Day in the Life

Now that I'm back from vacation and have finished blogging about it, life is back to normal.

Here is what a typical weekday looks like for me.

I wake up whenever I feel like it. (I haven't set my alarm since I got back from vacation, just allowing myself to wake up naturally, but I'll probably set it again at some point.) After breakfast and typical morning things, I go to my desk to start my work on Utah Historical Quarterly. On Tuesdays, I go into the office in Millcreek.

I do a small chore every day, so I usually do this halfway through my UHQ workday when I need to take a break. On Tuesdays, I do it after work.

Once I have done five hours of UHQ work, I then switch to my personal laptop to do my BYU work for three hours. (Using my personal laptop can make it harder to stay on task.)

Then I'm done working for the day. Besides work, my priorities each day are a chore, cardio, and strength exercises. So evening time is when I exercise, and the temperature and amount of daylight determine when I do those things. For strength, I either use my Home Workout app or our weight machine.

Ideally, my cardio is a trail run, and trail runnning is something I consider a hobby. There are so many options near my house, so I can change it up according to length, difficulty, shadiness, and other factors. It is such a refreshing and exhilarating activity. There are always new things to see, according to the time of year. This week, I saw the first red leaves of the year! 

Sometimes, the weather is not suitable for trail running, so I do some other form of cardio. Tuesday this week was hot, so I went and swam with the recreational swim team, but I do that more often in the winter and early spring. Likewise, I usually reserve street running and occasional biking for winter and early spring. 

And in the summer and fall, I like to go on walks in my neighborhood to try to eradicate goatheads. There are three spots in the neighborhood that I have adopted, and I do think I've made a significant difference in those spots. There have been several times this summer I've gone on a walk and haven't found any to pull up. Of course, there are plenty of other goathead patches out there. But by maintaining these three spots, I prevent their nefarious seeds from spreading to other spots; and if any seeds get transferred to them, I can pull them up there.

After doing all this, I often have some extra time, which I might spend cooking, reading (mostly academic history books), writing, or shopping.

Of course, I don't always do all these things. There are other things that alter my schedule. These include church activities, family events, community lectures, and other things. 

One adorable diversion was on Wednesday this week. I went to finish a chapter of a book (see below). Predictably, Reggie came and sat on me while I read. What was unusual this time, however, was that he sat on me for more than an hour and a half. Not wanting to move him, I just spent some time looking at my phone and doing more reading than I expected. So I didn't do cardio that night. (Part of that was the temperature.)

What was I reading? I get a lot of free books for my job that I am obligated to read, and one of the books I got was a memoir called A Million Miles: My Peace Corps Journey by Jody Olsen. It sounds like a real snooze fest, right? For many of these work books, I "gut" them, meaning I read the introduction and conclusion and skim the rest. But for this book, I was surprised that I actually wanted to fully read it! The author writes in such an engaging style, a style I would expect more from a novel. She was the daughter of a Utah politician, and then she became director of the Peace Corps during Trump's first term and COVID. The book talks about her time with the Peace Corps over the decades. But she also tells a fascinating story of her family life. When Jody was a young child, her birth mother left the family, but then they reunited when Jody was in her twenties. Jody and her brother spent some time with another family, and the mother of that family threatened the children that she would kill herself with a hammer if they didn't quiet down. Jody's father remarried, and her stepmother often told Jody she couldn't attend school events because she had to help raise her younger siblings. Jody's brother died in a car crash at twenty-one. And after nearly three decades of marriage, her husband came out as gay and married a man (at a time when this was less common), but they ultimately remained close.

Anyway. If you ever have been curious about what a typical day looks like for me, this might give you some idea!

Wales and More

This is the third installment in my blog of my UK trip, which people don't seem very interested in, but I'm blogging more for me than for others.
Part 1: Scotland
Part 2: England

On Thursday, August 7, we boarded our tour bus to head into Wales. I was excited to see Wales, because I feel like I have a bit of an affinity for the country: In 2017, I did a lot of research on Dan Jones's missionary labors in the country; I casually observed the national holiday, St. David's Day, in 2017 and 2018; and this year, I visited Wales, Utah, on St. David's Day. It was fun to go to both Waleses in the same year! Logically I have more of a connection to Scotland and England (ancestry, culture, and language), but Wales intrigues me. I was a little disappointed we only got part of one day there.

As we drove into Wales, our guide pointed out that the signs were in both Welsh and English. A generation or two ago, kids were punished for speaking Welsh in school. But now they're encouraged to speak it.

We stopped at Tintern Abbey, which I think was primarily built in the thirteenth century. Today it's just ruins, but what was there was lovely. There was this bilingual sign for children that explained "Who ruined Tintern Abbey?" Stonemasons built it and monks upkept it, but then Henry VIII ("boo! hiss!") closed it down and confiscated many of its materials. Townspeople lived in the ruins with their livestock.

There was a gift shop, and I was eager to try these leek-flavored crackers, since leeks are the national symbol of Wales. Just like the thistle in Scotland, I was disappointed there weren't more (any?) souvenirs with leek designs.

Then we drove over to Caerphilly Castle, which still has a moat surrounding it. I took a picture of a handy interpretive sign, which provides this timeline:

• 1268: Built by an invading Norman lord
• 1270: Destroyed by a Welsh prince
• 1271: Built again bigger, stronger—Wales' largest castle!
• 1316: Lady leads castle's defence during a six week siege
• 1326: Hideout for a doomed English king
• 17th century: The famous leaning tower starts to lean!
• 19th and 20th Centuries: Coal millionaires restore the castle

This place had a way you could go sequentially and get the full story, but I found that confusing, because there were lots of floors and directions you could go. And also, to get the full story, you had to watch some videos with CGI animation. We didn't have all day, so I didn't see all of the castle. But it was cool to see!

They had audio recordings telling the story of the red dragon, but I didn't listen to it

Then we drove over to Cardiff Bay. At this point, it was pretty rainy, and some of us (🙋‍♂️) didn't have jackets or umbrellas. We went by the bay, where our guide pointed out the Norwegian church in the distance where Roald Dahl was christened. I also think the area by the water was named for Dahl. But we didn't want to stick around because of the cold, wet weather.

I really liked this window painting of the iconic red dragon and daffodils. But still no leeks.

We went to a large rest stop in Wales (it had several fast food shops and convenience stores), and I was happy to by some mass-produced Welsh cakes, which I made on St. David's Day in 2018. (I liked mine better, but I don't know which ones were more authentic.)

That night, we went back to our hotel in Bath, and our guide took us on another walk. He showed us the house where Jane Austen lived. As we were all gathered around, a woman inside waved at us.

We also saw a cool church with many elaborate carvings. It had angels climbing and ascending ladders. 

The statue on the left here has a smaller head than the one on the right. That's because at one point, they decided statues were idolatry, so some people tried to destroy the statue. But then later they decided to keep it, so they converted the statue's remaining beard into its head.

The next morning, Friday, August 8, we toured the Roman Baths. This is a museum on a site where the Romans had a bathhouse. That means a lot of the stuff here was a thousand years older even than the castles we saw! But the museum itself dates to the late nineteenth century, I believe.

Here is the spring's running water

At the end of the tour, they had a running faucet with the natural spring water, which many people thought had health benefits (hence building a bathhouse). I took a swig. But drinking warm, mineral-laden water from a paper cup isn't extremely appetizing.

Then we drove to the town of Lacock, where we visited a cathedral where parts of the Harry Potter movies were filmed. (Because I was overly scrupulous for many years, and I don't watch many movies these days, I haven't seen all of the movies.)

Then we walked around the town of Lacock. They even had a fourteenth-century tithe barn, where villagers would pay tithes in items such as corn or fleece. I'm only familiar with that from a Latter-day Saint context, but it makes sense that nineteenth-century Americans would adapt it from a centuries-old practice.

After our lunch, our tour bus took us to Blenheim Palace, which was built in the eighteenth century. Winston Churchill was born here, so there were exhibits devoted to him. 

Then we drove into Oxford. This was another very fancy hotel, the Randolph Hotel, which leaned into a literary theme. The key cards were "student IDs" for J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. 

They had a seventeenth-century document framed on the wall. I assume it's an original, because the text doesn't seem especially significant for them to bother creating a replica.

"December 30, 1645. Deliver unto the bearer hereof, for the present use of his Maiesty, a Book Intituled Histoire Universelle du [something] D'Aubigné: and this shall be your warrant: His maiestyes" and I can't read the rest

The hallways had cool carpet—which was good, because it was a long adventure to get to our room

We had dinner at a local Italian place, and then my dad wanted to stop in a little grocery store. I'm always down for a grocery store. I was happy to try the British chocolate candy Smarties, which are like M&Ms but better, and the orange ones are flavored like orange! 

The next morning, August 9, we had breakfast at our hotel's fancy restaurant, the Alice, which had various paintings inspired by the Alice in Wonderland books. I loved those books when I was ten and eleven, which I think indicates I was destined to work in history, because what ten-year-old reads nineteenth-century books for fun?

"Drink Me" and "Eat Me"

We toured the various grounds and buildings of Oxford University, and I can think of at least three people I know personally who got graduate degrees there. (No wonder I heard an American accent in the grocery store!) There were lots of people on bicycles. As two old ladies rode by on bikes, I heard one of them complain, "Last week it was graduation, and this week it's tourists!" 

My dad and I briefly went into the Ashmolean museum, which had artifacts from all over the world, but we didn't have time to see much. I got a journal, a rhubarb-flavored chocolate bar, and a dodo ornament that I suppose was inspired by the Alice books.

Next we drove to the eighteenth-century home of Jane Austen, and we saw the church where her mother and sister are buried. I have never read any of her books, so I don't feel a connection.

Then we drove to Canterbury for our final hotel of the trip. Canterbury closes its main part to cars, except for deliveries at certain hours, so it is pedestrian friendly. Which is good, because there are lots of pedestrians. 

We stopped at our hotel, and once again, I had a separate room from my parents. I enjoyed our hotel's dinner, which included cold watermelon soup for the first course, but it took a long time. I went on a run near the river, but it was getting too late, so I went less than two miles. I would have loved to explore more of Canterbury, which I found entirely charming. 

The next morning, August 10, we had breakfast in our hotel. Unlike all the other hotels, this was not a buffet, and they were so slow! 

Since it was Sunday, we went to a church service at Canterbury Cathedral, which is many hundreds of years old. Like, a thousand years old, but I don't know how much of the eleventh-century structures are still there. It was originally a Catholic church, but after Henry VIII instituted the Church of England in the sixteenth century, it has been Anglican ever since. Canterbury is one of the heads of the Church of England.

Our guide told us we didn't need to dress up, so it was unusual to wear casual clothes in a church service. And it was unusual to attend a service in such an ornate, enormous, old building. The priests (or whatever ecclesiastical position they had) gave us liturgical books. One clergyman would read a passage, and then the congregation would read the next passage together aloud. There were markings in the text for where we were supposed to pause. It was foreign to me, and yet it reminded me of Latter-day Saint temple liturgy, which made me even more annoyed with people who belittle or mock temples. I think anti-Mormonism must share its origins with Protestant anti-Catholicism.

Anyway, we weren't allowed to take pictures of the rooms where services were occurring, but we could in the first room of the cathedral. 

We saw an American pancake house where they chartered the Mayflower. Or something like that. There was some Mayflower connection.

There was also a statue to Geoffrey Chaucer, who popularized literature with his Canterbury Tales. I might have read that if I had taken Middle English in college, but the time it was available conflicted with geomorphology, which I took instead. (I don't regret the decision, but it would have been cool to study Middle English. At least I got Old English and Early Modern English, which were before and after Middle English.)

Then we drove to Broadstairs, a sea town where Charles Dickens spent a lot of time. There were narrow streets, and we were amazed that our bus driver was able to navigate it. Dickens often complained about the noise and tourists of Broadstairs, which made sense. There was a "Folk Week" festival going on, and our guide said he had never seen Broadstairs that busy. 

There were various buildings where Dickens stayed, and many businesses had Dickens-inspired names. There was a wall that had seashells in it, and one even had a miniature Dickens bust. 

We went down and looked at the sea. 

Then we walked along the beach. I took my shoes off and waded in the water. I was a little disappointed we didn't have swimsuits, but we also didn't have a ton of time there. 

They had various vendor booths set up for Folk Week, so I went to a booth and bought some "Olde English" fudge. This seemed a bit more rustic than usual fudge, and I tried to get more British flavors. 

Clockwise from top left: Turkish delight (which imparted a rose flavor to the rest of the fudge), clotted cream, Scottish something, rhubarb (there were a lot of rhubarb-flavored treats!), Dubai chocolate (twice by accident), and candy floss (cotton candy)

Then our bus picked us up again, and we headed to Rochester. Rochester was another place with lots of Dickens stuff. Dickens received a chalet as a Christmas gift in 1864 (right?!), and he did a lot of writing there.

And whaddaya know, there was another castle in Rochester! But we didn't go in this one. Same with the chapel.

As we walked back to our bus, we passed a building that was tilted. It was literally called "The Wonky House." 

This was our last spot with our guide, Peter Fagg; he caught the train in Rochester so he could get home for his next tour group, with the Wilford Woodruff Papers, the next day.

We got on our bus, and our driver took us back to Canterbury. There is a pedestrian underpass to get to the noncar section of the city, and there were murals of various people from Canterbury's history. People have defaced Henry VIII's face and put gum on it! 

Then we had a group dinner at a restaurant that was built in the early 1500s. I was surprised to walk in and see an autographed picture of the original Morticia! 

It was a cool old building of a restaurant. 

When else do you get to dine next to armor?

Unfortunately, it was also extremely slow. We were there two and a half hours! In fairness, there were a lot of us, but the other restaurants we went to as a group weren't so slow. Our bus driver ate with us. I got to have iconic fish and chips. It was fine, but a little bland, so I don't get why it's such a popular thing. 

That evening, my dad and I walked on a portion of the wall surrounding Canterbury. There was a wall there going back many centuries, but I think the wall we were on was from the 1960s. There was an interpretive sign for a Roman tower that was covered in glass. But it was also covered with a metal grate, so it was impossible to see. 

Good luck seeing Roman ruins through that!

We walked to an overlook where we had a good view of Canterbury. On our walk, we also saw several other people from our group who had the same idea for an after-dinner walk.

Then on Monday, August 11, we checked out of our hotel for the beginning of a very long day. Our guide drove us to the Heathrow Airport, which was the closest we got to London. The check-in process was a little confusing, but we made it. 

My parents let me have the window seat. I didn't look out that much (I wanted to keep it dimmer for people who were trying to sleep), but it was fun to see remote Canadian islands. 

Is this Mansel Island?

I was glad I brought good headphones, because the flight was so long I was able to watch four movies on the flight: Wicked (9/10), Pee Wee's Big Adventure (8/10), Barbie (8/10), and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (8/10). They also gave us so many snacks and meals!

We arrived in Denver, where we had to walk a long distance to get to customs. People complain about the long walk at the Salt Lake airport, but it had nothing on Denver! And then we had to pick up our bags before immediately sending them on the next flight, and we had to go through security all over again. Their security scanners frequently flagged passengers' stuff, even if there was nothing prohibited in them, and they took a long time. My mom's bag was flagged because she bought a drink in the Heathrow airport, but then we had to go through security again. Then we had to go directly to our connecting flight. I think they delayed the flight just for our group, thankfully.

We had an uneventful flight into Salt Lake City, where my niece, Allie, an airport employee, accompanied us to the pickup area, where my sister picked us up. It was a fun trip, and we were glad to be home! 

I think my biggest highlights were St. Andrews, Haddon Hall, and Canterbury.

It was my first time in Europe, and it was convenient that everything was planned out for us, so we didn't have to worry about commuting to different locations, though the big group could get overwhelming. And it was nice to be in a place where they spoke English. I wondered what people thought about us as obviously American tourists, but I was always happy to have British tourists when I worked at This Is the Place. Of course, we watch British TV and movies, and the TV channels there had American shows. And it was funny to see Will Ferrell in an otherwise British commercial!

Though they spoke English, there were some linguistic quirks I noticed. I understood what they meant, but we would generally say different things. Here's a partial list. 

UK English	US English
Nibbles	Snack
Lift	Elevator
Way out	Exit
Proper	(Actually, what would we say?)
Loo	Toilet
Toilet	Restroom
Bits and bobs	Odds and ends
Car park	Parking lot
Give way	Yield
Ground floor	1st floor
1st floor	2nd floor
Coach	Tour bus
Soya	Soy
Called	Named
Still water	Water (for drinking; nonsparkling water)
Floor	Ground
Flapjack	Oatcake
That’s OK, that’s all right	You’re welcome
Binning	Throwing away

And now that this blog series is over, I can once again move on to normal life in Utah.