Cushty!

So, it has been just over a week since I arrived. Still no job unfortunatly. I am still waiting to hear back on a few that I've applied for, so hopefully something turns up. In the mean time I am adjusting to UK life. Adjusting to UK life involes many things, but in this house one of the biggest ones for me is the constant consumption of tea. I think I have drank more cups of tea over the past week than I have in my previous 21 years of life combined. (They also have lots of cherry trees!)

Another big adjustment is the driving. I had my first expereince driving on the left side of the road today. We decided it would be beneficial for me to take a lesson. So I had an hour driving lesson today where I had to get used to round abouts and shifting with my left hand (yes, it was a standard car). It was tricky. I kept looking up to my left to look into the rearview mirror, when it was on my right and more than once I found myself flailing my hand into the door to do a quick gear change. But I think it's coming along. The round abouts might tale a bit of practice though.

(Some sheep next door.)

Another common sight where I am are the small planes in the sky. The few times I've gone for a run, I'll see these small planes doing loop da loops and figure eights in the air! I guess there is a air field near by (They have a lot of small airfields in England) and they often practice during the day.

(A holly tree in Oundle)

On top of this I have discovered a few more differences. Instead of mayo, most Brits use "salad cream" on thier sandwiches. And the majority of Brits do not eat pb and jam sandwiches and for the most part, they think they sound rather nasty. I was also surprised to discover how many of our basic vegetables are called something different over here. For example, what we call zucchini, the Brits refer to as courgettes. Also we differ on turnips. What us and the Scots consider turnips, the English call a swedes. They have another smaller root vegetable that they refer to as turnips.
Anyways, that's all I have so far. I have posted a few pictures to give you an idea of where I am and what it's like over here. And I will leave you with a shot of our little friend who was getting a cheeky munch of the cat's food outside the back door two nights ago.
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Country Living

Well, I have arrived alive. My flights from Halifax to Iceland and from Iceland to London were long, sleepeless and meal-less. I managed to find a bit of food in Iceland, but was struggled to buy something as I had know idea how much an Icelandic Krona was compared to a Canadian Dollar! I ending up having a 199 krona container of yougart (which I just found out cost me about $1.70, phew!) It was weird yougart, the consistancy was somewhere between soft and hard ice cream, but it tasted alright.
Now I am currently living with the Butlers in Hardwick. It is a very small village about 1 hour North of London. I learned that to be considered a village you need a church. Well, that's about all that is here. There are maybe 6-7 houses, some fields, some sheep, and a church. It is very beautiful. I have not yet taken any pictures, but I will.
Some things I have learend in the past few days include: Brit's spell "tire" (as in car tires) "tyre". They love fresh flowers and many people will buy then regularly to put in their front rooms (they are not as expensive here as they are in Canada). Hedgehogs are a regular sight, but only around dusk. There is a mom and 2 babies that we often see in the front garden here. And lastly, something that surprised me, there are still gypsies around! When driving along a road you may spy some dodgy looking campers (what they would call caravans) set up in a random field with horses nearby. This are temporary gypsy camps! Apparantly they are a rough crowd and can cause a lot of havoc. I am told that not to long ago, right down the road from here a farmer had his car stloen by some. Every morning he would stop at his field gate jump out (with the truck still running) and walk maybe 10 metres to open the gate. One morning as he stepped out to do that, some gypsies came running from the ditch and nicked his truck!
Well, that's all I have to report for now. No job prospects yet, but I am on the hunt. I will hopefully put some pictures up soon with a new post! That is as long as I don't get taken off by gypsies.

..and she's off!

Well, I have packed just about everything. It took me an entire day to pack all of my stuff, and just like last time, I have lot's of suitcase room, but I'm already at my weight limit. I wonder if I put some helium balloons in my suitcase if that would by me some more weight...

I am flying via Icelandair which means a quick stop in Iceland before I get to England. I am excited to see a little bit Iceland on my way over. I will be arriving in England just before lunch thier time if all goes well. I will then spend the next little while at the Butler household searching for a job and a place to live. Hopefully I will sort something out soon!

And that is all I have to say for now. This post is mostly just a practice to see if I still remember how to do this. So far so good I think. I will try my hardest to update this thing every so often and will make it my goal not to up and bail like I did last time.

Well, T.T.F.N! Ta ta for now!

...Tell a tale of Leprechauns, Drape yourself in green, And have the best St.Paddys Day, The world has ever seen!

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Well, I made it back alive and well from my trip to Dublin, Ireland for St. Patrick's day. Me and almost everyone in my residence left on Tuesday and returned Friday afternoon. Getting there was fairly uneventful. We took at cab from Bath to the Bristol airport. The roads were winding extremely narrow and I thought we would surly die, multiple times. But we got to the airport on time and alive. We arrived to the Dublin airport and got a bus to the center of the city. We then had a bit of a hike to get to our hotel. We soon discovered that in Dublin, at a cross walk, when it's your turn to cross there's no way you could miss it. They have these sound things that beep at you to let you know it's your turn to go, except it sounds like a laser gun followed by a machine gun shooting continuously until you crossed. And it didn't matter how many times I crossed the street, it always scared the livin daylights out of me. The highlight of the trip was probably the St. Patrick's Day parade. We had on our green shirts and headed for the crowds. We quickly learned that a green shirt worn under a coat was not festive enough in the least. So we went to one of the many St. Patrick's Day shops and bought us some hats. Here is a picture of Matt, Hillary (both Texans) and I at the parade, Hillary and I with our hats.
Our hats were miniature versions of the popular St. Patty's day hats. I have a picture below of what most of them looked like. The floats and acts from the parade were very interesting. Many of them seemed to have quite an artistic flare. It was almost impossible to see. However we got lucky when we went to a crossing point. They had them various locations along the street and they would pause the parade and let the people do their dancing and what not while they let a mass of people cross to the other side. Well they cut us off right before we were about to cross. So we were right there in front. Here are a few picture of the parade:



So all in all Dublin was good fun! Went to some Irish pubs, heard some great live music (Rattlin' Bog, Irish Rover etc.) Heard some lovely Irish accents and had some famous Irish Guinness. We actually went to the Guinness factory and had a tour. That was pretty neat. On our way back from that tour I asked our cab driver why there were so many Scots walking about in their kilts, as I had seen quite a few. He said they were getting ready to watch the big Ireland vs. Scotland game on Saturday. He then asked if I knew how to tell if they were truly Scotsman. I responded, "no, how do you tell?" And he replied "they wear nothing under their kilt. You'll have to look for yourself." I don't quite remember how I responded to that one. :)
Well, I will leave you with one of the most exciting finds in Ireland. There was a convenience store across from our hotel and we went there often for food. (Everything was ridiculously expensive in Dublin). As I was walking through I glanced down, and a small packet of sugar caught my eye, then some straws, then I stepped back and saw an entire booth! Behold!!
I was so excited. I shouted to the Texans, "Look, a Tim Hortons! In Ireland!" they of course responded "Tim who?". I then tried (and failed) to describe the significance of a Timmy's. Ah well. I must say, I didn't actually buy anything from it. The maple dip donuts had chopped nuts on them, and I was very unimpressed.
Well, that's all I have for now. The Texans and I are heading to Italy (Venice, Florance and Rome) and Greece (Athens) for Easter break and am leaving this Wednesday. So I will be back April 9th and will hopefully update my blog then!

Busy Bee

Busy busy busy. School is starting to pick up, and rugby playoffs have commenced. I am starting to remember how hectic life can get. But it's a good hectic. I am so busy I don't have time to get lonely or homesick! So, due to my busyness, I have not regrettably taken many more exciting pictures, or done anything terribly exciting. Last week, the Texans who live across the hall all went to Oxford, Liverpool and Manchester. I had a poster project to do, so I did not join them. However, I managed to finish up my project fairly quickly, so I made my own day trip to Bristol. Bristol is a bigger city to the west of Bath, and is about a 10 min train ride away. It was a beautiful day so I did snap a few pictures of which I will post below.
The top picture is a shot of inside the Bristol Temple Meads train station. The one below is from the outside. You can see all the taxis sitting at the entrance. The are all very funny looking. The taxis in Bath are all different, but it Bristol, they tend to all be the same funny looking model.

So in Bristol, the only thing to really do is shop. There were a few things I really wanted to pick up. Some good walking shoes, some rugby spandex for under my shorts, and a green top for St. Patricks day. I ended up with only the spandex, but it was a fun day none the less. What's really cool about Bristol shopping is that they have what the Texans call an "outdoor mall". It's really neat actually. I tried to take a picture to give you an idea of what it's like.So it sort of looks like you're inside, and it sort of feels like you are, only it's cold and the roof is more of a screen. And it doesn't extend the whole way. It will randomly stop, and all you have is sky above you. It's odd, but neat. The shops in Bristol are a little more low key. Not as many high-end fancy brand name shops. Which is nice for those of us who arn't willing to pay a semesters tution for a pair of shoes.

So, the only other exciting thing that has been going on here is rugby playoffs. They started last week, however because our team did really well throughout the season we had a bye. The playoffs are set up as knockoffs. So once you lose you are out. So our first game was yesterday and we played Bristol. They are one of the lowest teams in the league. The result? Well, we beat them. Pretty badly actually. It was more of a slaughter. The score was 98-0. That's right. 98. For those who don't know much about rugby, that is a ridiculously high scoring game. However from here on in the games will get tougher and tougher. So wish us luck! Here are some pictures from our game in Cardiff two weeks ago. I think I wrote about it last time. The pitch was very muddy. The first picture is warming up before the game, and the second is sometime during. You can see the how nice and clean we were before.
Well, that is all I have. Hopefully the next post will be more exciting. Next week I am heading to Dublin for a few days and will be there for St. Patricks day! So I'll be sure to update this once I get back.

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Brrrrrrryophytes

Well, the third week has come and gone. You'd think by now I'd get the lingo and could go a day completely understanding what's going on around me. But no, at rugby practice mouth guards and cleats have become gum shields and boots, at restaurants splitting the bill separately among a group of people is unheard of, and all of the clocks are in 24 hour army time! Ah well. I must say I am getting used to some things. Like trains for instance.

This past weekend as some might have heard, I traveled to the north of Wales to a place called Betws-y-Coed for a moss and liverwort workshop. I left Friday morning around 10:30 and mastered the art of traveling the trains all day until I finally arrived in the Betws-y-Coed train station at 5:01. Thankfully, a staff member from the field centre was there to pick me up, so I also got to expereince driving in a uk car. (Until then it had only been buses.) So of course out of habit I made my way to the wrong side of the car waiting to get in, but fortunatly caught my mistake before the staff lady got to the car. So I was able to avoid the what I like to call ignorant-tourist embarrassment.
The centre was located in the middle of a beautiful u-shaped valley. When I had a quick tour of the place I was given my room key. I don't know why I found it so amusing, but the key they gave me was one of those old fashioned skeleton key and I just loved locking and unlocking my door with it! My room was small, but had a bed, so that was fine. What was perhaps not so fine was the fact that I was in the north of Wales and my room had zero heat. Also, the buildings over here are not insulated like they are in Canada. It was freezing! But fortuanly I was able to build myself a little cocoon of blankets and towels and clothes and was eventually pretty cozy. My room did have a very nice view though. Here's a picture the first morning I was there. The sun is just starting to hit left side of the valley.
So both Saturday and Sunday were pretty much the same. We woke up to a cm or so of snow that would melt by mid morning. We set out around 9:00-9:30 and would be outside for the rest of the day until supper time. There was about 9 or 10 of us in the group and with me being the execption, all of whom were over 40. But they were great people. My instructer's name was Martha and I am told she is known throughout the UK for her expertise. She was pretty intense. Here are just a few of the many pictures I took while in the field:




The days were very long and very cold and we did a LOT of standing around and talking about different moss species. There could be 8 species of moss of one rock and we'd stand and talk about each one. In the summer, this would not be an issue. But when it's the winter time and when you haven't packed enough winter clothes because you've underestimated England's winters and when you have raynaud's sydrome, and your toes and fingers are numb, it's very hard to enjoy oneself. I did however learn lots. So I'd say I got my money's worth. The drive up to Wales was also a very beautiful one. Here some pictures I took from the train.

Not only was there quite a few massive hills like this in Wales, there were millions of sheep! I am sure that in that one trip to Wales, I saw more sheep than I have ever seen in my cumulitive 20 years of life!
In other news, I have started playing with the Bath girls rugby team! And it is great fun! We've had two games so far, both of which I have played in. (For those who know rugby, I mostly played second row. Crazy, I know) The last game we played was an away game in Cardiff, Wales. The pitch was pretty much a mud pit, so we looked fabulous after the match. It was great! I now will leave you with a picture of my new favorite food item that I have bought over here. It's pretty much 3 wonderful things rolled into one...

....Rugby, Scotland, and Oats.

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God Save the Queen (and to heck with the trees!)

Well, it has been another crazy week. Saturday the international office organized a trip to Windsor Castle. So on Saturday morning pretty much everyone from my flat piled on the bus at 8:30 in the morning (Which is apparently SUPER early for them as they were groggily grumbling for the first little while.) However, the ride was about 2 hours to get there, so most people got to finish up their sleep on the bus. As per usual the day was gray, but it wasn't raining. While driving through the countryside, I couldn't believe the lack of forest over here. Though the hillsides are quite scenic, I feel like the lime-green and yellow patches are just gaps where forests should be. Here's a pic from the bus on our way to the castle.
Once we arrived at the castle we were pretty much let free to do whatever we pleased. We were just told to be back to the bus at 5:30. So we had the entire day. When we walked up to the entrance we were ushered into this security check. This was a full out airport scan. We had to remove our bags and walk through a metal detector and they checked our tickets like 3 times. Crazy! Here are some pictures of the outside as we were coming up to it.
Windsor Castle is big and beautiful on the outside, but is even more crazy cool on the inside. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to snap any inside pictures. We walked through many different rooms and each one was more elaborate than the next. One was covered from (very high) ceiling to floor will old weaponry. They had tons of old sabers and rapiers and armor and then they made these crazy circle designs with old pistols and guns. It was very neat. We then walked through other rooms in the castle such as the Kings bed chamber and the Queens drawing room. All were decked out in crazy elaborate wallpaper, gold trim work stuff and painted ceilings. I am pretty sure I would go crazy if I had to live in that castle for any period of time. Oh and there was a rather high round tower in the middle that we couldn't figure out how to get into. It was surrounded by really pretty gardens and mini waterfalls. We later were told by a guard who took our picture that the tower was where the Queen stays and the flag on top on the tower today meant the Queen was actually in residence! I guess she stays at Windsor castle occasionally. So basically, I was pretty close to the Queen. Here's some of the gardens!
Within the castle walls where was a big Cathedral which apparently holds the tombs of King Henry VIII and his 3rd wife Jane Seymor. The inside was super big and apparently it still holds services there. Just outside the Castle there is a ton of little shops mostly touristy or cafe type places. Actually one of the house there is said to belong to King Georges favourite Mistress "Nell", however when we walked buy it, it was for sale!?. There were also some old pubs and the famous crooked house. Beside the crooked house there is a very short street that Windsor has dubbed the shortest street in England. It doesn't look like much of a street to me, but who am I judge? Here is some pictures from just outside the Cathedral and one of the crooked house. (And I am not in the group photo, I took that one. And half of the people in it are complete strangers (most of the ones on the right). Not sure why they hopped in, but hey, the more the merrier).



So needless to say, we had a long day. We were pooped by the end of it. But it was fun. I will tell you all about Rugby in my next post. (That's right, I'm playing Rugby, much to my mothers dismay). I will leave you with one last picture. The Eaton School for boys is right close to the castle, so we decided to go check it out. (To clarify, this school is supposed to be famous for schooling the young Prince Harry, or someone like that.) On our way we stumbled across another school. I will leave you to decide who was schooled there.