Thanksgiving in London

Celebrating Thanksgiving in a country in which it has no meaning was hard. On Thanksgiving Day, I had classes all day long just as if it were any other day. It was really unusual for me, as I am used to spending the day eating with family. I ended up going out to see a movie (Four Christmases), as I tried to get my mind off my homesickness. It was the first day that I really just wanted to be at home.

Then, on Saturday, I went to my friend Sarah's flat in the East End for a full Thanksgiving dinner at hers. I volunteered to make my grandparent's cranberry sauce recipe and got all the ingredients to take to her flat because I didn't have a blender to make it beforehand. She had invited Annie, another girl in my halls, and so Annie and I went together. We arrived to find that Sarah's boyfriend had invited more people and there were nine of us altogether! My cranberry sauce turned out excellent (I think so anyway!) and the dinner was really tasty and made me feel like I wasn't missing Thanksgiving totally....though it really was nothing like home :)

Day Trip to Oxford

This last Saturday, Matt and I decided to go on a day trip to Oxford! Most people know Oxford because it is where the infamous University of Oxford is located- the oldest university in the English speaking world!!

We took the "Oxford tube" to get there, which is a coach that runs continuously from London to Oxford. It took about an hour and a half to get there and when we did, my first views of the city were stunning. The buildings were beautiful!




First view after getting off the coach...
So then after getting a bite to eat, we walked around the town and discovered how pedestrian friendly the city is- very walkable! The streets were full of people going shopping and there were popular stores everywhere- most definitely a shopper's paradise. It was pretty crowded and people were performing Christmas music in the streets, even though it is still November!


We explored a few of Oxford's colleges- the university is split up into many colleges that have their own structure and activities. Every member of the university, including faculty, is a part of a college. Think of it like the houses in Harry Potter! :-)







This is the Bodleian Library, which is the second largest library in the United Kingdom following the British Library. It houses over 8 million volumes!! Visitors could not go inside.




Most of the colleges are shut to visitors, which is understandable as there are so many tourists and that could easily disturb the students who are actually studying in the colleges. Well, Christ Church College, one of the most famous, is open to the public- for a fee of course! We toured the college and it was actually quite worth it. We saw where certain scenes from Harry Potter were filmed- such as the Great Hall and many of the corridors I took pictures of!!















A man playing the bagpipes in the street!!! We don't get that at home!







We found Oxford Castle, but were both disappointed with it. There wasn't much to it and we decided just to see it and then leave. I quickly came to the conclusion that Oxford doesn't have very much to see in it and the best part about it is that you can see everything in the city by just exploring it on foot.

One of the coolest areas of Oxford, besides Christ Church College, was the protected market that we found off a side street. There were all sorts of shops and Matt and I both got the most amazing cookie at "Ben's Cookies"!! Earlier in the day, though, we had a bad experience with the market, as the butcher decided to leave a freshly slit open animal hanging in the middle of the small walkway, which was NOT a very pleasant sight.



And then we took the Oxford tube back to the streets of London!!

So all in all, I was happy that I went to Oxford, but just didn't find it to be one of my favorite cities. It was definitely a must-see place to go though! And who knows, maybe my opinion is affected by the fact that I wasn't feeling very well that day!

Weekend Trip to the South of England

This last weekend, Matt and I went to visit his aunt and her boyfriend down in southern England. We took the train down to Exeter and arrived just in time for a late dinner. They took us to an Indian restaurant (those are REALLY popular here) and we had so much food, we had to get the rest of it to go! It was pretty good, though I have had better chicken kormas. Before heading down to the town they live in, we walked over to Exeter Cathedral, which was completed in 1400!! It is one of the oldest cathedrals in England. Then, we saw a pub down an alleyway that was supposedly Sir Frances Drake's local pub.



Then we drove down to Teignmouth, which is farther south than Exeter. It is right by the ocean and was beautiful! The first picture below is the view I had outside my window in the morning- rolling hills of houses. We woke up a bit late, after having finally gotten there past midnight at least. The first thing we did on Saturday was 'crazy golf' aka our mini golf- right by the ocean. It was pretty fun and I nearly got a hole in one on one of the courses. After that, we walked by the water some. The tide was out, so a lot of people were playing out on the sand banks in what appeared to be the middle of the ocean! Later on, the tide came back in and the muddy sand banks were covered and it looked like a bay once again. So then we drove over to Shaldon, the town across the bay and walked around the village- and found what we think might just be the smallest house we've ever seen! All of the houses were so full of character and were so different than anything we have in America. We hiked up to the top of the ledge that overlooks Teignmouth and then down through a creepy tunnel to a red sand beach. And...I touched the Atlantic Ocean for the first time!!! It was really exciting :-)





















On our way back down the hill, it was starting to get dark and so all the lights in Teignmouth were turned on and the entire hillside was lit up! It was a really pretty view next to the ocean.

As we walked back to the car, we happened upon a tearoom, which is a little place that serves tea and biscuits, etc. It was almost 5pm, so we were all getting a little hungry and Matt's aunt and uncle told me we had to try "cream tea", which is English tea with biscuits that you cover in cream and jam. It was soooo good! I loved it and Matt even tried some tea (he still doesn't like it though!)

After going back to get ready for dinner, we went to dinner at this posh pub/restaurant right on the water in Shaldon. The inside of it was really nice and had a wonderful atmosphere. I decided to be a vegetarian for the weekend and ordered a roasted bell pepper with other vegetables inside- it was delicious!

On Sunday, we drove to Dartmoor, a National Park, and home to the moors- which are large, empty fields. We hiked up to a tor, which looked like a giant's foot poking upwards! There were some cows and I heard there were wild "Dartmoor ponies" around, but I didn't see them until we were driving away later on. So, once we hiked up to the tor, Matt and I tried to climb up part of it. After getting up to the top of one of the toes, we attempted climbing to the next highest toe, but the wind was so strong I could barely stand up!! We came down and walked a bit more around part of the moor and I learned that the conditions are so harsh in the moors, people sometimes die by getting lost in the fog and then getting worn down by the extreme winds. Pretty scary! Needless to say, we left the moors as the fog was coming in!









While we were still in the National Park, we went to a small village for Sunday lunch/dinner. I ate some sort of baked vegetable soup thing, which was pretty good. I definitely got my veggies in for the whole week!
We walked around the village before leaving to catch our train in Exeter back to London and happened upon a fairy tale-like house that was HUGE!!
Then, we road first class back to London :-) It paid off too- our train was delayed an hour, which wasn't as been sitting in larger, comfier seats!