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Tonight was the Rotary District Council, of which we are required to attend one. District Council is a time when Rotarians from all over the District come together to discuss District business. It wasn't very exciting, but was worth watching once. The main things of note (to me) was that the District has a web-page and was encouraging clubs to make them, they voted to pass an amendment on attendance requirements on to RIBI, and voted not to pass an amendment to allow Rotarians to change clubs with impunity.
This weekend was the weekend of Christmas meals, starting on Saturday night. Fortunately I was feeling well enough to attend even though I was not at 100% yet. Saturday night was the O-Club Christmas meal at the MAC. The dress code said dress smart, so I work a blazer, dress slacks and a tie, but found I was dressed smarter than anyone else there. They gave me a special toast for dressing up so nice! The meal was quite good-- I had roast beef and yorkshire pudding. The other event of note was the food fight that started in the middle of the meal, with mince pies flying everywhere. I felt sorry for the waitresses who had to clean up the room after words-- at least soup wasn't being thrown around.
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Sunday
was the AngSoc trip to Worcester Cathedral. We attended a service at the
Cathedral, had a tour and then ate a Christmas lunch at a nearby hotel
(see group picture at left). The sermon given at the service was quite
good, the main point being that most people consider the Word of God to
be the Bible, while really if you read the book of John you discover that
Jesus is the Word made Flesh, and the Bible is only a method of coming
to know him. 
The
Cathedral itself has an impressive history behind it going all the way
back to Roman times. I was also told that most Americans came to see the
tomb of King John which is located in the Cathedral, so I made sure to
take note of it (see picture above). Prince Arthur, the elder brother of
Henry VIII, is also buried there, and our guide, a priest who works at
the Cathedral, commented that many ask the question of what would have
happened if Prince Arthur hadn't died, and therefore Henry VIII was never
made King (Henry VIII created the Church of England splitting off from
the Roman Catholics). His opinion was that not much would be different
since change was in the air anyway. After the tour we went to a nearby
hotel and a had a very filling meal. Everybody got party hats and I got
one of two tri-cornered hats like those of the American Revolutionaries--
I thought this was very appropriate. The picture at right shows Rev. Gorham
serving wine in his pirate hat.
Later Sunday evening I attended the Catholic Society Pantomime. 
Pantomime
is apparently a grand tradition at Christmas time here in Britain. The
idea is that amateurs get together and perform a farcical version of a
popular kids fairy tale. In this case it was Cinderella. They also traditionally
have the male and female leads played by the opposite sex, so in this case
Cinderella was a man and the Prince was a woman. The lines were all very
cheesy and there was a special appearance by a guy with a beard and a hairy
chest dressed in a tu-tu playing the fairy, or perhaps hairy, god-mother
(see picture at left). Overall it was pretty funny, partly because the
audience kept yelling things to the performers.
Amr, one of my friends back in the States also brought to my attention a very cool program this week. It allows you to use the microphone and speakers on your computer as a telephone through the Internet, and is called Net2Phone. It works by sending your voice to the US where a US call is made to the desired number. The other party uses a regular phone and their voice is sent back to your computer over the Internet. It only costs 10 cents/minutes to call the US and 800 numbers are free. Of course you also have to pay to connect to your Internet provider, but it is still much cheaper than calling using British Telecom. When I first tried it the quality was terrible, but after fiddling with it I got it to work pretty decently. It sounds about the same as a cellular phone.
My Xmas plans also seem to be solidifying a little bit. I've sent some email back and forth to Rebecca in Spain and it looks like we will travel around England some over the break. She will spend Xmas with relatives in Yorkshire and I will stay with my host counselor, Dr. Yannamani. We'll see exactly what transpires.
Wednesday I took some time to go to the Carol Service at the Great Hall. There was a large choir and a lot of people. Overall it was quite nice. Carol Services are another British Christmas tradition. It is basically a service where the readings from the bible discussing the birth of Christ are read in between singing a bunch of carols. Overall if was a lot of fun.
Last night all of the scholars got together again down in Warwick for a Christmas meal. I was so exhausted from working on projects that I honestly didn't enjoy it very much. The food and entertainment was good, but when you are very tired all you can think about is sleep. Specifically, Jennifer, the other American Scholar, sang a wonderful Christmas song. She is studying Opera, and her voice was incredible.
My Christmas plans have also now settled, at least as much as they are going to. I got an email from Rebecca saying that it was her last communication and that she would take the first ferry she could make from Cherbourg to Portsmouth on December 18th. Hopefully this will be enough information. I also have had my Mom buy an 8-day unlimited train travel pass in the US and that is being shipped over. The general plan is to travel to Birmingham from Portsmouth over a couple of days, and then do day trips from Birmingham until the 23rd. Then Rebecca and I will go our separate ways for Xmas, and travel some more using the rail pass after Xmas (hopefully to Scotland). Finally we will head down to Paris where she will meet a friend on January 5th, and I will go back to Birmingham to finish my mini-project which is due on the 14th of January.
This Monday my host club, Tamworth-Anker, had a carol service, and they asked me to do one of the readings at the service. I went up to Dr. Yannamani's house for a good Indian dinner before the service. The service itself was much smaller than the one in the Great Hall of the University last week. The Rotarians and their wives were in attendance. We sang lots of carols, and I read from Luke about the shepherds watching over their fields who were told of the birth of Jesus. After we had some refreshments before Dr. Yannamani took me home.
Yesterday was very hectic, since it was my last day in Birmingham before traveling for the holiday. I had agreed to edit the first draft of our report for the AI class, and I had to finish my section for the report and edit the thing. I finally finished that at around 10:30pm, then had to pack up so I could catch the train today to Portsmouth. I did take some time out for dinner with Cecilia and Marcin, two of my classmates. I had some tuna-noodle casserole that was going to spoil if I left it in the fridge, so I invited them up for dinner. They brought some veggies and drinks and we had a nice but very informal dinner.
This morning I woke up at 5:40am, having gone to bed just five hours before. I had to catch a 6:40am train to New Street, and from there to Winchester, and finally on to Portsmouth. I am supposed to meet Rebecca here today so that we can travel around England some. The only word I heard from her was that she would catch the earliest ferry from Cherbourg to Portsmouth that she could wake up to catch, she then said she would be out of touch until arriving in England. I checked the ferry times and the first one left Cherbourg this morning at 8:30am, getting here at noon. I got the early train to get here by noon, but she hasn't showed up, so I assume she will be on the next one which leaves Cherbourg at 5:30pm, arriving here at 9pm. It is now 1:30pm, so I guess I will go arrange a place for us to stay (or me to stay if she doesn't arrive), and then maybe watch a movie while I am waiting. I had thought we might stay in Salisbury, but that is not very feasible if she arrives at 9pm. Well, I will just have to wait and see what happens.
Rebecca did finally arrive on the 9:15pm ferry. It turned out that she had been 10 minutes late for the morning ferry, and had therefore had to wait nine-hours in Cherbourg to catch the 5:00pm ferry. A fact made more frustrating for her since Cherbourg is not that exciting (it was bombed flat in the war and has been rebuilt since), and they wouldn't let her store her luggage so that she could go out. In any case, she did arrive, and we marched down to the YMCA, got rooms and went to sleep.
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Victory
was Admiral Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
During the battle the French and Spanish alliance was broken, and the French
threat to Britain was eliminated. Nelson also perished in the battle, and
during the tour we saw both the spot where he fell, and the place in the
ship's hold where he later died. The ship was very impressive to tour.
For an all wood ship the size was immense, and being beneath decks really
highlighted the working conditions of the men (see picture of Rebecca and
I in front of the Victory at left). Finally, the H.M.S. Warrior 1860 was
the first Iron Clad steam ship in the British Navy. At its launch it was
the pride of the Navy and there was an uneasy peace with France. The French
did not threaten Britain again, however, and the ship was eventually converted
to a barge and fell into disrepair. It has since been restored to its full
working state. What was notable to me, however, was that the ship was a
compromise, built on the cusp between the age of sail and the age of steam
ships. Warrior still has the capacity for full sails and the funnels from
the boilers can be retracted into the hull. The ship still has cannons,
like the victory and older ships, but many of the amenities for sailors
had been greatly improved.
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In addition to the aforementioned problems it was raining sporadically
when we arrived in Winchester. 
We
decided to at least make a trip to the Great Hall lugging our possessions
with us. The Great Hall was originally constructed in 847 A.D. as part
of a castle, quite near some Roman fortifications. William the Conqueror
had himself coronated a second time in the hall (the first time was in
London), and it reached the peak its use in the 13th century when Henry
III improved it as a part of his castle. It was then used sporadically
until 1612 when Oliver Cromwell ordered the rest of the castle destroyed
(since the Royalists had holed up there), but had the hall improved and
kept for meetings. In addition a Round Table hangs on the wall, which was
created in the 13th century. Henry III ordered it painted with the names
of the Knights of the Round Table, and inscribed that it was King Arthur's
Round Table (see picture of me with table at right). This is almost certainly
not true due to how late it was constructed. After a brief look around
the Great Hall we hiked back to the train station and headed to Oxford.
Upon arrival in Oxford our first order of business was to get to the hostel and drop our bags, which were becoming increasingly burdensome. This proved to be a more difficult task than expected, since the buses had been renumbered, so the guide I had was incorrect. Eventually we figured out the correct numbers and got out to the hostel. The hostel is very nicely appointed and Rebecca and I were able to get a separate room with a bunk so we could keep our stuff locked in the room while we went out. By the time we had done this and gotten back to the City Centre it was dark, so we just picked up some food for dinner and headed back to the hostel.
It was very weird walking around Oxford on the way to the hostel. All around are these majestic stone buildings rising above you. There was a slight mist in the air and it was all very surreal. I look forward to touring here some more tomorrow.
Saturday
was our day in Oxford, the city of "Dreaming Spires" (see picture at left).
We got up at around 9:30am and headed into town. The day was bitterly cold,
so you couldn't comfortably stay outside for very long. We decided to take
a tour in one of Oxford in one of the double-decker buses. A main feature
of these buses is that the second level is open air-- a feature in Summer,
but on this day a drawback. The buses allow you to get on and off at sites
that interest you. For the first part of the tour we rode on the second
level so we could see the city better. By the time we reached the railway
station we couldn't feel our fingers or toes, so we got off for a hot chocolate,
and finished the tour a bit later.
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The
Ashmolean was huge, and we wandered through looking at a random selection
of their collection. Of particular interest was the ancient greek artifacts,
a collection of old musical instruments and a very nice coin collection
which went back to Roman times. Christ Church is perhaps one of the most
beautiful of the colleges. We saw the grounds and the cathedral on the
campus. The cathedral was nice, but small in comparison to many of the
others I have seen. We also went into the Great Hall, where students used
to eat. Of note there was the "Alice" window, with characters from Alice
in Wonderland. The book was written by Charles Dodgson, a mathematics
lecturer at Christ Church, under the pseudonym Lewis Carrol. See the picture
at left of me on the Christ Church grounds.
We left Oxford at around four to get back to Birmingham. The Pearces direct a group of kids (aged young to about 24) called the JAS group, and they were having a concert that night. The concert was very enjoyable. In addition to the JAS Group, there was a pianist, and some violinists. The pianist was a girl named Becky who was about 16 years old. She played some very difficult pieces by Liszt and Chaupin, and also one which she had composed herself. It was also amazing to see that one of the violinists was about 6 years old, but was able to keep up with the rest of the group.
After the concert we went to the Pearce's house where they had a party for the people in the group, and we were fortunate enough to tag along for. Everybody we met wanted to know where we were from and how we came to be at the party, and by the end of the night we were pretty tired of explaining that I was a Rotary Scholar, and Rebecca was studying in Spain but had come up to see her family in Yorkshire, that we both knew each other from Stanford, and since we both wanted to see England (and it is no fun traveling alone), we had decided to travel around England some before and after Christmas proper.
We spent the night at the Pearce's, and on Sunday (yesterday) after laying in a bit we went down to Stratford-on-Avon, home of the "Bard". Sunday train schedules were a bit irregular, so we had over an hour layover at Birmingham City Centre. During that time we went to the Museum and looked through a collection of tools and implements from the 19th century. I thought that some of the very first matches which they had on display were interesting. They had some which wouldn't go out in a wind so that you could light your pipe outdoors.
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We
finally arrived in Stratford at around 3pm, and most of the main attractions
closed at 4pm, so we did a whirlwind tour of the city. In about one hour
we saw the house Shakespeare was born in, the house his daughter and her
husband lived in (Hall's Croft) with its collection of medical instruments
from the past four centuries, and Nash House where Shakespeare's grand-daughter
lived. At left is a picture of me in front of Shakespeare's birthplace.
The silly grin on my face is me trying to look as cold as I felt. At right
is a picture of Rebecca and I in front of Hall's Croft, 
and
below is a picture of me with Nash House in the back. Finally, we strolled
down the Avon as the moon rose, and went to Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare
is buried. On Shakespeare's tomb is an inscription warning people not to
disturb his bones lest a curse be placed upon them. Apparently, at the
time the graves, which are right beneath the high alter, were used for
a few years after which they chucked the bones into a bone crypt and re-used
them. Shakespeare didn't want this happening to his remains and asked that
the inscription be placed on his grave. We then fled back to the train
station to catch the 5:10pm train back to my flat, having seen Stratford
in just over two hours!
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Christmas Eve I went to Dr. Yannamani's house where we had a great seafood curry. Since the Yannamani's are Hindu, we had previously arranged for me to stay with the Pearce's for Christmas, so Dr. Yannamani took me over to the Pearce's house in time for Midnight Mass. The mass was fairly traditional with carols and Christmas readings. By the time we got back from Mass it was 1am, and I didn't get to sleep until two. Following what seemed like far too little sleep, I got up for the 10am Christmas Morning service, which I was taken to by Ruth, one of the members of the Pearce's Youth Choir, and her family. The service was a lot of fun as all of the kids were there, and the Pastor had them come up and demonstrate all their new toys during the service. I spent the rest of the day relaxing, with a brief pause for a light lunch. Then, that night we had a very nice Christmas Meal with goose and venison. I had never had venison before and really enjoyed it.
I also got to meet Eleri, the Pearce's daughter, who was home for the holiday. Coincidentally, she is working as an Au Pair in Mill Valley, not far from my home. I gave her Christmas presents for my family which she is bringing back to them today.
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Now I need to pack for tomorrow as I will be leaving on the 9:00 train to York.
We
toured York today in not much longer than we took in Stratford-on-Avon.
My train, which was supposed to arrive at noon, was delayed by an hour
and a half, five minutes outside York. By the time we arrived at the hostel
and dropped off our bags it was 3 o'clock, with most things closing at
five.
We went to York Minster first, since that was what we were most interested in (see picture at right). Of the cathedrals that I have visited thus far, it was the biggest. The other notable thing was that it seems much more well thought out, in comparison to Worcester Cathedral for example. Worcester has distinct sections which are done in different styles, showing how it changed as people worked on it over the centuries. Everything in York Minster was much more well coordinated by comparison. The whole cathedral was very beautiful to look at.
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We
had a pretty good view nonetheless. We also stopped at the Museum of Automata,
which displayed motorized figures through the ages, from ancient greek
water based toys, to wind up accordion players to modern day robots (see
picture at left). We then hurried back to the Cathedral for Evensong
service, which was held in a small chapel off of the side of the Cathedral.
After that we had dinner at Pizzaland, since we had a five pound off coupon. Finally we walked/slipped back to the Hostel. Last night is snowed in this area, and during the day it melted, and then froze again, so all the way back we were sliding. We took the path along the river, and kept joking we would slide right in. Fortunately, we didn't actually fall down.
Now I am going to try to get off to sleep early, since we are heading off to Durham early tomorrow, and I haven't gotten a whole lot of sleep lately.
Libby Stafford is a friend of mine from Stanford, and is Rebecca's cousin, former roommate, and friend. She made both of us promise that if we did nothing else when visiting England, that we would go to Durham. She spent a year in Durham with her father who is an Anglican/Episcopalian priest. So, both of us were looking forward to Durham.
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Durham
Cathedral is the final resting place of the Venerable Bede and St. Cuthbert,
the man held responsible for the introduction of Christianity to the British
Isles way back in around 700 A.D.. The Castle was where the Prince-Bishops
who ruled both the territory surrounding Durham and held high position
in the church had their center of power.
The town had a very magical, almost fairy tale feel about it for me. 
The
train station is on a nearby hill and from it you can see the peninsula
with both the castle and the cathedral (at left is a picture of Rebecca
with, from left to right, the Castle and the Cathedral). There were scattered
rain clouds going by overhead with beams of sunlight streaming through
them and down onto the peninsula, a most incredible sight (see picture
of sun lit castle at right). The inside of the Cathedral was also wonderful
to see. 
The
light streamed through the stained glass windows making the interior seem
very bright, and almost alive, unlike the dim and dank interiors of many
other cathedrals. The Cathedral is also in the Norman style, and lacks
the decoration of the Gothic style, so the cathedral had a wonderful austere
feel to it. We also climbed the 325 steps to the top of the cathedral tower,
from which we had a magnificent view of the surrounding country (see photo
at left). It was also clear from the top why this peninsula was so prized,
as it provides a wonderful naturally defensible site. Unfortunately the
castle was closed, so we only got to see the outside, which was impressive
in its own right. I think both Rebecca and I were in agreement that Libby
was correct in recommending the town to us. It has a timeless feel to it
that many of the other cities and towns have lost as they succumb to the
effects of modern times.
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Yesterday morning when we were eating breakfast in the hostel, a guy
sat down and was eating at the same table with us. After a while he asked
me if I went to Stanford, 
to
which I replied, "Yes". After a few minutes of confusion Rebecca and he
both realized that we all new each other from Cornerstone, a Christian
fellowship group at Stanford that we were all members of. He was Dave Roghair,
and had spent the Autumn quarter in Moscow, and was now traveling in the
UK before returning home. 
It
was an amazing coincidence that we would both wind up in Edinburgh, at
the same hostel-- especially considering that we were only in Edinburgh
for one day. At right is a picture of Dave and Rebecca on the High Street
in Edinburgh.
The three of us went together to a service at St. Giles, the High Kirk (High Church) of Scotland. See the picture of Dave and Rebecca outside St. Giles at left. It was a nice service, and afterwards Dave went to climb to the top of Arthur's Seat, a nearby mountain with a fort at the top, and we went to take a tour of Edinburgh and see Edinburgh Castle (Dave had seen these things the day before).
Edinburgh is a city neatly partitioned in to two towns, the old and the new. The Old town is full of tiny streets, closes and wynds (the latter two are small passageways), while the new town, built around 1800 during the Georgian era, is laid out on a very precise grid. We spent most of our time in the old town, which has a lot more character. We took a bus tour so that we could get an overall idea of things, and then went to the Castle.
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Both going to the Hostel to get our bags, and on the way back to the station we ran into the opening of the Hogmanay Festival held for four days around New Years Day. It was just starting last night and they were having a torch light procession around the town which we had to navigate around. They had High Street and Princes Street, two of the main streets in Edinburgh blocked off. There were also search lights all over Edinburgh lighting up the night sky. We overheard a man telling the tourists that this year would be the biggest Festival yet, with over 350,000 people attending-- apparently Glasgow was having a festival for the first time this year and it was unacceptable for theirs to be bigger. Unfortunately to stay for the festival we would have had to book months in advance, so as the torch lit procession continued to pass we got on our train and headed for back to York, where we spent the night before heading on to Cambridge today.
Last
I wrote, we were coming into Cambridge by train. We arrived around noon
at the station, and were excited since the Hostel in Cambridge is only
1/4 mile from the station, so we wouldn't have to lug our bags very far.
Just as we started to walk there, however, it started to snow, escalating
to a miniature blizzard midway to the Hostel. Then, when we arrived at
the Hostel, the snow stopped, and didn't come down the whole rest of the
day. At least we got an opportunity to feel like we were experiencing winter.
The picture at right shows me covered with a light dusting of snow after
the mini-blizzard.
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Unfortunately,
due to the school holiday, almost all the buildings in town were closed.
Rebecca is a big fan of the King's College Choir, and was disappointed
that we were unable to look at the King's College Chapel where they sing. 
At
left is a picture of the outside of the King's College Chapel, which was
all we got to see. We were able to walk around the grounds of some of the
colleges, including Trinity (where Isaac Newton went), and St. John's College
(see pictures above). We also had a chance to walk around the "Backs" which
is where the colleges have their lawns and gardens. The River Cam flows
between the Colleges and the Backs (little more than a stream, really),
and it was frozen in parts. Some ducks walked over to us across the ice
when we were standing on the bank, and were disappointed when we didn't
have any bread for them (see picture at right).
Since everything was closed, we got back to the Hostel by 4pm. On the way back I spotted a Domino's Shop, so for dinner I ordered a pizza from them, something I haven't done since I left the US. It wasn't quite up to the standards of Domino's Pizza back home, but it was still quite good. We spent the rest of last night hanging out at the Hostel, playing games and watching movies.
Now we are on the train to London, where we will spend the next two days before heading to Paris to finish the trip.
