March Madness

As my time in academia, has expanded, March has repeatedly become the most exciting and exhausting month for my calendar, and this year was more of the same.

We began the month with one of the most glorious weekend days we have yet seen in Sheffield(or the United Kingdom, for that matter) and celebrated its warmth and sunshine by walking out to the edge of the Peak District. Along the way, we crossed paths with a couple from our new church, and enjoyed the chance to get to know them a bit better.

The Peak District is really gorgeous (I think) and quintessentially British landscape (except that there are no sheep! We did, however, pass a pasture of llamas).

Here's the view of Sheffield from the top of the tallest hill we climbed. The large-ish building jutting up from the treeline in the centre of the photograph is quite near our flat; we estimated that we walked about three miles to see this view.

And, because I mentioned our churchfellow, here's a quick snapshot of the doors of our church (new in the midst of the very old).

In the middle of the month, I.'s mother flew over for a visit, with the intention of getting to see Britain when it was not in the midst of a major winter storm. It has been a cold winter, and we still had snow on the ground for most of her visit, but we had fewer plumbing disasters (aside from a leak in our bathroom) and not quite as much actual ice. I. took her around some of the local attractions (mostly just pubs, I think) while I worked, and we all three visited lovely nearby York once my teaching obligations had ended.

York, however, was only the very tip of the iceberg (and was, in fact, a bit cold and icy during our adventure there).

On the first proper day of my Easter Holiday, we ventured to Nottingham for lunch and from there made our way to the airport, and, by default, to lovely Poland. We began this trip in Warsaw, which as a city has been heavily reconstructed since World War II but with the intention of making the facsimile as like the original as possible.  We stayed in a fabulous flat in the centre of the Stare Miasto (Old Town), which was wonderful for the quaintness but not as splendid for transport links. Our big excursion was a trip to the Warsaw Uprising Museum, which is a quite well designed museum that holds a wealth of World War II artifacts (including an airplane).

I. and his mother just outside the Stare Miasto:

From Warsaw, we took a train to Krakow, where I. and I visited for our anniversary last March as well. Where Krakow last year was warm and sunny, we had beautiful snow and cold rain this year, but managed to amuse ourselves quite nicely regardless.

Among the "Greatest Hits of Poland" to which we introduced I's mother were the museums and cathedral on Wawel Hill. Wawel was a bit of a hike to climb, but the freshly fallen snow made it particularly lovely, so the uphill trek was well worth the effort. 

One benefit of climbing Wawel is the stunning views it offers across Krakow.

I. was very keen to hear the trumpeter in St Mary's church again--you can't see the trumpet in this photo, but it was a beautiful evening regardless.

We spent a wonderful day walking around two street markets, and rested our feet in between with pierogies and afterwards with these delicious cream-filled delights from a nearby piekarnia (bakery).

Though we were very glad to have her along, I.'s mom was very aware that this was our anniversary trip and thus also very gracious about making sure I. and I had time alone together every day. On one evening, we ventured out to have a quiet dinner date at a wonderful Ukranian restaurant (which we had also visited last year) and stopped along the way to listen to an amazing singer who had found a courtyard with splendid acoustics. She stood quietly in the shadows, tightly bundled up against the cold weather, and held a small umbrella to fend off the softly falling snow. Her voice was haunting and beautiful, and I. and I stood and listened until our fingers had turned stiff from cold and our noses were red and slightly runny. Though a short moment in time, I think we would both agree that her music was one of the most beautiful and memorable parts of this trip (and we actually heard her on the following night as well!) She had an amazing repertoire and a beautiful voice.

Near the end of our trip, we awoke on an absolutely stunning morning to find Krakow covered in a layer of magical white snow, which fell softly for most of the day while not actually impeding our travel whatsoever. It offered the perfect blend of beauty and accessibility.

We took a trip back to Podgorze (a district of Krakow just south of the Wisla river) where the Schindler museum is based. If you saw our photos from last year's trip, you may remember the square of chairs designed to commemorate the dissolution of the Polish ghetto (located in Podgorze), which looks even more stunning and tragic when covered by a layer of snow.

In the afternoon, I. and I re-climbed Wawel Hill to see the snow-covered city at dusk. I was hoping for a bit of a sunset, but it was still snowing very lightly, so we enjoyed the rise of the darkness, and I wandered around taking photographs while Isaac threw snowballs at the fire-breathing Smok Wawelski (who was not actually breathing fire that day) located at the base of the hill near the river.

We wandered back into town to hear the trumpeter play, and discovered a wonderful street market full of crafts and other delights, including a number of stalls selling cheese, which could be purchased in patterned blocks (as in the photograph below) or in small bite-size chunks, freshly heated with charcoal fires and served with cranberry on the side. These were delicious.

On our last full day in Krakow, we dragged I.'s mom to the market, where we looked at all the pretty things before having a lovely lunch and watching several troupes of Polish musicians perform on a stage sponsored by a local radio station. It was so cold that the cellists' fingers were going numb (as did mine every time I stopped to take a photograph). On our afternoon walk, I. and I revisited the Wisla at sunset, which was beautiful but well below freezing.

After a mostly sleepless night punctuated by the generic thumpings of the nightclub located (unfortunately) just beneath our rental apartment, I. and his mother flew back to the UK early on Palm Sunday--at which point my travels were but half over!

Poland is still a very Catholic nation, and as I returned from the airport, I was treated to the delightful sight of a Palm Sunday procession traipsing and singing its way around the planty (a park that surrounds Krakow's Old Town). I've left this distant because posting photos of strangers on the internet is still a bit wierd, but you can see Jesus (in white) on the left side of the cluster, just behind some of the well-bundled children. The very tall flowery pole being held by the gentleman in the front is the Polish version of a palm frond; these come in all colours and sizes and were for sale nearly everywhere during our week in Krakow.

From Krakow, I headed back to Warsaw, from which my flight was scheduled to depart the following day. I booked a hotel two blocks from the one place in Warsaw I had wanted to visit most: Lazienki Krolewskie, an enormous park featuring splendid gardens and several palaces. My flight left at midday, so I spent the morning walking through the park and enjoying the sights and snow.

The palace below is beautiful, but not, perhaps, quite as spectacular in the winter; it has particular fame for its location, which is atop a large lake. Here the lake has been covered over with ice thick enough to bear human weight (I didn't try, but there were workers out chipping holes in the ice on the other side of the palace) which is beautiful but perhaps not quite as awe-inspiring as it might have been.

 

From Warsaw, I flew to Toronto, Canada, where I met my parents for a few days of sightseeing and family time. We kept things pretty quiet, but enjoyed, in particular, the Distillery District, which has been converted into a home for all sorts of arts, and features some nice culinary delights as well. 

My father wanted to see the city from the top of the CN tower, so we travelled up the hundred-odd stories in a very fast elevator for a quick meal; the restaurant rotates within the tower and makes a full circuit every 72 minutes, so we spent quite a lot of our time staring out the window at the ever-changing city views before our eyes. 

The real reason for my trip to Toronto was not actually to see my parents (that was a lovely benefit!) but to attend the forty-first annual Shakespeare Association of America meeting. I caught up with a number of wonderful colleagues and friends, and particularly enjoyed my seminar, which was on a topic near and dear to my heart (and thesis!). It was a delightful few days, and I learned a lot (as ever) and met some wonderful new people along the way. 

I left Toronto on Easter, and had one of the worst airplane or hospital meals I have ever encountered as my Easter supper (and also, I think United is the last airline that charges for alcohol on transatlantic flights, which is irksome), but I had three seats to myself for my transatlantic flight, which made me slightly less annoyed about the supper and ridiculously overpriced wine (which I did not purchase, though it might have facilitated my sleep even further). I arrived in Britain on April Fool's Day, which was also a bank holiday (and thus all the more confusing!) and staggered through a day of exhaustion before succumbing to the delights of my own bed for the first time in more than two weeks. 

It is good to be home. Happy Easter (He is Risen indeed!) and Happy April Fool's Day as well!

A Quiet Centennial

Blogger tells me this is my 100th post on this blog, although this month has been a quiet one and I have few (if any) superb events to share. The fall term at Sheffield ends in late January, and our spring term thus opened with an impressive pile of marking from final essays and exams. I received my first full set of teaching evaluations and have spent a lot of time trying to guess the identity of the student who wrote me a glowing review. Beyond this, things have been pretty quiet.
One of our small treats to ourselves in February was a trip to our first Ice Hockey game, where our local team (the Sheffield Steelers) played a team from nearby Nottingham. Some friends who are huge ice hockey fans told us that UK ice hockey teams are mainly comprised of players who didn't quite make it in the US and Canadian tournaments (often because they are slightly smaller in build) so the game was really first-class (at least on the Steelers' part--they more or less trounced their opponents [5-2], which was great fun for us and everyone else in the Sheffield sections of the stands). Here's my handsome husband rooting for the Steelers (and delighted to be rooting for a sports team with orange colours).

I learned a few days ago that my last big application for something in the UK has fallen through, so it seems likely that I. and I will be returning to the States permanently at the end of this semester (hopefully with some sort of employment, although things are completely uncertain at the moment).  We are living in a state of quiet anxiety and trying to relish each moment of this life that we have. God has been good to us thus far, and I don't want to waste the rest of this wonderful year in Sheffield panicking about a future I can't yet see.

So here we end the story of quiet February, which has dwindled away in the blink of an eye: a month of classes and teaching and grading and meetings, in a beautiful country and in a town I am beginning to enjoy more and more with each passing day.

(That's one of the sunrise views we have recently enjoyed from our living room window).

SwitchCity Deluxe: Travellers' Edition

January 2013 began on a quiet farm, surrounded by family and supplemented by I.'s delicious eggnog (at least, I think he made it on New Year's Eve or Day). It was a month of wild and wonderful travels to some tolerable cities, some delightful cities, and two major and mostly unpleasant East Coast cities.  

At the beginning of the month, I. and I visited some friends in Newark, Delaware, to celebrate New Year's Day, and I. subsequently drove his brother J. and I to the Amtrak station in Wilmington, where we caught up with one of our college friends over breakfast before J. and I began a trip north to Boston. While I will never be enamored of Boston, Boston in January is a bit better than Boston in March, for the one and only reason that we had snow.

In Boston, I spent four days attending the MLA conference (which was good, but huge, and difficult for networking because events were spread out across a seemingly infinite number of buildings connected by a half-mile corridor interspersed with massive shopping malls). Aside from the gentle annoyance of having to walk through shopping malls to keep my fingers from going numb in the below-freezing city air, I had a great time and was pleased to discover that I knew more than three attendees.

 On my last morning in Boston, I attended two seminars and then meandered to the train station, stopping by Boston Commons on the way. Apparently Boston does have more to offer than skyscrapers and crosswalks. Who knew?

From Boston, I journeyed via train to Providence, after which I flew to Newark, New Jersey, for a light airport supper, and then to St. Louis, Missouri to see my handsome husband, who had driven out to the Midwest to visit family during my Boston adventure. Together, we bounced around several small towns and cities in Illinois, visiting friends and family along the way, before driving back to the East Coast (with a coffee stop in Columbus, Ohio). A few days at the Folger Library in Washington, D. C. got me back on track with some of my research goals for the month, whereupon I flew back to London and reached Sheffield just in time to receive a large stack of student essays for marking.

Shortly after my return, Sheffield was blessed with a small quantity of snow, which made everything lovely for nearly a week.

(That last one is the view from our living room. Our neighbourhood is so very lovely!)

I. stayed warm this month by cleaning house quite frequently--it has been a bit cold, and washing dishes apparently helps keep the hands warm. He also went well above and beyond the call of duty, helping me sort out some new yarn that had gotten rather painfully tangled after I attempted to make it into a ball by myself.

In order to maintain the appropriate festive spirit for winter, I. and I journeyed up to Edinburgh (via York) at the end of the month, just in time to celebrate Burns' Night with our beloved church family and enjoy fellowship with them in the Sunday service. We have been so very blessed, and the weekend away was an opportunity for laughter, fellowship, and much-needed rest.

After all the hubbub, I ventured back to London, where I visited the British Library briefly and gave my first official public lecture as part of the London Shakespeare Seminar (an exciting experience all around).

I'm now back in Sheffield, desperately trying to get caught up on research and deadlines before the start of a new and wonderful semester, which begins in only a few days. I am still enthralled by this life as an academic, although the year is drawing to a close and I. and I are still waiting expectantly to see where we find ourselves in the summer and next fall.

Thirty-one days of December on the wall . . .

Another month has flown past with the usual swiftness. We began December by celebrating my graduation and the beginning of Advent in our favourite city, joined by my parents (not pictured).

One of my most exciting graduation presents came from the UKBA, in the form of a work visa (we now have leave to remain in the UK until June) and the related return of our passports, which meant we were able to go home for Christmas. Having rushed straight from PhD into job, I was eager for a bit of a holiday, and I. and I. enjoyed our third transatlantic sailing as a Christmas gift to one another. Having taken this crossing a few times previously, we particularly enjoyed the opportunity to figure out some behind-the-scenes details of the crossing and culinary practices. After boarding the Queen Mary, we spent some time watching the final preparations for departure from a little nook on the top deck. We had a great view:

While crossing the Atlantic, we similarly enjoyed four behind-the-scenes culinary experiences. We first watched two very skilled chefs create stunning flowers and animals from vegetables:

We also enjoyed an instructional day in which several chefs demonstrated their decorative skills, while others taught guests to make canapes, sushi, and other delights. These are made etirely of sugar:

The ice swan below was crafted by the same two men who make flowers from vegetables; they are from a village in Indonesia with a long history of wood-carving:

We also had the amazing and unique opportunity to tour the kitchen for our restaurant (there are many kitchens on board the boat). We were able to watch one of the chefs mass-produce these "choux pastry swans," two of which we later enjoyed as dessert after lunch:

In their spare time, some of the amazing bakers on board the boat produce amazing decorative pieces; I believe the gingerbread display (much larger than that shown here) was made by some of the bakers, who also make fresh bread for all the guests each day.

We had rough weather on two days of our crossing, and I got a bit sea-sick due to the thirty-foot waves that hit us on the second day at sea, but once the storm was over, we enjoyed five of the most beautiful days I have ever seen. The sea changed every few hours, the skies were stunning, and the waves were exquisite.

On our last formal night, I. and I. discovered a new lounge at the top front of the boat, and enjoyed an evening of style and glamour while we tried two posh martinis. I. enjoyed the "Vesper," named after the James Bond drink, while I had a raspberry concoction, the construction of which involved lighting an orange peel on fire. (Apologies for the blurry photo; our amazing waitress [wearing stilettos!] manages to shake, pour, and carry two martinis on a rocking boat without spilling a drop, but she was slightly less able to take a clear photograph under the same conditions, which is probably a testament to her amazing Cunard training).

We arrived in New York three days before Christmas, and have spent several days unwinding, catching up with family, and visiting libraries.

It has been a wild and amazing year, and we have been blessed beyond measure. I am particularly grateful for my amazing husband, who has worked hard to keep me sane (and aware of the passage of months and time) and fed. We loved our time in Edinburgh (and miss our church tremendously) but the excitement is far from finished. Our schedule and plans are clear from now through June of 2013, but our plans thereafter vague and mysterious, and we look forward to discovering what God has in store, and (D.V.) sharing those adventures with you as they arise. 

Cheers!

In Which We Become A Bit Better-Travelled

When last I posted (in October), I was a day away from submitting the final draft of my thesis to the powers-that-be at my university. Here I am holding my thesis for a few moments between collecting it from the printers' shop and submitting it to Registry:

The submission of my thesis was followed by a Great Bustle, in which I madly prepped for classes, attended dozens of meetings, submitted lots of paperwork, and marked a large number of student essays. In the midst of all this, I. and I found time to venture outside Sheffield once or twice.

The first days of November found us back in Edinburgh to visit our church family and pack up our flat.

With a rental car stuffed to the gills, we drove back south and embarked upon the now-perpetual adventure of unpacking in a flat with still very little furniture. This adventure was alternately precipitated and halted by our trip to Oxford and the visitations of a number of friends and family members.

Oxford was, as ever, lovely; I spent two frantic days in the Bodleian exploring the delights of manuscripts, and I. joined me for the weekend as he had never yet visited that lovely city.

The weekend following saw us in London to meet one of our Albuquerque friends who is currently travelling around the world. N. and I. enjoyed a few quick strolls through the British Library and British Museum before my arrival, and we three lingered longer in the Science Museum. Among its great delights were the steam engine demonstration, which warmed up the hall tremendously.

I enjoyed learning about the monoplane developed near the beginning of one of the World Wars (and then never fully tested due to demand for weapons of warfare).

I. was more taken with the DNA model that used actual pieces from the original version built by Watson and Crick. (In the interests of fairness and promoting knowledge to the world, I believe I am supposed to mention that while the model was built by these two Nobel Laureates, the bulk of the research was done by Rosalind Franklin). Here's the model:

After the sojourn in London, we were joined by another Albuquerque friend, and I. and they went out on some exciting adventures (including a well-punctured trip to Hadrian's Wall, of which I. refused to take any photographs). We abundantly enjoyed their visit, and after their departure had just enough time to wash the sheets in preparation for my parents' visit, which was brief but fun. Of particular note during my parents' trip was our corporate journey to Scotland, where many celebrations were had by all. We celebrated St Andrew's Day in fine style, visiting the university named in his honour and participating in the graduation ceremonies.

We are now back in Sheffield and enjoying a quiet and empty house in advance of what will surely be a busy Christmas and New Year's. Merry Winter to All, and to All a Good Night!