April 11th

April 4th

Didn’t do a whole lot this morning really. I was still hurting from the soccer but I did get a short run in. I got back from that and just sat around until class. Ethno was really good today. We spent a lot more time listening to the Beatles and Justin went into pretty deep detail about them. We covered a lot of stuff really. I really enjoy that kind of thing. I just think its so cool to hear how all these bands started out and all the works that influenced them. You learn so many cool and interesting things. I think its just a blast.

After class I came back and made some food and then I had a play to go to. The play we were going to was Equus and it starred the people who played Harry Potter and Uncle Vernon. Daniel Radcliff plays a boy who has blinded six horses and the Uncle Vernon guy plays his psychologist. It’s a really good story. Radcliff was sick or something the night we went so he wasn’t on the top of his game, but it was still a really good play. I really enjoyed.

I got back from that and had some packing to do. We weren’t actually going to be leaving the next day until almost nine at night, so I just laid everything out I was going to need and doubled checked it. After that I headed to bed to get some rest.

April 5th

I got up for a short run this morning to get loosened up and it felt really good. Damien had a couple more things for me to do with the DVD, so I got those all set up. I did some more work with the market survey because the DVD stuff really didn’t take me that long at all. Damien has a big conference to get ready for so he has been working on stuff for that. The problem is all the stuff I need to do is dependent on him right now. I need him to give some things in French for the DVD and the information that I need to contact companies in the market survey for. Without either of those, I really don’t have anything to do.

After work I came home really quick and got something to eat. I got some last minute emails out and was on my way to the train station. I met up with the people I was running with there and when they showed up we bought our tickets. We headed out to Liverpool and I played cards most of the way. Two of the guys were out sick most of the time from motion sickness. When we got to Liverpool we promptly got lost. One of the guys had printed off directions, but not a map and given the nature of British street that was quite a problem. Eventually we gave up on that plan and just caught a cab. The place we stayed at was really nice, but we pretty much just headed straight to bed.

April 6th

We got up early this morning and went to breakfast. I was really impressed. I was expecting them to have some cereal and toast out with tea and coffee. Instead, they had a buffet with all the makings for a full English breakfast. That was a very pleasant surprise, which I enjoyed very much. After we got finished up we headed out to the docks. They weren’t very far away and we found them quick enough. We found the ferry place pretty quickly and got checked in. We had a little while to wait and so we sat around in the lobby of the place and just relaxed for a while. Once on board we grabbed a seat and relaxed. We got out of the port really late because of all the traffic that was around. Not really sure if they meant on the river or what, but after that was cleared we had to wait again for a boat to get out of our way so we ended up leaving pretty late: something like 45 minutes. The ride itself took a couple of hours, almost all of which we played cards. I learned some new games, which was nice.

Once we got on the island we went and got checked in to our hotel. It was a pretty nice place. My roommate and I definitely got the short end of the stick when it came to rooms, but it wasn’t a big deal. Once we got our stuff unpacked we headed out to find some food. The only place that we found that was open was a little newsagent type place that had some sandwiches and drinks. We got some of those and sat on the promenade eating them. We headed back after that to get ready to go. We had to catch a bus because the race was actually on the other side of the island. After about a half an hour bus ride we were there. We got check into the race and out on a little warm up run.

The race itself was really pretty. We wound out along the beach and then cut up into the countryside. It was really pretty and I had plenty of time to enjoy it. I did not run that well. I think I probably went out a little too hard and I don’t think I was felling that good. I’ve been feeling sick lately so I think that took a toll on me. I didn’t run it in a terrible time, just not one that was as fast as I thought it could be.

After the race, we headed out to shower and then to get some food. There was a fish and chips shop on the way back so we stopped there to get some food. That tasted so good. Granted, it probably wasn’t the best thing in the world to be eating, but at that point I really didn’t care that much. We went back down to the pub where the bus was coming to pick us up and waited around there for a while, maybe about an hour. On that showed up we hopped on headed back.

April 7th

We had plenty of time to sleep in this morning and took full advantage of it. I had a full English breakfast again which was a great way to start off the day. After that, I walked along the promenade where we would be racing the next day just to get out and see things. This is a really pretty island. Everything is just wonderfully green and beautiful. We got back from that walk and still had some time so we went out on a short run to get loosened up for the race later on. Once we got back from that we packed up and caught the bus.

The bus ride was a little shorter than it was the day before and we were on the ocean again. Today was a four mile long hill race and they really meant it. The hills we had to climb probably rose three or four hundred feet above sea level and were pretty nasty. We were cutting up and down the entire way. I ran pretty well here though. I was angry about the way I ran the day before so I let that drive me and I was able to get into a good running mind frame, partly out of that anger. All and all it was a good race. I was happy with the results.

Once that was done we made our way back to the city we were staying in, Douglas. We took the long way back though. One of the traditions of this race was that on this day, people run back from the hill race. We threw ourselves into that. The way back was about twelve miles long and was fairly flat. The distance was made easier by the fact we stopped a few times at pubs to take a break and relax a bit. I met a lot of people on this too. We joined up with some people from Scotland who had been here before since no one in my group knew where we were going. I got to talk to a lot of people from there and made some friends. At the end of the run we went out to an Indian place with them too and got to know some more people. It was pretty cool.

April 8th

I had to be up pretty early this morning to get some breakfast before the race. Since it was a relay, they started it a lot early so that the last people wouldn’t get caught in the sun and heat. I grabbed a light breakfast and went back to bed for a couple of hours. About an hour before the race I got up and got ready. I was the first leg so I got ready right away and headed out. I was really pleased with the way everything turned out. My legs were in a sad shape from all the previous days of running and overall I was felling pretty tired. I really laid myself out there though and I think I did pretty well. My time was pretty good for what I was feeling, so I was happy with that. It was nowhere near my fastest time, but I was still really happy with it.

After the rest of the team was done we headed over to a pub to get results. The place was supposed to have a buffet for us, but all that consisted of was some bread with fries in the middle, not much of a meal really. We waited around for a while for results and while we did I got a crash course in cricket. The guys I was with were big fans and explained it to me pretty well. It really is an interesting game actually. Pretty confusing, but interesting. We got the results and headed out to find a real meal. We ended up at an American style diner that was named after Al Capone. Not really nice food or anything, but cheap and available. Those were the main two things.

Some people were getting together to play some soccer, but I was just too sore. I went to go take a shower only to find that we had no hot water. That was pretty lame. The other room had it though so I just took a shower up there. I got back and just got caught up on my journal. I had brought it with in the hopes that I could get caught on the weekend while I was there so I wouldn’t have a huge chunk of stuff to catch up on. That was nice. I also managed to get some more homework done, which was a major plus.

When everyone was back and cleaned up we went out to dinner. We stopped at this little Italian pizza place that was really good. Hot and salty. It really hit the spot. We headed over to a bar where they were having the proper awards ceremony and sat through that. I found out that I had ended up in the top half over all for the weekend so I was pretty happy about that. After that they threw a party and we spent the night there. It was a good night expect that someone had been breaking glass all over the dance floor and one of our guys fell on to it. He got a little cut which wasn’t that bad, but it wouldn’t stop bleeding. Eventually we had to take him to the hospital to get it looked at. They bandaged it up and told him to come back in the morning.

The running clubs here are very different from running back home. First of all, there is a lot more permanent attachment. For example, one of the guys who ran on our team had graduated years ago but still came along. It also wasn’t uncommon to see people in their forties or fifties in club shirts along for the ride. It was also a lot more laid back since it was run by students.

Here’s a link to some pictures and results. I was running for Imperial.

http://www.manxathletics.com/manxharriers/EFhomepage.htm

April 9th

After breakfast, the guy who had gotten cut went to the hospital for some stitches, which took a little more than hour. In that time, I got all my stuff together and got packed up. We dropped our stuff on in the lobby and headed out to find some food. We walked around and eventually headed up to Manx museum to see that all stuff and try to get some sense of the island’s history. We grabbed some food in the café there and then walked around for a bit. We watched a movie on the history of the island, which was nice. It would have been fun to be able to explore more, but I still had a really great time. Our ferry left at three in the afternoon so we went and caught that. We were kind of late getting there and so didn’t get seats on the main level and ended up sitting out on the deck. That was fairly cold. The ship was moving at about 45 miles an hour so the breeze was fairly strong. I sat out there for the trip and got a lot of reading done. I just found a nice little sheltered spot and hunkered down. It was cold, but it really wasn’t that bad.

We got back in to Liverpool and had to rush to get out train. On the way there the cab we were in actually got hit by another car. It wasn’t all that bad, but the mirror was busted and the other driver took off. Not a good way to start out trip back home. We got on out train and rode that for awhile until we had to get off and catch a bus to get on the next one. Once we got through that we caught another train and were finally back home in London. The reason that things were o screwy was because it was a bank holiday, like a federal holiday back home in the states. That meant that a lot of things were closed down, like the rail system.

We got back into London and said our goodbyes. I caught the Tube home and was back around 10:30 or so. I had a ton of emails to catch up with so I spent a few hours doing that and then went to bed.

April 10th

Work was pretty boring today. Damien was still working on his project and so he hadn’t had a chance to do any work on the stuff I needed. I messed around for a little bit and he gave me some research to, but it was really just busy work. I really wasn’t feeling well either. I had a blast this weekend, but it was really catching up to me. I was really tired from the lack of sleep and I was feeling sicker. I had gotten to the point where I have had a pretty bad cough. I’ve been coughing up some pretty nasty stuff and it has been getting worse. I asked Damien for the rest of the day off and he gave it to me. I grabbed some food and ended up sitting around for most of the afternoon. I was just exhausted on a couple of different levels really. I didn’t really accomplish much then. I made some dinner then got down to the work. I spent a couple of hours reading before Mom and Dad called and I talked to them. That was really nice.

April 11th

Today I got up coughing. I got a good night’s sleep tonight, but that didn’t seem to help that much. I did get some stuff done in the morning though. I got my resume updated so I can start sending that out soon here and I got some reading done. Other than that I wasn’t all that productive. I’m just not well at the moment I guess.


Ethno was pretty good today though. It was a pretty laid back class. We listened to a lot more music and Justin explained a lot about the subcultures that went along with some of the styles, which was pretty cool. I had another really good time. I had a pretty big break after this class because we were rehearsing a little skit in the theatre class. I went and met with my partner and we spent an hour or so memorizing out lines and getting that all done. We did pretty well and the comments were pretty positive. We still have a few things to polish up, but we should have it down pretty soon.

I came back from that and made some dinner. I was going to go do some laundry, but one of the dryers was busted and I didn’t want to wait around for a couple of hours to get all that done so I came back to the flat and got caught up on my blog. I spent about 2 hours on that before going to bed.