In front of the Eiffel Tower on my first night with the tour
Paw-paw and me on the river cruise we took down the Rhine in Germany
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Coming soon...
I'm posting this post to let you know that a post about my time with Paw-paw will be appearing shortly. This is just a short preview...ha. I know my mom has been harassing me to get it posted, so I'm trying my best. (Harassing might be too strong of a word... perhaps she has been strongly urging me to post an entry?) I started back to classes on Wednesday and I think it's going to be a good semester. I had to label a map for my Intro to New Testament class, and it's already done and in my backpack ready to go. I'm proud, and I think my mommy would be too. =) Hopefully I will have the full blog up by Monday. Until then, keep it real. Here are two pictures from the trip, many more to follow.
In front of the Eiffel Tower on my first night with the tour
Paw-paw and me on the river cruise we took down the Rhine in Germany
In front of the Eiffel Tower on my first night with the tour
Paw-paw and me on the river cruise we took down the Rhine in Germany
Sunday, August 17, 2008
The end of Oxford, the beginning of my depression...
I finished up the Oxford program, and I can honestly say that it was probably the greatest summer of my life. In the whole span of things, I haven't lived that many summers, so hopefully I'll experience many more just as awesome as that, but for now, it definitely tops the list. I can't begin to express how thankful I am for this opportunity. I have made many new friends, and I know we'll continue to be friends back in Austin (if they'll have me...ha). I didn't post anything about my trip to Scotland, but I just lost track of it, and now I don't feel like doing it at all. Sorry, folks for the disappointment, but this is my blog and I'll run it how I want to run it. Ha...just kidding. The last week in Oxford, we really didn't do much except enjoy our last week in Oxford. There were still several things I wanted to do, but it was raining on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, so I didn't do it all. On Thursday, the weather cleared up and a group of us went punting alongside the river Cherwell, which is a tributary to the Thames (thanks again, Wikipedia). Most of the guys did the punting, but a few of the girls tried to as well. Some of the guys on my boat would jump into the icy cold river, and then climb back in. So the water kind of built up in our boat. The place where we rented the boats from will charge if there is a lot of excess water in it, so we had to pull alongside the bank and get out so the guys could bail out the water...haha. It was a lot of fun and a relaxing afternoon, and a nice way to end our days in Oxford. That evening, we had a banquet/ball to commemorate our time at Brasenose. When I return back to the states, I'm hoping I'll have a hint of a British accent...like Gwyneth Paltrow or Madonna...or maybe at least retain a few of the ways they say things. Like asking for the Toilets instead of restrooms or signs that say Way Out instead of Exit. Right now I am enjoying my time with Paw-paw and the tour here in Europe. I'll post stuff about that later.
Nina attempting to punt
The guys bailing our boat
Our amazing punter, Tom
The whole group before dinner
After the dinner, they pushed back the tables in the dining hall and a lady came to teach us how to dance like they did during Jane Austen's time. That was quite an experience.
Brittyne, Riou, Laura, Pete, and me
Riou and me
Sarah and me
The Regency dance teacher
Amanda and Nina
Hanging out
Me and Boss Tom
Everyone at the ATM's...uhh...I mean cash machines
The great Ed with Amanda and me
Mallory with her broken strap...we laughed about that for awhile.
Mallory and me at dinner one night...pretty much sums up our friendship...haha
Nina attempting to punt
The guys bailing our boat
Our amazing punter, Tom
The whole group before dinner
After the dinner, they pushed back the tables in the dining hall and a lady came to teach us how to dance like they did during Jane Austen's time. That was quite an experience.
Brittyne, Riou, Laura, Pete, and me
Riou and me
Sarah and me
The Regency dance teacher
Amanda and Nina
Hanging out
Me and Boss Tom
Everyone at the ATM's...uhh...I mean cash machines
The great Ed with Amanda and me
Mallory with her broken strap...we laughed about that for awhile.
Mallory and me at dinner one night...pretty much sums up our friendship...haha
Monday, August 4, 2008
Ireland and then some
I haven't updated the blog in a while, apologies to my loyal readers. I've been enjoying myself and it gets hard to keep it all updated. I like to make sure the blog experience is the best one possible, therefore, a little extra time has to go into it...ha. Life here in Oxford is pretty much the best thing ever and I know I'm going to really miss it, but I'll be ready to go home once it's time to, don't worry Mom =). This blog is fairly lengthy, so get to reading.
*Insert comments about attention-loving Brits*
As Riou (also known as Batman as well as the nicest Brit ever) would say, "This body doesn't sculpt itself."
Hello, Ed.
I hope you two are happy with the blog referencing.
So this weekend I went to Dublin, Ireland, along with 7 other girls from Oxford. I wasn't too sure what to expect. Ireland has never really been one of the places that is high on my places to visit. But I very much enjoyed it. Every Irish person we talked to was extremely nice and helpful, and they went out of their way to be friendly. On our first night, we got in a little late and were trying to find a place to eat. (And by late, we went looking for something to eat around 9:30...everything closes over here in the Eastern hemisphere) We asked a police officer for some suggestions. He suggested McDonald's and we were like "uhh...try again" He got his buddy, another officer, if he had any ideas and he thought about it for a second and then he suggested McDonald's as well. After we told them no way, they told us some other streets to try and see if anything was open. The officers told us to turn down the street and it would take us about a two-hour walk to find something...if we know where we are going, if not then it would take about 5...ha. Funny Irishmen. We ended up going to McDonald's.
We stayed in a hostel in Ireland which was a very unique experience, I suppose. I paid to stay in a dorm room full of stangers...ha. It felt a bit like youth camp, except with more Germans and French people. Getting to Ireland was somewhat of a challenge. We had to switch trains like four different times and only with about 5 minutes in between each stop and if we would've missed one, we would've missed our ferry. It got interesting. We made it, though. The ferry was kind of rough and I don't suffer much from motion sickness, but I was feeling a bit woozy. On Saturday we walked around Dublin a bit and went to St. Patrick's Cathedral and toured the Guinness factory. I don't think it gets much more Irish than Catholicism and beer. Some of the girls wanted to go to the Guinness factory store, and we weren't too willing to pay the 11 euro fee to tour it. So one of the girls went up and asked the lady where the store was and she said to follow her and she opened up some doors behind the ticket check-in place and led us to the store. Turns out, we were pass all the check points to tour the place, so we decided to take a free tour of Guinness. Probably not the most honest thing to do, but they weren't really worried about it too much, obviously. The tour was boring, but at the top of the factory, it is supposed to have the best view of Dublin. And it did.
On our first train ride, it was really crowded because another train got cancelled, so we had to stand near/inside the bathroom. Fun stuff.
Just a view of the Welsh countryside on our way to the ferry
We went to this restaurant our first night there, after we ate at McDonald's and watched a local band play some nice, classic Irish songs.
The band
That thing sticking up is the Spire...Ireland must have wanted a distinctive landmark but didn't have much money so they decided to make a massive pole. It serves its purpose, I suppose.
A bridge
Us on the bridge
An awesome green mailbox
St. Patrick's cathedral
A fountain at the Guinness factory
We made it safely out of the factory, unscathed.
On Saturday, we tried to find somewhere to eat a little earlier, and a bit more authentic, but all the places had like 2 hour waits, so we ended up going to the Hard Rock Dublin.
But on the upside, they had free refills, which is the only place yet to have had them. I took a picture of mine...ha
Supposedly their painted Georgian doors are famous. I bought some playing cards with all the different colored doors on them.
On the way home from Ireland on the ferry, Laura had bought some Starbursts, but was very stingy with her Strawberry flavored ones and wouldn't share them, so we decided to teach her a lesson. At one point while she was in the bathroom, Mallory and Vannessa took out all the strawberry ones and hid them. Then right before we left, Mallory lined them all up in front of Laura so she could see what we could have done, but because we are so nice, we let her keep them.
Another random picture of the Welsh countryside on our way home.
I have other things that I have done in England that I haven't posted anything about. I guess I can do that now too.
Last Saturday, me and three other girls went to London. We left Oxford at 7:30! Crazy for me, I know. We went to Notting Hill and went to a market along Portobello Road. Supposedly that's a famous road, but I hadn't heard of it. I bought a pocket watch on a chain thing and about an hour after I bought it, someone asked for the time. I ceremoniously and triumphantly opened it and said "It is 11:20..." and kind of trailed off. An hour ago it was 11:20. The girls made fun of me the rest of the day and since.
So this guy is a graffiti street artist and no one knows who he is, but he's kind of a big deal, I learned.
Pianos at Harrod's...some day.
After Notting Hill, we made our way to Westminster Abbey via the underground tube. A few of us actually went in this time. That was pretty mind-blowing. I unfortunately couldn't take any pictures inside. It was amazing to see the hundreds of years of history as well as all the burial places of the greats of history. Fascinating stuff. After a while, though, it gives me a headache. My brain is trying to fathom it, but it can't so it just kind of shuts down. After that we went to Abbey Rd and attempted to recreate the iconic Beatles album cover. The road was a bit busier than expected, so it didn't work out as well as we would have hoped. We also went to the King's Cross railway station. We went there because it's featured in the Harry Potter series. He gets to Hogwart's by taking the train at platform 9 3/4.
Oldest door in all of Britain...it was at Westminster Abbey. I suppose I snuck in a few pictures.
Abbey Road
Abbey Road studios
They have a cute little display for all of the tourists who want to pretend to be Harry Potter. As you can tell, I was excited...ha
Last Thursday, the entire Oxford group went to London for a play at the Globe. We attended King Lear, but it wasn't very good. Well, it was 3 hours long and the seats were wooden bleacher-like things with no backs. That got old, real quick. The performance wasn't too good either. Before we got to the globe though, we stopped at Hampton Court, the vacay home of the royals dating back to Henry VIII. We weren't supposed to take pictures, but being the crazy rebel that I am, I snapped a few, all for your viewing pleasure.
All was going well until...
I made fun of his tights...
Their other throne...HA...get it?
I thought this was hilarious...not too sure why.
The Globe
Inside the Globe
We also went to the city of Bath the other day and toured the Roman baths...I'm kind of tired of posting this blog, and you are probably getting tired of looking at it, but hang in there. I'm almost done...ha
We took a walk through Prior Park before we went to the baths
The nasty water
The Royal Crescent
Jane Austen lived here briefly
*Insert comments about attention-loving Brits*
As Riou (also known as Batman as well as the nicest Brit ever) would say, "This body doesn't sculpt itself."
Hello, Ed.
I hope you two are happy with the blog referencing.
So this weekend I went to Dublin, Ireland, along with 7 other girls from Oxford. I wasn't too sure what to expect. Ireland has never really been one of the places that is high on my places to visit. But I very much enjoyed it. Every Irish person we talked to was extremely nice and helpful, and they went out of their way to be friendly. On our first night, we got in a little late and were trying to find a place to eat. (And by late, we went looking for something to eat around 9:30...everything closes over here in the Eastern hemisphere) We asked a police officer for some suggestions. He suggested McDonald's and we were like "uhh...try again" He got his buddy, another officer, if he had any ideas and he thought about it for a second and then he suggested McDonald's as well. After we told them no way, they told us some other streets to try and see if anything was open. The officers told us to turn down the street and it would take us about a two-hour walk to find something...if we know where we are going, if not then it would take about 5...ha. Funny Irishmen. We ended up going to McDonald's.
We stayed in a hostel in Ireland which was a very unique experience, I suppose. I paid to stay in a dorm room full of stangers...ha. It felt a bit like youth camp, except with more Germans and French people. Getting to Ireland was somewhat of a challenge. We had to switch trains like four different times and only with about 5 minutes in between each stop and if we would've missed one, we would've missed our ferry. It got interesting. We made it, though. The ferry was kind of rough and I don't suffer much from motion sickness, but I was feeling a bit woozy. On Saturday we walked around Dublin a bit and went to St. Patrick's Cathedral and toured the Guinness factory. I don't think it gets much more Irish than Catholicism and beer. Some of the girls wanted to go to the Guinness factory store, and we weren't too willing to pay the 11 euro fee to tour it. So one of the girls went up and asked the lady where the store was and she said to follow her and she opened up some doors behind the ticket check-in place and led us to the store. Turns out, we were pass all the check points to tour the place, so we decided to take a free tour of Guinness. Probably not the most honest thing to do, but they weren't really worried about it too much, obviously. The tour was boring, but at the top of the factory, it is supposed to have the best view of Dublin. And it did.
On our first train ride, it was really crowded because another train got cancelled, so we had to stand near/inside the bathroom. Fun stuff.
Just a view of the Welsh countryside on our way to the ferry
We went to this restaurant our first night there, after we ate at McDonald's and watched a local band play some nice, classic Irish songs.
The band
That thing sticking up is the Spire...Ireland must have wanted a distinctive landmark but didn't have much money so they decided to make a massive pole. It serves its purpose, I suppose.
A bridge
Us on the bridge
An awesome green mailbox
St. Patrick's cathedral
A fountain at the Guinness factory
We made it safely out of the factory, unscathed.
On Saturday, we tried to find somewhere to eat a little earlier, and a bit more authentic, but all the places had like 2 hour waits, so we ended up going to the Hard Rock Dublin.
But on the upside, they had free refills, which is the only place yet to have had them. I took a picture of mine...ha
Supposedly their painted Georgian doors are famous. I bought some playing cards with all the different colored doors on them.
On the way home from Ireland on the ferry, Laura had bought some Starbursts, but was very stingy with her Strawberry flavored ones and wouldn't share them, so we decided to teach her a lesson. At one point while she was in the bathroom, Mallory and Vannessa took out all the strawberry ones and hid them. Then right before we left, Mallory lined them all up in front of Laura so she could see what we could have done, but because we are so nice, we let her keep them.
Another random picture of the Welsh countryside on our way home.
I have other things that I have done in England that I haven't posted anything about. I guess I can do that now too.
Last Saturday, me and three other girls went to London. We left Oxford at 7:30! Crazy for me, I know. We went to Notting Hill and went to a market along Portobello Road. Supposedly that's a famous road, but I hadn't heard of it. I bought a pocket watch on a chain thing and about an hour after I bought it, someone asked for the time. I ceremoniously and triumphantly opened it and said "It is 11:20..." and kind of trailed off. An hour ago it was 11:20. The girls made fun of me the rest of the day and since.
So this guy is a graffiti street artist and no one knows who he is, but he's kind of a big deal, I learned.
Pianos at Harrod's...some day.
After Notting Hill, we made our way to Westminster Abbey via the underground tube. A few of us actually went in this time. That was pretty mind-blowing. I unfortunately couldn't take any pictures inside. It was amazing to see the hundreds of years of history as well as all the burial places of the greats of history. Fascinating stuff. After a while, though, it gives me a headache. My brain is trying to fathom it, but it can't so it just kind of shuts down. After that we went to Abbey Rd and attempted to recreate the iconic Beatles album cover. The road was a bit busier than expected, so it didn't work out as well as we would have hoped. We also went to the King's Cross railway station. We went there because it's featured in the Harry Potter series. He gets to Hogwart's by taking the train at platform 9 3/4.
Oldest door in all of Britain...it was at Westminster Abbey. I suppose I snuck in a few pictures.
Abbey Road
Abbey Road studios
They have a cute little display for all of the tourists who want to pretend to be Harry Potter. As you can tell, I was excited...ha
Last Thursday, the entire Oxford group went to London for a play at the Globe. We attended King Lear, but it wasn't very good. Well, it was 3 hours long and the seats were wooden bleacher-like things with no backs. That got old, real quick. The performance wasn't too good either. Before we got to the globe though, we stopped at Hampton Court, the vacay home of the royals dating back to Henry VIII. We weren't supposed to take pictures, but being the crazy rebel that I am, I snapped a few, all for your viewing pleasure.
All was going well until...
I made fun of his tights...
Their other throne...HA...get it?
I thought this was hilarious...not too sure why.
The Globe
Inside the Globe
We also went to the city of Bath the other day and toured the Roman baths...I'm kind of tired of posting this blog, and you are probably getting tired of looking at it, but hang in there. I'm almost done...ha
We took a walk through Prior Park before we went to the baths
The nasty water
The Royal Crescent
Jane Austen lived here briefly
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