I'm thankful for Mom and Youtube (or Thanksgiving in Oxford)

I wasn't able to go home for Thanksgiving.  Among the 9 of us who live in the house together, 4 are Americans, so we decided to have a "Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner".  As is the case with most of my brilliant ideas, it was much better in theory than in practice.  We were basically reminded every step of the way why this was not the best idea, but we certainly didn't let that stop us!  If all else failed, we figured we would just tell the non-Americans that this is what Thanksgiving dinner was supposed to taste like!  (We also had the number for Pizza Hut written down just to be safe.)

We ran into a NUMBER of obstacles in the lead-up to our Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner.  The first was the food.  It turns out that not all food is available over here.  (That's one of the reasons I like to argue that we are a superpower.  Nuclear weapons?  Large military?  No no.  Pumpkin pie.)  We were able to find a British website where you can order American food, and my friend Julia and I spent about an hour just marvelling at all the happiness.  In the end, though, we managed to stick (mostly) to just the food we needed for Thanksgiving.

We ordered the rest of the food from local grocery stores.  Which led to the next major obstacle: the turkey.  We ordered our food more than a week in advance, and were all excited for it to arrive, when it turned out that the store had refrigeration problems, and wasn't able to send any refrigerated items.  (I still feel a little bad for the woman on the phone who took my call about our lack of turkey delivery.)  Luckily, we were able to order a turkey from a different store, and it was delivered in time.

So now we had the food.  Everything should be set, right?  Of course not.  That would be much to easy.  It turns out you also need kitchen supplies (measuring cups, large pots, meat thermometers).  We are 9 post-grads.  We can't afford anything but absolute basic kitchen supplies (not to mention some of us, myself included, wouldn't know what to do with most of it even if we did have it.)  However, being broke post-grads, we got creative.  We guessed as far as measurements, left out ingredients we didn't have (or accidentally forgot--it turns out condensed milk isn't essential to pumpkin pie), and continually did the dishes so we could make the most of the 14 plates we have in the house (10 of which were needed for dinner plates).  The night before Thanksgiving, we made the pies and peeled potatoes (we only have one working oven, so we really had to plan out timing).  Basically, we were the Julia Children of post-grad cooking.

Finally, it was Thanksgiving.  We got up, all ready to start the main part of the cooking.  Which led to the next obstacle: DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO TO A TURKEY IN ORDER TO PREPARE IT FOR THANKSGIVING?!?!  Well, I didn't.  Unfortunately, I now do.  After a couple calls to my mom, first to ask what to do, and then if she was serious, I cleaned out the turkey, then stuffed it full again, and put it in the oven.  We then spent the next few hours preparing potatoes (no nice mixer, all with forks), gravy (which comes either as a powder or in little fish-pellet looking things that you add water to), bread (which technically was past its expiration date, but when you're a post-grad, you make do), corn (which is surprisingly easy to spill everywhere when you're using the wrong sized pot), green bean casserole (which turned out to be good, despite me disliking all of the ingredients), and cranberries (which we special ordered so we could get Ocean Spray cranberries).  One of the better moments was when I noticed one of my British roommates, Adam, poking at the cranberries.  He noticed me, and asked what they were and what you're supposed to do with them.  (No worries--he was a cranberry convert by the end of the meal.)

So it was getting close to dinner time when we realized that we had no idea how to cut a turkey.  Once again, creativity played a role, and the only American male, John, ended up watching a youtube video on his phone about how to carve a turkey--as he carved the turkey.

Unfortunately, by this time, it was after 7, which was the designated "dinnertime".  By 7:15, we had all of the guys in the house standing outside the kitchen, watching us.  Most likely my favorite part of the entire day was when we were almost done cooking, and we had a British guy and an Iranian guy both "singing" the Star Spangled Banner. (I still haven't figured out if they were trying to entertain us while we cooked or to convince us to hurry up.)  After that, they wanted to know if there are any good Thanksgiving songs, and I was almost able to convince them of "Oh Thanksgiving" and "Silent Turkey".  Luckily, dinner was ready not long after.

So the 10 of us crowded around our table that has room for 6, and we all partook in the magical time that is Thanksgiving dinner.  The food was amazing.  The company splendid.  The music not quite American, but lovely just the same.  It really was a fantastic Thanksgiving.  And thanks to the help of Mom and Youtube, none of us got sick with food poisoning!  If you can't spend Thanksgiving at home, this is one extraordinary way to do it!

Bonfire Night

So yesterday was Guy Fawkes' Day, which is the guy who tried to blow up Parliament.  They have a big celebration every year, and do fireworks and stuff like that on the Saturday closest, so today.  I went to it once before with my dad in London, but this was totally different.

First of all, you have to buy tickets to go see the fireworks.  (I know.)  But there is a fair and everything, so we figured it'd be fine.  The fireworks were scheduled to start at 6:45, so we got to the fair at 5:30.  Yeah...  First of all, there was no alcohol.  Normally, that would be okay, but there were two reasons why that was not at all okay in this instance:  first of all, it was cold.  I was wearing my winter jacket, but apparently that wasn't enough.  But, the main reason that alcohol would've helped was the (ahem) talent show going on.  The Oxford Teen Talent Contest Winners were singing.  I was actually offended at some of them.  Here is the list of songs sung (among a few I had never heard, and hope never to again):

-I've Got A Feeling, by the Black Eyed Peas
-To Make You Feel My Love, by Garth Brookes
-I Feel Good, by James Brown (and she kept getting the lyrics wrong)
-I Broke A Window In Your Car
-Use Somebody, by Kings of Leon (this was song as a ballad...yeah...)
-Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams (she also got half the lyrics wrong)
-Rude Boy by Rihanna
-The laugh from "Thriller", which got us all excited, but that was all there was of it
-Halleluja

I can't even begin to describe the pain of listening to these songs, most of which I'm a fan of.  So yeah, alcohol would've been nice.

Anyway, then, finally, at 6:45, we were all really excited and ready.  At 6:55 we were all really excited and ready.  At 7:05, we were all excited, ready, and a little annoyed.  At 7:15, I was cold and ticked off.  FINALLY, at about 7:20, the fireworks started.  Luckily, the fireworks were fantastic.  They were just great.  So that was happy.  But then the other part of Guy Fawkes' Day came into play.

A tradition for the British is to burn replicas of Guy Fawkes.  As in they have little kids build dolls in school and they throw them into bonfires.  Yeah...  Well, in Oxford, they burn a giant wicker woman, and as she burned, her face burned off and became a really creepy mask.  Yeah...  So we stayed for a bit of that, but at that point, I couldn't feel my feet or my hands, so we left to get a drink at a pub.  Unfortunately, by the time we got to a pub, got a drink, and sat down, we were all exhausted.  It is 10:30 right now, and I have uploaded pictures onto facebook and typed this because I refuse to go to bed before 10:30 on a Saturday night.  I have now made it, and can go to sleep.  All in all, though, it was a really...memerable night!!

Stonehenge, Bath, and Halloween!!

so yesterday was seriously one of the most fun days ever!  two of my friends (julia and allison) and i went to stonehenge and bath for the day, and then last night we went out for halloween.  it was an absolute blast.  so i'm going to attach a few pictures on here.  as far as the adventure:

   -it is important to remember that, while we were all super excited for this trip, we are also all post-grads, so we brought homework along.  yeah...
   -since i've been to stonehenge before, and the two of them have the attention span of a goldfish, rather than listening to all the little recordings about it, we spent a good chunk of time taking action shots, which you will notice.
   -once we got to bath, we went on a walking tour.  unfortunately, all three of us had lost any hope of paying close attention by that point, so we got some more fantastic shots.
   -i also took advantage of the beautiful time of year and played in the leaves, which i'm sure jane austen would fully approve of
   -for halloween, we went with the cheapest costumes we could find.  i was whiskers, the murder cat, and julia was a devil, which just seemed to work for her...
   -allison has a crazy awesome for getting action shots, so the main action shots are from her camera, but i can't get them any bigger.  sorry.

so yeah.  all in all, it was a really fantastic day!!!

random bits of happiness

so this week wasn't really all that exciting.  i went on a mini-adventure and took pictures of a bunch of the different colleges, but i can't remember which ones are which, so that's my bad.  i successfully made spachetti (and by spaghetti, i mean noodles with marinara sauce), so that was a moral victory.  i was also chosen to be one of the two class representatives for our MA course, so that's kind of cool.  i told everybody that, as the american class rep, we would start out taking over other classes, changing things up, switching out their professors, and then we would most likely move on.  we would also put a much greater emphasis on food.  yup.  i was always meant to be a leader.  i've also asked everyone to start calling me "your supreme representative", but we'll see how that goes.  they also don't seem to be partaking in the bowing to me when i enter the room.  but i've got time to train them, so i'm not too worried!  OOH!!  and i got two houseplants!!  they are george, the viscount of st. clements, and lucy in the sky with diamonds!  they're rather fantastic, if i do say so myself, which i do.  they are excellent company, and rarely judge my outfits.

so yeah.  all in all, things here are going well.  keep in touch!

love,
me

quite possibly the worst pasta ever

so apparently, being in oxford doesn't make you smarter just from, you know, being here.

so tonight i decided to be domestic and make my dinner (as in something besides a sammich or cereal).  i tried it the other night, and it was really bland and gross, so my friend who knows how to cook offered to help.  so she sat in the kitchen and monitored my every move.  alas, it just wasn't meant to be.

i had pasta, and in it, i added 3 different kinds of spices, some peppered olive oil, and, when that still wasn't anything good, some cheese.  and STILL, it was pretty much the most bland thing i've ever tasted.  i tried to add more spices, but julia said just adding more and more spices won't help.  (i still managed to sneak some in.)  anyway, yeah, it really wasn't good, and now i feel a little sick to my stomach.  it really was quite awful.

so now i'm going to try to do some reading, but there's a decent chance i won't get very far, because my stomach is really trying to convince me that throwing up sounds much more enjoyable than reading.  i'm SO over not having a personal chef.

me

netherfield park is let at last

so i'm sorry i haven't been on here in a bit, but this has honestly been a ridiculously crazy week!

first things first: i switched my MA program.  i'm now getting a dual masters in international law and international relations.  and holy cow, i am LOVING my law classes!  they are so interesting.  the problem is that i don't have any background in law (international or domestic), so all the latin terms they keep throwing around?  yeah.  it's all latin to me.  (hee hee...get it?  instead of it's all greek to me?  i crack myself up!)  anyway, so that's amazing.  i'm also crazy excited because next semester i'm going to take a class either on international human rights law or international criminal law.  how awesome will that be?!?!  oh, i'm pumped!

anyway, then, for some reason on friday, my computer started acting funny.  by saturday, it wasn't working properly at all, so i had to call somebody.  yeah.  i had a virus.  it got to the point that it literally recognized everything as a virus.  the guy had to take my computer and completely wipe it.  luckily he had thought at the beginning to save all of my music and documents and everything just to be safe.  so he took it back to his lab place, and found over 1600 infected parts.  he said he was impressed, as that's one of the higher amounts he has ever seen on a personal laptop!  (go big or go home, i guess.)  so yeah.  now it's back, and working just fine.

then, on sunday, my friend julia and i went to basildon park, which is more famously known as "netherfield park" in the more recent pride and prejudice movie.  it was FANTASTIC!!  first of all, it turned out to be the most gorgeous day, which is always nice.  especially when you have to walk over two miles to get to the place from the train station.  and did i mention the fact that the sidewalk doesn't continue the entire way?  yeah, so we had to climb a few hills and fences in order to get there.  julia is roughly 8 feet tall, so it wasn't a big deal for her, but yeah, i'm slightly more vertically challenged, so i wasn't amused.  anyway, we (finally) got there, and it was gorgeous.  i'm adding a couple pictures here, including the one of the whomping willow we saw!  the house was really well preserved (it's a national trust house, now, so it's open to the public, not privately owned), and it was cool to be able to see how things were decorated.  also, at the bottom of the main staircase there was a piano for people to play, so i played "moonlight sonata" in honor of mom (it's her favorite).  i also reenacted a couple of the scenes from pride and prejudice, but i figure i can't be the only one, seeing as they people working there didn't even blink at it.  then we wandered around the grounds (freaking gorgeous).  and finally, quite possibly best of all, i totally rolled down a hill.  that's right.  i rolled down the hill at mr. bingley's house.  it was fantastic.  i kind of thought i was going to throw up there for a bit at the bottom, because it was super steep, but it all worked out.

so yeah.  that's about it.  now that my computer is back and in working order, i will (hopefully) be able to do more than one post a week.  then again, we get about 30 hours of reading each week for class, so who knows?

okay.  i will talk to you all soon!

me

fantastic adventure!!

so i was doing some reading today when i looked outside and noticed that, HOLY COW, THERE WAS BLUE SKY!!!!  so i dropped what i was working on, grabbed my camera, and went exploring.  and wow, it was fantastic!

among other things, i saw the rose garden at the oxford botanical garden (the only part that is free), awesome views of christ church college, riverboats, some gorgeous houses, quite possibly the prettiest flower i've ever seen, some african trees cut down to show the rest of the world about how terrible deforestation is, and a few views of buildings in oxford that i liked.  i put all the pictures on facebook, but i'm putting my favorites on here too!!