Post 4- Bath Excursion

 Friday January 29, 2009

 

            First off, I want to share something kind of funny. I’ve been here a week, so obviously, I haven’t picked up the accent, but I’ve gotten so used to hearing it everywhere around me, that it is how I hear myself when I read sometimes. It doesn’t help at all that we are reading books about England in all my classes, but I find it pretty funny.

 

Anyway, yesterday was our first official Thursday Excursion. 

I got there early and went inside the Abbey.

Our first one was of Bath itself. It was great to learn all the history, because by now, I have walked by all these places so many times, but did not know the meaning behind them. Our tour guide was an elderly lady named Felicity. She was great. She was very nice and informative. She’s lived in Bath since the 60’s. We walked around the city and she told us of buildings and their history. We learned that Bath is one of the 3 cities in the world that won an award for being a completely historically restored and upheld city. That is why every building is made to look like the old Bath style. Buildings were once upon a time made of Bath stone. Today they are made of other components, but are covered on the outside with a thin layer of Bath stone to make it appear as if the whole is made out of it. Although they are cheating, in a sense, I think it very cool that they want to uphold their history. (I’m sure they make good money from tourism too.)

 

            Felicity told us about the damages that have been caused to this city. She showed up what blackened buildings looked like. Bath stone is very sensitive to the burning of coal, so the pollution from people burning coal made all the buildings black. Most have been washed, and the burning of coal banned, but it being such a difficult process, many buildings have not been done. Also, she showed us damages to buildings from when Bath was bombed in WWII. I don't know if you can see it in this pic, but there are many holes/pits in the building. Some were completely destroyed and had to be rebuilt.

            

Felicity explained to us about why many buildings have windows cemented in. (You can see those in that same picture.) The city used to tax its citizens by how many windows people had. So many people blocked up many windows in order to pay less taxes, or they would move their windows closer together because if there was less than 12 inches between them, they would count as one window. I guess we all do our best to evade taxes.

            Then we went to the Roman Bath House. It was very cool. It is one of the things that make Bath so famous. There are hot springs under ground and the water is hot simply from that. They do not heat the Bath. This main one we went to is a museum. You cannot swim in that one. But they do have another one where you pay and you can swim in. the water is supposed to be really good for you. In the old days, when people were sick, they would make them drink 3 glasses a day of it. We can buy a glass to try it. I must do that before I leave. Can’t have lived in Bath and not tasted the Bath water.

You like the clown noses on the statues? .. That was never explained to us..

  We also went to a place called "The Circus". This is just a bunch of (very expensive) apartment buildings in a circle. This place is very famous. Nicholas Cage owns one of the apartments here.

This is a bridge over the Avon River, and a part of the river:

            

Lastly, we met the mayor of Bath. He was a very nice man. He seemed to like his job, and liked to talk.. a lot. His accent was so strong, I could not understand him at times. We all signed the guestbook, and felt like we left a piece of us in Bath history : ) . The also opened up a guest book from 2003 when the Queen came and signed it. She gets the whole page for her signature.

The mayor:

 

My sig:

The Queen's sig:

            That was the end of our official tour. As much as I liked learning the history, I was glad it was over because it was the COLDEST day since I got there and my toes felt like they were FROZEN. I went home and relaxed for a bit.

 

            Brian, this is mostly for you:

At night I went to check out the gymnastics class. It was SO fun!  I LOVED it. This class is an adult gym class. The gym is pretty small, and the class was huge! But their system of running the class was great. Everyone warmed up together. Then we all did across the floor stuff together, with like 5 or 6 lines of 5 in each. Then each group went to their own station. Each group was to do whatever they wanted at their station, and the groups rotated every 5 minutes. So I spent 5 mins on tramp, 5 on floor, 5 on the blow up tumble track.. etc. It worked great, in a chaotic kind of way.

I made a friend in the class. I am happy to have a gymnastics friend here! His name is Tom and he also works at the gym. Many people in that class are lower level coaches at the gym. I was amazed though at the adults who took this class not having been in gymnastics. In the US, people might do that with dance, but with gym, people feel like if they didn’t start at age 6, they cant start.. but a lot of people here don’t feel that way I guess. That’s wayyyy cool in my opinion.

 

Anyway, sorry for such a long blog! The excursion gave me a lot to say this time J

PS This was my food today

Post 3- First Week

Wednesday January 27, 2009

 

It’s been almost a week.

 

Great so far.

 

I’ve gone out every night so far. (Except for tonight.. Unless I decide to in the next 20 mins.) The busses stop running at 11, so it’s pretty nice that I’ve been home early every night.

 

Last night, was Robert Burns night at this restaurant. Robert Burns in a super famous poet in Scotland. So they served Scottish food, a guy dressed in a kilt played the Scotland theme song on his bagpipes and Burns’ poetry was read by a guy with a really strong accent. Honestly, I have no idea what he was saying, I think that was just me because others knew what he said. After their little ceremony, they cut open a Haggis. Haggis is a traditional Scottish food. It is made of liver and other weird animal parts. So of course I tried some. It was ok.. edible, but I wouldn’t eat it again.. Now I can say,” Haggis? .. Been there, done that.”

 

Next, I thought I’d share some things I have found interesting about this house. Not all of these things are universal here, but some other students have said that their houses do the same things, so I think they are pretty standard for a lot of homes:

-      - To lock the door, I have to pull my handle up then back to normal, and then lock it. Just putting the key in and turning it will not do anything.

-      - My door has to be locked from outside as well as inside with a key. It does not have a knob to lock it.

-      - The toilet is similar in the handle thing; the handle has to be pulled up, then down.

-      - There is also only one bathroom in the house. I am not at all complaining about this, but to an American, this is just so strange! It is a 3-bedroom house, with 2 stories, and 1 bathroom. Not even a ½ bath downstairs. So guests have to go upstairs to the only bathroom. Another girl on my trip said her house is the same.. but they have 4 bedrooms!!

-      - The light switch in the bathroom in not a switch, but instead a rope from the ceiling that you pull down to turn the light on and off.

-      - Instead of a shower curtain, it is a thing that only covers half the tub, just the half with the showerhead. I keep getting water all over the floor!

-      - There is not a single plug in the bathroom! The first time I wanted to use my hair straighter I was so confused; I looked everywhere! Not a single one! Finally I walked out of the bathroom and there was one on the wall right next to the bathroom. Excellent place.

 

That’s all I can think of so far.  I’m sure there are plenty more I forgot about..

 

Since I liked that list thing, Interesting things from today:

-      - I looked left today and almost got hit by a car.

-      - A dog gave me a near-heart attack when he went at me barking and growling. Good thing there were no cars on the street because I jumped onto the road.

-      - I ran today. I thought this would be amazing. I like running. But it was terrible. When I started running, I got a huge cramp in the first 2 minutes. That’s when I realized.. wow, I haven’t ran in 7 weeks. In my PE class, I ran 3 miles twice a week.. easy. But man.. it’s been forever!

-      - I ran to their local gymnastics place. I am going to try to make to a gym class tomorrow. Too bad they don’t have just tumbling, but oh well, bars might be fun, and I used to love vault.. but I’m a big chicken now, so we’ll see.

-      - I bought a tiny little notepad today so I can write down reminders of all the things I want to remember to write about in the blog. (I am going to feel like Andrew Ritter every time I pull it out.)(You like that Andrew?.. You got a shout-out in my blog.)

 

Well, our Thursday excursions start tomorrow. I can’t wait. Ill try to remember to write a blog tomorrow, specifically about tomorrow. I’ll go to bed now to read some homework and crash at a decent hour. I’ll leave you with some latest photos.

The Abbey at night

Our classroom

Hanging out at "The smallest pub in Bath"

The Scottish nationals anthem

Haggis. I totally ate Haggis. It the dark one in the center. Its not that dark though.. the pic is a little deceiving.

Yea you're so jealous.

Post 2 - First Day

Sunday, January 25, 2009

 

Firstly, I got a cell phone here. It is not the best way to call me, but in case of an emergency, this is the phone I will always have on me. 00 44 07963829436.

 

Well, first real day in Bath is over.

 

So yesterday, Friday, we got off the plane and took a 2-hour bus ride to Bath.

My host mom picked me up. Her name is Julie. It was kind of funny: on our drive home, she goes, “This might seem rude, but my two boys spend one night with their dad once every two weeks, and it is my only night to go out. This happens to be tonight, so I have plans with my girlfriend.” (This is, of course, the American way I would say that sentence. I would I could remember how she said it to relay that to you. I know she used the word “fortnight” more than once in there. I don’t even know what that means; I only recognize it from a Demetri Martin joke.) Anyway, the first night was actually great. I had the house to myself to unpack and go to bed early.

My house: 

I went to bed at 8:30 pm and got up the next morning at 8:30 am. Nice 12 hours for me :)

 

First real day in Bath. We met Mari, our travel agent at 11 am at the Bath Abbey. The Abbey is this enormous church.

She then took us on a tour of the downtown area to show us all the main sites that we need to know, such as the pharmacy, police office, our classroom, etc. No history lessons today, just the essentials.

 

Then with 15 people trying to find phones together, it took us 3 hours to get phones. I got a cute little Nokia. When that crazy ordeal was over, I stopped at a Pasty store to buy food. I had a chicken pasty. ß Notice there is no R, if anyone read “pastry”. A pasty was a handheld potpie, like a hot pocket, but not microwave junk food. It was pretty good, I think a different flavor would have been even better.

 

I spent the rest of my night at my FIRST ENGLISH PUB! I decided to skip the beer today, since I don’t like it much, although I will have to get one in the upcoming day.. cant go to an English pub and not get a beer. The prices there were pretty cheap.

Our first English friend joined us at the pub. His name is Jenson and he works at the cell phone store we got our phones. Had to deal with like 12 of us, and we took up so much of his time, so we invited him our and Julian, a guy in our group, offered to buy him a beer, a deal Jenson could not refuse!!  (He's the one doing the peace sign)

 

Taking the bus home at night in a town I do not know was a great way to end the night!

 

Talk to ya soon, peeps.

 

- Your favorite Russian,

Aleks

 

FUN FACT OF THIS BLOG: Speed bumps are called “Sleeping Policemen”

Post 1 - Plane Ride

Hello best semester of my life!

 

I am on the plane to England on British Airways. So far, I am very impressed by this airline: all British crew, of course, which is only getting me more and more excited, free socks (I was hoping they said "British Airways" on them, but, sadly, they don't), free headphones for a great selection of movies and shows (I am so going to watch The Office later, I’ve always wanted to get into that show and never had the time), and I am still in disbelief about the complementary alcohol.. I am about to start off this trip with a Bloody Mary!

 

Lets back up a bit though.

 

Some background:

Today is January 23, 2009. I am on my way to a 4-month trip to Bath, England. This is a faculty lead program through San Jose State University. Andy Fleck, English, and Rick Propas, History, are the professors taking us on this journey. We are not studying at a English university (or Uni, as I am about to start calling it) but instead, we are simply renting a classroom in a community center-type place and Andy and Rick are teaching all our SJSU courses.

 

I will be taking 15 units: 3 units of internship, 3 units of my “sightseeing class” basically, and 3 classes, a writing class, and two English classes. I will have classes Mon-Wed, every Thursday are our “Thursday excursions”, the sightseeing class, and Friday-Sunday are 3-day weekends.  

 

I will be living with a Host Family. So far, all I know is that there is a Mom, and two boys (I don’t know if there is a dad. He was not listed on the paper.) If anyone wants to send me love notes, email me for my address.

 

I don’t know the details of what will be the best way to contact me yet, but email and Skype are the great easy ways so far. If you would like to see a “Bird’s Eye” map of my new home, follow this link:

 

http://www.multimap.com/maps/?qs=50+Marsden+Road%2C+Kingsway%2C+Bath.&countryCode=GB#map=51.36615,-2.3881|20|256&be=7616563|North&bd=useful_information&loc=GB:51.36616:-2.38811:17|50%20Marsden%20Road,%20Kingsway,%20Bath.|50%20Marsden%20Road,%20Bath%20and%20North%20East%20Somerset,%20Bath,%20Avon,%20England,%20BA2%202

 

Looks good right?

 

My going away party was last Friday, exactly a week before I left. This was my invitation. Pretty cute huh?

 

 

 

            The party was such a blast.  I had SOOO much fun. It was at a bar in Danville. The owner hooked me up. I was awed at his generosity. He did not charge me anything, but sectioned off a part of the bar for my party, let me bring in food (I found crumpets at Trader Joe’s!) and gave us all discounts on our drinks. Thanks Brian!!

           

            It was amazing to see (almost) everyone all together before I left. I didn’t even realize how many such different friends I had. Everyone there didn’t know half the people there. ß Did that make sense? It was amazing for me to see all those people that I would never think to see in one room together. The whole night I was running from person to person trying to give everyone a bit of my attention. Sadly, I felt like no one got enough, but I think everyone had a good time. Maybe I should have my “coming home” party there too!!

 

            So. That’s most of the background I thought I should share. The last few days have been filled with packing and here I am now. I didn’t know anyone pretty much at all, and so far, from hanging out at the airport for 3 hours and being on a place for 2 hours so far, I have gotten to know some people. This is going to be a great group. I think we will all have an amazing time. People are already planning trips together. I already bought concert tickets with someone to see Snow Patrol in March. Oh my goodness I am stoked for that.

 

            With a delicious Bloody Mary in me and free headphones ready to go, I am off to watch The Office (the British one). Cherio J