Springtime!

This morning I saw beautiful sun outside my window, but being from Michigan, was not fooled.  Sunshine obviously means that is frigidly cold outside, so I dressed in trousers ("pants" here means underwear!), two pairs of socks, a shirt, a sweater, my winter coat, and a scarf.  I stepped outside and realized I had been fooled!  It was like springtime!  50 degrees (that's 10 celsius, folks) with a light breeze.  I unzipped my coat and headed to the library to get a few novels for my class. 
Needless to say, I changed clothes back in my room, then took a nice walk into the city.  Visited Poundland (everything is a pound!) and finally got a real tube of toothpaste and hangers for my clothes.

I had my first two classes today as well.  First up was Nineteenth Century Writing, where we're reading some Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and the like.  The professor (called a tutor here) seems very cool, she's one of the youngest profs I've ever had, and she's American.  The class should be good, a typical lit class, but definitely less work than I'm used to at Calvin.  Lectures are only every other week with a smaller seminar every week.  We write one paper of 3,000 words and have an exam at the end of the semester.

Then I had Roman Legacy in Britain with professor Bratt (who said we may call him Ken - still getting used to that!)  This is my first history class since sophomore year of high school, and I was definitely overwhelmed by all the dates and city names and whatnot.  I have to turn that chronological/spatial part of my brain back on.  I do love history, though, so I'm excited for that class.  Today we talked about the history of York, which was founded by the Romans in like, 70 AD or something.  So, yeah.  Super old.

Also, best thing I learned today: I always knew that right and left were sometimes called dexter and sinister, but I had no idea why.  Turns out those were the Latin words for left and right!  We were talking about two main roads in the Roman city of York (which still exist as roads today) which were called Via Principalis Dextera and Via Prinicipalis Sinistra. Harry Potter nerd-dom fact: Professor Sinistra teaches astronomy, and the planets in the solar system orbit to the left.

Tomorrow we have our British culture class, and will do some touring of the city, including a walk down under the minster to the crypt to see the foundations of the ancient Roman city.

I'm off to Ken and Laurel's house to watch a movie.  Goodnight (or good afternoon) all!  Hope you survive Snowmageddon 2011.

Monday a few of us walked around the city on the walls. This is the "inside..."

... and here's how they look from the outside

This is the Yorkminster.  Gabe and I went Monday night to the Evensong service here, it was beautiful!