North Carolina: Christmas 2009

So, today was the one of the best days ever. My brother Andrew and his wife Marie and I went snow boarding. I didn't think I would like it at first but once we got rid of the instructor and the bunny hill cleared of people and I figured out how to stand up, it was actually kinda cool. As it turns out, snowboards make wicked sleds... wicked because they are awesomely fast, and wicked because they are near impossible to stop when you are sitting on your butt and not using your feet. haha!

Yesterday was equally as fun. My brother David and his wife Stephanie, along with my parents, went for a "walk." Said walk ended in a sledding extravaganza and kick-a snowball fight. It was fantastic. Pictures to come!

Today Sarah, Jeff and Zoe also arrived, which involved eating prosciutto and other italian delights and decorating a gingerbread house. The house's roof did not want to stand. I kept trying to explain that mortar does not hold walls together, but it was too late. We had to prop the roof up with tapioca pudding cups as buttresses. Good times.

Over all we are eating a lot and having a good time. What else do you do on holidays? :)

Cheers

York: White Elephant, 13.12.09

So last night we had a white elephant exchange. It was totally fun. Except for two things. I looked around for a gift on Saturday and had no real luck until I went into this awesome hippie store that had oodles of stuff to choose from. Anyway, I was looking at all the stuff trying to decide and then I noticed they had a grab-bag box. Well, everyone knows how much I LOVE grab bags. So naturally, I chose one. It was small but I had hIGh hopes. Okay, so we go to the party and I wrapped my tiny little gift (which I did not know what it was) in a HUGE box, you know, like ya do. And Heather, my housemate chose it. She dug through all the Sainsbury bags, the anticipation mounted, she found the gift, opened it and it was a freakin' CARD! A stupid little hand made card! I felt bad. Well, then I kept thinking that if something ever got stolen from me I would steal the card from her so she could get something cool.

Skip back to the beginning of the game. My housemate Stella got like 6 things in a row that got stolen from her. So, she got this fish thing that looks like Dori from "Finding Nemo" and I liked it a lot so I stole it from her. The fish got stolen from me, I stole something else and then after all this game, that thing I got was stolen from me too. I totally forgot about stealing the card and stole the fishy back. The girl I stole it from (Kendra) was kinda upset... well, I knew this, didn't I because I'd been encouraging other ppl to steal it from her the whole game thinking I could bargain with them. Anyway, when I finally had the chance to steal it back I didn't think about it. I just ripped the bandaid off and she was really sad.

Last night I dreamed I was on a bus with all these people from my house. Kendra and Rebecca were on the bus and I was sitting next to them. Kendra was bad mouthing someone on the bus and after listening for a minute I realized it was ME. She was bad mouthing me to my face except she was acting like it wasn't me. hahha. Now I'm all creeped out AND I have to go get a replacement white elephant gift... what a botched job! lol

York: Youth Outreach Center

Last night I went to the dedication of a small room in our ward building that is going to be used as a Youth Outreach Center. Basically, some general authorities visited the British Isles within the last few years and said that a huge majority of the growth in the church will be in the age group 18-30. So stakes all over England are starting these centers. When we have more people we will get a building closer to the Univeristy where ppl can stop by and chill, sort of like an institute building in the United States, but for right now since we are just starting we just have a room in the ward building. It was pretty exciting to go to the dedication. I thought that one time 50 years from now when this center is booming I'll be able to look back and say "I was at that dedication meeting" and maybe there will be a stake history or something saying who was there. Anyway, it felt important, and I was glad I could go.

York: Television shows

So, I watched the most awesome tv shows tonight. The first was called "Splits" or something like that. Basically two ppl hand over the titles to their cars to these grease monkeys, who then turn their cars into street racers... these are crappy cars, mind you, to begin with. Anyway, after their cars have been souped up they race each other and whoever wins gets both cars! Can you imagine me racing my taurus? I can... I'm not sure if that's how the show is every time, or if there are different challenges based on the show, but it was awesome. The second was "Pimp up my Ride... UK" except this time they called it "Pimp up my Riot Van"... they totally took a riot van and pimped it up w/ a sweet sound system, recording room, music system etc... not so smart idea though, the van was for a charity working w/ at risk youth... that thing is gonna get nicked (as my British friends said). Anyway, was cool.

Question/comment: So, ppl here are super conscious about the environment, free range chickens, recycling, organic foods, whole ingredients etc etc... then why, I ask you, are fruits and vegetables shrink-wrapped in non-recyclable plastic and plastic containers, or sold in "ripe in the basket" non-recyclable plastic boxes? Don't get it, seriously... but hats of to them for trying, right?

York: Constantine House, spotlights

So, I decided to spotlight ppl in my house, mostly because they are freakin' hilarious. I won't use their names, just in case... lol

So one of them is a Welshman... from Wales. He is hilarious and is always saying crazy things and sometimes mocking British people and how they travel to warm places and act like loud British ppl and get burned to a crisp. Not only that, he looks like Wolverine. I didn't realize it until a couple weeks ago I was walking down the street and thought to myself "that guy is hot, he looks like wolverine." Then I was shocked off my feet when wolverine said hi. Later that night, turns out, my housemate from Wales was like "Was that you?" and I was like (in my head) "You are wolverine... amazing. I live with Wolverine.)" Anyway...

Then there is this girl from Belgium. She is also very funny. She has crazy short hair that goes all over the place and she rolls her own cigarettes. She is working on her 3rd masters degree (that's right mom, got you beat), and her second MA in stained glass conservation. She is also hilarious. The two of them together are the best. Sometimes I run into them in the evenings when I'm on my way home from campus sitting on the stoop, smoking and poking fun at each other. The Welshman loves comic books and we make fun of Spiderman and he protests... as it turns out, Wolverine is one of his heroes. Mostly I just sit and watch and laugh hysterically as the Belgian pokes fun at everything the Welshman says. It's fun. It's cool being the cool nerdy ppl... haha, we get feeling a little uppity not being the nerds of the nerds... even though we are all nerds...

York: Classes have begun!

OK, folks. Well I know this will not be a proper update but I realized I have been neglecting my posting since classes started and thought I'd give a quick update of what I can remember from the last two weeks. Beginning of classes was great. I love talking about historic buildings and living w/ ppl who have similar interests. Sometimes we sit in the kitchen and talk and debate about random things (like Viking combs) for no good reason. Last week I attended one of the weekly lectures from a visiting scholar. It was about Viking mortuary practices and using texts to corroborate archaeological evidence. It was pretty amazing, and it was presented by one of the authors of a text I had read that day, so it was good timing. I think his name was Neil Price? Probably wrong but...

Lime: I had my first praticals module last week, this time it was on lime-- its uses, source, etc. Basically a testimony session of lime. The guy in charge of the conservation practicals is Indian and my friend and I had a long discussion afterwards about his seemingly unethical definition of "restoration." Long story short, he replaced a mud brick wall on a watch tower gate at the Taj Mahal with brick covered in lime and called it a restoration... I think not. But aside from that, and our 9-5 day of lectures on the virtues of LIME, the lime practical day was awesome. I already knew some of it (a lot of it), from the workshop I attended in Ephraim last year, but it was cool to hear things from a craftsmans' perspective. We went on a field trip for the day to a small town called Malton, to York House. We painted walls with a lime wash, gutted cement out of walls and repointed with lime mortar, learned to apply plaster to walls (very tricky, embarrassing and also MESSY), slaked lime and I can't remember what else. The house was really neat and dated to the medieval period. It underwent a few additions but nonetheless, it was freakin' SWEET. The guy in charge of lime washes deserted his post to slake lime so when we got there, instead of painting the walls, we decided to explore the house. So I took the lead and we went into the attic and talked about the crumbling beams, and pest damage, then we headed down into the basement/cellar to look at how it was holding up (very nicely as it appears). There were no lights down there and a sign on the door saying "authorised personnel only" but what does that mean to us, really?

Anyway, mmmm, had stake conference on Saturday night and Sunday morning. I keep neglecting to read the bus timetables and end up missing my bus by 5-10 minutes and having to wait for like 30 minutes and then I get off at the wrong stop and end up missing things because of it. I will figure it out eventually, for some reason I just don't feel the urgency to be on time...? I'm always like "aah, I'll get there in time" and then I'm an hour late, but whatev, right? Thought that counts...

Finally made it to FHE. I've never been in a ward that had elders before, apart from my mission, so it was pretty interesting. Elders are just big kids, for real. The one guy (elder) who taught FHE sounded like he was talking to non-native English speakers. he had this weird cadence he kept repeating. I remember hearing in the elders in Korea, maybe it is an Elder thing? Anyway, was driving me crazy. Oh, that and the lesson lasted like an hour (I was 40 minutes late and thought I would miss the lesson and just skip right to the activity, no such luck, I got 20 minutes of it... elders...) Anyway, so in the two wards there are about 6 YSA. Two males, one is 45. Four girls, don't really know them yet but they seem alright. We played indoor hockey with the elders for the activity and my team schooled the other one, was lovely.

Second week of classes: now I am officially kicked in the pants. We got a lecture on all the resources available for Buildings Archaeology and now I'm thinking "crap, my research actually has to be good and well supported"... it will work out. Don't worry, we only have one assessed assignment per class and that equals to 10% of our overall grade for the MA. I'm not stressed... if only I would start working instead of "running errands" or "cleaning my room"... ah well, it will work out.

Anyway, York is a great place. You should come visit. I will try to write more frequently.

York: Day 9, Sports Pub

England! England! England! Won 3-0 vs Belarus in the sixth qualifier for the 2010 World Cup. I found a pub on the way home and noticed they were advertising the game so I got some girls to go back with me, it turns out that we picked the WRONG pub... nobody was there and it was totally lacking the "sports pub" atmosphere, but it was royal. Else, today we had a library tour, price checked and Sainsbury, took a nap and read more in the Da Vinci code. It was a long, tiring day. I tried to go to institute but couldn't remember when it was and the bus wouldn't come so I went to the pub instead... classic. :)

York: Day 8, Induction Week Begins!

Today we had a meeting with all of the archaeology students in King's Manor. Kate Giles, the head of the Buildings Archaeology department then did a break off session with just the Buildings Archie students and she said "Don't rush to the library, don't buy books, walk around and look at old buildings and write stuff down." I said "What?! My life is awesome... 'cause I do that anyway." Anyway, can life get better? I submit that it cannot, and I learned the other day that I get to attend my second primary program of the year. I decided its making up for all the years I've missed (uh, like every year). Anyway, library tours all this week and then classes start on Tuesday for me. My schedule is pretty inconsistent but basically I have class two or three days a week and then study my brains out the rest of the time! Yay! I've also learned that the Archaeology department schedules are about two weeks shorter then -everyone- else'. We start a week later and end a week earlier, crazy. But awesome. There are 14 students in my course and it seems like there are tons of projects to get involved with and places to go, things to see, lots of lectures to attend (one by the guy who did the Globe Theater in London), so this is going to be an awesome year. I will keep this thing updated... it turns out that I like blogging. It's so easy.

We had a reception tonight with people from archaeology, which was basically a wine and crisps night. I was surprised though that two different people from my house came to me specifically and said "They have apple juice and orange juice there too." I didn't even know they knew I didn't drink. It was nice, I also convinced the girl in charge of jello shots for the Halloween party to make a selection of virgin drinks and she agreed. We will use sprite or something (lemonade here) to make them fizzy. Yay! And another girl has suggested I sleep in her room Halloween night so that I can go to bed before 3 am (my room is right next to the main hall on the main floor.) Anyway, I like the people I work with, we have a pretty good time.

York: Day Six and Seven, Fountain's Abbey and Church

Today, although a Monday, we did not have class. So a few of us (Kendra, Rebecca, Rachel and I) headed off to Fountain's Abbey. This abbey exists in 'ruin' form, about 4 miles outside of the town of Ripon. Rebecca, Rachel and I are all in Buildings Archaeology-related fields and we had a great time exploring the ruins of the abbey and the Fountains Mill and talking about the phasing of buildings and the styles and how/when it had been updated etc... It was so fun! I think Kendra (a landscape archaeology student from Canada) got a little bored because I think it literally took us an hour or more to get through the first building because we were having so much fun talking about masonry and buttresses and courses of brick and phasing of the construction. Rebecca (a structural engineer), Rachel (an archaeology grad) and I were just going back and forth for so long I was surprised when two hours had passed like nothing and we had to hurry on with out tour. The abbey was pretty amazing though.

The building was really funny though. A lot of the architecture was inconsistent and lopsided. We had a good time making fun of it and only felt slightly bad for the people who were revering the ruins for their beauty all around us. I will include some pictures as examples of the craziness... I also spent the better half of the day climbing in and out of sarcophagi because people wanted to take pictures of them... as it turns out, my heighth and stature are pretty consistent with Medieval England (shocking, I know... I have enjoyed being average in size) One of the sarcophagi had a shoulder section built in! That one was a little creepy. I was also the brave one to explore unlit tunnels with no flashlight, it was sweet! But when all was said and done, I was in awe myself that I live in this country! I just can't believe that I took an hour and a half bus ride and ended up traipsing around English ruins... it's mind boggling.

After the Abbey we went back to Ripon and took a look at the Cathedral there. It was done in an old Romanesque style and I think I've studied it in a course before with Prof. Mark Johnson at BYU. I also think I studied the abbey in Prof. Jaime Bartlett's class. Afterwards we found this tiny chapel from the early 1,000AD that was used for ministering to lepers and deaf priests. We had to pick up the key to the church from the woman who lived across the street and it was as big as my head! The church was neat, it had an old Roman mosaic on the floor. All in all the day was perfect, the company interesting and the weather could not have been better. (also really great lighting for pictures)

Yesterday I went to church and met a lot of cool people. This old grandma named Jean and her husband Allen adopted me during the services and I just followed them around. I also met a woman named Hellen and her husband Andrew, who are about my age, and their two daughters. I also met Andrew's sister, Hannah, who is going to a local college around here. She invited me to FHE, institute and stake choir. I was planning on going to FHE tonight but was too tired. I guess I will pick one of those things to do so I can get myself into a different social network and meeting new people.

As it turns out, there seems to be a ton of cultural similarities between Canada and the UK. I keep running across terminology (like budgie) or slang that I don't understand and being like "huh?" and the Canadians are like "You don't know what that means? How can you not know what that means?" and then I say "I am from the States, we don't use that word" and then they explain it and life goes on. For example yesterday someone was talking about Yorkshire pudding and I was like "I've heard that but... what?" and my Canadian friend, Kendra was like "How can you not know what that is?" and then someone started talking about cornbread and I thought "Well that is definitely something I can talk about."

Tomorrow is the start of induction week for me, which means I have a couple hours of meetings and then a few library tours this next week... nothing else. Kind of lame. Our term is two weeks shorter then any other program, making it eight instead of ten weeks... mostly because, I'm guessing, archaeologists are lazy and want to do as little as possible...? lol, but I hope it will be good anyway.

I just found the biggest spider in my room... I heard about these spiders, but this thing is/was about two inches long or more... really creepy. I tried to kill it, it is under the waste bin, but I don't know if it is dead. I'm going to go find a guy to investigate that for me. Now I have to keep my room clean and things off the floor... man.

York: Day Five, York Museum

I miss home today, but I had fun anyway. A few of us (Rachel (Buildings), Rebecca, Rachel (Medieval) and I) went to York Museum because we got library cards that give us free entrance to some of the cities sites and this museum will be closing for refurbishments at the end of this month-- we had heard it has a good Viking/Saxon silver collection so we stopped by. We met at the minster courtyard where there were live musicians and play actors performing. One of the performances was a rapier dance and one was a play of Robbin Hood. They were hilarious. The museum was also good. The workmanship on that coinage was amazing! I wished I had my jewelers loupe and could handle them for a better look but not. After the museum we also did a little shopping and attended evensong at York Minster. It was the feast day of St. Polinus (or something), who was the patron saint of York (I think). The singing group comprised of various ages of young boys, youth and men singing and they were very good. I also found two key Korean ingredients today at the Asian market, bean curd paste and red pepper paste. On to warm soups and delicious foods, very nostalgic for me!...

York: Day Four, Checklist of the Day's Accomplishments

Bank account: Check
Lamp for my desk: Check
Something to help my room smell nice: Check
Basil plant: Check
ASIAN MARKET: Check
Tupperware: Check
Firstaid kit: Check
Discount open top bus tour: Check
Library card (and therefore more discounts and free admissions to museums): Check
Learning about how I suck as an American student in the UK: Check
Host family for the holiday: Check
Career Services: Check
Student ID: Check
Info about Stafford Loans: Check

It's been a busy day... what am I gonna do next week?!

York: Day Three, Orientation and the Pub

So... orientation began today. It was dumb. Last night I went to the pub with all my friends from the house and it was actually great! I've only been out once, but my first experience with an English pub was drastically different (and better) from any bar experience I had in the states at bars. I'm not getting my hopes up, but I'm hoping that it is a sign that hanging out in the pub will be very different from hanging out in bars back home. It was great because the whole evening didn't revolve around drinking, joking about drinking, getting drunk (and throwing up), and then bragging about drinking the next day-- it was just a social occasion. We weren't out for very long, and I understand that different occasions call for different behavior, but nobody was there to just get smashed! Everyone was there to have a good time, to socialize and to get to know one another. One person asked me if I don't drink and although other people probably noticed, they didn't seem to care. We all just had a good time and hung out. Also, the pub had a much better selection of non-alcoholic beverages and the bar tender didn't make fun of me when I bought a non-alcoholic drink. I appreciated all of these things a lot. One of my friends, Stella, used to be a bar tender and she is from the UK so I asked her about what I should drink and stuff and she was really helpful. Anyway, it was a good experience. Anyway, not much else on right now, but life is good... :)

York: Day Two, the House, my Room, the Backhoe, First Impressions

Day Two in York, I woke up to the sounds of construction out my window. Did I fail to mention that there is a backhoe, permanently parked right next to my window? Yes, I am on the ground floor. Anyway, it's like a little piece of heaven... I got out of bed at quarter to twelve. I got dressed, explored York for a little while, found a phone for 10 pounds (is a pound a quid?) and no contract to sign, and then wandered home. I've met a lot of people in my house so far but it was not until tonight that I actually met someone from my program (Buildings Archaeology), everybody else have been in Medieval Studies. One girl was probably the president of The Quill and The Sword back at home, last night she was talking about brewing meed in the basement where she lives-- we call it her cave. (Also, amazing historic fact: rumor has it that there was a Roman cemetary in our backyard!! A bunch of us archaeologists wanna go out there with shovels, but apparently it hasn't been excavated because of underground power/utility lines...)

I met two girls in my program and their names are Rachel and Stella, both from the UK, thankfully. With the exception of one other Brit and one Welshman, everyone I have met is American. Don't be offended, but I am a little disappointed that I came all the way to England to share a house with a bunch of Americans, but I guess that just means I will have to work extra hard to find friends from other places. There is one Italian in our house and also a Chinese (I think). (Oh, and I guess two of my house mates are in fact Canadian, but let's not pretend like that is so different from American...).

Apparently, historically our house is and has been the party house for grad students. Last night a guy named Russell was telling me that a group of people who lived here in the '80s have made a facebook page to which they have scanned in pictures from their parties back then. I'm excited to have parties across the hall from my room, it will be jolly times.

Pleasingly, we will be celebrating Halloween this year (I was worried and mailed myself Halloween stuff just in case). Our house will be putting on the annual Halloween party.

Tonight I am going to the pub with a bunch of house mates, we'll see how it is. Nobody knows I don't drink yet! I will probably leave early, but I figure it will be a good way to meet people and just hang out.

Orientation starts tomorrow and goes for a week and a half! Crazy, I know, but then we get into classes and it will be intense. Anyway, now I will try to figure out how to upload some pictures, we'll see how it goes!

Another aside: I have discovered why Brits drink so much tea and coffee... it's early October and I'm freezing! I had to make a special trip out into the cold to get some peppermint tea and hot chocolate for later. I can tell that I will be drinking this a lot... and I guess I could put on some more warm clothing and maybe buy some boots. Here's to life, Cheers! (I'm practicing, can you tell?)

It's England Time.... Yes, like Hammer Time

So, I arrived in England this morning at 8:25 and have been fighting to stay awake ever since. Of course my welcome came complete with loads of rain and so now I am cold, tired and just hanging out in my new room... which is huge for a dorm room. I will post pictures later. Anyway, as for my first day, I got to my room without too much trouble, went shopping for bedding, looked for a lamp for my room, looked for a door mat and looked for lightbulbs... all I really got was bedding and food. It's been an adventure. People say crazy things like the guy in the check out stand who kept saying things like "this fetter cheese is beautiful, just beautiful... the tomatoes really bring out it's flavor" and "this is a pretty classy shop, eh?" at that I just stared at him and wondered "Is he calling his shop classy?" then I realized that I think he was talking about my choice in food... haha! I just stared at him blankly and we both felt awkward. hahahah! Oh, and there was the little kid who was walking with his mum who (talking about the rain) said "I really don't like this weather" as if he had never experienced it before.

Ok, so culture shock is taking its toll and the honeymoon stage is not lasting long, but that could be because I slept about two hours in the last 24 and am a little out of my element... tomorrow will be better! Tomorrow on to finding a bank account and figuring out what is required for orientation. I think classes start on Wednesday but I'm not really clear on that, I guess I will find out... here's to being an international student in England, a dream come true... but a slightly irrational dream at that. :) Take care, love...