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Nicole I would like to share two very different and wonderful experiences from the city of York in northern England. The first epitomizes English culture - tea. A few of us from the group went to a small chain tearoom called Betty's. We had to wait in the queue because this doily-and-pink-smattered tearoom is quite famous. The decor is summed up as old-ladyish, but that's exactly its charm. Everything was frilly yet sophisticated, even down to the dessert trolley filled with pink fancies and fruit tarts. I ordered a traditional Yorkshire Cream Tea. This includes two fruit scones (with light raisins in them) with strawberry preserve and clotted cream, and, of course, my own pot of Betty's Tearoom Blend tea. I like my tea white (with milk), as do most English people. A quirky historical detail: at one point during Victoria's reign, she required by law that all of her subjects drink milk with their tea because they were suffering from an extreme calcium deficiency. It's funny to notice how those kinds of traditions are still intact today. Considering it was a blustery and chilly day, the soothing tea and delectable scones in a warm room were just the ticket. What a perfectly charming way to spend an hour in the quaint city of York! My other remarkable experience was quite mind-boggling. Under the Anglican cathedral in York, called the York Minster, there is a museum called the Under Croft. Here's the story: in the 1960s, architects began to notice that parts of the building were sinking into the soft ground. They began digging so they could build supports to bolster the Minster. While digging underneath the Minster, they found layer upon layer of history. The lowest level is the Roman section. It is about 10-15 feet under the floors of the Minster today, and represents the level of the Roman streets. The Roman Empire occupied Britain from around 100 AD until 410 AD. The highlight for me was the Roman sewer, still carrying water down to the river today. The next level, a few feet up, is the Norman level, which began in 1066 and ended about a century later, when the medieval period started. There isn't much building structure left from the two periods in between, the Anglo-Saxon and Viking periods, because these people built mostly in wood and mud, unlike the Romans. Another interesting thing was the miniature plan of the Roman fort foundation, inside of which the bases for both the Norman and the medieval/present day cathedrals are situated. It is wonderful that this huge span of history is contained in one spot. This kind of history just does not exist in the U.S., so I am very fortunate to experience it. Back to Off-Campus Studies >> British Isles Study Program >> |
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