Belated Thanksgiving Post

How did anyone ever keep up a long distance relationship without the Internet? I'd never felt more isolated in my life than those first few hours after arriving in Leeds before my Internet was connected (while I had no phone either). Especially now that I'm alone in a foreign country, my computer is my lifeline to the rest of my world and I would be totally lost without it!

This Thanksgiving, I was VERY thankful for Skype. I still haven't found any other Canadians around to hang out with, so it goes without saying that I was on my own for Thanksgiving this year. Thankfully, Josh suggested an e-date via Skype for the event (dinner for me, lunch for him). Each of us prepared a meal, poured a glass of wine, and dined by the light of our LCD monitors. It was actually a lot of fun and *almost* felt like the real thing.

Running in the Woods

Today I made the most amazing discovery! I decided that I needed to get out for a run since the gym is so far away and it's not worth going if I'm not already on campus. I'd been a but apprehensive about running in my neighbourhood because from what I'd seen of it so far, it looked pretty sketchy. BUT I decided to go for it and I went out on a main stretch of road in the only direction I'd never been.

What Google maps and streetview didn't tell me was that there were walking/hiking/cycling paths leading from the road into a lovely forest and just how close those paths were to the river (River Aire)! I didn't get too far at all before I came upon the famous Kirkstall Abbey. The ruins of this 800 year old monastery are incredible--especially in the backdrop of the fairytale-looking forest on the river. You know the kind, with great old trees that are spaced fairly widely (so it's an easy thing to "run through the forest"... not like in the Canadian boreal forests) and there are massive willow trees that lean way over and dip their long branches into the river on either side. I had the biggest grin on my face as I was jogging along. Eventually, as I passed the abbey and the path narrowed, I had to slow down... not because I was tired but because I was on the riverbank and I was scaring the ducks! It was too beautiful to run by anyway.

That was JUST the motivation I needed to get a running routine down! I have to go back now to get pictures and to see the place on a sunny day when the leaves have turned more brightly fall colours. I will definitely post pictures soon!