Branching outward...

This past weekend was Flower's birthday. His actual birthday was Friday, we all pitched in and bought him a cake:
Yes, that is the cake. It was a pirate ship, complete with edible treasure chest and chocolate coins. The deck was made of chocolate and the hull was delicious cake. Good times all around...

Flower invited us to go to York with him to hang out with his home friends. I said yes, wanting to take advantage of seeing a new place. York was amazing. Easily the most beautiful place that I've seen in England. Thousand year old ruins spring up in the parks, the shopping center is paved with really nice stone paths while the shops themselves are 18th and 19th century works of art.
No matter which direction you turn, you can see a castle. Everything was incredibly picturesque, which is ironic, because just as the sun was setting, my camera died..:-(

I did get these shots of the city, however...
I will definitely return to York just to take pictures, it's that awesome. There were so many places that I looked and said to myself, "That would be an amazing picture," but we were moving around quickly to catch up with people so I didn't get the opportunity...

While in the shopping place, we saw this guy playing electric violin. He was using effects pedals and loops to jam with himself on classic rock songs. The highlight came when he played Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd, using his pedals to create tons of texture and then showing off his improvisation ability by playing over what he had created. I took a short video of this, but not enough to get the full grasp of what was going on.
We then took a bus to Leeds and went to a coffee shop/music venue and watched people and bands perform in a basement type venue. It was much different than in America, as there was more electronica and dancing then what would happen at home. Still, it was really cool, we ended up staying until about 5 AM...

At this point, the trip transformed from "really cool new experience in foreign place with lots of nice and interesting things" to "holy crap this is awful but it'll round out my story of this trip and make it more interesting". I say this because we had to return to the bus station and wait for a bus back to York. For three hours. The bus station opens at 5 AM, but buses don't start running until 8 AM. Our bus was to arrive at 8:45. So, we waited. And waited. And the electronic doors were jammed and left open. So it was cold. Really cold. For three hours.

So here we are huddled against the radiator at about 6:30 AM...
That shadow around us may look like a photoshop effect, but it's actually the freezing cold closing in while the radiator fought it off, creating an orb of relative warmth...

So the bus finally came and we took it to the York train station so that we could get back to Newcastle. This was another 45 minute wait, but at least it was warmer. While waiting around, I found the next installment of "Really Weird English Litter"...
I was sitting in the train station and I look over to find a creamer perched on the end chair. Not carelessly thrown on the floor or spilled on the cushion, but placed delicately on the top of the cushion. Weird...

Also...
Yes, we were bored enough to make that joke...

So we arrived back in Newcastle about 24 hours after we had left, having explored two new cities. Awesome experience overall, I'll definitely be going back to York for more pictures, but, until then, I'll keep finding new places to go..:-)

-Matt

Out of my league...

Every day, I wake up, take a shower, brush my teeth, then go find a place to have lunch. This gives me a chance to explore the city on my own and figure out where places are. Usually, I walk through campus to Northumberland street, the shopping district, to find a place to eat. Yesterday, however, I decided to walk in the opposite direction and go to Quayside. I almost immediately became lost and started wondering down river in search of a restaurant. I passed many, each displaying a menu in their window. All of these restaurants looked quite nice, but upon viewing the menu, I realized that they were way out of my price range. So I kept walking...

After about an hour, I came upon an older looking building with a bunch of chalk scribbled menu items out front. At the top of one of the chalkboards was "Lunch special 6.95". It wasn't lunch time, but I figured that the dinner prices must be in that range. So I walked in, then down two flights of stairs to the main entrance door. I walked in, and found myself surrounded by fancy schmance...

It was incredibly dark in this basement room, the only lighting coming from small candles on the tables and fiber optic lights on the ceiling meant to simulate stars. I was seated before I could turn away by a host dressed in a full tuxedo. I look around at the other customers, all in slacks and button down shirts, some with ties. The women were in fancy dresses. I'm wearing my three year old zip up sweatshirt, the one I wore every day freshman year of college. This sweatshirt had more beer spilled on it than I can remember, plus I'm pretty sure the weed stench is embedded in the fibers. It has various permanent stains, and the zipper has been broken for ages.
Complete with old tattered jeans, the ones with that nasty rip at the end of the pant leg and clear signs of too many washings...

So I'm sitting uncomfortably by myself in this restaurant surrounded by rich fifty-somethings all dressed up drinking their 25 pound glasses of wine and giving me "the eye". I give a halfhearted smile and take a look at the menu...

Shit...

It read something like:
"Lobster Cocktail with Pesto Mayonnaise

Escargot Pot de Crème

Twin Beef Tournedos with Port Wine, Stilton Cheese and Green Peppercorn Sauce

Veal with Blackberry Sauce

Rack of Lamb with Sauce Paloise

Homemade Orange Ice Cream with Bittersweet Chocolate bits

Lavender Crème Brulèe"

That wasn't the actual menu, I got that here, but you get the idea...

The waiter in the tux approaches me and says, "Sir, what may I offer you to drink this evening, sir?"

"Um..water?"

"Sparkling or still?"

Shit! Now I have to pay for the water.

"Still."

"And your wine for this evening, sir?"

Do I look like I can afford a 30 pound glass of wine!?

"No wine for me, thanks."

So he leaves, and a waitress approaches me with some bread in a basket. I'm expecting the whole basket, but she uses some fancy fork/spoon/robot arm mechanism to grab me a single piece of bread and places it delicately on my just-big-enough bread plate...

Two bites later, the tuxedo waiter returns with a glass bottle of Voss and small glass with lime atop a silver plater. After filling the glass and placing it on my table with perfect symmetry, he asks:

"And what shall we be having this evening, sir?"

It's 5:15 PM...

"Um..let's see. The 'Golden Encrusted Chicken on a whipped bed of Sweet Yams with a White Wine Honey Glaze'."

The cheapest thing on the menu. A mere 15.95.

"Ah, good choice, sir. I'll have that out for you as soon as possible, sir."

Thanks.

"Thanks."

I sip my water slowly, knowing that another bottle might cost me the plane ride home. A few minutes later, my food arrives...
To be fair, it tasted really good. About as good as that steak and ale pie that I had at The Goose for 2.99, but that meal filled me for hours, and this took about 90 seconds to finish. When tuxedo waiter noticed I was finished, he approached and said:

"Would you like a sweets menu, sir?"

LOL!!!

"No thanks, the check will be fine."

I paid 22 pounds for the meal (15.95 for the chicken wing, 2.25 for the deluxe artesian water, 4.00 tip), and got the hell out of there. I can only imagine what both the management and the other patrons thought of the experience, but as soon as I stepped foot in the place, I immediately thought "blog entry"...

-Matt

Hadrian's Wall...

I won't go into the historical significance of Hadrian's Wall. Go here if that's what you're in to. Instead, I'm going to talk about how gorgeous this place was, how many sheep there were, and how many Monty Python references I made that went completely unnoticed by the other Americans...

We rode the bus for about an hour, I napped on the way. We stepped out and saw this...
"Oohh Dennis! There's some lovely filth down here," I said in my best 'Monty Python guy who always plays a lady for some reason" impression. Silence. Awkward silence..:-/

We made our way up a long uphill path to the wall/barracks which was located at the top of a very steep muddy hill. Totally worth the effort to hear the American girls constantly complain about dirtying their Uggs...

On the way, we saw dozens and dozens of sheep roaming around...
These were just the peasant sheep, though, as we made our way up the hill, Ba, King of Sheep, appeared to us...
I immediately bowed down to the ground while chanting, "Baa-ram-ewe, baa-ram-ewe. To your breed, your fleece, your clan be true. Sheep be true. Baa-ram-ewe." Well, no I didn't, but you get the idea...

Next, we reached the top and admired the view...
It was really really nice. The wall was also cool, we got to walk around on top of it and look at what was left of the barracks...
Not much left, but to be fair, it is about 2,000 years old. After seeing the room that was deemed the public toilet, and the centurion's bedroom complete with heated floors, we walked along the top of the main wall for a while and admired the view some more...

I can't say enough how visually stunning this area was. There was nothing but an ancient stone wall for miles and miles. And sheep. Sheep were there, too...

On the way back, we stopped at the tourist food trap, where everybody except me bought a small bag of crisps for the equivalent of about $3. I learned from the last time and ate plenty of food before leaving...

While waiting for the bus, I took a few last minute pictures. There was a bird feeder, and it had attracted a whole bunch of birds I had never seen before. I was even able to get up close and take a really nice one of a pudgy little one sitting on a stone...

I don't know what it is about this picture, but it makes me really like photography. I'm thinking about taking some photography classes when I get back home. Future job prospects..?

Maybe...

-Matt

Smoking, artsy farts pitchahs, and pancakes...

I want to talk about a few things. The first order of business, really cool English warning labels. For instance...
Blunt. Graphic. Effective..?

Not really. As far as I know, a much higher percentage of people smoke in England than in America. Also, there isn't a huge anti-smoking stigma like in America. Everybody smokes here, and everybody knows it's going to kill them. I guess they care, but not enough to make themselves stop smoking. I don't blame them, who wouldn't want to look this cool..?
Yesterday, I got a bit homesick. I really missed HBoO and decided to cheer myself up by walking around the city after lectures and take pictures of random things that I saw. I know that if HBoO were here, she'd yell at me for taking pictures of nothing important while telling me to stop using the macro feature (Typing this makes me miss her..:-( ) Here's what I came up with...
The first is a bit hard to see, but it's definitely a piece of plastic bag tied to a tree in the middle of the shopping district. The second is a bench outside of where my classes are, somebody just left a Diet Coke can on a bench, and nobody was sitting there because of it. I might turn this into an ongoing project, taking pictures of interesting litter...

Also, yesterday was national pancake day. I'm not joking. It's a real holiday. Everybody eats pancakes, and it's a holiday recognized on a national level. Beats the shit out of President's Day and Labor Day. Maybe America should learn from this and create cooler holidays in the future like "Big Juicy Hamburger Day" or "Buckets of Chicken Wings Day". I think our society would greatly benefit...

Anyways, it being Pancake Day, my friends and I decided to go on a crazy adventure at 2 AM and make pancakes. The funny thing is, even though England has a national holiday devoted to pancakes, people here don't know how to make them. This was the result...
When I realized what was happening, I quickly took control and diverted what would have been an awful disaster. The results don't lie..:-)
In more recent news, I went to Hadrian's Wall today. It was really cool, and I took a ton of pictures. Unfortunately, I had to deal with those crazy Americans again, but, overall, it was a good experience. I'll write another entry tomorrow detailing the adventure, expect lots of cool pictures, the surrounding area was absolutely gorgeous..:-)

-Matt

Small things...

Just a bit of an update on stuff. I'm starting to plan a big trip, either two weeks biking in France or trains/planes to Paris, Amsterdam, and Rome. I also need to start planning small trips to places in England, I'm going to York and Leeds this coming weekend with some friends, I also want to plan a trip to London so that I can say that I've been to Fleet Street and Platform 9 3/4...

On the home front, I found a really awesome place to eat...
This meal cost me 2.99, or about $6...

Also, a decent view of the newest Northumbria building along with a similar shot with really nice clouds...

Tomorrow, I have class, and the next day is another field trip, this time to Hadrian's Wall. I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures..:-)

-Matt

The American experience...

Before I left, I gathered a lot of different opinions about a lot of different things. One of those things was the worldwide perception of Americans. I've heard a lot of different stories, mostly negative, about how everybody hates Americans and wants to take advantage of them. My parents say, "Watch out! They'll mug you!" and my professors say, "You can easily spot an American outside of America because they are loud and obnoxious and think they are in America."

I didn't want to believe the negativity from either side. I came to England and everything was great. From when I boarded the plane until when I got to Newcastle, I wasn't hassled by any American hating Brits, and I definitely wasn't mugged. Everybody was really nice. After I made some friends, we poked fun at each other like friends do, me being the token American of the group, but it was all in good taste.

Then I went on my field trip...

The museum was absolutely magnificent. The displays were wonderful, I really enjoyed the architecture of the museum itself and all of the art encased inside. However, a problem arose. It started while I was waiting for the bus outside of the Lipman building, and increased considerably as the day moved on. The problem came from the company that I was keeping, specifically 8 American students studying abroad just like me...

At this point, I had been in England for 10 days. In that span of time, I had traveled from London to Newcastle, eaten a variety of local foods, made friends with a variety of local and foreign people, learned some local slang, and even figured out how to order food and buy things in the distinctly English style. As I began to converse with the other Americans, however, I soon learned that my peers had not done the same. Our entire conversation on the way to the museum was on the subject of Americans banding together to go out and "show these Brits how to drink for real". There were random chants of "BALLIN'!!" whenever someone told a story about how drunk they got at a club while screaming obnoxiously about how superior America was, and lots of laughing at the "weird accents"...

I don't know. Maybe this is what I was supposed to be doing while spending four months abroad, but I can't imagine how one appreciates local culture and blends in by sticking with fellow Americans and remaining completely American while in a foreign setting. Why come all the way to England just to be completely American with other Americans? This Sunday, they are going to a Super Bowl party to "show these Brits what real football is all about". Again, really? I'm just..confused by this behavior...

After the trip, we were all really hungry, so we decided to go to a pub for some food. At this point, there were 6 of us, but the pub only had seating for four. Instead of taking two tables next to each other, the group collectively decided to rearrange the tables so that they blocked the only path from the bar to the downstairs area. Then, without asking the management if it was okay, they grabbed menus from 4 other tables (each table only had one menu) so that they could all read it at once instead of taking turns. I know that everybody gets a menu in America, but is it really so hard to just take turns reading? The act really made us stick out, and we got a lot of funny looks. After I had read a menu and decided what I wanted, I approached the bar and asked if they were still serving food. The bartender said yes, so I ordered a bowl of leek and potato soup and sat back down. The rest of the group was still sitting at the table(s) with their five menus waiting for a waitress to come serve them. I told them that they had to go to the bar, and they gave me a "really???" look, as if they were too good to stand and walk the twenty feet to the bar.

When they came back, I asked them what they had ordered. Three of them had ordered a burger, but instead of just ordering what was on the menu, they substituted some toppings and asked to rearrange the sides to their liking. I looked over at the bartender/waitress, and I could tell that she was visibly annoyed by all of the complications and the blatant disregard for the restaurant that we were eating in. Our food came out, and we ate. I ate all of my soup, but the girls of the group ate about a quarter of their burger and left the sides, while the guys ate just the burger and left the sides, saying that they were "too weird looking to try". When I had finished, I brought my bowl and glass up to the bar, told the bartender thanks for the meal, then sat back down. The rest of the group sat around and waited for the bartender to stop what he was doing and come collect the plates, even after I told them that you are supposed to bring your dishes up. While the bartender was still in earshot, the guys in the group complained loudly that they "couldn't understand these people's funny accents". We stayed in the pub for another fifteen minutes or so, watching sports reviews on the TV. The whole time, the guys loudly expressed their distaste for football and how weird British music was...

When I got back to my room and saw my friends, I told them how upset I was about how the Americans acted and asked if I was like that. They told me no, but most of the Americans they have met are the same way...

This experience made me realize why I'm here. Even though I'm an American, I recognize that I'm not in America, so, instead of comparing English things to their American counterparts, I will recognize and accept the way things are here and appreciate them to their full extent. I have the rest of my life to experience American things and act like an American, but while I'm here, I'll do my best to forget about how things are in America and just enjoy things that are profoundly British...

-Matt

Museums and cultural oddities...

Today, I had my first field trip. We went to the Bowes Museum in Durham. It looked something like this:
It's a huge French style mansion in the middle of northern England. It's literally in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by giant green fields in every direction for about 4 miles. Inside, apart from all of the cool 18th and 19th century paintings and furniture, there are some crazy little odds and ends...














These are the artsy farts macro shots I took. I know it's dumb to take odd angle pictures of the radiator when surrounded by a mansion full of beautiful art, but where else on the internet can you get a first hand look at the Bowes Museum's heating system and closet doors? Next we have some of the more picture worthy exhibits...














Here we have an automaton goose from around 1774. I guess a giant metal goose that swings it's head around when a coin is inserted couldn't provide enough entertainment for a 21st century audience, so they added the sign to keep people interested. Funnily enough, this is the museum's prize exhibit, but I like these:














On the left we have two naked toddlers lying together in a bed in a very "comfortable" position. Sure, you can defend the innocence of this sculpture by saying that it's depicting a brother and sister lying in a cradle or something. But I see babies in the post-coital position, and there's not much to be said that will make me think otherwise. On the right we have a 19th century depiction of an "African". This is just a face shot, but the body was naked black porcelain complete with loin cloth and spear. Yay, racism!

Also, it was a very pretty day today, but here's what it looked like when I looked out the museum window...
AH! It's The Mist! Run!!!

The group that went was entirely American. One day I'll relate the experience of traveling around Europe while part of a large group of Americans, but not today. Next comes my first of many 5 day weekends. I'll let you know the goings on..:-)

-Matt