Monday, October 24, 2005
I was just about ready to go to bed...had a shower, packed up my stuff for school tomorrow, brushed my teeth...and then I started setting my alarm, dreading the 8am wake-up time that would start my week for the rest of the term. See, at Leeds there are 20 credit courses and 10 credit courses. For the most part, the way it works is 20 credit ones run all semester whereas the 10 credit ones are only 1/2 a semester long. I have a Human Genetics course which starts week 14...and it is because of this course that I will lose my sleep-in time on Mondays as well as my days off on Fridays...I hate this course already. So, back to my story where I was getting ready to go to bed early (yes, 12:30 was early for me) in order to get up for this stupid class....and then I realized...this isn't week 14...this is week 13...I don't have class until 1:00 tomorrow...that means I still get to sleep in!! Yay!!! So, out of sheer happiness I have decided to stay up longer, update my blog in light of the weekend's events...and sleep in tomorrow.
On Saturday I went on a trip to York put on by the Leeds University Union (LUU). I lied in bed on Friday night praying for a nice sunny day...no joke...but Somebody apparently wasn't listening.
So, I got up at 8am to get ready to go...too early, hence my dread of doing it for my supposed class tomorrow...I contemplated wearing my winter jacket. I got it out of storage and everything...then right before I left, I thought, I'm going to get really warm walking to school in that jacket, so I changed and wore my green zip-up jacket (?) thingy and my brown jacket with the fake hoodie, convinced that I would be warm enough and if I got too hot I could peel layers. This plan worked perfectly for the walk. Yes, I was warm...I got hot, and peeled...the bus left at 9:30...we got there about 10:15. Now, when I got out of the bus, the whole clothing plan was totally shot. It was cold and pouring. Why didn't I wear my winter coat?! So, I'm sure my stupidity in choice of coat was part of the reason why I have stayed cooped up in my room for most of the day (with the exception of going to Wilko's to buy a battery charger, which I will elaborate on later...) blowing my nose non-stop and feeling like crap.
But anyway, back to happy fun times...
Despite the pouring rain (I did bring my umbrella - or "brollie" as it seems to be called around here) we (as in me and 5 other Mac students) managed to take in the sites of York - a beautiful city that is so old that I'm learning about it in my Anglo-Saxon class (it was a very active area of development of the early Christian church...way before Henry VIII came in and split it into Roman Catholic and "The Church of England" a.k.a. Anglican).
The first thing we did was visit the York Minster - "the largest gothic cathedral north of the Alps".
Well, it was huge and really snazzy inside. All the carvings and stained glass and ceilings and floors...everything was just so intricate and beautiful. Check out the pictures in my photo album...although some pictures may be a bit blurry...this is because my camera is very sensitive to shaking, and I tend to jiggle the camera a bit when I push the button. They had prayers over the intercom every hour on the hour. Everyone had to be still while someone...the priest?...said prayers to the world. Lucky for you I also took quite a bit of video...so I've been an uber-dork during my day of sickness and have put together a 4-min video of the interior of the cathedral (well, highlighted parts of it anyway) that you can watch by clicking on the link in my Videos section. Now I have to warn you again, that it'll probably take a while to load, especially since this video is about 3 times as long as the other 2 I've put up. So be patient...maybe click on it then go do something...make some dinner...come back and watch it...it should be done by then.
When we finished touring the cathedral, it was still pouring...which wasn't really what we had wanted, but oh well. The unfortunate part came about 5 min. after leaving the church when my second set (a.k.a my back-up set) of batteries had run out in my camera. Well, I only brought one extra pair, not realizing how fast normal batteries ran out. I had to bring non-rechargeable batteries because when I tried charging my batteries last week my charger died...I'm guessing the converter wasn't doing its job and the excess power fried the charger. This is why I bought a charger today...so I don't have to worry about using crappy normal batteries anymore and not being able to take pictures of things I wanna take pictures of. Luckily, I like York so much that I'm going to go back sometime and can take more pictures then. But what if I had been somewhere else? So, I have to wait for the other ppl to send me their pics...but I'm not sure when that'll happen. Until then, you cannot see where we ate...although it was called the Punch Bowl and was very cute...you know, tudor-style (which I love) and flowers and such...I ordered fish and chips, because I'm determined to figure out which place makes the best...and when they brought out my fish I started laughing cuz it was huge. It looked like they'd just taken the whole fish and fried it in batter. It was at least a foot-long piece. It didn't even fit on the plate! It was good though. Not the best I've had while over here, but still good. And they had a kind of beer there called Waggledance, which I though was really funny. It reminded me of biology when we had to learn about those stupid bees and their symbolic waggle-dancing. I'm sure that's where the name came from too cuz it was a honey beer.
Okay I have to go to bed cuz I'm actually tired now...but I will continue this when not so tired...nite all.
On Saturday I went on a trip to York put on by the Leeds University Union (LUU). I lied in bed on Friday night praying for a nice sunny day...no joke...but Somebody apparently wasn't listening.
So, I got up at 8am to get ready to go...too early, hence my dread of doing it for my supposed class tomorrow...I contemplated wearing my winter jacket. I got it out of storage and everything...then right before I left, I thought, I'm going to get really warm walking to school in that jacket, so I changed and wore my green zip-up jacket (?) thingy and my brown jacket with the fake hoodie, convinced that I would be warm enough and if I got too hot I could peel layers. This plan worked perfectly for the walk. Yes, I was warm...I got hot, and peeled...the bus left at 9:30...we got there about 10:15. Now, when I got out of the bus, the whole clothing plan was totally shot. It was cold and pouring. Why didn't I wear my winter coat?! So, I'm sure my stupidity in choice of coat was part of the reason why I have stayed cooped up in my room for most of the day (with the exception of going to Wilko's to buy a battery charger, which I will elaborate on later...) blowing my nose non-stop and feeling like crap.
But anyway, back to happy fun times...
Despite the pouring rain (I did bring my umbrella - or "brollie" as it seems to be called around here) we (as in me and 5 other Mac students) managed to take in the sites of York - a beautiful city that is so old that I'm learning about it in my Anglo-Saxon class (it was a very active area of development of the early Christian church...way before Henry VIII came in and split it into Roman Catholic and "The Church of England" a.k.a. Anglican).
The first thing we did was visit the York Minster - "the largest gothic cathedral north of the Alps".
Well, it was huge and really snazzy inside. All the carvings and stained glass and ceilings and floors...everything was just so intricate and beautiful. Check out the pictures in my photo album...although some pictures may be a bit blurry...this is because my camera is very sensitive to shaking, and I tend to jiggle the camera a bit when I push the button. They had prayers over the intercom every hour on the hour. Everyone had to be still while someone...the priest?...said prayers to the world. Lucky for you I also took quite a bit of video...so I've been an uber-dork during my day of sickness and have put together a 4-min video of the interior of the cathedral (well, highlighted parts of it anyway) that you can watch by clicking on the link in my Videos section. Now I have to warn you again, that it'll probably take a while to load, especially since this video is about 3 times as long as the other 2 I've put up. So be patient...maybe click on it then go do something...make some dinner...come back and watch it...it should be done by then.
When we finished touring the cathedral, it was still pouring...which wasn't really what we had wanted, but oh well. The unfortunate part came about 5 min. after leaving the church when my second set (a.k.a my back-up set) of batteries had run out in my camera. Well, I only brought one extra pair, not realizing how fast normal batteries ran out. I had to bring non-rechargeable batteries because when I tried charging my batteries last week my charger died...I'm guessing the converter wasn't doing its job and the excess power fried the charger. This is why I bought a charger today...so I don't have to worry about using crappy normal batteries anymore and not being able to take pictures of things I wanna take pictures of. Luckily, I like York so much that I'm going to go back sometime and can take more pictures then. But what if I had been somewhere else? So, I have to wait for the other ppl to send me their pics...but I'm not sure when that'll happen. Until then, you cannot see where we ate...although it was called the Punch Bowl and was very cute...you know, tudor-style (which I love) and flowers and such...I ordered fish and chips, because I'm determined to figure out which place makes the best...and when they brought out my fish I started laughing cuz it was huge. It looked like they'd just taken the whole fish and fried it in batter. It was at least a foot-long piece. It didn't even fit on the plate! It was good though. Not the best I've had while over here, but still good. And they had a kind of beer there called Waggledance, which I though was really funny. It reminded me of biology when we had to learn about those stupid bees and their symbolic waggle-dancing. I'm sure that's where the name came from too cuz it was a honey beer.
Okay I have to go to bed cuz I'm actually tired now...but I will continue this when not so tired...nite all.
// posted by Kirsten @ 12:45 a.m. 
