Bon nuit.
Perhaps I’ll start out with my list of things I’ve learned since we last spoke, since that may be the most [only?] interesting part for you:
Vocab:
fit = good looking and/or dateable, as in “He was the fittest boy in the school” or “We passed notes about how fit he was”
bum = butt
fag = cigarette
jumper = cardigan
typex = white out
what’s on = what’s going on, what’s up, as in “What’s on in London tonight?”
fancy = like
neat vodka = straight vodka
mate = buddy
trousers = pants
cheers = thanks
chemist = pharmacy/ist
Now make a sentence using at least three of these vocabulary words: “Can I bum a fag off you mate? Cheers!”
Except for the fact that bum is used in a different context here. Anyway…
Facts:
BAFTA = British version of the Grammy’s
They have something called “brown sauce” that is served along with ketchup, which is something like vinegar-y and soy-sauce-y barbeque sauce? I don’t really know. It’s weird, but apparently you dip chips (fries) in it and/or put it on sausage.
Going to uni (college) does not have a “party” connotation. At all.
Until six-form (optional pre-uni schooling occurring after you are 16 years old) all schools in England, public or private, require uniforms.
Common crisp (chip) flavors in increasing order of weirdness: Ready Salted, Sea Salt and Vinegar, Cheese and Onion, Flame Grilled Steak, Prawn Cocktail, Roasted Glazed Ham
And summary of this week’s events:
Well when I left off a week ago, I went to hang out with Hayley and Joy, and the three of us talked and hung out for about 9 hours straight. We went to buy alcohol, and bargained with the guy so we got a regular bottle of Smirnoff for 15 pounds, which is not that great compared to American prices but he was originally selling it for 20. The biggest bottle that would cost about $20-23 was being sold for 27 Pounds. I really need a pound sign key. Insert symbol perhaps? £ There we go. Who knows if that will show up correctly online.
Anyway, we made some drinks and started talking while the chicken defrosted and before we knew it, it was 11pm! So we had dinner around midnight and kept talking until 4am. It was really fun though and I am so happy I found them, and I am especially happy that they live on my floor!
Friday was a lazy day I think, can’t remember much of what I did. Maybe I went grocery shopping. Probably. And we were supposed to go out with two girls we met through study abroad but they picked the club called CRYSTAL “Where the young and wealthy of London come out to play.” Young? Check. Wealthy. Nope. From London? Eh, half check. £20 cover charge? No way. £12 drinks? I’ll stay in, thanks.
Joy went with them though, and they had fun. But true story- a cheap drink was £12. I don’t even want to think about how much that is in dollars. Around $18 I guess. And that means the cover charge was $30. Oof.
Saturday was our social programme trip to Blenheim Palace and Oxford. Which was amazing. It was nice to get out of London and to drive around outside of it, and we were in the front of the coach (charter bus) so we had a good view. Blenheim Palace is where the Duke of Marlborough lives, and the first Duke of Marlborough was John Churchill, Winston’s great great great (etc.) grandfather. Apparently Johnny C. did something so amazing in a war that Queen Anne gave him that title and a shitload of land and told him he could build a house on it and she would pay for it.
Good thing she never signed any official contract, because over a decade later he finally finished his “house”:
We didn’t get to go inside, unfortunately, but shivered our way around the grounds until we came up to the front gate. While we were walking someone driving a sleek black all-tinted-window Lamborghini (presumably the current Duke) drove past us to leave. He is 84 and just married his third wife in December. I guess that’s how he’s still picking the women up. I mean, that and the fact that he has a palace. Right.
We walked past some sheep, who acquiescingly baa-ed for us.
After that we had coffee/tea/biscuits (cookies) in a small pub housing a portrait of dear Winston called (a bit ironically) The White House. Just up the road was Churchill’s grave but I guess we had one too many cookies because all of a sudden it was time to leave. We went to Oxford for the rest of the day, which was sufficiently amazing. It was founded in 1170 and now has something around 15? maybe? don’t quote me on that one colleges that make up the University and because the combined campuses are so big, and because one college has a cathedral, it is considered a city.
One of the shop-lined streets:
Amazing architecture:
Massive, massive library. At least, one of them:
We had lunch at a pub, where I got my first fish n chips!:
It was surprisingly very cheap – if you ordered two meals it was 7.20 for both so I split it with Joy and it only cost me 3.60. Nice. And it was absolutely delicious! I mean, you can’t usually go wrong with frying food, but I think I could have eaten about 3 more plates. And yes fish n chips always comes with peas.
For the rest of the afternoon we visited Christ Church, one of the colleges at Oxford. It was breathtaking.
We were able to visit the dining hall there, but we had to wait until lunch stopped being served. This dining room is extra-special not just because it’s old, but because Hogwarts’ Great Hall is an exact replica of this dining hall – but while this dining hall only fits 3 long tables, the Great Hall has been modified to fit 4. It was pretty cool to be in a room like that, and, Hogwarts-style, the walls were covered in portraits.
The steps leading up to the dining hall were also used in the Harry Potter movies, so I had to get a picture with them as well.
We went into the Christ Church Cathedral, which was amazingly old and full of stained glass depicting major events in the history of England’s church, although looking back it pales in comparison to St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, which I saw today, but more on that later. Just standing in the quad of Christ Church College was breathtaking. Joy, Rachel and I in the quad:
Man were we tired when we got home, though. It’s tough going on walking tours all day, especially when its cold out, and especially when we got up at 7am. Thus, Sunday I don’t believe I got out of my pajamas.
Monday I had my Renaissance lecture for the first time, which was, well, a lecture. I found by trial and error the Regent Library and got some reading done for Word and Sentence Structure. Apparently everyone from that class actually took all the copies of the books out, so there was only one left which is probably gone by now. I read in the library and put the book back on the shelf. How nice of me.
Tuesday was Joy’s birthday, and I had class 11:30- 2:30. After that we went shopping at Primark (we being me, Joy, and Hayley) and despite the constant crowded Walmart-on-Black-Friday frenzy that exists there, I managed to walk away with a new purple dress, black tights, a strapless bra and black boots for just over £30. And the boots, which were about £15, I am going to return. Reluctantly. They are exactly what I’m looking for, but they are very tight with skinny pants, they were already scratched, and they probably aren’t waterproof in the least. I might have to spend a little more to get the quality right. Oh well. So that means dress + tights + bra for £15. Not too shabby.
We went food shopping after because we had invited the frail group of friends we’d made so far to come over for dinner and drinks before we went out to celebrate. Deciding to cook our own chicken-vegetable-noodle stir-fry, we procured the ingredients and the necessary alcohol and by that time it was about 6:30. We had invited people to come over for 7, so I took the world’s quickest shower and was all ready by 7:30. It was overall a fun night, but it was comprised of an awkward group of people to begin with, since Philipp didn’t really know Joy too well and the three Brazilian girls that came did nothing but talk to each other in Portuguese in the corner before they left an hour later. But we introduced beer pong to the UK yay! Except we had forgotten to buy solo cups (if they even exist here) and instead of playing with beer, we played with water and then proceeded to take shots of “neat” vodka instead. Brilliant. Also, we modified it slightly since the table is attached to the counter, so we were playing bowling-alley style instead of facing each other. But it still worked. We had a mini tournament going on when we all started to feel the effects of 5-7 neat vodka shots within 2 hours, and, well, we didn’t make it out that night. But I think Joy still had fun (at least before 11:30) and we introduced BP to a German and a Brit. As Philipp said, “I love getting drunk to beer ping.” Hahaha =)
Needless to say Wednesday I was very reluctant to wake up but classes were all right. I am proud of myself because after Word/Sentence Structure I talked to Matt, my cute (but perhaps gay) lecturer and soon-to-be-PhD in Linguistics, and we discussed grad school and the different fields of linguistics. His field is syntax, and while I think I prefer phonology, syntax may be infinitely more applicable to analyzing the linguistic structure of modernist texts, which is what my hypothetical Rhodes Scholarship application will say. Ah, Oxford…
And today I had class and then hunted for a sandwich, specifically a BLT, and while places usually have a wide section of ready-made sandwiches, everything was slathered with mayonnaise. Gross! So, refusing to be defeated even after nearly getting run over on Baker St, I went into Tesco and bought my own bacon, lettuce, tomato and rolls. Ha! And apart from the bacon being much thicker and different (but I didn’t see any other options) it was wonderful.
I skyped with Dana and Johanna who are in their apartment in Italy! and it was great to see them. And then I skyped with Mom. And then Joy and I went to meet Rachel for the Evensong at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Evensong is a religious service, but it consists predominantly of hymns sung by the men’s choir, and it is one of the most beautiful and calming things I have ever experienced. The combination of being naturally tardy and having a 10-minute-standstill because of Tube maintenance doesn’t make for arriving on time, so at 5:01 we dashed up the steps of St. Paul’s and through the door and into –
it was perhaps the most magnificent, ornate, and breathtaking sight I have seen in my entire life. Words cannot capture it. And sadly, neither can pictures, because no photography was allowed. I literally stopped in my tracks. I was awestruck.
And then the choir started singing. And it was echo-ey and spiritual and otherworldly. The hymns were in English but it sounded like they were speaking Latin because the sound reverberated throughout the entire (huge doesn’t even begin to describe it) room. If you would like to approximate the sensation with pictures, Google search for “st paul’s cathedral ceiling”. But nothing compares to the magnitude of being inside it. I will definitely be going back so that I can look properly at everything without feeling irreverent.
Well, I think we are all caught up for the most part. Ooh! I found a place that served slices of pizza!!! It was on Oxford St and I was walking by really fast so I didn’t look very closely and the pizza didn’t look thin at all but who cares!
Speaking of pizza – I passed by a PizzaHut tonight. It was dimly lit and there were candles on the tables. WTF. McDonalds and KFC also have cool comfy chairs and nice tables. Maybe that’s why they don’t seem to frown upon fast food so much here – it might actually have a certain quality to it! I will let you know come Febrary 10th, when my avowed month of abstaining from American fast food chains is over.
So much for writing in more digestible entries. Je suis desole.
Arfn (Au Revoir for now)
Love, Amanda
Perhaps I’ll start out with my list of things I’ve learned since we last spoke, since that may be the most [only?] interesting part for you:
Vocab:
fit = good looking and/or dateable, as in “He was the fittest boy in the school” or “We passed notes about how fit he was”
bum = butt
fag = cigarette
jumper = cardigan
typex = white out
what’s on = what’s going on, what’s up, as in “What’s on in London tonight?”
fancy = like
neat vodka = straight vodka
mate = buddy
trousers = pants
cheers = thanks
chemist = pharmacy/ist
Now make a sentence using at least three of these vocabulary words: “Can I bum a fag off you mate? Cheers!”
Except for the fact that bum is used in a different context here. Anyway…
Facts:
BAFTA = British version of the Grammy’s
They have something called “brown sauce” that is served along with ketchup, which is something like vinegar-y and soy-sauce-y barbeque sauce? I don’t really know. It’s weird, but apparently you dip chips (fries) in it and/or put it on sausage.
Going to uni (college) does not have a “party” connotation. At all.
Until six-form (optional pre-uni schooling occurring after you are 16 years old) all schools in England, public or private, require uniforms.
Common crisp (chip) flavors in increasing order of weirdness: Ready Salted, Sea Salt and Vinegar, Cheese and Onion, Flame Grilled Steak, Prawn Cocktail, Roasted Glazed Ham
And summary of this week’s events:
Well when I left off a week ago, I went to hang out with Hayley and Joy, and the three of us talked and hung out for about 9 hours straight. We went to buy alcohol, and bargained with the guy so we got a regular bottle of Smirnoff for 15 pounds, which is not that great compared to American prices but he was originally selling it for 20. The biggest bottle that would cost about $20-23 was being sold for 27 Pounds. I really need a pound sign key. Insert symbol perhaps? £ There we go. Who knows if that will show up correctly online.
Anyway, we made some drinks and started talking while the chicken defrosted and before we knew it, it was 11pm! So we had dinner around midnight and kept talking until 4am. It was really fun though and I am so happy I found them, and I am especially happy that they live on my floor!
Friday was a lazy day I think, can’t remember much of what I did. Maybe I went grocery shopping. Probably. And we were supposed to go out with two girls we met through study abroad but they picked the club called CRYSTAL “Where the young and wealthy of London come out to play.” Young? Check. Wealthy. Nope. From London? Eh, half check. £20 cover charge? No way. £12 drinks? I’ll stay in, thanks.
Joy went with them though, and they had fun. But true story- a cheap drink was £12. I don’t even want to think about how much that is in dollars. Around $18 I guess. And that means the cover charge was $30. Oof.
Saturday was our social programme trip to Blenheim Palace and Oxford. Which was amazing. It was nice to get out of London and to drive around outside of it, and we were in the front of the coach (charter bus) so we had a good view. Blenheim Palace is where the Duke of Marlborough lives, and the first Duke of Marlborough was John Churchill, Winston’s great great great (etc.) grandfather. Apparently Johnny C. did something so amazing in a war that Queen Anne gave him that title and a shitload of land and told him he could build a house on it and she would pay for it.
Good thing she never signed any official contract, because over a decade later he finally finished his “house”:
We didn’t get to go inside, unfortunately, but shivered our way around the grounds until we came up to the front gate. While we were walking someone driving a sleek black all-tinted-window Lamborghini (presumably the current Duke) drove past us to leave. He is 84 and just married his third wife in December. I guess that’s how he’s still picking the women up. I mean, that and the fact that he has a palace. Right.
We walked past some sheep, who acquiescingly baa-ed for us.
After that we had coffee/tea/biscuits (cookies) in a small pub housing a portrait of dear Winston called (a bit ironically) The White House. Just up the road was Churchill’s grave but I guess we had one too many cookies because all of a sudden it was time to leave. We went to Oxford for the rest of the day, which was sufficiently amazing. It was founded in 1170 and now has something around 15? maybe? don’t quote me on that one colleges that make up the University and because the combined campuses are so big, and because one college has a cathedral, it is considered a city.
One of the shop-lined streets:
Amazing architecture:
Massive, massive library. At least, one of them:
We had lunch at a pub, where I got my first fish n chips!:
It was surprisingly very cheap – if you ordered two meals it was 7.20 for both so I split it with Joy and it only cost me 3.60. Nice. And it was absolutely delicious! I mean, you can’t usually go wrong with frying food, but I think I could have eaten about 3 more plates. And yes fish n chips always comes with peas.
For the rest of the afternoon we visited Christ Church, one of the colleges at Oxford. It was breathtaking.
We were able to visit the dining hall there, but we had to wait until lunch stopped being served. This dining room is extra-special not just because it’s old, but because Hogwarts’ Great Hall is an exact replica of this dining hall – but while this dining hall only fits 3 long tables, the Great Hall has been modified to fit 4. It was pretty cool to be in a room like that, and, Hogwarts-style, the walls were covered in portraits.
The steps leading up to the dining hall were also used in the Harry Potter movies, so I had to get a picture with them as well.
We went into the Christ Church Cathedral, which was amazingly old and full of stained glass depicting major events in the history of England’s church, although looking back it pales in comparison to St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, which I saw today, but more on that later. Just standing in the quad of Christ Church College was breathtaking. Joy, Rachel and I in the quad:
Man were we tired when we got home, though. It’s tough going on walking tours all day, especially when its cold out, and especially when we got up at 7am. Thus, Sunday I don’t believe I got out of my pajamas.
Monday I had my Renaissance lecture for the first time, which was, well, a lecture. I found by trial and error the Regent Library and got some reading done for Word and Sentence Structure. Apparently everyone from that class actually took all the copies of the books out, so there was only one left which is probably gone by now. I read in the library and put the book back on the shelf. How nice of me.
Tuesday was Joy’s birthday, and I had class 11:30- 2:30. After that we went shopping at Primark (we being me, Joy, and Hayley) and despite the constant crowded Walmart-on-Black-Friday frenzy that exists there, I managed to walk away with a new purple dress, black tights, a strapless bra and black boots for just over £30. And the boots, which were about £15, I am going to return. Reluctantly. They are exactly what I’m looking for, but they are very tight with skinny pants, they were already scratched, and they probably aren’t waterproof in the least. I might have to spend a little more to get the quality right. Oh well. So that means dress + tights + bra for £15. Not too shabby.
We went food shopping after because we had invited the frail group of friends we’d made so far to come over for dinner and drinks before we went out to celebrate. Deciding to cook our own chicken-vegetable-noodle stir-fry, we procured the ingredients and the necessary alcohol and by that time it was about 6:30. We had invited people to come over for 7, so I took the world’s quickest shower and was all ready by 7:30. It was overall a fun night, but it was comprised of an awkward group of people to begin with, since Philipp didn’t really know Joy too well and the three Brazilian girls that came did nothing but talk to each other in Portuguese in the corner before they left an hour later. But we introduced beer pong to the UK yay! Except we had forgotten to buy solo cups (if they even exist here) and instead of playing with beer, we played with water and then proceeded to take shots of “neat” vodka instead. Brilliant. Also, we modified it slightly since the table is attached to the counter, so we were playing bowling-alley style instead of facing each other. But it still worked. We had a mini tournament going on when we all started to feel the effects of 5-7 neat vodka shots within 2 hours, and, well, we didn’t make it out that night. But I think Joy still had fun (at least before 11:30) and we introduced BP to a German and a Brit. As Philipp said, “I love getting drunk to beer ping.” Hahaha =)
Needless to say Wednesday I was very reluctant to wake up but classes were all right. I am proud of myself because after Word/Sentence Structure I talked to Matt, my cute (but perhaps gay) lecturer and soon-to-be-PhD in Linguistics, and we discussed grad school and the different fields of linguistics. His field is syntax, and while I think I prefer phonology, syntax may be infinitely more applicable to analyzing the linguistic structure of modernist texts, which is what my hypothetical Rhodes Scholarship application will say. Ah, Oxford…
And today I had class and then hunted for a sandwich, specifically a BLT, and while places usually have a wide section of ready-made sandwiches, everything was slathered with mayonnaise. Gross! So, refusing to be defeated even after nearly getting run over on Baker St, I went into Tesco and bought my own bacon, lettuce, tomato and rolls. Ha! And apart from the bacon being much thicker and different (but I didn’t see any other options) it was wonderful.
I skyped with Dana and Johanna who are in their apartment in Italy! and it was great to see them. And then I skyped with Mom. And then Joy and I went to meet Rachel for the Evensong at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Evensong is a religious service, but it consists predominantly of hymns sung by the men’s choir, and it is one of the most beautiful and calming things I have ever experienced. The combination of being naturally tardy and having a 10-minute-standstill because of Tube maintenance doesn’t make for arriving on time, so at 5:01 we dashed up the steps of St. Paul’s and through the door and into –
it was perhaps the most magnificent, ornate, and breathtaking sight I have seen in my entire life. Words cannot capture it. And sadly, neither can pictures, because no photography was allowed. I literally stopped in my tracks. I was awestruck.
And then the choir started singing. And it was echo-ey and spiritual and otherworldly. The hymns were in English but it sounded like they were speaking Latin because the sound reverberated throughout the entire (huge doesn’t even begin to describe it) room. If you would like to approximate the sensation with pictures, Google search for “st paul’s cathedral ceiling”. But nothing compares to the magnitude of being inside it. I will definitely be going back so that I can look properly at everything without feeling irreverent.
Well, I think we are all caught up for the most part. Ooh! I found a place that served slices of pizza!!! It was on Oxford St and I was walking by really fast so I didn’t look very closely and the pizza didn’t look thin at all but who cares!
Speaking of pizza – I passed by a PizzaHut tonight. It was dimly lit and there were candles on the tables. WTF. McDonalds and KFC also have cool comfy chairs and nice tables. Maybe that’s why they don’t seem to frown upon fast food so much here – it might actually have a certain quality to it! I will let you know come Febrary 10th, when my avowed month of abstaining from American fast food chains is over.
So much for writing in more digestible entries. Je suis desole.
Arfn (Au Revoir for now)
Love, Amanda
Enjoying your blog Amanda....EXCEPT for the many alcohol references!! Stop spending your "pounds" on such things and save them for buying better boots...ha ha ha! Keep enjoying everything...love you and miss you...xoxo...Mom
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