It's the Polite Thing To Do....

So Annette and I stayed at a hotel on the last night to avoid having to get up way beyond the crack of dawn for her to make her flight. The hotel was nice, near the airport, etc... Looking around we came across the usual signs to post outside the door, do not disturb, etc... we also came across one we found amusing.
Apparently in Great Britain it is considered rude to run out into the corridor and shout fire, instead the "proper English" thing to do is to hang this sign outside of your door and wait for help to arrive.








Only joking, we read the back and it said that guests should hang this sign outside the door if assistance is needed. But honestly its a fireman with a hosepipe, our explanation is so much better and far more amusing. :)

When Idaho Conquered England

My childhood friend Annette came and spent the week in England with me. While she was here we did a whirlwind trip to see as many sights as possible in 6 days. We did London, Canterbury, Whitstable, Dover Castle, Windsor, Stonehenge, Lacock and Bath. Not bad I'd say. It was a lot of fun and I got to see things I had already seen before as well as new things. Here are a few pics of what we did and saw.

Ages and Ages

Gosh I feel as if it has been ages since I posted anything and seeing as the last blog was dated 21/8/09 I'd say it has been a long time. A lot has happened since my last posting. I wrote and turned in a dissertation, I moved to a new house in Wincheap with my flatmate Jenna. We also have another housemate Daphne. Over the past month we have had a variety of guests stay with us. Neil was the couch crasher that we rarely ever saw. Shenah stayed with us for a week, then Armando and Heather came to stay for a few weeks. It was nice having so many people in the house and now that it is just the three of us again (Jenna, Daphne and I) it feels a bit strange. While Heather and Armando were here they went through all their things and boxed up a lot of things to be shipped to America including a few things that didn't belong in bags or boxes.... That crazy Armando, just look at what he started packing!

Make Mine Trout

Those who know me, know that I love to bake, I'm always on the lookout for a new recipe to try and I often like to create my own. I have spent countless hours in kitchens coming up with new cookie recipes, brownie recipes and the like. Some have been triumphs such as porcupine cookies (named because they are a vanilla cookie rolled in slivered almonds and when baked kind of have a porcupine appearance- I didn't name them though that was my friend Chris) others have been failures and given names like skunk suckers (a hard candy experiment that went horribly wrong and quite literally smelled like skunk :P).
Today I decided to look around and see if I could find a better cheesecake recipe than the one I already have. While I know that mine is reliable and I've tweaked it so it comes out the way I like, I thought it might be nice to try a new one. I read through the first several recipes and they seemed pretty standard, some called for lemon, others almond extract, there was one however that I had to look at twice as I thought I had read it wrong. The title was normal, it just said delicious cheesecake, I clicked on the title to have a look at the ingredients and the directions. Skimming the ingredients I had to look twice, fourth ingredient down, trout. Yes, I said trout. I thought for sure I had read it wrong so I looked again, but there it was T R O U T. While I do like fish and I'm not at all opposed to trying new things for the most part, I draw the line at adding trout to mine or anyone else's cheesecake. Cheesecake can have chocolate, nuts, berries, fruit, candy, even cookies in it, but not fish. That just crosses the line......

This hobbits tale

What do post graduates do when they are fed up with work and need a break? Why they run away to London to see William Fitzsimmons live. Yep Jenna and I took a break from our "long hours" of "constant work" to see him perform live this evening.
What an adventure it was, walked into town to catch the coach to London, only to have coach drive up to university, we laughed over it and called our pointless walk into town much needed exercise. We experienced odd smells on the coach, really rank manure which was just yuck, then a very strong smell of onion, we're talking so strong the eyes were almost burning.
Anyway, made it to London and found the right underground line to take us in the right direction. We got there with quite a bit of time to spare so we decided to grab a bite to eat at the KFC across the street. After dinner we headed out of the restaurant and in search of the building the performance was being held. We weren't entirely sure where to go, we knew we were on the right street, so it wasn't to big a deal and we had plenty of time. As we walked we noticed the big shiny egg building ( I forget what its really called) and were talking about what we called it, it dawned on us that we were walking in the wrong direction as the concert was north of London and we were heading south, so we changed direction and continued our search. We walked several blocks before realizing again that we had missed our mark, the building was in the 30-40 range and we were not in the 90's so we once again turned and headed back. Finally found the small chalk sign for the performance and made our way down into the building. Jenna found us a place to sit after we stood leaning against a wall for a few minutes. She picked the perfect spot, nice big comfy chair and a really good view from the side.
The music was so amazing, it was the best concert I have ever been to. He's just wow, all I can say is wow. The music started a bit later than we thought it would and William was doing a second encore when we realized we should begin our journey back towards the coach station. Here is where the story gets interesting. So we make it to the train station in plenty of time, only problem is a train won't be there for another 20 minutes. We look at the time and think "okay we're cutting it close, but we can make it". Train is late, but we get to the underground and still think "we're okay" only had to wait about 30 seconds, then we were off. We're still looking at the time and wondering if we're going to make but figure we're okay. By the time we get to Victoria rail station and up and out of the underground the coach will be leaving in 2 minutes. We realize at this time there is no way we can catch the coach so, okay we figure back up plan we'll take a train.
Jenna and I look up and quickly begin scanning the departure board looking for Canterbury, guess what, no Canterbury. Closest we can get is Faversham, then take a bus to Whitstable, from there we would have to walk. We look at each other and think it though and decide walking a footpath through the forest in the middle of the night is not the most brilliant thing to do. Jenna sends a text message off to Tom our flatmate and asks how much a taxi is from Faversham to Canterbury, the reply around £25 but probably more as it will be late when we arrive, but if we drop Tom's name we might get a discount. We laugh a bit over this then go back to wondering what the heck to do. Neither of us is to keen on sleeping in a train station or a coach station until we can get transport out, and walking doesn't seem the best idea either. In the end it was our flatmate James who came to the rescue, we took the train to Faversham where he picked us up and delivered us to VW. The ride wasn't without being poked fun of for being stranded in London and then Faversham, but all in good fun. Jenna and I are now baking slaves until the end of term, but seeing as how I love to bake I'm okay with that.
Anyway to sum it all up, the night was full of adventure and I wouldn't trade it. I had an amazing time. I got to hang out with one of my best friends, listen to one of my favourite artists live, see the awesomeness of his beard, and I have a story to tell about I got there and back again. Yep definitely a top night :D

That First Step

Finally started writing yesterday, didn't write much and most of it is rubbish but there are at least words on a page. This dissertation has been a difficult one for me, it has raised many questions that I have not thought of before and has caused me considerable amounts of sleepless nights. Its difficult to study something you have been a part of your entire life. I find it increasingly difficult finding the separation between myself and my research. Things I think of as common knowledge I find are things I have to explain in detail.

Some days are so frustrating I want to pull out what little hair I have. But all post graduates go through the same frustrations and I am no different. We must each forge our own path and do our best to sort out what we have learned in our fieldwork and explain it to others. After all isn't that what anthropology is? Learning about culture and sharing it?

I often wish that I had chosen a topic that was far less personal, I had grand illusions of going off into the field to some exotic country I had never been to before, studying a culture I had little knowledge of and returning to Canterbury with amazing stories and beautiful film footage. I envied my fellow students who went to Nepal, Columbia, Kurdistan, Finland, Cameroon and the like. I wanted to do the same, but instead my field work was predominantly chat rooms and websites, talking with people I couldn't see and using pseudo names, rarely leaving my flat.

In all honestly my preconceived notion of fieldwork was naive and silly. Brought on by reading far to much Malinowski and exoticizing other cultures, for shame.

Ummm Plymouth Rock?

In the U.S. pilgrim refers to the early European settlers, you know the one who celebrated the first thanksgiving with the Native Americans. I realize that there are other definitions for the word pilgrim, as it used to describe a person who is making a pilgrimage to a religious or some other place of significance.
Never the less I was a bit surprised when I saw the signs directing pilgrims to parkwood. I'm guessing that the pilgrims being led to parkwood are in Canterbury perhaps making a pilgrimage to Canterbury cathedral as it was where St Thomas Becket was martyred and has the tombs of King Henry IV and Edward the Black Prince of Wales.

On a side note about Canterbury, I recently learned that Charles Dickens used Canterbury as the backdrop for David Copperfield, pretty cool yeah?

Is it really so bad that you have to burn it down?

Throughout the year we have had numerous fire alarms here at Virginia Woolf. None of us really think anything of it, the alarm goes off and we casually grab our cards, mobiles and a jumper and head down to stand around and wait for the alarms to turn off. Usually we mill around grumble about why the alarms went off, etc....
This time there was no need to wonder why, smoke was clearly visible from the bottom kitchen of A block (the block next to mine). There was also a definite smell of smoke when we walked out. Anyway so we stood around watching the smoke billow out of the kitchen windows and the vent above the main doors, a few minutes later a fire truck pulled in and a handful of firemen complete with air tanks and masks went to see about the fire. Another fireman came along with a huge sledge hammer and we of course got excited (something was about to get smashed up). He swung the hammer up and within a few good whacks the kitchen window was no more. The firemen went in with the hose pipes and I assume extinguished the fire.
Afterwards they proceeded to drag out the couch, along with all the burned bit of counter, etc...
All in all a fairly exciting Monday evening. No one was hurt as far as I know, (well there was a guy doing a bit of coughing, but a medic came along and gave him some oxygen and then the ambulance showed up and two paramedics walked off with him. Didn't seem to be to bad off though, was laughing and chatting with his friends who were having a go at him.
I do wonder whats going to happen to those that live in that flat, as they have no more kitchen and I'm sure the smoke damage is bad. Guess uni will have to put them up for a while.
I didn't have my camera with me, otherwise I would have videoed the whole thing, I did snap a few photos after they let us B blockers back in though. You can see the bits they pulled out, and the smashed up glass on the ground. Also got a photo of the firemen milling around afterwards.

Even Post Grads Get Punished

So I'm sitting here and I hear the little ping that I love so much that tells me I have a new message. I saw that it was from the accommodation office and didn't give it much thought as they are always sending something out, be it about parcels or toasters. This one I found quite amusing and goes to show that even as post grads we get things taken away. Its sort of like when your a kid and your mum takes away a toy because you've been naughty. Anyway this is what it says:

Dear Residents of Woolf College

I have received numerous complaints and reports about loud parties taking place in Woolf College Common Room. These parties have involved amplification equipment, shouting and other disturbances between the hours of midnight and 4 a.m. When asked to disperse by Campus Watch, one of the participants threw a stink bomb into the Common Room. Another resident responded, 'I don't care if anyone is trying to sleep. I want to party'. This activity is making it impossible for residents to study and sleep, and will not be tolerated.

As a result, I have taken the decision to close the Common Room for a period of two weeks. I very much regret having to take such a decision. The purpose of the common room is for students to relax and to socialise. However, in all accommodation noise levels must be kept at a low level and cease altogether between the hours of midnight and 8 a.m. The Common Room is not designed for the purpose of holding parties, nor do residents have permission to do so.

When it reopens, I will continue to monitor the use of the Common Room.

The British Cinema

Who knew that the cinema here could be so different from the ones in the states. Firstly its the cinema not the theatre, the theatre is where you go to see live performances, etc.. The cinema is where you see a film. Anyway, to the point.....
Your assigned a seat, yes assigned seating at the cinema. I found it very amusing as there room was huge and there was loads of seating and the 30 of us in to watch the film are all bunched up together in the back of the room. I mean what the heck people! I like to sit in the centre of the row in the middle area for optimal viewing. But anyway :P Second difference, there is an usher that takes you to your seat. I'm guessing this is so no one sits in a seat other than their assigned one. Montserrat and I were laughing because I was sitting in her seat and she in mine according to our tickets. Had we been found out, we probably would have been chucked out of the cinema and life long ban given for sure :P
Also noticed there is a kiosk in the screen room. So I guess if a patron had any questions they could attempt to get out of their seat past the half a dozen people and walk down the stairs to ask their question. Hahaha :D
The popcorn while it was sold as "warm popcorn" was cold and was unlike any popcorn I've had at the cinema before. I miss the buttery salty popcorn of the states. You know; the kind you know is bad for you because it has all the salt and butter on it, but as the cinema is so expensive you only go a few times a year so its alright.
Overall I found the experience amusing.

Dissertation Updates

Who knew doing a masters degree could be so frustrating? Answer: Everyone who has ever attempted one.
The work goes slow, people aren't as open as I had hoped when it comes to talking about why they left (or are considering leaving) the church. I do have a new field method though thanks to my amazing friend and flatmate Jenna, she really is the guru of all things important (and not just music and movies). She recently discovered that google has a documents section that allows you to build forms. She had built a form for her work with Lupus sufferers. I have also decided to try out building a form and sending it out in hopes that I can get more information for my dissertation. We'll see how it works out. Keep your fingers crossed for me :)

Whitstable Revisited

I seem to have a liking for Whitstable as I have gone yet again. This time I went past the harbour to the beach further down. It was a quiet afternoon collecting shells and then laying on the beach enjoying the sun. I find that it is nice to go to the beach when I need to think. The sound of the waves and the sea gulls, the smell of the ocean, clears my head a bit and helps me to focus. This is only the 4th time since moving to England that I have seen the ocean. I need to go more often....

Hapy Independence Day!

There is a bit of irony in the fact that I'm spending the holiday commemorating the indepence of the U.S. from Britain in Britain. Needless to say not a lot of Brits out celebrating the holiday, haha. No picnics to attend, no fireworks, it seems a bit strange. I'm so used to the 4th of July being such a huge day of celebration, here its just another day of the week. As I don't have access to a BBQ or fireworks here I was a bit stumped on how to celebrate the day. In the end things turned out well though. Instead of spending the day as I would at home eating Gram's famous macaroni salad, I spent the day (with Montserrat) handing out food to a few of the homeless people of Canterbury.
Armed with 5 sandwiches, 5 bananas and 5 bottles of water we walked the streets of Canterbury giving the simple meals to those that needed it. The appreciation in their eyes, in their voices when they accepted was gratifying. Its quite common here in Canterbury to see people sitting on the corner or propped up against a wall a hat in front of them hoping people will give them money. It was nice to do more than give them spare coins. When asking them if they wanted a sandwich and a bottle of water, not one of them said no, they all a smile and a yes.
It just felt good to do something nice for someone else.....

Ceveche

This was my fish Ceveche, he was a very cool fish. Unfortunately he also had suicidal tendencies. His bowl sat on the shelf above my desk, it was the internal injuries from the second story fall that killed him.