm done with all of my projects for the semester, and Monday is my last day of classes. That means, starting Tuesday, I'm free to travel for the rest of the month, with the exceptions of the 13th, 20th and 22nd, when I have finals. And I've just gotten all my papers back but one, and so far I've been gravitating between A's and B's for everything! Yay for me, considering A's are really hard to get here!

So that's school. As for the rest of life, things are a bit angsty, but good. I've been spending a lot of time with Erica and Will, and been hanging out with Michelle and Sandy quite a bit, too. Will and I went to see "A Midsummer Night's Dream" last week, and it was pretty good! And last night we went to see "X-Men: Origins," and Wolverine was AWESOME.

Currently I'm listening to the service at St. John's and hearing all the stories about shepherds. Someday I'm going to be a shepherd, and this college degree won't matter at all. ;-)

But today it's sunny, and after about a week of rain I'm feeling good! I'm planning on going out and reading Watership Down (which I'm almost done with, and I love! Thanks, mom!). And also there are cookies in the kitchen, 'cause Will and I made them last night (and had a cookie dough fight), and that makes the day doubly good.

Right now I'm missing home quite a bit. Even though I have a lot of things I want to do before I leave Scotland, and I know I'll be sad to leave my friends here, I would really like the next two weeks to be over so I can come home.

But I'll try to update again in the between times.

Quote of the day:
"The only death we have to fear is behind us."

Ireland and Spring Fever

Guess what?? I went to Ireland last weekend, and it was awesome!!

And now I need a break to recover from my break, but school is insisting that I write a paper that's due Friday, which I haven't started yet. Hmmm.

Let's concentrate on the fun stuff!

So, last Friday I woke up with mom at 4am in order to make my 7am flight from Edinburgh to Dublin. The flight was fine, and I arrived in Dublin at 8am, having no idea where to go or what to see.



After wandering around Dublin for a couple of hours (and finding a beautiful market, buying some yummy scrubbed carrots and pretty apples and a loaf of bakery bread) I found the train station and jumped on a train to Cork!



Cork was pretty, but not nearly as amazing as Blarney (about 20 minutes away), where I found Blarney Castle, which has the most BEAUTIFUL grounds I've ever seen, and yes, the Blarney Stone.



...Which I just HAD to kiss. I now officially have the Gift of Gab.



Too bad you have to bend over backwards to reach it, or you'd be able to actually tell that this is me. It is! I swear!

So, from Blarney back to Cork, and then on to Killarney, which is the CUTEST town ever! It's a bit touristy, but still very nice.



In Killarney I saw Muckross House, which is a pretty mansion house with amazing grounds much like Blarney Castle, and has the ruins of an old Abbey! I stayed at a nice hostel in Killarney on Friday night, and had a good sleep in a room with about 8 other kids, most of them from China, and communication was a bit difficult, but fun! OH! I also met a Franciscan monk!! I've never met a monk before! Actually, he may have been a friar. I'm not really sure of the difference. Anyway, I met him outside the Friary next to my hostel, and he was wearing a brown robe and everything! It was so cool! We talked for a while and he told me about how he'd been to Minnesota once for a conference, which we both thought was pretty cool.

The next morning I got on a bus which went from Killarney to Galway by way of Limerick. I'd originally planned to stay and see a bit of Limerick itself, but there had been two murders there the day before (they have a lot of trouble with gang violence), so I decided it'd be a better idea to just push on to Galway.



Galway is a great city. It's got the best mix of real-ness and tourist-ness so that you could imagine living there quite happily. It's got a lot of waterways that run from the Atlantic, and it makes the city look very European.



I was planning a night out in Galway with Erica, who I was going to meet, as she was in town at a hostel, but little did I know that the B&B that I'd booked (as all the hostels were full. What is this, Christmas?? Doesn't anyone have a nice stable I could sleep in??) was thirty miles outside of town in a little village called Spiddal. So, I wearily made my way there, buying a small package of pasta at a gas station on my way (as I'd been subsisting totally on the carrots, apples and bread, which were running low). I finally made it to the B&B, which was cute and home-y, and the nice lady who ran it offered to cook my pasta and came down to my room half an hour later with a tray of pasta, tuna fish, butter, good bread, and a slice of rhubarb pie! Things just couldn't get any better! And on top of that, I had a nice bed and a clean bathroom all to myself!



The next morning (Easter morning!) I woke up and went upstairs to breakfast where I met two nice women from Massachusetts (Maine? Maryland? I forget...), and we ate and talked about how awesome Ireland was. Since I knew the next bus back into Galway wouldn't leave until 1:30pm, I asked if they would mind me hitchhiking back into town with them, and they said that would be fine! So, twenty minutes later I'm back in Galway at St. Nicolas' cathedral, where I attended Easter mass, which was AWESOME. Best sermon I've heard since Pastor Mark's Christmas Eve sermon. The church was beautiful, and everyone was so joyful!



(I took that before the church was full, since I didn't want to disturb anyone, of course, but the whole place was PACKED!)

So, after church I ran over to the bus station and got a bus to Kilbeggan, a little town between Galway and Dublin. I landed there a few hours later, and took a taxi down to the village of Clara, which is where I'd heard rumors about the O'Sionnach family castle.



Now, let me explain about this castle. As far as I understand it, my great-great-great-great grandfather was William O'Sionnach, who changed his name at Ellis Island to "Fox," which is the English translation. He had a son named William, who had a son named Isaiah, who had Grace Perry, who had Sandra Schonning, who had my mother, Tracy (and you can ask her about these details. I may have missed one generation in there somewhere).

So, as you can imagine, I was keen to find the ruins of this O'Sionnach castle, even though it wasn't owned by William O'Sionnach, it was probably in his family a bit farther back. Here's a picture that another Fox family member took of the ruins:
http://www.geocities.com/foxclanirish/images/foxslott2.jpg

So, I knew that the castle was near Clara, and I knew (vaguely) what it looked like. I arrived in Clara and began asking around to see if anyone had heard of it. The cab driver looked at me like I was crazy and said "No, there's no castle about Clara. You must be wantin' another place." This was a bit disheartening, but I felt better when I talked to a couple of girls in a gas station who said that there were ruins just about a mile away up on a hill that they used to play in when they were younger. I thought this deserved a look-see, so I asked for directions and set out, jumping over a few fences on the way. But fences couldn't stop me! I was on a MISSION.

AND I FOUND IT!!



I took LOTS and lots of pictures, and explored what was left of the thing from top to bottom. Once I'd satisfied my curiosity, I made my way back to the main road and back to Kilbeggan, seeing this sign only on the way out...



...Oops.

Anyway, back to Kilbeggan where I caught a bus back to Dublin. I met up with Erica and her friend who's studying there about an hour later, and we walked back to her place. I crashed on their couch for the night after having a good time watching Rent, and woke up two hours later at 3am to catch my 6:30 flight from Dublin back to Edinburgh.

It was once heck of a weekend, and I have SO many more stories! So many things could have gone wrong, since the only things I planned before I left were the hostel in Killarney and the B&B in Galway, but everything turned out just fine, and I've gotta thank the Big Man Upstairs for that. But I think this post has gone on long enough. If you want to know more and see more pictures, check out my flicker account at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36777493@N00/sets/72157616669652695/
as I finally figured out how to organize pictures so they're in chronological order!

And I'm sure you'll hear more stories from me when I get back home. 6 and a half weeks left!

Birthday Day!!

Hey everyone!

A less depressing post this time, I promise!

So, as some of you know, yesterday was my birthday, and I had a great time! Thanks to all those who sent me birthday wishes! It was great to hear from you :-).



Mom and I spent the day in Edinburgh seeing the sights and having the MOST amazing seafood lunch I've had in my whole life! We went to the Museum of Childhood first, which was just what I needed on the birthday when I become a full-fledged adult. No more provisional license for me!



This whole week has been great, I've gotta say. Mom and I have been seeing ALL the sights, from a day on the England boarder seeing Hadrian's Wall, to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, and tomorrow we're going to see the 14th century castle in Doune where "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" was shot. Awesome.

Anyway, I can't think of much more to say right now, except for I'm having a great time.

Oh! And that I'm leaving for my solo trip to Ireland on Friday! I plan to travel from Dublin to Cork to Killarney, where I'll spend my first night, and then up to Limerick and a night in Galway, and then a final stop in Clara, where the O'Sionnach Castle is (my family castle!!) before heading back to Dublin. It's gonna be a whirlwind, but I'll have TONS of pictures to show for it when I get back!!

Thanks again for the birthday notes, and I'll talk to you later! :-D

P.S. Check out my Flickr account for more pictures!

Outage.

Hey y'all.

I've been feeling kind of depressed lately. Not sure why. The last five days or so has just been me missing home like crazy. I miss Northfield so much! Why did I decide to go so far away?

Oh yeah, because I'm a brave explorer. Or at least I try to be. I'm always so torn between the comfortable old and the enticing new, and I suppose that's a good thing, but it sure makes for a life of green grass on the other side.

No, really, I do like it here a lot. I would like to live here someday, but only if I could somehow transport all of the people I love here as well. And Blue Monday. That'd be cool.

So, the deal is that I have a paper due on Monday, and I can't seem to break myself out of this funk enough to do work. Snow Patrol and Coldplay are trying to help, but they seem to make me feel better while also steeping me lower in the hot water of my own mind.

I'm lonely.

No doubt things will perk up soon, but that doesn't really change the way I feel now. Mom will be here in about a week, and I know Lyss and I will have amazing times when she comes at the end of May, and I have nine weeks before I fly out over the Atlantic again. It's too much time and not enough. I hope I'll have learned what I came to learn by that time.

Lyrics for the night...

"Those who are dead are not dead,
They're just living in my head.
And since I fell for that spell
I've been living there as well.
Time is so short and I'm sure
There must be something more."
-42, by Coldplay

"I will race you to the waterside,
And from the edge of Ireland shout out loud,
So they could hear it in America:
'It's all for you.'"
-The Planets Bend Between Us, by Snow Patrol

Church on Sundays

I JUST REALIZED I CAN LISTEN TO THE ST. JOHN'S SERVICE ON KYMN STREAMING ONLINE!!!!

THIS IS THE BEST THING THAT'S HAPPENED ALL WEEKEND!!

I miss home, but this makes things so much better. Getting to listen to the sermons and hear Pastor Mark doing readings and Pastor Crippen making the announcements, and hearing the congregation sing the hymns....

And I can tune in every Sunday and sing along! It's almost as good as being there.

This is so great. I love my church. :-)

Pastor Mark, I'm listening to you right now!! :-D

McBackpackers and the Isle of Skye

Isn't that a GREAT title?!

So, last Friday I woke up at 5:30am, took a shower, and by 6:30 Erica, Sandy, Michelle and I were on the train to Edinburgh. We got on the McBackpackers bus at 8, and we were on our way to the Isle of Skye, which is part of the Western Isles of Scotland, with our AMAZINGLY cool guide, Neil. He was born a few miles away from Ewan McGreggor, and they have the exact same accent. He knew EVERYTHING about the old Scottish stories!

Anyway, here's our itinerary!

Stop 1 included The Hermitage, which is a national forest near Pitlochry. Next we stopped at Ruthven Barracks, which is an old English military fort. Stop 3 was the battlefield at Culloden, and I have to say that being in a historically important place really impresses you in a way facts and figures in books never could. Culloden was also the first place in the Highlands that we'd been where all signs were in English AND Gaelic, which was really exciting!! From here we went past Dalwhinnie and to Tomatin where we stopped at a whiskey brewery for a taste.

Next was the totally awesome Loch Ness. No sign of the beast, but hearing all the stories definitely made me a believer!



After Nessie we saw a set of castles in the Great Glen from Inverness down and West to Kyle of Lochalsh, the last stop on the Mainland before crossing the bridge over to Skye and the town of Kyleakin. We spent the first night in the McBackpackers hostel in Kyleakin, which was so nice! It was great to go to sleep after adventuring all day.

The next morning we got on the bus at 8 and headed out for a round about Skye. First stop was Sligachan, which is the river that flows between the Black Cuillin and the Red Cuillin hills. I think this might have been the highlight of the trip for me because we got to hear the story of Sgiath (pronounced "she-ath") who trained the great Irish warrior Cuchullin. As you can probably see, the Cuillin hills are named after Cuchullin himself, and the river is named for Sgiath because they all intersect at the place where Sgiath and Cuchullin fought each other for the first time before Cuchullin admitted defeat and asked to be trained. It's a great story with a great ending, because at the end Sgiath declares that whoever dips their face in the river for seven seconds will keep eternal youth and will always be able to remember the old stories. Needless to say, I totally did it, and the water was cold, sweet and salty all at the same time!

Stop 2 was the capitol of Skye, Portree. It's a tiny town, about the third of the size of Northfield, and I liked it a lot. Most people who live on Skye are either farmers or fishermen, so it's basically just a glorified fishing village. It was great. :-)

A hike up to the Old Man of Storr was next on the list, which was cool even though I only went halfway up because my cold was trying to kill me (and no, Dad, I didn't catch the cold from ducking my head in the river. I had it before I left :-]). Next, a stop at Kilt Rock, Cuith-Raing (where a bunch of Stardust was shot!!), Duntulm Castle, a village of THATCHED ROOF COTTAGES!!, a faery glen near Uig, and all the way back around to Kyleakin, where we spent the night again.

Day three was a nice, slow paced trip back to Edinburgh (or rather, Stirling, where we got dropped off). We saw the Five Sisters of Kintail, past Ben Nevis (which we couldn't see; it was too foggy), through Glencoe, and lastly, we met Hamish the Highland Cow just a few miles from home.

Photos, of course, are more interesting than my general summary of what we did, so check those out here! Go to page 3 of my photostream and you can go backwards, but in chronological order. I hate how Flickr always puts my stuff in backwards :-(. But we'll make the best of it!

In short, it was an amazing trip, and I'm so glad we did it! I learned so much, and it was great fun. I can't wait to go exploring again soon. :-)