Fashion...Please, that's not fashion

Notes on English style

As long as you don’t have any you’re set! Ladies for you the fashion of Bristol and I am going to assume, though we all know what that can lead to , the rest of England is as follows: skinny jeans or black leggings with a long shirt or normal sized sweater; colours, styles, and patterns don’t matter, at all. Leggings are also worn under skirts, length is knee or above, style makes absolutely no difference. I have seen the leggings or tights worn with too short of skirts, pleated skirts, high fashion type skirts, so in that vein anything is acceptable. Things that are NOT in fashion for you ladies are bootleg or wider jeans, cords (made that mistake earlier today..oopse), or anything that we would probably think of as being anything remotely comfortable. Shoes must be either all stars, flats, UGu’s or boots. Boots and flats should be black if it can be helped other than that I have seen light brown (tan) boots and some flats in blue but no other colours. High heels are a must if you are not in any of the above, which if you are me means trouble (see previous blog). Headgear for women… haven’t seen much if any of that. Can’t say that there is really any call for it since it is not really cold out here as of yet. Nevertheless, from what I have seen in the stores, it will be knit beanies and foaux fur earmuffs. Lovely.

Gents for you pretty much anything goes; although, almost all of the guys closes are done in an emo-rock or euro-trash style. So as long as you look like you got hit by the emo bus or run over by a vespa riding Italian you're golden! Jeans or pants of any wash are good, which includes neon colours, oy! BUT must be TIGHT fitting and worn just below your hips with a shirt or sweater, or both, long enough to cover the pants line. Shoes for you, boys, range from flip-flops to dress shoes; no style or colour, in particular, is required (see picture above). Head gear is very common, so an emo- beanie or knit beanie are regularly seen in conjunction with your outfits, though, again it is not cold here yet and there is absolutely no call of them.

And please, don't get me started on the hair cuts! Honestly, most of the boys look like the used hair trimmers in the dark and just went with it. Not so good, no not so good at all. (Disclaimer is that there are some who are very cute and cleaner cut, so they are not a loss on the whole. And Rachel I can now verify that there is at least one who would meet with your previous question ;0)

Went into Primark, not sure that we have a comparable store in the states. I guess it is sort of like a Macy’s sized Forever 21, but with better quality things. They had some very nice wool blend coats for about the $50 to $70 dollar mark, which isn’t bad considering that the ones I saw the other day at Debenhams’s were $100 plus dollar and some were even over 100 GBP, which would make them around $200 dollars. I take back what I said the other day about Debenhams’s being like a Macy’s, I actually think that it is more like a Nordstrom’s but the household section makes it hard to place. So, let’s just go with its somewhere in between those two.

Didn’t get much done today. I got some of the things, though not all of them, that I needed for next weeks' trip into Exmoor. I still need waterproof hiking boots or Wellies, not sure which yet. The waterproof hiking boots that I found at Millet’s, which is actually somewhat like a really small REI, were ₤54.99, which is about $94 or $95. A lot more than I wanted to spend, so I thought that if I could find them somewhere else, I should try looking before I go and spend that much on them.

At the request of some of the readers that will be the extent of my writing today. I have been asked to attempt to shorten the blogs because I make people feel excessively worn out and in need of a nap due to my wordiness. To those who feel this way let me extend my sincerest apologies and express the hope that this fact will not, in the future endeavours to read my blog, dissuade you. I greatly enjoy your attention to my unremarkable daily life events and would be most sad if you were to forgo the experience due to my inability to find a way to put things in shorter note. (hehehhhehe) Have an AWESOME MORNING!

Eploring...sorta

Found Chap Stick!!!! I know that sounds somewhat silly to be overly excited about finding chap stick but really I am so pleased that it warrants the expression of glee, as far as I am concerned. I also found scrubby pads for cleaning dishes, hurray, and contact solution, which is about twice as expensive here as it is back home. Other than that, I had a pretty relaxed day. I got up late once again...oopse.

The picture that I posted is of St. Augustine's Parade. It is the main street that I cross every day to get to The Mall. In fact you can see my street quite well from this picture. Denmark Street is at the top just to the left of the main road. My building is the big white one that sticks up. So now you can picture me walking across it whenever I talk about going to Tesco or The Mall or Cabot Circus (an extension of the mall, and yes they really do have a circus there).

I have decided that I like Tesco Metro better than the other grocery stores that I have found so far (there are 4 versions of Tesco and I am sure that I would love Tesco or Tesco Superstore but we don't have one of those close by. I think in those instances they are more like Costco's and tend to hang out on the outskirts of town). Things are a bit more organized and easier to find the Tesco Metro than in the Sainsbury's or Tesco Express; I still need to try the Co-Op though. I decided that I am going to have to make a trip out to IKEA to get pots and pans, because the ones that I found at a store called Debenhams’s, which is similar to a Macy's, were really really expensive, as are the ones at Macy's. So, IKEA it is and no luck with the foamy mattress pad either. I did find one that was one of those memory foam ones but it was hugely expensive so that was "right out" as they say.

Maybe if I get up earlier tomorrow I will make it out to IKEA. It is far to far to walk, which kind of sucks but I guess the bus isn't that bad, minus that I don't have a student bus card and have no idea how much it costs.....suppose that is what the internet is for :0) Yet again, though, I can only buy what I can carry home from the bus stop which is at The Mall, about .35 miles home. not too far but still, can you imagine me trying to carry about 6 pots and pans, a mattress pad, and a bathmat .35 miles? It would look kind of funny.

I was asked by a good friend recently about the boys and whether I had found one that I would want to run off into the rainy distance with yet. I have comments about that subject that round out to no but that there is hope for them yet lol. If you would like to hear the comments about this subject, you should e-mail me and I will personally fill you in on my assessment of the Bristol-ian populous.

No rain again to day :0) guess someone up stairs is looking out for me and knows that it would be very difficult for me to do all this walking and running around if it were raining outside and so has decided to hold off on the usual English waterworks for a bit. I hope that, though I think that the chances are only getting slimmer, the weather will hold for a few more days so that I can finish my errands and not have to worry about carrying an umbrella in addition to shopping bags.

Some further notes on Bristol are as follows. Having walked around Bristol for about the last three days I have decided that it, in topography, is a combination of San Francisco (loads of rather steep hills) and Berkeley (based on the shops, assortment of people, ran into a drunk Irishman today lol he was singing, and that you have to walk everywhere). I think that I have decided against getting a bike. Almost everything that I need is within walking distance and trying to navigate traffic on a bicycle I think would be a little more than I am up to at this point, though I might change my mind on this later. Bristol is really an interesting city from what I have seen so far. It is as diverse in population as any of our cities and the number of shops and cafes make it a cool place. I have never seen so many shoe shops in my life. So ladies if you like to go shoe shopping...then Bristol is your city. I love boots myself and there is no shortage of those either! I saw an Urban Outfitters today at The Mall, just another touch of the good ol'US of A. What I would very much like to know is how the girls here walk everywhere in high heels?! Seriously, it’s crazy! I saw some girl roll her ankle walking up a hill in wedges today and I just walked behind her thinking 'well, why would you wear those shoes to walk in?' it's just silliness. Ahh th price of fashion, but I prefer looking different in my Simple Shoe and not having a busted ankle or leg, thanks.

Other than that nothing much to report from my end today. I made it up to campus today. Not much like our campuses. The buildings are not very distinctive and it would be remarkably easy to walk right past them and not know that you had even missed it, which I almost did but the college-aged misfits out front and the kid with the remarkably large business book sort of gave it away. I think I might go on a tour of the campus with the international student centre tomorrow afternoon at 4, so if I am not on Skype to talk to you all then that is probably where I have gone off to. I think I will also chance a meeting with more locals (who thus far have been very pleasant) and go find a GOOD cup of coffee. The instant stuff that they sell in the stores is...well it’s not good and definitely not like home at all. So hopefully tomorrow will be full of things to report to you. Hope you are all doing really well and Thank you for your positive responses and influence for the blog! It is really great to hear from you and know what you think about it all. 'Til tomorrow then!

Where's the chap stick?

Day 2 is turning out to be just about the same as day one. Nothing much eventful has happened, though I am not going to say that it is such a bad thing, since eventful can be not so hot. I woke up much later than I had intended this morning. I was going to try and get a head start on the morning but apparently hit my alarm one too many times and finally got out of bed sometime around 11 am. Oopse! Once I was dressed and finally headed out of my cupboard it was about 12. Prior to leaving I checked to make sure that the places that I wanted to go were actually open today, since it is Sunday and on previous travels I have found that, country depending of course, almost everything is closed on Sunday (remember Rome mom?). That, however, is not the case here in England; most things are open but open much later than usual hours. For example, Borders and Sainsbury's don't open until after 12 or close around 5 instead of 7 or 9, so it is a good thing that I didn't leave the house until I did.

I find England much more like home than I had intended, with the exception that I have a hard time finding simple things like Kitchen sponges and chap stick. Honestly, what do they do use their hands and have constantly dry lips, that is so not going to work for me. But! I have a remedy for the Chap Stick, and no Emery it does not have anything to do with buying a pair of chaps. If I strike out again tomorrow at the drug store around the corner I will just find some Vaseline and use that; far less tasty or glamorous but if it keeps my lips from being dry it will do nicely. Of course I have yet to see any of that either...hmm could be a problematic solution.

I found a Sainsbury's, which is like a Raley's, but it was very small. I am getting the impression that people here don't particularly like to cook or at least they don't do it very often and they like to go to many different stores to get what they need. Great if you have a car or a mo-pied not so hot if you are on foot. I actually found the Sainsbury's on accident when I was at Border's books! Yes, they do have Border's here! I didn't spend much time there but I am going to go back either tomorrow, on my way home from campus, or the next day when I don't have anything else to do. There are a lot of other books stores around too, but Border's is familiar so I think I will stick with that one for a while. So to sum up I got some groceries and some utensils to eat with hurray! Didn't buy any books, in fact didn't even make it to the upstairs portion but there is time for that.

After that adventure, I went home to put my groceries away and then ate some lunch. I headed out again around 3PM and made it back up to Wilkinson's, which if you remember, is like Target. I got some hand soap, a small note pad to keep track on my expenses, and some drain unclogger. I found that my shower doesn't drain well while I was in it this morning. I am not particularly fond of being ankle deep in water but, hopefully, that will be taken care of now. I was going to continue on with my excursions today after Wilkinson's but realized that I was not particularly sure where Millet's, which is a sports store, was (not real sure what to compare it to but probably a Sports Authority for their website). You see when you are a foreigner in a new city the last thing you want to do is get hopelessly lost and turned around. Sure, you could always ask for directions but I generally like to have a pretty good idea of where I am heading before I go and get lost. That way I don't feel so lost. It all makes sense, really it does. You just need to think about it a little bit harder.

Back to the story of my day though. So instead of heading out in the wrong direction I decided to check out the Bristol Mall. Let me tell you it looks like America exploded in there! There was a Supercuts, a Quicksilver, and a Body Shop (part of Bath & Body Works for those of you who are not familiar with it) among other things. Once I had made my way through the Mall, which, for its size (its three stories high), did not take any time at all surprisingly, I walked outside on the bottom floor to find myself in the middle of the outdoor section of the mall. There was an H&M, which is an American store as well. But, I figured that it was getting later, not really, though I read my watch incorrectly, I thought that it was coming up on 5PM when really I was an hour off, so technically I could still have perused the area for another hour or so before heading home. In any case, I walked home and hopefully fixed the drain in my shower, then set down to write all this out for all of you.

I have almost entirely unpacked, though I don't have enough storage for everything by any stretch of the imagination. I want to go to IKEA, but it is not within walking distance, which means that I would have to take the bus to get there and I not sure how that all works as of yet. I still need some essential things for my kitchen like pots and pans, knives, cutting board, and more stuff to eat, and hopefully a coffee pot but there are other difficulties that come with that which I am sure I will tell you about later. I also need to set up a bank account so that I don't have to keep telling the people at the check out that I have no "chip" in my card, which means that I hold everything up in the queue 'cuz I have to sign. I hope though that I will soon be on my feet and have everything sorted out. Tomorrow is Monday and so everything will be open and I can start taking care of some of these things that I have listed, among a laundry list of others. No church bells for the most part today, weird since its Sunday you would have thought that they would have been even more fastidious about ringing them than on Saturday, but I guess not. I am going to try to remember to take pictures for you as well so that I can post them up with the blogs but I am currently trying to stay as inconspicuous as possible, which apart from my style of non-girly dress is working out quiet well. I do wish that I had brought my "chucks" (all-stars) with me but alas I couldn't bring everything and there are a million and one shoe stores around here that I could step in any time and find some I am sure. Anyways, that's enough for now, hope to talk to some of you tonight (this morning for all of you). Love lots! Katie out.

New Beginnings

I know that it has been far too long since my last post and that this poor page of mine has been hopelessly neglected since I left San Diego about 9 months ago. So, in order to set things right I will now post from my new home in Bristol, England. Since I am so far away and know no one, as of yet, I thought that it would good of me to keep my family and friends apprised of my goings on here across the pond, in a non-technologically demanding, cheap and easy way. (I also have Skype for those of you who have that).

My first day in Bristol was spent running around getting things to make my new apt (aka closet) feel a little homier. Though my work on this front is no where close to being done I have made some necessary purchases, and am learning how to do monetary conversions in my head so that I do as little over paying as possible (fixed income and all). Here are some of the pictures of my apt prior to having unpacked some of my things (when my bags are unpacked I will post more pictures).

I have would have also included a sound bite of the church bells that go off for disgusting amounts of time today but the way to post sound bites is far to complex for me to want to attempt it currently. You would think that they would make it simple since they already have images and video, but they don't, oh well. The precise hours of their commencement and conclusion I am sure I will know by heart very shortly. There are three churches with in 2 blocks of where I live, at least that is all I have seen so far, but I swear there are a lot more than that, at least it sounds as though there are. Bristol blocks are not like San Francisco city blocks either so when I say 2 blocks convert that into about 1/4 a S.F. city block and then you will have a better idea. Bristol Cathedral is the largest and is the farthest away from what I can tell. There are two churches just to the left of the backside of my building, aka pretty much two buildings from my window. So, to say that I hear the church bells is a serious understatement. I used to say in San Diego that it sounded as though the ambulances, on their way to the hospitals, were going directly through my apartment. Well in that same vain, it seems as though someone has deposited bells in the middle of my ceiling on the hour every hour for about an hour during the daylight times.

Other than that, my apartment is rather quaint. It is very small but rather sufficient for one person. Though it is nothing like the palace I lived at in San Diego, it is fine for me. The street I live on leaves something to be desired and I would not as of yet chance walking along it at night by myself; filled with bars and clubs and theatres that should be in the in the overly artsy sections of San Francisco, by the look of some of the costumes. The rest of the area is nice though and one will never be in need of a place to eat unless the have no legs and can't walk about 600 feet. There is a seemingly endless supply of restaurants and pubs, I even saw a Subway (there you go Dad, now you know that you won’t go hungry. The mall with all the shops that you could ever want is about a 10 min (Katie speed, 15 to 20 for the rest of the world) walk away. They have everything from clothing to conveyance shops and there is an outdoor market on the way up to "The Mall."

The city itself is crawling with people, around the university you have students ranging from 12 or 13(Bristol Primary school is just on the far side of the University campus) to 30, though most do seem to be around the early 20's mark, as it should be at a university. There are stores on the far side of the city that you would be familiar with, Costco and IKEA are both here and you would never believe what I saw at the Heathrow airport on my way to catch the bus out to Bristol (saw another one on my way in, disgusting) KRISPY Crème donuts, just when you thought that you got rid of them all they show up in foreign countries.

I have decided that the best people to ask for directions are the people who work in Flower shops. I think that they are so cheerful because they get to work around lovely, wonderful smelling flowers all day and that makes them nicer people. You would be happy, or maybe a bit disappointed, to know that the UK shows our televisions programs on almost every channel. From Friends to Scrubs to the Apprentice, and even One Tree Hill (even though they have their own version of the Apprentice they still show ours...oy), they have got a good smattering of them. I was shocked really, I watched Friends most of last night before I went to sleep at the B&B I was staying at, which is supposedly in the nicest part of Bristol. I am not sure about that but it was much less busy that is for sure. Here, next to the University, the streets are filled.

Anyway, that sounds like a pretty good assessment of things from my end for now (I will just need to get ear plugs for the church bells. Thanks for the suggestion Vicki). I will post more pictures and write a bit more when I have something new to report. I have all of next week to play with then the following week I am off to Exmoor with my department for a 4 day all expense paid field trip. Chat with you all later, and remember I am just a Skype call or e-mail away! (Long Live the Internet!!!!!)

Wrap your mind around it

I thought that this video that my mom sent me was very interesting. Take a look at it. It may be a little long (just under five minutes) but it is worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY

Lean on Me

Tonight I would like to take some time out to put a little bit of a different perspective on the economic crisis that the media frenzy gorges itself on at our expense. With that in mind I would also like to say that I am going to try very hard to abstain from certain aspects of that topic.

In these hard time we are asked to take a look back in history and remember other periods of economic distress. I was told, since I do not watch the news, that recently the media has been displaying images from the "Great Depression" of the 1930's, showing people standing in soup lines and such. This got me to thinking about the 1930's, which made me think about my late grandmother (Jane). It made me wish, a so many things do, that she was still around to talk to and to put things into perspective. You see the kids of the last 3 generations really, which includes you "baby-boomers," generation X and Y, have really never had to face "hard times." Especially the newest of these, the gen x and y groups, whose idea of hard times is not getting the latest electronic portable whatever you call it, do0dad.

I feel privileged to be a gen x/gen y kid who was raised by a ....gen v? (if you want to do things alphabetically). I was raised by my grandmother, who knew the true meaning of what hard times were.

She was born in 1916 just after the end of the first world war. She was 6 when her father died and she, her little sister and her mother moved out from her fathers parents farm to the wide world. She was not 16 when "The Great Depression" took hold of this country. The three of them moved all over the U.S., like so many others of the time, as her mother followed work where ever she could find it, in order to keep a roof over their heads. Jane was about my age when she signed up to be among the few, proud ladies of the WASP's (Women Air force Service Pilots) in WWII (she even has memorabilia in their museums). WWII meant food stamps and rationing, just in case you didn't know. Resources needed to be saved for the war effort and for our allies over seas which meant that everyone had to be frugal, in fact very few if any "new" cars, outside of those made for the military were even being produced (check it out see if you can find a 1940's era car and most of them if they exist look verbatim 1930's). She and my grandfather (Sam) raised their two girls during the Cold War era (remember the red scare and "goodnight and good luck"?) when you didn't know who your friends were and who your enemies were.

The purpose of this is to say that I have/had 5 amazing grandparents (Jane (D. 2007), Sam (D.2006), Ruth (I love you Gram!!), Edna (D.2002), and Pat (D.2001)) who are the most generous, kind, and humble people that I have ever known. I believe that this is due in large part to what they had to come through and what they experienced in their lives.

So perhaps this economic crisis can serve another purpose other than just a morally crushing blow to our society. For me, at least, it puts back into perspective what is really important in my life. It's not my car or my iPod, it's not my cell phone, my computer, T.V., or stereo. Take all that away and I will still have what is most important to me. I have my family, the people who love me, I have my friends, I have my health, head and my belief that things will not always be this way and that after everything is said and done, at least some of us will be the better for it in one way or another.

The winds may howl, and the sky may part and bolts of lightening may fall setting this world ablaze in the night,

but the clouds will clear, the sun will peak its weary head over the horizon

and the world will awake anew,

clean, beautiful, mournful of what has past but calm, serene

like the ocean after a storm.

Take heart my friends and do not spend your time in despair,

"for this too shall pass" and you will find the strength, that which you thought you had lost.

An original poem by: Kathryn Malone

Indecision

So I know that it has been eons since I wrote last. Life has been very busy but that is flimsy excuse. I should have been writing more often. In any even, I have recently been thinking on choices that we all make in our lives.

It is interesting to me how making a choice one way or another can have such a great impact on later occurrences in our lives. I know that people say "live in the moment because that moment is now," but the execution of that statement, like so many other things in life, is much harder than the effort that it takes to say the words. How do we make choices? And how, more importantly do we make the "right" choices?

I think that I have been heard to say previously that there is no such thing, really, as a "right" choice, but recently I have come to think that perhaps I was a little presumptuous in making such a remark. The reason why I say this is because there are certainly "right" and "wrong" choices. However, this is not really important to what I wanted to discuss and now that I have gotten remarkable far on my little tangent I would like to gather myself back to the point. How do we know that what we are choosing is the correct thing to do when there are no stanch lines of black and white or guidelines for the territory in which we find ourselves. For example, when you are raising your children, for those of you who have or want to have children, how is it that you know that what you are doing, what you are teaching them is "right?" And who decides it. How can one child in a family grow up to be very responsible and another have no concept of it what so ever? Is it all really chance? Sort of lifes game of Russian roulet and we are just there for the food? And once you have made your choice is that to say that had you choosen differently you would not have ended up where you are? Or would you? I know that this is all just speculation but I believe that we all at some time ask these questions of ourselves. And have these same ponderances (lol).

What brought this up was my recent acceptance in to three graduate schools. I was forced to ask myself the hard questions in life, which you may think are easy or easy to answer until you are faced with asking them to yourself. "What is it that you really want?" Most of you, I am sure, would find yourselves in the same position as I have found myself of late, the answer to that question is"I do not know.... I wish that I did but I just don't know." So how do I choose just one school of three? I know that it isn't the most important decision that I will most likely ever make but at the present moment it is the more critical and most pressing question that I must answer.

I suppose that the great thing is that no matter which one I choose my experience there will definitely be phenomenal and in such a respect I am boiling over in anticipation.

If you have anything thoughts on this on just feel free to send them on my way. Ta.