/travel/oxford/Scotland and Oxford and Hadrian and Karate and ...
Hey everybody,
I think I fell behind on my emails, after hitting a nice biweekly pace. I've added a few more people to the list -- as always, let me know if you don't want these mass mailings (I really should set up a mailing list so people can unsubscribe themselves, but that's pretty technical. ;-) )
Let's see. I guess the biggest thing was my trip to Edinburgh with Caroline and Aleem, the other UW co-op here. It was really great, and the first time that I really felt fascinated by where I was. Oxford and London are both nice, but Edinburgh was totally gripping. Our hostel was a little bit gritty, but reasonably pleasant. We all tried some Vegan "haggis" that seemed to be fairly popular. There was a really neat walking tour of some 16th c. (I think) housing built into a bridge from when Edinburgh was booming and they needed all the space they could get. The tour was a little bit cheesy, telling this and that ghost story, but being down in those dank dark grimey rooms was really cool. The edinburgh castle was also really neat -- I didn't realize it, but the Scottish Crown Jewels were there, which we got to see, and a properly old 12th c. (I think) church that was still standing.
On the way back (it's about an eight hour drive, which of course most people here think is nuts to pull on a weekend) we stopped by Hadrian's wall. It was built by the Romans to "define their borders" with the bit of northern england that was held by the Scots (I guess it was the scots. :-) ) It was about 8 feet wide, and the ruins are maybe 4 feet tall in some places, but it was about 14 feet tall, with turrets and milecastles every (roman) mile for about 150 miles, I think. (We guessed it by looking at the map, but I can't remember the exact bit.) The stones from it have mostly been turned into houses and barns so there isn't a whole lot left. Again, very cool.
The scottish countryside is really appealing to me, with great big sheep-covered rolling hills. It was a really pleasant drive, and it was really fun trying to run up the hill on to of which was the bit of Hadrian's wall that we went to see. (In the interest of speaking better english, I'm currently trying to stop ending my sentences a preposition with.)
Last weekend I didn't do much I don't think. Nothing memorable, apparently. :-) Oh yeah. I went with my co-workers for dinner friday, and then went out with them for a bit as they all got drunk, when I suddenly remembered I really don't like that scene, and so I up and left.
Yesterday I saw _The Good Thief_, which was a pretty decent movie. A little bit cheesy, but alright. Seem to be a lot of heist movies lately. Then I went to a club that had really good fun music and a really nice atmosphere, which was good 'cause I haven't found places to go yet, really. This morning I went to a karate lesson, which I think I'm going to start taking a couple times a week. The attitude there was really cool -- I was the only totally new person, but it scaled from me all the way up to black-belts, and they managed to teach everyone at once. The memberships are a bit expensive, but it was really good exercise and something I've wanted to do for a while, so I think I'll sign up.
I finished reading _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance_ and it held up well to the end. I'm now well into _Catch 22_, and enjoying it a lot. It's a pleasant read, and quite funny.
I've been spending a lot of time working on a student news site at UW (cleverly called uwstudent.org), getting them ready to change from their own home-rolled software to something a little more powerful and flexible. Taken more time than I expected.
One of my housemates moved out, the pleasant chinese guy (there's also an unpleasant chinese guy, and he's still there. ;-) ), and a 37 (I think) year old japanese guy moved in. He seems quite nice, and we connected fairly quickly. His english is about as good as my french, I think.
I'm going to be taking a political science course next term, with an eye to doing a masters degree in psci, since all of the courses I looked at looked really interesting to me. That's a good sign, since I have to start thinking about such things soon. ;-)
Work fine. Getting into the part of the term where the end is too far but the beginning is too far as well. That's the part where I start to really want to get back to school, so it's good. :-)
Going to Switzerland at the beginning of April -- don't know if I mentioned that before. Also going to try to make it to either Denmark or Ireland.
Enjoying myself here, but looking forward to being back in Canada and seeing everyone again!
Cheers, Rob
-- : Rob Ewaschuk : University of Waterloo : Computer Science (4A) : : www.studentforce.ca : Currently on co-op at www.decisionsoft.co.uk :
