Newcastle

Yesterday I spent the day in Newcastle with the International Student Association. I got on the bus thinking that some of my friends were also coming, but they were no where to be found after the three hour bus ride. I then attached myself to three really sweet French girls and then this amazing Bulgarian girl named Asja. We had some bonding time and she told me all about Bulgaria.

Newcastle wasn't the most amazing place in the world but it was quite a bit better than Hull.... it was older and had so it felt more like Europe. We were also extremely lucky in that it was sunny! It's NEVER sunny here. And yes, I did take all of the pictures.

Charlie, this is mainly for you and your "Take pictures and put them on your blog" request because I love you.

Yay for bridges!!!!! There are THREE in this picture. My first picture of European bridges.

We laughed really hard at this one... It looks like he's smiling! This museum was probably the coolest thing on our little trip. A lot of the stuff though, like this skeleton, weren't real. They did have a real mummy unwrapped though! I didn't take a picture because it made me queasy.

This monument was really beautiful. You can't really tell that well but it's all these soldiers going for war and right in the center is a dad hugging his daughter. We really liked it.

I loved this because they actually named some stairs.... that's all there was here, just stairs. I wish that WE named stairs!

This makes me laugh. It's the nice, high class opera house in Newcastle. I think it's ugly and looks like a giant manatee. Inside wasn't very pretty either.... they did have a sign up that Imogen Heap performed there on Monday though! Missed it by five days.

This is the big "main attraction" in Newcastle. Type in "Newcastle" in google and this will be the first thing to pop up. It's the world's only tilting bridge. It is kind of cool and it's pretty, especially lit up at night. It was easy to make fun of though.... a pedestrian bridge being the coolest thing in the town. There was a plaque saying that the queen opened the bridge though.

Asja and me walking across the bridge.

CHARLIE!!!! I took this picture thinking of you and then explained the bridge book to those I was walking with. This should definitely be a new addition!

This was one of the first places we went and I thought it was very pretty. The best part about it though is the accordion player on the bottom right. While he was playing I felt like I was in France. Do they have accordion players in France?

This was a really pretty monument in the middle of the city. Smack in the middle. It's in this big square, really tall too.

I had a grand old time. The city isn't that big, we would walk from end to end and then say "that's it?" Some of the places were kind of lame but overall it's a nice little place. I am very happy that it felt like Europe and some parts were very pretty. Plus, what an awesome bridge :) It was a fun trip though.

Water

Out of all the things that are different about England I think the one that I miss most is drinking fountains. Everywhere I go, I am subconsciously looking for one. We walk to church and I'm parched but there are no drinking fountains to be found! I feel so dehydrated.... I'm going to have to start carrying around a water bottle. They don't know what they're missing out on!

Teddy Precious

I have a teddy bear and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I have had it since I was seven (I think) and it's name is Teddy Precious, or TP for short. It is dressed like a Native American and I dearly love it. I have always taken good care of it, I even cried when the tag came off. It now looks rather ragged though and I can't seem to recall it's original color as it is now turning rather gray.

I have taken TP with me everywhere, one time to Camp Crescendo in Idaho with relentless teasing from John. If I don't have TP with me when I go to bed, I have to make a make-shift teddy bear like a sweatshirt or blanket rolled up so that I can still hold onto something when I go to sleep.

I had a problem coming to England though. I only had one suitcase to fit EVERYTHING in and it had to be under 50 pounds (it was 50 pounds exactly actually....) There was no room for my poor little bear. Today, however, I got a package. A surprise. You'll never guess what it was!!!!! My life is complete, I feel so much better. Thank you John :)

Our Kitchen

For the past week our kitchen has been under construction. There was something wrong with the pipe so instead of ripping up the floor to fix the pipe, they moved our sink to the other side of the kitchen.

The best part about this was waking up in the morning with strange men in our kitchen tearing things up. They proved to be very congenial though and although we didn't have water or couldn't go in our kitchen and the power was turned off for part of it, it wasn't that bad.

I am happy to say that I am free to move about our kitchen and eat all my food now, including my newly bought jar of Nutella.

Welcome to Hull

I am in England! It is amazing, I love it. Today I had the most English moment.... I went to a bakery and got a meat pie and then it started raining on my way home so I got to use my umbrella. The whole experience was just exquisite, I love being English.

I have survived my first week, it's a miracle. The first couple days were mostly orientation stuff with a bunch of other international students. What's really exciting about that is that I now know people from all over the world! My roommates are from China, France and Germany and all wonderful people. I think that this is going to be a very happy semester. I am still the same, slightly anti-social, but I'm going to try and be a little more social. Here's to hoping.

The ward here is wonderful, although it takes a while to get to church. I have never done so much walking in my life and I'm afraid there will be LOTS more to come. The church is four miles away and we walk. I can't even imagine how many people in Utah would go inactive if they had to do that to get to church. There are a couple other students (three) that live only a half an hour away so I get to walk with them. It's not as bad as I thought it would though and the walks do tend to be quite charming. At least I know a couple of the streets now, wandering around in them so often. The other YSA live above a flower shop which is my new dream. It's an apartment that involves three different floors with a little space on each of them. All together it's basically a normal sized apartment... They have FHE at their house every Monday night (which I can't really go to anymore because I have a class) and then there's institute at the church every Wednesday which was great. Love it. The other members are also extremely nice. One family took me in on Sunday and took me home and fed me then took me to ward choir. The food was amazing and they taught me a little of how to be British. I had a very difficult time learning how to eat that way but I'm sure I'll get it in time. They also had their little grandkids over who were absolutely adorable. I have also never heard such an incredible six-year-old singer! She was singing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, I think she should go on broadway!

My apartment is glorious and big, my room is all my own and quite large. I finally put up my Madame Butterfly poster today and I'm feeling very good about it. There are three rooms upstairs and two downstairs. The bathroom is a little strange and that's why I love it! There is one room that is just the toilet and the toilet is flushed by pulling on a chain. It's like out of movie or something. The other room has the sink and the shower. Downstairs also has the kitchen which is very large and has two fridges! It's a miracle. The washing machine is in the kitchen as well and looks like a dishwasher, I love it. We have no dryer but hang things up in the kitchen to dry. We also have a microwave, toaster, stove, oven, anything you could ever want in a kitchen. It's beautiful. Going out the back door there is a little path that goes straight onto University (people here call it "Uni") and I can literally get from my room to class in five minutes. There's a street not very far away with some shopping and then you can take the bus into town where's there's a ton of shopping including a mall.

My classes are all fine. I have a music class which consists of beginning conducting (whoop-dee-doo), two ensembles and lessons. My first lesson is in a week and I am very much looking forward to it. I also have a math/science class which is....fine. I've only been to the math part yet which is quite a bit like calculus but watered down a bit. Hopefully I survive without too much headache over it. Then I have an archaeology class which I love so far. The teacher is amazing and is very passionate about it. It should be great fun.

As to Hull, the city, there's not a whole lot to see. It's kind of like going to visit the city of Provo. There's some shopping and a university and I've heard this great aquarium. They also have a couple of museums in the "Old Town" which I will definitely visit. But it's a nice place. I have never feared for my life or even met any crazy people on the streets. There are quite a lot of pubs and everyone love football (soccer) and everyone is quite nice. Hopefully I'll get to travel around during my stay here.

The first week has been quite charming, I think I'm going to like it here.

My Kind of Town...Chicago is

This was written last week.... just got the internet today. Love it.

I am on the plane right now and it is quite exciting. I had my first online meal which consisted of a salad with ranch dressing, two slices of cucumber and a quarter a tomato, beef and pasta, apple cranberry juice and two Milano cookies. A notch under cafeteria food but still a notch above the expected. I have heard horror stories and this meal was not worthy of a horror story. I am also enjoying the privileges of new technology. They have a wide array of movies (like thirty!) and TV shows and music and even games that are at my fingertips. Six hours is just flying by! It’s going to be too short of a ride by the end. Too bad I’m going to be so dead tired by the time I get there…. Another amazing thing is that there is no one sitting next to me to I am free to sprawl and find comfortable positions. Yay! Maybe I will get some sleep.

Chicago was incredible, I am definitely a fan. I LOVED being with Jim, it’s so good to have a fellow flautist around. There’s a different language that only we speak. The food was delicious, the people incredible and the music exquisite.

Tuesday night we went to a concert of the top orchestra at DePaul and it was incredible! They have some amazing talent at DePaul. They played some beautiful pieces but what was really interesting was the conductor. I could not get over him, completely entranced. His technique was insane, I have never seen anything like it. It must have worked though to have an ensemble sounding like they did. I felt slightly guilty though. As I was wondering how in the world they followed the conductor, at the end of the piece I look around and people had been moved to tears. I feel like I’m almost immured to good music, which is why I’m going into my profession J What can you do? I’ll have to be more aware next time I go to a good concert. What I REALLY remember about that night though was how freezing it was waiting for the train. Wow, cold. Chicago is a cold place!

Wednesday was exciting. I got to listen to some rehearsals and Jim’s “studio” which is where all the flute players in his studio get together and play for each other. They were extremely good players, I was very impressed. They all love what they’re doing and I love being around people like that. I love passionate people, it doesn’t really matter what they’re passionate about either! They were incredible. I also got to sit in on a lesson which was much more exciting than one would think. His teacher is something else… she is very in your face and never afraid to tell you when you “suck.” That kind of person does everyone good, especially someone like Jim who takes criticism so graciously.

That night we got to meet up with one of my Blue Lake friends, Rob. He is the best. I love seeing people that live across the country who you always hope that you’ll see again but never really believe that you will. He is definitely one of those people. He’s doing well and we had a grand old time reminiscing about the past summer and we had some strange stories. I’m afraid those with us didn’t quite understand but Bernies will always have a special place.

That about sums it up! This morning Jim and I went to breakfast, I packed up and headed to the airport (have I ever mentioned that I HATE packing?) I loved Chicago and I love the whole feeling of Chicago. The person next to you whom you’ve never met before will talk to you if they have something to say. Everyone was always extremely nice to me and I had multiple people help me with my luggage as I was trying to lug it on the train to the airport. Everyone has an opinion about everything and yet they are willing to listen to your opinion as well. I loved it there and I am so lucky that I was able to go! Plus, Jim is great. Second flute domination!

On my way to the airport the train was delayed half an hour, my flight to New York was delayed three hours, and my flight to Manchester was delayed one hour. I’ve just been having a grand old time being delayed…I haven’t really minded though. This is it! England, here I come.