I'll Pound You For A Pound

The title is a little play on words based on the currency of the British people as well as the act of pummeling someone with either your hands or the large leg of a bird.

The time here has been good. I wouldn't say it has been relaxing, though there were most certainly parts of the trip where you could put up your feet and take a breather. The first day I arrived, I landed in Heathrow airport. The first thing I noticed about this was that I was claustrophobic. Now I don't mean claustrophobic as in "I'm sweating profusely and I might snap and curl into the fetal position if somebody bumps my shoulder" but instead, claustrophobic as in "The roofs in this airport aren't very high and I wish there was more natural light." The airports I've been to in North America have higher roofs than most Christian school gyms. The change was noticeable. I then caught a flight up to Edinburgh which saw me in a zombie like state. The previous nights were not good for sleep and I was exhausted. So I landed and saw Rebecca (glory) and we caught a bus and went to our hostel in the heart of Edinburgh. I must say, it is a very cool city with an interesting history and a bitching castle.

The first day I was there, Heather, Ree and I took a walk around to get acquainted with the area. The next day we did a free walking tour to learn about the history of the city. This included seeing the church of John Knox, as well as seeing his grave, which is now a parking lot. He, however, has been remembered in the parking lot by a simple yellow square in parking spot 23. That surprised me. The day then continued with a hike up the crags which are the hills overlooking the city.

The following day we took a tour to the Highlands (northern Scotland) and saw Loch Ness, along with a number of other beautiful sights. The highlight for me was seeing the Highland bulls. It reminded me of Josh's liking of yaks back in the day.

The next day saw us exploring the city again, which ended off with an overnight bus back to London. Being a fairly leggy person, comfort was something not attained on the bus. My sleep was rocky, and saw me entering London with bloodshot eyes. All in all, I was surprisingly alert. We arrived in London at 6:30 in the morning, and met up with Tim and his cousin Derek. It was very nice to see Tim again. One thing that has bugged me so far about the British is that they have pay-booths to use the washroom in public places. I'm not going to pay 50 cents so I can take a pee. I found this upsetting, and very low class. Boo England. Boo.

The rest of the day saw Tim, Derek, Rebecca, and I seeing the big sights in London. St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abby, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, etc. However, before the tourism commenced, we sat in a park for a couple hours to get our alertness back, as well as watch some waterfowl play around for pond dominance.

From there Ree and I headed back to Charbury via bus/rail and arrived in this cute little town. Rebecca's host Beccy was very hospitable and allowed us to stay in her house these past few days. Since then we've seen the town, the countryside and Oxford. Today is a day of rest, as we prepare for our travels back home tomorrow.

Forty Five Degrees Isn't Worth Sleeping Over

After a blur of exams, I was driven to the airport and caught my plane to England. It’s weird to think about. Just yesterday I was still in school, and now I’m with Ree, in England (Scotland, rather) and it’s summer break. I have four months where I don’t need to worry about school. It’ll be nice. My two final exams saw me get very little sleep. The plane rides saw me get very little sleep, thus the grand total for the past three days have seen a total of 7 or 8 hours of sleep. I’ve been in a state of mental unawareness as I moved from place to place. However, as soon as I saw Ree waiting for me at that airport, I perked up. It was amazing seeing her again, and it’s been great. Right now I’m about the pass out from lack of sleep, but know that I’m safe in the hostel right now and that I’ve seen decent amount of things around where the hostel is. In order to be functional tonight, I’m going to take a power nap. I’ll try to keep you’s in the loopsie.

*Note: I slept, and I'm mildly more awake, though I think I'll go for round two to finish off the night. When I have time (probably Thursday) I'll upload some pictures. I guess that will quench your greedy thirst.

That is all.

Tickles the Liver

The trees outside of my window are just about to bloom. That makes me excited, not only because that means spring and the end of semester is near, but also because I think blooming makes the tree feel happy. If tree's had feeling.

I eluded to the concept of memory and the reductionist view that I had while trying to explain it as a mix of chemicals in a previous blog. I'm not sure if I believe that anymore. How could you? Maybe one day we'll be able to figure a bit more about it, but on the whole, I think the composition of memories can only be attributed to our spirit. Data, and android from Star Trek: TNG had a reductionist view of memories and stated that they were mRNA sequences stored in our brains. mRNA has a half life far too short to even remember what we did yesterday, therefore Data was full of shit.

Along with spring comes me tucked away in the library studying. I remember a beautiful Friday afternoon last year where I was the only one in the entire library for majority of the day. A fear of the sun you say? My vitamin D is important to me, don't get me wrong, but the knowledge of how vitamin D works I think is worth staying in for. Calcium regulation people, calcium regulation.

Today was Cadet and Gem Sunday at church. I could recite all the Cadet pledges, saying and verses. Cadets is a sweet program. Maybe I'll be a counsellor one day. I think I got the sign language badge. That was one of my few badges. You could say that I was more interested in using the go-cart rather than making some crappy soap candle or wooden shelf. Brian on the other hand had way too many badges. I mean, he did everything. It's probably the reason why he's so well rounded today. I was never in Gems.

Six days remain until I catch a plane to see my sweetie. Of those six days, four of them will have an exam. Of those four days, 8 burgers will be consumed, and approximately 50 mL of mayonnaise. I'm looking forward to some good food after this stretch.

Ryan and I saw a cat in the process of getting run over the other day. There was a puff of fur. Try to avoid hitting cats, or keep yours inside.

That is all.

That Stage

When I was sharing a room with Josh, we always listened to the "Z hot 10 at 10" which was a radio station's nightly countdown. Usually if I was still awake when it got to the number one song (usually around 10:50) then I got nervous and worried that I wasn't asleep yet. The interesting thing is that during my schooling career I averaged probably 9 or 10 hours of sleep a night. That's pretty good, I must say. I always ate breakfast too.

It seems like December and April blogs tend to be countdowns until everything is done. Suffice to say, that's pretty much what's on my mind right now. Two and a half weeks until my third year is done and until I'm in the UK checking out Scotland. The time in between will be spent wrapping up the semester and thinking about my career. Med school maybe? Maybe I'll be a professional turtle rider. I would need my scuba ticket though. Maybe I should get that this summer.

Ryan and I bought burgers as the main component on our mini shop the other day. That also included 99 cent 1L chocolate milk. The effort being put into cooking has diminished as the semester comes to an end. I hope that the UK will revive that a bit. In the mean time, Mrs. Sikkema comes through with a feast once a week which gives me a taste of home cooking. Man, can she cook.

Which leaves me with this. Do you believe this?