23 October 2011

Highlights of today: 1. church at Holyrood Abbey, always centers my soul, with the baptism of the adorable Elspeth Scott. Kyle and Chloe, I want to know you better. My favorite chat was with Anne McTaggart. 2. Watching Fran get excited over a new pair of shoes. Quote: 'Darn you for dragging me into manhood!' 3. Fran bought me a cookbook I had eyed!!! 'One Pot And Casseroles'. Britain, watch out, I will learn to cook like you yet! [Question of the day: 'You deep fry everything... Do you deep fry crab?"] 4. The Sunday roast with a hint of curry. So good. Not fried. 5. Letting the bunnies run about in the garden, while playing hide and seek with Essie, and finding Fran had hid in a tree.

Spilled Milk

St. Anthony, Abbot: source

Currently, for my course, I'm reading through the lives of the Saints in The Golden Legend. Its rather exciting as I've learned so much about early church stories. Did you know Martha (Mary and Lazarius's sister) defeated a dragon? Or that Peter was known for always crying, especially when he heard the cock crow? Or my favorite, that St. Anthony, Abbot, is the first recorded person to say, 'don't cry over spilled milk?'

St Chads Matriculation: Real Life Harry Potter

At Durham, we have to apply to be in colleges. The University consists of about 20 or so. I'm in St. Chad's which is really old, but small and beautiful college. Read more about its fabulous self here. St. Chad's is situated on the Old Bailey, which is the bit of the city surrounded by the river, on which is the Castle and Cathedral.

This is a picture of the Old Bailey.

As a postgraduate at St. Chads, we are apart of the Middle Common Room or MCR. The undergraduates are apart of the Junior Common Room, and the Tutors are apart of the Senior Common Room. We have our own common room in the college.

To Matriculate, we all wore our robes and walked into St Chads Chapel where the Principal spoke and then called our names, rose, and signed the registry. We pledged to uphold the rules and honor of St Chads and then proceeded into the courtyard for drinks.

Here is the 2011 Matriculating MCR.

This is Theodora. She is from Austria, and studies Religious Studies. As a part of this, she's in the theology department, and we joke that the American theological students have a 'church clique' meaning that they assume you're a Christian and ask what church you go to. [Three boys are from Alabama, and I know two from Georgia.]

A special part of the evening meant we were allowed to buy wine from our very own wine cellar. Can you believe we have our own wine cellar?! And its dirt cheap. So after buying those, we all trooped in to the dining hall for a formal dinner.

Here's a brief picture of the SCR at their 'high table' at the top of the hall.

Because I had to leave early to catch a train, I had to go up to the Principal, who sat in the center of the table, and bow to him, where he granted me approval to leave the hall.

This is the table with whom I dined. They are all doing Masters courses. Clockwise they study philosophy, religious studies, business management, and biology. Quite a diverse group. For dinner we had liver pate (not my favorite) for first course, steak with vegetables for the second, and chocolate mousse for the third. It was all so nice and inviting and was so sad to have to catch the train home.

I feel a bit split right now with half my life in Durham and half in Edinburgh, but am enjoying it all so very much.

Girls: Don't do this to boys

This first photo is from ages ago, but it shows the bunnies semi-spooning, and its so adorable when they just flop happily like that.







The bunnies are well and I think they love living outside. Their coats are getting slightly coarser due to the cold weather, and I imagine will be v. snug in their hutch.

Outside they live in a hutch at the back of a stone-walled garden. Since I don't have a run (yet-- Fran is building me one!!), I put red leads on them and let them hop about the garden, using the leads to catch them when play-time is up. I have ideas for insulating the hutch which involves a card-board box and straw or newspaper, and is a pretty ingenius idea that I took from a rabbit blog.

I think they are getting along ok, though Indy does occasionally do this to Felix, even outside:

No, they are not making babies. This is a sign of dominance where the dominant rabbit will straddle the lesser rabbit. I feel so badly for Felix as he IS the male and if he wasn't so darn tiny, the male usually takes that position. Indy however, was mine first, and is much larger, so she takes the dominant role here. I'm a bit disappointed becaues the girl promised me a Lionhead, not a dwarf lionhead, and Felix is definitely a dwarf Lionhead, so size here is rather an issue. Fingers crossed that this odd symbiotic relationship will work.

Mice

Source: imgfave.com

In real life, mice are not this cute.

We have mice in our flat. It's not an infestation, but a lowly fact of life living in a tenement connected to other buildings with miles of space between the walls, unstopped, unchecked, for mice to burrow in. Our flat is unable to be properly sealed off due to the brilliant work of the builders, and thus from time to time, while we are watching a movie, we'll see a head peep out from under the oven. There is something incredibly shocking about such a live rodent alive in your presence.

We've tried all sorts of traps, but the only ones that work are the glue traps. We used to put these traps out for lizards in Singapore, but mostly, the lizards escaped and all that would be left was a tail. With mice, these work, but don't kill the mouse for you, so from time to time, we come down to make breakfast only to find our visitor caught on the glue pad.

It's really horrendous to seem them still alive. It'd be much easier to just not look, but thats even more cruel. We realize we have to kill the mice otherwise we'd be overrun and unsafe for us to live in. None of us like it, but we've devised a method of killing them. I think I personally realized it was essential when after a long day, I ran up our four flights of stairs and was desperate to pee. I raced into the bathroom and was halfway through before I realized that in a trap set out in the bathroom were not one, but two mice stuck on a trap just inches away from my feet! I think it was all I could do to get out of there without wetting myself.

Today I killed my first mouse. Here is how it goes:

1. Large box filled with heavy things, usually books.
2. Wrap box in garbage bag.
3. Put on wellies.
4. Pick up box.
5. Either throw box on mouse, or stand on top and drop. I personally can't do the stand and drop, so I throw and hope I aimed well.
6. Remove box, leaving garbage bag down.
7. Wrap remains in garbage bag and bring downstairs to dumpster.

The good thing is its instantaneous and the mouse is no longer in pain or frightened. The bad thing is you actually have to do the killing, which is not fun. I wish they weren't so smart as to evade the ready-set-kill traps that would allow my soul not to be so tarnished. However, today I could only go so as far as to kill the mouse and not clean it up. Both take an emotional expenditure that I just couldn't muster.

Oct. 6, 2011

Today:

1. I made cookies with Thing 1 and Thing 2. The best bit was their delight when I told them they could lick the bowl and subsequently getting chocolate on every bit of their faces and clothes, and Ms. Emma walking in that precise moment I told them to wash up.
2. I got caught in a freezing-rain storm with a dress, flats, and no tights! My new ambition is to buy black dress shoes I won't freeze in.
3. I made cream of chicken and celery soup and beer bread for diner tonight. Not as good as mama's but its a bit of home.
4. I bought a biography on Agatha Christie for 50 p. and it is surprisingly interesting.
5. The weather in Edinburgh has taken a drastic plunge, and currently I'm wearing two pairs of socks, leggings and jeans, three shirts and am still cold.

Inductions

I still can't find my camera card- usb cord, so apologies for no new pictures!

Durham is a beautiful city on a hill or bailey. In the bailey sits the castle and cathedral, and fortunately, my college, St. Chads. Around the hill (bailey) is a moat and to orient myself around Durham I have to figure out which side of the river I'm on.

My college is lovely. It has lots of little libraries to go and study in, a dining hall (set up like Harry Potter), and a Middle Common Room (MCR) for the postgraduate students. There's a chapel and a lawn, a Junior Common Room (JCR) with a tv and pool table. Its kind of like a dormitory but better.

My Induction into the University was wonderfully inspiring. My induction into the English Department couldn't have been worse. The man just stood there reading off a sheet, as dead pan as ever. The other students seem lively enough though every single person I've met is focusing on modern literature. [grimace] Poor dears.

I go down tomorrow for my University Matriculation. We all wear our black robes (again Harry Potter) and march about the town, walk in a procession to the Cathedral, and there, we are matriculated into the University. In a few weeks time, I'll have my college matriculation, which is a formal dinner, again with the black gown and high table, where we'll formally meet our tutors. Our tutors are persons within the college to whom we go to for any sort of support.

I also meet my advisor tomorrow. This will be the make-or-break point-- in deciding if this is what I really want or not. I think it is, but its all coming on so very fast.