First contact with Police Forces in Britain

So, today I had the pleasure of meeting my first British Police Officer. 

No, I hadn't committed any crimes.


I had to report my bike as being stolen.  It was taken sometime last night, much to my dismay.  It had been locked and everything, but apparently someone really needed to get somewhere fast. 
So after scouring the campus this morning to no avail, I filled out an incident report and let the local authorities know.  Of course, stolen bikes are almost never recovered.  So it appears that I am now in the market for a new one.

That being said, the officers were quite friendly and sympathetic to my cause.  Hopefully they'll be able to pull something up on the CCTV. (That means video cameras)

Sinks and Windows

One thing I've noticed while here is that almost every sink in bathrooms here have two faucets: one for cold and one for hot.   It isn't like in America where most have either a single handle controlling both types of water, or where you have two different handles but still one faucet.
This is what UK sinks look like:

Now, I find this a bit troubling.  See, the "Hot" water faucet emits a scalding hot spray of water, while the "Cold" faucet sends out a stream of water colder than the Mid-Atlantic.  So here I am, turning on both faucets at once, alternating washing my hands under one stream for a second and then switching to the other one to balance out the first.
It almost becomes a dance of sorts, "hot, cold, hot, cold, Hot, Cold, Hot, Cold, HOT, COLD!"
I feel like it could possibly end up sending the nerve endings in my hands over the edge.  They could go on strike.








Next we have windows.  The UK is blessed in that mosquitoes--or insects for that matter--are almost non-existent.  For this reason, many people leave their windows and doors open, WITHOUT SCREENS.

mypetjawa.mu.nu

Now, I know that in Minnesota--and am fairly confident in saying that this would hold true for most of the US--this practice would be suicidal.  At the beginning of the day, you have an invasion of curious flies wander in through the open window, pining to set up shop in your kitchen.  Of course, there is no way to catch those flies, because they always move right at the last second.

princetonol.com

As midday approaches, you have an infestation of Asian beetles and box elder bugs.  These pesky buggers always manage to find their way in, but can never find their way back out.  The crawl on your window, endlessly looking for a hole that isn't there.  When they die, they stink up a storm.  Vacuuming them up just makes things worse.

jnweb.com

As evening sets in, the plague continues to rage.  The next wave comes from the mosquitoes.  These dreaded creatures can force even the most polite house guest into performing a most ridiculous dance in order to avoid or kill these bloodsucking creatures.

granitegrok.com

Night falls, and soon you hear a dull flutter.  At the same time, the light flickers, and you realize that this last one is BIG.  Now you have the moths.  Loving light, these insect find a way into your cozily-lit house, and snuggle up to any source of light they can find.  Sometimes they stay still, while at other times they desperately fly back and forth trying to get ever closer to that shining beacon.



Yes, my friends, an America without screens would be an empty America.

I FINALLY SAW A GENUINE PICK-UP TRUCK IN ENGLAND

Here it is folks!

I managed to spy an actual pick-up truck here in England where I thought there were none. 
Here is the proof:

VICTORY

An amazing geology weekend

Last time we spoke, I was heading on a geology field trip to South Devon and Torquay.  I didn't know what to expect, but all I can say was that whatever expectations I had going into the trip, they were far exceeded during the time spent there.

We started off at 8 in the morning on Friday.  We all packed into a large coach bus, and a few others packed into smaller mini buses, and we headed out from Royal Holloway.  We stopped at a rest stop called the Membury Service Station.  It is similar to an American Truckstop.  But I've got to hand it to the Brits for this one: they sure outdo our truckstops.  This had 2 grocery stores, a KFC, a Burger King, a mini-casino, public showers, a Starbucks, a cellphone outlet, a hotel, and a sit in restaurant. Not only that, but it was all in one large building, complete with escalators.  Similar to a mall but on a smaller scale.

Once we grabbed a bit of food to save until lunch, we started off until we came to Portishead, which is on the channel next to Bristol on the lower west side of the island.
Here, we dove straight into geology, and I had a trial by fire.

Low Tide

Lighthouse

 

 

 

Even got to see a crab.  Dead.

After having a bit of time in the field, they gave us a break before we were to continue our journey.  So we went and played on the swings!

Once we had finished there, I had decided to switch from the giant coach bus into one of the minibuses, as they are quite different than the ones in the US. I lament that I did not take a photo of said buses.  From Portishead, we drove to the Field Center.  It was called Colehayes Park.  It was not what I expected at all in a field center.

Colehayes Field Center

Exterior of Estate

Brook running through the property

Waterfall by brook

The Garden

The living room, with a real open fire.  One of my friends from back home said it best, "It's like you are playing a real-life game of Clue!"

As you can probably imagine, I had never stayed in such a place in my life.  They made us breakfast and dinner, and gave us plenty of supplies for making field sandwiches before we left in the morning.


The next morning, we left for Torquay, which is south, on the English Channel.  The day was a bit rough and windy, but we managed to have a good time.

English Channel

Looking at mudstone overlain by a conglomerate

Beach at low tide

But the highlight of the day was this beauty here that passed us as we made our way around.

A genuine steam engine, actually running a line.  It was pulling carriages as well, all with names like in Thomas the Tank Engine.

Sunday we made our way to Burrator Dam.  Luckily for us, the sun came out for once, making everything more enjoyable.

Wonderful formation of sandstone and intrusive granite.

Hard at work in the name of America!

Once we finished there, we set out to Torbay, a little village on the coast of the English Channel.  Here we looked at fossils as well as folds.

The rock in the foreground had ridiculous amounts of fossils

The English Channel

Fault line with water

Strike-slip fault

you can't really tell, but this is a steep rock we had to go on, with a bit of a fall if you had bad luck.

Sun reflecting off a tide pool

Then we headed home.  The best thing, though, was the new friends I made through this experience.  It is amazing, and we really grew as a class throughout the weekend.

Geology Field Trip!

They are sending us on a field trip to Devon tomorrow!

I had to buy a lot of tools for the course, which was a bummer in regards to money, but overall it is supposed to be a good time, and we'll be there until Sunday.  It will be my first time out in the field, so I'm excited about that.  Also it will be cool to study somewhere completely different than Minnesota. 
So if I don't post during the weekend, you will know it is simply because I am in the field and there isn't any internet available.

Mikey

1 Month Benchmark

Here I am, living in England for a full month now.  I am integrating fairly well into the school life and life in England as a whole.  True, it is a bit different being able to drink at 18 here.  But to be honest, in my observations compairing the drinking culture here to the drinking culture back home--especially in regards to university drinking-- I have found that because you are allowed to drink at 18 here, one learns how to drink responsibly, as it is very common for people to go to the pub after work or college classes and get a pint before going home. It is more of a social thing.  At home in the States, people cannot drink until they are 21.  However, at this point, most of them are in college, which we all know is the time when most people start drinking.  The problem with this is, because they cannot go into a bar or pub to drink, they must do it at home or at a bonfire or in the woods somewhere where the police won't catch them.  Furthermore, because there is a threat fromt the police, people don't drink socially--they drink to get drunk.  This is why we tend to have a bigger problem with binge drinking.  People want to go out for the night, but know they won't be able to get drinks at this bar or that concert.  So they "pre game," at home, taking many shots or shutgunning many beers before they go out so that they will be thoroughly drunk for the duration of the night. 
This then folds over into the drunk driving problem.  Here in the UK, and the majority of Europe for that matter, most people use public transport over owning a car.  This makes getting home from a night where one wouldn't be fit to drive a lot easier--one can walk, take a bus, a taxi, or a train wherever they need to go.  This is nearly impossible for Americans, unless you happen to live in a city with good infrastucture and transport options such as New York, Chicago, San Fransicso, etc. But for those people outside of those urban settings, there isn't much of an option, especially when one is in an altered state of mind.  To make matters worse, because they are drinking "under the table," and aren't drinking at an establishment that could be held accountable for letting them drive, there is no one to take the keys away from someone who is too drunk to drive.  This might be why our culture has such a high drunk driving rate in comparison to European countries.

My friend Luke posted this on Facebook today, and I think that it sheds some light onto our own distinct drinking culture.
This American Life: Penn State Drinking

Photos of late

 London

London Eye from Westminster Bridge

The Houses of Parliament at Twilight.  (Not the vampire books)

London Eye at night

Big Ben*

 *Big Ben is actually the name of the bell, but the tower itself, which is known simply as "the bell tower"

An underground "tube" station

View from my orientation hotel, St. Giles.  Note Houses of Parliament in the distance

Trafalgar Square

Hari Krishna in a park in London.  They sang and invited us to dance with them. I did.

Building at Trafalgar Square

View of St. Paul's Cathedral from Millennium Bridge. (The one from the 6th Harry Potter)

Tower of London

Gate entrance from the river.  Surrounded by actual moat.

Corvette, for Dad.  The steering wheel was still on the left side.

 The British Museum

Greek carvings depicting the King's annual lion hunt

Incredible attention to detail

Lion meant to be funny in its pathetic demise. Most look on in sadness now.  The Greek lion was hunted to extinction.

Greek statues

Ramses

Ancient Egyption mummy predating the "wrapped mummies"

 My Room at Royal Holloway