Blogs from Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 8

So, once again I headed off to track practice. I arrived a little early because at least this time I knew where I was going. Arriving early is almost as bad as arriving late. It seems that no one gets to things early here - ever. Which is a problem for me since I like to be at places about 10 to 15 minutes ahead of time. Anyway, everyone else showed up, and we did our warm-up laps. Then we did this thing, I guess it was part of the warm-up, where you just kind of jog around on the high jump area and then when the coach calls out a number you do either 2 push-ups or two sit-ups - they called push-ups, lift-ups or something like that. Then we hopped around which really made ... read more

So, about three weekends ago Kia and I went to visit the Nottingham Castle and I realized that I hadn't written about it or posted my pictures. First we went to Ye Old Trip to Jerusalem, the oldest inn in England, established 1189, for lunch. Ye Old Trip sits just below the castle, and has wonderful pasta and chips. After lunch we went over to the Robin Hood statue that also sits outside the castle walls in front of reliefs showing scenes from the life of Robin Hood. The castle itself is a relatively new castle. It was on the grounds of the castle that Charles II declared war against Parliament, so with one thing and another, the original castle was destroyed. The castle is now a museum and art gallery. At the moment they also ... read more

As some of you may know, one of our responsibilities here is to cook a meal every week, or sometimes every other week, for the group. This means cooking for twelve people. In our dining room there are two big tables that have been put together to form one table for twelve, which also doubles as a classroom setting when we have lecturers for our Paideia Capstone course. Anyway, cooking for twelve people, is a daunting task. First of all, most recipes are not set up to feed twelve people, so one must double or triple the recipe before even beginning to cook. Then there is the converting. In England, everything is sold in grams and liters instead of pounds and ounces. This makes the cooking more complicated as you try to figure out how many ... read more

Yesterday marked the beginning of the Goose Fair which has been running in Nottingham for at least 700 years. Tonight we visited Goose Fair which no longer has geese or any other livestock. Now the fair is a maze of carnival rides and games and tons of fair food. We went on the Giant Ferris Wheel, which was cool because the view was amazing, but I really do not like heights. The highlight of the evening was when Storm convinced Kia to go on the largest reverse bungee in the UK. It was pretty amazing. Storm looked like a kid at Christmas while Kia's face face showed mixed exhilaration and slight terror. We also indulged in some candy floss and then grabbed the tram back to the flat. You may be wondering why Post Office is ... read more

Well hope you all are doing swell! This weekend was full of meeting native Nottinghamers. Saturday I went with Katie to have dinner with a local family. Their names were Mavis and Keith and they were a lovely retired couple. We arrived at their Bungalow around four and didnt end up leaving til around eight! But I must say I really enjoyed myself. Its like having another set of grandparents. They told us all about their kids and their grandkids, where they have traveled in the U.S. and how much they love visiting Decorah. We sat for about two hours enjoying tea and stories before we even had dinner. And the dinner was a nice treat to have especially since we have to fend for ourselves on weekends and we seriously were down to limited supplies. ... read more