So, I'm afraid I can't seem to keep up with this thing on a consistent basis. That's HIGHLY disappointing. Maybe I can give a quick summary of the last two weeks in London, then a bit on Texas. That sounds like fun, right? Good.
Well, I went to Windsor one weekend. Just a day trip on Saturday. It was pretty, and I guess I should have let Harry and William know I was coming. They were sorry they didn't get to see me. It's been a while since we hung out.
The next day an older lady made friends with me randomly walking down the street. She's originally from Italy, and she has children that are about 50 years old. She's been in the UK over 50 years. At first, she thought I might not be able to understand English. I didn't want to tell her this, but I had trouble understanding her because she had a strange accent. She was friendly, though. She shops at M&S Foods because they always have fresh produce.
The next weekend was spent in Edinburgh. It was WONDERFUL. I have redecided that I need to live in Edinburgh at some point in my life. I know I already lived there for university for a term, but I mean REALLY live there. Maybe the government can find me a job there. IDEAL.
The LASERS (woot!) let me stay in their place (thanks!), and we went to see lots of things at the Fringe Festival. We also went to see a Miles Davis cover band called Miles Ahead for my birthday that weekend, and they were WONDERFUL. Everyone was so talented.
This weekend, I have arrived at home. The land of wide open spaces, highways, and the best food. In honor of the occasion, I'd like to give you a list of some of the strange and fun things about the Dallas area.
1. Trees. How did all these trees get here? London may have 5 Royal Parks, but they have nothing on the amount of trees in Dallas. We plant trees for everything. All new houses get a tree in the front yard. [You can practically tell the age of the house by looking at the tree.] Most business have trees out in front or surrounding them, and trees have been planted along highways and such to fill things out and prevent sad things like erosion. You may be thinking that all the trees are a strange sight in a land with too little water. Well, you would be right. I don't know how these trees manage to stay alive.
2. Cement. There is SO MUCH cement in Texas. You may think this is a bad thing, but let's think. I mean, in London [and most big cities] there is a lot of cement and lots of crammed roads and squished houses. In Texas, we just like to spread things out. It's not like there's too much MORE cement, just that it's used to space things out, not cram them together. It's nice.
3. Sunsets. I missed them. The sunsets in Texas are still the most consistently beautiful sunsets I've ever seen.
There you have it. A short list, but a list nonetheless.
Funny sidenote: I worked so hard to bring home scotch for my grandfather. Unfortunately, when I arrived at the airport, I realized my bag reeked of whiskey. It had broken. So much for bringing back a nice gift. Gah.
And, on that note, I hearby declare today Laundry Day. All of my clothes must be washed -- including the ones that now smell like scotch. Soon, I will have to repack them. And by soon, I mean Tuesday. I'm leaving for college again in the early hours of Friday morning. Hooray!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
the after-bath (a pun!)
Didn't you think my pun was clever? I know I did.
Anyway, the weekend after I went to Bath, I had a visitor! And her name was Emily. Isn't that exciting?
We did one of the most amazing touristy things I've ever done: a Duck Tour.
Sadly, it wasn't a day of watching ducks walk around London. However, it WAS an afternoon of driving around in a boat. Well, it was a cross between a boat and a car. We spent about 45 minutes on land, then about half an hour motoring around on the Thames. Cool idea. Land AND water. [How many lamps is THAT?]
Apparently, these duck things were used by the US to invade Normandy. We're so tricky. This Duck Tour company refurbishes them, paints the bright yellow and all sorts of fun colors, sticks tour guides and drivers on them, and sends hundreds of tourists around London. Very clever.
Also on the weekend being discussed, Emily and I stumbled upon [in real life, not Firefox] a Chipotle equivalent. It was glorious. There was guacamole, pulled pork, and everything needed to create a mini-trip to Texas for Susannah. It's called Chilango, and it's fun.
I think I'm almost caught up now. Only have this most recent weekend to write about, I think. Phew. Almost there.
Anyway, the weekend after I went to Bath, I had a visitor! And her name was Emily. Isn't that exciting?
We did one of the most amazing touristy things I've ever done: a Duck Tour.
Sadly, it wasn't a day of watching ducks walk around London. However, it WAS an afternoon of driving around in a boat. Well, it was a cross between a boat and a car. We spent about 45 minutes on land, then about half an hour motoring around on the Thames. Cool idea. Land AND water. [How many lamps is THAT?]
Apparently, these duck things were used by the US to invade Normandy. We're so tricky. This Duck Tour company refurbishes them, paints the bright yellow and all sorts of fun colors, sticks tour guides and drivers on them, and sends hundreds of tourists around London. Very clever.
Also on the weekend being discussed, Emily and I stumbled upon [in real life, not Firefox] a Chipotle equivalent. It was glorious. There was guacamole, pulled pork, and everything needed to create a mini-trip to Texas for Susannah. It's called Chilango, and it's fun.
I think I'm almost caught up now. Only have this most recent weekend to write about, I think. Phew. Almost there.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
it's okay, i'm a nerd.
For the last two days, it has been almost hot. In London. Which means it's absolutely perfect outside, and boiling on the tube. That's the worst part about good weather: it lies. So nice and sunny, yet soooo incredibly hot in the organized transportation.
Never fear, this evening the weather got worse. Rain. To add to the heat. Then is was warm and rainy. Sticky. Even worse on the underground. Ugh. All those people standing uncomfortably close.
...
So, to continue with my mission of catching up on past things.
A couple of weekends ago I adventured to Bath. The decision to go was kind of spontaneous. Saturday afternoon I was walking around town and I realized that I wasn't guaranteed to have another weekend to go.
I decided I would look up train fares and times. Reasonable. Next step, buy a new copy of Northanger Abbey. Perhaps I didn't need it, but it was fun reading it just before seeing all the things mentioned in it.
Things I saw in Bath:
1. The Roman Baths. They had their own type of Bath. I did the audio tour. It was nice.
2. The Pump Room. This was the famous place for people who were more feeble to get water everyday. It supposedly made everyone better. Plus, it was the place to be in the late 1700s. Everyone who was anyone made a six-week trip (any longer was considered a bore, any shorter and you weren't acceptably cool)to Bath in the summer and went nearly every afternoon to the Pump Room to meet with people, have some tea, and get busy socializing.
3. Royal Crescent. Not too exciting. Just a curved street with nice houses and such on it. But it was the place to stay in Jane Austen's time. I had to see it.
4. Jane Austen Centre. Not the official museum, but fun. I had fun feeling vaguely knowledgeable about Bath and Jane's books about Bath. I haven't read Persuasion [yet!] but Northanger Abbey is clever enough to make up for that. There was even a vaguely terrible video as part of the tour! Excellent! Bad clothing choices and all.
5. Assembly Rooms. Couldn't go in. There was a function. A wedding or something. They would have been nice. Would have been one of the other places in Jane's books. At least I saw where they were.
It was nice to be [re]reading an Austen book about Bath while traveling to and from Bath. Made me happy. And it also makes me a nerd.
Oh well!
Never fear, this evening the weather got worse. Rain. To add to the heat. Then is was warm and rainy. Sticky. Even worse on the underground. Ugh. All those people standing uncomfortably close.
...
So, to continue with my mission of catching up on past things.
A couple of weekends ago I adventured to Bath. The decision to go was kind of spontaneous. Saturday afternoon I was walking around town and I realized that I wasn't guaranteed to have another weekend to go.
I decided I would look up train fares and times. Reasonable. Next step, buy a new copy of Northanger Abbey. Perhaps I didn't need it, but it was fun reading it just before seeing all the things mentioned in it.
Things I saw in Bath:
1. The Roman Baths. They had their own type of Bath. I did the audio tour. It was nice.
2. The Pump Room. This was the famous place for people who were more feeble to get water everyday. It supposedly made everyone better. Plus, it was the place to be in the late 1700s. Everyone who was anyone made a six-week trip (any longer was considered a bore, any shorter and you weren't acceptably cool)to Bath in the summer and went nearly every afternoon to the Pump Room to meet with people, have some tea, and get busy socializing.
3. Royal Crescent. Not too exciting. Just a curved street with nice houses and such on it. But it was the place to stay in Jane Austen's time. I had to see it.
4. Jane Austen Centre. Not the official museum, but fun. I had fun feeling vaguely knowledgeable about Bath and Jane's books about Bath. I haven't read Persuasion [yet!] but Northanger Abbey is clever enough to make up for that. There was even a vaguely terrible video as part of the tour! Excellent! Bad clothing choices and all.
5. Assembly Rooms. Couldn't go in. There was a function. A wedding or something. They would have been nice. Would have been one of the other places in Jane's books. At least I saw where they were.
It was nice to be [re]reading an Austen book about Bath while traveling to and from Bath. Made me happy. And it also makes me a nerd.
Oh well!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
the tallying
As I accidentally typed at the end of the last post, let's take a tally.
1. Chapels : Both win here.
2. Famous pubs : I think Oxford wins here.
3. Food : Cambridge had special waffles. We all know that waffles are winners.
4. Friends! : Of COURSE it's a tie here.
The tally?
It's a tie. Obviously. You thought I was going to pick one, didn't you?
No, thank you.
I'll not come between a nation and its rivalries.
I still don't even choose between UT and A&M. [UT has worse colors, but A&M has too many blonde people. OH THE DECISION.]
These topics of Oxford and Cambridge cover the first two weekends since I arrived at the beginning of July.
Next stop: Bath!
1. Chapels : Both win here.
2. Famous pubs : I think Oxford wins here.
3. Food : Cambridge had special waffles. We all know that waffles are winners.
4. Friends! : Of COURSE it's a tie here.
The tally?
It's a tie. Obviously. You thought I was going to pick one, didn't you?
No, thank you.
I'll not come between a nation and its rivalries.
I still don't even choose between UT and A&M. [UT has worse colors, but A&M has too many blonde people. OH THE DECISION.]
These topics of Oxford and Cambridge cover the first two weekends since I arrived at the beginning of July.
Next stop: Bath!
Monday, August 3, 2009
long time no see
Oops. I'm sorry to say that I have been completely remiss in updating this thing.
I'll attempt to catch up, but I'll have to do so gradually, I'm afraid.
First, let's tackle the whole Oxford vs. Cambridge thing. Believe it or not, this is probably harder than it sounds. There were waffles and chapels involved.
I visited Oxford on my second weekend in London, and Cambridge happened the very next weekend. Hooray!
Things both Oxford and Cambridge had:
1. Chapels. Like I said. And both had beautiful chapels. In Oxford, I believe the one we saw was Trinity College Chapel. Small and pretty. We weren't allowed to walk in very far. We couldn't even walk down the aisles. There was, however, a bust of J.R.R. Tolkein's head. Cambridge had King's College Chapel. Huge and beautiful. The big altar in the middle was given for Anne Boleyn by Henry VIII before he chopped her head off. (Too irreverent?)
2. Famous pubs. Oxford had the Eagle and Child, which is where C.S. Lewis and Tolkein used to meet up and have semi-intellectual discussions over cigars and beer. The fishandchips is excellent. Cambridge had the pub where Watson and Crick celebrated after discovering the structure of DNA. I can't decide which pub was more awesome. As a former science nerd, I kind of want to say the Eagle in Cambridge was more fun. But Lewis and Tolkein are WICKED AWESOME (I'm from Boston?) and they did meet there regularly.
3. Food. Obviously. But I mean special-and-related-to-the-universities-food. The Eagle and Child had really excellent fishandchips as stated above, but I think Cambridge wins on this one. They had WAFFLES. Waffles with candy, waffles with strawberries, waffles with ham and cheese, waffles with banana and chocolate, and a waffle with everyimaginablesweetthingyoucouldeverywantonawaffle.
4. Friends! Both places are equally wonderful in this case, of course. Lois in Oxford and Emily in Cambridge!
Will post more on this topic soon!
So, let's take a tally.
I'll attempt to catch up, but I'll have to do so gradually, I'm afraid.
First, let's tackle the whole Oxford vs. Cambridge thing. Believe it or not, this is probably harder than it sounds. There were waffles and chapels involved.
I visited Oxford on my second weekend in London, and Cambridge happened the very next weekend. Hooray!
Things both Oxford and Cambridge had:
1. Chapels. Like I said. And both had beautiful chapels. In Oxford, I believe the one we saw was Trinity College Chapel. Small and pretty. We weren't allowed to walk in very far. We couldn't even walk down the aisles. There was, however, a bust of J.R.R. Tolkein's head. Cambridge had King's College Chapel. Huge and beautiful. The big altar in the middle was given for Anne Boleyn by Henry VIII before he chopped her head off. (Too irreverent?)
2. Famous pubs. Oxford had the Eagle and Child, which is where C.S. Lewis and Tolkein used to meet up and have semi-intellectual discussions over cigars and beer. The fishandchips is excellent. Cambridge had the pub where Watson and Crick celebrated after discovering the structure of DNA. I can't decide which pub was more awesome. As a former science nerd, I kind of want to say the Eagle in Cambridge was more fun. But Lewis and Tolkein are WICKED AWESOME (I'm from Boston?) and they did meet there regularly.
3. Food. Obviously. But I mean special-and-related-to-the-universities-food. The Eagle and Child had really excellent fishandchips as stated above, but I think Cambridge wins on this one. They had WAFFLES. Waffles with candy, waffles with strawberries, waffles with ham and cheese, waffles with banana and chocolate, and a waffle with everyimaginablesweetthingyoucouldeverywantonawaffle.
4. Friends! Both places are equally wonderful in this case, of course. Lois in Oxford and Emily in Cambridge!
Will post more on this topic soon!
So, let's take a tally.
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