Anyone up for a swim

On Friday, we spent the day with Brad and Abi Matthew's in North Sheilds and Newcastle. Evidently, the middle of winter is a good time to go surfing. I think the logic is that once it gets below 40, you can't feel yourself anymore. That is at least what these guys thought.

True Friendship: A Litmus Test

I have decided that a good way to determine who your true friends are is by 1) moving overseas, 2) providing and easy and absolutely free way for them to communicate (verbally with visual possibilities) with you called "skype" and then 3) waiting to see who responds.

I have determined that skype is like the gospel in that it is absolutely free, provides a chance for relationship, and yet relatively few people accept it. Maybe it is that people really don't believe that something so good could be free? Maybe it is the commitment, relational, or the two mins. it takes to download and set up? I just don't know.

To Drew, David, Russ, and Jeff, Stan and Renee, I say, "thanks." To the rest of you, well, the free offer is still available.

And yes, after having offered grace, i am resorting to guilt.

So this is Christmas

Christmas, Durham style. The photographs are complements of Brad Matthews. Yes, he has skills. The bottle of wine is a display of his ability to photo shop. Looks real doesn't it kids?

We're not tourist!

It's christmas and and what could make a better substitute to going home than going to Newcastle. Little art, little wagamama's, and a little night out on the town. After finding out that we needed to kill a couple of hours before our train returned to take us home, we went sought shelter in a warm pub. Unfortuantely, Newcastle has more clubs than pubs. So we asked a bouncer where we might could find an old-time pub with some good cask ales--somewhere to kill a couple of hours. They told us they knew a place called The Yard, not to far. So we went. Once we arrived, we looked around and it was pretty low key, but no cask ales and definitely not a traditional pub. "Are you lost?" a fat jolly beatneak bluejean wearing man says to us. Pam responds, "We are just on the wrong side of the Atlantic." "What were you looking for?" the guy responds. "I was looking for some cask ales," i said. "Well you found a gay bar," the responds. "I think you're in the wrong place." Yeah, I wondered why the bar tenders weren't paying us too much attention. The jolly man told us that he thinks someone was having a joke with the tourist. "But we live here" i thought. Oh well.

December the Twenty-Second

I think yesterday was the shortest day of sunlight in the year. I've been enjoying beautiful sunrises as I get ready to leave for work at 8:00am. And it is usually dark by 3:30pm, two hours before I get home from work. The sun also rises at a very low angle--at it's peak it is only at about 45 degrees in the sky, instead of being 90 degrees straight overhead like it is in the summer in the US. So the sun always looks like it is setting. I've noticed that some areas, if they happen to be on the wrong side of a big hill, never get any direct sunlight in the winter, because the sun never rises high enough. It's also been very cold, with temperatures in the 20's and 30's this week. It's interesting, because Durham gets a thick coating of frost on cold nights--so thick that it almost looks like a dusting of snow. I guess it's because there is so much moisture in the air.

Winter is pretty bleak around here, so it's nice that Christmas makes things a bit more cheery. So Merry Christmas, and here's to springtime and longer days coming soon!

Birthday Bash

Happy Birthday to Kyle! This weekend has been one long birthday extravaganza. It all started on Friday night. As far as throwing house parties, I had some big making up to do in order to regain Kyle's faith in my party-planning skills. Last year, for Kyle's 25th, I attempted to have a little get-together at our appartment in St. Louis. Unfortunately, out of 15-20 invites, only my faithful brother and sister-in-law showed (and, again, thanks Scott and Megan!!). But this year, in a great feat of cunning, along with some well-planned marketing strategies, we more than quintupled our guest count and had a Mexican dinner party for twelve. We had to borrow 2 extra dinner tables, 9 chairs, 8 sets of silverware, and 5 plates to pull it off. We also had to move the party out of our flat and into the hallway to accomodate every one. It turned out great, and with bellies full of enchiladas and margaritas, we finished day 1 of Kyle's brithday weekend. Unfortunately, in typical fashion, we forgot to take any photos, so sorry we don't have any pictures of Friday night.

On Saturday, we kept the party rolling on down to York. Kyle and I spent the day wandering the streets, taking in all of the sights and Starbucks the city has to offer. This was my first visit to York, but it definitely jumped to the top spot on my list of favorite towns in Britain. It's charming and historical, but also has lots of great stuff to do. Kyle and I took a free walking tour in the morning, then did some exploring on our own. Then we went on a brewary tour, walked a bit along the Roman/Medieval wall surrounding the town (in the photo above), and had some good traditional pub food for supper (Kyle had roasted lamb in a giant Yorkshire pudding, which isn't actually pudding, but a big puff pastry). We finished off our meal with some tea and sweets from Betty's, York's famous tea shop, which had a queue outside of its door nearly all day. Then we went to a service in Yorkminster, the big cathedral in the center of town.





We finished the day in York at one of the city's most highly-recommended pubs called the Maltings. It was "chock-a-block" (read: packed out) with patrons, so we ended up sharing a table with another couple. They really kept to themselves, but Kyle and I noticed the girl started wimpering, and yes, it appears that they were breaking up right there in front of us. To break the awkwardness, we decided to ask them to take a picture of us, so here it is! And, well, that's it--we took the train back down to York, bringing with us a precious bag of Starbuck's Christmas Blend, and happy to have had a much more successful turn at celebrating Kyle's birthday this year.