Caitlin and Tommy in Wales...

Hello! Tommy here. Caitlin and I went to the seaside town Aberystwyth in Wales. The window from our guest house had a wonderful view of Cardigan Bay. Our first destination was the ruin of an old castle just around the bend from where we stayed. Atop the castle, we could see the bay, the beautiful University of Wales, and some of the surrounding countryside. We ate at a restaurant that served us freshly caught cod and local lamb. At the far end of the town is the longest electric tramway in Britain, which was sadly closed. We did however, find a footpath up the mountain the tramway ascended. At the top was a disc golf course! We attempted to play a few holes, but the wind only allowed our discs to travel a few feet before spinning out of control. We finished our stay in Aberystwyth with a huge meal at "the best fish and chip place in town".




Aberystwyth....



Caitlin points to America!




Caitlin sinks the putt!




Tommy playing Disc Golf on top of a cliff....

Tommy at the ocean...

The Welsh Coas

Raising Cane in Scotland!!!!! AND MacBackpackers!!!!!!

Edinburgh Castle


Well we all "Raised Cain" in Scotland for five days! Below are blogs from students and the new Raising Cane III: Fore! video. We took the train from London's King's Cross Station (unfortunately not from the Harry Potter platform) to Edinburgh. Below are some photos of the train ride.


Tim and Mary. Tim is not bored!



Dani and Shannon doing what they do best.



Ali eating her fingers!




Amber creeping us out!



Curtis and Peter trying to do scary faces. We had to amuse ourselves for 5 and a half hours!



While in Edinburgh we stopped in the Edinburgh Fringe Shop, visited the Castle, went to the Children's museum and played, and, of course, shopped.


Fringe shop from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival




Video from the Children's Museum. Enjoy the show!



Some of the scary dolls (I think they come to life at night!)



A Sweeney Todd Nickelodeom Machine! Judy you would love it!



Peter practising for his future career.



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Enjoy the student blogs and photos of Saint Andrew's and the tour of the Highlands!


Hey there friends and family! This is Peter, "Knocking Man" of the Raising Cane videos. Thank you so much for watching our videos. We hope you have enjoyed them as much as we enjoyed creating them. The latest installment takes place at St. Andrew's in Scotland, the home of golf! Many of the clips took place on the world's first golf course. Some of you golfers may recognize the famous club house and Roman bridge. Also, some movie buffs may recognize the beach from the movie, "Chariots of Fire."


Raising Cane III: Fore! A Scottish Experience






Gary, Curtis, Bill, and myself took a bus into St. Andrew's from Edinburgh on Friday morning. We had a great time exploring the town, shopping, eating, seeing the latest Bond movie, and of course creating the video.

Curtis, Bill, and I got up eary on Saturday morning, hired (rented) two set of clubs from our hostel, and headed to the St. Andrew's Links Club. We hit a couple buckets of balls and then headed for the Balgrove course. Curtis and I played a round of 18 with Bill as our caddy. Our game was a little rusty, but it was an amazing experience to play golf at the club where golf was invented.

The rest of the group took a tour of the Highlands and had a fantastic time! We heard a lots of great stories that they will share down below after the posted pictures of St. Andrew's. I hope all is well in the States. Cheers!




Ruins of the old Cathedral in St. Andrew's



Peter, Bill, Curtis exploring the Cathedral cemetery



Peter and Curtis in the Cemetery



Crying angel in the Cemetery

Bill and Curtis on the shore near the seal house (I told you Curtis they had seals in St. Andrews)

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Peter outside the private club house at the Old Course in St. Andrew's. There was no way he was getting in!

Curtis and Peter at the 18th hole of the Old Course

Moonlight shining on the water near the stone pier...

Hey readers! Bern and Caitlin here! A bunch of us went on the MacBackpackers tour of the Scottish Highlands this past weekend! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! The three day tour included Loch Ness, Isle of Skye, Glencoe, Fairy Glens, mountain climbing and whisky distillery. The group went for a swim in Loch Ness; Tommy, Michelle and Danielle have bruises from Nessie. We stayed in a "wee house" in Skye with the other people on our tour (mostly French!) and had a great view of the highlands. We spent one night teaching some of the French how to play Spoons! They loved it!

The mountain we climbed was over 1,100 feet! It was a grueling journey through wind, sleet and rain...and a little sunshine. The view was gorgeous and well worth the effort. Some people decided to take the "long way" down with our kick-ass tour guide. Not only did it prove to be longer, but slightly more challenging as well. We had to charge down a sheer cliff face and eventually ended up just sliding down on our butts.

The mountain we hiked!

Michelle leading the way.

Ali a little wet. This is our tour guide!

The hike continues and continues and continues......

One of many great scenic views

Bern at one of the many magical rivers.

Mary and Bern getting ready to dip their faces in the magical waters to obtain eternal beauty!

Well did it work? Only time will tell....

Dani, Tim, and Mary contemplating whether to go swimming in the cold waters of Loch Ness.

Dani and Michelle go for it.

All of us dive in!!!!! Brrrrrr!!!!

We survived the Loch Ness monster and are really freezing here even though we are all smiling.

Tim as the Loch Ness Monster, Nessie, with his french counterpart in the wee house.

After our hike, soaked and exhausted, we made friends with locals as we dried our clothes in a co-op/laundromat. Some of us stood there with pajama pants and towels wrapped around our bottoms as we waited for our pants to dry.

One evening we stopped at a Fairy Glen and were told stories of the "wee folk" that are said to reside there. There was definitely a postive energy from the land. One of our last stops was the monument to William Wallace (a.k.a. Braveheart). The scale of the monument shows the devotion to this Scottish national hero.

This trip was worth every penny! We had a great tour guide (ask for G!) and we are so grateful that we were able to experience the Scottish Highlands.

Scotland forever!

Imagine This.......

No this was not taken in London but in Paris!!!!


All the students had a great time travelling last weekend. Bill and Curtis went to Madrid, Spain and had Burger King for their first meal there! Why?????? Peter and Shannon actually played Lacrosse for a male and female team in Dublin. Neither one had ever played before. We need to see these pictures. Tim and Mary went to Galway. The others went to Paris. Some of their photos are below:



The Paris group.



Amber and Michelle trying to find their way back home to London.





Paris in the background.




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Dani waiting for her date to show up.




Meanwhile, back in London:


Big Ben

Big Ben and Parliment

Ryan Gostomski (son of alumni Michael Gostomski) and I at Witherspoons where they were featuring his PLUM beer from his brewery in Poland for their beer festival last week.

Bill, Bern and Tim outside the New London Theatre where a new musical, Imagine This...premiered.

Can you believe a musical about the Warsaw Ghetto and holocaust!!!! It was a combination Phantom of the Opera (music box opening the show), Les Miz (rotating stage and similar music), and Fiddler on the Roof... Reviews were mixed. Tim, Bill, Peter and I didn't really like it. Joe was so-so about it. Ali and Michelle loved it because it was sad and they cried!!! Bern....who knows! Wednesday night we went to the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond to see two short Vaclav Havel plays, Audience and Mountain Hotel. We all seemed to like them both. Should inspire some great discussion in class on Monday. We also saw on Monday night the new modern version of Six Characters in Search of an Author. WOW! Talk about messing with your mind....really cannot wait for the post discussion of this play! Unbelieveable.

Tonight a group of students went to see Woman in Black and had the bejesus scared out of them...Left them screaming!

We are going to Scotland next week...all of us are looking forward to that trip!

Raising Cane II at Blenheim Palace

Enjoy the latest installment.

Snow, Pubs Closing, Travel, and 007

Peter, Bill, Tim, and Curtis outside the National Theatre at the beginning of the snow storm after the production of Oedipus with Ralph Fiennes.

Tuesday before we went to see Oedipus at the National Theatre it started sleeting. By the time we got out of the show it was snowing and the ground was very slushy. It was the first time since 1934 that London got show in October. With the banks in trouble here one out of every five pubs are starting to close! What are the Brits going to do?

My class with the British students from Rose Bruford went very well on Tuesday. We had some really interesting discussions on The Laramie Project. The Saint Mary's students had a great acting class with Lucy who worked with them on dialects. Now they all sound like me!!!! Tony James, their acting teacher is in the States right now.

Most of us did not like the production of West Side Story at the New Wimbledon Theatre on Monday night. The choreography was great and some of the actors were good. Others not so good! Pretty mixed reviews. Tonight we saw Harold Pinter's No Man's Land with Michael Gambon (Dumbledore in Harry Potter) and David Walliams who is in the T.V. show Little Britian that has just premiered in the United States. Very good show. They really brought out the humor in the piece that you do not get from reading it. We should have good discussions next week in the Page to Stage class. Tonight was also the Primiere of the new James Bond movie...Judi Dench was there with Daniel Craig and Princes William and Harry! Somehow we didn't get invited to the 1 million pound after party! Oh, well!

All of the students are travelling starting tomorrow. Curtis and Bill are heading to Madrid, Tim, Mary, Peter, and Shannon are going to Ireland, and Dani, Michelle, Bern, Ali, Amber, Caitlin and Tommy are going to Paris. I have called all the foreign embassies to give them a warning!!! Joe is staying in London to enjoy peace and quiet and attend fringe shows!

The video of Raising Cane II is finished and will be posted on the blog the beginning of the week after the students return from travelling. However, it is posted on Facebook it you can find it. Blenheim Palace will never be the same! We are watching the progress of the election very closely over here.



Bill panhandling outside the Duke of York Theatre tonight to get money for his trip to Spain!




No Man's Land. Can you spot the two Harry Potter actors.




Caitlin, Ali, Bern, Dani waiting outside the Duke of York Theatre





JM - Nice scarf isn't it?