An American in Leeds

This is Chester:

I learned that my camera can take short videos! So I made a 360 degree (okay, maybe more like 240 degree) view from the top of Middle Hare Head, in the Yorkshire Dales.

I went to the International DNA Tumor Virus meeting this past week. It was held in Oxford this year. Oxford is what I imagined an academic town to look like: lots of small, independent shops, bicycles everywhere (some with baskets of flowers on them), winding street, old buildings. The atmosphere oozes elite intelligence. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, at St. Mary's Hospital in London. In 1940, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain at the University of Oxford figured out how to stabilize and purify penicillin. Unfortunately, Florey was not an attention whore, so he and Chain didn't get as much publicity for doing most of the work. Therefore, to the is day, Oxford resents the fact that Fleming gets most of the credit. The conference was at St. Catherine's, one of the colleges that make up the University of Oxford. From what I understand, students live and socialize at the colleges, but all of their lectures are at the University. Each day at 1, we were served a two...

I had this problem. This problem was that my apartment felt like a hotel room for a while. I hadn't really done much with it, I think because I was still considering it a temporary arrangement. I hadn't really accepted that Leeds, and my little apartment DOWN BY THE RIVER (shout out to SNL there) were home. Oddly enough, staying at Melissa and Jon's in the US inspired me to make my apartment home. So I've been on a mad decorating and straightening mission. Would you like to see the results? I thought so! Let's take a tour of my apartment, starting at the front door: This is the front hall. I had some pictures I had taken on my adventures enlarged. I had five done for about 10 GBP . Next stop- the bathroom: Very exciting. The rug is lime green. The bathrobe on the door is teh sex. The brown box on the left hides my pads and my Lush addiction. Living room: The important part of this picture: the throw pillows on the couch. I made those. Also, another enlarged photo...

Rosalind Franklin was the scientist that took the crystal pictures of DNA that Watson and Crick "borrowed" to figure out the structure of DNA. She also sewed her own clothes, and was a great hiker. Every time I go hiking, I now think "I'm having a Rosalind Franklin moment!". My first Saturday back from the States, I went hiking with a professor from work (Hi Miriam!). We went to Malham, then on to Grassington. Of course, my camera battery died before we got to Grassington, so I only have pictures of Malham. This means that I'll have to make another trip to Grassington. Oh darn. Rain across the Dales. We didn't end up hiking the whole area because it rained. And by rain, I mean real rain, not that mist we get a lot around here. Janet's Foss. Foss is old Norse for waterfall; Janet is the queen of the fairies. The pool was traditionally used to wash sheep to get their wool to grow better. Gordale Scar Limestone pavement above Malham Cove. The limestone ...

Two days before doing the Yorkshire Three Peaks Walk, I did a 12 mile hike around Manchester, because I needed to do a blister check on my new hiking boots. And because I am crazy. I started in the city, at Piccadilly Station: Walked along the Ashton Canal, which is lined with decrepit cotton mills But didn't stop for fish n' chips Continued through Philips Park, then rambled around the woods for a while. Saw some interesting grafitti : According to the guidebook I was using, at the top of this ridge I was supposed to see some "impressive views". What I saw was power lines (aka pylons) and a factory: An overgrown canal Park Bridge, a former iron works turned into a, well, park: A stile It had rained a lot the week previous, so many times I felt like Elizabeth Bennett. My petticoats may not have been 6 inches deep in mud, but my pants certainly were. Hartshead Pike, 247 meters above sea level: The structure was built in the Victorian era, but the site has been used a...

Ribblehead Viaduct, from Whernside I AM NEVER DOING THIS AGAIN. Okay, that's out of my system. The Three Peaks Walk in Yorkshire is a total of 25 miles. It involves ascending, then descending three separate peaks in the Dales: Pen-y-Ghent, Whernside, and Ingleborough. Pen-y-Ghent is 2276 feet above sea level, Whernside 2415 feet, and Ingleborough 2372 feet. It's a point of pride to finish the walk in under 12 hours. I did it in 11 hours, 53 minutes. It was a tough walk. I'm glad I did it, but I really doubt I'll do it again. I think I'll stick to walks under 15 miles from now on. More pictures here . There are pictures there from my Manchester city walk as well. Another post for another day.