York

This past weekend I had the pleasure of traveling to York with some new friends. York is a terribly adorable little town a couple hours north of Leicester and I had a blast there.

We left on the train Saturday morning, bright and early and we got into York around 10am. Our little bed and breakfast was only a 10 minute walk from the train station and after dropping off our bags we headed out to explore the old town. The whole morning we could hear bells ringing and we just kind of headed toward where all the noise was coming from. Turns out it was coming from York Minister, a gigantic church in the middle of York.


We had lunch in a little cafe just outside the front steps of the church, listened to the bells and planned our attack on the tourist traps of York. First stop was the York Dungeon, a haunted house type place that specialized in dry ice smoke and people jumping out of dark corners at you. Here is the gentleman I met outside:

This guy thought he was pretty funny and kept on referring to Canada as "Canadia". He also made a lot of jokes about dating all the women in line and I thought he was actually pretty clever until we were leaving after the tour and I heard him using all the same jokes to the other people waiting to get in. Maybe he was working from a script.

After the dungeon we continued with the scary vacation theme and visited York's most haunted house. According to the brochure, a television crew ran screaming from this house a few years back because a guy said he was choked by an invisible hand. Suffice it to say, we survived. And didn't see any ghosts. But it was still a neat old house, lots of nooks and crannies and low doorways. Our B and B was sort of built the same way, winding staircases and additions all over the place. I find that I get lost in buildings a lot here, even at school. I'm thinking it's cause I'm used to the North American style of architecture, meaning everything is square and at right angles with each other and floors and rooms are numbered sequentially rather than with random letters and numbers (no joke - one of my classes is in a room numbered "n230.0a". It's on the 3rd floor).

But I digress.

So after the haunted house we had some dinner and then went off to meet up with Trevor Rooney, our guide for the Original York Ghost Walk. This was a super neat experience, as Trevor walked us through historic York and told us ghost stories about the buildings and alleyways. We finished up at a pub called the Black Swan which is supposedly VERY haunted. We had pints and Trevor told us one last ghost story. After the room was clearing out some (possibly drunk) women noticed our Canadian accents and invited us to their hotel room, the one they booked because it's the most haunted room in the hotel. There we learned these tipsy ladies practiced Wicca (the light version) and were really REALLY hoping to see a ghost tonight. We didn't stay long, but it was interesting.

Saturday night ended at a local drinking establishment where the 5 of us marveled at the shortness of the locals' skirts and the outfits of the groups out on fancy dress pub crawls. For example, look behind my new friends Kevin and Claire here, and you'll clearly see the lower cheeks of a young lady's bum.

Apparently you can wear a top in this country and call it a dress. Good times were had by all, however, and we went to bed tired and happy.

Sunday we went to the York Castle Museum, which surprisingly had very little to do with castles. They built a mock Victorian town that you can tour around in, complete with freaky statues in full Victorian dress and fake horses and carriages. This museum also had a display about the 1960s music culture and a fake dungeon from the 1700s. It was a very random and eclectic collection.

Before we caught the train home, we decided we were pretty hungry and we needed to indulge in the local cuisine. So of course we went for Sunday roast dinner, and dug into some very delicious roast beef, potatoes and yorkshire pudding.

Yorkshire pudding in York! Does life get any better?

Hopefully this isn't my last adventure... I'm pricing out Dublin next. You only live once, right?

loser.

Another week of school is nearly over, and I'm finally starting to feel more and more like a serious student. I mean, today I don't have class until 4, but I was up and at school by 10am and spent a good 3 hours in the library reading. Came home for lunch and a bit of a nap and now I'm heading back for class. See what I mean about being a serious student? I spend time there when I don't have to, I attend all classes (haven't skipped on yet), and I take notes and do readings. I have never really acted this way before. It feels nice. It also stresses me out. But probably in a good way.

Leicester is still in the midst of fall weather, which I love. It's cool, but not cold. Scarf and light jacket weather. When the sun is out, it looks like the cover of that Bob Dylan album, and it's just lovely.

I've been feeling a little off lately... not homesick, exactly, but not right. I always get this feeling when I'm in the midst of settling into a new group of people in a new place. When I reach the point where I have a set of acquaintances - not friends, exactly, but people who may become friends in time - I always get this sick feeling when I'm interacting with them. Like everything I say is wrong. That I'm too defensive, or too quiet, or too loud, or I'm trying too hard. It's like I'm on the edge of feeling at ease with people, but before I can truly feel comfortable I have to feel terribly UNcomfortable.

It's awful. I over analyze small conversations, I read too much into things, and I almost invariably leave every single human interaction feeling like a bit of a dolt. Not a nice feeling.

I know it'll pass... inside my head I know that these silly little conversations that haunt me make little to no difference in the lives of the people I'm talking to. I know that I'm actually pretty normal and once I get over myself I can be kind of fun to be around. I know all that. But I don't feel it these days. And that's bringing me down.

So, on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd say I'm rocking a solid 7 these days.

hurr cut

Wednesday's I'm done class at 10am and I don't have another until Thursday at 4. This is awesome. It's strange to go from being away from home 13-14 hours a day if you count travel time to only being in class for a few hours a day. Right now I'm being a good student and trying to use at lest some of my spare time to study and read, and with any luck I'll keep that up.

I'm getting a little more used to the life of a student, I'm not as nervous as I was last week. I'm still not really into being locked in a giant echoing room with 500 other students for classes, but I suppose I'll get used to that too. I had my first small group seminar, where I learned about the joys of the Socratic teaching method... if that doesn't make you come to class prepared I don't know what will.

Yesterday I went to the Canadian Law Society presentation and joined up. I met a few people, learned about all of the events they hold throughout the year (most of which include some combination of hockey, skating and booze - how cliche), and got invited to a couple of Canadian Thanksgiving celebrations. With any luck, I'll get me some turkey dinner on Sunday.

Today I'm going to get my hair cut, which is terrifying. The worst part of moving is finding a new stylist to trust. I'm mentally preparing for a horrible bangs mishap. It's inevitable. I never luck out with stylists.

Oh, and tonight is the competitions showcase, where we learn about mooting and client negotiating and all the other things we can compete in throughout the year. Cross your fingers that I get brave and sign up for mooting... It'd be exciting to learn some advocacy skills, and hopefully I don't puke due to all the public speaking involved.

That's it for now. Kamara out.

popping out to the shop.

So this afternoon I took a trip to Morrison's to pick up some stuff for dinner. Maybe the novelty of walking everywhere will wear off eventually, but it hasn't yet. It also hasn't rained yet, so...

At any rate, here is what I learned on my trip:

1. English football fans are, in fact, quite serious about the sport. My walk took me past the football stadium and it was packed and noisy, a little bit scary and a little bit awesome. I'm going to have to go to a game.

2. Crossing the street can be a 3 part affair at some intersections, but after watching some teenaged boys in front of me I've learned that if you wave your arms at oncoming traffic sometimes the vehicles will slow for you to cross. If they do, you are obligated to clap and cheer at the driver. No joke. I saw this happen twice.

3. Diet coke is more expensive than wine, but wine is more expensive than off-brand diet coke. I think my weekend beverage consumption over the next months will largely be determined by the taste of the off-brand diet coke chilling in the lil fridge right now.

4. Crumpets can be bought in packs of 6 and kind of look like english muffins, but not exactly. I bought some. I have crumpets. Ha.

5. British change makes absolutely no sense (ha... cents/sense. get it?). Who has a 2 pence coin? Honestly. and the sizes and colours and shapes have no rhyme or reason to them. The only ones I've got totally figured out are the one pound and two pound coins, and that's only because they look like loonies and toonies.

Oh, and also today someone made fun of my accent. It was great.

calm before the storm.

I had 4 classes today, which was great. I felt like I did some learning, though most of what I learned was purely administrative crap. One interesting piece of administrative crap: each 5 of my classes is assessed by one final exam worth 100% of my final mark. Neat! No pressure or anything, right?

It's kind of interesting to be in classes with kids who have just finished high school. They're all very appearance conscious and they don't really pay attention to much except for each other and their cell phones. I actually felt the urge to shush some girls today. I am officially the annoying old lady in class who is eager to learn.

I didn't talk to anyone today. I forgot how hard it is to actually start a conversation with a stranger. There were a couple of moments when I was working up the nerve to say something inane to a classmate, like "Are you from Canada too?" But before I was able to force out the words someone else would come along and make a joke or say something clever to my potential new friend, stealing my thunder. Next week. Next week I'll be charismatic and magnetic. Next week I won't keep my ipod earphones in so that I feel safe even though I seem unapproachable. Next week. I promise.

This weekend should be... quiet. I'll buy books tomorrow, do all the reading I need to do. Figure out how I want to organize my notes and things, maybe stop by the school supplies store and pick up a couple of binders or folders or something. Quick UK fact - looseleaf here has 4 holes. FASCINATING, no?

I also have a bottle of wine (which is cheaper than diet coke, which spells trouble) chilling in my ridiculously tiny refrigerator. It's going to keep me company this evening while I watch a movie or perhaps some hilarious British game shows. There's one called "Pointless" which I'm convinced I could win, kind of like I could win College Jeopardy.