Whitby

Greetings from Whitby! Whitby is a Yorkshire town on the northeastern coast of England, about an hour (2 by bus) north of York. Modern Whitby is a bustling tourist town, but also supports an active fishing fleet. And you know what that means? The best fish and chips in the country. Seriously.

I'd suggest the Magpie, above, for some really excellent fish and chips, but there are any number of good places serving the fresh fish practically right off the boat. FYI, the Magpie has a take away window and the lines can get pretty darn long. But trying going inside to their sit down restaurant- you can usually just walk right in and be seated. The Magpie's not the cheapest option, but it is delicious and you can have your choice of several types of fish, or try one of their other non fish & chips options.

Whitby Abbey is one of the main attractions in Whitby. The town itself came to exist as a result of the abbey, which was founded in 656 by the king of Northumbria. St Hild/Hilda served as the first abbess over a double monastery (meaning it had both monks and nuns) and she played an active role in the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity in this part of England during the 7th century. The abbey is best known as the site of the Synod of Whitby held in 664; it was at this meeting that the King of Northumbria decided that the Christian liturgical calendar in Northumbria would follow Rome's traditions of calculating Easter, rather than the Celtic traditions practiced at Iona, a major monastery in Scotland founded by Irish missionaries. This sounds silly, but it was actually a big deal at the time; both sides of the debate firmly believed their version of Christianity was superior/more correct, and the decision at Whitby spelled the doom of the Celtic version of Christianity for much of what we now call England. The abbey was destroyed by the Vikings in the 9th century, and the current ruins are what is left of the refounded monastery built in the late 11th century.

Of course, they can't make it easy to access the monastery. If you want to visit, you'll first have to climb up 199 steps and then it'll cost you 5 pounds to get in. But the steps aren't that bad, and you can get some really nice shots of the town from the stairs.

Whitby is also known for an important literary connection. Part of Bram Stoker's Dracula is set in Whitby. He used to summer in Whitby and contemplate the ruins of the abbey; in the book, Dracula arrives by ship, runs up the stairs, and hides out in the ruins. During the 1700s, Captain Cook lived in Whitby. The Captain was best known for his surveys and maps of the St Lawrence River and Newfoundland and for being the first European to sail to the east coast of Australia and Hawaii.

History lesson aside, Whitby is a really fun little seaside resort town. The harbor front has some rides and games, while the town itself is full of fun shops. You can tell it is a tourist town by the presence of ice cream _everywhere_. Whitby is an easy day trip from York, and if you are willing to rush things like we were, can be combined with a trip on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. But more on that later :)

Spring! (Thank goodness...)

Today I thought I'd do something a little bit different. Instead of my customary whining about the lack of good mac & cheese or Mexican food, I thought I'd talk about some of the things I love about living in York/England. That, and gush about how happy I am that spring is finally here. I don't think I could've stood the constant cold, windy, rainy winter days much more. I now understand why they advocate those sunlamps for people who live in areas that don't get much sun over the winter months.

First up: Jumbo Chinese Buffet. I only recently (read: yesterday) tried out this wonderful, wonderful restaurant, but that was enough to propel it onto the list of awesome places. For 5.99, you can enjoy an all-you-can eat lunch buffet of deliciousness. Dinner costs more, but you get more options. You can enjoy all kinds of rice, noodles, entree dishes, soups, veggies, and appetizers. Plus, these amazing pineapple-fried dough ball things. So good. So I finally found good Chinese in York. Only downside is that it is pretty much just a buffet and as far as I know, doesn't do take out. Alas.

Next up: Bootham Bites. I didn't think to take a picture of the restaurant, so instead you get a picture of my favorite option there- the Yorkshire Ham & Mature Cheddar (or as I call it, the ham & cheese) panini. I'm pretty sure I've already waxed poetic elsewhere in this blog about chicken and bacon sandwiches, but these are quickly growing to rival the chicken & bacon for my affections. And I don't even normally like ham. But they don't really do ham lunchmeat like we do in the states, instead you get slices of real ham on a sandwich. After living here, I've come to the conclusion that it was never the ham that I disliked, it was the honey-baked hams that I disliked. I prefer ham to be kind of salty rather than sweet. Congratulations, England. You've overcome my dislike of ham, mayonnaise, and onion (although after a certain point I start picking them out of my food again. So maybe I've only sort of gotten over my aversion to onions.) In a country where sandwich shops rule the streets, Bootham Bites makes some excellent ones (the bree, bacon & cranberry sauce one is also really good).

Nom nom nom

Boots' sparkling blackcurrant apple juice: This is to England what Club Orange was to Ireland for me. So good. And for the record, my love for it has NOTHING to do with the fact that the bottle is purple. That's really all I have to say on that front. :)

Street food: I have yet to have bad street food, with the possible exception of the kind of cold paella I had one time (but to be fair, it was the first week of February so I totally blame it on the weather. Oh, and the Brits insist on pronouncing the l's. I made a point of pronouncing it properly and the vendor guy gave me the biggest smile ever). I love the international market that pops up on Parliament Street every so often. Yeah, its the same stuff all the time, but its yummy. Danish pancakes with Baileys & whipped cream? Yes please. Baklava? Heck yeah. Polish potato pancake things? Yum. But even when that's not running, there are all kinds of stalls with crepes, "kinky donuts" (I have yet to try those but they're on the list!), sausages, etc. And the ice cream carts have recently reappeared!

You can't see him in this picture, but the crowd gathered be hind the ice cream cart is watching a street performer juggle & do balance tricks. It isn't Faneuil Hall, but it'll do :)

I just liked the slogan on this one :)

Now let's talk pasties. That's "past" like something that has already happened + ie, not like the glue. These flakey pastry envelopes of delicious filling are classic inexpensive British eat-on-the-go, or eat on a bench watching everyone in the square, whatever floats your boat. The traditional pasty is steak & onion, but I tend to prefer the varieties with a bit less onion. Cheese & bacon is delicious when you can find it, other good choices are pork & apple and ham, brie & cranberry. 

While it isn't a food, I'll stick the Gap on this list. I _never_ shopped there in the States because I tend to be a "Can I find something comparable elsewhere for less?" kind of shopper. But England has this great thing called the "Midseason sale" when ALL of the stores have big sales. So I wandered into the Gap one afternoon and emerged with like 5 layering shirts and a navy jacket that I love and adore (and for 18 pounds! That's like $27 for a jacket! And from Gap! Who knew?) I think part of why I'm more open to the Gap here is because pounds are smaller #s. 6 pounds for a t-shirt feels like a deal (even thought its like $10 and that's about the most I'd spend on one at home). Either way, I got some much needed layering pieces for spring. At home I usually go straight from light sweaters to t-shirts, but we've got a bit more of spring here.

Which is a perfect segue to my next topic: spring time in York. The endless rain is mostly gone (although we still get the odd rainy day/s) and temperatures are up in the high 50s/low 60s. Sunglasses have been worn 3 times now (oooh, aaaaah!). But more importantly, flowers are springing up everywhere. Daffodils are up in pretty much every patch of grass in the city:

along the walls,

 in the alley off my street,

Museum Gardens in the ruins of the abbey  

and in front of the Yorkshire Museum,

even among the gravestones in church graveyards.

I love all the daffodils. Yellow flowers are my favorite because they just seem so cheerful. They help make the city a bit more sunny, especially on overcast days. Sadly I think my little yellow rose plant has bit the dust after a month. I probably should have bought it a real pot instead of leaving it in the plastic one it came in. Oh well. On Friday, I'm taking the "Harry Potter train" to "Hogsmead," but in the meantime, I have paper writing to do (boo!). See you next post.

Happy Easter!

Look where I went to church this morning! Ah, the Minster. Today the Most Revd and Rt Hon The Lord Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, an adorable teensy Ugandan man presided over the service and gave the sermon. And I got to shake his hand on the way out the door! Clearly I'm rubbing elbows with important people! Ok, no, not really.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Anglican church, it is basically a mash up of Methodism and Catholicism. How does that make sense? Well, for a _really_ simplified rundown...

The Anglican church broke off from the Catholic church so that Henry VIII could get married and divorced a lot, but they retained a lot of Catholic liturgical practice, just with no pope. Over the years they leaned more Protestant and after Queen Elizabeth I, the Anglican church (i.e. Church of England) was pretty firmly established as Protestant. Fast forward to the 1700s and you get John Wesley and his buddies espousing a sort of mini-reform of the Anglican church and establishing it both in England and in the American colonies. Well, post-Revolutionary War and the Methodists are firmly established in the US and NOT under the control of the Anglican church (can't really blame the Colonial folk- I wouldn't want anything to do with the national church of the country I just won a revolution against), despite the initial plans of the founders of Methodism. Over the years, American Methodist churches (at least, the United Methodist churches which are the ones I'm most familiar with) have moved further away from some of the Catholic traditions preserved in Anglicanism, but they still have similar prayers, hymns, etc. as the Anglicans. So, since Anglicanism is the halfway point between Catholicism and Methodism, I'm totally not surprised that it resembles both.

For Easter, we began and ended with a procession of various church officials, clergymen, the choir, and a whole slew of people carrying banners, crosses, scepters, books, chalices, etc. Plus loads of incense! (I'm not a fan of the incense.) The other glaringly Catholic-derived aspect was Communion. While they did let any "communicant member of a Christian church" partake, they have you kneel and press a wafer in your hand and hold the cup to your mouth for you to drink. The germophobe in me has always been creeped out by drinking from the same cup as all those people. That's a practice that has been replaced at a lot of Methodist churches, where instead you either dip the bread into the cup and consume both together, or they pass around thimbles of juice/wine. The sharing the cup thing still persists some places, but it isn't nearly as common. And I've never had communion wafer before- always real bread of some sort, often pita bread.

But what surprised me was the Lord's Prayer there. When I learned the prayer when I was young, we happened to attend a church that said "forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us" instead of "trespasses." A lot of churches have stuck with "trespass" over "sin" because it is more traditional and old school I suppose. But the Anglicans! Now, to be fair, I can't say for certain whether this is a widespread Anglican phenomenon or if the Minster is just really radical and new agey, but somehow I doubt that.

The "standard" (i.e. the way I've always said it) Lord's Prayer:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins/trespasses as we forgive those who sin/trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

The Minster Lord's Prayer:

Our Father in Heaven, hollowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.

Its in more "modern" English than any version I've ever heard. Still, it was a lovely service, and the archbishop is my new favorite person of the moment. He did an excellent job with making the sermon both relevant to Easter and to modern life and the struggles of modern Christians. I will leave you with a word of advice. If you ever have the chance to go to a service in a grand old cathedral/minster, you should totally do it. But dress warmly because they do not heat those things and it gets FRIGID. Although I'm sure it feels really nice inside in the middle of summer, in early spring & winter it is a major brrr! fest.

After services, I came home to start cooking! A few of us got together for an Easter dinner of roast lamb (hey, when in Rome right?), sweet potato casserole provided by yours truly, roast potatoes & carrots, and asparagus in a garlic cream sauce. Are we classy or what? I totally meant to photograph our feast and took my camera down and everything annnnd forgot. But trust me it was delicious. We modified a recipe for lamb with pomegranate molasses because pomegranate juice was SUPER expensive. So we used cranberry apple instead. I highly recommend it. Super flavorful. And I made 3 new converts to the deliciousness of sweet potato casserole. As I was working on it, one girl was like "I'm more of a squash person than a sweet potato person, but I'm entirely intrigued by whatever it is you're making." She is now a believer :) Another girl announced at dinner, "Excuse me, I have to do something I've never done before and get seconds of the sweet potatoes." That's right. All shall bow down before the sweet potato casserole, cuz it just isn't a holiday without it! Even if it does take about 3 times as long as it should to cook potatoes (sweet or otherwise) on the silly electric stove tops.

Chester

Welcome to Chester, England, located just this side of the border with Wales and a 2.5-3 hour train ride from York. And if you get advance pricing with a student/under 25 pass, only 8 pounds each way.

Chester is known as England's "Walled City" because it has the most intact city walls remaining. Chester was founded by the Romans as a fort called Deva Victrix. Fun fact: while York eventually became more important as essentially the headquarters of the Roman legions in the North, the fortress at Deva Victrix was actually bigger than the one at York.

 This is what remains of the foundations and a tower from the Roman fortress. You can click on the picture to see an enlarged version if you want to read the plaque.

The citizens of Chester have put their Roman past to use in the picture below from the Roman Column Garden.

After the Romans left Britain after 490, the Anglo-Saxons fortified the town against the Danes and it remained a stronghold through to the Norman Conquest in 1066, when it was one of the last cities to fall to William the Conqueror. The walls were instrumental for both cases.

What I found interesting about Chester's walls (which you don't see at York) is that one can access the buildings adjacent to them FROM the walls. Most of these are shops, and while some are 2 stories and can be accessed from street level in the front and wall level in the back, some can ONLY be accessed from the walls (mostly smaller shops- books, antiques, that kind of thing.) I found that really useful when Britain, being Britain, decided to absolutely pour down rain about 10 minutes into my circuit of the walls.

Here you can see some shop entrances- New Look, HSBC, and Clarks. You can also see the steps leading up to Eastgate, one of the original Roman entrances to the fortress (sort of analogous to the "bars" in York, only much less grand.) This one was rebuilt in the 18th century and that clock on top was commissioned in honour of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee (60 years as queen) in 1897.

I went off to Chester because a) I could get there cheaply over the break and b) we talked about it in my archaeology class because it has a unique structural feature, the rows.

 This is my own version of perhaps Chester's most photographed site on the corner of what's called the Cross (an intersection of shopping streets with rows more or less preserved). So what are the rows? Well, they consist of three main floors (and might have attic space above that as well.) The first level is generally half a story below street level, so you go down a few steps to enter the shop. Above the ground floor, a covered walkway is reached by a short flight of stairs and a second row of shops is located a few feet back from the edge. A third floor is built at the same point as the ground floor, effectively covering the walkway. This top floor would have been used in the medieval period as domestic or storage space for the shop owners. This gives you a better idea of what the covered walkway and second floor of shops looks like.

(Yanked from Wikipedia because I didn't think to take one; copyright John S Turner)

As I mentioned, the rows are unique and it is unclear where exactly the idea came from. While large portions have been rebuilt over the years, some sections and the original plan dates back to the medieval period. One theory that has gained ground with archaeologists is that the second storey was constructed first on top of rubble from Roman construction that lined the streets below. The buildings were set back from the edge in order to allow for a footpath along the edge with the road below. Later, undercrofts were dug under the existing buildings, thereby creating the "street-level." Then as construction techniques improved, the top storey was added, thereby creating the enclosed walkways. An alternate theory holds that the citizens constructed stone undercrofts under timber buildings after a disastrous fire in the 13th century destroyed most of the buildings within the stone walls of the city. Personally I don't think this explains why the first floor is below street level, or the need for recessed second floor shops with a covered walkway. That plus the amount of Roman "stuff" found all over Chester makes the first theory more supportable in my opinion, but who knows.

Chester is mainly known as a shopping mecca, both for its central pedestrian area with rows and regular shops as well as for an outlet mall just outside the city. But I refrained from buying too much (and to be fair, I needed the new sunglasses. Although not this week- rain rain rain.) You may have noticed the prevalence of black and white architecture in my photos- this is also one of Chester's selling points. Some of it is legit medieval, but a good deal is Victorian. They say if you wait long enough, everything comes back into style, right? Apparently that goes for 500 year old architecture too!

The photo I opened this entry with, of the Westminster Hotel? Not original (obviously). These, however, I'm pretty sure are.

Oh, and how about this? Guessing game time. What type of building do you think is pictured below? The text reads "The fear of the Lord is a Fountain of Life."

If you guessed "Dentist's Office" you'd be correct. Bet you didn't though ;)

As far as NON black and white architecture goes, the town hall and the cathedral are major.

Now that's a pretty spiffy town hall.

I know the cathedral looks kind of dark and grim, but that's mostly due to the fact that I took this from the wall in the pouring rain. You can go in and check it out, for an entrance fee. I figured I've seen my fair share of cathedrals and could save the entrance fee for something else. Like the chai tea latte I bought at Starbucks to get out of the rain!

Finally, I wish I could show you the Roman amphitheater. But it is currently all fenced off for conservation work. (In fact, I walked right past it twice without realizing it was there before I followed a map to look for it. Whoops!) So this is the best I can do.

Final thoughts on Chester: cool for an afternoon shopping trip, but maybe not worth a special trip. The majority of the shops are chains you can find in any decent sized city/town in the UK, so really the architecture is the big draw. But it is one more place I can check off my list and the closest to Wales I've gotten. Chester is actually serviced by the Arriva train line that operates out of Wales, so it was kind of cool to see the stations on the scrolling light thing in the train listed in both Welsh and English. The destination of the train was Llandudno. Don't ask me to pronounce it. Apparently it is a nice sea-side resort in Wales.

But the most exciting recent happening is this:

Ah, American food. A source of joy I will never take for granted again. Snack crackers, how I adore thee. In a land where potato crisps are your only option for savory snacks, you are a beacon of hope for this expat. Ditto to you Cinnamon Toast Crunch. You shine with a glimmer of sugar amidst a whole slew of boring plain cereal. And marshmallows- your squishy deliciousness unknown in these parts will be greatly enjoyed with your friends the graham crackers and some native English chocolate as s'mores at our next bbq. Apple sauce- you are not chunks of apple in a sauce meant to garnish meat. Rather you are smooth and delicious in your own right, and how I have missed you. Reeses- you know chocolate and peanut butter is the most delicious combination ever (with the occasional exception of Nutella and peanut butter). Aunt Jemimia- I'm not sure I've even had you in years. We're a Bisquick family. But I will take you over their strange idea of what pancakes are here. Pancakes should be a delicious breakfast food (or breakfast-for-dinner food) topped with maple syrup, not used as, well, basically a thick crepe. And finally, Blue Box. I don't even normally like you that much. I tend to favor other brands more, although Easy Mac is darn tasty and so easy! But in a land where "cheese sauce" of questionable cheesiness passes for cheese, I will enjoy you immensely. At least until you are gone. Then I will remember you fondly and probably order more.

Guidelines for Visiting/Living in the UK (a work in progress)

1) It is colder than you think it is. Take an extra layer. (Trust me, I didn't and I might never be warm again.)
2) It is probably going to rain. Take an umbrella. If the weather forecast calls for rain, anticipate rain- but be aware that there's maybe 50/50 odds that it doesn't start until after dark, regardless of what the forecast says. If the weather forecast calls for no rain, it will still probably rain at some point. So just save yourself some trouble and lug the umbrella everywhere.
3) Learn to love sandwiches; they're practically their own food group here. Just don't expect many combinations you are used to. BLTs and ham and cheese are about the only one's you'll be familiar with. But chicken and bacon is delicious! :)
4) Don't expect to find much non-cheddar or brie cheeses. Even mozzarella hasn't really caught on here (exhibit a: "cheese sauce" instead of melted mozzarella on top of lasagna)
5) Trains are the way to travel. Unless of course it is close enough to take a bus. And be on the lookout for cheap overnight bus fares if you have to go cross country.
6) The airport will likely be a pain to get to and from if you're going by public transit.
7) Learn 24-hour time (i.e. 21:30 instead of 9:30)
8) For the females in the audience: everyone will probably call you some variation of luv, pet, dearie, etc. They don't mean anything by it. (And I think I'm going to miss it when I leave!)
9) "Cheers" is a wonderfully useful word that can serve a variety of purposes including: the way we think of it as while clinking drink glasses together, to thank someone for something (particularly for salespeople/food servers), to bid someone goodbye, acknowledging something someone has said, etc.
10) Expect cramped quarters. This is particularly true for B&Bs and hotels, but holds true just in general.
11) You can in fact get decent coffee here, but the tea is totally better. ;)
12) You don't want Hersheys, you want Cadbury.
13) Embrace the fruity flavored waters. They're yummy. Ditto fruity flavored sparkling water, but it HAS to be cold or else ick.
14) "Breakfast" encompasses a whole bunch of things you didn't realize, including stewed tomatoes and beans.
15) You have to slice your own pizza. Exception: American pizza chains.
16) Shepherd's pie. Do it.
17) Perhaps the most important rule here, and one that I continue to struggle with. Do not attempt to convert UK prices to the value in US dollars and evaluate whether it is a good deal or not. It won't be. If the # of pounds is comparable to the # of dollars you would spend on such an item, unfortunately that's probably as good as you're going to get.

A Hodge-Podge of Recent(ish) Happenings

First up, I have a special gem to share. I'd meant to post this photo with the Eddie Izzard entry, since that's when I made the discovery of it's existence but somehow forgot to include it. Check out what lives in Exhibition Square (i.e. the area comprised of King's Manor and the York Art Museum) late at night. I don't actually know how often or when it gets there because I've never seen it before or since, but then again, we got back from the train at like 12:30 am the day we saw the comedy show and I'm never out that late, so it could be there all the time and I just don't know. I suppose its like Schrodinger's cat. And yes, I'm aware of how dorky it is to reference that in conversation, but dorky is the new cool! Accept it! :)

Without further ado, check out the Baked Potato Waggon!

It is actually a bit strange, because they usually call baked potatoes "jacket potatoes" here. And they're pretty ubiquitous as lunch options at various sandwich shops/cafes with a variety of filling options. I had one the other day for lunch with "mince" filling; ground beef and peas in some kind of sauce stuff. It wasn't bad. I would kill for a potato with plain old chili and cheddar cheese though. I'm ok with the mince stuff too, but I'm sorry, various forms of curry on a potato just doesn't appeal to me.

You may have noticed that I talk about food a lot. Food is always what gets me first in a foreign country. I like what I like and I miss what I like. And I'm afraid I'm not done with food for this entry yet :)

Last Sunday (wow have I been bad about updating...) I went with a couple other girls to experience a traditional Sunday Roast. Its kind of a tradition here that people go to church and then either go to a pub (or enjoy at home) roast beef with all the trimmings. We attempted one pub that came highly recommended, but everyone else in York apparently also heard that recommendation, so we went to a less crowded pub which was also recommended called the Evil Eye.

Here is what 7 pounds will get you on Sunday afternoons:

Even I don't know what all is on that plate. There's roast beef, cabbage mush, what I think were about 3 different kinds of potatoes, broccoli, carrots, some kind of squash mash, and Yorkshire pudding. The "Yorkie" is a bread that's cooked using the fat droppings from the roast. That's the thing on top that's a bit dark around the edges. Its not bad, but it kind of just tastes like meaty bread. Underneath the Yorkie was something that vaguely resembled what I can only describe as stuffing pureed into baby food (ick.) And of course, gravy over everything. As you may or may not be aware, I have this thing about not liking my food touching, and for exactly this reason. I don't like my gravy getting all over stuff it shouldn't. Case in point, I do not care for gravy on broccoli or carrots. And I don't like cabbage mush to begin with, but certainly not with gravy on it. Gravy belongs on potatoes and meat and that's all. Aside from the kind of weird mushed up stuff, it wasn't bad. Well, ok, the potatoes, meat, and Yorkie were pretty good. I don't know that I'll be ordering another one anytime soon.

Afterwards, we trekked about three doors up the street to Starbucks, where I enjoyed a delicious chai latte. They actually have different flavors here, which is probably to be expected. There's a dark chocolate cherry mocha that is apparently delicious that I'm going to have to try next time I convince myself that I can spend like 3.50 ($5!!) on a small drink. We were pleased to see that UK Starbucks sell proper scones, not those silly little lemon things that the US stores sell. 

And now for something not food related! I'm taking you on a walk with me to the Rougier Street bus stop (where I then caught the bus to campus to spend a few hours at the library.) So from my house, I walk down the street and then cut through some teeny tiny streets and end up walking along the Ouse River, which is pronounced like "ooze."

The Ouse is actually one of 2 rivers running through York, the other being the Foss. These were of course the reason York was historically a major center in England because both rivers are pretty large and allow for shipping access. Later York became a railway hub, continuing its history as transportation center for the North of England. The leaves have only been falling the last 2 weeks or so; temperatures are still ridiculously mild here, considering I'm basically as far north as Alaska. Yay Gulf Stream. We're hovering around 50 degrees during the day, so I'm still just wearing a corduroy jacket (totally the best thing I bought to come here) or a light sweater and a scarf. It does get colder at night though. And night here is basically anytime after 4:30 in the afternoon. It is full dark by then when I get out of class, which is really weird. Because as a girl and living in a city for the last few years, I've had it drilled in to me to be super cautious at night, not to go anywhere alone, etc etc etc, but that just feels silly when its dark in the late afternoon!

Anyway, back to our stroll. Here is Lendal Bridge, which connects a tower on one side (all that remains of the city walls there; also on the market if anyone wants to buy a medieval tower. It is attached to a modern house if that's a concern!) and the city walls on the other.

You can see bright red boats past the bridge. Those are the York Boats, which is on my list of things to do if anyone ever comes to visit me. No one here seems interested. :( 

Here's a little sandwich shop that I've been meaning to try, mostly because I think the building is really cute. I'm a sucker for anything with crenelations. Vocab word- crenelations or battlements are the technical terms for the top part of castles that go up and down sort of like this:

 _    _    _

|   |_|  |_|   | (sorry, that's the best I can do). They allow for arrows to be shot while offering some protection for the archer's body. You can also see the shields on the bridge to the left. I think its pretty nifty.

Finally, here's a shot of the city walls running off towards the train station located just outside the walls.

From here I cross the street, walk past a neon green sandwich shop called Krunchy's which I also kind of want to try (are you sensing a pattern? Lots of sandwich shops) and arrive at the bus stop and await the giant purple monstrosity that services the University route.

So there you have it. More or less an average day in my life, minus the boring library bits. :)

A Proper English Cream Tea

An English cream tea consists of tea (obviously) with either cream or lemon and sugar, and scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream. As I mentioned yesterday, I spent rather a lot of money on groceries which were delivered today, including everything I need for my own cream teas for breakfast :) Now, I went with plain scones because I don't really care for raisins, but really there should be raisins in the scones. Fun factoid, jury is out on how you should pronounce "scone." Most English & Scottish people will pronounce it as if it rhymes with John, however it is also acceptable to pronounce it rhyming with cone. So now you too can sound snooty and British the next time you have a scone and pronounce it the British way! Anyway, in addition to the tea, you have to have a scone topped with jam and clotted cream.

Clotted cream traditionally comes from Cornwall and Devon, and there are therefore two corresponding methods for eating your scone. And there can be serious debate about which method is preferable! I personally subscribe to the Devonshire tradition, in which you half the scone and put first the cream and then the jam on top. I feel that it is easier to spread the jam on top of the cream than the other way around. But this is likely because I typically eat Devonshire clotted cream, which is a thicker consistency than Cornish clotted cream. The Cornish method is the opposite; jam goes on first, then the cream. Either way, be sure to slather both on and enjoy.

Now, you may be wondering "what the heck is clotted cream?" Well, I could tell you, but then you probably wouldn't try it. Its a cream spread sort of the consistency of marscapone if you've ever had that. Just, you know, made of cream instead of cheese. There are tea rooms all across the country where you can enjoy a traditional cream tea, or any of a multitude of other desserts or sandwich options. In York, the best has to be Betty's. Its a bit pricey, but totally worth it for the atmosphere. If you get a table along the wall of windows, you score a prime spot to people watch because it is right off a big square. Mom, we're totally going if y'all come visit me!

EDDIE IZZARD!

Last Thursday, Ellen, Brian and I rode the train an hour north to Newcastle-upon-Tyne for Eddie Izzard's "Stripped" show. The show is a two hour "stripped down" account of the history of the world. And it is an absolutely fantastic show. Jesus preaches to the dinosaurs (but not to worry, it is not the same as his bit about that in a previous show) plus an absolutely HILARIOUS section on the limitations of the Latin language. I was basically crying during that part I was laughing so hard.

The show was held at the Newcastle Metro Radio Arena, which looked pretty big- standard arena type stuff on the tickets webpage. But it is actually basically just a hockey arena. Like, say, Walter Brown-sized for those of you familiar with BU. So our seats which we thought were pretty good on the map were a lot closer than we thought they'd be. Of course, so was every other seat in the arena! Fun fact about UK event food- they have the usual not very good burgers, pizza, fries, and soda, but they ALSO sell hot fresh donuts. Hot. Fresh. Donuts. Oh man. I totally wanted some but I refrained. While we were waiting in line to pick up our tickets at the box office, we thought we smelled funnel cake and got really excited and then were very confused when there didn't seem to be anything like that around. And then we saw the donut stall. They looked (and smelled!) pretty good; I'll have to try them if I go to another show while I'm here.

Here's a not very good picture- my camera couldn't really handle the giant screen in a darkened arena thing very well.

And now we come to the not so exciting part of the story. The show was supposed to last 2 hours. The venue listed the show as running until 10:10. The last train back to York was at 10:46 and the station is only about 10 minutes from the arena, so we figured we'd be fine. Well, that would be true if Eddie had followed his lighting cues to wrap up either of the first two times they blinked at him. So at 10:30, we start worrying. But then, miraculously, he wraps up! Clapping, clapping, we can totally make the train! Oh no he's back for an encore. And its about the American space race. Dang it. So we, along with about 10 other college aged people make a beeline out of there and RUN for the train, figuring we're totally going to miss it. We're running, we get there, it is exactly 10:46... and the train is listed as 2 minutes late. Thank goodness. So we didn't get stranded in Newcastle for the night and all was well, except that we missed the last bit of his routine. But the DVD comes out at the end of the week, so one of us will have to get it so we can see what we missed.

If you are at all familiar with Latin, I recommend this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4YOmOd40iY for Eddie's take on Latin inefficiencies :)

He'll also be back in the US for an abbreviated tour, so if you're interested, you may want to check that out. So yeah, that's about all that's new. I spent the weekend sick so I haven't been up to much except watching old movies and whatnot in the past few days. Oh, and doing reading for class. Can't forget that...

Today I spent 50 BPDS on groceries at Asda (yay Walmart) and made some interesting discoveries:

1) Asda only charges 3.50 for deliveries during the day, as opposed to Tesco's 5 pounds all the time.

2) Ground beef is "minced beef" here.

3) There is no American or Mexican cheese blends available here. Which is only to be expected, I suppose, but still somewhat disappointing. We have cheddar back home! Show North American cheeses some love, UK!

4) There is no shredded cheese, but there is "grated cheese" as long as you want Cheddar, Gloucester, Parmesan, or Mozzarella.

5) It isn't sour cream, it is soured cream. Which is not quite as appetizing of a name...

6) YOU CAN BUY SCONES AND CLOTTED CREAM! I already had the strawberry jam, so prepare yourselves for some picture spam and poetic odes to the glories of a cream tea sometime soon.

7) US fries = UK chips. This is common knowledge. US chips = UK crisps. Also (semi) common knowledge. The exception: Tortilla chips. Still called chips. However, the UK's idea of corn chips are Doritos. All kinds of different flavors of Doritos. I did find a "lightly salted" flavor that I'm hoping is just regular old tortilla chips.

8) Baileys makes non-alcoholic cream like for coffee/tea. I did not get any but I was intrigued.

9) Technically an old grocery store discovery, but I'm going to share here anyway. They have really good strawberries here year round. They're a lot smaller than the California monstrosities we're used to, but the weather stays good enough year round for sweet delicious strawberries.

10) They do not sell deodorant/antiperspirant in a tube that you twist up and rub on your armpits, unless you buy the stupid expensive (not to mention foul-smelling) organic brand. Everything else is aerosol spray. Weird.

11) You can buy macaroni cheese (they don't put the & in for some reason) in a can. It is apparently disgusting, but you can. No blue box here! :(

12) I did find, however, El Paso Taco Kit! So excited.

So basically half of the battle to finding something resembling what you want is knowing what to look for. I had to search through pages upon pages of "dairy" to find "grated cheese" because I simply didn't think to search for grated rather than shredded. But I'm picking up the differences and I'm sure that by the time I leave I'll have finally gotten everything sorted out!

Frolicking in the Country and Other Adventures

Sorry, I've been bad about updating when I say I'm going to update. But in my defense, I've become way busier in the last few days. So in no particular order, here's some of what I've been up to.

The Quest for Eddie Izzard Tickets

This all began when either Ellen, one of my housemates, or I quoted Eddie Izzard in conversation, had a mutual "You like Eddie Izzard?!?" moment, and I remembered that Eddie Izzard was on tour in the UK this October & November. Thus we decided that we should go. Brad, another Med. Studies person also expressed glee/interest, so we figured we could get a group together to take the train to one of his shows (he's not coming to York proper unfortunately. Mostly because there isn't really a large venue he could come to.) However, purchasing tickets proved problematic. We couldn't seem to get all of us in the same place at the same time, so Ellen and I just decided to buy tickets ourselves so at least we could go.

For his show in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on Thursday the 29th, there were three seats available on Ticketweb in the second section back from the stage. Like, ridiculously good seats to be on sale this close to the date. Catch was, you had to buy the group of three; they wouldn't sell just two of them. But literally while we were looking at them and comparing available seats for the Friday show, they disappeared. We figured we'd missed our chance. So we turned to that dreaded evil, Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster, however, will only mail your purchased tickets to your billing address. Neither of us had changed our billing address to the UK. So rather than have the tickets sent back to the states, we decided we'd walk down to the local Tourist Info center which is also a ticketmaster retailer. So we go down, standing in line while the woman working there made hotel reservations for various people, etc. Finally the computer frees up so she can look at tickets for us. Except that their ticketmaster access password was declined. And so was the one at the TI down at the train station. They were going to try to get that fixed yesterday (our ticket adventure was on Saturday), but we didn't want to chance waiting that long. So we grabbed ice cream from the truck across the street- full fat cream makes for WAY better ice cream- and trudged back home and up the three flights of stairs to our rooms. But as luck would have it, the three seats were back on ticketweb! So we deliberated for all of 10 seconds and just bought the three. We figured we'd sell one to Brad or somebody.

The tickets are still being sent back home to Virginia, but we called them and they said that we should call back three days before the event and they could put a set for will call at the arena box office. Score. Except that over the weekend Brad came down with swine flu. So we might have to find some other Eddie aficionado to come with us. But YAY! He's totally my favorite comedian like ever. And this show, Stripped, is supposed to be a two hour, "stripped" down version of the entire history of the world. Should be good fun. If any of you Americans are interested, he is taking the show on a 6 city tour in the US in January. I know he'll be in Boston, Chicago, NY, and I think LA, but I'm not sure what the other two cities are. 'Course, tickets are like $70 which is way (EDIT: more! apparently I wasn't paying attention and accidentally put less) than I paid!

Frolicking in the English Countryside. Kind of.


On Friday, me & two housemates walked the 40 minutes to campus for a mandatory fire safety briefing. Typical don't burn stuff down and don't walk along the River Ouse in the city centre if you're blithering drunk talk. While it is kind of bothersome trekking out to campus (alternatively spending 2.50 to ride the bus there and back), campus is pretty.

There's a big man- made lake that everything is built around, so there's bridges connecting various portions and providing shortcuts. There's also lots of cute ducks, not so cute geese, and some kind of funky looking black swans. Supposedly they're the last pair of black swans in England. Plus, lots of pretty willow trees. Anyway, on the way back, we decided to try an intriguing path that led through a field. Didn't really know where it led, but we figured we'd go see. It was a nice afternoon. So we walked along Walmgate Stray as it is called, back towards the city. Walmgate Stray is literally just a small paved walk/bike way through some fields and past some cows. I mean literally past some cows. Like, there is no fence separating you from the cows.

See? Of course, when you come out of the field, you walk through an infantry base. It's kind of bizarre, you literally step out of a field and into a very military-looking zone. Big concrete buildings with chainlink fences and barbed wire.

Then you walk along the river for a while and eventually come out in town and then back at my house. They run a couple different YorkBoat cruises down the river that look really cool. There's the daytime one with historical commentary, and evening one with music & captain's banter and various meal cruises as well, but a) I don't think that's the kind of thing you can really do by yourself without being weird, and b) I have to hoard my money until I finally get more!

The Epic Saga of How the UK Refuses to Take My Money
Long story short, it makes the most sense to pay my housing and tuition fees from a UK bank account. Long story short, after much harassment, I finally have a UK bank account. Here's where the story gets long again.

To wire money to my account, I get charged like $60 from both my US and my UK banks. This obviously sucks. The UK bank, Lloyds, which is incidentally the ONLY bank in the UK that won't charge International students 5-8 pounds per month for the privilege of having an account, told me I could write a check no problem, it would be processed in 6-8 days, and I'd only get charged their 30 pound currency conversion fee. So I write them a check for an ungodly amount of money (goodbye, college fund...) and figure I'm all set because now I'll be able to do a direct debit to pay for my school fees. Well, not exactly. Yesterday, I received a phone call from the bank. Turns out it will take them 6-8 WEEKS to get me my money. Do I still want to go ahead with it or shall they send the check back to me? Yeah, no, that won't work at all, since my fees are due on the 30th. Accommodation was supposed to be due the 24th but I called the fees office and got an extension since the bank was being difficult. Now of course, this was not my favorite thing to hear, so I promptly decided that it was a chips/gravy/cheese for dinner night.

So now I'm back to wiring money. Of course, my US bank requires me to fill out a paper form, sign it and send it to them to initiate a wire transfer. Oh, and since my dad is listed as a joint account owner, he has to sign it too. Which means that I had to fill it out, sign it, send it to my dad so he can sign it and send it to the bank. Ahhhh. Dad somehow worked it so that I could sign it, scan it and email it to him, have him sign it and get the process going quicker, and then the original paper copy would get there as soon as various mail deliveries were made. Sounds good, right? Well, that leads me to...

The Quest for the Holy Scanner (it is like the Holy Grail, only more technologically advanced.)

Now, I had planned ahead and brought one paper copy of the wire transfer form with me. So I had filled that out already. But Dad wanted me to send him multiple signed forms so that if I have to transfer money again, we can cut out one leg of the mail delivery wait. Which makes sense, but is easier said than done. Off to campus I went today in search of a printer and scanner. So first I went to the library to print out a clean copy of the form, fill it out, make copies, and sign it. This of course necessitated paying for print quota and then buying a copy card. Wooooo. Then it was off to one of the PC Classrooms scattered around campus in search of a scanner. Two rooms have them. One in Langwith, and one in Alcuin. (York is on the residential college system, which means that each college is made up of 4-5 buildings linked by covered pathways around a central courtyard and provides dorm rooms, as well as office/classroom space. Departments are also housed in various colleges.)

I figured I'd try my luck in Langwith because they were supposed to have 2 scanners, while Alcuin just has one. So I made my way over to Langwith and promptly got very lost. The room was listed as Langwith 117, but when I went up to the first floor, the numbers only went up to 112. I went back downstairs and asked the porter. He directed me through a set of double doors, across a courtyard, and into the next building and up the stairs there. After making a brief confused detour through the cafe which was also through a set of double doors, I found the room. No scanner. But according to a poster on a bulletin board there, there was ANOTHER PC room in Langwith and that was where I needed to be. Fantastic. Of course, 138 was not on that floor. I thought, well, numbers seem to go up the further away from the central building you get... So I tried the next building over and sure enough, found it.

Problem. Each scanner is hooked up to ONE computer. One was not being used, so I tried that. Except that it won't accept logins. The guy on the next computer over was all "Yeah, that one doesn't seem to be working properly." The other computer was being used. The girl using it said she was almost done and then I could have it, so I used another computer while I waited. Score! Finally! Scanned and emailed. Victory. Of course, the program to scan text wasn't working, but I got it scanned using a Corel graphics program, so all is well that ends well.

So those are some of my recent adventures, not including class and Lords of Misrule, which I'm still kind of on the fence about. While it seems like it would be lots of fun, and the people are all really great, I just don't know that I want to commit the time to it. They're running Beowulf for three nights plus a dress rehearsal during the last week of term, i.e. when final essays are due. And I know that I'll procrastinate no matter what, and I just don't think that it would be wise for me to commit to not having any time in the evening that whole week to work on things. So I'm kind of thinking that I'll volunteer to work on props, but not actually be in the production/have to show up all the time.

I've also been trying to plan for after this year. I've come to the conclusion that I really just can't go straight into a PhD program when I finish here. My dissertation is due September 25th, and American programs all start end of August/early September, so I just don't think it will be feasible. Plus, most want 3 recommendations, and I can't ask professors that I've only known for 2 weeks at this point to write a rec for a December or early January deadline. So, I'm thinking that I'll take a year off and work and try to take a couple language classes. That way I can concentrate on applications after I finish my masters and have ~3 months to get those done. I've also been searching for a program/adviser that would be a good match.

I've run into the problem of having to chose between a really well-recognized program and an adviser with interests similar to my own. Notre Dame has probably the best Medieval program going on right now, with a bunch of California Schools- UCLA, USC, UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley- also offering a really good program with a lot of success in placing graduates in jobs. This is good. However, none of the professors at  these schools are really doing the British Isles / France in the period I'm looking at. If they study the British Isles, they tend to do super early Medieval period. Not what I'm interested in. If they do my time period, they work on the Mediterranean or Muslim/Christian/Jewish interactions and Crusades. I can't win.

But in some other schools, I've been able to find a few scattered professors that are generally interested in social/religious history of the High Middle Ages, which is at least the area and time period I want. I did find one person at BC that does Ango-Saxon/Anglo-Norman stuff, is interested in history/archaeology as sources, and does some stuff with religion. She's far and away the closest match I've found interest-wise, but I don't know if I'd be better off studying under her or at one of the bigger/better/shiny-er programs. But hey, I've got a year to figure it out, right?