The last email I sent to bring everyone up to speed

Wow, what a week!
So, we arrive in Nottingham for not more than 2 days really and we pack
half of our things up and take a trip up through Northumberland and the
upper parts of the English border with Scotland. We are all a bit jet
lagged and not really looking forward to travel, but there we are
bouncing down crazy country roads for a few hours til we arrived in York.
We stayed at a well equiped international youth hostel there and I was
very impressed. It had all we needed. We spent a lot of time in this
unique city of York. We basically were sent on a scavenger hunt. Our
directors gave us the freedom to explore the city on our own, and we were
given a list of places we had to see and take tours of, and then a list of
other suggested places. You will see many of these places in the
following pictures.
I should explain that these "house trips" as we call them are actually
a class. We travel as a group multiple times throughout the year which
most expenses are covered in the budget. We have writing assignments to
complete and reflections to make on the experiences and ultimately get
graded in this travel course. York was a great place to start. Of most
importance is the world famous York Minster. It is a humungous
masterpiece in architecture built during the Roman Rule in Britain. Among
all of it's stained glass windows, it contains the most medievel glass in
all of the cathedrals of England. On top of this, it has the largest
stained glass window in the world. It takes them 200 years to clean all
the glass, in which each piece is taken out individually, so it would
obviously take a long time. This Cathedral can be seen from just about any
point in the city.
At a place called Fairfax house, myself and two of the other guys
learned some lessons in ancient furniture and customs whose roots are long
forgotten.
1)The Mistress of the House serves the tea.
To make a long story short, tea was very expensive back then and was
therefore locked up in a little box in which the wife had the only key.
A servant would bring some hot water and she would make up a batch
when guests were being entertained. Only she could do so, which leads to
a common phrase "Can I be Mother?".
2) Pinky out when drinking tea
Teacups did not always have handles and had a certain way to be held
properly in order to drink from them. As tea was expensive only the
people of the highest of class would enjoy it. When teacups evolved,
people still stuck with that pinky out manner of holding it, in order to
show their status and of how they were accustomed to how tea aught to be
drunk.
Yeah, these are stupid little things, but here in England where it's
history goes back a couple thousand years as compared to a couple
hundred in America, history becomes much more important. The past is a
much greater part of life here.
I've been keeping up with excercise a bit, and have woken up on early
mornings to go running with Kevin and Hilary. The first morning Kevin got
to run five miles on the old castle walls surrounding the city in the
morning's early light. It was awesome. The second day the three of us
ran along the scenic misty river. I should mention a first for our group
this year. We all stopped at a fudge shop, and they made it right in
front of us, and the very flamboyant and hyper fudgemaker was a scrawny
yet friendly 21 year old. He had all the girls in our group in the palm
of his hand, and managed to get a date with one of our ladies. We had
walked out of the shop with all the girls giggling ridiculously and had
walked about half a block, when Anna turned and said she was going right
back to ask him out for a drink that night. He said yes, and she landed
the award for being the first to date an Englishman. Congrats Anna.
(though she may not see him again)
Next stop was a day trip at Durham. This place has been the chosen
place of a few professors over the past decade or so to take their
sabattical or have time off to research and write, and our directors Mark
and Carole Muggli, had done so for a full year just a few years ago. I
can now see why. This city is on a huge mounded hill
surrounded by a calmly flowing river all below it. It is basically a city
full of bridges. It is very quaint and maintains a lot of
historic charm with winding stone roads moving up and down continually.
above the city is the Castle of Durham and it's cathedral. Though
smaller than York Minster, this cathedral was a favorite of the whole
group. It was absolutely beautiful as is the full city. I don't have any
pictures as they weren't allowed, but I highly suggest that you'll google
Durham Cathedral and soak in its splendour. It is the birthplace of the
pointed arch intstead of roundes arches which added a lot of strenght, and
is the first building to be completely vaulted in stone. Most others were
of plaster and wood but this building is completely of stone. Absolutely
amazing! This was an interesting day food wise. We were split into
smaller groups and each given a different task. Some had bread, others
dessert, fruit, etc. My group had cheese, which I was very excited about.
After coming to England, I have had more cheese than ever before in my
life, and i am infamous in my group for eating all cheese in sight.
Stilton, which is like blue cheese, is a new favorite and a standard in
England. Anyway, my group found a market and a stand with over fifty
types of cheese! I was in heaven. With our ample budget we bought five
very interesting and different types of cheese: Wensleydale with
Cranberry (too sweet), White Stilton with Ginger and Mango (mango was
kinda weird) , Smoked Applewood (perfect), Seriously Strong Cheddar (it
most definetely was and was a favorite), and Mild red Cheddar. We had a
picnic on the lawn in front of the cathedral and enjoyed some interesting
cheeses.
Back to the cathedral, It is the burial place of St. Cuthbert and Beade,
the father of all English History. He is a very important man, and it was
humbling to be near his tomb. Our guide Lillian, was this adorable little
woman with a passion for this sacred place. she has been giving tours for
nearly 30 years, and acts as if she knows these men of the past
personally. She says she goes into the front little chapel where Beade
lies and says good morning to him every day. "I would never be surprised
if some day he said hello back" Her vigour and excitement was very
touching and inspiring. We left this lovely place with newfound respect
and awe.
(side note) This Cathedral to keep from going under was used in filming
Harry Potter. ONe of his classrooms and the forbidden cooridor in the
movies were taken in this building.
Final stop for a few days is Alnwick. We actually stayed in Alnwick
Castle, one of the few operating and inhabited Castles. The Duke of
Northumberland resides here. Even more exciting for some is this is "the
Harry Potter Castle" where much of the outdoor scenes of Hogwarts was
shot for the movie. This is a living operating Castle in the 21st century
that a royal family actually lives in. We got a tour, and it was
absolutely jaw dropping. Their kids are 24, 21, 17, and 13 and actually
play ping pong in these vaulted and luxurious rooms firing ping pong balls
at million dollar pieces of art. It is hard to believe a family lives in
this place. The Duke owns over 120,000 acres of land, 8 golf courses, 9
thousand Sheep, 3 different Castles. He has acquired more wealth than the
Queen of England, only her palace is more lavish than his. That is just
mind boggling, and I actually had the honor of living on his grounds.
I had a little adventure of my own on the final day in Alnwick. I was
the only person who wanted to pay and see the castle gardens, so while the
rest of the group went into town for a nip to eat for supper, I headed up
to the gardens around 6:15 before it closed. As you can see in some of
the pictures, it was all very beautiful, with stunny water
fountain/sculptures, and a complete area devoted to roses of every
variety. I got out just when they closed and meandered over to the
treehouse, which is like the largest in the world and walked on a wooded
path behind the castle. I then decided to turn back and find the group
and after walking back to the back door of the castle I found that it was
locked. So now I am trapped within the castle walls and boundaries and
kept from within the inner part of the castle. I begin to scout for ways
out searching the castle walls and checking different giant gets to get
out into the town. At one point I climbed over a 7 foot wooden fence and
climbed a steep hill only to run into more castle walls and barbed wire.
At this point I start getting scared, and start walking back toward the
gardens where I see A little house, the only one within the walls, with
it's lights on still. I am now desperate and knock on his door for a way
out of the grounds, and luckily he has a key for my to slip through a door
in the walls onto a random spot in the city streets. Whew! that was a bit
scary yet exciting all at once.
There is obviously so much to tell, like our trips to monasteries and
abbeys on the outskirts of towns and our drive to Lindesfarne, a
penninsula for only 7 hours til the tide comes in and it becomes and
island. The road and everything to the mainland is covered in water if
you don't get off the island in time and you can be trapped for the rest
of the day. What a strange phenomena. I have to cut this all short to
head off to stay on the University of Nottingham's campus for
orientation of international students, and getting us accustomed to campus
before other students come.
I miss everyone dearly. It seems like it has been a few months
already, though only a week. I hope everyone is doing well and
enjoying what life ha s to offer.
Much love and happiness,
Brandon