Living in Newcastle: Weeks 10-11

Jeez, the past two weeks have been quiet. For the most part, I’ve been reading books (see below for a full list) and watching movies at the local cinema and/or watching TV shows on Netflix. I’ve definitely been getting my money’s worth out of that last one. The most noteworthy event of the past few weeks was when I went to Edinburgh on the train last Saturday for the day. I spent most of the day in the old part of town, particularly around the Royal Mile. I ended up visiting a lot of small places there, including the Writer’s Museum (mostly for the exhibit on Robert Louis Stevenson, author of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Treasure Island). I also went to the Camera Obscura museum, which is a small museum filled with all sorts of optical illusions and was kind of fun. Before heading up to Edinburgh Castle, I went for lunch in a cafe, where I decided to try haggis. I found that I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, and I’ll be sure to have some again the next time I have the chance. The castle was quite interesting, and actually had several museums inside it, including the Scottish National War Museum (which proved to be somewhat larger than I expected) and the Royal Scots Regimental Museum (you’d think they would just be the same museum). I ended up wandering around for a bit afterwards, and I ended up stumbling upon the Elephant Cafe, where J. K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book. I also found a blue police box (Doctor Who fans will understand what’s so special about this), which was surprising, because 1) I thought they had only been in London and 2) I thought that they had all been replaced by now. My only complaints are that the weather in Edinburgh is terrible: it was incredibly cold while I was there, and it rained on and off the whole day (from what the locals say, this seems to be the usual weather there).

Things have been pretty quiet in Newcastle: I’ve been living off prepared meals from Mark & Spencers (especially Indian food), and since a lot of people were still away, I spent trying new shows on Netflix and going to the movies. The best show I found on Netflix so far (that I hadn’t watched before) is Red Dwarf, a British sci-fi comedy from the ’80s and ’90s about a group of morons trying to get back to Earth… 3 million years after an accident that left only one human survivor. The group consists of Dave Lister, the lone human survivor and lowest ranking crewmember on the mining ship Red Dwarf (thanks to being in stasis at the time of the accident), a hologram simulation of Arnold Rimmer, the second-lowest ranking crewmember and the guy whose incompetence caused the accident that killed everyone else, the Cat (the humanoid descendent of Lister’s cat, which survived the accident by being in the hold at the time while being pregnant), and Holly, the ship’s AI (has an IQ of 6000, but has gone senile over the years). The show is basically about the wacky hijinks they all get into due to their stupidity (though Lister shows some signs of actually being very intelligent, but lazy), though a lot of the humour is basically seeing Rimmer being an uptight “smeghead” (as the show puts it) and causing major problems (mostly for himself). It’s worth noting that up to the point where I’m at (halfway through season 2), the crew hasn’t encountered any aliens or other humans, which probably makes it unique among sci-fi shows.

Anyways, I’m going to stop writing now, since I finally start classes again tomorrow, and I need to get plenty of sleep.

Books read: Killing Pablo (Mark Bowden), The Atrocity Archives, The Jennifer Morgue, The Fuller Memorandum (Charles Stross), Bad Science (Ben Goldacre), The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)

Now reading: The Crusades (Thomas Asbridge)

Living in Newcastle: Week 9

Well, I’m finally back in Newcastle. All the traveling was nice, but now I just feel like relaxing around here until the end of the break (mostly because all that walking around in London proved to be quite tiring, and I’d like to catch up on sleep).

We didn’t end up going to Harrod’s on Wednesday; instead, we went on a free walking tour of a good chunk of London. I can’t say it was very good; we ended up pretty much going to places we had already been to on our own, and it took about 3 hours, which meant that my feet were killing me at the end. We then had lunch in a pub near Westminster Abbey, and I then saw why I’m glad I didn’t do an exchange in London, because it immediately became apparent that the city is MUCH more expensive than Newcastle, with a sandwich costing around 5 pounds and a plate of fish and chips being twice that (for the record, you can get fish and chips in Newcastle for 4 pounds). We then made our way to the Underground to get to the Tower of London, where despite everyone grumbling about the price of admission (16 pounds for students), we paid up and went in. The Tower obviously hasn’t changed that much in the past few years (still has Henry VIII’s armor, complete with codpiece that’s somewhat larger than my skull), but we were lucky enough to get inside in time for a tour given by one of the Beefeaters (the Tower guards), who managed to be a much better guide than the one we had in the morning (plus he cracked a ton of jokes and seemed to have my sense of humor). We ended up leaving just in time for the Tower to close, and went back to Green Park. We got some food at Marks & Spencer’s nearby, and ate in the park (not sure who thought it up, but I can’t say I enjoyed the mosquitoes hanging about), then went back to our hostel to hang out until around 11 or so.

We started last Thursday by going to Harrod’s in the late morning / early afternoon (it’s a bit of a gray zone). We were supposed to meet the girls there around noon, but they ended up coming late because of the time needed to register for classes back home. We ended up meeting in the technology section on the 3rd floor, and somehow ended up going to the Toy Kingdom on the next floor (I suspect it has to do with all the Harry Potter stuff in there). We walked over to Kensington Gardens, then took the Tube over to Leicester Square, where Antoine and I bought tickets to We Will Rock You. We all hung out around Piccadilly Circus for a few hours, then the girls left in order to get their luggage from their hostel and catch their train back to Newcastle. Meanwhile, Antoine and I walked over to the Dominion Theater on Tottenham Court Road, where We Will Rock You was playing. I had been looking forward to this show for years (only two musicals I want to see even more are Les Miserables and Spamalot), and it didn’t disappoint at all. I enjoyed it so much that I bought Queen’s Greatest Hits I and II on iTunes the next day. After the show ended, we staggered back to the hostel and more or less collapsed out of exhaustion.

I spent Friday morning registering for courses back at Concordia for next fall and winter semesters. I ended up running into some trouble when I found out that the History Department adviser had failed to unblock my access to 400-level history courses, which means I can’t sign up for them, despite my having emailed him about it over a week before. I was disappoint (I don’t think anybody over age 25 will recognize this last sentence as anything more than a grammatical error; everyone else may or may not recognize it as a meme). I managed to sign up for all the other classes I wanted, though now my Winter 2013 schedule looks very lopsided, since classes are either early in the morning or at night. Guess I’ll have lots of time for a job, then. Antoine and I went to the Science Museum in the afternoon, and we didn’t even manage to see everything, despite being there for about 5 or 6 hours. It’s that big. Good thing it was also very interesting stuff.

We both slept in on Saturday morning, then walked to the British Museum. We stayed there for the entire afternoon once again. I was quite surprised to see that part of the Japanese exhibit was dedicated to a manga that took place entirely within the British Museum. The pages they showed were so interesting that I ended up buying the book (Professor Munakata’s British Museum Adventure) at the Museum bookstore. I couldn’t get into the Reading Room because it’s now only used for special temporary exhibitions, which greatly disappointed me, since it was one of the things I had been looking forward to the most in London. We both went to sleep early that night, since we had to check out before 10 the next morning.

We actually ended up checking out at around 9:30 the next morning, and got to King’s Cross extra early, since our train only left at 11:30. The ride back was uneventful; Antoine slept, and I read. We took a cab back to Castle Leazes, and I unpacked my stuff (after making sure my computer and everything else I left behind were still where I left them). I then went and got some groceries at the nearby Tesco Express. I then proceeded to watch Monty Python’s Life of Brian and go to sleep after talking with the family on Facetime.

Monday was fairly uneventful; I spent the morning cleaning up, and went to Starbucks in the afternoon to use their relatively slow and unrestricted Internet (can’t use Steam on the university network ). I tried to get in touch with Antoine, but no luck through either text messages, phone calls, or Facebook messages. I suspected at that point that he was still asleep (wouldn’t be the first time he slept for an entire day, though I don’t think that’s particularly healthy). Everyone else I tried getting in touch with seems to be in Scotland, Ireland, or Amsterdam (is there much to do in Amsterdam besides taking advantage of the legalized drugs or the red-light district? If somebody knows, can they tell me?). I then went  to Marks and Spencer’s to get some food for supper. I am never going to Tesco again (except to buy yogurt or something else that Marks and Spencer’s doesn’t have, which I suspect is not much). Tried getting in touch with Antoine again, still nothing. Ended up watching The Big Lebowski on my computer, since I’ve managed to not watch it over the course of the 14 or so years since it was released. I ended up spending about 2 hours laughing loudly.

I slept in this morning until about 9:30 or so, which was nice. Decided to go out and buy a new Kindle case, which was more difficult than I thought because there aren’t that many cases available for the Kindle 3 anymore; it’s all about these newfangled Kindle Touch and Fire devices now. Finally managed to get in touch with Antoine after several more attempts; apparently his phone was off and he was still asleep until about 2:30 or so. Wouldn’t be surprised if he’s been sleeping since Sunday afternoon. Had to get inside due to rain turning into small snowstorm quite suddenly. Hopefully I can get Antoine to emerge from his room or something.

Books finished this week: Accelerando (Charles Stross), Professor Munakata’s British Museum Adventure (Hoshino Yukinobu)

Now reading: Killing Pablo (Mark Bowden, aka the guy who wrote Black Hawk Down)

Living in Newcastle: Weeks 8-9: Spring Break Days 5-10

Whoo, this week’s even more hectic than last week. Thursday was Louvre day, where we managed to go around a large part of the museum. We managed to see most of the Denon wing in the morning, where the Italian and Spanish paintings, including the Mona Lisa, are kept. We then went on through the Sully wing, spending a lot of time looking at the Egyptian artifacts (not exactly my favorite historical period) and medieval relics (much better). After lunch at McDonalds (ugh!) we went to the Richelieu wing, where we saw Napoleon III’s apartments, which looked even more lavishly decorated than Versailles; no small feat. We returned to Antoine’s house that night, feeling completely exhausted. We went to sleep early that night, since Antoine and the others needed to wake up early to get to the Gare du Nord in Paris.

The others woke me up early, since they wanted me to wake Antoine up. Still don’t know why they couldn’t do that themselves and decided to wake me up at 5 in the morning, but whatever. Antoine drove them to the station in Paris and came back after a long drive. We hung out until the early afternoon, when I had to take the train to Paris to stay with my grandparents. I spent Saturday and Sunday morning relaxing, then went to the Champs Élysées and the Musée des Beaux Arts of Paris to kill time in the afternoon (and take plenty of pictures). I went to bed early, since I had my train to London to catch in the morning.

I left for the train station at 8, and made it through customs to get to the gate at around 9:15. I spent the trip reading magazines on my iPad, as well as continuing Accelerando (getting close to the end now!). I met Antoine at St Pancras, and we made our way to our hostel (the YHA Central London) on Bolsover, where we dropped off our bags and went to meet Jennifer (the Canadian one) and Ashleigh at Buckingham Palace. We went to Trafalgar Square for lunch (since I had been to London previously, I was forcibly appointed as guide), where we ate in the crypt of St Martin in the Field (it’s a café). We then walked through Leicester Square to get to Piccadilly Circus, where I bought a Doctor Who mug and coaster, and we walked to the nearby Waterstone’s, which is supposedly the biggest bookstore in all of Europe. It certainly looks the part! I felt like I had died and gone to heaven. After an hour or so, we walked back through Trafalgar Square to get to Whitehall, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. We then crossed the bridge to get to the London Eye, but everyone decided it was too pricey for just the view. We walked to Chinatown for supper, then to Tottenham Court Road for drinks before returning to our hostels. I attempted to do laundry, but the dryer proved to be inadequate at its job, and was also really damn slow.

First thing I did this morning was go back and dry my clothes, where I was met with success at last. Antoine and I left to meet the girls at Baker Street nearby, where we would go to the Sherlock Holmes Museum. I enjoyed it so much that I am currently writing this while wearing a deerstalker cap (the hat Holmes wears, only not actually that much). After walking a bit through Regent’s Park, we had lunch, and then split up, with Antoine and I going to Madame Tussaud’s and the girls going to the British Museum. The place hadn’t changed that much since the last time I went in 2008, and seems smaller than the one in New York. We then met up again to go to Camden market, where I bought some clothes. We had supper in a Japanese restaurant while having philosophical and ethical debates, then retired for the night out of exhaustion. Tower of London and Harrod’s tomorrow!

Living in Newcastle: Week 8: Spring Break Days 1-4

I am having an awesome week.

Wait, maybe I should elaborate. As I write this, I am sitting in my friend Antoine’s house in the French village of Fontainebleau (about an hour’s drive south of Paris when traffic is very light) after having gone to visit Versailles (admittedly the second time I’ve gone, but this was way more fun than last time). I think I’d better start from the beginning.

I left from Newcastle to Paris on Sunday afternoon, coming fresh from spending the previous day with my parents going to see The King’s Speech (the play, not the movie) and finally going to an Indian restaurant while dodging the debauched revelry of St Patrick’s Day (I hear it’s quieter in Ireland because everyone is at church). I spent the next morning getting the Kindle set up again while backing up all my data to about 3 different places (I don’t think my computer is forgiving me for that much work at once any time soon). I met the other members of my group of fellow travelers in the dorm reception, where we turned in our keys and left for lunch with our luggage. I got off to a great start: one of the wheels on my new suitcase more or less shredded itself on the way to the bar in the Student Union building (a fact that a drunken passerby was all too happy to point out while laughing to himself).

After having lunch, we hopped on the metro to the airport (why you not do this, Montreal?), where everything went smoothly (and where I found out that the guy who wrote Black Hawk Down had recently gotten a book on the hunt for Pablo Escobar published, to my great excitement). We got on the plane, where you were allowed to sit wherever you wanted (my choice: not next to the wing or in the back for once), and I spent the flight reading the hilarious An Utterly Impartial History of Britain. I found the flight to Charles de Gaulle Airport smooth; some didn’t (but I’m not about to give names). We all managed to get our luggage very quickly (first time ever!) and we got a lift from Antoine’s mom, who then made the extra effort of making a delicious quiche when we got to his house. Afterwards, we were all too tired to do anything more than crash in bed.

We woke up the next morning to find that Antoine had gotten up early and gone to one of the local bakeries to get some pastries for breakfast. He had planned to do this in advance, though he told me that he was aided in this endeavor by my snoring, which he described as being “louder than two bears fighting with chainsaws while roaring the entire time.”

I really need to find some Breath-Right strips.

Anyways, we spent the morning touring the local castle, which Antoine was quite knowledgable about (then again, it is a 20 minute walk from his house), where I made sure to take lots of pictures. We went to the forest in the afternoon, where there is a cliff with a great view of the area (again, took lots of pictures). We then lazed around his house in the late afternoon and evening, where Antoine and I played some co-op in Borderlands on his PS3. Result: I should stick to the PC version if I want to look competent. We went to bed early after having some raquelette for dinner, since we wanted to get a full day in Paris.

We woke up at 8 on Tuesday, since we wanted to catch the train to the Gare de Lyons in Paris. We took the metro from there to the Eiffel Tower, where I had to not only confront my fear of heights (again), but also my laziness, since we were taking the stairs up (roughly 700 steps to the 2nd level). My legs felt like they were burning almost right away, but I kept my mouth shut to avoid sounding like a whiner. We only got to the 2nd level because the stairs don’t go higher, but the view was good enough. We then started for the Arc de Triomphe, stopping for lunch at the Poincaré in the 16th arrondissement. The stairs in the Arc de Triomphe were a pain because they made me feel dizzy (shouldn’t have looked down while climbing them), but, you know, good view from the top. We went on the Champs-Élysées, where we got to go to the Virgin Megastore (wish it was still in North America) before heading to Notre-Dame, which we left right when the doors were closed. We then went back to Fontainebleau, where we more or less collapsed from exhaustion.

We took it easy this morning, and only left for Versailles after having lunch. Antoine drove us in his car, and we took advantage of the nice weather to look around the gardens after seeing the castle. There was a hilarious moment earlier, when we went to buy the tickets: I put a 50 euro bill in the ticket machine because, in my words to Antoine, I needed to make some change. The machine then spat out the 35 euros… In loose change. My pocket was thus very full, and Antoine got a good laugh out of it. After getting back to Fontainebleau, we got some pastries from a nearby bakery (I got an opera, which was delicious). Tomorrow, we will be spending the day at the Louvre.

Also, since traveling results in lots of time for reading, I will now be listing what books I’ve finished and what I’ve started on. Forever.
Finished: An Utterly Impartial History of Britain, John O’Farrell
Started: Accelerando, Charles Stross

Living in Newcastle: Weeks 6 and 7

Woo, finally managed to force myself back to the keyboard after two weeks! Don’t know why I procrastinated writing this long, since it means that much more to put into one post, but anyways…

So a few hours after my last blog post two weeks ago, I saw The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which is a British dramedy starring several recognizable and old (this is relevant to the plot) British actors, including Judi Dench (who knew that she plays roles outside of Bond movies these days?), Bill Nighy (apparently he’s tired of playing a pirate with a beard made of tentacles), and Maggie Smith (Professor McGonagall is now racist and in a wheelchair). The plot is that a bunch of elderly British retirees who don’t know each other decide to all retire to a hotel in India, which is run by the guy who starred in Slumdog Millionaire, they all end up getting to know each other, make a difference in each others lives, etc. Admittedly, it’s a really formulaic movie, but I really enjoyed it because it’s a) really well acted (which is what you expect when you stick so many big-name actors in the same movie) and b) really funny (although maybe it’s because I like British humour much more than American humour).

The rest of that week was fairly quiet, and the next week was even quieter due to my Japan since 1868 class being cancelled for the week (still no idea why, but whatever, more free time for me). The highlight of that week was definitely getting to see the family again in London (well, except for Michael, but he only had one week off, so it’s not like he could have joined the others on their two-week trip). I got off to a great start on Saturday morning by getting on the wrong train. Fortunately, it was just the earlier train to London and not a different line entirely, so I just got off at the next stop and waited for the right one to stop there (though I have to imagine my face looked hilarious when I found out I was on the wrong train, since the doors closed and the whole thing started moving at that very moment). Got to see everyone at King’s Cross in London, which involved me giving them a warm greeting… in the form of bear hugs for everyone (I’m sure my parents didn’t miss that!).

We got on the Underground to get to the apartment my parents rented for the week in Islington, which ended up being only one stop away. The place was quite nice, but it involved going up a few floors to actually get to it, which was made more difficult by everyone having luggage and needing to navigate a narrow staircase. I also found out relatively quickly that wearing a black hoodie and not bringing a lighter sweater was a bad idea, since London proved to be too hot for the hoodie, but too cold to just wear a T-shirt, resulting in my feeling far too warm. After a nice pub lunch, we took the train over to the Tate Modern, which was not exactly to my tastes, since I don’t get modern art. It all just looks inferior to earlier works, you know? Plus there seemed to be a lot of work that was way too phallic. We then went to a decent restaurant in Chinatown, then went back to the apartment to crash.

The next day was even busier, since we started off by going to the Victoria and Albert Museum, where I went to look at the Medieval and Renaissance Europe exhibit, as well as the Japanese art. I noticed that the main hall had a glass chandelier made by Dale Chihuly, whose work seems to be everywhere. It’s like nobody else makes glass anymore. Anyways, we then went over to Harrod’s, which hasn’t changed much in the last 4 years, though it was much more crowded than the last time I was there. Kate bought herself a bag there, which she seemed to have been looking forward to since leaving Montreal. We then went over to Kensington Gardens, and would have visited the palace there if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s closed for renovations. After dinner at a small, but very good Islington restaurant that I can’t remember the name of, we retreated to the apartment to collapse on our beds out of exhaustion once again.

We got an early start on Monday, since we wanted to see the changing of the Horse Guard (they’re guards mounted on horses, not the guys who guard the horses). This meant heading over to St. James Park and walking by Buckingham Palace, which I hadn’t had the chance to actually see before. I have to admit that it was even bigger than I expected. We killed some time before the guard change by walking around Whitehall and trying to get a look at  10 Downing Street, which is now blocked off to the public. The guard change started off well, but soon ended up consisting of a bunch of men in uniform sitting around on their horses for about 20 minutes without actually appearing to do anything. We then walked over to Trafalgar Square, where we got to see the column with Lord Nelson’s statue on top, then had lunch in a crypt. Have to admit that that was something I didn’t expect to ever do; turns out the local church had a cafe in the crypt, which actually had good food. Hope nobody’s angry spirit comes to haunt me for having a sandwich over their grave

We then had to go back to the apartment, since I needed to get my things to catch the train back to Newcastle. This time, I got on the right train, and I used the time on board to finish reading Sherlock Holmes (all of them). I got back just in time for supper in the dining hall, then met up with Antoine and convinced him to try some of the Coffee Crisp bars I brought back with me, which he seems to have really liked. Hard to believe the closest thing to it around here is toffee flavoured instead.

Went to class as usual this morning, but actually made my own lunch for once today. Admittedly, it was just a bagel with a spread of butter, salami, and beef, but it was a Montreal bagel, which automatically makes it better. I then got dragged along to go see This Means War, which was admittedly not as terrible as I expected. Which isn’t to say it’s good; it’s still terrible, but there were some moments that were funny (though not that many for a comedy). I suppose that I’ll have to start packing for my Easter break travels soon, since that’s starting this weekend. I’ll be sure to post far more regularly about my travels.

Living in Newcastle: Week 5

Before I actually start talking about my week, I just wanted to mention the change in the title of these entries. It seems simpler to label them by week than by day, because that will eventually get a bit long (seeing as how I’m here until mid-June or so). Just wanted to get that out of the way.

Anyways, the past week has been mostly uneventful. It’s mostly consisted of doing reading for my modules, which has been somewhat time-consuming, since professors here seem to feel that instead of having students write essays, they should just drown them in reading. I’d say it adds up to a few hundred pages of reading for each module per week. They also tend to be web-based journal articles, which makes it even more annoying because I either have to constantly switch between the browser and Microsoft Word in order to type, or have both open side to side, which means that the text in both gets smaller, and it feels like it takes even longer to read. Printing isn’t really an option, because it would take a lot of paper, and it would get expensive real fast, even when I only pay 4p for each sheet of paper I use to print. I’d also end up recycling it all anyways, so it seems like even more of a waste. At least the professors assign some readings in the textbooks once in a while, which is somewhat easier on the eyes. Well, that and the fact that I only go through the readings that look really important (which, to be fair, seems to be something the professors encourage, because otherwise there wouldn’t be enough time in the day to get them done).

Well, I also participated in the Castle Leazes pub quiz on Sunday night. I’m amazed how badly my team and I did: we were a bigger group than the week before, but we managed to do even more badly (last place this week versus fourth during the previous quiz). I blame our poor performance on the fact that most of the questions are so English in nature that not even the people from Ireland and Scotland could figure out the answers, so you can’t exactly expect people from Canada, the US, or France to really get them (well, unless they have something to do with Doctor Who, Blackadder, Sherlock Holmes, or Yes, Minister).

Wait, scratch the comment about the week being uneventful, the fire alarm seems to be going off. Be back soon.

(20 or so minutes later)

Well, that seems to have been a bit of a false alarm. There was some smoke, but it doesn’t look like there was a fire. Probably some idiot decided he wanted to have a smoke in his room or something. Well, that’s all I really have to say for this week.

Living in Newcastle: Days 14-27

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.

Living in Newcastle: Days 7-13

Apologies for the long wait between posts. I’ve been so busy this past week that writing has completely slipped my mind. Suppose I should get around to it now, since there’s a lot for me to write about.

I finally started my classes here… sorry, I mean my modules, since that’s what they’re called around here. I have two one-hour lectures for each module per week, along with another one-hour seminar. First class I had was Aspects of British History, which basically consists of learning about, well, different aspects of British history, mainly politics, society, and culture. That was early Tuesday morning last week, though we didn’t actually do much learning in the lecture that day: it was more about the professor explaining what the module will cover and how everything works, including how to sign up for seminars. We were also told that the second lecture of the week (normally early Wednesday afternoon) wouldn’t be held that week, but that we still had the seminars, and thus would need to do the necessary reading for them. I also noticed in the course handout that there was a lot of reading to do: more specifically, we need to read 2 or 3 articles for each lecture and the seminar, and that we should be ready to discuss the readings for the seminar. I got started on that in the afternoon, then got a call from Jennifer asking if I wanted to join everyone in going to the movies later that afternoon. We all met on the campus and walked to the local movie theatre, and ended up seeing the Iron Lady. If you don’t know that one, it’s the movie where Meryl Streep plays Margaret Thatcher (aka the Iron Lady). The acting in the movie was good, but it makes Thatcher look more sympathetic than she actually is in real life (I’ve been reading the book the movie was based on, which is much more even-handed and shows a lot of Thatcher’s bullying and stubbornness). We all ate at a nearby Pizza Hut, since the dining hall at the residence was closed by the time the movie finished, and I was reminded of why I stopped eating at Pizza Hut. Also, it took forever to actually get seated when the restaurant wasn’t even that full, and I don’t even want to get started on how long it took for the servers to get utensils or take our orders. We did all decide that we would make the Tuesday movie a weekly event, since they’re much cheaper on Tuesdays (only 3 and a half pounds, which is still cheaper than a Tuesday movie in Montreal, even when converting to the dollar).

I had my other two lectures the next day. Russia under Lenin and Stalin seems like an interesting course, and I had to keep myself from laughing out loud about how stereotypically British the professor was (though he has a sense of humour, which is good). Japan since 1868 is also an interesting course, though it looks like I’ve got a lot of readings for that course too (about as much as for Aspects of British History). Luckily, there are only exams at the end of the semester and no assignments, so I have lots of time to do the readings for all my modules (since I don’t have to move into a library to do research like in previous semesters, which is a nice change of pace for me).

I normally have the seminar for Russia under Lenin and Stalin and the second lecture for Japan since 1868 on Thursdays, but the seminar was cancelled for that week, so my day was shorter than usual. I spent some time hunched over at my desk taking notes in the afternoon, but I went out later to meet friends (including Jennifer and another Jennifer, who is from Idaho). We all found out that Jennifer had never seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail before, so we all agreed that since I had brought the DVD with me to Newcastle, we should all get together later that night to watch it in Jennifer’s room using Antoine’s giant laptop (though it’s big enough that I’m not sure it could be considered a portable computer). We all had a good time, which is probably due in part to the fact that we were also having cheap wine and chocolate while watching the movie. We then started to watch Four Weddings and a Funeral, which we all agreed may have been good when it first came out, but isn’t very watchable these days.

And no, I’m not going to specify which Jennifer is which; it’s funnier when readers try and guess.

Friday was supposed to be a busy day for me: Japan since 1868 seminar in the morning, Russia under Lenin and Stalin lecture at noon, and the Aspects of British History seminar at 3 in the afternoon. The seminars went well, but the lecture ended up not happening. We all ended up sitting in the lecture room for about half an hour before we all decided to leave. I got an email later from the professor apologizing, saying that he had gotten the times mixed up and that he would try and make up for the lost time next week.

On Saturday, we all went to the coast at Tynesmouth in the afternoon. I suspected the weather wouldn’t be very good because the forecast predicted rain, but I didn’t expect it to alternate between snow and freezing rain, with a constant freezing wind blowing in my face. We all took the requisite pictures and fled back to Newcastle after a few hours. I did manage to buy a small Dalek to decorate my desk at the market near the train. If you don’t know what a Dalek is, go watch some Doctor Who to find out. Better yet, go watch Doctor Who anyways, you won’t regret it. Go on, you can go watch some episodes now. Not like I’m going anywhere. I’ll wait.

Done yet? OK then, back to my blathering on about my life.  Sunday consisted of me mostly sitting at my desk taking notes, though I took a couple of hours in the middle of the day to go out and get some lunch, buy some groceries (Thank God for Nutri-Grain bars; I don’t know how I’d live without them, since I can’t find any Triscuits around here), walk around taking pictures, and buying music from HMV.

Monday was fairly similar, only replace the middle of the day part from the previous day with “going to the Freshers Carnival,” which is basically a club fair. I put my name down on some mailing lists (including the list of applicants for film writers for the school paper, The Courier, because why not), then went to look on the student union site for the list of clubs that weren’t at the Carnival, which was much more interesting. I ended up signing up for the Anime and Gaming clubs (obviously), the Politics and History clubs (well, I am studying those), the Psychology club (because that could be interesting), and finally the Jewish club (what? I haven’t met any other Jews around here yet). The last one got a hilarious reaction out of my mom when I told her on Skype, since she started to laugh (I had told her before I left that I didn’t intend to join such a club, and she predicted I would) and the connection froze in such a way that her image looked like the “AW YEAH” meme. If you don’t know what that is, chances are you are more than 25 years old or don’t spend that much time on the Internet. Or both, I guess.

Living in Newcastle: Days 2-6

It’s been a busy few days here in Newcastle. Since Thursday, I’ve gone through orientation sessions, made new friends, gone to local pubs, had beer more often than I probably should, visited a castle, wandered into Chinatown during a celebration for the Year of the Dragon (well, “wandered” implies that it was unintentional, but whatever), finally found the local Tesco, and eaten cereal straight of the box for breakfast on the weekend due to a lack of a bowl, milk, and a spoon. Well, maybe that last one isn’t so important.

I was required to go to an orientation session for international students early Thursday morning. It was there that I met with Antoine (from France), Jennifer (fellow Concordia student), and Elsa (from Finland) and quickly became friends with them. The funny thing is that I had this funny feeling that Antoine and Elsa reminded me of people I knew back home, and it was only later that I realized that they were incredibly similar to my friends Ben and Ashley (pretty much clones, in fact). We ended up hanging out for the rest of the day, even going to dinner at a nearby pub (known as the Crow’s Nest).

The next day started with another meeting, though this was meant to introduce us to our schools (re: our programs) and then have us sign up for our modules (classes) and their associated seminars, all while making sure that there was no overlap on our timetables. On that note, the timetables we have to work with are among the most painful to look at, and required detailed explanation from nearby professors. I had to get my courses signed off by the guy from the history school at the module fair, then run to the school’s office to get the course choices confirmed, since the spaces were very limited and I needed to make sure that I actually got the courses I wanted (and had already gotten approved by Concordia, since the whole approval process was a big enough pain at home. We all went to another local pub (the Trent House that night).

On Saturday morning, I walked over to the closest bookstore (Blackwell’s) to buy some of the books for my courses, and managed to get a good deal of them at a much better price than I would ever find at the Concordia bookstore, though I had to walk another 15 minutes to Waterstone’s (another bookstore) to find one of them (which I found out today I don’t actually need, so back to Waterstone’s tomorrow). In the afternoon, we (except for Antoine, who was busy getting problems with his phone and classes sorted out) walked over to the quayside, where we found local sites like St. Nicholas’ Cathedral, the Castle Keep (aka Castle Garth), the Black Gate (nowhere near as imposing as the one to Mordor, let me tell you), and the Millenium Bridge. I also got some cereal, Nutrigrain bars, and bananas on the way back so that I could survive the weekend without the catered meals, but I had no luck with finding things like bowls, spoons, or coffee mugs. We were all so tired by the end of the day that we didn’t even bother going out for supper (though I don’t think any of us were that hungry anyways)

The next day, I tried to rectify the breakfast situation by going out early, only to find out that most stores only open at 10:30 or 11 on Sunday mornings. I went back to the residence to meet with the others, since we planned to go to Chinatown for the festival for the Year of the Dragon (Chinatown in England, who would’ve thought?). We didn’t end up doing much, since it started raining, though we did get a good combo meal in a local Chinese restaurant. We also managed to find the local Tesco (British equivalent of Metro or Publix) and grabbed some more provisions.

Today, I basically spent my time running errands, since I don’t have classes on Mondays (for once, this wasn’t intentional). I managed to get utensils, notebooks, a coffee mug, another textbook, a cereal bowl, etc. I was actually so worn down that I took a quick nap in the afternoon (completely out of the ordinary for me, let me assure you). I now feel ready for my first class tomorrow… which is good, because I only have the one on Tuesdays (Wednesday is the real busy day). Going to sign off now. Need to get some sleep.

Living in Newcastle: Day 1

So it’s about 10:30 PM right now. Despite having gone through a long day of sleeping on planes, reading in Heathrow, eating mediocre airplane food, and running around trying to get a working Internet connection, I seem to have somehow found myself sitting in a bar watching Real Madrid and Barcelona run around kicking a ball. But I’m getting ahead of myself now. I should start from the beginning.
So the day (or rather last night) started with me going to the airport to get on the plane to Heathrow, where I would then sit for about 5 hours before getting another plane to Newcastle. Even after I got to the gate, I was trading jokes with Michael through text messages, though I suspect that he took me seriously when I said that I wouldn’t help him with his video game class after he joked about erasing my Xbox game saves. Then I got on the plane. Last time I flew to London, I spent the flight watching episodes of Doctor Who on my iPod and didn’t bother sleeping at all. That didn’t happen this time, mostly because I didn’t have Doctor Who episodes with me this time. Instead, I just crashed until they began serving dinner, then went back to sleep until breakfast.
When I got to Heathrow, I had to go through the part of the trip that I dreaded the most: Immigration. I felt ready, though, since I had prepared the reams of paper I needed for entry. I felt somewhat disappointed when I was just asked a few token questions, then had my passport stamped. This meant that I had a boatload of free time, which I then proceeded to waste by rewatching Star Wars Episode III on my iPad and laughing at how bad the dialogue was, then starting on that biography of Steve Jobs (spoilers: he was totally nuts). I got on the flight to Newcastle around 1, and proceeded to take a nap again. When I landed, I was lucky enough to get my luggage instead of having it lost (again).
After I picked up my bags, I was greeted by Newcastle University’s Meet and Greet service, who called taxis to the residences for me and a few other international students. I got to my room (which is kind of small, but I expected that) and unpacked, then tried to connect to the internet, with no success. I spent most of the afternoon running around trying to get this fixed, eventually being told by the security guy at reception that they had tech support at the library where I had to go get my smart card. This meant I could kill two birds with one stone… After I had supper, which included rice pudding (which Dad didn’t eat before I could have some, for once). I then walked to the library, which was all the way across the campus, got my Internet fixed, picked up my smart card, and then proceeded to find out that most of my games don’t work when there’s a VPN connection. So I decided to blog instead.