Lincoln and Cambridge: In pictures

Do not be alarmed! I changed the template on the blog because I realized that when I would scroll down on the previous template I would feel as if I was going to puke because of motion sickness

 

Saturday we went to Cambridge, and you've listened to my writing long enough, so I figured you'd want to see some pictures instead.Note: If you're hard of seeing, you can click on the pictures to make them bigger

 

 

We ate at the pub where Watson and Crick announced the discovery of DNA

 

 

 

We took a boat ride through the middle of all the Cambridge Colleges

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Please note the creepy Asian man watching us)

 

 

We visited a ton of museums

 

(Fitzwilliam History museum)

 

(Fitzwilliam)

 

(Whale skeleton, zoology museum)

 

Darwin's Bug collection, Zoology museum

 

A rhino that can't figure out what color it wants to be

 

 

 

Darwin's journal, museum of archaeology 

 

 

On Friday we visited Lincoln on a school field trip

 

We got to see Roman ruins

 

Both of these gates were built before the 5th century. They're old.

 

We got to see the Lincoln castle

 

 

 

Inside the castle was one of the 4 remaining copies of the original Magna Carta

 

 

 

We also visited the Lincoln Cathedral

 

 

 

 

Dr. Bujak showing us how they built it off-center

 

 

 

 

Needless to say, it was a great weekend!

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Kyle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Prison volleyball and New Earth creationists

Good day!

Once again, long time no see, my apologies once again.

Let’s begin last week.

Wednesday morning I was awaken by the most horrifying noise anyone has ever heard. What sounded like a mixture between an alien invasion, a poorly auto-tuned rap song, and 85 cats falling from a tree echoed throughout the building. I took the normal “Stewart” response to frightening situations by laying very very still and not making a single move. Then I remembered that last night they had warned us about an upcoming fire drill. Feeling like an idiot, I rose, dressed, and followed the masses out of the manor to outside. It was here where we were all met by the coldest, snowiest natural surroundings probably ever recorded in human history.  Like any good elementary school drill, they wouldn’t let us stand on the pavement, so in sandals we all got the privilege to stand in 4 inches of snow while we counted roll, prompting one student to claim “I wish there actually was a fire in the building, then maybe we could get warm.”

New story: One of my professors (specifically the one that is teaching “Social Aspect of Sport”, talk about a toughy), was complaining to us about the volleyball team here. She’s the coach and on try-out day she had all girls show up to play. Unfortunately for them, the league is co-ed and they have to play on a men’s net. Being the little teacher’s pets that Mason and I are, we asked her if we could still join the team, and she affirmed. We rolled into practice Wednesday night and joined 10 other girls to compose the mighty and extremely intimidating Harlaxton Lions volleyball team. We started playing, and I was soon humbled with my amount of volleyball knowledge. The girls there had actually played real volleyball before, so they were running plays, different formations, and switching spots with seemingly no reason. Even with our lack of volleyball knowledge, Mason and I are the only two players that can spike, so we were put on the starting line-up. I’m now an official collegiate athlete and all my dreams have come true. PS, I’m rather positive that we play prison teams IN other prisons.

Last weekend we met up with our “host family,” Mike and Helen O’Neill and their 18 year old son, James. They took us to their house and James, yes the son that is in high school, cooked us the most delicious brunch I’ve ever had. We talked over tea, making us feel somewhat British, and then headed out for a walk. Mind you that it was in the 30s with probably 3 inches of snow on the ground still. We started off toward the “Belfast House,” what was described to us as a historical home that was now under the property of the government. We didn’t know how far the walk was, but I knew we were in trouble when, as we were leaving the neighborhood we ran into a couple the O’Neill’s knew. They asked where we were walking to and we informed them, and they said it would be dark when we returned. At this time it was 12:30…. One hour and 15 minutes and 4 miles later, we rolled up to the house. It was worth the walk. The garden was massive and extravagant, there was a “private church” in the back yard, and the place was massive. (as seen below, guess who figured out how to post pictures)

 

We continued back on our walk and got to see Margaret Thatcher’s (the ex-Prime Minister) birthplace as well as the elementary school that Isaac Newton attended.

On our way back, we ran into another couple. The man was later described to us as being “not quite a bishop” in the Catholic church. In American terms, that’s equivalent to saying he’s “almost one of the most important people in the country.” He started talking about his church, and he said it was built shortly after year 1000AD. Year 1000. Meaning that church is over 1000 years old. Meaning it has been here for half of the time since Jesus walked here. Meaning it was here before the Norman invasion when the Anglo-Saxons were still in control. Meaning that if the New Earth Creationists are right (story for a different day), and the earth is only 5,000 years old, this church has been here for over 1/5 of the earth’s existence. The building has been around about 3 times longer than America. It’s old.

We arrived at their house and had the most delicious meal I’ve had while here. I think the food  here at Harlaxton is so bad, and that we’ve gotten accustomed to it, that anything that actually tastes like real food, we perceive as being God’s little gift to us for that meal.

Speaking of food, we had "Chinese night" here for dinner two nights ago. In sum, it was the worst experience of my life. Featuring an appetizing menu of noodles that were black, rice that was plain rice, an egg roll that you couldn't cut through, "spare rib" that in no way was meat, and "pork balls" (use your imagination), the meal was bad, very very bad.

 

Once again, I know this is long and my apologies for that. When you don’t write posts very often, you have to try to fit in a lot, which leads to a vicious cycle.

We’re headed to Cambridge this weekend and then on to Scotland after that!

Until next time,

Kyle

 

Here are some more pictures I've taken

 

THE Rosetta Stone

 

The fog referred to in the last post

 

 

The infamous rabbit with no head

The Fog

Good day!

Sorry for the delay since the last post. We left Thursday night for London and we arrived to a hotel with no wi-fi, so any chances of a field report were lost.

I’ve recently been informed that most blogs are updated more frequently with shorter posts, but as I’ve said, I’ve never done this before, so we’re making up the “rules” as we go along.

Much has happened in the last week or so.

Last week, we had a “house sorting” ceremony. The scene was a direct imitation of the scene from Harry Potter with the exception of the presence of the hat, the magic, Emma Watson, and Dumbledore. Myself and Mason were sorted into the house of “Mercia”, named after the term used to describe Harlaxton in pre-Norman England. Effectively, Mason and I have changed the name of the house to “ ‘Merica’ “ to touch base with our roots and give us a little more intimidating name. Try saying “Mercia” in a British accent. That’ll put the fear of God into the other houses, no doubt.

Additionally, one morning I looked out the window to an interesting sight. A poor little rabbit has been killed and was wedged between two stones at the base of the exterior wall in the garden. So what did we do? Mason, Evan and I went out and looked at it. As we poked at it and manage to pry it out of the crevice, we came to the startling realization that it was missing its head. Clean cut. There weren’t any dangling organs or anything of that nature, just straight across the neck…  So what did we do? Picked it up with some rocks, took a picture, threw it back on the ground and got away from it as soon as we could. (find the picture on FB, I still haven't mastered getting pictures into these posts)

We left for London Thursday night and started our trip then. Friday morning we went to see Big Ben, the Parliament building, the London Eye, and the other large tourist-y sites. The immensity and size of the city couldn't help but humble me in every way. Saturday we visited the British National Museum which even further blew my mind. Getting to see sections of the Parthenon, the actual Rosetta Stone, and tombs for dozens of mummies was one of the neatest experiences of my life. We then boarded the subway system and traveled to Fulham to see a Premier League soccer match featuring Fulham and Wigan. Due to a shifty find by Mason, we sat in the second row and got to see the players up close and personal. The atmosphere was as they describe it with insults being hurled in every direction and pure passion being worn on everyone's sleeve. Especially intriguing were the four 11-year-olds sitting in the row in front of us (the first row if you're following along), that took jabs at opposing players and let the four letter words fly like it was their job.

That evening we ate a nice little pub and made our way to see some more sights such as Piccadilly circus, where we got to visit the M and M museum that smelt like a combination of sweat, poop, and dark chocolate, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace.

So has been my life over the past week. "Merica", a rabbit from Sleepy Hollow and one of the most incredible experiences in one of the most incredible cities on this planet.

I'll close with a little story.

Thursday morning, I woke up frustrated. I was frustrate with planning for travels, with a sense of homesickness, and things were just kinda off. I took a walk into the woods on the grounds here and I can rarely remember a exact specific time in which God has ever spoken to me so clearly. I walked outside and there was fog everywhere. I literally mean everywhere. Disgruntled and frustrated that I wouldn't get any super-sweet pics of the manor in the early morning, or that I wouldn't be able to deep into the WWII airfield behind the house, I continued with my walk. I took a path I had never been on before, and the mud started to rise up my shoe with each step, but I continued.

In a startling moment, I stepped of of the sidewalk, took a couple steps over a small ridge, and set eyes on one of the most beautiful sights I've ever witnessed. Boulders and creeks and small rolling hils ran through a miniature valley, and in the early morning sun, the sight was one of a kind. The visibility of the fog stopped just at the end of the small scene, and it stopped me in my tracks.

I started to think. And more importantly I started to pray. I asked God to soften my heart, to take away the worthless stress that was blockading my mind from enjoying the experience. In an almost scary series of events, I continued on the path, with signs at each turn directing me "This Way" or "Right Ahead". I walked through the trail and saw dozens and dozens of unique, incredible landscapes and scenes.

God rocked my world on that walk. Here I was, upset with this thing and frustrated with that thing. By showing me how pretty the land was that was right in front of me, God was showing me to have peace and joy in the life that is right in front of me. It's easy to get caught up in worry about the future and frustrated over small things in everyday life, and so was my case that morning. I'm living in a castle in England with some of the people I love most in this life. I get to travel every weekend to some new cool place that has incredible sites and rich history. Heck, I go to school four days a week. But more importantly than all of that, Jesus' sacrifice saves me from my sin every single day, and for that I am eternally blessed and humbled. Always remember to look right in front of you to see how God is working in your life and trust him to not see the entire picture.

You see, I started the walk expecting the fog to hinder what I would see, but instead it showed me so much more than I could've ever imagined: a gentle reminder that God loves.

Kyle

 

Gregory Gregory

 Good day!

We’ve made it! We departed Louisville around 10:30AM on Thursday, January 3^rd and came rolling into London at 6AM-ish local time. Our travels were smooth with no delays. The flight from Louisville to Chicago was tight, so tight that I was lucky enough to sit straddling my “too small for luggage but too big for a carry-on” backpack. After eating Manchu-wok as my last meal in the states at the Chicago airport, we boarded the flight of eternity to London which featured a 6 year old leaning his seat back against me the whole time and 4 re-runs of “Pitch Perfect” in both English and French on a screen the size of a playing card. With all of this said, we got from point A to point B safely and in time, so it couldn’t have been much better.

In London we were met by 6-7 Harlaxton faculty that were way too excited for 6AM. We boarded buses and went on our way. As we pulled into the Grantham area, the top of the castle appeared. As we got closer and closer, more and more of the building was revealed and subsequently I became more and more in awe.

Over here, they call the castle a “house”, which is hardly does it any justice whatsoever. As we drove up the driveway, under the arched gates and into the cinematic front circle, I couldn’t do anything but smile. This may have been caused by a few things. 1) Anticipation- I’ve known for 7 months that I would be traveling here, so when we pulled into the house’s lot and I stepped on British soil for the first time, it was finally real.

2) Awe- the house is mind-blowing. Words hardly can describe it. The area in which I’m staying was occupied by the Vikings and then also by the Romans. The house itself has a history that could fill books (In fact it has). The manor (another name for the castle) was built by a rich guy named Gregory Gregory (not kidding). Gregory (am I referring to his first name or last name? You’ll never know) was an interesting fellow. Other than the building of this enormous castle, his trace can’t be found anywhere else in history. In fact, he died shortly after the house was finished, but his gravesite has never been found.  Other owners include Gregory Gregory’s family members, a philanthropist, and Jesuits.  Additionally, the house and the land have been used as a machine gun training center and an airfield base during the World Wars. If you’re into this kinda stuff, for a much more professional and detailed history, click here http://www2.harlaxton.ac.uk/harlaxton/briefj.htm.

I’m not super artsy, nor do I really care about architecture whatsoever, but I have to admit that this castle is truly incredible and I can’t begin to appreciate the impressiveness of it. There are tons of cool lions, gargoyles, statues of super old people, shields, chandeliers, and anything else you could ever imagine being at Hogwarts. Walking through the building is overwhelming and I’ve gotten lost dozens of times due to its intricate design and enormity. Don’t trust me? Google “Harlaxton manor” and watch your jaw drop.

Next, the food. I’ve eaten pretty well so far, with the only thing out of the ordinary being a meat-like substance they loosely called “prime rib” that tasted scarily identical to a slim jim.

Enough of that, though. I’ve enjoyed frolicking around this place for a couple days now. The staff here is incredibly personal and down to earth. If you ask them a question, they will walk with you wherever you need to go and help you find the answer. It’s an environment I’ve never been exposed to and never will get the chance again. I’m living in the same building as some of my closest friends, all of my professors and their kids, and the principal of the college. I eat with them, drink with them, and definitely get to be merry with all of them.

I realize this is long, but it’s tough to explain this stuff in a few words. I’ll close by saying this: I ask that you continue to pray for me and anyone else here that you know. It’s an exciting time for growth but it will only be healthy if Christ is in the center of it.

Until next time where I’ll have more information on classes, other bad food that is supposed to be good but tastes like crappy American beef jerky, and much much more!

Kyle