Wednesday, October 14, 2009

A week already?

First off, I'm trying not to dominate the information that winds up on this blog.  Chad has promised to post info about his first couple of weeks of school this weekend.  Many of you have asked about his experiences thus far, and I don't feel qualified to relay it all, so stay tuned!

It's been almost a week since our last post, and wow - I can't believe it's gone by so fast!  Lots has changed, and all for the better.  First up - employment.
I had my first interview today with a recruiter who sifts out candidates for employers who he represents.  I applied for a job as an assistant manager at a busy Bath restaurant via Catering.com, a website that posts jobs in the hospitality industry.  Simon called about five minutes after I sent in my CV and we met up today for a preliminary interview so he could gather some more info about me before recommending me for jobs.  We had a really great chat, which lasted about 40 minutes, and he's decided to recommend me for assistant/deputy managing jobs at two restaurants, which is pretty promising as he only recommends 1 or 2 candidates per position.  He's scheduled me for one interview on Monday at a restaurant in Bristol, and I managed to secure an interview of my own at a restaurant in Bath tomorrow, for the same type of position.  I don't necessarily see myself managing restaurants for the rest of my life, but it's something I have 10 years of experience doing, and it would be a great skill to learn, not to mention bringing in a few pounds!  It doesn't pay a ton, but it would be enough for us to support ourselves without dipping into savings anymore, which would leave us with plenty of play money for traveling and such.  Not to mention, I'd get a life ;)  So I'm pretty pleased with that turn of events.  Send good thoughts my way!
In other news, we had a great weekend, starting off on a trip to a local pub with our roomies on Friday night.  We got to see the "other" side of Keynsham (there are some characters out here, let me tell you), and I found a new favourite cider.  Good times were had by all.  Sophie and James are great and have been so awesome about introducing us to their friends.
Saturday was also super fun.  The farmer's market in Keynsham only happens once a month on the second Saturday, so I was excited to see what they might have.  I picked up some really amazing apple juice like I've never tasted before, some really beautiful salmon and smoked makerel, and an awesome, AWESOME venison and stilton pie.  Let me tell you, England knows how to do pastry.  We had it on Sunday with some peas - quite a quintissential English meal for a couple of Yankees - and it was right lush (how do you like that lingo?).
Later that morning, we met up with Chad's class and Tony, the professor who's house we went to for dinner, at the Bath Abbey, the huge cathedral in the centre of the city.  WOW.  I can't even tell you how gorgeous it was.  The ceiling was made up of fluted fans that just went on forever.  That, in combined with the stained glass windows that surrounded the structure, gave the most amazing feeling of light airyness in the middle of this huge stone building.  The reason for the field trip was the fact that more people are buried in Bath Abbey than in any other church in England, and all of their memorial stones are displayed on the interior walls.  There were some really fascinating reads and it was all very eerie, knowing that we were walking on floors that house the remains of over 3000 people.
Look! A photo!


As interesting as the memorials were,  I was much more drawn to the exhibit that was going on in the Abbey.  One woman, Sue Symons, has created the most amazing set of diptychs portraying Genesis 1-2.  On the left side of each diptych is the actual text from the Bible, done in the most amazing calligraphy, and decorated impeccably.  On the right is a visual interpretation of the passage embroidered on fabric, occasionally using other materials.  I wish I could explain how intricate and extraordinarily beautiful and moving this exhibition was for me.  The photos don't do it justice, but here's one anyway:

If you want to know/see more about the Abbey, go to: http://www.bathabbey.org.  For all of you who will be coming to visit, this will be our first stop!

So. Following the Abbey tour, we all went out for a delightful Thai lunch, and I took my leave of the group to go with Tara, the birthday girl.  We went to her boyfriend, Bas', house on the outskirts of Bath with beautiful views over the surrounding fields.  We drank tea and ate enormous amounts of cake and had a fantastic time while Chad wandered around a bunch of cemeteries (more later from the man himself!). 
On Sunday, my aunt and uncle, Barb and David, came up to the city, and we went out to our first "official" Sunday roast lunch with Barb's sister, Melissa, her husband, Joe, and their son, Jeff, who lives in London.  It was surreal being surrounded by so many American accents, but so nice to be among people I've known forever and made plans to get together on Tuesday to check out their sweet country cottage and go on a bit of an adventure!
More on that later - our Glastonbury trip deserves a post of it's own! 
All our best to all of you...until next time!

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