eRic's travels

leaving rome

2006-11-12T00:23:00.000-08:00

i'm headed to the airport in just a few mins. I fly to london today, and then home tomorrow. I think i'm going to go to hillsong church tonight. I havent been to church since i left the BBC group in northern england. I'll be home monday night around 8.

ostia antica

2006-11-09T11:56:00.000-08:00

I went to ostia anica today! I didnt know it would be quiet so big. Ostia was a port city about 20 miles outside of rome and it has been relatively well preserved over the years. I think it is mouch more interesting that the roman forum or the palantine hill. I spent the day looking at the ruins. when I came back i went to st peter in chains church. Supposedly it has the chains that peter wore while in prison. What is really cool about it is Moses, a sculpture made by michalangelo. I had a good look at it and then came back to the hostel for the night. Tomorrow i am going to pompey for the day to have a look at the city. Pompey was covered in ash when a volcano erupted a couple of thousand of years ago. Its supposed to be a pretty amazing sight so i am looking forward to it. 3 more days and i come home.

pope and roman stuff

2006-11-08T10:21:00.000-08:00

I saw the pope today. Me and Dee got up at like 7 to go get a good seat. it started at 10:30 so that wait sucked.......but the pope was looking sharp and it was fun to see him.
after the pope we went to the best pizza place in rome, it really is. I stuffed my face and then me and dee parted ways, she went shopping and i went to the coloseum. The coloseum is awesome. its crazy to think they could makes stuff like that 2000 years ago. after the coloseum i went off to see the palantine hill and the forum. both are neat to see but the do such a poor job marking them and the audio guid sorta lacked. Still it was awesome to see. i sepnt 15 mins or so in the prison where peter and paul were held prisoner. very small little prison.....I have always pictured there prison as the prison alladin is in, the cartoon. really big vaulted ceilings and chains. it wasnt like that, i will have to show everyone pictures when i get back. after all that i went to get some gelato and burger king, and see the trevi fountain. all of that equaled about a 12 hour day or so. tooooo long. i will blog again tomorrow......I am especialy excited to come home and meet bow wow wauer. bauer is a puggle puppy and we are related in some way i am told so that is exciting.

When in Rome.....

2006-11-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

see the pope! I have a ticket to see the pope tomorrow. I dont atticipate this being paticularly meaningful, but, as the saying goes. After that i am off to see the coloseum and the rest of the roman stuff. should be good.
Over the past day I have made friends with Dee, who is from Austrailia, and Daniel, who is a interior designer from malaysia. We went to the vatican and st Peters basilica today. Vatican, not that cool really. Sisteen chapell is amazing, but othere than that its just alot of art, and i am getting a bit tired of that. St. Petes was amazing. It dwarfs any of the other churchs i have seen. Michalangelos pieta is paticularly awe inspiring.
Rome was really warm today. I love being able to walk around the city in a t-shirt. It makes for a refreshing afternoon. It also made pizza on the sidewalk that much better. Dee introduced me and danial to the best little pizza place. Sooooooh good. We are going back tomorrow, for lunch.
I miss everyone. I am ready for football and my over seasoned food. I like american food so much more than anything over here. We just take there food and make it better. At least we add seasoning of some sort, which for me is better. i will post another blog in a day or so.

chau

Florence

2006-11-05T06:16:00.000-08:00

I went to the Uffizzi art museum this morning!!! I was a little bored. I forget that i dont paticularly like that art all that much. Its the best rennassaince art, but i can only look for so long.
After the museum I went to get some gelato. great ice cream, but kinda expensive. I might do it again in rome. After ice cream and a sandwich i went to academia to see dave, the statue of david, and loved that. Its a bigger statue than i was expecting probably 12 or 15 feet high. after staring a the large nude giant slayer i walked around for a bit. Florence is really pretty. small cobble stone streets and lots of shopping. I am going to see the bargello tomorrow and walk around a bit more and then i will be off to rome. I am wishing i included Venice in my trip. I think i might try to make it down to pompei for a bit sometime this week. I think 5 days in rome is too long. Thats it for today.

culture shock el numero 3

2006-11-04T14:01:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm done with paris. I had a great week with my dad. We laughed, told stories, discussed the first and second world war about a half dozen times. We also went to a ton of great museums, the louvre, Orsay, the eifle tower, arch de triumph, the beaches of normandy etc. It was a good week. Today I have been on 2 trains for about 12 hours. I almost missed both. So I'm in Florence at my hostel, and ready to see the city tomorrow. I'm on a timed internet password so this is a short one, but i'll be back on tomorrow. I miss Nashville.

Leaving le London

2006-10-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

I leave London tomorrow morning. I'm ready to move one honestly. I have exausted most of the free things here. Lots of museums are free, but i only need to see them once. I'm excited to move on to paris! Being with my dad will be fun. I am preparing myself for some history lectures. For those of you who didnt know my dad was a history major. Many a saturday afternoon after a soccer game did i spend listening to my dad talk about Napoleonic warfare, the blitzkrieg, D-day, the causes of world war I/II, the Greeks, the Romans and so on. He is interesting to listen to and its just fun to hear people talk about things that they really love. I have to keep everything low stress for my dad. He can go a little balistic from time to time, especialy if frustrated. I think i am most excited about the beaches of Normandy. Mostly, it will just be nice to share the experience with someone. London has been great, but i am ready to laugh with someone other than myself and tell my stories to someone other than this blog page. Tomorrow is a low key day, I just need to meet up with my dad in Paris.

Its been 2 days

2006-10-26T14:06:00.000-07:00

its been 2 days since i blogged. Yesterday i went to Saint Pauls. Really pretty and man thats alot of steps to the top of the freaking dome. I liked it alot, i've seen several churches in England and that one was maybe the most beautiful. I'm gonna see several more in Paris, Florence and Rome, so I'm curiouse how they all compare. After Saint Pauls I went to the Tower of London. Not my favorite, kinda boring but the crown jewels are there and its a must see. Next it was the London Bridge. Again that ok, I wouldnt go up it again but its neat to do that stuff. Then i was off to see Charlton play Bolton. I had to take the tube and then a buss out past greenwich. Great game and a cheap ticket, it was only £15.
That was Yesterday. Today I woke up and went to the National Gallery. Lots of good paintings there but my favorite were the impressionist. Lots of Money, Manet, Surrat, Van Gogh, and several others. just a couple of picaso, like one or two. After that i went to the british museum. Kinda disapointing. I saw the rosetta stone, that was cool. Its just a lot of pots and stuff like that. I get tired of that, i dont care if is an assyrian pot, babilonian pot or whoever. so after that i came down to St. Martins church to see a small concert. It was a string Ensemble performing Vivaldi, Handel, Bach, Motzart, I think thats it. It was nice. I got to sit and just relax.
Tomorrow I am goiing to see the Tate Modern and the imperial war museum. I am about out of London stuff to do after that. I think Sunday I might take a train down to Dover and Canterbury. Not for sure, and i need to get some laundry done.

Right, left, and right again

2006-10-24T12:17:00.000-07:00

Since i last blogged i have seen Rock You. Kinda weird, not what I expected. It was good, sorta. It is set like a hundred years in the future, and some guy, Galileo Figuro has to save the world of bad boy band music. Kinda a lame plot or story if you ask me. They used queen music and the singers were great, but it wasnt the greatest thing in the world.
Anyway, that was last night and today has been a good day. I woke up and went to buckingham palace. Its a bit anti-climactic. Its big, looks nice. Thats about it. I then went to the Winston Chuchhill, Cabinet War rooms. Pretty interesting! its sorta in the same vain as the holocaust museum in DC, not as big and not quite as cool or moving. After that i went to see Big ben and Parlamount. I just looked at it. Again its big, that about it. I wasnt moved enough to want to sit in on any of parlamounts meetings or debates, so i just walked across the river. I went to the globe (replica of the shakespearse theater). They arent doing plays until may, so i just went on a tour. I liked that alot, it was really neat to get a feel for what that place was like. I finished my day up by going to the british Library. I saw the Magna Carta, Some of the really early Bibles (codex or whatever), Davinci was in there, and a bunch of othere stuff. so it was a good day, lots of walking.
Tomorrow I will see St. Pauls, the london bridge, tower of London, and then try to get a ticket to see charlton play football. Charlton is a premiership team, they play Bolton who is a descent team. Neither team has a star player that i am awear of but it will be cool to see some good soccer. Well, that it for today. Hope everything is good back in the US.

Oxford, Bath, and London

2006-10-23T10:30:00.000-07:00

Since I last updated my blog I have been to Oxford, Bath, and now London. Oxford sucked, was not impressed. I'm sure that many a scholar has studied there but it just isnt fun to visit. This is partly because it was sunday and much of the university was closed. Heavy rain also dampened my visit. get it? it rained and it dampened my visit. I did eat at the eagle and child which is a restaraunt C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien Frequented during there days at Oxford.
Bath was an interesting place. I walked up to see the crescent and Circus, which are Massive georgian style homes. Beautiful architecutre, really stunning. I went to check out the Roman Baths this morning and which was awesome. The Romans made a temple around a hot spring in Bath, so there is a natural Hot bath right there in the city with Roman architecture surrounding.
I decided to leave bath early (around noon) and head to London. It was super easy to find my Hostel (hooray) and its in a primo location. I am not exagerating when I say I could het the british Museum with a rock from the front door. Once I got checked in I walked over to the British Museum just to check it out. Its huge, as big as any museum in the US, Smithsonian size. I didnt realize that it was such an awesome museum, I'm glad that my hostel is so close. Whith my free evening I decided to make my way to the theater district and catch a cheap play. Les Miserables was my first choice but they werent selling single tickets. I decided that Rock You would be a good London show. Rock You is a Queen show. I guess they use Queens Music with story and drama. I'm across the street from the theater right now, so i'll find out when the show starts at 7:30 (current time 6:40). After the show i will make my way back to the Hostel and get some shut eye. I think I'm gonna see Buckingham, Westminster, Big Ben, Parlamount, and the Cabinet War Rooms tomorrow.
I do miss my friends, my bed, phone calls to my mom, and football games with Ben and Brian. My trip so far has been a mix of exploration, fun, and lonliness. I am enjoying my time by myself, but I am already looking forward to Paris with my dad. This part of the trip feels so hedonistic. It is strange coming from the first portion of the trip with BBC at All Saints, when we were just doing what was needed. it was hardwork and you just felt that you were apart of something big at times. Right now this is just about me. I think it is a time of growth in my own life, which will eventualy lead to greater ministry, deeper knowledge and faith. blah, blah, blah. I am going to spend some time seeing how my local sports teams have done, checking emails and myspace. I love comments and emails, reminds me of home

P.S. some of my friends gave me some prayer cards, 6 cards i believe, to open throughout the trip. I have gone through 4 or 5 and have loved them all. Thankyou so much for prayers, thoughts and something tangible to remember home. Thankyou in paticular to Emily, I have really enjoyed that gift.

America wins on European soil!!!

2006-10-21T15:43:00.000-07:00

for those of you who werent paying attention during the world cup, it was often talked about how the US had not won a world cup game on European soil, i did my best to change that today. I got to play with the All Saints Church team, and we won 5-2. I had little to do with it, but it was really fun to be out there with grown men who loved and understood soccer. They play 90 min's and you only get 3 subs. you dont get to come on and off, once you come off you are out for the game.
The rest of the day was playing with kids in the name of Jesus. I do hope that they understand that we do it because we love them and ultimately because God loves us all. Its so hard, the culture has whiped out the christian faith. You really have to start from scratch with kids. One reason why we partner with churches is because we hopefully establish relationships and then leave them with a church that can help desciple them minister to them.
Its bitter sweet. We all love these people and this community, but its been a tough week. our pace has been pretty extreme and we are all tired. Some part of me is ready to come home and sleep in my own bed. I am only a quarter of the way through, and i have to take advantage of my time.

Inspired to see the world!

Friziday

2006-10-20T16:01:00.000-07:00

Friday was a good day. lets see, got up and walked to school with tim in the rain. Cold and wet is the norm this time of year, so i am told. Me and our group did an assembly, and then i came back to all saints church. Our entire group met back at the church to plan out all of our days lessons and assemblies. I led a group back to egglescliff to play games at lunch and tell kids about our friday night coffee house. We had fun playing blob tag and some name games.
After that we went to Tesco, their version of Walmart, to buy lunch for the group. We had the rest of the afternoon to plan. I helped set up the coffee house and then played games, sang songs, and helped do a lesson for 9-14 yr olds. I was Jesus in the our little skit (jesus heals the blind man) Its good to get kids to hear those stories because they wont know anything about the gospels otherwise.
NOTE: Sara Beth lead the talk for the kids, she was awesome. She has done such a great job on this trip. Very glad she got to come.
The coffee house in the evening went well enough. dissapointed we didnt have a few more kids that arent church kids, but it was good none the less.
Tomorrow I am going to play some more football. I'm excited to play! i'll get to play forward and try to score a goal or two. How Great Would That Be? I must get my beauty sleep for tomorrows game. We have one last day to do ministry in the afternoon. be thinking about us.

Thursday is after that other day

2006-10-19T15:33:00.000-07:00

hello friends! Thursday was another good day. I woke up ate some breakfast and walked to school with Tim. Host families son. Tim is cool. Me and two othere students went to do an assembly. We just had a few minuetes to talk about moral decisions that kids will have to make. We presented the idea that christians use the bible to sort of help guide us through life and make some things a little clearer and easier for us. They listened, all you can ask for really. Afternoon was a tea time a country town hall. Older people were there. I sang a song, two actualy. sorta sucked, felt bad about that. I dont really do alot outside of worship stuff anymore and honestly i am always struggling to think of things to play especially when it is a group of 60 year olds. they appreciated it. Can you imagine living alone and not having anyone to talk to for days or weeks at a time?
The rest of the day was pretty easy, i went back to egglescliff school to talk to kids on their lunch break and tell them about some stuff happening at church. hopefully a few come.
We met with some people from church in the evening and then went to have a bite to eat. Tomorrow is something similiar. I think we have a coffee shop sorta deal in the evenning. Should be fun. Pray for us, some good things are happening.

Sleep

2006-10-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

anyong everyone. thats hi in arrested developemont. I had been praying for sleep for a couple of days. I was really having a diffecult time falling asleep because of Jet lag and stress. Last night the group ventured out to York for our freeday. I slept until 10:30, so i got 10 hours of sleep. I could have slept until 1 or so i think. i feel so much better. I feel ready to work really hard for another couple of days. York was great, York Minster is a beautiful church, very big. its a fun little city with lots of cute shops. A day off in the middle of the week has been great. kinda breaks up the trip and lets of recover from a busy first couple of days. We rarely know what we are going to do more than a day ahead of time which is a stress in itself. I feel we have done well with our opportunities so far. Please pray for strength over the next 3 days. We have several oppotunities to engage students and the community.

Monday morning

2006-10-16T11:05:00.000-07:00

Me and 3 of our students went to a school in Middlesbrough. Its one of the really low employment areas in England so its a pretty rough group of students. We were working in a Religious education class with classes at 9:00. 10:00, 11:15, and 12:15. For the most part I sang a song "It is well" for the kids, then moved into an icebreaker of sorts. After that we would ask the kids what they had been learning and maybe talked about that a bit and then we moved into telling our testimonies. To finish everything off we broke into groups and showed the kids pictures of life in America. These kids dont know anyone that calls themself a christian, as most maybe one person or someone that goes to a christian school. It's really hard to feel like you are making a dent in an hour with these kids. I think if nothing else they get to see that christians are normal people, we a quirky like them, we play sports, go to dances etc. Hopefully they eventually get linked to othere christians or a church.
Some of our othere groups had good days! that is encouraging! We are getting tired already. I need to get some sleep bad. I havent been able to get a great night sleep yet. Hopefully i can sleep through the night tonight.
pray for us, we are working with students Tuesday, Thursday and friday.

Sunday

2006-10-15T15:02:00.000-07:00

a big thing that i wrote about the whitbey abbey didnt make it up! dont know what happened. Today was sunday which means church day. i went to poortrack baptist church, a very small poorer church, to help lead younger children. we played games and sang silly songs, they sorta liked it. they liked the games. the singing was not their favorite. After pootrack I came home for a bit to take a nap, and then was back to All Saints church. I had a worship service that was really nice. Me and sara beth did the music stuff together and we did a prayer experience as a congragation. Linc did a great job speaking on temptation out Mathew 4 i believe. it was a great night at the church.
Me and 3 of our students are off to talk to kids about Jesus. I think we have 4 classes to do. we will talk about ourselves life in america and some moral or spiritual issues. Stuff like sex before marriage, reading the bible, maybe why is church too boring, whatever comes up really. Pray for us, it is a great opportunity but a bit intimadating. i'm tired, and need some sleep.

2006-10-14T17:14:00.000-07:00

pictures from saturday

2006-10-14T16:26:00.000-07:00

everything was great but......

2006-10-13T11:34:00.000-07:00

I have safely arrived in England!! on the count of 3 say weeeeeeeeee. 1-2-3...... All is well except i didnt get my bag. You know, my bag with my underwear and clothes and all that stuff. I have all of my really important stuff, guitar, money, passport, with me and the airport says they will try to get me my bag by tomorrow, I doubt it, but it's a start. Aside from not getting my bag, I had a lovely trip. The flight was about as painless as I could have hoped for and i found the rest of my group as soon as they made it to the airport. So here I am sitting at my host families house playing on the computer. They fed me well and now i am ready for bed. Tomorrow i will hopefully play some football (soccer), for the church team, and after that we are off to see Whitby abbey. Everyone say a quick prayer for my bag, cause life would be significantly easier with it.

the first post

2006-10-10T22:24:00.000-07:00

hello my sweet friends!!! i have never blogged before....scary, seems like a good time to start. I'm gonna try to get to a computer as frequently as possible. I am super pumped about my trip to Europe and if you want to see how my trip is going check out my blog. You are all loved and I will miss you.