Are you going to...

....Scarborough Fair? Yes, yes I am--and did--today!

The Student Union organized a day trip to the charming seaside town of Scarborough for the international students, and most of us partook; if we wanted a slice of pure Yorkshire goodness, we sure got it ;). The highlight of the day was Scarborough Castle, whose ruins sit atop steep cliffs that have been occupied by people for at least 3,000 years:

My friend Johanna and I at Castle Scarborough

Despite the extreme winds, we all braved the open meadow on top of the cliff to see the incredible view of the ocean and of the town itself. The castle still attracts locals as well as tourists, as evidenced by the many impassive Northern Brits walking along the cliff edge with their sheepdogs ambling along beside them.

A group of us at the castle

The "fair" itself is a permanent mini-Coney Island, complete with a Ferris wheel, arcade games, ice cream shops, as well as semi-catatonic donkeys available for children to ride ;). We walked along the beach and the pier, ate some famous fish and chips, and got to taste the salty air. It's actually really nice to get out of the city; you don't realize it, but when you're kind of a country girl like me ("kind of" being the operative term here), the city gets a bit intense sometimes. Almost makes me long for the permanent quiet that is the village of Sweaburg.

We really did enjoy ourselves today, but it was a subdued bus that headed back to Leeds tonight... many people are worn out from all the excitement of the last two weeks, me included, and a day spent walking in the sun and wind just added to our already good night's sleep!

After getting back to Bodington, Johanna and I went to visit Fabio and Giorgio, two Italian exchange students also living at Bod, and got to eat some genuine friesa (sp?)-- bread covered in olive oil with tomatoes and herbs :). I think I can get used to this United Nations-like group of friends, who are all eager to share their native cuisine! We Canadians want to join in too, except I'm not sure what we'd make. Pancakes and poutine keep coming up as suggestions, but I'm thinking we should just get some maple syrup sent over and eat it straight from the bottle...

I've gotten to add Austria, Norway, Spain, Malaysia, Mexico, Argentina, France, and Poland to my list of nationalities of people I've met since my last post, which I'm extremely excited about. The vice-chancellor told us at the official reception on Friday that 13% of the U of Leeds student population are international, and that there are 130 countries represented. This delights me to no end, as you can probably tell!

My goal for the next few days is to catch up on some sleep while simultaneously attending many Freshers Week events, starting my book list, and photographically documenting my accommodation for you all, which is the most common request I've received thus far. I'll for sure get onto that, now that I've found my camera! (Or more specifically, Matt found for me!)

And if you're interested, I posted the rest of the best of my Scarborough pictures on Facebook again-- click here to see them!

It's been great seeing so many people on Skype, and I hope that more and more of you get it! Talk to you in a couple days .... <3