greetings from the damp.
Greetings all!
If I have learned nothing else in my time here, it is that the weather is not to be trusted, and this entire country is tirelessly and unrelentingly moist. This combined with the fact that it's properly dark at 5pm is beginning to get on my nerves a wee bit. That said, it could be worse: I am told that in the deep of winter it gets dark here at 3:30. At this thought I shudder, and bless the invention of electric lighting.
Grumbling about the uncontrollable aside, things have been good here. Every time to leave the house, I tend to see something that makes me like this town even more. It's impossible to walk through the city center any afternoon and not see something entertaining. There are a lot of street performers, and it makes the city feel very fun.
A week or so ago, there was an artistic thing going on called 'Illuminating York'. The city had set up projectors in the three point of the city (the market square, King's Manor, and the Abby gardens). The one in King's Manor was a video of a fairly surreal animation, with music attached, which involved birds flying, the sun rising, and a pumping heart. The Abby gardens involved music, and a station at which people could draw images on a computer screen which would then be projected onto a Roman tower. I unfortunately didn't see the one in the very center of town, but from what I'd heard I saw the best two.
Halloween was a blast. My residence hosted the official Postgrad party, and while it was a good time (a lot of dancing, good music), things still remained in control, even though we could have over 100 people in the building at any given point of the night. The only damage done was one light fixture on the wall was broken by accident when some guy dressed as David Bowie a la 'Ziggy Stardust' ran into it while dancing. Noone was hurt, thankfully, and things resumed without a hitch.
I cannot remember if I've mentioned this already, (so if I have, I do apologize) but I've taken to doing a pub quiz night with my housemates once a week. For 50pence each, we group off into teams of no more than six people, and answer trivia. The teams aren't steady each week, but team members are based off of whoever's sitting at what end of the table when it starts. The only rule we have decided in terms of divvying our people up is that each team must have at least one British person, so much as our demographic that evening allows. Otherwise we're hopeless at a lot of the pop culture and sports. Us North Americans can get literature, history, biology, and some science, but sports and children's tv shows are out of our trivial league. We've received varying results: last week my team came in sixth or seventh (out of over a dozen, so not too bad) and this past week we came second last. But, it's always a fun time, so it's all good.
Things are going well with Beowulf. Rehearsals are pressing on, and I've been given my assignments as part of the props team: I get to make a Lyre (going to be based off of the Sutton Hoo find), and Fernando's severed head. Also, the entire props team has been put to the task of figuring out how to make a moveable fire that doesn't look like tissue paper, and a light but sturdy funeral pyre.
This most recent Thursday, a few of us decided we needed to go on a day trip. So, we showed up at the train station that morning, and saw where the next train was leaving to. We (Kendra, Rachel, Rosalie, Stella and myself) ended up spending a pleasant day in Harrogate. Harrogate is a pleasant spa town about a half hour away where monied folks used to go to 'take the cure' by bathing in and drinking water from the sulfur springs there. I actually tried some of it (there was a pitcher at the pump house museum which we were offered a taste of), but none of the others did. They were understandably turned off by the smell. It tasted of salt and smelled of deviled eggs (egg smell multiplied by about 400, of course), but on the whole was not the most vile thing that's even gone down my gullet, so it wasn't that bad. (For the record, that distinction goes to the antibiotics I had to take when I had my wisdom teeth pulled.)
After the museum, we had lunch and then walked in the garden and woodlands for a while. It was quite nice. Damp, but that was to be expected, but not very cold, so it was good as long as you kept walking.
Last night I went to a Classical Civilization party at Strasz and Ehren's house (Both folks from the Lords of Misrule, the drama group that I'm doing Beowulf with). I went as Circe (I was supposed to borrow my friend Heather's Cleopatra costume, but at 3 yesterday afternoon I realized she'd left town for the weekend without giving it to me, so I ended up doing some frantic sewing and props gathering. I had fluffy tiny sheep as opposed to pigs, but I had some form of livestock, so it worked out well in the end ). Other notable costumes were Augustus and Caligula, Medusa, and a late Roman woman (She had to change out of her outfit early on though, as it was proper reenactment dress, and so was wool, and too warm to wear in a properly heated modern house). Everyone else was very stylish in their tunics and togas. There was good nibblies, good people, and some minor vandalism on the Parthenon (Strasz and Ehren had made a copy of the entrance out of cardboard to put on their wall).
That's all for now. The semester grinds on, the workload gets heavier, and my time becomes more occupied with academia. That said, it's enjoyable academic work, so I have no complaints in the least.
If I have learned nothing else in my time here, it is that the weather is not to be trusted, and this entire country is tirelessly and unrelentingly moist. This combined with the fact that it's properly dark at 5pm is beginning to get on my nerves a wee bit. That said, it could be worse: I am told that in the deep of winter it gets dark here at 3:30. At this thought I shudder, and bless the invention of electric lighting.
Grumbling about the uncontrollable aside, things have been good here. Every time to leave the house, I tend to see something that makes me like this town even more. It's impossible to walk through the city center any afternoon and not see something entertaining. There are a lot of street performers, and it makes the city feel very fun.
A week or so ago, there was an artistic thing going on called 'Illuminating York'. The city had set up projectors in the three point of the city (the market square, King's Manor, and the Abby gardens). The one in King's Manor was a video of a fairly surreal animation, with music attached, which involved birds flying, the sun rising, and a pumping heart. The Abby gardens involved music, and a station at which people could draw images on a computer screen which would then be projected onto a Roman tower. I unfortunately didn't see the one in the very center of town, but from what I'd heard I saw the best two.
Halloween was a blast. My residence hosted the official Postgrad party, and while it was a good time (a lot of dancing, good music), things still remained in control, even though we could have over 100 people in the building at any given point of the night. The only damage done was one light fixture on the wall was broken by accident when some guy dressed as David Bowie a la 'Ziggy Stardust' ran into it while dancing. Noone was hurt, thankfully, and things resumed without a hitch.
I cannot remember if I've mentioned this already, (so if I have, I do apologize) but I've taken to doing a pub quiz night with my housemates once a week. For 50pence each, we group off into teams of no more than six people, and answer trivia. The teams aren't steady each week, but team members are based off of whoever's sitting at what end of the table when it starts. The only rule we have decided in terms of divvying our people up is that each team must have at least one British person, so much as our demographic that evening allows. Otherwise we're hopeless at a lot of the pop culture and sports. Us North Americans can get literature, history, biology, and some science, but sports and children's tv shows are out of our trivial league. We've received varying results: last week my team came in sixth or seventh (out of over a dozen, so not too bad) and this past week we came second last. But, it's always a fun time, so it's all good.
Things are going well with Beowulf. Rehearsals are pressing on, and I've been given my assignments as part of the props team: I get to make a Lyre (going to be based off of the Sutton Hoo find), and Fernando's severed head. Also, the entire props team has been put to the task of figuring out how to make a moveable fire that doesn't look like tissue paper, and a light but sturdy funeral pyre.
This most recent Thursday, a few of us decided we needed to go on a day trip. So, we showed up at the train station that morning, and saw where the next train was leaving to. We (Kendra, Rachel, Rosalie, Stella and myself) ended up spending a pleasant day in Harrogate. Harrogate is a pleasant spa town about a half hour away where monied folks used to go to 'take the cure' by bathing in and drinking water from the sulfur springs there. I actually tried some of it (there was a pitcher at the pump house museum which we were offered a taste of), but none of the others did. They were understandably turned off by the smell. It tasted of salt and smelled of deviled eggs (egg smell multiplied by about 400, of course), but on the whole was not the most vile thing that's even gone down my gullet, so it wasn't that bad. (For the record, that distinction goes to the antibiotics I had to take when I had my wisdom teeth pulled.)
After the museum, we had lunch and then walked in the garden and woodlands for a while. It was quite nice. Damp, but that was to be expected, but not very cold, so it was good as long as you kept walking.
Last night I went to a Classical Civilization party at Strasz and Ehren's house (Both folks from the Lords of Misrule, the drama group that I'm doing Beowulf with). I went as Circe (I was supposed to borrow my friend Heather's Cleopatra costume, but at 3 yesterday afternoon I realized she'd left town for the weekend without giving it to me, so I ended up doing some frantic sewing and props gathering. I had fluffy tiny sheep as opposed to pigs, but I had some form of livestock, so it worked out well in the end ). Other notable costumes were Augustus and Caligula, Medusa, and a late Roman woman (She had to change out of her outfit early on though, as it was proper reenactment dress, and so was wool, and too warm to wear in a properly heated modern house). Everyone else was very stylish in their tunics and togas. There was good nibblies, good people, and some minor vandalism on the Parthenon (Strasz and Ehren had made a copy of the entrance out of cardboard to put on their wall).
That's all for now. The semester grinds on, the workload gets heavier, and my time becomes more occupied with academia. That said, it's enjoyable academic work, so I have no complaints in the least.