Sunrise – Sunset

It is, in my view, quite symmetric that we arrived in England only a few days after the winter solstice and will leave England only a few days after the summer solstice. (OK, technically, we're leaving and then coming back for a day or two and then really leaving in July).  It has amazed me how much a difference in sunrise and sunset times there is between January 3^rd, when we arrived and June 21^st (today).   The sunrise, on January 3^rd was at 8:05 and sunset was at 16:04.  The “day” lasted just slightly under 8 hours (7hrs and 58 min).  Lexington, the same day, had a full 9hrs and 36 min of sunlight from 7:54 until 17:30. 

Today, June 21^st, the sun rose at a most annoying 4:43am and will not set until 21:21 (that’s about 9:30 pm) giving us a day lasting 16 hours and 38 minutes.   In contrast, Lexington’s sunrise will be at a more humane 06:15 while sunset is at a not unreasonable 21:04, for a longest day of the year of 14 hours and 48 minutes.   I summarize these times in the table below.

	January 3rd		June 21st
	Sunrise	Sunset	Sunrise	Sunset
Colchester	08:06	16:04	04:43	21:21
Lexington	07:54	17:30	06:15	21:04

I think the most noticeable aspect of this is how early the sun rises here, and how much it has changed.  When we first arrived, we woke in the dark most mornings, and often left the house, just as the sun was rising, a little after 8am.  Also, to say the run “rose” at 8am in January is a little bit silly, since at noon it was just barely above the rooftops.  So even at 9 or 10am, it felt like “early morning” or at least like the sun was barely up.   Now, the sun wakes me many mornings – and has for some weeks – at wholly inappropriate times, like 05:30.  I’m sorry, but 05:30 is supposed to be the middle of the night.  The sun should not be rising and it should be dark.   By the time I leave the house in the morning now, still a little after 8am, the sun is well above the rooftops and it almost feels like midday.   In fact, most of the day feels like midday as the sun sits, high in the sky, for a good 6 or 8 hours.

 Changes have occured and we've noticed them.  That's what's different about living here compared to vactioning here.    I had been to Ireland and England twice before this, but both times for about a week.   We did notice the early sunrise and the late sunset, but there was no change.  There was no contrast.  It was simply: wow, the sun rises early here and sets late.   Living in a place you notice these changes.   They become a part of your life.  They affect how you live.  When you are on vacation, it is the fact of being on vacation that dominates how you live.   And besides, with jet lag, you never really know what time it is anyway.

Living here has provided the opportunity to see Colchester not as a tourist destination, but rather as a place like my own home town.  To experience the sunrises and the sunsets and to have them effect my life.  In ways that, probably, I don't quite even fully realize yet.  

 Like most sunsets, the sunset on my England Sabbatical brings mixed feelings.   I have had many wonderful (and some not so wonderful) experiences here and I have enjoyed getting out of Lexington, and away from certain aspects of the University of Kentucky.   I will miss friends I have made here and I will miss some things about living in Colchester.  (I think perhaps most, walking places).  On the other hand, I miss much of my life in Lexington.  I especially miss many of the people, and will be pleased to get back to them.  I have to admit to also missing my man-chair and my large comfy couch.

I suspect I will post a few more Blogs, most likely upon my return to Lexington, with some of our experiences traveling in France, Italy and Germany.  But this is probably my final Blog reflecting on experiences here.  Thank you all for reading and following.  I hope you have found my writing interesting and I look forward to seeing many of you soon.

Chris, the Irrevert Economist.

Kyiv

I spent last week in Kyiv, Ukraine, visiting my two former students Hanna and Volodymyr Vakhitov at the Kyiv School of Economics.   From a professional standpoint this was a good place to visit, home to an enthusiastic group of young researchers working together to build both a research and educational organization.   They have an unusual situation in that they are a completely stand alone entity.  Their Master's program appears to be quite good, preparing students for both private industry (primarily international financial sector) and for the possibility of pursuing a Ph.D. in economics or finance.  I enjoyed my interaction with the faculty and the students.

First off, a note about the spelling.  Most Americans have seen it spell Kiev, yet I am insisting on spelling it Kyiv.   The problem, really is that it should be spelled Київ.  That is the spelling in Ukrainian using their alphabet (I have a coffee mug with that now!).   Interestingly, in Russian, the spelling is slightly different: Киев.  The English spelling Kiev, is an adaptation from the Russian spelling, while the spelling Kyiv is a more recent adaptation of the Ukrainian spelling.   Ukrainians who view Russia as an invader and occupying country, view the spelling Kiev as another example of being forced to use the Russian language instead of their own.  Please keep in mind, not all Ukrainians agree with this view of Russia, and so you will find disagreement on the spelling.   I like the romantic ideas of new independence and freedom, and so I'm going with the Kyiv spelling.  Besides, that's how the place I visited spelled it.

My hosts, Hanna and Volodymyr showed me around the city and I really enjoyed it.   The first thing I noticed, as my plane approached the airfield, is the immense farmland surround Kyiv.  It goes on for miles and miles, and reminded me of the US farm states like Illinois, Iowa or Kansas.  Kyiv itself is quite large, with mostly modern buildings.  There has been a city called Kyiv at this location for somewhere around 1500 years, but few of the older buildings have survived multiple invasions. The last two invasions being during WWII, which was not kind to the city, hence much of the architecture is post WWII and the remainder is early 20th century or late 19th century.

The oldest building in the city I think is St. Sophia, a beautiful Orthodox Church.  Pictures were not allowed inside, which is too bad, but you can see some of the beautiful 11th century frescoes and mosaics here.  I climbed the bell tower, and got some terrific views of the city and courtyard and the roof of the cathedral.

Soviet architecture, of the 50's and 60's "brutalist" style (think Patterson Office Tower) was also present, and somewhat interesting.  This building, the foreign ministry from the soviet era, has pillars that are simply amazing.  They dwarf anyone and make you feel rather small and inconsequential. 

The food in Kyiv was my kind of food!  Meat and potatoes.  They have a place that reminded me of the old Beefcarvers, except it was Ukrainian food:  pierogis, potato pancakes, and sausages.  Very yummy, and beer too!  We also dined in a marvelous traditional Ukrainian restaurant.  I enjoyed trying some new food and seeing food that I grew up with in it's native habitat.

My accommodations were actually in the dorm rooms of a Dominican Monastery.  I had breakfast in the mornings with the monks and some of the other guests (a priest and a nun, specifically).  Language was a problem, although one monk did speak English quite well he was not there most of the mornings.  I enjoyed getting to know them.  Breakfast was different than what most Americans would eat, typically some meat, but closer to what we would call lunch meat.  Bread, cheese, pickles, and hard boiled eggs.  Usually some fruit.  I find this more common in Europe, and generally I like it.

I think Kyiv is a nice city and I would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to go there.  

Espania!

I had hoped to be able to draw some conclusions about whether the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.  I can say that on the coast it falls mainly in the afternoon.  Which is good, since it gets awefully hot there.  Valencia spain is a marvelous mixture of old and new. 

The picture on the left is the bell tower of the Cathedral of Valencia, initially built around 1500.  The picture on the right is a view of the City of Arts and Sciences, built in the 1990's or early 2000's.  Both are amazing architecturally and I enjoyed wander around them.  I think the City of Arts and Sciences is best viewed from the outside, while the Cathedral is best viewed inside. 

The first day we took a bike tour of the city, our wonderful guide told us about some of the history and culture of Valencia.   The ride included both the old city and the new.

You can see Amy and Beth here, listening intently in the park.  The park itself was impressive.  The city, as are many, was built right on a major river, just up from the coast.  Economically, this is a quite a sensible location for a city, as it provides transportation access in multiple directions plus river areas are typically quite fertile land.  The down side is that rivers flood.  The flood in 1958 killed many and devestated the city.  Franco had the river diverted to the south of the city and ultimately the old river bed was turned into an amazing park (Franco wanted to make it a highway). 

The City of Arts and Sciences is an amazing display of really beautiful modern architecture.  It is what can happen when a creative and artistic mind really delves into what can be done with modern materials.  (Kind of the opposite of Patterson Office tower...).  The entire complex is surrounded by reflecting pools and it is simply sparkles in the sun.  I'm afraid my pictures hardly do it justice.

The buildings themselves are an Opera House, an Imax Theatre, a science museam and an aquarium.  We visited both the aquarium and the science center.  Around the edges are also interesting sculpture. 

But the new parts of the city are not the only amazing things.  The old city is wonderfully beautiful as well.  I enjoyed walking the streets of the old city with their sidewalk cafes and bars and restaraunts, as well modern department stores and touristy places.  We toured an archealogical museam which housed the excavated roman city center (part).  Perhaps one of the coolest buildings was the old city gate (from when the city was walled).

This town gate is an impressive defensive structure, you can see the kids peaking through the battlements at the top.  Standing up there, realizing how important defense was to medieval cities, kind of leaves me glad we live in the modern day.

As usual, Amy and I dragged Beth and Thomas to tour a Church.  This was the Cathedral of Valencia which is next to the Basillica of St. Mary (algo gorgeous) and houses the Holy Grail..or the Holy Chalice or something...The two pictures above are of the nave  (sorry about the blurr...no flash allowed) and the Chapel of the Resurrection which houses St. Vincent the Martyr's arm.  You can kind of see it in the box in the middle.This Cathedral was started in the 1500's and is impressive in so many ways and simply chock full of art.  We also climbed the bell tower of the Church.  The veiw of the city was magnificent.

I have to give Beth some very serious Kudos here.  I do not speak Spanish (no really, not at all).  Amy can recall a little from High School, but not much.  Beth - who has taken Spanish for five years now and is pretty good navigated and served as interpreter in many situations.  This is a difficult task and she did very well! 

All in all we had a wonderful time!

Constable Country

In all honesty, I had never heard of John Constable (at least not that I remember) prior to coming to Colchester.  Yes, I know, I'm sure this indicates a lack of culture and artistic background and upbringing, I personally have chosen to blame my 4th grade art teacher.  Yesterday, Amy and I took the train to Manningtree (an 8 min train ride, it took me 20 min to walk up to the station).   From the station in Manningtree, there is a series of foot paths which go to Flatford (where, among other paintings, Constable painted the Mill Stream).  Here is my photo of that setting:

I'm certainly no John Constable, but I think this came out quite nicely. 

The roughly 4 mile walk from Manningtree station to Dedham (through Flatford), was typically through lovely pastoral land. 

 I find this all quite interesting.  These are public pathways through private land.  The land often has livestock grazing on it, and you simply pass through the area and the livestock ignore you and you are supposed to ignore the livestock.  There are fences, separating the different fields, and gates through each fence.  The gates are quite clever, as they do not have to be "closed" because they are enclosed.  No matter how someone leaves the gate, the livestock will not get out.

This is Amy, passing through one such gate as we made our way over bridge.   There were many people out, walking, picnicking, riding in row boats along the little river, which was funny, as most could not steer a straight course.  I will not forget the 8 year old girl, sitting in the bow of her boat giving directions to her mother who was rowing (and thus facing backwards).  You have to imagine a nice British accent and a slight panic in the voice that the child was desperately trying to suppress:  "Mummy, there is a boat right in front of us, we must turn left." Followed shortly by "Oh, Mummy, now we are headed toward the bank, you must stop turning left so much."
As we approach Dedham, we could see the tower of a church poking up above the tree line.

It is in the center of this photo, almost directly above the ly in the highlighted words.  At the time we said, oh that's pretty.  Little did we know that about an hour later, we would be climbing the spiral staircase into that tower and get this view of Dedham:

The Church itself was built around 1400.  The tower houses 8 bells and as part of the tour we got to ring the bells.  The largest bell weighed around a ton.  And it was fun to pull the bell rope and hear them ringing out throughout the town and countryside. 

Constable had wonderful material to work with in this lovely pastoral countryside.  I can see why he chose to paint so much of it while other artists of the time were painting portraits. 

Seasons and Birds

Seasons change.  They do that everywhere (although in England, they seem to go back and forth at times).  What's fascinating is when you live somewhere new, the seasons seem special.  I noticed that when I moved to Atlanta.  Spring came in February, and the different flowers and flowering trees, and even just the blossoming of leaves on trees, were special that first and even second year.  Somewhat the same when we moved to Kentucky.   Things are always a little different.  Even when you just move in the same city, you get that surprise of the bulbs you didn't plant, but the previous owner did, coming up in the spring. 

Here, we've had a lot of that.  Beautiful flowers coming up back in March.  Other flowers blooming through the spring.  Right now, the roses are all blooming, and the park is full of them, as are many gardens as we walk through the city.  There are flowers that I've never, to my knowledge, seen before.  And ones that Amy has commented she's only really read about.  It is exciting and interesting. 

It's so easy, as we live our lives, to get used to these things.  I know which flowers will come up where in my yard.  There's no surprise anymore.  I know roughly when things will bloom and for how many days in Lexington.  And, I've heard all the bird songs too.

But the birds in England sing brighter and louder...maybe.  It sure seems like it.  They also sing more in the winter than they seem to back home (may have something to do with migration, or lack thereof).  So much so, that other Americans have commented on it to me.  We certainly notice that there is lots of birdsong, and we hear it. Now, I will admit, as the days are getting longer, and some of that birdsong is occurring at 4:30am (I'm not kidding), I don't appreciate all of it.   We also hear at least one owl, which probably nests in one of the large trees in the park, just behind our house.   We've enjoyed that.

I think it's easy, as we have our long standing routines to ignore the beauty around us.  We've seen it before, many times, and it's so easy to say "oh yes, the flowers are pretty" and not really notice them.  I know I do that.  I think the same may be true of the people in our lives as well.  It's easy to take your spouse, or kid, or parent, or friend for granted.  Just like the flowers and seasons and the birds.  I don't know if I'll do any better at that then usual when I get home, but I think it's worth a try.

Food!

I've mentioned food a few times before in this blog, but I've decided to focus on it completely.  British food is often the butt of jokes and has a reputation of being bland and unimaginative.   Thankfully, because of the British colonies and educational system and international migration, Indian, Thai, Chinese and Italian are all readily available.   OK, I'm kidding...well...sort of.  

The first thing that I noticed, and was quite surprised about, is that Brits use a number of different terms for food than Yanks do.   We've mentioned before the chips = french fries, crisps = potato chips, thing, but there is a lot more.  Roasting a joint here is not something that college students do on a Saturday night.  A joint is any rather largish cut of meat (what Yanks might call a roast).  So you can go up to the store and buy a beef joint for Sunday dinner.  You can also get a gammon joint.   That would be pork (Yanks might call it ham). Prawns is the general term for shrimp, most of which are the smaller variety (Americans use Prawn to imply those huge shrimp...).  Biscuits are cookies.  (And just try getting a good flaky biscuit or breakfast gravy here).  Squash is kid type juice...the high sugar, low fruit sweet stuff.  Aubergine is eggplant. Courgette is zucchini.  English muffins are simply muffins (it would be redundant after all!).  There is no such thing as jelly, it's all jam, marmalade or preserves. 

Perhaps the most surprising terminology difference is water.  In a restaurant, if you order water, you will almost surely get a bottle of sparkling water, unless the waiter actually checks and says "sparkling?"  You have to specify "still" water (it's still water, right???).   That, will most likely get you a bottle of water.  If you want just regular water, you have to say "tap water."

Meat is packaged differently too, and with different cuts and selection.  Beef is quite expensive and frankly, not very good.  However, lamb here is relatively cheap and very yummy, as is pork.  Bacon is the most interesting thing.  First off, most of the bacon comes in "rashers" which are wider cuts, frankly much closer to what Americans would describe as "Canadian Bacon" although you can purchase "streaky bacon" which is much closer to American Bacon.  You can also get uncured bacon just as easily as smoked or cured bacon, and there are two types of curing: wet and dry.  The dry is much closer to American bacon in how it cooks up (Crispy!  like Johnny likes it), while the wet cure cooks up more like Canadian Bacon or ham slices.  I have enjoyed it all.

I have to admit to being disappointed by the breakfast sausage.  I don't know what it is, but I find the texture mealy, and rather bland.  For the first month or so, I kept thinking, well...maybe a different brand/style combination.  But by March, I'd completely given up.  As a part of Bangers and Mash (sausage and potato) I have liked British sausage, but the ones we find, are - at best - OK.

Sandwiches.  I don't know what it is, but Brits seem to just love sandwiches.  You can pick up pre-made sandwiches in these little triangular packages, everywhere: grocery store, little markets, stalls in airports, train stations, and even some bus stations.  And while some are pretty much like the US (BLT or tuna, for example), others are...well..different.  Lots of cheese and tomato (Brie is popular, as is cheddar), but also salmon, prawn (shrimp) and other varieties I've never thought of before.  But the one sandwich I seem never to find is PB&J.  Beth tells me that when she asked her friends about this they looked aghast, "you put jam with peanut butter? How odd." (try saying that in your best British accent with a tone of incredulity and you'll get the idea).  No one here eats PB&J.

Some things that are surprising difficult to get.  Peanut butter.  It's expensive.  Although I will admit we still go through a lot.  It's also the "natural" kind and has more peanuts, less sugar and fewer additives.  It does taste different, and in general, it's a taste I associate with "cheap" peanut butter back home.  I am definitely going to read some labels on PB back in the states to figure out what they are adding.  Peanuts in general are also expensive and always imported.  They frequently say "Large American Peanuts" (yes, I have made many a comment about Large American Nuts...there is so much you can do with that).    Interestingly, potato chips come in many flavors,  I haven't really seen BBQ, but they do have steak and onion as well as prawn flavor.  However, try finding a bag of Doritos or Taco shells.  We can find plain Corn Chips, but they are expensive.  Similarly, popcorn.  It is nearly impossible to find micro-wave popcorn, and when you do, it is more expensive than Cub Scout popcorn (a lot more...I kid you not).  We have found the good old fashioned popcorn kernels in a bag, and I have revived my skill and popping popcorn over a stove in a pot (the secret, I think, is to add a huge dollop of butter just after the corn starts popping, but this takes skill and practice).

Now, lest you think that we are starving over here, let me tell you the good parts of British food.  First and foremost, dairy products in Britain rock.  The cheddar cheese here is, hands down, the best I've ever had, and that's the cheap store brand at Sainsbury's.  Other cheese is excellent too, with good Brie, and a number of other varieties.  Try making Mac and Cheese with British Cheddar (this may possibly be heaven).  Butter is different, and wonderful too.  Much richer, much more flavorful, that American butter.   Eggs are virtually all brown eggs.  I have seen almost no white eggs anywhere.  And they have much more orangy yolks.  They taste slightly richer, I think.  The odd thing, is they don't refrigerate eggs in the grocery store here.  Not at all.  They stack them up, often in the bread isle. 

Brits also have a number of really great hot dishes for take away.  One favorite of mine is Cornish Pasties.  If you've never had a Cornish pastie, you MUST try them.  Beef and onions and other yummy stuff wrapped in pastry.  You can find stands all over and pick them up, hot, and they make a great quick lunch.  There are three in town centre alone. These are, I have to admit, even better than the ones from Northern Michigan.  I'm also fond of Cottage Pie and similar dishes.  The other favorite is Fish and Chips.  You can, of course, get this as sit down, but there is something cool about eating it out of paper.  Other pub food is great too: Cottage Pie and Bangers and Mash.

As I alluded to at the beginning, Indian and other Asian foods are quite common in restaurants.  I have had some of the best Indian food I've ever eaten, with many more varieties.  What's most fascinating is that this translates to the grocery store too.  Every Brit grocery store has at least a decent (the Waitrose is the best) selection of Indian cooking sauces in jars.   They very quite a bit in spiciness, although most are too tame for me (you have to go out to get good HOT Indian), but it is easy and fun to try these and we have tried many.  Given the availability of Lamb, it's wonderful to have Lamb Biriyani and home.  All the stores have a decent selection of Na'an bread as well.  You just pick a package up (2 or 4 depending on size).  Premade pakora and samosa are also readily available, although I haven't been entirely happy with the quality. 

We've switched our diet a little, in response to prices and availability, and it's been kind of fun.  Although readily available, I have not set foot in McDonalds, Burger King (less frequent), Pizza Hut or Kentucky Fried Chicken (which, by the way, is the first thing anyone says after you tell them "I'm from Kentucky").   American pizza (unless you go to Pizza Hut) is hard to find, but there are many Italian Pizza places which seem to be more popular.  American style pepperoni is hard to find. 

The last thing I want to mention is Branston Pickle.

Cambridge

We used the extra day off spend a day and half in Cambridge.  We had stopped there in February when we went to Stratford-upon-Avon, but a shortage of time and pouring rain meant that we spent most of it inside a - very good - museum.  This time, we did more touring and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. 
We also took the train, our longest train trip to date (it takes about 2.5 hours) and we had to change trains.  We're getting pretty good at this now, and it all went smoothly.  I have to say, I'm getting to be a pretty big fan of train travel.  It's at least as fast as a car, often faster, and much less work.  Price wise, here at least, it's about the same (although that is probably because trains are subsidized and gas is heavily taxed). 

We began by wandering around the city centre and soon found ourselves at a bridge where one could hire a punt - complete with guide - for a 45 minute excursion.  Punting, for those of you who do not know, is a flat bottom boat, propelled by someone pushing a pole against the river bottom.  It's more famous in Venice, but a big deal in Cambridge.  One can also simply rent a punt, and do it yourself.  It was easy to tell the amatures from the experts, and I have to admit to laughing a few times.  I suspect it is not as easy as it looks, at least to keep the punt going straight, and I suspect it's hard work. 

We wandered a little more that evening and found a nice Italian place for dinner, nothing to rave about though.
On Saturday we started by splitting up.  We dropped the kids at the Sedgewick Museum of Natural History and Amy and I ran off to buy the Wedding Coverage edition of the Times (that would be the London Times...) and visit the Round Church.  We had passed by it the night before, but wanted to enter it.  It is a small, round church, similar to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, and it dates to about 1100. 
We returned to the Sedgewick and the kids showed us two cool exhibits: gems and Darwin.  The Darwin exhibit was very interesting as it displays some original notes and letters from Darwin (or at least reproductions from the originals).  Darwin studied at Cambridge (although, interestingly, until he worked with Sedgewick, he was a rather distracted student), and his original notes are housed there.  It is fascinating to note how much important work in science stems from Cambridge.  Our tour later in the day ended in front of the Laboratory where Crick and Watson did their path breaking research. 
After a quick lunch, we joined our 2 hour tour of King's College, Queens' College and various other parts of Cambridge.

One of our first stops was the Chapel at King's College.  It is an amazingly beautiful building, both inside and out.  We wandered through it, with our guide providing wonderful commentary, highlighting architecture and politics (and the combination) throughout the building.  All the while, an organist practiced on the huge organ, you can see in the picture above.  There is, apparently, a secret door to get up there to play. This church is steeped in history - particularly from the war of the roses - and it is difficult to stand there and not be awe struck.
Our party also toured Queens' College and saw a few other notable places throughout town.  We ended, as I noted above, at the front of the Laboratory where Crick and Watson discovered DNA.  We also went to the pub, at the end of that block, where they were reported to have celebrated their discovery.  Legend has it that they burst in, announcing "we've found the secret of life"  to which the people in the pub responded ... "yes, indeed you have, come on and and have some."  (I'm telling you, I tell that joke MUCH better than our guide ;) ).
We finished the day, after dinner, by relaxing in Christs Pieces, a park near the center of town.  Where we discovered a rose garden dedicated to Diana, Princess of Wales.  It was peaceful and beautiful. 
Cambridge is an amazing place.  Many important scientific discoveries were found there, and yet it is also a major Seminary and a place with some of the most beautiful Church buildings I've seen.  Religion and science seem to co-exist here.  I like it.