Recap!

TSo yesterday was a pretty eventful day here in Oxford.  We had a field trip to Winchester, which has a huge Cathedral, Jane Austen's grave, and Winchester College for school boys.  We left early in the morning to head off on an hour bus ride to Winchester Cathedral and I read my postmodern reading for my integrative seminar.  When we got to Winchester we immediately walked to the Cathedral to do a tour.  The Cathedral was beautiful, with many famous graves of old bishops, kings, and random Church attendees.
Here is a picture of Jane Austen's grave:

We had an eventful day of walking around and touring the Cathedral, college, and city.  The boys college was one of my favorites because it was so stereotypically posh. One thing to explain before I get into my story; colleges are primary schools for ages 13 to 18 and Universities are what we think of as "colleges". These boys were dressed very nice and walked around with their heads held high.  I even saw a little 13 year old boy who was dressed in black nice pants, an expensive navy blue pea coat, and slicked back blonde hair.  Needless to say, he was leading the pack of boys that followed behind him like submissive puppies.  I just had to shake my head and role my eyes because all I could think of was Draco Malfoy!
This is a picture of Winchester College:

After we were done with the field trip, we got to a late start on the bus back to Oxford, leaving me worried because I had reservations at 6 p.m. for dinner at Jamie Oliver's Italian Kitchen in Oxford for my birthday.  Many of us were going out to dinner then to the 8 p.m. early showing of the Hunger Games as an early birthday celebration because Esther, Anna and I are leaving for Scotland to celebrate my birthday this weekend.  When the bus got to the bust stop, I ran out and sprinted to the Vines, got my stuff, and sprinted to the restaurant.  We all got there fine and nine of us had a great dinner and the restaurant even sang Happy Birthday to me!

After dinner we went to the showing and I absolutely loved it!!! The movie was so amazing and I recommend it, with discretion because it does have kids killing each other.  The point is to show a dystopian society and then goes in to sequels that lead to further rebellions to get out of the dystopian society.  It turned out to be a very great day that was very enjoyable.

OH I never wrote a blog post on last weekends events so I will just leave you with this.  Last weekend I went to the St. Patties day Parade in London with Courtney, Esther, Jesse, and Kelsey.  It was somewhat of a sucky parade, but we had a lot of fun.
Here is a picture from that:

Well now I have to go to Integrative Seminar and then on my way to Scotland for the weekend!
Tata for now!
Katie

Spring Break Extravaganza!!!

Hey all, I just got back from my spring break adventure in Gothenburg, Stockholm, and Copenhagen with Victoria Chandler and Casey Smedberg!  We had so much fun backpacking through the different cities and staying at all of the different hostels.  We began our trip on Friday afternoon where we flew into Stockholm, Sweden from London Heathrow airport.  We got there in the late evening and took a bus to our first hostel where we stayed for 2 nights.  The hostel was very nice and we had a room with bunk beds and a television.

The first day at Gothenburg, we went on a ferry all around the Swedish islands.  We stopped on an Island named Vrango, which had a national reserve park that we walked around for several hours.  We had a blast climbing up rocks and trees that usually was led by Casey's craziness.  After our long walk through the park, we waited for the ferry to arrive and as we sat this random cat came up to the bench and started rubbing himself against our legs.  He then jumped up on the bench and on to all of our laps.  He was very cute, so I decided to name him Sven.

Here is a picture from our Vrango adventure:

The next day, we left pretty early for the train station to take a train from Gothenburg to Stockholm, Sweden.  The train was a very calming three and a half hour ride that I read the entire time (occasionally lifting my head up to look at the beautiful scenery).  In Stockholm we set up at another beautiful hostel and did a lot of outdoor sight seeing.  All of the museums in Stockholm were closed on Mondays (which of course was the day we were there!).  It was still very beautiful to see the castles and palaces around the area!

Here is a picture in Stockholm:

After Stockholm we took a plane to Copenhagen, Denmark for the last stretch of our Scandinavian adventure, and what a stretch it turned out to be!  It was dark outside when we first arrived because we got a late flight so we could do a bit more sight seeing in Stockholm.  When we got off the metro from the airport to our stop, we had to find our way in a strange city, at night, to a hostel we had never been to.  When we finally found the hostel, it was on top of a bar, and there were scary people in the front talking about beating the crap out of others who were not present.We were all sort of scared for our lives.  When we got into the safety of our hostel room, it was not very nice, which was unfortunate since the last two were extremely nice.

When we woke up the next morning we decided to walk to Nyhavin Street, which had many shops and was the place Hans Christian Anderson wrote his first fairy tale (for those of you who don't know, he wrote the little mermaid and there is a statue of the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen).  A 17 minute walk turned into a 3 and a half hour getting lost around Copenhagen tour!  We got so flustered we gave up and just went to the coast of the water and saw the Little Mermaid statue.  We were so exhausted that we layer out on the rocks and took a two hour nap by the statue! Even though it was tiring and frustrating, we still had a fantastic time and got to see a lot of lovely buildings and shops around Oxford.  If we hadn't have gotten lost, I would have never come across my new horse names Johann Stavros.

This is his picture:

We also stumbled across a Disney Store where I found out that Mickey Mouse was originally supposed to be named Mortimer Mouse, but Walt Disney's wife told him that would be too scary and he should name him Mickey!  Fun fact of the day!

Ironically, after our adventure, we got on a bus to go to our last and final Hostel and passed the street we spent hours looking for . . . figures. lol.

Needless to say, we had a fantastic time and I am sad that it is over.  At the same time, I am ecstatic to be back in my own room and have fresh new clothes to wear.  Well I shall be off now because I have to wake up early and start British Landscape course in the morning.

Tata for now!

Katie

Saturday NIght Family Dinner

So this weekend many of the Viners are in Paris, France touring all the amazing sites.  Chris Schroeder, one who stayed this weekend, decided of those who are left, should have a family dinner.  Everyone got together and helped make one thing or another and we pushed all the tables together and had a wonderful dinner!  We ate pasta with chicken and an amazing mushroom sauce, thanks to Anthony.  We also had steamed veggies, sparkling grape juice, oven baked bread, and an amazing fruit tart thanks to Leah, Charlotte, and Conner and I helped decorate for the end result!

It was really nice for everyone to get together and then afterwards watch the Fantastic Mr. Fox.  It was a productive Saturday morning and a fun family filled Saturday evening!!  I will really mixx everyone when I leave to go home in April.

Oh yes and I cannot forget, the picture of my flattened peep that I promised everyone!
Here it is:

Well now that I have slept in passed 11 this morning and it is pouring rain outside, I need to eat some food and then get to work on my long essay proposal!
Tata for now!
Katie

My Easter Peep :)

I got a letter in the mail from my wonderful Grandfather the other day.  When I started opening it I was so excited because it was thick and I thought he made me another DVD with puppy pictures in it.  When I opened the envelope there was not a DVD, but a flattened peep and a little not on the inside of the envelope.  The note said:

"I thought you needed and easter peep so I flattened this and sent it to you."

I laughed so hard when I saw all the trouble my grandfather went through to flatten a peep and send it to me for easter.  It was a tad bit early, but very funny nonetheless.  The peep definitely made my day.
It was nice to have a laugh in the middle of my week because I was so stressed this week with my last double week.

I struggled a lot this week because I really needed to impress my secondary tutor for my last paper.  I also had to make up a day of work because I spent all day Saturday in London!  I am through the tough week though!!! I just finished with my last secondary tutorial and yesterday was my second to last primary tutorial.  Now I just have one last primary tutorial on Thursday and my proposal for my long essay is due Friday by 3pm.  Once those are done, I will be on a plane to Sweden where I will be spending the week with Victoria and Casey traveling around Gothenburg, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, Denmark.

I will post a picture of my wonderful flattened peep later, I am writing from the SCIO offices right now and the peep is in my bedroom, but do not fret the picture will be up so you can laugh as much as I did!
Well Tata for now!
Katie

Les Miserables!

So this weekend I went into London with Connor, Leah, Kelsey and Christina and met up with Christy, Bryce, and Phil to see they famous and wonderful play, Le Miserables.  Connor, Leah, Kelsey, Christina and I left early to go shopping and get lunch before we got to the Theatre in London.  We did not do any substantial shopping, but it was fun to go window shopping and have interesting conversations about all the different levels of hell meant for the people in our group! Apparently there is a special level in Hell for me for Karate kicking rabid foxes!

We had a ton of fun walking around and shopping.  After shopping, we went to the Golden Lion Pub and I had Fish and Chips (Now I can officially check that off my bucket list!).  The pub was right by the Theatre so when we finished eating, we went straight to the Box Office to pick up tickets.  Unfortunately, Bryce and Phil were late because there was a lot of traffic coming in to London.  Connor and Leah had purchased their tickets under Bryce, meaning they could not get their tickets without Bryce! They were stressing because we didn't want to miss any of Le Mis.  The guy at the Box office was so nice and gave Leah and Connor their tickets and let us go in so we didn't miss any of the play.

The play was soooooooooooooooo amazing!!!!!!!! All of the actors were talented and had beautiful singing voices.  I have to admit I was crying like a baby the entire play!  Here is a picture of Connor, Leah, Kelsey, Christina and I during our wonderful Les Mis adventure:

After the play was over, we started walking behind back to get to the street that led to our bus stop.  When we got around back the actors of the play started coming out of the back door so we were able to see the Les Mis actors!  It was cool to see them up close, and it was cute to see them signing the play books of these two old ladies that were ecstatic at the opportunity.

On our way back to the bus we stopped at the Wonderful Waffle and got  . . . well . . . waffles.  I had a waffle with Nutella, Bananas, and Cream (this is just whipped cream, but Brits just call it cream).  An interesting fact about England is the obsession the citizens have with nutella.  EVERYONE eats nutella here.  We actually have a group effort to collect all of the nutella jars in the Vines and stack them in the Kitchen. We want to see how many nutella jars were used during the Hillary Term at Oxford.  The English Nutella obsession has spread to the Americans in the Vines.

Needless to say (after that huge rant), Les Miserables = AMAZINGNESS, Nutella = AMAZINGNESS, and the people in the Vines = AMAZINGNESS!  I shall now go and read the articles I am procrastinating.
Tata for now,
Katie

"The English Tea Lingo"

So today was our weekly tea at the SCIO office and I was sitting listening to everyone's tea orders and decided that I had to tell my State side friends and family all about the different names that the different ways of getting tea are.  Sound confusing? Well that sentence was and would never be accepted in one of my papers, but I don't care, and here is the list of names:

1. Object of old desire: tea without anything in it.
2. Fair Lady: Sugar and no cream
3. Dracula's dream: Cream and no sugar
4. Fat Cow: 1 sugar and 1 cream
5. A Fat Desmond: 2 sugars and 2 creams

If you want to get tea, you have to mention one of these names to get it how you want it.  For those of you who are wondering, I always order a Fat Cow.  It is my new found favorite in the tea drinking world.  I also like Ear Grey or English Breakfast tea.

Well now that I have tea on the brain I think I may grab myself a cup and finish my paper that I have not started.  To be fair to myself, I wrote an amazingly awesome outline today that was 1,400 words.  So really. I just have to put that into essay form and add another 600 words in and around the essay!
Tata for now!
Katie

Stratford Upon Avon

So I apologize I have not posted in awhile, but I have been very busy, plus we have had several power outages at the Vines!  But, today I went to Stratford Upon Avon with three other friends from the Vines.  For you of those who don't know, Stratford Upon Avon is the birthplace and death place of William Shakespeare!  We were originally going to go to Stonehenge, but tickets were 70 pounds round trip, so we chose the 16 pounds round trip to Oxford.

Here are some of the pictures of Stratford:

 Here is me with a statue of William Shakespeare

 This is Macbeth and me seriously contemplating the weather . . .

 Here is a poster with Shakespeare's birthplace on it.

 This was a very cute shop that I bought awesome Shakespearean post cards in!

 This was Shakespeare's birthplace, it was 20 pounds to get in so I only saw the outside.

 We went to tea at the Benson's house of Tea and this was the menu; I got The Full-afternoon tea meal.

 This was my english breakfast tea that I had with my afternoon tea meal.

 This was part of my meal; I ate half before I realized I should take a picture of it.

 This is Shakespeare's grave, which cost 50p to get into.

And these were a bunch of swans gathering around the Avon wanting breadcrumbs.

After we got back from Stratford Upon Avon we biked back to the Vines and the power was out AGAIN!!!!!! So after we freaked out a bit, we ordered several pizzas and played the best game ever, body body! It was so much fun, especially in the dark!

Needless to say, we had a great time and even though the power went out it I had a blast today.  Well I need to get off because it is late and I will be reading all day tomorrow!
Tata for now!
Katie