Wining and Dining in England

I’ve written about my housing, so I figure the next step in my Domestic Report is on the food over here. I have to admit, the food over here isn’t radically different from what you’d find in the US. Sure, there are a few quirks.

For example:

-They are very big on parsnips over here. Mashed parsnips, fresh parsnips, frozen parsnips, parsnips and potatoes… I will have to try my hand at cooking some parsnips one of these days.

-I can’t find turkeys in the grocery store. I know they’re a New World domesticate, but can’t believe they haven’t exported some over here. Have seen lots of chicken and duck, though.

-Marmite. Not that jam-like stuff made with oranges. Not the woodchuck-like creature that lives in North America. Marmite is a yeast spread. Brits tried to describe it to me, and it just sounded worse and worse. Apparently, it takes a very special person to be able to eat this stuff, but it’s still considered a national treasure. The English equivalent of haggis, perhaps?

-Digestive biscuits. The name sounds kind of gross, but all it means is “graham cracker shaped like a cookie.” Sometimes they even come half-dipped in chocolate. Mmm….

-Generic brand beer. Seriously. I saw a guy at the Morrisons supermarket with a Morrisons brand lager 6-pack.

-The Brtis are obsessed with Cheddar. In the cheese section, it’s a safe bet that at least 70% of the selection will be different types of cheddar.

-It is almost impossible to find a box with only 20 bags of tea.  They usually come in boxes of 40, 50, or 80 tea bags. I am certainly glad I like the varieties I’ve chosen- otherwise, I would have had a lot of unwanted tea on my hands.

-Pickle doesn’t necessarily mean pickled cucumbers, and flavor varies wildly. Caveat emptor!

-High fructose corn syrup is no longer a concern: everything’s made with cane sugar or similar natural sweeteners.

-The Fanta over here is made with real fruit juice. You can see the pulp settle in the bottom of the bottle. Pulp! In soda!

-The plums over here are tiny. Maybe half the size of plums in the US. They must give American plums steroids or something to make them that big… They also have really tiny lemons. And tiny zucchini. Lots of cute, tiny produce, really…

-Speaking of tiny, the grocery stores over here are really single-person friendly. They sell part of a head of broccoli, ½ pound of ground beef, ½ of a cucumber, 1 pint of milk, a carton of 4 eggs. For someone with limited fridge space and only one person to feed, it’s really nice.

Things I’ve started eating/drinking since coming to Britain:

-Wine: After several wine and cheese socials during the introduction weeks, I finally decided I was just going to drink it and like it. To my surprise, it isn’t all that bad. I still have to stay away from anything expressly labeled “dry” though, and whites have been more palatable than reds.

-Cucumbers: They come on a lot of sandwiches over here, and I have simply given up avoiding them and picking them off things. Not all that bad, actually. I’m not quite sure why I hated them so vehemently.

-Tea: Kind of a staple of life in Britain. I was half convinced that they wouldn’t let you into the country until you proved you could drink tea. And with how crappy their coffee is, I now understand why everyone over here drinks a lot of tea. And it is very calming.

-Also, I may have to reverse my fiercely negative opinion of gravy granules.

Out and About:A Sampling of Restaurant Culture

-Cider, cider, cider: For the person who doesn’t like beer, but still would like to order something cheap on tap, England is heaven. Hard cider is big over here, and actually comes in several varieties. Some are nastier than others (Strongbow!), and some are good, but harder to find on tap (Gaymers). They even have pear ciders. It’s nice to be able to order a pint, and no one’s the wiser that you don’t like beer. Plus, the cider over here is delicious. For those who do like beer, the options are often extensive.

-Cheese-lover’s heaven: At the local pub the archaeologists frequent, you can order something called a Cheese Board. This consists of four varieties of cheese and crusty bread, served on a wooden cutting board. Stilton, Brie, Red Leicester, mozzarella… Amazing.

-Traditional English Breakfast: Having opted for the morning meal at the Your Hostel on the Hadrian’s Wall trip, I was excited to see what was included in a traditional English breakfast. What I discovered was that the Brits are obsessed with protein when it comes to their morning meal. The menu included eggs, baked beans, bacon (which is really more like Canadian bacon), sausage, some form of bread with butter and jam, yogurt, and fruit. I am assured that this is not a common breakfast menu, but rather something for special occasions or eating out. Still, protein overload!

-Yes, you can find a good cheeseburger at an English restaurant.

-There is a Subway restaurant in my dorm complex. It’s a bit surreal for me, since I don’t really associate Subway with European food. Ah, globalization…

-Two most common types of restaurants I’ve seen so far (besides pubs)? Curry houses and fast food fried chicken places. The curry I understand, the chicken I don’t.

Tune in  next time for more travel reports. Up next: The Great Hadrian's Wall Adventure!

Putting the Castles in "Castles and Bones"

I have been trying to write up my adventure to Warwick Castle for almost two weeks now, with no success. So here it is, a last-ditch attempt to tell you all about my first big tourist trip in England.

As a sidenote, I have attempted to include a link that anyone can follow to my Warwick Castle album on Facebook. Let me know if it doesn't work!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2555291&id=14814634&l=adb4270eb5

Also, you can click on any of the photos in the blog to see a bigger version of the picture!


The International Student Welcome Program set up a field trip for all of us who opted to go on a Saturday. It was a full day: we had to travel about an hour by bus to the castle, and were there from about 11:30am-4pm. I went with a group of people I had been spending time with during Welcome Week, an eclectic group of majors and nationalities. We had a pretty good time exploring the castle!

Warwick Castle has been home to some very important people in English history. Like much of this part of England, Warwick was an integral earldom in the War of the Roses, which was fought in the mid to late 1400's. It all began when a weak king was deposed by another offshoot of the royal line, who was later challenged by yet another (only slightly more legitimate) offshoot of the royal line. Complicated politics, lots of battles, lots of major regime changes.

The most famous inhabitant of Warwick Castle was Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. He gained the title through marriage to the heiress of the last Earl of Warwick. Richard Neville is often referred to as "the Kingmaker", or simply as "Warwick." He is famous for having used his wealth and leadership to overthrow King Henry VI, the Lancastrian king, in favor of Edward IV, a Yorkist. When he failed to get along with King Edward's wife's formidable family, he managed to overthrow Edward and put Henry back on the throne. Eventually, he was killed in battle, and Edward regained the throne. A tumultuous life, in which Richard pretty much called the shots in England. Having recently read a good deal on the Wars of the Roses, I was excited to see Warwick's home.

{{Coincidentally, Richard Neville was the grandson of Joan Beaufort, who was the half-sister of King Henry IV, who started the Wars of the Roses and the House of Lancaster by taking the throne from his cousin. The wars would end when Henry VII won at Bosworth Field. Henry was the great-grandson of Joan Beaufort's oldest brother, John.}}

The first view of the castle was fantastic. It's a very impressive building, with huge walls and towers, and a very steep ditch surrounding it. It's a classic motte and bailey castle, which was a popular design for the Normans. This type of castle consists of a large hill (motte), with a tower built on the top. At the bottom of the hill is a wall surrounding the bailey, the area where the lord's retainers would live and where his horses would be kept. The first fortification to be built here was a wooden motte and bailey castle erected in 1068, only two years after the Norman conquest!

 As soon as I went through the gatehouse, I found myself immersed in medieval history. It was an amazing feeling, to know that kings and commoners who changed the history of England walked the same places I was walking. Plus, the castle was pretty cool-looking. Warwick Castle used to be a private residence (1759-1978), but it was sold to Madame Tussaud's Waxworks, who set it up as a tourist attraction. Having heard this, I was a little skeptical of the quality of the interiors, but I was pleasantly surprised. Although there were some really kitschy tourist elements, lots of the antique furnishings and decorations were still there.

Here's the view down from the tower. You can see the steep bank down to the River Avon (as in Stratford-Upon-Avon). The large wooden thing in the left side of the pictures is the world's largest trebuchet. Reconstucted from 13th century diagrams, it weighs about 22 tons and stands 18 meters tall! It can hurl a 30 pound projectile over 815 feet, beating the previous record held by the Dutch.

Behind the trebuchet, you will see sheep pasture. As I've learned on my travels, wherever there is countryside around historical monuments: there will be sheep.

Most parts of the inside that were accessible to visitors have been designed as small exhibit/attractions by the Waxworks people. We went through one called "Kingmaker," which took us through the process of getting ready for battle during the Wars of the Roses, complete with wax figurines of Richard Neville, his household, and even his horse.

Then, we finally made it up to the Great Hall, which was redone in the 1800's, and probably several times before that. It was a truly impressive hall, with walkways along the top that led to rooms on the next floor, and massive antlers from Ice Age Irish Elk (also known as Megaloceros, noted for having the largest antlers of any deer that ever lived).

We also saw some fantastically refinished rooms. This is one of the sitting rooms off the Great Hall. These would have been used by the Greville family, who became Earls of Warwick in the 1700's. There were also some spectacularly refinished bedrooms, which over the centuries, have seen visits by several royal people, including Queen Anne and Queen Elizabeth I. Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and Elizabeth's favorite, had a brother named Ambrose, who was made Earl of Warwick. Both Ambrose and Robert are buried in the cathedral in the town, which I sadly didn't get to visit this time.

After exploring the interior,we decided to walk the ramparts. It was quite a climb that took us up into about three towers, and around two sides of the castle. Here's a quick snapshot to prove I made it up the first step of the journey! on the left is a picture up to the tallest of the towers in Warwick Castle. It was quite a climb, but not as bad as climbing up to the top of the Cologne cathedral's tower! I got a shot of group members Christine and Jason taking a photo down just as I was taking a photo up.

The fantastic view from the top. That's the archery ground that was off to the side of the castle, out through the archway you can see in my self-portrait above. Below, is my homage to Godzilla, with Rusty the Giant Sloth on the parapet.

It certainly was a brisk climb up all those towers. The weather mostly held out, but it was a little drizzly, which made everything a bit slippery. I have to admit, I feared for my life a few times. I can't look at a steep set of winding stairs with no exit in sight without getting a visual image of myself slipping and sending everyone behind toppling like dominoes or the soldiers on "Robin Hood: Men in Tights." However, I managed another safe ascent, and got to enjoy the fantastic views and know that I was standing in the same place as soldiers taking part in some of England's most important conflicts. Pretty amazing.

The view through one of the arrow slits, looking down on one of the outer towers.

Sadly, my camera was dying, which is why this post won't be entirely chock-full of photos. Stupid battery and it's pitifully short life. I forgot to charge my camera up before I left, and it was already on its way to death. Fortunately, I got my friends to take pictures for me, so lucked out there. Here's the last picture I managed to snap before my camera died. Can you tell it's raining at this point?


After the parapet walk, we explored a few more rooms inside. There was an attraction called "The Weekend Party", which restored rooms to their Victorian state, and told the story of Daisy, Countess of Warwick, who was a famous socialite (and mistress of the future Edward VII, eldest son of Queen Victoria!). The wax figures kind of creeped me out, but the restored rooms were cool.

We explored the Castle Dungeon, which was a sobering place. It was tiny, probably half the size of my dorm room. This was where all the really unfortunate prisoners were kept. There was a single drain running down the center of the chamber, carrying all the wast toward the river. However, this waste went out via something called an "oubliette". Sometimes, people were put in the oubliette if they were really, really unpopular. You had to crouch down to fit, and with all the waste running through it, I can't think of many worse things to do to someone. Dungeons are seriously nasty places; nothing like the nice clean ones we usually see in the movies. Hard to imagine the Middle Ages as a bright, happy place full of princesses in silk gowns and knights in shining armor when you're down in a dungeon, learning the horrible realities of what people can do to each other. History is rarely as sanitized as the view of it we usually are presented with.

Perhaps echoing the plight of medieval peasants, finding food proved to be the most difficult part of our trip. We had to wait in a huge line, and then had to wait even longer for seating. It was worth it, though. They had a full carvery in the lower level of the castle in the domestic area. We certainly ate better than peasants: real meat, carved off a bone! The seating area was set up in the medieval dining hall style, with long wooden tables and medieval decorations. Very fun for visitors, although none of the costumed staff looked particularly thrilled to be costumed. I can understand that...

Our last adventure on the Warwick Castle trip was to join in on the Ghost Tour of the castle. Our guide was certainly one of the enthusiastically costumed. He was pretty funny as he presented ghost stories from the castle, most of them pretty tame and over-dramatized. The highlight of the tour had to be when he had members of the crowd re-enact the tale of Sir Fulk of Greville vs. The Demon Cow, and critiqued their performance. If the History Channel had more things like that on, they wouldn't need UFO Stories or Monster Quest, and people would be likely to learn more even while maintaining their apparent quota of ridiculousness. The end of the Ghost Tour conveniently brought us right to the end of our time at Warwick Castle, and we bought a few souvenirs (not much too much good selection: I was a bit disappointed), and made our way to the coaches for the ride back to Leicester. It was a full day, and I hope to return sometime. Next time, I plan to see that trebuchet fire, and will hopefully remember to charge my camera!

A look at my new home!

Just a few glimpses of my new living quarters. I'm all settled in now, I even have a duvet cover with matching pillowcase (I feel so Martha Stewart!).

This is the view from my hallway, and the best picture for getting a sense of how the room is set up. My bedroom is basically set up in an L-shape, off an L-shaped hallway. When you enter the flat, you go down a hallway and turn left. There are six doors off the hallway. 5 lead to bedrooms, and the last one on the right leads to the kitchen.

My room is the first on the right, so I'm in the corner of our little block of rooms. The room has a small corridor with a coat hook on the left, and a small bathroom on the right. Go past the bathroom, and you come to a small upright wardrobe. Keep going, and you get into the wider section of the room, with a bed on the right (as pictured above), bulletin board on the left, and a long table/desk against the wall.

This is my little study corner, I've got some shelves for my books, papers, and knick-knacks. One cannot overestimate the importance of the knick-knacks. I have the sneaking suspicion that the pile of books on this shelf will continue to grow quite rapidly over the course of the year. With only one set of drawers, I've had to be very organized, and not go overboard with the school supplies. Probably a good thing to reign myself in on the paper/pen front! Even if my new Student Discount Card does give me 10% discount at Staples, which is just a 15 minute walk away...

Here's a picture of my sleeping corner. I hit a sale at Homebase and managed to snag a cheap duvet and duvet cover. It's really toasty, which is good, because it can get a bit chilly at night!

All the furniture is new, modern, and coordinated. Which means it's all laminate board cheap stuff, but works well enough. I use my bedside table to store cosmetics/grooming products on the small shelf, and food on the bottom shelf. Eclectic mix, I know, but we don't have much room for storage in the kitchen.

I have a huge bulletin board. 180 centimeters (that's about 71 inches, or 5'11", for the non-metrically-inclined).  I've figured out how to support all my pictures and cards with pushpins so I don't have to make any holes to hang things. And I finally found a good place for all my dangle earrings and necklaces!

I'm working on putting up maps of Britain and the Roman Empire. Soon, a timeline will join them. I want to make one that runs the whole length of the board and encompasses the entire Roman period in Britain.

Here's the view looking back from the desk toward the door. You can see the corridor, with its very nifty coat hooks, the mirror and heater on the right, and the open door of my wardrobe. Behind the door of the wardrobe lies my little bathroom, which is proving to be a very good investment. I wavered on whether or not to get a room with my own bathroom, but in retrospect, I don't know how I would have lived without it. I hate sharing showers and toilets...

Here's my little bathroom cubicle. Pretty simple. I like the navy and white tile motif. I need to get a little cart or stand to put all my junk on instead of just setting it on the floor. The toilet paper holder doesn't work too well for its intended purpose. The ends that hold the little spring-bar aren't deep enough, so that every time you go to grab toilet paper, the whole thing springs off and goes flying. No good. So instead, it has become a trash-bag hanger, and toilet paper just gets to sit on the ground. Works well enough, and there's nobody to impress around here, anyway. My shower stall is pretty small, and a little leaky unless you pull the curtain just right, but I have my own shower, so really can't complain.

My wardrobe. No passages to Narnia discovered yet.

And that's all for the tour of Meghann's room! Until the next update, hope everyone is having fun with their own adventures back in the states!

On the road to What-May-Be

Trip Log (26 Sept 5pm US/ 11pm UK)

On the plane and off at last! Made it through the luggage check and security with some degree of trepidation. My bags weighed in at 50.0 and 50.3 pounds. Thank goodness for the unspoken 3 lb. leeway and a nice lady at the counter. My brilliant idea to pack a carry-on has turned out to be a good plan, unless you’re concerned for the state of my shoulder muscles. I feel a little like a mule, but will be thankful as I settle in, I think.

Rusty the Sloth in O'Hare waiting area

I wasn’t willing to leave my iHome in the States, but it has turned out to be trouble. I had to dig it out of my quite tightly packed backpack so security could test it for hazardous materials with a little strip of paper. They were very efficient, but it was a pain trying to repack everything just so. Soon, I was on my way once more.

A two hour wait lay ahead, but it seemed to pass quickly. My attempts at wireless connection were to no avail. So instead, I listened to music and tried to relax. Boarding was quick and efficient, and the plane took off directly. Much better than the Nijmegen flight, when we were delayed on the runway for over an hour due to a security problem in Canada. So far, the plane trip is uneventful, and I am hopeful about the idea of sleep…

Trip Log (Monday! In the UK)

Having arrived safe and sound at Heathrow, am currently sitting in the waiting area, with 2 ½ hours to go until the coach leaves for Leicester. The arrival was something of an adventure.

The plane ride was clam, but I couldn’t get comfortable. I think my ability to sleep on planes is linked with having a window seat, as that gives me something to lean against and isolation from passersby. I did my utmost to sleep, and slept on and off for a few hours. The girl next to me was from Poland, and on her way home from a vacation in Florida. I didn’t envy the length of her flight. The food surprised me: dinner consisted of a spiced rice and chicken-vegetable curry, with a real salad (and an interesting ginger-sesame dressing). I think I could get used to eating curries on a regular basis.

I almost wish the plane ride had been longer, so I could have some interrupted sleep, but the building excitement as we wound through the terminal after disembarking made up for everything. Butterflies fluttered in my stomach, and I was overwhelmed by the thought: I’m really in London! Then came the customs line. Excitement over.

The line clipped along at an efficient pace, and I snatched intermittent chances to go over my penciled-in Boarding Card with pen. Before I knew it, I was nearly through. A sign caught my eye with the heading “All New Students to the UK.” It announced that we must have:

1)      Passport (check!)

2)      Offer Letter (check!)

3)      Boarding Card (mostly check, depending on whether they got mad if it was in pencil AND pen)

4)      Pre Departure Entry Clearance or Health Check…. Wait… What?!?!

The bottom of my stomach dropped out. My heart thudded. I hadn’t seen anything of the sort on any of th UK Border Agency websites or handouts, and I checked! Although this may surprise everyone who knows me, I somehow managed to stay calm and collected. I think I’d credit the fury. The idea of being forced to get on a plane and go back to the US because of arcane bureaucracy started tingling of rage, not panic. Do they want people to travel to their country or not?!

Just as I was about to get a little nauseous, a lady asked me if I was a student, and upon my affirmation, handed me the health check form. Just like that. Big relief. It had a section for personal information and a few questions. Have I or anyone in my family had TB lately? Fever? Night sweats? After lugging 2 huge carry on bags, I certainly looked like I should check those last tow. I finished the form and went right through. Another stamp on my passport!

Next was the trek to the baggage claim. Heathrow is huge and full of twisting pathways leading you on and on through the maze. I spotted my bags right away, but maneuvering with these four monsters was a bit of a trick. I had to maneuver around a low wall built of suitcases, obviously built to keep the Scots from pillaging our luggage. I then found a bench and repacked one of my carryons into the luggage. Somehow, I managed to cram everything in, although the result was a rather unwieldy set of suitcases.

Then began the Long March. I didn’t know it was going to be a Long March, and was heartened by the bright signs. I checked my Welcome Week itinerary: meet officers in Terminal 3. I checked the signs around me: Terminal 1. Oh well, I thought to myself, there are nice bright sides with arrows pointing the way to Terminal 3. I’ll just head on over. In retrospect, I have decided that signs should be required to tell you distance as well as direction. “This way to Terminal 3” is a big deceptive, when what they really mean is “this way, then that way, then back a little, then round a corner, then up a ramp, then down a ramp, then continue on some more, then another corner, then a bit further, more ramps… Carrying 3 HEAVY bags made it into the world’s most painful, un-ending scavenger hunt. All along the way, the cheery yellow signs announcing “Terminal 3” with their short little arrows of lies and deceit mocked me with their bright optimism.

Rusty does not approve of deceitful yellow signs!

Moving with all my junk was unwieldy and potentially disastrous. I took up whole aisles. My bags were tipsy, and although I bustled along quickly at first, I soon slowed, feeling a big like a sumo wrestler trying to run a marathon. I was probably hauling a good 150+ pounds of luggage. My hands started to ache. Already warm form the crowds and lack of air conditioning, I was soon dripping sweat. Literally dripping. Good thing I tied a bandana to the outside of my suitcase, or I would have been a mess when I finally met the Welcome Week staff. I kept getting hopeful with every new direction sign, but soon, they successfully squashed my hope entirely. When I finally found the ramp up to Terminal 3, I think I nearly cried. Once in Terminal 3, I found a baggage cart. If I had one of these from the beginning, this whole ordeal would have been far less painful. Live and learn…

Trip Log (later Monday)

The wait at the airport turned out to be another ordeal. Upon arrival, my first act was to buy water and a Coke. I needed caffeine desperately, but couldn’t handle hot beverages. I then turned to the next most important task: letting my family know I was still alive. My attempts to connect to the Heathrow wireless, however, were as successful as my attempts to connect to the O’Hare network. No luck. Fortunately, I noticed a small kiosk offering 10 minutes of internet access for 1 £. That was enough, I decided. Plugging a pound coin into the slot, I then set about attempting to type on the ancient, well-worn metal keyboard. The keys stuck, but I eventually managed to navigate to my email and jot off a short note to let my parents know I was alive. In retrospect, it was a good call not to wait until I arrived in Leicester…

The wait for the coach became more pleasant as more people arrived. I talked to Juliette, an undergraduate law student from France, and Judith, a postgraduate English student from Germany while waiting. Sadly, we were all in different accommodations, so they split us up when the buses arrived. Or should I say, most of the buses. The Opal Court/Nixon Court bus, we discovered, was stuck in traffic. Not Iowa stuck in traffic, either, but Big City Stuck In Traffic May Never Be Seen Or Heard From Again. During our long wait, I tried desperately to stay awake. We all hunkered down in the terminal, many of us with eyes that drifted shut only to snap open again a few seconds later. One hour passed, then two, and the Welcome Week staff kept apologizing and frantically calling their colleague on the bus. At last, around 1:30pm, our coach arrived. We gratefully filed out of Heathrow, poured onto the bus, and sank into our seats. Most of us slept. I don’t think I lasted far beyond the airport, and slept for the entirety of the 2 ½ hour drive to Leicester.

They got on the intercom to announce our arrival in Leicester, waking most people. I didn’t get much of an idea for the layout of the city, as I was simply struggling to regain consciousness. We all unloaded at the Student Union, out into the cold misty weather of Leicester. Then, we had to wait for the minibus, which turned out to be a rather large van with lots of cargo area. It could only take 8 people at a time, so we had to go in batches. I was the second batch, so I spent even more time waiting, trying to prop up my bags and stay awake. At last, I managed to grab the back seat amidst the luggage, blocked in by suitcases and tucked precariously above the wheel well. Then, we were off.

If any of you have every read the “Harry Potter” series, and are familiar with the Knight Bus, you will understand how this trip felt. It started with a bang, and went hurtling down streets, turning and careening around corners with abandon. It seemed to be going far too fast, considering the streets we were on, and sped down streets and narrow alleyways alike, seeming to utterly disregard the pedestrians that went about their business around it. Finally, I was deposited in front of the tall bastion of Opal Court, and able to go up to my room and settle in at last. Home sweet home, and ready for the next part of my English adventure!

<<End Trip Log>>