Success all around!

Today was officially successful (as were the last few, but I'll tell you about those in a minute). A local British man smiled at me AND said "hello!" to me today on the street!!! This is huge, people. For those of you who don't know, British people are not known for their congeniality. I stare people down on the street as they pass me on the sidewalk and they never look at me at all - it's as if British people are unaware that anyone else is on the sidewalk. They get "in the zone" when they go places and they are not about to lose focus. But today, yes today, a man looked up from what he was doing, looked me in the eye, smiled and said "hello!" in a very British voice. I was so shocked I almost didn't speak, but, determined to prove my American friendliness, I smiled back and responded with a simple "hi!". It was a monumental conversation. I feel as though I have had huge success in a small area of my life.
On to my next success story: Sunday after church I stopped by Sainsbury's for some grocery's and then walked home - it was very windy that day, yet I had chosen to wear my favorite peacock-feather earrings anyway. They matched my green Christmas sweater perfectly and I could not pass up the opportunity to wear them. After receiving a few compliments on my homemade jewelry, I was feeling quite good about myself. So I guess I deserved to lose one of them as punishment for my pride. When I came home to change clothes, one of the beloved feathers was gone. I was pretty upset - as Eryn said, "there's just something about jewelry you get attached to. It's worse than losing clothes!" and she was right. But, assuming I had lost in in the wind, I did not waste my time backtracking through the busy streets of Oxford. About 24 hours go by. I am on my way down to city center for INTS class. We are walking in a big group, talking, not paying much attention to our surroundings when, by coincidence (except I don't believe in coincidence, so it was fate) I looked up at a sign on the wall as we passed. It was a yellow sign, but I'm not sure what it said because I was distracted by a small, beautiful feather hanging on its corner. Yes! It was my earring! A miracle! My earring had been placed behind the corner of the sign and was sticking out as though a peacock had been sitting on the sign or something (unlikely...but so is the fact that I found my missing earring!) I was joyous. Triumphant. I told everyone my story, now including everyone who reads my blog. The world does have good people in it. Some kind Oxonian found my feather and knew the pain its loss had caused me and decided to their part in making my world a more beautiful place. (the picture of me with my beautiful feather was taken and edited by jessalyn. she rocks.)
Well, now that I have told you my success stories, there isn't much time for anything else so I'll make it quick. We took our first field trip yesterday to the North Gate Tower (picture above on the left) - the oldest structure in Oxford. It is the actual north gate from when Oxford (as well as all European cities) were surrounded by a wall. We saw bits and pieces of the wall all around Oxford - it was very strange to think about what Oxford might have been like when the towers and wall were first built. The view from the tower was great!
Today I went to the market for the second time - this time early in the morning before class so I could be sure to get my chicken from the butcher! I made it back for class and then fixed myself an excellent omelet for lunch made with my fresh eggs and tomatoes from the market and british cheddar cheese yummmm. Tonight I will try some of my fresh chicken breast and maybe some green beans. I'm learning how to fix more suitable meals now that I'm sick of the same thing every day. This afternoon, Adrian, Kris and I went "rambling" (a favorite pastime of the English, meaning to walk along the countryside for a while - I enjoy this tradition very much) to University Parks and Port Meadow. I got to feed the horses again - this time we had sugar cubes so they were much more willing to stick around and be friendly! I will be spending a lot of time with the horses this semester I am sure. If I weren't afraid for my life, I might try to ride one. I think it would be less than happy about me being on its back though. I'll let yall know if I get brave or lose my mind and try it.
Going to London Friday - I'll write more later! Cheers!

I'm not lost...just undiscovered

(Lyrics from a James Morrison song, "Undiscovered") that's exactly how Katie and I felt yesterday. Ok let's start from the beginning. 11 of us got up early to get to the train station by 7:45 (actually, 10 of us got up early, Andy didn't wake up, but he ran to the train station and made it!) and took a train to Salisbury. We made our connections without any problems (I was so proud) and we thoroughly enjoyed our first train ride through the English countryside! It was beautiful - we even got to see the sunrise. When we got to the train station in Salisbury, we caught the next bus to Stonehenge and rode 20 minutes out into the middle of the country where Stonehenge is located! It was amazing! We got to have an audio tour and hear all about the different theories about how those stones got there and why they were brought from so far away. It really is mysterious - no one really knows why they are there or how exactly they got there, but they're there, standing on end in the middle of a field with some sheep! Some people think that it was used as a calender because of the (amazing) way the stones are set in accordance with the pattern of the sun throughout the seasons, some people think it had something to do with the stars, some people think Merlin had something to do with it...who knows! 1/3 of each stone is buried underground to hold them in place (how did they dig such huge holes???) and the largest stones weigh about 45 tons! The whole thing was just amazing and beautiful. It was so strange to stand there looking at something so old and think about that people thousands and thousands of years ago built that! I wonder what happened to those people, that no one was there to pass down the story of Stonehenge and now it is all mostly a mystery to us. It was also neat to be out in the middle of the countryside like that - there were just rolling green hills in every direction (and sheep!).
After we left Stonehenge, we went back into Salisbury and made our way through the town to the Cathedral - it was incredible! This cathedral has the tallest spire (steeple in American) in all of England, maybe even Europe. It also has the oldest working clock in Europe. That thing has been keeping time for who knows how long! This cathedral was amazing - the structures and the stained glass - it was all so cool. There was a beautiful wedding going on while we were there too! There was a really pretty court yard in the middle, and in the Chapter Room they had one of 4 surviving original copies of the Magna Carta! It was so strange to look at a piece of paper that was written on about 800 years ago that influenced so many people all over the world for so many years. We also saw some writings by Geoffrey Chaucer - how weird to look at a piece of paper and think "Geoffrey Chaucer wrote those words right there with his own ink." That's just bizzare to me.
Well, about half way through looking through the Chapter Room, I looked around and saw Katie Stansell and realized that she was the only person from our group that I'd seen in about 20 minutes. So I walked over to her, mentioned it, and, not being immediately concerned, continued looking at all the neat stuff. Well, we left that room, hung out in the court yard for a while, and then decided we better go catch up with the others (There we all are on that bridge up there before we got separated...) Well, we left the cathedral and went out into the meadow next to it - a wide open space where it is easy to see everyone - and didn't see anyone we knew. So we figured they were still inside so we sat down to wait. Well, after going back inside and checking around and then waiting about 30 minutes outside of the cathedral, we decided they must have left us and we had no idea what to do. We didn't know where to look for them, or where they would have gone...I mean, did they really leave us? Do they even know we're gone? We weren't lost, we knew exactly where we were - we just had no idea where they were! So we walked around Salisbury, and we walked some more. We stopped at a chocolate shop to calm our nerves (English pastries work miracles) and kept walking. I tried on a few hats (I really need to buy one so I'll fit in...) and we kept walking. We went back to the train station and then walked back into town. By then we were so tired of walking that we just decided to go to the only place we had talked about eating dinner and hoped that they would show up eventually to eat. Well, sure enough, about 15 minutes later, they showed up! Then we all tried to figure out what in the world happened (I dont think we ever really figured it out) and then we just gave up and decided we were just glad no one was lost so we went to celebrate in the restaurant, where I experienced my first dinner of fish and chips! It was delicious after a long day of being misplaced (I prefer that to being "lost"). We caught the early train back (lucky) and high-tailed it back to Canterbury Lane. I've never been so glad to have a bed - it was a great first trip, but I dont know how I'm going to make it through multiple days of traveling. I'm gonna have to work on my stamina - that one day wore me out! But I'm very excited about traveling now - it's so much fun! Especially on trains! Time for some homework now - it's back to classes tomorrow. Cheers!

Here comes the sun.

First things first. I am in a band. For real. We are on MySpace Music. We are called The VCR Jam. I will have pictures up soon - we recorded our first song tonight about an hour after we decided we should be a band. The members are myself, Ben Rogers (on guitar and backup vocals) and Grant Vickery (on backup vocals, guitar and harmonica). That is possibly the coolest thing that has happened to me - granted I have only been here a week so no drastic cultural experience has lent itself to be my dream come true other than this. But I really have always dreamed of being in a band.
www.myspace.com/thevcrjam
- check it out. it's really the funniest/most exciting thing ever. believe me.

Ok well, back to Oxford! Today I woke up and it was SUNNY! "Here comes the sun..." was the very appropriate song of the day. I went to the train station with abby, ben, katie and andy to buy tickets to go to Scotland and the realized that we could save 70 pounds per ticket by going in a few weeks. so we walked back. And then i went back to the train station as my plans to go to stonehenge were reformed and now I am officially going to Stonehenge/Salisbury on Saturday! i am so excited to take my first trip in Europe outside of Oxford, even if it is just a day trip! So, I walked about 8 miles today, on train station trips alone. Then I got some homework done (don't want to get behind yet!) and then went to G&D's for the first time and had a brownie and ice cream for dinner! It was totally worth the lack of nutritional value, as it was cheap and chocolaty deliciousness! Then we came back to the house at about 8 30 and Ben, Grant and I have been sitting around singing and playing music for the last 3 and a half hours, hence the making of the band. We sent our "demo" in for the battle of the bands here in oxford (that we found out about...today) so we're not sure if we made the deadline or not - more to come on that later. We could potentially be competing in an international battle of the bands. Life rocks. Even if we don't make it there, it was totally worth it just to be able to have "The VCR Jam" listed under my artists in iTunes so I can listen to us whenever I want! I hope everyone's day was as good as mine! I hear the church bell ringing midnight - that means I should probably go to bed! Goodnight!

It's been one week since you looked at me...

For those of you who don't know, that heading is a line from a song. And yes, it has been a whole week since y'all looked at me. So yesterday, I woke up and it was SUNNY! So I went to University Parks for about an hour and read on a bench. Someone should have taken a picture, I was just so cute. Then we had our Oxford Through the Ages class (aka field trips...every week. I'm pumped!) Today I had class until 11:00 and now I am officially done with class for the week! That is so awesome - I have 4 full days until I have class again! So we watched Prime Minister's Questions today and I think every country should be able to do that to their leaders. I mean don't get me wrong, I love America and I'm very patriotic and all that, but seriously? I don't think George Bush (or any other president, for that matter) would stand a chance if we just put him on a stand and let people ask whatever they want and say whatever they want. I mean, the people who go up there against the Prime Minister just bash him, and he has to answer or be completely humiliated...sometimes both. Today one angry man said that the Prime Minister was "like a used car salesman who will not tell someone the price, will not tell them the mileage and will not give them a warranty!" right to his face. That's the way politics should be. After that cultural experience, we went a different direction culturally and went to the open farmer's market! They have such delicious food! I bought apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, pears, tomatoes, broccoli and an avocado! I'm so excited. Katie also took me for my first experience at Ben's Cookies in the closed market - easily the best cookie i've ever had. Double chocolate chip - it was incredible! Then we went on another adventure to Blackwell's Bookstore. Woah. That's it on the right. You can't tell from the outside, but it has more books than I've ever seen in one place. It has 4 floors (there's a basement you can't see) of over 3 miles of shelving. I have no idea how many books that is, but I know that you could spend days getting lost in there. I almost bought the British version of one of the Harry Potter books - they are much prettier here than in the states. Well, I think that a group of us are planning to go see Stonehenge this weekend, so I will definitely post about that! P.S. the picture of me with the horse is from the other day at the meadow, but one of my friends took it so I just now got it. Cool, huh? A wild horse just walked up to me! I got to pet them a bunch too, but this was the best picture. See facebook photos for more details.

First Day of Classes

Well today I finally began my classes here. I am glad to get to start a real routine - maybe now it will actually feel like I live here, instead of just being on a crazy cool vacation! I had humanities (history/literature) first thing this morning. one of two things could happen with that class - either I will miraculously begin to love and appreciate history and literature because I am actually living where it all happened, or my poor math/science-minded self will continue to stay awake during this class. I really hope it's the former. I want to be able to appreciate history for the first time in my life, and I figure this is the best place to do that, so we'll see how it goes! In the picture above you see what I had for lunch today (it was the only picture I took today...haha). I had a ham and cheese pita sandwich with raisins, an apple and a glass of mile. mmmm. Then we all walked downtown to the place where we will be having our Great Britain class. All of our other classes are in the classroom downstairs in House 10, but since all 36 of us are in the Great Britain class, there is not enough room for us there. For this class, we will have different assignments such as watching the Prime Minister's Questions once a week (very entertaining - much more fun than America's Congress!), we will have to read at least one current news article, we will be keeping a service blog about the service hours we do in Oxford, and we will be writing about our cultural observations in a journal. After class (it was already dark when we got done) it was pouring rain, but Becky and I needed dinner food so we ran to Sainsbury's downtown and got soaking wet - but I was able to buy about 8 meals worth of food for 4.44 (about $9!) I'm so proud of my frugal cooking skills lately - more money for traveling! Well, it's not supposed to rain tomorrow, and I don't have class 'til 1:30 so that's exciting! I'll write more later this week!

Wild Horses

Ok so I forgot a very important detail yesterday. I'm pretty sure I saw Ron Weasley at age 11 walking around Oxford yesterday. He had the schoolboy jacket with the little (gryffindor?) crest on the pocket and everything! i know it was him. haha. Anyway, today, most of the group got up and went to St. Aldate's church - it was amazing! It was much more similar to the church I go to in Abilene than I imagined it would be. It was such a cool experience. I've always known that there were Christians all over the world, but it was such a great reminder about just how big God really is. I can't even imagine it. There are people everywhere who worship the same God that I do. That is such a cool thing to actually discover, rather than to just know it as a fact. It's awesome and mind-boggling all at the same time...much like everything in Oxford. After church we ate lunch at the house and then went to Port Meadows - gorgeous! It may be more appro- priate to refer to the majority of the meadow as "Port Lake" right now due to the massive flooded area, but the grassy area is so beautiful. We got to play with wild horses!! That was so cool - I had never seen wild horses like that before and I got to pet a few of them! I can't wait til spring when the grass dries out and we can just go hang out in the meadows. They look exactly how I imagine England or Ireland from movies - just big green spaces with wild horses. I want to just take my journal and a blanket and a good book and go sit. Or maybe take a nap. It's a great place. They should keep meadows in the states. Port Meadow has not had anything built on it or been used for anything other than a meadow since at least somewhere around 1060. Wow. On our way back from the meadows, I stopped on St. Bernard's Road to check out the Bed and Breakfast where my family will be staying. Mom, Dad and Curt - that blue door will be your front door for a week in march! Katherine, unfortunately, wasn't there, but hopefully I'll get to meet her sometime. Finally, for dinner, I got to experience Ali Kebab's. Ali is amazing. He feeds me cheap. I will definitely be visiting him again. After that, I had an awesome time singing with Kara while she and Grant and Jeremy played guitar. It was so much fun - there is so much talent on this trip! I can't wait to see more of it come out over the semester! We're gonna start a band. Well, classes start tomorrow. Maybe reality will set in that I actually live here once I start school work. We'll see! Cheers!

A Damp Saturday

Well let me start with my jazz music experience from last night. We walked to the Old Parsonage Hotel only to find lots of old, nicely dressed people in a small, intimate setting eating dinner and listening to jazz music. We were a little out of place...so we took pictures and left! Today I got up and went exploring with Becky and Karissa. We went to University Parks (I will be spending SO much time there - it's beautiful! the picture on the left is in the parks) and then we went down to Cowley Road (see bottom picture of a mural from cowley road - a very ethnic place) with no real destination, so we ended up just stopping for lunch at a little coffee shop and then heading back home because we were pretty wet by that point - you don't realize how wet mist will make you until you're out in it for a few hours! I got to take a nap this afternoon which was very nice. On our walk this morning though, I decided that I am going to take a picture of every red door I see this semester and make a collage out of all of them. I just love the doors here! They're so exciting compared to boring American 90 degree angle doors. This is my favorite door of all (on the right). It's not red, but it's beautiful! After I slept for a while this afternoon, I went with Jason, Casey, Eryn, Becky, Karissa, Katie, Mary Kate and Ben to a pub called The Gardner's Arms. They had really good sandwiches. The pub atmosphere was very different than what you see on tv. There is drinking, but it's part of the culture. they don't drink to get drunk. They just drink because they like it. Pub actually stands for Public House, which is what it is meant to be. It's a typical restaurant for England. It was on North Parade Road which is only one block over from our house so it is very convenient. As soon as we got back from dinner, I was dragged out the door by Abby who said the group was going to a Smash Rock Concert? No one seemed to know exactly what it was, but apparently it was free. So we walked, and walked....and walked some more until I had absolutely no idea where I was. Zach claimed to have everything under control. But when we reached a dead end, he turned around and said "well, it was supposed to be here." So, ya, that didn't work out. He also looked at me, Daley, and Kara and said "y'all look beautiful by the way". I'm pretty sure he was making fun of the fact that we looked like "wet cocker-spaniels" as Daley put it. It was pretty rainy. But we walked for an hour and a half - I guess that burned off dinner! So today was another day of adventures. I'm excited for my Oxford Through the Ages class where I will get to go on these walks and actually learn something about where I am. So far it's just been independent explorations of the unknown.

Day 2

Welcome to Number 10 Canterbury Road! That's me there in the door...not knowing that I was having my picture taken by the amazing Jessalyn. But isn't it a cute house? My room is the one with 3 big windows on the right upstairs. Here in England that is referred to as the first floor. Where I am standing is the ground floor. So we have a basement, a ground floor, a first floor and a second floor. Get it? ok good. Today I slept late (cured jet lag!) and then got up and ate some oatmeal. (sorry, i'll try not to make this thing a play by play of my life...i'll definitely leave out bathing schedules, etc. that's just weird.) then we walked to Sainsbury's Local again to grab some more food. Then we walked all the way downtown, got lost once (my fault...i pretended to just be adventurous so I wouldnt make casey and jessalyn too nervous...) and then made it to our destination: Primark! I have decide that they should make primarks in the states. AMAZING. I definitely bought stuff there. (See picture below) I bought a great bag for 6 pounds (how do you make a pounds sign on this thing?) and a dress for 50p!!!! that's only 1 american dollar! and there's no tax on clothes here so i got all that for 6.50 even (about $13). brilliant. So basically im going to have to limit myself to about one trip a month to primark or i'll run outta money. Ok, so here's something i learned today: walking in oxford is like driving in dallas. not just because everyone does it, but because you have to walk defensively, just like defensive driving. i need rearview mirrors or something. there are people passing me, not just on the left, and there are people who go too slow, only they dont have brake lights. it's rough. i'm getting better though. no wrecks yet. well, we're about to go to some jazz music deal. pretty awesome. i'll post more tomorrow later!

Longest day of my life!

So "this morning"... which was really yesterday but I haven't slept so it's still today in my head... I got up early, ate donuts that Katie and Cassey so graciously went and got for us and I packed my life up to go to Oxford. We left Abilene around 10am and had an eventful bus ride to DFW, promising a great semester ahead including characters such as Jeremy Varner, Grant Vickery, Chris Shim, Kara Dubose, Daley Neiderhoffer and Zach Smith. Jessalyn and Casey Rogers have already been documenting the entire trip on video and camera - not that we would ever forget these moments anyways. (first event: chris shim pulls out the sparkling cider and dixie cups on the bus as a celebration of our departure...and then explodes the bottle all over zach's lap and the bus windows...priceless). Got to the airport around 12:30ish only to find out that our flight had been delayed an hour...so we tried to entertain ourselves in the airport until we finally departed at 5:15 Dallas time. Then we flew longer than I've ever flown before (i was very entertained by the little gps system in front of me that would show me exactly what we were flying over at that instant and told me all kinds of great info...at one point we were at 38,000 ft and it was -74 degrees outside.) We arrived in London 9 hours later - 2:15am dallas time, 8:15 am London time. and jet lag set in. we made it to the houses (thanks to our hilarious "steering wheel attendant" bus driver) and i officially moved into my new home at 10 Canterbury way. we spent the afternoon settling in and touring downtown oxford. lots of walking. not lots of energy. oxford is an incredibly "quaint" little town...it's just like movies. who knew it really looked this way? cute old cottage-style houses. im looking out my window across the street where there are houses covered in ivy with large windows on every floor and big doorknobs in the middle of the oddly shaped front doors. how poetic.

well, i miss you all very very much but i am planning on having the time of my life without you, so you'll just have to live vicariously through this blog. hopefully i'll remember to post often. i'll get pictures up when i can...most likely on facebook. p.s. if you have skype, find me so we can chat and i can see all of your beautiful faces!
cheers! (haha...love that!)
KA