Sorry about the long gap between posts; I completely forgot about writing last week. The week after my previous post was mostly uneventful, since I was feeling sick and ended up not doing much. I have been planning my March break with some friends, which will involve travelling in France and the UK, though there still isn’t much planned beyond the first week (the rest is still in the planning stages). The most eventful thing to happen in the past two weeks has been a day trip to Durham, which was last Saturday. It was just me and 8 girls (Antoine ended up deciding not to come). When we got off the train at the station in Durham, I joked that we were like the Fellowship of the Ring (I had just finished getting through the extended editions of Lord of the Rings a few days before). I also said that I was probably the Gandalf of the group by virtue of three things: a) I had a hat (admittedly a baseball cap, but that’s still more of a hat than what the others were wearing) b) I was the only one with a beard (it would have been odd if I wasn’t, considering most girls tend to not grow beards) and c) I was pretty much the tallest one in the group (which is an odd feeling for me, because I’m usually the shortest one). We went to go see the Durham Cathedral, which was immediately visible from the train station and was quite close by. Bit of an uphill walk to get there, though.
The Cathedral proved to be somewhat larger than I expected. I only managed to get some pictures of the outside and of the cloister, since photography is normally forbidden inside, and the cloister was the only part of the building that I felt I could get away with taking pictures of without some irate priest asking me to leave. Also, the cloister was immediately obvious to me as a location in Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies, so I felt it was worth the risk of snapping a quick picture. We then headed over to the castle, but couldn’t get in yet because only guided tours could go, and those only started at 2. Instead, we started looking around for someplace to have lunch, and soon settled on a nearby pub (Varsity, if I remember the name correctly). I decided to avoid the temptation of fish and chips, and decided to order scampi with mushed peas instead. Soon after I had placed my order, I was told that the pub had run out of scampi, and when I was asked to order something else, I immediately blurted out “fish and chips.” It seems that my attempts to try and eat healthy once in a while are being foiled by my stomach. At least they gave the mushed peas too.
We then managed to get on a tour of the castle, which, as it turns out, is not uninhabited. In fact, it’s currently one of the residences for Durham University… not that I’m jealous or anything. I couldn’t take pictures inside there, either, since they don’t allow it. Nice place, though.
Afterwards, we all decided to get coffee at Starbucks to kill some time before the train arrived. Instead of just sitting there, we all ended up having a 2 and a half hour debate on subjects like the death penalty and the influence of pharmaceutical companies on how doctors treat patients (ie how often they just resort to prescribing medication). It didn’t get too heated (fortunately). We then went to the station and got on the train back to Newcastle and then all walked back home.
Geez, it’s hard to believe I’ve been here for almost a month already.
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