L-O-V-E

"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspicion... love actually is all around."

First off- Merry Christmas everybody!

With the Christmas season abuzz lately, I've been thinking a lot about the holiday favorite film Love Actually. Yes, that comedic (yet romantic) British movie that everybody loves. The film follows a multitude of relationships, from the platonic to the hopeless and, of course, the passionate. While the movie has it's ups and downs, it overall has an important message to it: love is everywhere. Whether it's from a spouse, a parent, or a friend; one is never far from love.

While the movie provides many quotable sayings ("I hate Uncle Jamie!") my favorite lines from the entire movie are the ones said at the very beginning. The opening of the movie is a series of captured video from the London-Heathrow airport of people being reunited with each other. What makes the candid shots so powerful is the absolute true emotion of love which is seen. Something which no amount of cinematography or acting can capture. Over top of these embraces Hugh Grant tells the message of the film.

I hope that this past holiday everybody was able to find love is the simplest places.  I know it's easy to lose the spirit of the holiday within the shuffle of the materialism. While we tend to try to show our love through presents around this time, it's much more meaningful to do it in other ways.

Remember- the first day of Christmas just began today. We have 11 more to go. Try to be a little more patient with a friend or relative, or give them an extra hug or real compliment. All of these things go far.

And never forget- Love is all around.

Rent

The first weekend of November I happened to find myself pretty sick after a random and sudden case of tonsillitis. It was a Friday night, and also Homecoming weekend, so I found myself alone in my room while my friends were all at the concert on campus. I decided I couldn't get myself to do anything other than just lay down, so I decided to watch something to keep myself busy while I was exerting all that hard energy. I just so happened to run across a recorded stage performance of the musical Rent on Broadway, and watched it for the rest of the evening.

Anybody who really knows me knows that I love musicals. I have a teensy-tiny obsession with Gene Kelley, and occasionally (and by that I mean quite often) will burst out into some of my favorite songs filling in all the roles myself. Although I'm too young to have partaken in the original movement of the musical Rent, it's become one of my all-time favorites, and definitely one which I can relate to on some level.

While most musicals are cheesy and full of flair, which no lie, is partially why I enjoy them, Rent is raw. It's not bright colors and skipping, but it's dirty- and it's not afraid to talk about the hardships of life. It deals with what real relationships are like, not ignoring their ups, but not denying their downs. It also isn't afraid to deal with difficult issues head on- with multiple characters living with HIV or AIDs, not knowing where their next meal is coming from, and don't really have a real place to live. As it says in the song Rent, "How can you connect in an age/ Where strangers, landlords, lovers/ Your own blood cells betray."

The characters of the musical are also extremely well developed. They all have flaws, but they're all relatable- not too over the top. They all deal with the same problems that people in real life do too. Everybody knows a drug-addict, a struggling musician/filmmaker, somebody dealing with a terminal illness, trying to keep a stable relationship with jealousy and mistrust involved, or just simply getting over being dumped. Maybe you're one of these people yourself! Not only do you begin to develop a relationship with these characters whom you're watching, but you find yourself in them and all of their relationships. When they're in pain, you're able to channel that feeling which you've once felt yourself.

One of my favorite things about the musical is obviously the music. All of the songs were written to have a rock edge to them, make it closer to the music of that time period. They easily sounds like songs which can be found on the radio. But most importantly, many of the songs from Rent can be read at poetry themselves; such as their hit song Seasons of Love which I've embedded the song in a video in this post. Just sit back and really listen to the words of the song.

If you haven't seen the musical, I highly encourage it. Unfortunately it's no longer being performed on Broadway, but most of the original cast (whom really took them on and defined them, since they were still being developed after they had been cast) can be seen in the movie- which is not to be missed. Or, if you don't really want to put in all that effort, you can find some pretty amazing clips online. I definitely encourage watching Another Day as a stage performance, especially with original cast if you can find them.

I just want to end this post with what I've learned from Seasons of Love. Time moves fast. Enjoy it while you can. Live every minute of your life with an agenda, and make the most of it while you can. Accept all of the things which come with living- the good and the bad, because just being able to feel is what makes life worthwhile.

Bittersweet Symphony

I'm leaving in about an hour for the airport. Almost everything is packed up and ready to go, just the tiniest little details are left. Having not gotten much sleep last night nor this week, I hope that I'll be able to finally get some sleep on the plane. If not, well then don't expect me to be a very happy for the first couple of days.

This experience has been absolutely amazing, and I really wish I wasn't leaving. Don't get me wrong, I'm not despising going back, but there's just something here that feels so right and so fitting. If I could spend next summer here in O

xford, I would do it hands down, no questions. In fact, I really do want to come back to Oxford, I feel as if while I've been here I've been too much of a local and not enough of a tourist. There are so many things which I could've seen here, but just didn't take the opportunity too.

It's going to be weird not hearing English accents all the time, we were all having a discussion about that last night. (And for the record, I have a rubbish English accent, but an amazing Cockney one.) There's going to be so much here that I'm going to miss, and I know that it hasn't quite hit me yet. Especially the people. I didn't think we'd be interacting so much with the students here and become friends with them. I just always assumed there would be a barrier there or something that we would recognize them in passing, and nothing else. And it's true, the Texas program really was the only program that did actually hang out with them, so maybe we're just the weird ones; but regardless on whether or not we should've, we did. I got a little sad when hanging out with some of them last night when realizing that I'm most likely NOT going to see these people ever again. They've said so much how they would love to come to the US and see Austin, but it is an investment and can be a bit of a hassle. 

If they do, though, they can always find a friendly face in that big city.

There are some things I'm looking forward to: Mexican food, regular ketchup, watching TV online (most shows are blocked from viewing in the UK), seeing friends and family, sunshine and nice weather, and I'm sure much more once I finally arrive.

Please, for the sake of my transition, use 'lovely' instead of nice, 'cheers' instead of thanks, 'brilliant' instead of great, and 'rubbish' instead of bad. One of the guys last night actually made a comment about how well we had done at incorporating it in to our speech. I was talking about soccer, but had been referring to it as 'football' and he didn't think about how I had been doing that until halfway in to our conversation.

Oh yes, American football, add that to the things I'm looking forward to.

Well, Cheers Oxford, Hello America. Don't be a stranger, always stay a friend. I hope that isn't the last time that we'll be together. You'll always be a part of me.

We'll Always Have Brasenose...

Things have been pretty busy here lately, we're all trying to cram in all the last little things that we can. But me go back a little bit...

Aunt Sally was a blast! I played, and I wasn't horrible, as in I didn't hurt anybody or get any of the wooden sticks stuck in a tree, but, alas, I didn't hit the dolly at all. Not surprisingly, we got killed. But it was really interesting to learn more about the local sport and hang out with locals who aren't Oxford students. There was a lot of trash-talking on our side, saying at least we won the Revolution and the War of 1812, and even reciting (as much as we could remember of) the Declaration of Independence. But, since we did so poorly, we're going to be featured in the local newspaper! It's tradition when anybody loses all 3 legs of the game. I'm looking at it in a positive light.

Tuesday was a full day of schoolwork, just trying to finish up all the last little assignments there were.

But yesterday, was simply a great way to end! We went to the Globe Theater to see them perform Romeo and Juliet, and it was a great experience! This was probably the first time I've ever seen this play performed and actually believed the girl was 13, so good casting on that. We were groundlings, and we were right up front, so we were actually resting on the stage. I even got serenaded to by some of the musicians! So, that was definitely a special moment. But, the best part, was that we got to have a Q and A with the actors who played Romeo and Mercucio! We learned a lot of really cool stuff from them, a little bit too much to probably mention here, so hopefully I'll still remember by the time I get back to tell y'all. Oh- and the guy sitting in the chair in the photo is the actor who played Mercucio.

Oh yeah! I finally saw Harry Potter too! It's really interesting getting to see the movie while actually here at Oxford, just seeing the scenery and such. Just the buildings are just like the ones here, it's crazy. It just helped me see the movie in a completely different way, I can't really explain it any other way.

Tonight is our banquet night. I'll be getting ready right after this. We'll all be putting on our pretty dresses and having one last nice evening together, with apparently endless rolls and wine, so it'll probably end up being pretty interesting itself. I can't believe this is our last evening together, these 5 weeks have flown by really fast. I'm really not ready to leave this place, it's just such an amazing atmosphere. And I've become friends with a lot of the Brasenose people too, and it's just sad to think that I probably won't be seeing any of them ever again. I did some last minute gift shopping for myself today, some Brasenose sweatpants to help me remember this place. You get a lot of pride too with the college you're at. I'll miss this place.

Well, it's time to get a rollin' for tonight. One last night where we'll all be together up hanging out early in to the morning.

Also, Scotland photos will be up on Shutterfly soon. I'm uploading them as we speak, but they still have about 45 minutes until it's done.

Cheers!

Dear Aunt Sally...

You know you've been in the United Kingdom for 5 weeks when... You get urges to spell things with a 'u' in them, you begin saying 'cheers' to them, you say 'pardon' instead of 'excuse me,' and you get taken aback when you receive crispy bacon instead of Canadian ham when you order bacon.

I'm sure I could think of more later on...

So I'm back at Oxford and I have one more week left. This whole trip really has just flown by, and I'm really going to be sad to leave here. I absolutely love the UK, and I really don't want to leave. I've done so much, but I feel as if I've done barely even touched what there is to do. I actually believe I'm going to get Oxford-sick when I get home. It finally just hit me this morning that we're almost done. One of the girls here, Jess, who we've gotten pretty close with is leaving for holiday tomorrow, and so tonight is out last night hanging out with her. Sad.

Anyways, enough depressing stuff. Update on me. I had another slightly stressful traveling situation yesterday with the British rail system. Although I definitely wish the US used more trains and depended a lot less on driving, it's definitely not a perfect system. I planned it out so that I could get in to Oxford comfortably enough to have time to unpack and get dinner in our hall. Well, my first train came in 20 minutes late. I only had 2, but still, it was enough so that I was going to miss the connection for my next train and get in an hour later than expected (just in case you didn't pick it up, the trains run about hourly). Well, on my first train, we had a lot of difficulty getting in to Carlisle, and that 20 minute delay turned in to a whole hour delay. So once I finally got to Wolverhampton, I only had about 5 minutes to go to the sign to find out where my platform was (happened to be the same platform- awesome), and run on to the bus. No way was I going to be sitting there for another hour and miss my FREE (or really already paid for) dinner at Oxford! But I made it, in the nick of time thankfully. So, although I got in an hour later, I'm glad that I had been prepared for a situation like this, and I barely made it in time for dinner! Which was actually a pretty good one too- Butterbean soup, Ribeye steak, Potatoes, Yorkshire pudding (I actually really like this stuff), and then strawberries and cream for dessert.

I ended up just crashing last night. I borrowed a friends movie of Emma and kind of fell asleep during it... Well, I woke up in the middle of it, but decided I would go back to where I had left off later and catch up.

But tonight is what I'm really excited for. Apparently the Texas group here at Oxford has gotten our name known around town... how? I'm not exactly sure, probably from some of the students here who we've befriended. Well, it turns out that we were invited to play an intense of 'Aunt Sally' down at a pub tonight by the mayor of Oxfordshire, or somebody really high up like that. Really awesome, right? Except for none of us know what Aunt Sally exactly is, and somehow I got chosen out of 8 people to be on the official Texas Team. But free food and drinks, so we're not one's to say no to that, even if we have to make ourselves look like fools in the process.

Here's a clip online I found of Aunt Sally- this is all I know about it too! I just hope I don't accidentally hurt somebody in the process...

Ok, well I'm off to writing some more Shakespeare journal entries and reading some of Woolf's novel the Waves.

Catch up with y'all later!

Landscapes and Costumes

So I woke myself up early this morning to go out in to a new day in Edinburgh! I had a hard time getting out of bed, but I was still able to make it out by 9:45. First stop: fooooood. I stopped by a coffee shop recomended to me by Elaine. I ordered a Cafe Latte, 2 meat rolls (in my defense- they were cheap and I knew I needed a big breakfast since I wasn't planning on getting lunch), and took out my Woolf novel. A group of Englishmen came in and sat down next to me and were kinda loud, so I wasn't really able to get much reading done. But I got my nutrition, and was off for the day!

First stop: Arthur's Seat. Something I've kinda learned about myself from the past year. I actually enjoy hiking. This may be strange remembering the 'Milkshake Incident' when I was younger, but I do enjoy it. Not a huge fan of walking through parks, but hiking, I do kinda like. So I was really excited when I first got there. It was probably about a 2 mile walk already down there, and on top of it I accidentally left my water bottle back at the flat, so I decided not too push myself too hard. Plus, it's such a massive Park that I would have to spend an entire day just trying to hike it! Which of course I would love to do sometime. Next trip to Scotland... Once I got to the top it was absolutely gorgeous! You could see the entire city. I decided to sit down on the cliffs and sit down and read some more Woolf. I sat there for about half an hour just enjoying the view and the weather. Surprisingly enough, the weather has been amazing here this past weekend, so it was quite nice to sit there for a bit.

I then walked the Royal Mile back up to where all the action from the Fringe was taking place. There were a lot of street performances going on to promote all of the different shows going on these weeks. They were only about 20 minutes long, but they were for free, so it was a really nice deal! And there was a lot of costumes too. People were there passing out flyers in their clothes from their performances or just wild and crazy costumes to get people's attention. There were many interesting ways of passing out flyers too, including laying down on the ground and others.

But the best things were the street performances, which I saw a lot of too. Once again, free! A lot of them were your typical street performances- comedy, fire, painful things. What I wasn't expecting though, was being part of it myself. It just so happened that I was right at the edge for one of the performances, and the guy asked me to inspect the glass bottle he was going to break and to join the rest of the glass that he was going to lay on. Well, he then pulled me out of the crowd and told me that I was going to be helping him for the rest of the show along with another man from Liverpool. And of course I got teased, many times. Such as with this...
(He had asked me my name once and forgotten it, so I reminded him again)
SP (Street Performer): Or do you want Kissindra to do the trick?
Me: Kendra, it's Kendra!
SP: Oh of course, but what difference does it really make! Or do you want Kendra from- now, where are you from?
Me: Texas
SP: Oh an American, that explains a lot!

And then of course I was pointed out for being a tourist and much more. The crowd ended up wanting to watch the other guy stand on his chest while he laid on the glass, but I still ended up helping by keeping the guy steady. I really wish that I could've had photos of it. But since I was alone, I had nobody to take photos for me. But, I can offically say that I've traveled to another country and had a lot of strangers who I'll never see again take photos of me to show everybody they know! I spent about 3.5 hours walking around the Royal Mile area, and never got bored. There was always something to watch. I also did some shopping for treats, got something for myself and mom and dad- so start looking forward to me coming home!

On my way back home, I stopped by this art exhibit I saw a sign for. It was art done by Scottish prison inmates. It was actually really powerful to see some of the stuff there. I was able to sneak some photos of it, so I'll be able to show y'all. The art also included poetry, which was really cool to read. I'm glad that I stumbled across the sign and decided to walk in.

After 7 hours out for the day (and lots accomplished) I headed back to the apartment. I went down to the little corner restaurant and got dinner, nothing really special, and I'm on my way back to Oxford tomorrow. I'll probably go ahead and leave fairly early in the day tomorrow so I can make dinner at school.

So I'm not sure if I'll really do anything in Edinburgh tomorrow, since it'll be a Sunday and most likely nothing will be open. But if not, I had an amazing time. Out of all the countries that I've visited this trip (which is 4: Scotland, England, Ireland, and France), Scotland is probably the country I would want to come back and visit the most. I would love to come back and actually see the Tattoo or some performances from the Fringe. But, mostly, just to visit more places. I would love to do more of Edinburgh, and then also visit the Highlands and Loch Ness. Although I would love to go back to England- but just do something other than the London thing; maybe Liverpool or Manchester or Nottingham.

Oh well, I really can just say that I am extremely lucky to have this opportunity. I wish all of y'all could've been here with me to enjoy it. 1 week and I'll be home, so sad.

I'll try to post one later with a bunch of photos, once I'm on my own computer.

Will blog later!

Haggis, and Kilts, and Bagpipes, Oh My!

So I'm blogging from Scotland! Cheers!

It was an interesting, and a little nerve-wracking, getting in. I was a little scared something was going to go wrong, and well, I was right. I was going Oxford to Wolverhampton to Lancaster to Edinburgh. I had contacted Elaine (my contact in Edinburgh who was there to pick me up from the station) that I would be coming in at 7:30 according to my specific plan. I was mostly nervous that I was going to accidentally miss one of my connections because they were only about 10 minutes. Well, I got off at Wolverhampton to see that my next train was running 20 minutes late. I had only 7 minutes in between that train and my one after it. Yeah... I missed it of course. So I had a longer wait in Lancaster (and got some nice photos of the train station) and had to wait for the next train, which runs hourly. Not only was I running an hour late to Edinburgh, but I don't have an international phone plane on my cell phone, so I had no way of contacting anybody that I was late. So I had a nerve-wracking travel from Lancaster to Edinburgh. Thank goodness that I was right that not very many people would be walking around the train station in burnt orange 'Texas' hoodies, so it was very easy for Elaine to know who I was. And yes, she was thankfully still waiting there for me! So it was an experience... but I'm here and that is the most important thing!

Last night after I got in, Elaine and I got dinner and basically just hung out around her flat talking and such. I learned some more stuff about Scotland. We discussed accents, traveling, and such. Fun fact for the day: In Scotland, it is traditional for 21st (sometimes 18th) birthday of a young man, his parents will buy him a kilt and the rest of his family will buy other parts of the outfit to make it complete. I find it funny that the 21st birthday is almost more important over here than it is in the US. In England, when somebody turns 21, their parents throw them a HUGE party, traditionally spending about 3 grand. It's suppose to be a sign of them finally becoming independent from their parents. Cool, huh? Another funny thing I learned. I had mentioned that in Ireland, people could tell without us speaking that we were Americans and I was wondering how they could do it. Elaine told me that even though she wouldn't be able to say precisely American, she knew I wasn't Scottish because of how tan I was! I wouldn't have thought about that...

Ok- back to Scotland. This morning we woke up and got brunch. We went down to this nice little organic/green Cafe, which was pretty nice! The night before I had been talking Haggis with Elaine, and so she decided to order a side of it, and her friend got the veggie version, and sure enough I tried it! Be proud, ok! I never thought that I would ever eat it... I myself ordered French Toast with maple syrup and bacon. Much to my surprise, it was American bacon and it was suppose to be eaten on top of the toast! It was absolutely delicious, I loved it. We then wandered around town, and I was shown Princes Street and the Royal Mile, which are the 2 biggest places in Edinburgh. There are tourists everywhere here for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo Festival (starting this weekend) and the Fringe Festival (which started last weekend)- so for once I don't feel too odd being a tourist.

At the end of the Royal Mile is the Edinburgh Castle, so Elaine and I parted there. She left for Wales today for a frisbee tournament, so I'm alone for the rest of the weekend. I love castles, and have been to a few by now, and I had a blast at the Edinburgh one. It seemed very... Scottish. It was really rustic off of a rocky cliff with a lot of grass. Exactly how I think of Scotland. The view up from there was absolutely gorgeous, and one of my favorite photos that I got was of the back of a cannon where you can see the view peaking through where the cannon sticks out. At the castle I went to the Scottish War Memorial, the Scottish War Museum, the room where Queen Mary gave birth to King James, saw the Scottish crown jewels, saw where the crown jewels were buried during WWII, and where King James was almost murdered- but then killed his suspected murderers instead. I actually loved looking at all the outfits at the Scottish War Museum, and the bagpipes too. Unfortunately I couldn't check out the chapel, because there was a wedding going on! What a great place to have one. Plus great place to take photos!

I walked out of the castle back to the Royal Mile, where all of the action for the Fringe Festival is. There are a lot of people passing out flyers for shows going on with the festival for comedy, music, and theater. There were even people passing out 'Free Hugs'... along with flyers. They would also dress up really crazy like; such as Snow White, polar bears, underlings, etc. There were also a lot of side shows on the street to. I stopped to see the most pierced woman in the world (creeeeeeeeepy), a dance done by a Korean dance group (which was actually more comical than anything- it was very oddly coreographed, but they didn't commit to it), and my favorite which was these 2 Frenchmen who did a comedy/tricks act. I also saw a man in a kilt playing bagpipes, so my trip to Scotland has offically been complete. A lot of people who live on that street would just watch everything out of the windows. There are a few flyers which looked like interesting shows, such as this one with Australian women dressing up as Disney princesses for a satirical performance on gender roles, but I doubt I'll check them out. I'm a little bit nervous walking around a strange city in a strange country at night alone. Elaine's apartment isn't in the middle of the city either, it's in it's own neighborhood too. So next time I come to the Fringe Festival...

Oh yeah! I also stopped by the Whisky Shop, located right outside of the castle, to just see what was there. The actual tour was 11 pounds, so I decided not to do it, but I did go in and see all of the Whisky they had. Over 300 kinds. The castle also had a whisky taste testing set up, but I decided against it. Still does not seem appealing.

Tomorrow I'm planning on waking up early and going to Arthur's Seat. It's a hill in Edinburgh where there's a great view of the entire town. After that I think I'm just going to hang out on the Royal Mile for the rest of the day. Watch some street performances, collect flyers, buy some touristy things, and who knows what else. I'll find something to do, I'm sure. I'm still debating on going out to watch the fireworks after the Tattoo tomorrow night. I would love to see it, but once again, walking home alone. Not quite sure if I'm in to that.

Well, I've taken over 100 photos so far. And I'm in none of them. So hopefully even more will be taken tomorrow!

Love y'all! Keep Followin'!

A Quick One Before I'm Off!

Ok- so I'm leaving for Scotland in a couple of hours, but I still have breakfast and class before then. But I thought I'd try to write a quick little blog to tell you what I've done these past 3 days!

Monday was a big school day. I didn't do quite as much schoolwork in Ireland as I was hoping I would, so I had to catch up a bit. Mostly reading  Mrs. Dalloway by Woolf and Winter's Tale by Shakespeare. But, the best part of the day was, having the 'Brasenose Boys' perform for us the play within a play of A Midsummer Night's Dream. We had been watching them rehearse for about a week now, and it was absolutely hilarious. I was actually really impressed with their line memorization, although they were pretty terrible actors. And I highly doubt their interpretation was the one Shakespeare had intended on...

Tuesday was a field-trip day. The Jane Austen class went down to Lyme Regis where Persuasion took place, and knowing me, I'm never one to turn down an excursion, although many non-Austen people did. And looking back, I probably should have too... We were told it was suppose to be a 2.5 hour drive down; but our driver apparently really like scenic roots, so ours actually ended up being 4.5 hours. When we got to the popular seaside resort, it was pouring. I'm not kidding you. Pouring. Cats and dogs. I put the hood of my rain jacket up and tried to bear it, and I did for about 30 minutes, and then I stopped at a coffee shop with one of the girls and hung out there while everybody else went out to walk on the Cobb. My jeans were SOAKED! They were getting heavy and started sticking to my legs (it didn't help that they were skinny jeans already) and so Christina and I decided to see if I could pick up a souvenir sweat pants or something. I actually was able to stop by the 'Rainbow Supermarket' which was looked basically like a surf shop, and found some leggings on sale for 4 pounds. Let me just say- best purchase since I've gotten here! I got back to the bus, changed, and everybody was jealous! I actually started a mini-trend. About 4 other girls quickly ran down to the shop to pick up some leggings for themselves too, so we were all able to be dry when we got home!

Yesterday we had class, but we went to Warwick Castle afterwards. I had been 7 years ago, but I definitely did not remember it being as cheesy and young as it was now... It really did look like some sort of Medieval version of Disney World. But I still had fun! I even got to watch a little video about battle pointing out the 2 houses of Lancaster and York. Woot woot! Lets go Red Roses! After we got done with the cheesiness we were off to Stratford once more to see them perform Winter's Tale. I have to admit, this was my favorite play that the Royal Shakespeare Company has performed, even rivaling it to the Globe Theater. It was very well done. I loved how they used the props and the scenery and how they used the motifs of books and pages throughout the performance. I know, it's hard to explain, but it was pretty awesome. Plus, I absolutely love how they did the most famous stage direction in Shakespeare history: 'Exit Pursued by Bear.' I'm really excited about going to class and discussing the play!

So I'm all packed up and about ready to leave for Scotland. It'll be about a 5.5 hour travel with 2 quick train switches (including one in Lancaster!) and then I'll finally be there. I'm going to be spending most of my time there alone, so it'll be interesting. But I do feel as if I'm a fairly independent person, so I'm pretty sure I'll do well. My main concern is just getting on all my trains. But I have everything written down, so I should do fine. Plus, I have somebody meeting up with me right as soon as I get off, so I'm very lucky about that. I have no real plans for Edinburgh, just experiencing the city as a whole. I'm sure I'll just end up wandering and finding myself in some sort of (safe) adventure.

And yes, I am determined to get a picture of me next to at least 1 person wearing a kilt.

Catch y'all on the flip side!

Erin Go Braugh!

So I loved Ireland! It definitely was only a taste of the country- and there's a lot more that I would like to do and enjoy.

We traveled about all day on Thursday. It took about 3 hours to get to our airport right outside of London, and only 1 hour to get to Ireland. But, ya know, it happens. We flew the very famous RyanAir, and had the bumpiest landing ever! It was pretty late when we got to the hotel, but it was so great to finally get there. One of the girls had found a 4.8 star hotel where we could split the cost of 2 rooms between 4 girls for 3 nights (following so far?) at only 42 pounds- which is less than a hostel per person would cost! We figured out pretty fast why it could possibly be a good price... it was in one would call the 'dodgy' part of Dublin. Well, quite honestly, almost all of Dublin is dodgy, but this part was even more so. But the rooms were amazing, we had a FULL shower, and soft beds; so it was even a nice vacay from our rooms here in Dublin! I first knew I had arrived in Ireland when on our bus ride to the hotel we almost saw a drunken fight before 4 young lads. As one Irishman we talked to said "almost all of the stereotypes you've heard about the Irish are going to be true."

That Friday we were there we began our tour of the country. We went on a tour all the way up to the famous Wicklow mountainside of Ireland, where many movies have been filmed and such. Our tour guide was hilarious too, which made the trip even better. The hillside really was gorgeous, so green and luscious. We stopped by an amazing cliff, which was kinda scary since it was a bit windy, but we all got to take photos next to it. It reminded me a little bit of Pichincha in Ecuador, except for it was greener, windier, and colder! When we got back on to our bus, our guide had something to help get us warm- a drop of Irish Whiskey. Thinking, this could be my only tim in Ireland, I joined a few of the other girls in trying it out. I did choke it down (definitely not a coke!), and sure enough, we all did notice a certain warmth afterwards! We also stopped as a tour and hung out for a bit with some 9th century Irish monasteries for a bit, which was really cool to see. They sure did look old too. The tour was more than 8 hours, so that was really the only thing we did for that day.

Saturday we accidentally got a later start than planned... We went first to the Dublin Writer's Center where I have a certain urge to all of a sudden read a couple of books. I actually feel kinda dumb for not realizing some authors were famous Irish writers, Bram Stoker? Really? Hmm... We then wandered over to the James Joyce Center, but didn't go in. Quite honestly I find Joyce a bit pompous and pretentious and I think that his work is all for show and not for real art... So, needless to say, I didn't pay the 5 euros to get in. But, one of the girls went off on her own on a guided tour around Dublin to see the famous places in the Dubliners by the Joyce, and she had an amazing time! We then stopped by Temple College to see the beautiful architecture and layout!

After a quick lunch, a couple of us went to the Guinness Storehouse. It's the biggest attraction in Dublin, and as you can easily pick up just walking around town, one of the things they are the most proud about. So I decided why not- when's the next time I know I'm going to be in Dublin! I honestly have to admit that I don't know too much about brewing beer, but they went all in to the process of how they make it and how Guinness differentiates themselves from every other beer. Fun fact for you- the founder of Guinness was so confident in his creation that he actually signed a 9,000 year lease for the brewery! Guess it's worked out pretty well for his family... It turns out that at the end of the Guinness tour everybody (over the age of 18 at least) receives a free pint of Guinness! No, unfortunately, you don't get to keep the glasses... Well, we all decided that we at least wanted a photo of us holding a pint of Guinness so we went to the top of the Storehouse and received our pint. The view of Dublin from the top of the bar was worth the entire amount of money we paid for the tour. It was absolutely gorgeous up there! You could see all of the bustling city down below, and it was just really green. Oh yeah, back to Guinness. So, I've never tried Guinness before, but I decided to go ahead and man up and take a sip! First sip was a failure. I only got the foam. But, I was given a lessen on how to drink Guinness (tip it so that your lips go beneath the foam) and I tried it out! Be proud dad. I hardly put any damage in the pint before we went to go to dinner.

At this point in our trip we're all craving American food. I'm dying for some chips and queso (hint mom...) along with a lemonade. So we decided to go eat dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Never before have I been happier to see potato skins! Others got cheeseburgers, nachos, hot wings, and Caesar salads. It may have cost a pretty penny, but it was definitely worth it! Plus, we got free refills on our drinks, which was amazing! We were in the heart of Dublin, so we stopped by Temple Bar to take a couple of photos. Apparently it's a really famous bar in Dublin, although I've never heard of it so I can't tell you why. We then mozied down to a bar not too far away that our waiter at the Hard Rock recommended for live music. So we stopped by and there was a band playing some more traditional Irish music, which was really fun to watch! They then had a little break in music and then the next band came on and played 'Brown Eyed Girl' by Van Morrison- not very Irish so we decided to call it a night.

We woke up Sunday not wanting to say good-bye to Dublin. It was pretty interesting, there was a rugby game in the stadium across from our hotel, so there was lots of action going on in the morning. Almost everybody was dressed in Red and White (for Cork) or Green and Yellow (for Kerry?). It would've been amazing to have seen the game, but I'm pretty sure it was already sold out and we were leaving for hooooome.

Well, I'm back here in my cozy little Oxfordian room. A lot has happened in these past 2 days, so I'll try to update tomorrow night, depending on how tired I am when I get back in to Oxford.

This weekend- SCOTLAND!

Wait, I've Already Hung Out With the Irish in Dublin Before...

So I just wanted to post a little update before heading off to Dublin.

Yesterday we spent the day in Stratford. A few of us went up to this Museum which looked straight out of an Austen novel, and saw an exhibit of Surrealist art. I have to admit, I know surrealism is really weird, but I really enjoy it, so I had a blast at the exhibit! We then headed off to another pub and then went off to see the Royal Shakespeare Company perform 'As You Like It.'

The play was performed much differently than at the Globe Theater, in a much darker manner. And they had dead bunnies on stage, which Hunter would've loved, but I kinda was grossed out by... But overall an evening with the Royal Shakespeare Company is better than most! Plus we had seats right up by the stage, which was really nice. Much better than our nosebleed seats which left my back needing to be cracked for a week!

So I'm leaving for Ireland in about an hour! We'll just be exploring Dublin most of the time. But we've talked about visiting the James Joyce museum, an 8.5 hour tour of Ireland including where they filmed Braveheart, and somebody suggested possibly stopping by the Guinness brewery, although that's definitely up in the air. I hope while y'all are at the Dublin (Ohio) Irish Festival, you'll think of me!

I already kinda can't wait to get back though to Oxford. It's weird how fast this place has begun to feel like a home to me! I know the streets and stores in the area close to the school so well, that I feel like I've been here for awhile. Also, it's a very empowering feeling to walk in to the school through a group of tourists all wanting to get in but not allowed to.

Also, the Brasenose students here are really cool and nice, and I've definitely befriended a couple of them. A few actually make their way to Oklahoma and Texas  at times to meet up with people they've met over here before. But Monday night, the 'Brasenose Boys' (along with some of the 'token Brasenose Girls'- the BB's words, not mine) are going to be performing the play within a play of 'A Midsummers Night's Dream.' So, that's definitely already getting pumped up!

Well, my next update will be no earlier than Monday, unless we happen to have free WiFi at our hotel. But have fun guys! Even though you can't be here with me!

Sussex, London, and More!

So once again, a lot has happened since the last update!

Saturday we went on a little day trip to Sussex. We originally were suppose to stop by a church with significance to Woolf, but for some reason they had 2 weddings going on that day and so they couldn't accommodate us. So instead we took a little detour to Seaford and got to see the English Channel. It was absolutely gorgeous! One of the prettiest sites I've seen yet! The water was so incredibly blue. Some people decided to go down in to it and swim, although I opted for just wading. We ended up going climbing up some of the cliffs and getting to see the view from the very top. It was definitely one of the favorite things I've done so far this trip!

We then went to Monk's House to see the last place Woolf ever lived. The house had a gorgeous garden, and we even got to check out her little writing cottage in the back. I know this will sound morbid, but it was absolutely amazing looking at where Virginia Woolf took her last steps down to the river where she drowned herself. After Monk's House we went out to Charleston House where Woolf's sister lived along with their little 'Bloomsbury Group'. Lots of Vanessa and the rest of the Omega gang's artwork was around the house, and it had a lot of information. Unfortunately we were all a bit tired from the entire day that (at least myself) was a little too out of it for the entire tour. Which is a shame, since I would have loved to have actually listened to a lot of the information said.

Sunday was the birthday of one of the girls in our group- Lauren. I've gotten pretty close to her, along with 2 of the other girls, so the 3 of us put together a surprise birthday get together with the whole program. One of the guys, Chris, was having his birthday soon so we put them together. It was the worst surprise ever, but regardless it was a lot of fun for us all to get together and celebrate.

Monday after class I went in to London with a few people from the program, and went to go visit the Tower of London. I've already been there before, but I remembered loving it so much, that I decided I wanted to do it again! I'm really happy I did too. It's just, once again, indescribable to know that you were walking in the same streets and in the same rooms as such powerful and influential people. I stood by the same place Anne Boleyn was beheaded! What a crazy thought that is! I left London with Joanna right after the Tower in hopes that we would still make it back in time for dinner. Unfortunately (or possibly gladly hearing about the food for the evening) we didn't make it, so instead we went off to the Pizza Hut in Oxford with it being one of the few places still open. It was definitely much different from the US! We were seated to our table, given a menu with much fancier items, and I was corrected when I ordered a 'cheese pizza' since it's actually a 'Margherita pizza' instead.

Today has been a big catch-up day academically. I've been reading up on Woolf's book Jacob's Room and also trying to memorize my 30 lines for my Shakespeare class. For those wondering, I'm actually going to be reciting the lines where Brutus justifies killing Caesar. Tomorrow we're going to Stratford to see if the Royal Shakespeare Company can even meet the quality of the Globe Theater.

This weekend is the first long traveling weekend for me! I'm going to Dublin, Ireland with 6 of the girls from the program, so it should be a blast! I'm not exactly sure if we have definite ideas of what we're going to be doing there, just kind of playing things by ear. But I know it's going to be a blast and we're going to have a lot of fun doing it!

So, I'll catch y'all on the flip side!

Lets Give Them Something To Talk About

I'm so sorry for the late update! I just didn't imagine that I would be so busy around here! It seems like I'm constantly on the move doing something, and haven't really sat down just to write.

Ok, first off- Monday. We went in to London to do a little walk of Virginia Woolf's. We stopped by one of her houses where she used to meet with the Bloomsbury Group, and then went walking down one of her favorite streets, stopped by St. Peter's Cathedral, and ended at the Thames. In case anybody has missed me making a fool of myself... here's your Kendraism from Monday

Me: Hey, are you sure we know where we are? That sign over there says "Not Fleet Street"

Nate: Haha, Kendra. Really funny.

Me: No, seriously, look at it. It says "Not Fleet Street"

Nate: Uhm, or it actually says "No. 1 Fleet Street"...

Since I'm doing both the Woolf course and the Shakespeare course, the few of us in both classes had to run across Millennium Bridge to the Globe Theater. We had been set up an acting workshop class with one of the Globe Theater's director/actors. It was a pretty interesting workshop to do, learning a lot of history of the Globe Troupe's acting, and how they try to still use it today. After a quick dinner at a Turkish restaurant (not my cup of tea!) we headed back to the Globe to see a performance of As You Like It.'We happened to have some of the best seats in the house, sitting down in the back on the 2nd tier. Next time we go though, we'll be groundlings. The performance was absolutely amazing! It was so much better than what we had seen with the Royal Shakespeare Company, which was unexpected since the Globe used barely any props or scenery! I'm definitely looking forward to our next show there.

Tuesday we just hung out at Oxford, but the schoolwork is starting to pick up, so there was quite a bit of typing involved this day. Us girls also went shopping for a bit. For some reason, every store in London is having sales around 70% off, so of course we have to look if even we don't buy!

Wednesday was the day of another excursion for us. We began the day by running off to Chawton to do a tour of Jane Austen's house. It was a bit of a drive, and there wasn't really too much to do there, but it was still fascinating to learn a lot about her I hadn't known, and then also just seeing where she did most of her writing! We went on a little walk to a lovely little church with lots of sheep (who were trying to communicate with us) and the graves of Jane Austen's mother, sister, and brother. We then went off to our next place- Stourhead. It was close to a 3 hour drive, in the back roads of England, with a crazy bus driver. First time so far that I've felt motion sickness. Because our day was so packed, we only had a little time to explore, which was a shame because there's so much. Probably the most famous thing about Stourhead was that the scene of the first proposal between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy in the most recent movie of 'Pride and Prejudice' was filmed there. I still haven't seen the movie, being quite dedicated to the A&E version, but there were many happy girls that day. After Stourhead, we took a quick detour to Stonehenge where we took about 20 mins to run out of the bus and go see the rocks. I wish we could have spent some more time there to do a tour, but at least we got some photos!

Things have been really fun around Oxford itself. We usually get in to groups to do our Virginia Woolf readings and discuss them. For Shakespeare we also get together, assign roles, and then act them out. Last night our professor even came, with 2 bottles of wine, so it was a lot more fun than usual! One night all the girls got together to watch Bridget Jones' Diary (although the men decided to opt out... wonder why) since the movie is very loosely based upon Pride and Prejudice. They also watched the 3 hour BBC version of Sense and Sensibility, which I joined in at parts, but not the whole thing. Wednesday was also a special night on campus, it was James Bond night! We were suppose to get dressed up for dinner (although since we had been out we didn't have time to), and they renamed our dishes for the evening to have Bond motifs. The best part, though, was when one of the young student employees came out during appetizers and serenaded us with 'Diamonds Are Forever' in a very stoic manner. After dinner, we all got dressed up in our Bond Girl outfits, and joined the rest of the college down in the College Pub to continue Bond Night. My favorite outfit was actually from one of the guys in our program, who decided to come as a cat. I don't think the British students found it as funny as we did, though. Martinis were also available to anybody who wanted one, although I decided to opt out, although I heard later that they were apparently mixed with Sprite.

Well tonight our program is getting together to have a little picnic for dinner, which will definitely be fun. It's suppose to rain tonight (who would've thought), so we'll probably be staying on campus in our classroom. Tomorrow my Woolf class is getting up early and heading out to Sussex where we'll be having lunch on the seaside and touring an important house to Woolf. We'll be having a wine tasting afterwards, so it could end up being an interesting 2 hour ride back home... On Monday some of us are independently going in to London after class to tour the Tower of London. I'm really excited for it, being one of my favorite things from my trip to London 7 years ago; and there's a really cool exhibit going on right now there about King Henry VIII and his armor, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Hopefully the next update won't take so long, but love y'all! Have a great weekend!

Everything From Bath to London

Yesterday we all went to Bath as a program, although it was mostly for the benefit of the Jane Austen class which I'm not in. I know this is one of our excursions most people have been looking forward to, including myself, so everybody was quite excited. It wasn't exactly the best weather for a field trip at all, unfortunately. We drove through huge storms on our way there, and still had a bit of drizzle once we got there. Of course the first thing we did in Bath (after getting some food from the local pub) was check out the Roman Baths still in the city. Of course it was amazing getting the chance to see some of the old history from the Baths, as many of you may know it used to be my dream of becoming an archeologist when I grew up. The water was still as green as I remembered and I had only wish I could have dipped in to the hot springs on the chilly day that it was. We then stopped by the Bath Abbey, who was having a sermon involving some history on John Wesley, and admired the architecture inside of it. Although none of us are in the Austen class, we did stop by the 'Austen Centre' to look at some of the souvenirs and gifts they had at the place. Outside they had somebody dressed up in old times whom we stopped and talked to for a bit, until it went from just weird and uncomfortable to creepy; so we just up and left the place! We then just wandered and explored Bath on ourselves to see what there was. We found a couple of really cute boutiques, but sadly didn't purchase anything.

Today was another eventful day. A large group of the students decided that they wanted to spend the day in London, since most of them had never been there before. I decided to tag along not wanting to be bored and alone in Oxford, and also knowing the city somewhat. My background of London, no matter how little it was, really helped with guiding us around. We did a lot of the touristy things I've already done such as Parliament, Big Ben, and the British Library. Some of us split up to check out the inside of Westminster Abbey, although I ultimately decided that I didn't want to spend 12 pounds checking it out, and just admired it from the outside with some others. The new thing I did get to check out was the Tate Museum, which included the works of Da Vinci, Van Gogh, and Monet. We ended up stopping in some little Italian place we found on the corner and I got some Lasagna, which had some very flavorful cheese, but was overall quite delicious! Although my experience wasn't quite as exciting as everybody else's, it was still a blast to go.

I still want to go to the Tower of London before the end of the summer, since there's a new exhibit I want to check out over King Henry VIII. Plus a couple of people want to see the British Museum, so I'm expecting we'll make at least 1 more trip in to London this program.

Well, I am having lots of difficulty staying awake right now, so much more later! Love y'all!

We're Living On A Prayer!

Ok- so I've had a LOT of fun since my last post and I really can't wait to tell y'all about it!

Blenheim Palace was beautiful, but what else was expected? Our program got a guided tour through the palace, which had a lot of talking to it! So we saw the room Churchill was born, which included the old tradition of having his little boy curls on display, kinda creepy. But mostly the tour was about the very first Duke of the house, and then the family from down on. The library was all of our favorite thing about the house, reminding all us girls about the scene from Beauty and the Beast, except that the beast didn't have a full organ in his library!

The gardens of the Palace were also gorgeous, once again not a surprise, although it was unanimous and it was nothing like Versailles! Since we were seeing Julius Caesar later on in the evening, most of us girls had dressed up for the full day so we wouldn't have to change on the bus. This led to many pictures of us being taken, since we felt gorgeous and we had such scenery with us. The Palace also had a 'secret garden' so of course we had to find it and take a photo of the sign and such. Churchill also proposed to his wife at the Palace, at the Temple for Diana. So of course, being cheesy old me, I wrangled up one of the guys in our program and convinced him to do our interpretation of the proposal and everything, funny accents and all. Don't worry dad, they're be no wedding soon, I'm not exactly 'his type'...

We had about a 45 minute drive to Stratford for our play. It was a lot of fun because our Bus driver made a point to not take the highway, but instead the backroads for the view. We got to Stratford a couple of hours before our performance, so we explored a little bit. A lot of people wanted to see Shakespeare's grave, so we visited that, and accidently stumbled upon the location where he died too. We didn't tour the house, at least not yet. We still have 2 more plays being done by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The play was quite fun to watch, and really interesting to see how the director changed it. We had a lot of discussion the next day in class about the use of so much technology in the play, and what that means about our society and whether or not Shakespeare would have used it himself. For class, we do have to write at least 2 performance reviews of plays, and I think I'm going to do one of mine on Caesar, more specifically on Marc Antony's famous speech. It was performed a lot more angrily that I have ever imagined it, instead of sarcastic. So yay for first assignments!

Yesterday after class we had a Happy Hour with our Woolf professor. She bought some cheese and bread and wine and such and invited us all over for a bit. It was a blast to just sit back and hang out with some of the people from the program, and even just the professors. I've never had quite an experience like it, but I think we're going to do it again before the summer is out.

Last night was a night we've been looking forward to for days now- Karaoke night. The Pub on Brasenose's campus brought their little machine with him, and almost everybody ended up being there. I am proud to say that the Texas program probably had the most singers. If not, we were right behind the Frenchies. Let me just say, the French are not very great at Karoke. I myself performed a variety of songs such as: Should I Stay Of Should I Go by the Clash, Womanizer by Britney Spears, and Living On A Prayer by Bon Jovi. But my favorite was when we got some of the guys up and performed a girls and guys duet of Summer Lovin' from Grease! After a pint (or maybe two) we even convinced our program director to go up and perform a song! It was kinda messy, I couldn't exactly tell you what he sang, but a lot of people recorded it and I will be surprised if it doesn't go up on to YouTube!

Well, Today is Bath day. We'll be leaving soon to go there, and I'm really excited about it. I remember how pretty Bath was, and of course, I look forward to all of our excursions. I can't wait to write more about that later!

Love y'all! and 

Keep Followin'!

A Little Of This, A Little Of That

Ok- so just really quickly answer the question from my lovely father: Yes, some of the local Brasenose students stay here during the summer. The people who actually who are kinda like our guides and put together the program, our waiters, and the bartenders down in the school Pub are all students. They get room and board for the summer for entertaining us as their guests!

So fun story- yesterday was Bastille day apparently. And like I mentioned, we have some French guests joining us here. Well, they decided to come in to our dining hall while we were eating and serenade us with their National Anthem. It was actually pretty fun! At first we were really confused at what was going on, but it definitely is a story!

Our first reading in our Shakespeare class is Julius Caesar, and yesterday some of our class decided to get together to recite it out loud. It was probably the most fun I've had since I've been here! I think we might have had a little big of a wrong interpretation... of a twisted love affair between Caissius and Brutus (c'mon, read it again and tell me it isn't there!). In class we discussed the government of Rome and the history of British Monarchy and how Caesar was actually an analogy for Elizabeth I! It was a lot of fun to just discuss some of that stuff.

Well today we're going to Blenheim Palace to see some stuff regarding Jane Austen, and then afterwards we're going to Stratford to watch a performance of Julius Caesar. It's our first field trip so I'm pretty excited, and will come back with lots of photos!

Sorry I haven't written lately, just been really busy. But I hope this will do for now.

Oxford Observations

Ok, so sorry for the delay in writing.

Yesterday (Sunday) was orientation for us, so we got to go around and see the school and such. We met our teachers and talked a bit about what the next couple of weeks would be like. We also had our first meal of our trip at school, which included Yorkshire pudding. Which apparently is actually bread and not so much pudding. Then some of us just hung out for a bit, trying to get to know each other better and such. I had a lot of difficulty sleeping in my bed for some reason, and only ended up getting 2 hours of sleep.

Today was the first day of classes! We'll be starting out my Shakespeare class with Julius Caeser and then my Woolf class with some of her short essays. Our first excursion as a class is going to be this Wednesday to Blenheim Palace, which we'll also be seeing the Royal Shakespeare Company perform Julius Caeser. I know a lot of us girls are excited about it!

After class today, a pretty good group of us went to the famous Covered Market of Oxford and got some lunch. I was very impressed with myself with how well I'm doing with the coins here! It's so confusing- there are coins for a penny (don't call it a one pence, I did and got scolded), 2 pence, 5 pence, 10 pence, 20 pence, 50 pence, 1 pound, and 2 pounds. That can be very hard to keep track of! Shortly after lunch I went with a friend to go see the movie Bruno, which I do have to admit was a very interesting commentary on American society. Once I got back to my room I took a nice little nap before dinner, which we do have a 15 minute sit down prior time to. They attempted to give us a 'Texas' dinner to welcome us, including a poorly attempted Fried Steak, 'spiraled' fries, corn on the cob, and salmon on ciabatta bread.

We're not the only group here this summer. There's a large group of French guys who are studying here, the Oklahoma University Law School, and then the OU group which is basically doing the same program as us. This has caused a couple of incidents between Longhorns and Sooners, including a riveting serenade of The Eye of Texas. The local students here absolutely love the rivalry, and definitely encourage it. They surprisingly know a lot about the 2 College Football Teams!

Tonight a couple of us girls went looking tonight to find the movie The Hours to put us in the mood for our Virginia Woolf class. We got very confusing directions (including a very messy map) from some of the guys at the school, and had ourself a little adventure around Oxford. It was a lot of fun, although once we got the Video Store it turned out that the video had been damaged for a couple of years now. So we didn't get to watch the movie, but it was still a blast walking around.

We've been told that the amount of tourists around town will decrease within the next  2 weeks. It's still been a little crazy around the school. A lot of people want to go explore all of the colleges, which just really isn't possible when so many people are living there. So at the front of the building there's a sign saying "No Visitors Past This Point" which still means they can take photos of the front Courtyard. This causes quite a congestion, which means you have to push your way through them to get in the door. And some don't understand why you're trying to get through, and get a little upset that you're trying to ditch in front of them, when really you're not. Another little observation- most of the tourists around town are Italian. Don't really know why that my be.

Well, I don't have quite as interesting update as I have had recently. But I hope you've enjoyed it!

Keep Followin'!

Oxford Bound!

So I'm already loving my time at Oxford! I'm a bit jealous of Kelley and Paige who went to Stonehenge and Salisbury, but I'm so happy I"m here. I'm sure these 5 weeks will just fly by! My room here is pretty large, which is nice. It also has an incredibly great view of the quad. The rooms, especially mine, are much better than I expected. Mine is on the first living floor of the staircase (which happens to be the second floor) so it's not a far walk up to it. It also has it's own sink and mirror, a desk, and a complete dresser.

Already I've bonded with quite a few of the other students here. I was talking downstairs to go explore Oxford when I ran in to a girl who asked if I was part of the program, and then met a lot of other students who are also participating. We agreed to meet up to go to one of the local pubs for the night, and about 20 of us did. Not surprisingly, we basically had a huge sign over our heads saying that we were a group of Americans. But it was still a lot of fun meeting some of the people. I think a couple of us are going to get together to get lunch tomorrow.

We've already been discussing about travel options for this summer. A lot of people want to go to Scotland, so I'll probably know at least one person when I go, which will be nice. A lot of the different locations people are looking at include Paris and Ireland. If ticket prices are cheap enough, I'm actually contemplating going to Ireland for the first long weekend. But once again, I'm going to have to investigate and check things out.

So now I know what it's like to live in a big city with a lot of tourists. Earlier when I had just been walking around Oxford there were a TON of tourists around! So many people were checking our a lot of the schools, especially Christ Church. More than had been there when we had visited a couple of years ago.

There was a big sign at our entrance which said that no visitors were allowed in. Trippy, right? But then I was hanging out in my room when a couple of large group of Italians came through. I've never had the experience of tourists outside of my room before!

So, not much has happened, so I don't have much to say yet. But I hope this will at least tide you over until tomorrow.

Lurve y'all.

Moi

Last Day of London

The internet was out at our hostel, so lucky you! You're gonna get 2 posts soon! This one was written on my way up to Oxford on the train, and so it's a cut and paste post. Once I actually get around Oxford I'll blog about that tonight!

So yesterday was my last day in London, although I'm sure to spend some more time there within the next 5 weeks, and we made the best of it!

We first began by waking up and heading out to Windsor. It was about an hour train ride outside of town, so it was a way away. It was a lot of fun to go to, I just love the architecture of castles. Windsor Castle just so happens to still be a functioning castle, which is super cool, but also means that it wasn't completely open. My favorite part of the castle was what they had done to the moat. Obviously they don't need it for protection anymore, so they turned it in to a nice little garden area.

There were a lot of artifacts there including old original paintings (including the famous young portrait of a young Elizabeth), a sketch done of Anne Boleyn while she was alive, the handwriting of Elizabeth, and even the resting place of King Henry VIII. I was curious to whom he would be buried aside- Jane Seymore who died while married to him, or Catherine Parr whom was his wife when he died, who consequently married again. Well it turns out he is buried with Jane Seymore and also the infant child of Anne.

On our way out of Windsor, Kelley saw a restaurant which had a special on Indian food, specifically curry. Kelley decided she was not leaving London until she had had some Indian food, so we stopped in and she got some. Paige and I joined her, and I got a 'lemonade' which was a bit like a carbonated lemon water, but still pretty refreshing! On our way back I stopped and got a Happy Kids Meal, which was only 2.15, and even got to keep the oldschool box! I ended up giving Kelley the toy though...

We also stopped by a couple of little gift shops on our way out. At the first place I bought a pack of playing cards for a pound, for all of the long train rides I'll be taking this summer, but that was definitely not the best purchase! At the next stop we saw some soccer jerseys for sale for 10 pounds, not a bad price for a cheap knock off jersey! I went ahead and bought a kids Manchester United jersey, although I almost bought the Chelsea one until I saw they didn't have my size. The name on the back of my jersey is Ronaldo, who I think is known as being kind of a hunky modelesque soccer player/celebrity. But I'm not positive if that's him... But no matter who it is, I should probably start learning a little bit about my new team!

Once we got back to our Train Station, we went to Kings Cross Station. In case you can't remember why that name might sound familiar, it's the station that Harry Potter takes Platform 9 3/4 to get to Hogwarts. We took photos next to the cart going inside of the train, oh so touristy! I forgot how the bathrooms in some of the public areas of London have a fee attached. Kelley and I got lucky though, the meter was broken and was currently being worked on, so we got in for free while it was being worked on.

From Kings Cross we went ahead and took the Tube to Green Park. We had to do a little bit of changes in our routing, since the rail we had been planning on using had 'major delays.' Once we got to the park we went and visited Buckingham Palace. Sadly none of the guards had the big furry hats on, I think it's because it's summer now, but I'm not positive. We took some nice photos though of the Palace, the Victoria Statue, and Green Park.

On my map which I brought of London I noticed there was 'Lancaster House' was nearby, so it wasn't hard convincing Kelley and Paige to go with me to it. There was  no sign distinguishing any specific house, so I asked the bobbie at the front of one building which was marked with 'No Pedestrians' if it was the Lancaster House, and he answered yes. I then asked if it was alright if I could take photos of it, since to me it was more than some building, with my last name being Lancaster and all. He said yes and went back to his station where he changed spots with another bobbie who he told my last name to. This bobbie obviously also found it amusing since he came up to talk for a little bit about why I'm in England and such, a little about the city Lancaster and such, and was overall really nice! He was quite impressed that we could trace back 21 generations to Lancaster, England, and even told another car full of bobbies about my last name! I'm super happy we stopped by!

After then we just went ahead and headed back to the hostel. We ordered some fries (we weren't too hungry) and Diet Cokes. Kelley and Paige decided to go ahead and do their first load of laundry here, and I stayed downstairs in the Pub watching Fish play in the Davis Cup, which was pretty exciting! It was pretty cute sitting there though, since right next to me was about 7 older British gentleman all there for a pint rehashing stories about London cabs and about different times they had drank just a taaaaaaad bit too much... It was so adorable!

It was a Friday night though, so we decided to locate to the basement to the designated 'chill room' where we watched "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" with a couple of older patrons of the hostel. We were really glad we didn't stay upstairs, since it sounded like it had basically turned in to a club. We could hear the loud music and heavy footsteps from the basement. And it seemed like there were a bunch of "Woooooo Girls" which showed up (for the reference please watch How I Met Your Mother). It was quite difficult, but we eventually were able to get some sleep.

All of my photos from Paris should be online, although the Versailles ones have yet to be uploaded. My London ones should come soon shortly afterwards. So if you want to see all of my photos instead of just the few I post on the blog, go to findingtrueroots.blogspot.com. If there happen to be any issues with the page, just contact me, and I'll see what I can do. Also, I believe anybody can leave comments, with or without an account, but if not, feel free to email me!

Now I'm off to explore Brasenose and Oxford a bit. Blog some more later!

More Royalty and History!

So today has been quite the busy day! As soon as we got up we ate some granola bars and were on our way! We first went to Hampton Court, which was so pretty! It wasn't quite Versailles, but it was still, it was better than shabby! It was pretty busy today because it happened to be the day of a huge garden show, so a lot of people were on the train and were wandering around. 

One of the cool things about the place was that it had a lot of history of the beginning of King Henry's reign with the stuff regarding Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and Cardinal Wolsey. I was very impressed with how much stuff I knew from that time period! But it helps when you've read a lot of Historical Fiction novels and such. We also got to do the world-famous maze they had there, which was pretty fun. We got stickers for finding our way through!

While we were there we got to meet some celebrities! Well, King Henry the VIII, who was about the get married to Catherine Parr. I would just like to point out that at that point in his life, Henry would not have been walking around like he was, he had a serious case of gout and well, other diseases, which left him mainly bedridden. I'm just saying... But it was still fun to meet him and get to take a photo with him (which is the one pictured in the blog).

After Hampton Court we went back to London and checked out the British Museum. While in Paris Kelley was a little disappointed she didn't get to see the Rosetta Stone in the Louvre. I mentioned how I had seen it at the British Library (oops) but then corrected to museum, but they idea got in to Kelley, so we checked out both today! At the British Museum we mostly stayed in the area with the Mummies and then the Partheon. It was really cool to look at the old stuff, but not so much dead bodies. Just not my thing. Kelley was completely blown away at the Library, which made me feel proud for suggesting it. We saw lots of original work including stuff by Jane Austen, Da Vinci, Handel, and of course, my favorite, the Beatles.

Right now we're back at the pub. No ales tonight though! Tried their version of "Authentic American-Style Buffalo Wings" which were pretty good, but not amazing. And what's sad is that their little Diet Coke was almost as much as a pint! Like a 30 cent difference! While I'm writing I'm watching some Cricket. I don't think that there's actually a game going on, I think it's something called "The Ashes" which is a lot like our All-Star Slam Dunk contests. I'm trying to follow it, but all I've gotten so far is that the pitcher is trying to knock over some of the pins, which the batter must protect. Once the ball is in the outfield though, I'm completely lost. And the hitting of the ball is really all they're showing.

I leave for Oxford in 2 days! I can hardly believe it already! Getting there is going to find itself to be quite difficult. Once I get to Paddington Station (think of the bear), I'll be good, but it'll be hard getting there. I've decided not to take the Tube there because it'll be way too hard with 2 suitcases and no extra help. There are stairs without escalators or lifts, so I just don't think it'll be realistic. But right now I have an itinerary of 3 bus changes and 2 walks. So, we'll just see about that.

Tomorrow though, we'll be going to Windsor Castle! Originally we were suppose to go to Stonehenge, but since I've already been there and I'm going again, they switched their 2 days so that I can do something I haven't done yet. It was very nice of them, and I'm super excited for it! 5 days so far in Europe, and no castles! Can't believe it! Only palaces.

I would like to mention on a last note that I have officially had my first day in England without rain! At least so far... So there ends the streak.

Like always, love y'all!