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?

The Pound + "Induction"

In today's installment of my British adventures, I thought I'd discuss money. Specifically, the British pound in all its glorious nonsense. Here you see a 50, 20, and a 5. I didn't have a 10 handy, sorry. While the paper currency is kind of pretty and colorful- the 20 is purple and the 50 is red- I'm constantly annoyed that the bills are different sizes. Ok, I get that that might make them more instantly recognizable, say, if you can't be bothered to look at the money in your wallet. Or if you're blind. Not trying to hate on the vision impaired. But the 50 doesn't fit in a lot of wallets, and it makes for a very awkward folded up mess if you try to stick money in your pocket.

And now for the coins. Don't even get me started on the coins. I'm sure I'll figure them out eventually, but it is SO annoying to have like 2 pounds (in weight) in your pocket/wallet. The coins on the left are 1 pound. I didn't have any 2 pound coins handy, but they're a bit bigger and have silver bits. Next, that stupidly large coin is 2 pence. 2 freaking pence. The coins on the far right are 1 pence. Two of those only takes up slightly more space than one 2-pence coin, so is there really any reason to have them? Especially because I always seem to have ton of the stupid things around. Next to the 2 pence is the 20 pence coin. Again with the British and their superfluous coinage. Then the 10 pence. There's also a 50 pence coin that I don't have at the moment. It is bigger than the 2 pence, silver, and edgy like the 20 pence. I do like that the Queen is older and wrinklier with a double chin in newer coins and younger and, well, prettier in older coins. Good to see the Brits are at least realistic.

So that's British money. Every 5 pounds is about comparable to $8.50, which makes me cringe every time I buy something. A lot of things are much more expensive here than in the states, especially food (although not alcohol, go figure.) But I'm pretty much willing to go along with that because social services (especially health care and prescription coverage) are pretty much awesome here. No fees for visiting a general practitioner and no charge for prescriptions. You just pay a flat 7.50 pound dispensing fee to the chemist where you get your prescription filled. And, no dealing with stupid retarded health insurance companies (here's looking at you Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield. See if I EVER get you again.)

Anyway, today was Induction Day for the Centre for Medieval Studies. Oh my gosh, I'm so glad I'm here. But more on that in a minute. First, some reflections on how the UK education system differs from the US.

1) US schools are way, way, WAY more on top of things.
2) US schools are way, way, WAY more on top of things.
3) The grading system. Apparently we should expect to get much lower grades than we're used to. Here, we should be pleased if we receive a 75. I'm not so sure about this, but we'll see how it goes. Basically, they have much higher expectations for what deserves an "A". "A" work should be basically publishable, according to the CMS. Also, "A's" are not really expected. "C's" are totally fine, and a "B" is really good. Also, they don't use letter grades, just percentages; I'm just using corresponding letters for ease of explanation.

So today we showed up at King's Manor as instructed at 10:30 am. We were given a short tour of the Manor by a current PhD student and then had 1.5 hours to kill in the little cafe. So we used our free drink vouchers and got coffee/tea/hot chocolate and sat around for a looong time. Then we got our pictures taken for a wall of students type thing. That took about 2 minutes. Then it was back to the cafe for lunch and killing another 1.5 hours. We, like most people, had lunch and then went to a local pub to hang out on their back patio and chat.

Then we got to congregate in the same room where Northern England was governed from during the 1500s. Pretty cool. We listened to the standard welcome address, introduction of the faculty around that day, got a list of our advisers, and learned about our various skills module options. Which I thought was funny, since we'd already had to sign up for those, but oh well. Then we got tea and cookies. I love how Ireland/the UK has tea breaks. It makes me so happy. Anyway, then we all got to take the dreaded "informal Latin test."

Designed to help divide people up into various skill levels of Latin, I think the test served more to frustrate everyone there because at least all of the people I talked to were like me and hadn't really used much Latin in a couple of years and were at least a bit rusty. The test consisted of a Medieval Latin passage we were to translate. It would've been helpful if I knew ANY medieval vocab, but at least I knew that Rex Childebirthe was a king and not something to do with dinosaur childbirth. And then we heard about all the different discussion/reading/research groups we can join, lectures that go on throughout the semester, and the Lords of Misrule, the CMS's very own medieval theater group. This term, the play is Beowulf. Apparently anyone who is anyone participates in some way with the Lords, so I suppose I'll have to go to the interest meeting/auditions on Thursday.

So in addition to taking an extra skill module (we're really only supposed to take 2, but I'm stubborn, so...), I plan to try out the Late Anglo-Saxon Reading Group, the Medieval Religion Research Group, the Anglo-Norman Reading Group (although that doesn't start until next term), the Medieval Manuscripts Research Group, and various lectures by Patchwork and the Political Culture Research Group. And that is only a fraction of the available interest groups. That in a nutshell is one of the big reasons why I chose York; because the program is pretty big (there are about 35 MA students this year), there are a lot of options and available resources that you just don't get in smaller programs. In case you couldn't tell, I'm really excited and I can't wait for classes to start next week. This week is pretty much just class briefings, which I think are like those silly first lectures where you go and meet the professor, get a syllabus and textbook list and then skedaddle off. Tomorrow I'm going for a tour of the York Minster library and then a tour of the main campus facilities used by us Kings Manor folk, which from what I can tell is pretty much just the library. But more on that later. :)