Hallow-England

So, I have passed what I consider to be my first holiday in England. And let me just say, I am not too impressed.

First off, let me say that my afternoon included a 2-hour visit to a bus depot that didn't end until after 6. Bus depots aren't fun.

After the field trip I went to a nearby pub which was 'celebrating'. The staff were all dressed up, with one guy dressed as a vampire and another guy for some reason covered in plastic bags. There was a themed quiz (we got 7th out of 12, it wasn't ideal. This one was a bit tricky, but free), were people got an extra point if everyone in the group was in 'fancy dress'. And by themed, I mean there were five questions on the quiz devoted to scary movies. Not saying much, I know.

So, why does England not care about Halloween? I came across two obvious reasons. A: Guy Fawkes day is less than a week away. Who can handle two holidays within a week of each other? B: They have costume parties all year round, so there is little novelty in dressing in costume. Additionally, trick-or-treating hasn't really caught on, so there's no real fun for the kids, and instead there are just a few trouble-makers that go along causing, well, trouble. They also seem to have little enthusiasm for a decent excuse to buy mass quantities of mini Snickers bars (but mind you, there were some free chippy buttys at the pub quiz, but they ran out before I could get one). Quite frankly, they just don't understand what they're missing.

P.S. Finally gave my presentation on compact cities and sustainable transport today. Professor: 'you're American, you must know blah blah blah' (no clue what he was talking about). Next thing you know someone will ask me, 'you're American, I met an American once, do you know them?' But who are we kidding, we pull that stuff with other countries all the time.

I might also add that one of the quiz questions was 'who won the world series last week?' and I totally got that one right.

Portsmouth

So I went to Portsmouth yesterday. Portsmouth is sort of at the bottom of the inslet that Southampton is at the top of, the home of the Royal Navy, historically a bit sketch, and currently undergoing major efforts to make itself yuppy. It has two main attraction, conveniently located near each other in the yuppy part of town. They are the historical dockyards and the Spinnaker Tower.

So first I went to the dockyards. You can either pay 11 pounds to see one attraction of your choice or 13 pounds to see all of them (which is about 10). There are three big old ships involved, and then some museums and navy recruitment centers disguised as 'action stations'. The first of the ships is the HMS Warrior. I don't know why this ship is important, but it's from the 1800s. The second ship I saw was the Mary Rose. Now, I had never heard of the Mary Rose, so it was really a pleasant surprise. This is a 495 year-old ship used by Henry VIII that sank off of Portsmouth Harbour 460 years ago. They discovered the ship in the early 1980s and as half of had been buried all that time, it was in remarkably good condition, so they managed to raise this massive half-rotten ship to the surface and turn it upright. Going to see the ship is really intense. Because it is so old, it is being constantly sprayed with the this wax preservative that is supposed to strengthen the wood. The spraying has been going on for over ten years, and is scheduled to be completed in 2009 (at which point they will spend two years drying it out and you can see it somewhat normally in 2011). As it is being sprayed, you just walk along a viewing gallery lined with windows, and the room with the ship is rather dark and very foggy because of all the wax. And it's a 495 year old ship. Basically, hard to describe, but if you are in Portsmouth, you really should go see it.

The final ship is the HMS Victory. Which is the ship on which Admiral Lord Nelson died in the Battle of Trafalgar. This is a big deal, but nobody I've spoken to really knows why. So you can walk around the ship (and by walk, if you are over about five feet tall, I mean you will sort of be bent over in half for a good number of the lower decks) and see where he died. Also of note, they sell the largest pens I have ever seen in the HMS Victory gift shop. Like, a good inch and a half diameter, over a foot long.

Aside from boats, Portsmouth is home to a new 'tall-structure', Spinnaker Tower. When I first heard of the tower, I assumed it was actually called Spinnaca Tower because it sounds to me like everyone adds Rs to the ends of words that end with As, but in this case it actually ends with an R. Tricky, I know. So, the tower is on the water in the new University Village-esque mall they have here (Gunwharf Quays). For some reason it closes at 5 pm, but luckily with the clock change yesterday that was when a lovely sunset was occurring (see above picture). The views are surprisingly nice from the top and you can see all kinds of exciting things. Like the Isle of Wight and a tiny glint of Southampton. Once again, if you are in Portsmouth, I give the Spinnaker Tower my endorsement.

I might also add that despite being able to see Southampton from Portsmouth, due to 'engineering works', it took an hour to get there each way on the train.

Guns and Football

And I'm not even talking about Texas.

Good news. I remembered what I was meaning to write about yesterday. And I even think it's somewhat interesting.

First of all, I was quite surprised to learn that handguns are illegal in Britain. Like, nobody has them, and nobody is allowed to have them. They don't have them at Wal-mart. Rifles and other larger hunting-related guns are legal, but in order to get one you have to apply and tell the authorities why you need said gun, and you have to take classes or something to be able to use it. Apparently they make for this by an increased number in stabbings.

The Southampon "football" club, aka, the Saints, used to be in the premiere league but are now in the championship league, which is the next one down. Apparently, at any given time there are only 20 clubs in the premiere league, but those 20 change every year. The bottom 3 get demoted, and then the top two teams from the championship league get to move up automatically, and then the third through sixth place teams play a little tournament for the final spot. And then the bottom three teams in the championship league get demoted, and the same goes on for the league before that. So theoretically, you could start a tiny little team and eventually make it to the premiere league. This seems like a good idea to me. Maybe baseball should look into it.

I have also started to learn about cricket. There are 11 fielders out at any given time, and two batters, but only one of them has the little bat, and they each stand at a 'wicket'. The 'bowler' throws the ball to the guy with the little bat, and he hits it, and then him and the other guy on his team run back and forth between the wickets to score runs. That's as far as I got.

Chippy Butty

I swear I had a really clever topic for today's blog but I seem to have totally forgotten what it is, so it looks like I'll be winging it.

My favorite new rando-food discovery of yesterday is the Chippy Butty. Apparently it is 1) bread, 2) butter, 3) french fries, 4) bread, aka, a french fry sandwich. I'm not sure if it comes with additional french fries as a standard side order, but if the all-day breakfast does, I'm not sure why it wouldn't. I also learned the dark truth behind black pudding and promise to never, ever try it, but I did force myself to try a prawn cocktail potato chip. It wasn't good, wasn't bad, and I could find no correlation between the taste and seafood.

Now for some more Portland shout-outs. In passenger transport on Tuesday, the lecturer (who likes to write random things on the chalkboard and then circle them vigorously) was talking about light rail systems in the US, and then turned and looked straight at me and asked me some random question about the system in Pittsburgh or somewhere. I don't even know how he knew I was American. And so I was like, I only know Portland (which was on the list), and then he started asking questions about how many miles of track there were and how many trains they had and the subsidy. It was kind of strange. And then yesterday afternoon in transport policy the lecturer had a quote from the head of 1000 Friends of Oregon at the beginning of his presentation.

Yesterday was quiz night and the big final question was about the movie the Blue Brothers. And I didn't know the answer. Sad.

The Welsh

As I have learned, the Welsh are to the British as the Southerner is to Americans. The English regard these slightly exotic people as the type that go off into the dark valleys of Wales with people they are probably somehow related to (and apparently they are all named Jones, so it's a little tough to tell). When speaking in England with a Welsh accent, you will not be taken that seriously and you will probably be mocked. It seems like it would be tough to be Welsh.

And because they are omnipresent in my current life, I am going to talk more about sandwiches. My default campus lunch these days is indeed a baguette sandwich. The default is white bread, but one campus option also has 'brown' bread, which is just your standard wheat. When I asked about this there was some speal about all these other kinds of bread, but I don't recall what exactly they are at this moment. I was pleased the other day to get a turkey cranberry one, but I had to wade through cheese & pickle, tuna (too-ner) & coleslaw, and roast pork & applesauce to get to it. Today I had a turkey & cheese one, which would be easier to tackle if the cheese wasn't grated, so it basically just goes everywhere. One of my classmates brought a pate sandwich on Tuesday. I saw a hummus & salad (aka, lettuce, tomato, cucumber) one last week as well. And the concept of peanut butter & jelly is a bit lost on them all, I'm afraid. It's a bit of an adventure walking into the cafeteria everyday; not knowing what kind of crafty sandwhich contraption I'll be able to get ahold of. One day I had a 'jacket potato', which is a baked potato, and I got it with mozarella and sun-dried tomato, and it somehow ended up looking like tuna (another topping option that day: pepperoni in salsa sauce). I haven't had any more jacket potatoes since then.

One more confession to make. For my group presentation next Tuesday, which was being compiled on my nice American computer today, I am being forced to use British English. So I'm talking about city centres, neighbourhoods, travel behvaiour, and public transport (aka, transit). It's not ideal.

The job market

I was a little thrown off today when my classmates started talking about applying for jobs. Like, now. For October 2007. Apparently it's the high season for sending in your 'CV' to the different companies, who will collect a few resumes, and then start narrowing down and will perhaps decide by Easter who they want to hire. The CVs themselves are two-pages, not one, and include a summary of extra-curricular activities. Supposing you get an offer, you will, I kid you not, most likely receive 'a golden hello', which is just a signing bonus but has a most amusing name, which vary in amount but a good one for my fellow graduates would be about 4000 pounds. We were told during our program induction that the graduates are in demand and everyone who wants one should be able to get a job rather easily. We'll see how it goes. I might also add that they will expect to receive approximately 5 to 6 weeks of paid vacation every year, in addition to 8 bank holidays.

Now, something that I find strange. Southampton is considered within commuting range of London. It is an 80-minute train-ride, plus however long it takes you to get from Waterloo to your place of work. That seems like a bit much, but apparently the combination of higher wages in London and lower cost of living down here makes it at least somewhat worthwhile. I might add that Bournemouth is considered too far for said daily commute, but all the major cities (aka, the cities that have relatively direction routes to London) along the south coast that are east of here are all commuting cities. And much like many people in the US, many people here seem to dig the idea of working in London 'just for a year or two', of course most Americans would probably at least live within Greater London. All in all, it's just kind of something I have a tough time getting a firm understanding of. I might also add that if you work for Transport for London one of the perks is free travel on all London transit, which could add up.

London IV

So I returned yet again to London yesterday. I took a little stroll from the train station through Southbank to Tate Modern, where I looked at and enjoyed modern art, including these massive slides that are apparently all the rage. I then walked across the Millenium Bridge and sat on the steps of St Pauls to eat a sandwich and immerse myself in the satisfaction of knowing that I will now be in dozens of strangers random vacation pictures. When I got up to leave a wedding was just getting out and the sidewalk was flooded with middle aged English women in suits and giant matching hats. It was almost too much. I fully intended to go see a play after that, but all the good ones were taken and I didn't want to spend £27 to see Footloose, so I went to the National Portrait Gallery. I liked the National Portrait Gallery. It's like this combo of history and art where you walk around looking at paintings of people and learn about why they deserve to have their painting hanging there.

I also feel obliged to mention that I have somehow enabled the knack, that no matter where I am going in London, the sun is always directly in front of me, and the wind is blowing from behind me, so a good portion of the time I am squinting while trying to get my hair from turning into a total 'fro.

Now for a juicy additional Guy Fawkes day preview... There is a building here on campus that is covered with scaffolding. Then I learn that the reason it's covered with said scaffolding is because last year on Guy Fawkes day some 'arsonists' stuffed the window with lit fireworks and the building was gutted by fire. And it's only two weeks from today...

Library times. I've got to learn about how compact cities and sustainable urban transport.

Seattle and the English

In part two of my Pacific Northwest-England discussion, I shall now discuss what the people over here have to say about Seattle (with their mouths, not their clothing). While people indeed show support for Oregon, I have heard many a positive thing about the city of Seattle. I have spoken to exactly one person that has actually been there, and they then claimed that Seattle and San Diego were their two favorite American cities. And amongst others, there was one person who has considered moving to Seattle, and two other people who have separatly mentioned it to be the city at the top of their 'where to go next in America' list. And one of them said that without even knowing I was from there, so you know they weren't lying. My general response: but have you been to Vegas?

Today down at the city center I saw a truly English sight: a sale at Topshop; at which point I forgot what I had gone down there for and made a beeline. This was my third or fourth trip to Topshop, but I had so far refrained from buying anything, or even trying anything on. It took quite a bit of time and energy, but I emerged with a shirt and a dress a mere 25 pounds later. Mind you, I have no clue what I will do with said dress, but it was only 10 pounds. You would have done the same thing if you were me.

Speaking of Topshop, it is technically Topshop/Topman, and from what I have heard, the Topman crowd is the type that stands around the men's room wearing pink discussing their new hair straighteners (no, really, I'm not lying).

Tomorrow is indeed Saturday, and I have a train ticket to London. At this point I am not intending to go see Ashlee Simpson in Chicago, but you never really know where the day may lead (aside from Tate Modern; it's going to be my first stop).

The lingo

I have a confesssion to make: sometimes I think I might be giving in and using British sayings. Not in a 'blimey' kind of way, but I've noticed a few small things sneaking in. Like today I said maybe they are 'keen' on that. As soon as I said it I knew I had just sold myself out, just a little bit. Luckily it was subtle enough so that I don't think anyone noticed. And to counter things out, I think I am going to single-handedly get the English to start using the word sketchy.

Aside from that, I would say I have also officially become a student. I've got a group presentation the week after next on compact cities and sustainable transport. This has already required spending time in the actual library. And yesterday I used my calculator to do an actual assignment. My resistence so far has been in vain and I know that it's going to be all downhill from here on out. On the bright side, we have a field trip in two weeks to the Wroughton Science museum. Even the people from England have no idea where that is. On the way there we're going to stop and look at a bypass.

Today was also my first actual quasi-meeting with my so-called tutor. Everyone here is assigned one, and they function as your academic advisor plus a little bit more. Unfortunately for me, I have the scary beady-eyed, bearded una-bomber looking guy who gets excited about statistics. Luckily we don't need to ever talk to our tutors unless we want to.

Today's picture is of a variable message sign. It is the thing behind the road sign in the picture from a week or two ago. But they came up in class today and so I thought I would include it.

Guy Fawkes, the preview

I've just found out that my first purely British holiday is only two weeks away! Guy Fawkes day is November 5 (which is a Sunday). And in celebration, apparently everyone walks around with torches and light things on fire and there are fireworks and apparently soup. Needless to say, I'm very excited. And so I'm sure November 5th I will have a very exciting entry that relates all there is to tell.

Speaking of strange ways of the British. I saw something this evening that threw me off. Upon leaving the student union, which is conveniently right across from the campus bar, I discovered a large crowd of men (about 30) all wearing utterly ridiculous clothes. Most everything was skin tight, and a good portion of it was indeed intended for women, and it was all in bright colors. Apparently it was something called a Rubic's cube night, where everyone wears the colors of the cube and goes out on the town and then by the end of the evening they have to have worn, at some point in time, outfits in each of the 6 colors of the cube. I'm sure chaos ensues throughout. Quite frankly, it looked like it was already ensuing.

Another things I learned that I'm sure you will all find somewhat interesting, is that the English seem to find it strange that Americans claim to be made up of different nationalities instead of just calling themselves American. Apparently if all of your grandparents were born in the US, you shouldn't be claiming to be anything else. I might also add that quite a few of the English are not entirely English themselves. It seems the whole thing is just sort of treated a little differently over here.

Oregon and England

There is something strange going on in the country. In three days I have seen three non-Americans wearing Oregon memorabilia. The first time was on an older English gentleman at Osbourne House wearing a duck jacket. And then today I saw a younger Asian man wearing a duck sweatshirt, and about ten minutes after that I saw another English gentleman wearing a sweatshirt that says Oregon, but was not related to the ducks or Nike.

What is going on here? Why this fascination with Oregon? My personal belief is that it's a funny word, because you know, it is. I might also add that in this same time period, aside from perhaps an odd Yankees hat or a New York t-shirt, I have seen no references to any American state on any piece of clothing and no other American university items. When I went to open my bank account, the lady was looking at my passport and goes just goes "Oregon" (which is listed as my place of birth) like it said Myanmar or something and I needed to be treated with special care having come from such a place. The people I have spoken to about states seem to know of Oregon and it's existence, so they obviously have some idea what they're getting into. Aside from the general world-wide prevelance of Nike, I have no idea what could possibly be going on here. I have not had the nerve to walk up to any of these people and ask them about it, but perhaps if I see any more I might be obliged to say something.

Anyways, that's all.

Sizing

Some people think it is difficult to figure out all the different types of clothing sizes in the US. Whatever. We've got nothing on England.

I embarked on a little "research" at H&M. At this particular store, the tags inside the clothes conveniently list the 'US' size and the 'Europe' size, while the sales tag lists the Europe size and the 'UK' size, as well as the UK price and the Ireland price (which is in Euros). I have no idea what the conversion for European sizes is, but theoretically UK sizes are two sizes off from the US, so a 2 becomes a 6, etc, so one must be good and sure if they are looking at the US size or the UK size (that one letter makes all the difference). H&M also has quite a few hangers that theoretically list what size the attached article of clothing is, but I quickly realized it's best to ignore the hanger. And then there are shoes, which are also listed in your Europe and UK sizes, but nowhere lists the US sizes, so this you actually have to remember.

Please enjoy my above picture of a discarded cigarette box. They cut right to the chase with the warning labels here. And because I realize it's funny looking, the box is floating in a little pond with nature around it.

The biggest news of the day is something that truly excited me. Today at a more-fully-stocked Waitrose, they had Crunchy Nut bars. They are the regular flavor and not the chocolate, but I am still eagerly awaiting having one. It is indeed a big day.

Isle of Wight

Random head shot... I think we all know what that means... I went somewhere with my camera today...

In lieu of making a third straight Saturday London run, I opted today to go to the Isle of Wight to go to Osbourne House, as it is only open through October (and then reopens in April, but that's not soon). Plus I wanted to see this elusive waterway that Southampton has been claiming to have but they manage to keep rather well hidden. So now I can confirm that there is indeed water out there. I believe part of it was called the Solent.

Getting to said isle entails an hour long ferry ride (or if you pay a lot more, a 20 minute ferry ride), and then the house is a little over a mile from the little city where that particular ferry lands. Now, it was kind of cold today and perhaps not ideal strolling weather, but there was like no one around in said town (East Cowes), and I didn't see anyone else walking on the street outside of the ferry terminal. It was kind of creepy. Luckily I found the house, where as usual, I was surrounded by really old people who, I'm sorry, walk unnaturally slowly and won't let you get around them in the hallways.

Oh, before I get too far ahead of myself, Osbourne House was Queen Victoria's family house. She lived there a good chunk of the time starting in the 1840s and died there in 1901. So if you are into Queen Victoria and her flock (like many of the old Brits seemed to be), it's probably much more interesting. But from my American viewpoint, it was simply a nice house with nice grounds and such. Unlike a lot of those big houses and castles around here, there aren't any uber-giant state rooms because it was a family house, so it's got of a more personal flow to it. And when it's not cloudy you can see the water.

So after a little over an hour at the house, I walked back onto the ferry and went to the city center to buy coffee. Which in many ways was just as exciting.

Now to confront another British stereotype: that of the warm beer. You've got your lager and your ales. Your lagers are chilled. From what I have seen, these tend to be relatively light beers, such as Stella Artois (this is the only one I've seen that I have known). The ales, on the other hand, "aren't warm, they're just not chilled". Whatever that means. And they come out of a different sort of tap so they are easily discernable, aka, easily avoided.

Neighbours

Today I got to witness something first hand that I have been hearing about for years: Neighbours, the Australian soap opera. Now, being not in America, there are bars on campus, and so after your last class of the week people go to the bar for a 'pint', which is what happened today. Now, for some reason the show Neighbours came up at lunchtime, and I was surprised to learn that everyone, that is females and males, watch this show, and have for years. The show comes on both mid-afternoon and again at 5:30 pm, so we were in the bar at 5:30, and suddenly they turn off the music and turn to this tv show, which I quickly learn is indeed Neighbours. Yes, it's apparently that important. So everyone just sort of stops what and watches this show for half an hour before continuing on with their day. From the explanations I heard, the show is just like American soap operas. One person had amnesia, there was a plane crash, and someone else was switched at birth. Yet it is some sort of international phenomenan that is a vital part of British culture. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it. Mind you, I didn't really know who the people were so I wasn't that enthralled, but apparently I will learn to love it if I watch it regularly.

Aside from that, today was just a class day. One thing that we have here that never occureed in undergrad, but I suppose could happen elsewhere in grad school, is that we have classes taught by more than one professor. So on Tuesday we had a three hour afternoon class, where one guy lectured the first and third hour, and another guy taught the middle hour. And today the middle hour guy taught are late morning class and our afternoon class (which was a different class than Tuesday afternoon), but he doesn't teach those classes every week. We also get to go on a field trip to Tesco's distribution center in January. Apparently I should be excited about that.

Yogurt = yah-gert
Inventory = invent-ree

They're a funny lot. But they find it funny when I say football and apricot, so what are you going to do.

Canary Wharf

Hello! My little post is a little later in the day that usual. Today we had an all-time field trip for school to this convention on intelligent transport systems in London. It took 3 hours to get there and 3 hours to get back, we were there for a little over 5 hours, and we'd finished going around the booths after an hour. After an additional hour of sitting right outside eating lunch, a few of us decided to go on a little field trip, for some reason that I'm not really sure of, to relatively near-by Canary Wharf to kill some time. This involved using the East Dockland light rail system, which, although I must admit I don't really know, seems just like an extension of the tube built above ground. I must admit I was somewhat impressed, because we had to transfer going either way and each time we were actually just able to walk from one train to the other without waiting a single second. And nobody likes waiting.

As for the convention, I'm sure it would have been really quite interesing if we had had more than a single day of lectures. As it was, we didn't really know what most of the stuff was or how it applies to anything, so everyone was just going around picking up brochures and getting as much free stuff as possible, which is why it didn't really take that much time.

My apologies again for the boring post. One of the things I learned today of potential interest relates to sandwhiches. There was a something or another and 'rocket' sandwich. I was like, what is rocket? Apparently it's just a kind of lettuce. Which I must admit is a tad disappointing.

And because I know you are all curious, Canary Wharf is like the Seattle of London. It's a yuppy office area. And there's a Canada tower. They dig the Canada over here.

As with yesterday, today's photo was not taken today, but I find it to be a lovely illustration of the randomness that goes on with the roads around here.

I was also thinking of doing an entire post on the music scene here (or as much as I've been able to discern), but I don't have that much to say, so I will just add a bit at the end of this one. According to BBC, the number one song in the UK right now is ironically called 'America', by Razorlight. It's rather catchy, and you can find it on American itunes. And whenever I'm on the bus or anywhere, there is always this song called 'Never Be Lonely' by The Feeling, which is rather poppy and not on American itunes. The number 2 song is by the Scissor Sisters, who are of course American but much more popular over here. The Killers are also somewhere in the top 10.

The 2-ring binder

Today was my first full day of lectures. Room temperature control aside, it was not that remarkable and somewhat similar to what you would find in the US. The school supplies, on the other hand, are rather odd. When shopping for some school supplies, I couldn't help but notice the binder situation. Now paper sizes are a little different, and I was prepared for that, but I was not prepared for the number of holes that I would find. There are both 4-ring and 2-ring binders, with the 2-ring being more popular and simply fitting the middle 2 of the 4-rings. It seems like things would get sort of floppy. There are no 3-ring binders. And to think I bothered to bring my mini-3-hole punch.

Oh, and for some reason one of the profs today used the world respiratory. If I hadn't seen it written down I wouldn't have known what he was saying. And methane is mee-thane. And one of the other professors expressed some concern that they have raised the price of pudding in the staff restaurant.

I must also mention that I have just sampled a rhubarb flavored yogurt that came in one of my multi-packs and it was not good. Not good at all. Very bad. Yet for some reason, rhubarb comes in all of their multi-packs and the other 3 flavors fluctuate.

The above picture is the engineers of the Titanic memorial down near the city center. I kind of think by engineer, they mean everybody who wasn't part of the wait or steward staff. It's hard to tell.

Salisbury

I made it in to Salisbury today. Now, for the most part, Salisbury as a city, so not at all cute. Kind of dingy, really. But then there is this uber-giant cathedral. It's kind of a strange contrast.

Not tempted to make any stops, I bee-lined from the train station to said cathedral and hopped on a tour that was just starting. I had taken a tour of the Winchester Cathedral and just wanted things to be even. Both tours involved a retired Englishman telling me and two English people (Winchester it was an older married couple, Salisbury was two older men) much more about the cathedrals than you could possibly ever want to know, while the two English people ask completely random questions I could never have come up with on my own while I smile and nod to show that I am learning. So this cathedral is all open in the middle, which is rare, as most have some sort of screen (the one at Winchester was Victorian and made of carved wood), so you can actually get a full understanding of the size when you walk in. I realize this is not interesting to read, so I'm going to kind of stop and refer you all to the very short album I put up of the place on Picasa that includes some interior photos.

Now for my official cathedral comparison. So, city of Winchester, definitly better than city of Salisbury. Exterior of Salisbury Cathedral definitly better than exterior of Winchester Cathedral, but I have to proclaim the interiors a bit of a toss up, and Winchester has some more interesting stories for the tour. Two other things that I did not mention about Salisbury that earn it additional points: the best preserved original copy of the Magna Carta in existence, and a 700 year old clock, but it doesn't look like a clock because it doesn't have a face.

Before leaving town I walked just a bit down the high street and went to 'Poundland', which is the equivalent of a dollar store. There's some good stuff in there.

Tomorrow is my first day of learning. We'll see how that goes.

Brits gone wild

You just can't help but wonder about the English sometimes. This afternoon while checking out the listings for the various clubs and societies the University offers, I came across this one, the extreme ironing society:

http://www.sueis.co.uk/

What?!? Yes. Apparently there are some people who like to take their iron and ironing board with them all the time and find new and innovative ways to keep their clothing wrinkle-free. My other personal favorite is the university's Guild of Change Ringers, who get together and practice ringing church bells in a non-religious manner before going to pubs. I'm adding that one to my list of 'things I never knew about but now I thinks it's the best idea ever' pile. They have a meeting/bell ringing every Thursday evening.

Aside from the usual mumbo-jumbo, I came across an exciting flavor of chips at the grocery store that I couldn't pass up: Mango Chilli (their spelling, not mine). Underneath it says 'ANGRY fruit'. Personally I never thought the mango to be particularly viscious, but apparently I was wrong. I took a picture of the bag, but decided that I enjoyed the above billboard just a little more.

French man sevens

I returned to London today, expecting it to be horrid and rainy and I could just chill in museums all day. Well, it turned out to be the nicest day since my arrival, so I only chilled in museums for part of the day.

For today's journey I went straight from Waterloo to Tate Britain, at which point I looked at some art, then I went up to Green Park and then walked along said park to Knightsbridge, then down Brompton Road to Kensington. After a brief stop-in at Top Shop, I walked around Kensington Gardens to enjoy the niceness of the bad until the wind convinced me maybe it wouldn't be too lame if I went back inside, so I went to the V&A, primarily to see the costume exhibit that was closed when I was there a couple years ago. So that was nice.

Oh, and when I was walking by the V&A the first time (before Kensington Gardens), I saw this guy walking with his small child and he was wearing sevens, and then he started speaking to said small child and he revealed himself to be French. So apparently they sell/wear man sevens in France. But that's not the weirdest thing I saw today. On my way back the train station there were signs in the tube station revealing that Ashlee Simpson (Jessica's little sis, you know the one) is currently starring in Chicago as Roxie Hart in the West End. How did that happen?

To see more things that Queen Victoria built to remember Prince Albert and a couple of other places along the way, I should have some new photos up on picasa any minute now.

My apologies that this entry wasn't witty. I've been walking/on trains all day.

General confusion

I'm determined to have a witty entry today despite not having anything in particular to report. My original intention for the day was to go to Salisbury, but the sleeting rain convinced me to put it off until another day.

So, we all know that they drive on the left over here. This still throws me off when it comes to figuring out which bus stop I should be standing at and which way to look when waiting for said bus, but that's another story. In the US, you drive on the right, and you pretty much stay to the right for everything else, including walking and the like. From what I have been able to decipher, here there is no rhyme or reason to the general rules of getting around on foot. In the mall, you keep to the right to get on your escalator, but on the streets it seems to be every person for themself. What's up with this? It's like umbrella dodgeball out there. Nobody knows where anyone else is going to go, you don't know where anyone is going to go, and there are strollers and umbrellas everywhere. Quite frankly I'm surprised there aren't more mid-sidewalk collisions. Then again, I'm surprised there aren't more roadway collisions as well. The one thing that I have not seen since my arrival is an actual stop sign. I'm beginning to think they don't have them. Sometimes there are lines painted on the road at these intersections where I'm assuming the correct person knows to stop, but I'm not sure how exactly they are supposed to know. I sat at the front of the bus one day and have never been more confused. This could get tricky given my area of study.

I am also pleased to report that in my absence today the electrician came and I was able to pop in the little card to get access to hot water and computer/ipod/phone charging electricity again. And the card worked very easily, so I'm pretty sure they actually had to fix something. Either that or I've been going without for two days for nothing, but I like to assume the former.

Off to London again tomorrow! Woo-hoo!

Crunchy Nut and the search for the giant mug

Today I'm going to do something that I haven't done in my other posts. I'm going to complain. But only a little bit, and I feel like it's warranted. Just turn back now if you're against hearing negative things about the English. Well, not all of them, just the ones I dealt with yesterday.

So right as I was getting into the shower yesterday, all the nice warm water goes away and a beeping noise starts coming from my closet. Apparently here in the land of the angles you have to pre-pay for your non-lighting electricity. So I go down to the reception desk (five minutes walk) to learn that I need to get some electricity cards. I spend 10 pounds on these little cards and they say you stick them in the machine in the closet and the meter resets or whatever. After sticking these cards in the machine, all I get is a reading that says 'card error'. I go back down to reception. Oh yes, those are the right cards, they tell me, you're just doing it wrong. Back in the closet, I still cannot figure out why the little machine hates me. I take a photo of little machine and take my camera back down to reception. After much discussion with the people working there and a random worker man, it is discovered that this is the wrong kind of card. So they give me the correct kind of card for my machine. Back to the closet I go, this time with thought of a light at the end of the tunnel. But no. Card error. Nothing is clicking and nothing is giving me back access to auxiliary electricity. I got back to the reception desk for the 4th time. They tell me that they're going to have to send someone up to do it because I am clearly too stupid to figure out a simple machine (that's not what they said, but you knew that was what they were thinking), but the electrician has legitimate things to do and probably wouldn't get to it that day or even the next day.

Needless to say, it's nearly 4 pm Thursday (this started around 8:30 pm yesterday) and I am still without electricity to power my computer (yay for batteries) and without my personal favorite, hot water. Trust me, this does not lead to a happy showering experience.

So then I went to the bank where I was told to go that day to sign papers to open my account. Upon arrival I am told that because my first name was misspelled on my little bank letter (which was the proof of me being a student for a year) so they haven't opened it yet, but I could go get another letter. I don't have this letter yet, but should be able to pick it up and take it the bank tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.

In the grand tradition of being an American female, after all this I decided to go shopping. I have been searching all over this town for a decently large mug for over a week now to no avail. For some reason the English seem to favor this teeny-tiny little things barely bigger than a shot of espresso. A trip to Starbucks cured all that, where I purchased a nice 20 oz mug that says England on the side, but when you're holding it it just says 'land' and has a giant picture of Shakespeare. To go with said mug I got a cheap coffee maker and some beans and this morning I had my first coffee since arriving (the kitchen still has electricity. Lucky kitchen). I enjoyed said coffee with a fine English cereal entitle Crunchy Nut, which is corn flakes with some sort of brown sugar/honey/nutty coating and is amazingly good. I could go for some right now.

Oh, and then my practically brand new umbrella has already broken and I had to walk back in the rain today holding it with one hand to keep it open. Not ideal.

Finally met the people in my program today. I only have classes on Tuesday and Thursdays, but it goes from 9 am to 6 pm. Weird, I know.

Winchester

In a blow to kittens everywhere, the city of Winchester has become a serious challenger in the fight to be declared 'cutest thing ever'.

Needless to say, I went to Winchester today. Ha, I rhyme. Winchester's claim to fame is that is the ancient capital of England. This particular brand of ancient means Saxon times (they were the rulers before the Normans came in 1066). According to it's own city museum, it stopped kind of mattering circa 1280.

There are two big tourist draws to the city. The first is the cathedral. It's sort of built in the same spot as older churches, nicely called Old Minster and New Minster. They started the church in the 11oos and they didn't build all of it at first because one of the Minsters was there and it took a really long time to demolish it, so the inside has three distinct sections with different styles. There are some things in there that English people care about but I forget what they are, but I will say that Jane Austen is buried inside and I walked on her grave stone thingy. For all you fellow engineer types, when the Romans came to town they diverted the River Itchen slightly to the east, and the cathedral is built where the river used to flow and it is a flood plain. About a hundred years ago the foundations were crumbling and there was a general worry that the cathedral would collapse, but this diver guy conveniently spent 5 and a half years underground doing repairs to the foundation and managed to save the cathedral. All while wearing an early 20th century diving suit. The crypt of the cathedral floods quite a bit just about every winter. If you want to actually learn about the cathedral without any of my messed up facts, you can click on the link below. Oh, and the organist was practicing when I went in. It was really intense.

http://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/

Highlight number two is the Great Hall and it's round table. They say that the legend of King Arthur is based on this actual Saxon king who lived in Winchester in the 600s and he was really good at not being taken over by invaders. So this was a popular tale in the 1200s and so they made a giant table and started telling people it was the table of myth, even though it's not. So it's been hanging on the wall and slightly confusing people for 700 years now. The Great Hall is the only building that remains from Winchester Castle, which according to the sketches provided to aide the imagination, was one of those scary places on a hill with a big wall and lots of towers. But they sort of got rid of it and moved away. Which is when Winchester stopped mattering so much, but it's still very cute and worth a visit. There are many more photos on picasa.

Plus they sell canned oxe tongue in the grocery store.

The Grocery Store

I made an actual grocery run today. In lieu of supporting Wal-Mart, I went to Waitrose, which is conveniently located for the next 3 days in the mall, at which point they will be moving to Portswood Road. Which means they will be on a different bus route, and that today they were not at full stock. While I am sorry to admit I did not walk down the condiments aisle, I did pretty much check out everything else.

Fruits and veggies: pretty much the same. I got some Braeburn apples.
Frozen food: in the sorts of cases that we keep non-frozen fridge food, such as milk. Which seems odd to me, but I think we all know that the Enlgish aren't big on 'cold'. I got three frozen entrees of an English nature. One of them is called Bubble and Squeak. I would lie if I said my decision to purchase this was not based entirely on the name. It's apparently mashed potatoes with cabbage and carrots. The entrees were about 2 pounds each, which is somewhat comparable to American stores.
Crisps: they have 'prawn cocktail' flavor. I did not get any.
Ready meals: the stuff you can grab to eat right away for lunch. Mainly sandwiches, some wraps (I got chicken caesar, which apparently includes bacon), some sushi, quite a bit of quiche, there was a pasty, and some things that I didn't quite understand but looked edible. My main point of interest was the kinds of sandwiches, including, of course 'egg and cabbage'. Mmmmmm.
Cereal/bars: no granola bars, per se, which is a big blow to me. They do however, have nutrigrain bars and cereal bars, so I should survive. The variety of boxes of cereal was limited and mainly Kelloggs.
Other misc: you have to bag your own groceries. Its a lot of pressure to have to bag the stuff flying down at you and then try and figure out what kind of coin is which and what sort of combo you can use to pay.

So that was the store. Despite the fact that it is raining like the apocalypse today, I walked south of the Bargate for the first time today to check out some more freakishly old stuff. This included more chunks of the wall, the ruins of a 14th century church that was bombed in WWII, the outside of the maritime museum which is in a 14th century woolhouse and conveniently closed on Mondays, and the above pictured Tudor House, which is of course, from Tudor times. Whenver those were. It is being restored and is closed for some time. I'll have to go back down there on a non-rainy, non-Monday sort of day to get a better look at things.

I think I shall try my Cadbury 'dairy milk with creme egg' bar now.