31 October, 2005
Day 99 - Ryanair
One of the great things about the UK is Ryanair. I know I've mentioned it a few times already, but I think it deserves its own post. Sure, some people hate Ryanair with a passion. But it's one of those things that you either love or hate, and I love it. I'd wear an "I love Ryanair" t-shirt if I could find one.
There's nothing quite like it in America, so I'll explain the typical Ryanair experience. You go to their
web site and see a bunch of "Free" or insanely low priced flights (like £0.01) to exotic destinations all over Europe. All you have to pay for is the taxes & fees, which they promise do not exceed a certain amount (usually it's £10-15, depending on the aiports). The first time you see it you're sure it's some kind of scam. The web site looks very amateurish as if it was something you got a link to in a spam email.
It sounds too good to be true. It is too good to be true. But it's true. There are a few catches though, which I find amusing. First, there's a 10kg weight limit for the bag you can check on (and you can only check one), otherwise there's a fee which is probably more than the flight itself. Yeah, 10 kg. Haha! My little backpack full of clothes and a Europe travel book weighs in at about 7kg. It's enough for me, but if anyone wants to bring more than that they're out of luck. And you're only allowed on (small) carry-on bag. My camera bag is just barely under the size limit. Perfect.
Then after you're in the air, they don't bring you anything but a menu with food and drinks for sale. Good for them!! I think that's the way it should be done. It's better than paying an extra $5 or $10 for your ticket just for that little plastic cup of soda and tiny bag of pretzels. They also sell toys and other things. Right on! Maybe they should also try to sell used cars or have slot machines onboard. I don't care.. anything that makes them a profit besides ticket prices sounds good to me.
Then when you land, your next adventure begins. They usually fly to tiny rinky-dink airports in towns that you never thought would've had an airport at all. They're usually 1-2 hours away from the city they're advertised as. For example, the "Oslo" Torp airport, 2 hours away. The "Frankfurt" Hahn airport, nowhere near Frankfurt. The two "Barcelona" airports they fly to are about 200 miles apart, with the real Barcelona right in the middle. And the "Vienna" airport is in Slovakia, not even the same country as Vienna. Hillarious! I love it, because I get to see more of the country on the long ride from the airport to the city I'm going to.
To put this in perspective, imaging getting a flight to San Jose and landing at the Los Banos airport, or a flight to Oklahoma City and landing at the Altus airport. It's no joke. In "Oslo Torp Airport", Torp is not the name of the airport as in "Chicago O'Hare". Torp is the town where the airport is located. Oslo isn't actually in the name. It's like saying "Oklahoma City Altus Airport".
Another funny thing is that they're either late or very early. So far I've bought 7 flights with them and actually flew on 5 of those. The first one was over an hour late. Another was right on time. And the other three were 20+ minutes early! I think they know they don't have a very good track record of being on time, so they advertise an arrival time that's a lot later than what it would be if they left on time -- so when they do leave on time they arrive very early. One of my flights was 40 minutes early!
I said this recent trip would be my last big one, but I'm already looking into flights to other places. I was thinking of a crazy 1-day London to Sweden (or Finland) to Latvia and back to London trip. It can be done. Not sure if I will do it though.
30 October, 2005
Trip - Szczecin, Inaugural flight, London
It's always nice when a trip ends on a high note. This one ended on such a high note that only dogs could hear it. After getting to the bus station early, I found out that it was actually an hour earlier than I thought (daylight savings) so I had even more time to explore Szczecin. While it's not quite up there with the likes of Llandovery, Birmingham, and Belper/Nottingham as the most special places, it's definitely in the next tier with some pretty great places. I liked that city a lot, even though it was obviously a significant step down standard-of-living-wise from the other countries I visited on this trip, and had a frustrating lack of English speakers. One endearing quality of course was the prices. They were comprable to those in the U.S., if not lower on some things. It's nice to know that not everywhere in Europe is a rip-off. But the best quality was that it was the most foreign city I've ever been to.
Then when I arrived at the airport the real fun began. The Szczecin airport (figuratively) had Ryanair written all over it. It was an hour away from the city, out in the middle of nowhere, and only had one gate! Inside was even more interesting. The Ryanair staff were all dressed up in traditional Polish costumes! Not only that, but they were handing out Polish beer to everyone in the security line. And it just got more wacky from there. The gate was filled with TV reporters, photographers, people dressed in Polish costumes, a live band playing traditional Polish music, and tables loaded with all kinds of free food and drinks.
I later discovered that the party was for us. My flight was Ryanair's (and probably the airport's) first ever flight from Szczecin to London! I was burned by Ryanair a few days earlier when they wouldn't let me on my flight, but they redeemed themselves with this.
More fun on the flight. I sat next to some Szczecinites who didn't speak any English. Yet somehow we were able to communicate. It was like that Star Trek episode where Picard was stuck on a planet with an alien who didn't speak English but they somehow found a way to communicate. After arriving at Stansted, I ended up escorting this family to their hotel in London, which was right next to Paddington station where the trains to Reading leave from.
It's so sad. These were not rich people at all. They probably saved up for a while to get their one chance to go to London on a $10 flight. When they found out it was £10 (£30 [$53] for the three of them) just for the bus ride from "London" Stansted Airport to London, they were shocked and dismayed. It was about 10x more expensive than the similar-length bus ride to the Szczecin airport, and probably 2 or 3 times more expensive than their flights. Welcome to the cold hard reality of the UK.
I don't even want to think about how they must've felt when they first tried to buy food in London.
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29 October, 2005
Trip - Denmark, Hamburg, Berlin, Poland
Another long but fun day. I started the morning in Padborg, Denmark. First I went to Hamburg, which seemed surprsingly nondescript. I think I needed to dig deeper to really appreciate Hamburg and its history, but there wasn't enough time on a day when I still wanted to visit Berlin and had to get to Poland.
I liked Berlin very much. Not necessarily because it was a nice city. It wasn't all that nice. But it was different, and that's what I liked about it. The western cities in Germany felt like they almost could be in Britain. But Berlin definitely didn't. And just the thought of being in a place that used to be (or at least half of it used to be) communist, was very neat. While I was there I went up in the famous TV tower. Besides having a very interesting history and purpose, it gave me an awesome view of the city.
After Berlin I headed northeast to Szczecin, Poland (pronounced "cheh-cheen"). Wow. All of the things I liked about Berlin were much more true about Poland. I've never been to Russia, but I think I have a feeling about what it might be like after being in Szczecin. I thought that because Szczecin was so close to Germany it wouldn't be much different. I was way off. It's amazing how big of a difference just a few miles can make. I think Szczecin might even be more Polish than Warsaw.
Everyone who I had talked to about Poland said that almost everyone there speaks English. The people of Szczecin must not have gotten that message. The only person I met that night who spoke English was the lady who worked at the hotel I stayed at. Even the tourist information person at the train station... when I asked "Do you speak English?" the response was: "Polski".
One more thing about Poland and Germany. The food there is incredibly good. And in eastern Germany and especially Poland, it's very cheap. It made the food (& food prices) in the UK look like even more of a joke.
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28 October, 2005
Trip - Switzerland, Austria, wow!!
On the fourth day of the trip I went from Bern to Zurich to Liechtenstein to extreme western Austria to Munich and then a night train all the way up to Denmark. Yes, Denmark. I hadn't originally planned on going to Leichtenstein, Austria, or Denmark, but I did it partly to feel better about missing Spain. So this trip covered 8 countries, 7 of which were new to me.
The ride from Bern to Zurich was foggy so I didn't see much. But I love fog, as it's very much related to my research, so I didn't mind. I stopped in Zurich for a while and walked around. The fog was half broken by then which offered some very nice views of the city. And the city itself was very attractive.
Then I headed east (first southeast) from Zurich toward Austria. At first I had no idea that I was about to see some of the most incredible scenery in the entire world. I know the expression "breathtaking scenery", but never thought it could be literal. Well, the scenery between Zurich and western Austria literally affected my breathing. Maybe part of it was the fact that I was very anxious about getting pictures.
The mountains in that area would put most other mountain ranges to shame. The only thing I can compare them to are the Tetons, Wasatch, and the Sierras near Kings Canyon. In other words, extremely tall, rugged, and steep. But there was a big difference. These mountains were mostly covered with deciduous trees! And I was there at just the right time of year for them to be bright yellow, orange, and red. You can see these colors in the Appalachians and a few other mountain ranges in the U.S., but those look like ant hills compared to these. And not only that, but the countryside and architecture were spectacular as well. I can say more, but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
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I stopped in an Austrian town called Bregenz. There I got of the best sandwiches I've ever had, and it was quite cheap. I didn't see very much of Munich, but Bavaria in general was a little disappointing after being where I was. If I had gone there first, I probably would've been in awe. But I think any place would be disappointing after where I was earlier.
I took an overnight (11-hour) train up to Padborg, Denmark, but wasn't able to sleep on the way. So I was very tired when I arrived in Padborg.
27 October, 2005
Trip - Oslo-Germany-Switzerland
Wow, what a long day. Just to give you an idea, I walked around the University of Oslo (Norway)and the University of Bern (Switzerland) on the same day.
I explored Oslo for a few hours early in the morning, then went on my last ride down to Torp -- a few hours early this time to make sure I didn't miss the flight again. I got to go through Drammen for the 4th time, and that was very nice -- one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to. At 3:55 I flew from Oslo to Frankfurt Hahn airport. It was a nice change in weather -- overcast and in the 30's with snow on the ground in Oslo, mid 60's and clear at Hahn.
In typical Ryanair fashion, the "Frankfurt" airport that they fly to is almost 2 hours away from Frankfurt, so I didn't actually go to the city itself, but I saw it from the air. I took a bus (~ 1 hr) to Meinz, then a train from there down to Basel, which is in Switzerland but right on the borders with Germany and France.
I was extremely impressed by the German trains. Very fast, clean, and modern. I also was impressed by the cities in that western part of Germany. Also very clean and modern from what I could see -- though it was nighttime by then so I couldn't see very much.
When I arrived in Basel, I couldn't find a hotel (just a lot of banks!), so I kept on going south and west. I eventually ended up in Bern around midnight. I couldn't find a good hotel there either, but I walked around for a few hours anyway, including around the Univ. of Bern campus. Boy, for a capital city, Bern sure is dead late on a Thursday night! I felt like I was the only one there.
My first impression of Switzerland was that it was halfway between western Germany (clean, modern, friendly) and Italy (dirty, old, unfriendly). It had some characteristics of both. It was a pain to have to get different money again, but I really liked the look of the Swiss Francs. Very colorful bills and shiny well-designed coins.
Around 3am I decided that it wasn't worth getting a hotel just to sleep for 4 hours, so I got on another train toward Geneva and tried to sleep on that. Didn't work, but at least I got farther west into Switzerland. I eventually turned around and went back to Bern. That next day turned out to be one of the most memorable of my entire time in Europe, but that's for the next post.
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26 October, 2005
Trip - Oslo-Torp-Oslo
My second day in Oslo was an interesting and unexpected one. In the morning, another one of my relatives drove me around Oslo. I learned a lot about the city and enjoyed it very much. Oslo is a very nice city. It's much cleaner and newer than any other European city I've been to, and probably the most like an American city.
The one bad thing about Oslo was the prices. It's amazing that people can afford to live there. It's even more expensive than England.
My flight from Norway to German was scheduled to leave at 3:55pm that day. I missed the 11:30 bus to Torp, and the next one wasn't until 1:40. I arrived at the airport at 3:30, which was too late for them to let me on the plane. So I missed my flight to Germany and also my flight to Spain on the next morning.
On the bright side, I got to go back to Oslo and spend more time with my relatives there. I had a great time and learned a lot more about Norway and about my family's history in Norway, particularly in Kristiansand.
While in Norway, I also learned the proper pronunciation of my last name: "Howg-lawn". It was nice to be in a place where people read my name and didn't say "Hog-land". In general, a lot of the people there looked a lot like various people in my family. It was very neat. And in the end, I'm very glad that I got to spend an extra day in Norway.
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25 October, 2005
Trip - Reading to Oslo
The first day of my trip involved a lot of traveling. I took the train from Reading to London's Paddington station, the underground from Paddington to Liverpool Street, another train from Liverpool Street to Stansted Airport, a plane from Stansted Airport to Torp Sandefjord airport, and a 2-hour bus from Torp to Oslo.
It was dark when I arrived in Oslo, so I didn't get to see much on the first day. But I did see the snow. There were a few inches of snow on the ground when I arrived, which was a nice surprise.
There was a bit of a mixup regarding where I was supposed to meet my relatives -- we were supposed to meet at "Central Station", which apparently includes both the bus station and train station. The "Central Station" signs I saw pointed to the train station, so I waited for them there while they waited for me at the bus station. We eventually found each other though. That night I saw two of my relatives who I've met before and two who I haven't met, including my 4-year-old 3rd cousin who was very excited to meet his cousin from America.
It was great to see/meet them. It was nice to see familiar and friendly people so far away from home.
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Trip - 25-30 October
If you don't seen any new posts for a while, it's because I'm out of the country and don't have Internet access.
Today (25 October) I'm flying to Oslo, leaving at 2 pm. Tomorrow I'm flying from Oslo to Frankfurt. Thursday I'm flying from Frankfurt to (near) Barcelona in the morning. Then I'll be on the train for a couple days and on Sunday flying from Szczescia (NW Poland) back to London.
I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures and post them when I get back.
By the way, the answer to the question I posted a few days ago: I've been to 27 of the 32 London boroughs. It should be easy to visit all of them before I go back to America.
24 October, 2005
Day 91 - The North-South Divide
If you haven't heard of the "North-South Divide", here's a quick definition: "In the United Kingdom the term 'North-South divide' is used to refer to the divide between the wealthy South East of England and the less affluent industrial areas of Scotland, Wales and northern England."
That's a nice way of saying it. But to be blunt, there are some in the north who think people from the south are unfriendly and snobby, and some in the south who think people from the north are less civilized. It's not unlike many of the "divides" in America, even the one between the eastern & western U.S.
I've always found it easier to talk to people from west of the Mississippi than east. Easterners to me often seem unfriendly, snobby, formal, and uptight compared to people from the West (there are many exceptions of course). At OU, at least in the Meteorology department, I think there's an approximately equal number of people from the East and the West. Yet the vast majority of my friends are from the West.
Something similar is true about Reading. Even though I live deep in the south of England, and have some great friends from the south, I generally find it easier to talk to people from north of a line from Cardiff to Birmingham to Lincoln. I think I even have more friends from northern England, Scotland, and Wales than from southern England, even though I know more people from southern England.
But is it really because the people are different, or is it mostly just me? The moment I hear one of the many northern accents, I start out thinking the person is friendly and I might even act friendlier toward them than toward someone with a posh southern accent. The same might be true with people in the eastern & western U.S. When I hear one of those sandpaper-in-the-throat East Coast accents, I might subconsciously assume some of those eastern stereotypes on them. But when I hear someone from the West Coast or Southern Plains (both of which are fairly easy to distinguish from other parts of the U.S.) I might automatically think "this is someone I can relate to".
23 October, 2005
Day 90 - From Dorset to Windsor Hall
Sunday was another great day in Dorset. It started early, as in right after we came back from the pub Saturday night. We played ping pong and badminton in the game room of the place we stayed at, and had some interesting conversations. I found out one of the students went to the Christian Union (and saw me there), another went to a university in Aberystwyth (home of the Nat'l Library of Wales, where I plan to go in a couple weeks), and another gave me quite a challenge at badminton.
After a few short hours of sleep, my group went to Durlston Head (on the cliffs overlooking the English Channel) to launch a weather balloon and later gave another fun presentation about it. Later in the day, I came back to Reading having several more friends than when I left.
Shortly after getting home, while I was in the middle of working on something, the fire alarm went off (again) and everyone had to evacuate the building. It was annoying. And it was very strange being out in the car park with all the Windsor Hall people again. It was then that I noticed the vast difference between the maturity level of students (mostly freshers) at my hall compared to the meteorology grad students who I spent the previous 3 days with. Nothing against the Windsor Hall people. I have some good friends here, and I like almost everyone here. But it's obvious that compared to the meteorology grad students, they're at a different place in their lives and generally have a much different reason for being at this particular university.
22 October, 2005
Day 89 - Experiencing the Weather
Today I was near Swanage, Dorset for the Experiencing the Weather field course/trip. Wow! There's too much to say, but I'll give a brief overview.
On friday night, we had dinner, a briefing, and played a weather trivia game. My team won that by a landslide, thanks in part to a lot of questions related to American, Italian, and African weather (one of my teammates was from Italy, and another was a professor who studies climate in Africa). On Saturday, we broke into groups and did several different activities related to meteorological measurements, analysis, and forecasting. Later in the day we got to give presentations. That of course was one of my favorite parts. And of course, my group threw some enternatinment into our presentation.
It was a wonderful opportunity to get to know more of the grad students in the meteorology department. On Saturday night, everyone went to a local pub (as we also did on Friday night). That night was one of the best since I've been in England. One of the highlights included a discussion with several other students, all from different countries, about why America is so bad. I think I learned a lot more about why some people around the world dislike America, and I think they learned a lot about our side of the issues, which they sure didn't get from the BBC or the media in their own countries.
21 October, 2005
Day 88 - Field trip to Dorset - leaving
Today I'm leaving for my meteorology class field trip to Dorset. We'll be doing a lot of measurements and staying in the building where radar was invented. I'll be back on Sunday evening.
Since I won't be posting for a couple days, here's a game you can play while I'm away. Guess how many of London's 32 boroughs I've been to. The closest guess will win a little something from London. I'd prefer if you send your guesses by email, but posting as comments is okay too.
20 October, 2005
Day 87 - Norway Family & Asda
I'm so excited!! Shortly after I arrive in Norway next week, I'll get to see some of my relatives there, a couple who I've met already and a few who I've never met. I can't wait!
Today I went to Asda and noticed something that was very frustrating. All of the many checkout lines were very short (generally only one person in each "queue"), but each person had about 500 groceries in their basket, so it took forever. I think I have an idea why. Transportation is a lot harder and more expensive here than in America, so people probably don't like making a lot of short trips to places like Asda. They buy everything they'll need for a while so they don't have to go back again in 3 days.
That's the opposite of me. When I'm home in Norman, sometimes I'll drive to the grocery store and get 2 or 3 things, then go again the next day, and again 3 days later on the way home from school. It's quick and easy to do that. I know exactly what 3-5 things I want and exactly where to find them. I usually spend no more than 5 minutes in there. I think that beats going once every few weeks and spending an hour each time. But if Norman had Reading's crazy roads, traffic, and $8/gallon petrol, I might not be as inclined to make all those little trips.
19 October, 2005
Day 86 - Shrewsbury, Newport, papers
Today was a very productive day. I went to two of the three remaining English counties (Shropshire and Herefordshire), got to visit two of my favorite places in the world: Birmingham and Wales, almost finished my two conference papers on the train, and arrived back in Reading by 7:30!
Shropshire was very beautiful, as was Herefordshire. I spent some time walking around Shrewsbury and was very surprised and impressed. It's a really neat town!! On the way back I stopped for a while in Newport (Casnewydd).
From Newport to Reading (and earlier from Reading to Birmingham) I worked on my two papers, one for the 18th Symposium on Climate Variability and Change and the other for the 10th Symposium on Integrated Observing and Assimilation Systems for Atmosphere, Oceans, and Land Surface (at the 86th AMS Annual Meeting in Atlanta that begins on Jan. 29).
So now I've been to 38 counties in England. Only one left (Northumberland), but no time to go there before my rail pass expires. Another problem is that it's the farthest county from Reading, up in the northeast corner of England. But maybe I'll pull a rabbit out of my hat and get up there somehow.
Here's a cool fact: so far I've been to 19 of the 20 largest cities in the UK (not just England). The one I haven't been to (Hull) was rated by the BBC as the "Worst Place to Live in the UK".
18 October, 2005
Day 85 - Fire safety madness
Yesterday was a long day and I got home pretty late. Then a couple hours after that, around 3am, I was woken up by some loud people. So I was hoping to sleep in this morning. Didn't happen. First the cleaning lady knocks on my door and wakes me up early. Then shortly after trying to sleep again, I hear the fire alarm.
I got up, got dressed, and walked down 7 flights of stairs. But a few seconds before I could get outside, a lady started blocking the door. She asked us for our room numbers and told us (us meaning myself and about 7 other people, all from our top floor) that it was a fire drill and we didn't get down in time. I later heard someone say that people get fined £50 (about $90) for failing a fire drill. I sure hope that's not true. If it is I'll try to protest it. Half the people on the 6th floor, and everyone who was in the shower at the time, getting excessive fines because they were 5 seconds late? That's ridiculous.
But it wouldn't surprise me. This school is totally nuts about fire safety. Upon arriving, we had to read 2 small books regarding fire safety and attend mandatory fire safety seminars. Some of the normal things that students have in dorms in America (mini refrigerators, for example) are not allowed because of the strict fire codes. If we plan to have a guest in our room for more than a specified amount of time, we have to alert the manager and fill out forms, again because of the fire code. We're not allowed to take a shower with the bathroom door open (in an en-suite room) because the steam may interfere with the smoke detectors. Safety is always good, but doesn't this seem like a bit too much?
Is it a symptom of a government that's too big/powerful (or overzealous?), or is it just because of this particular university's past problems with fires? I don't know. But it makes me really miss living in my own house where I can sleep and wake up whenever I want, own a refrigerator, invite people over at any time without having to fill out forms, and take a shower with the door open. And I can even yank out my smoke detectors whenever I feel like it, especially if the battery is low and they're making that annoying chirping sound.
17 October, 2005
Day 84 - Penzance & Land's End
I highly recommend visiting Penzance and Land's End. But I don't recommend trying to go there and back in one day. Today I spent 11 hours on trains and 2.5 hours on busses. That was pretty much all I did.
I saw some great scenery. Devon and Cornwall are beautiful. There were three big surprises on this trip: 1) There's a lot of civilization way out there! 2) Parts of Plymouth look A LOT like San Francisco. And 3) Land's End itself is very commercialized and a bit disappointing. Part of the disappointment with Land's End might have been the weather (the weather was 'rubbish', raining and bad visibility). But I was very impressed with Penzance and most of Devon & Cornwall. I'd love to go back to Penzance and spend more time there. Some of the people in Penzance actually did talk kinda like pirates.
Here's the map again, showing my last two trips. I've now been to 35 of the 39 counties in England.
I might need to amend the county count. I assumed Gatwick Airport was in Surrey, but now I'm pretty sure it's in Sussex (I've seen conflicting information about that). If I can confirm that Gatwick is indeed in Sussex, the number will go up to 36.
16 October, 2005
Day 83 - The War in Iraq
Lately (especially today) I've been talking politics with a lot of people around here, including some who are studying politics. One of the hottest topics, of course, is still the war in Iraq. I don't need to tell anyone that it's very unpopular here. But I would like to write a little bit about WHY we went to war in Iraq, because most people still don't seem to get it.
The war in Iraq was not about 9/11. It was not about the "war on terror". It was not about weapons of mass destruction. We went to war in Iraq because of what happened on August 2, 1990. Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein, invaded the sovereign nation of Kuwait.
After they were forced back out of Kuwait, we let the government remain in power because it agreed to a list of terms, including full cooperation with weapons inspectors. After several years of peaceful negotiations, Hussein's government still did not abide by the terms they agreed to. Thus, as a last resort, we had to enforce the rules by force.
But I'm not talking about 2003. I'm talking about 1998. Does anyone remember Operation Desert Fox? Do you remember Bill Clinton and Tony Blair talking about how force was necessary back then because Iraq refused to cooperate with weapons inspectors?
After bombing Iraq in 1998, we let Husssain remain in power, but he still did not cooperate. After several more years of negotiations and peaceful means of persuasion, including 14 U.N. resolutions against Iraq, he still did not cooperate. His refusal to cooperate nullified the ceasefire agreement that halted the war back in the early 90's. Thus, his government was removed from power in 2003.
That's why we finished the original war in Iraq. But nobody seems to understand that, and I think much of that is the fault of G.W. Bush. He didn't explain it that way. Instead, he rode his wave of popularity as the anti-terrorism president and tried to make it look like a war against terrorism and WMD. And now, that's what most of the world (probably including most Americans) think it was about.
15 October, 2005
Day 82 - Samuel Slater, Nottingham
Today I visited Belper, home town of Samuel Slater before he came to America. Here's the story from the wall of the Derwent Valley Visitors Centre in Belper:
...and many years later, Samuel Slater's great-great-(not sure how many times) granddaughter married a nuclear physicist with the surname "Haugland". One of their sons had a son named "Matt", who is now trying to learn England's meteorology "secrets" and take them (legally) back to America. Or something like that.
The Visitors Centre is located at Belper's North Mill where Slater worked. It has several exhibits about him, including dolls/models of major events in his life and original machinery from the time he was there. Recently, new research has been done (and new discoveries made) about his life which will be featured in a video at the centre in a couple months. The tour guides at the visitors center said they'd mail me a copy of the video when it's available. They were intrigued to meet one of Samuel Slater's relatives all the way from America, but did not speak so fondly of Samuel himself. They admired his skill and intelligence, but called him (as many in England did) "Slater the Traitor" because he stole England's factory secrets and brought them illegally to America.
And that was only part of the trip. Later I met a friend in Derby who showed me around the Nottingham area. Nottingham is known for having the highest crime rate in England, so of course I had to see a couple of the most notorious areas there. They weren't nearly as bad as some places I've been, but definitely bad by England standards. We also went to Nottingham Castle and what remained of the Sherwood Forest. Yes, those are real places, and there was a statue of Robin Hood in front of the castle. Also in front of the castle was Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem, England's oldest inn/pub, established in the year 1189. It was awesome inside!
(click to enlarge)It was a great trip. Every place I visited exceeded my expectations. And on the way back, I went through two new counties. The total now is 33 (out of 39), with two more planned for Monday.
14 October, 2005
Day 81 - Flights & Seminar
I finally bought all of my plane tickets for my grand finale trip on 25-30 October. London to Oslo (Norway) on the 25th. Oslo to Frankfurt (Germany) on the 26th. Frankfurt to Reus (near Barcelona, Spain) on the 27th. Szczecia (Poland) to London on the 30th. I'm not entirely sure which train routes I'm gonna take to get from Spain to Poland, but at the moment I'm planning to go through Geneva, Bern, Zurich, Munich (maybe), Stuttgart, Hamburg, and Berlin. I might try to find a way to go through Liechtenstein and Austria as well, which would make this a 9 country trip. But I'll probably have to settle for 7 (5 being new to me).
As for smaller trips, I'm planning to go to Belper & the Nottingham area tomorrow, Devon & Cornwall (maybe as far as Land's End) on Monday, and a class field trip to Dorset next Friday-Sunday. I leave for Oslo two days after that. I'm trying to get all my traveling in before my rail passes expire and my nasty class schedule begins (both of which will happen around the beginning of November).
Earlier today I presented a seminar about my Ph.D. research for the Univ. of Reading's Boundary Layer (meteorology) Group. The seminar went VERY well. The observation & analysis parts were accepted surprisingly well despite my invention of new terms, unique way of looking at the boundary layer, and virtual ignoring of some of the factors they usually look at. On the modeling side, they gave very good suggestions and I see some excellent opportunities for collaboration. They're working on a model here that could be great for driving my model. I see loads of possibilities. And I think my research/model could be very useful for forecasting temperatures and fog in certain parts of England.
13 October, 2005
Day 80 - Place name references
Lately I've heard a lot of American music and a lot of British pop music, and noticed something very interesting. Much of the popular American music is filled with references to places in America (e.g., Hotel California, Devil Went Down to Georgia, Sweet Home Alabama), and these kinds of songs are still very popular here. But popular British music almost never has such references. There's no Hotel Cambridgeshire, Devil went down to Devon, or Sweet Home Birmingham (not the one in Alabama).
I think the reason for this is that they want their pop music to appeal to Americans, and British place references would make it sound too British. Americans on the other hand, don't care as much about the relatively small British market. Hence, they don't mind using a lot of American references. This might be yet another reason why Brits know more about America the we do about them -- they listen to songs about us. We don't listen to songs about them.
American place names are surprisingly popular here and in the rest of Europe. My favorite "high street" clothing stores (Burton, Topman, Envy, Republic) all sell clothes with American place names on them -- especially California. Even in places like France and Italy, many of the clothes they sell have names of American states, cities, or universities on them.
Sometimes they're somewhat obscure places. I've seen more "Utah" and "Iowa State University" shirts here than in America outside of those two states. The same can't be said the other way around. As much as I'd love to walk into an American clothing store and find shirts that say "Gloucestershire" or "University of Essex" on them, I don't think that's ever gonna happen.
12 October, 2005
Day 79 - Americans & the world
It's more than just my perception that people here think Americans don't know very much about the rest of the world. Many do think that, and have told me directly, including a few tonight. There might be some truth to it, but this time I'm gonna say why I think it's unfair.
Yes, it's true that British people know more about America than we know about them. But there are a lot of reasons for that which don't have anything to do with "American arrogance". Most of the movies here are American. Much (probably most) of the music here is American. Many of the popular TV shows here are American. None of these can be said the other way around. America is the world's only superpower. It has nearly 300 million people, roughly 5x more than the UK. And it was a British colony. So why shouldn't they know more about us than we do about them? Likewise, Welsh people know a lot more about England than the English know about Wales. And Idahoans know a lot more about California than Californians know about Idaho (and not just because half the people in Idaho are from California!).
They say Americans don't know what's going on in the world. Could it be because "the world" to them mainly consists of Europe and their former colonies (especially India)? Of course Americans don't know as much about Europe. We're thousands of miles farther away, in a huge country where a lot of news takes place. We're not as affected by what happens in Europe. Our states are as big and diverse as European countries. British people knowing what's happening in France is like Oklahomans knowing what's happening in Texas - and trust me, they do!! The British aren't exactly sharp on what's going on in Mexico and Latin America. It's unlikely that I'll hear any debates about CAFTA around here, or whether maquiladoras are good or bad for Mexico.
On to geography. Let's make a more fair comparison: U.S. states to European countries. Most Americans (but not all) can point to the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain (the major European countries) on a blank map, just as most people (but not all) around here can point to California, New York, Texas, and Florida. Sure, most Americans probably don't know where Belgium is. But most people here don't know where Oklahoma is. 9 out of 10 people (with the exception of meteorology majors) ask me "Where's that?" when I mention Oklahoma. Some don't know it's a state.
Even with their own country... when I'm in a group of people and one person tells us what town in England they're from, sometimes I find myself explaining to the other 3 or 4 (English) people where that town is. So I find it very ironic when people tell me (as one did tonight) that Americans don't know geography.
11 October, 2005
Day 78 - Perfect temperature curves?
[sorry if this post is too technical.. I'll be happy to explain some of it later if you'd like]
Today was very exciting! I added a simple dew parameterization (that I came up with Sunday on the train) to my model. To my amazement, it yielded a near-perfect fit to the 9/10/05 observations.
Then I dared to run the same exact thing with the initial conditions from 12/04/05, a night when the temperature dropped to 10°C (14°F) at the Micronet. The result: a stunningly accurate forecast for the first few hours, but an underestimation of the temperature once frost started to form. I'm not sure if it was a water vs. ice thing or just the lower temperature. But I tweaked the "condensation" parameter a little and that yielded this: a near-perfect forecast.
This doesn't mean it can forecast temperatures this well. It just means my equations can draw very good temperature curves for one average night and one really cold night. I think that in itself is great progress.
My next tasks: 1) improve the soil temperature forecasts. This should help a little with the air temperature as well. And I don't think it will be hard to do. 2) improve the net radiation estimates/forecasts. That should help the model work better in a wider variety of situations. It's SO great that Reading has a radiation expert!! 3) test it for other nights. After that, the no-turbulence part of the model will be pretty much done. Once the turbulence parameterizations are added, that's when the real magic show should begin - at least I hope.
10 October, 2005
Day 77 - County count
31 out of 39 counties.
I plan to visit at least two more (Devon & Cornwall) in the next couple weeks. And I've been within a few miles of three others (Sussex, Shropshire, & Herefordshire). That'll be 36/39 that I've been in or really close to. From talking to people here, I get the impression that I've seen more of England than most people who live here. Several people have told me that already.
I'm planning my last big trip (the grand finale!) for October 25-28 or 25-29. I don't know all the details yet, but I think it will involve a flight to Norway, another from Norway to Germany, and another from Spain to England. It should cover at least 6 countries on the ground, 4 of which I haven't yet been to. :-)
09 October, 2005
Day 76 - Cambridge & East Anglia
Today I went to London, Ipswich, Norwich, Cambridge and back to London.
At McDonalds in the Liverpool Stree train station (in London), I got a hint as to why train stations never have any garbage cans (see picture below). The same McDonalds also had some ridiculous faucets in the bathroom that nobody could figure out how to work. After that, there wasn't much to see between London and Norwich. Norwich was a nice town though.
The ride from Norwich to Cambridge was very nice, and looked a little different from the rest of England. It was some of the flattest land I've ever seen. When I arrived in Cambridge, it took some walking to get to a place where I could see something, but when I finally did I was VERY impressed. Cambridge was a bit more impressive than Oxford, and a lot less crowded. It's definitely one of the most attractive cities I've seen in Britain, right up there with Durham and Edinburgh.
I have a feeling that the OU library was modeled after buildings in Cambridge, because I saw at least 3 that looked a lot like it - one was almost identical.
(click to enlarge)Can anyone guess how many of the 39 English counties I've been to so far? Post your guess as a comment [or email me] and I'll give a prize to whoever's closest. I'll post the correct answer tomorrow.
08 October, 2005
Day 75 - Something's missing
I usually like food very plain, but lunch today was a little ridiculous. Along with the usual beans and sausage, they served hamburger patties with nothing else (no bread, cheese, or anything) and waffles with no syrup. They had something on the tables that looked a little like syrup, but it was vinegar.
How do people eat stuff like that? I don't think good hamburger meat exists in this country (it all has a similar taste, but it's hard to describe.. it's kinda like those microwaveable hamburgers), but even good hamburger meat would be pretty gross by itself. Good waffles with nothing on them wouldn't be much better.
I think Indian food is nasty, but it's extremely popular here. A lot of English people (and I say English because I didn't notice this in Wales or Scotland) talk about curry as if it's the best thing on earth. Uhhh, okay. Maybe if I grew up eating English hamburger meat, syrupless waffles, cooked tomatoes, chips (fries) with no flavor whatsoever, and steak without any seasoning, I might think Indian food isn't so bad. At least it has flavor.
07 October, 2005
Day 74 - Tunnel clouds & badgers
Today I had my first class at Reading. Well, kinda. It was the "Weather & Climate Discussion" module. It was extremely interesting to see a weather discussion for Europe. Very new to me. I learned a lot already. One of the things they talked about was the tornado in Birmingham a couple months ago. They showed a picture of it and the title of the picture was "tunnel cloud". And I know it wasn't a misprint of "funnel cloud" because they actually called it a "tunnel cloud".
During the afternoon I went to the first Boundary Layer Group meeting. It was neat to learn about what other MSc & PhD students were doing. Next week I'll be giving a seminar there about my research. I can't wait!!
Tonight I went to the meteorology department welcome party (for postgraduate students). That was a great opportunity to talk to a few of the professors/lecturers. But one of the most amusing moments was when someone mentioned that there would be
badgers around where our field trip will be. They couldn't understand why I was so afraid. When I explained that badgers are very ferocious, dangerous animals, they just laughed and laughed. Apparently British badgers are a lot more tame than American badgers?? Maybe the badgers here have
British personalities?
06 October, 2005
Day 73 - Output
Today was a great day. I met some new meteorology and CU people, got to know some people better, made progress on a GREAT new graphic design gig that I got a couple days ago (I'll tell you more later), and my nighttime cooling model is finally starting to do something (more on that in a minute).
The only downer today was lunch. It's so great to eat lunch at home while watching TV (usually Seinfeld or King of the Hill) or even while sitting at the computer working on something. But I can't do that at Windsor. And eating in a crowded cafeteria is totally not my kind of thing. It's impossible to have much of a meaningful conversation about anything in a situation like that (crowded, time-limited, etc.). I prefer sitting by myself and just thinking about stuff - but when I do that, everyone else probably thinks I'm some kind of weirdo. Still, it beats sitting there trying to think of idle things to say just to talk. Blah. Dinner tonight was a lot better because it thinned out and I actually got to talk to a couple people about more than just "so how were your lectures today?".
Alright, back to the model. It does something now! Here is a plot of my forecast temperature vs. the actual temperature at a Micronet site for the night of September 10, 2004 (the day I chose as the starting point for my calibrations).
As you can see, it performs beautifully for the first two hours. It nails the initial cooling rate and general look of the temperature trend. But something happens at t = 2hrs that the model doesn't pick up. Condensation! See the left-turn made by the actual temperature at 2hrs? The latent heat of condensation reduces the cooling rate once condensation begins (i.e., 2 hrs after sunset; and if that doesn't make sense, email me and I can explain it). The model doesn't take that into account yet. But the good news is, I think I can represent condensation with a fairly simple parameterization. We'll see. There may also be some other factors that I haven't considered yet. And this is just an easy ideal case. The real test will be predicting the wild temperature swings... well, you'll just have to wait and see.
05 October, 2005
Day 72 - History and purpose
Being in Britain/Europe has helped me see how much bigger the world is, and has gotten me more in touch with world history. That has made me look closely at seemingly-insignificant people & events that helped shape the world over the past 3000 years or so.
Tonight I was supposed to lead one of my cell groups on the first few chapters of The Purpose Driven Life. I've never been a fan of studying a secondary source without relying heavily on the primary source, but I just couldn't bring myself to cover the Bible verses given in the book. They seemed to be cherry-picked from random places without context. That's fine -- it wouldn't be practical to quote entire chapters along with historical background. But I recently spent several months studying with the Jehovah's Witnesses who pull verses out of thin air and string together sentences from totally different contexts to support their doctrines. It still gives me nightmares sometimes. So instead I did an exegetical walk-through of Jeremiah 1, which actually paralleled the book very nicely.
Jeremiah was told from the beginning what his purpose was. It probably seemed insignificant and futile at the time. Why preach to a nation that won't listen -- one that will soon be conquered and exiled? But he did it anyway. Some repented because of Jeremiah's prophecies, and the Jews eventually returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple (rather than disappearing forever as a people, which could've been very likely at that point). Today, it's hard to go anywhere in the world (especially places like the US and UK) without seeing the effects of what took place in Jerusalem 600 years later when Jeremiah's prophecy in chapter 31 came true.
Like with Jeremiah, God already knows what my ultimate purpose is, and has designed/molded me in exactly the right way to carry it out. Part of that included coming here. My purpose in coming here was mostly degree-related (pun intended). But I already believe it will have a big impact on the rest of my life, not just my degree.
04 October, 2005
Day 71 - Getting fired up
During the past 70 days, I've noticed a lot of things about English people. One of them is that, in general, they seem to have relatively passive, down-to-earth personalities - at least compared to most Americans. It's rare to see them get very fired up about something. They mostly just go about their business in a calm, almost stoic way.
It's very rare to see anyone's face light up when I ask about a subject they're interested in. Some even have to think for a while before they can name something that interests them! Most do have at least a hobby or two, but very few seem to be extremely passionate about them. There are meteorology students who are interested in meteorology, but I haven't seen any cars covered with instruments. Many people like to watch and talk about "football", but I haven't seen any houses decked out with giant team flags, mailboxes, welcome mats, lawn decorations, etc. Quite a few go out and get drunk at night, but I've never seen anyone do anything particularly wild.
I don't think I've met anyone yet with insanely big dreams/goals. I haven't met anyone who plans to change the world some day, or who's trying to start a big new (fashion) trend. I don't think I've met anyone out looking for a wild adventure.
Maybe it's just because I don't know anyone here that well. Or maybe it's a cultural thing rooted in history. After all, these are descendants of the people who stayed home while the wild adventurers sailed off to the New World. And out of those in the New World, it was the wildest of adventurers who traveled west to frontier lands like my home states of California and Oklahoma.
Tonight I met two exceptions - people who seemed unusually passionate about the subjects they were studying (meteorology and politics, both of which I can get very fired up about). Interestingly, both plan to study in America next year.
03 October, 2005
Day 70 - First day of school?
Today was the halfway point of my time in England, and also my first day of school. Well, sort of. I went to class, but the professor never showed up - he was in a meeting. Eventually, we were told today's class was cancelled and would be rescheduled.
But that didn't stop me from kicking off my first day of particularly intense dissertation work. For those of you who aren't familiar with what I'm working on, my Ph.D. dissertation is "The Uncoupled Surface Layer at the Crosstimber Micronet".
Basically, it's the name I gave to a unique layer of air that develops near the ground at the Crosstimber Micronet, a network of automated weather stations on my 5-acre tract of land in Oklahoma. The air in this layer is virtually motionless (smoke justs sits there without moving) and can get MUCH colder at night than the air over nearby areas. Besides documenting and explaining this phenomenon, I'm working on a computer model to predict nighttime weather conditions in areas affected by it (specifically the Micronet). Based on a new/different way of looking at the air/physics near the ground, this model has the potential to greatly improve nighttime forecasts, especially in areas that are poorly represented by today's forecast models.
There's a lot more to it, but those are the basics. If you'd like to know more, just wait a few months and I can mail you a copy of the dissertation when I'm done. Or maybe you could just visit the National Library of Wales and read it there :-)
02 October, 2005
Day 69 - That makes me an idiot
Around 3:00 this morning I woke up to the sound of very loud feshers returning from a night of drinking. People here seem to enjoy ranting about America when they're drunk. It was somewhat entertaining. Among the memorable lines I heard was
"anyone who voted for Bush is such an idiot". It was quite ironic considering the way they were acting. And of course, the war in Iraq and global warming came up.
I resisted the temptation to pop out of my room and give them 21 reasons why they were wrong and explain to them that both major presidential candidates supported the war in Iraq, it was Hussein (not GW Bush) who started this war when he invaded Kuwait in 1990 and later refused to abide by the ceasefire agreement, it was Clinton (not Bush) who first rejected the Kyoto protocol (and had good reasons for doing so), the popular understanding of global warming is based more on media hype and political demagoguery than actual science, and that there are intelligent people on both sides who had good reasons for voting for Bush or not voting for him. But debating drunk freshers about politics probably wouldn't accomplish much, except maybe proving my own stupidity. By the way, would one of you in Oklahoma mind sending me a Bush/Cheney sign or sticker? ;-)
But that wasn't the first reason why I'm an idiot. A couple hours before that, I received this (anonymous of course) comment on an earlier blog entry:
"hang on a minute now... you are PRAYING??? and you are worried about people eating cake with their HANDS??? Who's the idiot here, you or them??? Praying?? Christian Union???? Come on, get real...!!!!"I'm only responding because I think it was left by an English person (based on his other post about the Welsh), and thus represents at least a small minority of opinions here. As much as I would love to have a long intellectual debate with this person, preferably moderated and in front of a large studio audience, I doubt there'd be much point. People who say things like this, almost without exception, have little to no first-hand knowledge of what Christianity actually is, the historical background of the Bible, pre-rabbinic Judaism, or what I personally believe (which differs greatly from the usual caricatures of evangelical Christianity). But I don't think anyone should dismiss them as misinformed idiots. They're (often intelligent) people with a point of view that should be listened to with an open mind and addressed with evidence and sound reasoning, not simply dismissed.
As the readership of this blog is now over 100 per day (and I know I don't have THAT many family members) there's bound to be people who don't agree with the opinions I give here. Please feel free to email me:
blog @ matthaugland .com (no spaces). I will reply. And if anyone in the Reading area would like to discuss anything here, I'll be happy to meet you.
And finally, despite my policy of not revealing names on here (I don't think he'd mind in this case), I want to congratulate my brother TJ for his perfect 300 game in the bowling tournament last night! Wow!
01 October, 2005
Day 68 - Subtle natural beauty
I've heard several people here talk about how beautiful the Reading campus is, including someone who did their undergrad work at Oxford. It surprised me at first to hear that, because most of the buildings here are quite ugly -- nowhere near as beautiful as those at Oxford or even OU. In fact, even San Jose state generally has more attractive buildings than the Univ. of Reading.
But this morning I walked around the campus to take pictures and I finally understood what everyone was talking about. It had nothing to do with the buildings. It was simply the subtle, natural beauty of the park-like campus. You just can't compare this campus with ones like Oxford and OU, because it's so different. Here are some pictures:
(click to enlarge)
Tonight (along with a couple friends from church) I went to another subtly beautiful place that many would overlook. It's a town called Marlow, about 15 miles northeast of Reading on the Thames. We met an interesting character there who was "talking a lot of rubbish" -- on the ride home, I learned that "talking rubbish" is not the same as "talking trash" as you might think, but more like "talking nonsense". I also heard another interesting expression -- getting one's "knickers in a twist". I still don't know what that one means.
Day 67 - 1 week at Windsor
I survived my first week at Windsor Hall. I'm not sure if "slumming it" is quite the right term, but it definitely has been a different way of living. I still haven't totally gotten used to being woken up at 3 am by all the drunk freshers getting back, or the loud dance/techno music that always seems to be playing during the day, dinner at 5:30, or the soccer games in the hallway, but I think I might miss some of those things after I leave. I'll definitely miss some of the people here, particularly on my (6th) floor. And because of them, despite whatever I dislike about Windsor Hall, I don't think I'd rather be anywhere else right now.
