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.