Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Just got back from the BEST concert I have ever gone to. We went back to see Jack Gibbons play Gershwin and it was awesome. After the concert we met him in the pub and had a pint with him... he is really cool! Of course I forgot my camera but jess brought one so i shall scan it in when we get back and she sends out copies.
Tuesday, July 29, 2003
Wales trip
Right so here is my summary of the Wales trip. I just got the pics up on the site and will link the others soon.
Day 1
Saw the white horse of Effington out of the bus window along with neolithic farming terraces and some bronze age funeral mounds. Saw the biggest south bank tributary to the Thames which was smaller than Stoney Brook at home. Saw the modern site of an Anglo-Saxon town. We saw silbury hill which was this huge monument kind of like the pyramids and built the same way. I fell asleep while writing in my note book and went from describing Silbury hill to "I had a pint w/Allison, Erica" We looked at some of the building materials and how they relate to the geology of an area. Also went to Avebury henge. That was really cool... the local church is built inside of it- yay irony! Lots of sheep crap there tho. Then we crossed the border into wales. The signs were bilingual and that is just kewl! Went to Tintern abbey. It was absolutely gorgeous in the rain. I have no words for it and my pictures don't do it justice. Went through the forest of Dean. Saw Barday castle. In Chepstowe we stopped for the night at the Bowford Arms Hotel. The food was really good. Soup at last! We took a walk and saw a bunch of extremely drunk Welsh guys singing loudly for Welsh independance.
Day 2
Woke up to more rain. Lost my pen. Jess found it in my hair. Went to the walls of Chepstowe also known as Caerwent. My raincoat lost it's rain repelling abilities. We rode on the bus for a long time on day 2. I got soaked again when we went to look at the sea and this church that is kinda sinking. Back into the bus and some lunch enroute and it was Caerphilly castle. I broke out my poncho and the rain ended. Neat trick. I took lots of pictures and filled up the card that I came with. Back in the bus for the really long ride. We saw lots and lots of sheep, a few terrestrial crab farms and learned that in Wales, if it is flat land it gets turned into a rugby pitch. Ken Addison provided us with a stream of really awful jokes and we had to choose our meals for the rest of the trip. Stopped at the monument to Prince Llywelyn. Saw a really cool hawk and some plants that looked like purple lustrife. Then we stopped at Caban Coch which is a dam on a river in the mountains and was really pretty but still lots of sheep. We rode in the bus some more and ended up at the irish sea just as the sun was setting and the place looked just like a hudson river school painting. Got to the hotel kinda late around 9:15, sat down for dinner around ten. the manager aparently absconded two days ago and the people there had no idea we were coming. People had to share beds and things. To make up for it we got extra wine with dinner( which was really good.) and then hung out with the bartender til pretty late.
Day 3
Went to the barmouth estuary. The gold from the crown jewels came from the mountains around it. Then we went and looked at some dunes and some mud and did fun stuff like that. I was really very interesting. Stopped at a church that was half buried in sand dunes. Saw harlech castle. Drove the bus up snowdonia mountains highest mountains in england and Wales. Lots of sheep still. Hiked halfway up Mt Snowdon to this kewl glacial lake. Still some sheep. Beautiful view and lots of fun to hike tho kinda muddy. On the way back we learned that the Terrestrial Crab stuff was hooey. Stayed in Caernafon at a guest house that had two bathrooms for 22 people. That was fun... uh right. Also walked down to the castle there to get a pic of it lit up at night.
Day 4
Went to Caernafon castle... bought stuff and took lots of pics. Went to this big falling water power plant. Really neat. It is built inside of a mountain. makes lots of energy. Then we went to Great Orme Island which had a prehistoric bronze age copper mine that was just awesome. I bought stuff there and also learned that the purple plant I had been seeing was really purple lustrife. It was awesome! I think I am going to write a paper about bronze age mining. It is just so neat! I got their website but it is sadly out of date. There are lots of new finds and stuff that is going on right now! We saw the first iron bridge which was built using the technology for wood... dovetail joints and post and peg things and stuff. Then we went to dinner and went back to Oxford... by the last half hour, Jess and I were singing showtunes and oldies.
Day 1
Saw the white horse of Effington out of the bus window along with neolithic farming terraces and some bronze age funeral mounds. Saw the biggest south bank tributary to the Thames which was smaller than Stoney Brook at home. Saw the modern site of an Anglo-Saxon town. We saw silbury hill which was this huge monument kind of like the pyramids and built the same way. I fell asleep while writing in my note book and went from describing Silbury hill to "I had a pint w/Allison, Erica" We looked at some of the building materials and how they relate to the geology of an area. Also went to Avebury henge. That was really cool... the local church is built inside of it- yay irony! Lots of sheep crap there tho. Then we crossed the border into wales. The signs were bilingual and that is just kewl! Went to Tintern abbey. It was absolutely gorgeous in the rain. I have no words for it and my pictures don't do it justice. Went through the forest of Dean. Saw Barday castle. In Chepstowe we stopped for the night at the Bowford Arms Hotel. The food was really good. Soup at last! We took a walk and saw a bunch of extremely drunk Welsh guys singing loudly for Welsh independance.
Day 2
Woke up to more rain. Lost my pen. Jess found it in my hair. Went to the walls of Chepstowe also known as Caerwent. My raincoat lost it's rain repelling abilities. We rode on the bus for a long time on day 2. I got soaked again when we went to look at the sea and this church that is kinda sinking. Back into the bus and some lunch enroute and it was Caerphilly castle. I broke out my poncho and the rain ended. Neat trick. I took lots of pictures and filled up the card that I came with. Back in the bus for the really long ride. We saw lots and lots of sheep, a few terrestrial crab farms and learned that in Wales, if it is flat land it gets turned into a rugby pitch. Ken Addison provided us with a stream of really awful jokes and we had to choose our meals for the rest of the trip. Stopped at the monument to Prince Llywelyn. Saw a really cool hawk and some plants that looked like purple lustrife. Then we stopped at Caban Coch which is a dam on a river in the mountains and was really pretty but still lots of sheep. We rode in the bus some more and ended up at the irish sea just as the sun was setting and the place looked just like a hudson river school painting. Got to the hotel kinda late around 9:15, sat down for dinner around ten. the manager aparently absconded two days ago and the people there had no idea we were coming. People had to share beds and things. To make up for it we got extra wine with dinner( which was really good.) and then hung out with the bartender til pretty late.
Day 3
Went to the barmouth estuary. The gold from the crown jewels came from the mountains around it. Then we went and looked at some dunes and some mud and did fun stuff like that. I was really very interesting. Stopped at a church that was half buried in sand dunes. Saw harlech castle. Drove the bus up snowdonia mountains highest mountains in england and Wales. Lots of sheep still. Hiked halfway up Mt Snowdon to this kewl glacial lake. Still some sheep. Beautiful view and lots of fun to hike tho kinda muddy. On the way back we learned that the Terrestrial Crab stuff was hooey. Stayed in Caernafon at a guest house that had two bathrooms for 22 people. That was fun... uh right. Also walked down to the castle there to get a pic of it lit up at night.
Day 4
Went to Caernafon castle... bought stuff and took lots of pics. Went to this big falling water power plant. Really neat. It is built inside of a mountain. makes lots of energy. Then we went to Great Orme Island which had a prehistoric bronze age copper mine that was just awesome. I bought stuff there and also learned that the purple plant I had been seeing was really purple lustrife. It was awesome! I think I am going to write a paper about bronze age mining. It is just so neat! I got their website but it is sadly out of date. There are lots of new finds and stuff that is going on right now! We saw the first iron bridge which was built using the technology for wood... dovetail joints and post and peg things and stuff. Then we went to dinner and went back to Oxford... by the last half hour, Jess and I were singing showtunes and oldies.
Sunday, July 27, 2003
Just got back from the most awesome experience of my entire life!
I have so much to tell everyone but I am too tired to blog it all right now. Suffice to say that I am overjoyed, in oxford, and have "In the Heat of the Night" stuck in my head. I am going to go to bed and contemplate terrestrial crab farming as an alternative to sheep herding in Wales.
I have so much to tell everyone but I am too tired to blog it all right now. Suffice to say that I am overjoyed, in oxford, and have "In the Heat of the Night" stuck in my head. I am going to go to bed and contemplate terrestrial crab farming as an alternative to sheep herding in Wales.
Wednesday, July 23, 2003
Chopin
Chopin concert was excellent... I may go to this guy's next wednesday concert; he'll be playing Gershwin. Unfortunately I will miss the one on sunday, we will return too late. He is an amazing pianist and we had two encore pieces! Yay! Bach will always be my favorite but I think that Chopin moved up a notch tonight!
Much fun... I am updating my pics now so soonly they will be here and I will rectify the multiplicity of men in the photogalleries. Don't know why frontpage (a hex on all things microsoft) decided that it was smarter than me and put them in there. This is really the last blog til I go... maybe... so Happy Birthday Mommy and I will blog it all on monday... or sunday night, depending on how tired I am.
Much fun... I am updating my pics now so soonly they will be here and I will rectify the multiplicity of men in the photogalleries. Don't know why frontpage (a hex on all things microsoft) decided that it was smarter than me and put them in there. This is really the last blog til I go... maybe... so Happy Birthday Mommy and I will blog it all on monday... or sunday night, depending on how tired I am.
Well I leave for my trip to Wales tomorrow. I am going to post the rest of my pictures tonight and wipe the cards clean. (I will burn them to a disk, mom, because I know that you don't like to trust the internet or my hard drive) Before I go and have all of this taken out of my head by new info, I want to say a few things that surprised me about England in no particular order.
1. Too many Americans. Everywhere I go there are at least a dozen of them... and not just in touristy areas either. I am surprized that there is anyone left at home at all! I wonder if all the Americans overseas came home if the population would double or the country overflow?
2. The weather-- it is HOT here one day and raining the next but the sun always comes out at some point. It is odd.
3. The sun comes up so Bloody Early and goes down so late. Intellectually I know that England is very far North but the whole sun thing is throwing me off. I think that it is two and it is really six or I think it is six and it is really nine.
4. Everything, I mean EVERYTHING in Oxford closes between 5 and 6. Restaurants stop serving at 7:30. At home, there are restaurants that dont even open til 6. It drives me nuts! Combine this with number three and you have major problems!
5. Dogs. There are dogs everywhere. People bring them with them everywhere. The bums on the street have them, little old ladies have them in their hand baskets while shopping for clothes. It is crazy. And unless you see them you dont know that they are there because I have yet to hear one bark.
6. Diversity. I hear more languages while walking down Cornmarket street than I have heard in my life.
7. They sell the same crap here that they do at home. Everything is the same except the words are spelled wrong and the price has a funny "L" thing in front of it instead of a funny "S" thing. I keep seeing stuff we sell in our shop at home.
8. Thongs. They are everywhere. Lurking on everyone. Turn around on the street an the person in front of you suddenly has low riding pants and a hi riding top and a butterfly thong emerging from the jellyrolls around her middle. Or sheer pants. That just isnt pleasant folks! Really it isnt!
9. Sheer clothing on people who shouldnt be wearing it. Or just sheer clothing in general. "nothanksI'drathernotseeyourunderwear" or "ohmygodIamgoingblind! PUTSOMECLOTHESON!" either way, not fun.
10. Ice, or the lack thereof. Nothing is cold here. Beer is warm... that is ok. Soda, however should not be warm. Soda should have ice in it. Too much ice in it so you can crunch on it. Bah!
There were more but I can't think of them right now...
It will be at least Monday before I blog again so just hold your horses and you will all hear about Wales and my adventures on the way, there, and back.
1. Too many Americans. Everywhere I go there are at least a dozen of them... and not just in touristy areas either. I am surprized that there is anyone left at home at all! I wonder if all the Americans overseas came home if the population would double or the country overflow?
2. The weather-- it is HOT here one day and raining the next but the sun always comes out at some point. It is odd.
3. The sun comes up so Bloody Early and goes down so late. Intellectually I know that England is very far North but the whole sun thing is throwing me off. I think that it is two and it is really six or I think it is six and it is really nine.
4. Everything, I mean EVERYTHING in Oxford closes between 5 and 6. Restaurants stop serving at 7:30. At home, there are restaurants that dont even open til 6. It drives me nuts! Combine this with number three and you have major problems!
5. Dogs. There are dogs everywhere. People bring them with them everywhere. The bums on the street have them, little old ladies have them in their hand baskets while shopping for clothes. It is crazy. And unless you see them you dont know that they are there because I have yet to hear one bark.
6. Diversity. I hear more languages while walking down Cornmarket street than I have heard in my life.
7. They sell the same crap here that they do at home. Everything is the same except the words are spelled wrong and the price has a funny "L" thing in front of it instead of a funny "S" thing. I keep seeing stuff we sell in our shop at home.
8. Thongs. They are everywhere. Lurking on everyone. Turn around on the street an the person in front of you suddenly has low riding pants and a hi riding top and a butterfly thong emerging from the jellyrolls around her middle. Or sheer pants. That just isnt pleasant folks! Really it isnt!
9. Sheer clothing on people who shouldnt be wearing it. Or just sheer clothing in general. "nothanksI'drathernotseeyourunderwear" or "ohmygodIamgoingblind! PUTSOMECLOTHESON!" either way, not fun.
10. Ice, or the lack thereof. Nothing is cold here. Beer is warm... that is ok. Soda, however should not be warm. Soda should have ice in it. Too much ice in it so you can crunch on it. Bah!
There were more but I can't think of them right now...
It will be at least Monday before I blog again so just hold your horses and you will all hear about Wales and my adventures on the way, there, and back.
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