tis the season

This is a huge snowman by Homerton.
I love Christmas time.

They have built an ice skating rink in the middle of Parker's Piece, and so every time I'm cycling to rowing practice (which has been a lot the past few days), I get to enjoy snippets of Christmas music and the smell of roasting chestnuts.

My toe is doing a lot better, I'm sure you are all glad to hear.

This is good, because we have a rowing race on Thursday (2.7 k) and so training has been rather busy and intense.

We're trying to fit in as many outings as possible before the race, so we've been on the river a lot. Today we had an afternoon outing, and the river was so empty - it was wonderful, and warmish, and there were swans and houseboats to look at as we went whizzing (well, maybe more like gliding) by, and we only ran into one thing this time! I consider that a successful run.

My schedule is pretty full right now - travel preparations, end of term work, training, AND fun stuff - Stephen Hawking speaks tomorrow at the Union, the Union's Christmas party is Thursday and the Casino Night is Friday (free to members and lots of delicious snacks = wonderful), PLUS we have a rowing breakfast Thursday morning and a rowing dinner Friday night.

And at 2:40 AM Saturday morning, my world travels begin.

Life is exciting!

i'm so legit . . .

My sweet badminton "stash" isn't coming home to the US this break, so I thought I'd show it off here.

Last weekend in Cambridge. One week from today I'll be in BELGIUM!

Can't wait. School is hard, man.

thanksgiving in the land we left . . .

Thanksgiving is completely ignored by the English.
They don't really understand the beauty of the holiday.
I told them the wonders of THE Thanksgiving meal, and the Indians and the Pilgrims, and they asked me if I get presents because of Thanksgiving.


Presents?!


Who needs presents when you have turkey, and stuffing, and mashed potatoes, and diet coke, and biscuits . . .

Oh America, I miss thee.

The university lunch (cost: 5 pounds = 10 dollars) was DELICIOUS. Me and John sat with a cute Mormon couple who were studying international law at Cambridge. They were very interesting, and we had a nice meal ... although the pumpkin pie tasted like they forgot the pumpkin. Other than that though, not so bad. They served chocolate mint candies with the tea after lunch. Yum.

Tonight we have another Thanksgiving meal, but here at Homerton - which is good news, considering I jammed my toe yesterday at rowing practice, and it's all swollen and black and blue, and now I walk with a limp and look really, really, really silly. So, its a good thing that I don't have to walk too far now for the rest of the day.

Don't worry Mom, I can move it, so I know it's not broken. And I taped it to another toe, for moral support.

Although it hurts like the Dickens. And dead chickens.

Seriously.

I thought I'd take a picture to show you all, but the photo doesn't give the toe's disgusting look justice. In the photo, it doesn't look half as painful as it really is in real life, and I don't want you to think I'm overreacting. The lighting must be off in my room. So you'll just have to imagine it.

Anyway. Thanksgiving away from home: it could be worse (no Turkey, no tea, no diet coke) but it could definitely be better (have you BEEN to St. Louis? It's wonderful).

However, I'm consoling myself with a Christmas music marathon and tea and a huge box of cookies ... but not too many cookies, because I have another Thanksgiving to eat tonight.

foggy london town

My mom's last weekend across the sea was last weekend - we went back to London and took touristy photos at all the required places. Great, great, great time, although I think the famous wax museum is overrated. And overpriced. I wonder if the celebrities get a cut of the profit made from their likenesses . . . ?

We didn't have any more adventures this time involving (living) royalty, although I got pretty close to some of the wax figurines of the Royal Family. BUT we did meet up with Leah (who has spent the whole semester trekking around the continent with a woman's studies group) and Lorenzo (whose spending a year in Paris) for tea in London. The world really is much smaller than you think. We had fun catching up.

Rail pass arrived today. We leave in less than two weeks. Woah. Lots of planning still to do.

Emma sprints was canceled due to wind. The next race is next week - they hope to enter two boats, so lets hope the weather agrees and we get enough time on the water. We did 2k on ergs today - it was good, but exhausting.

And of course, it's Thanksgiving week. Clearly, it's not a holiday here, but the university throws us Americans a meal anyway. I'm sad I won't be going home. First Thanksgiving away - I feel so grown up. We had a "Happy Thanksgiving" banner up, but one of the cleaners disposed of it because it was a "fire hazard". She lies - I think she was just bitter we have a holiday celebrating when we left their country.

love from across the sea . . .

Rowing training has picked up - my abs were so sore today, that laughing was painful!

Our first real race is Sunday - Emma Sprints. Unfortunately, Homerton is only entering one novice boat - the rest of us just haven't had enough time on the water where it would be safe to race. I'm rather disappointed - it's supposed to be a great race. I hope W2 can catch up on outings - there are only 3 weeks left in the term, and I still haven't decided if I want to keep with it for the year, but I remember that being in a real boat is more fun than exercises on ergs . . . hm.

But - the silver lining - my mom is still on this side of the world, and we'll be meeting up in London this weekend, and hopefully seeing Leah (a great friend from high school)! So I'll be back on the tourist track = excitement.

John and I are finalizing our travel plans. We're looking at (in 13 days) seeing Brussels, Brugges, Amsterdam, Berlin, Bremen, and Munich. Hopefully the trains are fast and on time!

Even better news - I come home a month from today for two weeks! I'm ready to be spending the American dollar again, let me promise you.

London!

London is amazing.
Expensive, but amazing.

My mom and I left early Saturday morning, caught a train, and arrived in London by 9:45 AM. I came back tonight (Sunday evening) and she went on to Paris (to return to England Friday).

We saw the London Tower - a medieval fortress turned prison that was used up until WWII. It housed a lot of people who pissed off the royalty, including Anne Boleyn, up until they chopped off her head in the yard. It put a whole new face on the sonnets of Edmund Spenser (who apparently was in love with her). Poor girl.

We concluded the day with a classic pub meal - fish, chips and beer and turned in early to our swanky hotel. It gets dark so early now, we didn't want to wander around too much in the dark.


(Jeannie quote: It's the wrong color!)

I have the most amazing story about today (Sunday). So it's Armistice Day, and there were some memorials around the city that interrupted the bus tour we were on. With the traffic jams, we changed our plans and decided to jump off the buss, walk to Buckingham Palace, and then see Big Bend up close. The plan, however, didn't take into account the fact that people were EVERYWHERE and as a result, we couldn't move along very fast. Long story short - we joined the crowd and SAW THE ROYAL MOTORCADE. Seriously - 

I SAW THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND!

And Camilla. I imagine some more were in those cars, but those were the only two that were sitting on my side of the street that I could see clearly.


(Me at Buckingham Palace - the Australian Gate)


(I promise you - THE QUEEN is in that car!!!)

After that, it didn't really matter what we did - you just cannot top seeing the embodiment of the country in the flesh, you know?

Crazy, crazy adventures.

goodnewsgoodnews

My mom came in today!

We're going to London this weekend, and then she's going to Paris - by her lonesome! Isn't she modern? And neat. Have you met my mom? She's super, and I'm not just saying that because she brought me a suitcase full of American comforts (hello Milano cookies and clean sweatshirts!).

I have a rowing outing tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to the water part, dreading the bridge to bridge warm-up run.

Millions of people run for fun every day - I just don't understand it. Must be the flat feet, right? (My favorite excuse . . . ).

And if you know how a rail pass works, please email me. I'm so confused.


Unrelated Photo: W2 Queen's Ergs (Thanks Anna for the photo!)


our heat results. (I'm at Homerton, in case you forgot)

procrastination . . .

Did I tell you that I made one of the rowing crews?

I think only a couple of girls didn't make the list, but all of the Americans who stuck with it this far are in.

I guess I'm slightly more athletic than I expected!

Except we have to go running soon (um. . . in 53 minutes, to be exact). I hate running.

Boo.

strange English ways . . .

Sometimes the things that happen here make no sense. For instance ...

I'm standing in the cafeteria line, which is having a special deal where you can get one of the main courses, chips (fries), a dessert AND beans (beans?) for 3.50 pounds. Delish you say? Agreed! Yum! BUT . . . I don't like beans. Plus, the English have a tendency to put everything on top of one another. And, shockingly, if I don't like beans, I am near-confident that I won't like cheese pizza covered in beans. So:

Me: Can I still have the deal if you don't give me the beans?
Cafeteria lady: Uh (converses with cafeteria worker) . . . No.
Me: I don't want to substitute anything, I"ll pay the same, just don't give me the beans.
Cafeteria lady: Then you can't have the deal.
Me: So I have to have the beans?
Cafeteria lady: Yes.
Me: Even if I know I won't eat them, and will just throw them away?
Cafeteria lady: Yes.
Me: Fine
(she puts a scoop of baked beans on the plate)
Me: That's enough . . .
(she puts another scoop on the plate)
Cafeteria lady: Here. Can I help you? (next person)

Did that make sense to anyone in the line? No. Their economics are a bit off, I believe.

Also - today was Guy Fawkes Day! Bonfire Night! This doesn't really make sense either - why  celebrate an attempt to blow up Parliament with a night full of fire hazards? Homerton hosted a bonfire and fireworks, and the Dean even passed out sparklers. Then I hopped on my bike, and rode down to Mid-Summer Common with the badminton girls to watch a MASSIVE show of fireworks at the Guy Fawkes Fair. Super fun, even if it isn't too logical.

Here's proof I've made friends (and proof we can't pose for photos). From the left: Emma, Me, John, Kayleigh, Anna, Zoey, Heather and Bex. We're facing the bonfire.


Much love from across the sea!

Visit!

Janeane came in on Friday, and naturally, it was a wonderful weekend.

I didn't do any work - (surely I'll catch up, when best friends aren't around) but I showed her around the city, we checked out a few of the university's museums, watched The Hours (to conclude my V. Woolf kick), ate junk food, and caught a show of James and the Giant Peach (and we can reinact if for you, later, if you like - we've memorized all the catch phrases). We also made some serious progress on our trip planning - thank goodness!

Truely - a refreshing three days.

some excitment!

This week has given me some great stories.

Did you know . . . Daylights Savings happens a week earlier here in the UK than in the US? I woke up pretty late on Sunday, flipping out a bit because I had a paper that I needed to be working on, only to realize that it was an hour earlier than usual! What a great surprise.

Of course, this means that it gets darker earlier, which means that land training for rowing (read: running laps and core work = no fun) is in the dark. Boo.

Speaking of rowing - I had my first outing in an eights boat on Tuesday! And rowing in a real boat is much better than rowing on an erg. It was fantastic fun. Of course, it was everyone's first time, so the boat was quite shaky, but the cox (who tells you what to do) said that we improved a lot over the outing (yay!). Apart from it being early, very early, in the morning (we had to be there at 6:55 AM) and then having to race to my first lecture at 9 AM (smelling like the Cam), it was really fantastic.

Queen's Ergs, a huge indoor race on ergs (which are indoor rowing machines) was Tuesday evening. While I didn't make the original cut for the two crews competing, on Tuesday morning one of the captains told me that one of the rowers was sick, and that I was the next best time. What?! I know. Crazy, truly, because I thought I was pretty slow, but I ended up competing, and it was so much fun (although I was pretty nervous!).

The race is set up in a big gym, with 15 ergs set up, with a crew (of 8 girls) at each erg. Each person completes a 500 meter sprint, and then you have 20 seconds to switch over to the next rower from your crew. All of the ergs are hooked up to a main computer, and each crew is represented by a tiny boat on this large screen, which shows your progress and speed in comparison to all of the other college's boat clubs. There's a DJ, everyone is cheering, and your captains are on either side of you, screaming at you - its an amazing atmosphere. I rowed 2nd, and John, (who was watching with Anna, who competed in the first crew, and Lea), swore to me that I wasn't the slowest rower on the team (which is what I had feared). It was fantastic. In the heat, our crew finished in 2nd place and missed first place by 2 seconds! Overall, we landed in 5th place, which I think is pretty wonderful (out of 31, assuming all colleges were represented). Homerton's first women's crew also finished second in their heat, but 13th overall - missing the finals by 3 spots. I also got a sweet shirt. Here are some photos:

We had just started the race - can you see how nervous I look?



That's me racing! I'm so fast the camera couldn't catch me (ha, not really . . . ).

LAST story (and then I need to go get ready for my supervision):

This is what my brain looks like:



I signed up for a research study on the brain. I spent a little less than two hours at a lab, where they taught me how this program works on a computer where I would hit a button depending on what combination of blocks and colors came on the screen. Then, they put me into an MRI machine, and for 40 minutes, I did the test and they scanned my brain. I was struck with claustrophobia the first time they put me into the machine - its a tiny hole! - but the tech told me that I might feel better if I remembered I wasn't closed in by wiggling my feet, which worked! So after that, I was fine, although it was hard to concentrate that long with all the noise that was going around me (MRIs are LOUD - I had to wear ear plugs and head phones). But I left with this sweet picture of my brain, and was paid 22.50 pounds (=$45 dollars). Not bad, I say.