Hello friends and family!
Here's an update to catch you all up on what I've been doing for the past week and a half or so. So I did get to explore Helsinki a little bit more, but not quite as much as I would have liked due to utter exhaustion from so much traveling and a couple of issues that I had to work out with some of my classmates. I don't think I've talked about it before, but living in constant contact with 42 other college students can get just a little bit stressful and crazy sometimes. But hey, we worked through it. Anyways, a big part of our foray into Finland was the chance to encounter Finnish theater, which is one of the quickest growing nationalist theater movements in the world right now. In total, our class got to see three plays, although most of us only made it to two. The first one I saw was a little disturbing. From what I could tell (the whole play was in Finnish), it explored the relationship of a gravedigger and his wife, who just happened to be fascinated with zombies. Most of us were a little displeased, to say the least, with graphically violent content, awkward and somewhat erotic scenes, and full frontal male nudity (I did not need to see that). But the play that we saw the night afterwards redeemed Finnish theater for us as we witnessed a very modern and artistic representation of the artist's plight in society (which apparently holds special significance in Finnish culture? Once again the play was in Finnish...).
After we had all had our fill of drama, we spent a day on an island dominated by a sea fortress. We explored underground tunnels, scared each other half to death by jumping out from behind corners, and pretty much just had an amazing time goofing off and freezing to death in 45 degree weather.
We then left Finland on a plane to Germany, where we have been staying in Berlin for the past week. We met up with our tour guide for the next few weeks, Gabriel, and took a number of walking tours of the city, learning about Germany's history along the way. So basically, I have learned more about World War II, the Holocaust, and Communist East Berlin in the past week than I have in all of my years of history classes combined. And it's been awesome to actually see the places where all of this took place. For example, yesterday we learned about Hitler's suicide while standing on top of the bunker where it took place. Any other history class is going to be downright boring after this.
But now for the important stuff. Bratwursts, hamburgers, German chocolate, etc. are all amazing, and I'm pretty sure I've spent more money on snacks here than anywhere else we've visited so far. We went to one chocolate shop where you could actually pick out how much cacao you wanted in your chocolate, anywhere from 32% to 82%. So naturally I picked up four bars to span the spectrum. :) Tomorrow we leave for Prague, which should be awesome, although I don't know exactly what to expect. But I'll let you all know when I find out!
Cheers!
Ryan
Wednesday 8 October 2008
Monday 29 September 2008
Stockholm, pt. 2 and Helsinki, pt. 1
Hi everyone!
I am in Helsinki, Finland right now, which is a pretty cool city. It's very different than anywhere we've been so far. The architecture is very Eastern European, almost Russian, which gives the city a very industrial feel. I definitely did not expect to find a city like that in Scandonavia. It's also way colder than anything we've experienced so far, with the temperature hovering around 10-11 degrees Celsius (about 53-55 F). But not to worry Mom, I bought a jacket in Sweden that is keeping nice and warm. :) Right now I'm sitting in a coffee shop (luckily not the type of coffee shops that we found in Amsterdam) sipping a cappuccino and feeling very European, except the people talking around me are pretty much speaking gibberish as far as I'm concerned.
So cool story. We took a ferry from Stockholm (which by the way was a pretty fun city, I even ran into an acquaintance from high school) to Helsinki a couple of nights ago, and most of us were thinking that we were basically going to have to row ourselves here. K, not really, but our expectations were not high at all. But when we got to the docks, we found that what awaited us was, in fact, a small cruise ship. We were very excited, to say the least, and spent a good portion of the night expressing that excitement in the ship's night club. We've decided to call it a small miracle, because all of us were at a point where we really needed a surprise like that. I guess God works in mysterious ways. :)
Hopefully I'll get to write a little more about Helsinki once I've explored it a bit. In the mean time, I hope you are all appreciating central heating and/or warm weather as much as I have come to. :)
Ryan
I am in Helsinki, Finland right now, which is a pretty cool city. It's very different than anywhere we've been so far. The architecture is very Eastern European, almost Russian, which gives the city a very industrial feel. I definitely did not expect to find a city like that in Scandonavia. It's also way colder than anything we've experienced so far, with the temperature hovering around 10-11 degrees Celsius (about 53-55 F). But not to worry Mom, I bought a jacket in Sweden that is keeping nice and warm. :) Right now I'm sitting in a coffee shop (luckily not the type of coffee shops that we found in Amsterdam) sipping a cappuccino and feeling very European, except the people talking around me are pretty much speaking gibberish as far as I'm concerned.
So cool story. We took a ferry from Stockholm (which by the way was a pretty fun city, I even ran into an acquaintance from high school) to Helsinki a couple of nights ago, and most of us were thinking that we were basically going to have to row ourselves here. K, not really, but our expectations were not high at all. But when we got to the docks, we found that what awaited us was, in fact, a small cruise ship. We were very excited, to say the least, and spent a good portion of the night expressing that excitement in the ship's night club. We've decided to call it a small miracle, because all of us were at a point where we really needed a surprise like that. I guess God works in mysterious ways. :)
Hopefully I'll get to write a little more about Helsinki once I've explored it a bit. In the mean time, I hope you are all appreciating central heating and/or warm weather as much as I have come to. :)
Ryan
Thursday 25 September 2008
Stockholm
K so to correct the error in my last blog post: Stockholm is in Sweden, not Finland. Which is awesome cuz that means I got to try Swedish meatballs! Yep, they're amazing. I'm still looking for Swedish fish, more about the city later...
Tuesday 23 September 2008
Bruges and the Netherlands
Hey everyone! So here's a quick update before my computer dies...
We had an awesome time in Belgium. I had my fill of waffles, chocolate, and french fries, and I'm pretty sure I could live in Bruges. We spent our first two days in the Netherlands in Amsterdam, which was interesting. I learned quickly that "koffee" is what we would call coffee, and "coffee" not so much (not from experience tho, I promise :) ). We were going to walk through the red light district, but we had a change of plans and ended up visiting the Dutch Resistance Museum instead. Yesterday and today we've been able to explore Leiden, which is a little college town just outside of Amsterdam. It's been fun, but the town is so small we've exhausted most of the things to do here. But tomorrow we'll hop on a plane and head to Stockholm, Finland, where there will be a whole bunch of new adventures to try.
Vespers, the worship service I am helping to lead as a part of my job as a chaplain, has been going well, we are finally starting to figure out the team dynamics. And this last time another couple from the hotel came and worshipped with us, which is awesome because it's becoming a ministry as well! I am really liking leading worship again.
I hope you all are doing well!
Ryan
We had an awesome time in Belgium. I had my fill of waffles, chocolate, and french fries, and I'm pretty sure I could live in Bruges. We spent our first two days in the Netherlands in Amsterdam, which was interesting. I learned quickly that "koffee" is what we would call coffee, and "coffee" not so much (not from experience tho, I promise :) ). We were going to walk through the red light district, but we had a change of plans and ended up visiting the Dutch Resistance Museum instead. Yesterday and today we've been able to explore Leiden, which is a little college town just outside of Amsterdam. It's been fun, but the town is so small we've exhausted most of the things to do here. But tomorrow we'll hop on a plane and head to Stockholm, Finland, where there will be a whole bunch of new adventures to try.
Vespers, the worship service I am helping to lead as a part of my job as a chaplain, has been going well, we are finally starting to figure out the team dynamics. And this last time another couple from the hotel came and worshipped with us, which is awesome because it's becoming a ministry as well! I am really liking leading worship again.
I hope you all are doing well!
Ryan
Tuesday 16 September 2008
Paris, Caen, and Bruges
Hey everyone!
So it's been awhile since I've been able to sit down and write about my trip, but I've finally got a solid Internet connection and some free time, so here goes!
Last time I sent you all an update we were just getting ready to take the Chunnel to Paris. When we got there, we found out we were staying in a super sketchy hotel, complete with bedbugs and creepy concierge workers. But we made the best of it, and we spent most of our time exploring the city anyways, so no big deal (except for those who experienced the bedbugs firsthand, bummer). Highlights included spending a full day in the Louvre, watching the Eiffel Tower sparkle, having an impromptu dance party on top of the Eiffel Tower :), dinner on the steps of the Sacre Couer, walking through the Musee d'Orsay, and climbing the Arc du Triomph. Overall, an awesome city, despite the huuuuge language barrier.
After Paris, we travelled to Caen, which is just inland of the Normandy coast. Our next couple of days were very sobering. We visited the Caen Peace Museum, which is full of powerful exhibits and memorials for WWI, WWII, the Holocaust, the Cold War, and 9/11. We visited the German and American WWII gravesites and Omaha beach, where part of the D-day invasion took place. We even walked the cliffs at Point du hoc, where there are still giant craters from artillery fire and ruins of Axis bunkers. I learned so much about what a huge sacrifice so many soldiers made so that I can live in a world free of tyranny and oppression.
Today we arrived in Bruges, Belgium, where we will spend the next few days before traveling to the Netherlands. This marks a huge landmark in our trip, because from here on out none of us have any idea of what to expect until we end up in Germany in about a month. We have also reached the point in the trip where none of us speak the native language (which happens to be some strange dialect of Dutch, in case you were wondering) and so we will be relying heavily on guesswork and hand gestures for the next few weeks.
I love hearing from those of you that I have talked to since I've been gone, and I look forward to running into others of you on Facebook chat, AIM, or Skype. God bless!!!
Ryan
So it's been awhile since I've been able to sit down and write about my trip, but I've finally got a solid Internet connection and some free time, so here goes!
Last time I sent you all an update we were just getting ready to take the Chunnel to Paris. When we got there, we found out we were staying in a super sketchy hotel, complete with bedbugs and creepy concierge workers. But we made the best of it, and we spent most of our time exploring the city anyways, so no big deal (except for those who experienced the bedbugs firsthand, bummer). Highlights included spending a full day in the Louvre, watching the Eiffel Tower sparkle, having an impromptu dance party on top of the Eiffel Tower :), dinner on the steps of the Sacre Couer, walking through the Musee d'Orsay, and climbing the Arc du Triomph. Overall, an awesome city, despite the huuuuge language barrier.
After Paris, we travelled to Caen, which is just inland of the Normandy coast. Our next couple of days were very sobering. We visited the Caen Peace Museum, which is full of powerful exhibits and memorials for WWI, WWII, the Holocaust, the Cold War, and 9/11. We visited the German and American WWII gravesites and Omaha beach, where part of the D-day invasion took place. We even walked the cliffs at Point du hoc, where there are still giant craters from artillery fire and ruins of Axis bunkers. I learned so much about what a huge sacrifice so many soldiers made so that I can live in a world free of tyranny and oppression.
Today we arrived in Bruges, Belgium, where we will spend the next few days before traveling to the Netherlands. This marks a huge landmark in our trip, because from here on out none of us have any idea of what to expect until we end up in Germany in about a month. We have also reached the point in the trip where none of us speak the native language (which happens to be some strange dialect of Dutch, in case you were wondering) and so we will be relying heavily on guesswork and hand gestures for the next few weeks.
I love hearing from those of you that I have talked to since I've been gone, and I look forward to running into others of you on Facebook chat, AIM, or Skype. God bless!!!
Ryan
Monday 1 September 2008
London
Hey everyone!
Here I sit in my hotel in London, where I haven't been able to get the Internet to work until today, and now I owe all of you some new stories. So here goes:
Last time when I left you I was in Stratford-upon-Avon, getting ready to leave for York the next day. While I was there (in York) I got to climb the tower of the town's minster (which looks just about the same as a cathedral, in case you were wondering), eat fish n chips at the local hole in the wall chippery, and check out York's Railway Museum. We then traveled to London, which we've been using as a home base for the past several days as we've taken day trips to some of England's must-sees. We saw Bletchley Park, where the Enigma cipher was cracked and the site of the first computer, Salisbury, which really is famous for its steak, Stonehenge, Dover Castle, and we even got to attend a communion service at Canterbury Cathedral!
So pretty much, most of us are exhausted, and will be just fine to go a couple of days without riding on a bus. But today we got the day to explore London as we saw fit. For me, this consisted of a picnic and a walk through Hyde Park, during which I got to explore with some of my classmates and share a conversation with a painter who was working on a landscape. Afterwards, I saw the Phantom of the Opera, which has to be the best opera I've ever seen (also the only one...). :) I'm pretty sure this qualifies as one of the best days yet. But I'm looking forward to topping it soon.
I hope all of you are well and I am missing you all greatly! Cheers!
P.S. I'm going to try to post some pictures soon from my trip so far, but right now the Internet connection is nowhere close to strong enough to upload such large files. So you're just gonna have to wait in eager anticipation until I can figure it out....
Here I sit in my hotel in London, where I haven't been able to get the Internet to work until today, and now I owe all of you some new stories. So here goes:
Last time when I left you I was in Stratford-upon-Avon, getting ready to leave for York the next day. While I was there (in York) I got to climb the tower of the town's minster (which looks just about the same as a cathedral, in case you were wondering), eat fish n chips at the local hole in the wall chippery, and check out York's Railway Museum. We then traveled to London, which we've been using as a home base for the past several days as we've taken day trips to some of England's must-sees. We saw Bletchley Park, where the Enigma cipher was cracked and the site of the first computer, Salisbury, which really is famous for its steak, Stonehenge, Dover Castle, and we even got to attend a communion service at Canterbury Cathedral!
So pretty much, most of us are exhausted, and will be just fine to go a couple of days without riding on a bus. But today we got the day to explore London as we saw fit. For me, this consisted of a picnic and a walk through Hyde Park, during which I got to explore with some of my classmates and share a conversation with a painter who was working on a landscape. Afterwards, I saw the Phantom of the Opera, which has to be the best opera I've ever seen (also the only one...). :) I'm pretty sure this qualifies as one of the best days yet. But I'm looking forward to topping it soon.
I hope all of you are well and I am missing you all greatly! Cheers!
P.S. I'm going to try to post some pictures soon from my trip so far, but right now the Internet connection is nowhere close to strong enough to upload such large files. So you're just gonna have to wait in eager anticipation until I can figure it out....
Tuesday 26 August 2008
Edinburgh and England
So I am now in Stratford on the Avon River in England! Which is the birthplace of Shakespeare, pretty cool huh? Here's some cool stories from the last week:
This has been a somewhat musical week for me, and anyone who knows me well will know how excited that makes me. I saw two instruments I had never heard of before! The first was a Hungarian gypsy instrument that was like a piano without keys where you just hammer the strings yourself. And the second was this cool Swiss inverted steel drum called a hang that I saw some hippies playing on the sidewalk. I am determined to get one.
I'm also starting to pick up a Scottish accent, which is wild. I was talking to an older gentleman the other night and I didn't even realize that I sounded like a local until another Westmont student walked in and I started speaking without the accent again. I'm hoping I can hold onto it, cuz I'm pretty stoked.
Today we visited Coventry Cathedral, an old church that was bombed in WWII and now is basically just a shell. It was an amazing and humbling experience to see how even with all of the destruction caused to the cathedral, the ruins still stand as a monument for international peace.
We also visited Warwick Castle today, and it turns out I have an ancestor who was the Earl of Warwick and lived in the castle. So basically I went home today, kinda. :) But they still made me pay to get in. :/
I'm gonna go post pictures on my profile from the trip so far if any of you want to see. I hope you all are enjoying the last wee bits of your summer and I hope the transition back to school goes well!
Cheerio!
This has been a somewhat musical week for me, and anyone who knows me well will know how excited that makes me. I saw two instruments I had never heard of before! The first was a Hungarian gypsy instrument that was like a piano without keys where you just hammer the strings yourself. And the second was this cool Swiss inverted steel drum called a hang that I saw some hippies playing on the sidewalk. I am determined to get one.
I'm also starting to pick up a Scottish accent, which is wild. I was talking to an older gentleman the other night and I didn't even realize that I sounded like a local until another Westmont student walked in and I started speaking without the accent again. I'm hoping I can hold onto it, cuz I'm pretty stoked.
Today we visited Coventry Cathedral, an old church that was bombed in WWII and now is basically just a shell. It was an amazing and humbling experience to see how even with all of the destruction caused to the cathedral, the ruins still stand as a monument for international peace.
We also visited Warwick Castle today, and it turns out I have an ancestor who was the Earl of Warwick and lived in the castle. So basically I went home today, kinda. :) But they still made me pay to get in. :/
I'm gonna go post pictures on my profile from the trip so far if any of you want to see. I hope you all are enjoying the last wee bits of your summer and I hope the transition back to school goes well!
Cheerio!
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