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!

Travel Plans

Well as I promised in my last blog I am going to give you guys the details of the next few weeks of traveling in this post.

This Friday, as I have mentioned before, I am going to London to attend a Good Friday performance of Handel's Messiah at Royal Albert Hall in London's West End. I am really, really looking forward to attending the concert. I have attended performances of the Messiah before (even a sing along version in Edmonton) but I have never seen it on any holy day and I think that seeing it on Good Friday is going to lend it that something special, that is going to make it a once in a lifetime experience.

Then next week (the 5-9th of April) I am planning to fly up to Dublin for a few days to see the sights. But the continental portion of my travels begin on Saturday the 10th.

On the 10th I fly out of Stansted airport and fly to Bordeaux, France where I will spend 5 days with some friends who are from that city. It will be nice. We will travel around Bordeaux, and the surrounding countryside, and spend some time soaking the French culture (which I have been told can boil down to three things; good cheese, good bread, and excellent red wine....hopefully we'll see and experience more!).

From there I move on to Porto, Portugal on the 15th and I will spend just three days there. I have a hostel booked for the 'downtown' of Porto which is supposed to be amazing.

After that I fly to Madrid, Spain on the 17th of April. Here I will meet up with Wil Flanigan a friend from back at Creighton. I am staying at a hostel is a pretty trendy and popular part of Madrid that promises lots to do and see.

From Madrid I fly to Rome on the 22nd. I will spend 5 days in Rome taking in the history. I will probably do a day trip or two to a few cities in the surrounding areas, but none of that is planned yet and will probably be one of those last minute things.

Thats the overview of the travel plans for the last three weeks of April. I am not sure what my accessibility to the internet will be, so updates and pictures of my travels will be sporadic if existent. Chances are this will be my last update for the month of April. However, if that's the case the posts when I return will be substantial enough to compensate for the lack of immediacy!

Wish me luck.

Half-way Done

Well, to begin I should apologize for not having posted anything in the last two weeks but after I discuss it you'll understand.

Well I guess that I'll back up to where I left you guys last. After the weekend in London and Dover I had to hit the books hard. I had my first paper of the term due on the Monday following that trip, and of course I hadn't begun writing it yet when I got back to Colchester Saturday night! So Saturday night and all of Sunday was devoted to getting that paper done. It was for my class in Philosophy and Mind and I had to write on the following; "Explain and assess Daniel Dennett's account of intentionality. [In addressing this question, pay careful attention to Dennett's conception of a designed system.]" It was a fun paper to write, other than the fact I wasn't really asked to argue anything. Of course that didn't stop me from making a few arguments in favour of Dennett's account of intentionality!

So I finished that paper and then had to move straight on to another one that was due for the following Thrusday (the 18th) for my Contemporary Political Philosophy course. This paper was a great deal more enjoyable to write because I actually got to argue a point. The question asked that I chose to respond to was whether we "should aim for equality of welfare or equality of resources" in political theory. I argued that we should aim for equality of welfare because it gets closer to the heart of what we are aiming to do when we strive for equality in society.

So I handed that paper in on Thursday and probably should have begun working on my other two papers but I chose to take the day off. Well the day turned into two, and then three, and all of a sudden it was Monday and nothing had been done yet, oops. But I buckled down, headed to the library early in the morning and began researching for my next paper for my Joint Seminar in Philosophy and Law.

This paper was by far my favourite to write because I was actually able to incorporate some Kantian ethics, that I had studied last term back at Creighton, into the paper. The question for the paper was "Does the idea of role morality make sense?" I argued that it did, based on a Korsgaardian theory of practical identity. It was a blast to write, and I think probably my best paper of the four I wrote.

Well I began researching and finished writing that paper on Monday and was too burned out to begin on my final paper so I put that off until Tuesday. Tuesday came and after class I turned to work on my paper for my Ethics class, but I just didn't seem to be making any process in my reading and researching and thereby couldn't formulate any arguments for my paper, the topic of which was "Can we derive and justify specific duties by using the Categorical Imperative?"

So I benched it and chose to come back to it on Wednesday, in the hopes that my thinking would be clearer. It was, which was nice, and I was able to reread the material and write the whole of the paper in one day so that it would be ready to hand in on Thursday as well. So I handed in my last two papers on Thursday and was done for the term other than a presentation I had to give in my Contemporary Political Philosophy course on Friday.

The presentation was on Thomas Nagel's essay on positive discrimination (what is called affirmative action back in the States). It was a relatively short essay so the prep time was minimal and I think the presentation went well.

But back to last weekend. When I mentioned that one day turning into two and then three when I was putting of the paper, it wasn't just because I chose to fiddle with my thumbs over essay writing. I actually took a trip to Canterbury. Many of you might have heard of this city, it is a relatively small town in the southeast of England, but it holds enormous theological influence and has for centuries. It is the the home of the beautiful Canterbury Cathedral, St. Augustine's Abbey, and Saint Martin's Church, as well as being the home for the Archbishop of Canterbury (duh...) a position that a great deal of highly influential theologians and thinkers have wither held or been in direct correlation to over the past several hundred years. Thinkers such as Saint Augustine and Anselm of Canterbury have been it's Archbishop, and the history is hard to ignore when you walk the grounds of the Cathedral.

As you can now see, its been a crazy two weeks. But that's enough for now.

My next post will detail my travel plans for the break.

I hope all is well with all of you!

Another week gone...

Well It was another good week over here in the UK. The week itself was relatively uneventful except for the excitement of Derby Day on Wednesday. I spent the majority of the week working on preparing for papers and starting to write them. But you don't want to read about me writing papers so I'll move onto something a bit more interesting.

Derby Day was this past Wednesday, and was easily the highlight of the last few weeks. Now there is nothing similar enough to Derby (pronounced DAR-be) Day in the States for me to relate it to anything you might be familiar with so I will just explain it all out in detail.

I will start by saying that Essex University has a bitter cross county rival, the University of East Anglia. And when I say bitter I mean bitter, picture Nebraska v. Colorado but in closer physical relation. We have been bitter rivals for ages and complete in everything for bragging rights and Uni pride.

So Derby Day. It is a day in which Essex and UEA get together at one of the two universities (alternating every other year as to which university hosts the day) to compete in all sports. On this one day, in the matter of just a few hours, every single one of the two universities sports teams competes against the other universities team. The lacrosse teams compete, the futball (soccer) teams compete, the American football teams compete, rugby, climbing, boxing, cricket, fencing, dance, archery, badminton, and the list goes on...

Imagine CU and Nebraska completing in all university sports in one day...ya thats the environment, its nuts.

UEA brought their teams and a bunch of supporters but weren't enough and were easily handled by Essex as we beat them 30-15 with the largest winning margin in the history of the rivalry.

The American Football team played its part in adding to the score in favour of Essex. In the game UEA scored first in the first quarter, on a decent drive and a lucky run play. We responded on the following drive to level the score at 7 all. The rest of the half went without seeing another scoring drive although we controlled the game in nearly all facets but were unable to cross the goal line. We entered the second half feeling good about our opportunities and played well for a while. Then on a brilliant play UEA scored to go up 14-7 near the end of the third quarter. This put the pressure on us. We played hard for the next 15 minutes but were unable to cross the goal line. We got the ball back on our 10 with about 3 minutes left in the game. We drove it down the field well and then got stuck on their 10. It was 4th and 5 with 1:20 left to play, we ran a brilliantly executed 'B cross' pass play to score on what would have otherwise been the last play of the game, making it 13-14 still in favour of UEA. Now we were left with a choice, kick the extra point and go to over time or go for two and win it outright. We choose to go for two and went with an 'A Jet crack' where the Fullback (me) lead blocks for the A back who goes into motion swings behind the line to pick up the pitch and then run for the corner of the end zone. It was going as planned until a MLB blitzed and tackled the A back behind the line leaving the 2-point attempt no good. However, UEA's celebration was short-lived as there was a flag on the play against UEA giving us a second chance. So we lined up again, and went for it again, and this time converted the 2-point extra play to take the lead 15-14 with just a little over a minute left.

Our defense then went onto the field playing like men on fire, recording two tackles-for-losses and one sack ending any hope of a miracle play for UEA.

It was a great ending to a great game. We then went out, after showers that is, and supported our fellow students in other sports and had an all around great day.

On Friday, I went to London again to meet up with Wil Flanigan a classmate from back at Creighton who is studying in Milan this term. He, his girlfriend, and another friend of theirs from back home were in London for the weekend so I went down to spend the day with them. We bummed around London for the day and crashed at a hostel near St. Paul's Cathedral near the East End. In the morning I woke early and went to Saint Paul's for morning prayer, which was amazing to do in this beautiful cathedral.

I then hopped on the tube and met up with other students from IFSA Bulter for a group trip to Dover and Faversham. We stopped in Faversham first to visit and take a tour of Shepherd Neame the oldest Brewer in Britain. It was established in 1669 and has remained in the same spot ever since. We got a tour of the Brewer and were walked through all the different stages that go into making good ale. At the end of the tour we had a guided taste testing session in which we were taught how to properly taste test lagers and ales of different kinds. It was a great tour and the highlight of my day.

We then got in the bus and headed to Dover to see the Dover Castle and the famous White Cliffs of Dover. The castle is beautiful and rich in history which was great to experience, but not much can really be said about it since you kind of have to experience it for yourself to understand.

Its now Sunday evening and I am working on papers, and probably should return to doing so. I hope all is well back wherever you are.

The pictures are from Derby day (the football one), two from the brewer, and one of Dover Castle.

Hi

Well the last week and a half has flown by at an unprecedented speed. Last week (Feb. 22-28th) was the philosophy departments scheduled reading week which meant that I had no class all week long. Having no class was great and it gave me a chance to a) catch up on reading, b) sleep in, and c) begin to prep for term papers. I have papers due on March 15th, 18th, and 25th and once they are completed I will have concluded my first term over here and get to go on vacation for a month (be jealous it's ok, I will still love you even if you hate me).

So I will be spending the remainder of the week prepping for papers and beginning to write them. I guess I have an exciting weekend planned.

The American Football team travelled to South Hampton over the weekend to play a game there. The weather was much better than in preceding weeks which was really nice. I played fullback for the entire game and made several good plays, one good catch for a decent gain, and got lit up a few times. I did unfortunately re-injure my left knee (injured it swimming in High School) which took me out of the game near the end of the fourth quarter. I don't know what my final stats were, but I should have those soon, and when I get them I will post them as a comment to this post.

Climbing is going well. I'm getting stronger and smarter in my climbs. The club is planning a trip to Olympos, Turkey in June to spend 11 days off the Mediterranean Sea climbing, sunbathing, boating, deep water snorkeling, green turtle spotting, and all around having a good time. I am really looking forward to the trip.

I spent yesterday in London, bumming around the South Banks, Parliament Square, and other such places. I then went to the Egypt v. England at Wembley Stadium. Pictures are up on my facebook so feel free to check them out.

I would love to hear from you guys to see how you are doing, so leave me a comment, drop me a message on fb, or shoot me an email at 'nathanmueller@creighton.edu'

The pictures in this blog are me in front of Westminster Abbey, Parliament, and me climbing.

Ya...

I don't have much to say this week so I thought I'd just post some of my favorite pics from the past few weeks. You might wonder why on earth I have a picture of a small tree included in this post. Well it is actually a tree in a square of Kings College Cambridge and is a direct descendent of the tree under which Newton sat when an apple fell on his head. He posited his theory of gravity which studying at Cambridge, but the tree was actually at his families estate. The reason he was at home when this eternally famous apple fell, was that Cambridge had closed do to an outbreak of the plague in Cambridge. But to keep the heritage of the tree alive Cambridge they have brought a seedling of that tree to the school.

Well its been a while...

I apologize for not having updated you sooner. Its amazing how fast the days all fly by over here, there is so much to do and be involved in.

Well I guess I will take you through the last two weeks.

I have joined a few sports clubs over here so I guess I should inform you as to what I am doing in that regard. I have joined the University of Essex Mountaineering Club and have been climbing three times a week with them. The Uni. has a really good climbing facility in their rec centre and the Club has access to it for roughly 14 hrs each week. There are some really good climbs and bouldering problems for me to tackle. Each week I find myself pushing myself harder and harder to try new and increasingly difficult problems. Climbing is very much like playing a gigantic game of chess but with your body. You have to study the routes, plan your ascent, think through the moves in advance and where each one will put you 2-3 moves up the route. It is a great deal of fun and of course it's physically challenging at the same time, what could beat that?

The club is heading up to Kent this weekend to do some outdoor climbing. I won't be able to make this trip but I will be able to make some of the future trips.

I have also joined the Uni.'s American Football team and played with them this past weekend. Some of the Americans studying over here and I have walked on to the team and will play with them through the end of the season. We played well this past weekend and won our game handily. Its been fun to suit up in pads and get to hit some people. I played on special teams and the Offensive line as the right guard this past weekend and made some good plays. This next week I will be doing some training as a Tight End and Running back for next week. So wel will see how this adventure turns out.

Last Monday I went to the Colchester United vs. Southend Derby. Colchester United is the local football (soccer) team and Southend is one of their biggest rivals. It was a good match. The pitch was in rather poor condition due to the weather we have had over the last few weeks so it created some interesting football. Colchester scored twice to win with a shutout. It was my first proper British football game and a fun one at that. Prior to the match we went down to a local pub near the stadium to have a pint and enjoy the pre-match atmosphere. All in all it was a good night.

This past Saturday (the 13th) I went to London for the day. The main reason for going was to attend the Chelsea v Cardiff City match. It was the 5th round of the FA Cup tournament and Stamford Bridge was sold out. It was my first taste of top flight football and I loved it. Chelsea played well, but not up to their high standards. Drogba scored in the second minute and it looked as if Chelsea were going to run away with the match, but Cardiff battled back and became the dominant team for the rest of the first half. Cardiff scored in the 34th minute to level the score at 1 all. The rest of the half saw some interesting buildup, but nothing came of it for either side. Chelsea returned to the pitch in the second half as a new team. Their passing was efficient, their possession controlling, and their play physical. And it showed as they scored three times to finish the match at 4-1 (the other goals were Ballack 51', Sturridge 69', and Kalou 86').

The atmosphere at Stamford Bridge is outstanding. It is 1000x better than the games that I have watched on t.v. back home. Pics of the day in London, including the match, are up on my Facebook.

This week holds nothing too exciting for me but thats good I guess. We are about half way through the first term now, so things are starting to pick up scholastically. Next week I don't have any class as it is a 'reading week' for students to catch-up or begin preparing for term papers.

My classes are all going very well. If I would have to pick a favourite it would have to be my Philosophy and Mind course. Its is superbly taught and the material is extremely thought provoking.

[Insert witty post title here]

Well I figure it was time for an update...you've been waiting for it...don't lie...

My last post was a while ago, but not much new has gone on. Last week the classes went by without much problem. I think my Philosophy of Mind course is going to be my favorite class out of all the ones that I'm taking. The reading load is a pretty decent amount, but it is by far not overwhelming.

Friday was my birthday (my 21st for those of you who were wondering) and it was a good day/night. I had class during the day but oh well. I played some pick up futball with some British students around 6ish which was a blast. After that I got together with some friends, did dinner and then spent the night on my flat hanging out with a bunch of people.

Before I left the States I was worried that my birthday would pass unnoticed, being away from all of my friends and family. But that was far from the case and I thank God for the people he has put into my life over here.

Umm...not much else is new.

I'll think of something before the next post, I promise...

And the days keep on rolling by...

It truly is hard to believe that I have already been here for two weeks...

I don't have any classes on Monday so I had the chance to sleep in this morning which felt amazing to say the least. So I woke around noon, had myself a breakfast/lunch meal and made myself a nice cup of tea. It's now one o'clock, so needless to say I haven't done much of anything. So I decided to sit down and update you guys on the past few days.

I left you with an update on my trip to Cambridge and the knowledge that classes started for me. Well I have now been through an entire week of classes and I am excited to get this semester going. Right off the bat there are some big differences between Creighton and Essex. First off, the course syllabi are prepared well in advance of the beginning of term and are placed in their respective department offices. It is the students responsibility to pick it up and to know what is going on once class commences. The first day of classes, as a result, kick off right away with lectures over material that was supposed to be read for that class meeting. In short there is no hand holding, reading through of the syllabi in class, answering of questions about the progression of the term, etc... on the first day of class as there is at Creighton. The responsibility for knowing what is going on falls solely on the student, so if s/he has any questions they must deal with it on their own time, that is to say outside of class.

The class structure is very different than what I have at Creighton as well. At Creighton I meet with all of my classes either on MWF or on TTH. The MWF classes all meet for 1 hour each day, and the TTH classes for 1 1/2 hours on their meeting days. The result is roughly 15 hours of being in-class every week. Here I meet with each of my courses only once a week. Courses, depending on the size of the student enrollment, are formatted (at least for me) in one of two ways; a) a straight up two hour long seminar class period that is a mixture of lecture and class discussion, or b) a one hour long lecture entirely made by the professor followed by a class meeting that is mainly student lead discussion and a Q&A time.

The smaller of my courses (my Joint Seminar in Philosophy and Law and my Philosophy of Mind courses) are set up in manner (a) listed above. My two larger courses (my Ethics and my Contemporary Political Philosophy courses) are set up in manner (b) listed above.

So in total I only spend about 8 hours in class a week.

However, while I spend substantially less time in class, what is expected of me outside of class is substantially greater. The reading lists for the semester, in all of my courses, are several pages long. Which is much greater than what is done at Creighton. The expectation is not that I read all of what is listed, but that I choose what I find interesting and direct my studies accordingly. Basically, the difference can be summed up in this way: At Creighton I am treated as a student in the traditional sense of the term, a receptacle into which the professor pours knowledge; whereas here at Essex I am treated as a fellow scholar in the pursuit of knowledge in the realm of Philosophical exploration.

It is definitely an interesting difference. But as I said in my last post, I am going to withhold my judgments until later on in the term.

Cambridge and the Beginning of Term

Well below you will find a picture of me in front of one of the faculty buildings in Cambridge. That is far from the best picture that I took, but it is the one I chose to post. All in all I took over 85 pictures (I can't remember the exact total right now). If you wish to view the pictures I have posted them all on my Facebook profile so you can view them there under the album name of (cleverly enough) Cambridge.

The city itself is rich in history and is incredibly friendly. We arrived at Cambridge around 11 in the morning and where walked to the centre of the city, the location of their local market. It would serve as our meeting point throughout the day so we needed to know where it was. After that we were free to roam and explore the back alleys of this beautiful city. So I walked around with a few of my fellow study abroad students and we just marveled at the fact that we were actually there.

At 1 pm we met back at the market for a formal guided tour. The tour was fascinating and the guide extremely knowledgeable. We walk through King's College and Saint John's College and past most of the other major college's (Trinity, Saint Mary's, etc...). While I am betting most of you are hoping for a long explanation of what I saw and did while there, I cannot oblige. It truly is an experience that must be had to fully understand.

The one thing that I will brag about is that I sat down and had a pint in the Pub where James Watson and Francis Crick made their announcement to the academic faculty at Cambridge of discovering the Double Helix structure of DNA. Talk about history...

Anyways, class began today. I will save my 'this is better here for such a reason and that is better at home for this reason' judgement until later in the term so watch for that. But I just wanted to let you know that class has officially started.

Updates on Several Fronts

First things first. I registered for classes today. I will be taking Ethics, Philosophy of Mind, Contemporary Political Philosophy, and a Joint seminar of Philosophy and Law. I am really looking forward to starting on Monday. At least that is the hope.

During registration yesterday there arose an issue with the stamp on my passport I received when going through customs. Apparently I just received a regular visitors stamp with allows me to be in the country for up to 180 days, so I'm fine on that end. But they needed to endorse it "VST" for visiting student, in order that I may actually study while I am here. I did everything right on my end, I showed them my documentation to say that I am studying during my stay and I also made it expressly clear that this is my purpose for being in the U.K. If I remember right the customs agent endorsed my landing card that I have to complete in the plane and hand to them when going through customs. If that is truly the case then I have proper clearance to study. If not then I would have to leave the country and come back in and do the whole boarder thing again. So I might be going to France next week. We will see. Just pray that it all turns out alright. It should be fine, it has happened before according to the people in the student services office. So ya...

On a happier note. I have settled in to my residence and met a good group of kids. We are hitting it off pretty well. I met most of the other students that are studying abroad at Essex over the last two days and I think my time here is going to be great. There is another study abroad student on my flat (basically the same thing as floor I've figured out), Steve is his name, he is studying Philosophy and Literary Theory at Purdue and we've hit it off pretty well. Today we went on a nice run through the countryside, it was amazing (oh ya I saw the sun for the first time today since I arrived, but only for a brief while). Anyways, Steve's parents have a timeshare with an International Organization and according we can get huge discounts on nice Condo's around Europe, it would be a lot more comfortable (and safer) than a hostel so we are planning a trip with a few other people that I have met to take a trip to Sicily or Venice and get a condo for a week. I'm looking forward to it.

On an extremely happy note. I was informed today that the last scheduled exam at Essex (through all departments) is June 11. But I have my flat here paid for until the end of the term (July 3). So when I get done with school I can spend a month traveling with absolutely no worries!!

I am super excited to get this term started and experience all that is out there.

I'll be setting up a Skype account later today, so I if you wish to know the details to that in order to talk to me at some point, write me a message (either on here or on Facebook) and I we be glad to share.

Oh ya, I am going to Cambridge tomorrow so first round of pictures will go up when I return from that.

London (round 2)/Colchester

Well I'm now in Colchester and have reliable access to the internet so I can finally update you on the rest of London and my time in Colchester thus far.

I left you last time by saying that on Tuesday night I was going to go see a production of Tennessee William's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" starring, among others, James Earl Jones. Simply put, the show was fantastic. If you have never seen or read the play I highly suggest renting a copy of the 1958 film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman to get a taste of the play.

But the show was playing in the Novello Theatre in London's Theatre District in the West End. It truly is a beautiful city. And the Theatre District does not disappoint either. Alleys upon alleys filled with theaters of all sizes. You can find all the big shows (Avenue Q, Le Mis, Wicked, Pricilla, etc...) but there is no end to the smaller shows you can see as well. But I digress, back to the show I attended.

James Earl Jones sold me his role of an old, rough, plantation owner from the moment he stepped on stage. There was a very evident display of dominance in his character punctuated by moments of extreme childish pain. Now I don't mean 'childish' in the immature sense, but the innocent pain of a child that has experienced the bitter side of life. I could go on for pages about his character and then more for all the others but I will stop myself here.

Before the show we spent some time wandering through the West End and the South Banks. Nothing too extensive, but we got a pretty nice taste for the city. It's history and personality is truly something to behold.

Wednesday I hoped on a train in the Middle of a 'Blizzard' and made my way to Colchester. Now when I say 'blizzard' I use it entirely in the British sense, more of a mist than anything else really. It was really funny to see the people in London freak out over what they thought was a terrible storm.

But I got to Colchester fine, it was just an hour long train ride. My accommodations are rather typical, a single room on a flat with 16 others. It is rather interesting combination of dorm and apartment living.

Well I must quit, I have orientation meetings to

London (round 1)

Well I landed safe and sound in London at 7:35 on Monday morning (local time) and made it through customs without any problems. My bags were some of the first off the plane so it was a quick transfer to the Tube (subway) and just a little over an hour later and after climbing way too many flights of stairs with my bags I was checked into my hotel. It was around 10 am, just in time to make a round through the breakfast line and then it was off to bed with me.

I woke at 5 and went out with a group of IFSA students and the staff to a wonderful Japanese restaurant a few blocks away called 'wagamama'. Superb atmosphere, great food, even better desserts (I had a coconut ice cream with a mango sauce and grated coconut on top, but was seriously considering a White Chocolate and Ginger Cheesecake...next time I guess). Afterwards we returned to the hotel and then a smaller group of us set out for a night on the town.

We stopped at two different places the first was a small pub called 'The Tottenham' which boasts of being the only pub on Oxford Street. Think small, quaint, English pub and you'll picture this place. We then strolled down Tottenham Place Road to China Town down in the West End. It was beautiful to say the least. We took in the sights, sounds, and smells (freshly roasted duck smells amazing) for a while and then set out to find another pub that some of the other students (who arrived last Thursday and left this morning) had told us about. Waxy O'Connors was the name of the place. It was an extremely peculiar place to say the least. Imagine a cross between an Irish Church and a treehouse, no joke

Today we ran through the traditional academic, cultural, and safety lectures but have the rest of the day off to explore.

Tomorrow we are going to go see 'Cat on the Hot Tin Roof' starring James Earl Jones and the mom from the Cosby show. It'll be fun.

My next post will be from Colchester itself.

Day 1

Well I just said goodbye to my folks for six months. It was much stranger than I imagined it. Its one thing to leave home and go back to school when you know that home is only an hour and a half away and a weekend at home is a possibility at any time I should so desire, it's an entirely different beast to say a straight up goodbye for such a long time. I guess this is what it must have felt like for my folks when we moved away from Edmonton.

I board my plane to Detroit in a little over half an hour and after that point there really is no turning back, both metaphorically and literally. Then its three hours in the air, an hour in Detroit, and then roughly a seven hour flight to Heathrow.

When I land I have to go through all that fun Immigration stuff and with the security breaches both here and abroad over the last few weeks I'm sure that will be an experience in and of itself. Hopefully all will go well and soon after that I will be trying to figure out the London Tube.

Apparently I will have to take the Piccadilly Line from Heathrow Terminal 4 Station to the Leicster Square station which will take roughly an hour. Then I switch to the Northern Line and take it to the next stop on the line, the Tottenham Court Road Station, a minute long ride, where my ride ends. Then its just a short tree block walk from the station to the St. Giles Hotel in downtown London.

Then it will be time to crash in a bed for a while.

After I send a "I got here fine" email to a few folks, my parents included.

Well I'm going to pack up and get ready for this...here we go.

And the madness begins....

Well it's Tuesday afternoon and I have begun to pack.

Now before you begin to worry, no I am not going to be one of those guys who uses the blog like a tweet spot. You know the type...the ones who write about every little thing; the daily meals, classes, trips to the grocery store. No, my blogs will be of more substantial matter (I hope) the culture, trips I take, critiques of the educational system, etc...

But, back to where I began. I have begun to pack and the magnitude of what I am about to do is beginning to dawn on me. However, there is no turning back now so here I go. My flight leaves Omaha on Saturday at 2:10 and I land in London at 7:05 (local time) after a connecting flight in Detroit.

My hope is that I learn and grow that I can use this medium as a means to transmit those things to others.

So follow along and tell others about it and hopefully we can all grow.