St. Patrick's Day in London

Kilts and Bagpipes

Me with a very expensive purse in Soho

The music festival

Well it's the day after St. Patrick's Day, and I spent today in London. We left this morning from Oxford, and got to Trafalgar Square by noon. A huge stage was set up where a band was playing, and we made our way out to the street right as the parade was about to begin. Various Irish clubs, centers, and groups marched in the parade with other cultural groups from across the globes. There was much bagpipe playing and river dancing, which was super cool! We found a windowsill to sit on that was above the crowds, so we had an awesome view of the parade. Unfortunately, I guess it's only an American thing to throw candy and stuff off of floats because they didn't do any of that there. The festival, however, was as rowdy as ACL back home complete with loud music, scattered beer cans, and lots and lots of people!

The next musical act that we wanted to see after the parade wasn't until 4, so for two hours we went to the Soho district in London. The Soho district is the 5th avenue of England, and we went in shops like Armani and Top Shop where we couldn't even afford a keychain. Still, it was totally fun looking at all the high fashion and expensive clothes. We felt very posh! Gemma Hayes played next at the festival, so we made our way back to hear her set. I'd never heard her stuff before, but she was very talented.

The tickets we bought this morning included an all day underground pass, so we were able to pop out to east London for a bit at no charge. Most everything was closed though since it was a Sunday night, so we headed back to Paddington Station where the train to Oxford leaves. It's so cool that for like 30 bucks, we can go have a wonderful day in London. Remind me why I have to leave England again?

Saints, Meadows, and Meats

Meat at the market

Christ Church meadow

My saint icon

Meal of steak, swordfish, and chips

The entrance to one of the St. Patrick's day pubs

Thursday in class we did something exceptionally cool. Francesca Shakespeare, an artist, came to our class to teach us how to paint Byzantine icons. We started out from scratch with wooden boards, and then we covered them with wet plaster. While we waited for them to dry, we made paint out of mineral powders, vinegar, and egg yoke. I painted Frideswide--patron saint of Oxford. Francesca even gave us gold leaf to put on the halos of our saints. Since we do so much work with our brains here, it was totally fun to be able to use my hands and some creativity.

Friday was a day off. To relax, I went out to Christ Church meadow where we had an assigned walk to do for our Walking for Fitness class. Despite the cold, it was a beautiful walk down the Thames next to all the houseboats and ducks. We actually saw a  very strange bird out there that had the body of a pigeon, the legs of a duck, and the walk of a chicken, but it was blue, red, and yellow. I've never seen anything quite like it before. Strange bird. After our walk, we went to the covered market where they were selling octopus legs, lambs liver, duck kidneys, and other seemingly inedible foods. It was kind of creepy to be honest. Thankfully, we went to the grocery store afterwards to get some Katie foods, and for dinner we made swordfish steak, beef steaks, and chips. It was yummy! Our after dinner entertainment consisted of a game of Oxford Edition Monopoly, and then we watched the movie, The Oxford Murders. I fell asleep in the movie, so I'll have to finish it later, but it was cool to see places around town where the movie was filmed.

Saturday was St. Patrick's day! Even though we are in England, this holiday is still celebrated to its full potential. An Irish pub, O'Neil's, was packed to the brim when we walked by it. People walked around in green costumes with flags on their backs and Guiness hats on their heads. The pubs even advertised various green drink specials, and they played Irish music some places. Randomly, the huge St. Patrick's day parade in London is celebrated the day after, so we are headed to London for parades and festivals in the morning. I'll let you know how it goes!

Turtle Soup

My new tortoise friend

I have a new plan for life in case grad school doesn't work out--culinary school. I've been a top chef all day, and it's been so fun! This morning I baked mushroom marinara, and it was supreme. I baked a giant batch of cinnamon cookies this afternoon that I shared with everyone, and then tonight for dinner I sautéed spices, onions, and mushrooms and poured them over homemade fries. I topped the whole thing off with freshly grated cheese. I realize that these aren't particularly high-class dishes, but they are delicious. Basically, I just want to cook and eat in Europe for the rest of my life. Tonight we went to the evening service at Christ Church where another boys' choir sang. I'm kind of obsessed with boys' choirs now by the way. Right now we are waiting to go camping, and by camping I mean walking around until we find a forest to sleep in. We'll see how this goes, eh?

Now we are back from the “camping trip.” Yeah, that didn’t quite go as planned. We walked out to Port Meadow, but when we got there the fog was so thick that we couldn’t even see 10 feet in front of us. The boys kept talking about serial killers, and it totally freaked me out, so in the end we all went back home and attempted to sleep in the back yard. Significantly less triumphant and cool that we wanted it to be. I guess we will try again later in the semester—I brought my hammock!

School is really stressful right now because we are trying to get a bunch of assignments turned in before our trip to Italy, so that’s why the blog posting has become less frequent. I did have a completely awesome day today, however. I volunteered at Christ Church again, and after our shift was over, the ladies invited me down to the Priory Room where they snack, drink tea, and talk. We had just finished making tea and were sitting down when Sally walked into the church room with her little wiener dog and tortoise. I drank tea and ate biscuits for an hour while a large 60-year-old tortoise sat on my lap. I can’t say that I woke up thinking I’d hold and pet a tortoise today, but it was so nice. We don’t get much animal interaction here, and I miss my pets back home, so it was great to be able to get some animal lovin’. Yet another wonderful day in Oxford!

Thank you, Honors College

da Vinci drawing

Studio set for The Archers

Katie at the BBC

Teleprompter on the news set

Today honors paid for me, 8 of my friends, and Tracy to go to Birmingham. As a part of our honors colloquia about pirate radio stations, we went out to research how radio stations work and are run. And where better to learn about radio and media 

production than in at the BBC studio in England. We had a personal tour of the station set up for noon, but by the time we got to Birmingham, we had an hour or so to kill first. We killed that hour at a free art museum where we saw art by Sir. Francis Bacon and Leonardo da Vinci. The special exhibit was filled with sketches by da Vinci, and they were epic. He's such a renaissance man because he really could master anything from drawing to science to painting, and that's so impressive to me. After the museum, we headed to the BBC and began the tour. Our two tour guides took us onto the real sets and studios that are used every day. We got to sit in the chair where radio announcers sit, and they told us how all the equipment and systems work. My favorite thing was when they took us in the studio where a radio show called The Archers is recorded. Our tour guides described to us how all of the sound effects are recorded, and the funny thing was that so many of the sounds came from random things. For example, they recorded the sound of a sheep being born in the studio with a cup of yogurt and a bag of flour, and it sounded so realistic. What they use for the sound of ice in a glass are Lego blocks, the gate sound is an ironing board opening and closing, etc.--everything was so innovative. The technology they have there is just incredible, and their creative ideas make for some great shows to be produced. They even let us in the control room where all the cameras, lights, and sounds are tweaked before the news is broadcasted live. I really loved seeing what all happens behind the scenes because it's so much more complicated than first meets the eye. At the end of the tour, they gave us scripts to read from and stuff for sound effects, and we recorded our own little radio show. They're going to send the recording to us, and you'll get to hear it when we get it. This was easily one of the best tours I've ever gotten ever because the BBC is just so cool. They told us that BBC World reaches 300 million people and is the biggest news network over CNN or anything. Basically, I'm a big fan now. After the tour, honors decided to be lovely and pay for our lunches too. We went to the cheapest place ever though; I got a huge spicy chicken banquette sandwich, a baked potato with chili and cheese on it, and a tropical fruity drink for just over 3 pounds. That's unreal! But what Birmingham is really famous for is it's shopping. It has this thing called the Bullring, and it's a GIANT shopping center with lots of covered markets and shopping stalls. The best thing I got was a hippo sweater that I bought at a second hand store for a pound. It's funny. Birmingham was an awesome day trip, and it's even cooler that I was actually required to go have a fun day and spend no money on it. Yes, I think that's a good deal.

A Week in Paradise

Spring break of 2012 rocked!!! I just got back from spending a week in Spain and Portugal. Our itinerary consisted of spending three days in Barcelona, two days in Lisbon, and one day traveling back. Here are a few highlights from the week:
Unfortunately, my first impression of Barcelona was kind of rough. When we arrived at the airport, we had to take a train into the city, and after stepping off the train and walking 50 feet to the stairs, my wallet was gone! Either I was pickpocketed (not surprising for Barcelona), or I somehow dropped it and it was picked up. Regardless, I was left a penniless beggar in Spain. Thankfully, I have wonderful friends who lent me money all week, and I have wonderful parents who cancelled my debit card and sent me new ID's. I was also lucky enough to have my passport safely on me, which saved me a huge hassle there. Needless to say, I wore my goofy looking money belt for the rest of the week, and despite how much of a fashion faux pas it is, it's great for preventing pick pocketing. Our next stop from the station was lunch by the hostel--but it felt close to home. Oh yes, we ate Mexican food. We nearly died when we got there and they brought us nachos with fresh guacamole, enchiladas, and tostadas. I have missed Mexican food so much since being abroad, but I got a fix for my addiction, which was everything I thought it would be and more. With full bellies and after a long night of traveling, we took us a nice siesta in the afternoon like true locals do. My friend, Jodi, has a friend who is studying abroad in Barcelona this semester, so her friend took us out on the town that night and showed us the city. There was a concert on the beach that we went to, and we had a blast! How much fun does this day sound like? The correct answer is a ton, and this was only the first day! The next morning I got up and went across the street to Paul's (my family's favorite French bakery) and brought back breakfast for everyone. An assortment of croissants, mille feuille, lemon tarts, breads, and more. Not a particularly healthy breakfast, but a delicious one. Hey, I'm on vacation, right? Our post breakfast adventures took us to the famous Sagrada Familia cathedral constructed by Gaudi. Now, since I've been in Europe, I've seen a lot of beautiful cathedrals, and they are all beautiful as well--but they're also very much the same. The Sagrada Familia cathedral was out of this world. It's the coolest cathedral I've ever seen because the lighting, space, and shapes are so different than anything I've ever seen. The outside of the cathedral almost looks like it's melting in the sun and the inside looks like a giant forest because Gaudi based his design on organic shapes found in nature. I could have spent all day there examining every inch of the place and not gotten bored, since the style changes every few feet. I am so glad we decided to venture in. Around the corner from the cathedral was the Picasso Cafe. Inside the cafe was paella. Very delicious vegetable paella. It's a very traditionally Spanish meal, and I ate way more than I should have. We window shopped around town until the evening, and that night we heard about another concert to go to. Spain has a very hopping night life, and their music is great, so we went out and enjoyed another night out with the locals at a place called Razmatazz. One of the most exciting concerts of my life. Sleeping back at the hostel concluded our night. A side note about our hostel: it was epic. For only a few euros a night, we had an apartment room all to ourselves with a kitchen and a bathroom. No more sketchy hostel stays for me. The hostel is very much a youth hostel too, and any time we went downstairs, there were tons of college students our age to talk to and hang out with. We loved the ambiance of the place. Day three in Barcelona began at a Spanish restaurant by the hostel where we got tapas, another traditional dish. Tapas are basically tons of hors d'oeuvres, and you get to pick which ones you want to eat and snack on. I got a Spanish omelette (think like a quiche), a bunch of fresh olives, and this bread with tomatoes. Very yummy meal. After lunch was the Picasso museum. I can't believe that Picasso made enough art to fill up an entire huge museum, and that's not even including all his art that's scattered around the world in other galleries. I like weird, unique art, so Picasso's stuff was right up my alley. There's a really cool fountain that they light up at night near the museum, so we stopped by there and shopped our way home down Las Ramblas, their famous shopping street. Our next adventure began in the morning with a plane ride to Lisbon, Portugal. Lisbon is a gorgeous city, and our hostel was right in the center of it all in Rossio plaza. Our hostel in Lisbon was great too! We had free homemade breakfasts in the morning (eggs, toast, crepes, cereal and tea), and our room was decorated in an antique chic style. Very cute. For dinner I had what is called a franchesinha, and it's a sandwich thing with toasted bread, melted cheese, an egg cooked on top, a sauce poured over the whole thing, and some meats inside. Ooh man, it was great. And cheap. We walked off our meals by exploring the city and getting intentionally lost for about 2 hours. We saw the coast, got to walk in the sand, and look at all the architecture of the city. By the time we got back to the hostel, it was fado time. Now, what's fado, you ask? Well, it's a traditional kind of singing that is extremely famous in Portugal. A local, Marco, took us out on the town to the best fado places where we met up with his Portuguese friends, and we got to live like true locals of the city. Marco took us to various music venues, and we stayed out until 5 in the morning listening to local bands play cultural music. It was a really chill environment, and after the band stopped playing, they offered if anyone wanted to play, so I sang Adele's "Someone Like You" with Marco while he played the guitar in the little club. That was one of the most epic singing moments of my life, and I'll always remember it. Based on Marco's suggestion, we went to Sintra the next day. We didn't know what to expect at all, but he said it was "the most beautiful place in Portugal." Turns out, he was correct. We took a train 40 minutes out of the city to Sintra and the Palace de Pena. It's where the kings and queens of Portugal have been living for years, and it's a giant palace set on top of a mountain. We climbed the mountain, and had the most breathtaking view of Portugal. I wouldn't be surprised if we could see Spain from up there. The palace looks like it could have been in a movie, and Cinderella could have stepped out from there with her Prince Charming. Sintra was a great find too because it's not a huge touristy destination so we kind of had the place to ourselves, and we weren't herded around like cattle. After touring around the palace we walked about 10 minutes to a 900 year old Moorish Castle. With it's stone walls, secret passageways, and stunning views, the castle was somewhere I'd definitely go back to. Once we made it back to Lisbon, we ate dinner at Santiago's in a cute eating district. I had a huge plate of fresh swordfish, potatoes, beans, and carrots for only 8 euros, and it was easily a $40 meal. And clearly God was looking out for us because 30 seconds after we left the restaurant and turned the corner, 3 gunshots were fired, and a slew of police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks arrived at the scene. We felt incredibly safe in Lisbon, much more so than Barcelona, but that was a potentially scary event that didn't end in disaster. Thank goodness we dodged that bullet (literally)!! We had to fly home the next day, however, and it was sad to leave because I could have spent weeks there. It's kind of cool though that I was in three countries yesterday (Spain, Portugal, and England). I don't get to say that very often. I'm so incredibly blessed to be here because I'm having the time of my life!

La Sagrada Familia

The stained glass designed by Gaudi

The giant organ inside of the cathedral

More beautiful stained glass

The vaulted ceiling and rose window 

View of Barcelona

At the fountain by Las Ramblas

View of Lisbon from our hostel window

The path leading up the mountain in Sentra

Palace de Pena

Me in a watchtower

Looking over the edge of the Moorish castle

It was very windy when I tried to take the picture,
but you can see the city behind me