Once There Was a Wizard...Who Went to Oxford.

On Friday I ventured out to Oxford with my creative writing class for a literary conference held at the university. It was a beautiful, sunny day. Perfect for traipsing around Oxford University's campus. The speakers that we saw were great. One was a debate on disability in the novel. It mostly focused on characters in novels with disabilities and how they are portrayed. The other event was with the author William Fiennes who just came out with a new book about his brother who died a few years ago. Both talks were great and it was just cool to be at the college with all that knowledge floating around.

After spending a bit of time having a mini class on the lawn, we were set free and allowed to explore a bit of Oxford before we left that evening. We found a pub called The Red Lion and decided to make that our home for the next few hours. We had a few pints and enjoyed their outdoor seating. As one can imagine, a beautiful Friday evening attracts many pub-goers so we had to wait our turn for some seating. When on table finally cleared up, we swooped in and nabbed it before anyone else. The people before us, however, left the table a bit messy with piles of newspapers all over the place. Well, instead of taking them all and throwing them away, I decided to make some newspaper hats with them. I made one for each person at our table and we wore them quite proudly as we sipped our drinks. Apparently a paper hat is all you need to make friends because the table next to us asked if they could have hats too. Before I could even make the first one, a girl from that same table came over and asked if I would just show her how to do it. I taught her how and then handed her a fistful of newspapers to take back to her friends. So now just imagine 5 American girls with newspaper hats on sitting next to a table full of English people with their paper hats on. It was spreading like wildfire! That's not all though. Several people walked by and complimented us on our hats. Then a girl came up to us out of nowhere and handed us fliers to a party which she said would be 'rude'. I don't think she meant it would be impolite so much as she meant it would be awesome. Apparently, because of the hats we were cool enough to get invited to her party. Somehow I don't think that math quite adds up but I'll take it.

So to recap, I made some newspaper hats, made a whole table of new friends, and got invited to a 'rude' party which in turn actually taught me some new British slang. An excellent evening if I do say so myself.

Three of the girls I was with were staying behind in Oxford for the night so myself and another girl decided to head back after our fun-filled evening. Once we got back into London we were both craving some good ice cream so we went to a cute gelato place to get our fix.

Once I got back to my flat, there were more adventures to be had. Now, don't forget, it was a Friday night so some of my flat-mates had been at the pub a bit longer than I had been. Also, I'm sure they didn't spend their time making paper hats. I won't go into detail but here are some of the highlights. Someone got locked in our kitchen and since I was the one with my wits about me, I had to go downstairs to get it sorted out. Just as I was explaining the situation, the guy who had gotten stuck came running down the stairs to tell me he had been freed. I think the guy at the desk was thoroughly amused. Later, there came a knock at our window. We are on the 4th floor so this was a bit of a surprise. A guy from the 5th floor had somehow hopped down to the ledge of our window and lived to tell the tale. We got him inside and then he used those odd contraptions like stairs and doors to get back to his room.

An odd day to say the least but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Oh and speaking of Oxford, I got to see the Oxford/Cambridge boat race a couple of weekends ago. There were so many people out on the river watching the 155th annual race. The favorite to win this year was Oxford and they didn't disappoint. It was pretty exciting for a while but they pulled ahead with a considerable lead and won the race with a pretty good gap between them and Cambridge. However, Cambridge still has more wins over all. I believe the number is 79-75 or something like that.

Until next time,

Kelsey

Cockles and mussels alive, alive oh!

A few weeks ago we had our spring break so Alyssa, Mike and I chose to head out to the land of mussels, Guinness, and Bailey's Irish cream...Ireland! We stayed in Dublin but took a few trips outside of the city as well.

I'll start by saying that Dublin is much different than what I thought it would be. I heard that from other kids who have traveled there as well. It's a really beautiful city but it is just that, a city. So if you are expecting beautiful green hills and mountain peaks and all of that quintessential Irish scenery, then Dublin is not the first place I would go for that. With that said, there is so much that Dublin has to offer that we were never bored or wondering what to do. During the day we would sight see. St. Stephen's Green park was right near our hostel and I absolutely loved it. We visited there a couple times, even once to have a picnic. We also went into a couple of museums. The museum of archaeology and natural history was really cool. We also went into their library which had an excellent exhibit on the poet W.B. Yeats. Another one of my favorite places was the Dublin Writers Museum.

Wandering the beautiful city of Dublin is great but at the end of a long day of sight-seeing all you want is a Guinness. So many of our nights were spent in pubs in Dublin's social district, Temple Bar. There are some really great pubs there with live music and insanely expensive alcohol. Oh, and there is a great gelato place there...go figure! I will take this time to warn you: Guinness and drinking in general is a very important part of Irish culture and both things are going to come up several times in this post ;)

Speaking of Guinness, we visited the Guinness storehouse where we learned how it all started and, more importantly, got the best pint ever with a great view of Dublin at the Gravity Bar. It really does taste better in Ireland...they must sent all the sub-par batches over to America and England. Speaking of drinking, we took a tour of the Wicklow Mountain area on this really cheesy but really fun bus tour. It was super cold but so beautiful. We got to see some of that great Irish scenery...it was sort of misty as well which added to the beauty. We did this all while slamming down complementary shots of Jameson whiskey. Like I said, they love it! We also visited a lake nicknamed Guinness Lake. Why the nickname? Well, the lake is a really dark color (similar to that of Guinness) because of the Iron it contains. Actually the water from the Wicklow area is used to make Guinness for that very reason. Apparently some guy decided that the shape of the lake looked a little like a pint but something was missing. He had some fine, light-colored sand brought in and put at the top of the lake to make a little beach. So now when you look at the lake from above it looks like a pint of Guinness with a little foam on top! Our tour guide said that when it rains really hard, the sand makes the lake sort of cloudy so it looks like a pint of Guinness settling. Did I mention that Guinness and drinking are a popular topic of conversation?

To get out of the city once again and see some other areas of Dublin, we took a little day trip to a coastal town called Howth. It was such a great trip. We got great views of the sea. We had some excellent fish and chips from a place called Beshoff's. And we saw some sea lions!!! They were playing around in the harbor as we were sitting there eating our meal.

On the day we left we got in some more sight-seeing since our flight didn't leave until later in the evening. My favorite place was the Kilmainham Jail. It was such a great tour and we learned a lot about the famine and the jail itself. It was really worth the time. Shout out to Rick Steves for recommending it :)

That's about it for this post, I hope I captured the essence of Irish craic! (craic, pronounced crack but not at all affiliated with the drug...google it!)

Until next time,

Kelsey

An American in Paris in London

Over the weekend of February 20th, one of my very good St. Norbert friends came to visit. Allyson is studying in Lille, France and decided to hop over the English Channel to good ol' London. So, in fact, the title of this post is misleading. She is studying in Lille but I thought the "American in Paris" bit was little more recognizable, thank you Gershwin. Anyway, it was so great seeing her. We had such an excellent weekend. I'll tell you a little about it now.

On her first day here I didn't get to see her until later in the evening but we still went out to one of the pubs near our flat and had a few drinks. The next day we got up early and headed out to Portobello Road market. I thought it would be cool to take her to something that she may not have thought to visit. It was really fun looking at all the vendors and stuff and she was even successful in getting some old vinyl to add to her collection. Later on we went shopping on Carnaby St. It's a pretty cool little area. There is a shop there that is really old called The Liberty I think. That night we went out to dinner on Brick Lane where all the Indian restaurants are. We got some excellent curry there. We turned in a little early that night though because we had plans to get up early again the next day.

To start off her second day in London, we headed over to the Westminster area. We took a look at Parliament and Big Ben and all the cool sights around there. We walked down towards Trafalgar Square and just took in all the landmarks as we went along. We stopped and got some lunch after walking around for a while and then we made a pilgrimage to Wimbledon. It was such a cool place. The little neighborhood is so cute and the park itself is really amazing. We didn't take the tour but we got to see some of the grass courts and we took pictures next to the name brackets. They still had the 2008 Wimbledon winner, Rafael Nadal, on the board. It's pretty cool that they leave that stuff up all year. I wasn't expecting that. We made our way back after a while. I was planning on making fajitas for dinner so I went to the store and got all the fixings. They were quite delicious if I do say so myself.

The next morning Allyson had to leave quite early to get on over to Scotland. I was so jealous! I had such a great time while she was here. It was so cool taking someone around and showing them the sights.

Hope you're having a great time Allyson!

Until next time,
Kelsey

That's Wales, Not Whales

It's been quite a while since I've updated and yet there has been so much going on!

First things first, I celebrated my 21st birthday here in London on the 12th of February. It is a sacred day indeed as I share my birthday with my twin sister of course (holla!) and two men you may have heard of, Abe Lincoln and Charles Darwin. Impressive. I had such a great time, my roommates and friends here threw me a surprise celebration if you will. They even got the recipe for my grandma's goulash (it's world renowned and my fave). I even got a crown...well, a tiara but I think crown sounds more prestigious. And of course we did a little pub-hopping, the British version of bar-hopping. And we also did a walking tour of murder and horror in the city...which turned out not to be scary so much as cold and rainy. Still fun anyway since we got a free drink at the end!

The day after my b-day we were off to our adventure weekend in Wales at the Preseli Adventures lodge. The whole St. Norbert gang went along as well as a whole bunch of other FIE students. It's about a 5-6 hour drive from London...we were around Pembroke I believe. It's absolutely gorgeous there. The area we were in was on the coast and a quite small sort of agricultural area. Lots of sheep. We got there a little later in the evening so there were no activities planned. Instead we had a quick orientation and some dinner. All the meals at our little lodge were home-cooked and delicious. It was a sort of calm before the storm of activities we were going to be partaking in.

For our first ADVENTURE (I feel as though I have to all-caps this due to the epic-ness of the experience) we went on a hike. It was 7 miles all together. Muddy. Picturesque. Breathtaking. Essentially, it was amazing. We had the sea to our left and rolling, green hills to our right. It was slightly misty as well which added a certain something. The hike itself wasn't too demanding except for a few muddy patches but the scenery was worth the 3 hours it took us to get back to Preseli. We got back in time to change for our next ADVENTURE and grab some lunch. I was particularly excited for this ADVENTURE because it was surfing! Something I've wanted to do since forever. I view it as a tragedy that I was raised in the Mid-West. So our instructors were named Martin and, drum roll please, Bramble. Two great names for a couple of surfer dudes in Wales. And to top it all off, Bramble had some sweet dreads goin' on. They were both super nice and made us all feel at ease. I'm going to take a few sentences to talk about two downsides of the weekend and surfing in particular. Number one, I got an incredibly small wetsuit...much too small for doing any sort of physical activity. That hindered me a little bit with what I know in my heart are natural surfing abilities. Number two, my wisdom tooth was givin' me all sorts of trouble. I was in pain and I felt none the wiser. Those two things aside, surfing was awesome. The water was absolutely freezing but I didn't notice after a while. I was too focused on catching a wave. Unfortunately, I didn't stand up all the way. I only got to my knees. I'm gonna use that wetsuit as a scapegoat though. That night at dinner I had total surf-stoke/a desire for redemption. I can now completely attest to the fact that this is a sport where you do it once and you're hooked.

On our last day I was so sore. No rest for the weary though because our ADVENTURE that morning was coasteering. Basically, coasteering is a mix of swimming, scaling rocks, and jumping off of stuff into the water. It was so much fun. We started out just by swimming out to this lagoon sort of area with cliffs and rocks all around. We scrambled onto the rocks and tried the jumping technique we were to use and also did some climbing. The first real adrenaline rush came when we got to this flat rock face that dropped down into the water. At first we used it as a slide but then we were to run down it. Yes, run. If you've ever walked or, better yet, run down a hill that's sort of what it felt like. Although, this felt a little safer in the sense that there was water at the bottom and a little more dangerous since the angle of the rock was pretty much perpendicular to the water. After that we did some more swimming and gradually worked our way up to the big 30 foot jump at the end. When we got to that one it was really scary but everyone in our group didn't want to back down so we all went. I've never jumped from that height and it's surprising how long you are in the air. You just keep on falling. The whole experience was insane!

After coasteering was done we made our way back to the lodge to pack up and get on our way back to London. It was an excellent trip, so worth the soreness. Wales is so beautiful and my ADVENTURES were so fun. I hope I get to go back one day.

Until next time,
Kelsey

The BAFTAs and some other stuff

So since I last blogged I have been up to a few pretty exciting things. For starters I got to see a production of The Twelfth Night at Wyndham's Theater on the West End. I went because I am taking a class on Shakespeare here and we all went together since we are studying the play. Normally I probably would not have gone to a Shakespeare play but as it was for class I didn't have much of a choice. I can honestly say though, despite my apprehension the play was absolutely fantastic. The actors were amazing and hilarious. All of the jokes and comedic parts we discussed in class were there and it made me really appreciate the study of Shakespeare plays. It ended up being an excellent evening and later on a great discussion in class. Everyone really enjoyed it.

The play was on Thursday of last week and the fun doesn't stop there. This past Saturday I took my first trip to the Portobello Road market. It was so cool! There were antiques and crafts and jewelery and vinyls...you name it! They also had fresh produce and food stands. We ended up having falafels which were amazing! Also, while we were walking to the market we ran into hoards of New Zealanders. They were all yelling and drinking and having a great time. Some of them were dressed really weird, it was nuts! I'm still not quite sure what was going on. At first I thought that they were all around because there was a Rugby match going on featuring their national team. But I've also heard that it was some sort of national holiday for New Zealand. The verdict is still out.

Now for the craziest part of my weekend...drum roll please...I got to stand right next to the red carpet during the arrivals at the BAFTAs!!! Now, if you are wondering what the heck the BAFTAs are have no fear. I will tell you. They are essentially the British Oscars. It was a star-studded event, let me tell you. I was less than an arms length away from huge movie stars and filmmakers. I'll list them off for you...Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Kate Winslet, The cast of Slumdog Millionaire, Shia LaBeouf, Daniel Craig, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Goldie Hawn, Sharon Stone, Ron Howard, Danny Boyle, Thandie Newton, Penelope Cruz, Christian Slater, Marion Cotillard, Patrick Stewart, Gemma Arterton, Marisa Tomei, Emma Watson, Micky Rourke, Eddie Redmayne, Dominic Cooper, Emily Mortimer, Jim Sturgess...and probably a few more! It was absolutely insane!! There was flash photography, people screaming names of celebrities, beautiful evening gowns, gorgeous guys in tuxes...one of the coolest days of my life. We woke up super early on a Sunday and stood in line for wristbands. They were numbered so once we got them we could leave and go eat or something as long as we were back by 2:30pm. We left and took a nap back at the dorms and then made our way back around 1:30pm. We had lunch in Covent Garden, where the awards were held. At 2:30 we made our way over to the line and stayed there until they let us near the red carpet. We secured our excellent spots right next to the beginning of the carpet where they arrived and waited for the excitement to start. It was freezing rain the whole time but it was so worth it. You may or may not know that I'm a huge movie buff so it was incredible to see so many actors and actresses and filmmakers I truly admire. I think my favorite sightings were Shia LaBeouf, Kate Winslet, and Ron Howard.

Pretty cool huh?
Until next time,

Kelsey

Istanbul Part Iki (I Think That's Turkish for Two)

Okay so here we go with part two of my Turkish adventure.

Our second full day in Istanbul started once again with our excellent breakfast and our excellent view. Then we hopped on over to the Topkapi Palace. It was gorgeous! We went through the Harem portion first which was really cool. It was decorated with patterned tiles and there were rooms with huge beds and lounging couches. Pretty amazing. Then we toured the treasury part of the palace which housed all of these beautiful jewels, clothing, and other valuables. First of all, I saw candle sticks not much shorter than me. And they were gifts for a tomb! Then the other thing we saw truly worth mentioning was a huge diamond that would've put any rapper's bling to shame. Other items worth mentioning are Moses' walking stick (used to part the Red Sea) and part of the Prophet Muhammad's beard. A little iffy if you ask me but who am I to argue? We also took some pretty awesome pictures of us poking our heads through a balcony and climbing a ladder to peek into a trap door. All in all I'd say it was a successful morning.

After lunch we took a little trip to the Grand Bazaar. It was pretty amazing just for the sheer size and volume of it. It was such a maze and there were swells of people. We were a little overwhelmed actually and we had a few run ins with disgruntled shop owners. The Egyptian Bazaar was a little smaller and felt more manageable but it was still quite an experience.

Following our exhausting bazaar trip we had a talk scheduled where a student studying in Istanbul came and spoke to us about what it is like to live in Turkey including some of the recent politics that affect Eastern countries. She was so insightful and passionate about her opinions. She said things with conviction. I was a little skeptical at first since she was around our age but it was a great talk. I did however keep my mouth shut when she opened it up for discussion because I felt like I could probably pass for mildly intelligent if I didn't say anything ;)

We were set free for the rest of the night, our last night in Turkey. First, we went to see the Whirling Dervish Ceremony. It was so cool. The music was live and absolutely amazing. Then the Dervishes came out and took their places. They twirl around and their movements are supposed to be a remembrance of God. I know I keep saying this but it was amazing. After the Dervishes we had dinner. Sadly, it was Dominos. But we redeemed ourselves and went out to a hookah bar near our hotel. The owner was super nice, we chatted him up a little. He recommended the Turkish drink, Raki so I decided to take him up on that. Big mistake. It tasted and smelled like black licorice (which I don't like) and it was so damn strong. I finished it but not without pawning off a few sips to anyone who would try it.

Back at the hotel we saw that some of the other girls had spent their last night in Turkey drinking some Turkish wine and havin' some cake...a whole cake actually. They received sparklers with their purchase and we of course went outside and watched them dance around like it was the Fourth of July. Then we proceeded to take some jumping pictures which are always a crowd-pleaser.

After our night of antics we got a chance to sleep in the next day as there were no planned activities. We did make sure to get one last breakfast in on the terrace though. Our last morning in Turkey was spent in a museum of Islam. There were beautiful carpets and a gorgeous art exhibit. The art was actually really interesting because they were paintings of very specific things. There were paintings of mosaics and it was really odd. They weren't depictions or abstracts but very literal interpretations of what I would already consider works of art. I don't think I'm really conveying this right but they were just very different sorts of paintings. I split up from the rest of my roommates later because they decided to go the Turkish Baths which isn't really my idea of a relaxing afternoon. So, I went to another bazaar with our fearless leaders and some of the other people in the group. It was pretty cool and a lot of the stuff was hand made. We had this sort of wrap for a snack. I don't even know what it was called but it was damn good! We stuck around for a couple hours and then headed back to the hotel so that we could make our flight. Don't worry, I got one last helping of baklava before we left ;)

The entire weekend was incredible. I didn't really know what to expect with Turkey but I loved it. It's so different from anywhere I've ever been. Enjoyed every minute of it.

Until next time,

Kelsey

P.S. Turkish delight is another dessert that I am now addicted to...thanks a lot Turkey!

P.P.S. To whom it may concern, I saw an orca that puts all other orcas to shame.

P.P.P.S. It was snowing when we arrived in London...apparently this is a very rare occurrence but as a Yooper I was slightly peeved.

I love Turkey...Who'd have thought?

This past weekend my Islam and the West class took a trip to Turkey and it was absolutely amazing. There is so much to write about I feel like I won't be able to describe it all. Here goes nothing...

We left London on Thursday morning and got into Istanbul in the evening. We stayed at the Hali Hotel near the Haghia-Sophia and Blue Mosques. After a bit of a rest the entire group went out to dinner for some delicious Turkish food. Everything was excellent...especially the baklava ;) After dinner we had the night to ourselves so a group of us just walked around the immediate area we were staying in. We went into some shops and took some pics of the mosques. It was an early night though because Friday was packed with things to see and do...which brings me to our first full day in Istanbul.

We woke up early in the morning and trudged up to the terrace of our hotel where we had our delicious breakfast with a panoramic view of Istanbul as our background. After our meal we headed out to our first sight, The Blue Mosque. We had a tour guide for the whole day and he was so great! He showed us the significance of everything and what it meant to the Islamic faith. For example, the carpets in the Blue Mosques were decorated with rows of designs that had evenly spaced tulips all facing the same direction. The tulips are actually meant to be a guide for worshipers as they point towards the direction of Mecca. After the Blue Mosque we went to the Haghia-Sophia Mosque which is directly across from the Blue Mosque...I call them the dueling mosques. Following the Haghia-Sophia was the Basilica Cistern which is an underground water filtration system. It's really dark and there are rows and rows of illuminated columns with a thin layer of water at the bottom...really cool.

After the Cistern we went on a boat trip on the Bosphorus and saw all of Istanbul from the water. It was really really really cold and rainy but totally worth it. The tour was actually quite long but our day didn't end there. We went to another mosque called the Rustem Pasa which was small and sort of hidden...a little gem if you will :) Then it was off to the Egyptian Bazaar. We got some really cool souvenirs and met some great people. Most of the shop owners were really friendly. It's customary to offer tea to their customers and at one shop they served us some apple tea in tiny glass cups. It was so good and the shop owner was so kind. There was one shop though that left a little to be desired. The owner took us down into the basement to show us the scarves he had which we didn't think was too weird since we had done that in previous shops. Once we were down there though he suddenly couldn't speak English very well. He wanted us to take a picture with him in front of all the colorful scarves, so we did. As we posed he promptly put his hand a little south of one of the girl's waist and we have photographed evidence. We now refer to him as the "but-grabbing guy". Needless to say we did not go into any more basements at the bazaars.

We were on our own for the rest of the day from there. We stayed for a couple of hours at the Bazaar and then headed back to the hotel to catch our breath. Oh yeah, and we had some lunch somewhere in there. That night our fearless leaders shepherded us across the bridge to another part of Istanbul which had lots of nightlife. We had an excellent dinner there. Then we went in search of a good hookah bar. The hookah was excellent and the people there were really friendly. The guy that brought us the fresh coals actually did a little hookah with us and he put us all to shame. There was a huge cloud of smoke around his head and I thought he was going finish the whole thing by himself! We took another taxi back to the hotel and immediately went to bed.

So our first day/night was quite eventful...I think I'm going to break this particular blog into two sections so we'll leave it at that for now.