Greetings from Durham England! I can’t believe that it has already been 5 days since we got here. Despite the fact that we all arrived blury-eyed from the jetlag, all my sleepiness went away after the plane touched down in New Castle Airport. On the first day, my very first impression of the small town is it’s ‘mountainous’ nature. Walking seems to be the best option here because the streets are narrow and everything is at a walkable distance from the City Center. At first, I thought this was going to be a challenge for me considering how I have been quite sedentary in NC, but by the second day everyone including me seems to appreciate the exercise and the beautiful scenery along the way.
Other than the photogenic appearance of Durham, it also boasts a very long and interesting history. Yesterday we went to the Durham Cathedral and the Castle, two of the most significant places of the city. Both have almost 1,000 years of history, as they were built in the 1070s and 1090s. The Durham Cathedral is especially impressive to me, as our tour guide told us that it is one of the few Normandy architectures that hasn’t been remodelled after the original. It has surprisingly survived all the historical wars at Durham and still stands in perfect condition today. The cathedral itself is also a marvel of art, in which you can find an abundance of fresco paintings and unique designs of arches that can be rarely spotted anywhere else. Overall, I think the tour of the Cathedral has been the highlight of our visit here so far because it had really allowed me to gain a substantial amount of historical knowledge about the town.
We have also just started working at our worksite this morning. I am working at Durham Employment and Skills along with Yilmaz and Beini. Our supervisor Julie and other colleagues are all very approachable and gave us a very detailed overview of the organization. I really liked the fact that she is leaving us with very open-ended instructions to which we can be creative and add things on ourselves. In general, I am very much looking forward to working here and contribute as much as I can to this place in the next few weeks!