One Week

T-Minus one week until I get home.

It has been a good couple weeks since my last post. I decided to try my luck at some more "X-TREME" things. On last Thursday in St. Andrews I went landyatching. For those of you who don't know what landyatching is, well it is a lot like windsurfing but it has wheels and you are on land instead.

It was hard to figure out at first, having to steer with my feet and and work the sail with my arms. The best part was when I starting going fast and I was able to just drive on two of the wheels when the wind really took hold of the sail... I am sure why you are wondering why I got a different looking sail than everyone else. Well, I got the fatman one, but isn't because I'm fat.. I'm just tall.

That weekend a couple of us decided to try our luck at whitewater-rafting. It wasn't much like I thought it would be. There was a lot of just floating down the river, but it was really fun. We would play balancing games, jump into the water sometimes, and even push each other in. There were 6 guys in the raft with us who were from New Castle, England who were doing a little vacation. They were all really nice and funny, but the coolest part was that one of them had been to Wisconsin. His son played soccer on a scholarship at Viterbo University in La Crosse.

The next week we made our Thursday day trip to Edinburgh. This time I visited the castle and went underground part of the city. The castle was a lot like every castle I have seen, but the coolest thing there was the Scottish Royal Jewels. It was a huge sword, crown, and scepter. Needless to say they were really old and impressive looking for their age. The underground portion of the city isn't that impressive either. It smelt like my uncle Joe's basement and looked pretty much the same.

See. This is actually the underpart of a bridge that you don't even know is a bridge because the city literally grew across and around it. People use to work, party, do illegal activity (body snatchers selling bodies), and even living in these rooms. Coming back at night would be much more exciting because that is when the tour company puts on haunted/ghost tours.

Yesterday I went to the comedy performance of the Axis of Awesome. It was a musical comedy act where they tell their jokes in their songs. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. I would really suggest looking them up on youtube.

And yes. I am over a head taller than that guy.. He is really.. really.. short.

Today I went to see some Highland Games. For those of you who don't know what that is I will explain. Take the world's strongest man competition and have the competitors only do things that could have been done 800 years ago. Such as flipping a log, throwing a large rock, tossing a big piece of metal in the air, ect..

Never the less it was really entertaining.. (Yes these are two different competitors, but these are my two best pictures). There was a dog show going on at the same place so it was really cool seeing all of the different dog breeds walking around... and the rest was just like the grant county fair....... which was well... like the grant county fair.

Later today I went to a small indie concert where 3 different bands performed for about 40 min each. It was actually really good. The bands were Three Blind Wolves, Astral Planes, and the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. In my opinion the best band by far was Three Blind Wolves. They kinda had a Bon Iver meets the Avett Brothers sound. Astral Planes sounded almost exactly the same as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart were just too difficult to hear and understand to really appreciate or judge their music.

Just one week left. I still can't believe it. I want stay but can't wait to go back home. Hopefully this week is the fastest and slowest week of my life.

Sorry for not keeping up on this blog recently. But I have not been traveling anywhere and if you haven't been able to tell I spend most of my time on the trains writing up my blog.

And it is official, I have obtained what some call home sickness. It all started after my friends from block one left. The idea that they were going home to their friends and families made me miss mine and want to be back home with them. On top of that I am obtained an actual sickness. I have some type of virus and I got some decongestant to help me out, but the doctor told me that I just have to wait for it to pass.

Wow seriously it was July 4th on my last entry, 16 days.. Sorry again folks. Well in these past 16 days I have attended a farewell party for the block one people. This was a Ceilidh (Pronounced Kay-lee). It is all traditional Scottish dances with traditional Scottish music.. As man of you know, I can't dance. But this is the simple type of dances that people can still do when they have been drinking. At one point 2 guys and 2 girls huddle together and the guys lift the girls off the ground and spin until the girls are almost horizontal.

Sadly I forgot my memory card for this event, so I am stealing other people's photos off facebook.

Oh and it isn't a Ceilidh if you don't leave with bruises.

Then a ton of people left and we got some new people. Blah Blah Blah.... THEN IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY!!!
Before anyone asks, no I didn't have anything to drink on my birthday. I was kinda in the dumps about the homesickness thing and all, but it was a good birthday in the end. I woke up, worked out, went to class, then we went to The Med. The service was terrible, but they gave us an extra 20% off because it was so bad. I did get a cake in the end... Cadbury Chocolate Cake..mmmmm...

Then I got covered in silly string.

And that's my birthday in a nutshell.

The next day though something tragic happened.. I noticed a baby bunny sitting in the grass then a seagull comes down and picks up the baby bunny, probably planning to eat it. Then it drops the bunny from about 10ft off the ground. The bunny didn't move at first then it got up and tried hopping away. Its left front leg seemed injured so it didn't stand a chance against the seagull. So I went and stood over the bunny until it could hop somewhere where it could hide. The bunny didn't pick a good place at all because it was far away from any of the other bunnies so it would get attacked as soon as it left. So eventually I got it to come out, then it let me pet it, so I decided to pick it up and carry it back to its family. Isn't it adorable.

I really hope it is still alive.

Later in the week we went to Glasgow again. A couple of us decided to go to the Glasgow Science Center. It is pretty much a place where you get to play with all the different aspects of science. Like finding out how things are seen with thermal vision, how electro magnets work, random physics experiments, seeing how a smoker's lung compares to a normal person's lung, and different ways light travels. It was actually really fun, but this is probably my favorite picture from that whole place.

Nothing too exciting has happened since then. I am going to see Inception tonight at a local movie theatre. I will have plenty more to talk about around the middle of next week.

Once again sorry about not keeping you all up to date as often.

-Ryan Robert Nicholls

P.S. Here is just a random picture since I have been here. This is The Elephant House in Edinburgh. It is where J. K. Rowling wrote much of Harry Potter.

Magical Mystery Tour

Once again I am blogging on the road.. well train. I went to England for this 4th of July weekend. I did pretty just two different day trips. The first one was to York. Yes, the York.
Two fun facts about York. One, York is one of the few cities left in Europe that still has a wall surrounding most of the city. It isn't the Great Wall of China, but it is still pretty impressive. Two, Guy Fawkes was born and grew up in York (that one was for all the V for Vendetta fans). York isn't that large o a city. It doesn't take too long to get from one side of the city to the other. Of course while I was there I had to go to the cathedral. Not much different than others I have seen, just HUGE, and had a museum that people aren't allowed to take pictures in. In that museum it was the history of the church and how old it was and how there is tons of roman influence. But the coolest thing by far in that museum was the 34 ct diamond that was placed a grail that was used during church services when the church was the central governing power of the land.
It was a day of museums in York because we went to another museum but this one was pretty much the history of human life from some point in time (I don't really know but we did have guns). There was wide variety of the different aspects of life: war, shopping, home life, fashion, and toys. My favorite part was the toys because I'm a kid at heart.

Overall York is a perfect town for a day trip.


I know that what most of you care about hearing, my trip to Liverpool, the birth place of The Beatles. But doing Beatles related things were not first things we did in Liverpool. We went to where the local Liverpool Football (soccer) Club plays.

The stadium holds about 45,000 which is an extremely small compared to all the other stadiums of teams that they place against. I have become slightly interested by football now, but I probably won't continue to watch it when I leave the UK.

So after that we went on the Magical Mystery Tour. This was our tour bus.
Badass, right? Well so was our tour guide. He has been a dj at the Cavern for quite some time and has worked with Paul McCartney every time he comes to Liverpool. Some of you may be wondering if Paul is actually a nice person behind the scenes, well this is the story our tour guide told us about working for Paul a couple years ago. Our tour guide was working with Paul at a show after they had been working together for a while. Paul just walks up to our tour guide and signs his backstage pass. Our bus driver asks "What did you do that for?" Paul replied "Well we have worked together for a while and you never asked for my autograph, but that autograph isn't for you, it's for your daughter. I know she is only 5 but some day she will be going to college and I want you to sell this then to help pay for her education."
Pretty nice guy if you ask me.
Now back to the tour. We stopped and saw the houses where each one of The Beatles grew up, Penny Lane, Strawberry Field, The Cavern, and urinals that are priced at 2 million dollars at the Philharmonic (John Lennon would use these urinals all the time because this was his favorite pub).

My favorite place was probably The Cavern. This is where The Beatles would play all the time when they were just starting off and into their later years. Tons of other artists have played there. In fact they have a wall of fame outside for those artists and bands. It is literally 3 floors underground and artists still play there and it is still a nice pub... just really crowed and loud, but that is to be expected.


Overall it was a great weekend, and I would totally go back to Liverpool any day of the year because there is so much of the city I didn't get to see. I would give this trip an A. Not an A+ because one more day would have been wonderful.
Goodbye for now..

BRAVEHEART vs Reality

This one is for Brecken, but feels free to read if you are not her.

Braveheart is a good movie, but has almost no truth in it. First of all Braveheart was actually Robert the Bruce, not William Wallace. Robert the Bruce wanted to fight in the Crusades but he died before he could. So of his men cut out his king's heart, put it in a lead box around his neck and carried on to the Crusades. I don't recall if he made it to the Crusades or not but the man who was carrying his heart ended up in battle. In the battle he took the heart filled box and threw it into the middle of the battle while yelling "Lead on Braveheart, as thou dost!"... So that is why Braveheart should have been about Robert the Bruce and not little Willy Wallace.

Braveheart

Not Braveheart

The main battle that takes place in Braveheart is the Battle of Stirling Bridge.. Well kind of. The movie makers decided that it should just be the Battle of Stirling, so there is no bridge in the movie. The bridge is very important because it was the thing that gave the Scots the upper hand right away. See Stirling Bridge back then was made of wood and could only hold so much weight. The English wore a lot of heavy metal armor and rode horses. That weight on that bridge because it to collapse as the English tried to charge across it towards the Scottish on the other side. You know having your opponents pretty much drown themselves is a pretty damn good tactic.

William Wallace was a great man. He was able to get people to follow him, an underdog, to fight off the much stronger English. Though from what I remember hearing he was a thief and an outlaw before he became such a great hero.. You see, one day he was just sitting by the side of a loch fishing and two English soldiers came up to him and said, "Hey you, we will be taking these fish. They belong to the Queen of England." Well Willy didn't like that too much because his ruler was the King of Scots, but the king was currently locked up in an English prison. So Willy refused. They asked for the fish again. Will kindly refused again. They asked again. Willy slaughtered the both of them.. It was this act that first got his name out. As he killed more English his fame grew until he had people begging to join him in battle.

That is about all I know of William Wallace and how shittingly inaccurate Braveheart is. Oh yeah and there is absolutely no proof that Wallace had that fling with whoever that woman was in the movie. If you want to learn more I suggest doing some research on the web, or read a history book. Just don't watch Braveheart and think that is how everything happened.

Ryan

Weekend of Blue Skye

On the bus heading to Loch Ness currently. This 3 day weekend trip has been great. But I guess I should tell you about the trip I had on Thursday to St. Andrews. You know the place where the British Open is being held this summer (it's golf for those who didn't know).
There is a ton of religious history is this city if anyone is interested. As the story goes it is the place where the magical bones of Saint Andrew ended up. I don't know much about St. Andrew but he is the reason for the Scottish flag to be designed with a big white X on it. You see St. Andrew was ordered to be crucified for some reason but he didn't want to be put on a cross because he felt that he wasn't on the same level as Jesus. So they nailed him up on an X. Apparently this is a big deal to the Scots so that is the meaning of their flag.
We went to these amazing ruins of a cathedral. The grounds of this cathedral is said to be haunted by the white lady. She is a friendly ghost who helps drunken people get home at night. There were plenty of more historic things in the city but none that were was awe inspiring as the ruins.

The rest was shopping. Not exciting. Then we did go to the beach and went into the North Sea. It was cold and beautiful.
Now on to my current trip to the Isle of Skye (the misty isle). It wasn't just the Isle but places everywhere in between. The Wallace Monument, Doune Castle (castle anthrax from Monty Python's Holy Grail), Hairy Highland Cow Farm, WWII Commando Monument, Eilean Donan Castle (the castle from Made of Honor, some base in a James Bond movie, and Highlander), Some Viking Princess who enjoyed flashing men's Castle, ocean and sea side cliffs (one where Stardust was filmed), tons of other history and myth stuff, and Loch Ness. It has been a lot so if there something specific you want me to blog about on this trip just Comment on this one and I will that thing later.
I want to talk about my tour guide and our hostel, and I use the term hostel very loosely. Danny was the tour guide and this is him.

Swears a lot, tells amazing stories, and knows so much about Scottish history. He is really funny, fully Scottish, and let me say it again swears A LOT. And he drinks a lot, so yeah he is a true Scotsman. Kilt and all.
The hostel, more like a bed and breakfast was really nice. All the people that went with the 4 of us from Stirling made a total of 20 and they were all funny and kind. Most from Australia, a few from Hong Kong, and two from Spain. We ate together and did dishes together, but the food was prepared for us. One night we had chicken stuffed with haggis and wrapped with ham. It was delicious. Haggis is tasty, it is just like stuffing. The whole house was really nice. Bathrooms, bedrooms, and living room were all great. Played Monopoly with 2 Australians and the 2 Spaniards and that was really fun. This was our room for the two nights.

Don't know much else, but once again if you want to know more about a specific thing just comment on this post and I will let you know.

Here is an extra picture of Eilean Donan Castle.

Welcome Back

Sorry about not posting yesterday, I was in Stirling until about 12am and just didn't feel awake enough. But anyways, as you probably know from facebook I have been having some issues with google and blogger, but everything worked out in the end. The other exciting news, I got a PHONE... yeah, phones here are super cheap and so are the plans. My phone is the cheapest the store had, it is about 5 US dollars, and I put 30 dollars down for minuets and texting. By putting 30 dollars (20 pounds) I got 200 min of free international calls, but it only lasts for 30 days. After that it costs 11 cents (7 pence) a min. Otherwise texting people in the UK, my classmates with phones is 15 cents (10 pence). So overall it is pretty dang cheap.

Well now I guess I can tell you about the class I had yesterday. Photographing the Urban is now 4 hrs of straight lecture at least that is what it was yesterday. We may get to actually use a dark room on a later date. Our first assignment is to read a bunch (Which Karen said she never does) and to take some pictorialist photos. Pictorialism is a genre of photography stresses more on the view point, atmosphere and feeling of a photo, rather than the subject. It started in the late 19th century due to the introduction of cheap cameras that anyone could use, so photographers started editing photos in the field and dark room to produce more feeling in a picture. We are not allowed to edit the photo using computer software, just by our camera settings, breathing on the lens and putting things like candy wrappers in front of the lens to distort the picture. Here are three of my attempts at pictorialism.

I have no idea what to expect in tomorrow's Scottish Branding class. It is marketing, and that is my minor, but not having taken a marketing class yet so I don't know anything. It should be okay, I guess. I will just keep you posted on that.
We went into town today. Obviously so I could get my phone, but we also needed to get our photos developed for class. I have about 90 pages to read of our first text book by Monday as well. Oh yeah and text books are super cheap. I bought mine and it was about 13 dollars. But then again it is just a book on the history of photography and it pretty small.

Isle of Skye trip is the weekend and I am super pumped. It consists of the Wallace Monument, Isle of Skye, Loch Ness, the castle where Highlander was filmed, and many other things. Then hopefully the weekend after a couple of us are going to go down to London for the weekend. I guess I don't have much else to tell ya, Brazil beat North Korea though. Yeah I watch futball here. Class at 8am tomorrow, so goodnight ya'll. Just so you guys have something to look at here are some pictures of the stain glass work of the Dunblane Cathedral and the Church of the Holy Rude.

-Ryan

So far... amazing

Well folks the internet in my room is being very unreliable even when it works.

Life has been pretty exciting so far. On my no sleep Saturday I got to the University of Stirling (the Uni as they like to call it here). It is amazingly gorgeous here, the trees and grass are so green, there are huge hills and castles everywhere. I spent most of my time on Saturday getting to know people, since there are 65 of us it is a little hard. Nevertheless, I have already made some close friends. BIG NEWS!!! I found 3 other people who can’t go on the Isle of Skye trip so we are going this Friday through Sunday, so don’t expect any posts from 18th through the 20th. Now back to my new found friends, most of them are actually from the Midwest but 1 person is from Canada, 1 from India, and 1 from South Africa. Everyone here is super nice, even the people from New Jersey (Yes, I did expect Jersey Shore type people and I was wrong).
At the end of a long day of waiting at the airport, being tired, and unpacking most of us headed to the pub. It was really nice, we watched USA versus England. The first alcoholic drink I bought here was StrongbowIt is a cider so it has a kinda sweetness to it that I enjoyed. We also had hamburgers and skewers off the grills. Here is a picture of the place.


This is what every store or home looks like in Stirling.
Then I came home to sleep in my room. Yes my own room. This is what it looks like so I don’t have to explain.

It is nice place to live, the shower is strange though. You know some faucets in public bathroom and you have to push down on them and they only let water out for so long before the raise up again. Same idea, I have to push a button every 2 minutes and it gets really annoying. Waking up was fine on Sunday because the beds are decent.
Sunday was out orientation day. We first went to Airthrey Castle (It is the actually home to the law school on campus). Got talked to there about unexciting things. Went on a tour of our campus. Then came back to see/hear this waiting for us.

He was pretty good, but very very loud. Then we got talked to again. After that though we got a coach bus tour of the local villages and Stirling. We went to Dunblane Cathedral, The Robert Bruce of Scots monument , and Stirling Castle. The tour continued on foot where we actually walked a little around town to see things where the bus couldn’t take us: The church and exact spot where King James VI was crowned, the old jail, the Thistle (pretty much a mall), and the local version of Wal-mart to pick up groceries. I already of tons of pictures that I am not posting on here so you will have to actually come talk to me if you want to see all of them.
Class start tomorrow so wish me luck. Oh yeah and you all know how UW-Eau Claire is invested with squirrels, well we have rabbits. TONS AND TONS OF RABBITS!! And swans too.

See…

Mr. Blue Sky

Stressful. That is all I've got to say... Well not really. Good news I am in the air over Atlantic. Luckily the airline put us on an earlier flight because all flights to Newark from Chicago were delayed. So we just left at the time we were supposed to but on a different plane. There was a really rough landing in Newark, not sure why.
We made the connecting flight no problem, I guess that is optimism for you.

I know this is what you all want to hear about, airline food. Although it was not the best thing ever, I got a meal on my first 2.5 hr flight and one so far on this flight. Neither has made me sick so that is a plus. Sorry parents, that means I didn't eat any of the food we bought. I will eat it when I am at the dorms so don't worry.

It is currently 6am in Scotland, which means it is 12am back home. This explains why I am not tired and we will be landing in 4 hours so I don't think I'm going to sleep. Plus this plane shakes too much for me to sleep.

The media on this long flight is amazing! I'm currently listening to the glee soundtrack via the airlines media box thinger. I just got done watching How to Train a Dragon, it was really cute and funny. So yeah I enjoyed it. They also have tons of TV shows and other movies and even touch games like bejeweled, soduko, battleships, chess, ect.. I think I am going to watch the wolfman, or shawshank redemption, or phantom of the opera, or valentine’s day.. There are 40 movies to choose from..... that's a lot of movies.

For being a first time flyer I must say it has been pretty cool so far and not really scary at all. Time to watch a movie. I will tell you of my first impression when I get there.

From 30,000 feet,
Ryan

P.S. So I am here now with internet access. I typed this post on my ipod on the plane ride, but I couldn't post it until now. I did get another meal on the flight, I didn't sleep at all because I figured if I just stayed up I could go to bed and not get jet lag. Sunday morning and no jet lag, so I guess it works. I ended up watching Valentine’s Day and two episodes of the office on the plane.

This is what it looked like coming into Scotland.

I will make another post later today about my first day here but for now I have to go to orientation.

Adios for now.

2 Days Left?

I am terrible at figuring out how many days are left until something. I never know if I should count today or not. Nevertheless, today is Wednesday and I leave on Friday. The only bummer currently is that there is a storm coming in on Friday, which may delay my flight from Chicago to Newark. That means I will probably miss my flight from Newark to Edinburgh, and the next flight out isn't until the next day. I talked to the ISS (International Summer School) Coordinator on Facebook about this. He told me not to worry and that there may be a lot of students having the same problem. If this does occur, I will get a free taxi ride from the airport to the University Stirling because I would miss the coach bus. So it looks like everything is going to work out.

Just a little insert, I will be in Scotland from June 12th through August 7th.

I hope this blog keeps everyone back home up to date. I will try to post on it often enough so that people don't think I am dead or something. I will be on Facebook too, so if people want to stay in contact with me there that is fine too. Sadly there is a 6 hour time difference. Yes that means when I am in Scotland I will be 6 hours IN THE FUTURE! So when I am waking up around 9 am or so, it will be 3 am back home. This means Skpe-ing people will be difficult, but I will make it work for a select few. Yes Alie that means you. Well I am off to pack now.

Oh yes and my address if anyone would like to send me anything is:

Ryan Nicholls

c/o International Summer School

International & Study Abroad Office (Pathfoot C3)

University of Stirling

FK9 4LA

Stirling

Scotland, UK

It takes a while for post to travel that far, so send things about 2 weeks before I should be getting them.

That is all the news I have for now.

Cya Anon,

Ryan