On a parting note

Here’s one of my fav song that always runs through my head when embarking on a new adventure, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do:

Beautiful Once You’re Out Here by Stavesacre

Looooooong spring break

So I haven’t really updated either of my blogs in awhile, its been pretty hectic the last few weeks (even though my most hectic week here is a pretty averagely busy week at Calvin) and I simply couldn’t be arsed.

This Saturday commences Easter holiday and there are only a few things that I really, really, really need to do over the next three weeks (everything else will be icing on the cake)  see the Codex Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus in the British Library, see the Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles and some mummies at the British museum, Stonehenge, Avebury and the Dr Who ehibition in Cardiff.

On Saturday I shall be heading to London (with a sidetrip on Monday to see Oxford, which I could really care less about since London has waaaaaaay more to do), then after four days I’m heading to Essex, then to Bath (where I shall visit Stonehenge and Avebury from), then Cardiff, Snowdonia and the Lake District before heading back to YSJ on the 26th.

It sucks that I have to completely pack up my dorm room for break though so YSJ can use it for a conference…I’ll be officially homeless for three weeks.

Saltaire and some mystery plays

Yesterday we visited Saltaire. It was kinda disasterous b/c we were stuck in traffic for over 2 hours and we then only had an hour to look about the town, which meant we visited the church (with the mausoleum and creepy androgynous “Michael” the arch-angel), the mill and then we walked down a few random side streets.

Then a friend was turning 21 (in a country where the drinking age is 18, ha!) so her parents flew to York and took us to dinner. Then we went for cocktails and I got a free drink b/c the bartender blended too much Evil Smoothie for a friend (bananas and baileys, heck yeah!).

Today in class we read a few plays from the body of York  mystery plays. I really like these mystery plays, a lot of it is apocryphal and extraneous Bible stories from the Middle Ages goodness. I even got to play Lucifer in the first play, which has been a goal ever since I’ve read Milton’s Paradise Lost and decided that the story of Lucifer’s fall was a more human story than the story of the fall of the fall of humanity (as well as thinking, “Eve, you can’t sin against a one-dimensional character, eat it!!!…which is one of the myriad of reasons I’m a bad role model, kids).

And now I am doing research on Shamanism and writing a short story for class tomorrow. I also met a tattooed creature and ate some fruit pastilles today, it’s been good.

here's the interior of the church

Here I am at the pulpit, talking about the kings

The mill

The streets in Saltaire are actually straight and orderly, and that cat was the most vocal thing that has ever lived

March 7- Keighly and Haworth

This morning we went on a literary pilgrimage to Haworth, home of the Brontes. First, we went to Keighly and rode the steam train to Haworth (which was completed many years after the Bronte sisters died, so many a romantic notion held by classmates were shattered). Haworth today is a small town, having just as many residents, if not fewer, than it had when the Bronte sisters were living there.

Today it is a lovely little touristy village, but in the 19th century it was actually quite heartbreakingly gross. Raw sewage flowed down the streets after storms and disease was rampant due in part to the cemetery’s position on the hill which sloped down into the city (which led to a cycle of disease wherein water flowing down the hill picked up diseases from the corpses and made more people sick). When a government survey was done of the health of the city it was found that 41% of children died before they were six and that the mortality rate was worse than many London slums, with the average age being only 24 years of age.

But the moors lying right down the road from the Haworth Parsonage gave rise to some of the most fantastic English literature ever. The parsonage itself is perserved as a museum to the Bronte family (especially of Charlotte, Anne and Emily) with many furnishings and personal effects intact and on display. Also in town you can visit the apothacary and bar that Branwell Bronte frequented often. And of course, there are myths concerning many places in town where Charlotte was thought to have secretly met up with her future husband or where the girls shopped, etc. Everything is Bronte themed in Haworth and North Yorkshire is known as “Bronte Country.”

In Keighly, waiting for our train. These steam trains are used in movies such as Harry Potter and Narnia

Haworth

Main Street

Imagine having a front yard that looked like this

Plague off the Sunday School that Patrick Bronte raised funds for

detail off the marble pulpit in the church

The pub where Branwell, in his later years, spent a lot of time at

And this is where he got his opiates

One of the many Bronte themed shops

Lindisfarne and Jarrow

On the 14th of Feb. the Calvin group visited Lindisfarne and Jarrow. We left at 7 am because it was a super long ride and the Holy Island, where we were going first, becomes inaccessable during high tide.

To be honest, Lindisfarne was too beatiful for words and so I’m not even going to try to describe it because nothing I can ever say or write will do it justice. I understand why those monks settled in Lindisfarne and were able to accomplish so much, it is very isolated and yet it is so achingly beautiful you get the feeling that if there is some sort of divine element in the world it resides there.

Remains of the old abbey at Lindisfarne

I believe this is St. Cuthbert, but don't quote me on it

The ridge behind the abbey gave some spectacular views

There is also a Norman castle at Lindisfarne. It is unique because in the early 1900s it was bought by a private owner and redecorated into the owner’s view of a romantic 18-19th century summer house.

After that we went to Jarrow, which is near modern day Newcastle. After the grandeur of Lindisdarne Bede’s world (named after a prolific medieval monk) was incredibly underwhelming. It is a museum and reconstruction of what Jarrow would have looked like in Bede’s day, which evidently monestaries during that time period had petting zoos (it was the best part of Bede’s world).  It was surreal because it was surrounded by a ridge, and once you climed that you were stating straight into an industrial park. There was a dock with large cargo ships surrounded by huge lots of imported care. Bizarre.

This guy was the second best part of Bede's World

Bede lived quite lamely

Been awhile

I’ve been neglecting this blog for a while now, not fully of my own free will.  I’ve been busy writing the first essay of the semester, getting screwed by Calvin, going to Lindisfarne, Jarrow and various places areound Yorkshire, teaching the English how to play beer pong, composing epic rants against Calvin, reading stuff on Medieval monks (boring!) and Jane Eyre and shaving my head.

So expect a slew of posts and lots of pictures soon, but first things first.

Yeah, tonight I shaved my head. A friend of mine at Calvin, who is one of the most genuinly sweet and wonderful people in the world (I want to be her when I grow up), recently had surgury to remove a 9-10 lb tumor in her abdomen, and is facing about 8 weeks of chemo and the prospect of losing her gorgeous hair. So a bunch of friends and I are shaving our heads in solidarity. I’m the first to do so, as there is no time like the present.

People are telling me that I’m brave for doing it, but I don’t think of it that way, Amy is the brave one. My hair will grow back quickly and I’m not looking down the barrel at 8 hours of chemo a week or cancer.

I had about 6 friends in my room tonight taking turns. I’m not completely bald yet, I need to borrow some clippers to get it perfect. And the event was well documented.

Before shot

Finished product

A walking tour of several York churches

On Wednesday we visited 5 or 6 York churches to view their similarities, differences and stained glass. They each had a cool story and most were built pre-Reformation. Several even, though maneurvings of the past, had some panes of pre-Reformation stained glass (York is quite famous for this, as a local political back in the 1500s struck a deal with those going around and smashing the glass of other Catholic churches in the country).

The first church we went to had pre-Victorian box pews

Guess who was the only one to actually climb into a medieval coffin? (they are actually quite comfy)

An example of a coffin lid from the 1400s

An example of the wealthy donator of the glass pictured in the scenes (he's in red at Christ's feet)

One of the most interesting churches we visited was  St. Martins. It was bombed during the war and now stands as a peace memorial to both WWII and present conflicts (it was full of literature spreading awareness of the conflicts in Darfur and Gaza). It was quite a powerful and moving experience.

Part of the interior of St. Martins

The last church we visited was noteworthy for it’s pictorial presentation of “The Prick of Conscience”, a popular 13th century devotional poem describing the last 15 days of the world (kinda like a 13th century Left Behind novel).

We also visited Clifford’s Tower that day as well. It provided some fantastic views of the city.

The Tower itself

A note on culture

When I was applying for the semester in York I remember in the brochure there was a line about England being a “post-Christian” society (leading me wonder whether “post-Christian” was replacing the bogeyman of “post-modernism”). But in these two weeks I have noticed that it is quite the opposite.

Sure, only 11% or so of the population of Great Britain attends church regularly, but Christianity is engrained in the culture in deeper ways than I think it is in the United States. Firstly, in York you cannot even cross the street without running into a church and you are always in the shadow of the Minster. And in all the churches of York I have visited thus far (which is a lot, because there are tons and one of my classes is about the history of Christianity in England) I have only come across two that no longer function as a gathering place of worshippers, one was being preserved as an object of historical significance and the other functioned as a coffee shop/ministry of local churches. Not to mention that I defy anyone to find a postcard from York without a picture of the Minster on it.

Two, there is not too many non-Christians in England. Sure, many of them simply write “Church of England” on the census to be left alone but the US has a much higher percentage of pagans and other assorted non-Christian beliefs. In my Pagan and New Age Spiritualities class, when we were discussing our prejudices and concerns concerning pagan and new age beliefs I found that the majority of my classmates (only two of us in the class are from Calvin) are not only Christian but had concerns/issues with the subject matter b/c of their beliefs. When the girl sitting next to me asked my religion she looked shocked to discover that I am a not any religion at all (her eyes also got big when I mentioned my Charismatic background, but that is another story).

Even though I have seen the bus advertisement that so many (here and abroad) once got so bent out of shape over I have not met an Atheist here yet. So I found it rather funny that one of my fellow Calvin students, while reading a devotion during one Calvin class, said to the rest of us that we, unlike at Calvin, cannot be assured that the people we are talking to here in York (and especially at uni) are Christians or have a Christian background. And I think she was going on about being salt and light or whatever when I, chuckling to myself, started staring out of the skylight again.

Am I surprised? Disappointed? Maybe a slight bit of both. But then again, its the real world and after being at Calvin so long I have forgotten what it is like to actually not have Creation, Fall, Redemption or TULIP shoved in my face daily. I am loving it. Oh, and the chips are fantastic!

Liverpool

We went to Liverpool on Feb. 7. Before the bus had left, I ran over to the bakery down the street to purchase a sandwhich and scone and the owner and I chatted a bit (which was awkward, because I am a lousy conversationalist when I am sick and my hearing wasn’t very good) and he mentioned that the British highway system is pretty inferior to the American one in size. But I rather like the fact that the longest bus ride I will be taking this semester is only 2 hours long, compared to the 6-24 hours it would take to get anywhere of note in the U.S. (even Chicago is two hours by train). It is crazy to think that a little over 2 hours is what it takes to get from one coast to another.

It was a pretty laid back trip. My small group spent most of the morning in the Walker Museum, followed by lunch in a pub down the street. Then we walked past the Catholic cathedral (which we didn’t go into, because modern architecture is so ugly) to the Anglican one (which, at first site, seemed to be an evil fortress). The choir was practising when we walked in, which lent an unearthly air to the experience.

I think I am growing weary of cathedrals. The first one is always cool but then you actually attend services in one and you realize how dumb they are. Firstly, it is freezing because it is impossible to heat something that big and very imprudent to even try (hence all the sit down, stand up, kneel stuff in traditional liturgies, in my own opinion). Secondly, they were costly to build, and many of those in Europe were built during periods when the money would have been better spent on other projects (sanitation, anyone?). Thirdly, they all look similar. Fourthly, they are dark and empty. All this cathedral sight-seeing is getting on my nerves and I’m not even two weeks in! I am becoming to feel like Mark Twain did when he wrote that he was relived when he learnt that Michelangelo had died!

Then we walked back down to the old dock area and went to the maritime museum (I’m sure that most will wonder why I  did not go to the Beatles’ museum. It was waaaaaay too expensive and I’ve always wanted to go with my best friend, who is a Beatles fanatic). I stared down my fear of shipwrecks and went through the exhibition on the Titanic, Lusitania and Empress of Ireland. Then, relizing how tired we were, we went to the cafe and sat down until 4.

For being a beloved monarch, Victoria never looks happy in her depictions

This atrocity is the reason why I like old stuffA view which makes it look a bit less like an evil villain's fortress

part of the interior

Roman York

Every Wednesday our group takes a field trip either in York itself or in the immediate vicinity. This week we went on a walking tour of sites relating to York during Roman times. Sites from Roman York are oftentimes worked into later Anglo-Saxon or Norman architecture and many sites and artifacts were discovered in the 1920s or stumbled upon during an existing building’s renovation.

We started our tour with viewing the only prehistoric artifact in York. It sits in the City Museum’s botanical Garden.

First we went to part of the York city wall (medieval) where the lower half of the wall had excavated and was discovered to have been built upon the pre existing Roman fortress walls.

In the above picture, everything from (and including) the red brick line is the Roman wall. Due to advanced construction techniques (in many parts of Roman York the Roman concrete is as good or better than modern concrete) it has still been able to hold up later additions. The Roman walls would have stood over 20 feet.

Here’s a picture of the inside of the wall. The sarcophogi at the bottom of of medieval origin.

The Via Principalis, one of the most important road in a Roman fortress, ran along what is now know as High Petergate Street. There is a Roman arch (marking the dextra or west gate) there that was destroyed to make way for a construction project, but shortly thereafter the citizens felt so remorseful that they collected all the original stones and rebuilt it in the exact same location.

Then we made our way to the Minster, which is on the site of what was the Roman headquarters building of the fortress. In the crypt they have excavated a good portion of it but they did not allow photographs. But outside there is a statue of Constantine the Great, whose father Constantius was co-emporer of the western empire and used York as a headquarters. Constantius died while with Constantine in York and it was then that the legion there declared him emporer. So I guess you culd say that he is a hometown boy.

Then we went to the site of the Roman baths. This was discovered when the owners of the pub above it attempted to dig a deeper celler. It was a pretty small museum, but the curator/guide was very knowledgeable and full of fun stories. And they had stuff to play at gladiators and Roman soldiers with, so we spent a good amount of time doing that.

In the picture, the posts you see are the supports for the hypocaust, a system used to heat the bottom of the pools. A floor was built on top of them and air from the furnaces was pumped in between the posts, temps could reach 120 degrees F.

reconstructions of the shoes worn inside the baths

We also saw the so-called “Anglian Tower” which was once thought to be built by the Angles but now thought to be older than the Roman Period.

It was a fantastic time and, unlike whever I visit museums, I got to touch a lot of stuff. And I even spotted an historical inaccuracy in one of the placards in the Minster crypt, which made me happy (for the record, Constantine DID NOT make Christianity the empire’s official religion).