Punting on the Cam

I didn't actually go punting, but I did walk along the river, as you can see. Cambridge was really, really pretty. And really, really touristy. There were sooo many people everywhere I went. I took about 2498571324 pictures, and I am still not sure what most of the buildings were. The students were all moving in, so we couldn't go into most of the Colleges, where you normally can. So that was kind of sad, but it was still lots of fun to walk around and people watch.

The train was supposed to go from Norwich to Cambridge, but they had to do rail construction, so we had to transfer to a coach at Brandon (which is about half-way between the two). It took a little longer, but everyone was really helpful about getting you where you had to be. We walked from the train station to the Cambridge Market, which was crazy. There were buskers everywhere, and street bands, which to me was cooler than the buildings. It had a really carnival feel about it. There was a big open air market, too. We headed down to the river, where the punters are there to lure tourists. This one guy ended up talking to us forever about why we should ride in his punt. We declined. Then, it was my brilliant idea to go back by the river later in the afternoon--I wanted to see the fake Bridge of Sighs--and there was our friend the punter again! He followed us for awhile, pleading with us to go in his punt. It was very strange. It was easy enough to walk, and it was free!

AND I had my first fish and chips. Quite tasty, especially with a half-pint of lager. I was going to put a picture of it up, until I realized that I've been writing about food a lot. It was hard for me to decide what pictures to do, since I saw so much. The College pictured is Kings College. I really, really wanted to go in, but no luck...only if you had proof you were a student there. Still, the view from outside was pretty breathtaking. Sometimes, I feel like I'm still in America--I think because I am starting to get used to Norwich and campus. I didn't feel like that yesterday. It was so very different than anything I'd ever seen before, from the huge lots of bicycles (everyone rides bikes!!) to the immaculate green lawns. Some of my flatmates have a grudge against Cambridge, because they applied there and didn't get in. It'd be like someone from the States visiting Harvard (or in my case, Oberlin).

My legs are really, really sore today. I think partially from the walking, and partially from wearing my slammin' new rainboots yesterday. They have butterflies on them! Beautiful. Also, update on my currency problems: I paid for everything yesterday in exact change without taking too long to do it. Hurray for progress.

The Cathedral

For the first time in my life, I got up moderately early on a Sunday morning to go to the library, and it turns out it doesn't open until 11, so I'm doing this instead. The reason I'm going to the library in the first place is because I have done no work this week. None. I don't want to. I had an abnormally long summer vacation, I have a bus pass, and there are things to explore here. But anyway--this is the Norwich Cathedral. It was started in 1096 with a bunch of things changed and added on. The spire was struck by lightning at one point, and a lot of things were destroyed in the dissolution of the monasteries in 1530ish/40ish, I can't remember the exact date. However, the spire is now the second highest in England, and the cloisters (that's the picture above) are the largest in England.

We had the cutest old lady Scottish tour guide, and it was helpful to have a guide since there was so much to see! I could've spent hours in there just looking at all the weird carvings and details on things. I just wish my architectural knowledge wasn't so BAD...it's one of those things that I learn and then immediately forget. I did get to see some things that I've read about in art history textbooks, so that was gratifying. I wanted to poke around in the pews a bit more, since a lot of them had misericords underneath, but all of that was roped off. I think I need to ingratiate myself with the Guides, since that might also get me a chance to go up in the clerestory, which would be sweet. I'll have to work on that.

The face picture was on the ceiling of the cloisters, which would have been used when the cathedral was still Catholic and a monastery. He's called the Green Man, and is a symbol of fertility (it seems strange to have that in a monastic building.) I thought he was really cool looking; the ceilings in the cloisters were covered with carvings like that.

It is now almost 11, and the library awaits. Argh. Enough procrastination for me.

My Mad Culinary Skills

Tonight I made myself a grilled cheese sandwich and carrot and coriander soup, from a packet. It was the first hot meal I've tried to cook in our kitchen that didn't involve the microwave. It was probably the worst sandwich I've ever made...I am good at grilled cheese in a pan, but I don't have a pan. I tried this in the toaster oven, so it wasn't very crispy. I think if I toast the bread first it'll be good. Live and learn! I was doing this the same time one of my flatmates was making rice and a sauce to go with it while wearing an apron, I was pretty jealous.

The reason I wanted something warm is I seem to have either a proper English cold, or "freshers flu". So I don't feel very sick, but still kind of icky. My dad emailed me today that he was making corn and tomato soup, and I'd much rather have that.

I haven't had any real "British" cuisine, so I can't make a verdict on that yet. The one thing I will definitely miss, however, is their vast selection of yogurt. Every food shop I've been in has a TON of yogurt, in different sizes and flavours, full fat, low fat, no fat. They even have dessert yogurt...I saw one yesterday that had cake pieces in it. I'll also miss the aisles of tea, too.

One thing that I miss from home is New York apples. That is one of the best parts of fall. The apples here are good, but it's not the same.

The strangest food I've seen? Cheese and prawns in a tube; I think it's akin to cheese whiz. They are really big on prawns, I have also seen a lot of prawn mayonnaise sandwiches. The worst thing I've had to eat was macaroni and cheese out of a can. I bought it because I had never seen something like that before. My flatmates warned me when I was heating it up that it would be bad. And so it was.

My fingers are quite cold as my room has no heat, so I am going to drink a final mug of tea and toddle off to bed. I miss the lot of yous.

And Then This Bird Almost Sat on my Foot

I went to the Norwich Castle this morning. It used to be used as a prison for about 200 years, so that was rather gruesome--you could see where the prisoners had carved stuff in the walls. They also have a big collection from the "Norwich School of Painters" which is mainly landscapes. I saw a few seascapes which I liked. There was also have a very large collection of pottery and tea services, and I saw the world's largest functioning tea pot! And two mummies.

Afterward, I walked up to one of the oldest sections of Norwich, called Elm Hill. I found a little coffeehouse and got a mocha and croissant and sat outside...I'll admit, I felt rather cosmopolitan. I got to people watch a little, and saw an old man ride by on a bike, and a man and woman with matching shirts, and a lot of little kids. The weather was gorgeous with big cumulus clouds. I was kind of nervous about sitting outside, since within the space of ten seconds it could be raining, but I was lucky today. I brought along an English architectural history book which was, as one could imagine, not overly riveting. I have to do my first hour long lecture a week from Monday (ACK!) so I need to start getting ready for that.

Which brings me to the bird. I happened to look down midway through my croissant, and there was a bird literally two inches from my foot. He was just pecking at random things on the ground, but I jumped about three feet. He was completely oblivious to me being there, so I took a picture, as you can see. I'm not sure if he's a pigeon or what, my ornithological skills are pretty bad! It made me happy, anyway.

Stoopid American

I am disliking my accent even more than I usually do. Since I was in Jamestown for more than four months, I had started to forget how nasal my voice actually sounds. My south of Buffalo, Western New York voice is pretty obvious here. Even the words I use sound stupid in my head. I want to say "brilliant" instead of "awesome" and "hiya" instead of "hey". I want to be able to make change without taking 5 minutes to stare at the coins. I want to be able to discern what the English people around me are saying, without having to think so much about it.

I guess that's the whole point of travel, but man, is it frustrating. I feel like some lunatic who wandered into their polite tea party and barged around, breaking up the orderly queues and taking pictures. I'm sure I'll learn to queue up, too...eventually.

It doesn't help that a lot of the American's here are, to put it nicely, morons. I was on the bus a few days ago and this one completely obnoxious girl turned to her friend and said, loud enough for the whole bus to hear, "do you know what I REALLY hate? FAKE Louis Vuitton bags." I sunk down in my seat, hoping that no one would talk to me and hear that my voice was like hers. And maybe it isn't. But I do hope by the end of 3 months I can competently buy a newspapaer, or pay a cab driver, without feeling like a complete lunatic. And that I can say "cheers" without feeling self-concious.

Anyway, that's it.

One of the Norfolk Broads

The Norfolk Broads are a series of lakes that stretch throughout East Anglia and are connected by small rivers. They were formed during the 13th century, when a lot of peat was removed from the land to sell and it ended up flooding--it's flooded since then, too. People rent boats and come up here on holiday. I walked around the one on campus (it's actually called the UEA Broad) and I think it's about a mile long trail. There were a lot of joggers and people with kids and old men fishing. I will definitely bring my work down there...as long as it stays sort of warm! If I didn't live on the bottom floor of the building I would have a nice view of it. From our kitchen, you can kind of see it. It's very pretty in the morning when everything is misty.

Where I Live

I've tried to describe where I'm living to a few of you and I really can't. I thought it'd be best to put up some pictures to help. It's what you'd call a ziggurat, I think, and I live on the ground floor. Which is called the 4th floor, because you enter from an elevated sidewalk from the top of the building. I live in Block B (sounds like Prison, no?) and I think it goes up to E Block. They are quite hideous up close, but from across the lawn they're not too bad.

Manic Monday

First of all, let me just say that the snazzy new template is courtesy of one of my techie William Smith friends (THANK YOU TARA)! Maybe it'll motivate me to post a lot!

Here was my day.
I had my first English Country House class this morning. I think it will be really interesting, but hard too--I have to give two hour long lectures by myself and I'm already really nervous! I had Contemporary American Foreign Policy this afternoon and that shouldn't be as nerve wracking. I got back from that and ended up talking to one of my flatmates about US Healthcare and why we think it's a really bad system. I am living with mostly freshman (or "freshers" as they're called here) but they seem way more mature than I was two years ago! They are all really up on current events. And they are also more competent at cooking than I am.

Two American friends and I decided we wanted to go to the pub pictured above because we hadn't had fish and chips yet, and we wanted a hot meal. We always see this pub on the bus into town and thought it looked really cute. We ended up getting off the bus at the wrong stop and got horribly lost downtown. We met a really nice woman who gave us directions, but when we finally got to the pub, it turned out their kitchen was closed. We talked to three elderly men in the pub for awhile, who gave us directions to another pub. Which we couldn't find. We ended up walking around Norwich for awhile, and finally wound up back in an Italian restaurant in the City Centre. It was so delicious, mainly because I was so hungry. I even took a picture of it.

We got back onto to the double decker bus, and realized that getting dinner took us four hours tonight. It started to seem pretty hilarious, and we just laughed a lot for no reason, which is a good feeling. My legs really hurt now from walking!

England via Coney Island?

My journey so far:
I left last Sunday from Jamestown to go to Buffalo. Having never flown alone (let alone overseas!!) my parents and I decided I would take the train to Albany and then stay with my grandma for a few days, before going down to New York on Tuesday with my cousin, rather than have to get a connecting flight.

So, we drove to Buffalo and I caught the train from there. Problem was, my suitcase weighed 56 pounds, and the weight limit for the train was 50. I had to lose my shampoo, most of my cosmetics, and put all of my socks in my backpack. It was really funny once I got on the train and had socks stuffed in my coat pockets, but it wasn't funny when I was ransacking my suitcase in the parking lot.

I got to Albany with no problem, and was picked up at the station by my aunt, cousin, and grandma--they were slightly late because they had to stop at a farm stand so gram could buy squash. I spent Monday there and then my cousin Melissa and I took another Amtrak to NY. We were early and needed to kill some time, so where did we go? CONEY ISLAND. Both of us had never been there. I really liked it; it's off season, so there weren't too many people. Dragging my suitcase through multiple subways was a little tricky, though.

After 3ish hours on the subway, we made it to JFK. I counted and the trip overall, including my flight, took about 20 hours. Would I do it this way again? Probably not. But, here's what I would have missed:

-My grandmother telling me not to take any wooden nickels.
-Hanging out with my cousins.
-Watching my cousin Leandra hit a shopping cart in the grocery store parking lot. On purpose.
-Seeing my little cousin Zack get off the bus after Kindergarten.
-We got to take the "A train" subway. I got to say "take the A train" a lot.
-Having a choice of 3 different types of ice cream at my aunt's house.
-Doing the Family Christmas List on the train to the City...I think there are about 40 family members on the List this year. And then eating cherry tomatoes from my aunt's garden on the train.
-Canoing on the Hannacroix Creek.
-Seeing the graffiti on the way into NYC; I always think that's pretty cool.
-Finding a card from my family in my suitcase after I got to England!!!!

The flight was okay. I got a window seat so I could see the takeoff out of the States. It was so pretty, with Queens all lit up, and then spreading out to the rest of NYC. When we landed, I could see some houses through the fog, then some tiny cars, and finally the Thames. I landed in London, took the bus to Norwich, and now I'm here.

Test 1-2-3

Hello Everyone!
It has taken me forever to set this up...apparently I am as technologically deficient as I feared. Today is my fourth day in England, and I have a lot of catching up to do. It has certainly been a challenge, but I am starting to figure some things out.
I miss you all like crazy, of course! Hope things are well with everyone.