Win Rugby Match and Complete Project... check and check!

Just after being named Rugby League Varsity Champions!!!

Oh wow, a lot has happened in the last three weeks. And man have they been exhausting. Immediately upon returning from Switzerland, I was thrown full speed into my senior design project that I had been working hard on prior to Easter break. However, now was crunch time and there was a lot to do. It was to be in on May 4th with an hour long presentation on May 3rd. However to top it off, we had our Rugby League Varsity Match, like the Civil War, against Nottingham Trent university the night prior to the presentation, May 2nd. This game is hailed as the biggest of the year and your fellow students care not that you made it to the national quarterfinals, it is the result of the Varsity match that everyone remembers. So between studying, I also jumped straight into the hardest workout sessions and training we had done all year. Needless to say, the weekend after handing in our project, I did a little bit of celebrating but a whole lot of relaxing. I have done very little and have watched a number of movies, taking an equal number of naps; it has been incredible.



We handed the project in on Friday a couple hours prior to its official hand in A453 corridor, a 10 mile stretch of highway that needed expansion to a two lane road with intersection redesign, pavement design, roadway alignment, and a full design of a concrete overpass, the lattermost being my baby for the last 2 months. I designed a 30m (95ft) prestressed concrete overpass which involved designing the beams, the abutments, wing walls, piling and pile cap foundation. Not a big deal, right? So after 65 pages of hand calculations, a 20-page report, a couple late nights and some early mornings, I was glad to hand a ream of paper in to the civil engineering office on campus and call it a day. Yeehaw for finishing up the culmination of my engineering college career.


Although the project was exciting to finish and partake in, the more important of events during the week was the varsity match. This match would provide bragging rights for the coming year and show our peers what an amazing team we have created this year. The 2nd’s team played first and created some nerves for our game as they got crushed on the pitch by Nottingham Trent’s 2nd team who were all about 6ft tall or larger and at least 200lbs apiece. However, when we got on the pitch for our match under the light of the setting sun, we showed Nottingham Trent how Rugby League is played. We kicked off to them and I was proud to make the first tackle of the match. The hits were hard and the intensity was high but we drew first blood early on and it became a one sided game with some of the toughest and most complete rugby we have played all year. Our defense never faltered and crushed their ball carriers over and over again. Tempers flared with Trent giving a number of cheap shots include one guy punching me in the face after I tackled him, unfortunately blackening my eye. The final score was 34-8 and we were named Varsity Rugby League Champions in front of all our cheering friends. It was a great feeling and a privilege to play with such a quality team all year. Unfortunately, near the end of the game, on a fast break I was tackled from the side and badly sprung my ankle leaving me hobbling for the next week. I had a black eye, cuts across my face from the hard earth and went to my presentation the next day looking like I had just left a bar fight.
From here on out, my days will consist of studying for my finals and trying to enjoy my last 5 weeks here in England.


Celebrating post Victory with my good buddy Phil.


A little bit of a souvenirs from an opponent and the concrete hard ground.


Springtime on campus.

Switzerland Baby!!!

Hey Everyone,

Switzerland is AMAZING! I just returned home from one week of absolute fun exploring the Swiss Alps and meeting all sorts of crazy people in the warmest weather of the year, at a sweltering 85F. Between international hitchhiking, driving mopeds and ‘fun cars’, to chopping firewood for rent whilst fending off our flirtatious hostel owner, this was one crazy trip.

It all started with flying to Geneva, Switzerland to meet my friend, Jordan Roerig, from Oregon State, who just graduated in March and is doing some traveling before starting work. We had plans to nip over to Annecy, France for a night and then head to central Switzerland for some hiking and adventuring in the Bern Oberland Region in Interlaken. We headed to France early on the first full day of our vacation and soon realized that public transport was expensive and that different modes of transport may become necessary. We arrived in Annecy and began exploring what I would consider the Venice of France. There were canals running through this ancient town set on a lake at the base of the French Alps. We explored throughout the day and eventually rented bikes to ride to the end of the lake and back, a mere 40km. We ended up finding a room at a hostel for the night and decided to stay in town for the evening. At the hostel, we met a group sponsored by the Rotary club who was traveling around Europe. We quickly made friends with them upon finding out that their next destination was Geneva, our planned destination for the following day. Jordan’s dad being rotary club president and my ability to BS with the best of them promised us a ride to the Swiss border… or so we were told. Instead of the 4 miles from Geneva, the driver dropped us off at the main highway back to Geneva, 20 miles away, due to insurance reasons. So, the true hitchhiking began. However, two rides later we were in Geneva.


Picking up rides one handed where the coach dropped us off, in front of a toll road station.

From Geneva, we took the train to Interlaken, costing a cool 50 bucks a piece each way. Thus, we bought a one-way ticket in hopes of thumbing it back to Geneva the following week. The train ride across the Swiss countryside was very beautiful, especially as we came closer and closer to the Alps. We finally arrived in Interlaken at the land bridge between two massive lakes and at the base of even larger mountains. We knew right then and there that the next four days were going to be incredible.


Interlaken from the air.

We checked in to our hostel, the Happy Inn Lodge, and starting exploring our town. The hostel did not have a kitchen so we were lucky enough to meet a couple of girls in the grocery store from another hostel who were purchasing food to cook dinner with. So, we cunningly invited ourselves to their hostel to use their kitchen, which we would end up using again the second night uninvited. Hey, with exchange rates at all time lows, a man’s gotta save money wherever he can. We returned to our hostel and met up with Zach and Eddie, two other Oregon Staters on holiday post graduation. That night we partied it up in our hostel’s bar that was hosting great live music that attracted the whole town. Great live music, Swiss beer, and Cuban cigars made for a superb evening.

The next day we decided to rent mopeds and drive up into the hills and get a better view. Because I lost my wallet at the very beginning of the year, see earlier post, I was unable to legally rent a moped. So, Zach and Eddie rented mopeds and Jordan rented a fun car in which I was a passenger. However we just traded around for the next five hours. Between a flat moped tire and the exhaust dropping off the fun car, (which I was luckily able to just fix), the drive though the Alps was nothing short of incredible. God is Amazing! His creation is breathtaking.





"I get 70 miles to the gallon on this hog." Dumb and Dumber anyone? Returning to town to get a new moped post flat tire.

That night in town, due to lack of live music, we ended up crawling from pub to pub, intending for an earlier night than usual. We eventually ended up in what we though would be a cool pub but soon reconsidered when we found every person in the pub was 16 or 17 yrs old, the former being the legal drinking age in Switzerland. After much joking, I eventually got the bright idea to challenge the biggest 16yr old in the room to an arm wrestling contest for a round of beers for my buddies. I beat the big fella but only after he haggled me down to a bet of only one beer. We spent the rest of the night hanging with our new pre-pubescent friends learning about the young Swiss culture.

The next day we went paragliding with some instructors. We ran off a hill 3000ft above Interlaken and floated down to the city, catching some thermals and making some extreme turns on the way. It was amazing. We landed right in the center of the city after experiencing unmotorized flight and enjoying unparralled views of the Alps. That afternoon Jordan and I said goodbye to the other Beav’s and hitchhiked about 10 miles up to the trailhead that would take us to our mountain hostel. We hiked for about an hour along with Kahn, the guy who picked us up, and arrived at the Gondola station, the only way to get to Gimmelwald, Switzerland. Mountain hostel was the most amazing location for lodging, looking directly at the Eiger and Jungfrau, two of the most famous mountains in Switzerland, the former’s North Face being the inspiration for the company of the same name. We walked into the hostel and were met with a wink from a smiling woman. On the way in we saw a sign looking for healthy young men with ‘six packs’ to work out and get paid for it. The hostel had just chopped down a tree and needed it split into firewood for the wood fire hot tub. We told them we split wood for fun in Oregon and went to work. After about 2-3 hrs, we had the tree split and stacked and were drinking one of our many complimentary beers and contemplating our amazing opportunity to earn rent for the next two days. We soon found that we had gained the attention of a married Swiss Hostel owner whom fancied strong young men. The rest of the weekend consisted of coy comments from Petra to the amusement of Walter, her witty husband. We spent the next two days relaxing, enjoying many more free beers, hiking, and enjoying the wood fire hot tub all while looking upon beautiful mountains. Between Petra, the views and the yogurt and fondue made in a hut next door, I will definitely be back.


Enjoying Schilthorn creek

We finished our trip by hitchhiking 125 miles back to Geneva. It took 7 rides and avoiding some corrupt cops to make it back to Geneva. Some cops stopped us and hassled us for being on the highway. Long story short, they kept asking for money in return for not fining us and it was eventually resolved after we learned that one of the offices had spent 6 months at Lewis and Clark College, 2 minutes from my home in Portland. Small world. In Geneva, for our last night, we met Karine, originally of France, our Couchsurfing.com host who we met via the said website and opened her home to two scrubby America travelers. She served us an amazing meal of French sausage, bread, salad, and an amazing quiche. That beat the pants off the spaghetti I had been mastering the last few nights. We spent the evening sipping wine and talking of music tastes, what home is like, and sharing fun stories. It was the perfect end to an amazing trip.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

Sincerely,

Travelin Al

P.S. (Click the photos for bigger mountains and bigger smiles...)


Petra, our fantastic hostel host!


The view of Lauterbrunnen on the moped!


The view when I awoke through the mountain hostel window.


Swiss Alps!!!

Mom Abroad..

Soon to come

Long Awaited and Long Winded

Howdy Ya'll,

Well it has been a long while since I have updated and as could be expected alot has occurred since my last post. I finished up final exams, skied in Austria, got back into rugby and we won our league just last Wednesday. First of all, finals went fine, all but one exam was not too difficult, with the one excluded being difficult to not enough time spent in preparation for it. I will receive my results in just a couple days. But on to more exciting things.

Finals week lasts 2 weeks here and I was finished on the Monday of the 2nd week. So what else could I do but book a trip to Austria. As seen some posts back, I booked a flight to Salzburg, Austria, from where I traveled to Kitzbuhel, Austria to spend 3 days skiing with my good friend Eduardo. When in line to board the plane in Nottingham, we met a trio of snowboarders who were traveling and staying in the same place as we were. They were catching a ride from the hostel owner at the airport, so we decided to jump in on that deal and save everyone a bit of money and about 2.5 hrs in traveling. The train, strangely enough, takes that much longer to get to the same destination, given the mountainous terrain. We met our the hostel owner outside of the baggage claim and were faced with a very disgruntled looking man. We jumped in his beat up VW bus painted army green and listened for the first 15 minutes of the ride about why Dave, the owner, got very little sleep the night before with a rowdy guest waking him up throughout the night wanting to fight. Of course every other word could not be read in church and Dave made sure we were aware of his blunt personality right from the start. It was amazing. The hostel was very nice though and we ended up greatly enjoying our time there.

The skiing was pretty good however it had only recently snowed for the first time in a month and any off-piste runs we took, we would be skiing on the grass of the meadows underneath. Needless to say, my ski's are well trashed all over again similar to my Val Disere trip. It snowed the entire third night we were there and throughout the next day and our final day, although hampered by often white out conditions, consisted of knee deep powder all day long. Kitzbuhel had some fantastic runs and, most of all, was completely forested with fir trees, making it very similar to skiing in Oregon. It was strange at how exhilarated I became while skiing simply because of the landscape and its incredible similarity to home. I will be returning to Kitzbuhel one day, without a doubt.

Off the slopes, we were lucky to be in Kitzbuhel during the weekend that we were. Not only was the Hahnekaam race scheduled, one of the most difficult and notorious ski races in the world, but some of the hostel owner's best buddies were in town and the owner put on a huge BBQ for the 20 or so guests. We had a huge BBQ and bonfire right on main street of Kitzbuhel and a whole bunch of free beverages all provided by Dave. It was a great time hanging out with all of the other travelers and snow riders and we made every passer-byer jealous with our huge bonfire while it was well below freezing and snowing throughout the night. Due to the race, there were an additional 60,000 people in the town of 8,000, so needless to say, the place was buzzing. On Saturday, the main day of racing, the streets were rammed with people drinking beer and mulled wine, dancing to the music being played throughout the streets. It was something that you would only find in Europe. It was an absolute blast to just people watch and enjoy the festivities.
Returning to England, I was faced with a new term of classes but most of all, the upcoming week had 3 rugby games schedule, all being against strong and aggressive teams. The first two, against Oxford and Cambridge, were both losses which could be attributed to the fact that our team had not practiced in almost 2 months, whereas both opposing squads had not had finals recently and had been getting in shape and practicing throughout the last three weeks. Given the circumstances, we played really well, barely losing the games by last minute scores by the opposing teams. Luckily, Cambridge was only a friendly match up and did not count on our record. However, the most important game came last Wednesday against Loughborough. We were faced with a do-or-die situation in that we needed to beat Loughborough to clinch league championship and gain a berth for the playoffs. If we lost, our season would, ultimately, be over. We showed up for the game ready and willing and played some of the best rugby of the season. A week and a half of rugby had built a fair bit of fitness in our team and we played much stronger than in the past two games. It was spectacular weather, being a frigid 35F or 2C, and crystal clear without a cloud in the sky. It was a beautiful victory and a proud day for every player. From here, we will be placed in the national cup to play other teams from around the country.

Well thanks for reading my long winded blog. It was not written in a particularly eloquent fashion, but written quickly and concisely in attempt to relay as much info as possible. Hope you enjoy the pics and stay tuned for upcoming blog updates.

Cheers,

AL

ESPANA

Here is the link to the photo album from my trip!! Check it out!

http://community.webshots.com/album/557067052AMRZFU

Overall, it was a fantastic week in Spain. Spain was even better than I expected and it was a great chance to use the Spanish I had studied in school for a good deal of time.

On Wednesday January 3rd, I flew from Nottingham to Madrid. I got into the airport and took a transit bus to the new terminal, built apart from the existing three terminals to ask the company that I would be flying with to Barcelona a question. I was walking into the terminal, which is absolutely gorgeous, and I could not understand why they were replacing windows on a building that was seemingly brand new. However, upon exiting the terminal, I soon understood.
Only 4 days before, the ETA, a Basque terrorist group, had attacked the parking garage opposite of the main entrance to the terminal, completely leveling a parking garage the size of a basketball coliseum. I was absolutely speechless as I had only briefly heard of this happening and had not paid any attention to it when I did hear about it. I never saw the fallout in NYC, but this brought on alot of flashbacks.

After photographing and observing the bombsite for a bit, I finally took the subway into Madrid. I took the subway into the city, aggravating a number of people with my backpack on, and got off at Plaza del Sol, the center of the city. This is similar to the times square in NYC. A bustling intersection with boatloads of tourists. No sooner was I out in the sunlight, opening my map to get my bearings, this Spanish guy came up to me and asked if I was American. First thinking this was some sort of thieving ploy, I was careful, but most of all I was frustrated that I was having to start conversing in Spanish immediately upon my arrival. I had in the airport but not conversationally. Peter, the Spaniard, and I ended up getting lunch together and talking for a good hour and half. I never felt completely as though I was not being taken advantage, but we parted ways and I still had all my stuff.

I stayed in a centrally located hostel and spent my first evening walking around the city, seeing the main Plaza's and just getting my bearings. I walked all around and to my surprise, so did the rest of the city's residents. At 7pm, the streets became absolutely flooded with all sorts of people; young kids, tourists, business people, and most interesting loads of elderly couples. The streets stay completely rammed until 1am. The whole of Madrid is on a shifted time schedule and they window shop and step into bars and restaurants throughout the evening, every night of the week.

I realize I go into a great deal of detail so I will pick up the pace. I visited some amazing museums in Madrid, which is considered the art center of Spain. My favorite was Museo de la Reina Sofia, or Museum of Queen Sofia where I was able to view extensive collections of Picasso and Dali. They were incredible. I took a day trip to Toledo, a medieval town that was very picturesque. The town has a wall surrounding it, a river that acts like a moat, and a castle. The streets were my first experience with narrow European cobblestone roads that cars somehow manage to drive down. I just walked around all day, enjoying the architecture and the warmth of the sun, a feeling I had nearly forgotten in England.


On the fourth day of my journey, I spent the night in the airport to wait for my 6am flight to Barcelona. This tactic was not just a cheap Alan trick but was also necessary since public transport did not run at that time. Keeping complete character, I nearly missed my flight regardless of the fact that I slept 50 yards from the check in desk. I woke up an hour before and the line was nearly an hour long. I got on the plane with about 4 minutes to spare. Phew!


I arrived in Barcelona early on my birthday. I got my bearings by walking around for a bit and seeing some of the city's parks and gothic neighborhoods. I checked into my hostel around 10am and headed to the train station where I met my friend Celeste who had just spent the last few days in Valencia, Spain. She had been battling a cold for the last week and had not gotten over it, which proved to hamper the pair of us throughout our three days in Barcelona. We spent the day walking Las Ramblas, a famous pedestrian thoroughfare full of street performers and vendors, and the port. That night, we enjoyed a cocktail and a nice dinner of sea bass on the port.

Upon the suggestion of these Dutch gals in my hostel, we got a two-day ticket with the city tour bus that drove us around to all the major sights. We spent our first full day in Barcelona visiting La Sagrada Familia and Park Guel, two of the famous architect Antoni Gaudi's amazing works. La Sagrada Familia, one of the most well known attractions in Barcelona is a cathedral that is over 150 years in the making, and should not be finished until 2030. This magnificent cathedral is so purposefully designed, everything has a meaning and the inside is huge. The tour bus also took us to the top of Mont Juic, which overlooked the whole city, giving us amazing views of this huge city.

Overall, Spain was amazing! Great food, great people, and beautiful sights. I expect to return someday for further traveling and enjoying the Spanish lifestyle.

Winter Break Overall

Wow! This has to be one of the best and most eventful winter breaks of my life. I skied for a week in France, spent Christmas with a great family and my friends in Milton Keynes, worked on a English farm harvesting sugar beets near York, and spent a week traveling in Spain. I celebrated Christmas Eve, Christmas, Boxing Day, New Years, and my 22nd Birthday. I saw Cathedrals, Minsters, and Churches that would blow your mind. I traveled and met with people from all ove rthe world; Australia, Brazil, Guatemala, France, America, Korea, and Portugal. Just before France, my roommates and I, along with Natalie, had an amazing Christmas dinner of our own with 18 different dishes. I even managed to do a bit of studying for my upcoming finals. Overall, it was a spectacular time. I thank the Lord for the opportunities i have been given to see the world and meet some amazing people. Here are some photos of Christmas Break and the fun that was had.

Making dinner with roommates, Ellie and Nick.
Natalie and I after a fantastic dinner.
Nottingham looking beautiful for the Christmas season.
Yours truly on the chair lift in Val D'Isere, France in the French Alps.
Team America! In this picture are four English students who were at Oregon State University and know we are all skiing together in France. Plus a couple of siblings.
Christmas dinner in Milton Keynes at the Maslin's. Fantastic!
My weapon of choice during a couple days of working on Rob's farm.
The inside of York Minster... absolutely amazing.
The Royal Cathedral in Madrid, Spain.
La Sagrada Familia, an engineering and architectural marvel, designed by the famous Antoni Gaudi.
Park Guel, a Gaudi masterpiece. The Mediterranean Sea is there just beyond the city of Barcelona.