Stonehenge and Salisbury

Hello All!
On Saturday I went to Stonehenge! I woke up super early and caught the train into Salisbury with some other people from IFSA (my study abroad program). We took a taxi to the 'Henge itself. What an awesome experience. It was hoving above freezing, windy and spitting snow. Still, it was a wonderful opportunity to marvel at the mystery of the stones.

Stonehenge with the ditch that surrounds it. The audio guide said that it was dug with deer antler pickaxes and cattle shoulder-blade shovels. 

Lonely stone off to the side

Stonehenge is unfathomably old. Back when it was constructed, the surrounding area was covered in forests. Quite the change from the sheep pastures of today! To give you some perspective, it was already ancient when the Romans arrived in Britain. I'd like to think that this ring of stones stumped many a centurion.

At a distance

Look at how squared-off those corners are! 

You can almost see inside

A barrow (burial mound). There were a couple in the vicinity 

Hearing about how the stones were quarried and shipped to the site via raft reminded me of my visit to Guédelon this past summer. This is a site in Burgundy, France where they are building a 13th century castle using the techniques of the Middle Ages. It's like a living archeology project. If I won the lottery, I'd love to fund a project similar to Guédelon but with a Stonehenge-era focus. How cool would that be?! Following are a couple photos from Guédelon:

Castle!

Side-view of the castle 

They quarried all this stone by hand

Ok, side-conversation is now done.

After freezing our fingers off at Stonehenge, we returned to Salisbury and made our way to the Salisbury Cathedral. It has the tallest spire in the UK, and an original copy of the Magna Carta.

White Swans: Still property of the Crown

So cute!

My attempt to capture the UK's tallest spire

It was nice to rekindle my love affair with Gothic Architecture.

St. Edmund of Abingdon, is that you? 

All these Saints! Also note the two ladies taking a smoke-break (!) 

Stained glass, gothic arches and lens flair!

A baptismal font. Can you believe it?

Rivaling my love of Gothic Arc? Heraldry. 

A memorial for Rex Whistler who was killed in Normandy, 1944. He lived in Salisbury Cathedral Close. This memorial was made by his brother and given to the Cathedral.

This stone looks unimpressive, but it was loose when I stepped on it. I can only conclude that there's a map underneath it and whoever lifts up the tile will soon be on an Indiana Jones-style adventure.

I didn't lift it. I need to leave some adventure for those who come after me!

St. Edmund of Abingdon, indirectly responsible for my Uni back home. Pontigny Parallels all over the place.

Cloisters

I couldn't take a picture of the Magna Carta, so have some more cloister pictures!

Can you tell that it's snowing now?

Well, that's really about it.

Cheers!

What's new?

Pancake day was loads of fun. Through a collaborative effort, we made pancakes! I tried making my own batter, but we just ended using Rachel's (one of my flatmates). British pancakes are usually eaten with sugar and lemon juice. I tried this and liked it, but I still prefer maple syrup or nutella on my pancakes. I told my flatmates that I'd surprise them with American-style pancakes some time soon.

I got some steak on sale at Tescos (Quality Welsh steak too. Quite the coup.), so I decided to make some steak fajitas!

Practical Chemistry: Getting a Maillard Reaction going. Professor Lubkowitz would be so proud

Steak, onions, red peppers, rice and cheese. Yum!

I'm a little less grossed out by handling raw meat now. The texture is still something to get used to though. I had to eat this quickly, because Ash Wednesday was fast-approaching (fast, get it? Haha). I have turned the bottom section of my kitchen cabinet into a spice-rack. I am enjoying being able to play around with different tastes and see what results.

Ash Wednesday!

I found a Catholic Church within walking distance of my flat. They also were holding an evening mass, so that fit around my schedule perfectly. I sat in the back during the service, behind a trio of old Welsh ladies. I felt... comforted by the familiarity of mass. After we sang the recessional, one of the ladies turned around and said that I had a lovely voice. She recommended that I join the choir. So, I went upstairs and paid them a visit. They all seemed like such nice people. They needed another soprano and I fit the bill!

Adventures downtown! 

Millennium Stadium. Someday I'd love to see a rugby match there, maybe once I understand the game.

I went into town with Kirsten and Laura (both in my Medical Microbiology). We got our railcards (Highly recommended for anyone thinking about doing any traveling around the UK). My railcard photo looks like I'm only a half-shade less white than the sterile-looking white background. Must be my glow-in-the-dark Irish complexion. Sometimes I'm amazed that I even show up on film nowadays.

I had my first lab class this week too! It was for Medical Microbiology. Because nothing says Valentine's Day like blood agar and aseptic technique. I'm sure there's some entendres to be had there, I just can't be bothered to coax them out. I was paired up with a girl named Ellie or Emmy or something (her accent was kinda strong). We were plating bacterial cultures. We worked with E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in different scenarios. The most intensive one was monitoring gentamicin concentrations in the serum of two patients (Blodwen and Ianto, how very Welsh). We will be checking our results next week!

On Saturday, my study abroad group from IFSA (Sherron, Laura, Kirsten, Jen and Olivia) as well as our Australian friend Lucy and a fellow American named Meredith went ice-skating. Kirsten took the bus down there, which later proved to be a smart choice. The rest of us decided to walk there. We spent two hours on foot to go to this place!

Fun Fact #13: Poor Kirsten ended up waiting about an hour or so for us!

We walked through some of the rougher parts of Cardiff, along what looked like Cardiff's equivalent of the highway and into Glamorgan. We crossed a bridge with a virtually nonexistent sidewalk. At the end, we saw the back of a sign which read on the front "no pedestrians". OOPS. In our defense though, if you don't want pedestrians, you need to label both sides of the bridge/path/whathaveyou. 

View of the Millennium Stadium from a bridge

A Fiat Panda! Found along this stretch of car dealerships during our ramble

Ice skating was lots of fun. There were lots of kids there (weekend program?) so the line for rentals was a nightmare. Good thing the British love an orderly queue. On the ice, I felt like I was back in my element. I can't do all sorts of fancy skate tricks, but I can dodge speeding kids half my height. And isn't that what's important? We finished up the day at Gourmet Burger Kitchen. I highly, highly recommend this place. The chips alone are worth the trip. The milkshakes are also delicious. Everyone was thoroughly exhausted after this, so we headed home and called it a night.

The morning after, I woke up feeling terrible. No, it wasn't a result of my "taking liberties" when handling the E. coli, I had finally caught the cold sweeping through the international students. I still managed to drag myself to mass and sing, but spent the rest of the day doing little other than drinking glass after glass of water. What a miserable day. I did order take-out soup though. That was very nice.

On Monday, I tried to visit Cardiff University's Common Cold Research Centre, thinking I'd make a good test subject. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the door, they weren't taking any more volunteers that day. I just wanted to further the progress of science, CCRC! Is that too much to ask for?

Today, I am feeling much better. Maybe well enough to cook again.

I will be heading to Stonehenge and Salisbury this weekend, so keep your eyes peeled for pictures!

On the Homefront: I entered the Global Eyes study abroad photo contest. Since I was on the SMC Burgundy trip, I am eligible to do so (I don't feel like I've gotten a photo from Wales yet that is worthy of such a treatment). Here is the photo:

"Illumination" for the Creative/Artistic category

While waiting for our flight out of Paris, my group of friends and I chose to visit Notre Dame. We had been learning about Gothic architecture and wanted to put our knowledge to the test. What I like about the Gothic style is the interplay of light and shadow, especially with stained glass. This is my attempt to capture the mixture of light and the soaring stonework that makes Notre Dame such a stunning example of Gothic architecture.

And as a post-script: British "spending a night on the town" outfits are different than Saint Mike's "Let's all go to the Threes!" outfits. Quick and dirty generalisation here: British outfits highlight the legs. This even applies to schoolday clothes here (but normally with a greater degree of modesty). I wore a cowl-neck shirt yesterday and I got the impression that I stuck out like a sore thumb. The shirt, which is incredibly modest, still made me feel like I was underdressed. It probably didn't help that the shirt was black and I had reverted to my winter pallor.

Also, British clothing and shoe sizes are tricky to figure out.

Well, that's about it. Wish me luck and a speedy recovery.

Cheers!

What are classes like?

One of the biggest differences between Saint Mike's and Cardiff Uni would be the classes. To give you a better idea of why, I'll go through my Saint Mike's schedule for a previous semester, then attempt to explain the craziness that is the Cardiff one.

Last Spring (Sophomore Year), I took 4 courses: Evolution, Medieval Christianity, Organic Chemistry and Elements of Calculus. This amounted to 16 credits (which is pretty standard). All the classes, except for Medieval Christianity, met for an hour each every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Organic Chemistry and Evolution had a three-hour lab each that met weekly. Medieval Christianity met for an hour and a half every Tuesday and Thursday.
Fairly straightforward, don't you agree?

This Spring (Junior Year!), I am taking five courses: Horror, Fantasy and the Media (the filmstudies course I can't stop raving about), Welsh Culture and Folklore, Cytogenetics and Human Genetics, Medical Microbiology, and Genome Expression and Regulation. They do not have a nice, tidy schedule like my Saint Mike's classes. At least, the science courses don't.

• HFtM has a two hour lecture on Mondays, a film screening Monday evenings and a seminar (group discussion) on Thursday.
• Welsh Culture meets for an hour on Fridays (although we have some fieldtrips planned for other days).

My science classes meet twice a week (some twice in one day!) for an hour each. Labs are called Practicals and meet for three hours. They also have something here called "Workshops". I had one today for Med Micro about "Epidemiology and Related Issues". Our lab coordinator (Dr. Beatrix Fahnert, she speaks British English with a German inflection) had a slideshow and activity prepared for us. I felt so accomplished when I was able to diagnose a patient with either anthrax of the lung or pneumonic plague (It was a potential bioterrorism situation). Turns out it was anthrax (in Cipro we trust). Score one for the Vermonter!

Cheers!

Pancake Day, among other things

Hello All!

Here is a quick little post about the latest stuff in my life.

I forgot to share a picture of this wonderful poster from the Doctor Who Experience.

"Victory of the Daleks" poster too!

More kitchen adventures! I made chicken curry lentil soup last Tuesday.

Cooking the chicken

Adding in lentils and broth

Fin!

I was able to stretch it further by serving it over rice. So I won't be starving... yet.

I am celebrating Pancake Day tomorrow with my flatmates. Since I couldn't find the ingredients (Bisquick) I needed for the pancakes I'm used to, I'll be making crepes. I have Nutella, maple syrup, ice cream and some other stuff. I should be all set.

Things I have grown to love about Britain:

Toffee Waffles! Cinnamon-y cookie-type things with toffee in the middle.

Blackcurrant juice! My obsession with cassis continues.

 And to finish off, here's a list of three random things I miss from the USA:

1. My dog, Robespierre.
2. Being able to drive around
3. Saint Mike's, but not Alliot. I don't know if I'll ever reach that point. Haha.

Robespierre!

Until next time! I have some fun stuff in store ;)

Cheers!

A bit of humo(u)r at my expense

In lieu of a recap of consisting of "Today in class, I...", I will give you a brief rundown of the quirks of British-ness (as I have experienced them). They are in no particular order.

Erin's Big, Grand List of Weird Things From Her Time Studying Those Peculiar Folk, The British

1. THE WORDS. Perhaps the largest and most obvious category. Yes, I speak English and they speak English, but there are times where I come to question that. I have pretty much resigned myself to either ask someone what something is or restate what I am saying, at least once a day. A week ago, I asked someone where the bathroom is. He told me "We don't have a bathroom here, but the toilets are that way." Awkward. Their "mince" is my "ground beef". When I told my flatmates this, they burst out laughing. Today, I wanted to find out how to drop a class. The man I asked was under the impression that I wanted the abstract concept of a "class" to reach terminal velocity. I have been able to get away with saying "Pants" (UK Trousers) and they haven't called me on it... yet. I'm sure I will have countless more examples to add to this section, but those are the freshest in my memory.
2. THE MONEY. There are £1 and £2 coins. Also a 20p piece. The coins are all different shapes and colors and thicknesses, I suspect, to confuse me when I'm at the till (US register).
3. THE CREDIT CARDS. An addendum to item two. UK credit cards have a golden chip embedded in them about as big as my thumbprint. They punch in their PIN to pay for things after using the chip-reader thingy. I, meanwhile, have to have my card swiped and held for ransom. The price? My signature. I always feel like I'm inconveniencing someone when I display my chip-less card. The swipe function on some of the card readers can be temperamental, so it's always a good idea to carry a second card and/or cash.
4. NUMBERING THE FLOORS. The British floor system works like this: the Ground Floor, One, Two, Three etc. Ground Floor is the zero-eth floor. Imagine my surprise when I saw that one of my classes was on floor -1. What is this? Answer: it's the first floor of the basement.
5. CROSSING THE ROAD. The UK drives on the left side of the road. They also use stick-shift cars, but that's not my point. It always confuses me when I get to a crosswalk. I just end up looking in all the directions, just to be safe.
6. METRIC SYSTEM. The British use the metric system. I, as someone with an interest in the sciences, have a rough idea of some of the metric things. However, drinks are sold in centilitres. I've been taught to think in milliliters. Pints and half-pints manage to hang on in this environment. I had to relearn that a pint is 2 cups. When did I last need to know this? Yards and Miles/Hour also are still a thing here. The time is 24hr time, for the most part. Some people still write 4pm instead of 1600. I can think in 24 hr time and I can think in am/pm time, but not at the same time! Dates are written as day/month/year. My program told me about a girl who had an exam on June 5th, turns out it was on May 6th and she read the date wrong. Yikes.
7. CLASSES. The in-class hours are not that long. We are expected to do most of the learning outside the classroom. We have recommended reading lists. We do not have weekly tests. The British believe that any simpleton can memorise and parrot back info. What really proves that you've learned something is by defending, explaining and exploring ideas (read: essays). For example, my first assignment is about comparing and contrasting the roles of oncogenes and tumor-suppressor genes, then incorporating a recent primary article about them (I chose the topic from a list of three). One essay, 1000 words, 20% of my grade. No pressure. Grades are also different. A passing grade is about a 40% and that's what your baseline is. The prof will add or subtract points from there. A and B+ grades are rare, and require dedication (possibly asceticism).  Luckily, IFSA has a handy UK to US grade conversion system.

Take Note: Just because you read Harry Potter, watch Monty Python/Sherlock/Doctor Who/BBC nature documentaries/whathaveyou, have a love of British humour and accents, and listen to the BBC correspondents on NPR does not mean that you are completely immune to culture shocks and know all there is to know about the UK. The culture shocks will just be smaller things that everyone else kinda takes for granted while you struggle to reconcile the familiar and unfamiliar. And then you start noticing the heimlich inside the unheimlich and then this blogpost goes into meta-Freud territory. A little deep for a fluff-piece. But, it's the weekend! I'll toast to that!

Cheers!

*TARDIS noise*

I look so natural next to the TARDIS. Wouldn't I make a great companion?

On Saturday, I made the trek to Cardiff Bay with two friends (London-Roomie Kirsten and Caitlin) on a rather cold and blustery day. Destination: Doctor Who Experience. This is a museum dedicated to all things Who-related.

Oh, look. It's a TARDIS on the docks.

Making our way up to it!

The Museum started with an interactive exhibit (which we couldn't take pictures of). I'll do my best to reconstruct it for you (To those who don't have a background in Doctor Who, this may get a little confusing).

Entrance to the interactive exhibit

You begin in a dark room with a screen playing clips from the show and Matt Smith narrating over top about "fixed points in time" and how this moment right now is not one of them. The screen then breaks open to reveal a crack in the universe. You end up on Starship UK. There are various artifacts from the show to be seen. The Doctor then appears on the TV screen there. He hoping to find Amy and Rory, but instead got a bunch of "people who look like they're out shopping". The Doctor is trapped inside a second Pandorica (The same color and everything! He is not impressed). Using his sonic screwdriver, he makes the TARDIS appear. You get to assist in flying the TARDIS! Priority, of course, is given to the kids. Adults, according to the Doctor, are boring and drink coffee and go "blah, blah, blah" a lot. You get captured by Daleks, end up in an area populated by Weeping Angels and then to the Pandorica 2.0. Not to spoil it too much, but you get 3D glasses for this part. It was so cool!

After the interactive exhibit, you enter the museum-y part. This is where they have set pieces, props, costumes and more from the show throughout the years.

9th/10th Doctors' era TARDIS interior

5th Doctor's (?) TARDIS interior

They have props and costumes from the 2012 Xmas special!

BARROWMAN!

Half an Ood. It was cool seeing how they made the masks for them.

Daleks through the ages

The Dalek Emperor! He is only up to my waist in real life.

From what I understand, almost all the costumes at the museum were used on the show.

Time Lords through the ages

First Doctor's Costume!

Tom Baker's scarf. It is absurdly long.

9th Doctor's outfit. Probably the most normal-looking of the bunch. 9th was also my first Doctor.

TENNANT!

What can I say, Time Lords have style!

Even in perhaps the most British thing ever, I can't escape my birth-country

After a walk through the giftshop, we decided to stroll around Mermaid Quay a bit and sightsee.

Little not-Lego Doctor Who toys!

BBC Cymru Wales studios. Sadly, no actors that we could see.

A war memorial. Poppies are the flower of remembrance here, hence the red accents.

I think this statue commemorates an Antarctic expedition. Prof. Kinder would be so proud of my attempts to interpret art.

The church where Roald Dahl was christened. It is now an art gallery, I believe.

Cross-Bay shot of Mermaid Quay

We went into a shop that sold all sorts of different types of Welshcakes. Since I've been here, I have whole-heartedly embraced the Welshcake. Anyone who sends me a quality recipe for them will have my eternal gratitude. We also explored the menus of different restaurants (Italian, Indian and Dim Sum). We finally settled on a place called Salt for our lunch. I had salmon risotto, which was delicious. I got another compliment on my colorful credit card. The guy working at the bar was Welsh, so there was a bit of mutual accent appreciation going on. It still boggles my mind that my accent is pleasing to the ear. To finish off the adventure, we did a super quick self-guided Torchwood (Doctor Who spin-off) tour.

Fun Fact #12: The area where Torchwood was headquartered in the show has become (in real-life) a memorial to a fan-favorite character that was killed off.

**NEEDLESS TO SAY, SPOILERS**

I love this. An official plaque to a fictional character. They really are proud of this  show.

Drawings, photos and notes honoring the memory of Ianto Jones

That about wraps up my day on the bay. I'm not sure how to finish this, so have another Dalek picture.

EXTERMINATE!

Cheers!