Funny Things About England

1. US: Do you know how in the US on the BACK of a pack of cigarettes theres a small, like one square inch warning about health? It's always ambiguously worded like 'there's a slight chance that if you're pregnant (if you're not disregard this!) and you smoke a LOT of cigarettes SOME studies (Not all!!!) suggest that smoking MIGHT harm the fetus' well...

   UK: I've noticed a lot of cigarette packages around the ground and right there on the FRONT taking up like 70% of the package it'll say in large bold letters: “SMOKING WILL KILL YOU”, seriously. I found this very amusing, if nothing else, different. here are some pictures

   (Pictures Coming SOOOOON!!!!!!!)

2. People don't work after 5, the building locks up at 6, locking you inside, just everybody leaves at 5. This is very different from the labs in the US.

3. People need to be individually licenced to watch television. It's illegal to watch TV without a licence.

4. You're expected to hold the door open for everybody who's about to use the door, even with their far away. When I (or anybody for that matter) open a door, people will start running from across the building down the hall way because they expect you to hold the door open for them, but hurry so you don't have to wait too long for them

The trip across the pond

(Wednesday, May 31, 2006 – Thursday, June 1, 2006):

I guess I found my limit as to how long I can travel in an airplane. I was surprisingly not that fidgety through the trip. We left Tampa at about 1:10 in the afternoon. That was a short trip, I managed to entertain myself with the complimentary copy of 'Sky Mall' and 'The Continental' (which is the official magazine of continental airlines). I sat next to an older lady, she looked like she might have been from a South American country by dress and skin tone. She did not say a single word to me the entire trip. I tried to talk to her, I asked her how she was doing and such, maybe she didn't speak English... They served us a delicious sandwich lunch on that flight, the flight from Tampa to Newark, New York (or New Jersey, I'm pretty sure nobody really knows where Newark is and nobody really cares). It was turkey, or some acceptable substitute. I had about a 4 hour layover in Newark, however, rife with anticipation the time went quickly. The second part of the trip was very painful. We took of from Newark at 7PM local time, about to embark on a 7 hour flight until we arrived at Birmingham International at 7AM local time. All those coincidental 7s added up to one hellish ride on the airplane. I sat next to what I presumed to be an elderly English couple. Most of the people making the flight to Birmingham were English. They were very friendly and took a great interest (whether genuine or not) in what I was doing flying to England. They said I was too young to be going to the University of Birmingham to do research. They also pointed out some places of interest in Birmingham, the only one I remember is 'iron bridge' which is supposedly the first metal bridge ever constructed. I say supposedly because these people could have been compulsive liars for all I know. I never found what they did for a living but it must have been a good job. They trip to the Americas a couple months of the year. They were just coming back from a month at Hilton Head.

About an hour into the flight I noticed two other planes flying right along side us out the window. That was a sight to see. It only lasted for about 10 minutes until they turned off, each one, to the north. When I told the English lady sitting next to me about it later, she reprimanded me for not telling her when it was happening. “What's the matter with you,” she asked rhetorically. “I don't know anyone who would see something like that and not want to share it, I would really like to have seen it,” she continued in her English accent. About halfway through the flight the English couple ordered a couple servings of red wine. It seemed to affect the lady more than anyone could have predicted. When the male flight attendant asked if he could take anything (ie the trash accumulated at our seats) away, the woman replied, “you can take me away anytime you want.” That made that moment in time incredibly uncomfortable. I felt enough awkwardness for myself, the flight attendant and the husband (sitting right next to her when she said this) combined. This was especially odd since the flight attendant was the most obviously gay man I have ever seen in my life. Maybe because they're British they can't tell the difference...

They served us dinner within 2 hours of take off. It was chicken and a salad with cookies for dessert. In the flight they started showing (about the first 10 minutes) of a Harry Potter movie. This got my hopes up for something to keep me entertained. Then it cut out only to show us ads proclaiming Continental to be the ONLY way to travel internationally. About two hours before we landed a lady passed out. She was waiting outside the bathroom door and was about 3 feet from me. The flight attendants seemed excited for the distraction. Although she could have been seriously hurt, any break in the monotony of a 7 hour flight was welcomed to them. They called for a doctor, we had two on that flight. About two hours away from landing we were served breakfast. It was a crescent with jam. It was about that time I noticed that we never really saw nighttime throughout the flight. We took a northern path not too far from the arctic circle so it was about 5 hours of sunset/sunrise with an hour of daylight on either side. When I landed and got off the plane, we were faced with customs. This took a good amount of time. I remember an Indian or Pakistani man saying how much he didn't like customs at the UK. This infuriated the customs officer. He was a man of Indian descent but of obvious English birth. He kept saying “That is not something you want to say to a customs officer.” He then threatened, “I will definitely have this matter (the foreigner's passport and visa) put under investigation. If even the slightest thing comes up funny its your ass”. That was the first and second peculiar things I noticed about England. The English swear like drunken sailors, even in a professional setting and Indians make up a HUGE minority in England. From what I'd say I'd ballpark about 20% of English people are of Indian descent. He was naturally the custom's guy that I got so I decided to be extra friendly. I greeted him with a chipper “Hello sir! How are you today?”. That made him smile and he was very friendly to me. He asked my business in the UK and I said to do research at the University of Birmingham. This is where I thought it was going to be over, I didn't have a student or work visa, I was just some chump who thought I could fly over to England and start doing things. I guess my friendliness paid off as he said, “I hope you're not making money from the University of Birmingham.” “No sir,” I replied with the same friendly smile. “Okay then!” he said with a heavy British accent. That was rather painless I thought and picked up my carry on and was on my way.

First Day In Birmingham

(Thursday, June 1, 2006):

I went to baggage claim and the airport was fast and efficient. I had my bags within 5 minutes. Then again, I spent 50 minutes at customs so maybe it wasn't all that efficient. At any rate, I wandered through the maze that is the Birmingham International until I finally see daylight (or lack of to be more precise). I thought for sure there was no way I would find Dr. Freise. I don't know what we were thinking, just wondering through an airport trying to find someone and you don't know what they look like. He sent me a picture of himself explaining “I won't be caught dead carrying around a sign that says 'Michael Hartman' on it.” Unfortunately, the picture was about 20 years and 20 pounds old. Fortunately, I was wearing a Florida Gators shirt so he found me. It was 8:30 at this time and I asked, “were you waiting long?”, knowing darn well he was, I came out one and a half hours after my scheduled landing. He said “yes, very long, but what can we do.” He drove me around Birmingham and took me to a trendy Starbucks like coffee shop where we had a cappuccino and he had a muffin, he treated me. I was exhausted, I had been up 24 hours at this point. The coffee put me on a caffeine high. He told me how much he hated chain restaurants, and how they were depersonalizing Birmingham. He has a strong German accent. He was born and raised in Northern Germany, where according to him is much more serious and the people are much more quiet than in southern Germany (where he said Dr Mueller, the professor I work with, is from). In southern Germany he said, there are a lot of small villages and the people like to sing and have a good time and drink a lot of beer. This is not an image I ever had of Dr. Mueller, but maybe I should look closer. Then we somehow got into the topic of politics. I never would have done this with someone I just met, but the sleeplessness and caffeine had an inebriating effect on me where I couldn't control myself. Fortunately he sees things very similar to the way I do. He told me how capitalistic England was, much more so than the very socialist countries that make up the rest of Western Europe. We talked about policies and such for some time, we talked education and had a really good conversation. At that point it was getting near 9 and I was ready for bed. However, off to work he said. We went to the University of Birmingham (which students and faculty fondly call, Uni) It is a very beautiful and old campus. He showed me where to get sandwiches. I swear that's all the British eat are sandwiches. He then showed me the physics building and the lab. He is JUST starting this lab. There is no equipment there, not even a laser. So I get to do my favorite stuff, theory. That was sarcastic, I know its hard to tell in writing. It will be loads of fun though, good times indeed. He took me to get keys to the physics lab and to my office, which I share with a post doc student named Jesper. I met him later. He then gave me the access codes to the building and computer room. In England I noticed it is very popular to have electronic keypad locks. They exist everywhere, even at the apartment I'm no staying in. We went to 11am coffee, which is an effort to make the different physics disciplines interact with each other. I met the graduate student I'm working with, her name is Dee. I'm not sure if thats how you spell it, she is of Indian descent but British born, as are a lot of people here. But its pronounced Dee. She seemed friendly but not talkative. We then went to housing and filled out paper work and such and went to go get a sandwich. Around 3pm we went over to the apartments and the man who runs the office wasn't there. We called the mobile and he said he would be over like 3:30-3:45 so Dr. Freise left me there and took off back to the university. I waited the 45 minutes and the guy showed up. He was very rude about having to come in (to a job he was supposed to be at ANYWAY!) and grilled me about it. He played the old, I'm in authority skit a lot of people who aren't really like to play. “Do you have a copy of the housing contract?” he asked. I didn't because I didn't need one. The lady at housing said my information was already waiting for me at the apartment complex (called The Beeches, by the way). I told him I didn't have it and to call University Housing. He did and sheepishly gave me the keys I needed, didn't tell me where anything was or show me around or help me carry my 4 large bags but just left to home again. I spent the remainder of the day sleeping at my apartment.

My apartment is not so bad, I have one small room in a 5 bedroom, its 300 pounds a month per room (like 600 dollars a month) All 5 rooms share one shower and one toilet. Everything in Britain is small, especially the rooms and houses. I have two roommates who will be moving out next week, which will be nice to have the place to myself as they are (presumably by the apartment's condition) slobs. One is computer science major, the other is a geography major. Here are some photos I took of the apartment:

These two pictures are of my bedroom, not much to say about them:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/1Bedroom.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/1Bedroom2.jpg

This next one is looking down my hallway:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/1Hallway.jpg

Here are a couple of the kitchen, my flatmates really did a number...:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/1Kitchen.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/1Kitchen2.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/1Stove.jpg

And finally here is the shower and the WC, respectively:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/1Shower.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/1WC.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/1WC2.jpg

Day Two

(Friday June, 2):

It was a short day. I slept in to about 2 o'clock. This is not good to cure my jet lag but I was so tired. I went to the university, Dr. Freise didn't expect me there, but I came anyway. I got there at like 3 o'clock and checked my email. He showed me how to access Matlab from his computer using my computer and the CCD equipment I have to work with and such. He gave me a project. He wants me to build a beam analyzer. This is going to be a daunting task. A couple graduate students failed him at the same project, but he has high hopes for me. He rants, “A lot of these graduate students I got, they don't even know what a Gaussian beam looks like. They start this project but can never finish it. I'm hoping since you've had such experience in optics you could build a beam analyzer.” A beam analyzer, fyi, basically takes in an image of the cross section of a laser beam and does an analysis, that is, it fits it to a Gaussian and gives the shape and waste information. That will take some steady programming.

He told me theres a funny thing about the English. You're expected to hold the door open for anyone who is in site and has the potential for using the door. He told me to try this out, “next time you're at a door, hold it open for a little while, people all the way down the hallway will start running as they expect you to hold it for them yet don't want to make you wait too long.” So I did give it a shot, I held the door open some and sure enough, a lady 30 yards away starts running. I was shocked I'm expected to hold the door for somebody so far away, but I am. Dr. Freise calls it a silly thing. He uses the word “silly” a lot, especially with things the British do. Another shocking thing about England is the large use of alcohol. It shocked me to see everybody at the university sitting around drinking beer with lunch. I went into the university owned convenience store and noticed they had a large selection of Beer available for sale. This is just peculiar because most Universities in the US are dry universities, that is they don't sell alcohol. Even more odd, I went to look at the selection of beer and noticed underneath they had a selection of hard liquor. The university was selling spirits like vodka, whiskey and the like. I took the train home and stopped by the local Tesco, which is the British equivalent to the Super Walmart. I picked up some essentials and walked back to my apartment. I was up until 4 reading and listening to music, my time is WAY off the local time and I'm having a hard time getting adjusted.

Day Three

(Saturday, June 3, 2006)

Today was about as unproductive as they come, I again woke up at 1PM local time (or 8AM on my body's time). I carried my computer and camera to the university with intent to take pictures and upload them for you to see. Unfortunately I forgot the code to get into the physics building to use the Internet and the camera died after only 4 or 5 pictures. I walked around some and my arm was getting tired from the computer so I decided to take the train home. On my way home I stopped at the Tesco again to get a few more items. I noticed the British excessive use of the word 'cheers'. The cashier and I had a 6 sentence conversation (each) and he use cheers 7 times and didn't say any other words. (one sentence he said was, cheers cheers). He said cheers to me bagging my items, cheers to me handing the credit card to him, cheers to me signing for the credit card, cheers to me taking my card back, cheers to me giving him the receipt and 'cheers, cheers' to me leaving. One other oddity about England that I wasn't expecting is because it is so far north the summer days are so very long. It is significantly farther north than Chicago, or even Buffalo or even much further north than Toronto! We are approaching summer solstice (about 3-4 weeks away). right now I am looking out the window, it is 9:30 PM and the sun hasn't set yet! I've been going to bed at 3-4am in the morning and the sun is starting to rise about then! Isn't that remarkable? Anyway, thats where I am right now, I'm probably going to go read for a while. My roommate told me of this great restaurant in Five Ways (a big shopping area). It is a small place that serves ALL kinds of foods. It is run by one Moroccan guy. He tried to guess where I was from by my accent, he said 'Australia?' I replied, “close, Buffalo, NY”.

Here are the pictures of the University of Birmingham that I managed to get today:

This is the clock tower (shadowed view)(there are going to be more later):

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/3Clocktower.jpg

The university is a big physics school with several physics buildings, here are some pictures of the one I'm in the most:

This is the front, on the left of the arches is the Poynting Physics building:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/3PhysicsFront1.jpg

Two more of the front of the physics building

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/3PhysicsFront2.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/3PhysicsFront3.jpg

Day Four

(Sunday, June 4, 2006)

Apparently in the England students don't go to school during the summer (as a side note). Their summers end in well, right about now, this coming week is finals week. Also, get this, you need a license to watch television! That's right, I couldn't go over to a friends house and legally watch TV because I'm not licensed. I noticed this first in the housing office. There was poster in behind the student working at the desk which asked the question, “What do you call a freshman who is watching TV without a license?” (I keep trying to spell license the British way but office is automatically changing it) Anyway, the punchline of the not-so-funny joke is “A first time offender”. Below the cartoon drawing of freshman illicitly watching the television is fine print legal crap: 'watching television without a license is an offence punishable by up to a £2000 (like $3800 currently) fine or one month in jail' or whatever the exorbitantly high punishment is for watching TV. This peaked my curiosity so I inquired this of Dr. Freise. He said that since the TV is governmentally controlled (BBC) it is subsidized but you have to have a license to watch it. Furthermore, to check they have a van which drives around neighborhoods peering into people's houses to try and detect the electromagnetic radiation given off by the television and match such houses with a list of who's licenced to watch the television. This was quite shocking. Apparently its not uncommon to have 'family licences'. However, the poster made the point of saying 'NOTE: You are no longer covered by your parents family television license when you leave home for college'. That didn't happen today, I just thought of it.

Anyway, last night I went to bed again at 4am and once again slept in until 2. I really need to get on Birmingham time. I found out my apartment is in a relatively bad neighborhood. Actually, quite bad, we average a break in every other day. I'm not liking those odds, especially since I am an the ground floor. My fear was compound to find one of my flat mates went to get a drink of water, left is room for like 5 minutes maybe and somebody broken in his window and 'nipped his laptop' as he said. I love these British expressions.

Today I decided to do the touristy thing. I took my camera with me to the university (I still don't have internet access at the door so I go to the university to use the internet). I took some good pictures as are listed below:

The main area of the university is called chancellor's court:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4ChancellorsCourt.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4ChancellorsCourtCenter.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4ChancellorsCourtCenter2.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4ChancellorsCourtEast.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4ChancellorsCourtWest.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4ChancellorsCourtMidWest.jpg

Here are some shots of the physics building:

Here is the Poynting Physics where I'm working more and more now:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4PoyntingPhysics.jpg

Here's a shot of the back of the physics building:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4PhysicsBack.jpg

Here is the entrance to the astrophysics department:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4EntranceToAstrophysics.jpg

And here is the office where I work:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4Office.jpg

Here is a picture of the library:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4Library.jpg

And here are some more good pictures of the tower:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4Tower&Gates.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4Tower.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4Tower2.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4TowerDistance.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4TowerDistance2.jpg

Here is a shot of the tower from the physics building:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4TowerFromPhys.jpg

After leaving the university I just took the train back to five ways (my stop) got a 'baguette' (their term for a sub) at my favorite little restaurant now. I met a pilot from Pakistan. He apparently frequents Toronto on vacation and hes been through Buffalo. We had a little good time talking about that. He tried to break a £50 note when buying a baguette. The Moroccan shop owner said 'we cannot break that' in his very Moroccan accent. That caused tension and the shop owner actually left. Afterwards I just walked back to my apartment. On my way back I took some pictures of police surveillance signs that caught my attention as are listed below:

Here are some pictures of the Subway:

University Station:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4SubwayUniversityStation.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4SubwayNorth.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4SubwaySouth.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4SubwayMindGap.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4Subway.jpg

And here are some from the five ways station (my station):

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4SubwayFiveWaysStation.jpg

This one shows the so very high crime rate in Birmingham:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4SubwayHighCrime.jpg

Here are two pictures of my favorite baguette shop:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4FavoriteBaguetteShop.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4FavoriteBaguetteShop2.jpg

I guess the police are always looking out for you in Birmingham (short walk from my new favorite restaurant to my apartment):

In the subway station: http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4PoliceSubway.jpg

Along the road:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4PoliceRoad.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4PoliceRoad2.jpg

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4PoliceRoad3.jpg

At my gate: http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4PoliceMyGate.jpg

And finally they're in a lot of windows, I grabbed this shot on the run:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4PoliceWindows.jpg

Here's the entrance to my apartment complex:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4EntranceToTheBeeches.jpg

Here's my flat entrance:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/gatorm/birmingham/4Flat19.jpg

Finally I guess I'll talk a little about Birmingham itself. It's an old industrial town. I noticed most all the red and especially white brick is stained black (as you may have seen from the pictures although its not as bad at the university as other places). I questioned why they wouldn't just clean off the mold from the brick work. Upon closer inspection I noticed that this was actually stained from the smoke and pollution from the industrial revolution. I kind of chuckled, remembering reading about the evolution of the moths in England during the industrial revolution. They used to be white, however, when the industrial revolution came, everything got covered in the black ash from the factories. This cause the white moths to stand out like a sore thumb and birds would bind them easy prey. This cause the slow drift to the moths becoming black as more and more black ones survived due to camouflage and passed on their traits. Anyway, so from what I hear from the residents, Birmingham is a comparable city to Detroit, Cleveland, or Buffalo. It was a burgeoning city when factories ruled the economy. However it is now the the UK's version of the rust belt and a lot of the factories have shut down. It is, however, significantly larger than Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo. It was not hit as bad for population depletion as these three American cities because, frankly, there is no place for them to migrate too, England is a small country. There is no Florida for them to run to. I guess that's about all for today, my flatmates will be moving out shortly, I hope they clean up before they go.

Cheers,

Mike

Day Five

(Monday, June 5, 2006)

Today was my first day of actual work. Still being on US time (5 hours difference!) I again didn't get to sleep until 5am last night and I slept right through my 9am alarm. I woke up suddenly at 11am and after I finished being frustrated with myself I dragged myself out the door and walked to work. It is a very pleasant walk. All along the road ways the houses have stone or brick fence holding the earth back from collapsing onto the sidewalks. I walk through a nice part of town on my way. You can tell its an affluent area which is more than I can say about where I live. It's exceptionally nice on a warm sunny day. Here are some pictures from my stroll to work:

(Remember to Insert Pictures)

It is nice though, because sometimes I'll be walking home later at night. Which reminds me. Dr. Freise pointed out how odd it is that everybody leaves work at 5pm, no exception. Well he didn't mention that the doors lock at 6pm, locking you in (they are smooth wooden doors). This is because they have to be insure people working in the building and they don't have insurance for people to work there after 6pm. I found this out the hard way as I was locked in the first day I was there. I actually had to leave through a emergency fire door which, of course made a scene when it opened. I ran. In retrospect if anybody saw this it would look very suspicious and was probably a stupid thing to do, but it startled me, and there was no other way out of the building. I told Dr. Freise about this, because sometimes you're just working on something and can't drop and leave. He chuckled and showed me a secret back door I can use to leave (or enter with a code) after 6pm.

I had lunch with Dr. Freise today, which is quickly becoming a habit and these people came up to use to take a survey about religion. It was to find out people's 'spiritual life' in the UK. We both laughed as neither of us are English (he's from Germany and has been in the UK maybe a year at most and I'm of course from the US). They gave us the survey, which provided and interesting conversation during lunch and entertained us for an hour. It was an oral survey so I got to talk to the people, it was fun. I got some good work done today, I think after I finish the LASER beam analyzer I might be working on some optical cavity simulation ('some theoretical and experimental mix is good' the professors at Birmingham keep reminding me). That should be fun. I stopped by the Tesco on my way back to get some items and came home. It's already starting to feel a little like a mini routine.

Cheers,

Mike

P.S. I found out my Tetris music is Ben Folds. I've been playing this Tetris game Kathleen got me for the trip a LOT and I've been struggling to beat 20,000 points. I'd always get to level like 15 and 19,950 points was my record. And I kept playing game in, game out, listening to music. Then when Ben Folds came on I got on a ROLE, setting a new personal best. I was struggling for days to get to 20,000, which i couldn't, however, while listening to Ben Folds I made it to Level 33 with 44,780 points, getting, 328 lines . The game lasted 27 minutes and 3.00 seconds.

Entry 7

(Saturday, June 25, 2006)

Contains happenings of June 21, 22

Wow, two weeks have gone by without an update. I guess I haven't been doing to much exploring until recently. I've been busy with work mostly, it's been occupying my time. I'm going to move to Victoria Hall, I private accommodation a LOT closer to campus (its kind of unexpected, almost ironic that the dorm is a 40 minute walk from campus but these private apartments are just a stones throw away.) As some of you might already know, I plan on going to visit in Switzerland. I've been emailing Peggy to set it all up.

Happenings of Wednesday, June 21:

This Italian man (who's name slips my mind at the moment) sitting behind me in my office is the resident European travel expert. He goes all over Europe, but, obviously, mostly to Italy. I told him I wanted to go to Switzerland and his face lit up with the such excitement. He hates Birmingham. He thinks it is a 'miserable cold place' as he puts it in his strong Italian accent. When he heard I would be flying to Basel he insisted that I check out web-cam pictures on his computer. I don't know if he just kept forgetting that I was going to Switzerland or would just rather pretend I was going to Italy as he kept showing me how beautiful the Italian country side is, the warm beaches, and the quaint villages. I kept reminding him that I wasn't going to Italy, I was going to Switzerland. He couldn't have given two shits. “THIS, This is REAL Europe”, he said. “Not, not that...” the continued, gesturing to the stereotypically cloudy day outside the window. His face was beaming from ear to ear, he was so proud of me for leaving Birmingham and going to 'real Europe'. His enthusiasm for my imminent sojourn in Basel worked to my advantage. He helped me find a cheap flight and told me what to do with regards to travel. He insisted that I fly out of Luton Airport in London. He said “it is very cheap, very cheap”. I searched and sure enough, I found a very cheap flight from Luton to Basel. Now how do I get from Birmingham to London? “I drive” was his solution, “otherwise take the bus, national express it is very cheap, very very cheap” he suggested. Much to my dismay, his and my ideas of “very cheap” are very different. But even with the bus ride to Luton and the flight, it still came out cheaper than flying out of Birmingham, so this was my decision. I asked him were the bus coach station was City Centre he said right outside Bull Ring (the shopping centre at City Centre). I asked where Bull Ring was and he was taken aback by the blasphemy I had just uttered. “You have been to Birmingham and have not been to Bull Ring?!” he said in a tone that made it feel like it was a genuine prerequisite to visiting Birmingham. just to take the train to City Centre and assured me that it is but a five minute walk to the coach bus station. I finished work and went home that evening.

Happenings of Thursday, June 22:

I went to work and I left early to go find the coach bus station and figure out where everything is. I don't know my way around so I thought it would be best to check it out. He said to take the train, but living far away from the university gives me a distinct advantage of being close to City Centre, so I walked. About ten minutes into the walk I noticed a McDonalds. It was the first one I've seen while over here (I'm not saying they're uncommon, I just haven't been in the City Centre at all) so I decided I would hate myself if I didn't. I went in and right away noticed how much cleaner and nicer it was than most McDonalds in the states. I also noticed a higher price to go with it. Looking over the menu, I ordered the cheapest value menu item there was. It was a cheeseburger, fries and drink for £3.50! (or about $6.90). The CHEAPEST item was $6.90. I cut my losses and enjoyed the familiar flavors. I noticed the straws in the straw dispenser looked to be throwback straws from a bygone era of McDonalds. It gave me an instant flashback to eating at the McDonalds in the Olean Center Mall (to anyone who knows, is that McDonalds still there?) It had the retro brown-yellow look of the old McDonalds décor. =) remember? (Funny note, when I wrote 'decor' it automatically changed it to 'décor', then immediately said I spelled it wrong and suggested 'decor' as the correct spelling. The computer couldn't make up its mind! even as we speak it insists décor is spelled incorrectly, signified with the little red squiggly line underneath while it is okay with decor.) ANYWAY (I don't see how i get anything done as I always like to go off on tangents). See, doing it again. So I took the straw out and examined the wrapper, sure enough, it is written right there '©1986'. I chuckled and took an extra one as a souvenir.

I continued me journey (it was about a 45 minute walk all together) to City Centre. When I was there, I was greeted by and ENOURMOUS structure many stories high and very wide, spanning across roads and going down cliffs. On the side it said 'BULLRING' and I immediately understood why the Italian man was shocked I haven't been there yet. I took out my map and looked for the area marked 'bus station' on the map. I found it and walked to the corresponding area in reality. The problem with maps is, they are very good tools, assuming the city is laid out in 2-D. The City Centre and (by extension) Bull Ring is, however, in 3-D. This made the looking for the station especially fun as I'm climbing up and down flights of stairs as buildings are on top of buildings, underneath roads which are underneath more buildings, a maze the likes of which could never conceived by the greatest masterminds did, in fact, exist and had the title 'Bull Ring'. Well I conceded defeat and asked a local police officer where the coach station was. He pointed on my map to another area marked 'bus station' about 15 minutes away, outside Bull Ring all together. I hated myself for my stupidity and short-sightedness and started walking. After a while I noticed I was still in Bull Ring. That initial HUGE building was in fact, just a tiny part of Bull Ring. I was in awe. Now I REALLY understood how the Italian man was shocked I had never been to Bull Ring. Here this massive building that I noticed walking in impressed me. This building was bigger than any mall I had seen in the states (and I have seen some large ones), and it turned out to be maybe 10% of Bull Ring. I have not seen anything even comparable to a shopping centre of this magnitude. With the sun setting and a dangerous walk back home, I decided I would come back at a later date to explore Bull Ring and make my way to the coach station. I FINALLY got there and wouldn't you know, ticketing closed about 10 minutes ago. I decided that was enough for today, I was done. I walked 50 minutes to Bull Ring, wandered around Bull Ring for only god knows how long, then I had a 50 minute walk back. I was beat when I got home and went to sleep pretty early.

Some info about Bull Ring:

*Things I read at Bull Ring*

Bull Ring market has been 'Bull Ring market' since the middle ages. I love thinking about these things. Somebody actually founded a market, called it Bull Ring and to this day, almost a thousand years later, there it is still there, still Bull Ring, still in the same location. Specifically – It was founded in 1154 by Peter de Birmingham. It was initially a food and animal market.

Bull Ring is one of the largest shopping centres in the world, the exact size is not known, but is given at 'millions of square feet'

*Things I noticed about Bull Ring*

I can't possibly put into words the size of the thing. It contains TWO national train stations, including the largest in Birmingham. I saw several hotels actually IN the shopping centre, a national bus station and countless bus stops.

Sorry I haven't gotten around to updating about my trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon yet, the pictures will take a while to sort out and it is 2am already. I will try to make a post about it as soon as I can.

Cheers,

Mike