My name is Ryan McDonald and I'm a candy addict

So Globalites, I must first apologize for taking so long to write this next blog entry.  I've just gotten into such a routine now and I doubt you're all interested in reading things like "Today I woke up early, then I went to a school, then to another school, then I had practice....."  But there have been some things of interest that have gone on.  For example, my car rebelled against me and I had to take a taxi to all of my schools for the 2 weeks it took for it to get fixed.  I was driving out to Canterbury to run a practice with their university team when I noticed that my car was no longer accelerating.  Peculiar, I thought.  I was in the far right lane of what was pretty heavy London traffic on the highway and had to get three lanes over to the left without the ability to accelerate at all.  After a barrage of honks and a middle finger from a fellow driver (drivers can be pretty rude over here at times), I made it into the breakdown lane.  I had no idea what the problem was with the car, but when I would try to turn it back on it wouldn't turn over whatsoever.  Now I'm no mechanic, but I think that's generally a pretty bad sign.  So I called up the roadside assistance service, and was told to expect someone to be out to me in a half hour.  Well a half hour passed and nobody came.  Then an hour, then an hour and a half, then two hours, and finally after two and a half hours help arrived.  That was terrible.  So the guy towed me and my car back to Orpington (he actually lived on the street over from me, small world) and I was left to overpriced taxi transportation until I was able to my wheels back Saturday.  It turns out the cylinder head was cracked, and after replacing that as well as doing some other tune-ups, this whole ordeal has cost the club 1,200 pounds with an extra 200 or so paid for cab fare.  Thank goodness I don't have to pay for these things.

On to lacrosse.  Wins continue to be hard to come by for us over here at Purley.  We dropped our last two games, both in frustrating fashion.  First against Blues, 12-6.  We had a tough time getting things going offensively and let them get on a 5-0 run in the third quarter.  The following weekend we dropped a heartbreaker by a goal vs. Reading.  Again, the thing that did us in was letting them get on a run.   We battled back at the end to tie it up in the final minute, but gave up a tough transition goal which ended up doing us in.  If we can eliminate these runs during different parts of the game we should be able to get a bunch of wins, but until that happens its going to be tough.  

Outside of our lax woes (which sounds a lot like lax bros) things have been good for me.  I've made some good friends over here and its great to spend time with them all, but I really can't wait to come home for Christmas.  It has been tough being away from you guys for so long but I'm home in four weeks and it will be glorious.  In unrelated news, I think I have a candy problem.  I've always had a sweet tooth, but I've been eating so much candy its ridiculous.  Top culprits are Snickers, Peanut M&M's, Haribo Gummies and Skittles.  I fear I'm reverting to the 5 year old kid that was caught by Buckeye stuffing his face full of fudge only to turn, mouth full, and exclaim "shut the door."  Other than the candy vice, I've been eating pretty healthy.  I've really started to love Indian food and have it for dinner a couple times a week.  Other than that, I've just been crushing eggs.  I go through about 15 eggs a week.  

I'm trying to work out a way to get together with Erin for Thanksgiving.  It's tough that I wont be home, and its the 2nd year in a row I've had to be away for one of my favorite holidays.  (I was in Florence last year visiting sweet Josephine).  I have a game on Saturday though and am not so sure I'm going to be able to get up to Manchester.  But we shall see, I'd really love to spend it with her and Ryan.

So thats it for now Globalites.  Four more weeks till I'll be able to see you guys and it will be great.  For now, I must go get some sleep.  7 am always comes too soon.  Happy Thanksgiving, go Bruins, go Patriots and see you all before you know it.

Go Amsterdam, Go Purley, Go Bruins

Hello to all you crazy Globalites out there. The 28th marked two full months of my stay here in London-town. Boy oh boy how the time does fly. Top news stories since my last post include a big win on the lacrosse field, and a trip to Amsterdam. I'll begin with the latter.

Last week was my first vacation since I arrived here and I joined some of the other Americans here for what turned out to be an incredibly interesting and entertaining vacation. We boarded a plane on Tuesday for a shockingly short flight (only 45 minutes) over to Amsterdam. We arrived late Tuesday night and checked into our hostel around 11. First thought: I've never seen so many bikes in my life. Second thought: Its cold, I wish I brought warmer clothing. Third thought: David Krejci is a fantastic hockey player. We then went out for a couple drinks and attempted to situate ourselves in this strange city. Wednesday brought buckets of rain but we soldiered on and were able to do some solid sightseeing. My favorite part of the day, and what turned out to be my favorite part of the trip, was the Van Gogh Museum. I splurged for the audio tour and spent a lot of time learning about all the incredible artwork. Now I've never pretended to have an eye for art, but these paintings were amazing. With the audio tour providing me with, for lack of better words, an Idiot's Guide to Vincent Van Gogh, I was able to have a very interesting, fulfilling and educational experience. Next stop was The Heineken Experience, which was a tour of the Heineken Brewery. All in all the tour was entertaining, but in retrospct, I would have liked to have substituted it for something else. There was so much to see there and with only two full days to do so a big part of me wishes The Heineken Experience didn't make the cut. But what can ya do? I had fun regardless. After some dinner, we wandered into the infamous Red Light District. I will not go into full detail about the debauchery that goes on in that place, but I remember asking myself 'Is this real life?' I promise you though Globalites, no window shopping for this guy. My dignity remains in the hands of you Ungy. But it was a strange place indeed, and I'm glad I got to see it with my own two squinty eyes. Thursday ushered in some much better weather and a chance to walk around more and do some exploring. We started by going to the Rijksmuseum, which is a museum dedicated to Dutch life in the 16th century. Unfortunately. a good portion of the place was closed for renovations, but the parts that were open were definitely worth the visit. There were all sorts of weapons, artwork, clothing and treasures on display and I had a great time taking it all in. From there we walked around for a while taking in the beauty of the city and attempting to avoid the thousands of cyclists flying down the streets (don't need a repeat of the events that transpired in Croydon a couple weeks ago). I then made the solo-trek down to the city centre for a canal cruise that lasted about an hour. The boat took us through most of the city's canals while we were told about it's unique history. I later met up with the rest of the group and we went out for some drinks and had a jolly ole time Thursday night. After a 5 am alarm Friday morning, it was time to make the journey home. Looking back, I'm really glad I went. Its a unique opportunity I've been presented here with so many amazing places in such a close proximity. I can't wait until I get the chance to ramble on to the next one.

On to our glorious lacrosse victory. Saturday we played a team called Hampstead, which consists of American players that are living here in London. They had loads of talent and, from what I am told, really had a field day with Purley last year. But our team is slowly building and improving and I felt confident going into the game. The game went back and forth and towards the end of the fourth, after a knee injury to our goalie, they battled back from a 4 goal deficit to tie the game. Visions of losses I'd suffered through at St. A's were slowly creeping into my mind as we tried to get the momentum back. But we won a timely faceoff and were able to get a big goal with 30 seconds left to regain the lead. After withstanding a barrage of shots towards the end of the game, the final whistle blew and sweet sweet victory was ours. It was a huge win for the club and hopefully we can build on it going forward.

A comment must be made about the Boston Bruins, number 7 on ESPN.com's Power Rankings, number one in our hearts. I've only been lucky enough to watch 3 or 4 games in their entirity, but these boys sure are playing some great hockey. If you're not on the black and gold train yet, hop on, theres always room.

Thats it for the real newsworthy events in the life of old csbs here. This week I'm back to work for another 6 week period before I get to come home to all you great people for Christmas. Happy November to all, I really wish I could spend Thanksgiving with you. And bundle up Globalites, the cold is a-comin.