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

Chocolate Nutella Mug Cake

Today I went to Wycliffe and stayed all day writing my secondary tutorial paper on the impact of the reformation on female piety.  It took me awhile to get started, but once I started I got into a great groove.  I got the paper written by 5:45pm.  I am so happy that I got that paper written because starting tomorrow I have to do my reading and write two papers due Thursday by 2pm.

As a reward for finishing my paper, I made this wonderful concoction that I found on my Pinterest account.  This wonderful concoction was the Chocolate Nutella Mug Cake.  All I had to do was combine cocoa powder, sugar, nutella, one egg, flour, and oil.  I put it into a coffee mug, stirred it, and microwaved it for two minutes.  This is what came out:

It kind of spilled over because the coffee mug was too small, but that did not take away from the wonderful chocolatey amazingness that I ate!  You all need to try this, it is very easy and only takes five minutes to make!

After eating my wonderful mug cake, several of the people at the Vines sat down and watched the movie 500 Days of Summer.  It was a really good movie and I was not expecting it to be.  I had a wonderful and productive day today.

Now it is time for bed so I can get up tomorrow, go to St. Ebbs for Church in the morning and then I am going to see the Vow with Courtney and Shannon.  We shall see how that movie is and it is my first movie since I was in the States!
Tata for now!
Katie

Tuesday Night Formal and SNOW!!!

Sorry I have not posted in several days, I have been very busy with school work and such.

Last Tuesday we had a formal at Wycliffe Hall that everyone dressed up very nice and we all had a wonderful dinner.  It was so much fun to be able to dress up nice and go out with everyone.  For dinner we had lamb, roasted carrots and green beans, and a wonderful mashed potato dish with gravy.  For dessert we had a sponge cake with a mandarin orange topping and a chocolate mousse.  Both were very wonderful, especially the chocolate mousse!

Here is a picture of the group I went to formal night with:

So all this week I have been trying to catch up because of being sick.  I have to write one extra paper this week and I have two papers due next week.  So last night I came back after being in the Bodleian all day and went on my computer to do yet again more reading.  Well low and behold the internet was down so I figured I would just go to bed early and wake up in the morning and do my reading.  Right as I am about to fall asleep, my wonderful roommate Esther pops in and exclaims, "IT'S SNOWING OUTSIDE!!!!!" THis was a shock; I had no idea it was suppose to snow.

So instead of going to sleep like I had planned, I went to the city centre with several friends and played in the snow.  I didn't get back until 12:30am.  My plans to wake up early were ruined, but it was so worth it!  The snow was fun and we got some really good pictures!

So this morning even though I planned to wake up at 9:00am and start working, I woke up at 11:00 am.  I then took a shower, got ready did laundry, and cooked chicken pot pie for my food group.  By the time I was done it was 2:30 in the afternoon and I had not gotten any work done.  On top of that, I got a migraine so I took a nap.  Again, meaning to only sleep for an hour, I woke up and it was 5 pm.  So I started baking the Chicken Pot Pies and although they were very tasty, I did not get any work done today.

These are my wonderful Chicken Pot Pies that I made!
Well I should get going, I am a day behind in work and need to get a paper written for tomorrow.
Tata for now!
Katie

The Starbucks Experience

So as everyone knows, I have been sick for the past week, but I went to the doctors and got antibiotics.  I am feeling much better now, but this is not what I have come on to talk about today.  So Thursday, I went to my usual afternoon tutorial for general History 16.  When I got there my Tutor looked at me and asked, "Are you sick?" I said, "Yes, I have been sick for a day or so now." He replied back to me, "No, No, No, this is no good, you need to go home."  I then replies, "No its fine I am already here I can just do the tutorial."  Well his reply pretty much just said, "You look horrible . . . I mean no offense, but you do.  You need to get to a Doctor, email me this weekend and we will just plan for your tutorial another day, OK? Ok good.  Good bye."

Well I just stared in shock and said my goodbyes and left.  Well I was determined that I was not going to make my trip into town a waste, so I decided to go to Starbucks and get a Chai Tea Latte.  Those are my favorite drinks when I am sick so I decided it was worth the expensive 3 pounds to get this amazing treat.  I biked to Starbucks and got my drink for "take away" (the British term for "to go").  I got my Chai Tea, set it down on the ground and started unlocking my bike to walk it with me back to the Vines.  The Starbucks is right before the infamous big "Headington Hill" that I cannot bike up to save my life.  But just as I clicked the last number on that dreaded safety lock of mine, my bike left my hands and fell over spilling all the wonderful Chai Tea goodness that I hadn't even had a sip of!  To make everything better I through up my hands and yelled, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME" hitting the nice old lady who had been walking innocently in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I apologized profusely, grabbed my bike, left the Chai Tea sidewalk mess and walked up that dreaded hill with the feeling of defeat.


So today after that awful Starbucks experience I decided to return head held high with My friend Emma Roemhildt to attempt that wonderful Chai drink of amazingness.  Emma went upstairs to save seats and I stood confidently in line and ordered one Grande Chai Tea Latte.  I went upstairs with the feeling of success in my heart and a cough in my chest.  I sat down next to Emma, grabbed my Chai, and took a sip, but nothing about that foamy imposter tasted like a Chai.  No, IT WAS A REGULAR, BITTER, COFFEE TASTING, LATTE!

I just sat down shook my head and said, "GOD DOES NOT WANT ME TO HAVE A CHAI TEA LATTE!" But did I give up? NO! I strutted downstairs and told that "so-called barista" that I ordered a Chai Tea Latte and this was a regular one! She apologized and made me a fresh hot wonderful Chai Tea Latte that I sit now and drink in wonderful success!

                And Here is my wonderful Chai success! Winning never tasted so spicy!

So there is my Starbucks Experience! I will never take advantage of my Chai Tea Latte again!
Well tata for now!
Katie ; )

First Snow in Oxford!!!

So today I stayed in doors because I have a wonderful sinus infection.  I relaxed all day, which was very nice and watched many movies.  While I was sitting downstairs in the common room with people, a couple of the Vines crew ran in saying it was snowing!!!

It is so beautiful and the first time I have seen snow this year.  I missed it in Illinois, Virginia, and England.  It snowed in all  those places while I was somewhere else. :(  Now I can say I have officially seen snow in 2012!

I have pictures of the snow, but unfortunately they are not very good because it is dark outside and I had to take them through a window.  I am NOT going outside in the snow when I am sick, my mother would kill me if I caught pneumonia in England.

Anyways here are the pictures:

Sorry about the poor quality. but it is better than my catching pneumonia outside!

Hope you enjoy them and hopefully be jealous of the snow!!

Tata for now!

Katie