A Mid-Westerner in Mid-Wales

I won’t make our American readers jealous by telling them how much vacation time we have, but suffice it to say, we have more than we know what to do with.  So in mid-June, we took the first of our many summer trips, and we chose to go to the infamous Lake District!  I have heard about the Lake District many times before landing on this island (example, we read “Amsterdam” for book club a couple years ago and a pivotal event occurs in the Lake District) and was eager to check out some of the most beautiful scenery in the country.  Much to our surprise, though, many people that we spoke to around Aber had never been there or had been there only briefly years ago and some even questioned why we were going there.  Even when we were there, several retired guests at our fabulous B&B said this trip to the Lake District was their first visit to the region.  You can judge for yourself, but I thought it was absolutely gorgeous.  Here’s a short chronicle of our journey.

We left on Thursday morning and stopped at Valle Crucis Abbey in northern Wales.  A couple months ago, we invested in a CADW pass which gets us access into many national heritage sites around Wales and discounts in England.  They also recently started letting dogs into select sites, so Siena was very happy about that!

This poorest of abbeys in Wales dates back to the 1200s

We also passed this shop with a crazy long name.  Thanks to our Welsh lessons, we actually understand the meaning.

"The little card shop by the bridge over the river Dyfrdwy in Llangollen" (that is the town name which means "hazel church")

We arrived in Keswick (pronounced Kess-ick) around 5pm in the rain.  After settling into our room, the rain had stopped, and because we are so far north, it was still light out for a walk, so we decided to do a pre-dinner walk up Latrigg.

We had to go through some pretty dark woods to get to the top

Once we got to the top, we had some spectacular views of the valley we were staying in.

The view from the top of Latrigg toward Keswick and Derwentwater

The next day, we headed to yet another stone circle (there ae a lot of those in this country!) called Castlerigg which had amazing views all around.

Castlerigg Stone Circle may have once been a trading post

After lunch, we started a climb up Skiddaw, which is reknowned for hiding in the clouds.

The peak of Skiddaw peaking through the clouds

Despite the cloudy appearance one way, it was actually lovely the other way.

The view from Skiddaw, as far as we dared venture

The next day, we took a boat ride on the lake near our town.  Despite the fact that it’s called “The Lake District” there is only one official “Lake” as all the other lakes are not named “Lake something” but rather “something water” or “something mere”.  The lake by us was called Derwentwater.  We took it across to the other side in order to climb The Catbells.

The ridge we would be climbing as seen from the boat

From the top, you can see two lakes!

Family picture at the top of the Catbells

After three nights in lovely Keswick, we meandered back home.  We stopped by at two very different castles with our CADW pass.  First was Ewloe Castle, which is in the middle of the woods and pretty run down.

Unlike the other castles we've visited, Ewloe Castle is built by the Welsh to keep the English out!

Denbigh Castle was completely different, with a manicured lawn and expansive views.

Quite a contrast, Denbigh was part of King Edward I's ring of castles

So concluded our journey to the Lake District but not our explorations!  Upon returning, I spent 2 days in the office before I headed to a writing retreat in Usk which is in south Wales near Newport.  Even though I was mostly on my laptop in a hotel conference room writing most of the time, I did duck out to see some of the cute town.  They have annual competitions to see which storefront has the loveliest hanging flowers so throughout the town, you get to see views like this:

They were all super-cute like this one

In a stark contrast to the other castles I had visited, Usk Castle had animals roaming the grounds and a lot of charm to it!

Not particularly big or tall, it was a cute homey castle

After 3 days in Usk, I headed home to finally sleep in my own bed.  But the weekend was a beautiful one so we took advantage of it by going on a walk to Hafod Estates, which is about 12 miles away from Aber.  We took part of the Gorge Walk to the Gentleman’s Walk and then ended up on the Coed Hafod Walk.

View from the Ystwyth Gorge Walk

There were lots of cute bridges all over.

Sometimes Siena would be afraid to cross the bridges for fear of dropping through!

We finally end our adventures…this month.  After putting in another requisite few days at work, we are off again to celebrate our country’s birth in Spain!  Happy Birthday America!

Oh, and read this great piece on how the gay behavior of animals flies in the face of religious anti-gay arguments.

I have a confession.  I actually like watching the US men’s national soccer team.  I know that is something that shouldn’t be said too loudly in some circles in the states, but I feel the buffer of the Atlantic ocean and my proximity to England has given me confidence to bring this out in public.  Unfortunately, coverage of the men’s soccer team in US media is only slightly above the US men’s national rugby team.  Did you know that there was a national rugby team in the US?

I have been surprised to learn that the BBC has televised some Confederations Cup games on the tele here.  So I managed to catch the last half of the Italy match (ugh!) and the second half of the semi-final match versus Spain.  The game was great to watch even if it fell into one of the two patterns of USA soccer:

1. Fall behind early, look disorganized, and hope no more goals are given up.
2. Get lucky and score first, collapse 9 men in the box and hope the other team can’t score.

To be fair, they executed #2 to perfection and even got lucky to poke in a second goal at the 74th minute.  It should be noted that their 3-nil victory over Egypt came out of nowhere.

Good luck USA in your Confederations Cup final against Brazil or South Africa.

As an aside, I was only able to watch the second half of the matches because the games were played on Mon. or Wed. and I was at Welsh class.  But tonight was the last Welsh class of the year.  I passed! (Of course if there were grades I may not have.)

Every place in America has its own local history, so I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me that there are little places all about Wales including some right in our own backyard.  About a week ago, I took IAC out to Capel Bangor to celebrate the passing of her Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education (PGCTHE).  Go IAC!  We were joined by K and had dinner at The Tynllidart Arms.  What is special about The Tynllidart Arms is not the food (although it is pretty good) or even the beer, it is special for its outhouse.  Yes, the outhouse, or should I say, what used to be the outhouse.  The Tynllidart Arms’s ourhouse has been converted into a brewery, the world’s smallest brewery.  Unfortunately, they only produce a keg of beer once every two weeks so we didn’t get to sample the wares.

IAC and K. outside an outhouse.

Not all of this blog has to be about our Welsh experience.  So, readers, I want to share some recent thoughts and things I’ve been reading.

Having finished my first year as an academic, I have had a lot of time to reflect about learning and teaching and US versus UK academics.  As always there are things that I like about the system here and things I prefer about the US.  Despite being in a brand new department, I’m finding that I don’t get to mold things as much as I thought I would.  There are a lot of systems in place already such that I can’t really change things, and the opinions about what works and what doesn’t work from my colleagues and myself are all based upon what we have done in the past/have experienced.  Therefore, it isn’t necessarily as fresh as it should be.  So that gets me wondering: what is the ideal university experience?

I also wanted to share some of my favorite blogs that I visit with regularity:

Roger Ebert: not only does he have great insight on films and life in general, but he is also an extremely poetic writer AND a fellow UI alum!  I respect him so much for what he has written and achieved in the world.  If I were ever to meet him, I think I would dissolve into schoolgirlish giggles.  He is my favorite and my hero.

In praise of sardines: a food blog that I have been following for a while.  I have tried Brett’s recipes and been to his restaurant recommendations.  This guy knows his food!  He just opened a restaurant in SF, and even though it was promised to open before we left, it was delayed and we have never been to Contigo.  However, we are about to head to Spain in July (Barcelona specifically), and I plan to visit several restaurants Chef Emerson recommends.

Barbara Ehrenreich: I read Nickel and Dimed as part of my beloved Studio 1 book club, first nonfiction book, I believe, and found Ehrenreich to be an incredible writer.  She combines incisive commentary with good writing.  Her blog always teaches me something new and gives me things to think about.  I wish more people out there wrote like her.

The Sports Guy: This revelation may come as a shock to some, but I LOVE the Sports Guy even though I don’t love all sports (for the record, I like the Boston Red Sox, UI men’s basketball, and the Cubs when hottie Mark Prior was pitching for them).  I think I stumbled upon him because we share a love of the Sox, but then found that he was awesome in general, so kept reading.  He is hilarious, insightful, and logical.  I love reading his mailbags and his commentary on the Sox.  His post in dedication to his dog, The Dooze, made me close my office door and cry like a baby.

Omniglot: Cuz I, too, am a language nerd.

Our friends’ blogs, I visit with a lot of regularity, and you can find them on the blogroll on the right.

Not a blog, but PhD comics is sooooo right on with doctoral life, especially doctoral life at Stanford.

My favorite authors of all time? Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams.  Why hasn’t everyone read all of their works???

Lastly, I have a question to pose to our readers: should Dan and I start a family?  I know, I know, for everyone who knows me, you know that I have been rather outspoken about not birthing my own children.  However, I am really keen on the idea of adopting kids, and it does seem a shame to miss out on the whole family thing; plus lately I’ve been wondering who is going to take care of us when we get old.  My kind mom says that it would be a waste of good genes for us NOT to have kids (thanks for the confidence and frankly, a very big compliment, Ma!), but I still have reservations about 1) the environmental impact of bringing more people into the world, 2) is this world really a good one to raise kids in? after all, gay marriage is still not allowed in most parts of the world/our home in the US, 3) how does one raise kids to not become serial killers/rapists or at the very least, not resent me?, and 4) I’m not sure that I would necessarily be a good parent: after all, I lose my temper when Siena sheds on me, how am I supposed to deal with a spitting-up, poop-ful, drool-tastic baby?  Plus, we have a lot of role models here of couples who have chosen not to have kids, and they seem to have a helluva good time!  Whereas every time I see a mom pushing a stroller (pram) around, she looks like she has been wrecked by a construction ball (dads seem okay, although they are seen with the strollers less than moms).  Readers, I would appreciate your opinion on this topic!

We have been quite busy with exploring this spring now that the weather is finally nice again.  At the end of April, P came to visit us for the start of his big world trip.  He landed in Manchester, and we whisked him away to Wales immediately to see castles.  First stop: Conwy! (or as the English say, Conway)

Beautiful castle on the river

It is one of the most intact castles in Wales.  To protect it, Edward also built a wall around the city.

Walking around the city walls

We had a great time showing P around Wales, and now he is making his way eastward.  Read about his journey here!

Soon after, Mayday arrived which means the first bank holiday in a long time!  We took the opportunity to explore the Penfro (Pembrokeshire) National Coast.  Another beautiful day saw people out celebrating with a Maypole.

Celebrating Mayday by dancing around the Maypole

The coastal path went up, down, and around.  Even though it was a bit muddy, it was really lovely!

Family picture on the Pembrokshire coast

Lest you think that Stonehenge has the monopoly on megalith, Pentre Ifan in Pembrokshire is an amazing example of an ancient burial chamber.

Great place to be buried!

Next up, our friends, S & K, came for their first trip to Britain.  Luckily, Aberystwyth was in fine form for their arrival, and they got to enjoy great views such as:

Aberystwyth and Constitution Hill at night

We visited a Welsh distillery, called Penderyn.  It has only been around for a few years and is the only Welsh whiskey made.

Wisgi Cymraeg

The trip continued with a visit to Caerffili (Caerphilly in English) Castle, which is the biggest castle behind Windsor.

It has a leaning tower, which leans at an angle greater than Pisa's tower

We went to Cardiff next but didn’t get any great pictures, so we’ll have to go again to get some good ones. We next met S & K in Llundain (London), where we had all sorts of misadventures.  First, we ate some giant naan at a Balti house called Sartaj.

The naan and the balti were excellent!

We had high tea at Fortnum and Mason, where over the course of 2 hours, we had lots of little teeny tiny sandwiches and cakes.

It will be so difficult going back to having regular low tea

Another highlight of our time in London was going on the London Eye.  It slowly took us up to great heights where we saw some great views of London.

Our pod (contact lens) on the London Eye

All in all, a very fun few weeks!  We feel so lucky to have good friends coming to visit us and the chance to explore more parts of our beautiful little island!

The Welsh are taking over America, one Miata MX-5 at a time!

Even 8 timezones away, they do love their Dragon!

Photo Credit: D

Here is a feel good picture to show that I am environmentally friendly.

The bin says it all (yes, I said bin)

“People called Romanes they go the house!?”  Why does everything in this place come back to Monty Python (and here and here)?  Anyway, yesterday I decided to join IAC for some lunch at the Canolfan y Celfyddydau and, it being a nice day, we decided to make the most of it outside on a picnic table.  After I sat down I noticed that there was the typical graffiti: I (heart) Gareth, Rachel’s Boobs (complete with a picture of two circles with dots.  Come to think of it, maybe this was the psychology table.  Then my eyes scanned across to this:

This is motion to war isn't it boy?

This made me realize that I can never truly be Welsh, or at least as an authentic Cyrmu Cymraeg.  I think it most funny that it had to be corrected.

After what seems like an eternity, I returned to Massachusetts to defend my dissertation.  After arriving in Bean Town from an adventurous journey, I took my left-hand drive car west and began my trip down memory lane.  Not having encountered too many rotaries in the US, I had to do a double take at the Concord rotary when I was expecting traffic to go clockwise!  That rotary is bad enough without the added difficulty of expecting traffic in the opposite direction (can I get some confirmation from our Northeast readers?).  Continuing on Rte. 9 west, I saw some snow/ice in areas of perpetual shadow as well as broken tree limbs, another reminder of how mild the past winter was in Wales.

After arriving in Amherst and saying hello to the movers and shakers of the department (the administrative assistants), I left for my second indulgent meal of crappy food, paid homage to Dave Thomas, and drove to yet another airport to pick up my parents who thought it would be a good idea to see their son for the first time in six months when he is at his most stressed.  No one can say they don’t love me!  With my preparations almost complete for my talk the next day, I decided to take my parents out to a nice meal in Noho for my Father’s birthday.  I was going to take them to Del Ray’s but as we drove by we noticed that, well, a lot can change/disappear in two years.  So we spent a great meal at Caminito.  Happy birthday Dad!  Feel free to draw your own analogies to the great dinner that happened some two thousand years earlier.

Who’s idea was it to defend their dissertation on Good Friday!?  I was just asking for it.  I arrived into campus a little more than hour before my defense to do some last minute corrections/reviews.  I grabbed the portable projector and headed up to the defense room in time to set up 15 minutes before the talk.  When I arrived my committee was all waiting in the front row and before I can begin to process what is going on I hear my advisor announce to the other room where the tea was being served, “Alright, he is here, let’s begin.”  Now I realize that tea was at 9:45 with the talk beginning at 10:00, not 10:00/10:15.  It is one way not to have time to stress immediately before the defense.

The talk went half-way decently, not perfect, but respectable.  The closed door questioning was a little bizarre and not what I was expecting.  To be fair, I was expecting the worst but I wasn’t really expecting the curveballs.  Maybe that is what it is always like.  Finishing my questioning after about an hour, I headed downstairs to await the verdict which came a few minutes later.  I PASSED!  Not only did I pass, but I received edits from only half of my committee and those edits were mostly included in the much more extensive edits I found myself on the plane ride.

Finishing up the edits

The rest of the afternoon was spent gathering signatures and filling out various university and NSF forms, and I spent the remainder of the weekend working on those pesky edits and remaking one of my plots.  Nonetheless, three days after my defense, I stood at the Degree Requirements window of the Graduate School and dotted the I’s and crossed the T’s.  I was officially a doctor.

Getting the final approval

The trip to Massachusetts ended a little more uneventfully.  I took my parents to eat Korean food, I ate my Bueno y Sano burrito, and had sweet potato fries at the ABC.  My trip to life in Amherst was now complete.  Finishing everything a day early, I drove back to Boston for another sampling of Mexican food at the Border Cafe.  Good chips and salsa.

The flight back on Air Canada lacked the drama of the outgoing flight and when I managed to find my way out of Heathrow, I took a bus to Reading to attend the Dielectrics 2009 conference.  The first afternoon was a little hard to get through (I am man enough to admit I may have nodded off once or twice) but the conference was great overall, met people, learned things, and made connections.

The final leg of my journey was a two train trip back to Aber.  I caught the train from Reading to Birmingham and arrived to see the Aber train departing and the conductor waving goodbye to the station agent.  Another two hour delay.  I can’t catch a break on my travels.  I arrived back at 9:30 on Friday to the welcoming arms of IAC and the welcoming paws of Siena.

As was mentioned earlier, I had a different Easter holiday than IAC.  I returned to the US for my first time since moving to Wales.  Unfortunately this wasn’t a holiday trip, a wedding, nor a vacation.  I went back to New England to defend my dissertation.  My trip wild ride began with a 7:30 am train from Aberystwyth.  Everything was running smoothly until just before Birmingham (why do all of the problems start happening in England!?).  The train slowed to a stop.  No worry, I told myself, I have a few minutes connection and a planned arrival two hours before my flight.  After the conductor told me that all of the trains would be backed up and I would not miss my connection, I was cool as a cucumber.  Then I saw the Virgin train pass us to our left and realized that that train was my connection and was now in front of me.

Arriving at BHX, my fears were realized that we were passed by the connecting train.  As an aside, this is my first encounter with switching trains in the UK, not a great start.  Not only did I have to wait 20 minutes for the next scheduled train, but it too was about 7 minutes late.  Still I am not worrying too much.  That is why I had a two hour gap in my arrival, for just this eventuality.  Admittedly, things started looking up when I finally boarded the train to London Euston.  The train was quick and had some nice perks like power outlets at the seats.  The ride into London was smooth and I didn’t have a problem with my ticket letting me into the tube.  I am still on schedule to arrive 1:40 before my flight.

I need to take two trains to get to Heathrow by tube and I am fortunate to have the first line pull up right as I get to the platform.  Manouvering my carry-on and backpack onto the crowded train, I am beginning to relax and prepare for my transatlantic flight.  Then comes, or I should say not comes, the trouble.  I arrive at the transfer platform for the Picadilly line to take me to Heathrow, and I wait, and I wait.  12 minutes go by before a T4 train comes.  The ride through the heart of London is crowded but otherwise uneventful.  As we get to the outskirts of town (out Zone 3 way) the train starts creeping along.  At first I don’t notice much, just a usual slow down while tracks are switched or there is a slower train in front.  But then, I realize that the train isn’t really picking up speed.  It continues to go slow or stop.  We are creeping along as I nervously check the time pass.  By the time the train arrives into terminal 4, I have now lost 45 minutes of my buffer.  As IAC knows, I am starting to panic.  I think the train won’t wait long at T4 because it is about 30 minutes late in arriving anyway.  So much for that theory.  The driver announces a 7 minute wait at the station and he leaves the train.  With no other choice but to wait, I continue to steal glances at my mobile checking the time.  By the time the train arrives into T1,2,3, there are about 63 minutes left before my flight.

I was unprepared for the maze of corridors and moving sidewalks that I had to navigate to get to terminal 3.  At this point I am running/jogging/walking fast and weaving between people as the HSBC advertisements are telling me of the cost of college in different countries around the world (the US came out on top, we’re number 1!).  Arriving at the terminal I make a mad dash to find the Air Canada check-in counter (of course there would be renovations at the terminal today!) and can only find the 1st class check-in.  They are polite and are more than willing to help me right up to the point where I saw I need to check-in for the 3:30 to Montreal at which point their demeanor changes and they tell me, “The flight is closed, we close that sixty minutes before departure”.  I glance at my watch, 2:36.

Pleading comes to no avail, I simply get passed along to the ticket counter around the corner to “see what they can do.”  The answer, not much without some money thrown their way.  I repeat my sad story to the woman behind the counter who listens(?) to me as if she has heard it all before.  She types away at her computer, ignoring my pleas to let me go to the gate and board the plane which still doesn’t leave for another 45 minutes.  She says, we can get you to Toronto tonight and then to Boston tomorrow but you will have to pay, or we can try to get you on a direct flight to Boston on American Airlines but you will have to pay.  Realizing that I will have to pay either way, I take the airline transfer, my receipt for 82 quid, and my body pumped full of natural chemicals from the nervousness/anger and head over to the AA counter to check in (the flight leaves in three and a half hours).  While the AA representative tries to figure out what to do with my transfer I try to calm down by telling her my situation.  She responds with a kind and simple, “We would have just given you the ticket.  Actually, it is up to the people at the gate, but I am sure it wouldn’t have been a problem.”  Who woulda thought that AA would have been friendlier than Air Canada?

The rest of my travel was fairly uneventful.  The flight left three hours after my Air Canada flight but managed to get in 45 minutes before my scheduled time because it was direct.  The flight was fine but the guy next to me by the window decided he needed to get up and move around about every thirty minutes.  In between getting up for him, I reread the majority of my dissertation to remind myself what I did eight years ago.  I also used the opportunity to find typos, more on that later.

After picking up the rental car (left-hand drive, right side of the road) I spent the night at S&G’s.  Arriving late and hungry, we made a run for the border for dinner.  It was nice to be in America again.  I even grabbed a stash of fire sauce to bring back to IAC.

This was just the first day of my adventure.