Taxis and Cathedrals

Today was only the second day of our arrival and it was completely jam-packed! I started my day with breakfast in the refectory (British for cafeteria). There were some very strange items available, such as blood pudding, greasy "bangers," and equally fatty and oil-dripping bacon. I had some hash browns that tasted like the package that they are stored in, which according to my pallet leads me to think was a cardboard box. I also had some super bland corn flakes. Yum yum! After that, we went to get our student id cards for Liverpool Hope. Directly after that, we did a trial walk to our field placements. Google maps says that our school, Northway Primary School, is 1.3 miles away, a 25 minute walk. Well, Google has rather high expectations of the human's ability to traverse this distance in such a short amount of time. It took us a good 30+ minutes while walking at a brisk pace. So, I'm looking at a 30 minute walk to and from my placement each day, come rain or shine! At least I will have an amazing butt and toned legs by the time this trip is over. And judging by nasty factor of the food, I'll be losing some weight too! So yay for that.

After coming back from our field placement school, we had a lunch of nasty mush and chips (french fries to all of you back in the US). It's a safe bet that each meal will include chips and you are frowned upon if you refuse the chips at any meal. It's kind of an unspoken rule amongst the English. The afternoon was filled with some really neat sight seeing. We were going to see two cathedrals in downtown Liverpool. Our group had all lined up, excuse me, queued up at the bus stop. In a matter of minutes, the bus is approaching us. And-zip!-it drives right by us! Apparently you have to hail the buses, even if you are standing at the stop. After this, our prof sent a few of us ahead to the cathedral in a taxi. Let me tell you, the taxis in Liverpool are super cool and much less sketchy than those in Chicago. They seat 5 people in the back, which is actually very big. Three can sit across the back and two can sit on rumble seats that fold down from the divider between the driver and passengers.

Here is Anna, Stacy, and me in the taxi.

The first cathedral that we visited was the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King. This cathedral is derogatorily referred to as Paddy's Wigwam because it looks kind of like a tee pee from the outside. Construction of this cathedral started in the early 1900s but was left with only a foundation, now the crypt, at the start of World War 2. The original plans were to construct a cathedral which would be the largest in the world. However, the lack of funding and resources during the wall prevented the original plans from being executed. After the war, in the 1960s, a new plan was laid in place to finish the cathedral.

This is the original plan for the cathedral.

This is how the cathedral looks today.
The inside of the cathedral is completely circular and has 15 different smaller chapels branching off from it. The top cylindrical portion of the cathedral is made completely of stained glass. It's absolutely stunning and seems to include every color in existence.

This is the center of the cathedral. It is surrounded by pews. It seats 2,300 people.
One of the chapels. This is where new clergymen (I'm not sure which "rank" exactly) are initiated into the church.
A beautiful wood carving in the Chapel of St. Joseph.
This is by far my favorite chapel, the Chapel of Unity. This is a gigantic mosaic. It sparkled and was absolutely magnificent!

The circumference of the cathedral was decorated with the Stations of Christ, which I learned is the story of the crucifixion from Pilate to Christ's death. This was by far the most strange one of them all. It looks like Jesus and the cross are diving downward. It was very unsettling.

This next picture is kind of an inside joke. For my birthday this year, my friends gave me presents that were purple in theme. One of them was a gag gift of a saint candle. It was purple and of St. Martin de Porres, the saint of the poor. The last statue in the cathderal was of, you guessed it!, St. Martin!

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures in the crypt but it was made of arched brick ceilings. The trademark of the brickwork were sunburst patterns that represented the rising sun. They were very impressive. There were only a few dead bodies in the crypt, of former arch bishops, so that was disappointing. I was hoping to be creeped out. No such luck.