Globetrotting

“Oh, the places you’ll go” – Dr. Seuss

September 2009, Back in Princeton – I returned to Princeton in the Fall to begin my senior year at PTS.  The plan now is to complete my MDiv and graduate in May 2010.

June 2009, Tucson, AZ - Whitney and I visited the LBT in Arizona http://medusa.as.arizona.edu/lbto/observatory_images.htm 

June 2009, Tucson, AZ - Summer internship at Trinity Presbyterian Church, learning all about worship, polity and finances in the PCUSA.

 January 2008, Calcutta, India – Wait for it!

December 2008 – Christmas with the Fam –

25 – 29 November 2008, Seattle, Washington, USA - Off to visit Sara and Zac and all the Tel Dor friends I made over the summer!  Can’t wait to report back on that Thanksgiving Dinner!

21 November 2008, Princeton, NJ, USA -

August 2008, Dublin, Ireland

 

August 2008, Troon, Scotland

August 2008, Milano, Italia

August 2008, Paris, France

August 2008, Istanbul, Turkey

August 2008, Tel Aviv, Israel

August 2008, Jaffa, Israel

July 2008, Tel Dor, Israel - Just a few photos of the kibbutz, beach and dig site:

         

Bet Sahour, West Bank, Palestine

Tel Aviv, Israel

Istanbul, Turkey

Milano, Italia

Volterra, Italia

Pisa, Italia

Oxford, England, UK

Isle of Bute, Scotland

Isle of Iona, Scotland

20 May 2008, Edinburgh, Scotland - For my birthday, I went to the Church of Scotland GA, were I met up with 4 American friends and connected with a few new people.  We played up the role of the tourist and had my birthday dinner at The Elephant Cafe.  Overall, one of my best birthdays, and definitely the most exotic for a girl born in Amarillo, Texas!

Aberdeen, Scotland

A few old postcards of Troon, Scotland, my home for 9 months

Take a look at the photographic evidence of my misadventures and other such imagery! You can see more of my collection on flickr.com.

BACK IN TROON: (27th January 2008) Beachcombing for wood to build a cross that will stand in the lawn at the church over Easter season.

      

NORTHERN IRELAND:

 

NEW JERSEY: My youth group back home at their winter retreat lodge!

LONDON:  Lots of traveling and business in the last month.  I never realized how absolutely crazed NOVEMBER can be.  I think this may have been the reason for missing so many Thanksgivings with my family in the last 10 years.  So here is a super fast photomontage of the last few weeks:

   

SEED & LIGHT MINISTRY: My parents help support this ministry in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  They met Reuben, shown here, while they were on their second honeymoon last year.  He was studying theology in Glasgow.  Meeting him was one of my parents favorite parts of their trip abroad!  They have sent him and his community seed packets as a way of sharing the Gospel with him and his community. 

more details to follow or check out the website in my links on the right

If you have had trouble keeping up with Ebon, this explains why. Check out some of my travel adventures since April 2007!

15 February 2008, Arran Island, Eastern Coast of Scotland - I went with a friend on a hiking tour of the island I see everytime I go to the beach and it’s not raining here in Troon.  See my blog about this here!

23-26 January 2008, Belfast, Northern Ireland – This trip included a Black Taxi Tour, an Ulster Fry, several trains and buses, a beautiful hostel on the beach, a tour of Bushmill’s Distillery, a night out in Belfast and a great weekend with the Dr. Lenfesty!

2 November 2007, London, England – After spending time with Hillary and her fantastic ICC colleagues, I flew to London to meet my sister Elise and brother-in-law. We stayed in Mayfair and the evening was quite luxurious. Thanks Elise and Jeff for bringing me along! We only stayed the one night so I was back in Troon on Saturday, just in time to take my visitors to the beach for fireworks. It was Bonfire Weekend, to celebrate the defeat of Guy Faulks. The Troon Works were fantastic!

31 October 2007, Belfast, Northern Ireland; Dublin, Ireland; then Belfast again – Ryanair is the cheapest, easiest way to get over to see my friend Hillary, so I headed over on Wednesday to see her. Since it was Halloween and one of her favorite bands, the Frames, were performing down in Dublin, we jumped a bus and headed down. Three hours later, we were dressed and ready to go. We had a great night out, as an angel and a devil, and Dublin was really entertaining. We couldn’t stay the night, due to some very important work that came up last minute for Hillary at Queen’s University, so we ended up coming back again on the bus later that night. 3 countries in one day, and one of them twice! That might be my record so far.

1 October 2007, Glasgow – Yesterday, Aileen and I traveled to Glasgowby train. We visited the Kelvinhall Art Gallery & Museum. I saw Salvador Dali, discovered the designer Charles Rennie Mckintosh who must have known of Frank Lloyd Wright, and checked out the concert wardrobe of Kylie Minogue. Though it wasn’t the Met in NYC, it held its own as museums go. Architecturally and exhibit-wise, I was vey impressed!

7 September 2007, Troon – I just noticed that there have been almost 28,000 blog posts on wordpress.com today. I think three of them are mine!

1 September 2007, Scotland – Flying to Glasgow, with a layover in Iceland, BRRR!! This was the one time I wish I had a camera. I arrived into Reykjavik around 5 am, just in time to see the sun rise. I have been so lucky to see beautiful sunrises all of my life, having been raised in the flat panhandle of Texas, where the sun was shrouded in dust. But I have never, ever been so impressed by a sunrise before in my life. The airport terminal where I was boarding was on the second floor, but the wall was all window for three floors, up and down. I stood there and stared for almost an hour, and was warmed by the sun through the windoe. It wasn’t cold there at all!

August 2007, Princeton – Studying Summer Koine Greek in Princeton, New Jersey. Planning to pass and finish up on the 31st.

17 August 2007, Princeton – On this Friday, I was able to meet up with the group of faculty, students and facilities people who all made up the amazing group of people who helped out in Mississippi this summer. We called this the first “Facilities’ Night at the Ivy!” It was good fun!

Immediately after that, I attended the very exciting, high energy “Black & White Gala,” an annual event held in the summers in the basement dance floor of Hodge Hall. I definitely enjoyed the dancing and the communion of old and new friends. I am happy to have such great memories of this summer!

 

3 August 2007, Annapolis – Drove down to Annapolis with Hillary to visit Justin and see the sites. The Naval Academy was cool and so were ‘Dillos and the Goodwill Store. Check it out sometime!

July 28, 2007, New Brunswick/NJ - A good old Rutgers College farewell party for Rebecca and Chris, off to London. I’ll see you there kids!

 

July 2007, Princeton – Studying Summer Koine Greek in Stuart 5, Monday through Friday, every day.

June 2007, On the Road – Since the end of school, I’ve driven 7300 miles! Want to know where?

Went to Boston with Hill for the weekend to visit Brandi and friends. Highlights: Met cool people and swam on a rooftop off the Boston Commons.
Returned from month-long visit to my parents house outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

May 2007 – After completing my second semester at PTS, I drove to a PDA site outside of Gulfport, Mississippi. The team was from PTS and we were lucky to get four guys from our Facilities department to join us, making quick work of installing a full house of sheet rock!

From Gulfport, I drove to New Orleans to visit a buddy from seminary and we had a great day in the French Quarter. I stopped by the hotel where I had my first cup of coffee (at the ripe old age of nine). It was smaller than I remembered.
Following the one-day stop in NO, I hit the highway to Dallas to see Bahar (an amazing SPC). Then I stopped off at my sister’s house to see her, her husband and my two adorable nieces!

Then it was off to ABQ to spend a month with my folks and hang out with my little sister, Whitney. Whitney needed a vacation so I hit the road again.

Whitney has high school buddies who are in an up-and-coming rock band out in Las Vegas, so we stayed at their house. It was in a McVillage, one of those gated communities with all the amenities. Only, I have never seen anything bigger in my life. I clocked the distance from the gate to the front door of these guys’ house. It was over 1.5 miles. Out of this world.

May 2007, Princeton – Celebrated 31st birthday with a Garden Party at Hillary’s pad which included great friends and Bocce Ball.

April 2007, Princeton, NJ -Photographs ‘on the set’ of our school play, Macbeth directed by Professor Lancaster. “I have uploaded Marie’s photographs from dress rehersal up to my personal website for you to download, enjoy, etc.  The address is http://nickel.phanfare.com  Thanks and enjoy, Matt N.”

April 2007, Bound Brook -This is a story about the flooding that occurred at my home church.

Bound Brook suffers from devastating flooding, again

- Hurricane Floyd beat up downtown Bound Brook, NJ, pretty badly in 1999. A nor’easter did it again in April, 2007. My church was one of the sites that houses people forced out of their homes. They have been living there now 27 days, according to Lou’s sermon today. Reportedly, these residents will be able to leave the church by Wednesday, May 16, but that doesn’t mean they are all returning home. Please keep these folks in your prayers. They are suffering the loss of their homes, some for a second time. Readers at home, please keep me informed of local events by posting a comment here!

What’s an Ebon? : Ebon Quin is my college nickname. The “EB” part is made up from my initials. The “Ebon” part sounds way cooler than “Eb.” The “Quin” part is because of my last name, Buckner. Everyone knows Quinn Buckner, Celtics basketball player from the 1970s and 80s, of course. Viola!