And it Begins

I realize it’s been nearly a month since I’ve posted an update, but you must forgive me because I have been far too busy having gorgeous experiences in York and engaging in a circular tour of Britain and Ireland. Anyway, these things need time to mull over in one’s mind like a fine whiskey and I had some much needed sleep to catch up with. Unfortunately my head isn’t as sturdy as those Irish oak casks and therefore I must divulge the information I have before it begins to leak, like so many other things, from my noggin. Since I have so much to impart and I don’t want to skimp on any of the really good parts I’m going to tell my tale over various posts. It’s also an organizational thing, you see, It means I’ll have a better chance of telling you what happened in some semblance of order. Just now we’ll transport ourselves back three weeks into the past amid the scramble of the end of term with papers, quizzes, lecture notes, and the really important stuff like spending time with my amazing friends.

York is a city of festivals. It seems every time I turn around there’s something going on whether it involves vikings, holidays, music, culture, or romans. A few weeks ago literature took it’s turn as the York Writer’s Group put together a fortnight of great workshops, readings, open mics etc. Of course I didn’t realize this was going on until half way through when I picked up a leaflet in Waterstone’s (like Barnes & Noble) and had a flip through the events. I’m pretty sure I let out an audible gasp when I saw that coming Wednesday would see Diane Setterfield, author of the novel The Thirteenth Tale, speaking at the Golden Fleece pub. My mother and I read the book a couple of years ago when it first came out and I thought it was brilliant, a modern gothic novel with lots of twists and turns. So I got my friend Jenny, an avid reader, to come with me to the talk that I thought would be packed. Well we got there quite early, had a drink in the pub and then went up to the room where the talk was taking place and found just over a dozen people spread out among the mismatched chairs. I was astounded because in my mind this was the event of them all, but I suppose we all think a bit differently and I was rather glad there were fewer people because it had an intimate feel. The room was great, this is afterall reputedly the most haunted pub in York, the floors slant, a fireplace held centuries of late night gatherings and it looked like the chairs set up in crooked rows had been taken from a variety of homes and times. Mrs. Setterfield read a few passages from the novel and then talked to us about her experience in writing the book. It was really interesting the way she described her thought process, how over a period of years she stumbled upon three separate events that ended up tying the whole story together even though she had no idea they would connect when she came up with them individually. There was a Q&A session at the end during which I asked a question about the relationship between writing and drawing upon personal experience. I also bought a copy of the book, even though I have a perfectly good copy in Chico, because she was signing copies and I really just couldn’t let that slip by. It was really inspiring listening to her and I have come to the realization that writing a novel takes a hell of a lot of time, effort and imagination not to mention the ability to tell a story in a way that captures an audience. Sounds like fun though, don’t you think?

The next 10 days went by in a sort of blur in which my main priorities were finishing my two essays for week 10 so that I could spend time doing other fun things. I managed to get a decent mark on my social policy paper and have high hopes for my history assessed essay. Ellen’s twin sister, Beth came to visit for the weekend and decided York was so fun that she extended her stay until Friday. During that time we saw The Young Victoria, which I really liked and would tell you all to go see but unfortunately I don’t know if there is currently a release date for the US, made pizza’s from scratch for dinner, visited various pubs, celebrated St. Patrick’s day very modestly with a couple pints of Guinness, and had a celebratory end of term night out in town. I also had a visit from Michael, the program director of EAP for the northern part of the UK, which consisted of a meeting with him on Thursday morning to make sure everything was going swimmingly and then a dinner with the other UC students at Pizza Express that was delicious and free so you really can’t beat that. It was all a lot of fun but as you can imagine the week’s activities did not advocate the best sleep patterns so it was with heavy lids and a mind set on adventure that I left York on Saturday morning. Parting ways with Ellen at the station as she headed to Malton to help with lambing at a farm and I headed south to Shakespeare country for the beginning of my Spring adventure.