Nott What You'd Expected...

History Boys, Derbyshire, Fresher's Fayre

Well, after a fun-filled week of Oreintation, it felt great to be back in the flat and get back to normal. After deciding to skip out on our last Orientation meal (influenced by our missing the bus' last stop of the day), we made a long and rainy walk around the block to a local Chinese food/Traditional English fried food joint. Let's just say I'm counting down the days until June 7th when I can mow down some Tsing Tsao crab rangoon.

Saturday was again, lazy. Most of the day was spent catching up on the 130 pages of reading for our International Studies 135 course "Exploring Britian" (basically a travel course with random quizzes and tests and reading assingments and journals), which we followed with a three page test that Mark and Carol brought over to the flat. Sample Question: "Describe, draw an example, and give an approximate date for the following styles of arches and windows in English Cathedrals: 1)Norman, 2)Roman, 3)Gothic, 4)Perpendicular, and 5)Decorated "

Are you kidding me?

Fortunately, Satuday ended on a good note, as we headed to the Royale Theatre in town to watch The History Boys, a play written by national genius Alan Bennett.

The story is interesting- old crotchety teacher, new uptight but smart wiseass teacher, kids that are smart but don't care, mixed with a little homoeroticism and plasma screens that played music from the Dire Straits and other 1980's indie groups made for a play that was both challenging and entertaining. It made me wonder- would a story that contained so much locational humor (making fun of going to different universities in the UK), and so much homosexual entendre ever make it in the US? Emily says it's on broadway, so i guess it has, but a lot of the humor has to be lost on US audiences.

The audience here was so amazingly cultured. At one point, the characters start speaking french as part of a class- the scene lasts about 10 minutes, and it's hilarious, but as a non-french speaker, I was soooo lost at times. The audience around me, however, was dying with laughter....

In other news, MAGNUM is everywhere here.... from ice-cream treats to electric dryers, it's all over the place. (pics later)
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Sunday provided a nice trip to Derbyshire, where we visited an Anglican church and took part in a mass, presided over by a local bishop... the guy was hilarious, and afterwards the entire congregation cornered us and made us stay for tea and coffee. Carol was pursuaded into buying a ton of Plum Jam, while Brandon left with an 80 year old's phone number....


After lunch, we visited Haddon Hall (another ancient building) that had been unused for about 200 years, and had recently been restored. The garden was amazing, and the following pics do it more justice than I ever could with words:



Later, we had tea, scones, and clotted cream. Very English. Stomachs full, we went on a 6 mile hike across the Moors. The following pics, again, will do more justice than I ever could.


These pics are included for several reasons. 1) The Red Lion is one of the most popular names for pubs in the UK. Crosscountry Runners will know why. 2) All Handicapped signs here are backwards, and it bugs the crap out of me. Maybe it's the whole 'left side of the road' thing. 3) The last one is just funny. Note the steaming pile.



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Today was Fresher's Fayre, a chance for first year students at the University to check out the more than 120 societies and groups on campus. It's hard for me to understand, and I forget at times that Nottingham has over 30,000 students. That's bigger or as big as ISU... a big change for a little Luther-ite like myself. The fair took place in a two-tented sauna on the Sportscenter Green on the far side of campus.
The groups i've decided to join thus far? Athletics and Crosscountry, The Real Ale Club, the English Dept Society, and the AmeriCan Society which focuses on American studies students. All of the groups provide socials, events, and get togethers throughout the year. I just hope I can balance our Tuesday night class here at the flat and all of the groups at the same time.... it's a little daunting.

Tonight and tomorrow will be a scheduling nightmare trying to figure out what classes to take, but it will be amazing to finally know what our normal schedule will be. The last few weeks of 'floating' is starting to get old...

Tomorrow: register for English classes, pay Fresher's Fayer membership fees, read Chpt 9 for our guest speaker tomorrow night....

until then,

kevin

posted by Kevin @ 3:21 PM