London Pt. 5 (Harry Potter Set tour+Tottenham)

Saturday morning, at about 6:30 A.M., Zach and I got on a bus to head to London for the day. I only had two plans for the day, Tottenham vs. Chelsea and the Harry Potter set tour. I'll start with the game first. I got to the stadium with time to spare before the 12:45 kickoff, and you might be thinking what makes this game any different than the one you went to two weeks ago? Well first off, this is arguably the second biggest game of the year for Tottenham, so the crowd was electric. Secondly, I had an incredible seat for this game and honestly it still hasn't even registered that I was actually there and it happened yesterday. It felt great to be at the stadium again and even better to feel confident on where to go and how to get to the main locations. It felt like home. The match ended in a 1-1 tie (I was satisfied even though a win would've been better) and then I set off to meet with Zach to head to the set tour area. We got to the set at about 6 o'clock and when walking up to the building you can already hear the Harry Potter soundtracks from all the movies echoing out of the building. We got in line with our tickets and then the real fun began. They had everything you can imagine from costumes, broomsticks, wands, sets, to the triple decker bus. And the thing is these were all the actual props and sets from the movies, and all the actors actually did the filming on the very ground I was standing on. I was mostly impressed with how they filmed such great movies on smaller sized sets. Granted, at one point in my childhood I convinced myself it was a real place so maybe that had something to do with my thinking, but I was still impressed.  I could list everything they had for us to see but I don't want to spoil it for those of you who might go one day, and I for sure suggest if you love Harry Potter and you find yourself in London to try to make your way to the set tour. You won't be disappointed. Zach and I got back to Bath late last night and I can honestly say it was one of if not the most successful and fun day I have had yet. Until next time.

Butterbeer. 

Oxford

Well, we went to Oxford yesterday for the first time as a group and I loved it.  We first went to a section of the college called Wycliffe at Oxford and received a lecture from one of the local professors. After that we ate a quick lunch at a place called "On the Hoof" which was fantastic and continued our journey towards the place where ACU were staying. We met a lot of their students and they took us to a local park where we threw football and frisbee.  The ACU group only had 16 people total in their group compared to our 25, so at times I felt like we were overwhelming them but they were very nice and welcoming to us.  From there we split up in five groups and were led by a few ACU students per group around Oxford. We saw the main downtown area of Oxford and Christ church (where a lot of the ideas for most of the sets of Harry Potter movie came from) as well as going to a local pub.  The picture below of us sitting down in the pub is significant only because this pub (Eagle and Child) is where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien would hang out and have a book club.  I love the Lord of the Rings movies as well as the books so the inner nerd in me came out when half the pictures and quotes on the walls were from the movies. We ended the day by eating a home cooked lasagna meal back at the ACU house prepared by them, and to us guys who eat frozen food or sandwiches all the time we absolutely loved it. Overall, it was a good quick day trip to Oxford.  I left feeling academically challenged and inspired to make something more out of my education. It made me second think what I really want to do in life, but I think at times that is good. I might go back if it is convenient, but I am very glad that we had a chance to go as a group. Until next time.

Our group mascot, Papa Smurf.

Lazy Sunday/Pointless Blog

Yesterday, my day consisted of nothing but laying around, doing homework, catching up on some reading and watching football. And when I say football its not just English football, but American football. The pub we normally go to, Lamb & Lion, was playing a game while we ate (pic below) as well as the TV in the apartment. We have been making it a tradition to go to the Lamb & Lion every Sunday for dinner because they have a great deal where it's basically 2 for 1 so naturally we can't turn it down. We also have been going to a church here called Bath City Church when we can. It is definitely different than what most of us are used to, but I am very appreciative of the opportunity it gives us to branch out and find our true religious beliefs in life. We are heading to Oxford on Wednesday where we will have the opportunity to tour the city and spend the day with the ACU students who are studying there. Will update you all on Thursday!

London Pt. 4

I went back to London for a day trip yesterday, and honestly I can't just get enough of it.  The city has so much to offer and I can find something new to do every time I go. I would love to comeback after I graduated and stay for an extended period of time, but I doubt that will end up happening. Anyways, I got to London around 10 o'clock and went first to Baker Street apartment 221B and visited the Sherlock Holmes museum. I waited in line for about an hour and paid a small fee then got to go up into the apartment and check it out.  Honestly, I don't think I have ever read any of the books, but I have seen the show and the movies so I still thought it was a cool experience.  I then went to my third football match of the trip and this time I went to Upton Park or Boleyn
Ground where West Ham United plays (based in east London.) They were playing Everton (a team from Liverpool) and I just went for the sole reason to watch another football match and to check out another stadium.  It ended up being a great game in which Everton won 3-2 towards the end of the game.  I then came back to Bath last night and caught most of the very ugly UT game with my friends.  If you're wondering how we are watching these games it's because there's a website that streams them for free (probably illegal.) So whenever we are around our computer on the weekend we try to watch some american football when we can. This weekend wasn't as adventurous as last weekend, but as a whole we decided we just wanted to hangout in Bath this weekend. Once October hits we will be going places every weekend until December. Until next time, enjoy the pics.

Tim Howard, USA's keeper.

First Goal

Celebration

Cardiff

Just a quick update from today. We went to Cardiff, Wales today for a field trip as a group. I had briefly seen Cardiff on the way to Swansea a few weeks ago but that was just through my train window. We started the day by going into the National Assembly of Wales where they vote on various issues. The main thing I found interesting from that experience was that it only takes ten signatures on a petition to get discussed in court, while in England it take 100,000. We then went to Cardiff Castle which in my opinion was the best castle I have seen yet, granted I haven't seen many. We walked around the grounds and walked up to the top of the small castle. After that we went to an old amphitheater where the Romans used to hold fights back in early A.D. (Pictures below.) Overall, Cardiff was entertaining for a day trip but I am not sure I could spend a weekend there. This blog was shorter than normal but I will let the pictures make up for it. Also, as you will see below I got a haircut, and no I don't want to be in One Direction.

London Part 3

This past weekend I also did other things besides go to the Tottenham match. I got there early enough on Saturday so that I would have time to do a tour of Westminster before the match. My main goal was to find William Pitt's statue who was the youngest prime minster in the history of England because of his connection to my family on my dads side (great grandfather, don't know how many greats.) I found it once I walked in but unfortunately they don't allow pictures inside so you can just google the statue if you would like. The rest of my experience inside was surreal because i'm literally looking at the graves of people I just talked about in class the previous week (in a way its sort of an eerie feeling because it is literally filled with dead english men and women.) I then left very pleased I took time out of my day to visit the beautiful abbey, and would love to go back inside. On Saturday night Alex, myself, and Andrew visited the olympic area seeing the main stadium as well as the other venues used during the 2012 London olympics. Sunday was another football field day for me as I had plans to tour Tottenham and Chelsea's stadium both in one day. First was Tottenham and I had an awesome time. I could go into great detail and bore you with things I loved the most but I'm sure it wouldn't be that interesting to those who don't care about soccer so I will summarize it real quick.  I saw the home and away locker rooms, the directors box, the expensive suites, trophy room, and most importantly got to sit on the team bench and see the field (but not touch it unfortunately.) I then met with Alex and went and toured Chelsea's stadium. We did all the same things for the most part as I did on the Tottenham tour, except there was one thing that was obviously different than my tour of Tottenham and tour of Chelsea, and that is money. Chelsea is a richer club, in fact their owner has invested around 1 billion pounds into the club over the last thirteen years if you were wondering.  Everything at Chelsea was just nicer or more updated. But me being biased I loved White Hart Lane more for the memories I had connected with it even though I was very impressed with Stamford Bridge (Chelsea's stadium.) Overall, I had a very eventful weekend full of history and football. If you can't tell, I just want to tell everyone I'm extremely happy here and I'm enjoying having many dreams fulfilled over time. That being said I still miss all of you back home and hope all is well.

 

Chelsea

At Tottenham

White Hart Lane

First, I had a very eventful and packed weekend, so I'm going to make two separate post from this weekend just because I think this one deserves its own post. Well, I finally made it to a Tottenham game. Friday night I stayed in Bath and honestly it was just a blur because it felt like Christmas eve on steroids. I couldn't sleep all night because I just wanted to get to the game already. The next morning I hopped on a train and eventually got to White Hart Lane (Tottenham's stadium) at about 11:30. Kickoff against Norwich City was set for 3:00 but I wanted to get there early because one

of my favorite players who recently retired was having a book signing outside their store. So I waited in line for about an hour and a half and finally got to meet him (His name is Ledley King for anyone who cares) and got a picture with him.  While I was waiting in line I had the pleasure of standing next to an elderly woman whose knowledge amazed me.  We talked about the current team, teams of the past, and teams of the way back past that I had no knowledge of.  It for sure made the time go by faster talking to such an interesting woman who was clearly a huge supporter. Next order of business was to find Matt, Zach, Andrew, and Alex who were coming to the match with me. We met up at about 2:15 and headed into the stadium. The amount of chill bumps I received when I first saw the field with my own eyes was unbelievable, and naturally I teared up from just awe of finally being at the place I have watched on TV the last 6 years of my life wondering if I would ever get to see it myself. I was finally there. I was in a daze the whole pre-game. I feel like if someone would have yelled my name beside me I wouldn't of even heard it. One of the best feelings was to join in the chants I have learned by heart over the years. Singing "Oh when the Spurs" with 36,000 other people was an unforgettable and surreal moment that I will never forget. Once the match started everything just seemed to fly by.  However, I do remember after the first goal running back and forth down the aisle (In my opinion there are few things in sports comparable to seeing the team you love score a goal in soccer) in celebration.  Before I knew it the game was over and Tottenham had won 2-0 in dominant fashion. It wasn't even close and I loved every second of it.  I'm in the beginning stages of making a short video of the day, and whenever I finish it I'll put it on here, but for now pictures will do. To sum it up, I had my love for the beautiful game reaffirmed even more yesterday, and I can not wait to get back to The Lane on the 28th to see Tottenham vs. Chelsea (huge rivalry.) Until next time.

Wells/Glastonbury

Just wanted to update everyone on what I have been up to since Sunday. School has really picked up this week and I have actually spent a lot of time in the library reading and studying for future test. It's sort of a challenge figuring out how I'm going to balance my study time since I won't have the weekends do to work, but it's a good problem to have. We took a field trip to Glastonbury and Wells today. I made the logical decision (not sarcastic) to stay up late last night to watch the USA soccer game, so I was running off of four hours of sleep all day. But honestly nothing will ever be worse than last weekend in Swansea sleep wise, so I felt great today. But back to my day trip, if you are unfamiliar with these places (as I was originally) they are two small genuine English towns close to Bath. Glastonbury is famous for their music festival they have each year comparable to Bonnaroo back in the states. It also had a small castle at the top of a hill in which legend says Joseph of Arimathia once came and visited, and potentially buried the Holy Grail in the area.  Wells had an old Cathedral which was comparable to the one I saw last week in Salisbury. However what separated Wells from the other cities I've been to is it's market scene and small town feel. I bought a cornish pastry with BBQ chicken and potatoes along with some fudge in the market for lunch (which by the way, I have never missed sweat tea and mexican food so much.) Before we headed back to Bath, we stopped in a small area called Cheddar which in my opinion was the Gatlinburg of England. It was situated in an elevated area and had candy shops everywhere.  Overall today was a good day, but the weekend can come quick enough. I'm heading back to London, so get ready for the updates on Sunday. I hope all is well back home. Miss and love you all!

Our tour guide

Swansea, Wales

  
Welcome.  I just got back from my first weekend adventure, and we decided to head to Swansea, Wales.  When it came time to choose where we wanted to go we just looked for interesting cities along the coast line of either Wales or England, and after a little research on Thursday night, Swansea won. We got there Friday at dinner time with not really any plans for that night.  We explored the city and ate a quick dinner at the pub.  After walking around for a few hours we decided it might be a good time to find somewhere to stay.  The girls who came with me (Hannah, Michaela, Savannah, and Rachel) got a room in a cheap hotel. Us guys decided that the rooms were too expensive, mainly because they were trying to charge us for three rooms because supposedly they only allow two people to a room even though there were two queen size beds in each (the girls got lucky because the worker didn't see all four people go into their room that was supposed to be for two.)   So we continued on to another travel lodge which held three to a room. Andrew, Matt, and Zach all got in, but it was their last room available. So Alex, myself, and Luke had to improvise which ended in finding a cozy spot on the street. Don't worry though, we all had pocket knives just in case. I slept for about an hour or so, but honestly that night is up there for one the most miserable nights of my life, but hey, I'm alive (Lesson learned, try to book a place to stay before you go to another country.) Also, I know my mom and dad who are reading this will not be happy finding out their son slept on the street for a bit, but I just want to personally tell y'all it won't happen again and I now have more motivation than ever to make a living one day to avoid that lifestyle. It ended up turning out to be a nice start to the next day since we were basically awake the whole night we got to start exploring at seven o'clock.  We scaled a big hill in Swansea and got a great view (pic above.) Later that day, we met up with the whole group and went to a bay in Swansea called, Rhossili, which is considered one of the nicest beaches in the entire UK.  Zach and I decided to be a bit more adventurous and walked all the way out to the very end of this rock/cliff off in the distance. I felt like I was in a movie because the scenery was so beautiful (also pictured a sheep.)

After about an hour or so of walking on rocks, cliffs, and in high grass we made it. It was well worth it; however, I did rip my jeans in the process so there is one down side. After hanging out there for a few hours we headed back into downtown Swansea to catch our train back. I had to go see Swansea City's stadium before I left (The local football team) so I made a quick hour walk there and back to see it. Overall, this was a great weekend. I loved Wales and the beauty it possesses. I made memories but also learned somethings the hard way.  Hope all is well back home.

Our home for the night.

Until next time.