Grace checking in. It’s been a busy past three weeks, and I can’t believe we only have 1 short week left until we’re back in the states! We’ve had a lot of day trips and discussions dealing with the past and present of Durham: the mining history with Beamish & Killihope, medieval history & Bamburgh & Lindisfarne, a panel with the Durham City Council discussing economic development, a tour of Netpark, and the weekly DukeEngage group reflections. These trips were supplemented by my own weekend travels, visiting Newcastle, Edinburgh, York, and Leeds.
The strong sense of cultural heritage in Durham, and in various towns and regions of the country have been deeply impressed on me. [I supposed I should say city, since people here will correct you if you say town, but I tease my Southern friends that Durham, NC isn’t a city either.] I’m amazed how much we talk about mining [and frankly, how much there can possible be said about mining].
At present, Durham seems very quiet and lackadaisical, but since it is summer and the majority of the population i.e. students is gone, it makes sense. Durham, and England in general, distinctly differs from the US in that just about everything except pubs and the Tesco closes up at 5 pm, whereas hours are much longer and more convenient for people working 9-5 jobs in the U.S. From talking to various parties, it seems that Durham’s primary economic problems are geographic, cultural, and educational. The portions of the population that are seeking higher education are also leaving Durham to seek better jobs and more affordable housing. It seems that Durham, UK has a similar economic inequality issue as in Durham, NC. We see a lot of nice cars and large houses, and prices here are very high, so there is clearly a lot of wealth here, but poverty and whole families of chronically unemployed persons aren’t uncommon.
I’m excited for the upcoming week with our largest camp of scullers, which will be travelling to Newcastle daily to row on the Tyne.
The strong sense of cultural heritage in Durham, and in various towns and regions of the country have been deeply impressed on me. [I supposed I should say city, since people here will correct you if you say town, but I tease my Southern friends that Durham, NC isn’t a city either.] I’m amazed how much we talk about mining [and frankly, how much there can possible be said about mining].
At present, Durham seems very quiet and lackadaisical, but since it is summer and the majority of the population i.e. students is gone, it makes sense. Durham, and England in general, distinctly differs from the US in that just about everything except pubs and the Tesco closes up at 5 pm, whereas hours are much longer and more convenient for people working 9-5 jobs in the U.S. From talking to various parties, it seems that Durham’s primary economic problems are geographic, cultural, and educational. The portions of the population that are seeking higher education are also leaving Durham to seek better jobs and more affordable housing. It seems that Durham, UK has a similar economic inequality issue as in Durham, NC. We see a lot of nice cars and large houses, and prices here are very high, so there is clearly a lot of wealth here, but poverty and whole families of chronically unemployed persons aren’t uncommon.
I’m excited for the upcoming week with our largest camp of scullers, which will be travelling to Newcastle daily to row on the Tyne.