so....

Well, I have finally returned Stateside from my journeys on the other side of the atlantic. It feels good to be home.

I am currently somewhere in Montana nearing the 3/4ths mark of the 26 hour drive from Columbus to Edmonton, Alberta. When I get settled in Canada I will spend some time to update you on the highlights (academic and extra-curricular) of my stay in England. But for now I have a date scheduled to stare intensely at the back of my eye-lids that I do not want to miss.

See you all later...

Germany and Turkey (oh and packing...)

Well I returned to Colchester on Saturday evening and have just been too lazy to update you all on my trip to Germany and Turkey. But here we are and I figured that I should probably do it since I have nothing else to do!

Well I flew out of London-Stansted airport on June 8th and flew to Frankfurt-Hann airport. From there I took a bus to Ludwigshafen, and from there I took the train to Speyer to visit Onkel Hans. Onkel Hans is Opa Hattenhauer's brother and I have met him once before in the states, and he wanted me to come and visit him and I am so glad that I did. We traveled around the southern Rhein valley and took in the sights and sounds so to speak. We visited Heidelberg, Strassburg, Speyer, and a few other places during my stay. In Heidelberg I met Onkel Hans's son Christopher who is a law professor at the Heidelberg Institute just as Onkel Hans was before he retired. It was a great day, Heidelberg is a truly beautiful city. While talking with the Hattenhauer duo I encouraged (without much hesitation) to look into doing my masters in Germany, an option I am seriously considering.

The next big trip we took was to Strassburg in the Alsace region of France, and is home to one of the most beautiful Mediaeval Cathedrals in all of Europe. We spent a great deal of time wandering around and in the Cathedral while Onkel Hans gave me a wonderfully detailed history of the area and of the Cathedral's history (mainly in German and I caught almost all of it!).

Once my stay with Onkel Hans drew to a close I took the train north and visited my close friend Viktor Penner in Wipperfurth. I only had one full day with him but it was a wonderful stay none-the-less. On Monday the 14th we spent the day in Cologne wandering around the city and also spending a fair amount of time in the beautiful Cathedral that is located there as well. It was wonderful catching up with a good friend that I hadn't seen in a while, and the time spent with him flew by far to quickly.

On Tuesday I then flew from Dusseldorf to Antalya, Turkey where I spent 11 days with a bunch of friends from England, climbing, relaxing, sun-bathing, swimming in the Mediterranean Sea, and playing a great deal of Backgammon. Turkey truly is a beautiful country with much to see and do, but I spent most of my time hanging off the sides of mountains 20-40 metres up in the air. It was some amazing rock to climb, lots of slabs, finger pockets, overhangs, etc...to push and challenge me and my climbing abilities.

It was an experience that is hard to put into words, so I am not going to waste your time in attempting to do so. So take a look at my pictures on my Facebook and you will get a better feel for what I mean.

I just finished packing the majority of my things, and now all that is left is to catch the train to London on Saturday morning and then I will be on my way home!

I will be flying back into Omaha at around 8:30 pm on Saturday. Sooo....if you are free and wish to meet me at the airport to say hi before I head off to Canada on Sunday morning then you know when!

Well I'm Done

I finished my last exam just a little over an hour ago, so now that I am free from the responsibilities of school I thought I would give you guys an update.

The term is officially done now and all that is left before I return home is a trip to Germany and then to Turkey before I return to England for a week of relaxation before heading home.

Well I promised at the beginning of the term that I would hold off making any sort of judgment between the two systems of education that I have been exposed to now. However, the term is now done and I feel that I can make a judgment in good conscience.

Personally I enjoy the independence offered students in the British system. For each week of class we were given an extensive reading from which to choose what we wanted to read. There were some texts that were highly recommended, but as far as responses and critiques of major philosophical themes were concerned we could choose where we wanted to turn for arguments. In that respect I gained the ability to read texts and quickly pick up on major themes and arguments that would not be brought up in class.

To a certain extent the system back home is nice as well, because you really get to know what precisely is important to the direction of the course and, more importantly, what will be on the final exams.

But the independence offered students here to pursue avenues of thought and argumentation that they might find interesting and fruitful is very nice.

On the flip-side, however, the exam set up here is brutal in an entirely different sense than back home. Here exams are stretched out across a five week long time frame, coming after a month long vacation. While this provides for more time to revise (study) for exams, it is hard to maintain enthusiasm for revising for such a long period of time. By the end of week two I had already developed a mild case of senioritis and really couldn't be bothered to study anymore. But I pushed through it and finished strong. Personally I much rather have the stress filled week of exams that I have back at Creighton than the month of dullness that I experienced over here.

But that's enough for now... the weather is nice so its off to the lake on campus to sit, relax, and enjoy time with friends.

The end is near...

Well exams finally begin this week. My first exam in on Thursday the 20th for my Joint Seminar in Philosophy and Law. The exam shouldn't be too hard considering it has been one of my favourite courses this term. My next exam is for Ethics on the 24th which also should be a pretty good exam. After that I have a break until the 4th of June when I have my Philosophy of Mind exam which will be my hardest exam by far. Regardless it has been a very good course and I have learnt a great deal no matter the outcome of the exam. Then my final exam is on Saturday the 5th of June. It is my exam for my Contemporary Political Philosophy course which will be a little tricky, but nothing I can't handle.

Just a word to the wise (or not so wise, considering what I am about to tell you), when you have deadlines upcoming, such as exams, don't go and buy a bunch of books that you really want to read. You will find yourself torn between actually doing work, and reading what you want to read.

I managed to make this mistake this last week when I bought 5 new books from Amazon. I got Simply Christian, Surprised by Hope, Virtue Reborn and After You Believe by NT Wright, and The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical by Shane Claiborne. I have already finished Shane's book, and am almost done with Simply Christian AND I have been studying for my exams. But....I do want to spend more time reading my books...oh well school will just have to finish quickly.

Earlier this week I booked a ticket to fly to Germany in June (the 8th). I will be flying to Frankfurt and will spend about a week with my grandfathers brother Dr. Hans Hattenhauer in Speyer. I am really looking forward to reconnecting with my families heritage and relatives I haven't seen in a long time. I might also be slipping out to visit another relative (Onkel Manfred) in Treysa. But the plans aren't laid in stone yet. I do know that I will head up toward Dusseldorf to visit Viktor Penner in Wipperfurth before I fly out of Dusseldorf for Turkey on the 15th.

Then its off to Turkey with a bunch of friends to spend two weeks climbing on the Mediterranean coast. I am really looking forward to the trip.

Then its back to England for a week before flying back home! Only 47 more days left in Europe, and considering the length of my stay totaled nearly 180 days, its amazing to think of how fast the time has flown.

To all of you that graduated this past weekend (both my high school and college friends) congratulations! I am sorry I missed it, but hopefully I will see you soon and be able to congratulate you personally.

Swanage

This last weekend I went down south to the southern coast of England to the limestone quarries on the coast near Swanage. I went down with 8 other mates from the climbing club for some pre-Turkey outdoor work. Climbing indoors compared to climbing outdoors is as different as night and day. They both require different approaches in both the mental and physical aspects of climbing. So we went down there to practice some outdoor sport climbing while getting into the mindset of outdoor leading and top-roping. We went down Friday night and climbed all day Saturday. We meant to stay until Monday but the weather took a turn for the worse so we bailed out of there Sunday afternoon, but at least we got a little outdoor work under our belt before heading down to Turkey in June. The scenery along the coastline was amazing and provided a great backdrop for the climbing we were doing.

Classes start up again this week in preparation for exams, so after a month off its back to the grind. But only one more month of school and then another month of traveling and then its back to the States!

Its amazing to think of how the time has flown over here. I really have done and experienced a lot during my four months here so far.

I hope all is well with you guys back home and I look forward to seeing you guys when I get back.

Well I'm back...

I got back last night to Colchester at 10:30 ending a 17 day trip through Europe that saw me visit Bordeaux, Oporto, Madrid, and Rome (with some other minor stops). It was a wonderful trip that is hard to explain in words, but I will try anyways. Just for you! Don't you feel lucky!

I started off in Bordeaux, France with a few friends of mine from Essex. We stayed at the home of a friend of mine that was just outside of Bordeaux itself. On Sunday we went to the French coast and spent a day taking the sights and sounds. First we went to a little bay that is know for its oysters (unfortunately I didn't try any there) and spent a while waking the beach as the tide was coming in. We then drove a little to the actual coast line. It was a beautiful day to lay out on the sand. We didn't go in the water because it was freezing (it felt as if it had just melted off an iceberg). What was extremely interesting was that scattered across this beach for several miles were the remains of German outposts and pillboxes left there since the conclusion of the war. While they were blown full of sand rendering it impossible to get inside them, we could climb on top of them, which we did, giving us a great view of the coast line.

On Monday and Tuesday we went into Bordeaux and spent the days walking through the city taking in the culture and atmosphere. Bordeaux is a beautiful city. It's clean, friendly, the architecture is amazing, and the food is superb (creme brulee is 100x better in France, just an FYI). The remaining days I spent at my friends home reading some books that I had purchased at a secondhand bookshop in the city.

Next I moved on to Oporto (or Porto in English), Portugal the home of Port wine and a unique culture. I wandered the city during my stay there and tasted the local food and wine at my leisure. While the city is not 'beautiful', it possesses a life of its own that is truly something to behold. Street markets fill the squares, extremely ornate Catholic Churches can be found on nearly every street corner, wine cellars line the river for easy export, and so much more. It was a very unique place.

Next stop was Madrid, Spain, and was my favourite city of the ones I visited. The culture is extremely laid back and relaxed. While it is a big city, for the most part people aren't in any hurry to get anywhere. Pedestrians fill the streets at all hours of the day being entertained by street performers, some good and some not so good. I went to mass on Sunday at a Catholic Church not too far from my hostel. The church was beautiful, but was no where near as ornate as the parishes in Oporto. When the service concluded I went and wandered around some local Sunday markets, consisting mainly of collector coin and stamp merchants. The atmosphere was festive and relaxed. I spent the rest of my days wandering the streets trying the local Tapas and Sangria and poking around in random shops. On Wednesday I met up with Wil Flanigan (a friend from Creighton who is studying in Madrid) during the day for drinks and then met up with him later again that night to go to a local bar that a friend of his recommended. The bar, 'La Lobo del Boca', was this small little joint tucked away in a side street that hosted an open jam session every Wednesday. So we went and met up with Wil's friend and enjoyed a few beers while listening to some amazing live music. The music was a blend of Latin, Funk, and Jazz that had me hooked from the start. The musicians were outstanding and were having a lot of fun on the tiny stage.

On Thursday I flew to Rome, Italy were I finished off my trip. On Friday I went to all the major tourist spots with a few friends that I met up with in Rome. The Colosseum, the Trevi Fountian, the Spanish Steps, etc... basically anything highlighted on any tourist map was visited. The Colosseum was spectacular. The sheer size of the architecture was humbling. As we walked from sight to sight, we were constantly running past ancient ruins of Rome past. It was humbling to think of just how old this city was. On Saturday I just wandered some more side streets, and Sunday was more of the same. On Monday I spent the whole day at Saint Peter's Basilica taking in the history of the church. I walked to the top of the culpa which provided an outstanding view of Rome and Saint Peter's Square below. I spent the afternoon walking through the basilica and reflecting on the church. I ended the day by attending mass in St. Peter's Chapel which was an extremely spiritual experience. I haven't felt as close to God in a long time as I did spending the day at Saint Peter's. It was an amazing experience.

That is an large overview of my trip. Much of it is really hard to explain and will thus remain personal, but the pictures I took give a little more of a glimpse into what it was like. I have uploaded all the pictures onto facebook (all 550+ of them) and you can go and take a look at them there.

Here's a quick link http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=505139397&ref=profile

Leaving...

Well I'm off to France in about ten minutes so this will be my last post for a while. If I get the chance to update you on my travels, via internet cafe or something, I will, but otherwise look forward to a nice and long post when I get back!