Overly Academic

We flew back into Chicago today with little incident.  A few pictures from the tail end of the trip is here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41077518@N00/sets/72157606226560894/

The trip was such a great time, and good for Jeffrey and I to be away together.  After graduation, we pretty much took the train from Liverpool to Manchester, took the Metrolink (kinda like a cross betwen suburban rail and L trains) out to where we were staying in Altrincham, and hung out in their city center for a while.  It was a very traditional little suburb, replete with a historic council hall, open air market, and cute little British cottages.  And a Waterstones, which was very important for Jeffrey, as he needed a couple books for the ride home.  We spent the afternoon reading and hanging out, as we were about done with walking by that point!

Today we got up at 1:00 AM Chicago time, got to the airport, and got on our flight home.  The last picture in the set is a fire training exercise they were conducting right behind the terminal.  It was a bit disconcerting to be watching flames shooting out from a facsimile of a plane right before getting on an 8-hour trip!

I’m stil struck by a few things from being overseas.  The first is the extensive public transit.  I could get almost anywhere I needed to be without setting foot in a car.  It took much longer in many cases, but you could still do it.

I felt safe most places, but we do live in Chicago.   They have a knife crime epidemic currently, with lots of stabbings in London.  Just goes to show, violence will be anywhere people are.

People in the UK are more environmentally conscious, with lots of water saving and “green” concerns.  All the stores charge for plastic bags, and are selling their own versions of reusable ones.  Petrol is also 2.5 pounds a liter, so about $10 a gallon, so there is quite an incentive to conserve.

The strangest thing overall were comments about us having an accent.  Being from the Midwest, I’ve gotten used to having virtually no accent by American standards, so having a noticable accent in the UK was interesting.

I don’t know when we’ll go overseas again, but we’d like to take Ilyana and her eventual sibling with us next time.  Hopefully we’ll be able to go again before another ten years pass!

We’re going to attempt to stay up for a bit longer.  Hopefully we’ll not fall asleep before Ilyana .

Just a quick update:

Pictures of graduation day festivities here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41077518@N00/sets/72157606186030189/

Short video of the graduation here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6573629001359777361&hl=en

(it was still loading as of a few minutes ago, so it may not be ready yet) It’s working now!

Pictures here!  Start with the pics of us on the computers .

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/41077518@N00/sets/72157606118556786/

Our last day in Glasgow was pretty laid back.  We were pretty tired from all the walking of the previous few days, so only hit a few places.  The majority of the day was spent at the Glasgow Science Museum.  It’s a new facility, built in 2001.  There’s a lot of neat activities, and is mostly aimed at children ages 5-12.  The guidebook said it was for all ages, but I think that’s a bit of a stretch.  We could have gone to the IMAX or taken an elevator ride up to the top of Glasgow Tower (about 20 stories), but we opted just to stroll the museum and have fun with all the hands-on items.

After a nice walk along the river back to our B&B, we thought about doing laundry, but the machine was occupied.  Instead, we went downtown and had a late lunch/early dinner at a place we’d been to once before, called the Rock Cafe.  It boasted good food, free wifi, and hard rock music.  It worked for me, though we had to leave a bit early after Jeffrey got a headache .

The rest of the day was spent doing laundry, wandering around our neighborhood, and taking it easy at the guest house.

In the morning, I had a chance to talk to our hostess.  She and her husband have only been offering their home of 30 years as a guest house for about five.  She uses the funds to support her work as a children’s author and illustrator.  She knits all the characters in her book, including backgrounds and such, and photographs them.  It’s quite inventive.  Self-publishing is such a neat thing.  I also learned about her daughter and son, before we parted ways.

We easily caught our first train from Glasgow Central to Wiggam Northwest, though it did take a bit of searching to figure out what line we were supposed to take.  They didn’t tell us when we bought the ticket, so we looked online and figured it out.  The change between Wiggam and the train to Liverpool Lime was a bit faster – we had three minutes!  Luckily, the platform was a quick jog away, though carrying the suitcases up and down the stairs was a bit tiring.  Thank goodness for nice station attendants and adrenaline.

Once in Liverpool, we headed down Lime Street to our hotel.  Jeffrey pointed out many of the spots along the way, as he’d been here before.  The hotel is actually a backpack hostel and a “cocoon hotel,” which means there are tiny rooms with beds and bathrooms for some, and hostel-style open rooms for others.  We, of course, are in the cocoon hotel.  We like it a lot, as it is clean, quiet, and the bed is firm.

We met up with Jerry and Laurel at the Liverpool Lime train station, and had a nice late lunch at an Italian chain restaurant.  It was good, but no one does steak like the U.S.  I’m getting a little tired of pub meals, so we’re seeking out other food options.  Reportedly, we have reservations for Japanese tomorrow after graduation.

After some food, we went to the Liverpool Cathedral (Anglican).  There is also a Liverpool Cathedral (Roman Catholic).  Yes, that is how they are actually named!  If you saw pictures of the Glasgow Cathedral a couple days ago, this cathedral would easily encompass that entire structure.  The Liverpool Cathedral is MASSIVE.  It’s the largest Anglican Cathedral in the UK.  The inside is awesome, and richly decorated in Victorian and Gothic style.  It was nice to see where we’re going to be sitting for graduation tomorrow.  Luckily, there are viewscreens that will project the event, so no matter where we sit, we’ll be able to see something.

We’re back at the hotel for a rest, with a late dinner to follow.  One thing we’ve noticed here is that it gets dark very very late.  In Glasgow, it was 11:00 before it got dim.  I don’t know how it will be in Liverpool, but we’ll see.

More tomorrow!

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/41077518@N00/sets/72157606118556786/