Exploring the City of Durham

In the States when you're looking for a house, you call an agent, tell her what you want, and then she'll draw up a list of potentials for you.  She'll even come and pick you up at your house and show them to you, even if they're not listed by her agency.  You might see 10 houses in one day.  Um... that's not the case here.  

You have to physically go into each separate estate agency and look through a book of listings, pick which ones you want to see, and then make an appointment to see it with an agent, which might not happen for several days.  Then, you have to find the place yourself and meet the agent there.  It made the process very slow for us, which was frustrating, especially because we didn't have phones at first, and we definitely did not have internet access out on the farm.  We checked out about seven or eight places eventually - but over a week's time.  

During our non-house-hunting time, we got cell phones, set up a bank account, ran several errands at the University to get Nathan fully registered, etc.  We stopped in a coffee shop to get our first dose of internet and to tell our families that we were here safely, even though it had been a day or two.  We ended up having to pay for the internet by registering for an account, but it wouldn't take our credit card because Citi thought someone had stolen it - even though we told them we were moving and NOT to shut down our card.  Grrr...  

Anyway, we discovered the public library the next day, which allowed us free WiFi for the life of our computer batteries (our adapters don't work there for some reason) or the ability to use their computers for 30 minutes at a time.  Below are some pictures of us taking tea and coffee and of the Palace Green, where the Durham Cathedral and the castle meet, and where Nathan's department office is located.  Isn't it gorgeous?  We've had such lovely weather so far.  It's been great.

In the parking garage in the City Centre, Nathan pressed the button to get a ticket, but out came what looked to be a yellow poker chip.  It somehow knew when we came in, because when we deposited it into the pay station on our way out, it charged us the right amount of money.  Nathan got a kick out of saying "chip coin issue" in an obnoxious British accent every five seconds after that.