L'année dernière

Welcome to the Bombucha Estate!  

   203 Grant St. is alive with activity--for instance, today we discovered that the house gets incredibly stuffy in 100 degree weather, but also that the oven will keep us toasty all winter long. Ah, the joys of having a house!  We all started school last Thursday, and in Earp tradition, I got my picture taken in front of the house. Emily tried to make me hold my bike, but I thought I would look dumb; turns out, I look dumb anyways.  

Notice the grill--I got a free Weber from work, which I was pretty excited about. We had a Belgian couchsurfer stay with us this weekend, and he asked, "So what eez theez deal with the Webeh?  What eez it?"  Little did he know....One proper California burger later with guacamole and pepperjack cheese later and he only slightly understood.  But it was a lot of fun showing him California life and being allowed to have enough space to host him.

Going to the 10th Annual Hardly Strictly Blues Festival in San Francisco this weekend, and hoping to see Doc Watson, Sharon Jones, Joan Baez, Conor Oberst, Elvis Costello, and many many more. 

Ciao!

Merry Chrimbo

 

Baker the Giant

This tree was  a gift from the Americans recognizing the France's commitment to human rights with their Bill of Rights. It was planted twenty years ago, on the year we were born.  It was very small when Erin (in brown jacket) last visited Paris. Its a California redwood.

 

 

My boys! 

Our tiny Parisian apartment, cozy, packed, and full of Christmas cheer.

And one from Amsterdam to prove that I was there! I'm absolutely freezing right there, but I was just pretty much a frozen fish stick all week. My poor southern californian soul....

Happy Boxing Day.

By the Sea

As evidenced by the following pictures, I spent my weekend in the proximity of the sea. 

Brighton has a famous pier and boardwalk, which was designed in the typical Brighton architectural fashion: white, ornate, and and very unique.  The pier reminded me of the Great White City of the Chicago World Fair.  There is another building in the city that was built is the Royal Pavilion, built as a seaside resort for Prince (and future king) George IV to benefit his gout (thanks Wikipedia!). Anyways, its even more ornate, even more eccentric, and even more over the top. It was built to mimic Indian design. 

This is not my photo, but yes, there are palm trees in front. Exotic.

Brighton is bigger than I expected.  Its about 500,00 people (or so I'm told), and holds a number of festivals, shows, and other signs of a cultural big city.  Yeah, the high street just looks the same as every other city, but the small lanes (tiny narrow winding streets) are full of eclectic shops.

One night, we ventured down to the city for a good old-fashioned Fish Fry, a dancing night where they only played music from the 40's.  White people can actually dance to that stuff, which is nice.

The University of Sussex is located about 10 minutes from the city, tucked up in the hills. If you have started to have that inkling that Brighton sounds similar to Santa Cruz, you're on to something. The physical set up is similar, with a detached campus. The campus itself is pretty forward-thinking, and its favorite sports are field hockey and hackey sack.

I went to see my friends Emily and Aaron, who will be studying there for a year (for a year! I won't see them....)  They live in these funny multi-storied housing units that are terraced into the hillside and house 12 people each. That's a lot of people to share one kitchen.  But Emily's flatmates are quite nice, and would be good friends if I were living there.

Emily celebrated a 21st birthday while I was there.  It was medieval royalty/peasantry themed. I was a peasant, and found my "husband" in a girl who dressed as Rasputin

It was an awesome evening, with a live performance by Aaron and Emily's band, which includes guitar, cello, viola, and melodica.

One of the afternoons, we took a walk in the Downs, the open, preserved area surrounding the school. Its characterised by gently rolling hills, pastures, and small woods; all in all, very English. 

One of the quaintest parts of the walk was the small hamlet that was just over the hill. It consisted of a church, a pond, a tea house, and about a dozen cottages. And a small mansion. And a communal stable it seems?  Looks fit for a Christmasy setting.

We had high tea in the tea room. Large cups of tea, fresh scones, and fresh, handwhipped cream for the top.  So good.  It sounds fancy, but it wasn't; at least, it wasn't stuffy. It was more rustic cute, with country couples coming tromping in in their wellies and dogs.

The village, where supposedly people live year-round, and is not a holiday place.  It seemed almost fictitious to me, but very cute. 

Transform and Rollout

Happy December!

  I found the last advent calendar (or should I say 'Autobot Calendar'?) in all of Edinburgh. Check it out below. Its pretty snazzy. 

Saw some nice (free) fireworks on Monday from the castle. The castle looks appropriate with an orange glow and lots of smoke.

Fretting about exams, but revising away. Revising is the British word for studying.  Strange.  I would think that revising would refer to fixing something, not reviewing it. O, cultural differences.

With a little bad judgment on timing, I'm leaving Edinburgh tonight to go see a few Santa Cruz friends in Brighton-by-the-sea. The name practically begs to be said in a sing-song voice.  It will a wonderfully refreshing trip, but it means that I am going to have to be twice as efficient in revising.

In other words, my two very good pals are having their last show on Fresh Air, the University of Edinburgh's radio station.  It was a great run guys, and thanks for enjoyable Wednesday nights.

 

So many things....
  Thursday, my friends and I celebrated a traditional thanksgiving. I was in charge of pies, and made an apple and pumpkin--the pumpkin puree was sold in exactly one store. I also made some bread from this interesting recipe: its no knead, five-minute bread, but tastes fine. Check it out. http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/cookbook/2009/artisan-bread/boule.html . Note about the pie:  the recipe for the pastry crust called for shortening; Britain does not know what that is, but have the ever-interesting suet, usually rendered beef or lamb fat, but also available in vegetable form. It is essential for traditional British pies. But check out what it looks like in dehydrated form--

It was strange to have to go to school on Thanksgiving, and the day after. Think about it--I have never gone to school on Thanksgiving in my life.  

On Saturday, we went to the rugby game!  It was an international game, Scotland vs Argentina. We walked to the field, joining in the multitude.  When we were about halfway there, people started to come out of the woodwork, and slipped into the stream of fans.

The field is called Murrayfield, and hosts both rugby and football. The food vendors consist solely of booths that sell fish and chips, hamburgers, and beer.  Josh and Devin enjoyed a bit of this lovely tradition by getting some hot fish and chips to eat during the game. They gave me their best fighting faces.

The day was immensely cold, as one can see from the fog on the field. When the players were all in the scrum (the huddle that restarts a game), a cloud of breath condensation emanated from the players.

Despite the avid fans, Scotland lost 6-9.  

On Sunday, I went to a ceilidh that was hosted for free because of St. Andrews Day.  Kicked up my heels to some traditional music.

Tomorrow is St. Andrew's day. He is the patron saint of Scotland. Happy St. Andrew's day everyone.  

Emmm.

http://kalman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/back-to-the-land/?em

Siccar Point

So this is the famous "Hutton's Unconformity", where sediments of ages millions of years apart are deposited right on top of each other. This was a perfect example of time can be represented by gaps in the geologic record. He is famous as saying "The present is the key to the past", that is, processes happening right now, wave action on beaches, eroding mountain sides, have been happening for millions of years, and can be seen in paleoenvironments (rocks). 

The rocks were at the bottom of a very steep cliff.

If you can make them out, there are some people at the bottom, near the center of the photo. Our class was about 60 kids, and it was a ridiculous site to see us all tramping and slipping down the hillside.

But it was cool to be there. This image is looking southwards down the coast. 

Our last stop for the weekend was on a beach near a golf course.  That is the club house.