February 23, 2008

• Saturday Observations
  
  I said I was going to post an entry on the Norman Castle.  I’ll get to it…sometime.
  
  First, some observations, and then I’ll tell you what we did today. (Ooh, the anticipation! It’s worse than Heinz Ketchup!)
  

  • Most people in Cambridge seem to be pretty fit.  It’s a biking and walking town, so I suppose that helps.  I was here for about two weeks before I saw someone who could stand to loose 40 pounds (my standard of truly overweight). I saw my first obese person today (lose 100 pounds or more), ironically sitting in front of Subway.
    

  • The small-sized sandwich bags are larger here than in America. My best guess for this is that the bread slices are larger  and longer than they are in the US. They are more like our quart-sized.
    

  • I’ve not really seen Tupperware-type containers here. Most people seem to reuse ice cream containers. I use baggies.
    

  • The copier paper here is different. It is called A4. (I don’t know what the USA paper is called.) A4 is about an inch longer and half an inch narrower than “regular” paper. Since this will stick out awkwardly in our homeschool portfolios and I had run out of the ream of copy paper I brought with me in January, I tried to find “American” copy paper (which is also what the guy at the stationers called it).  I left without buying any. Why? It was $42 American for 500 sheets!
    

  • I like to read Regency historical/romance novels. Strange thing, over here most of those authors are listed under “American literature”! The majority of English historical romances are set in hard-luck towns in England during the early 1900s, WW II, or contemporary times (with the exception of Georgette Heyer).  I guess real English people don’t care to read about imaginary lords and ladies in the early 1800s.

  Today we decided to go to the Museum of Cultural Anthropology. Only, we made a goof and went to the Museum of Archeology and Anthropology.  They are on the same street, so you can understand our mistake.  We were prepped for seeing 600 classical statue reproductions and instead saw three floors of artifacts from early Britain and lots from British colonies and explorations.

  One of several “totem poles.”  I don’t know their real name. This one went all the way to the roof–three floors!
  

  
  

  
  

  
  
  

  Wonder if they will ever get to the correct museum?
  

  
  

  
  

  
  
  I loved this turkey-looking jug. It was either Incan or Mayan.
  
  
  
  
  The third floor had exhibits of modern art from New Zealand.
   
  
  
   
  
  What mistakes did you make this Saturday?
  

  
  
  

  • 3:23 pm
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