I play Tour Guide for a while

Last week I had the honor of being named Official Tour Guide for my family! After Mom and I got back from Ireland, Dad and Curt came to Oxford for the week so we were all here together for the first time since Christmas! Dad and Curt got here Sunday in time for us to duck out of the rain and go to Christ Church for their Palm Sunday service, which I really enjoyed, but I think Dad and Curt were a little jet-lagged! Afterwards, I took them to Eagle and Child for lunch - that is the pub where C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and the rest of the 'The Inklings' used to meet every Tuesday morning to discuss their books. They enjoyed their first English pub experience - I think they were just glad to have something other than airplane food! That afternoon we tried to find some things to show them around Oxford that were inside - it was very cold and rainy. Monday, Mom, Dad and Curt all went to Salisbury to see the cathedral and Stonehenge while I was in class. That night I took them to Ali's van for kebabs (delicious!) and then we came back to the common room in House 10 to watch Across the Universe, which Dad had brought for us to watch on DVD (it hasn't been released over here yet!). Tuesday morning we did some serious walking - I dragged them ALL over Oxford - to the Radcliffe Camera, the Sheldonian Theatre, the Bodleian Library, Vaults and Garden (my favorite place for tea) in the church of St. Mary the Virgin, then to Blackwell's Bookstore (6 miles of bookshelves!), the Varsity Shop to get some University t-shirts for everyone, the Covered Market to get pashminas and Ben's Cookies, and then to On the Hoof for some baguettes for lunch! Then we tried to take a tour out to Binsey, but the River Thames was SO flooded that we couldn't get there - the path had disappeared under water, so we just made it as far as Port Meadow, where we fed some angry horses and then we ran away (but not before we got some good pictures!) Tuesday night we went to Turf's Tavern for some good ol' fashioned fish and chips! Wednesday we went to Head of the River Pub for lunch (we ate outside on the patio right on the Thames) and then walked through Christ Church Meadow. We went on a tour of Magdalen College which led us to Addison's walk - one of the most beautiful trails through Oxford along the Cherwell River. There were lots of beautiful flowers, and the river was so flooded that we could hardly tell where it was supposed to be! Wednesday for dinner we had a well-balanced meal of brownies and ice cream at G&D's! Then Thursday we took a train to London for the weekend! Thursday night we got to see The Mousetrap - the longest running play in the world, written by Agatha Christie. It was a very entertaining murder mystery that we all enjoyed - we saw the 23,048th showing. Then Friday we got to tour the Tower of London with a very funny "Beefeater", as they call their tourguides who actually live and work at the Tower. We got to see all kinds of history there and hear about all the crazy things that have happened there over the years. Then we went outside of the walls and took the typical Tower Bridge pictures. It was about to start raining at this point, so we ran back to the Underground and decided to go walk around Harrod's for a while since it was raining. We saw some awesome stuff there - my favorite was the piano room. They had a piano that I got to play that recorded what I played and a computer wrote out the music! It was incredible - if I win the lottery that will be the first thing I buy...after I end world hunger. I may bet getting this out of order a bit, but at some point we went to Trafalgar Square (it's my favorite place in London) and looked around the National Gallery for a while. We also came back later to the National Portrait Gallery which had a Bluestocking (a term for intelligent women) exhibit, which I was very interesting because of our theme for the pod I lived in last semester back in Abilene - the Bluestocking Group was our inspiration for our different activities and projects. We also went to King's Cross Station while it was raining to find Platform 9 3/4 (all you Harry Potter fans know what I'm talking about). We also had the opportunity to go to Good Friday service at St. Paul's Cathedral which was absolutely amazing! It's such a beautiful cathedral and the service was awesome - I love listening to the choirs. I'm pretty sure I've gotten this all out of order, but those are the basics from our London weekend! Saturday morning, Dad and Curt had to leave early to catch their plane back to Dallas, so Mom and I slept in a little bit and then went to get tickets to see the matinee of Les Miserables - it was absolutely incredible! I couldn't believe I had made it almost 20 years without seeing it before! Then we walked around London (in the snow!) for a while. We also went to Wagamama for lunch - we had some awesome Japanese food! It seems strange to go to London to eat Japanese food, but you can't find Wagamama in the states, so it was still a cultural experience! Before we had to catch our train back to Oxford, we went to catch a glimpse of Buckingham Palace and then we made a trip to the grocery store to see just how much chocolate we could buy. We used the excuse that mom needed to take back all these English cookies and candy bars to her friends so they could try them...we just happened to get a few extras for ourselves! Sunday morning Mom and I went to St. Aldate's for Easter service and then to Brown's cafe for a very nice Easter lunch! After we both went to our respective houses to rest for a while, Mom came over for "dinner" and we (again) had a chocolate feast - Mom had bought some very fancy little pastries at the French bakery on the way home, so I made some tea and we had cookies, cake and croissants for dinner! Overall, it was a wonderful week and I really enjoyed getting to show my family where/how I live here in Oxford!

Luck of the Irish

So Tuesday Momma got here to Oxford, and Wednesday we went to Ireland! (poor mom spent way too much time on planes and buses for a few days) We got into Dublin Wednesday evening, got into our hostel, which was really nice, and then we went and found some random Indian/European vegetarian restaurant and had some really good food - we still don't know exactly what it was though! Thursday we got up and got on the DART and rode out to Howth (pronounced "Hothe"), which is a little fishing village just outside of Dublin. That is where they get all of their fish for the restaurants, so of course we had to get some fish and chips for lunch while we were there. The little town was so cute - I loved it! It was a peninsula so we were pretty much surrounded by water and it was just beautiful. I would love to live in some of those houses that overlooked the Irish sea. We walked out on the barrier as the tide came in and climbed around on the rocks, and then we went back into the town and went and found the abbey ruins of St. Mary's church. From the ruins you could see all the fishing boats, the ocean and the hills - it was so cool! The church yard had been turned into a beautiful cemetery full of very Irish families (O'Reilly, O'_____, etc.). After we had spent a while in Howth, we got back on the DART and rode a little ways out to Malahide to the castle! It was really neat because you had to take a trail to get to the castle and it was way back in the woods so we had a nice walk (in the rain) out there. The castle itself was beautiful and we got a personal tour through all the main parts, including bedrooms and great halls! We learned all about the Talbot family, who lived there for years and apparently a couple of them still do! ( I want to live in a castle in the middle of the woods!) We then had some delicious coffee and scones in the cafe overlooking the castle garden, and then made our way back to Dublin. We had found out that Evensong at Christ Church in Dublin was that evening so we made it back in time for the service, and it was so beautiful! There were very few people there, but we really enjoyed sitting and listening to the choir sing. Every word of evensong, whether spoken or sung, was straight from the Bible - it was a really neat service. For dinner, mom and I camped out on some steps next to Dublin Castle and ate our picnic dinner and just enjoyed watching people walk around. Then we decided to go into the Temple Bar area (the downtown/square of Dublin) and we went into a few different pubs to hear some good Irish music! The first pub we went in (The Auld Dubliner) had 2 old men and a girl playing - one man with a guitar, one with an accordian and the girl with her violin! They were fun to watch - they really loved what they did. After they finished we moved on to The Quay's Bar where we could hear "Brown-Eyed Girl" through the door. The music there was awesome - all familiar songs (Country Roads, All My Lovin') and a couple people were dancin around at the front! It was neat to see how Irish people have fun! Friday we got up early and caught a bus tour into the Wicklow Mountains - it was beautiful! We got to drive all through the mountains and Glendalough (where Braveheart was filmed!). We saw the valleys that were made by glaciers and the lakes they left behind. We got to walk through the valley in Glendalough and it was beautiful and green (everything was covered in moss!) and there were waterfalls coming down the mountains into the lakes! It was pretty cold and rainy, but that is how I imagined Ireland so it was fine with me! After a long day with our crazy bus-driver/tour-guide, Mom and I came back to Dublin, did a little shopping and then found some cheap fast food that tasted great to our hungry bellies. We went back to our hostel and got moved into our new, private room (the first 2 nights we were in 12-person rooms) and got showered and got some good sleep. Saturday we woke up to rain, but still enjoyed going to the weekend markets and exploring a little bit more (we went to the Dublin Castle and to St. Patrick's Cathedral) before we had to leave Dublin. It was a great weekend! We made it back to Oxford Saturday evening, and then Dad and Curt got here this morning! They had a very long day and a half of travel, so they were very tired, but we dragged them around for a while (in the cold wind and rain!). We got to go to the Palm Sunday service at Christ Church, ate at Eagle and Child for lunch, showed them where I do my grocery shopping, University Parks, and then had our chocolate fix of cake and crepes with ice cream for dinner! haha - nothing like splurging on food when you travel! Hopefully they're getting some good sleep now so we can fill this week with all kinds of English adventures! I'll update later! Cheers!

I sure don't speak German!

Vienna was awesome! We left Wednesday afternoon and got to Bratislava Airport (which is actually in Slovakia! we found that out when we got back...how crazy is that?) late that night. We made it to our hostel about 1 minute before check-in closed, so we were very glad about that. Thursday we spent exploring Vienna. We went to Stephansplatz, one of the main squares of the city, where a huge cathedral - Stephansdom - is. It is so big and beautiful and tall! We ate lunch at this really cool Austrian restaurant and Katie and I shared the "farmer's feast" (i forget what it was called in German) that included 2 kinds of pork, weinershnitzel, a huge dumpling, potatoes and real, awesome saurkraut! I love that stuff! it was awesome. We were there for a couple hours probably, because Europeans apparently eat very slow. After that, Daley, Casey and I went shopping around for a while and found lots of cute shops and parks (where the mozart memorial is with the treble clef flowers). We also found a big piano shop with lots and lots of beautiful grand pianos and we went in and they let me play for a while and it was SO wonderful! I could have stayed there for hours! We all met up for dinner and Grant took us to this place that he had been before out in Oberlaa (a 'suburb' of Vienna) and we had a late, light dinner (lunch kept us full for a long time!) I ordered "frittaten suppe!" (say it. it's fun i promise) which is basically just noodle soup only the noodles are more like bread. Friday, we caught a train to Durnstein, which is a little town about an hour from Vienna. It was so beautiful! Durnstein is right on the Danube River in the foothills of the Alps! This was probably my favorite part of the trip! There were such cute little houses all up and down the hills, and at the top of the city were the ruins of a castle. Of course, we had to climb up to the castle to see what it was all about. It started out good, but after the first thousand steps, I was beginning to get pretty tired. I definitely got my cardio workout for that day. It probably took us about 30 minutes to get up there climbing the steep, centuries-old steps, but when we finally got to the top it was So worth it! The view was awesome! We could see other villages all down the Danube and it was just awesome. The castle itself was pretty great too - we saw (and walked around in) the prison where King Richard the Lionhearted was held prisoner during the crusades hundreds of years ago! it was so neat to just be able to walk around and climb the walls of a castle with such an incredible history. We climbed to the very top of the castle and had a picnic lunch there - it was a perfect location. Despite the weather forecast, the sky was clear and blue and the sun was shining! We went back down the hill/mountain after lunch (much easier than going up) and went into a cafe in the town and had some yummy Austrian coffee, and then headed back to Vienna. That night we decided to walk around the town and see all the cool buildings that were lit up. I wish I could have learned all the names of all the different buildings we saw, but I think that might be impossible. Just know that they were beautiful! We went over to one building that looked like an oversized Cinderella's castle and there was a big festival of sorts going on. There was an ice-skating rink and loud music (we did the macarena in the middle at one point...people stared but we had fun!) We walked around for a little while longer and then went to bed. Saturday morning, we slept in for a while and then went to Rosenberger's restaurant where everyone got these huge, loaded waffles! They were the most amazing thing I had ever seen. I didn't get one because I was holding out for a bratwurst for lunch, but the waffles were so big that the boys couldnt even finish so we helped them out a little! haha. Then I went and got a "hot dog", but in Austria that means something much different and much better than in the states. A hot dog in Vienna means you get a baguette with a long hole down the middle and a real bratwurst sausage and spicy brown mustard inside! It was the most amazing thing ever. I loved it! I think i would eat very well if I lived there! We also found this gelateria where we could get lots of cheap gelato - we visited it a few times while we were in Vienna! Saturday afternoon, we went to the world's larges flea market (at least the biggest I've ever seen!) while some people toured Parliament. This flea market was just like a huge garage sale. I've never seen so much stuff! It took us quite a while to get through the whole thing, so then we went and met up with everyone at the bus station and it was time to go home. It was an awesome trip and I'm so glad we went! We had so much fun together - there were many times when no one could talk because we were all just laughing so hard! Those moments are always fun! Well, Momma will be here tomorrow morning and our next stop is Ireland! We'll be leaving Wednesday for Dublin (for St. Patrick's day!) so I'll update when we get back!

Earthquakes, Palaces and Flowers

Sorry it's been a while since I last posted! It's been a great week here in Oxford. It started with a bang - quite literally - as England experienced its largest earthquake in the last 20 years Tuesday night. We were laying in our beds late Tuesday night/Wednesday morning when the bunk bed started shaking very obviously, almost vibrating. It was very strange, but we just assumed something weird was going on in the room above us, and we were tired so we just went back to bed. I didn't ever feel any shaking from my bed, which is just a twin bed, not a bunk, but I heard the bunk bed shaking around and I heard the other girls asking what was going on. One of my roommates even said "well earthquakes don't happen in England - I wonder what that was!" Well, come to find out the next morning, it was an earthquake! At the epicenter, around Lincolnshire, it was about a 5.6 on the richter scale, but the tremors we felt were probably just around a 1 or 2...but still! we were in an earthquake! how cool is that? After that, nothing too terribly exciting happened this week. The weather was fabulous with sunshine and warm temperatures - perfect for a run in the parks! The flowers are all blooming - the trees all have pretty white little blossoms and the wild daffodils are popping up everywhere! I have been getting a lot done as far as homework is concerned, which is a good feeling, and we have also gotten a lot of the planning and details of our upcoming travel breaks taken care of which is so exciting! I have official tickets and plans for Austria (we leave wednesday for Vienna!), Ireland (with Momma who will be here in only 10 days!), and Scotland! The only trip left to plan is Italy, which will be huge because we'll have a whole week! Yesterday, me and a few other girls toured All Souls College - one of the many colleges of Oxford University. And Thursday afternoon we went on a walking tour of south Oxford and saw Christ Church Meadows and walked all the way up the Thames River (it was probably about a 5 mile tour!) Then today a bunch of us took a bus to Woodstock and toured the grounds and gardens of Blenheim Palace, where Winston Churchill was born. The grounds were incredible - it's probably thousands of acres, just of fields and woods and flowers and lakes and gardens! I would love to live in a place like that and have new land to explore all the time! There was also a hedge maze like the one in Harry Potter! We made it through in about 15 minutes, but I definitely got lost a few times and had no idea where I was (see picture above) - it was so much fun! It is apparently the 2nd larges hedge maze in the world! That was a pretty short trip, so we came back early this afternoon and watched the Sound of Music, which brought back so many childhood memories for me! I forgot how much I absolutely loved that movie! After all these years, I still remembered all the words to all the songs! I am hoping to get to go out to Salzburg while we're in Austria this week so I can go on the Sound of Music tour! That would be so amazing! Well, there's an update on my life for now - I love you all! Cheers!

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!