Class queues and Libbeh-poo

Well, suffice it to say there have been some interesting things going on since the last time I blogged. Last Monday was the “official” start of the academic year at Hull, however there were no classes.Instead, we took the time to finish up registering for classes and amending our schedules. The module (class) sign up process is a lengthy one, so I really won’t get into it. Basically, it involves a lot, I mean A LOT, of standing in lines to get A (as in one) signature. After calculating it all, I approximate around 5 hours of standing in lines to sign up for 3 classes. I was not a happy camper. Anyway, I got my last class signed off on Tuesday which meant I had the rest of the week to relax until my final departmental meeting I had to attend on Friday.

We decided to go to the movies for a night on the town. Going to a movie in England is pretty much the same as going to one in America, except they didn’t put nor did they offer to put butter on the popcorn. It was good anyway. Oh, another difference is some movies come out later here than in the states.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, until Friday. We decided we wanted to go somewhere over the weekend and finally came to a consensus on Liverpool. When I say we finally came to a consensus, I mean I said, “You guys want to go to Liverpool,” to which they responded, ”Sure.” I did some research and found out that bus tickets are about 25-40% cheaper than train tickets, so that is the method we choose.  However, the journey was going to take us right around 6 hours. It would be a challenge to maintain sanity. Our coach left the Hull station at 140 pm and it started well, for about the first 30 seconds. We went to the upper level, and were immediately followed by a mother, her 2 kids, and her friend. Usually, it is the children that cause the problems. I am convinced that many children are born with a gene that forces them to emit a loud, almost inaudible screech as soon as they enter any form of public transit, continuing until the journey ends. I digress. The children were not a problem at all, as compared to their mother. She was loud, would not control the kids so they screamed, and she smoked (twice) on the bus, which is illegal. Oh well, at least that ride was only about 2 hours. Sense the sarcasm? I’ll change the subject before I rant.

We had a little lay over in Leeds which allowed us all to get some food, not to mention some fresh air after that first ride. The next ride was on a much nicer bus and was right around 3 1/2 hours. Even though the trip was a little long, the views along part of the trip were amazing. Although we had seen part of the countryside when we were in Bassingborn, it was an all new experience on the M62 between Leeds and Manchester. The terrain was hilly, spotted with herds of sheep, cattle, and horses. In areas there were some trees, but largely it was bare with prairie like grasses. There were also remnants of what appeared to be old stone walls throughout much of the trip. I remember reading that there were such remnants of ancient Roman walls in Northern England, and I’m interested to find out if those were it.

Upon our arrival in Liverpool (pronounced Libbeh-poo by locals), we finally saw one England tradition we had not yet seen: rain. Oh well, I guess it had to happen sometime. We hailed a taxi (our first ever) and got a ride to the Nightingale hostel, which I had booked the night before. These were two things I was very weary of. One, getting into a taxi with a perfect stranger at the wheel was something I had never done before, even in America. I wasn’t really afraid of getting kidnapped or anything like that, but was instead concerned he would overcharge us upon hearing our accents. I’m glad to say that our driver was very nice, recommending some places for us to go see the next day and charging us was seemed to be a fair amount for the trip. Now onto my next concern, the hostel. The name itself really implies something ominous and dodgy (to use a local term), not really a place you really want to sleep. I had done the research and it seemed to be a nice place in a decent neighborhood, but you really never know until you get there what it’s going to be like. We stepped inside and it was marvelous. Everything was clean and the common areas were neat, providing us with some activities had our stay been longer. Our room was basic, four beds and a sink. Upon further inspection, the bathrooms and toilets were sanitary and in working condition. Success. We all pretty much sacked out around 9 o’clock and all, except myself, slept peacefully. I spent the night being sick, because it would seem customary that since I was on vacation, I should fall ill.

The next morning we all awoke. I still was feeling sick but I really didn’t want that to put a damper on the weekend, so I used the hostel computer to book another hostel for that night. That way if we were out seeing the sites and I didn’t feel up to it I could just go to the new hostel and rest. We checked out and began to walk to a few of the areas our nice cabbie had told us about the night before.

We saw some amazing churches which, of course, were very old, and then headed down to Alberts Dock, which is where most of the main attractions were in the city. The walk was only about and mile and a half, but with spitting rain and gail force winds, it made for a less than pleasant journey. The views from the dock were pretty cool, but we quickly headed inside to escape the cold. There were a plethora of shops that we stopped in, virtually all featuring Beatles paraphernalia or candy as their main product. We spent some time walking around until we found a few museums that looked promising. It may be important to point out that the reason they were so appealing was the fact that they were free to enter. The Maritime Museum and International Slave Museum shared a 5 story building on Alberts Dock. All in all, it was interesting but there were two parts which I found to be the most enticing. One, a new exhibit called Seized led you thru the operations of customs. It showed why people tried smuggling items, and then showed you how they did so, which was the most interesting. Featured were fake limbs, guitars, pottery, books, and virtually anything else you would commonly carry on an airplane. They also had an array of weaponry people attempted to transport. Drugs were another feature, and what made it interesting was most of the artifacts and examples were taken from Heathrow airport in London, where we had flown into on day 1. There was a full body xray of some guy who had 15 kilos of cocaine in his digestive tracts, hidden in bundles which he had swallowed. Perhaps the most interesting piece that had been confiscated from a traveler was pickled baby cobra. It is exactly what it sounds like. A dead, pickled baby cobra in a cough syrup sized bottle. Why would anyone want this, well to drink it of course. I’m all for trying new foods while abroad, but if someone comes to the table with a bottle of serpent’s finest, I think I will pass.

The next interesting thing was the Titanic exhibit. They didn’t have much from the Titanic itself, but  displayed were items from the life rafts survivors escaped on. The reason for this is the ship which came to the Titanic’s rescue, the Carpathia, was based out of Liverpool. Pretty cool, huh?

After the museum we stopped at a restaurant on the docks. I had the duck wrap with plum sauce. Exquisite.

By that time we were ready to head to our next hostel and relax for a bit, and after some jostling around Liverpool to find a cab which knew where we were heading, we arrived. First of all, let me put you at ease. We are completely fine, no scars, wounds, or permanant disfiguring, got it? Remember how I said things can look great online, but you really never know until you get there. Well, this would be one of those times where you question your judgement. We arrived at the address and got out of the taxi. We were looking for 39 Kempton road, we saw 37 and 41. Inbetween those houses was a big, black iron gate which led to a back alley. Hmmm. I looked through the gate and sure enough, there was the sign for the Old Dairy Hostel. The gate was unlocked so we tentatively walked inside. The entrance to the hostel was locked, and as we were headed around the corner to find another way, a gentleman from the hostel opened the door and ushered us inside. Turns out, in this case, its not whats on the cover that counts. Although the outside neighborhood APPEARED rough, the hostel was actually quite nice. The guy who let us in was very helpful and welcoming, even gave us some free towels to use while there. I think the reason the surroundings seemed so bad was because the night before we were in prime tourist territory with cool things to look at, whereas now we were in a residential area. Yet again, I digress. The absolute best part about this hostel: FREE CABLE TV. Of course, the channels were British so we had to look a little harder to find familiar viewing options, but alas we did. We watched Scrubs, Star Trek, My Name is Earl, and a few episodes of Friends. One thing to mention abou the Friends episodes we watched: do you think its weird that 2 of the 3 we watched were Thanksgiving episodes, when in fact we are in a country that not only does not celebrate Thanksgiving, but the US celebrates it as part of settling into their new world AWAY from the English? We thought so too. Now onto the worst part of the hostel: Columbians. Go ahead and read Cait’s blog to find out more about that.

The next day was all travel back to Hull and preparation for our first day of class.

And that brings us to today, Monday, Oct. 5. I finally attended class today for the first time in around 5 months. The way classes are run here are a bit different. You have your lecture, and MOST classes have a tutorial accompanying the lecture. These tutorials meet at different times during the week and are used to supplement your learning. For example, if you were taking History of America, you might have your lecture for two hours every Monday, and your tutorial for an hour every Wednesday. I went into the day knowing that I had the following already scheduled:

Religions in Antiquity 1215-205 Monday

Buyer Behavior 215-415 Monday

American Art 315-515 Tuesday

I figured I would have to schedule tutorials in between, HOWEVER turns out I have no tutorials so at 515 on Tuesdays,  I am done with class for the week. Score.

Classes went well today, religions was kind of boring but my buyer behavior promises to save my Monday afternoons for me.

Whew. That was a long one. Our plan for this weekend is to go to Salisbury, which is where Stonehenge is at. I’m planning on blogging every Monday about the previous weeks happenings so be sure to check in and see what’s up.

Cheerio.

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