Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Pergatory Plus Perfection

Oh dear, I've had a busy few weeks. Since I last wrote I went to Scotland, Ireland, Germany (Munich), Austria(Salzburg), Italy (Rome, Venice and Verona) and am now back in Germany(Tubingen)! Here are some highlights:

-2. Edinburgh was nice. They had lovely, old architecture all over the place. We also had Pimms and Strawberries and Cream whilst watching Wimbledon. That was nice, to say the very least.

-1. We went to Killin, Scotland for a night. My parents and I woke up at 6 in the morning to hike in the Scottish Highlands. We passed sleepy sheep. (Though they weren't too sleepy after we scared them down the mountain accidentally!) We got to see the sun rising over the Scottish mountains which was nice, to say the least.

0. We got to go fishing in a real fishing boat in Ireland-- think old Irish men sometimes speaking in Gaelic, black rubber floor(easier to clean that way!), cutting board complete with half-cut up fish, and buckets to throw the fish in. It was really cool! And the girls got way more fish than the boys. I got 10 Mackerels, mom got the only 'proper' fish, and Andrea got something like 5 fish. The boys probably got a total of 5 fish. They try their hardest.

1. I, like a complete human, sent my passport home with my parents. Fortunately the next day the embassy was open in Dublin at the perfect time and, a few hours and around 100 dollars later, I got a neat little temporary passport. Later that day Jaime and I went to the Guinness Museum to learn a little and drink a little to forget our problems. It was fantastic!

2. I got to see Sabine in Munich. Since she lives there she took us around, and we even went to Salzburg, home of Mozart, for a day-trip. While there I also got a tantalizing view of the Austrian Alps. Later I'll be able to compare them to the Swiss ones.

3. I slept on a Eurostar Train. It was alright, but cost 20 euros extra. And, of course, we had to pay 24 euros each way to get through Austria because our passes don't cover Austria. Still, it would have cost around 30 euros to spend the night at a hostel so it was alright!

4. Rome was nice, but a bit too hot and full of people. That being said, the Sistine Chapel was amazing--I want to be Michelangelo when I grow up. The food was also great, of course, and the usual sights were cool too, though not quite breath-taking.

5. Venice was lovely! It was my favorite city in Italy. The street was the ocean! The buses were boats! It was also less expensive and they had beautiful glass sculptures and intricate masks practically dripping from all of their stores. The night we stayed there Jaime and I got a bottle of wine, cheese and crackers, and enjoyed it while sitting in front of the hostel and watching the lights play on the water. It was amazing.

6. Verona was nice as well, but a bit warm since there wasn't water to keep it cool. While there we watched Carmen at the Opera Festival. It was great, and we got to watch it in a centuries-old open air arena. The seats were stone and not extremely comfortable, but it was definitely worth it.

7. After the opera, which ended at 12 30 am, we rushed to get our 1 00 am train to Munich. We didn't get beds there and the snoring, somewhat smelly men in our compartment made sleeping slightly impossible. Then at 6 00 am we got off that train and got on another and then another to make it to Tubingen at 10 00. So now we're here finally, but we're a bit tired!

With all the train riding we've done, and all the walking we sometimes feel like we're in Purgatory, and that we'll have to keep walking and catching trains and drowsing for hours before walking more and catching more trains and... well, you get the picture. But then we get to where we want to be and it's all worth it again. And, from today on we don't have to catch trains (well, maybe we'll have to catch two.) But Jaime's parents will be driving us. Hoorah! No more lugging cumbersome and clumsy back packs for entire days around priceless glass sculptures in shops since there's nowhere with cheap storage! No more sleeping with a towel for a blanket and a jacket for a pillow! But then, that's what makes for good stories and fond memories.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Father's Day Fun Doings!

Well, the past few days my metaphorical cup of things to do has been overflowing. We went to Colchester, the Kew Gardens, the National Gallery, the Courtland Gallery, the British Museum, Trafalgar Square, the London Bridge Experience, Covent Garden, Oxford Street... For a more in depth view of what happened you can visit my father’s blog. So, I’ll try to find some highlights instead. Firstly, my sister arrived a few days ago, so the family is together in its entire zany, somewhat frightening glory.
Yes, I think we’re related.

On the way to pick up my sister my mom and I stopped at Kew Gardens. We stayed for about 13 minutes because we were late to pick her up. (We ended up getting to the airport five minutes before she walked out of customs. Our timing was impeccable!) During that glorious 15 minutes we saw lovely and interesting flora.

Here’s a pineapple. Two words describe my feeling about this: Hokey Pete! I mean, wow! That’s a sight and a half, eh?

Today we went to Windsor Castle. That was really cool. Here are two things that stood out especially:

1. We went to the room where the queen knights people during the tour of Windsor Castle. My brother and I took turns kneeling to “tie our shoes” (I had a harder time as I was wearing sandals) while the other hit the one tying shoes on the head with a coke bottle. We have thus been knighted, however messily, in the official knighting room!

2. We went to Evensong at St. George’s Cathedral. This blew St. Paul’s Evensong out of the water, to use some nautical wordage. The queen definitely knows how to run a church. The choir was great, the organist was amazing, and the whole service was flabbergastingly lovely.

By way, St. George is the patron saint of England. They even have a holiday in his honor. Why is he their patron saint, you may wonder. He’s pretty famous for slaying a dragon (yes, a dragon) and so, if you see dragons around England they’re probably in honor of St. George. He’s also mentioned in Shakespeare, and it seems like he was sainted because everyone thought he was so darn cool, chivalrous, and brave. (He did, after all, kill a dragon.)

Tomorrow is the last day for sight-seeing in London, so I have to get a good night’s sleep. I hope everyone had a good Father’s Day! (Especially the fathers!)

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

'N Now: News News News!

Well, the past few weeks have been mind-numbingly wonderful. But you’ll have to trust me on that because I am having so much fun now that I don’t have time to recap about my previous experiences in detail. I did go to London twice, I got a root canal, jumped in a fountain in Trafalgar square, asked random people for pennies to see if they'd give random girls pennies, fed an elephant and giraffe, and *gasp* went to a school-wide party which around 2,000 people went to, went to the school’s Summer Ball (which had carnival rides), stayed up for a few sunrises, played chess, trivial pursuit, Cranium, Scattergories, Monolpoly, Snooker, English pool and tennis and watched some James Bond movies. Etc.

So. Yesterday was my birthday. I left the University of Essex and said goodbye to my new and wonderful friends after an astounding fry up and a nice lunch by the lakes. I got to London to find my father at the tube station. We then went to see my mother who had found my grandfather and brother. It was great to see everyone after half a year! First we had to find the flat my parents rented. That wasn’t the best part of the trip since we had all our luggage and had to navigate the Underground encumbered. We went to a “Mexican food” place for my birthday dinner and then had Battenburg Cake for a birthday cake. Then John and grandpa passed out from exhaustion. The rest of us didn’t outlast them for long.

Today we went to London. We visited the Courtauld Gallery first, where we saw a lovely Van Gogh, a striking Boticelli and some neat-o Manets. There were even a few Seurats! After a few quick peeks at the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey we went to London Bridge Experience and the London Tombs. These were cute! Afterwards we went to get tea at Southwark Cathedral and listened to the evening prayer while enjoying the Gothic architecture. We strolled by the Thames and decided we were too tired and hungry to do more, so got Cornish Pasties and took the train to our cozy flat. Then we found to our joy and delight that we could use wireless internet here. Hoorah! There should be more adventures tomorrow since we’re heading to Colchester to see where I lived for the past six months!

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Plaintively Pondering Pushkin's Poetry

I have my last exam on Monday! Hoorah! First, however, I have to revise like a mad person. Perhaps I'll revise like Poprishchin in Gogol's Diary of a Madman. Or I could end up like poor Phaedra in Racine's work. She was a bit off too. If you couldn't guess already, my final exam is on European Literature. It's fun! Today I read Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. Have you heard of it? Almost the entire thing is written in "Onegin Stanza," which has iambic tetrameter and AbAbCCddEffEgg rhyming. Interesting!
Here's a painting by Repin. (Don't worry, its copyright has expired!) This could be interpreted as Onegin's and Lensky's duel... or as the men doing all the things that are more enjoyable than studying!

I first read a translation where it faithfully translated his exact words, but I switched to and enjoyed one that used that stanza form, and had pretty rhyming. This sort of worries me when I think of the saying that translations are like mistresses-- the faithful ones aren't pretty and the pretty ones aren't faithful. What does that say about my literary choices? Shame on me!

So. Back to England. I played tennis today in the lovely sunshine. Apparently there's a heat wave going on. This means that the temperature might just clear the 70 degree mark. I think I'm going to melt into a blob of irritation when I get back to Arizona. Although I do sort of miss the feeling of deliciously dry heat. But after tennis I revised for my exam. (And watched a movie, but that's irrelevant.)

My exam is on the first. On the second I'm going to London. On the third I'm going to find the scene of a nice painting. More details should follow about that one. And on the fourth I'm going back to London! Now all I really have to do is get through tomorrow so I can get through the exam. Then? Frighteningly Fantastic, Fun-Filled Freedom!

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Radically Cool Root Canals

I took another exam today. Want to know what the subject was? Do you think I’ll tell you? Well, think again! Since the last one was a bit easy, here’s a (hopefully!) more difficult version of the fun puzzle game from last time. The rules are the same. But to recap: For each pair, fill in the blanks with THE SAME two letters to make the top word read forward and the bottom word read backward. Then write the two letters added to each numbered pair (in the order given) into the blanks at the bottom.

1. _ _ ugh
suol _ _c

2. s_ _ ll
el_ _ t

3. In_ _ te
cit_ _ rf

4. _ _ nial
erehpsi_ _ h

5._ _ nk
eta_ _

6. en_ _ se
k _ _ lb

7. i_ _ ubstantial
pa_ _

8. re_ _ rn
re_ _o

9._ _ ary
_ _ uqs


10. se_ _
se_ _ (yes! Another palindrome for the final one. Though this one’s a bit obvious.)

Answer to what the class was: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _!

It went quite well! Yesterday I had a root canal and so had to ask the invigilator if I could take drugs of the pain-killing variety during the test. I liked this guy a lot more than the previous invigilator because of his response. He said “yeah it’s fine as long as you don’t take out pot and start smoking it or anything like that.” Oh well.

The root canal also went very well. I asked my Endodontist if he’d done a lot of root canals. He said that he had. I then asked, like a nervous patient trying to keep her mind off the coming procedure, if he had always wanted to be a root canal specialist. “Did you want to be a root canal specialist when you were a kid?”(Yes, I did actually use those words.) Surprisingly his answer was no. He only decided 10 years ago that root canals were the thing for him after becoming a bit bored with general dentistry. “Was that because you wanted the challenge?” I then asked with a mini fist-pump to accentuate the “challenge” part. That was the reason, or so he said. Maybe he just wanted more money.

Either way he did a wonderful job. Today at 8 49 a.m. I had my first drink of cold liquid in 5 months without either protecting my tooth or wincing in pain. It’s like a magic trick every time I do it! It’s so fun! Speaking of fun, today I get to celebrate my completion of another exam by seeing Night at the Museum II, and then having pizza and relaxing with friends. Hokey Pete. Life is good.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Exams? Excellent!

Well, today was pretty lovely. That’s not completely true. It began with studying, worrying, calling the dentist to get an appointment to irrigate my tooth’s nerves(or something scary sounding like that), dancing because I get to go in tomorrow at 10, some more studying and some more worrying. Then, after a quick lunch and a perusal of a lovely letter my grandma sent me, I went in to my exam.

Exams here eclipse finals in the states when it comes to uptightness. To get into the room you need to show your official Examination Entry Form and student id to the invigilator. (Yes, the people who preside over these exams are called invigilators. Can you imagine? Excuse me, invigilator, could I please use the toilet? And, yes, you must be excused to go to the bathroom.) After this you sit down and cannot open your test booklet, or even write your details on the outside of the form.

Interestingly, I almost got a zero on my exam because I didn’t realize that I couldn’t have my bag by my chair and, a minute before the test, asked if I had to move the bag to the front of the room. The invigilator took it, rolled his eyes, and asked if anyone else had bags “mysteriously hidden behind their desks.” Needless to say, this did nothing to help my nerves.

When the test started, though, everything went right. It wasn’t too bad! I actually took the full two hours on the test, though I finished 29 minutes early. Why is this, you might wonder? Well, students cannot leave during the first 55 minutes or during the last 30 minutes. (Why? Why!?) During the time left I redrew my graphics beautifully. No exam will be prettier than mine, I’m sure.

After that I “studied” at the SU Bar, had dinner, played quiz machines, and then played English Pool. Well. That part of the day, and the actual exam, were grand. Tomorrow I will have no feeling left in my tooth. Life is good!

Friday, May 15, 2009

Umbrella Etiquette, etc.

Hokey. Pete. this is the answer to the question "How is that new Star Trek movie?" I almost wept. In one of the first scenes there's an explosion from a ship to space. Guess what? The explosion doesn't make noise in space! It's like they know! I'd recommend that you start trekking to a cinema as soon as possible to trek it out! (I know I don't get any star for that trek pun.)

Unsurprisingly enough, the weather was far too gloomy today for me to go to the castle park. I thus just went to town at 3:30. My umbrella got to enjoy freedom for only the second time in its admittedly pathetic life. I found out about umbrella etiquette. When an umbrella holder(who shall henceforth be referred to as Sue) passes by a non-umbrella holder, (who shall be called poor-soaked-guy) Sue should lift up her umbrella to kep from hitting poor-soaked-guy. when sue passes another umbrella holder, though, there are no definite rules. The two must non-verbally negotiate the easiest possible way to pass without getting an umbrella spike in the jugular.

To be honest, the world of umbrella etiquete was a bit daunting for a desert-dweller. I also felt a bit chilly and, after stepping in a few puddles my shoes became somewhat damp. I also had to walk uphill. Both ways. I was miserable. And I loved it.

Now, since I should be studying, I've made a word puzzle. Here are the rules:

For each pair, fill in the blanks with THE SAME two letters to make the top word read forward and the bottom word read backward. Then write the two letters added to each numbered pair (in the order given) into the blank at the bottom to complete what I should be doing. (Note: it's a British thing to say!)

1)CA_ _ FUL
NOISSIM_ _ TNI

2)RE_ _ LE
YLE_ _ L

3)_ _ NK
LUFS_ _ LB

4)TA_ _
TA_ _ (ooh! look at that! palindrome for the last one!)

What I should be doing instead of making puzzles: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Good luck!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Blatantly Bad Blogging

Well, it's 4:23 in the morning, and it's as good a time as any to reconsider the title of this blog. Remember when I said "Brits in the Mist" was a good title because the weather's miserable mistiness manifested melancholy moods? (Perhaps with less sleep-deprived alliteration?) I accidentally slandered the lovely East Anglian weather.

It's sunny almost all the time! It's a bit windy but, frankly, I was expecting properly bad weather. I'm a bit depressed about the whole affair, to be honest. I wanted stories of running into things because the fog was so darn foggy. i wanted humorous anecdotes about the climate but "yes, the weather was grand again today" doesn't seem to cut it. Could the title have the same effect being "Brits in the Sun"? I think not! That just sounds like a feel-good pop song. Oh well.
What depressingly perfect weather! We shouldn't be climbing cherry trees, but morosely drinking tea and watching rain. But then again, of my threescore years and ten, 20 will not come again. And since to look at things in bloom, I think you'd agree, 50 springs are little room. So instead of complaining, about the woodlands I will go to see the cherry hung with snow! Well, I'll go right after a few other bits of news.

In other news: A few days ago I played tennis with some friends! The only weather-related problem involved the sun shining too brightly in our eyes.

In other news again: today I'm going to study by the lake in castle park in town! The weather should be magnificent.

In other-other news: I really like dentists' offices over here! Some (like the one I frequent) are in the residential areas. Thus, when one goes to the dentist the experience is similar to visiting a friend. (That is, of course, if one has the type of friends which cause intense pain and steal money afterward.) (So I guess it's more like getting mugged, or, I suppose, having a nightmare about Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. Whatever you do, don't agree to being his neighbor! Don't trust him!)

In even more other-y news: I'll be visiting the dentist on Thursday. But he's nice enough! Speaking of "nice enough," my tooth has stopped hurting so I'm going to exercise my basic human right to happiness. (Which, as we all know, is a synonym of sleep. I even looked it up.) Goodnight!

Friday, May 8, 2009

Revision Time...

Well, I have been spending the last few weeks enjoying myself as only one who is procrastinating truly can. Watching movies, playing English-style pool, and walking to town leaves a sweeter taste when one is simultaneously dodging the drudgery of drumming facts into one's head.

I have also gotten the statistics on my computer's freecell to (are you ready?) 900 wins, 2 losses. Sometimes I astonish even myself with my coolness. Oh, I have also been spending some time playing quiz machines. You may not have heard of these. You have to answer nearly impossible questions correctly a nearly impossible number of times to get money. Yes, they take and pay out real money! I made 2 pounds playing Word Soup.(That's a game similar to boggle. I knew all that practice was good for something!)

But now I should really start revising (aka studying) as my first and most difficult test is in eight days. So I'll start! Right after finishing this. And checking emails. And going to lunch with my friend. And... well, I think we all know where this is going.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Birthday Bashes!

Birthdays are nice, aren't they? On Wednesday two of my friends had birthdays, so we had a pretty rockin' party. Then on Thursday I went to fencing and watched Peter Pan. Friday was another birthday celebration including karaoke, MGMT(which is a band) a toy wrestling thing, and an hour long walk.

Wednesday was particularly nice because I planned the party and actually had a pretty good turnout even though quite a few people are sick or frantically writing essays. I decorated with toilet paper streamers and black trash bags over the lights. It was fun! For the first hour there were only around seven of us, but it was alright because we played dodgeball with bits of paper. Then some more people came, and some more, and before we could eat all the food there were over 30 people in the small flat kitchen. It was certainly standing room only.

We went to Sports Fed(aka dance party!) to end the party which was also fun and dance-filled.

But before all the partying Madeline, Rossen, Chris and I went for a walk in the Essex countryside to try to find a spot of a famous painting. We didn't find it, but we did get to traverse through farmlands, have a grass throwing fight, and walk through a field with horses in it. It was lovely! Now I'm going to go have a picnic including tea and sandwiches at the lake. Have a lovely Sunday!

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Brilliant BBC Broadcasts

Yesterday I did something new.

I left for London at 16:00 with two friends. We caught a train to Liverpool Station, and then took the Underground to Oxford Street. Been there, done that. We went there, though, to be part of a BBC Radio broadcast! Cool!

See, Faye signed up and got free tickets for the show Laurence and Gus: Hearts and Minds. Never heard of it? That’s ok; neither had we. We got a bit lost, which was unfortunate as I was trying to look at least somewhat trendy and so decided to wear heels. After walking for 20 minutes I was cursing society’s insistence that outward appearances are vital for making a good impression. After 25 minutes I was glaring at any smartly-dressed woman. How dare she support this brutal culture!

But then we found the building after asking some joggers and other people who looked generally too busy to help out lost people. The security was stricter than at the airport. We had to take anything metallic out of our pockets, take off belts and anything around our wrists. That was all x-rayed while we walked through the metal detector, praying that we would not be tackled and frisked for forgetting to take off a ring. We got through alright, but security confiscated a spoon from someone in the audience.

After waiting for another 15 minutes (during which I sat on one of those ice cream bins you can find in gas stations and tried not to think about my throbbing feet) we got to go into the recording area. It held around 200 people and looked really impressive. In fact, it looked like a normal theatre without raised seating.

The show was really quite funny, and reminded me at least partially of Prairie Home Companion. I especially liked the part which featured a queen and king- in chess. She was complaining that he just sat around all day while she did all the work. In the end he retorted “I can’t handle your nagging any more. I’m castling.” Ha-ha! The show isn’t up yet on the BBC iplayer, but when it is I’ll post a link.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Because I’m Back on the Blogging Bandwagon

I have sort of fallen off the blogging bandwagon. But I’m back! I’ll just say that the rest of the trip went almost-swimmingly. We spend a few more days in Amsterdam, spent a day in Brussels, two more in Bruges, and then a few days in Calais. I rode an elephant! I went to sleep in the van with the glow of the ferries going between France and England in my eyes! Then I went to Faye’s house for Easter. Now I’m back.

The weather here used to be absolutely magnificent. I spent most of last week outside by the lake, either reading, taking pictures, planning essays, talking, or playing American football. Now the weather has turned, and I’m finding the idea of sitting in front of a computer to be much more bearable.

Over the weekend I got to compete in an epee competition. I got 6th place... out of 10 people. That’s not too bad, though, since I prefer sabers. It should also be noted that I came in first for the women’s competition. (Yes, I was the only female to compete. I’ll take what I can get.)
Here I am actually scoring a point. Intense!

Epee is fun, though, because any part of the body is on-target. (In other words, I could hit someone on the mask or the big toe and get a point. This is different than, say, foil, with which one can only get points by hitting the torso.)

The competition finished by 4 30, but we had the court until 6. So we played basketball, of course! My team won by a fair margin. It rocked. Tomorrow I’m going to London to be part of a BBC radio audience. That’s pretty exciting, I’d say.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Part IV: Uh oh!

After the fun day in Amsterdam we went to the Red Light District for dinner. I had split pea soup with a side of bacon and weird bread with salad on it. Yum! I also tried some pannakoken and bitterballen. Or some things that are spelled and pronounced vaguely similar to those words. It was all mighty tasty! We saw people dressed up for a football game- it was a sea of bright orange! We didn't see any scantily clad women (except on playing cards) because we left at 8:00(Or should I say 20:00) in order to get a train back. I got way too many souvenirs. I got a sunburn. I got split pea soup with ham and sausage. It was a great day! I'm glad that I'm 75% Dutch!

We got back to camp pretty late. Two girls slept in the bathroom(it was clean and warm!) but i opted to layer and stay in the not-so-clean not-so-warm tent. I wore:
-normal socks with two knee-high socks over
-leggings
-jeans
-sweat pants
-four shirts
-one long sleeve shirt
-one sweater
-one wool jacket

I got a bit cold, but it was a-ok! Then we woke, took showers, dissemble the tents and left. Breakfast on the road consisted of:
-Haribo
-gummy vitamins
-Ritz-like crackers
-Potato chips
-Wilhemina mints

Breakfast of champions! (Of course, coke was the beverage again. Nice!) p.s.- In Belgium and Holland there are so many people who run. Through fields. Weird!

(Next Entry. This is where the Uh oh! comes in.)
We made it to Germany! Now we're leaving.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Part III. Amsterdam!


Yesterday we went o Amsterdam! Wow! We took a double decker, lovely train to Amsterdam because the driver didn't want to navigate the harrowing streets. We saw big, old fashioned windmills and cows (and sheep!) We saw fields of daffodils, but no fields of tulips. It's still a bit early for those. We got to Amsterdam and split up into groups- one for the bikers and one for the non-bikers. Me with Lillith, my wonderful bike!

I was in the biking group, surprisingly! We rode around aimlessly for a while, then decided to go to the Van Gogh museum. We found out that entry was 15 euros, so only one person was willing to go. The rest of us spent the 1.5 hours having lunch and relaxing in the park by the museum. After lunch we went to the Rijk museum to look around. Why, we wondered, are museums so expensive? It was around 15 euros for that as well, and there were no student discounts.

We wandered back to the park to watch jugglers until Tina came back from the Van Gogh museum. We biked to the Anne Frank House next. Well, we got really lost and found it after about 45 minutes and several queries. That was 8.50 but worth it. I didn't know her father survived, and I felt really sorry for him since he was the only one of everyone to survive.

In the house there was also an interesting exhibit about rights and how many rights are necessary. They would explain an event (e.g. in the states the government can check what books you check out from the library.) The audience would then vote yes- it's alright to have that right taken away or no- that shouldn't be happening. Interesting! 100% of the people voted that the government should not be able to see what books people check out.

We later rode around a bit more and turned our bikes in. They cost 9 euros for the entire day. Not bad at all, I'd say!

-Soft serve ice cream in Holland is phenomenal. It's fluffily fabulous!
-Bikes are everywhere. There are ore bikes than cars for sure. And people respect cyclists. Crazy!
-A Dutch guy saw my name and said "you have a very Dutch name." I replied "I know!" and beamed.
-We hadn't had a dinner meal inside until dinner this night.
-David almost ran into a tram.
-Tina ran into a bike and a post.
-I like frites more than their British and American equivalents(chips/fries of course)

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Europe Trip Part 2 (Bruges to Amsterdam)

To start with, here are some bullet points from the day's activities:

-We took back roads from Brussels to the Netherlands. We passed a town center that was about half an acre which was full of Daffodils. Now we're on a bumpy road between farms.
-In Bruges we climbed the Belfry and heard the bells playing from the top. (It was loud!) There were good views worth the four euros. (It was also a museum.) The view from the tower. Bruges in all its glory!

Other than that I spent 2.50 for breakfast, one euro for a Belgian waffle, and two euros for a dinner of bread, cold chicken, and cheese.
-The camp was closed near Bruges so we're going to the Netherlands tonight.(Eek!)
-31/3 Ack! That was a bad idea! We got in to Amsterdam around 11 pm. Of course there were no camp grounds and no cheap hostels. So we decided to sleep in the van. two hours later we left again. I asked the driver to pull over half an hour later because driving was pointless at that time. (As you might tell, I was a bit grumpy at this point!) We slept util 5 then went to find a camp site. We got in at 9 15 and then, surprisingly maybe, had a great day! We ended up in a campsite which was a five minute walk from a lovely, sandy beach, and was also near Den Haag.

We went shopping in Den Haag for lunch and dinner foods. We then went to the beach and had frites and ice cream. (By the way, frites are fries. But frites originated in Belgium and, in my opinion, are tastiest by the beach there.) Then we had lunch and took glorious showers. (Remember that we had been wearing the same clothes from Sunday morning until Tuesday afternoon. Ick!) Afterward, we strolled to a cafe on the beach and had amazing cokes. They tasted better, somehow, than cokes from other countries. They had the perfect amount of fizz to complement the sugary dark-amber flavor of the cola.
Dinner at Den Haag. It was lovely to eat outside!

We came back and had dinner (bratwurst made with real intestine(!) and beans with Focaccia bread) and cleaned up. Finally Tina, Madeline, and I went to watch the sunset over the North Sea. Cool! It as grand, and I'm very tired now.
The sunset.

Here are some figures:
-Price for camp(2 nights)= 9 euros!
-Price for lunch = 2 euros
Price for dinner = 1 euro
Price for frites & coke = 3.60

Not bad!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Europe Trip Part 1

I'm finally back from Europe! Now I'm relaxing at Faye's house in the countryside of Suffolk. Very nice! So I'll be writing this while looking out the window at a green fields, grey skies, and birdies flitting by and whistling. Not bad!

I'll write based on my journal from the trip. Here goes!

Yesterday at midnight I left on the Europe Trip with six other people. Wow! Things started out a bit horridly when Steve got lost in the first five minutes. But then the toll road wasn't taking money, showing that things would certainly get better. We got to the ferry at around 3:30, and boarded at 4:00. We slept for around 45 minutes on benches. I thought to myself "enjoy this sleep, because it could be your last good sleep for a while." (I was right! I was so right!)

We got in to France(Calais to be exact) at 6, but the time change made it 7. Nothing was open (or even near) so we went to a huge mall which opened its doors at 8 30. The Mall of Europe! Isn't it magical? It reminded me of Disneyland!

We huddled outside in the cold for half an hour, then sat inside for a while. But we were awarded baguettes and chocolate eclairs for our wait (and even chips and coke!) Lauren and Tina got sandwiches which Grandpa Hopkins would have loved- they were literally dripping mayonnaise. (Well, they were sort of dropping globules, but dripping sounds less icky.) We listened to The Final Countdown, Mr. Blue Sky, Madonna, and more!

Maddie pointed out: Everything in France is symmetrical!
Steve had a great idea: We have the national anthem for every country we're listening. So when we cross the border we blast the new national anthem. Fun!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Oxjam, by Oxfam!

Thursday at 7 30 there was a rockin’ concert at the Troubador. The Troubador is a pretty nice bar in London, where Jimi Hendrix and some other famous people performed. It looked fittingly grotty for the off-beat, indy mood of the concert. The musicians were also perfect, being so late as to hold up the show for an hour. That’s impressively stereotypical musician behavior, I’d say! I felt as if I were a cool Indy character in a movie about cool Indy people going to a cool Indy show in a cool Indy part of town.

Well, Oxfam is a really big charity organization over here which works to end poverty and injustice. They work on long-term programs to end poverty, provide assistance after natural disasters and conflicts, raise public awareness of poverty, and that sort of thing. The six pounds we paid for tickets went straight to Oxfam. If we would have bought merchandise that money would have also gone to Oxfam. As one funny member of Animal Kingdom said, “if you buy the singles, the money goes to charity. It always seems to go to charity.” Ah, the life of the starving musician.

The first performer was Catherine Tram. Catherine Tram consisted of three people, only one of which was named Catherine. In fact, two were males. It was nice, calm music, but nothing to make the listener say “wow”. There were wonderful vocals, though the males generally only sang “ahhh.” If you like Rilo Kiley you might like Catherine Tram, though her lyrics are a bit more angsty. I wrote while listening “this would be good music to have in the background while writing poetry or reading Perks of Being a Wallflower.” In other words, it was lovely, but wasn’t really my cup of tea.

The second performer was Tom Milson. He was alone, and played the electric Ukulele, sometimes supplemented by the dulcet tones of his kazoo. I will have to misquote a nice poem to say that malt does more than Milson can to justify God’s ways to man. Milson didn’t have the deepest lyrics--his first song focused on the plight of lobsters. It was lovely, however, to hear a young adult who was not dramatic. He had good songs for teens today. One of his songs, for example, is titled Internet Love Song and has the following lyrics:

Please, please please don't go
Circumflex underscore circumflex
I love you so.[...]

brb, omg, lawl.
roflmao.

Ha-ha! It’s pretty funny, I’d say. Quite witty, anyways. It was also the best kazoo act I’ve seen all year. The third act, Animal Kingdom, was also very good. Sadly, though, they were doing acoustic for the first time in a while( they just got back from touring with Snow Patrol) and so did slow, depressing songs. This happens, I guess.

Tomorrow I’m leaving for the road-trip around Europe. Cool! I should be visiting internet cafes every other day or so, and so will hopefully be able to tell of amazing adventures in foreign lands.

Friday, March 27, 2009

London, Again!

The Entrance to St. Paul's Cathedral.

Well, I went to London for the third time (not including Heathrow) yesterday. It still hasn’t lost its charm for me, and I haven’t seen everything I want to. I went with Jaime and Maddie, so we got group day-passes. This is such a good idea! All transportation, including the Underground and the trains to and from Colchester, totaled 16 pounds. Amazing! Consider, as an example of transportation costs, that to get to Heathrow and back one must spend 48 pounds.

So, when we got to London we first went to the Thames river, where we saw the Eye, got pancakes, and walked to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. Then we went to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. If you like Botticelli, Da Vinci, Raphael, Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Gogh, Seurat, Monet, and the famous Van Dyck, you’ll love the National Gallery. And, importantly for college students, it’s free!

Afterwards we got McDonalds, which seems to be quickly becoming an embarrassing tradition and which I should probably not admit in a public blog. We then went to St. Paul’s Cathedral, where we saw that Evensong would be sung at 5:00. We decided to come back later. We then went shopping on Oxford Street. Well, we tried shopping, but failed miserably. We went to Primark, possibly the cheapest store in the world, but couldn’t stand the crowds and so left with our heads hanging in shame. We went to St. Paul’s again, and had a coffee to wake ourselves up before heading to the Evensong Service.

We were stunned and excited to find that we got to sit with the choir. We even got to sing with them for a hymn! In the picture above, you can see lamps. We sat in the seats which those lamps are in front of. Yeah, we’re about the coolest people ever. The preacher did a lesson about Pharisees and their expensive looking houses. I found it a bit funny, to be honest, to be sitting in such a beautifully adorned church hearing about how bad it is to have beautifully adorned places.

Speaking of the beautiful adornment, here’s some great information I gleaned from the always-helpful Wikipedia. Its architecture is “a late Renaissance style that is England's sober Baroque. Its impressive dome was inspired by St Peter's Basilica in Rome. It rises 365 feet (108 m) to the cross at its summit, making it a famous London landmark.” Also, the organ which we got to sing with “is the third-biggest in Britain with 7,189 pipes and 108 stops”! We could feel the reverberation from the lowest notes. We even got Goosebumps.

When that finished we ate some awful, yet awesomely filling, peanut butter sandwiches which we brought from home, and headed to a concert Maddie heard about which was located in the basement of a bar far far away from touristy areas. But I’ll tell you about that next time!

Sunday, March 22, 2009

End of Term Escapades

Well, term is over and there are two months until exams with no classes that are necessary to attend. Neat! In fewer than 24 hours Jaime will be here. Because of her arrival, I cleaned my room quite nicely. This entailed hoovering. Yes, I hoovered. People don’t vacuum over here. They also use plasters instead of band-aids. Interesting!

I also had an English Fry-Up again. If you try one, go for the fried bread. Hokey pete. It’s bread that’s fried in oil. Brilliant! I asked for deep-fried bread and was laughed at. The fried eggs are good as well, and the sausage is to die for.

Here’s a funny story about English cuisine: I asked Jaime what she wanted for dinner- a British meal (beans on toast) or a tasty meal(fresh tortellini). She chose tasty over British. Go figure. She’ll just have to try the fry-up.

Today I walked to Tesco by myself in the lovely, warm sunshine to get ingredients for the tasty meal. The walk was grand. There are daffodils and other bulb flowers all along the walkway. There were puffy white clouds in the deep blue sky. It wasn’t freezing. I didn’t even wear a jacket! I felt the sun on my arms! I was in heaven. No offense to humans in general, but it was also nice to be alone with my thoughts. People who passed me probably thought I was a bit odd as I burst into smiles randomly throughout the walk. Oh well.

Tomorrow I have to leave for Heathrow at 9 35 to pick up Jaime. It’ll be awesome! I will be spending a lot of time reading on a bus. This also sounds relaxing, no? I’ll probably read some Gogol and lose some faith in humanity. That sounds like a good way to spend a Monday.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Tasty, Tempting Treats (Nearly) Tantamount to Toccatas

Well, yesterday was the last day of term, which makes this the first day of Spring Break in my eyes. Some of my friends left for London already, some are off to France, some are off to various parts of England, and I’m gleefully awaiting the arrival of Jaime! In recent news, I got a medal for Derby Day.

How exciting is that? I also competed in an epee competition, where I tied for fourth place! This was out of about 15 people. Fortunately, the coach brought chocolate and beer for everyone, and people chose the chocolate in the order in which they won. (It could have been worse! Who needs to aim for the stars when even the lowliest fencer is guaranteed chocolate?)

I thus left the final fencing meeting laden with a lovely medal inscribed with “Derby Day Fencing V’s U.E.A. 2009” and 400 grams of Toblerone. If that isn’t nice, I don’t know what is! Speaking of nice, today I’m taking a rest-day which entails eating the Toblerone and listening to different versions of Symphony 7 Allegretto (Beethoven) and Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (Bach). I would strongly, strongly recommend that you watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipzR9bhei_o

It’s so cool! It’s the Toccata and Fugue, and it shows all the different pitches and when they’re played! I’m obviously a bit excited by it! I realize that it might not be the most beautiful version of the song, but it's so neat to watch the notes. Visual and Aural unite for an unparalleled sense experience! (That's what I would have said if I posted this.)

On a different note (no pun intended) I’ve also been doing cooking experiments. Many involve tasty drinks. Here’s one:

This is a Chinese summer drink, or so I’ve heard from my Chinese flatmates. It's pronounced "tsah-gwah-p/ban-dzee." This drink took about 1/4 of a can of fruit cocktail, some cut up jelly, (this is probably not going to be found in the states, so one could substitute gummy bears or other gummy candy) blackcurrant squash, and fizzy orange drink. Of course, one could add any fruit and juice. There should, however, carbonation. It should also be chilled, and ingested with a spoon. Yum!

Here’s another. It’s an experiment, and is not quite as recommended as the previous drink.

It was made with mashed up cantaloupe, crushed ice, ice-cream, and milk! I hope everyone has a grand weekend. It was pretty good, but a bit tasteless. Also, if one is looking for new taste-experiences, I recommend Battenberg Cake. It’s heavenly! It’s blaringly British!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Stunning St. Patrick’s Day!

I would like to begin by wishing everyone a merry St. Patrick’s Day! There doesn’t seem to be much enthusiasm for the day over here, which is a bit sad. I remember the days of driving about in Laguna with friends dancing(and clapping!) to Flogging Molly and scaring other drivers. Tonight I’ll celebrate by swashbuckling about and drinking a Guinness.

Let me tell you a bit I’ve heard about Guinness while I’ve been here, which has been (sort of) proven by Wikipedia.

1. Guinness is good for you! “Studies claim that Guinness can be beneficial to the heart. Researchers found that antioxidant compounds in Guinness, similar to those found in certain fruits and vegetables, are responsible for health benefits because they slow down the deposit of harmful cholesterol on the artery walls.”

2. Guinness is high in iron! “Guinness is also said to help the body replenish lost blood. When people used to donate blood in Ireland, it is said they were given a pint of Guinness afterward. This is supposedly due to its iron content.”

Now, it says it only supposedly has high iron content, so I’m not sure about its veracity. Still, isn’t that interesting? Even more interesting is this tidbit I found while “researching”: “Guinness stout is made from water, malt, barley, hops, brewer's yeast and is treated with isinglass made from fishes' air bladders.” Well! There you have it.

Last weekend I went to London again. I went to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham palace, but didn’t see too much. These things happen, I guess. I also got to see a musical at West End! That musical was... Grease! Yes, the American classic. One of the actors slipped into a British accent for about half a sentence. How funny is that?

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Derby Day

I don't even have to come up with an anagram for this one, which is nice. Yesterday I participated in Derby Day (pronounced Dahbee Day of course.) I was on the women's fencing team, which consisted of three members. We all had to participate in all three events- epee, foil, and sabre. We won every event! It was lovely! Here's the epee. None of the action shots worked because we were moving too quickly!

Here's how a fencing team competition works: we have three people who fence. The first bout is over when one of the people reaches 5 points. So, for the first weapon we started down 0-5 as the first person to go was worried. The next bout goes until one of the scores totals 10. Lily, the second person to go, reached 10 first for a total score of 10-7. Then I went and it ended something like 15-11. The game ends after all three people have gone three times. Theoretically the last fencer could win the game even if the team were losing by 30 points, so the last person normally is the best fencer.

We did sabre last because Lily, one of our teammates, is a french national fencer and does not know sabre, so it was our weakest weapon. I was the last fencer for sabre, and the score ended up being 44 all. It was so scary, but wonderful when I got the point. It was like those fun sports movies, but I was actually in it! Hoorah!
The Girl's Team after we won. Look at the joy! And, of course, the tiredness. We each had to fence nine times!

The male's team also won, but they only won by three points while we won by over 35 points. Their final game was also really exciting. Since it was Derby Day, there were over 30 sports and University of Essex was whomped, as they say. But we won! We celebrated on the bus back, though we were the only ones really celebrating as we were the only team on the bus to have won. I'll end this post the way we ended the night last night. Wooooo! High fives!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Dulce Día Dos de Barcelona


The next day in Barcelona may have been my favorite. Madeline and I woke up somewhat early. (Nine in the morning is pretty darn early for a college student, wouldn’t you agree?) We went to an outdoor market(which you can see in the picture) to buy loads of fresh strawberries and an orange. We ended up getting a kilo of strawberries and an orange for one and a half euros! Some call us the bargain masters. We took our fresh and fantastic breakfast to the port and ate it with the sun on our faces and ships lazily drifting by. If that’s not nice, I don’t know what is.

Speaking of nice, we stopped by a place to get Churros con Chocolate after enjoying the port. The churros were cooked enough to get a crispy shell, and were covered with sugar. We dipped the churros into melted chocolate and enjoyed!

At around noon we made our way back to the apartments to meet up with some people who had been around Barcelona before and could thus help us navigate the utterly confusing metro. We ended up going to Park Guell(as seen above), which Antoni Gaudí designed. Gaudí was a famous Catalan architect who made fantastical buildings. I can’t describe the architecture as well with words as with a picture, so here is one part of the park. Later, people played futbol on the sandy area. When we went down the stairs to the columns we heard a man playing a beautiful Spanish melody on his guitar and saw the interesting mosaic work on the ceiling.

We then got a bit lost (isn’t that part of the fun, though?) and ended up, quite a few metro tickets later, at the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família.
The Sagrada Família was started in 1882 and isn’t expected to be finished until 2026! Hokey Pete. It’s a Roman Catholic Church, and again, is somewhat different than normal architecture. If you’re curious at all, I strongly advise you to look it up. Here’s a link to wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Familia
And here's a picture of some of the statues on the building. They aren't as realistic as some statues, but show emotion quite well.

The people we went with let us know that this is such a renowned church because, while it might not be as cleanly beautiful as other churches, appears to have grown from the ocean floor. Isn’t that lovely?

We went to the metro to get back, where someone stole my wallet. I was, of course, freaking out a bit considering all the identification, keys, cards, and cash that I would never see again. Fortunately, one of the people we went with spoke Spanish so he talked to the security for me. We got lost on our way to a police station, but when we went back to the metro the lovely, kind, perfect security person informed us that my wallet had been found. The person took my cash but left everything else! I was incredibly happy, needless to say. (Then why, I’m sure you ask, did I have to explicate that?)

We went back, had amazingly good kebab (which is not meat on a stick, but meat shaved off a big meat block in a wrap and tasty stuff) and went to a club. We went out at 2:00, knowing that people go out much later in Spain. No one had arrived yet! We had to come back at 3:00. When we left, exhausted, at 4:00, there was a line to get in.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Beautiful Barcelona!

Hello, I hope everyone is having a lovely day! I went to Barcelona last weekend, and have quite a few exciting stories to relate. I also took masses of pictures, so will probably take a few entries to explicate my trip fully. (By the way, isn’t explicate such a neat word? Why just explain when you can elucidate by explicating?)

So, we left for Barcelona on Friday at 9:50 in the morning. We took RyanAir, a budget European airline. It wasn’t bad at all! My favorite part of the flight happened as we went over the Pyrenees. They’re pretty darn immense. Everything went swimmingly, and we ended up in lovely apartments around dinner time. Here’s a picture of the bedroom and the view we had from the balcony.

Dinner was pretty good, but also pretty expensive. I got a Spanish Tortilla. That’s actually just like an omelet, if you were wondering. I also tried some seafood Paella which is another typical Spanish dish. We got Sangria with the meal, trying again to be as Spanish as possible. It worked! I felt a bit embarrassed while trying to use my Spanish, but of course everyone spoke English and would switch over after a “pues...” or two.

After dinner we walked around the area by our apartments, which was filled with happy people, street vendors and creepy street performers. Here’s an example of a tree lady. She was making weird-tree-movements (note that I’m not saying tree movements that were weird. If there are weird, socially awkward trees they look like her.)

I’ll save the rest of the story for another day as it’s dinner time!

Friday, February 27, 2009

Too Busy for a Cute Title!

To start with, here are some more differences between life in the states and in England:

*The roads are really quite a bit smaller, and there are hardly any traffic lights. Instead, there are crazy roundabouts with multiple roundabouts outside one big roundabout. It’s all confusing to me.

*I’ve heard people say “wonky” to describe things

*There’s also this weird slang, though not everyone uses it. For instance, “have a bubble” means laugh. Why? Well, bubble bath rhymes with laugh... sort of. Interesting!

*People also say “mental” It’s mental how much they use mental. They use it in place of crazy. So picture someone saying “wow, that was a crazy play.” Here they say “that play was just mental!”

Speaking of mental plays, I saw a crazily mental play on Tuesday. It’s called Ape. It was actually quite funny, and I thought it was a lot more understandable than Anima, the last play I went to. In fact, there were quite a few scenes that I could relate to.

One scene, for instance, had two people sitting on chairs, in a mentally awkward silence. One of them finally said “I like carpet.” “You... like... carpet?” “I like carpet.” “I like carpet.” “I like carpet!” And they go on to discuss carpet without really saying anything. I mean, who hasn’t discussed carpet because there seemed to be nothing else worth talking about?

On the 25th, there were three birthdays to celebrate over here. (It was also Andrea’s birthday. Happy happy Birthday Awesome Andrea!) There were two different parties: one with a ton of food and another with champagne and hors d’oeuvres. It was fun! Yesterday I had to finish my two 2500 word essays. That was not quite as fun.

Today I’m going to Barcelona, so won’t be looking at a computer for the weekend. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and I’ll write about my adventures on Monday or Tuesday!

Monday, February 23, 2009

Weekends and Work.

I had a nice and somewhat relaxing weekend. I went to Colchester twice to shop, which is pretty amusing since I have literally no cash left. I cannot take money out of my bank accounts using my credit card, see, and have not gotten my Barclays card yet. So my shopping trips were exercises in futility. The first time I ended up looking for a phone. There are pay-as-you-go phones here for 5 pounds, and I can get 1000 free texts for signing up! Hoorah for global recessions! There are also tons of sales, which I could enjoy if I weren’t cash-free. (Doesn’t that sound better than broke? Nothing- not even money- can take my freedom! I’m cash-free!)

Last night I played squash. Have you ever played? It’s surprisingly fun, and reminds me of wall-ball with rackets. One just hits a ball against the wall and the next person has to hit the next one within one bounce. One can only hit the ball in a certain region on the wall. I don’t really know the rules, though, since we only played for fun.

Last night I also made some baking experiments with Sabine, my flatmate. The day before we had sugar coated aloe. Yesterday we made caramel and caramel coated kiwi, carrots, plums, and oranges. We also made a tasty creation with the caramel and oatmeal. We even made a berry-oatmeal treat. It was a fun, diabetes inducing night. Here are some pictures of the beauty.













Look how happy everyone is, even though the two on the left(along with others from the flat) were forced at spoon-point to try the tasty treats.

Paper time means I’m becoming abnormally and frighteningly focused on the English language. So here’s a poem! It’s understandably a bit off. But see, the second part of each line is an anagram of the first part! You can tell because the start of each anagram is capitalized. Neat-o!

I was at my race. My wait? a scare.
But it stretches on. The bitter counts
Of fear -no. An offer. o!
Contenders pause- Purest ones dance;
A thing in the Night in heat
Finally they Fly. any lithe
One now Won one.
“I beat her!” I breathe.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Pithy Presentation Pertaining to Pantomimes

Alright, I’m an English Major so in all honesty this probably won’t be too pithy. Here is some information I got on Pantomimes from my friend: Pantomimes are a big tradition over here. They normally have a girl who plays a prince and a man who plays a mother. Audience participation is crucial! In the “chase scene” we get to say “He’s behind you! Look behind you!” We also get to boo every time the villain comes on. It’s actually intensely fun.

I unfortunately could not take pictures, because I was not allowed to. How sad is that? So, let me just tell you a bit about the show. There were around 50 boy scouts in the audience, which had seating in an area reminiscent of a junior high cafeteria. It was nice, though. The people sang popular songs by artists such as Abba. They also sang a High School Musical number. Interesting!

During the panto, there were two older women sitting behind us. One of them was obviously a veteran pantomime watcher. As soon as the characters went onstage for the chase scene she called out “He’s behind you!” and cackled. She also was often the first to boo the “baddie” and would laugh quite wickedly after saying something. I have a new hero!

So, on the cosmic 1-10 scale for good experiences to have while in England I’d rate this one pretty high. Perhaps an 8 or an 8.5. Colchester, by the way, has fallen to about a 5. There’s nothing really bad about it, but it’s not exceptionally exceptional. It’s just, you know, ordinarily exceptional.

By the way, want to see a picture of the lake on campus? Of course!
Doesn’t it look peaceful and bucolic? Well it should, since it is.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Staying in Suffolk (or, Walking in Wellies last Weekend)

After seeing the ruins, we went to Ickworth House. It is an “Eccentric Neo-Classical” design. I thought it was lovely! Some didn’t agree, though. Lady Bristol called it “a stupendous monument of folly.” Well, that could be an oddly put compliment, I guess. Or maybe she meant “a stupendous monument of fall. Ee!” meaning, of course, that it reminds her of a refreshing autumn day and makes her chirp with delight. It was also under construction. Typical. What a monument of folly. The Ickworth House doesn't make me say Ick!

During the weekend I also went on a Grand Adventure. This involved putting on Wellies (which I couldn’t talk about without giggling like a school girl talking about her crush) and traversing through a stream in the rain with a hyper dog. First, let me say that Wellies are just galoshes. But, come on. Wellies. It sounds so ridiculously cute (especially with a British accent) that I’m laughing a bit even while I’m writing this. Whenever I say Wellies I sort of bob my head and grin. Anyways, the dog was also absurdly endearing- It chases its tail! Crazy. The river was nice, and not deep enough to splash over the Wellies, which was considerate of it. Here's one of the more strenuous climbs on the Grand Adventure. We were like explorers!

So, that was the English countryside. They have scarecrows. They have fields. They have quaint bridges. They have excessively winding, tiny, scary roads. I though I was going to die multiple times on the trip. It happens. Finally, though this is everywhere where there are older people, they have signs for Elderly People. One had a sign to watch for elderly people and ducks.

If anyone was wondering “does this young woman have a mature(pronounced mah- tour) sense of humour?” I doubt they do any more. Wellies and signs about elderly people crack me up. The good news is that I finished my Latin American Studies essay. Hoorah! Next entry, expect exciting exploits involving Pantomimes!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Fabulously Fattening Foods. Fun!

List of new stuff I ate this weekend, with some visual aid:
-Beef stew with dumplings and French bread- I unfortunately did not get a picture of this. It was absolutely beautiful!
-Scrambled eggs on toast/crumpets/English Muffins
-Prawn Crisps and Sesame Prawn bread
-Crunchy Seaweed
Cajun Squirrel, Chili Chocolate, and Crispy Duck and Hoisin flavored crisps

Above, you can see sweets from a sweet shop. My favorites were the ones that looked like sunny side up eggs! With the mushroom ones, one could almost have a candy fry-up!

Fry Up! This includes sausages, mushrooms, scrambled eggs, baked beans, ham(“bacon”), black pudding (aka congealed blood with other material.), toast
Roast! This includes mashed swede, broccolini, carrots, baked potatoes sans skin, roast lamb with mint sauce, Yorkshire pudding, baby potatoes, parsnips

Wow. Needless to say, I gained 23 pounds and now have to buy all new clothes. This is the price one pays for local cuisine! Well, let me see. I suppose I shouldn’t focus solely on food when I did in fact participate in some non-food-related activities. For instance, I went to the ruins in Bury St. Edmunds! Let me tell you a bit about Bury St Edmunds. King Edmund, the last Saxon king, was beheaded and then canonized. He was buried in Bury St Edmunds. And now the name of the town makes sense!

There is an abbey which was built in his honor, but was destroyed and is now known as the abbey ruins. This man obviously had some bad luck. Even things built after his decapitation were destroyed. The ruins were fun to walk around in and climb on, though.
Bury St Edmunds also is home to the smallest pub in Great Britain! I took a picture and then ran away when everyone looked at me like a tourist. These things happen.

I think I’ve written enough, so I’ll finish the weekend in the next entry, along with a description of the Pantomime I’m going to tonight!

Friday, February 13, 2009

BETSY!!!

So based on comment-response I don’t think I should write on boring-ish museums any more. Sorry boring-ish museums of the world! What I am going to tell you, therefore, has nothing to do with museums and is actually pretty exciting. I am partial owner of a van!

Yes, I am. Her name is Betsy. (Ah! the title makes sense now!) She cost, after taxes and everything, 450 pounds or around 68 pounds per person. I finally got to be driven to ASDA in Betsy yesterday. She ran really smoothly! Of course, we have to park her far away from other cars because she sort of need a jumpy rolling start. And until she’s warmed up the accelerator has to be pushed constantly or she’ll stall. (She’s also a manual, if you hadn’t guessed.)

You see, six other people and I are going on a road trip around Europe. How typical college student does that sound? I’m almost embarrassed at fitting so neatly into the “studying abroad college student” box. Wouldn’t it be more creative to, say, do a mini tour of boring-ish museums around Colchester over Spring Break?

We will be gone for two weeks and will follow this route: Belgium-Netherlands-Germany-Czech Republic-Slovakia-Austria-Italy-Switzerland-France-Germany-Luxembourg-Belgium and back! It’ll be fun. It’ll be busy. We probably won’t shower too much because we don’t want to pay for Hostels and have a tent. It’ll be a bonding experience! We aren’t really expecting Betsy to last the whole way; the Alps will be a bit difficult for an old van. So don’t worry, we’ll have other plans for if she dies.

Each person got a country to research, and we had meetings to discuss where we should go in each country. In Belgium we’ll be going to Brussels and Bruges, and have some frites and waffles and chocolate and beer. Then in the Netherlands we’ll go to Amsterdam and go to a Van Gogh museum, where apparently they will temporarily have Starry Night! I could go on about what we’re going to do, but these are just blue-prints and might be changed.

On a different note, I’m going to Suffolk today! My friend Faye is taking me to her house so I can see more of England. It should a ton of fun! I get to have a “fry up” on Sunday morning, which is apparently a ton of different food oozing with grease. Yumm!

On another different note, I’m 80% done with the first essay I have to turn in! (2,000 out of 2,500 words, and it’s due on the 20th.) I’m also around 25% done with the other two, which are due in 2 weeks. So much studying!

On another different note, yesterday I went to fencing and karaoke and a dance party! But it’s my only dance party of the week, and the whole night cost 1.50!

On another different note, today I get to open up a British bank account! That’s where I’m off to now. Bye!

Here’s a shorter version of the fun riddle last time:

Here are some words that you should find quite nice-
The first letters can be found in Macaw and Mice,
The second you can find in the middle of a Bug,
And the third letters are in Guppy and also in Pug.
These two words should be found first
If you really want to quench your thirst!
_ _ _ and _ _ _

Man, I could do these for years; they’re so fun! ...Yeah, I’m a bit of a nerd.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Ready for Riddles?

Based on a Puzzle-a-Day calendar, I decided to make a fun rhyme/riddle! I also should be writing papers right now. Ah well! For this riddle, you can find two different answers to this “letter selection rhyme.” That’s what the calendar called its version.

My first letter is in damp and also in pandering.
My second’s the only vowel supersonic is missing.
My third is in crone and also in rancid,
And my fourth is a consonant in excite and scented.
I end with what is in “hey!”
And also in yellow and grey.
My whole is what you will see
If you come to England and see me!
_ _ _ _ _ and _ _ _ _ _

Alright, here’s another riddle-type-thing that I thought of while I was in class.
This one is more of a code, and it just gives you one word. Also, please don’t make fun of me when you get the word. Ah well. It’s just fun to use 2’s for a code!

1: Start with the Pythagorean’s most perfect number
(If we want to make this solely 2s do the following:
Start with 2. add 2*2. divide by 2. add 2, then multiply by 2.)
2: Take that number and divide by 2.
3: Take the previous number and add 2, then multiply by 2.
4: Take the previous number and add (2*2^2), then divide by 2 and subtract 2.
5: Take the previous number and add 2.
6: Subtract 2 from the previous number, then subtract (2*2*2).

Finally, here’s my personal favorite riddle set that I’ve made up. They’re so funny! And you have to answer in rhyme. I made them up around the time when I was in 7th grade, so don’t call them immature! Ah, well!

Here is my poem, riddle, and pun.
I hope you think it is quite fun.
Who looks at an abbey and thinks “ ‘tis not shabby”?
The answer, of course is _________!

Here is my pun, riddle and poem.
I hope it does not make you moan.
What do you call a ‘bot that talks quite a lot?
The answer, of course, is a ________!

Do you have the answers? I’m trying to think how to work this. Do you want the world to know that you know? I guess you could comment, and everyone could go on the honor system that they won’t look at previous answers. But then, I know you people. Hmm. Ah well, good luck! By the way, if there’s a huge outcry for more of those letter selection rhymes, I’ll be happy to oblige! They’re not too difficult to think up. Maybe my next one could flow better, and have more coherent lines!

Monday, February 9, 2009

Monday’s Musings- Museum Madness!

Well, I think that I should keep up with entries that focus on the more cultured part of my experience. What do you think? I don’t know as I’m writing this what you’re actually thinking, so I’m sorry if you disagree with my choice. I tried to include you in the decision making process; that’s what counts!

So. I went to three museums on Saturday in Colchester with Madeline and Lauren. “That is amazing,” I’m sure you’re saying. “I am so glad that she is going to write about museums!” They weren’t overly exciting, though. We first went to The Castle Museum, as seen here. This is the biggest and oldest Norman keep still standing in England! Neat! But the museum was aimed for people probably about 10 years our... junior. We could have tried on hats and togas and looked at ourselves in mirrors. Alas, we did not. There was also a creepy prison area where we got to hear a reenactment of a 15 year old girl being tortured until she testified that her mother and several other women were witches. We found out later on by reading a plaque that those women were all hanged! There was also a plaque that read “Feel the wood on the door that has been worn smooth by the hundreds of prisoners begging to be let free!” Well. That was not the cheeriest area of the museum.

Here are some warriors. They looked pretty fierce, but apparently I was the only one who was frightened. Everyone else looks so at ease! I also learned about Boudica, a woman who led a surprisingly effective revolt against the Romans after soldiers did bad things to her and her daughters. There’s actually a statue I saw of her in London previously. I wondered who she was, and now know her sort of depressing, but also impressive story! If you’d like to know more, I suggest Wikipedia. Though there is also a movie, apparently. Because we all know how good movies are at accurately representing the past! My favorite part of the museum was probably the well in front. (It was so deep! Like some of these blog entries!)

The second museum we went to was a “Natural History Museum.” I didn’t trust it first because it smelled too good. It had this wonderfully fruity aroma which could not be natural. My distrust was understandable. There were loads of dead animals that had been expertly stuffed. There were even dead bugs. However, all the local wildlife was represented, which I applaud. They didn’t forget the lowliest sparrow or tiniest mouse! Then we went to the Hollytrees Museum. It wasn’t too exciting, but we did get to draw profile silhouettes. Lauren was definitely the pro-profile sketcher of the group. We also got to see children’s toys throughout the centuries. My favorite ones were the Star Wars toys. There you have it. Hooray for smallish city museums!