Oh hey, that American in Durham girl has a new blog!

WELCOME! I'm so pleased you've found Postcards from Leicester. What follows is a pictorial exploration of Leicester, England, and the world from the perspective of an American PhD student (that's me). Some posts may have tonnes of photos, others might only have a few. I do hope all of them will be entertaining. So I invite you to pour yourself a cuppa, grab a Hob Nob, and settle in.

Though I've only been living in Leicester for three weeks, it seems like I've been here a lot longer. I spent the first days settling into my new flat and trying to make it as cozy as possible.

This rug serves as a constant reminder of what country I'm living in. It's quite convenient actually, if ever I forget where I am, I have only to glance at the floor and I remember. Of course it also means that I have to sing God Save the Queen every morning. My neighbours don't seem to mind.

Those of you who remember the room I lived in when I was doing my Master's degree in Durham will be delighted to see just how enormous my bathroom is here in Leicester. It's so large I can't get it all into one photo! No more space pod, I can now move a double bed, closet, and refrigerator into the bathroom and live exclusively within its tiled confines. 

No room is complete without a TARDIS bed. Do I really need to elaborate?

Once I bought all the essentials (yes a TARDIS duvet is essential), I began to focus on what brought me here: my PhD. I scouted out the University's main campus as well as the School of Museum Studies where I am based.

The University of Leicester is quite a diverse place. There are so many different kinds of people from all over the world. I've already met people from India, Australia, Korea, England, the US, China, and Africa. Also, the library is pretty amazing. There are so many museum studies books! Three whole shelves full of lovely books. And once I have a stack of them, I can go into the exclusive postgraduate reading room on the first floor. (For you Yanks out there, the first floor is what we would call the second floor.)

The oval is a...wait for it....oval-shaped park not too far from the School of Museum Studies. I often see people letting their dogs run loose in there. It's one of many parks along New Walk, a pedestrian thoroughfare that cuts across the city. Don't worry, I'll do a whole post on New Walk because it is quite one of my favourite places in Leicester.

The School of Museum Studies is a pretty big deal. It was the first department of its kind in the UK and it's home to the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries. It's housed in a quite fantastic building with some great facilities. The PhD community is also pretty spectacular. We have our own peer-reviewed journal, we host our own conference every year, there is a blog, seminars, and tonnes more. (No, I'm not getting any sort of compensation for posting this. It's just an exciting place to be a researcher.)

For those of you who don't know, I LOVE dinosaurs. I was hugely excited to see this guy on the wall of the PhD Room at the department. Rar! 

What I really haven't yet had time to do sightseeing. It's been bitterly cold and after spending the past three weeks figuring out where the grocery stores are, signing up for training sessions, working out four times a week at CrossFit Leicester, and meeting with my supervisor, I just haven't had much brain to explore. That being said, I did manage to find the cathedral and a fabulous statue of R to the 3. That's right, kids, Richard III. No post about Leicester is complete without Richard III. (I actually think there might be a law about that.)

Okay so believe it or not this is Leicester Cathedral. Now I just want to remind you what I left in Durham...

Feast your eyes upon Durham Cathedral.

Majestic

Glorious

....and here is Leicester church, er, Cathedral. Alright, I know I'm being a snob, but I really almost walked by this trying to find something on the scale of Durham Cathedral. I haven't been inside yet, nor have I been to Guildhall which is just behind it. I hope to visit both soon. Maybe it's highly impressive inside. 

Alright, and here is the moment you've all been waiting for. The toast of Leicester, the king under the parking lot, let's give it up for Richard III and his gigantic crown: