Out of Order

I will be back on Friday. I am off to Exmoor with my Department for an archaeology related field trip. Hope to have loads of stuff to post when I return.

You wanted them, Here they are.

Here are some pictures, since I have gotten a flood of e-mails asking for them. This, is Bristol, by bus.
The Cathedral Willis Memorial Tower

The Hippidrome Theatre (3rd largest stage in the world)
Bristol University BuildingMusic Dept.The City
The Harbor And again

The Bristol Suspension Bridge

More to come later...

Picnic and Foreigners

(Photo from top of Brandon Hill, no I didn't take it)Not too much for today, although I know that some of you are really relived to hear that, since it means that you don't have to spend as much time reading this as you would if I had something to say. Lisa, Jeanne and I went to this picnic of Brandon Hill, not too far from where I live. We met up that the Student Union building, dubbed the ugliest building in Bristol (at least that is what our tour guide from yesterday told us). There was a huge mass of us, international students, coming in for this picnic, most of them arrived yesterday since it was the main move in day for campus, I think. Anyway, we met a bunch of other students, mostly French with the exception of one girl from the Czech. We had lunch and that was pretty much it.

We went to the Bristol City Art Museum, which was a lot bigger than any of the three of us thought it would be. We also went to Bristol Cathedral and there was a live choir in there, like the ones that you think of when you see movies about the 11th and 12th centuries. It was really nice. Other than that we really didn't do much but walk around Clifton Village, in the northern part of Bristol. We are in desperate need of find a good place to eat that is not very expensive, because for some reason we always end up paying about $15 to $20 each to eat not particularly good food and that is just really not going to work for much longer.

Registration day is tomorrow, so I will be meeting my whole department and all the other students in my program. Then there is the faculty meet and greet and then a lunch with the department. After that it is on to the School registration (School of arts, department of Archaeology and Anthropology for those of you confused by the distinction). Then ending the day, meeting back up with Lisa for the new research and taught postgraduate program social at 5 PM. So I don't know, but I may not be writing tomorrow or for the rest of this week until Friday when I come back from my field trip to Exmoor (Field trip is Tuesday thru Friday). I am sure that by then I will have plenty of verbiage on my department, the people in it, and my experiences to fill your ears to the popping point.

If I don't talk to you, I hope that you all have a really great week and don't work too hard. Love you lots and miss you, of course! Goodnight from my end, since I have to make it to campus before 11 AM, which means that I have to get up much earlier than I have been. I am meeting Lisa at 10:30 so I really do have to get up! Bummer...

Another night, another story

I decided that after Lisa and my jaunt out tonight that another blog about the Bristol nightlife was beyond necessary for many reasons, which, I am sure, you will soon understand. But, to make you wait in agonizing suspense of my musings on the Bristolian youth I will relate the rest of my day. I know I can tell by the chorus of exasperated disgust noises that you wish I would just get to the good part already and so I will venture to make it as short and sweet as possible so that you too can participate in our humorous thoughts on the night clubbing crowd.

So here we go. Today was the day of the Bristol bus tour; our chance to see Bristol the über touristy way, by double-decker open topped bus. The only way to see a British city. Thankfully for us it was a pretty warm day by British weather standards and there were blue sky’s and no rain, which when you do a outside bus tour is generally a good thing, unless you like sitting in rain covered seats with a yellow poncho on and of course if you enjoy looking like a fisherman. I don’t happen to enjoy that so I was, at least, very glad when we arrived and it was sunny. The bus was about 20 or 30 minutes late, and at least I didn’t realize that it was going to be one of those hop on hop sort of city buses, not that it makes much difference really. We got to see all the different parts of Bristol, which is deceiving on a map because everything looks really far apart but in actuality the only dissuading factor from walking around the whole city is the fact that there are San Francisco sized hills everywhere. I know, you think England and mountainous hills, the two don’t normally go together but I guess this and Scotland are the exceptions to that. Moving on quickly, Lisa and I decided that there is one particular district that has many interesting looking pubs that we will have to go and try out. Hopefully they are nice to students and give us a discount…hopefully. Anyways, so the tour was really good apart from the narrators mic cutting out, which was distracting. Afterwards, Lisa and I decided (Jeanne went home to rest up, she is still not feeling really well) to venture out to the Christmas Steps, a really cool little area that, when everything is open (we arrived too late I think), houses some cool kind of shops that make a nice alternative to big out door shopping mall. We identified where we had ended up the other night when we met our little friend Dan by this one particular shop that looks like it belongs on University Ave in San Diego or the Castro in S.F. but enough about that. After finding the easiest way back to the city centre ( it really isn’t hard…at least not in the daylight hours) we walked the harbour and then up towards Clifton and the University (which are right next to each other really I think we just keep making wrong turns and that is how we end up lost all the time). So that was the end of that part of the day and we definitely got our exercise in. Who needs a gym when you have a city that can act as one for you? Honestly? :0)

Later, Lisa and I met up again to go see a movie. We saw “Fame” it’s not that great, really, its not. I love original but this new remake has been modernized (of course, obviously, right) and then made more family friendly or as Lisa said “Kid safe” lol. Ok so now on to the fun part.

Lisa and I have come up with a new game, so to speak. It’s based on a rating system that started out on a scale of like 300 hundred but that has now more reasonably been made into a scale of 1 to 10. The scale is to rate the uncomfortability ( I realize this is not a word but for the purpose of this exercise it is) of dress wear sported by the girls in Bristol. To be honest, these girls put even the most die hard of San Diego and L.A. girls to shame, and that is really saying something! This is how the system works, for the most part: We rate based on length or rather lack of length of the skirt/dress/shirt, whatever you want to call it, because let’s be honest, if you can see their underwear I hardly think that qualifies as a skirt or a dress, but perhaps that is just me. Next criteria is the height of shoes. Most seem to range around the 3 ½ to 5 inch mark, how they don’t fall over by shear force of gravity I really don’t know. For me I think it is the air in their heads that keeps them upright but I haven’t really ever talked to any of them so perhaps that is a bit rude and premature of a comment. So let’s say that they have just developed the ability to stay standing, at least part of the time, while they walk up the uneven cobblestone ,hilly streets and sidewalks of Bristol. (what I want to see is them do it when they are drunk! That would be really amusing or impressive….) Then the final criteria, at least to this point, is how revealing their shirts is. Plunging necklines, backless, strapless and all manner of skin showing is an absolute must, I guess. Regardless, Lisa and I saw a few 9’s (10 being the most uncomfortable possible) and about a football stadium full of 8’s. I would absolutely love to find a café to sit at and watch the white trash competition ensue every Friday and Saturday night, if for nothing else just for the people watching abilities that it presents. And I must say that I have to agree with Lisa, this display is the exact opposite of what the women’s empowerment movement was all about. This is like the biggest meat market ever because I can almost guarantee those girls are not dressing like that for themselves, but for the reaction they receive. I guess everyone has their thing though, just glad that I was both warm and comfortable in my jeans, sneakers and cozy jacket, which is a heck of a lot more than I can say for any of the girls out there tonight! By the way, it is 11 C here, which is approx. 52 F. just so that you have an idea, how cold these girls must be, not warm that is for sure.

Bristol By Night

Note don’t do this by yourself, at least on the first time around.

Lisa, Jeanne and I all went out for beers, the typical English thing to do (every night), up in Clifton last night. Clifton is about midway between where Jeanne, Lisa and I live so it was a good meeting point. We walked for a really long time trying to find somewhere that looked well not so upscale. We finally found a pub that didn’t look too “posh” for us to go in and decided that it was about time that we sit. Lisa’s first comment as we were walking in the front door was, “wow it’s mostly guys…” lol. For me, working in a bar for the time that I did, it was no big surprise that it would filled with mostly boys. It was a nice semi-quiet place for us to all have a beer, sit, and talk, which is precisely what we did. Lisa bought the first round and then from there Jeanne and then myself. I apparently impressed the Bartender (woman) by walking up with all our glasses in hand at the same time and then carrying 3 full ones back to the table. I guess people don’t normally clean up after themselves ‘cuz she made some comment about how that was so nice and that they could tell I had worked in a bar :0). We closed the place down, although that is not hard when they close the Pubs around here at 11 PM… why I don’t know but supposedly the clubs stay open until 3 and 4 AM. Lisa, Jeanne and I, as a group decided that we really aren’t clubbing kind of people so, I guess we will just have to find another place to go if we want to stay out later than 11, which we ended up being out much later than that anyways.

Lisa and I decided that we were going to walk Jeanne home, it being now 11:30 and she wasn’t real sure how to get home from Clifton. So we dropped her off at about midnight and figured out how to get ourselves home, sort of. Lisa and I headed out from Jeanne’s and we doing pretty good staying on the set out route and then… well we came to a crossroads and didn’t really know where we were anymore. Luckily, this nice young kid named Dan was walking home as well (he had to go all the way to Ashton…which is a few miles past where Lisa and I had to go, yikes!) But, Dan walked us back to the city centre and got us back safe. I don’t care if you are big, small, whatever, if you are a guy and it is really late and I am alone or with one or two other girls, your presence is enough to make me feel A LOT better! Anyway, the story ends that Lisa and I got home very safely but decided if that is way that Jeanne walks home alone….that we will just put her in a taxi or a bus. Even Dan said that it wasn’t a nice area, and I am going to go with that he would know having, as he said he had lived in and around Bristol his whole life (all 16 to 18 years of it). So, fun times and good experiences.

Went out again tonight, although Jeanne didn’t join Lisa and me until a little later because she wasn’t feeling all that well. I really hope that she gets better soon. I would hate it to be my third day in a new country and be sick already. Bristol really comes alive on Friday nights! Everyone comes out and starts enjoying their weekends early. Lisa and I really aren’t for clubbing but Bristol really seems to have a lively club scene. Anyways, we made our way up to campus for the new postgraduate welcome party, held at one of I guess several bars on campus and immediately decided that everyone, when they go to these type of functions clings on the nearest person and begins talking. Lol So Lisa and I spent the first hour or so just observing and commenting on people and figured that if we left even a little room at our table open then people would probably come over and join us. Well Jeanne showed up a little while later and Lisa was right! We set a bit further apart and then people began to flood over to our table lol. Way to go Lisa for the astute observation about human movement in close settings heheh I guess that it is rather fitting since she is doing her post grad work in sociology. Anyways, we met some new people and in general had a lovely time but decided to call it an early night since we had been out sooo late last night (Jeanne left early to go home and sleep, which I think was a very smart move on her part). So Lisa and our new friend who also lives in Lisa’s building named Emily and I forded the flooded streets of this rather nice (by English standards) night and made it home with relative ease. Just in time for me to finish up this blog that I began this morning for all of you to read.

To conclude I hope that you all have a fabulous finish to your day. I love you lots and I am very sorry to have missed talking with some of you yesterday :0( but thankfully, I had more luck tonight. Ta Ta.

Nada...

No blog today, nothing really to report outside that I went to IKEA, rode the bus and opened a checking account. Hopefully I will have more to share tomorrow. Talk to you all soon I hope. Goodnight!

Tour, This way please..

Two things, quickly that I must remedy from my observations on British fashion yesterday; one, is that when it rains girls wear whatever shoes they feel like. This includes sneakers, running shoes, high heels, boots, etc. Secondly, that girls, at least when it rains, wear pretty much anything from jeans (all styles not just skinny jeans, though skinny jeans still seem to be the most popular among the 15-30 something’s) to cords, which are not as much as a faux pas as I had thought, saw them in many of the stores today on their winter clothing racks.

So now that that is taken care of and set to right I will start the telling of my story from today. I started out getting up a bit earlier this morning, 9 AM instead of 10 or 11 lol, and went out in quest of getting to IKEA. I made it all the way to the bus stop that I needed to only t have it starte to rain. The prospect of carrying arms full of stuff back to my closet from the bus stop at Cabot Circus (a 15 minute walk from my cupboard), with an umbrella in one and everything else in the other, didn’t sound like a “jolly good time” to me. So I opted out of the IKEA trip, again, and headed to Lloyd’s bank to open up an UK bank account, also on my list of things to do today.

I sat in the bank for, I would say nearly an hour until it was finally my turn in the queue, only to find that another woman, who had just walked in, had an appointment and was selected to go in front of me. So the very nice banker man, guy, gentlemen told me that I could make an appointment and come back tomorrow. So, I now have an appointment to come back tomorrow at 11 am , which means that I can’t hit the snooze button on my phone 50 times like I have been for the past week. (Side note: OMG!!!! I HAVE BEEN HERE ALMOST A WHOLE WEEK ALREADY!!!! 50 weeks left folks! If that’s not scary, I don’t know what is.) Anyways, I then headed back home, making a short stop off at the Tesco Express to pickup some milk and water (almost out of mine from the first go) and found some yummy looking chocolate filled crepes to have for breakfast, instead of cereal tomorrow morning. ( I know you are jealous Kristin!) Hurray! for something different. (btw the kid in the next flat over from me is playing Frontier Psychiatrist by The Avalanches, for anyone who knows who that band is lol at least they have good taste in music).

Got home, ate some lunch, made sure I knew where the Income Office (University Cashiers) was, because I had gotten an e-mail saying that I needed to come in and countersign my Stafford Loan checks that had come in. I made the monstrous trek up park street (which is like a S.F. city hill that I will be walking up everyday to get to class, oy!) to the University. It took me a little while to find the entrance to the building, because they know that I am coming and I swear purposely put them around what I would consider the back side of the building so I look really goofy walking around the whole building in search of the front door. Someone would have a lot of fun watching videos of me trying to find things cuz I really get hopelessly turned around and generally feel like a dog chasing its tail trying to find things) Thanks to Google Maps and being able to see the street view to know exactly what I am going to see when I get to places, I found the building relatively easily, again though the entrance...not so much. From there it was on the Student Union building, which is not really all that close to the rest of what is considered the main campus. Mind you, main campus here is nothing like what we are used to but I will apprise you of that at a later date (apparently they have hidden some of the university departments in housing along the street just to screw with us, kind isn't it? lol).

Went up to the International Student Office, where I went the day before yesterday, and lounged about in there for about an hour waiting for the campus tour to start. I ended up talking to one of the International Student Ambassadors, local university students that take care of all of us foreigners, for about 30 minutes. Really, nice guy. Initially looked at me and didn’t think that I was really American. He said, “I never would have guessed you were American.” I think that he was expecting Irish or something. He himself was a Russian Brit, so, not sure what that was about out side of him having what I consider a funny version of a Brit accent. I haven’t decided whether I like not looking like an American or not. I guess it’s good that I blend into the local scenery quite well but kind of sad that I don’t look like I am from my own home country, though, honestly, what does an American look like? We are so diverse and such a melding pot of things it is really hard to say what an American looks like or doesn’t look like, so? Anyways, so the tour finally came around and I meet two very nice girls. One is from France/Germany (Heidelberg for Miss Dvina, since you know where that is) named Jeanne, and the other was a girl from Norway named Lisa. The three of us sort of stuck together during the tour and then decided to go grab coffee afterwards. Then we all went to dinner at a local Italian restaurant, kind of expensive but I am sure that we will find cheaper places in the future. They are both very cool and Lisa was nice enough to offer to take Jeanne and me to IKEA tomorrow (hurray I am finally going to make it IKEA J) since she had already been there. So, that was my day, didn’t do too much but still was rather eventful and I finally have people to do things with, so that is nice, though neither live in my building. I think that we are all going to go on the city bus tour on Saturday, hosted by the International Student Office and we were also talking about going out and seeing the castle just outside the city of Bristol itself. So, I guess that might be on tap for Friday, but we’ll see.

Well that’s all from me for today. I hope that you all have had a really nice morning and a good afternoon. Apparently, I am now the Irish American girl lol thanks to Jeanne and Lisa. So that’s all folks, ‘night and miss you all very much! Irish American out!