this blog is about .... you.
why not? i have writing about me for so long, its getting kind of boring. i want to write about you, give you some facebook type numbers, throw some statistics out at you (and as you know, 92.3% of the time you can make 73.14% of the statistics mean anything you want!). so here we go... some numbers to begin with:
number of readers: 48
people with multiple email addresses listed: 3
people that haven't accepted invitation: 1
people whose invitation has been removed cause they hadn't accepted it for so long: 1 (not the same person as above... so far...)
different countries represented: 6 (none from the UK... don't want to be writing about people and my life with them and then have them read it and change things...)
number of blog followers: 18
followers with pictures: 4
total number of comments: 82
day with most comments: first blog entry, day before leaving..., with 7
second most comments: 6, occurred twice - blogs about food and judaism. hmm...
number of entries with no comments: 1
person with most comments: not even close, penguinrobot leads the pack with 23, sonya is second with 11. duck and frog, with 10, started very strongly and led for the first two months... then we have neta with 7, lisa w 6...
some others of interest: two comments have been removed by their authors (suspicious???). for a person that has only commented three times total, rohit has commented twice on the same blog that dealt with Cymraeg (Welsh) and spoke of leeks... 6 comments are attributed to hillel raz though the narrator claims to have only written one of them... three comments are in hebrew, two in welsh. one comment by the narrator is an answer to a question written by a reader (stronger effort will be made to answer all of your questions...)
future topics:
the narrator thought about a few future topics, amongst them - going out at night in cardiff, beer in cardiff, pubs in cardiff, late night food in cardiff (hmm, strong theme here, eh?), math department, driving/bike riding...
are their any topics you would be interested in reading about? please do mention them and the narrator (nagged by the group of editors and pushed by the investors threats) will comply.
finally, a reader suggested that the blog be made public. if you have opposition to this, or thoughts on the matter, please share...
Friday, October 30, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Welsh
i began an intensive 5 day Welsh course, two hours a day (of which i missed four hours...). this was paid for by the uni and had to be approved by the head of the department, a native son of the land of Wales. he tested me a couple of times. hmm, i am not sure i passed... but - let me tell you about the course.
so first thing, there were about 8 of us on the first day. that number was halved by the next day - not sure why. some people take Welsh for work - the elderly here do speak Welsh and sometimes are more comfortable with it. a couple of the students in my class were actually elderly Welshians, Welshies, Welshires (hmm, i'll have to choose a favorite) who had learned some Welsh back in their elementary school days or from their parents, and wanted to learn some more. cute seeing this 60+ year old man trying to remember how to count by going back to the technique he learned in kindergarten (i.e. fingers), and having strange associations to some words...
i enjoyed learning some words, hearing some sounds. one things that surprised me was the letter ll (its considered 'a' letter). the sound is like the 'ch' in hebrew/arabic, except not. so i thought it would be easy for me to pronounce. i was the worst in the class. see the 'ch' in hebrew, comes from the back of the throat. the 'll' comes from the side of the mouth and its a 'ch' followed by a 'l' sound in a way. and there is definite tongue action while pronouncing it. its a bit weird. the teacher repeatedly helped me with it...
the roots of the language are celtic, yet there are some words that i recognized from italian (i.e. latin roots) such as llun (which is monday - lunedi in italian, but not pronounced in any way similar to that...). its much more musical than english, and this also explains the welsh accent. in fact, rather than just listening to the teachers, i spent half of the class time trying to listen to the teachers' accent so i can immitate it...
there are some definite funnies from the language:
a week - wythnos (pronounced oyth-nos). so this is funny because wyth = 8, nos = night...
raining - (yeah, they taught us that for *some* reason...) bwrw glaw (pronounced boro glaw) - literal meaning? hitting rain.
daffodil - the flower, is the national flower of wales (flowers around the birthday of st. davids, the patron saint of wales, but that's not the reason i have it here...) cenhinen pedr (pronounced kenhinen pedr). now why would i mention this here? rohit would def appreciate this - literally, this translates into Peter's leek. yipe. because it obviously greatly resembles a leek, or maybe because everything here resembles a leek...
finally - we learned how to count! and we started with dim = 0... i found this interesting. they have installed a whole number system here rather than a natural one...
10 days of rain in a row (though non yet today!)
so first thing, there were about 8 of us on the first day. that number was halved by the next day - not sure why. some people take Welsh for work - the elderly here do speak Welsh and sometimes are more comfortable with it. a couple of the students in my class were actually elderly Welshians, Welshies, Welshires (hmm, i'll have to choose a favorite) who had learned some Welsh back in their elementary school days or from their parents, and wanted to learn some more. cute seeing this 60+ year old man trying to remember how to count by going back to the technique he learned in kindergarten (i.e. fingers), and having strange associations to some words...
i enjoyed learning some words, hearing some sounds. one things that surprised me was the letter ll (its considered 'a' letter). the sound is like the 'ch' in hebrew/arabic, except not. so i thought it would be easy for me to pronounce. i was the worst in the class. see the 'ch' in hebrew, comes from the back of the throat. the 'll' comes from the side of the mouth and its a 'ch' followed by a 'l' sound in a way. and there is definite tongue action while pronouncing it. its a bit weird. the teacher repeatedly helped me with it...
the roots of the language are celtic, yet there are some words that i recognized from italian (i.e. latin roots) such as llun (which is monday - lunedi in italian, but not pronounced in any way similar to that...). its much more musical than english, and this also explains the welsh accent. in fact, rather than just listening to the teachers, i spent half of the class time trying to listen to the teachers' accent so i can immitate it...
there are some definite funnies from the language:
a week - wythnos (pronounced oyth-nos). so this is funny because wyth = 8, nos = night...
raining - (yeah, they taught us that for *some* reason...) bwrw glaw (pronounced boro glaw) - literal meaning? hitting rain.
daffodil - the flower, is the national flower of wales (flowers around the birthday of st. davids, the patron saint of wales, but that's not the reason i have it here...) cenhinen pedr (pronounced kenhinen pedr). now why would i mention this here? rohit would def appreciate this - literally, this translates into Peter's leek. yipe. because it obviously greatly resembles a leek, or maybe because everything here resembles a leek...
finally - we learned how to count! and we started with dim = 0... i found this interesting. they have installed a whole number system here rather than a natural one...
10 days of rain in a row (though non yet today!)
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
cardiff castle
The main structure in the city centre, peering over all roads, buildings and arcades (the closed shopping areas with narrow lanes, small shops and round roofs – usually glass – old school shopping style) is Cardiff castle. This castle is built over roman remains, of which very little remains… seriously, these remains are a few bricks that used to be a wall and a few other bricks that used to be a part of a road. The castle itself was rebuilt a few times and held by various nobility. Whether this means dukes, lords, sires or other knights – I am not exactly sure – but they probably all loved fish and chips and ate leeks that were way, way, way boiled.
In the 1800s a new noble man took over the castle, Bute was his name, and reconstructed it to what it is today. He put in a variety of decorations, spanning different decades, different periods, different styles – and different political statements. For instance, the library is full of little carved out monkeys, some with sunglasses, others making faces. They say this was a caricature poking fun of the famous Chuck Darwin who of course was born in Wales. (actually he wasn’t, but why not give it a try…).
The colours of the rooms are vivid, the drawings go between strange to amusing to biblical. Sometimes, they are all three at the same time. Lord Bute spent a lot of money on this castle bringing it to what it is. He put in rooms and named them names that can only be considered ridiculous now days, but back then must have had some sort of ‘noble-high’ meaning - names such as the bachelor room, the arab room… still, he only spent 6 weeks a year here…
The castle wall is extensive and covers a huge area. One can only imagine peasants back in the day sneaking in on romantic adventures, to have a picnic in the castle grass. Now days, peasants are allowed in with a symbolic fee of 9 pounds – sometimes even to enjoy a cheese fair in the castle grounds! Either way, different animals guard the castle. The fact that these animals are made of concrete and have nothing to do with the ones that live in this country, do not stop them from protecting the castle, intimidating babies, and causing tourists to stop and take pictures with them. Ahem.
Bute did a lot for Cardiff, from reconstruction of the castle, to rebuilding parts of the city and to simply spending money here. A huge and beautiful park stands behind the castle with massive green areas and a river running through it. Its really beautiful and has traditional English gardens, colourful and wintery, all year long. The park is called, naturally, Bute park. Its one of the nicer parts of the city and follows the river for a bit of time. In fact, there is a bike trail called the taft trail (having to do with river in Welsh) which follows the river through the park, and then eventually out of town.
3 days of rain in a row.
In the 1800s a new noble man took over the castle, Bute was his name, and reconstructed it to what it is today. He put in a variety of decorations, spanning different decades, different periods, different styles – and different political statements. For instance, the library is full of little carved out monkeys, some with sunglasses, others making faces. They say this was a caricature poking fun of the famous Chuck Darwin who of course was born in Wales. (actually he wasn’t, but why not give it a try…).
The colours of the rooms are vivid, the drawings go between strange to amusing to biblical. Sometimes, they are all three at the same time. Lord Bute spent a lot of money on this castle bringing it to what it is. He put in rooms and named them names that can only be considered ridiculous now days, but back then must have had some sort of ‘noble-high’ meaning - names such as the bachelor room, the arab room… still, he only spent 6 weeks a year here…
The castle wall is extensive and covers a huge area. One can only imagine peasants back in the day sneaking in on romantic adventures, to have a picnic in the castle grass. Now days, peasants are allowed in with a symbolic fee of 9 pounds – sometimes even to enjoy a cheese fair in the castle grounds! Either way, different animals guard the castle. The fact that these animals are made of concrete and have nothing to do with the ones that live in this country, do not stop them from protecting the castle, intimidating babies, and causing tourists to stop and take pictures with them. Ahem.
Bute did a lot for Cardiff, from reconstruction of the castle, to rebuilding parts of the city and to simply spending money here. A huge and beautiful park stands behind the castle with massive green areas and a river running through it. Its really beautiful and has traditional English gardens, colourful and wintery, all year long. The park is called, naturally, Bute park. Its one of the nicer parts of the city and follows the river for a bit of time. In fact, there is a bike trail called the taft trail (having to do with river in Welsh) which follows the river through the park, and then eventually out of town.
3 days of rain in a row.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
jewish cardiff plus other bits...
so the high holidays came and went and i went to synagogue and then came back again (see the word play?! eh eh... yeah its kind of weak... but its late here so i'll give myself the benefit of doubt). so for rosh hashana (5770 baby!) i went with ronen the falafel guy. the synagogue i went to was the orthodox one which is led by a chabad rabbi, but its not a chabbad synagogue. cardiff has two synagogues (the joke about two synagogues is true...) the second one is reform and is led supposedly by a woman that has converted to judaism and has great legs and wears mini skirts (i have been told this by a non-jewish english man who married an israeli lady...). there were maybe 30 people there, three women. see, its orthodox but not hardcore - the women are facing the men and the mehitza (the dividing wall) is made of glass. so there is definite distraction going on... the people who showed up were mostly old men. not many youngsters. the rabbi is an english chap from manchester who studied computer science before becoming religious. has 5 kids now - and his wife is still young... he took a liking to me, and don't tell me that it's just because he is a chabad rabbi, darnit! anyway, i had dinner at his house that evening and met some of the israelies that work in cardiff. they all work in the carts at the mall selling dead sea products or hair stuff that provide curls. i guess the brits love curls (correction - i know the brits love curls, i went out with one of the israelies to a few clubs and he has a head full of curls and man, the girls were just magnetized to his head).
anyway, a funny thing about the synagogue. now i have seen a good number of synagogues in a few countries, and all of them take something from the local land in style - either in architecture, decorations, etc. in this synagogue, of course the accents were welsh - which was cute, to hear hebrew prayers in a welsh accent. the synagogue itself is quite new - 2002 - so the style is nothing in particular. but there is a special prayer on the wall - for the queen. in hebrew. i found this quite amusing.
the next week was yom kipur - the day of atonement. it was also the first day of school - but that's a completely different story. so i did what i usually do, and bought two puzzles in preparation. karen, one of the israelies that i met on rosh hashana, lives with a few other israelies who were not keeping the holiday, and wanted a place to fast, so she came and spent the night in my guest room. first guest!!! it was nice having someone to talk to through the holiday. someone i didn't know well (which means angry feelings of hunger and thirst could not come out... not that i was that hungry, but still). it was actually some what intimate to share yom kipur with someone. anyway - synagogue was more packed this time. some kids even. and an older israeli lady who met me once, who the first night said that karen and i are a great match, and the next evening called me over and said that she chatted with her a little bit and decided that maybe she is not that great of a match for me... ahhh, israelies.
some interesting cultural differences. not all the men wear talis here (the white cloth that goes over the shoulders, sometimes heads, worn in synagogues on special days when the torah is taken out). only the ones that are married or have been married. thats the cultural custom. i brought mine the first time and was asked if i am married.
the community, which i saw a bit more of on yom kipur, is not large. i was told it might be around 3000 people. of course when people hear you are from israel, they all want to tell you about the last time they went, what they saw, that their daughter is moving there, that their son studied there, etc. all in a welsh accent of course... the rabbi's accent though is manchesterian (?), which means all right he says all rice.
i told all my friends here about the holidays - they know very little here about judaism. in the states there are so many jewish references in pop culture, i now realize, here very few. so its interesting to tell people about rosh hashana - impress them with 5770 (2009, com'on...) and a full day of fasting.
the puzzles if you are asking were not too difficult. one was 250 of a maze, so i thought it'd be tough, but it wasn't too bad once you got the idea. the other had a ridiculous sky - completely dark, but besides that was quite easy.
finally - here are some photos -
bought some new kitchen ware, went to a fancy kitchen store. so fun. my new attitude is - i am getting paid a bit better than before, i can afford to pay a bit more for higher quality things. it begins in the kitchen!!!
my first making of schug. here is the UK version of the green monster...
and finally - swine flu is such a big deal here. here is a poster in the math department:
you are supposed to have TWO flu buddies in case you catch the virus. and then you are not to leave your house, just call the doctor and if 3 of the 10 conditions are met, you have swine flu. use your buddy to protect yourself, protect us all. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
anyway, a funny thing about the synagogue. now i have seen a good number of synagogues in a few countries, and all of them take something from the local land in style - either in architecture, decorations, etc. in this synagogue, of course the accents were welsh - which was cute, to hear hebrew prayers in a welsh accent. the synagogue itself is quite new - 2002 - so the style is nothing in particular. but there is a special prayer on the wall - for the queen. in hebrew. i found this quite amusing.
the next week was yom kipur - the day of atonement. it was also the first day of school - but that's a completely different story. so i did what i usually do, and bought two puzzles in preparation. karen, one of the israelies that i met on rosh hashana, lives with a few other israelies who were not keeping the holiday, and wanted a place to fast, so she came and spent the night in my guest room. first guest!!! it was nice having someone to talk to through the holiday. someone i didn't know well (which means angry feelings of hunger and thirst could not come out... not that i was that hungry, but still). it was actually some what intimate to share yom kipur with someone. anyway - synagogue was more packed this time. some kids even. and an older israeli lady who met me once, who the first night said that karen and i are a great match, and the next evening called me over and said that she chatted with her a little bit and decided that maybe she is not that great of a match for me... ahhh, israelies.
some interesting cultural differences. not all the men wear talis here (the white cloth that goes over the shoulders, sometimes heads, worn in synagogues on special days when the torah is taken out). only the ones that are married or have been married. thats the cultural custom. i brought mine the first time and was asked if i am married.
the community, which i saw a bit more of on yom kipur, is not large. i was told it might be around 3000 people. of course when people hear you are from israel, they all want to tell you about the last time they went, what they saw, that their daughter is moving there, that their son studied there, etc. all in a welsh accent of course... the rabbi's accent though is manchesterian (?), which means all right he says all rice.
i told all my friends here about the holidays - they know very little here about judaism. in the states there are so many jewish references in pop culture, i now realize, here very few. so its interesting to tell people about rosh hashana - impress them with 5770 (2009, com'on...) and a full day of fasting.
the puzzles if you are asking were not too difficult. one was 250 of a maze, so i thought it'd be tough, but it wasn't too bad once you got the idea. the other had a ridiculous sky - completely dark, but besides that was quite easy.
finally - here are some photos -
bought some new kitchen ware, went to a fancy kitchen store. so fun. my new attitude is - i am getting paid a bit better than before, i can afford to pay a bit more for higher quality things. it begins in the kitchen!!!
my first making of schug. here is the UK version of the green monster...
and finally - swine flu is such a big deal here. here is a poster in the math department:
you are supposed to have TWO flu buddies in case you catch the virus. and then you are not to leave your house, just call the doctor and if 3 of the 10 conditions are met, you have swine flu. use your buddy to protect yourself, protect us all. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
The valleys
cardiff is situated on the southeastern edge of wales, on the sea. north of it there are small mountains (huge in davis standards...) which create a nice network of valleys. now since i have arrived here i have been hearing about the valleys. for one, there is a definite stereotype of the valley people - and its slightly different than like 'the valley' in l.a.... the stereotypes say that the valley people are the ones who descend on cardiff every weekend and get smashedly drunk. they are the uneducated, ignorant fools that cause fights. half of the teenage girls there are pushing baby carts (ok, this stereotype is somewhat rooted in reality, the valley and wales in general have one of the highest (i think second) teenage pregnancy rates in europe). anyway, not a pretty picture do the people of cardiff have of the valley folk.
a bit of history, and some geography - the valley used to be a prime mining area. before WW2, they housed the world's highest concentration of mineral, metal, coal mines. now these mines closed, some before WW2, hastened by the great depression (or whatever they call it here...) and then during the war some were opened, yet heavily bombed. and then over time, more closed, with margaret thatcher really pushing some buttons against the miners when she tried to squash a strike. anyway, almost all of them are closed to actual mining. there are many museums and mines that you can go down to, and see what it was like (one is called the Big Pit, i am totally going to that one!!!). and there are rusty factories left and some other abandoned industrial buildings.
so this is the impression i have of the valleys from travel guides and locals. ready? here we go... (yeah, i know you can see these before, but still...)
doesn't exactly carry the written stories image... amazingly green. amazingly lush. soft hills with sharp cuts of the actual valleys, filled with large neighborhoods of villages that became towns. its not suburbia in any way, there are definitely rusty factories and beat up old buildings. it doesn't seem as if the hand of the government that sprinkles money on some areas has been generous with this part. the people i saw definitely had that roughness edge to them. cut up dirty t's. tattoos of the non-surfer, chinese letters variety (try not perfectly done scorpions, probably carved in a mid-drunkness state). definitely lots of teenage mothers pushing baby carts. and generally, a rougher look, i mean that's just the best word.
so at the end, you get this beautiful surrounding soft green hills, beautiful trees, white dotted prairies (the white dots = sheep...) and the roughness of what used to be mine towns, moving towards the 21st century (at 20th century speed, at best...). very interesting.
a bit of history, and some geography - the valley used to be a prime mining area. before WW2, they housed the world's highest concentration of mineral, metal, coal mines. now these mines closed, some before WW2, hastened by the great depression (or whatever they call it here...) and then during the war some were opened, yet heavily bombed. and then over time, more closed, with margaret thatcher really pushing some buttons against the miners when she tried to squash a strike. anyway, almost all of them are closed to actual mining. there are many museums and mines that you can go down to, and see what it was like (one is called the Big Pit, i am totally going to that one!!!). and there are rusty factories left and some other abandoned industrial buildings.
so this is the impression i have of the valleys from travel guides and locals. ready? here we go... (yeah, i know you can see these before, but still...)
doesn't exactly carry the written stories image... amazingly green. amazingly lush. soft hills with sharp cuts of the actual valleys, filled with large neighborhoods of villages that became towns. its not suburbia in any way, there are definitely rusty factories and beat up old buildings. it doesn't seem as if the hand of the government that sprinkles money on some areas has been generous with this part. the people i saw definitely had that roughness edge to them. cut up dirty t's. tattoos of the non-surfer, chinese letters variety (try not perfectly done scorpions, probably carved in a mid-drunkness state). definitely lots of teenage mothers pushing baby carts. and generally, a rougher look, i mean that's just the best word.
so at the end, you get this beautiful surrounding soft green hills, beautiful trees, white dotted prairies (the white dots = sheep...) and the roughness of what used to be mine towns, moving towards the 21st century (at 20th century speed, at best...). very interesting.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
some Welsh beauty
all right, so this will be the first installment of what i am hoping will be many trip reviews of Wales. and this one, will be a photo entry more than anything else.
let me introduce this by saying that since i have arrived, people have been telling me that the beaches here are beautiful. so beautiful that one of them won the best beach in europe award. so i nod, and i smile, and i say wow, but inside i am thinking, whatever, there is no way anything here compares to california. these brits must be crazy. anyways, so a week and a half ago i decided that i needed to see some green, some fresh non-city air. so i managed to get my only friend with a car to drive me, herself (susanne) and claire (the irish) to Gower, the lower southwestern corner of Wales that happens to be a peninsula. its not far, but it would be far via public transport as the nearest city is the relatively famous Swansea, but after that - its the Gower peninsula which is still very farm-ish and even though it enjoys a good amount of tourism, still has maintained its old school charm. we arrived in an area that was full of grass, speckled with cow crap (for good measure...) and berries. everywhere - blackberries. and they were yum. so i trailed behind the girls as we walked towards the cliffs, making sure that i'll enjoy a good berry-ache that evening. the trail was quite easy and full of very pasty british folks walking athletically, or at least pretending. when we reached the cliffs - the horizon that opened in front of us was incredible. the water was this crystalline blue, the greenness of the cliffs mixed with the brown bronze of the rocks and the yellow-orangeness of the sand. it was quite beautiful.
(remark: while i look pretty cool down there on the edge of the cliff, if i can say so myself (which i will - in fact, already did!!!), in truth, i only went down there because a runaway clementine decided to roll down the cliffs and got stuffed by a welsh bush)
following the cliffs to the right of the pictures, which was east, led us to a beach called 'three cliffs bay'. if you look closely, you can kind of see a dragon. and i mean kind of. but still.
the water = very cold. the sand = very soft. the tan = what tan?
and of course, every spot in wales has some old castle that has remained from sometime ago and some legend associated with it (the one for this one had to do with a fairy princess marrying a commoner, who then proceeded to get drunk and him and his friends saw lights coming to the party and ambushed them, thinking they were enemies, but of course it was the fairy contingency, so the fairy king said that they will be covered with sand from then and on)
from there we went on to rhossili beach (sounds italian, admit it!!!). this is on the eastern edge of the peninsula, kind of close to ireland - though you can't see ireland from there. and this is where the surfing happens. again, i was quite dubious - and as opposed to the beaches, i remain at least somewhat dubious. the waves i saw would be the equivalent of bathtub waves. seriously. a rubber duckie would not be threatened by these.
anyway, so the size was small, but as they say... the shape was beautiful and the break clean and long. so i can see that if there were some bigger waves, that would be quite a good beach to surf on.
the southern edge of the beach is cut by cliffs which extend far into the sea. the end of this extension is called worm head - and i can kind of see the worm head from the game worms... though no body shared this sentiment with me, i'll hold down the fort. its actually kind of cool to hike there as there are only certain hours in which you can cross to worm head - other times the tide is too strong and its dangerous. supposedly, people die there every year.
so, more beautiful than california? why get into comparisons. but pretty for sure, no?
let me introduce this by saying that since i have arrived, people have been telling me that the beaches here are beautiful. so beautiful that one of them won the best beach in europe award. so i nod, and i smile, and i say wow, but inside i am thinking, whatever, there is no way anything here compares to california. these brits must be crazy. anyways, so a week and a half ago i decided that i needed to see some green, some fresh non-city air. so i managed to get my only friend with a car to drive me, herself (susanne) and claire (the irish) to Gower, the lower southwestern corner of Wales that happens to be a peninsula. its not far, but it would be far via public transport as the nearest city is the relatively famous Swansea, but after that - its the Gower peninsula which is still very farm-ish and even though it enjoys a good amount of tourism, still has maintained its old school charm. we arrived in an area that was full of grass, speckled with cow crap (for good measure...) and berries. everywhere - blackberries. and they were yum. so i trailed behind the girls as we walked towards the cliffs, making sure that i'll enjoy a good berry-ache that evening. the trail was quite easy and full of very pasty british folks walking athletically, or at least pretending. when we reached the cliffs - the horizon that opened in front of us was incredible. the water was this crystalline blue, the greenness of the cliffs mixed with the brown bronze of the rocks and the yellow-orangeness of the sand. it was quite beautiful.
(remark: while i look pretty cool down there on the edge of the cliff, if i can say so myself (which i will - in fact, already did!!!), in truth, i only went down there because a runaway clementine decided to roll down the cliffs and got stuffed by a welsh bush)
following the cliffs to the right of the pictures, which was east, led us to a beach called 'three cliffs bay'. if you look closely, you can kind of see a dragon. and i mean kind of. but still.
the water = very cold. the sand = very soft. the tan = what tan?
and of course, every spot in wales has some old castle that has remained from sometime ago and some legend associated with it (the one for this one had to do with a fairy princess marrying a commoner, who then proceeded to get drunk and him and his friends saw lights coming to the party and ambushed them, thinking they were enemies, but of course it was the fairy contingency, so the fairy king said that they will be covered with sand from then and on)
from there we went on to rhossili beach (sounds italian, admit it!!!). this is on the eastern edge of the peninsula, kind of close to ireland - though you can't see ireland from there. and this is where the surfing happens. again, i was quite dubious - and as opposed to the beaches, i remain at least somewhat dubious. the waves i saw would be the equivalent of bathtub waves. seriously. a rubber duckie would not be threatened by these.
anyway, so the size was small, but as they say... the shape was beautiful and the break clean and long. so i can see that if there were some bigger waves, that would be quite a good beach to surf on.
the southern edge of the beach is cut by cliffs which extend far into the sea. the end of this extension is called worm head - and i can kind of see the worm head from the game worms... though no body shared this sentiment with me, i'll hold down the fort. its actually kind of cool to hike there as there are only certain hours in which you can cross to worm head - other times the tide is too strong and its dangerous. supposedly, people die there every year.
so, more beautiful than california? why get into comparisons. but pretty for sure, no?
Friday, September 18, 2009
some more firsts
some anecdotes from the past week. (i have lots of stories and photos but will save them till the next blog)
keys. so after about three weeks here, i have now received an office key. i know, i know, you are impressed with the british (welsh) efficiency, but hold on for a sec.
every day, the porter had to walk with me upstairs and open my office door for me. com'on, that's respect. and then in the evening, the second porter (there are two of them and they switch shifts once a week, so i've learned...) would go upstairs and lock my office door. i mean, that's service, right? and well, maybe they got tired of this a bit, so eventually the computer guy, who here is responsible for office keys as well for a very valid and logical reason, which i haven't figured out yet, decided that as an incoming postdoc, from the united states nevertheless - i do not deserve such regal treatment. so he came upstairs with a screw driver and a different lock in his hand and took out the actual lock in my door and replaced it with a different one. one that turned out to be unlocked by the key to the copy room. but shhh, let's keep this secret to ourselves, hee hee, only you know that the key to the copy room also opens your office, and hence anyone in the building with sufficient access can essentially get into your office, hee hee, but the joke is on them.
right.
so two days ago, mike the computer guy, comes upstairs again with a different lock in his hand and... well, i now have two keys. one for my old lock, and the copy room still, and one for my new lock... and of course the next day i proceed to lock myself out. of my home though... impressive efficiency here so far with regards to these things...
accents. accents. so much to say about accents. the welsh accent is more musical than the english one. it goes up and down and in a way is more cheerful, less proper. or maybe that's just in my head.
i have gotten a lot better at understanding the different accents of the british empire, and parts which the rest of the world considers the british empire (i.e. ireland). still, its quite hard at time. so the accents in descending order of difficulty:
scottish (ay = yes... chub him in the fuds = ahh, i am not translating that...) > yoga lady who spoke a form of english (i think) but had a microphone close to her mouth that muffled her words (i just looked at jo the entire time and did what she did. she was quite amused that i couldn't understand a word this woman said... ah jo, so little do you know) > irish > english (these vary amongst regions and classes, couldn't really tell identify them yet, but can definitely tell that they are different) > welsh (supposedly northern welsh is very different) > russian (most common accent/language spoken in the math department, sto?) > german (second most common accent in math dep, they speak american english for the most part though)
and if you ask me to imitate a welsh accent, i still can't do it. but they say wales by really opening their mouth on the W, a bit like as if from your lips open for a whistle, you reach back with your lips to scratch the back of your jaw. that's how the mouth moves anyway. then there is an H sound in there, so it's like whaaayles (and yes, i know this makes some of you very happy (i.e. canad) that they pronounce it in a way similar to whale). meanwhile, their language - i am learning a good number of things. gemma who has welsh roots has been teaching me a bit - the double LL is pronounced CL, with the C a bit dirty, kind of like a scratching the throat sound. the vowels? oy, the vowels. well, the Y is an 'A' as in car. the U is 'I' (let's have it with the 'put U and I together...) as in sink. so CYMRU (which is wales in welsh is pronounced CAMRI, with the I at the end trailing into an E a bit...). two DD are 'F', but in a more 'TH' kind of pronunciation...
anyway, i am planning on taking welsh lessons so eventually, in you know, three years maybe, i'll be able to truly pronounce things and then hope to 1) teach how to pronounce some of these crazy words 2) imitate a welsh accent...
social life. well - this past week and a half have been much more difficult. the excitement of the newness has drifted a bit. and now most days are filled mostly with office and white board, and then home, both of which for the time being are alone. so it's a bit empty. but i am finding fun things to do - found a yoga class with an impervious accent, a meditation class in a room with a giant wooden buddha, looking for ceramics class... so things will eventually pick up. i am optimistic! :)
meanwhile - tonight is new year's (jewish new year's... anyone know the name of the 'jewish' calendar? the 'christian' one is the gregorian...) and i am going to go to a welsh synagogue. and tomorrow i am invited to the falafel guy's place for a party. so that hopefully will be fun! and meanwhile - happy new year, whether or not you celebrate it! hope that this year brings happiness, health and peace to all. and if it happens to also bring you to wales - merry merriness!!!
keys. so after about three weeks here, i have now received an office key. i know, i know, you are impressed with the british (welsh) efficiency, but hold on for a sec.
every day, the porter had to walk with me upstairs and open my office door for me. com'on, that's respect. and then in the evening, the second porter (there are two of them and they switch shifts once a week, so i've learned...) would go upstairs and lock my office door. i mean, that's service, right? and well, maybe they got tired of this a bit, so eventually the computer guy, who here is responsible for office keys as well for a very valid and logical reason, which i haven't figured out yet, decided that as an incoming postdoc, from the united states nevertheless - i do not deserve such regal treatment. so he came upstairs with a screw driver and a different lock in his hand and took out the actual lock in my door and replaced it with a different one. one that turned out to be unlocked by the key to the copy room. but shhh, let's keep this secret to ourselves, hee hee, only you know that the key to the copy room also opens your office, and hence anyone in the building with sufficient access can essentially get into your office, hee hee, but the joke is on them.
right.
so two days ago, mike the computer guy, comes upstairs again with a different lock in his hand and... well, i now have two keys. one for my old lock, and the copy room still, and one for my new lock... and of course the next day i proceed to lock myself out. of my home though... impressive efficiency here so far with regards to these things...
accents. accents. so much to say about accents. the welsh accent is more musical than the english one. it goes up and down and in a way is more cheerful, less proper. or maybe that's just in my head.
i have gotten a lot better at understanding the different accents of the british empire, and parts which the rest of the world considers the british empire (i.e. ireland). still, its quite hard at time. so the accents in descending order of difficulty:
scottish (ay = yes... chub him in the fuds = ahh, i am not translating that...) > yoga lady who spoke a form of english (i think) but had a microphone close to her mouth that muffled her words (i just looked at jo the entire time and did what she did. she was quite amused that i couldn't understand a word this woman said... ah jo, so little do you know) > irish > english (these vary amongst regions and classes, couldn't really tell identify them yet, but can definitely tell that they are different) > welsh (supposedly northern welsh is very different) > russian (most common accent/language spoken in the math department, sto?) > german (second most common accent in math dep, they speak american english for the most part though)
and if you ask me to imitate a welsh accent, i still can't do it. but they say wales by really opening their mouth on the W, a bit like as if from your lips open for a whistle, you reach back with your lips to scratch the back of your jaw. that's how the mouth moves anyway. then there is an H sound in there, so it's like whaaayles (and yes, i know this makes some of you very happy (i.e. canad) that they pronounce it in a way similar to whale). meanwhile, their language - i am learning a good number of things. gemma who has welsh roots has been teaching me a bit - the double LL is pronounced CL, with the C a bit dirty, kind of like a scratching the throat sound. the vowels? oy, the vowels. well, the Y is an 'A' as in car. the U is 'I' (let's have it with the 'put U and I together...) as in sink. so CYMRU (which is wales in welsh is pronounced CAMRI, with the I at the end trailing into an E a bit...). two DD are 'F', but in a more 'TH' kind of pronunciation...
anyway, i am planning on taking welsh lessons so eventually, in you know, three years maybe, i'll be able to truly pronounce things and then hope to 1) teach how to pronounce some of these crazy words 2) imitate a welsh accent...
social life. well - this past week and a half have been much more difficult. the excitement of the newness has drifted a bit. and now most days are filled mostly with office and white board, and then home, both of which for the time being are alone. so it's a bit empty. but i am finding fun things to do - found a yoga class with an impervious accent, a meditation class in a room with a giant wooden buddha, looking for ceramics class... so things will eventually pick up. i am optimistic! :)
meanwhile - tonight is new year's (jewish new year's... anyone know the name of the 'jewish' calendar? the 'christian' one is the gregorian...) and i am going to go to a welsh synagogue. and tomorrow i am invited to the falafel guy's place for a party. so that hopefully will be fun! and meanwhile - happy new year, whether or not you celebrate it! hope that this year brings happiness, health and peace to all. and if it happens to also bring you to wales - merry merriness!!!
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