Odds and Ends of the Week

Above the City

It's a new blog post, and it hasn't even been over a week! Craziness. I have some pictures to post, so I thought I'd tell you all a little about what they're of. Logical, yes?

The first group of pictures can be found here. They're of my Halloween adventure, which actually took place on Friday, not Sunday. On the actual night of Halloween I did my laundry and didn't go anywhere. This is because on the real Halloween, all the Freshers here go even crazier than they usually do, and anyone who values their sanity and wants to avoid getting smacked in the head by a flailing drunk 17-year-old dressed as a sexy mouse stays home. This is a widely accepted, though tacit fact, and as a result all non-fresher parties are organized for the two days leading up to Halloween. 

The party Tanya, Astrid, Britta, and I all went to was called "Viva La Fiesta SUPER HALLOWEEEEEEN intERASMUS PARTY." I kid you not. How I ended up at such a grammatically-challenged event is something I'm still working on. In all honesty, however, it was a super fun party. We got invited to a pre-party party at another flat, so we walked over there a bit early. It was all Germans and me, but they spoke in English the whole time so it was fine. We watched "The X Factor," which as far as I can tell is a British "American Idol." The actual party was at this hilariously stereotypical club called, rather over-dramatically, "Embrace." The music was insanely loud, the dance floor was crowded, and it was craziness. Apparently for Europeans, Halloween calls for dressing up in black, purple, and red; donning fake spiders; and painting oneself with fake blood and zombie makeup. There were some legitimately scary-looking people. I had a really good time, which was great, because usually I just stand around awkwardly at parties and strategize about how I can leave early. We didn't get home until like 3 am, so I slept in quite a bit on Saturday. 

Saturday I wanted to go to city centre to get a new camera, after having been convinced by Dad that, yes, I should probably have a working camera while I'm on study abroad. Astrid and Tanya came with me, as they had shopping to do, too. We decided to walk instead of taking the bus, since the weather was absolutely perfect. It was just like it had been for our trip to Bakewell: clear, cold, and sunny. When we got downtown, we did our shopping and decided to go get pasties for lunch (kind of like stew in a folded-over pie crust). We found a bakery and got our pasties, and, after we  finished them, Astrid asked if we wanted to go ride on Sheffield's "big wheel." (The big wheel is like a massive ferris wheel in the center of the shopping square downtown) Tanya and I weren't too keen on it, but Astrid really, really, really wanted to go. I thought it was super expensive, but it turned out that it was only 5£, and it was the last day before they close it for winter. So we paid our fare and were given a capsule all to ourselves. It turned out to be a super fun ride, as we could see the whole city. Looking at the roofs of all the old buildings reminded me of the chimney sweep dance from Mary Poppins. :) I took lots of pictures with my brand new camera, which you can see here.   

After our ride on the wheel, we walked back home, and I got ready to go to see The Lord of The Dance with Tanya and our flatmate, Tatjana (pronounced Tatiana). Tatjana's pretty remarkable, as she speaks English, Finnish, Latin, French, Russian, Swedish, and German. And I think maybe Spanish. She's also a master kantele player, which is a traditional Finnish folk stringed instrument. She's intense. She and Tanja are super into Lord of the Dance. I, on the other hand, love Irish and Scottish folk music, but kind of see Lord of the Dance as a hilarious spectacle. I was imagining a small, low key thing, but the show ended up being kind of a huge deal. It was in Sheffield arena, which is this huge stadium thing, similar to the Rose Garden. Everyone there was super into it, and the show was actually really cool! During the intermission I talked for a long time with this older man sitting next to me. We had an interesting discussion about politics and the younger generation in Britain. I took a couple of pictures before the show started, which you can see here. 

On Monday from 8:30 to 1:30 I worked at New Roots again. It was not quite as eventful as my last shift, as this week is a reading week for a lot of students. They don't have to go to class, so they're not walking by and stopping in to get pastries and things for breakfast. I spent most of the time in the back bagging cakes and cleaning things. I got a lot better at using the cash register, but I'm still horrible at calculating change. I get all flustered and hurried and my brain just won't work. When I think about it later, it's easy, but in the moment it's completely impossible. Like 20 minus 1.70. Not that hard. But eventually I'll get it, I guess. I took a couple of pictures of the store, which I'll just include at the end of this post. 

I got my first midterm essay back yesterday — I had to meet one-on-one with the professor to get his feedback; everyone does — and I did very well. I was really worried about it, so I'm really glad I didn't do badly! I had no idea what I was doing, as I have zero background in British prehistoric archaeology, so it was kind of a shot in the dark. 

I hope you're all doing well! Let me know if there's something you'd like from merry old England! 

~Anna 

The pastry case and front counter

The rest of the store -- it's really small! 

Front of the store with the plants and things.