I've always wanted to live in a named house...

Welcome to Dunelm Mount. (For those of you who were wondering about our choice, we went with the retired professor and the vicar.) We've spent the last few days moving suitcases, cleaning up, rearranging furniture, and spending our life savings in expensive English groceries. We also are sans Internet until the end of the month when DSL will be installed, so if we are slow on replying to things, blame the lengthy wait times for anything technology-related around here.


Dunelm Mount is a 19th century row house on the cleverly named Western Hill, a (steep) slope leading up to the west of the river and the cathedral/castle/city centre. At some point in its life, Dunelm Mount held a boys school, housing none other than the former oh-so-unpopular prime minister, Tony Blair. So really it's like saying we're living on the ranch in Texas where George learned to ride a horse. At least that’s what we figure.

See photos of the place...
(I've added too many photos to this post, and it's acting up. So... if the formatting makes it difficult to read, I apologize!)

One enters the house on the second floor. The four rooms on this floor are all library/parlor related and simply overflow with books (well, the whole house overflows with books). The first floor has the main kitchen, the ancient washer (no dryer), and an exit to the rear garden (yard), while the third floor has 4 large bedrooms.









We are on the fourth floor, the attic. A big staircase comes all the way up the center, dividing the floor in two halves.










On one side is our sitting room/study/dining room...










and the other is our bedroom. While our original university flat was lacking in furniture, this place overflows with it. We think they use the attic as a repository for old wardrobes, tables, dressers... Especially dressers; we have six.




The kitchen is a tiny closet off the stairway, as is the rather large bathroom.
























As for the professor and the vicar… well, the professor is a retired church historian professor from the university. He seems to know everything there is to know about local history, especially if it involves a religious institution, and we’ve been caught several times in a “one quick question” turned half hour conversation. This man’s wife is an Anglican vicar (minister) and has a large vicarage (parsonage) in her parish (district) in which she spends about half of her week. “The most over-housed couple in Durham Country,” the professor called them!

They decided to let out their top floor a few years ago when a theology student showed up from Germany with no housing and limited options. We decided to make the move last week from university housing because of the cheaper rent, the closer location, and, well, it’s just so English! It’s a little odd knowing they are below us, especially since the staircase has no door, but I think we’ll get used to it. The main challenge is the minimal heat… it may be a cold winter!

The weather...

In case you were curious about the weather here in Durham, here is the basic run down.
Please note the massive temperature change of about 20 degrees. I think this is by far more dramatic than where I grew up which looks like this (mind you the scale is the same):
Just thought I'd share.

Yup, this is still our blog.

It all started when I decided I wanted to get some kind of "posts by country" on the sidebar of our blog... and it turned into this! Ends up we had to update the blog if we wanted to make any easy changes and that meant we had to change the template. Since we were changing it anyway, we decided to go all out and find something new! We don't know if this blog will last beyond England, but it's here for now, so let us know if you have any suggestions.

You can now look into our old posts by location over on the sidebar. I'm working on getting the statistics up again, and I'm making sure that the links to the full posts from the shortened ones on the main page work out. Oh. And I'm looking for a job, too. Of course I'm not letting this distract me...

First day of school!

The trip in visual form

Again, if you're waiting for UK news, you'll have to bear with a few more summary-type Asia posts (we're fine, though, mom...). Personally, I think the best summary is a diagram (thank you, Columbia GSAPP)! The map above shows our route for the last 5 or so months and was made today. You can check out my hand-drawn maps by clicking on the link below. These lovely things were created en-route and take full advantage of the three different colored pens we brought with us. All the maps should zoom in a bit if you click on the images themselves.
See the rest of the maps.

Map 1: 5/4-5/16 Cambodia to Hue, Vietnam
Map 2: 5/15-6/14 Hue, Vietnam to Thai/Malay border
Map 2b: 5/19 the super treck in Sapa, Vietnam
Map 2c: 6/5 biking the ruins in Sukhothai, Thailand Map 3: 6/14-6/30 Malaysia and Singapore Map 4: 7/5-8/10 Yangon, Myanmar to Kathmandu, Nepal
Map 4b: 7/7-7/8 Biking the ruins in Bagan, Myanmar
Map 5: 8/10-9/10 India including Andaman Islands

A Tardy Sign Post

Singapore

The first one of these funny sign posts was posted months ago, while we were still in Thailand. This one is a bit late, but we do what we can. We did make it to the UK this week, but things are a bit unsettled as we might be moving flats this weekend. Thus, we've been holding off on writing about it all yet. Soon. We promise. (Besides, it's difficult to know when the Asia trip conclusions wrap up and the UK introductions start up... Too much moving around all at once!)

See the rest...

These tend to be less about funny translations and more just funny signs... enjoy!

Singapore- they take their rules seriously
Singapore zoo- We were curious how that big elephant was going to fit down into the bottom of the hourglass. And think of the fights when they all make it to the bottom.
Singapore- Is the 20% off supposed to make the durian buffet dinner more appealing? Durian is just not something I'd base a meal around.
National Palace, Thailand
National Palace, Thailand

Bangkok Airport, Thailand- Perhaps not quite as funny, but the kings photo was everywhere!
rest stop in Myanmar during an overnight busride
Bagan, Myanmar- Clever advertising.
Myanmar- snow towels were wet clothes chilled in a freezer that you could buy to cool yourself off. Just thought it was a funny name!
Temple in Mandalay, Myanmar
Mingun, Myanmar- Because we always think of energy when we think of buffalos
Yangon, Myanmar: Mmmm. Real Pitza. (we failed to get photos of the golden arch of "McBurger" and the "Tokyo Fried Chicken" sign)
Dhaka, Bangladesh: the first hotel room we had that showed us the way to Mecca
Border crossing into Nepal from India
Kathmandu, Nepal- no one we'd met had ever heard of Michigan...Delhi, India- train station women only line
Chandigarh, India
Chandigarh, India
Chandigarh, India
Ajanta Caves, India- because we saw so many men and women who looked like this in IndiaBangalore, India- ???Bangalore, India- the state capitol building... now zoom in on the center......and this is what's over the door! Jaisalmer, India- Child beer was for sale all over the place. Say if phonetically and it makes more sense!Chennai, India- who cares what exactly is in the sandwich... just as long as it's non-veg!Ferry in Andaman Islands, India- this sign was posted on the official notice board for the ferry company.Tokyo airport, Japan- I'd heard about these things to help pee-shy Japanese women along, but here it was in person... you could even change the volume of the flushing sound that would hide the sound of your own, well, you know...

We're off (again)!

Well, tonight we leave for England! This whole process has been incredibly surreal as it is both blaise (it is just another country, the 13th for the year... and by this stage we've gotten border crossings down) and quite exciting (this is, after all, quite unlike the others). I'm a little nervous and anxious about it, but mostly I'm excited. It should be a good, challenging, and exciting year. So now you need to come visit us in England... there; now you have an excuse!