Finally got myself to York

What a great city.  I really didn't have the time to go; although the end of school here is July 20th, I have to have all my final marks in by June 29th.  I also have to write 25 Summatives, or year-end reports, for all the students in my form (like a homeroom class) by June 30th.  We are giving timed writing exams to all our students for the end of the year as well as their classwork assignments.  That means I will have one week to mark about 160 papers from my students from ages 11 - 15.  I've been told another teacher is going to help me out, but I am still rather crazed thinking of what lies ahead. Oh, and I leave for a four-day end meeting for Fulbright in Edinburgh (you know, in Scotland?) on hmm... what day?  Oh yeah, Wednesday the 29th.

It's overwhelming and I've been stressing heavily about it.  What do we do those last three weeks?  I actually don't know.  I've been told that lots of students leave early so their families can go on holiday early, but three weeks?  argh. The consolation is that I won't have to worry about things as much after those early deadlines pass.

Back to York.

This is York Minster.  My crummy little camera doesn't do it justice, but it was impressive.  It's so huge!  And you know, about three times as old as my country.  Puts things in a bit of perspective, don't you think?  It took 250 years (15 different kings ruled during this time) to build it.

What's so fascinating about it is that there was an Anglo Saxon church, and a Norman church on this site, going back to the 7th century.  History man, history.

Of course, there are lots of other churches there.  This next one doesn't look too extraordinary, does it?

I was on top of a double-decker bus when I took this photo, and I'm sorry it's got the bar running right through it.  Do you see the main entrance at the left side of the church? That's where the people would come in to worship, or get married or to christen a child. But wait, see the small door to the right of the middle of the church?  That was the devil's door.  It was only opened briefly, right after a child was baptized.  It was to let the devil (because of original sin, the devil was in every child, of course) out of the church.  It would be closed again very quickly so he couldn't get back in.

Wait, there's more.  Even though the bar is running right over it, can you see the tiny double windows near the bottom of the church on the right? Those are Leper's Squints.  There were  a lot of people back then with Leprosy, and they weren't allowed in the church to avoid infection, but they were still expected to worship.  They would be able to watch the service through the "Squint" and stay outside at the same time.   Again, this history thing? pretty cool.

Here we are.  I didn't ask permission from M. to post this, but since she's hiding behind the shades, I'm hoping it's okay.  Got to be careful and all.  We took a bus tour, and the weather cooperated, which was nice.  You just never know what's going to happen.  Makes packing a pain, that's for sure.

I'm going to leave you with my last photo.  It's of the street name of the shortest street in York:

That's it. More like an alleyway than a proper street, but the name is funny.

I liked York.