I’m back in Portland, staving off jet lag with my first proper cup of coffee in six months.
Thus ends my semester in Cardiff. I thought I’d close out with a little semester-in-review.
Stay tuned for two more posts.
10 Things I’ll Miss
10. Cornish Pasties
The ubiquitous finger food.
9. Grease cookies at Lidl
Forty-nine pence of almost unadulterated veggie oil held together with a little flour and some chocolate chips. So oily it soaks through the paper bag and leaves a grease splotch on your desk.
8. Sheep!
I’m trying really hard not to associate this fluffy thing in the field…
…with this yummy thing in my pie.
7. Infectious Welsh Nationalism
Because you know exactly who won the rugby game as soon as you stick your head out the front door.
And of course, there’s no risk of ever forgetting what the Welsh flag looks like. From the head of Castle Street, they literally recede into the distance.
6. Cream Tea
English breakfast tea and a scone with jam and clotted cream (which does not exist in the US thanks to pasteurization laws).
5. The Arcades
In British parlance, these are covered alleys lined with century-old shopfronts. You walk in and practically hear the click of Victorian ankle boots on the flagstones.
4. Castles. Everywhere.
Including a fifteen-minute walk from my front door.
3. And all the other history that you trip over
Like this ancient Roman gate sunk into the floor of a cafe built into the medieval city wall of York.
Or this barely-marked Roman amphitheater in a field.
Or this henge in a suburban backyard.
2. Trains
Anywhere, anytime. On the run from territorial flatmates? Fleeing the scene of a spat over cleaning rota? Quick, stuff your toothbrush in your backpack and hop on a train to the other side of the country till things blow over.
1. The people!
Because I’m falling back on the old cliché. But this rates its own post, so stay tuned.
5 Things I Won’t Miss
(I wanted to make these lists symmetrical—10 things I’d miss, 10 things I wouldn’t—only I couldn’t come up with enough that I wouldn’t miss.)
5. X Marks the Pedwalk
You have to HAUL BUM! to make it from one curb to the other before the stick man turns red.
4. The tapwater
Let it sit for about two hours. Eventually, it will stop tasting like swimming pool.
3. Costa Coffee
Costa Coffee has been voted the #1 UK coffee company many years running. The only explanation is that the Brits have been brainwashed. Costa americanos taste like tire marks. Costa lattes taste like milky tire marks. Costa mochas taste like chocolatey tire marks.
2. Top sheets
British bedding sets come with a fitted sheet and a pillowcase. I went hunting for a top sheet to supplement my bedding set, but couldn’t find one. None of the shop clerks in any of the home stores I visited even understood the question. I tried to explain top sheets to Anna and she vaguely recognized the concept from high-end hotels.
1. Pay toilets
Ever seen Urinetown: The Musical?