An adventure is simply an inconvenience rightly considered.

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Traveling on my own

Well i have arrived in Amsterdam safely. after a few moments of being lost i have found where i am staying and am getting settled in. walking in Amsterdam is so surreal! a whiff of pot smoke on every corner, beautiful canals, etc. i have to honestly say that i have never seen anyplace like it.
i would make this longer but i only have 4 min left of internet time. i'll up-date this thing fully when i have more stories to tell. this city should generate a large supply of them.
cheers!
Rob

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Scotland, Ireland, and Wales...Oh my!

So much has happened, so i think i will start from where i last left off. last time i was stressed and overworked with essay deadlines. this is still true, though it is a different set of essays and i'm putting it off for the next three weeks. last friday was the end of lent term at Lancaster Univeristy. to celebrate, some fellow classmates decided to go to scotland. (Edinburgh, pronounced Edinburra) So Andy, Kara, Bryony, Ben, Caddy, Anna, and I hopped into Andy's and Ben's cars and drove to Scotland.
It was such a good time, we did manage to get lost on the way, though i maintain the fact that the navigator can only plan the route, he doesn't make the decisons to turn at the wrong exit. and what is the deal with getting the only foreign, the only one who is not native to the UK, to navigate?
but we eventually made it there, we went to a few bars, stayed up way too late and drank some good ales, and enjoyed eachother's company. the weather on the saturday was absoutly excellent. sunny and i'd have to say around 16 degrees! I'm kind of regretting going to Lancaster and not to Edinburgh! i'll up load some photos later when i get back to lancaster and finnish all those essays. as of right now i am using Joyce's computer to update this thing. it is the last chance i have to use the internet for the next 2 weeks.
on sunday we went to the Castle, and walked around the city a bit more and then decide that after a whole weekend of no sleep and being hungover we wearly made our way back home. Got lost again, yah..not from the country people, stop giving the foreign the map!
It was a really great trip, but you can't always have things go your way. the next day i was supposed to fly from Manchester to Dublin, yet anything that could go wrong did. i had to get up at 3:30am catch a cap to the train station, take the train to the airport. okay so far everything is going okay, i'm there in good time to check in. i get to the desk and find out that, the travel agent booked my ticket for the wrong day and instead of the 21st i was supposed to fly out on the 24th. i guess it is my own fault for not checking the ticket before hand, but still incompetant travel agent!
so i had to go on stand-by, had to pay an extra £20 to get on to the flight, and then had to rush to catch my plan that was already boarding. (keep in mind i've only had 3hrs of sleep) So i got to the gate and foundout that the plane had been delayed because of faulty break pads. i ended up waiting for over 7 hours in the airport while the officials tried to sort things out. they weren't very helpful in giving us updates and information on what was going on, so a few people were getting pissed off. finally we got moved from the 8am flight to the 2:15 flight and was again delayed because there was a few bags on the plane that didn't belong to passengers. finally we were under way and made it to Dublin. Made it to Joyce's and have been having a good visit and enjoying walking around and taking in the sights of dublin.
I've seen the castle, a few cathedrals, and the guinness storehouse.
anyways i'm off traveling tomorrow, catching the ferry and train to Shoreham-by-sea for a visit with Tony and Valerie's.
after that week, i'm off to Amsterdam, Munich, and Berlin. then it is back to Lancaster to get some essay's done.
so if i don't hear from my faithful readers before then, take care and know that i'm having a better time than you! just kididing.
catch you later!
Rob.

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Tired, Stressed, and in General Just Overwhelmed

It is currently the second last day of school for the Lent term, easter break begins tomorrow and i would be super happy, but unfortunately i am not because i have been working my ass off trying to meet deadlines so that i can go to Edinburgh tomorrow with some friends from school. Wednesday night was up until 6am in the morning trying to finnish a paper for my geographies of Identities class. thankfully i managed to get it completed this afternoon, and it is all ready to be handed in tomorrow morning.

Tonight i am aiming to get my dreaded learning journal finnished. though it is not due until next Monday, my travel plans don't coincide with this deadline and thun i have to get it finnished tonight. though i am anticipating it shall only take me another four hours. as i have been adding to this thing all term long and i only really need to read it though, edit it, and then plunk in a conclusion and it is ready to be handed in.

But then, oh yes there is more, i have to pack up my entire room and get ready for my three week sojourn throughout Europe. unfortunately i did't pay to keep my room over easter and i have to pack everything up into my two suitcases haull them down to the storage area and leave them there until i return on the 8th of April. When, lucky me, i get to write three essays in the span of a week. why do i do this to myself? I do somplain but i know i can handle it. it just means there is going to be a lot of sleepless nights like last night.

sigh tis the price i have to pay for the opportunity to visit Edinburgh, Dublin, Brighton, Amsterdam, Brussles, Munich, and Berlin all in the span of two weeks! i'm going to be so broke when I get back to Canada.

Friday, March 04, 2005

Harry and the Potters


Harry and the Potters 2
Originally uploaded by Rob Rutherford.
I feel that i should direct all those who care to the Harry and the Potters website, just cause i'm uploading photos of them without their consent. so go here and learn more about these guys!
http://www.eskimolabs.com/hp/

Me on the train


Me on the train
Originally uploaded by Rob Rutherford.
Getting back to Lancaster the next day. Man did i ever need a shower!

Heav'n Hell


Heav'n Hell
Originally uploaded by Rob Rutherford.
This was the bar we went to (A.J. and I) i took this photo after the show was over, and funny enough, when i got home i realized that the band was hanging out outside. so i got my Paparazzi shot, i'm happy.

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Time for an Update

It has been over a week since i last updated this thing so i thought i'd take the time now to do it. A lot of stuff has happened since my last entry about going to Liverpool. I went back to liverpool, missed a soccer match, and had the worst sleep of my life. that about covers it.

last wednesday i was talking to Lorn about this band called Harry and the Potters and how they sings songs about that plucky, boy wizard from J.K. Rowling's books. So i decided to look them up on the internet, and let him have a listen to some of their music. (i found out about this band last summer on my trip back form Montreal, and decided to look into what they were about because Jill, my best friend, is uber-obsessed with Harry Potter and i thought it's make the perfect birthday present for her, and as it happened i liked their music to and bought a CD) meanwhile back in England, Lorn and I discovered that Harry and the Potters were currently doing a UK tour. and the next night's gig was going to be in Liverpool. needless to say...Road Trip! Though Lorn didn't come, my friend A.J. and I hopped the train and made our way to Liverpool. the bar they were playing in was called Heav'n Hell. they played in the Hell portion of the bar. I have to say that Harry and the Potters put on a really good show, it was entertaining, great music, and jsut a blast to watch.

though when i left liverpool my wallet was significantly lighter. sigh, tis the curse of being an international student. anyways, i was supposed to go to Birmingham with one of the guys on my corridor to see a football match, and i was really excited about going, even the 8 hour commute wasn't going to deter me! yet it didn't happen because i slept through my alarm and woke up 2 hours later and if i had caught a later bus down (trains don't run through Lancaster on the weekends) i would not have made it intime to see the game. Alas, i'll just have to make it up with a rugby match on Mar 26th. London Irish, the St. Patrick's day game, should be a gong show!

Am currently bogged down with essays, had one due today, another due on tuesday, and then my last one due on the 18th! so no more fun for me, at least not until the end of term, then it is off on the super coolesst vacation ever! Edinbourgh, Dublin, South England, Amsterdam, and Berlin! (am going to try to fit in Brussles, Munich, and Prague as well but, i'm going to play things by ear)

so i've realized that i write way too much so....fin.