I finally went home....

The Great Hall 

 Probably the most magical day of my life. Why? Well, technically I went to the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London, but as far as I’m concerned, I went to Hogwarts! We were at the Warner Brothers Studio where all the props, costumes, and sets for all 8 Harry Potter movies are kept. Stacy and I were the biggest Harry Potter fans by far, and I literally cried when I stepped into the great hall. It was so overwhelming to actually be in the place that I’ve seen and read about for the last thirteen years. Maybe tears were not the right reaction, but I have no shame. My word, we saw so many amazing things—Hermione’s Yule Ball dress, Hagrid’s hut, Diagon Alley, the Chamber of Secrets, the Griffindor Common Room, the Weasley’s Burrow, Dumbledore’s Office, Dobby, Buckbeak, Death Eater costumes, the Knight Bus, and so much more. I even stood on number 4 Privet Drive and drank a butterbeer!! I also rode a broomstick in front of a green screen, so that it looked like I was flying over Hogwarts! Absolutely amazing. We learned so many tricks of the trade for movies and how much work goes into a production. For example in movie 5, it took a team of 31 people an entire year to create the two minute sequence with the inferi. It’s completely nuts how much work goes into every piece of the thing. But in the last room, we saw the Hogwarts Castle. It was so weird how I walked into the room, and it felt like I was home. Hogwarts is home. I am now going to upload an obscene number of pictures (still a small fraction of how many I took) so that you can see the sets for yourself! I could probably talk about this for hours, so if you want to know more--just ask! 

Can you tell that I'm excited?

The Yule Ball costumes

I saw myself in the Mirror of Erised....I wonder
what that means?

Harry and Ron's room

The Gryffindor Common Room

I'm flying!!

Chamber of Secrets entrance

Butterbeer--Don't worry; it's non-alcoholic,
study abroad office

The Weasley's

In the Weasley's car

At #4 Privet Drive

In Diagon Alley

I'm home!!

Emma Watson's and Daniel Radcliffe's hands

I want to go to Hogwarts!!!

Mayday

Mayday is a celebration to welcome in the beginning of summer that has been going on since the 1200's, and I got to attend it in 2012. Unfortunately, the festivities begin at 6 a.m., so I got up at 4:30 in order to make it downtown by the time it started. There were thousands of people in city center outside of this church. Most (or at least many) people were drunk because the clubs celebrate Mayday all night before the 6 o'clock service. However, once the service started, everyone sang along with the boys' choir. These were songs to welcome in summer and thank the Earth. Mayday was definitely a pagan celebration before the church adopted it. Some people came in costume, and other people were Morris dancers who dance for Mayday every year. Once the service was over, I went back home, showered, slept, and went to volunteer for the last time at Christ Church. Many goodbye hugs and kisses were exchanged when I left, and it was harder than I thought to leave. Those women are so sweet, and I won't forget their kindness for a long while. After I left volunteering, I went home.

The women I work with

On the Harry Potter steps

But right down the street from our houses was a Mayday celebration happening. I went over to take a video of the Morris dancers, and while I was standing out there, a little old man came over to talk to me. He told me a little bit about the dancing, and then pulled me into a pub to talk to me more. The pub was packed full of Morris dancers who were drinking to their heart's content, but as soon as I walked in, they thought I was the coolest thing since The Beatles. They wanted to know everything about Texas and how I liked living in England and all the travels I'd done. In return, they told me all about being dancers, English culture, and I heard many of their life stories. The best thing was when they sang old folk songs about legendary English heroes over their pints of ale. It was a random thing, but I ended up staying there for almost three hours. I just loved seeing real people celebrating this event that they've been a part of for 50 or 60 years. This was probably one of the most cultural experiences I've had all semester because of how real everyone was. I will absolutely never forget my Mayday time--I felt like I was on set for a movie. It felt like a pub from Waking Ned Divine. If you've never seen that movie, please do. As far as I'm concerned, I was in it. 

In my Mayday hat

Oh, Happy Day

This picture got over 140 likes and over 40 comments on Facebook. Wow! I guess this was a happy day for many of us!

I baptized Jon!! This was pretty much the coolest experience ever. Jon and I have talked about this for years, but this semester he decided it was time. What was holding him back was that he thought he needed to be perfect and have everything in his life in order before he could get baptized, but he realized that it'll be so much easier to have a godly life when Jesus is at the center of it. Once he made this decision, we started planning out a service that would be special for him to remember. All 40 of us went out to the beautiful Port Meadow where we sang, prayed, and blessed. Of course there were a few traditional hymns, but we also threw in some Bob Marley and Beatles music for us to sing that were significant songs for Jon. Jon also read two of his favorite Bible passages, and told everyone why he was making this decision. After this, we had a time when people could say a few words of blessing to Jon, and our friends spoke up to say the sweetest things about him. At this point, I was getting pretty nervous because it was about to be my part to get into the water, take his confession, and do the deed. Now I know that the point of his baptism was not to push my own feminist church agenda, but can I get an AMEN for a woman baptizing a man?! But, since I'm a woman, I felt like it had to be just right to prove that women can fulfill traditional men's roles just as well as men can. Turns out that I didn't need to practice or anything because that Holy Spirit did its thing, and everything went just great! The water was absurdly cold, but it was worth it for an awesome day and new life with Jesus started. 

I Do Love Nothing in the World As Well As You. Is Not That Strange?

 Before we even left Abilene, Stacy and I bought tickets see Shakespeare's "A Comedy of Errors" in Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare's birthplace). Kirsten bought a ticket and decided to join on this adventure, so the three of us journeyed to Stratford together. First off, we went to the visitor’s center where we ate the lunches we bought back in Oxford, and then we headed into the town. Stratford is a CUTE little city, and everything we wanted to see was very central. The Royal Shakespeare Theatre is where we were going to see the play that night, so we headed over to pick up our tickets early. The theatre has an awesome gift shop, and all three of us bought significant amounts of Shakespeare paraphernalia. Then we saw signs for Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare was baptized and buried. I got to stand less than 5 feet away from the greatest playwright’s body and resting place—really cool. Actually, it was a sweet little church, and if I wanted to be buried, that would be the place to be. After we left the church, we wandered around the town and into an old bookstore. I bought two really old books, of which I have a soft spot for, and I got them for super cheap.

A swarm of swans

Lady Macbeth is terrifying!

Tree hugger!!

The Avon river

Sad that Shakespeare died

I'm from the Elizabethan Era

The water under the stage

One of them is a copy of the Apocrypha, and I’ve never read that, so it’ll be fun to read the books that didn’t make the cut into our Sunday School Bibles. There was an antique market outside of the bookstore, so we wandered around there for a bit until it was dinnertime. We grabbed some chips to snack on from a kebab stand and then headed over to the playhouse. Inside the theatre, the stage literally was floating on water, and there was a crane that moved the sets around on stage during the performance. It was an awesome set, and The Royal Shakespeare Company put on a great show as well. Top-notch job. Something cool, however, is that I’ve seen Shakespeare plays at our own ACU that could hold their own there. Our theatre department back home is pretty amazing. Anyways, after the play, we found out the hotel we booked was way far out of town unlike what it advertised online. Public transportation stopped running at 6 p.m., so we had to get an expensive taxi to drive us out there. But the trip was made better because our taxi driver is the mayor of Stratford. We thought he was kidding when he told us that, but he said that he owned this taxi service before he became mayor. Now, he just drives for fun when he wants to. And when we finally arrived at the hotel, it blew our minds. For cheaper than the price of the horrible Friend’s Hostel in Paris (I found a great deal online), we stayed in a 4-star, POSH hotel. And I’m talking super ritzy. When we waked in, everyone was wearing tuxedos because a wedding reception was happening right then, and we might have snagged an extra cake that was left over)! Our room was just as nice with heated towels in the bathroom, hot tea, and a giant flat screen TV to name a few of the amenities. Basically, we three girls were living the life, and we decided to take advantage of all the free things that were at our disposal. The reception even delivered fresh milk for our tea right to our room—after staying in so many crumby hostels all semester, we really enjoyed pretending to be rich for a night.  Online it said that they had a sauna, pool, and gym, so Kirsten and I tried them out the next morning. It was the first time I've been able to swim all semester, and it felt absolutely great. Especially after being hot and sweaty in the steam room and the sauna, getting in the water was so refreshing. After an hour or so of swimming, we headed back to the room, showered, and checked out. Unfortunately, we learned in the morning that almost no public transportation runs on Sunday, so we were stranded in Coventry. Not only stranded, we were stranded outside in the cold and the rain. We miserably waited outside for a bus that wasn't supposed to come for another hour (if at all), so we decided to do what we were told to never do. Yes, Mom and Dad, I hitchhiked. After a few minutes of sticking out thumbs, a man stopped for us. He was a cute, sweet old man named Melvin, and we talked the whole time he drove. Sounds like it might have been sketchy, but it wasn't--and we didn't have much of another choice. Actually, it was a great experience, and now I can say that I've hitchhiked, which is awesome! Thanks for being born, Shakespeare, so that I could have a wonderful trip to Stratford-upon-Avon.

If you find a hand in your pants, and you didn’t pay for it, take it out!

Amsterdam's canals    

Yes, I just got back from Amsterdam. You might now be thinking why would Katie go to such a sketchy place that’s famous for drugs and prostitutes? Well here’s a little back-story to tell you why. Last year, I started working with the Red Thread Movement, which is an organization that works with women who are trafficked into the sex industry. Through my work with them, I got started interviewing women in the sex industry as a part of my Capstone project for Honors. Because I applied for a travel grant, the Honor’s College gave me $500 to take a trip to Amsterdam and learn more about the sex industry. So there’s your answer; I went to Amsterdam because my school paid me 500 bucks to go, and that’s reason enough for me. Speaking of the sex industry, I’ll now tell you what the Red Light District was like. After dinner on our first night in Amsterdam, we accidentally stumbled upon the Red Light District, and I was swept away by what I saw. It was exactly like what I thought it would be, but I hadn’t mentally prepared myself for being there yet. What I saw were women standing behind windows (lit up by red fluorescent lights) in skimpy bikinis/ lingerie. Some of them would dance or beckon men seductively by bending over or touching themselves. If a woman would catch a man’s eye, he would go over to her door and ask, “How much for you?” Basically, it was one of the weirdest, saddest, yet most fascinating things I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t help but look into the windows at these women selling their bodies to random men. However, on the walking tour we did on Saturday, I learned a bit about the other side of the story. When we think of prostitutes, we usually think of women in poverty with no education and no other choice, but the case is different in Amsterdam. Our tour guide Ged told us that the mentality of lawmakers in Amsterdam is that they know prostitution will always exist. That’s inevitable. What they can change are the conditions in which prostitution is carried out by creating laws regarding the safety and well-being of prostitutes. For example, the minimum age to be prostitute is 21 (just recently moved up from 18), one must have a legal document from the city stating that he or she is able to work in prostitution, and there is regular STD testing. Basically, being a prostitute in Amsterdam is a profession not a punishment. Weird, huh? It does make some sense though because when the women are working in rooms right next to one another, the likelihood of them being beaten and raped is slim to none since someone would hear immediately. For sure, it’s much safer to be a prostitute in Amsterdam than in the Bronx or somewhere like that. This is all probably much more than you wanted to know about prostitution, but since that’s why I went, I focused a lot on learning as much as I could about it. Anyways, we did lots of other cool things on our trip as well. As I previously mentioned, we went on a walking tour around Amsterdam. A company called New Europe puts on lots of free walking tours in major cities across Europe, and they’re fantastic. Our tour guide Ged took us to places like the Red Light District, Anne Frank’s House, the Royal Palace, and the National Monument to name a few. He told us a ton about Amsterdam culture, and some of it really surprised me. For example, when I thought of drugs and Amsterdam, I figured that everyone was just high all the time and that drugs were everywhere. Turns out, that’s not the case at all; only 5% of the Dutch population actually does any sort of drugs, which is significantly less than in the U.S. Basically, I had to do away with a couple of the stereotypes I had for Dutch people this weekend. The two museums we visited this weekend were the Van Gogh Musuem and the NEMO Science Museum. The Van Gogh Museum was giant, the first place, but Stacy and I really appreciated how they made Van Gogh such a real person. They didn’t focus a ton of energy on his darker days and suicide; instead, they portrayed the life of an artist through his beautiful works. I respected that. And then the NEMO Science Museum was just fun! Those things are made for kids, but that didn’t stop us from having a blast. I made giant bubbles, conducted electricity, built towers, drew pictures, spun around, and rode simulated rides that made us feel like we were moving all over even though we barely budged. I mean, I’m not 7 anymore, but that doesn’t mean I have to stop enjoying life. I think life’s just getting started. We had such a fun weekend, and I’ll leave you with a quote from our tour guide. When we were in the Red Light District, he said (in reference to pick pocketing) “If you find a hand in your pants, and you didn’t pay for it, take it out!” Words of wisdom for sure. 

Rent a window in the Red Light District

Most confusing public transportation we've ever seen

We went to a carnival!

The famous Dutch tulips

Ironbridge Excursion

Ahh, the Iron Bridge

Free trips are always great! The program sponsored a trip for us to Ironbridge. If you don’t know what/ where that is, that’s okay because I didn’t know until we went either. It’s a city right up by the Welsh border, and it’s famous for being the place where the Industrial Revolution began. We headed out in the morning after eating some breakfast they provided for us. The first thing we saw when we got to the town was the famous Ironbridge. If you couldn’t guess already, it’s made out of cast iron. Shocking! But for it’s time, this was an impressive feat. After seeing the bridge, we walked around this cute little village until we happened upon a cupcake shop. Of course, we had no choice but to stop. My cupcake was called the Victoria, and it’s good because it’s filled with yummy jam. We went next to a science museum for kids where we built arches out of foam, made dams, and touched the world’s fastest swimsuit. The swimsuit is now banned from competitions because it’s TOO fast, and it isn’t fair to other competitors. It almost felt like touching dolphin skin mixed with air—that’s how light it was. Even though those places are meant for kids, I have a blast in interactive museums where I’m able to touch and experience things. When we left the museum, there was a free art gallery that we decided to stop in. However, this wasn’t like any art gallery I’d ever been to. We walked into a dark room where 4 movie theatre sized screens were set up on a wall. Swirling figures moved across the screens in seemingly random ways, and I sat like a cat transfixed at the screens. It was completely mesmerizing, and the accompanying music completely polished off the effect. Weird, but I loved it! I went with my friend Kait to some Quaker burial grounds, but we got lost and had to walk through people’s backyards to find our way back to the group. One woman saw us and talked to us, but we were sly and slipped by. Spy skills! After we found the group, we all piled back into the bus and went to a replica Victorian village. Honestly, it was pretty lame. Maybe that’s just not my thing, but I didn’t particularly find it fascinating. However, a nice perk was that Ron gave us all 10 pounds to spend on lunch, and since lunch was cheap, I got to buy gifts with that money too. Thanks, ACU for my jam! All in all, it was a relaxing day in the heart of the Industrial Revolution. 

The fastest swimsuit in the world

Quaker burial grounds

Piglets in the Victorian Village

Kilts and Bagpipes

Scottish accents are a TRIP!

After spending two days back in Oxford, Nadine and I hit the road again. And 9 hours later on a night bus, we arrived bright and early in Glasgow, Scotland. Our first stop after leaving our luggage at the hotel was breakfast. A cute little bagel shop catered to our breakfasting needs beautifully. We did a little shopping around, and I bought another layer because Scotland was significantly colder than I had planed for. In fact, it was fairly cold and rainy the entire time, which probably didn’t give Nadine too good of an impression of the UK. However, we got out of rain when we went to their modern art museum. Of course, I don’t understand all modern art, but I love how unique and out-of-the-box a lot of it is. But the most epic thing of all happened after the museum. Get ready for this—we found MEXICAN FOOD!! That may not seem significant to you, but I haven’t had good Tex-Mex in 4 months, so this meal soothed the soul. Nadine hadn’t had Mexican food since living in the states either, so we split a huge plate of nachos with cheese, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, jalapeños, and grilled chicken. And then we got chicken fajitas with grilled veggies. It was a very worthwhile splurge! Back to the beginning of the story, you might have thought that sleeping on the night bus to Scotland was a pleasant experience for us, but you would be wrong. Our cramped little bodies didn’t get the sleep we needed, so after lunch, we took our full bellies back to the hotel and napped. Post-nap, we found a neat looking old cathedral on the opposite side of town. While we were over there, I spotted a Celtic necropolis up on the hill. I don’t mean for this to sound creepy or weird, but I actually like old cemeteries a lot. It’s so peaceful, and I like imagining the different lives each person might have lived based on what’s written on their gravestone. Some of these graves were marked from the 1600’s—really old—and the view from the top of the necropolis was stunning. When we got back into the city, I made us stop at a fish and chips stand because Nadine couldn’t come to Britain and not try fish and chips. Our meal was only 2 pounds-something (really cheap), and they were some of the best I’ve had over here. I was happy to see Nadine enjoying them because I feel responsible for her liking the UK as if it were my own country. The last stop we made was to an old palace. We walked through the park and stopped at the largest surviving terra-cotta fountain in the world on our way home. Goodnight, Glasgow.

Kilts!

In the flowers by the cathedral

Our glorious Tex-Mex meal 

Celtic cross in the necropolis

Me by the terra-cotta fountain

Scotland: Day 2

Arthur's Seat

In the morning, we woke up and had breakfast in the hotel. I think Nadine was a bit freaked out by the English breakfast of eggs, toast, baked beans, bacon, fresh tomatoes, potato scones, and tea; the baked beans still make me do a double take every time. However, it was a good breakfast, and we were on our way to Edinburgh by 11. Our hostel was incredibly centrally located, and we dropped off our luggage there before hitting the town. This day just happened to be Mom’s 50^th birthday, so I gave her a call to wish her happy birthday while we still had wifi in the hostel. On important, fun days like that, it’s weird not being home. The next thing we did made up for my feelings of homesickness, however. We went to the National Museum of Scotland, which is an interactive, science museum. It’s like the Natural History Museum in D.C. with lots of stuffed animals on display, but it also had a few Scottish artifacts as well. One area in the museum had a scale that people could stand on and it would tell them which animal weighs the same as they do. I stepped on the scale and my match was with the giant anteater. That’s attractive—not! Maybe it means I ate too much gelato in Italy. After the museum, we went to what is called Arthur’s Seat, and it’s a large mountain that people can climb to get a great view of Edinburgh. We brought a picnic dinner up there and ate on the top of the world (or so it felt). It was interesting because we could see the coast to one side of us, the city in front of us, and mountains to the other side. Such a lovely landscape. Once we made the trek back down, we did a little Harry Potter tour. When J.K. Rowling wrote the first two Harry Potter books, she was living in Scotland, and we got to see a few places that inspired her. First of all, there’s a graveyard in town that has the names McGonagall, Tom Riddle, and Granger in it, and this place inspired her use of these names. Next to the graveyard is an old private school that Rowling said was her inspiration for Hogwarts. And nearby both of these places is a café called The Elephant House where she would go to write the stories down on napkins when she was poor. I’m a Harry Potter nut, so I thought it was awesome to see the places that inspired the books. Even though we only had about half a day in Edinburgh, I knew immediately that I loved this place.

Up on the mountain

The school that inspired Hogwarts

Scotland: Day 3

Happy Easter! Being away from home on Easter was weird, but we definitely made the most of it. In the morning, we went to an Easter service at the famous St. Giles Cathedral. Those high church services are fun to go to every once in a while because I’m not used to all the pomp and formalities, and it really creates an awe-inspiring atmosphere. After church, we had about an hour to kill, so we went up Carlton Hill. This is where David Hume and other philosophers would go to think and ponder life, and it houses an abandoned acropolis. We got to walk around there for a bit before it was time to head back down to go on a free walking tour. This tour was one of the best tours I’ve been on in my life; the guy was funny, personable, and interesting. He told us lots of Scottish tales and fables that are local and not touristy. If you get a chance, you should totally ask me about some of the stories because they’re incredibly interesting. He took us to see the Edinburgh Castle as well as a variety of other destinations. For the whopping price of free, it was well worth our money! The tour took the better part of the afternoon, and before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye and go home. I enjoyed getting to spend time with Nadine, but I had been living out of a backpack for the last three weeks, so it was great to be back home. Unfortunately, I had a 10-page paper to write when I got back home, and I had a lot of trouble focusing. I was able to lots of productive things like organize my drawers, clean my room, trim my hair, shower, Q-tip my ears…you get the point. Thankfully, I’ve been able to relax a little bit since then, and life is good! I’m so incredibly blessed to get to do all the travel I’ve done this semester. 

St. Giles Cathedral

View of Edinburgh from Carlton Hill

They were giving away chocolate eggs in the park

Saw Dolly, the first cloned sheep

I tried haggis :(