Durham

We were in Durham yesterday. First we met the county executive (I'm not sure if that's really his title, but that's the American equivalent of what he does, I think. Tim would know). He was nice. Tim asked him a lot of questions, some of which were a little provocative. He gave us all beautiful books about County Durham and really nice pens. I was really tired, so I don't have too much to say about this part of the day.
We went to a Rotary meeting for lunch, but we had to eat and run.
After lunch we met with the mayor of Durham. Mayors in England (for the most part) are purely ceremonial; they are members of the council, but don't make any sort of official decisions on their own as mayor. The mayor is the city's "first citizen" and takes the pre-eminent position at social functions. We toured town hall, with it's beautiful great hall and council chambers, and we took turns standing on the porch that overlooks the city square. I waved like the Queen but no one waved back :\ The ceiling in the great hall had a beautiful hammerbeam roof with angels on it, one of which can be seen at the left.
Next up was something I've been waiting for for months: the tour of Durham Cathedral. Durham isn't a very big city, especially compared with the nearby Newcastle area. But Durham Cathedral is the second-most important cathedral in the Anglican (Episcopalian) Church, second only to Canterbury. It's the resting place of the remains of three saints, and was built in between 1093 and 1133. Forty years is an amazingly short amount of time to put up a cathedral; most take a century or more to complete.
The door of the cathedral has a large door-knocker on it with the face of a lion. In centuries past, people accused of a crime could seek sanctuary at the cathedral and therefore avoid arrest. All they had to do was get to the door-knocker before the mob got to them. They were allowed to stay at the cathedral for 37 days and then either agree to stand trial or go into exile. If they chose exile, they were escorted to Hartlepool and put on the next ship going out, and they were dropped off at the next port-of-call that wasn't in England.
It's unfortunate that we weren't able to take pictures inside the cathedral, because it truly is an architectual marvel. Over the course of its construction, building techniques evolved and allowed for a safer structure. It wasn't as ornate as York Minster, but that only served to make it more approachable. To be honest, I don't have a top-of-the-line camera, and any pictures I would have taken wouldn't have done the place justice anyway. After all that anticipation, it didn't disappoint.
After the cathedral we took some time and walked around the shops in Durham. For being a college town and tourist destination, they still roll up the sidewalks at about 5:30 on weeknights. We only really had time to visit the chocolate shop, but then again that's the only shop that really mattered anyway ;)
At the dinner Rotary club meeting, we played games, which was a nice change of pace. We had to guess the objects that were in small bags; we couldn't see them, only feel them. After dinner, we worked in groups of four to see who could build the tallest standing structure out of newspaper and tape. My team's didn't stand up, but Tim's team won.
TTYL
Amy

Beer for my hearses

Sorry about no post for yesterday. It's been late nights and early mornings the last couple days.
My host is a funeral director. She drives a vehicle called a hearse-ette. The back is designed with rollers on which a casket can be more easily put in and removed when the seats are folded down. When the seats are up, it's a family car with a nice big trunk. The ultimate in practicality for today's undertaker. So yes, for the last three days, I've been driven around in a hearse. "Ummm... I don't think that black bag is mine..."
Yesterday we had our first vocational visits. Since I'm here to learn about health care in the UK, my host set me up with two of her friends: one is a pediatric endocrinologist who specializes in diabetes care, and the other is the administrator of a nursing home. I'm surprised by all the things that are different and the same. They still have inspections, and by similar accrediting and monitoring groups as we do. They actually do have private insurance in the UK, and it's a benefit of some jobs. The standards for diabetes care are very much the same, the major difference being that the patient is required to change the doctor who provides their diabetes care when they turn 18, because at that age they no longer qualify for a pediatric pracitioner.
Last evening we had more presentations, and we took 45 minutes to do them. We need to get it down to half an hour for tomorrow's lunch meeting and for conference, but the presentations were very well-received.
This morning we did cultural sites in and around Gateshead. First we visited the angel of the north. It's this gigantic iron statue that stands over the Gateshead skyline near one of the major expressways. The site it's on was once a coal mine. It symbolizes looking to the future while remembering the past. It also stands as a monument to miners, both steel and coal, and it's sort of there to "protect" the citizens of the area. It's really very impressive and imposing to see up close.
After the Angel of the North, we visited Quayside in Gateshead and saw the Sage Gateshead Music Center, which contains three separate music halls. And by separate, I mean that they really are three individual buildings inside one bigger building. Everything in the entire place is designed to be as close as possible to acoustic perfection, and also to not interfere with the acoustics of the other music halls.
Next up was the Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art. Most of this was closed because new exhibits were being put up. The building was designed to encorporate the north and south walls of an art-deco style building that was once a flour mill. There was a great view of the quay from the 5th story observatory.
After that was the Millenium Bridge, which is the only bridge in the world that tilts to let boats pass underneath it. The best way I can think of to describe it is like a cantilevered taco shell, but only the outside edge. Now imagine that edge of a taco shell standing up in a V-shape so the boats can pass under it. I'll get some pictures of it up here at some point.
After that, we had a lunchtime Rotary meeting with Gateshead East club but we didn't do our presentations. At the end of the club meeting, the gentleman who had been kind enough to show us around all morning presented us all with gift bags. Included in the bags were notes from his tour that morning, and a half-litre can of Newcastle Brown Ale for each of us. We all laughed because not one of the team has had a drop of alcohol so far on the trip, despite having been offered it several times. I imagine mine will go on the shelf along with some other collectable bottles I have at home.
We met with the mayor of Gateshead after lunch. He was very friendly and spent a great deal of time with us. The picture at the bottom is of us with him in city council chambers, sitting at the dias.
Tim handed me a flash drive tonight with pictures on it for me to post, but I don't think that these are all the pictures he wanted to give me. He didn't know how much this flash drive holds. I'll try to put up more pictures tomorrow.
Have a good night, everyone. It's really late, and once again we're up early and off on another adventure.
-Amy