It's officially winter...

Hello Loves,
(Everyone here calls me love, salespeople, bartenders, ladies who ask me for the time... somehow I find it cute and not like the salespeople who call me 'sweetheart' or 'honey' back home... funny.)

Not too much news to report (I say that now, but by then end of this entry, I am sure my verbose nature will have kicked in), but plenty of pictures to add. It is officially COLD in York. Even the people who actually live here are commenting on it, so I don't feel like too much of a complainer. I think I am beginning to understand the English obsession with tea; I find myself drinking it all the time and offering it to my guests in a compulsive sort of way. I mean, I never asked people if they cared for tea and biscuits (cookies) as soon as they walked through the door in California. But then again, I have never been constantly chilly in California.

As for the grad-student life, my housemates and I have termed this the Week 6 Slump... all of us are definitely missing people from home, and the isolation of reading in our rooms all the time is starting to get to us. I don't know what I would do if there weren't people around I could talk to who felt the same way. Well, I do know-- I'd go crazy! I am grateful for my friends here, but of course I miss all of you-- you are irreplacable.

I am still loving the job at the bookshop. It doesn't even feel like work; they pay me to sit around and talk to sweet people about books. Fabulous!

I feel that I must start sneakily taking pictures of some of the fashion trends here... I hope they are not taking hold back home, because I couldn't bear seeing them in L.A. too! I think I can be confident that the full Nike tracksuit with platinum hair and giant gold hoop earrings has not crossed the Atlantic... still, are the girls ALL tucking their very TIGHT jeans into their knee high boots?

I am attaching some pictures from around the city... mostly places I pass by everyday. Sometimes I forget about the Minster (giant gothic cathedral), and then look over and think, 'Oh, yeah... giant gothic cathedral.' :) In other news, I am whiter than white... looking very English. I miss seeing different kinds of people around... it starts to seem like everyone looks the same. And with no sun in sight (I think I caught a glimpse of it through the clouds the other day...), I am starting to look like everyone else. No accent change yet, though my friend Anthony says I talk a bit like I am Irish whenever I'm around him. I think it is all those years of drama class-- can't help but mimic what I hear.

I have organized a Thanksgiving meal next week in the house. Everyone seems pretty excited about it, and are even trying to make things they've never had before, like pumpkin pie. My friend Alison and I are trying to convey the necessity of eating until you practically feel ill on Thanksgiving... it is an American tradition after all!

I can't think of much more, though it will probably all occur to me later. I'll be home on December 20th, so I guess I will be seeing many of you soon. Take care!

Love,
Ryan

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