A Hiking we will go!

The first full day I was here in York the Bioarchaeology department got together and went for a hike to Rievaulx Abbey. This was amazing for a few reason. 1. I got to go hiking in the English country side. 2. I got to see a really old abbey. 3. I met people from my department 4. I talked to my professors.

Let's talk about the English country side for a moment.Windy twisty roads to get to Helmsley were not the best on the stomach. No worries though I didn't get sick, someone else almost did before me so we stopped the bus. Helmsley has an adorable market square and is Know for it's castle. Obviously called Helmsley Castle. This is where we started our adventure. It's a 3 hour "hike" totaling 6.2 miles and climbing around 206 meters to the Abbey. .... they called this an "Easy" hike....

Helmsley Castle partway through the hike

We took "Cleveland Way" (I know right?!) as our trail. walking through fields full of sheep and horses. I'm not lying the horse actually got in our way sometimes and we could pet them! We dodged a LOT of poop too.

Horse. This one decided to walk on our path later.

Sheep!

I wish I had taken a picture of some of the "Hills" we climbed up and down... Ohio is flat so I thought of it more like a cliff. There were also some stone steps in the woods that come up to my knee that we had to get up. I also wish I had taken photos in the woods but I was worried about twisting my ankle on all the cobbles and I was already at the end of the pack. Needless to say I feel very unfit now compared to the English.

The Moors

We eventually did make it to the River Rye and to Rievaulx Abbey. The Abbey is an amazing Midevil Ruin. I was in awe and just kept doing "it's so OLD" and "I can touch it?!" The Abbey is like a park. dogs are welcome people can walk all over the ruins. There are really no restrictions, no guards telling you not to climb the rocks, no chains blocking things off. You can explore it as fully as you like. I LOVED it!

The River Rye

Rievaulx Abbey from a distance

Having some lunch

For more detailed information about the Abbey and the Hike here is a website. http://www.walkingenglishman.com/northyorkshire06.htm 

Now for what I learned about my department and York. Semesters in the UK are very short. Our first semester ends in December. We then have off until January and seconds semester ends in March. From march on we write our thesis and do research. The main professor for the bioarchaeology department is Oliver Craig. Apparently we are on first name basis with our professors. I had a nice chat with him during our hike since we was bringing up the rear and I was a little slow. 

I learned that their are only about 8 bioarchaology masters students, only 20-30 masters students in all of the fields of archaeology. They do this for a few reasons, first off all the class sizes are smaller and you can have more one on one time with the professors that way. They can concentrate more on you and you can't build a relationship. I guess it's not uncommon to hang out at pubs with your department and professors (as was evident by the stop at a pub we had when we got back to Helmsley). Oliver (or Oli) has an interest in Molecular biology of human remains, which I think is really cool. It seems that there are a lot more aspects of bioarchaeology than I expected.

Another great advantage of going on this walk was that I met other students. Most who went on the walk were professors or PhD students but there were a few other masters student who were from around York or from the UK in general. They have been very sweet and helpful answering my silly questions and correcting all the misinformation I had. Did you know it snows here? the internet said it didn't snow a lot. Apparently it does. 

Anyway I had a great time learned a lot and I really look forward to getting to know these people better and spend a year with them. It was kind of what I needed my second day in York. It made me feel better and got me some fresh air and breathing room. Unfortunately that also meant that I couldn't get anything done because every thing here closes at 6:00 so I had to wait another day to get groceries and a phone card. 

Here is another horse