Santa Cruz Sunshine!

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So this morning I woke up to a wonderful sun shining away and it felt like a typical Santa Cruz sunny morning. It was awesome! Add the leaves falling gracefully from the trees in multitudes of fall colours and you've completed the picture. I love that all the trees here change colors. You can actually see a change in the seasons as opposed to simply feeling the change in the temperature.

In all the gross sickness and therefore laps in memory this week, I completely forgot to mention my field trip around Nottingham city. On Thursday morning I woke up really early (I had to be at the bus stop at 8:15am to catch the bus!) and headed to the city centre with Amy. We were on our way to the meeting point for our 9am class walking tour of Nott'm through the centuries. It was a really interesting tour and pointed out the basic sights of Nott'm. I was going to take my camera but completely spaced and left it at home. Oh well! That just means that I get to retrace my steps all over again. Our tour guide was John Beckett (the original lecturer for the class) and an expert on Nott'm. He pointed out a lot of interesting things combined with the history behind it, all out of his head! It was fabulous. We went by the Castle, yes it is still there what remains of it and he made the joke of Americans being sorely disappointed to find that the castle no longer is there and Robin Hood is a figment of the 12 C. I found it highly amusing because while the castle ruins still exist, the castle itself was practically demolished in the 16 C. so it's no wonder that it doesn't exist in its entirety anymore. And Sherwood Forest is pretty far from the city itself so I have yet to get there. We also saw some really interesting buildings and learned all about how things were named from the geographical landscape and what areas of town were affluent or slums depending upon the period of time. It's really cool to walk around and see how the buildings were once used and how they are used today. For instance, there is a 12 C. Unitarian church that now serves as a pub called the Pitcher and Piano. Apparently the owners of the pub were the only ones who were willing to preserve the building therefore you can now drink in a church!!! One of these days I'm going to go see what it's like, especially since I now know why there's a pub in a church. Before it seemed highly strange and so against morals to do that, however the building has long ceased to be used as a church so I guess it's not that bad. We also passed by some really interesting warehouses that were once used for the Lace industry. Yes, Nott'm was the center of lace making for England during the Industrial Revolution. However, most lace was still made by hand but finished in the warehouses. The warehouses were not factories whatsoever. One of the factories owned by Thomas Adams had a chapel employed with a chaplain in the basement. The owner was Anglican and insisted that every employee go to the chapel and pray for 5-10 min every day before starting their work. These buildings still exist, although barely, with the plan of putting in a ring road in the 1960s. Thus if you visit today Maid Marian Way is one portion of that 'ring road'. It was once hailed as the ugliest road in England, which it really is! The ring road plan was eventually abandoned but not without first knocking down several blocks of buildings that are currently being rebuilt and reconstructed as they once were. It's quite interesting in England--you can visit practically any town and read it's history from the buildings that exist and the place names. Because in England, unlike the US, they don't tear down the buildings but revamp them for new uses. You'd never find a pub inhabiting what once was a 12 C. church in the US, but in England it's located in practically the heart of the city!! So cool...you really need to visit the rest of the world in order to gain an understanding of how things work. It's all incredibly intriguing.

And since I have caught you all up on what I horribly forgot, I shall go back to finishing my notes for my lecture presentation on Tuesday. Which reminds me that I need to get to a football match sometime soon. Hmm...

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