Over the Pond (5), days 3&4 -- A new twist on an old post

I was thinking today, "Should I even bother to post anything about my time in Durham?" It seems like it's always the same stuff -- the Daily Office at the Cathedral, fish & chips, study, blah blah blah. Is it getting boring? And wouldn't you know it, someone saved me just in time. I've been tagged with a letter-bound meme, and my letter is C. I need to list 10 things I love that start with C, and I'll see if I can make them all trip-related.

1. The cathedral. I love, love, love the Durham Cathedral. It's marvelous. Just try and visit it and not fall in love. I dare you. Even visiting the Wiki site, you'll get a little crush.
2. Chips, as in "fish & chips." They make chips (the equivalent of our fries) differently, bigger and fatter and less crispy, and just ready to soak up all that strong malt vinegar and salt.
3. Cobblestone streets. They're all over the place here.
4. Custard. It's not like vanilla pudding -- it's milder and thinner and usually quite warm. It's perfect on things like treacle sponge and spotted dick.
5. Oh yeah, it's also great on rhubarb crumble.
6. Conversation. It's so refreshing, and so energizing, to have a sustained conversation about my work with Robert, Maeve, other students. Studying alone is difficult, at least for me. And as a verbal processor, conversations bring life back to the work.
7. Canonical hours. Making time for morning prayer, midday communion, and evensong has become important to me. It's easy to think that I don't have time for the daily office, but it usually makes me feel centered and rested.
8. Cups and cups and cups of tea. They have great tea over here, and I usually drink lots of it.
9. Connecting with my friends whom I only get to see in November and March, people like Robert, Margaret, Iona, Jamie, Maeve, the Turners, and the Askews.
10. Calm. All the time I spend on trains and planes and in between studying gives me time to sit and think, or not think at all. It's refreshing. (And now all my mom friends are hating me.)

Thanks Janet!