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Hello again!
It has been a while since I last posted, so this may or may not be a short one!
So I talked to my dad the other night and I want to clarify something that he didn't understand. There may be some of you who don't realize this either. There are about 60 students here from Nebraska and we only have class with other Nebraska students. We have Oxford professors, but everything we do (class, cultural events, rooming situations), are just with the Nebraska students. Dad thought I had class with other Oxford students, but I don't.
Anyways, that afternoon, I took a small twenty minute nap, got up, got ready, and went out to eat with the girls. We went to a place called "The Grapes," which was a small pub. We decided to order a bottle of wine and split it between us. I ordered a cheeseburger, which was AMAZING...and normal. It tasted so good, I want to go back! I tried to use my American Express when I ordered my food and when the lady said they didn't take it, the local man sitting at the bar decided to tell me that it was because they charge a big fee and then told me why. Thank you drunk regular at the bar. Anyways, so we were all very happy and satisfied when we were done. After dinner, we went back to Jesus College and met up with everyone. That night, we all went to the Shakespeare play..."The Twelve Night." It was on a lawn at one of the colleges, which was interesting and fun to watch. Although I didn't understand what was going on at first, the play was really funny. It is interesting because both of the Shakespeare plays that I have been to so far had put a modern twist to it. In "A Midsummer Night's Dream," one of the characters came into a scene and left a scene on a scooter and in the "The Twelve Night," they had a beach scenery and some dressed in board shorts with suit coats. It's always neat to see how they can put it all together. After the play, we all went back and some of us went down to the Jesus College pub. I was only going to have one beer because I was so tired, but of course it turned into two....and when everyone was leaving..I got talked into going out with them to the Purple Turtle. It is so hard to tell someone no because I don't want to miss out and with the group of people that are here from Nebraska....I knew I was going to have fun! When I got to the PT, there wasn't that many people there except for some awkward dancing going on in the back. We joined in on the awkward dancing and had a lot of fun. That was a pretty early night...compared to others. I think the karaoke got the best of everyone the night before.
Thursday was a long day, because we had a lot going on. I got up, went to class and to lunch. After lunch, I hung out for a while and took a shower...but then at 3:30pm, we had Dr. Horsewood's class again. He was going to be gone on Friday, so we had to have 2 classes on Thursday. After it was over, it was nice to know that we didn't have class on Friday. We had the group photo that night, so after class, I went and got ready for that. Everyone had to dress formally, and we took the picture in one of the quads. They made us stand tallest to shortest...which brought back wonderful memories of always being the only girl in the front of the line. The picture only took a short while, so then I went back and changed into more comfy clothes for dinner. After dinner, a bunch of us got together to go and see "Batman: The Dark Night." It had just come out in the UK the day before. Tickets were 6 pounds for the regular seats, which is kind of an expensive movie in American dollars. All of the guys were calling our six pound general admission seats, peasant seats because they bought the premier seating. The premier seats were basically couches that were in the balcony part of the theater. We girls didn't really care either way, so the cheap seats worked for us! The movie theater here is a bit different. Before the previews begin, there is a red curtain covering the screen and everyone talks during the half hour long previews and commercials. When the curtain goes up, everyone claps. It is so funny to see how things are different for something so similar that we do at home. The movie was amazing and Heath Ledger was absolutely insane. He definitely deserves the Oscar...no doubt. I would recommend that movie to everyone!
There were a ton of us at the movie, so afterwards we all met out front. Everyone felt the same as I did about the movie. The guys told us that they might as well have gotten the "peasant seats" because although they were on couches, they were in a corner far away. We laughed at that! When everyone got out, we all went to the Purple Turtle. This time, it was arranged by our student assistants, so EVERYONE was going. There were so many of us there, which I love! It is always a lot of fun when we all get together to go out. Knowing we only had one class the next day, about twelve of us decided to take a tequila shot. But after the bartender poured them, she told us she didn't have any limes...only salt. Here is a word of advice: Don't take tequila without a lime. It was a rough one! Despite the pound of salt on my hand that I licked before and after....it was terrible! We had so much fun dancing and hanging out with everyone. It was SO hot in there because of all the people and after all the dancing we did...Megan and I were so sweaty! We decided to stand outside for a while to cool off. While we were standing outside, we witnessed a guy get kicked out and talked to Iggy (one of our student assistants) for a little bit. Later, some of the guys came out and were going to get kebabs, so for some reason we thought it would be a good idea to go. I got a chicken kebab and cheese fries. They both tasted pretty good at the time, but I am not so sure how the kebab would taste if I tried it at a different time. After I ate my life away, we all went back to Jesus College. I had to go to the bathroom so bad, so Megan ran to my room with me. After I went, we decided that we weren't ready to be home yet, so we went back to the Purple Turtle. On our way back, we saw Chris...called him a party pooper for going home and convinced him to come back with us. When we got to the PT, they wouldn't let us in because it was 2:30am...they close at 3am...and they stop letting people in the door at 2am. So...after standing there for a while and taking some pictures, we decided to finally go home and go to bed.
It was rough waking up on Friday, but a lot of fun laughing at the pictures before class. After class, I decided to do some laundry. After putting one load in, I took a half hour nap and then went to change it over. By the time it was done washing, I changed it over and went to lunch. I only had a small lunch that day because of what I was going to do later. After lunch, I got my laundry, folded it, and took an hour nap. Those naps were much needed! I could only sleep an hour though, because I had to get up and get ready for High Tea at the Old Parsonage Hotel. High Tea is the traditional English tea with all the food too! Everyone gets to go once over the course of the 4 weeks. I got all dressed up and 15 of us walked to the Old Parsonage Hotel. We sat outside under huge white umbrellas...it was so cute! We got to drink authentic English tea, which I tried with milk for the first time. It was pretty good! I never think to put milk in tea, but I did like it. Grandma Sampson, this reminded me of when you used to take me to have tea when I was little! We had finger sandwiches with salmon, crab, ham, and cucumbers. I tried the salmon, crab, and cucumber and I liked all three. We also had chocolate cake and this pecan type bar....both delicious. My favorite part was the scones! Bryony (one of our student assistants) told us the best way to eat them, so I took her advice. First you put a little jam on it and then put a big glob of cream. It was so good! After eating a ton of food and a lot of tea, I was really full! They told us that after High Tea, we were going to meet the Duke of Cambridge...which we found out is actually a cocktail bar! haha...It was happy hour, so we all stopped in for a few drinks. After a delicious raspberry martini, margarita, and mai tai...we decided to head back. We got back when dinner was going on, but I was so full I didn't want any dinner. Some of the girls wanted to get nachos at the pub that we ate at the other night, so I went a long. I wasn't going to eat any nachos, but I decided to have a little and they were pretty good. Stephanie ordered a Captain and Coke with her meal and when she got it, the glass was only about half full! It is so strange how they do mixed drinks here sometimes. They put an entire shot of Captain in, but they only put a tiny amount of Coke! After a creeper local at the bar asked if we wanted him to take our picture, we were ready to head out. We had to be back for the Ghost Tour anyways.
After meeting everyone, we went down the road and met up with a man in a top hat and a black suit. He was our Ghost Tour guide, who told us all the different ghost stories around Oxford. We walked around and he told us his stories. Some were more interesting than others, but one was really freaky. We were in this passageway between two colleges and we were all taking pictures the whole time. When we (3 of us) took his picture in this passageway, it was all fuzzy and there were tons of spots on the picture. That was the first time it happened and we didn't think anything of it until he told the story about that particular place. I don't remember the exact story, but he said that pieces of the guys body still float in that area today. So....those spots were that guy!! AHHH! We actually were all a little weirded out by it. I deleted my picture because I was kind freaked out! After the Ghost Tour, we were all going to go to a pub called the Turf. Stephanie and I had to go to the bathroom, so we went and when we got out...we couldn't find anyone! We walked around and found Katie and Megan, but they didn't know where anyone was either. We were so confused as to why no one was there, but after looking around a bunch of times, we decided to go back to the college to find everyone. We found Megan on the way back and she told us that everyone was meeting in the pub. We hung out in the pub until it closed at 11pm. Chris did an amazing imitation of Dr. Horsewood...which I got on video and pee my pants every time I watch! I will eventually post it on Facebook! Megan and I were only going to out for a couple of beers, but we all know how this has ended before. We went to the PT....again...I'm pretty PTed out right now. It was a ton of fun though! We were all taking random pictures of people, which was a lot of fun. Later, we were dancing fools...well mainly just Megan and I. I think the boys all stood around and laughed at us, but it's fine. haha...We had a lot of fun with our sweet dance moves. I did a lot of fist pumping....especially when LOVE GENERATION came on!!! I was SO excited! No one knew what song it was...and of course I was basically screaming the entire thing. I kept trying to get people to sing with me...but no one knew the words. :( I LOVE this place and how they always play songs that I heard on spring break in Mexico...pretty much one of my favorite things. We finally decided to leave...and hit up yet another kebab stand. I decided against the kebabs and stuck with the cheese fries.
Taylor had the great idea to buy Hawaiian stuff from a party store and then hang them all over his room. We wanted to see the wonderful pieces of art that he seriously paid for, so Megan and I went to his room. By the looks of it...he must really feel like he is in an Hawaiian cartoon every morning...haha. :) I finished my cheese fries and Taylor wanted to see Megan's room because she has her own bathroom...lucky! All the rooms are different here, so it's funny to see how lucky or unlucky everyone gets. We stayed in there, listened to music, and had a drunken heart to heart. We all talked for quite a while until Taylor looked out the window and saw that it was starting to get light outside. Right away he jumped up and said he was going to bed. I left when he did too because we all knew we had to be ready and on a bus to London for our excursion at 9am. When I woke up....2 hours later...I knew it was going to be a long day. I had to shower and eat breakfast..which was NOT fun. After all of that, we all got on the buses to London. I figured I would sleep on the bus and I tried. I might have slept for a little bit, but it seemed like every time I would fall asleep, I would wake up right away.
When we got to London, we found a Starbucks to get some caffine, use the bathroom and eat our packed lunches that they gave us. Our lunches had a sandwich, crisps (english for chips), fruit, and a drink. I had a BLT and it was delicious! Afterwards, we found a tube station and headed to Oxford Street, where all the shopping is. I didn't really need anything but a dress to wear later on the trip, but it's always fun to walk around. We went to Primark and like always, it was a mad house. As cute and cheap as that store is...I hate going there because of the crowds, which never let up! I ended up getting a cute dress and some underwear. :) We went to a few more stores, but we were all shopped out. I'm not a huge shopper and when I go, I like to go by myself...plus I was so tired! I did end up buying a couple more scarfs for really cheap from a street vendor. We didn't have much time before we needed to meet at the theater, so we headed to that area and looked for a small cafe to get something to drink. We eventually found one and I had a raspberry smoothie and a panini...both hit the spot.
When it was time, we all met in front of the Cambridge Theater and got our "Chicago" tickets from all the student assistants. We were on the upper level and I thought they were good seats. It was really hot in the theater which made it a bit uncomfortable and was really bad because I was so tired. During the entire 1st half, my eyes wanted to close so badly and a couple times they won. The people behind me probably thought I was on crack by the way I would twitch when I would wake up. I never dozed off for more than a few seconds, but it was so annoying! The musical was so good, it was just because I had gotten no sleep the night before. During intermission, I got some water and went to the bathroom which helped me stay awake. It was a really good musical, so I was excited we were able to see it! After it was over, me, Liz, Megan, Megan, and Stephanie all went to get something to eat and some drinks. We found a place called Bar101 that had cheap drinks and food, so we stopped in there. I got some pizza which wasn't as good as some of the others that I have had in Europe..but not too bad! I was basically falling asleep there too, so I decided that I wasn't going to stay in London that night as originally planned. Megan decided that she wasn't going to either because she was tired also.
After we ate, we walked down Charing Cross Road on our way to the bus. We passed by Phoenix Street, so I showed the girls where I stayed at the flat. We still had a lot of time to kill before the bus came, so we walked around Leister Square for a little bit. There was a huge gelato place and we needed a place to sit down at. Megan and I were going to wait and get gelato right before we got on the bus, so we weren't going to order any right away. Liz went ahead and got in line though. We originally sat inside, but it was so hot that we asked to be seated on the outside. Our plan was to sit there for a little while and then get some gelato. Well we sat down, Liz ate her gelato and a guy that worked there came out and told us that we couldn't sit there unless EVERYONE ordered something. Well, Stephanie didn't want anything and we didn't want anything until later...so we had no choice but to leave. All we wanted to do was sit down....so we found a statue next to where the bus was supposed to come and sat there. We sat there for a little while and then at about 15 after, Megan and I went to the gelato place. Mal, I wish we would have found this earlier when you were here!! I ordered a three-scooper with Lemon, Berry, and Cherry gelato....it was SOO good. We got on the bus and finished it while we were waiting for everyone and then headed back to Oxford.
On our way back everyone was figuring out what they were going to do that night. Megan and I were set on going back home and getting some sleep. After the hour-hour and a half ride to Oxford, they had convinced us to go out for a couple of drinks. I was literally falling asleep but I figured I could sleep in the next day and sleep all day for that matter if I really wanted to. We met up with everyone and headed out. I needed to get some cash, so while everyone was waiting at Escape, we went down the road to an ATM. On our way there, there was a guy handing out a flier for a free shot at Escape and since we were already going, I asked him if he could get us in for free (there was a 3 pound cover). He said yes and walked us to the place to let the bouncers know. When we walked up, Jason ran over from across the street and told us they were all across the street at Chequres (not sure if the spelling is right). We felt bad since the guy was going to let us in for free, so we told him we would meet them over there in a little bit. We got in free and got our free shot. It was some pre-mixed cherry stuff that probably didn't have any alcohol in it, but hey..it was free! After that, we left and made sure we could still get in free if we came back. We went across the street and had a beer with everyone, but the place closed pretty quickly after we got there. Everyone decided to go back over to Escape, so Megan and I were excited when we could just walk right in! This place was a lot classier than the Purple Turtle and had 2 floors. We all went to the 2nd floor and were able to sit down on nice seats and benches. It was nice because it was pretty chill. There was a dance floor, but there was no way I was hitting that thing up. We all hung out for a while and eventually went to the floor beneath us. We took a ton of random pictures and learned that I now have a ton of double jointed friends that can all do some strange things. Jason put his feet over his head and did some strange thing with his back to the rhythm of the music...which was absolutely hilarious. Brent can move his fingers all different ways and Megan can go that strange thing with the tip of her fingers. The coolest thing I could do was make my tongue into a 4-leaf clover...but who can't do that? haha While we were sitting down, they played some good songs and I made up some new dance moves. Next time, I will have to actually use them on the dance floor. Taylor tried to do my fist pumps but really didn't do them very well. :) We had a lot of fun. When Megan and I were trying to go home, they made us stay and we ended up closing the place down. I could have falling asleep on the bench pretty easily, but didn't. When I got home, I was exhausted. I went to bed and didn't wake up until around 12:30pm. The sleep was much needed and today it was so nice to not have anything to do at all! After I woke up, I took a shower and started doing this thing...which I am pretty sure people stopped reading 6 paragraphs ago. Sorry it's so long! haha Megan came by later and we were going to go to the covered market right next to Jesus College to get something to eat. It was closed, :( so I guess I will have to go another time. We decided to go to Starbucks instead. The one on the main street was really crowded and the line was really long, so we decided to go to the one on High Street. It was busy too, but we decided to stay. The Starbucks' here are always so busy and the two I just talked about are literally a block away. There were a ton of loud Italian high school kids in Starbucks which was quite annoying. I got a panini (I have had a lot of these lately), some yogurt, and my norm...a caramel light frappuccino. After we got done eating, I decided to finish this and that is where I am right now! I really need to organize my things, study a little, and then eventually dinner. Hopefully I will do my next one tomorrow so I won't have to make you all read such long posts! I don't ever want to leave...I am having the best time of my life here!
Love and miss you all!
Sarah
- comments
Chokla Sami & Megan, WOW!! Your wedding was the most buiatufel wedding we have ever been too. Megan, you were the prettiest bride and Sami, well you were very handsome! Watch out Brides Magazine. Lydell Photography did a great job on your photos too. We hope to see you two soon. Thank you for sharing your photos with all of us.
Sadun One of our favorite wendgdis EVER!!! It was fun and entertaining for everyone, all the while being classy and beautiful. Megan and Sami did an incredible job of bringing their guests into their world of travel, which was the theme of the wedding. What more could you ask for then a photo booth, cinema room, open bar, great food and music, and a truly wonderful couple like these two!
Sadun One of our favorite wendgdis EVER!!! It was fun and entertaining for everyone, all the while being classy and beautiful. Megan and Sami did an incredible job of bringing their guests into their world of travel, which was the theme of the wedding. What more could you ask for then a photo booth, cinema room, open bar, great food and music, and a truly wonderful couple like these two!
Norbert MeganSo sorry your not feeling well today. Just a few kiesss from the nyla dog and you will be all set. I cant wait to come to NC next week for the big event. Say to Chris and see you soon.