I'm Dreaming of a Wh...wha? No snow? Really?

Ugh. Blogging takes so much longer than I thought it would. But for my devoted followers (read: my dad, insomniacs and people at work with nothing better to do?), I shall soldier on.

So, I'm going to admit something here. I totally hate living in London. It's not somewhere that I feel like I can become a real part of the community. At least not where I was. I'm going to keep applying for jobs everywhere, including London, but I'm hoping not to stay there in the end, or maybe only for a temporary job if I do. That said, I've moved on to Salisbury for the moment!

You may ask, Why Salisbury? Or if you're my dad, you may make some smartass comment about Salisbury Steak. Well, I first came here about 10 years ago on a school trip and I liked it so well that I made Ky and our friend Christina come here with me when we travelled to England together in 2003. I also completely love Salisbury Cathedral. So much so that I actually wrote a paper about it for a Medieval Art and Architecture class I took during my undergrad. I digress.

What is Christmas with no...snow?

I got here on Saturday afternoon, one of only two people travelling here from London, and I've loved it so much, even if I have left my hostel friends behind. I took some photos of my journey for your viewing pleasure. This is how much snow there is in this part of England right now. Practically none, that is.

View outside my window. Complete with squirrel!

View of the walk from my hostel into town.

When I got here, I found out that there was to be a concert at the cathedral, so I got myself a ticket and went. It was wonderful. The local choir and some local orchestra-or-other sang some old-timey songs and it was awesome. Just the type of performance that my bestie (1 of 2) and I used to do with our choir in Regina, so it was very nice to see. I also met a lady there with a service dog and she let me play with him even though he was on duty. It was very nice of her. His name was Yeats, and he licked my hand like CRAZY because I'd just had an apple and my hand was very sugary and delicious. After that, my hand was all dog-stankey, so I left the cathedral to find the bathroom (this is starting to sound like I'm going to make you relive my evening in disgusting detail, but I swear this is going somewhere) but I wasn't sure where to go so I asked a man who seemed to be going in the right direction. We chatted for a second and then he said, "Normally I wouldn't recommend following a strange man to the toilets, but I think you're safe in a cathedral, of all places."

Salisbury Cathedral

The next day, I decided that I was going to go back to the Cathedral for service, but there were 4 to choose from and I didn't know what most of the titles of the service meant (things like vespers and evensong) so I picked evensong because it sounded most like there would be more singing than talking, and it was at 3pm. Change of plans, though, because I saw that St Thomas's Cathedral was having a caroling fundraiser for cancer at the same time (and if there's anything I like, it's stuff about cancer!!), so I decided to do that instead. And so I did.

Christmas tree at St Thomas's Cathedral

I should point out that yesterday I wore capris, flip flops and a cardigan while most other people were decked out in parkas, toques, scarves and the like. I got some strange looks, but I was ok with it. By this morning, however, winter had arrived in full force (sans snow, of course) so I went ahead and wore a jacket and everything.

Random street in Salisbury

After I got back from the caroling, I met a lovely Australian family also staying at the hostel. The mom and dad are pretty much the coolest people ever. They've taken their kids out of school for the term to take them on an around-the-world trip. Are you kidding me??? That is AWESOME. The girls are 10 and 9, so they're pretty much done with it already, but I'm sure they'll look back on it in years to come and think it was a pretty OK thing to do.

Christmas tree at the hostel. How nice.

I think that's all that's been going on with me the last couple of days. I've extended my stay here another two days, and looking at the cost of a hostel in London over Christmas and New Year (30 GBP in a night in the place I was staying!!), I just might stay a while longer.

That's it for now! More later.