Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Abbeys Are Our Favorite. Period.

   We were supposed to go to a market in Knaresborough today but it required catching a train at 8 am. With the train station a 3.5 mile trek away from our nice warm rooms, we chickened out and slept in. But never fear, when we did muster the strength to get out of bed (still adjusting to the time change) we went exploring around Leeds. We found an Abbey. It was in the middle of a park. And it was free to get in and poke around. It would have been $15 a ticket in the US, and justly so. I loved it!

Kirkstall Abbey, 1150

Whats left of the Refectory
The Sanctuary

Luke in a transept of the Sanctuary
One of the aisles
The Chapter House
The Chapter house- the stone box on the left is an empty sarcophagus


 
Approaching the Abbey from the park entrance

There are many more photos, but these are the highlights. It was pretty extensive and we finally left when we got too hungry and cold to stay any longer. Its only about a 30 minute walk from our housing, so maybe we'll go back when it gets warmer!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Walks are nice.... for now.

The first building we get to once we get to campus.

We went here on Sunday for a tradition Sunday dinner.
Some of the other study abroad students we met at the Old Bar in the Student Union. The blurriness is just illustrating how much fun Luke was having- he just couldn't sit still.

The kitchen with me stuffing my face with custard.

Our walk back to housing last night.
So, I haven't been as loyal to taking photos of everything we've done as I had initially planned but I have brought the camera along, which is the first step to truly great photography. And when an emergency photo shoot is necessary and I don't have mine on me the iPhone comes in handy. So the above is a random assemblage of things seen and done.

Tomorrow we plan to go and travel around the surrounding country a bit so hopefully I'll have something a little more interesting and cohesive to post!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Merrie is (obviously) unappreciative of what I contribute.

If I don't do this now, than I (read: we) will never remember what happened these past few days...

D-Day+2

After another much-too-short night, the whole API group went out to the Royal Armouries (with a 'u'). It was very much similar to the "Arms and Armor" exhibit in the Met. There was a full suit of elephant armor as well as numerous English relics. PLUS guns! old guns, new guns, hunting guns, muskets, pistols, revolvers, machine guns, submachine guns, gatling guns, shot guns, rifles, carbines, grenade launchers, and so much more. I could spend days there, Merrie was ready to leave. The rest of the day was comprised of Merrie meeting her tutor in the school of Design, which was encouraging, while I wandered around campus using their WiFi. We found our respective buildings and classrooms as well. That night we had an introductory meeting in the Refectory (where "The Who: Live in Leeds" was recorded... sadly I really don't care though). It was a goooood meeting. We met other international students and culturally commiserated together. I also met my "buddy" from the Leeds Buddy Program. He was groovy.

I don't want shock, offend, or sicken anyone......

BUT for historical integrity, I must retell the following story, all of which is Merrie's fault.

Mah-gross
After returning from the pleasent introductory meeting, Merrie persuades our group to go to a seemingly harmless "restaurant" known as Mahmoods. It's an Indian (or Asian if you're British) style McDonalds. Needless to say, it was the worst food I've ever had to date. I had gyro made out of whole beef patties and mayo/ranch/sourcreamish sauce while Merrie muscled down half of a burger until she realized it had a thousand island/mayo/cheese mixture on it. wow. mmm mmmmmmm. I guess it was a cultural experience, but I'm sure it will never happen again.


D-Day+3

The School of Music
The next day I had my school of music meeting. It went well. I got classes worked out, met people, saw department, etc.. We also had another compulsory orientation meeting in a conference auditorium past where medieval explorers assumed the edge of the Earth was. Then we walked back! Later that evening was a "Study Abroad Social Evening" in one of the bars in the student union. The actual event was fun, but the traumatizing bus ride there and taxi ride home were not. At least we now know to not put your coins where the receipt comes out.
The Foyer (pronounce: foy-eh)
Looking at man stuff
I hear fashion is cyclical.
THE HALL OF STEEL





Sunday, January 23, 2011

Finally I get to post

Its overwhelming being surrounding by such old things. There are so many things to photograph and I keep running out of memory. Here are a few places we've been so far.
The entrance
Temple Newsam House- This house is from the Jacobean (1567–1625) Period. We got to tour the inside living quarters by ourselves and then went into the basement with a tour guide. There was no photography inside, which is a stupid rule. The pictures are not the greatest- I was trying to keep up with the group- but they'll do.



The gardens

The house had a precious farm on its ground
 
The grounds were lovely.
And even more precious animals