Londontown

Londontown, a set on Flickr.

Two posts in three days?! Whoever said I'm no good at posting-- you take that back right now!!

I have so much to tell you about Liverpool! Unfortunately, if I did that before I told you about London then I would be completely screwed up for not blogging in chronological order. Those of you with OCD know where I'm coming from. So, without further adieu, I present to you.... one of the world's finest cities. I think for this post, I'm just going to tell you the places we visited and then let you look at photos. I know you're relieved that you don't have to read me rambling on with excessive commentary. See the photo captions to see read where the photo was taken and what it is. If you have already seen these on Facebook, sorry, they're the same ones!
Also, Flickr and I did not work out our differences. I'm only allowed 200 free photos, which I have just reached, and to upload anymore, I have to pay the "holy smokes that's cheap $24.95/year" so I'm taking donations. Until then, these are all the photos you get!

York (The old one, not the new one)

This is the part of the blog where I make loads of excuses for why there is such a large gap between this post and my last post.  So here they come!

Homework
Ok, to be fair, I really can't complain about homework because I really haven't had any.  At all.  Except for reading fantastic books on September 11 for my September 11 Fact and Fiction class.  Did you know there is a whole genre of fictional novels dedicated to post-9/11.  If you are interested in reading some, shoot me an email and I would be happy to recommend some of them!  Anyway, even though I make it seem like this is all play and no work, I DO have to do some work or else UNM won't give me a diploma, which really would be a bummer.  I turned in my first assignment today, which is why I didn't start this blog earlier this week.  I've been trekking through that essay, and now I am happily writing to you!
The good (or bad?) news is that at the University of Leeds, a passing grade is a 40%... a 40%!  (If you find that acceptable, you shouldn't!  At UNM, a D (60-69%) is failing.  Whatever grades I get for my two courses here at Leeds will only transfer as pass/fail at UNM, so I'd like to say I'm striving for A+'s, naturally, but a 41% would get me a double-major Bachelor of Arts degree in English Professional Writing and Political Science.  Both of which I absolutely love, might I add.

If you haven't put two-and-two together yet, I will not be participating in a graduation ceremony at UNM in December because I won't be back yet.  Actually, I will be in Italy with my parents during my graduation ceremony, which is much more epic than listening to 3,500 names being called out.  A happy graduation it will be!

Well, that was officially the most boring section of the entire blog, so I'll try to spice this up a bit now that you're nodding off.

Illuminate York--Halloween
The worst part about not keeping up with my posts, besides receiving loads of demands from you all, is that when I get behind, it's hard to catch up because I have so much to say!  Last weekend I went to London, and I would love to write to you about that, but the weekend before that I went to York (Halloween weekend) and I can't skip that.  So, sorry, London for next time.

My roommates and I and some English friends from Newcastle went to York the Saturday before Halloween.  York is one of (perhaps the) oldest cities in England, dating back to 71 AD and was occupied by the Romans long before it was taken by the British monarchy in the 1600s.  York is the kind of town I think of when I think of England: cute, quaint, and old.  Because of its old age, it is known for its haunted streets and buildings.  You can do a ghost tour/walk at any given time of the year, but people flock to York for Halloween for the festivities that the town provides.

In York, we visited the York Minster, the largest gothic cathedral (Church of England, not Catholic) north of the Swiss Alps.  A church acquires the title "minster" as an honorary title from the crown (ie. Westminster Abbey) and the churches earned this by being especially missionary-like during the Anglo-Saxon period, but very few churches in England are minsters.  I didn't get to walk through the whole church because it cost money.  (Charging money to go into a church?!  What would Jesus say to that...?) Here are some photos of the York Minster.  Remember, you can always click on the photos to view them larger.

We also saw the York Castle, which dates back to the 1100s and was used for multiple purposes over the course of its existence.  In its new years, it was used as a place of royal communication with William I.  Later, it was used for a prison, jail, and torture chamber.  I read that in about 1190 there was a mass massacre of around 500 Jews in this castle.  It was used as a jail and prison until 1926!  Here is a photo.  It looks unimpressive, but when you imagine the things that took place here, it becomes quite impressive very quickly.

I've saved my last two sights for the end.  The Shambles and the city wall.  The Shambles is an old city street that is one of the narrowest streets in Europe (built before cars, obviously).  The buildings overhanging over the street date back to the 14th century, and as some points, one person could lean out of the window on one side of the street and shake hands with someone leaning out of a window on the other side of the street.  The Shambles was originally a street for butcher shops and "shambles" is an obsolete English term for slaughterhouse or meat market.  We learned on the ghost tour that this street used to be red with animals blood.  Now, cute shops and bakeries line the short and narrow road.

York has a city wall!  Yes, a wall like in the movie Mulan-- a wall to keep out invaders.  When my English friends who were with us told me there was a city wall I literally could not believe it.  The innermost and oldest part of the city is enclosed within a wall that you can go up and walk around on.

These are the stairs we walked up to get to the top (that's the Minster in the background).  Then some more photos of my silly roommates and I walking around the top of the wall.

When it got dark, we did a ghost tour, of course.  We walked with tour guides around the oldest locations in York and they told us the ghost legends.  Then we made our way to the light show.  The light show was a 3D show projected onto the Castle Museum (which is across from the castle).  It was amazing!

Neat, huh?  We all really enjoyed York and want to go back soon.  It is only a 30 minute, 3 pound bus ride from Leeds, so we'll go again hopefully.  It was definitely my favorite place.  Well, at least it was until I went to London last weekend...
And London brought a whole new meaning to the words "favorite" (favourite?) and "place"!

And that, friends, will have to wait until next time!

Remembrance Day
Today is a holiday.  In America, it is Veterans Day, in all the Commonwealth countries, it is Remembrance Day.  Remembrance Day is observed on November 11 every year as a memorial for those who died during WWI, and is on November 11 to commemorate the day the war ended in 1918.  The war formally ended during the 11th hour on November 11, 1918.  King George I (think The Kings Speech) formally made it a day of remembrance for those who died.  At 11am on November 11 in every Commonwealth the entire country observes a moment of silence.  Everything stops for one minute--radio, tv, traffic, doors to businesses, everything stops.  Its a really powerful way to stop and remember those who died.  People wear and display poppies in the week leading up to November 11 which signifies remembrance for those who fought and died.  The poppy tradition actually started in the US, but isn't popular anymore.  I wore a poppy dress today for the occasion. :)

Tomorrow I'm taking off to Liverpool for the day!  It might be a while, but it will make it in here eventually.  Stay tuned for London.

Have a good weekend!

The Kitchen Sink

Hello friends!  I've just returned from Scotland!  Today it is dark and rainy in Leeds, but I am writing to you from my bed in my room with a hot cup of tea and an unimaginably delicious European chocolate bar.  I hope you all caught that... I'm sitting on my bed!  I no longer have to sit at my desk and plug in to the wall with that dreaded ethernet cable!  Last week I managed to mastermind a wireless network for our flat and now the residents of G block flat 2 are living in 2011 and enjoying using the World Wide Web while we sit on our beds, in the kitchen, and best of all, on our iPhones!  So, any of you using iOS 5 on your iPhones, shoot me an iMessage--it's free!  (If you have no idea what iOS 5/iMessage is, you don't have it, so don't worry!)

Why I Suck At Posting
Once again, I find myself apologizing for breaking the promise I made last week about not letting myself slack on my posting any longer.  I lied.  I'll admit, I was facing a bit of writer's block, but I have a lot to say now.  Thank you to Blair (everyone say hi, Blair!) for keeping me on my toes and calling me out on my Facebook wall for my lack of posting for all the world to read!  One of my friends here saw that post from Blair and said, "You better get rid of that writer's block, your fans are demanding posts!"

Where are all the pictures you promised?
I know you're disappointed that this is all text and not a photostream from Flickr.  Flickr and I are fighting right now because apparently I've used 90% of my "allowed free usage (300 MB)" for this month, but I can "upgrade to Flickr pro for just $24.95/year (Holy smokes! That's cheap!)" for unlimited photo storage, but I'm not quite convinced that I want to pay that, so I'm trying to figure something else out for you to see photos.  I'm currently researching how to outsmart Flickr, but I've been unsuccessful thus far.  You might just have to wait until the start of November when the storage renews.  I'll post some photos to Facebook soon, so if you have a Facebook account, watch for those.  If you don't have a Facebook account, well, lucky you--it's a disease.

Otley Run
Last Saturday one of the Aussies and I did the most famous pub crawl in all of Britain--and by famous, I mean members of Parliament do it, other famous people, and even the princes have done it!  The crawl is obviously down Otley Road where there is pub after pub and it is typically a 20-pub, 12-hour escapade.  Needless to say, we didn't do all 20, but we did meet lots of people and come home with decorated shirts!  Typically participants wear "fancy dress" which is a British term for what Americans would call "costumes" or coordinating outfits.  You see all sorts of different "things" walking down Otley Road every single day of the year.  We wore white shirts and took markers and had everyone we met write on our shirts!  After the second pub, my shirt looked like this:

We got really hungry mid-crawl and snuck off to get some chips (fries) and mushy peas--staple British junkfood.  Yes, the mushy peas sound and look repulsive, but they are just green peas all mushed up.  If you fancy green peas--you'll do just fine with mushy ones.  (You're not convinced, I know--but hey, I'm in England, I might as well have mushy peas while I'm here.  It's not about the taste, it's about the experience!)

TV Licenses, an Angry Queen, and My Possible Deportation 
The most ridiculous law I've encountered since I've been here is the law of TV licensing.  Here is the gist in a nutshell:  Everyone who wishes to watch live or streaming tv (what you watch at home in the US) is required by law to purchase a TV license from the UK government.  (To which my dad responded, "So many taxes!  That's how they pay for their free health care!" ha!)  This license costs 150 pounds (that's 240 dollars!) per year per TV.  In other words, you have to spend the equivalent of $240 per year on each TV you own just to be legal.  That does NOT cover the cost of cable in addition!  Therefore, it is illegal to watch live TV on your computer (unless, of course, you purchase a TV license for your computer).  As usual, people (and by people I mean cheap college students) have found ways around this license and use proxy websites to stream TV shows, which my roommates and I may or may not be taking part in...

Anyway, I received a nasty letter from the UK government (whom I like to refer to as "the Queen") saying that my address was being investigated for illegal TV usage without a license.

Think UNM would still let me have my diploma in the event I get deported?  Might shoot my advisor an email and ask about that...

Oh, to be fair, I guess I should say what the TV license money is for.  That money is collectively what funds the existence of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), which is "free" (hey! their government plays that game and tricks them into thinking things are free, too!) and can be accessed and listened to all over the UK.  The BBC is basically government-funded media (TV, radio, print), and typically it broadcasts worldwide in some medium or another.

First Halloween 

Believe it or not, they don't celebrate Halloween in Australia, so I'm trying to be extra festive to give the Aussies a feel for Halloween.  We started with carving jack-o-lanterns earlier this week.  I'd say they did pretty good for amateurs!  We even roasted the pumpkin seeds to be extra-festive.

Mo' No Money= Mo' Problems, EU Financial Crisis for Dummies
Here comes the politics that I couldn't promise wouldn't show up...

Turns out the European Union is in worse shape than the United States Congress was back in August when Congress barely came to a compromise just in the nick of time on the US debt crisis.  Countries within the European Union are licking the wounds from some poor financial decisions (understatement of the year) made by Greece.  The EU, like America, is suffering the consequences from bailing out banks as well as sovereign governments (cough, Greece, cough) from the past two years.  Now, the EU, and countries who use the euro most specifically, is finding itself collectively in a massive unsolvable, inevitable debt crisis.  Hopefully you've been watching the news and this isn't the first time you're hearing of this.  If it is, get on a world news website right now and turn on the world news tonight.

Basically, the euro is in so much trouble that the leaders for all the EU countries have been meeting in Brussels (where the EU convenes) for the past week to try and come to a debt agreement before the EU defaults on their acquired debt, thus dissolving the euro altogether.  People, that is bad.  We do not want an entire currency to dissolve, especially the second traded currency in the financial market.  Wednesday night, leaders and EU representatives met through the night to discuss possible negotiations for the crisis.  Prime Minister David Cameron (prime minister of the UK) was in the thick of the discussions even though the UK does not fall in the "eurozone" (term used to describe countries who use the euro).  When I watched this morning's BBC update, Cameron said negotiations had made "significant" progress.  But the clock is still ticking.

Cameron is also facing major criticism from Members of Parliament for participating in the debt negotiations.  Basically, the UK is not impressed with the EU and would be quite happy with breaking ties.  However, Cameron is a politician and is trying to please everyone and play nice with the rest of the kids on the playground.  While Members of Parliament are calling for a break with the EU, Cameron argues that it is in Britain's best interests to maintain favorable relations with their neighbors across the English Channel.

If you're thinking you don't need to be interested in this because you live in America and we have our own financial issues to deal with--think again.  The economy we live in is global, and a worldwide financial crisis affects you, me, my great grandchildren, their cousins, their great cousins three times removed best friends, and their best friends' goldfish.  People, specifically Americans, need to start showing that they care about these issues now.  So read up, listen up, know what's happening.  Don't be an ignorant American stereotype, because I am trying every single day to be on my brain game and make up for the "careless, ignorant American" that the rest of the world sees us as.  Seriously, the international public opinion of American intelligence is horrifying--don't be like that!

So you see, America isn't the only place with debt problems, corrupt politicians, and greedy banks.  Anyway, I'm sure people will still find a way to blame President Bush for all this noise.

Scottish Road Trip
I guess you want to hear about Scotland now!  Carl (my friend from Newcastle) invited me to go with him to Edinburgh and some surrounding towns Tuesday and Wednesday.  Two words: So beautiful.  You can drive into Scotland from England with no border security, no immigration check, just a rock that says SCOTLAND on one side and ENGLAND on the other.  (Can you imagine if that were the case at the American/Mexican border?)  Before I left Leeds, I asked Carl if I needed to bring my passport with me... and he had a good laugh at that!  The drive from Newcastle to Edinburgh was breathtakingly beautiful--miles and miles of lush rolling green hills just as you would expect.

The Scottish/English border.

We got to Edinburgh Tuesday afternoon, spent the rest of the afternoon and evening exploring and being tourists and I dragged Carl all over the place--he was a good sport!  We saw the Edinburgh Castle which is rich with history and dates back to 700 BC and is one of the most historically significant and visited sites in the UK.  We then had dinner and spent the rest of the evening at a slightly garish Scottish pub in Old Town.

Here are some pictures of the castle, the town, the landscape, and my translator!

On Wednesday, we went to two smaller towns called Stirling (by accident because we got lost!) and Falkirk and saw some small town Scottish culture when we visited a nursing home and a home for the mentally challenged where Carl had to do some work for his job.  The people were very friendly and the towns were so cute and Scottish!  I could understand some things people said, but some of the accents were just too heavy.  So, Carl would translate the Scottish into American for me, which may seem like the same language on paper, but sound very different!  See these places on the map by clicking here.

Unfortunately, our Scottish adventure was interrupted by me having to return to Leeds for class (shucks, that isn't what I came to Europe for!).  This is successfully the longest post I've written and taken the longest to write, and it probably took you less than five minutes to read, which is semi-depressing.  I hope this makes up for my slacking, Blair!

Until next time..
And hopefully Flickr and I will have resolved our differences by then.