Emails

Let's talk about my Harper email. I don't think I've read one email in its entirety from my Harper email to date. I get so many emails and 99% of them aren't directed towards me anyway.  I've decided there are several types of emails to expect, and I'll now break these down into several categories.

1) First we have the 'Information in Subject Line, not in Email' email.  This is exactly what it says.  All of the information you need to know about the email is in the subject of the email and when you open it there isn't really anything of substance.  This goes a little something like this:
Subject Line: Today's Recipients for Mail
Body of Email:  Thanks.
OR
Subject Line: Bakkavor today Thursday 12 noon onwards 1.10pm Presentation for Finalists Group Study Room 2 Ground Floor Faccenda - Interested join us!
Body of Email: (empty)

2) Next we have the 'Lost and Found' Emails (this category also includes anything about cars and parking):
Subject: OW03 UUP lights left on
Body of Email: (empty)
OR 
Subject: Lost car keys for a Polo
Body of Email: If anyone sees these around campus, please could you hand them in to Amanda at Faccenda Reception.

3) There are probably several other types of emails, but the last one I want to note is the crazy SU emails that I get (Student Union) about events or other things.  These would be considered more important than some of the others shown above and I usually read most of the way through them.  This would include the following pieces of emails:
Subject: Attention All Read
Body of Email: (if you have seen 'Taken', this will be better appreciated as it is a play on the phone call that Liam Neeson has with the guy who takes his daughter) 
I don't know who you are.
I don't know what you want.(Apart from a shovel)
If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you the SU don't have money.
But what we do have are a very particular set of skills; skills we have acquired over a very long career.
Skills that make us a nightmare for people like you. If you bring our shovel back now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you.
But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will get Becca to bar ban you.
Ok now in all seriousness someone has robbed a shovel from the parked 7840 FORD tractor parked outside in the car park. Can we have it back please or else we will take measures to find out who has taken it. 
OR 
Subject: Wednesday Night Theme Change
Body of Email:   
We the SU have decided to change the theme Wednesday night to a traffic light night which, if you ask me, is a better theme than the one proposed with the current weather conditions.
Lads and Ladies traffic light night is a great way to find out who has hitched up (red) or broken up (green) over Christmas and New Years.
Its very simple yet very effective.
Wear red if you are with someone or you just don't want those guy's or gals all over you.
Amber if you are unsure or just don't care
Green for go, bore on, full steam ahead. (If you are single)
Basically we are providing one big dating service for you all at Harper before the lead up to Valentine's day. You could call us cupid really for the work we are trying to do to set all you up for a very rose-mantic day on the 14th.

Finally, another post

First, let me start by apologizing for not having blogged in two weeks! That's crazy talk, yet it's true.  I thought I was getting fairly good at keeping you guys updated, but then I had an independent study week and my life took an independent week of its own, apparently.  Or two weeks.  I looked back at what my last couple blogs have covered and so much time has gone by.  I'll fill you in on the highlights:
-My older sister's birthday was last Tuesday.  Happy Belated Birthday Tiff! (She doesn't really read my blog, but I need to cover my bases.  I actually did start writing a blog on her birthday but then never finished it...Expect another birthday announcement soon..February is mighty popular with relative's birthdays.)  
-I've been able to skype home a bunch this last week which has been really nice.  I guess this 'week off' of class has left me missing home a little. I skyped Dad a couple times now.  It doesn't usually work that I get to talk to him on my normal weekend skype home because of the hours he works, so we scheduled a time before he left for work and while it was evening time here which worked really well.  We've talked a bunch about trucks (I say the 1500 SLT with the chrome.  I checked out the cherry red and I do like it--Abby, tell Dad).  And I had personal skype time with Tiff, and Mom, a little with Britt, and a LOT with Abby. Abs and I needed to catch up and watch some Ellen together.
-I experienced Pancake Day--a phenomenon that I didn't really know existed until a couple weeks ago, at which point I realized I did in fact know what it was.  Pancake Day is Shrove Tuesday--the Tuesday before lent.  Here in England, they're more likely to call it Pancake Day and they actually do eat pancakes. This I found out when I was handed a pancake when I walked into CU.  Following CU, I had a post on my Facebook wall from a friend back home saying that she wished I could be at her Pancake Party.  All of a sudden this holiday was real and all over in my life. Apparently at home we call it Fat Tuesday--something I had heard but had never really connected. 
-Pancakes make me think of all the things that are yummy with pancakes...like bacon.  Thinking of bacon makes me think of pigs. Thinking of pigs makes me think of the pig unit here on campus that I went to in class two weeks ago.  See the chain here?  We went to the Pig Unit, part of the farm here at Harper, to talk about nutrition of the sows during pregnancy and after farrowing.  I wore clothes that were okay to get a little stinky and/or dirty but I wasn't prepared for the stench that lingered long after our departure from the unit. Our class was first taken into a small room, almost the size of a milkhouse, which housed a ton of boots and coveralls.  The game was to find two boots that matched and fit and to change into the boots and coveralls before entering the unit.  How.Exciting.  I was lucky to find two boots that were the same and I guessed that they might fit--thankfully they did.  We proceeded in to the building where the sows that had recently farrowed were housed along with all their little adorable piglets.  It was hard to keep focused with such cute little animals around.  It made me feel like I hadn't seen animals in so long, and I really haven't in a while.  It made me miss kidding season with the goats, and also my beloved Emmy-pup. (I skype Emmy too, she sits there and whimpers when I talk to her. Mention her name and she perks right up.) Back to the Pig Unit, after we were done and we changed out of our coveralls and boots, the stench remained.  Thank goodness my laundry was the next day and I didn't have any classes right after that one. 
That's the update I have for now.  I'll be sure to post again soon!(P.S. I thought I had posted this Sunday, but it turns out it didn't actually post?..Sadness. Take Two.)

Birthday Shout-Out

First, I would like to apologize for the mass of blog posts today. I've been working on the past couple since last week and I just never got around to posting them.
Secondly, I wanted to make one more post because I wanted to make a special birthday shout-out to my Papa K.  Happy Birthday Papa! I miss you and Grandma Bonnie an awful lot and I hope that your day is going well (and I hope that Grandma forced you to sit down and read this!) I heard about the gathering for your birthday and I wish I could've been there.  Love you guys!

'The Talk'

Alright kids, I feel like there is something that needs to be said, so listen up.
Before I continue blogging my English memories, I would like to clarify something because to be honest I feel a little weird about it.  So let's talk about alcohol.  Disclaimer: I don't tend to drink. Not that haven't, just that I generally don't.  Gasp* A college student who doesn't drink in public at an illegal age? Imagine! I'm not saying I haven't had a nightcap, or some sips of wine around my family, but I don't drink irresponsibly, nor really around big groups of people.
Now, I know the types of people reading this post--grandparents, relatives, friends, home church members--it makes me feel a little weird to approach the subject.  But let's talk about it.  If I'm going to be honest with anyone, why not you?  Now, raise your hand if you ever drank underage or drank too much? (Now put your hand down, yuh look like a crazy person with your hand in the air and no one around).  I bet a lot of people would respond to that question.  Alcohol is a present and real thing in life, but yet it's one of those things that certain people in my life tend to not talk about, and it actually just makes the topic more uncomfortable.  It's one of those taboo topics that I feel really strange about but think we need to have a discussion about, especially as alcohol was mentioned in my most recent post.
The topic of alcohol feels so much more relaxed here in England than it does at home, especially since the drinking age is eighteen.  Here, it really is part of the experience as peers and faculty/adults alike invite you to have a drink with them.  Yes, drinking as part of the social scene here can still be excessive, but it is also normal and perfectly acceptable and respectable to have a glass of wine with dinner, or to have a drink or two while out with some friends.
 Having spoke to some of my Christian friends about alcohol before, it always seems like this off-limit, terrible thing.  I get responses like 'You know I don't do that', as if it's unmentionable. If they ever hear that I drank, it's 'Christina! I thought you don't do that!'   It's very difficult, but also very possible, to resist the temptation of drinking during a part of life like college when it seems to dominate everything, but I also can't help but think that alcohol isn't evil.  Excessive consumption is, alcoholism is--I mean, where's the glory in relying on alcohol for happiness or pleasure? But then I ask, what's wrong with a drink or two when consumed appropriately?
Maybe it's just me who feels weird about it, or maybe this talk wasn't necessary. Either way, 1) yes, I just said all that 2) no, I don't feel weird about drinking here as it is legal and I am responsible and 3) don't be afraid to broach the subject--it's a part of our world and, trust me, the topic feels worse when ignored.
This message has been brought to you by Christina--a concerned relative, friend, and college student.

International Dinner

The other night I attended an International Student Dinner in the upstairs of the dining hall on campus.  First, I would like to mention that the description of appropriate attire for the occasion was 'smart dress' which I'm assuming is almost code for formal/business casual--almost an in between.  I was pretty proud of myself for having packed that black dress, tights, and dressy shoes--worked out pretty well for this evening.
I arrived upstairs in QMH (Queen Mother Hall? The building where it was held..) and there were several students already there.  The coordinator of the event prompted me to grab a drink from the bar while guests were assembling and waiting in this small area.  I was able to mingle with some of the faculty members and other international students that I knew while waiting to go in the dining room.

Table Picture

I was somehow seated at table #1. This is the table at which the Vice Chancellor of the college and the international-director-guy also sat.  No pressure or anything.  It was actually a good time, but I would like to note that at no point in my life until now did I think that I would ever be sitting at a table with these faculty members of this college--nor did I think that they would be pouring me wine or toasting to good health with me. 

Yorkshire Pudding

The dinner was absolutely delicious and the company was great! It was all fancy and we each had what seemed like 49,572,948 pieces of silverware and (I think) four different glasses.  Since it was an international dinner, we had different types of food for each of the three courses.   The appetizer (or more correct term? hors d'oeuvre) was Dim Sum, which was very good.  Following that, we had a traditional English Roast meal which consisted of roast from Harper's own beef, with Yorkshire pudding (which I was told was basically a 'pancake gone wrong' and it was very good!) It looks almost like a muffin, but the inside is sortof hollow-y and it's really good.  There were also vegetables and roasted potatoes.  For dessert, we had Vanilla Creme Brulee and Shortbread, which was followed by Coffee or Tea and after-dinner mints.  Overall, it was a very splendid evening and I'm glad that I decided to go!

Leaving London

Now I've finally made it to the final day of this trip.  The weekend felt like it was a week long instead of just two days. We were in London less than 48 hours! It's unbelievable.
Sunday morning we were up bright and early again, getting breakfast downstairs in the hostel and out by 9ish.  Emilie had a friend studying in London who we were going to meet up with at 11:30ish, so we decided to get a little more sightseeing in before we met up with him.  We headed North towards Camden town, which is where the Camden Market is. 
The Camden Market is like a flea market.  It is open (possibly?) every day of the week. There are a bunch of small shops in Camden town, and on top of that there are tons of vendors and stalls with people selling things. If you look hard enough you can find tremendous deals and you can find nearly anything you want there. It was interesting to look around and it was all over.  You turned a corner and there were another tonn of vendors, then you think you've made it through everything, and you're not. 
After having our fill of vendors and people asking us if we were interested in things we had glanced at for two seconds, we headed to Starbucks for some coffee (in my case, hot chocolate) and then took the underground South to Waterloo station (which was huge) and met Emilie's friend there.  He took us across the river on a beautiful walk to where he has his classes in London--right next to Trafalgar Square.  He showed us where he has his classes and the building was absolutely beautiful inside.  Then we bought some lunch right next to Trafalgar Square, and ate our lunch in the square.  We then proceeded to walk back to Waterloo station and took the underground to the Railway Station in Euston and caught the train back to Telford. We got back to campus at about 5:30 (Here, 5:30 might be expressed as 17:30 or 'half five').  
I wanted to have dinner and sleep, but I decided to go to a CU event instead (Christian Union) in...some town...near here. It happens every other week on Sunday evenings as part of a different group from another college and I decided to give it a go.  (Which is another thing I hear said a lot here, let's 'give-it-a-go!", almost like it's one word) It was a good time.
I also find it fairly important to mention that if you are ever in England and would like Lemonade, you're not going to get what you expect.  I tried to order Lemonade that first night in London and I ended up with 7Up. I was thinking maybe they had just messed up, but that is what is considered their Lemonade here, and I don't think they really have normal American Lemonade. Sadness.)

St. Paul's Cathedral

I'm sorry for having left you in suspense about the one place I actually know some history about, but there are a bunch of pictures I wanted to post and a lot I wanted to say about this place, so I decided to split it up.

Front + Lamp post. Such a majestic Building.

So here are the details on St. Paul's Cathedral.  IT WAS HUGE.  The dome stands over 100 meters tall, which is about a football field.  It was absolutely amazing and I'm glad we stopped and took our time there.

Under the Dome-view to high Altar

This is the location where the Royal Wedding of Charles and Diana took place and also, as we found out, the steps with the bird feeding in Mary Poppins.  We decided that since we hadn't really spent any money all day on attractions we were interested enough to check out St. Paul's, so we decided to pay and go in.  (One thing to note is that we couldn't use cameras in the Cathedral so any pictures of the inside of the building are courtesy of google--and also a lot better quality than I would've taken anyway).
We chose to do a virtual tour, where we got ipods and headphones and went through tracks as you walked around (or followed whatever directions it gave you).  We started at the front doors, headed through the nave, sat under the dome, learned all about the mosaics in the domes, and finally finished the virtual tour of that floor at the high altar.  It was absolutely gorgeous and huge.

The Nave

View of Cathedral Floor from Whispering gallery

We then decided to take the stairs to the 'galleries'--there are three, and they are different parts of the dome you can climb to.  The upper two galleries (The Stone Gallery and the Golden Gallery) were closed for restoration, but we climbed 257 steps (yepp, we climbed that) to the Whispering gallery, 30 meters from the cathedral floor.  (If it had been open, there are 528 steps to the upper most gallery, 85 meters from the Cathedral floor).  The Whispering Gallery was pretty cool! First, the view of the Cathedral floor was scary and amazing, but also, if you sat along the wall and whispered, a person on the completely opposite side of the gallery (about 35m in distance I think) could hear you like you were sitting right next to them. Pretty neat stuff.

Chapel of St. Faith's

 We then proceeded to go back down all those stairs, and even below the Cathedral floor, to the crypt.  Typing 'crypt' now, it sounds a little creepy, and I have to admit that I thought it was going to be creepy, but it was very nice.  If you take a look at the picture from the crypt, this is one portion of the downstairs that is called the Chapel of St. Faith's. Not creepy at all, but then if you look at the floor, the larger concrete stones all have a description engraved in them, like 'Here lies...(insert name here)', that part was a little astounding--yet not so much as some of the dates on the stones.

Side of the building--Dome!

Some of the stones dated back to the 1700's when the current Cathedral was built. There were all kinds of dedication and memorial tributes in the crypt and it took some time to look through.  In one part of the crypt, there was a timeline on the wall with historic events mixed in with the history of the Cathedral.  The cathedral has had to be rebuilt after destruction several times (I think this is the fourth structure).  The original was built around year 600 and the current building was started in the late 1600's and took many many years to complete.  All of it is quite impressive, and it was a really enjoyable experience.

London on Saturday

Let me begin by saying that today I received a lovely care package from home! Treats and French dressing! Yay for being able to eat salad! Thanks Mom! Anyhow, The Story Continues... Saturday morning we woke up (pretty early, I might add) and got ready to head out for the day. It was nice to be able to leave our stuff locked away at the hostel.  We also got a complimentary breakfast each morning at the hostel. We were out of the hostel by 8:30 or 9, ready to discover what we could around London.

Street where the hostel was located

We honestly couldn't have asked for better weather on Saturday, at least in this part of the year.  It didn't rain on us! And it was nice and sunny to be able to get some good pictures.  We headed to Piccadilly circus again on the subway.  This early in the morning there were absolutely no people out and about yet.

National Gallery

We wanted to find Trafalgar Square so we headed in that direction, not planning on bumping into it as soon as we did.
But we found it! It was so pretty. Trafalgar Square is home to the National Gallery building as well as a large open square with statues and fountains and a monument.  We then continued walking,

                                               attempting to find Buckingham Palace.

Trafalgar Square

We walked under a large arch and it seemed like the road stretched out in front of us forever, but it didn't look like it was in the middle of a city.  We came across a large open area covered in gravel that was situated behind a large building (we had no idea what it was...we'll discuss this later) so we turned and crossed the road and headed through St. James's Park towards Buckingham Palace. The park was beautiful even in the gloomy state that winter causes. There were so many birds, some that even looked really strange and had big feet. They also had pelicans (that were absolutely huge).

Pelican! with Kristin and Emilie

 At the far end of the park stood Buckingham Palace.  The flag was flying! (which I believe means the Queen is there).  At this point, more and more people were joining in on the act of Tourism with us and they were crowded around the front gates as well as the whole open area in front of the Palace.

Buckingham Palace

While we were there, we checked the schedule for Changing of the Guards (because so many people have told me to see it and we were there right around the right time).  It usually occurs at 1100am everyday, but it depends on the time of year and such.  Anyhow, we found out that it would occur that day, but back at the mystery building, not the palace. We had time to spare when we got back to that building, which...I'm still not sure what the name of it is, but it's essentially a Calvary Headquarters/Admiralty Buildings--government buildings essentially.  It also houses a museum.

Guard

 There were guards on the opposite side of it, both on foot and on horses (I laughed soo hard when someone tried to stand next to the guard and get their picture taken and he turned and walked away...but that's because he had to pace back and forth every few minutes).  It was here that we saw a bit of a changing of the guards ceremony.  Across the road, there was also a movie filming, which was pretty cool--think it had Tom Cruise in it.

Changing of the Guard

Next, we headed down the road that the calvary building was on.  This road had a lot of government buildings on it.  It was here that we saw Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, and Big Ben.  It was funny because we got to an intersection and here were all these things.  We then crossed the Westminster Bridge while passing the London Eye, and ate lunch at a small restaurant we found.

Big Ben

Next, we decided we wanted to head towards London Bridge, the Bank of England, and St. Paul's Cathedral.  We took the subway to London Bridge, and walked towards where the bank would be. It was quite an adventure trying to find the bank, when in reality it was right across the road from where we started.  We walked way past it and then turned around and walked all the way around the bank once we found it, just trying to find steps (because we thought it was the place in Mary Poppins with the feeding of the birds song...but we later found out it's not.  You should've seen us asking 'natives' where the steps from Mary Poppins were...hahah).  So we never found the steps and had walked a really long way trying to find them.

St. Paul's Cathedral

So we ventured towards St. Paul's Cathedral. (For both our sakes, I'm going to not talk about St. Paul's in this blog post--we actually did the tour and I started typing it, and it's really long. So that will be a whole other post--tomorrow.) But it was amazing!!

Harrods

From St. Paul's, we took the subway to a fancy part of town, home of the huge department store 'Harrods'.  Our motto as we walked through was basically 'looking, no touching or buying'.  Everything in that store is extremely expensive. We saw a big stuffed bear for a kid that was £7,000 (which is ..more than $10,000?). It was a little insane, but pretty awesome to see. So that was a pretty fancy neighborhood.  We saw a woman who had her daughter there trying on clothes, and the nanny was right there as well. Sigh. So we left because we got sick of not being able to even think about buying anything.

Tower Bridge from London Bridge

We headed to dinner.  We decided to get out of that area and head back to Piccadilly Circus where we had seen a restaurant the day before that looked really good.  We got there and they told us the wait for a table would be about 30 minutes, so we waited..didn't seem that long, right? Wrong, 30 minutes turned into an hour. But once we finally got seated and had food in our bellies, it was definitely worth it.
We headed back to the hostel after dinner, it was about 10 or 10:30. Quite a full day, if I may say so myself.  But such a good day! =)

Friday In London

This past weekend, I traveled to London with the other girls studying here from Cornell. We had a blast and walked a tonnn.We left Friday afternoon and took a taxi from school to Telford Central, then the train from Telford to Birmingham New St., then another train to London Euston Station. The trip took about three hours in total, but the train made quite a few stops along the way.  I didn't know much about where we were staying or how we were getting places, but there we were in the middle of a big railway station in London.  Emilie and Kristin had arranged for us to stay in a hostel, so that was our first priority when we got in the city--finding the hostel. Emilie had printed walking directions from the station to there--a two and a half mile walk--so we started walking. First great thing about London: at each of the crosswalks, painted on the street, it tells you which direction to look for traffic.  We only nearly got hit once. No big.

Red Double Decker Bus!

Thankfully we didn't have any big luggage to carry around with us as we each only had our backpacks. It was great to see the city with all the lights and traffic...and the buses! We finally made it to the hostel. The hostel was located in Paddington, which is a residential area in London and the street was very pretty and also relatively quiet.  It was Kristin's birthday on Friday, and it was dinner time when we got there, so after we settled in and got some directions from the main desk about where we might go for a birthday dinner (they were so helpful!), we headed out to the 'underground' (subway station) nearby.  We took the underground to Piccadilly circus, which we found out is basically the Times Square of London.  At night, there are a lot of lights and people and it's a very exciting and bright area.  There are a bunch of shops and places to eat, as well as entertainers on the street.

Piccadilly Circus

We ate dinner at a restaurant right there on the square, literally called 'Grill on the Square' and we had some traditional fish and chips! (My first English meal!) It was absolutely delicious. We attempted to look for some dessert next--ice cream. We couldn't find any ice cream place that was still open that late at night, though there were little shops (shoppes?) located there.  We ending up heading to McDonalds (how American of us) for each of us to get a McFlurry. Their McFlurry is a little different than the kind we have here at home, but it was good ice cream and it was fun to people-watch while there. While at Piccadilly Circus, we checked out M&M world and then took the underground back to Paddington and went on back to the hostel to get some sleep and showers before our busy Saturday.

*Gasp* Cliffhanger! I will report on Saturday next.  Brace yourselves--it was a very busy day!

Triptriptrip

Good Morning, y'all.
It's finally either warming up here or I'm getting used to the cold..I'm assuming both, actually. I haven't had to wear a coat to class the last couple days, even though it's still a little chilly, but class is only a couple minutes away.  That means that I no longer freeze at night and/or have to wear five layers to bed at night. Yay! 

Today is a bright, sunny day and I'm looking forward to maybe taking some pictures. I don't have any classes today, but I'm leaving in about an hour to go to London for the weekend! This is my first big sightseeing/touristy trip! That's all for now, I shall update you soon! Wish me luck!