The Simple Heart Will Be Prized Again

It's been quite a few weeks now and I feel like I am settling in well in Newcastle. The rumours are true, there is quite the nightlife in this city and I've probably been too engaged in it for my bank account's liking. I'm going to chalk it up to this being the first few weeks of school before everyone settles into the mounds of work that are coming our way. I'll probably need to remember these times in bleak February.
I like my advisor and my thesis has changed a bit but it's still got a Roman religion focus so I am happy so far. Occasionally I check into an Intermediate Latin class (when my schedule permits) for some review, and I've started accumulating data. I guess the first six months will just be gathering and reading and making sure that no one has published anything on the topic I want to discuss.
I met another Canadian girl that I happened to know at Laurier... it was quite the coincidence and as we have become fast friends, we've discovered that we have quite a bit in common. It's funny how things sometimes come full circle like that... and damn, don't the Laurier kids get around. I feel like everywhere I go there is a connection to WLU, it's somewhat impressive.
Michelle and I have become friends with some other people in her MA program... as a PhD student I am more isolated so I've ended up meeting friends through Michelle. We've travelled quite a bit on our weekends... went to the beach at Tynemouth, went to Alnwick Castle (aka Hogwart's in the first two Harry Potter movies) and tomorrow we are going to Hadrian's Wall. We've also explored quite a bit of Newcastle proper which is a really interesting city. I like the juxtaposition of old and new architecture... it's got a lot of character.
Yesterday we walked down to the Tyne and walked along the Quayside, viewing the Millenium Bridge, the Sage theatre and then going into the Baltic Gallery. I saw an original piece of work by the American artists KozynDan... it's a panorama of Newcastle life which is really cool since they were clearly commissioned for it and got so many parts of the city life dead on in their little parody. I should have looked into weather posters of it could be bought, but I am not sure of that... it was a very large mural. To compress it onto a poster sheet would probably mean the loss of a lot of detail on it. Perhaps it will be permanently displayed in the gallery after the exhibition it is part of leaves.
For now, I am very happy here. I kind of feel like I always knew that Newcastle would be a good place for me and I am glad that I am confirming my intuition. When I think that I spent so much time thinking about coming here to do my MA but now I am finally here for the PhD, I just think it's good that I eventually got to follow through on my original plan.
Ok... well as you can see I am doing well. Things have been hectic in the past few weeks but here are some pictures to keep you interested. Once I settle down into my research a little more, I hope to have more time to post more frequently.