RBGP Friday 5 --TRAVEL!
Tell us five places you have been or trips you have taken that have been important to you. Feel free to disguise them if needed to protect your anonymity. The point is not so much the place as the effect.
Can I do 4 places I've been and one I' going to? well, that's what I'm doing as I'm the (benevolent) despot around here.
In chronological order:
1: Grandma's house-- My grandparents live out in virginia, and while I was growing up they lived on about 40 acres by a lake in the middle of nowhere. I grew up in suburban Redneck City, Oklahoma (about 2 days drive from them), so the summer vacations there were full of fishing, hikes, swimming, BB gun shooting (after mom and dad went back home from dropping us off--they'd have freaked), and general messing around outdoors. My grandma is another bibliophile, so I learned some deep thinking as well as a love of nature that still is a big part of my life.
2: London, England--not for the trip so much as the process in getting there. My junior year of HS, my english teacher was leading a trip to the UK for spring break. I asked the parents if I could go. Mom responded (thinking this would be the end of it) that since they had never been abroad, they would let me go IF I earned the money. 6 months of ice cream scooping later, Mom had to make good on her word and I was off to England. London was the first BIG city I'd ever been to (unless we count Dallas, which i don't), and I promptly fell in love with anything and everything british. Thas, in turn led to...
3: Dundee, Scotland. I studied there my sophomore year of college. It was the first time I'd lived more than 15 minutes from my parents(can you tell I don't do things by half-measures?), and as such was the first time I really got to spread my wings as a young adult. Scotland has a beauty that is absolutely unlike anything we have in the states. And forget any nonsense you've heard about the dour Scottish personality--the people were the friendliest and most open I've met in any place on the planet to date. From the classes there i picked up my particular pragmatic take on feminism, my utter disdain for postmodern philosophy, and the knowledge that Mel Gibson's portrayal of William Wallace makes The Passion of the Christ look like the pinnacle of historical accuracy. But more importantly, I gained confidence in myself, began learning about Celtic mythology, and learned how one could fall madly in love with a place. God willing, I plan to own a retirement house there someday.
4: The Vatican. Christmas eve of the year I studied abroad, I stood in the middle of St. Peter's square with two friends, waiting to get into Midnight mass. It didn't look good. Taryn (the catholic of the group) didn't know that she should have written to her bishop to get tickets for us. Hence, it looked like we were going to celebrate the birth of christ on the world's nicest front patio watching the pope on the Jumbotron. Then, a couple of nuns walked up, and asked if we would be going inside. We told them it didn't look like it, and before we knew it, one of the sisters handed us three tickets and said "Merry Christmas!" (apparently, 3 of their sisters were under the weather and couldn't make it.) Before we knew it we were running in a herd of more religious than I'd ever seen in my life (and I know I've NEVER seen a nun hike up her habit to her knees and RUN like that), all battling to score the best seats in the section. We were about halfway back in the block of the nuns' section, and they gave those gals some GOOD seats. We were probably no more than 100 feet from the altar, which by St. Peter's standards is darned close. I saw John Paul II in person (if from quie a distance), and this Methodist girl from Oklahoma witnessed her first Catholic Mass EVER, christmas eve 1996, in the most beautiful church on the planet. That was my first clue that a christian church could be, well, not boring.
5: China. Always wanted to go since I was a little kid. Not exactly sure why, but I've always been fascinated with the history and the people. I started taking T'ai Chi about 2 1/2 years ago, and found out soon thereafter that my sifu (teacher) led trips to china regularly. The first time I planned to go my finances fell through. The second time 5 people bailed a week before the down payment was due and we didn't have the numbers. But i have the money, we have enough people, and on September 9 I WILL be on my way to China. Determination and perseverance have their payoffs.
There you have it, my friday 5...
Can I do 4 places I've been and one I' going to? well, that's what I'm doing as I'm the (benevolent) despot around here.
In chronological order:
1: Grandma's house-- My grandparents live out in virginia, and while I was growing up they lived on about 40 acres by a lake in the middle of nowhere. I grew up in suburban Redneck City, Oklahoma (about 2 days drive from them), so the summer vacations there were full of fishing, hikes, swimming, BB gun shooting (after mom and dad went back home from dropping us off--they'd have freaked
2: London, England--not for the trip so much as the process in getting there. My junior year of HS, my english teacher was leading a trip to the UK for spring break. I asked the parents if I could go. Mom responded (thinking this would be the end of it) that since they had never been abroad, they would let me go IF I earned the money. 6 months of ice cream scooping later, Mom had to make good on her word and I was off to England. London was the first BIG city I'd ever been to (unless we count Dallas, which i don't), and I promptly fell in love with anything and everything british. Thas, in turn led to...
3: Dundee, Scotland. I studied there my sophomore year of college. It was the first time I'd lived more than 15 minutes from my parents(can you tell I don't do things by half-measures?), and as such was the first time I really got to spread my wings as a young adult. Scotland has a beauty that is absolutely unlike anything we have in the states. And forget any nonsense you've heard about the dour Scottish personality--the people were the friendliest and most open I've met in any place on the planet to date. From the classes there i picked up my particular pragmatic take on feminism, my utter disdain for postmodern philosophy, and the knowledge that Mel Gibson's portrayal of William Wallace makes The Passion of the Christ look like the pinnacle of historical accuracy. But more importantly, I gained confidence in myself, began learning about Celtic mythology, and learned how one could fall madly in love with a place. God willing, I plan to own a retirement house there someday.
4: The Vatican. Christmas eve of the year I studied abroad, I stood in the middle of St. Peter's square with two friends, waiting to get into Midnight mass. It didn't look good. Taryn (the catholic of the group) didn't know that she should have written to her bishop to get tickets for us. Hence, it looked like we were going to celebrate the birth of christ on the world's nicest front patio watching the pope on the Jumbotron. Then, a couple of nuns walked up, and asked if we would be going inside. We told them it didn't look like it, and before we knew it, one of the sisters handed us three tickets and said "Merry Christmas!" (apparently, 3 of their sisters were under the weather and couldn't make it.) Before we knew it we were running in a herd of more religious than I'd ever seen in my life (and I know I've NEVER seen a nun hike up her habit to her knees and RUN like that), all battling to score the best seats in the section. We were about halfway back in the block of the nuns' section, and they gave those gals some GOOD seats. We were probably no more than 100 feet from the altar, which by St. Peter's standards is darned close. I saw John Paul II in person (if from quie a distance), and this Methodist girl from Oklahoma witnessed her first Catholic Mass EVER, christmas eve 1996, in the most beautiful church on the planet. That was my first clue that a christian church could be, well, not boring.
5: China. Always wanted to go since I was a little kid. Not exactly sure why, but I've always been fascinated with the history and the people. I started taking T'ai Chi about 2 1/2 years ago, and found out soon thereafter that my sifu (teacher) led trips to china regularly. The first time I planned to go my finances fell through. The second time 5 people bailed a week before the down payment was due and we didn't have the numbers. But i have the money, we have enough people, and on September 9 I WILL be on my way to China. Determination and perseverance have their payoffs.
There you have it, my friday 5...
posted by Sarah Clark at 3:37 PM
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