It’s the time of the night to write down my thoughts and happenings in Durham. Most people in Singapore wouldn’t know the correct way of saying Durham. It’s not pronounced as Dur-Ham but Dur-em. Blogging is quite a good way to kill time when there’s nothing much to do at night. To begin, I just (just before I started typing this entry) tried unsuccessfully to borrow from my PRC friend her userid and password, haha, can’t blame her anyway since it’s personal. Was just trying my luck… It beats me why I keep waking up so early daily, must be due to the fact I have earlier nights now. My day today was rather mundane, but I did walk a lot because I went to different shops to compare prices of the basic necessities. This is something most Singaporeans wouldn’t do at home I reckon. I finally heeded my Dad’s words “Son, I don’t want you to live the poor student life that I led in the States. Your parents sent you to UK to have fun and enjoy the culture”. So, I went to the supermarket and bought myself a box of teabags. Yeah, I know you people must be thinking that’s nothing much. Wait till you come to UK for exchange and you’ll get what I mean.
Spending most of my day at the library, I was just chatting with my parents and a couple of friends. Gosh, my parents are really naggy now, telling me to do the obvious! But can’t be helped I supposed, gotta be more understanding since I’m not around in Singapore anymore. Finally I got tired of hanging around in the library and I decided to do some exploration. I walked to the castle and wanted to enter. But it was closed for the day, guess why? There’s a wedding going on in there, I managed to take 2 pictures of the people in there. It’s uber cool and romantic to wed in a historical castle, don’t ya think so? I also found out that the castle and cathedral are 2 separate buildings. The castle is the building which overlooks the river as in the pictures I uploaded. The cathedral, to me, didn’t impress me much when I first saw it. I thought that the churches in Italy and Austria where nicer and more impressive due to the architecture. Those churches are structurally more complex I think. However, I decided to enter the cathedral today, and goodness, it was really beautiful. All the stain glass and monuments inside, plus there was a beautiful choir singing. It was really surreal and tranquil. How shall I describe it, the Vatican in Rome is very beautiful and its interior is very well done up. The Durham Cathedral on the other hand, it has a more old-ish feeling to it, without the glitz and glam of the Vatican. It exudes a different type of charm, an English charm unlike that of St Mary’s Dome (if I remembered the name correctly) in Milan. St Mary’s is very nice, the largest marble monument in the world, but the interior feels older than that of the Durham Cathedral, more archaic/gothic? Haha, it’s actually hard to describe, you have to visit these places to see where I’m coming from. I think the architecture and the different eras in which the churches were built plays an integrate role in exuding the different kinds of church-y feelings. Too bad, they didn’t allow cameras in the church, can’t take any pictures of it to show you guys.
It was already 5 plus when I left the Cathedral. The weather today seems colder than yesterday, the winds felt colder. Wonder why women still wear tubes to walk about. Stockings seem to be in fashion also, with the younger girls, I mean high school girls. By the way, the students here dressed like what you see in Harry Potter, though with a modern twist. They wear coats/vests to school and their pants/skirts are pseudo-formal looking. So it’s really pretty classy and chic. They put on heavy make up as well, and the way they do so is quite different from our Singapore girls. I prefer our local chicks honestly. Of course, there’re pretty girls around but you can never tell their age since ang mohs look more mature than Asians. I’ve seen a number of girls with similar Victoria Beckham looks, but certainly not as good as the real thing!
Alright, guess I shall stop elaborating on their clothing… think tomorrow I wanna head down to Newcastle and travel a bit and do some retail therapy. Hehe, I decided to give myself a treat for dinner. I spent 3.10 pounds and got myself 2 fried chickens plus chips and coleslaw. My my, it’s my first hot meal in Durham excluding the burgers and pastries I eaten. I practically rushed back to my room and gobble down the chickens. I was on the verge of being barbaric while eating them! I ended off my meal with 2 nice cups of tea, English tea if you would say. While eating and drinking, it came to my attention I lack those small stuff like a coaster and a tea spoon. So irritating, have to spend money getting them tomorrow. Oh, please bring a laundry basket if you guys wanna come to UK for exchange. I spend 3 pounds buying one of those foldable laundry baskets today. It’s so not worth it but no choice because tomorrow I’m going to experiment washing clothing with the washing machine for the 1st time in my life! Wish me luck guys…
Spending most of my day at the library, I was just chatting with my parents and a couple of friends. Gosh, my parents are really naggy now, telling me to do the obvious! But can’t be helped I supposed, gotta be more understanding since I’m not around in Singapore anymore. Finally I got tired of hanging around in the library and I decided to do some exploration. I walked to the castle and wanted to enter. But it was closed for the day, guess why? There’s a wedding going on in there, I managed to take 2 pictures of the people in there. It’s uber cool and romantic to wed in a historical castle, don’t ya think so? I also found out that the castle and cathedral are 2 separate buildings. The castle is the building which overlooks the river as in the pictures I uploaded. The cathedral, to me, didn’t impress me much when I first saw it. I thought that the churches in Italy and Austria where nicer and more impressive due to the architecture. Those churches are structurally more complex I think. However, I decided to enter the cathedral today, and goodness, it was really beautiful. All the stain glass and monuments inside, plus there was a beautiful choir singing. It was really surreal and tranquil. How shall I describe it, the Vatican in Rome is very beautiful and its interior is very well done up. The Durham Cathedral on the other hand, it has a more old-ish feeling to it, without the glitz and glam of the Vatican. It exudes a different type of charm, an English charm unlike that of St Mary’s Dome (if I remembered the name correctly) in Milan. St Mary’s is very nice, the largest marble monument in the world, but the interior feels older than that of the Durham Cathedral, more archaic/gothic? Haha, it’s actually hard to describe, you have to visit these places to see where I’m coming from. I think the architecture and the different eras in which the churches were built plays an integrate role in exuding the different kinds of church-y feelings. Too bad, they didn’t allow cameras in the church, can’t take any pictures of it to show you guys.
It was already 5 plus when I left the Cathedral. The weather today seems colder than yesterday, the winds felt colder. Wonder why women still wear tubes to walk about. Stockings seem to be in fashion also, with the younger girls, I mean high school girls. By the way, the students here dressed like what you see in Harry Potter, though with a modern twist. They wear coats/vests to school and their pants/skirts are pseudo-formal looking. So it’s really pretty classy and chic. They put on heavy make up as well, and the way they do so is quite different from our Singapore girls. I prefer our local chicks honestly. Of course, there’re pretty girls around but you can never tell their age since ang mohs look more mature than Asians. I’ve seen a number of girls with similar Victoria Beckham looks, but certainly not as good as the real thing!
Alright, guess I shall stop elaborating on their clothing… think tomorrow I wanna head down to Newcastle and travel a bit and do some retail therapy. Hehe, I decided to give myself a treat for dinner. I spent 3.10 pounds and got myself 2 fried chickens plus chips and coleslaw. My my, it’s my first hot meal in Durham excluding the burgers and pastries I eaten. I practically rushed back to my room and gobble down the chickens. I was on the verge of being barbaric while eating them! I ended off my meal with 2 nice cups of tea, English tea if you would say. While eating and drinking, it came to my attention I lack those small stuff like a coaster and a tea spoon. So irritating, have to spend money getting them tomorrow. Oh, please bring a laundry basket if you guys wanna come to UK for exchange. I spend 3 pounds buying one of those foldable laundry baskets today. It’s so not worth it but no choice because tomorrow I’m going to experiment washing clothing with the washing machine for the 1st time in my life! Wish me luck guys…
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