London 101

As it turns out, the first class  train car is just as good headed north as it is headed south. I’m home now, and, while London in all its glory is fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing it, the quiet streets of St Andrews are equally as glorious and welcomed. I had a great week with Mungo; that is, anyway, other than upon discovering he had peed on the corner of a bed whilst I wasn’t looking. Twice, mind you. Great dog sitter I am. Keep that in mind if you ever are in Spokane and need a dog sitter!

I won’t inundate you with narrative ad nauseam; just a few photos of highlights. I begin with the Major himself--Mungo Pug. We  had walks morning and afternoon in Clapham Commons, the area of Greater London where William Wilberforce and other like-minded abolitionists lived.

Between morning studying and walks and evening walks and studying,  I explored The City.

The London Eye

Trafalgar Square

In the business district, there are more men in suits on one street at any given time than I’ve ever encountered anywhere at any time. Architecturally, though, it boasts a smooth mingling of the old with the new.  I quite liked it.

St. Paul’s Cathedral from the Millennium Bridge

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. I took in Romeo and Juliet… from the yard (i.e. standing, in one place, in the sun, for far too long… but for 5 quid!) Sadly, no photos were allowed once actors took to the stage.

Harrods. I managed to walk around for twenty minutes or so. Finding a jacket I loved, I decided it was time to get back to the streets. The jacket was 500x the price of Romeo and Juliet. I’ve acquired a taste for the expensive since moving here, obviously.

Instead I wandered through the Natural History Museum. Fantastic, and free! But not fantastic because it is free. Just fantastic because it is fantastic. Fantastic in and of itself. You get the point.

The building is gorgeous, and, had I the time, the displays could have captivated my interest for the day. But Mungo wouldn’t have appreciated it. I did manage to check out the huge cross-section of a Redwood, as you can see in the upper right corner of the below photo.  Also note the dinosaur on the floor. Fantastic, I tell you!

In fact, the entire dinosaur display was fantastic. And it was even more so whence I stumbled upon this ditty:

Montana meets London!

Parliament and Big Ben. Did you know ‘Big Ben’ refers to one of the bells in the clock tower, rather than the tower itself?

St. Pancras Hotel. Beautiful!

I liked London. It is classy, ornate, contemporary, and has everything a person could want. That is, besides peace and quiet, and empty sidewalks, and roads without traffic, and the ability to walk everywhere, and the whole small town feel that makes a person raised in the woods feel sane. But besides that, London’s great!

I had a good week. And though I was ready to say goodbye to the city, I wasn’t terribly keen on bidding farewell to this guy. Knowing that departure day from Scotland is now less than two months away, it was one of many final farewells to come.

Mom and dad arrive five weeks from today. That’s five weeks of the Scotland life I’ve known for 3.5 years.

Cue the official start of Transition Time.

A First Class Life

First class is the way to travel. Having just been served lunch with a side of as much Black Forest cake and coffee as I wish, I feel a bit like royalty. Too bad the journey from St Andrews to London is only five hours. As we’re currently at Newcastle Station, I’ve got 2.5 hours to eat my fill of chocolate goodness.

I’m heading to London to spend the week looking after Cousin Mungo, while Ronald, Judith’s son, is away on a business trip. As my dear mom often reminds me, ‘It’s not what you know but who you know’. In my world it’s a bit of both, but the point is taken. I have a week ahead of playing tourist, with very nice and very free accommodation, a wee pug at my side, and a first class train ticket generously purchased by Ronald in my name to make it all happen. Am I lucky, or what? 

Cousin Mungo

It won’t be all fun and games, though. The work must still get done, particularly now that I’m down to a mere two months  before I say ‘adios’ to Scotland for good, and only six weeks before my mom and dad start flashing their passports in their race to see me. So I’ll spend my early mornings working away, followed by afternoons of London extravaganzas (i.e. walking around and taking in free or very cheap attractions), followed by evenings at home with Mungo and the computer.

The viva feels like ages ago now. My days are again consumed by early morning till late afternoon study sessions, adding, tweaking, and revising sections of the thesis. As discouraging as it is to still have things to do, I’ve been very encouraged these last few weeks, and have been reminded of God’s grace in all of my life’s pursuits. The viva examiners’ reports where strongly encouraging. One examiner wrote that my thesis is perhaps ‘more intellectually ambitious than any [he has] ever examined or supervised’. Elsewhere they called it ‘theologically ambitious’. And, because it is so ‘ambitious’, they’ve requested special permission for me to have an additional 20,000 words to use in order to sustain the argument. That means that I don’t have to take out anything from the current thesis but that my thesis ultimately will be 100,000 words when it would have been the standard 80,000 words—a huge increase.  The beautiful thing is that, everything they’ve requested I add to the thesis now is what I had already anticipated adding for publication purposes at a later date.  I’m just being forced to do it now rather than then—a long-term benefit to me.

And in the midst of trying to wrap up things here in the United Kingdom, I’m increasingly looking forward to my transition to Spokane. How can I not do so, when I get notes like these from future colleagues:

‘Let it be a comfort to you to remember that you're coming into a maximally supportive situation here at Whitworth and in our department.  Everyone is rooting for you. . . . There's no doubt that you're going to flourish once you arrive here’.

And: ‘We're excited for you to arrive. There is quite a buzz among the students about you!’

Changes are afoot!  I’m riding first class on a train, but I’m pretty sure I’m also living a first class life.

As ever, stay tuned for photos of Londonland!

England

As promised, here are a few photos from my time in England a couple of weekends ago. England is a beautiful country and, in particular, York and Durham are two beautiful English cities.

My time in each was very short, but I got a small taste of both. You’ll see from the photos that the sun decided to shine during my time in York and retreated during my time in Durham.

This is York Minster, another stunningly elaborate European cathedral.

 

York is home to one of the most photographed streets in the UK: The Shambles. I do it no justice with my photography, but neither did it inspire me as one might suppose it would given its popularity.

The Old City of York is beautiful, though, and a place I would enjoy spending more time exploring.

After leaving York I caught a train north to Durham, where my supervisor served as an Anglican Bishop in his previous life. The weather was horrid less than pleasant during my six hours in the town, so I spent quite a lot of time sitting in and exploring the cathedral. It was a good thing it was a Sunday. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed inside. This is the view from the rail station. My short time there was enjoyable, despite the weather, and not least due to its connections to Professor Wright.

Here’s one shot of the Old City streets of Durham when the sideways rain had stopped for 30 seconds.

The United Kingdom really does have some gems in it.

The Land of Leprechauns

Thanks for all the emails and messages of congratulations and well-wishes!

In less exciting news, I’ve done a spot of traveling recently. After submitting the thesis I made a quick weekend trip to England, and then last Wednesday, one week ago today, I added country #27 to my slowly expanding list: Ireland. (You know life is good when traveling to a new country is less exciting than something else!) Along with leprechauns, gold, and four-leaf clovers, Ireland is the home of two strikingly handsome cousins: Levi and Luke… and their parents Justin and Jessica. We Goransons have some pretty great genes, wouldn’t you say? 

Because I’m still here, I’ll make this post about my time in Ireland and do a subsequent post with some photos of England.

I’ve been in Ireland for one week today and, sadly, will say ‘goodbye’ to my newly introduced cousins tomorrow. But it has been a great week, filled with all kinds of adventures: from exploring ancient monastic ruins and touring Dublin to re-entering the chaotic magical world(s) of toddlers. Forget the pot of gold; here in Ireland and in this home, silence is golden.

Here are a few sights/experiences from my time here in neighbouring Ireland:

Other than meeting my wee cousins for the first time and reuniting with Justin and Jessica, one of the highlights of my time here came on the first day. I managed to squeeze onto a tour of three significant biblical papyri, P45-47, at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. These three papyri, which are (respectively) the four Gospels and Acts, the collection of Paul’s letters, and sections of Revelation, are some of the oldest extant manuscripts of the New Testament texts, dating back to c. 200-400 AD. That’s nearly two thousand years ago, people. Two thousand. Pretty cool. Photos weren’t allowed, as you can imagine, but here’s a link to the website if you want to see what they looked like.

This is St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It is smaller than most, but the  banners overhanging the choir stalls and the tiled floor add a colourful dimension not often found in Europe’s cathedrals.

One of the many bridges of Dublin at sunset.

This is at Trinity College, where the Book of Kells—a Latin copy of the four Gospels—resides. It was  created in c. 800 A.D. by monks on Iona, one of the western Scottish islands, before being moved to various places in Ireland when Viking invaders crushed the monastic community on Iona. Photos weren’t allowed, but trust me when I say, the Book of Kells is a stunning masterpiece, especially considering the when and where of its creation.

This is the Old Library at Trinity College. There were old books, old books, and more old books.

One of the stained glass windows at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, which is otherwise unworthy of mention.

My hosts have graciously taken me on several smaller outings during my stay here, but the big outing of our time together was last Saturday. It was, weather-wise, one of the most beautiful days of my time here across the Irish Sea. With an un-Irish early start, we wound our way to Glendalough (‘Valley of Two Lakes’), a village nestled in the Wicklow Mountains just south of Dublin. There a monastic community was formed some 1500-odd years ago, part of which still exists, at least in fabric if not in function.

Graveyard and chapel with Glencalo Valley in the background.

Lower Glendalough Lake

Goransons reunite!

I’ve had a wonderful time here in the Land of Leprechauns, reuniting with family and meeting some of its newest—and certainly wildest—members.

Stay tuned for some sights of York and Durham next!

Glacier National Park: Iceberg Lake

On day three of the trip, we woke up wondering what had happened to our young and strong 30-year-old-ish bodies.  They didn’t feel quite that young and strong anymore.  No matter, there were trails to hike, mountains to climb, glaciers to explore, and I wasn’t about to let cramping muscles stop us.  Jack didn’t have a choice in the matter.  So upward we went, again, this time on a 10-mile round-trip trail up to what must be the most beautiful lake in the lower-48 States: Iceberg Lake. 
Before arriving at the trailhead for the day, this was the Lake Sherburne scene that greeted us on our entrance into the Many Glacier region.

Like the Grinnell Glacier trail, the route up to Iceberg Lake included a significant elevation gain.  It felt a whole lot harder than the day before.

Unlike the Grinnell Glacier trail, however, the trail up to Iceberg Lake didn’t have the same diversity of terrain and views along the way, but the scene at the end made up for that lack.

Iceberg Lake, in all its glory.

A man of some European variety (simple deduction, folks) throwing an iceberg chunk into the lake.

Some people were crazy enough to swim out to a floating berg, Jack was brave enough to stand in the water for a few seconds, and I was happy to take pictures from the warmth of the rocks on the shore. 
You decide who’s the smartest of the three.

The following day we drove over the Going-to-the-Sun Road from East to West Glacier.  I may or may not have taken this photo while driving on the narrow road with a 1,000’ drop-off on the edge. Ahem.

And this one…

Gorgeous views. 

The water in the rivers at the base of the mountains was as bright and blue and beautiful as it was at the tops.  Glacier National Park definitely has the cleanest water of any National Park I’ve yet seen in my travels.  If only it wasn’t so cold!

Our time in Glacier was short lived, but I’m glad we included it in the trip.  Next up, Yellowstone and the Coolest Small Town in America!

Glacier National Park: Grinnell Glacier

On day one of the trip we drove 17 hours to Havre, Montana, including a tour through Roosevelt National Park. On day two, I dragged Jack on an 11 mile round-trip trail with a 1,600’ vertical ascent up to Grinnell Glacier.  At the five-mile-mark, having been 5,000’ lower in elevation only the day before, he was reconsidering his decision to join me on the journey.   

Swiftcurrent Lake

Lower Glacier Lake nestled below the granite peaks.

Fireweed.

A number of waterfalls line the highline trail to the glacier.  This one required a bit of rerouting.

Lower Grinnell Lake, in all its aqua beauty.

Indian Paintbrush, the Wyoming State Flower.

We hiked past a number of Bear Grass patches along the way.

And, finally, with more than a few heave-ho’s along the way, we finally arrived at Grinnell Glacier…

… or what’s left of it.  The National Park Service predicts that many of the Glacier National Park glaciers will be nearly completely melted by 2020.  That’s not long, folks.

The Grinnell Glacier trail was definitely a highlight of the entire trip and one I would gladly do again, with or without a glacier at the summit.