My Birthday Weekend in Paris!

The Saga Continues! ...

It was all so amazing, I'm afraid I'm going to have to limit myself by only touching on the highlights.

Saturday

~ Le Jardin de Luxembourg -- Karen and I enjoyed a tasty picnic lunch there. It's amazing how delectable a simple baguette, cheese, and smoked salmon sandwich can be. The French really know how to do that right! I enjoyed exploring the gardens after lunch. I'd only seen the garden in summer before...so different! Karen and I met up with Maddie, there.

~ Wandered around Paris, admiring the street scenes. Came across the Seine and Notre Dame.

~ We shared a sandwich dinner in the room. I also got to enjoy a Nutella and banana crepe from a stand on the way back to the room!

Sunday

~ Le Jardin de Vaux Le Vicomte - Karen and I spent the entire afternoon touring the gardens and grounds. It was so peaceful there, and I got to point out various features I had learned about in one of my classes. I'd learned so much about it, it was wonderful seeing it in person. It was the absolute high-point of the trip! (closely rivaled by the food ;D )

~ Went out on Sunday night to "Kiche" bar. I had a green mint drink called "Le Shrek"! It was so fun there!

Monday

~ Maddie, Karen and I ate delicious birthday lunch at a small, out-of-the-way bistro called, Au Fil de Saisons. I had roasted duck, cooked and seasoned to perfection! It melted in my mouth. There was a side of Potatoes au Gratin...only obviously not from a mix! For dessert I enjoyed crepes suzettes. We all felt very civilized splitting a nice bottle of wine with our meal. It was all very relaxing, and a perfect way to spend an afternoon.

~ After lunch we went window shopping, and I bought my first "real" bottle of perfume. Very fitting I thought!

21st Birthday Bash!!!!

Many of you are probably really curious to hear about my 21st birthday celebrations.

My birthday saga all began Thursday morning...the morning of my birthday...

I woke up early and attended a full day's worth of fascinating lectures on land contamination pollution sources and which techniques are best used in various scenarios. It was very useful. People would be quite proud that I was so engaged in classes on my birthday to put up with about eight hours of class!

After that, I stumbled back to my room and had a yummy meal consisting of vegetable winter soup and mashed potatoes, with my friend, Bri, at The Edge. Then it was off to the pub! I joined up with a few of my landscaping classmates at this really nice pub. We stayed there until midnight, when it closed. I was surprised how early some of the pubs close.

I called it an early night, after getting walked back home.

FRIDAY was my travel day!!! SHEFFIELD in the morning.... PARIS THAT NIGHT!

The thing I learned Friday was that it's important to exchange international phone numbers and give flight information to friends BEFORE leaving on a trip. That's a very important step! hahaha!

Friday was definitely a growing experience, and I'll just leave it at that. It just turned out to be a VERY late night, so it was a good thing I'd gone to bed early the night before.

Oxford Odyssey

Saturday was spent exploring the grand old city of famous Oxford.

It did mean I had to wake up early...7 am to catch the bus that'd take me there, but it was definitely worth it! I loved the charming atmosphere of Oxford. There were cute medieval winding street pattern. The buildings were mostly made of cream sandstone, like Bath. It had a variety of different building styles, but mostly they seemed to be Tudor. There were also charming courtyard gardens tucked away in the various colleges. The perfect touch for a landscape architecture student!

When we first arrived, I took a tour of the original Oxford castle. The first written record of it was in the 12th century, but it was probably built earlier. It was in use as a prison up until 1997!

Next, I explored Christ Church College:

There was a lovely courtyard, surrounded by a mercury statue.

The most exciting part was seeing the stairwell that was used in the filming of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, when they enter the castle to be sorted.

The staircase led to a magnificent dining room with portraits of famous people hanging on the wall. It was unclear if the portraits were of faculty members, founders, and/or students.

After that I explored Trinity College.

I admired the stain glass windows in the chapel while a beautiful mezzo-soprano was singing.

The dining room there was cozy. It was tiny though. Apparently only about 25 students dine there regularly. Trinity is definitely one of the smaller of Oxford's colleges.

There were extensive gardens tucked around back of the main buildings. I'd say the gardens seemed more extensive than the actual academic buildings, but maybe that's because that's what I was focusing on.

The rest of the day I was exploring the streets of Oxford, wandering through the winding streets.

Some favorite moments were admiring the Sheldonian Theatre. It opens onto a wide plaza area.

Also seeing the Hertford Bridge was a wonderful spectacle.

Near to the bridge I had a good laugh seeing a sign that said “Bicycles left here will be removed” with a bike parked directly next to it! Way to go folks!

Week 2 Update

Valentine's Day evening (Tuesday) was spent with my new friend, Bri. We watched a chick-flick, drank Whiskey, and chatted the night away! Gotta love a Girl's Night!

Wednesday's highlight was improv night. Bri and I made our way down to the Student Union again to have a fun evening with The Shrimp. I can't say I'm good, but there were lots of laughs, which is the important thing!

During the day, I went into class and had a two hour lecture on town planning and urban built environments. There was a lot of theory covered about how to draw people into a site and consider the people who use the area, instead of saying that the buildings make the city.

Thursday:

My Land Contamination class spent the morning listening to a lecture given by Adrian Grant, a Senior Geo-Enviornmental Engineer, on pollution sources and methods of dealing with it. He talked mostly on sources of pollution and how to analyze its source. He also talked about the different kinds of (chemical mostly) contaminants and how their chemical structure effects how you should deal with it. Most solutions seemed less like design and more like just moving the problem somewhere else, which I was a little disappointed about.

For the rest of the afternoon, the class visited Swinton, Croda site. It's an abandoned old industrial factory. There have been many chemical spills over the years and lots of toxins were used in its production. We stuck to the paths. Dog walkers use it now. A lot of plants are starting to re-vegitate the site. My assignment is to either do a design proposal or to write up a report on its various contaminants and how they might be addressed. I'm not sure which I'll choose.

Friday:

I went in briefly and spoke to one of the tutors about my design thoughts on the studio project so far. I got some good feedback and will continue work over the weekend.

It's raining again here. But it's a pleasant light mist, which makes it rather enjoyable.

More bulbs are popping into bloom!

Also, the Mahonia aquifolium (Oregon Grape Holly) is starting to bloom, along with the Viburnum lentago (Nannyberry Viburnum).

I'm most excited to see the first cherry tree (Prunus sargentii perhaps?) starting to bloom!

Valentine's Day Greetings

Happy Valentine's Day to All. The worst or the best day, by all accounts.

The past two days have been notably uneventful. Sunday, I finished up some homework/design work. Yesterday's highlight came in the evening. I got a treat for dinner...Indian curry at the bar upstairs at The Edge. A movie, Super Eight, followed. Steiberg created yet another strange film, but it was a nice relaxing evening with friends!

In celebration of today, I'll list the flowers that are currently blooming here!

1. Hammamelis, or Witch Hazel. There are plenty of yellow ones about.
2. erica, or Heather.
3. Crocus
4. Cammelias
5. Some Lentin Roses are blooming too.
6. Daffodils are sprouting up green noses.

I'll be keeping note of what's blooming when.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Saturday Spent Sight Seeing

I got up late today, so I got a late start on my day, but made up for it in sight seeing.

I ended up catching the bus for the first time, to go to the train station and buy some tickets. (Mission accomplished, by the way!)

The train station was looking beautiful and I really admired the site furnishings.

To catch the bus going back to campus, I needed to walk through the City Center.

I saw the following famous Sheffield Sites:

1. Crucible and Lyceum Theaters.
2. The theaters were arranged around Tudor Square.
3. Across the street, I explored The Winter Garden
4. I passed by Town Hall and saw the Peace Gardens.
5. A street carnival was taking place on Fargate, near Town Hall.
6. Sheffield's Cathedral.

Overall, it was a lovely outing!

Summing Up My First Week Of Classes

Trivia I learned about Sheffield:

1. Sheffield had inhabitants dating back to the upper-Paleolithic era. You can find old cave paintings near here!
2. After the Norman Conquest, Sheffield Castle was built to protect the surrounding area. Mary, Queen of Scots was imprissoned at Sheffield Castle and Sheffield Manor from 1570-1584.
3. In 1864, there was The Great Sheffield Flood, which was caused by a damn collapsing upstream. It caused all of the bridges to be wiped out, along with 400 buildings and 270 people died.
4. Sheffield is derived from two Old English words. Sheff is a derivative of the word "Shief" or "parting " or "clearing". "Feld", on the other hand, means "trees" or "woods." So, originally Sheffield was a clearing in the woods near the rivers Don and Sheaf.
5. There's an estimated 2.5 million trees in the City of Sheffield, giving it the highest ratio of trees to people of any European city!

I'm just going to summarize the highlights of the past few days.

WEDNESDAY:

I worked on a group project to be presented today (Friday) during the afternoon. Good news! I found out today, Friday, that Wednesdays are mostly going to be free work periods. It's sort of a free day! :D

The evening was the fun bit! I joined my friend Bri at an improv comedy group gathering! There was lots of laughter and games for two hours! It was a fantastic way of breaking up the week.

THURSDAY:

My day really started at 2 pm, at class. A Civil Engineer came to talk to the Land Contamination and Re-vitalizaiton class on mining techniques and ways of mitigating it. He went into great depths about the various methods, and focused on how to minimize land settling and sinking. Those are all important, but there wasn't as much covered in the way of how to mitigate pollution on site caused by the mining process. Next week in class we are going on a field trip to our site that we'll be addressing in our final projects.

After that, my classmates and I rallied what was left of our attention span and sat in on a guest lecture given by one of the professors in the department about his design process creating a piece for the Chelsea Flower Show and other projects around the UK based off his initial design from last year. It was quite fascinating to listen to!

FRIDAY:

In class today we presented our research of our project site that we'll be eventually proposing designs for. It was useful doing it as group presentations, so we all didn't have to research everything individually. I took away some good initial concepts about things I need to research more and where I might like to take this.

This evening, I'm going to join several of my classmates I've met in my design studio at their house and chill! I'm really looking forward to that!

I bought a ticket through the university to do a day trip to Oxford next weekend!

Initial Impressions and Observations of Sheffield, England:

I think you will all agree that I have had a very busy culture-adjusting week!

• Since there isn't much homework assigned, you see people going out frequently in the middle of the week. At home, you only go out Thursday, Friday, Saturday. (Thursday is only for the hardy few.)
• There also don't seem to be evening classes. Interesting!
• Again, lectures are different in that the professors are called tutors and the paper sizes are different.
• You'd think that after all the visits I've made to England, I'd be used to the accents, but there are some where I have NO IDEA what they are saying!
• mester = small merchant shop
• pally = adjective. overly-friendly? That's what the guy next to me said it meant.
• I'm missing my veggies, I'm afraid.
• I'm also missing the street trees.
• It's very true about the rain in England! Almost everyday it's been overcast or raining. It's not a problem. I have a lot of rain-gear with me. No wonder everything looks so green and alive here!
• There are so many Magpies!

No Classes!

So what did I do on my first day with no scheduled classes EVER???

NOTHING!!! or at least nothing too exciting, and it was BRILLIANT!!!

I woke up late. Went shopping for some essentials like a bowl and spoon for cereal and a mug. Stuff like that.

I met a girl, Kaja, from Fredericksburg, VA who attends VTech for lunch. We had a great time chatting. I also got my registration paperwork straightened out. It's good not to get visas revoked in a foreign country, don't you agree?

After that, I went back to my room and researched Sheffield's history. I'll finish it up tomorrow.

I finished the day with meeting up with a group from the dorm for dinner at a bar in the student community center. It's going to be a nightly thing, I think! They seem like a really friendly bunch! I was particularly interested to discover that one girl from Sweden is actually friends with one of my friends at Cornell!

It just goes to show what a small world it is.

And on that note, I'll leave you for today.

First Day of classes

Boy was it a doozy today!

There were so many new things and plenty of ways for me to get absolutely befuddled! Whoever says that England english and American english is the same or that we have the same culture definitely has never been to both countries, or they'd know better.

Here are some things that struck me particularly and left me scratching my head.

1.) I knew that they used metric over here, but somehow it never occurred to me that they'd scale their drawings differently too. I got the instructions to use 1=500 scale, and I was like "Whoa. That's a lot of feet!"

2.) A professor is known as a "tutor" here. No, you don't get math or bio help from them after hours unless its office hours. "Professor" is a specific title given to those who have achieved a certain level of education, like a doct

or! I was very confused when they said "our tutors would meet with us on Wednesdays." --- I was thoroughly confused by this one 'till I got an explanation!

3.) They have different names for paper sizes. A 8.5" X 11" is actually an A4. There's an A5 which is smaller and it goes down to an A0. I still can't quite imagine how big some of these pages actually are. I'll have to see!

4.) Also, apparently there is no law requirin

g people remove the snow from the sidewalks in front of their properties. As a result, no one shovels and you get VERY icy sidewalks! Lets just say I had some unexpected iceskating lessons this morning. :)

I had a lovely British conclusion to my day at 4:30 pm (after starting class at 9 am) at a classmate's flat for a nice cup of tea!

I then had dinner with my new friend, Bri and we were going to watch Ferris Bueller's Day Off at the community center called The Edge, but it was unfortunately cancelled.

Looking forward to no classes tomorrow!

New Digs

Today I got my new room for the semester!

It's quite spacious compared to U.S. dorm rooms, from what I've seen! I have my own sink, under-bed storage and a nice big desk! I'm almost all moved in. I have some minor things to put away still.

I met several girls living in my suite. Apparently we're all international students. here. I have so far particularly hit it off with a Canadian girl, Bri, who lives across the hall. She's a lit and rhetoric major.

New Britishisms I've observed:

1.) There's a Heinz mint condmint, which I have no idea what they put it on! It tastes kind of salty with a hint of mint. It's also very oily. Peculiar!

2.) Their "Exit" signs are pictograms for the illiterate. There's a picture of a man running, a down arrow, and a door? I suppose it's a call out to the old days when everyone was illiterate here!

Registration Day

Landscape Architecture and Architecture Departments are housed in the Arts Tower. The Arts Tower is the tallest campus building in Europe, apparently!

Today's main event was registration!!!

It was an all-day ordeal.

I ended up being advised to take 70 credits or 7 classes. I am only allowed to take 60 credits though, so I randomly selected one class to drop. Basically, I'm still juggling my schedule around, but it looks like I won't have final exams! Once again, it pays off being a Landscape Architect! Oooohhh yeah, baby!

I also got my new university ID card! Lookin' good! I'm excited that they entitle you to a bus discount...50 p instead of 1.50. That's like $2 off.

The biggest highlights were the little cultural differences. :)

Here is a list of my favorites!

1.) I saw a proper British taxis where you store your luggage in with you!

2.) There was a drink vending machine with these empty bags and you select the drink and it fills it up for you before dropping the drink down! Essentially you're drinking from a pouch!

3.) I think I saw a Neville Longbottom look-alike on the street! Matthew Lewis is from Leeds, which is kinda close to Sheffield...I didn't ask, and now the mystery is forever preserved.

This is kinda what he looked like on the street! Only with slightly longer hair. I definitely did a double take!

4.) Best thing was in the "Arts Tower" ... They have this sick elevator thing! It goes up and down constantly and you just hop on and off on the go! You really have to be on your toes with this! It was definitely an adventure and got your heart beating!

I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings...I'm moving into my dorm room and shopping for some essentials.

Feb. 2nd: Arriving in Sheffield

Above: Sheffield train station

Hello All!

I'm going to see how long I can keep up this blog. Here's a brief summary of the highlights of my day.

1.) I took a 2 hr train from London to Sheffield without any problems! Yay! It was one of the few times I've been on a train, and there was actually a trolly car rolled down the aisle...like in Harry Potter!

2.) I accidentally forgot to write down the address for my B&B, so the cabbie dropped me off at the dormitories instead since I had that

address. The security people at the front desk were super friendly and printed off directions to the B&B and drove me here!

My room's very small, but nice and cozy warm! It's very European. Breakfast tomorrow at 8:30 am because that's when they stop serving it! They seriously need to serve breakfast later.

3.) I had a chicken and mushroom pie at The York Tavern on one of the main roads. I found it after exploring a little bit! The food was very tasty!

4.) I met 3 other international students staying at my B&B. I tagged along with them. The international students were all supposed to eat dinner together at the Student Union. I decided to tag along, even though I'd already eaten. I'm really glad since I was able to catch up on the campus tour they'd taken.

There's a pub in the basement of the Student Union! We all went for a pint after dinner and I had some really interesting conversations with two blokes from South Korea, one bloke from Czechoslovakia, and a girl from Utrecht in the Netherlands!

Overall, a great first experience here!