dani in england!

hello again. hope all is well back home because things here are certainly going well. dani was here for the past week we had a blast, going to london, seeing the oxford sights, going to pubs, having tea- pretty much living the high life, english style... last friday we went to harry potter, followed by a classical concert featuring beethoven's "symphony no. 5" (at the sheldonian, which is an awesome, old theatre in oxford), and then champagne and chocolates at college! it was an awesome night, packed with tons of fun... last weekend we visited salter in london and got to do some great touring around, including westminster abbey, parliament, big ben, st. pauls, st. jame's park, buckingham palace, picadilly circus, oxford circus. my personal favorite was when we got to go to church at westminster abbey on sunday morning, and sit next to the choir- definetely a rocking expereince! this past week we have had a great time in oxford, enjoying visits by salter and ana barton (for those of you with impecable memories, she is the lovely lady i visited in madrid/ dani's best friend from high school)...on a most exciting note, i finished my tutorials on tuesday and thus have no more academic responsibilities until january 15! however, that doesn't mean that my life was free of stress after tuesday; it just means that the stress became about something else- rowing...in conjunction with both thanksgiving and dani's visit, our race for rowing (the Christ Church Regatta) happened to be this week- wed.-sat. before i tell you about the regatta- what happened, how we did, and such- i'll give you all a little background/ introduction to regattas. some regattas in rowing are "head races," which means that multiple boats are racing at one time and the distance is a little bit longer, but due to the nature of this race is was all racing in pairs. there were over 120 boats entered in the race, and each was paired up, making head to head races. this means two things- tons of excitement and tons of pressure! our first race wasn't until thursday, and needless to say, we were considered the underdog. however, we managed to pull some strength together, get a great start and win our first ever rowing race! so much adrenaline, and so much fun! it was really a great experience and even though i was so hesitant about it all summer, i am thankful to neil for making me do it and would definetely recommend it to anyone else coming here in the future...after winning our first race, all the races on friday were cancelled due to bad weather conditions and crashes the day before (because the regatta is all novices, there are sometimes crashes and accidents). yesterday, we raced in the morning and somehow managed to pull of another win, and then had to race again an hour later. unfortunately we lost that race, meaning we were knocked out of the regatta. however, we were always considered the great underdog, so winning two races was in itself quite a feat- we finished in the top 25% of all the novice crews in oxford. after the regatta, dani and i went to tea at the grand cafe on high street (the location of the first ever coffee house in england), which was quite an aristocratic experience. then last night was quite a highlight. our college hosted a black-tie, cocktail formal party in honor of the christ church regatta that had been happening all week. it was a lot of fun, getting dressed up all fancy and busting some dance moves in the college chapel (i know it seems rediculous that a party would be in our chapel and i agree completely, but for some reason all of our college sponsored parties seem to be held there, which is not the best reflection on our generation)....sadly, dani left this morning, but i did have a fairly exciting afternoon participating in a "turkey bowl," meaning a game of american football using a turkey instead of a football. now i am just trying to get caught up on emails and tomorrow i think i will start reading for pleasure, seeing as i have two free days without tutorials. tuesday night is formal christmas dinner at college and then wednesday mornings, jeff, justin, and i leave for switzerland! so overall, things here are going well and i am having a great experience, althought i am missing you all and wishing you were here with me. love you and hope to hear from you soon (i.e. feel free, as always, to leave some love in the form of sweet comments).
with hope- jay.

p.s. here are a few more sweet pics (from the top of the church):

a spanish vacation

spain was awesome! there's pretty much no two ways about it. spain just rocks. there's cool sites to see, nice people (even though they are freaking lazy), delicious food, and all around good times... i left last wednesday night at about 2am from oxford because the bus to the airport is 2 hours and my flight was early in the morning- i had to check in at 5:30am. needless to say, i didn't go to sleep, waited in the airport for 3.5 hours and then left at 7:30. i flew easy jet from london to madrid and it was pretty sweet. it's one of the cheap airlines here, and in my opinion definetely the coolest. everything is orange! the inside and outside of the planes, their uniforms, everything.

plus it's their 10 year anniversary right now, so they give you a chocolate bar when you check in! anyways, i love easy jet. the flight was pretty straitforward (except there was an hour delay, but i didn't care because their orangness made up for it) and i got into madrid at about noon on thursday. then i took the super easy to use metro into the city and met ana barton. for those of you who know her, we had a great time and she says hey (especially to dani, who she misses a lot). for those of you who don't know her, she is cool and fun and would probably say hey if she knew you. anyways, we spent the whole day touring- she showed me all the major areas in madrid- all the big buildings, the major plazas, and popular hangouts. we also went to the prado museum- madrid's huge art museum and one of the biggest art collections in europe. after the prado, we went to Retiro Park, which is one of the coolest and probably the biggest park i have every seen. it was gorgeous (especially since all the leaves on the trees are changing)- there are awesome gardens and a sweet lake in the middle. we walked all around the park, saw a palace that's in there and had hot chocolate (which the spanish know how to make really well!) at one of the cafes in the park. then, we stopped by ana's apartment (she is doing a homestay and living with a senora), and then went to tapas and sangria for dinner. tapas basically means finger food, and it is traditional spanish food- quite delicious! after dinner we walked around the big night spots, saw a mediocre movie and called it an early night around 1am (fairly late by oxford standards, but extremely early by spain's). also, i had to stay in a hostel, because i couldn't stay with ana since she is doing a homestay. however, i talked her into staying with me at the hostel and the hostel ended up being amazing! i don't have much to compare it to because i have never really stayed in a hostel before, but this one has been ranked number 1 in the world the last two years on hostelword.com! it was really cool, clean, fun, and the staff was really nice! they have their own bar, free internet, and give you breakfast in the morning, all for a sweet price of 17 euros. i know, i sound like a salesman, but if you are ever going to madrid, i really do recommend that one, you fly easy jet and two, you stay at Cat's hostel....friday morning ana had to leave early for a trip with her study abroad program, and i left for the airport at 9....my flight to barcelona (where i was meeting nick salter and we were visiting carly syke) went well and i got in at about 3 friday afternoon. after meeting up with carly (who i also couldn't stay with because she is doing a homestay), we went to the hostel, only to find that they were flooded from the spainish rains over the past week and had relocated us. this was slightly irritating but what was worse is that they relocated us to the shadiest area in all of barcelona. carly wouldn't let me and nick stay there because it is so shady that her program told them to never go to this area after 10 at night. needless to say, it was late afternoon and nick and i no longer had a place to stay for friday and saturday night. carly and i called and visited about 10 different hostels, all of which were completely booked for the weekend, before finally finding something. the place was called Hostel Castella, and ended up working out great. so, like dani always says, everything always works out in the end. however, you all know that doesn't keep me from stressing about it in the meantime...anyways, after checking into our room, carly went home to get ready for the night and i had a few hours to myself, so i decided to go check out the barcelona cathedral. it ended up being gorgeous and huge and really, really awesome, even though it was super catholic...

carly and i went out to dinner with some of her friends from her program and again had tapas and sangria, and again, of course it was delicious. salter got in around 11, dropped his stuff off at our place, and then we went out to port olimpico, down on the water (this is the hotspot for nightlife in barcelona, with tons of cool places on the beach!). salter and i called it an early night at 3:30, while everyone else stayed out to their usual time- 6am. crazy, just crazy. actually, this is my theory about the spanish people- they party like crazy and stay out all night; then, they have to sleep all morning and don't start their day until about 12; they work about an hour or two and then get tired again so they have to take a siesta, which lasts for no less than 3.5 hours; then they bring themselves to work for another two hours, before calling it a day; they relax until about 9:30 when they decide it's dinner time and then they go out to bars and clubs around 1am, starting the cycle all over again. they are pretty much lazy people, who like to eat, sleep, and have a good time with doing as little work as possible (mom and dad, i might decide to move there at some point)...on saturday, despite the late night, salter and i woke up early and hit the tourist trail. we went to "la sagrada familia" (the temple of the sacred family) and "park guelle" in the morning. la sagrada is the most famous building in barcelona; it is absolutely massive, totally ornate, and crazy looking. it is an unfinished church that was designed in the early part of the twentieth century by the architect Gaudi (it is the crazy looking building with all the tall skiny towers). part of the design included twelve giant towers, one for each of the twelve apostles. however, only two of the towers were completed at the time Gaudi died. the contruction continues today (8 towers completed), but there is no idea when it may be finished- some people say it could take as long as 2080. anyways, it was pretty cool to see it all and tour around it (there are a few pictures, from the outside and then the construction zone that exists inside). after la sagrada, we went to park guelle, which was also designed by Gaudi. it is this awesome park that overlooks the entire city of barcelona and part of it was originally designed as a playground and a place for kids. there is an area with tons of murals and two colorful crazy houses that gaudi designed. guidebooks describe it as a park that "dr. suess would feel comfortable in." however, the project failed and was never totally completed, or at least not to the extent that gaudi envisioned. although it is still really cool. so, basically gaudi is a really big deal, who designed some impressive things, that never got finished....after a sweet morning, salter and i met carly for lunch and we went to this cool, little spanish place called ra, but not until we first walked around La Boqueria- a famous and classic spanish market. there are a million stands of fresh fruits and vegetables, meat markets, and rediculously wierd spanish food like pig ears and rabbits that still have their fur. quite a cultural experience. disturbing, but cultural. then salter and i decided to head down to the water (barcelona is on the mediterran sea, which is pretty awesome). we walked all along the port and down the beach, seeing their impressive marina and the architectural sights down there. again, tons of fun and we got to see tons of sights. that night we had a low key dinner with carly at an italian place and went to this pretty local hangout- oveja before heading back to the hostel at 12:30. after five short hours of sleep i had the privlege of getting on the metro at 6am, taking a bus for an hour to girona, then a two hour flight to london stansted (airport in the middle of nowhere), and then a three hour bus to oxford, getting back to my room at 3pm. crazy long travel days, but it was most definetely worth it for the tapas. although i was only gone from thursday to sunday, i felt like i really got to see madrid and barcelona and i don't feel like there was anything major that i wanted to see and didn't get to. it was a sweet, sweet trip and if any of you are ever in the area, i highly recommend both places...
now its back to reality. i had a tutorial with judith today that went decent and my tutorials with andrwe are done. so, while i only started 6 weeks ago, i onl have two weeks left...rowing has officially become harcore. we have our regatta next week (wed-sat, and our first race in on thursday afternoon), and much luck and much faith will most definetely be needed. either way, it should be a good time. however, practice this week, not so much. we had practice yesterday morning, we have it tomorrow morning, friday morning, saturday morning, and next monday morning. and on top of having to wake up at six, it is now really cold in the mornings, and i am officially sick. i have a really bad cold that i picked up somehwere in spain, and unfortunately i don't think the whole rowing thing is exactly helping it. oh well, i got some medicine and i'm drinking a ton of water....nothing much else is new, except one minor thing- DANI COMES ON FRIDAY, and harry potter comes out that day as well!!! i am super excited to see her and the movie, as i'm sure you all know...well, if you made it this far, i applaud you. feel free to leave some sweet comments. hope all is well. can't wait to see you all soon. peace, love, and hapiness- jay.

went to henley, getting better at rowing, done with andrew, and now i'm off to spain...

well first i must apologize because it's been practically forever since i last posted a blog. nonetheless, i can assure you that i have been saving up tons of important, exciting things to tell you all. because there is so much to say, i figured i would give you an easy to read bullet format:

1. last friday night of course, i went to formal. jeff, hilel, justin, were all in attendance, as well as jeff's girlfriend and justin's friend mary. it was good food, good fun, and good times.

2. on saturday, i met my cousins (basically aunt and uncle)- neil and louise. (they came to oxford for the weekend to collect their degrees from when they went here a long time ago). then i went back with them to henley and stayed with them at louise's parents' house in the country until sunday night. it was really fun and great to see them. i played some tennis with neil, some pool with neil and bryan (louise's dad), watched some rugbyhad some incredibly delicious home-cooked meals, and relaxed a lot. not to mention, we went to an awesome fireworks show on saturday night because it is a crazy national holiday on nov. 5 where they light tons of fireworks every year.
3. i am continuing to have tons of rowing practices and our boat is showing sweet improvement. hopefully we will be able to hold our own at the race in two weeks- the Christ Church Regatta!
4. my tutorials are continuing to go awesome. i have tons of work, but am managing to get it all done and smooze my tutors in the process. judith and i are thoroughly enjoying ourselves, and we have three weeks left. also, i am going to go to the countryside with her to see c.s. lewis' house...things with andrew have been going awesome, we just finished our last tutorial today! he said that i was a great student and enjoyable to work with. he gave me really high marks and said that i should seriously consider pursuing theology in grad school.
5. i have been in discussions with several professors at b.c. and they have all been really helpful in sorting out a senior thesis for me to work on next year at b.c. also, a couple of them have agreed to work with me. so, if there are any b.c. theology students reading this: i am going to do a thesis in the area of christian nonviolence/ peace and war ethics. i am trying to decide between: lisa cahill, steve pope, and ken himes. if any of you have strong opinions either way, please let me know. i welcome any and all suggestions.


6. i am leaving for spain in three hours!!! i am going to madrid for a night and then barcelona for two nights (salter is going to barcelona but not madrid). it should be pretty awesome, assuming all goes smoothly with flights and hostels and such.

*alright, i think that's it. oh, also, i miss you and love you all. a lot. seriously...i hope everything is well and i can't wait to hear from some of you hopefully soon and see others pretty soon as well. i know it's been forever since i've posted a blog, but it's also been forever since any of you have posted a comment...alright, talk to you soon. peace homies.
-j

p.s. stay tuned for pictures from spain next week.