Return to the Emerald Isle - Belfast

"The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.

"The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say."

From The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien 

July has been a strange month. For the first time in nine months I had no deadline looming over me - or at least none that I had any ability to do any work towards. Knowing this and also understanding that August would be a month of stress and suffering, I decided to go on one last adventure. At first, the question was where. This was solved when I learned that not one, but two friends from back home would be in Ireland for the summer. Since my first trip to Ireland had been dominated by truly miserable weather, I figured this would be a great opportunity to let her remedy my impression of her. In addition, one friend would be in Belfast, and since I'd never traveled to Northern Ireland I thought this would be the perfect chance to do so.

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 I met up with Jess (a friend from MN) for dinner and a walk

A Cornwall Adventure

"And I’d say to myself as I looked so lazily down at the sea:
'There’s nobody else in the world, and the world was made for me.'"
From The World of Winnie-the-Pooh By A.A. Milne 

Last month Allison and I got stir crazy. We were so done writing assignments, researching, and generally being locked indoors during the summer. So, on a spur of the moment, we decided to take the week of July 4th and go on holiday. The where was obvious - Cornwall. Why you may ask? Because they have beaches - why else?

Allison took care of the accommodations and I rented the car. As you may recall I had already decided that I was going to brave the next British driving challenge and rent a manual if the opportunity arose. Well, here it was! I selected the smallest car possible for rental and crossed my fingers. A few weeks later I realized my mistake - I had rented from a place where I had to pick up the car from the City Centre (not the place directly across the street from my house). That meant shifting with my left hand while navigating unfamiliar highways as soon as I slide behind the wheel! Thankfully this part of the journey I would be taking alone so I probably would only kill myself and not Allison.

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Post-dinner, pre-cricket nap

We lucked out and got a beautiful, sunny day for our Picnic & cricket game

A Day Trip? To London?

"'I am well in body although considerably rumpled up in spirit, thank you, ma'am,' said Anne gravely. Then aside to Marilla in an audible whisper, 'There wasn't anything startling in that, was there, Marilla?'"
From Anne of Green Gables By L.M. Montgomery

Overall I've been amazed this year with the number of people from home who are study or visiting Europe while I'm over here - completely unrelated to my presence in the UK. Some I'll see, other I won't. When given the chance I plan on seeing as many of them as I can.

This week I got the opportunity to see a friend from home. Katie, a student who graduated from the school I worked at in Minnesota, is studying in Jerusalem and decided to come to the UK as part of her study break. She was one of my favorite students and I was excited to get an opportunity to see her. To do so, however, I needed to travel down to London for a day. After frantic Facebook messaging, with a sporadic internet connection on her end, we finally set a place and time for our meeting. I booked a bus ticket. People looked at me like I was crazy. They couldn't believe I would take a three hour bus ride to go to London for a day. It didn't seem like a bad idea at the time. If I wanted to see Katie I could either take the train or the bus. Considering that round trip the bus cost £14 and the train cost £75 - I was taking the bus!

Pros and Cons

"You set your heart too much on things, Anne," said Marilla, with a sigh. "I'm afraid there'll be a great many disappointments in store for you through life."
"Oh, Marilla, looking forward to things is half the pleasure of them, exclaimed Anne. "You mayn't get the things themselves; but nothing can prevent you from having the fun of looking forward to them. Mrs. Lynde says 'Blessed are they who expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed.' But I think it would be worse to expect nothing than to be disappointed."
From Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery 

After three weeks of training and trials, the decision for who would make the Rowing team finally arrive and...(drum roll, please)...I didn't make it. I know, sad face.
However, I'm one who believes that every events has its good and bad aspects. To help me see the best in my sad situation I made a classic Pros/Cons list of not making the team:

60 Seconds in Every Minute

"'Oh! do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch,' said Fanny." 

From Mansfield Park By Jane Austen

Have you ever noticed that while every minute has sixty seconds, not every minute passes at the same rate? Day one of rowing trials felt like the clock couldn't decide on a consistent speed at which to travel.
After Research Methods I hung out with some of my Writing for Children cohorts at a coffee shop in an attempted to study. Each time I glanced at the clock I couldn't believe how rapidly the hands progressed. Giving myself plenty of time to get changed and settled, I left my friends to "study" for their Feminist Theory class later that evening (a class I am so glad I didn't sign up for), I tromped to the Sports Centre. After methodically preparing myself, I glanced up at the clock, shocked that only ten minutes had passed - I still had ten minutes until erg testing. I took my second dose of Rescue Remedy of the day (I found it in a regular pharmacy, Mom, aren't you jealous!), in an attempt to relieve some of my stress.

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The Eight

First Rowing Outing

“When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.”
From Winnie-the-Pooh By A.A. Milne

This weekend the novice rowers received our first opportunity to get out on the water. Due to to large number of people trying out they divided us into six groups of eight that would go out over the course of Saturday and Sunday (even then they didn't get everyone out the first weekend!). I lucked out and got the first group on Saturday.
The boathouse is located on the River Avon near the M40 (that's a highway, or motorway). Because of the distance from campus we had a set time at which the shuttle would come to collect us for our outing.
Not wanting to be late I arrive at the rendezvous point ten minutes before the minibus was scheduled to arrive. Twenty minutes later, six guys and five girls began questioning if we had the right time, but we figured that either we had a group hallucination or the bus was running late, maybe the Lemington pick up was taking longer than expected. Thirty minutes after the scheduled pick up time I began creating scenarios in my head as to why the bus was so late:

1. Maybe they were testing our resolve to see who really wanted to join the team
2. Maybe they had forgotten to fill the tank and the shuttle was sitting on the side of the road and they had no way of contacting us
3. Maybe a river snake had eaten the team and there wasn't anyone left to come get us

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The Pool

“We lead our lives like water flowing down a hill, going more or less in one direction until we splash into something that forces us to find a new course.”
From Memoirs of a Geisha By Arthur Golden

When I was still a small child I found myself drawn to water. My mom had to watch me carefully because I would beeline to the water as soon as we got onto the pool deck. At that age I must have loved the excitement of it, the danger. To bribe me to swim my mother would tell me I could jump in after doing the skill she desired. At the age of nine I saw my first three-meter diving board and my mother promptly signed me up for diving lessons, fearing what I would do if not trained properly.
My love affair with water turned into a high school, then college, then post college job; Even when I quit full time I couldn't pull myself away completely. The longest I've gone without swimming on a regular basis was when I was studying in Scotland for three months during college - I nearly died.
So, what's a water rat like myself going to do with an entire year not working at a pool? Join the school gym and go swimming, of course (if you didn't guess that please smack your hand to your forehead and say "duh!" now...go on, I'll wait for you...).

Rowing?

“I ran three miles, staggered into the lobby, and took the elevator back to my apartment. No point to overdoing this exercise junk." (Stephanie Plum)
From Two for the Dough By Janet Evanovich

So as part of my England Engagement Plan I decided to join the rowing team. Not wanting to commit to a new sport with absolutely no experience I took a rowing class in Minnesota over the summer. I enjoyed it and I think I got rather good at it by the end of my 6 classes.

With this in my back pocket I confidently signed up for receiving information from the rowing team at the campus Sports Fair. 

Soon I discovered that my little plan to "meet people and get some exercise" wasn't exactly what I had gotten myself into.

First off rowing is apparently much more popular in the UK than it is in the States (feel free to laugh at me, I should have guessed). So, instead of sliding onto the team and looking really smart for picking up the technique quickly, I actually have to catch on quickly and compete for the 24 spots on the novice team.