It's been one month!

Hello all my most special people!
I have been in York a month now, and though the time has gone by quickly, I also feel surprisingly settled into my life here. I decided to start this travelblog in an attempt to keep everyone up to date on the details... I know a lot of you hate mass emails, and to be honest, I don't always like sending them. So, if you want to check in and see what is going on with me, and don't have the time to email or the money to call, here is yet another option. You'll get an email every time I make a new entry; whether you want to check it or not is your choice :)

That said, I guess I'll tell you a bit about what has been happening for the last four weeks. Shannon and I arrived in York and stayed at a bed and breakfast for two nights while we bought all of our necessities and helped each other move it (getting my giant suitcase up the stairs alone would have been no picnic, let me tell you). The two guys who ran the b&b were presumably a couple, and I swear that one of them was the guy in the Dyson vacuum commericals back home, you know, the English guy with the greyish crew cut who says he made a million prototypes and has since created the perfect vacuum? I asked the other guy at the b&b, and he said he was pretty sure he wasn't the inventor. Still, my theory is that he leads a double life here as a b&b owner, simultaneously hiding his vacuum-inventing fortune from his life partner. I'm sticking with that story. After the adventure of the b&b, I moved into my residence. It is actually two old stone houses that they have connected into one. There is a giant kitchen, a common room, and a sun room filled with plants that my friends and I have deemed the reading room. My room is on the top floor, has a sloping ceiling, and view of our back garden, which is lovely. For the first two days, I literally thought I was living with hermits. I would walk the hallways, sit in the common room, just WAITING for someone, anyone, to make an appearance. Finally, on day three, I ran into Anthony, who went to UCD in Dublin, in the common room. We sat and shared our mutual fear about our housemates, and as we talked, people began to file in one by one. By the time I went to bed, the room was filled with people talking and getting to know each other.

I have made friends with a group of people in the house. We take breaks from studying together, watch DVD's, go to the pubs, grocery shop together. They keep me sane in the midst of all the reading I have to do. There is Judi, who is from Paris, Anthony (already mentioned), Alice (from England), Alison (from Philadelphia), Matt and Steph( a couple from Texas), Kate (from England). Shannon hangs out with us too, though she lives in another grad student house.

York itself is just gorgeous, and I love just taking walks around the city. There is a medieval wall that surrounds the city (I live about 2 blocks outside the city walls), and every day on my way to campus I walk through an archway in the wall on my way to campus. The campus is not as ugly as I was told-- the architecture is a bit hideous, a la "the Jetsons," but there is a lake and so much foliage and trees that it is actually really peaceful. Last week I sat and watched a pair of black swans swim around with their new babies. They were grey and fuzzy and adorable. One kept trying to crawl onto his mother's back, and she kept knocking him back into the water.

My program is wonderful. My supervisor is also the course convenor. His name is J.D., he is American and went to NYU for his PhD. He has a bit of the crazy-intellectual look going on, with wild curly hair and glasses, and a plethora of stripey sweaters (or jumpers, as they say here). For my option course this term I am taking a class on the American Novel. There are eight of us in the class, so there is a lot of discussion involved. I find I am more vocal here than I was in undergrad, more eager to express my thoughts. I am actually (nerdily) loving being a grad student. I still don't have a dissertation topic nailed down yet, but everyday I am excited about something new. The most difficult thing won't be finding something I am interested in, it will be narrowing it down.

I have a job at at The Little Apple Bookshop. It is just within the city walls and steps away from the Minster, York's gothic cathedral. The shop is tiny and cute, and my bosses are wonderful. Their names are Philippa and Tim, and they have a little boy named Sam who is two years old. Shannon will be working at the shop once a week too, so we can cover for each other whenever things come up... that takes some stress out of the equation.

I am also taking a Spanish course through the language school here. If all goes as planned, I should be fluent by the end of the year. *fingers crossed* There aren't very many grad students in my class, so once a week I get my fill of hearing the undergrads stressing about their courses. They have no idea! There is more reading to do here than I have ever had before. Luckily, I am enjoying almost all of it. And, somehow, I am managing to stay ahead. I am being more productive here than I have ever been in my life.

I realize this entry might be totally boring to many of you, but for the moment, studying is my life! I promise to figure out how to post some pictures soon, so that you can actually visualize where I spend my time. I am so lucky to be here. I miss you all, and hope that your lives are going well, despite the election etc. I will be home December 20 for about three weeeks. Anyone up for Mexican food? :)

Transatlantic hugs,
Ryan

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