Reading: Week 1
So, I’ve arrived in Reading, England, and so far I have bee settling in before classes start. Reading is a relatively small town, and the university is about 1.5 miles from the town center. Markets are in walking distance from my dorm, and there is a large shopping mall called The Oracle where I can venture for other items.
The hardest thing to adjust to so far has been the food. I have found a lot of good things so far to eat, but locating a supermarket that sold what I wanted took a few tries to find. Luckily, there is a Tesco Express in striking distance, and a larger Walmart-sized Tesco about a 40 minute journey away. I have been trying some new foods and have found some agreeable, and some not. For example, the chocolate here is great. So great, in fact, that I am pretending that I don’t see it when I walk in a store. Out of fear for my waistline, I am avoiding buying any cookies. If they are anything like Italian cookies, I’m in trouble. Milk and butter also taste a lot better here, and organic products are readily available and reasonably priced. The one thing that I don’t prefer is English baked beans. Theirs taste a lot more like tomatoes, and I am thinking about buying some barbeque sauce to mix into them.
The university’s campus is really pretty. Most of it is dominated by open fields and a lake. Luckily, I don’t have to walk far to get to the archaeology buildings from my dorm. The edge of campus is lined by trees, thus creating a nice area to exercise.
My dorm room is larger than I expected. I am on the top floor on the end, so I don’t hear that much noise. My window looks out onto trees which usually have a foraging squirrel or magpie in them. I have a large built-in desk, and my own tiny bathroom. The shower is so small that I cannot bend over to reach anything! I will have great leg muscles by the end of the year after doing so many squats to pick up shampoo, etc.! There is also a full kitchen for the floor where we can cook our meals.
Today I went to the Museum of English Rural Life with a girl who lives on the same floor as me. It is about a mile away from where we live. The museum was really well done and contained a whole bunch of tools used for various crafts and agricultural work. Often, there was a video showing the person performing their craft with the actual tools that had been donated. The most interesting video was of a cooper building a cask. He was so experienced that he didn’t need any plans – he just started working and it came out perfectly even! The museum made me realize how many of these crafts are now lost, but also how fortunate we are in other ways that technology has advanced.
Classes start tomorrow!
Here is a link to some photos around Reading and at the museum.
