The Last Couple of Weeks, Lakes District NP and Moving
I think I have been slacking a bit on the ol' bliggity blog. Posts about Arsenal's loser-ness and not justifying in any way my decision to go to Australia don't quite cut it. I've been busy over the last couple weeks and my travel blitz started last Friday, the 26th and goes to sometime in July. My travel should have started sometime in the middle of last week with my flight back to Minneapolis, but I didn't care to go on that trip.
The last couple weeks in May have had some nice holidays. This weekend was a long weekend for the Bank Holiday and a while back was Steak Day. On May 17th, the Queen buys everyone in England a Steak and just about the whole of the country enjoys a nice dinner.
I did finally find a place to live! It took long enough but I now live in a flatshare/roomshare in Marylebone (say: Mar-la-bone) with a new group of people that all seem quite nice. Short term lets go really fast here so I jumped at this one when I had the chance, even though it is a bit compact - six people in two rooms. I am quite disheartened by the fact that our house has split and that I no longer live on Cedar Rd. I stumbled into an amazing group/location when I first arrived in London and found myself not wanting to leave that life one bit. I packed up all my stuff last week at my old flat in Cricklewood (snig snif) and let it sit all weekend while I went to the Lakes District National Park in Cumbria, England. Friday I took the last couple hours off from work and set off for a 6 hour minibus ride up north. Of the 12 BUNACers that went, there were two guys: myself and Christian who works at BUNAC. Estrogen overload! We had two excellent tour guides who were quite knowledgeable on all things British. We arrived Friday night and settled in to our rooms. Christian and I shared with one of the hostel employees - Conrad from South Africa. I turned out the light and about 5 minutes later Conrad states "I find it quite odd that police in London aren't allowed to carry guns." A 45 minute conversation ensued in the pitch black about South Africa in which there were numerous attempts to end it. But no, Saffis just love to talk and talk about their country; as if I don't get enough of it at work! Conrad is certainly the oddest Saffas I've met: he lies around and reads PC magazines in the dark or sits on the computer all day. I suppose he occasionally makes a bed or takes out the rubbish, but that's about it!
The next morning we set out for some canoeing and kayaking on Derwent water. It was extremely windy that morning and at some points it felt as though you were paddling yourself to a standstill while going upwind. Two of the girls tipped over in a shallow part of the lake and only one came back out in a different boat, and another two girls got stuck in the reeds and decided canoeing wasn't their cup of tea.... and went into town for a cuppa tea. The rest of us muscled around to the islands and beaches of the lake. After having lunch in and exploring the town of Keswick we had a rock climbing session. I hadn't done this since holidaying in Wales a couple of years ago so it was good to get refreshed on the knots, ropes and techniques. Two hours later and my arms were shaking after having to hold myself to the wall for extended periods of time. Our guides cooked us dinner that night and everyone else brought the wine. Afterwards we hit up some pubs and chatted. A few minutes after I crawled into bed, a drunken Englishman sleeping above Christian tumbled out of his, narrowly missing the wash basin. He sat around for a minute or two and then started apologising to everyone. We saw him next morning where he thanked us for putting him back into his bed, and left us a Guinness for our trouble. Thing is, we didn't put him in his bed!
Sunday morning was mountain biking time! It was really fun but people kept turning back as we climbed higher into the "mountains." After a good three hours or so of climbs and flat plateaus we hit the down hill section. I baahhhhhd at the lambs and sheep as I flew by, down into the valley. They baaahhhhhd back. Lunch was spent in another little town on the lake and the rest of the night was free. I sat in the sun and listened to nothing and it was wonderful. Sunday morning was our 5 mile hike through small towns, farms, falls, dales, fells and becks. It was sunny the entire walk and made me not want to get in the bus for the 5 hour drive back to London, where I still had yet to move in to my new flat. In the end I was very glad I went on this trip. I met some good people (a few them were even from the US!) and got to see clean and green England, as well as get some great exercise! One of the things that fascinated me the most were the walls running throughout the area. About 300 years ago the farmers and shepherds constructed miles and miles of stone wall to enclose the pastures. The problem was that they did not have mortar or cement and thus had to construct everything using freestanding/keystone and drywall techniques. So in the Lakes District you have what seems like hundreds if not thousands of miles of extremely solid wall constructed out of uncut stones pulled out of the ground. Maybe you just have to see pictures to understand what I am talking about, but it is simply amazing and a true art form. The masons who construct and repair the walls are in such high demand that it is listed as a job that no other British person can do, thus I could go work up there making rock walls for a couple of months if my visa options fall through.
Now that I live in Central London, I was only a short walk to my flat from where we were dropped off. I came home and talked to a few flatmates for a while who are:
Florian - French guy from Bordeaux who is here for a month to practice his English
Mathias - Swedish guy
Patrick - Swedish guy
Emily and Erica - Swedish girls from Gothenberg
Yes. That is right. I live with hot Swedish girls. Who would have thought this would happen!!! Aside from that, everyone is quite young (just out of Uni) and all seem very cool. It should be a good experience for a month before I go off to... Sweden! and the rest of Scandinavia. They were quite excited I was going so I should get a lot of help on where to go what to do and how to say it - also I think most of them are moving back to Sweden when we all move out at the end of June so I could potentially have cheap accommodation! Who knows though, I've only known them for a day.
Now I have to finish unpacking! Thanks for all of your emails! I will try to get back to them soon. Madrid in 3 days!
The last couple weeks in May have had some nice holidays. This weekend was a long weekend for the Bank Holiday and a while back was Steak Day. On May 17th, the Queen buys everyone in England a Steak and just about the whole of the country enjoys a nice dinner.
I did finally find a place to live! It took long enough but I now live in a flatshare/roomshare in Marylebone (say: Mar-la-bone) with a new group of people that all seem quite nice. Short term lets go really fast here so I jumped at this one when I had the chance, even though it is a bit compact - six people in two rooms. I am quite disheartened by the fact that our house has split and that I no longer live on Cedar Rd. I stumbled into an amazing group/location when I first arrived in London and found myself not wanting to leave that life one bit. I packed up all my stuff last week at my old flat in Cricklewood (snig snif) and let it sit all weekend while I went to the Lakes District National Park in Cumbria, England. Friday I took the last couple hours off from work and set off for a 6 hour minibus ride up north. Of the 12 BUNACers that went, there were two guys: myself and Christian who works at BUNAC. Estrogen overload! We had two excellent tour guides who were quite knowledgeable on all things British. We arrived Friday night and settled in to our rooms. Christian and I shared with one of the hostel employees - Conrad from South Africa. I turned out the light and about 5 minutes later Conrad states "I find it quite odd that police in London aren't allowed to carry guns." A 45 minute conversation ensued in the pitch black about South Africa in which there were numerous attempts to end it. But no, Saffis just love to talk and talk about their country; as if I don't get enough of it at work! Conrad is certainly the oddest Saffas I've met: he lies around and reads PC magazines in the dark or sits on the computer all day. I suppose he occasionally makes a bed or takes out the rubbish, but that's about it!
The next morning we set out for some canoeing and kayaking on Derwent water. It was extremely windy that morning and at some points it felt as though you were paddling yourself to a standstill while going upwind. Two of the girls tipped over in a shallow part of the lake and only one came back out in a different boat, and another two girls got stuck in the reeds and decided canoeing wasn't their cup of tea.... and went into town for a cuppa tea. The rest of us muscled around to the islands and beaches of the lake. After having lunch in and exploring the town of Keswick we had a rock climbing session. I hadn't done this since holidaying in Wales a couple of years ago so it was good to get refreshed on the knots, ropes and techniques. Two hours later and my arms were shaking after having to hold myself to the wall for extended periods of time. Our guides cooked us dinner that night and everyone else brought the wine. Afterwards we hit up some pubs and chatted. A few minutes after I crawled into bed, a drunken Englishman sleeping above Christian tumbled out of his, narrowly missing the wash basin. He sat around for a minute or two and then started apologising to everyone. We saw him next morning where he thanked us for putting him back into his bed, and left us a Guinness for our trouble. Thing is, we didn't put him in his bed!
Sunday morning was mountain biking time! It was really fun but people kept turning back as we climbed higher into the "mountains." After a good three hours or so of climbs and flat plateaus we hit the down hill section. I baahhhhhd at the lambs and sheep as I flew by, down into the valley. They baaahhhhhd back. Lunch was spent in another little town on the lake and the rest of the night was free. I sat in the sun and listened to nothing and it was wonderful. Sunday morning was our 5 mile hike through small towns, farms, falls, dales, fells and becks. It was sunny the entire walk and made me not want to get in the bus for the 5 hour drive back to London, where I still had yet to move in to my new flat. In the end I was very glad I went on this trip. I met some good people (a few them were even from the US!) and got to see clean and green England, as well as get some great exercise! One of the things that fascinated me the most were the walls running throughout the area. About 300 years ago the farmers and shepherds constructed miles and miles of stone wall to enclose the pastures. The problem was that they did not have mortar or cement and thus had to construct everything using freestanding/keystone and drywall techniques. So in the Lakes District you have what seems like hundreds if not thousands of miles of extremely solid wall constructed out of uncut stones pulled out of the ground. Maybe you just have to see pictures to understand what I am talking about, but it is simply amazing and a true art form. The masons who construct and repair the walls are in such high demand that it is listed as a job that no other British person can do, thus I could go work up there making rock walls for a couple of months if my visa options fall through.
Now that I live in Central London, I was only a short walk to my flat from where we were dropped off. I came home and talked to a few flatmates for a while who are:
Florian - French guy from Bordeaux who is here for a month to practice his English
Mathias - Swedish guy
Patrick - Swedish guy
Emily and Erica - Swedish girls from Gothenberg
Yes. That is right. I live with hot Swedish girls. Who would have thought this would happen!!! Aside from that, everyone is quite young (just out of Uni) and all seem very cool. It should be a good experience for a month before I go off to... Sweden! and the rest of Scandinavia. They were quite excited I was going so I should get a lot of help on where to go what to do and how to say it - also I think most of them are moving back to Sweden when we all move out at the end of June so I could potentially have cheap accommodation! Who knows though, I've only known them for a day.
Now I have to finish unpacking! Thanks for all of your emails! I will try to get back to them soon. Madrid in 3 days!
posted by Eric @ 30.5.06
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