I'm not going to lie, today was actually the second time I've clicked on an ad on the side of my Facebook page. The first was in Paris a couple of weeks ago, when for some random reason it came up with biodegradable products for a woman's that time of the month, you know, yeah... I just had to click, it was too intriguing! And Katie and I had a good laugh about it, but it was also kind of disgusting.
Anyway, today, a musician's ad popped up. And before I could stop myself, I was clicking. Boy, was I glad I did.
For your ears' listening enjoyment, I give you Everett Thomas. Not only is he gorgeous, but he has a voice that just makes you want to curl up on a couch with your favorite blanket and listen to him forever. Yeah, that kind of voice. Enjoy.
http://www.everettthomas.com/
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
A long weekend in Oxford... and A SAINTS SUPER BOWL!
Well while everyone else I usually go to school with was battling out the several feet of snow that was dropped on the East Coast over the past week, I've been back from a very fun weekend in Oxford, visiting my friend Malin! I will try and do a little recap here, something I've been meaning to do for the past almost week and haven't, so we'll see how much I remember.
So Thursday night I set out to go to the Buchanan Bus Station here in Glasgow to get on an overnight bus to London. I can't complain too much about the bus I suppose, seeing as I only paid 11 pounds for my ride down, but it did only further prove that I have no absolutely no ability to sleep while sitting up. After a sleepless night I arrived in London at about 7:15 am and set out to find the Oxford Tube stop so I could get on another bus and go to Oxford. This was supposed to be very easy because the map said the stop was right in front of the Victoria Bus Station. What they don't tell you is that there are two separate buildings that form the Victoria Bus Station, one for departures and one for arrivals, and that the arrivals one is not marked on any map. So after being very confused for just a bit, I found the bus stop and got on the (wi-fi included!) 1 1/2 hour bus to Oxford, where I met up with Malin!
I'm not going to lie, I was exhausted when I finally got to Oxford, so after talking with Malin for a while, I took a nap. Then we set out to explore some of the various colleges that make up Oxford University. For those of you who don't know, Oxford's system is very strange (although I'm sure it makes a lot of sense to people who know only that one) and the University is made up of over 30 colleges, all of which are more or less their own tiny school. (Malin may have to correct me on that number!) Malin goes to Pembroke College, which is one of the smaller ones, but it was very pretty and looked exactly as an old English college should. First we went to Christ Church College, whose main quad looks like this:
Unfair, no?! Christ Church College is famous for its pretty architecture, but also because its dining hall/staircase was used in the first Harry Potter film. Unfortunately the hall was closed as it was lunchtime and students had to actually eat in there, but we did sneak a peak at the staircase on which Professor McGonogall meets the First-Years in the first movie (yes, I'm a dork).
We ate lunch at this very adorable place right in front of a church... very good tea and very good lasagna.
That is me looking very cold, although after a January spent in Scotland, Oxford was actually very warm in comparison.
We then went on to Magdalen College, which, despite what the spelling would lead you to believe, is actually pronounced something like Maudlen. However they choose to pronounce their name, Magdalen was also very pretty (beginning to see a trend here?):
Magdalen College sits on a HUGE piece of land. Some of its finer points:
A cute little cottage:
And a deer park:
Yes, that's right, a deer park. When I told my dad this he immediately asked if the College used the deer as food, but I had to inform him that they are Royal deer and therefore cannot be killed without suffering the wrath of the Queen. (I'm not sure how much they would actually care, but I wouldn't put it past them to have some kind of law that gives people life sentences if they touch these deer)
After that we did some more wandering around before heading back to Malin's (spacious) single where we hung out with my old friend Bryan a bit (alas, this was the only time this weekend I would get to see him) and then Malin and I went to this Japanese noodle place for dinner, which was very delicious (and spicy! Yay!). We got ice cream for desert at this very cool place called G&D's... apparently an Oxford institution. Their chocolate cookies were amazingly delicious!
The next day we went and had a late lunch/early dinner of a traditional English tea at this place called The Rose. It was phenomenal!
We spent the rest of the day shopping and then went out for dinner again.
Then on Sunday I charged Malin with distracting me from the upcoming Super Bowl. We got lunch at Pret and then went to the Ashmolean, the UK's oldest public museum. They just finished a huge renovation and were still fixing up some things, but the place had a very impressive collection - I liked their Chinese and Japanese art the most, and they had lots of examples of modern Japanese painting that were gorgeous. We went back to Malin's and did a bit of work (you can never escape it!) and I tried to occupy myself with the history of the Scottish Civil Wars but I was way too nervous! For dinner we went to formal hall at Pembroke, where they serve you and stuff and the students have to wear their robes. I got away with my jeans and Saints shirt however, as it was rather dark! The food was okay, but it was a very cool experience. Then we went back to studying until the game started later that night.
For the Super Bowl we went to this pub around the corner from Pembroke College and it was packed! Fortunately almost everyone was rooting for the Saints, and it paid off because WE WON!!! It was an amazing game and I'm so glad I got to watch it! I'm not ashamed to admit that I did cry.
me, Malin and a fellow Hoya at Oxford, Ross.
After sleeping in on Monday whilst Malin worked on a paper, we got yummy panini for lunch at another Oxford institution, Heroes, and then hung out for the rest of the day. After getting bagel sandwiches for dinner at G&D's (where I bought a chocolate cookie for the bus ride home) I hopped back on the Oxford Tube to get to London where I got on my bus back to Glasgow. Fortunately this time I was able to pretend like I was waiting for a friend to sit in the seat next to me so I got a row to myself which meant I could actually lie down and sleep! Sometimes it pays off to be short, let me tell you.
Well that caps off a lovely weekend spent in Oxford and hopefully Malin will come and visit me soon so I can repay the favor!!
Katherine
So Thursday night I set out to go to the Buchanan Bus Station here in Glasgow to get on an overnight bus to London. I can't complain too much about the bus I suppose, seeing as I only paid 11 pounds for my ride down, but it did only further prove that I have no absolutely no ability to sleep while sitting up. After a sleepless night I arrived in London at about 7:15 am and set out to find the Oxford Tube stop so I could get on another bus and go to Oxford. This was supposed to be very easy because the map said the stop was right in front of the Victoria Bus Station. What they don't tell you is that there are two separate buildings that form the Victoria Bus Station, one for departures and one for arrivals, and that the arrivals one is not marked on any map. So after being very confused for just a bit, I found the bus stop and got on the (wi-fi included!) 1 1/2 hour bus to Oxford, where I met up with Malin!
I'm not going to lie, I was exhausted when I finally got to Oxford, so after talking with Malin for a while, I took a nap. Then we set out to explore some of the various colleges that make up Oxford University. For those of you who don't know, Oxford's system is very strange (although I'm sure it makes a lot of sense to people who know only that one) and the University is made up of over 30 colleges, all of which are more or less their own tiny school. (Malin may have to correct me on that number!) Malin goes to Pembroke College, which is one of the smaller ones, but it was very pretty and looked exactly as an old English college should. First we went to Christ Church College, whose main quad looks like this:
Unfair, no?! Christ Church College is famous for its pretty architecture, but also because its dining hall/staircase was used in the first Harry Potter film. Unfortunately the hall was closed as it was lunchtime and students had to actually eat in there, but we did sneak a peak at the staircase on which Professor McGonogall meets the First-Years in the first movie (yes, I'm a dork).
We ate lunch at this very adorable place right in front of a church... very good tea and very good lasagna.
That is me looking very cold, although after a January spent in Scotland, Oxford was actually very warm in comparison.
We then went on to Magdalen College, which, despite what the spelling would lead you to believe, is actually pronounced something like Maudlen. However they choose to pronounce their name, Magdalen was also very pretty (beginning to see a trend here?):
Magdalen College sits on a HUGE piece of land. Some of its finer points:
A cute little cottage:
And a deer park:
Yes, that's right, a deer park. When I told my dad this he immediately asked if the College used the deer as food, but I had to inform him that they are Royal deer and therefore cannot be killed without suffering the wrath of the Queen. (I'm not sure how much they would actually care, but I wouldn't put it past them to have some kind of law that gives people life sentences if they touch these deer)
After that we did some more wandering around before heading back to Malin's (spacious) single where we hung out with my old friend Bryan a bit (alas, this was the only time this weekend I would get to see him) and then Malin and I went to this Japanese noodle place for dinner, which was very delicious (and spicy! Yay!). We got ice cream for desert at this very cool place called G&D's... apparently an Oxford institution. Their chocolate cookies were amazingly delicious!
The next day we went and had a late lunch/early dinner of a traditional English tea at this place called The Rose. It was phenomenal!
We spent the rest of the day shopping and then went out for dinner again.Then on Sunday I charged Malin with distracting me from the upcoming Super Bowl. We got lunch at Pret and then went to the Ashmolean, the UK's oldest public museum. They just finished a huge renovation and were still fixing up some things, but the place had a very impressive collection - I liked their Chinese and Japanese art the most, and they had lots of examples of modern Japanese painting that were gorgeous. We went back to Malin's and did a bit of work (you can never escape it!) and I tried to occupy myself with the history of the Scottish Civil Wars but I was way too nervous! For dinner we went to formal hall at Pembroke, where they serve you and stuff and the students have to wear their robes. I got away with my jeans and Saints shirt however, as it was rather dark! The food was okay, but it was a very cool experience. Then we went back to studying until the game started later that night.
For the Super Bowl we went to this pub around the corner from Pembroke College and it was packed! Fortunately almost everyone was rooting for the Saints, and it paid off because WE WON!!! It was an amazing game and I'm so glad I got to watch it! I'm not ashamed to admit that I did cry.
me, Malin and a fellow Hoya at Oxford, Ross.After sleeping in on Monday whilst Malin worked on a paper, we got yummy panini for lunch at another Oxford institution, Heroes, and then hung out for the rest of the day. After getting bagel sandwiches for dinner at G&D's (where I bought a chocolate cookie for the bus ride home) I hopped back on the Oxford Tube to get to London where I got on my bus back to Glasgow. Fortunately this time I was able to pretend like I was waiting for a friend to sit in the seat next to me so I got a row to myself which meant I could actually lie down and sleep! Sometimes it pays off to be short, let me tell you.
Well that caps off a lovely weekend spent in Oxford and hopefully Malin will come and visit me soon so I can repay the favor!!
Katherine
Monday, February 1, 2010
tea and 24 marathons
Yet again I'm slacking on the updates, what a surprise! My new month resolution will be to post here more often... we'll see how long that happens.
So Paris was fun - Katie's foot wasn't hurting this time so we got to walk around more, Shelby was in town, and all the museums were actually open this time as compared to when I was there last fall! I got in around noon-ish on Saturday after the most frightening walk through Glasgow at 6 in the morning in the dark park to get to the bus station to get to the airport. First I met Katie's new roommate, then we hung out for a bit and then went to the Musee d'Orsay where there was a ridiculously long line, unexpected for a cold January weekend. Fortunately it moved fast AND we got in free! Yay for European student ID cards and for Katie's German passport (makes everyone more trusting that I'm actually Scottish and not American...). The Orsay was fun, they had an Art Nouveau exhibit going on that, while ridiculously crowded, was very interesting. Unfortunately they didn't have my Mucha prints so I wasn't able to replace my posters... if anyone is going to Prague in the near future please please please talk to me so I can convince you to get them for me!!
Anyway, Saturday night Katie and I went to go get fondue and found a place for only 12 euros each, not a bad deal in Paris. It was really yummy but ridiculously filling and we weren't able to eat all of it. Then I got a lemon crepe for dessert - mmm!! We hung out and watched Angels and Demons for the rest of the night.
Sunday we slept in late and got a French king cake for breakfast/lunch/brunch! We met up with Shelby and went back to Katie's apartment to eat it. Then we went with Shelby to the Pompidou Centre where we got in free again!! Not paying for things is one of my favorite things in the world! The Pompidou was nice, but they had this huge feminism exhibit taking up most of the 2 floors so a lot of their permanent collection wasn't on display. Fortunately most of their Matisse collection was hanging so I got to drool over that for a while :) And buy a poster. Which unfortunately keeps falling down so desperate measures will have to be taken to get it to stay up.
Sunday night was, of course, the NFC Championship. And Katie fell asleep. So I stayed up on my makeshift bed and watched the entire game, not falling asleep until 5. But it was so worth it, because, as I'm sure everyone knows by now, the Saints are going to the Super Bowl!!!!! (there's no way I can express my excitement in a blog, so just trust me, I'm excited.)
Anyway, I got back to Glasgow on Monday afternoon and have been basically lazing around all week. My schedule here is so easy it's almost ridiculous. As it is, I should probably be working on some of the papers and stuff I have to write this semester. Actually I've already started research on some of them so I'm way ahead of schedule... my normal schedule at least. Of course it doesn't help that I've started watching 24 and am already addicted even though I've only just passed the halfway mark of the first season. It's been very slow going as I can only find the episodes on megavideo and ever since they changed their stupid website I can only watch an episode at a time at most before it cuts me off.
Well, I should get back to doing actual things now I suppose... I'm trying to find some easy recipes so I can actually cook here and not just survive on apples and cereal and tea. Not that I don't like those things, but they can get a little old.
Au revoir,
Katherine
So Paris was fun - Katie's foot wasn't hurting this time so we got to walk around more, Shelby was in town, and all the museums were actually open this time as compared to when I was there last fall! I got in around noon-ish on Saturday after the most frightening walk through Glasgow at 6 in the morning in the dark park to get to the bus station to get to the airport. First I met Katie's new roommate, then we hung out for a bit and then went to the Musee d'Orsay where there was a ridiculously long line, unexpected for a cold January weekend. Fortunately it moved fast AND we got in free! Yay for European student ID cards and for Katie's German passport (makes everyone more trusting that I'm actually Scottish and not American...). The Orsay was fun, they had an Art Nouveau exhibit going on that, while ridiculously crowded, was very interesting. Unfortunately they didn't have my Mucha prints so I wasn't able to replace my posters... if anyone is going to Prague in the near future please please please talk to me so I can convince you to get them for me!!
Anyway, Saturday night Katie and I went to go get fondue and found a place for only 12 euros each, not a bad deal in Paris. It was really yummy but ridiculously filling and we weren't able to eat all of it. Then I got a lemon crepe for dessert - mmm!! We hung out and watched Angels and Demons for the rest of the night.
Sunday we slept in late and got a French king cake for breakfast/lunch/brunch! We met up with Shelby and went back to Katie's apartment to eat it. Then we went with Shelby to the Pompidou Centre where we got in free again!! Not paying for things is one of my favorite things in the world! The Pompidou was nice, but they had this huge feminism exhibit taking up most of the 2 floors so a lot of their permanent collection wasn't on display. Fortunately most of their Matisse collection was hanging so I got to drool over that for a while :) And buy a poster. Which unfortunately keeps falling down so desperate measures will have to be taken to get it to stay up.
Sunday night was, of course, the NFC Championship. And Katie fell asleep. So I stayed up on my makeshift bed and watched the entire game, not falling asleep until 5. But it was so worth it, because, as I'm sure everyone knows by now, the Saints are going to the Super Bowl!!!!! (there's no way I can express my excitement in a blog, so just trust me, I'm excited.)
Anyway, I got back to Glasgow on Monday afternoon and have been basically lazing around all week. My schedule here is so easy it's almost ridiculous. As it is, I should probably be working on some of the papers and stuff I have to write this semester. Actually I've already started research on some of them so I'm way ahead of schedule... my normal schedule at least. Of course it doesn't help that I've started watching 24 and am already addicted even though I've only just passed the halfway mark of the first season. It's been very slow going as I can only find the episodes on megavideo and ever since they changed their stupid website I can only watch an episode at a time at most before it cuts me off.
Well, I should get back to doing actual things now I suppose... I'm trying to find some easy recipes so I can actually cook here and not just survive on apples and cereal and tea. Not that I don't like those things, but they can get a little old.
Au revoir,
Katherine
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