Odds and Ends

Alright. So the photo situation is thus: I have used up my limit on flikr for the month, and have no desire to pay $25 for more space... So right now I'm trying to upload my photos to Google's flikr, Picasa. I'm not sure how to direct you to the site, but I'll figure it out. I have about 100 photos from Stonehenge, Bath, and the City of London. Plus some more from Oxford. There will be no complaining, dear internet, about a lack of photos. I'm surprising myself, even.

Item two of business: I've heard that no one can post comments. The comments work just fine for me. Hmm.. I'm not sure what to do about it. I'll try and work on it.  Okay, I turned off the word verification, so comment away!

Now on to more interesting topics. I would like to apologize for the length of the last post. I was doing laundry at the time, a process which requires at least two hours, and I got shafted out of my dryer. So I had plenty of time on my hands. Any one who knows me knows that I hate, hate, hate laundry, and having it be a three hour plus ordeal, is very painful. In addition to the time, the only available washer/dryer was on the fifth floor. No joke. There was one available (the other set being used by the maids in the basement, and I don't begrudge them that at all) up five flights of stairs, while the computer lab was down in the basement. Not a fun hike. 

Wait. Didn't I say I was moving on to more pleasant subjects? Right. 

So this weekend, it was my birthday. That was exciting, though I have no photos to prove it. I met my brother in law for the morning at the Haywood Art Gallery. We saw an exhibit that showcased things that change perception: things like optical illusions, freeze-frame photography (I'm pretty sure I just made that name up), famous events that changed a nation's perception of the world, or events spun by the media to give a certain perception. It was thought provoking, though I must admit that I did much of that thinking right now. The coolest part was a silver TARDIS, which when photographed from the right angle, made it look like it was fading away. Very neat. 

We then went to lunch with my b-i-l's sister and husband. I had a pesto, artichoke heart, tomato concoction. Tasty. We then walked along the Thames, and I got an early morning call from my parents. It was early morning for them, not me, thankfully. I would like to note here that I am now considered an adult in every sense of the word, and promise to always be responsible. I'm 21, not 12. 

In the afternoon, we found a pub which unfortunately had all the personality of a hotel bar. Of course, this was 2 in the afternoon, which may have contributed to the problem. A few of my brother-in-law's  friends stopped by, and by the time we left, the place was hopping. They nicely walked me home, though I think it was mostly a ploy to use our bathroom. That may have been one of the best parts of the night. My roommates, expecting just me, are treated to three terribly awkward British men instead!

That was all that really happened for my birthday. Earlier in the week, we had a pizza party for February birthdays, which included tasty cupcakes! (Though I will admit, dear internet, that they were not as good as yours.) And pizza! And Gin and Tonics! And Kings Cup with my professor! (If you don't know what Kings Cup is...well. Don't worry. You aren't missing out.) And cider! And cider! And people who finished at least half of every drink I had, so I didn't end up drinking much at all! 

So I really had a three day jubilee. It was quite nice. 

Moving forward to the weekend. 

On Saturday, we got up at 6 in the morning and went to Oxford. Holy snot balls, Batman. This is what I had been waiting for. I can safely say that February 21st (conveniently Alan Rickman's birthday) was the best day I've had so far on this trip. We took the train, which only took 50 minutes, and was only £20. But Oxford just felt right. It reminded me of when I first stepped out of the car when I was here October 2006. I'm trying to come up with a metaphor, but they all seem not quite right, but I'll go for the best one. It's like when you've been in bed all night, and slip out just for a minute in the morning, maybe to use the loo, or turn off the alarm. But then you go back to bed, and there's still the indent of where you've been laying all night, and it's still nice and warm, and it's Saturday morning, so you're allowed to drift off again into a hazy dream land where anything is possible. It's so easy and comfortable to slip back into place. 

That's what the England countryside is like for me. It's a warm blanket that has a perfect spot waiting.

We had a Blue Badge Guided tour of the city in the morning, which mostly involved seeing some of the colleges of Oxford. I'm sure most of you know this, having read far too much, but I'll explain it anyway. Oxford is the university, but it's made up of 35 colleges, 30 of which accept undergraduates. There is not particularly one college that is better than the rest, and they all teach every subject, so you don't go to say, Christ Church for science, and New College for history. Everyone teaches everything. This means that students choose their colleges for silly reasons, such as food, or proximity to pubs, or where their friends are going. This also means that, if your college of choice is at full enrollment, but you're a good candidate, the selection committee can recommend you to another college that still has room. 

So we saw the Bodleian Library, the oldest library at Oxford, Christ Church, the Radcliffe Camera, and much, much more. I have pictures! They're up on flikr, but not labeled! It's like a guessing game. What fun! Seeing the colleges sort of made me want to go to Oxford, though I know I wouldn't be up to it. My academic style has certainly changed in the last three years, and I don't think I could stand such rigour. That's not to say that I couldn't do it, just that I wouldn't want to. 

In the afternoon, we split up into groups to explore the city. First, we tried to walk along the Oxford canal and find a spot for a picnic. No such luck. What appears on a map to be a grassy knoll usually ended up being college land where you weren't allowed on the grass. I guess they don't have Frisbee here. Otherwise, all grass would be walkable. Or maybe they have a really intense ultimate team, and the untouchable grass is an obstacle. In any case, we could not find a place to sit to save our lives. We ended up walking off the map. Talk about a disconcerting experience. 

I'm joking; we didn't feel a thing. By walking off the map, we found the new site of the Oxford University Press. Yes, I took a photo. Yes, I am a history major. Yes, I am a nerd. We then stumbled upon the St Sepulchre's Cemetery. It was opened in 1849, as an overflow cemetery. It was then closed in 1945, presumably due to a lack of space. Today, it's not well taken care of, which I think enhances its mystery. It is full of ivy and flower covered tombstones.  It was peaceful and huge. And now according to wikipedia, there is no St Sepulchre. And here I thought that the poor man just had a terrible name. There are however, four St. Severuses. (Severi?). Just some trivia knowledge for you, dear internet. 

We ended the day with a pint, of course. Then we hoped on the train home, and I watched the sunset for a little, then fell asleep. Oh transportation, why are you so lulling? 

So that was just Friday and Saturday! Sunday will be coming shortly!

Hey there, just letting you know that there are more pictures up on flikr from my day in Oxford. It was the best day EVAR. More on that later. I've now reached my uploading limit for the month of february. That's unfortunate, so I'm sort of looking for other places to host my photos. But for now, go see Oxford. There are about 60 photos, and none of them are properly described right now. I'll get to all that, eventually. Tomorrow, I'm off to Bath and Stonehenge, but some photos might only end up here. 

Anyway! I'll write more later, but I'm off to shower, eat, and sleep. 

I'm so far behind! (Hence the length of this post)

Hello all, sorry I'm a bit behind in updating... But this week has been a bit busier than last.
What have I done this week? Hmmm...
On Friday, the rest of the group went to the Tower of London, built by William the Conquerer in about 1068 ( I am fudging that number, so don't quote me on it.) It's since been used by several kings and queens, and is most famous for being a prison for those high class citizens accused of treason-- like Thomas More and Anne Boylen. In fact, it's where most of these high class citizens were also beheaded. No, even in medieval times, the rich and famous did not have to suffer the double blow of being locked up and being locked up with poor people. Heaven forbid.
But today it is a museum where the Crown jewels are kept, which you can view on a convienent moving sidewalk, so you don't have to walk while admiring the best of British pomp and circumstance.
I elected not to go, having been there before with my mom. We saw the jewels, took at tour with a strangely dressed man, and booked through so we could have time to go to the National Gallery. It's all about your priorities, you see. And I'll take Constable, Hogarth, Monet, and Seurat over an over-priced, written for the lowest common denominator version of British history. Not that I'm an elitest. Never.
Instead, I hopped on a bus for Norfolk, which is the county right on the eastern 'bump' of England. It's about two hours away by car, three and half to four by bus. For some strange reason, the bus leaves from the north side of the Thames, but then travels south of the river for wee bit, then comes back north, for no apparent reason. I'm told that it's faster to go on the south side of the river, but given how long it takes to get anywhere, I can't understand why they think that taking a huge detour (about twenty to thirty minutes) is really going to save them much time. But that is the beauty of England, I suppose. They're wonderful at just muddling along. It may have been faster to travel on the south bank of the Thames ten years ago, so they'll stick to it, just because that's what they've always done.
So after four hours and ten minutes on a bus, I arrived in the town of Fakenham, population 8,000. I was half an hour late, at best.
We have family friends in Fakenham, so they were there waiting for me. It's amazing how you can be transported to a whole new world and still be on the same island, yet you've only traveled a few hours. I've been living with college students for the last month and half. I've eaten off of plates, out of tupperwear, haven't even bothered with a plate. I drank from the carton when we had no glasses, I've eaten grilled cheese four days in a row for lunch (I was particularly uninspired that week).
And then bam! I'm in a world where I have to think about which knife to use, where to put my butter, what to do with my hands, remember the proper way to hold a knife and fork (not to mention actually remembering to use both items), remember how many times it's proper to offer to lend a hand, and where to sit, and wonder when should I sit, and what should I do when both of the hosts have left the room, but have declined any and all help in the kitchen, and most importantly, I have to remember not to use phrases like "frankly, we pulled it out of our---" well, I suppose I should remember not to use that phrase in other places, too.
You see now, dear internet, that this was not a totally relaxing time in the country. It's always hard for me to be proper. I confess that Americans really are much more causal, and I often feel large and clumsy when it comes to more formal occasions, even if the occasion is simply spending a weekend with family friends in their Georgian home in the countryside.
I also have to confess that I was supremely grateful for having read Miss Vanderbilt's Guide to Etiquitte in the few days before I left. It remedied most of the problems I described above, though I also wish I could have brought it with me for handy reference. Please pass on my thanks, dear internet, to the appropriate parties.
On Friday night, we had a nice night in, and I got the most sleep I've had in a week. I also caught a cold. Or rather, the cold finally caught up to me. Everyone in the flat has been sick all week, and I had a sore throat on the ride up to Fakenham. I think that a week of no sleep, due to roommates who like to stay up until four in the morning, and until two with the lights on, made my sickness inevitable. But I had a nice little cocoon of warmth and stayed in bed until 9:30. Early for me, late for them.
On Saturday after our leisurely start, we went to Norwich, which was once the second largest city after London. Until the Industrial Revolution when Manchester and Birmingham (I'm guessing on the second one), with their factories, textiles, and coal took over, Norwich remained a booming agricultural town with about 50,000 people. But by the 19th century, industrialisation was the name of the game, and poor old agraian Norwich couldn't keep up.
We walked around for a while, visited the last remaining cobble stone street, had a tasty "apple warmer" (aka apple cider), and then headed up to the castle. It some what after the Tower of London, but it is much the same in that it is rather...cubical. What remains of the castle, the keep, looks like a giant, single colored rubics cube. But when you climb up to it, it offers a great view of the city. Inside, it is a castle museum, but also offers a regular museum housed in an addition. In 1152, King Henry spent Christmas at the castle, and going by the exhibit in the keep, that's the only exciting event to have ever happened, in all Norwich castle's history. It was later turned into a full prision, with different styles of confining prisioners through out the centuries. I was constantly annoyed with the exhibit, from an editor's position. The word choice and sentence sturcture was designed for second-graders, none of whom would want to spend time reading when they could be running around making a racket on the wooden floors. They should have written for about a four grade level, as that seemed to be about the age when kids would even look at the exhibits. It was poorly formatted, which was distracting and there were several sentace fragments, which didn't help my distraction. Not that I'm an elitest. But I do expect a lot from museums, given that there are a lot of talented people without jobs who could create simple, yet engaging exhibits, given half a chance. Also, I expect that any one who is creating a museum exhibit at a major museum, such as this one, to have a college education. And having a college education usually involves knowing that a sentence needs both a subject and a verb, otherwise it doesn't make much sense.
But the rest of the museum was lovely. There were two art galleries, one with a large collection of teapots, and another with several watercolors by the members of the Norfolk school, who were known for their Norfolk skies, and churning waters. There was also a section on Boudicca, the 1st century Icendi warrior queen who led a rebellion against the Romans (and nearly kicked them out of Britain!). The museum also had a large collection of stuff they dug up in and around Norfolk. Now that would be quite the exhibit. "Some Stuff that we Found". There were coins and belt buckles, rings and braclets. Just stuff.
Then for dinner (we had all forgotten it was Valentine's Day), we went to an Italian place, and met up with more friends of the family. It was good. I got pizza with artichoke hearts, black olives, goat's cheese, some other kind of cheese, and rocket (salad). Except the restaurant didn't have the salad in brackets, so I thought it was "rocket and some other kind of cheese" as in...two cheeses. Imagine my shock, when they actually meant lettuce. I know, right? But it was good none the less. And it was good to chat.
Sunday, I caught the 10:25 bus home, and despite my best intentions to do homework and write a letter, I fell asleep for most of it. I was quite sick at this point, and I've never been good at staying awake in the car, as all of my family can attest to.
So this week, we had our first real assignment due, a five-six page paper for our Diaspora studies class. I finished mine last week, so that I could go to Norfolk, but some people were doing it the night before. It's nice to see that somethings don't change a bit. Then in class, we had to go around the room and talk about our papers, not something that's ever done in the states. And now I can see why. We all knew about each other's papers, given that we all live together, and it was boring to listen to other people talking about poorly written papers, and it was boring to talk about our own poorly written papers. Furthermore, the subject of these papers was one which we had beaten until it was dead. several times over. And our papers had little chance for original insight, so why make it worse?
Tuesday was the most trying day of the trip. Combine stressful Monday night, with semi-interesting, but far too long morning class, and a trying afternoon, and it's understandable that everyone in my room was in their pjs by about 7. No joke. I curled up with a cup of tea and Midshipman Hornblower, and had a relaxing evening.

So there you go! That was my weekend. I'll update in the next few days with my three day celebration leading up to my 21st birthday!

Photos

There are new photos up on flikr. You should all check them out. Also! will some one try commenting on this post? I've heard that my blog hasn't been accepting comments, so I changed some settings, but I don't know if they work yet. So tell me how much you miss me. Or wish me Happy Birthday a week early. 

I'm off to Norfolk this weekend, so I'll post about that when I get back. It's been a quiet week around here, so not too much to report. 

One Month

It's our one month anniversary of being in London, and I feel like I've hit a brick wall.  For the first month, everyone got along great, we went out and about at every opportunity, pub crawled, didn't worry about homework, and in essence, continued our winter break. 

But now we've all had a month to settle in, and things are not running as smoothly. It's amazing what people will put up with for a month, while they're still shell-shocked. It's frustrating to have people complaining 24/7 about things that don't really matter. But it's equally frustrating to be in a group of people who aren't respectful of each other. I'd only like to say that 14 people + 1 kitchen= a night mare for those with OCD. As in, myself. 

So what cool things have I been doing?

Today, I went to the National Gallery, and saw some awesome paintings. It's my favorite museum and I loved being five feet away from Seurat's Bathers (though of course, it looks better from 10 feet away). I also loved their collection of Monets, Constables, and Hogarths. I didn't even know Hogarth did anything besides prints. You learn something new everyday.

I also was chatted up by an Italian boy who was selling me pizza, as was his duty as a good Italian boy. I was all on my lonesome, for some good quality me time, and randomly ran in to two of my flat mates. I didn't know that they would be out, nor them I. How crazy is it that in a massive city the size of London, we would run into each other? Bizarre, I tell you.

Also this week, we had a snow day!! It was very exciting, and for the first time in a long while, I was excited for the snow. My roommate, a flat mate, and I went to Hyde Park and made a punk rock snowman. Then, we left for five minutes, and some punks knocked it down. Those jerks. My roommate and I walked down to Sainsbury's which was an amusing experience, and trecked  back home. Let me tell you, a mile in the snow and back is rough work. We hit the pub with a couple of friends at about 3:30, and had an enjoyable afternoon playing Rummy 500, drinking cider, and watching the snow fall. It was a most excellent day. I've had three snow days in the the past three months, and all of them have been worthwhile. 

We only had school on Tuesday this week, but I wasn't terribly motivated to make the most of it. We were supposed to go to Stonehenge and Bath today, but that was cancelled due to bad weather in Bath. Originally, a few of the girls and I were planning to go to Dublin on this five day weekend, but the Bath trip cancelled our plans. So in the end, nothing about this week worked out right. Instead, we sat around the house, because it was freezing outside. Wednesday, we did go out to the Camden Markets, where I got an adorable purple plaid jacket. Friday, we went to Portabello Road Markets, which are mostly food on weekdays, but no one would make up their minds, and it was terribly cold, so we ate at a pub instead. I plan on returning for the falafel and olive bar in the coming weeks. 

Speaking of the coming weeks, next weekend, I'm off to Norfolk to see some family friends, and I'm very excited for it. Then the week after, it's my birthday, so I expect to have a good time, too. 

That's it for now; I uploaded new photos from the snow day to my flikr account, so click the link to the left for some snow pics. Hopefully, I'll add a few that Molly, my roommate took, of me and Mike with our creation. 

My favourite photo so far

P1010033
Originally uploaded by midgetwithasword

This is an advertisement that you can see all my photos at flikr, under the user name midgetwithasword. There's a slide show on the side, which I think links through. I'll be adding more pictures whenever I have faster internet, I promise

Why the British are Awesome

So I went out to dinner tonight with an old family friend who works as a flight attendant and stays right down the road from me when he's in London. It has been very, very chilly here lately, even snowing on and off today. I hoped to catch the 49 down the street to save me 10 minutes of icy walking (hey, it's free for me, so why not?). But as I was walking out my flat, I noticed the bus was already in the turn lane at the corner, with a green light. I booked it down the street, only to miss the bus by about 20 feet... or so I thought. But then the bus stopped, and I was able to hop on (sometimes, bus drivers are mean and won't let you on if you run up and they've already shut their doors. Just a heads up.).  So I move to the back, and stand next to a 50ish gentleman, who is about ready to get off. Right before his stop, he turns to me and says, "I saw you running for the bus, so I pushed the stop button, even though it wasn't my stop. I'm glad you made it on."

How nice is that? See, that's what  I love about the British. They are so unassuming, and private, but they will do nice things like that, and are usually very polite about everything. So I thanked this gentleman, and he goes the extra step and wishes me a very enjoyable evening. I believe he actually he really used those exact words. 

I was astonished about how polite and nice he was. I know that nice is a word that is overused, and it's hard to really know what it means anymore. It's like cute. What does cute even mean? It can describe animals, boys, babies, and cars. What does nice mean? It describes people, suits, cars, and other material objects. 

But I think that there isn't a better word for this gentleman. He was nice. He went out of his way to help a stranger out, just because. Because it's cold outside, or I was running, or maybe he thought I was cute. Who knows? 

In any case, he certainly endeared me to the British even more.