biffy

http://galendenali.shutterfly.com
That's the webpage for my pictures, I'm finally getting some online... Go there... Do it, do it...:)

Stratford this weekend was very pretty and scenic, and it was neat seeing everything relating to Shakespeare. I love reading and watching and performing Shakespeare, he is amazing. However, the town itself was incredibly boring. We saw two plays, Thomas More, which was interesting but tedious, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, which I loved. It was amazing, very good acting and scenery, interpretation, etc. It was great, very well done. It was fun getting dressed up too. That was friday night. On Saturday, we took the tour bus around. We saw where Shakespeare was born, grew up, where his wife lived, and where he's buried. Then, the tour man started talking about how "there's lots of sandstone here, and they used some of the sandstone from here in building at Oxford and Cambridge..." and then went off about sheep and grass. That's when we knew there was nothing to see in Stratford. It was terrible. We went to the grave of Shakespeare, which was neat, but every single high-schooler from Italy was mobbing in Stratford that day, and half of them mobbed into the church whhen we went there. They were sacreligious, tromping over gravestones and taking pictures on them, and shouting etc. in the church; very disrespectful. They were smelly and rude, and I can wait to go to Italy... Oh well, I hate it when groups mob. After that (this was around 10 30 in the morning, we had decided to get up early and see the "sights"... Silly us), we shopped around for a while, then decided to get lunch. We went up to the roof, thinking how pleasant it would be to eat pizza in the fresh air. It started to sprinkle, and we were like, hm, there's atable with a huge umbrella, we can sit under that and stay dry. And we did stay dry. God literally opened the clouds and it was like Noah's flood all over again. We were in a tiny little square of dryness, with torrential rain pouring down around us. The waitress dashed up through the buckets pouring down, and is like, there are seats downstairs, you can go down there, your food is ready, and we're like, nope, we're fine. So Amy went down with her and carried an umbrella over the food as she brought it up. It is people like us that give American travellers a bad name. She glared as us, I got a picture. It was great. After that, we went back to the riverbank and drank and hung out, talking about life, etc. Nick and Chris peed in the river, too... For shame. Then, we took out a motorboat along the river... We had 6 people in the boat, and it literally putt-putted along at .2 miles per hour. I don't know how many kilometres per hour, but it's not very much, I assure you. Chris crashed us into the branches of a weeping willow, and one of the branches got stuck in the motor, but everything worked out. We went to Thomas More that night, and I was incredibly bored, and today we had a 5 hour bus ride back on a smelly bus. There was awful ventilation, so it smelled like the Biffies at Camp Don Bosco... Ahh, the good old days of summer camp... Good stuff. It's nice being back here in Durham.
Cheers

vein of distrust

Well, my two history midterm papers are finished. Not completely, because I have to finish editing and such, but for the most part, they are down and out of my brain. Thank God. I'm just glad I didn't have to stay up really late last night working on them, like some people... :)
We went to see Taming of the Shrew last night, which was done in the gardens of the Durham Castle. It was so beautiful, being surrounded by the old, sandstone walls watching Shakespeare. It was nice, and the play was really funny. The actors were some of the best-looking people I've seen in England, which is not saying much. But they were good and I had a lot of fun watching, even though the temperature dropped and my toes froze off because I was wearing flip-flops. Good stuff though.
Cheers

anne boleyn

Class today was fine, my group gave our presentation of the role that cultural superstitions and beliefs in witchcraft played in the fall of Anne Boleyn, and how sodomy and incest and adultery all connected to that. Lovely, huh? At least now I know the meaning of the word "buggery"... it's something I've always wanted to know...
Watercolors was uneventful, but I am still doing horribly. We'll see what my grade turns out to be, and if he's generous with his A's (hopefully).
I've been attempting to write my second midterm paper for history but it's not going too well. I just can't think of anything to write, and what I do have is all from one source, which is explicitly what he said Not to do today. So, I'm in a pickle.
Brynya and Phil got engaged yesterday! Or the day before that, I'm not sure. But still, very exciting!!! I'm so happy for them, and am hoping that I'll be in San Jose for when they have their wedding.
By the way, I am very disappointed that no one has been leaving comments. Does no one love me? Honestly, it's nice to feel loved...

tartan

This past weekend we went up to Edinburgh. I absolutely love that city, it is amazing. The day we got there, a few of us hiked up the "hill" to Arthur's Seat. Part way up, the path diverged and I, I took the one less travelled by... That means that we were required to actually do some rock climbing. It was scary, because one slip meant falling to a certain, painful death on the rocks below, but it was exhilarating nonetheless and we all made it to the top. The view at the top was incredible. We could see all of Edinburgh laid out before us, and the Fourth on Firth, all the shining towers and the castle and old churches, etc. Everyone up there, it seemed, was speaking a different language. I heard some Italian and French, probably Gaelic and German, and who knows what else. It was neat. We went back down, using the stairs that time, and walked down the Royal Mile, stopping at Canonsgate Church where we found Adam Smith's grave. There was American money piled on the tomb and, I swear, we felt the presence of the "invisible hand"... ;)
We left the Church and sauntered down to the new Scottish Parliament building, or Pairlement building, depending on if you're speaking Scottish. The outside is really funky and modern, with strange angles, lots of metal and stones, and bunches of sticks in front of the windows. The debate room was really neat, with tons of natural light pouring in and crazy wooden chairs. It was a really cool building, as well it should be, for £400mill. We went back and just hung out that night, taking it easy after a crazy day.
On Saturday, we rode the tour bus around literally three times. I think I could have given the tour by the end of the day. It was really fun though, getting off and then getting back on whenever we wanted to. We went and saw the National Gallery, with lots of cool Rembrandts, Monets and Van Goughs. I saw a few paintings that I really liked, but I couldn't remember who did them. After the Gallery, we went to Pizza Express for lunch, and had some awesome pizza. Walked around, went up by the Castle, then took the tour around again. We went to the History of Surgery too, which was really really cool. Gruesome and disgusting, in parts, but very interesting. I love learning about that stuff. We basically tromped all over Edinburgh, which was fun because we were just taking everything in. I loved seeing all the plaids for the different clans.
On Sunday, we took the bus back and stopped in Lindesfarne, or Holy Island, where St. Cuthbert lived. It was very neat; it's this little island that you can drive to during the day, at low tide, but at night, the tide comes back up and it's only accessible by boat. In the little cafe where we had lunch, I saw some newspaper articles about cars getting stuck at high tide in the water. It was really funny. The ruins of the priory were really beautiful, and they were having a celebration for the Viking Raiders, who had raped and pillaged along that coast. I am proud to say that I have ancestors who raped and pillaged the Scots. Anyway, we walked up to the castle there and got some good views of Bamburgh, the castle across the way where we stopped at to snap some pictures. Everything was beautiful there along the North Sea, I absolutely love Scotland. The sea breeze felt great, I've missed the ocean. We got back on the bus, stopped at Bamburgh and then Newcastle to take pictures of the tall boat races, and then we got back to St Cuth's around 6 or so. I spent the rest of my evening working on my paper, which is essentially finished. Now I just have to do the second half of that midterm. Oh well, half down. :) I'm getting my pictures up soon, I swear, I just have to get my battery charged and then upload them onto this computer. Anyway, all for now.
Cheers

blood

Note to self: Never again consume red wine, it stains.

Last night was really fun, we had the dressy St. Cuthbert's "Welcome Dinner" which was fun. I always like getting dressed up. During the dinner, there was a man playing the Northumbrian pipes, which was amazing because he was really good and they sounded so beautiful. It made me think of the bagpipes at Gammie's funeral, though. After dinner we hit the pub, where I again two p'd someone incorrectly and promptly had to chug half of Colin's beer. Oh well, I'll get the hang of it someday.
Cheers

nat king cole

Yesterday, all of our computers shut down because of some system error. Thankfully, they're back up again this morning. Last night, I had the worst headache ever, a result, I think, from the gaseous substance that we smelled seeping into our art classroom yesterday. I'm surprised we didn't all die of carbon monoxide poisoning.
I attempted to start painting our homework yesterday, but it just looks awful. Nothing at all like the painting. Oh well, I never said the fine arts were my forte.
Went on a run, yesterday, too, with AJ and Chris. I like running along the river, it's really peaceful and pretty. I see all these things that I want to paint, but I know that I couldn't do it. My paintings never turn out quite how I envision them.
Cheers

bones

Today we left Durham around 8 45 and went up to York. It was a really cool, old city with lots of cute shops, and looked exactly like the typical cutesy European city. The Abbey was really fun, very beautiful. And it was built on top of both a Norman cathedral and an even older Roman fortress. So we went down into the crypt to see both remains of the Roman and Norman buildings. It was awesome. I love all this oldness. I love just touching things people hundreds of years ago touched, walking along streets and walls and pathways that they walked along. There was a wall mural that the Romans had painted that parts of were still intact, and paintings on wood panels from the ceiling of the Norman cathedral. (At the Durham cathedral here, we saw St. Cuthbert's and Venerable Bede's tombs, did I tell you that? It was really cool, esp since I like Bede so much.) After we went down into the crypt, we went to get lunch at Betty's, this really good, supposedly famous place there. Got some good food, Scottish shortbread... ;) Awesome. Billings, Chris, AJ and I went to find the old Roman wall that had surrounded the fortress, and we walked along that which was fun. Had some good icecream (I am getting so fat, I know it).
After that, we went to Fountain's Abbey, the ruins of an old Sistercian (sp???) monastery that was put out of comission with the Reformation. Let me tell you, it was something else. I loved it. The ruins were amazing, all arching and beautiful. I can't even really describe it. There was this one part where you walked into what was the cathedral there, and on the opposite end there is a huge window where you can just imagine the stained glass with sun streaming in. I took some pictures, but my battery ran out before I could take too many. It was awesome though. I found some cool slash creepy rooms where I had to whip out my flashlight, they were so dark and enclosed. Very pretty though.
We got home, then went out to dinner at an Italian place for the second night in a row. Now I'm just being a dork and catching up on email and such. Yesterday we booked plane tickets and hostels for our free weekend in Dublin. The plane ride over to Dublin only cost 89p. That is around $1.65 or so. HA, amazing. The Harry Potter book came out today, and I need to go pick myself up a copy. Hopefully it's good. I know I'm a nerd.
Cheers, AJ's Nipples

you know you want to learn about me

I thought this was fun (thanks Derek :), and I'm bored waiting for Brownie to get here... Plus, Chris has been down here all day looking for hostels and airfare to Copenhagen, Stockholm, Dublin, etc., so I thought I'd join him.

Have you ever:

( ) smoked a cigarette
( ) smoked a cigar
( ) made out with a member of the same sex
( ) crashed a friend's car
( ) stolen a car
(X) been in love
(X) been dumped
( ) shoplifted
( ) been fired
( ) been in a fist fight
( ) snuck out of house
(X) had feelings for someone who didn't have them back (ha ha too many times)
( ) been arrested
( ) made out with a stranger
( ) gone on a blind date
(X) lied to a friend
( ) had a crush on a teacher
(X) been to Europe
( ) skipped school
( ) slept with a co-worker
( ) seen someone die
(X) been to Canada
( ) been to Mexico
(X) been on a plane
( ) seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show
( ) thrown up in a bar
( ) purposely set a part of myself on fire
(X) eaten Sushi
(X) been snowboarding/skiing
( ) met someone in person from the internet
(X) been moshing at a concert
( ) been in an abusive relationship<--- is this emotionally too?
(X) taken painkillers
(X) love someone or miss someone right now (Both!!!)
(X) laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by
(X) made a snow man
(X) had a tea party
(X) flown a kite
(X) built a sand castle
(X) gone puddle jumping
(X) played dress up
(X) jumped into a pile of leaves
(X) gone sledding
(X) cheated while playing a game
(X) been lonely
(X) fallen asleep at work/school
( ) used a fake id
(X) watched the sun set
(X) felt an earthquake
(X) touched a snake
( ) slept beneath the stars
(X) been tickled
( ) been robbed
(X) been misunderstood
(X) petted a reindeer/goat (a goat... at the Puyallup fair)

(X) won a contest
( ) ran a red light
( ) been suspended from school/kicked out of a class
(X) been in a car accident
( ) had braces
(X) felt like an outcast
( ) eaten a whole pint of ice cream in one night
(X) had deja vu
(X) danced in the moonlight
(XXXXXXXXX) hated the way you look
( ) witnessed a crime
(X) pole danced (does volleyball poledancing count??)

(X) been obsessed with post-it notes
(X) squished barefoot through the mud
(X) been lost
(X) been to the opposite side of the country
(X) swam in the ocean
(X) felt like dying

(XXX) cried yourself to sleep
( ) played cops and robbers
(X) recently colored with crayons/colored pencils/markers
(X) sung karaoke (ha ha ha!!! in London! Yeah baby!)
(X) paid for a meal with only coins (all the time... in pubs here... it's amazing)
(X) done something you told yourself you wouldn't
(X) made prank phone calls

(X) laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose (milk)

(X) caught a snowflake on your tongue
(X) danced in the rain
(X) written a letter to Santa Claus
( ) been kissed under a mistletoe (does my dad count?)
(X) watched the sun rise with someone you care about (my gammie)
(X) blown bubbles
(X) made a bonfire on the beach
(X) crashed a party (jonathan and todd?)

(X) gone rollerskating
(X) had a wish come true
( ) humped a monkey

(X) worn pearls
( ) jumped off a bridge
(X) screamed penis in public
(X) ate dog/cat food (it was dry and I was 4... don't worry about it)
( ) told a complete stranger you loved them
(X) kissed a mirror (i think we all did in middle school, to put lipstick marks on them. it was hot)
(X) sang in the shower
(X) had a dream that you married someone
(X) glued any body part to something
( ) got your tongue stuck to a flag pole
( ) kissed a fish
(X) worn the opposite sexes clothes
(X) sat on a roof top
(X) screamed at the top of your lungs..
( ) done a one-handed cartwheel
( ) talked on the phone for more than 5 hours

(X) stayed up all night
(X) didn't take a shower for a week. (well, I showered with shampoo in the river but we didn't have real showers for a week on our rafting trip)
(X) picked and ate an apple right off the tree (we have them in my yard)
(X) climbed a tree
( ) had a tree house (sadly enough)
(X) are scared to watch scary movies
(X) believe in ghosts
( ) have more than 15 pairs of shoes
( ) worn a really ugly outfit to school just to see what others say
( ) gone streaking
(X) played ding-dong-ditch
( ) played chicken

(X) pushed into a pool/lake with all your clothes on
(X) been told you're beautiful by a complete stranger
( ) broken a bone
(X) been easily amused
( ) caught a fish then ate it
(X) caught a butterfly
(X) laughed so hard you cried
(X) cried so hard you laughed
( ) mooned/flashed someone
(X) had someone moon/flash you
(X) cheated on a test
(X) have a Britney Spears CD
(X) forgotten someone's name
(X) slept naked
(X) French braided someone's hair
( ) grown a beard
( ) skinny dipped in a hot tub

raspberries

Durham is an amazing little town. The people are friendly and helpful, as evidenced by the numerous elderly men who came up to us after the special Evensong commemorative service for the end of WWII to tell us that it is nice to see young people going to mass. The service was beautiful, with the choir boys and their little angel voices. All the pomp and circumstance of the ceremony was fun to watch, but I did not enjoy standing up and sitting down every 8 seconds. The cathedral is awesome too, and it was nice just looking around during the service. It's so strange to me that something can be so old. I like imagining what it would have been like had I gone in there 300 years ago. Probably much the same. We have a tour of the cathedral today, which should be really interesting.
Yesterday, AJ, who's a hardcore cross-country runner, made me go on another run with him and Chris. I was fine until the huge hill, I really was. But then my asthma kicked in and I just couldn't get enough air in my lungs. It frustrates me so much, not being able to breathe like that. I felt so bad because Chris and AJ stopped and I felt all out of shape and fat and I just get so mad. So I'm going on a run later today by myself, just because I can. Stupid lungs.
I think later today we're going to rent some boats and go boating on the river Wear. It's going to be so fun, and beautiful! Chris was talking about racing them, so we'll see what happens with that. Anyway, I need to go take a shower.
Cheers

durham

Well, just wanted to get a quick post in. We finally got internet access here at Durham University today. Got here safe and sound on late Friday night, whisked away from the bombings of London. It's so amazing here, the place is SO old. The town is very quaint, with lovely houses and cobbled roads. I love it. The Cathedral is breath-taking, very pretty with the spires and arches. The River Wear is gorgeous too, and the people here are friendly.
Started classes today, which was a change. History is good ,it's fun learning about something that we're basically taking part of right now (the town). Watercolors is fun as well, I enjoy dabbling with the paints even though I'm not very good at it. The countryside is beautiful, and I love walking around. Anyway, I have to go on a run, can you believe that?? AJ is a running fiend and is attempting to get me to start. We'll see what happens.
Cheers.

London

This morning, some friends and I were going to take the underground to the Imperial War Museum before meeting up with the rest of the SCU group for 'A Winter's Tale' at the Globe Theater. I had to wait with Colin for his ticket, but Chris, AJ, Nick, and Eric went ahead. They called and said that the underground was closed due to a 'power surge' but that they were going to take the bus. Colin and I were about to take the bus when Eric called, saying they were just coming back to Ramsay Hall where we're staying. We went back and, wanting to know what was going on, went into the tv room upstairs. Apparently there were 5 explosions in the underground, and two explosions (confirmed) on double decker buses. On bus keeps being shown, with it's top blown off, the rest twisted into a heap of red metal. It's awful. There are eyewitnesses talking about people coming out of the tubes with bloodied faces and head wounds, covered in soot. This is like what I imagined 9/11 was like, but I'm actually here. People are just jamming the streets near where the explosions happened, some crying, etc. One of the professors said he was in his room in the hotel that they're staying at and he felt the whole room shake and a lot of soot blew into his room. This is kind of scary. Thank God neither my friends nor I got onto the underground or a bus today. It's a good thing we were running a little late, or else we might have been on either one. I called my parents a billion times before I actually got through, because the network is so jammed up, but I got through, and let them know that I'm okay. Dad is somewhere in France, Avignon, I believe? And I woke mom up at 2 am Seattle time. Oh well, I didn't want them to freak out if they saw the news. I don't even know what they're saying in Seattle or the US about what happened. Also called Jeff to let him know I was okay. It was good talking to him. And my parents. I got a cell phone here with a sim card so now anyone can call if you want to talk or anything. I'll let you know my number. Anyway, I'm okay, and am praying for the victims and their families, etc. and thanking any higher power that we weren't on those buses or undergrounds.

champs elysees

Just thought I'd write a quick post. This city is dirty. But fun. As I'm walking down the streets, every 6th person I see is wearing a Lacoste shirt. Literally. I counted 8 in a row once too. Also, none of the women wear bras. Or they have really tiny boobs. But they're all thin, from all the walking. Tomorrow I take the Chunnel to London. Wahoo. Oh, also, EVERYONE smokes here. It is disgusting. I am going to come back smelling like an ashtray...Anyway, have to go.

paris

Well, here I am in Paris, typing on a weird computer that I keep messing up on because everything is all different and switched around. We got in around noon today, Paris time, which was around 4am Seattle time. Needless to say, the flight was long and I never sleep well on planes. So I got some reading done for Durham and watched a few movies. Robots was actually better than I expected; it had quite a few hilarious parts that I actually chuckled out loud at. I don't think the man next to me was amused. Anyway, so I had fun checking the map aspect of the video screen periodically. We flew over some random places in Canada with crazy names.
I love being here. The whole culture is amazing, and I absolutely adore the French language. It's so beautiful when people speak it. It's funny, though, when I hear Asian tourists asking French people something in broken English. Why this amuses me is because it used to be French that was the international language, learned by all the kings and queens and courtiers, etc., and now it's English. Funny how things work out. Speaking of history, while I'm waxing historical anyway, I love the oldness of everything here. Yeah, America has history, of course, and I love it, but here, everything is so OLD. I just imagine the barricades going up in the revolutions of 1848, and when I stood on where the Bastille once was, I got goosebumps. Which is amazing, because it is freaking HOT here. I feel like I'm in the Sahara. We walked ALLLL over the city today, tromping over penis-shaped balloons and everything. And went on the metro. The only bad thing about this city is that 1. everyone smokes, and 2 everyone SMELLS. Awful b.o. Gross. Oh well, anyway, I have to go. I'm using the common computer in our hotel, and there are a million business men waiting for it. Will update later. :) Miss everyone!
Au Revoir

lilac

Only one more full day here in the states... I'm so excited!!!! All my stuff is packed, and I feel as if I'm taking too much and too little at the same time. Hopefully everything will go smoothly. I still don't know what I'll do in the two and a half weeks between when I'm in Durham and Florence... We'll see what comes up. One goal is to pick up an English accent. Then I can say "Crickey!" That'll be fun. Well, the next time I write, I'll probably be in Europe! :)
Ciao