Speaking of upgrades, while I desperately miss my sweet sweet roomies back in Wheaton, Terrace apts cannot hold an aesthetic candle to living in Wills hall (aka the closest thing to a castle I will ever live in).Wills hall is about a 25-30min walk away from the main campus. It is set up at the top of a long hill along which runs a road called White Ladies rd. A majority of people in Wills hall don’t have a roommate, which seems to be the norm here for Uni students. Each room is equipped with a sink (with two spigots.One is scaldingly hot, the other bitterly cold. No happy medium)
Another fun tiddly bit about Wills Hall is that it is one of the very few (maybe only) dorms on campus that have an Oxford/Harry Potter style formal meal every Friday. Most Fridays this includes formal table settings in the eating hall, table service, and formal gowns. Everyone brings a bottle of wine to share with friends at their table, and afterward go to the bar downstairs to sit and enjoy one another’s company. On special days there are themes for the formal dinners, my first was Robert Burns night, and the upcoming one is Chinese New Year themed.
The Uni provides students out in Stoke Bishop (where Wills hall is located) with a bus pass. Each day I will catch a bus to the university campus. Nearby where I live there is a retirement community that has lovely grounds. I have been walking around and through it about 2-3 times. The buildings are all made to reflect a more traditional English architecture. They have massive knobby trees, and tiny flowers smattered around their grounds. I don’t really know what are the trespassing laws here in England, so whenever I walk through their grounds I always hope that those in security will just think I am visiting my grandparents and fancied a walk.
The way that classes work here in the UK is apart of a two part system. Classes have their lectures and then their seminars/tutorials. The lectures have a large audience of about 100 people, whereas the tutorials are much smaller, maybe 7-15 people. For me, my classes on Early American Literature, Paradise Lost, and Medieval-Renaissance Literature are just beginning this week (last week was a reading week for those in the ENGL dept.). So today I head off to my first lecture. Unfortunately, the Univ. has been a bit backed up in terms of scheduling, so I still dont know when my smaller tutorials are… I head to the Humanities dept today to see what I can find out.
One of my adventuring days consisted of going into Bristol’s city centre and looking at some of the street art that decorates the buildings on Nelson Street. Here is a link to find out more Nelson Street Art. I guess it is the UK’s largest outdoor Street art project. It was a lot of fun to wander around and take photos. Some of the pieces looked as though they had been drawn from charcoal, others were fascinating in their use of color and shading, and others were just funny looking.
This past weekend, on Sunday, I went to Bath and Stonehenge with my same friends Meg and Sophie as well as another chap named Reilly from America. It was a cold and blustery day, but the loveliness of Bath made the venturing well-worth the uncomfortable temperature.
This was a lovely town. Lots of tiny shops all around, and the whole city made out of a lovely yellow stone. I’m sure that during the summer, with the sun shining all around, the city is even lovelier. It was here in Bath that I had a delicious and spicy veggie burger (on the suggestion of my Rick Steve’s [I call him “Ricky”] guidebook we went to the Market Cafe. Delicious!). Unfortunately, we realized that since it was Sunday, we could not tour the Abbey until after we visited Stonehenge.
I went to my first LeRoc class (which is a hybrid of Modern Jive, Salsa, Swing Dance, and Jazz dancing) last night, and had a delightful time. I danced there for about three hours. There were mainly individuals in their early 30’s to their late 70’s. Those gentlemen that were older were wonderful dancers! I was amazed at how well they moved and at how good they were at dancing. I am very excited to go again!In conclusion, I have been having a great time. These upcoming weeks include the church retreat, beginning of classes, and dancing. I’ll try to be better about sticking to my weekly blog rule. Life just flys by, and trying to coordinate photos and writing can be difficult, but also so much fun! Have a blessed day, thanks for reading!
How fun! And I've learned from how easy it is to be “British!” –Just say “Splendid!” a lot, drink tea, use terms like “tiddly-bit,” and instead of “liking” things you can “fancy” them! I'm going to practice what I've learned at the earliest opportunity.
A truly wonderful taste treat in the UK is the “Bakewell tart.” I know it sounds like a prank (“Excuse me, could you tell me where I could find a Bakewell tart?”) but it's not. It's an amazing confection that looks like a pie covered with sugar glaze (or sometimes almonds) but has inside the most amazing mixture of crust, almonds, and some sort of jam. There's a supermarket variety–avoid them. But at every restaurant and bakery ask for them and if they don't have it, ask who still makes them. Then–when you find one–eat a slice for me so you can tell me every detail later. I have a good recipe and plan to try it when I find a good opportunity.
Your dancing class sounds wonderful! Kathy and I watched “Dance With Me” during our diving vacation in Mexico and I can just imagine you gliding around the floor with some extremely upright partner.
–Uncle Ray