Robin Hood's Bay and Company

(NOTE: Site is broken, pictures coming soon!) Ahem- Anninha..

Hello!

I have just gotten back from a wonderful, scenic, intense, and challenging hike up in Robin Hood's Bay in Whitby, North Yorkshire. I have actually researched it, and despite all the spacious forests, no, "There is not a scrap of evidence to suggest that Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest folklore visited the Bay" (http://www.robin-hoods-bay.co.uk/html/local_history.htm). Just to recap, I did join the hiking society, so I will be going on various trips all over the UK!

Starting from the beginning, I must mention that I spent the last couple of days in a frantic frenzy trying to find suitable hiking boots. My friend Laura and I actually spent 8 hours in 2 days going back and forth between the only 3 stores in the city centre that sold hiking boots. The cause for our lack of success wasn't so much indecision, but the fact that there was such a limited selection. We had such trouble trying to find a boot that a) was suitable and durable for extreme hiking conditions in British weather, b) fit snuggly and comfortably with one or two pairs of socks, and c) wasn't rediculously pricey. Well I FINALLY found a pair at Black's (the hiking store, not the photography store) for 50 pounds on sale from 100. After today, I didn't regret buying such an unfashionable boot considering how dirty they're going to get anyways...

As for the trip, we boarded the buses at 8:30 AM this morning, and drove for about an hour to an hour and a half just north of Scarborough, until we reached a town called Whitby, the twin city of Whitby, Ontario woo hoo! We actually got to choose between 3 trails, and I chose a medium 11 KM hike around the coast of Robin Hood's Bay. It was so nice and beautiful, and the hike was at times, quite physically strenuous, even more so than the stairmaster when we climbed up foot high steps for 5-10 minutes. I kept taking my jacket/sweater off and putting it back on because despite the wind, I was getting so hot! It took me less than an hour to realize that maybe I should have signed up for photosoc (photography society), rather than the hiking society considering that I kept falling behind the group because I was taking so many pictures. Not surprisingly, the only people taking photos in our group were myself, a Chinese, and a Dutch- aka, none of the locals! But I think I did pretty well :).

Well the hike was absolutely exhausting, and I couldn't read on the bus ride home because I kept falling asleep, and I couldn't sleep on the bus because everytime we hit a curve or a roundabout (traffic circle- there are lots of those here), my whole body would swerve from inertia into the centre aisle of the bus, as I would have to quickly regain my balance and struggle to stay in my seat.

As far as classes go, I have finally, officially, committed to a full course load: Modern Literature, Environment and Society, A Scientific Study of Climate Change, Social and Cognitive Psychology, and Psychology- Cognition, Emotion and Behavior. That's FINALLY been settled!! I'm still not sure about what I'll be taking next semester, I've fallen in love with T.S. Eliot so I'm thinking of taking a course on him next semester, or one on Shakespeare! Note, this still doesn't help me figure out what career I want- I was so intent on psychology/psychiatry that now I'm even more confused!! But officially, I've given up explaining to people that I am in Arts and Science, I just tell them im in philosophy, as it officially stands.... how ironic.

One of the main maladies of travelling, in my opinion, is that too many people are overly concerned with seeing everything that they deprive themselves of the opportunity of experiencing the true culture, whatever may be the destination. As heard in one of my favourite Radiohead songs, "the tourist", and to quote, or misquote (sorry), the old proverb, "it's not the destination, but the journey". Since having arrived in the UK, I have had moments of wanting to do everything and see everything, only to have moments of doing absolutely nothing, of aimless wandering in the city, moments that have somehow attached to themselves more meaning than a visit to a museum or historical site. Like that cell phone commercial: the best place in the world: it's where your friends are. Despite how beautiful Robin Hood's Bay may be, I imagine it would not have been nearly as beautiful without good company.

And thus to quote my favourite poem by John Keats- When I have Fears That I May Cease To Be:

"WHEN I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high pil`d books, in charact'ry,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And feel that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;—then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think,
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink."