Brad's England Journal- Link Weekend Entry
Sunday, September 29, 1996
Well, a lot has happened over the last week or so, especially this last
weekend which was the Link weekend in Bristol. Not a whole lot happened
during the week. My check from Rotary finally came on Wednesday, so I deposited
it and will finally have funds available this coming Wednesday. I met with
three professors, and will probably be working with Dr. Ela Claridge on
some research on how the eye perceives things with a goal of being able
to identify cells in medical images of tissue samples.
Thursday night our apartment hosted a big party. Between all of us in
the apartment we invited a lot of people including most of Pritchatts Park. 
We
decorated the apartment with balloons, and set up a stereo in the living
room. Everybody had to bring their own booze, however. I met a few new
people at the party, and got a chance to hang out with others whom I had
already met. Significantly I had quite a long and interesting conversation
with a German fellow who was for the most part enthusiastic about the United
States, but was not very happy with Germans, whom he considered to be fairly
stiff. At the right is a picture from the party. From left to right the
people are Stuart, Lee, Ed (some of my roommates), and Manon.
Friday afternoon was the beginning of Rotary Link weekend down in Bristol,
which was a chance for all the Rotary Scholars staying in the British Isles
to get together. I had to catch the 5:28 train from downtown Birmingham,
and had to catch a local train to downtown Birmingham first. I got to the
University Station at 5:00, just in time to have the train doors close
in my face. Fortunately I caught the next train and with only three minutes
to spare caught my train to Bristol.
Rotary Students, Clockwise From Top Left:
Brad Johanson, Mark Cullum, Yoko Sera,
Ailsa Henderson, Daniel Lewis, and Lorie
Montgomery
|
Rotary Students with Hosts
|
Picture of Some of the Guests and Hosts at the Link Weekend
The train was met at the station in Bristol, and we were taken to a local
hotel where we were dispatched to host families for the weekend. I was
assigned, along with Daniel Lewis, a music scholar from Melbourne studying
in Cardiff, to the Perry's house. 
Steve
and Hazel were the two parents, and their were two University age sons,
Ben and Josh, and one middle school aged daughter, Hannah at the Perry
house (another older daughter, Sarah, was off in Russia). They lived in
a suburb of Bristol called Westbury-on-Trym (see picture at left) in a
nice old stone house. The town was closed to Clifton, and Mr. Perry was
a member of the Rotary Club of Clifton. Clifton is also famous for one
of the oldest suspension bridges ever built (see right). The parents, Daniel
and I went to dinner at another Rotary members house where we met a few
of the other scholars: Ailsa, from Ontario, Lorie, from Texas, Yoko, from
Japan, and Mark, from Alabama.
Daniel with Westbury-on-Trym
in the Background
|
Me Standing in Front of the
Westbury-on-Trym Parish
Church
|
Me Standing by the Window
in the Parish Church
|
Daniel Sitting in the Church
Cemetery
|
Some Photos of Westbury-on-Trym
Saturday morning, Daniel and I walked around Westbury-on-Trym. We saw the
local parish church, and the magnificent Trym river, which was about 4
feet wide. Above are some pictures from our tour of Westbury-on-Trym.
St. Mary Redcliffe
Against a Blue Sky
|
The Choir at St. Mary
Redcliffe
|
Ceiling Detail and Bosses
from St. Mary Redcliffe
|
Outside Shot of St. Mary
Redcliffe
|
View of the Main Entrance
at St. Mary Redcliffe
|
The Lady Chapel at
St. Mary Redcliffe
|
Looking Down the Nave of St.
Mary Redcliffe
|
A Stained Glass Window
Made Out of the Oldest
Glass At the Church
|
Some Snap Shots of St. Mary Redcliffe Parish Church in Bristol
Saturday
afternoon we did some touring in Bristol. First we went to see St. Mary
Redcliffe Parish Church near the waterfront in Bristol. I found out that
St. Mary Redcliffe was once called the "fairest parish church in all the
land," by Queen Elizabeth I. The church was made all out of carved limestone
and might be considered a cathedral in the U.S. (pictures above). 
What
is really striking is the age of things over here. You commonly see plaques
on the wall or tombstones with dates in the 17th century. Although I have
seen other ancient sites, such as the Great Wall in China, it was striking
to see items of such age from a culture from which my own stems. Our tour
guide seemed to like the church quite a bit, pointing out bits of carving
that he was fond of, but didn't seem to have a whole lot of factual data,
which was a little disappointing. After that, Mr. Perry took Daniel and
I to see some other sites in Bristol. We went first to Bristol Cathedral
which was larger than St. Mary Redcliffe, but which lacked the sense of
age and beauty of St. Mary Redcliffe (inside view at left). There was one
room (the chapter house) in the cathedral which was quite old (see right),
however, and had very intricate stonework which had survived remarkably
well for almost 800 years. Below is a picture of Daniel sitting in the
chapter house and some shots of us at St. Mary Redcliffe.
Daniel Sitting in the Chapter
House
|
Me Standing in Front of
the Choir at St. Mary
Redcliffe
|
Daniel and I Standing in
Front of the Main Entrance
to St. Mary Redcliffe
|
Mr. Perry and Daniel
Standing at the Back of
St. Mary Redcliffe
|
Some Photos of Our Tour of Bristol
We also went down King Street and saw a pub which was possibly frequented
by Daniel Dafoe. After these other visits we also toured an old Georgian
house which was appointed as it would have been over 200 years ago (see
below). It was particularly interesting to see the kitchen and plunge bath
which gave some idea of the day to day activities back in that time.
 |
Kitchen at Georgian House
Saturday evening we went to a town north of Bristol called Yate (near a
town called Chipping-Sodbury, which I mention since I quite like the sound
of the name) where we all of the scholars had a barn dance. All 140 scholars
at the Link Weekend were there, so I had a chance to meet more of them.
One activity which they did that was quite good was to create an imaginary
map of Britain on the dance floor with scholars from regions standing where
that region would be. This allowed us to meet scholars from our district
an neighboring ones. After that, most of the scholars linked hands in an
impromptu line dance, and went careening madly about the room. Though not
an official activity, it was quite fun and did a good job of breaking the
ice-- once everybody has acted silly together their is little further cause
to stay proper and reserved.
The Perrys, from Left: Josh, Steve,
Hannah, Ben and Hazel
|
Daniel with the Perry's
|
Daniel and I with the Perry's
|
Pictures of Daniel, the Perry's and Myself
This morning, we bid farewell to our hosts, taking the time to take a few
pictures first (see above). We then attended a morning meeting where we
were briefed on Rotary, and, more specifically, Rotary in the British Isles.
Their was quite a bit of useful information presented. Ms. Selby, the Secretary
for the Rotary Link program gave us some tips on how to behave as scholars,
and one thing she criticized was those scholars who sent non-businesslike
reply letters to her for the Link Weekend RSVPs. She showed us some bad
examples from previous years students, which included letters on notebook
paper, and memo paper. This made me feel pretty bad, since one of the letters
that I sent to her was a post-card from the Hyatt hotel I stayed at when
I visited Washington DC with my family this past June. I am sure my post-card
will be featured prominently in next years talk to scholars.
Finally,
all the scholars dispersed, taking trains and coaches back to their respective
universities. 
Lorie,
and Ailsa were both on the same train that I was on, although Lorie was
continuing on to Manchester, and Ailsa was going to Edinburgh. Lorie, Mike,
from Pennsylvania, and another girl, whose name escapes me, all got off
in Birmingham, the three of them to transfer to another train. We had about
45 minutes until their train left, so we took a quick stroll around Birmingham
city center, including a whirl wind tour of the Pre-Raphaelite collection
at the Art Museum. Finally they took their train and I headed back to the
University, where I am now looking forward to some sleep after a very busy
weekend.
We
decorated the apartment with balloons, and set up a stereo in the living
room. Everybody had to bring their own booze, however. I met a few new
people at the party, and got a chance to hang out with others whom I had
already met. Significantly I had quite a long and interesting conversation
with a German fellow who was for the most part enthusiastic about the United
States, but was not very happy with Germans, whom he considered to be fairly
stiff. At the right is a picture from the party. From left to right the
people are Stuart, Lee, Ed (some of my roommates), and Manon.
