Merry Christmas Eve!

I hope you are all having an amazing Christmas Eve! And I hope you don't see this for awhile which would mean you're having a great time with family and friends! Here's my family- taken earlier today in Oxford.

We've been really busy the last few days- ok, I know I've said that before - but we're really keeping busy!!! Just got back from a one night trip up to Coventry so I could show my family where I've been living. On the way up we stopped in Stratford-upon-Avon, and on the way how we stopped in Oxford. Lots of touristy things to see! And the night we were in Coventry we were invited to my host counselor's home for dinner. It was the best food we've had in a long time- it was amazing to have a home cooked meal after so many days of restaurants and take out!!! :-) And the company was just as good as the food. :-) It was great for me to be able to introduce my family to the people I've been telling them about!

At this point you should ask me how we got to Coventry.... and the answer would be: I DROVE!!! :-) We rented a car, and I successfully drove nearly 200 miles up to Coventry and back. No accidents, no driving in the "wrong" lane... and only two very minor missteps (wrong exit on roundabouts most often due to the four of us all counting which one we should go to and, amazingly enough, all of us coming up with a different idea of where to go. Thankfully, I had already been on those two roads, so I was able to just go through the roundabout again and find the right exit... :-) haha. Oh, and I must add, I am the Queen of the Coventry Ring Road. Hahahahahaha. I mastered it. hehe.

Anyway, back to the family... Have a great Christmas, everyone!!!

Unbelievable.

That's the only word I can think of to describe what has been going on!

In no particular order:
1) Is the world ending? What on earth did I do to have my first white Christmas ever WHEN I'M NOT AT HOME???? Last I heard from friends about an hour ago, there were 8 inches on the ground back home, and steady snow still falling. Seriously? Unbelievable.

2) Guess where I've been? The reason this blog hasn't been updated in awhile? I was in Paris. :-) As you know from my last update, my mom arrived safely last week and we'd been seeing the sights in London. Well, my dad and sister arrived last Thursday, and we went straight to Paris.

In the 34 hours that we were in Paris, we saw so much! We took the Eurostar, which takes just over two hours headed through the Chunnel and French countryside. After we checked into our hotel, we headed for the Eiffel Tower. The view from the top was amazing. Little chilly, though. :-)

After the Eiffel Tower, we took the Metro (subway) to see Notre Dame. I hate to say it, but as amazing as that cathedral is, it was so commercialized that I really didn't appreciate it. There were machines throughout the church with lights advertising the commemorative coins you can buy. There were boxes strewn about in one part that looked like they used to contain items the gift shop was selling. Seriously, folks, can't you dispose of those properly rather than just throw them on the ground? It didn't feel like anyone actually treated the church with any respect. Sad.

After Notre Dame we walked to the Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportationate which remembers the 200,000 people deported from France to concentration camps during the second world war. It's right on the River Seine, and was very poignant. We then ate an early dinner at a cafe in the Ile Saint Louis neighborhood, and headed back to Notre Dame. There we caught a cab, and headed to our evening bus/river cruise tour. We got to see all the famous Parisian sights lit up in the really beautiful, crisp evening. The Eiffel Tower, for a few minutes on the hour, lights up with white twinkle lights. It's amazing. The river cruise was great, although it did make me feel quite stupid. One of the tour guides kept saying things in five different languages, and, while I'm certainly no expert, her pronunciation sounded perfect. I can barely manage English sometimes. :-) The perfect end to this crazy day was a crepe with nutella. Mmm. :-)

That was all on Friday... Saturday was even crazier. We started with breakfast, as any sane person should... and I must say, a croissant with nutella is heavenly. :-) Then the mad rush through the museums began. We started at Musee de Orsay, where I found many Monet paintings, which was really exciting (including this one, on the right, of the Japanese bridge at his gardens in Giverny). For those who don't know, I'm seriously addicted to Monet (by the way, I was just chatting with my godmother, we're staying with them near London now, and she's just given me an awesome early Christmas present- glasses cleaning cloths in a Monet pattern. She knows me too well. hehe). Once we finished at Orsay, we headed to the Louvre. It was too big for my taste. So many awesome things, but I was so overwhelmed. And, to make matters totally worse, none of us grabbed a map before we headed inside. We just followed the signs to the Mona Lisa, then, when we realized none of us knew how to find the Venus de Milo statue, we realized that we had no idea where we were. In my very broken, tourist-guide French, I was asking museum employees "ou est Venus de Milo s'il vous plait?" To which we got terrible directions. About 45 minutes of wandering aimlessly later... we found our way out. Without having seen Venus. :-) Oh well. I was happy to head to our next stop: Musee de Orangerie. This is where you can find Monet's water lilies!!! Only something I've dreamed of seeing ever since I saw my first Monet painting years and years ago. They were breathtaking. Absolutely amazing. One of the panels of water lilies is below. There were two huge rooms with four panels each, specially designed for these panels. I didn't want to leave.

After Orangerie, we ate lunch at a cafe near the Louvre, and I headed out on my own afterwards for my FOURTH museum of the day- the Musee de Marmottan, which has the largest collection of Monet's work of any museum in the world. Yes, I was in heaven. Water lilies, Giverny, the Houses of Parliament in London... the list goes on, and on, and on. Every one of them was more spectacular than the previous. I couldn't take photos here, but you can trust me. Amazing.

I met back up with the family later that afternoon, grabbed one last nutella crepe, and we headed to the train station for our trip home. A great start to the family vacation.

We pick up our rental car today... wish me luck remembering to stay on the left side of the road. :-) London on Monday, then Stratford/Coventry/Oxford on Tues/Wed. More later.

Family, Day One!

Today I got up bright and early (6am!!!) so that I could be on a train to London, then ride the tube for what seemed like FOREVER to get to Heathrow Airport in time to welcome my mom to England! I made it to the arrivals area about two minutes before she got through customs- nice timing! It's great to see her, and get to watch her reactions to things like having to look to the right first when crossing a street instead of the left, and seeing cars so different than at home. And telling her the values of all the coins. :-) And, most importantly, not having to think at all about how I word sentences, knowing that she'll understand whatever I say, no matter what phrase, joke, or saying.

I certainly got her trip off on an interesting footing- less than five hours after she landed, I took her to a doctors surgery (office) here so that I could get a prescription for something to kick this cold that I've had lingering for nearly three weeks now. It wasn't really miserable until today, but the last few days I think I've been annoying all my friends with my coughing spells. Thankfully, the very helpful doctors surgery got me an appointment only two hours after I called- and they've given me a prescription for amoxicillian, which I hope does the trick. I swear, if I spend one more night (or day) coughing, I'll go insane! Hahaha.

It's been a long day, and I'm in serious need of sleep. Night, everyone!
(less than a week until I'm in Paris!!!)

Christmas Mood

I've been in a serious Christmas mood lately. I can't get enough Christmas music, and I love walking through the city centre and seeing all the Christmas lights. At Chatsworth House last weekend I saw beautiful Christmas trees and decorations. And to finish off my weekend, yesterday I went to "Carols for Christmas" at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford upon Avon. This was a carol service jointly put on by the Rotary district that I'm in (District 1060) and the local Inner Wheel District. I was so excited to get a chance to attend a carol service, mainly because a church I used to attend back home used to sing Christmas carols every Sunday of Advent- and I was really missing that!


If you don't know, Holy Trinity Church in Stratford is where you'll find William Shakespeare's grave. It's a beautiful church, dating back to 1210. There were several readings and several carols, and I was excited to see several familiar songs. But I also saw some I'd never heard of before: "Once in Royal David's City", and "In the bleak midwinter." The familiar songs were "O little town of Bethlehem," "It came upon a midnight clear," "O come, all ye faithful," and "Hark! the herald angels sing."

Now, just because they are familiar to me doesn't mean that everything was entirely familiar! The tune to all but one of those songs was different than I'd ever heard! What a cultural experience. I'm not a good singer- I'll be the first to admit, but when it comes to Christmas carols I'm not terribly shy. I started singing, and, well, no one else was saying the words in the same way I was (and no, I don't mean accents!). Hahaha. It was a great experience, but I'll admit that once I got home, I did listen to a few of the songs again, with the tune that I'm familiar with. :-)

Visiting Mr. Darcy's House

Today I took my last trip with the International Students office of this calendar year- to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. For those who don't know, Chatsworth House serves as the home to Mr. Darcy in the 2005 film "Pride and Prejudice." I'll happily admit that's the sole reason why I went to see it. :-)



The house was all decorated for Christmas- trees, lights, ornaments- everywhere! I still think if I could have gotten one of those trees out of the house without them seeing, they'd never know it was gone. I should have counted how many trees- it was at least over 30. And they were all so beautiful! You can find many more photos on my photo page... here...


Next week I'll be visiting the Birmingham Christmas Market, which apparently is the largest authentic German Christmas Market outside Germany or Austria. You can read about it here. I'm so excited!

Time for Gloves!

We've had quite the cold streak lately, and for me to admit that is saying something. Normally I welcome the biting chill of winter... but I'm pretty sure I'm still in recovery mode from my cold last week... and some taste of tropical weather would be really nice. :-)

Wait, you mean I didn't move to the British Virgin Islands? 'Cause I thought that's what I signed up for heading to Great Britain... hahaha... Just kidding, just kidding.

I broke down today and bought gloves to go with the scarf that I refuse to take off. I've been wearing a new coat the last few days- a North Face that I've been wanting to buy for years- and finally did earlier this week. It's great. Totally not suitable for daily walk around town weather during an English winter- it's built for wearing as an outer layer when running (which I'll start back up again once any evidence of me having a cold is gone). But I love it, so I'm wearing it and shivering all around town. Apparently common sense is not my forte.

Only six days until my first essay is due, and I'm only about half done. I really need to concentrate on it. But between now and the deadline, I'm off to see Chatsworth House on Saturday (an all day trip)... This is the house you may recognize from Pride and Prejudice- Mr. Darcy's Pemberly- which, ashamedly, is why I signed up for the trip. I'll post pics once I'm back! And on Sunday I'm off to sing Christmas carols in Stratford. And I also hope to fit in a trip to the Birmingham Christmas Market, too. Then mom comes! She flies in on Friday of next week!

Time is going so fast. I have a calendar on my wall that I've been marking off. I'm not counting down the days till I come home- yes, I miss my family and friends (and the water!)... but... I'm marking the days to remind myself to make the most of the precious time I've been given here- to experience as much as I can. Can you believe it, I've been here nearly three whole months already? Amazing.

***My photo webpage has been updated... to include the Thanksgiving photo I promised, among many others! Click here...

Busy Week...

Well, I've survived a very, very busy week! Two Thanksgivings... a trip to Gerrards Cross (London), helping with a dinner for 40+ people, two Rotary presentations (and another tomorrow!), all while attempting to recover from a cold. Phew. I'm exhausted even thinking about it!

I still don't have Thanksgiving photos- I know, I'm a failure. :-) But I do have a photo to provide you with a "Where's Waldo" esque experience. Can you find me? :-) That was at our All Student meeting of the Student Union last week. Give up? Spoiler Alert! I'm on the far right side of the photo, in a grey sweater and glasses. :-) That was a fun meeting- especially for this political nerd. A meeting is only exciting if there are procedural motions and amendments. Therefore, this meeting was exciting. :-)

Off soon to a meeting with one of my professors to discuss an essay I'm working on- developing a proposal for a peace education programme. I'm having trouble focusing on it... I'm so excited about the potentials that I've become scatterbrained. Oh well. I'll get there!

Hope you all are doing well. More photos soon, I promise! Including photos from last night's "Meet the Scholars" evening, where four of the five Ambassadorial Scholars from studying in this district came together to share a bit of our cultures. I shared lots of food- deviled eggs, apple pie(s), pumpkin pie, and chocolate chip cookies. I also gave a talk entitled "Service Above Self in American Government," where I talked about a lot of experiences I've had- including peace gaming, lobbying in DC, and school levy campaigning that I've done. I got lots of questions afterwards, and that almost always means people were listening to the speech- and were curious for more. So I'll take it as a compliment! :-)

UPDATE: Here's some photos of the last few weeks...

The Christmas Light Switch-on in Coventry
reminded me of just how much history this city has... 1345? Wow. The food in the styrofoam? My Thanksgiving dinner- a crepe with nutella! Yum! That was at the Warwick Victorian Evening. Also at the Victorian evening was the Leamington Spa Regency Rotary Club stall- where they sold hot dogs! 200 hot dogs, to be precise. Lots of money for charity!

The "Castle" photo is a street sign in Warwick- and part of the castle in the background!

A ferris wheel at the Victorian evening!













And last, but certainly not least, a photo from last night's "Meet the Scholars" Rotary event.