Spain - ay ay ay!

So I just got back from Spain a few hours ago and it was an incredible, beautiful trip. Getting there was a little rough though... We all (17 of us!) left Oxford Wednesday around noon to head to the airport. Everything went smoothly and we did an excellent job of keeping up with everyone on all of our changes at the train stations. Once we got to the airport, everyone checked in except me and Daley - we both checked in online and printed out boarding passes. We went through security and headed to our gate to wait for the plane. When we finally got to board, it came my turn in line and the lady looked at my boarding pass, said simply "you can't get on this plane" as though she expected me just to accept that and move on. she called her manager who was even less help - she looked at my card, agreed with the first woman, told me my ticket was void and that i would have to leave now. she opened the gate, pushed me out and that was it. ok. so im watching everyone get on the plane, and theyre looking at me with no idea what to do. so i just start making my way backwards through the airport. i finally figured out how to make my phone work and was able to get a hold of jacque at the house in oxford and explained to her what had happened (at this point i realized i was in a foreign country, in a strange airport, by myself, with no idea what to do and i got a bit emotional...) so after a while on the phone with jacque and cole i finally figured out what i should do, so i began to try to figure out how to get back through security (people typically dont need to go backwards through the
airport ... most people leave the airport on a plane...) a very nice lady saw that i was a little upset and very confused looking and she helped me out. she gave me strict instructions to go back to the check in desk and complain until i got what i needed. well, the check in desk was no help and didn’t help my mood one little bit. so i went to the ticket desk and explained that i had checked in online and that the website printed out a boarding pass for me that was not valid. the woman's response was "well it's only a computer, isn't it?" (in a very sassy british accent) so i just bought a ticket for the next morning and went on my way. at this point, i was again hit with the realization that i was very alone and then (the plane was long gone). i found a nice little cafe to sit at so i read and wrote for a while. I had decided not to call my parents so they wouldnt be worried about me, but then my dad called me! of course i got very emotional (i was tired and pitiful) when i was on the phone with him. after i explained what happened to him, we hung up, and a man in front of me turned around a few minutes later and told me that he'd overheard what happened to me and that he was very sorry. we ended up talking for a very long time. he told me about his kids (his oldest daughter is 19 so he had a lot of sympathy for me) and his wife. he had just flown in from ireland where he is working now so he doesnt get to see his family much. anyway, we talked for a long time, and when his wife finally got there she bought me some (very appreciated) hot chocolate! then the 3 of us kept talking for a pretty long while. before they left, she came over to me and handed me a sack and said that it was to get me through the night and told me that everything would be alright. inside was a sandwich, chips, water and cookies from the cafe. there was also a napkin with a note on it that said "take care. be careful and dont worry. be safe. love, Diane and John at Stansted. Have a great hols" (i think hols is short for holiday - i told them i was on my way to spain with some friends). anyway, im pretty sure those were my guardian angels and i wish i had some way of contacting them to thank them for what they did for me - it helped so much just to be able to talk to people! they were great - we talked about michael jackson, bruce springsteen and a man who lived in an airport for four years. after they left, i stayed at the cafe a little while longer and then decided to go walk around - i now know where everything is in stansted if you ever need to know. after i had been everywhere, i finally gave in and went into the check in area where the rows of chairs are. i found one row where one armrest was broken off and attempted to make myself comfortable for a while. i didnt get much sleep, but i was at least able to rest there for a while. finally, at 5am i heard the announcement that my flight was opening for check in so i went to the desk, got a VALID boarding pass and went to the gate. then i finally flew to valencia! when i got there, i realized that my phone no longer worked, so i couldnt call jeremy to find out where my hostel was, and everyone around me spoke spanish. i busted out the high school spanish and remembered enough to change my money, get to the metro and figure out where to get off. (i knew i was looking for calle samaniego, but apparently thats not a very well known street...) i got off the metro and had absolutely no idea where to go, so i asked a policeman where that street was (at least i hope thats what i said!) and he drew me a "map" to my street. i still have this map if you ever want to see what i was working with - then you will understand why i still really had no idea where i was going. i forced myself to not think about that i was in a very foreign country where no one spoke my language and i had no idea where i was or where anyone i knew was. so i just followed my gut (im pretty sure God led me) and started walking. i had been walking about 10 minutes when i looked up from my "map" and saw none other than Grant Vickery walking across the street waving at me. I have seriously never been so happy to see a familiar face in my life. at this point, it had been 20 hours since i had seen anyone that i knew at all! that is a long time. im pretty sure i have never gone that long without seeing anyone i know. anyway, apparently they found out that i was coming in the morning and so they had all stationed themselves around major parts of valencia to look for me! i love my friends! they were so great!
well, after all that fiasco, we had a fabulous time in Valencia! The weather was beautiful, despite the forecast. it was sunny every day - we went to the beach, ate the BEST oranges i have ever had and just enjoyed ourselves. we walked around valencia a lot and just explored. there used to be a huge river running through the city but now it's dried up and the river bed is a huge, long park. there are jungle gyms, fountains and a huge play ground that is just a huge man laying on the ground but he has slides and stuff coming off of him - it was really cool! we also got to experience real Spanish culture at the flamenco dancing show we went to one night! It was incredible! we ate paella - a traditional valencian rice dish - and bought lots of fresh fruit and pastries at the market! we had a blast there and im so thankful that i finally got there safely. and now i am "home" back in oxford (it really is starting to feel like home!) well, i'll end this long post here. I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Busy, busy, busy!

Sorry it's been a while since I have posted! I have been incredibly busy these last few days with schoolwork - I have to get it all done before I go to SPAIN tomorrow! that's right, we fly to Valencia, Spain tomorrow afternoon and I'm SO excited!
Last Friday we took another trip into London! I got to see Abbey Road (the Beatles walked there. it was magical! for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, look at the cover of the Beatles album "Abbey Road" - I walked that crosswalk on Friday!) We also went to the Tate Modern (a museum of modern art) and we got to tour Parliament. Parliament was incredible! I actually didn't think I would like it that much, but it has been one of my favorite things so far! We got to see the House of Lords, the House of Commons (where Prime Minister's Questions takes place every Wednesday. If you've never seen it, go find a video of it - highly entertaining. Much better than American politics.) and we got to see where the Queen comes when she makes her yearly speech to the nation. The rooms in Parliament are highly decorated, mostly in gold - and when I say gold, i don't just mean the color. They use 24 karat gold on everything - no paint! There was an incredible throne (which Michael Jackson offered to buy....tacky man) that the Queen sits on when she comes and it was covered in gold. So beautiful. It was really neat to get to see the place where so much history has happened that we are learning about right now in our classes. Our tourguide was impressed with our knowledge of British history. I was even impressed with us! What we have learned seems so much more real now that we have seen where it all took place! We even saw where William Wallace was tried on the steps of Parliament in 1305 (Braveheart!)
The rest of my weekend was spent doing homework...not my favorite activity. But I was able to get out on Sunday afternoon and go to the parks with everyone and play (American) football! We had a blast! There were so many people in the parks - it was a beautiful day to be outside! There were a bunch of guys playing football (european..."soccer"), some girls playing rugby (impressive) and then there was a full-fledged battle going on under some trees. these people were fully armed with real swords, shields and helmets. I have no idea what they were doing, but they were goin' at it with those swords! English people are crazy. It looked like a scene from 300 or something...
Well, I better get to studying (again) before we leave tomorrow! I will write all about Spain when I get back Sunday!
P.S. my new favorite thing is Fair Trade - where I do my service hours. I have a service blog if you want to read about Fair Trade!

Best Valentine's Day EVER!

So this morning I slept in (no class!) and when I woke up, there was an invitation outside our bedroom door, and all the girls' rooms, to a dinner party. We were instructed to be dressed in formal attire and ready at 5:50 for our escorts to come pick us up! So of course, since it's Valentine's Day, we were all excited to see what the guys had planned. Well, we got all dressed up (haven't done that in a while! it was fun!) and then we were escorted down to the classroom which had been set up as a dining room, complete with candles and full place settings! The boys proceeded to bring in a 3 course meal, including salad and bread, spaghetti with homemade meatsauce, and ice cream with caramel chocolate syrup! I was totally impressed! The guys all looked great in their button-up shirts and ties. Then Jeremy entertained us with a "limerick written for the girls" (the song Beautiful, by James Blunt) and then we were sent to House 9 for "Phase 2" of the evening - the entertainment portion! The common room had been transformed into an auditorium with rows of seating all facing the television. The boys messed with the tv for a minute and claimed to not be able to get it to work, so Jeremy and Zach said they would just read us a poem....but then they (nonchalantly) noted that it wasn't a good poem, so they figured we would rather listen to Joe Allen play his guitar instead.....and in walked Joe Allen and Angharad, his violinist (she's welsh)!!!!!! for those of you who dont who I'm talking about, a few weeks ago when we went to Battle of the Bands, Joe Allen is the guy who won it! And he was in our living room playing his guitar for us tonight! it was the biggest, coolest surprise ever! his music is beautiful! It was really cool because after he was done playing we all just got to hang out and talk to him like no big deal....he's gonna be famous one day, and i'll be able to tell everyone that he played a gig in our living room! The guys did a great job surprising us - i was (and still am) totally impressed. After all that excitement, we went and changed into our comfy clothes and we all watched Love Actually in the common room...and that just ended and I'm exhausted and we're leaving early in the morning for London! But I just wanted everyone to know about my best Valentine's Day ever! Well done guys!

I left my heart on the English coast

Disclaimer: none of the pictures you see in the post come anywhere near to explaining how amazing the moment was when I took these pictures. As much as I love photography, I am currently very frustrated with cameras. They don't do the world justice. But I've done my best.
Thursday morning we left early on a bus to Warwick (pronounced War-ick) Castle (on the left is a picture taken from the tallest tower of the castle). It was pretty amazing to be walking around in a real live castle that was lived in and ruled from. Unfortunately, it has become quite the tourist attraction and so there are many aspects of the castle that reminded me of a theme park, but nonetheless, it was an awesome castle. My favorite part of the castle grounds were the rose garden (where we ate a picnic lunch) and the Peacock Gardens! I have developed quite an obsession with peacocks of late, so naturally this was my favorite part. They are such amazingly beautiful animals - one of them even put its tail feathers up, but it was behind a bush so I didn't get a good picture of that. I was pretty enthralled with those birds. Of the more than 400 pictures I took this weekend (no exaggeration), I think about 50 of them were of peacocks!
After Warwick Castle, we got back on the bus and drove to Whitby - right on the English coast of the North Sea. This is my new favorite place and I might have to move there at some point in my life. Whitby is where the Abbey is located that inspired the story of Dracula...creepy, I know. We stayed literally next door to that same Abbey (below) and got to see it every time we looked out the window of our (incredible) hostel! Our hostel was at the highest point of Whitby, along with the Abbey, so we could see the entire town, the port where the boats come in and all the way up the coast. The first night we just wandered around the town a little bit and went down to the beach. It was so amazing to be at a beach like that - not the tropical palm tree kind, but the kind where there are rock formations and cliffs that just drop off into the ocean. It's a whole different kind of beauty. The next day, Friday, after we toured the Abbey, we went back down to the beach and I climbed up into the rock formations and found a little ledge to sit on(that's me in the picture down there) and just sat up there where I could see everything. I read for a while (Jane Austen - very appropriate I thought) and just enjoyed watching the tide come in, listening to the waves and the seagulls. It was perfect. I wish I knew how to explain it - again, pictures just can't portray what I wish they could. We also wandered around the town for a long time Friday afternoon. There were lots and lots of fun jewelry shops (Whitby is one of the few locations where Jet, a really cool black stone, can be found, so there was tons of Whitby Jet Jewelry).
Both nights in Whitby we (about 20 of us) played one of my all-time favorite games - signs! Those of you who are familiar with this game know that we had immense amounts of fun playing this, and those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, well, I'll try to explain it sometime. It's an incredibly involved game of keep-away without an actual ball...make sense? Probably not...don't worry about it. Just know that we had an awesome time bonding through this highly-intelligent game and I laughed harder than I have laughed in a long time.
Saturday we got up early in the morning and went out behind the hostel where there were lots of meadows separated by stone walls. We climbed up and sat on one of the walls and watched the sunrise (pictured below) and it was one of the most beautiful things ever! It was so neat sitting there and waiting for it for a while and then finally seeing it come up, bright and huge, over the fields. That night on the way home to Oxford, we also got to see the sunset. I don't think I've ever seen a sunrise and a sunset in one day - it was pretty awesome.
Before we went back to Oxford Saturday, we stopped in York to see the Minster, which is one of the biggest Catholic Cathedrals in England. It was beautiful! York is also the home of Yorkshire Tea which I love, so we stopped in one of the many tea rooms and had some tea and scones (so British!) and just relaxed for a while. It was nice since we were so tired from the weekend in Whitby! We were walking around the streets of York when we heard some drums and saw tons of people gathered around some kind of show, so we went over to see what it was all about and ended up standing there and watching this street performance group from Zimbabwe for at least 30 minutes! They were incredibly entertaining and they made me wish that I could do that for the rest of my life! I have never seen people having so much fun with what they do. It was amazing!
After a seemingly very long day in York (we were tired and ready to be home) we had a long bus ride home back to Oxford. Keep our group in your prayers - the majority of the group is either sick or getting there...it's an epidemic that I am determined not to catch! (don't worry, i'm taking my vitamins and drinking plenty of fluids!) But anyway, we made it home after an incredible first weekend. I could not have asked for a better first "real" trip!
(P.S. don't forget to check out the facebook pictures I posted - I could only post a few on here!)

I should be friends with Harry Potter

So today we got to go on a tour of Christ Church, which, among many other historical accomplishments, was home to Harry Potter for a while - or at least he ate there. Christ Church's hall was the Great Hall of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies, and it was SO cool! I stood where Harry Potter has been. It was a great moment in my life.
We actually got to see just about every aspect of Christ Church - our tour guide was pretty long winded - i think we heard about an hour and a half's story on one window. Pretty impressive. We toured mainly the cathedral. I would really like to go back sometime and explore Christ Church Meadows - they're said to be incredible. Christ Church is the Oxford Cathedral, where many historical figures have been over the last millennium. Charles I ruled his kingdom from Christ Church; it has the first spire ever built in Oxford; it has stained glass that tells the story of St. Frideswide - all kinds of crazy things can be found in those walls. And of course, Harry Potter (along with many other movies including the Golden Compass) have been filmed there. Christ Church is also a college of Oxford University, although I honestly don't completely understand how that works.
I got to go to the Sunday morning service at Christ Church yesterday morning and it was probably the most beautiful service I have ever attended. Yesterday was the annual Candlemas service, which meant that we all had small candles that were lit at different times during the service. It was very different than anything that I am used to, but I really enjoyed it. My favorite part was the choir - 12 very young boys and 12 "young men" as they call them are the members of the choir and they all sound like angels - I got goosebumps multiple times (although it could have had something to do with the draft from the stone walls in the cathedral). Communion was served at the front as we stood up by row and walked down the aisle to take turns receiving it. As I walked down that center aisle, I imagined that that would be something like Heaven - the angelic choir singing behind me, the sun shining through stained glass windows, and people waiting up at the front for me to come take my turn to worship Jesus. It was awesome. It would not be a church that attended regularly simply because I do not know exactly what they believe and some of their traditions are very strange to me, but I am so glad that I went and was able to experience it.
Well, that's about all that's happened in the last two days, other than catching up on homework! I'm getting very excited about my first overnight trip this weekend to York and Whitby. We will be leaving Thursday morning and returning Saturday evening - I can't wait!

1000 Miles

First of all, just so yall know, I set my blog so that anyone can comment now, you don't have to have an account...so you should comment so I know people really read this. Sylvia is my number one commenter - thanks steggy! :)

ok, so i have a lot to catch yall up on! let's start with thursday. I didn't have class on thursday so i slept in and woke up to a nasty, windy, rainy day. This really messed up the plans i had for the day so I just hung around the house for a while, but around 1:00 we decided to brave the weather and get one of our class walking tour assignments out of the way since we had the time. We were told that these walking tours around oxford would take about 45 minutes to an hour - they were supposedly around 3 miles long - a nice stroll, we thought. well, we left at 1:00 and finally made it back to Canterbury Road around 3 and a half hours later, exhausted and sore. The directions on the walking tour were not the best, and we definitely got lost out in the middle of who knows where. we started through port meadow - familiar ground - but then crossed the thames on the back side and headed off to some village called Binsey(that's us walking in the picture) we did get to see a really beautiful church, St. Margaret's. But that was about the only destination on our list of 8 that we reached. The rest was mostly just aimless walking through the countryside. Luckily the weather got better and we enjoyed some sun, but it was an incredibly long walk no matter what the weather! On our way home, Ben spotted a piano shop and we went inside and I got to play the pianos! I miss being able to play whenever I want SO much, especially when everyone has their guitar out and we're all jammin - i need my piano! So we finally got home and I felt like I would never walk again, but I only had enough time to do a little homework and make dinner before Battle of the Bands! We walked down to the church where the concert was and "enjoyed" some interesting local Oxford bands - the last guy was incredible though, i definitely voted for him. Ironically his name was Joe Allen - as in the Joe Allen's barbeque? I dunno...probably not. Well, afterwards, Jeremy introduced us to a few people he had met there (of course Jeremy would make random friends with the locals). They were interns at St. Aldate's and they asked us if we would like to go down to the pub with them! So of course we said yes, eager for any opportunity to get to know people who live here. So we went with Tom, Sam, Isaac, Rachel and Naomi to The Head of the River pub and had SO much fun getting to know them! I'm so excited to actually have some british friends now! We were out pretty late with them, and when we were walking back, we realized that it was 8 minutes til midnight and the airline ticket prices were all going to go up because the month was changing - we hadnt booked our austria flights yet! so we high-tailed it back to the houses (im sure we looked ridiculous, a bunch of americans sprinting through the street) but miraculously, we got our tickets in time and now we're going to Vienna March 5 - 9 and im SO excited!
The next morning (yesterday) we woke up early to go to London! We started the day at the British Museum (pictured above) where you would have to spend days to see everything they have. We saw what we could in the short time we were there and it was all very interesting. My favorite exhibit was the mummy room - it is so strange to me that there are actually bodies still inside those things. It's a strange tradition - I personally wouldn't want my body "preserved" for that long, but they did a pretty good job of it, considering it has lasted over 1000 years. After that museum, we headed to Trafalgar Square (picture on the right) where the National Gallery is located. Molly, Jill and I were the smart ones who brought our own lunches so we ate in the square on the steps in front of the museum and enjoyed the bright sunshine and all the people there. A couple of us even got to be on tv because some camera crew was going around doing a study on accents - apparently the Nintendo DS doesn't recognize my "texas drawl" according to the reporter. He went through the whole "the rain in spain stays mainly in the plains" thing with me because he didn't like how I said "black". Oh well! apparently I was on British tv! Then we went in the national gallery and saw amazing artwork! It was so cool to see actual paintings from Monet (my absolute favorite - the waterlillies are beautiful!), Picasso and Van Gogh! We were exhausted yet again when we finished with that, but we had to go climb on the huge lion statues (on the left) in Trafalgar Square for the experience - it seemed like the cool thing to do. Jill and I had way too much fun getting up there (see facebook pictures - hilarious!) After we were done with that, we took the underground to St. Paul's cathedral (below) which is incredibly huge and beautiful. We didn't get to do the tour but the outside was amazing in itself. We relaxed in a cafe for a while after that (we needed a rest!) and then met up for dinner. A lot of the group went to some mexican restaurant (they were having withdrawals and apparently this restaurant had free refills!) but sondra, eryn, jill and i went to have indian food! apparently London is the best place, outside of India, to get Indian food, and i definitely believe it. it was delicious - we enjoyed every last bite! After dinner we headed back to Oxford - after those 2 full days, I couldn't take much more! But now it's saturday and I have lots of homework to catch up on, but it's nice to have a day to just relax and not walk so many miles! Hope everyone is having a great week! I love and miss you all! Cheers!