A second Thanksgiving away from home.

My visit to Leeds last weekend was lovely.  Leeds has a very American feel to it.  It's very spread out, the way many cities in the US are.  Kat tells me that this is because Leeds was once several separate villages, which gradually got larger and eventually morphed into one city.  It's got a very industrial feel to it as well, but also has a lot of green areas.  It actually reminded me a lot of my own hometown of Durham, NC in this way - the juxtaposition of brick-laid urbanity with nature.

I have not been able to shake this cough I caught on Iona, and Chaz had something similar, so we spent the evenings in Kat's living room drinking tea and watching Disney movies.  We also visited the Christmas market, the university, took a long-ish walk along the Liverpool & Leeds Canal, and visited the armory, wherein I fired a crossbow and finally hit the target on my eighth and final try.  The highlight of the weekend was undoubtedly Wendy House, which I gather is a dance night that happens at the University of Leeds once a month.  Instead of the usual techno and house drivel that gets played in the average nightclub around here, the music consisted of alternative rock, heavy metal, and 80s music, and everyone dressed up.  There were many corsets, zippers, belts, buckles, jackets, phantom masks, and flowing tresses.  I wore a very steampunk jacket and top hat combo, borrowed from Chaz.  We left at 2am, when I could no longer stand.  The second highlight of the weekend was the American-style candy store they took me to, which contained sugary goodness the likes of which I have not seen since my last visit to the US.  I bought peanut butter M&Ms, lemonheads, pop rocks, and whoppers.  It was glorious.

This week has been a pretty quiet one.  I've been trying to take it easy and not aggravate my cough.  However, now that I have less than 3 weeks to go, I've made the decision that I'm not going to skulk around my flat anymore.  From here on out, I'm doing something fun and interesting every day, dad-gummit!  Tomorrow I'm off to Nottinghamshire to visit distant cousins.

All in all, I'd say this second Thanksgiving away from home was much less hellacious than my first one.  I am thankful for rodent-free living quarters, thank you God, amen.

Cheers, y'all.