US/UK mix up of the week: When I asked my coursemates what paracetamol (a medicine I've seen in drugstores) is*, one girl replied "Do you know Novocaine?" After a few seconds of "...WHAT?!" I realized no, that was not right and we had a laugh about it. Apparently she got the word "Novocaine" from a Green Day song and didn't know what it was, except some kind of medicine for not feeling pain. Which, to be fair, is true. It has continued to surface as a funny in-joke between us, from when our Anatomy lecturer described the muscles targeted by the real Novocaine, to seeing Children's Paracetamol on shelves and imagining giving a dose of that to a kid for a headache or something. *It's tylenol. Anyway... Berwick upon Tweed is a small town just outside ... read more

Apparently the batteries I bought last week for my camera weren't good enough, because yesterday I took one picture before the red battery symbol started flashing. I managed to coax out two more (with the screen off) before it died altogether. Apologies in advance; I did find suitable batteries today, so (hopefully) it won't happen again. After spending Friday afternoon reading about connectionist models of literacy development and the structure of the thoracic cavity, I decided to give myself a break and take another hike in Northumberland National Park. This time I took a bus to a small town called Rothbury at the park's eastern edge and hiked across some moors, through a forested area, and to the top of a crag called Simonside. Again I used the "Best Walks in Northumberland" book as a guide. ... read more

I mentioned that a friend from my course would be with me on the trip to Tynemouth, but then - typical of Britain - it got wet and cold and gray, and then - fairly atypical of Britain - actually stayed that way. So she stayed home. She apologizes. She will, however, be with me on the forthcoming trip to Durham. This is more set in stone because she will be driving and so if she doesn't go, neither will I. But I think Britain is beautiful, even in the rain. Especially little towns by the seaside. So readers, I give you: Tynemouth! Where an old, stone church serves as a permanent shopping center. Oh Britain. Actually, much to my friend's dismay, it was not raining at all on the coast. Just gray. img... read more

...and that's funny. **NOTE. I will be visiting Tynemouth (small coastal village with a priory from a year that is a 3-digit number) this afternoon with a girl from my course. I decided to separate the entries so people only interested in pictures don't have to drudge through all these annoying words.** Two things I did since my last post: 1. Joined a choir. 2. Survived my first week of classes. (1.) It's a student choir (including the officers and the director, I'm pretty sure), with a mix of ages, levels and International/UK students. Note that "genders" is not included on that list; we have four Tenors. I did not count the Basses but would comfortably bet that there are less than 15. Meanwhile about half the women had to get chairs from another part of ... read more

In the second century AD, the Romans had conquered the southern half of the island of Great Britain. Having decided it wasn't worth his while to attempt to go north of the Tyne river, Emperor Hadrian instead maintained a border to keep the Roman lands to the south separated from the northern tribes. But he was soon to discover that those crazy barbarians today known as "Scots" caused a lot more trouble than a simple border control could handle. So he built a wall. Hadrian's wall (aptly named "Hadrian's Wall") was constructed between 122 and 130 AD. It is 73 miles long running east-west from coast (near Newcastle) to coast (near Carlisle), is estimated to have been 13-15 feet high, was manned by Roman soldiers at every mile (at posts aptly named "milecastles"), and - like ... read more

I saw the bridge go! But more on that in a minute. Newcastle is very much what we in the States would call a "college town", I can tell that and the majority of the students aren't even here. Yet it has a lot of local color as well; walking by a pub in the evenings you can see a lot of people in older generations standing and talking in the 'Geordie' accent - so thick you could almost call it it's own dialect. It's fun to listen to, not quite the Scottish brogue that Julia is hearing up north, but closer to it than any other type of English accent. Speaking of local color, never be around a British football (soccer to us) park when there's a match starting. Not a good idea. It's ... read more

First, a bit of technical stuff. I've had two people tell me that they haven't been able to leave comments on the latest entry - they try to submit and it says "form expired." Has anyone else had that problem? I've contacted TB about the issue, and they said to tell you to keep trying and contact them again if it keeps up. So please tell me? At the risk of sounding attention-seeking, comments are the only way I have of knowing if anyone still reads this thing. Also, they kind of make my day. So if it tells you "form expired", reload the page, try again and let me know if that doesn't work. Done with that nonsense now. More Newcastle! This is the main entrance to the University. It's mostly international students right now ... read more

JUST A QUICK NOTE. I am not in South Shields, nor will I be for the majority of the entries I post here. I have to select that because the website will not allow me to publish an entry under 'Newcastle' without selecting 'South Shields' after it. I should probably bring this to their attention. Maybe I will do that tomorrow. Anyway... I think my experience transferring flights at Heathrow Airport can be nicely summed up by this one thing: I had to wait in line in order to use the Ladies' Room sinks. Not because British women are particularly engrossed in their appearance - no more than anyone else, at least - but because when you have 10,000 people in one building trying to do 10,000 variations on the same thing...you have mass chaos. Put ... read more

Said my advisor in a recent email. Yes, I'm spamming your inboxes (or your location pages) and I'm not even there yet. Shame. It's come to my attention that a few people wanted updates on the pre-move-to-the-UK process. Well I'm happy to report that it's a simple and straightforward procedure: there is very little for me to do, and all instructions are detailed, helpful and consistent. ... ... ... HA HA HA HA HA HA HA. ... ... ... Okay no. Basically I'm in the middle of selling everything I own (thank you, Craig's List) and using the money to pay the UK Border Agency to put a sticker in my passport. To hugely oversimplify the student visa process: I need two application forms (one online, one paper "self-assessment"), a letter from Newcastle University saying "YES ... read more

Newcastle-Upon-Tyne is a small city on the northeastern coast of England. It's home to about 280,000+ people, and its University is internationally highly regarded. Having never been there myself, I can't post any pictures of the city or the University on this page. But I can LINK you to them. Like most places in the UK, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne is home to many historic and fascinating places url=http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://lh6.ggpht.com/_dMK5Upji3lk/SWsAB_R3zpI/AAAAAAAALOo/lFbK1N7pndo/IMG_0293.JPG&imgrefurl=http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/KkAJV-8bxpzFIk66DcOeKA&usg=__x1wvFP5PAiiqQvXEP-YVUuWq--k=&h=1024&w=768&sz=157&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=ufXgORyXj1DLCM:&tbnh=141&tbnw=106&ei=DxNnTd_eLoXQgAfPsJnMCg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcastle%2Bgarth%2Bkeep%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1163%26bih%3D575%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=585&vpy=210&dur=1267&hovh=259&hovw=194... read more