Oxford, Harrogate, Chinese New Year and York

Blogging Location: In the flat, excited for the rest of the year, hopeful, and supposed to be doing an essay. I'm obviously not, seeing as I have a guitar in my lap.

Before I get into my travels and experiences, I have an announcement: Easter break is all booked and ready for initiation! I spent a grand total of 17 hours with my friend Tatiana booking trains, planes, automobiles and hostels for the spring holiday! We got it all done in 1 weekend and I can happily say it was decently cheap because of how early in advanced we booked things. Yay for budget airlines and accommodations. Future destinations:


.:Oxford:.
So many moons ago, three friends and I ventured southward to Oxford, the university town. It's very tiny: you can walk from one end to the other in 25 minutes. It's also gorgeous. Luckily, one of my best friends, Katie, studied there for a semester last year and was able to give me a complete to-do list! Fab! Thanks Katie! <3
FUN FACT: Buildings in Oxford demonstrate an example of every British architectural period since the arrival of the Saxons, including the iconic, mid-18th century Radcliffe Camera.


So starting at about middle school, I became a Lord of the Rings and JRR Tolkien fanatic. I'm not sure I even dare to explain how geeky I was about Tolkien's work... Okay, I'll humor you: I own the trilogy in several formats: books, regular edition DVDs, extended editions and boxed sets (with collectibles!); I have two life size cardboard standees of Aragorn and Legolas in my bedroom; my shower door has the door of the Mines of Moria engraved on it; in middle school and high school I could speak and teach elvish, both Sindarin and Quenya. I need to stop there and quit embarrassing myself. Anyways, what this has to do with Oxford is that JRR Tolkien was a professor there! The famous Eagle and Child pub (or the Bird and Baby) where Tolkien and CS Lewis hung out is also located in Oxford. Basically going to Oxford excited the little fangirl in me, almost as if I had a ticket to the Shire. Here's the famous pub:


Another thing we got to see in Oxford... where they filmed part of Harry Potter!


.:The Saints Come Marching In:.
Did I mention that I had a nasty cold while in Oxford? Well, that properly tuckered me out so apart from going to Betty's (a famous and bougie Yorkshire teahouse) I slept pretty the rest of the day. Here's a couple pics from Betty's:




In the evening, I originally planned to make like a fetus and head out (rimshot!) to a sports bar to watch the Superbowl, but nautrally it was raining cats and dogs. I'd been talking about staying up and watching it for a couple weeks, but my illness and the weather got the better of me. Quite disappointed, I trudged around in the kitchen and made myself a midnight snack instead (kick off was at around 11:30pm my time). My flat mate James lugged his TV out into the living room and plugged it in (fun fact: you need a TV license in England :P). Half hopeful and half assuming there was some rugby cup match type thing going on, I asked what was going on. Matter-of-factly, stated: "The Superbowl." Yeah, imagine how stoked I was. Didn't even have to leave the flat! Score!
And Reggie Bush was in the game this year, San Diegan & USC alum, what what?! A bunch of us stayed up PRETTY late, but it was a great time in the flat and totally worth it.
Slight disappointment: BBC didn't air the commercials. Which are half of the Superbowl's enjoyment. Fail.
Just to share, I don't know if this was actually aired during the Superbowl, but this is one of my favourite recent commercials:

Forgive my favor towards non-sequitur humour.

.:Valentin-- Chinese New Year:.
For Spring Festival, or Chinese New Years Eve, my friend Grace from China, invited me to celebrate with her and her friends; we made pork dumplings from scratch!




I blatantly didn't celebrate Valentine's Day because the foodstuffs that are associated with that holiday are no where near up to par with that of Chinese New Year and they fell on the same day this year. As a very last minute party, I threw together some red and gold paper lanterns and one of those silly Happy New Year banners to put above the stove to chase that backseat-driver-of-a-kitchen-god away. Just kidding. Foods included fried rice, noodles, prawn toasties, lychee, and kau yuk.



A good time was had by all! I definitely ate too much though.

.:Vikings!:.
The Viking Festival in York!

Seeing as there are only a few months left for me in Europe, I've been trying to pack something in at least every weekend. One weekend trip consisted of a day trip to York for the Jorvik Viking Festival!

To be honest, we spent most of our time eating at the food fair which consisted mostly of international foods, not really anything Scandinavian, but it was delicious anyways. We also got to pop a few cool pics of the beard competition which I was pretty stoked about:

That's one of my favourite pictures. :)

Now, apart from the Viking museum and festival, York is a very historic city, one of the most visited in all of England. Here's a photo of the Yorkminster.

There's also ancient Roman wall from which apparently you can still shoot a Scotsman with a crossbow (random fact supplied by flat mate, please check accuracy and your own sanity before acting upon your newfound trivia). In addition, there are incredibly narrow streets also called The Shambles. Here's a pic!

Andddd... Guy Fawkes was born in York. :D


As always, see the Facebook albums for more photos! :)

That's about all I've got time for now. I promise I'll get to more food blog entries as well as some more culture shock. I'm now going to tease you with a photo from London Fashion Weekend, which I went to... There will be a blog for this coming soon!


Now I'm off to do what I supposedly came to Leeds for... studying!
Cheers for reading!
-Your local village idiot

P.S. Praise the Lord for the recent streak of gorgeous weather! :) Keep it comin'!

Food Networking

Blogging Location: Flat, with too much sugar waiting to be eaten.

Hey folks! I just got back from Oxford a few hours ago. Oxford is great! Looked wonderful, felt safe! Can't say the same for Leeds tonight, but hey, it's Leeds! Walking back to the train station was... interesting. Almost had to do a fencing number with my giant umbrella on a tosser* yelling at random people in the streets. Twat. On a brighter note, the plan is to go to Betty's (famous tea room) for afternoon tea! Anyways, I will save the Oxford trip and Betty's for an upcoming blog... in the meanwhile, I have a new development communication-wise...

So I thought an entry dedicated to food would be enough. It's not. Here, I'm including my blog-- yes, a FULL BLOG-- dedicated to food:

Foods From Around the World

Because it's that important. Thanks for reading. :)

-Raechel

P.S. I swear that there's a fat child living inside of me.

*English insult; in short, without the actual, rather obscene definition, means useless, pathetic individual, incapable of doing anything right (Urbandictionary.com)

As Promised...

Blogging Location: my room, 12:22am




Who would ever think that my dad telling me he spoke to a turtle would bring me to tears.

I was suggested to write about some of my negative experiences abroad so far, because good times without the bad is pretty invalid, in my point of view. So here it is, as promised.

I consider myself a pretty cheery person, thus resulting in a mostly hunky-dory blog. I was reminded the other day that my blog is hardly realistic. It's a lie, really. Okay, maybe a half-lie. With the "fun" and "adventure" come the tough things I'm experiencing. Homesickness is among them. And stress (getting to airports, packing, etc...).

We often describe the way things are by comparing them to things they're not. My last bout of homesickness probably came about because I realised England wasn't-- well, home. Over Christmas and New Years I had stayed with friends and their families, both amazing times that I'll never forget. Staying with them wasn't just like staying in any old accommodation or house. I was staying in a home and that was when I realised that I'd forgotten what being home meant and felt like. What happened next was like having a bucket of ice cold water thrown over you in your warm bed, wrapped in your comforter and duvet: I came back to my flat, in between Germany and Turkey. It was quiet. Post-apocalyptically quiet. You know as well as I do that 'quiet' is the perfect environment for vulnerability cultivate itself into homesickness.

The English setting wasn't particularly kind to my wave of homesickness: outside the ice was malicious, the sky was colourless and the sun was nowhere to be found. Even the moon took a few nights off for good measure. But now that my ill temperament has been set aside, I've given the English climate a chance. The temperature isn't much of a bother anymore. I've become accustomed to walking around in dresses and tights (with a coat), despite the snow-worthy temperatures (it snowed just this Monday, according to my flat mate). I'm also easing into the local style of heels-over-cobblestone, as clumsy as I can be.

I've reasoned that the answer to why my English flat mates don't smile all that often is the drab weather. It's terribly grey. But it's a different kind of grey. There's no rain or fog or anything that resembles separate clouds. It's a static, motionless grey, sort of lifeless at times. For someone that's always known she's blessed to have California sunshine, the contrast here makes me feel like I've taken it for granted all my life. Here, one can go days without seeing the sun, something I can barely cope with. Last week, I definitely felt the lack of sun take its toll on my emotions. I know I'm not a person of overly-sunny-dispositions, but the darkness of day was a lot like a Doc Marten taking a good kick at my soul. If you ever see an episode where Spongebob is dehydrated, you have an idea of how I feel when the sun decides to disappear for ridiculously long periods of time.

Three, and now potentially four, students in my program have decided to take early leaves of their study abroad for various reasons. Whatever their motives, I respect their decisions as they have their own paths to tread. I'm not nearly about to cut my year short, but I determined a few weeks ago that England is not the place to permanently move to for me. I've mentioned the limited types of cuisine and the climate, but it's not simply that. I love England. I do. Its people are incredibly polite; their sarcasm is riveting, the land is green, its history is immense. It's part of and extremely close to Europe. The possibilities of travel are endless. However, I can't help but look back at the eagerness and curiousness of Americans, the cultural and ethnic mixes, the open and carefree attitudes. Neither countries are perfect, this is all too true, but my heart forever beats to the rhythm of the lapping waves, the pulse of the right-side traffic, and the cadence of the pursuit of happiness.

To be honest, I don't generally blog about these things to avoid the unnecessary worry I could be causing others, but nonetheless I appreciate the concern and prayers for my well-being. I can't tell people enough how appreciative I am to have people care about me. Thank you.:)

Germany and Turkey... Food for Thought

Caption: My friend Lena and myself in Singen, near Hohentwiel. Those humble little mountains in the farthest distance are none other than the majestic Alps.

Blogging Location: Flat, exhausted from revising for exams.
NEW: I've included some links within my entry for more information (to keep my entry shorter.)

I have so much to write about. And I'm not just talking about traveling. I want to tell you about- yes, traveling- but I also want to tell you more about living in England, about English culture, about my personal experiences in general and how I'm growing...
About how it feels to let a snowflake fall on your eyelashes.
About seeing the ocean crash against stones, igniting a foamy crest.
How air smells after the rain.
How happy children can be just by feeding pigeons in the park.
How beautiful it is to slip on ice once in a while and laugh out loud at yourself, whether alone or in public.
About missing home so badly your chest hurts as the wind robs you of your very breath.
About laughing so hard you can't stand.



Unfortunately, a lot of that will have to wait a while... It's about 1:30am and I've got lots of ground to cover!

The last time I wrote was just after Boxing Day. Since then, I've been to Rielasingen (Germany), Stein am Rhein (Switzerland), London and Istanbul (Turkey). I've taken 4 flights with 3 different airlines, 3 train rides, 1 coach ride... and 1 exam (yes, finals are AFTER winter break).

Germany
I spent New Years with my friend Lena who kindly and graciously invited me last minute to her and her mother's flat. It was just as fantastic as my Christmas in Liverpool. To be honest, I didn't even know the name of the town I was to be staying in over New Years till I got there, but I was just as excited as going anywhere. In Lena's car, driving from the airport to the flat, Lena was explaining that we were in Rielasingen, a town just on the border of Germany and Switzerland, so with any luck, I would get to visit two countries instead of one! Score! For the rest of the ride, we mostly caught up on things and got to know each other better (I met Lena because she's in my Bible study/cell group and she's also an exchange student at Leeds). It was only during the week that I would learn that Rielasingen, as well as the towns around it, are truly hidden gems among Europe.

Still very small and countryside-like, the area Lena and her mother showed me is absolutely picturesque. The air is clean and crisp thanks to the general lack of pollution and the snow. Smog is foreign. Very few poles or cables run across the skyline. There are pines and birches everywhere. Trash is absent on the streets. Noise pollution is nearly at 0. The Bodensee lake, which the Rhine feeds into, is like glass with swans, ducks and loons drifting across it. Just gorgeous. Not to mention the Alps that are usually within eyesight. Before landing in Germany, I'd hardly been anywhere like it.

I stayed in Germany for about 5 days and within my 5 days I had some pretty amazing food (I wish I had the stamina to keep up a separate blog just about food!) saw the most amazing churches (the Birnau is now my favourite), walked on a frozen lake, had a German New Years and had some great chocolate (again, I may need a separate diary just for the sweets and biscuits I've had). I also had the pleasure of visiting Hohentwiel castle, a large medieval castle situated on top of an extinct/dormant volcano.

Enough of my talk. Time for some photos:


This is raclette. Basically a grill that works top and bottom. You melt cheese, meat and toppings on a little tray, place it under the grill and when it's bubbly and melty and perfect, you either slide the goodness onto bread or a baked potato. Heaven. Oh, and you can grill your veg on top. :) I am now seriously considering an entry solely consisting of the food I've eaten. Maybe in a few weeks if it's so desired by my lovely readers. ;)


Stein am Rhein, Switzerland. Saw this in Lena's travel book of the Bodensee and I absolutely HAD to see this. I asked in a nicer way of course. :) Many of the half-timbered houses are painted this beautifully. If I could, I would have taken photos of every single one. I settled with buying a nice postcard for myself.


The Bodensee. In this photo, you can actually see two countries: Germany on the left and Switzerland on the right. HOW COOL IS THAT?


Walking on a frozen lake next to the Island of Reichenau, which we also explored.

Drumroll please...

My favourite baroque-style church, the Birnau.

I really couldn't thank Lena and her mother enough for driving me around all day and just hanging out all the time. Her mother had a cold as well, but she braved without a complaint the -8*C temperature with us nonetheless, bless her! She even went out of her way to make us German meals, which were delicious! Quite a smorgasbord (not a German word, haha). :) I truly felt at home in theirs; it was a bit bittersweet because it was then that I realised that I had forgotten what home felt like.

Turkey
About a year ago, I most definitely could not have imagined that I would ever, in my life, visit Turkey. Thanks to Making of the Modern World, a six-quarter required course at my college, my pastor from home and some friends, I have. One word for Istanbul: history. Istanbul is known as the second Rome out of three (Rome- duh-, Istanbul and Moscow). So maybe Istanbul is just a name to you right now. You may know that it's home to the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque. But did you know that it was once Constantinople? Byzantium? This city has been through a LOT, to say the least.



I didn't go on my own. I'm not that brave. Or capable. Anyways, I went with my friend Stephanie who is also studying abroad, but in the fabulous Budapeshhhttt! She had been to Istanbul once before, but loved it so much she decided to come back. And just my luck! I had no one to go with, as the interest expressed in going to Istanbul by people in my program were nil.

Now, Istanbul. This sounds shallow, but the first thing I was ecstatic about was the weather. Even before I legally had entered the country, I noticed that I could strut around in a t-shirt and not die of hypothermia. It was cold (for LA) at around low 60s, but that was paradise compared to the frozen-over Leeds (Fun Fact: Leeds has received the most snow this year than it has in 40 years... just for me). Now, I'm going to tell you about VISA PROBLEMS.

Stephanie and I flew from London to Sabiha Gokcen and when we arrived, I needed to purchase a visa. It was only $20. Sure, not a bad bill to foot. I just want in! The only problem was that I had no DOLLARS on me. Well, fine, I have British pounds-- No'kay? Well I'll just use my card-- Oh, you don't take cards? Oh, that's not a problem, I'll just change my money. Ah, I see... the money exchange is *beyond* passport control. And, what's that? Your cash machine is broken today? Well, I'm in a cofuffle. I almost didn't get into the country. Luckily, the geniuses at the airport worked out that one of their guys could change my money and bring it back for me. I know, shady, but I was desperate, tired, and the dude had a uniform on with a badge. All in all, it took about an hour to get all this sorted. Other than an Australian gal, I was the only one that had this problem. And it was quiet and lonely on that side of passport control, but Stephanie was a trooper and waited for me.

After getting past passport control, it was into the real world. We had to work out getting a shuttle to our hostel, but thankfully it went smoothly. We got there starving (easyJet does not feed you, like the rest of the budget airlines), so we hunted down some doner-wraps. AWESOME and dirt cheap, compared to the UK. I think it cost me the equivalent of $3. WOW. That's how much a PACK OF GUM is in London. I fell in love with Istanbul right away.

Next we met up with Stephanie's couple-roommates Chris and Christy. Such nice people. :) Now, I think I'll tell more story in picture form:


Lucky for me, Stephanie hadn't gone into the Hagia Sofia/Hagia Sophia/Ayasofia on her previous visit, so that was our first stop. It's confusing, but the Hagia Sophia was originally an Orthodox basilica converted into a mosque, but now it's a museum. Talk about a chaotic history. It's about 1500 years old. No biggie.

Oh, this is awkward:

That's the Hagia Sophia on the outside. Yes, there's an elephant in the room: so Turkish people love tourists (of both/all genders) and they always want a photo with you, as we discovered multiple times. Just for the record, they don't all have uni-brows. And if you're Asian, you MUST be from Japan. At least on first guess. Although I was impressed when a couple people thought I looked Korean.
Sometimes they will ask you to dinner (didn't happen to me, but the little old man taking tickets at the Hagia Sophia did ask if I would be his "sweetheart.")

The next big (world famous) thing we hit was the Grand Bazaar:

I still can't believe we went shopping in the Grand Bazaar like it was no big deal...
It was a shopper's paradise-- well, at least for me. I love haggling. And knock-offs. And Turkish lanterns/lamps. And taking photos of having my photo taken:

But not as much as I love shopping.


Fish sandwiches = AMAZING. My pastor suggested that I hire a tour of the Bosphorus (the river that feeds from the Black Sea into the Sea of Marmara and ultimately the Mediterranean) where they have you catch a fish, cook it, and put it into a sandwich for you. I get seasick really bad, so I settled for a fish sandwich on land, BUT it was THE BEST FISH SANDWICH I ever had. No joke. So was the baklava that followed. We went to a place called KARAKOY GULLUOGLU BAKLAVA SHOP. Oh my baklava, it was heavenly... I've had a lot of baklava, but man! Nothing tops this shop's baklava. Perfectly sweet, flakey with a bit of pistachio if you so desire.


Tea: Tiny. Turkish. Did I mention that it was free? So people are incredibly nice in Turkey. Good ol' Turkish hospitality. Whenever I say this, everyone tells me, Raechel, you're daft, people just want you to buy their carpets. Well, true in some places, but a lot of the time, even when you've made it clear that you do not want to sit on the balcony and order the special of the day, they will still invite you to have some tea "on the free" or for free, as we've surmised. And they won't heckle you about ordering or buying anything after that. Stephanie was given a restaurant owner's tie after complimenting him on it simply because he wanted her to have it. Need I say more?
This is him in the middle by the way:

This is Moses. He owns Doy Doy. Doy Doy is your friend because the food is delicious. And so is the rice pudding. But only when Moses is there. It's kinda manky when he's not. Don't tell the other employees I said that. But yes, we went to Doy Doy multiple times.

Something else that was awesome in Istanbul... the Basilica Cisterns!

Reminded me a bit of Moria from Lord of the Rings. :-/ Pleasedon'tpunchthenerd.


Raising the bar at the Blue Mosque

At one point, we finally got to the Blue Mosque/Sultan Ahmed Mosque.

There are periods of prayer dictated by the earth's "natural rhythms" when tourists are not allowed inside (we also discovered that "The mosque is closed" is probably the most common chat-up line in Istanbul). During some prayer times, speaker phones at the top of the mosques' minarets will BLAST prayer chants without warning. Not for the faint of heart (literally, if your heart is faint, you may have an attack). These chants move from mosque to mosque.

Next up: the Spice Market!

After getting back from Asia where we visited some mosques and ate more good food (yes, we took a boat to Asia which cost about 1.50 Turkish lira or about $1 and took around 30 minutes of glorious singing of "I'm on a Boat") we hit the famous Spice Bazaar! Lots of spices and teas (including the mysterious "love tea") and plenty of funky herbs and fungii.

So my flight back was with Turkish Airlines NOTABUDGETAIRLINE because it was magically cheaper than easyJet's return flights! About 1/3 cheaper! Miraculous! Definitely a God thing and you'll see why... I left Sabiha Gokcen at 7:50 with luggage a lot heavier than the limit, but they didn't even check the weight! And when I got on the plane, there was yet another miracle: my knees didn't touch the seat in front of me. Lovely. I snoozed off for the first hour and awoke to the stewardess handing out meals. But wait, for free? (Yes, it's been a while since I'd flown on a non-budget airline where everything costs extra.) On top of that, I look up and see Antonio Banderas on the mini movie screen. IN FLIGHT MOVIES. I'd forgotten about that too! That's when I realized that Ryanair and easyJet have truly stripped me of humanity.

You can't talk about flights without mentioning the person you sit next to right? Well, there was no one in that seat and I had a window seat, but the nearest lady was INCREDIBLY nice. She was a Turkish woman living in London with her husband, but anyways, she always made sure I was alright and she explained to me the different Turkish things on the menu! The Turkish minced beef that I had was awesome! I also love Turkish rice! I would have gotten photos, but the airline specifically said no cameras.

Anyways, pre-Istanbul, I was trying to work out how I was going to get back to Leeds. The last train back was at 10:15pm. My flight was supposed to get in at 9:45pm. I didn't buy a train ticket in the case I missed the train, but God-willing, the flight got in at 9:49pm, I dashed to passport control, filled out the form like a pro (I've done it about 20 times at the same airport), whizzed out of the arrivals and bought my train ticket back to Leeds at 10:05 like a maniac. The guy checking my ticket probably thought I was going to eat someone if I didn't get on the train. He kept telling me "It's okay miss! You have TEN MINUTES!" It was okay in the end. I got back to Leeds at 2:40am. Got a cab. The cabbie asked politely where I'd come from and I said Istanbul, as proud as ever. About 10 hours prior I was in Istanbul. Like it's no big deal and surprise! My cab driver is Turkish! He gave me a discount. :D

But no, all of this could not have been a silly coincidence. I was praying in the Sabiha Gokcen that I wouldn't have to spend the night at Stansted Airport. I was praying on the plane that I could catch the last train or a coach. I was praying like nutter running out of the terminal and through Arrivals. It was definitely a work of God that I got through an airport in less than 10 minutes. I can't say I've ever done that before.

So that concludes my traveling up to now! I really hope to have an entry on other things (i.e. food) soon once I'm recovered from exams and writing this blog (it's currently 5:20am). Let me know what you want to hear about!

Cheers for reading,
Your Little Torrancian



For more photos, please see my Facebook albums. Or I can email them to you. But I can pretty much guarantee a post-download hard-drive crash. Or I can personally show them to you if I come home. Just kidding. WHEN I come home.

Everything's Gonna Be U.K. Christmas Special!

Blogging Location: My flat, Leeds, while defrosting my room (only joking, but not really)

First of all, lemme give a well-deserved and very tardy shout out to the Big Man Upstairs. For about half of the semester I was a nervous wreck about traveling over winter break and traveling in general (to be honest, I still sorta am), but despite it all, I maintained my sanity and got through it all with a good amount of prayer and so far, it's all worked out better than I could have imagined. PTL. It was November- no, the beginning of December-- and I still didn't have my plans set: I didn't know where I was going, I didn't know when I was going. None of my plane/train/automobile tickets were booked, and worst of all: nowhere to go for Christmas. All I knew was that I was going to be in Europe and I wasn't going home. Luckily everything fell into place, forming this itinerary:
Dec 14-17: London
Dec 17-22: Madrid
Dec 23-27: Liverpool with my bible study group leader Elaine and her family :)



Once again, please choose and pick what you want to read, don't feel obligated to read it all! If I've done my job, my writing will be somewhat engaging enough for you to enthusiastically plow through all of it without blinking an eye. Let the blogging begin!

London
14th
Sherlock Holmes Premiere. Yeah, glam and glitz, we pulled a Hollywood. The fans were kind of insane especially for one particular lady at the front. She had a ski mask on for some reason and was raging like a parrot trying to get a ship out of a bottle whenever she wanted an autograph. That might be why none of the celebrities really wanted to approach our section. :P Nonetheless, we caught glimpses of Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Guy Ritchie, Gwen Stefani, Ian Somerhalder and some other celebs. Apparently one of the Princes was there, but he arrived late to avoid the attention. Cheeky. Nonetheless, fun being in the freezing weather with two of my pals in busy Leicester Square.



15th
David Bowie´s birthplace in Brixton is the first place I visited on Tuesday morning. Loads of you know how inspiring I find David Bowie-- probably not in the ways he intended to inspire, but the man is a piece of art. Next I hit Brick Lane in East London, thinking that there was a cool museum there. I clearly got my notes mixed up because it was the curry district. Not such a bad mistake after all. I didn´t eat there, but I know where to go now! Next up, I met up with my friend at a Starbucks (Gingerbread latte, if you care to know) in Notting Hill. I know, I'm quite posh, aren't I? Then we hit the famous Portobello Road!
16th
"It´s... supposed... to... snow... tomorrow!... So... excited!..." I wrote the last touches on my postcard to my family, stuck the international stamp on and dropped it into the red postbox. Just as I had walked about 20m from the cyllindrical transport device sponsored by Royal Mail, a white powder started to fall. Having never seen snow falling before, I assumed it was the super-delayed ashy remains of the great Industrial Revolution. Speculating the debris on my mittens, the "ash" was a bit more crystalline than I expected. SNOW!

Camden Market

The only way I could relay my absolute joy is if I tell you to reach down through your aorta, about 500 feet down into your heart, and pull out your inner child. Anyways, my next stop was Madrid to meet up with one of my best friends who has been studying in Cordoba, Spain. To get there, I had to catch a 3am shuttle to the airport to catch an 8am flight. Sleeping is not a priority here.

Madrid, Spain
Spent loads of time in Spain! During my first two days, I wandered about the big city solo, except for when my wonderful Spanish flat mate who lives in Madrid showed me around. My first day, I settled myself down in the hostel (it was delightful and I highly recommend it-- Hostel One Centro) and putzed off to the city! Armed with a map, a water bottle and my camera I ran around paranoid after psyching myself up about pick-pockets (not to spoil the suspense, but I came out of Madrid unpicked). Kiddy Karate never taught us much about pickpockets. I strolled off the various veins and arteries of the center Puerta del Sol and couldn't help but take in the most beautiful buildings, including the palace, Palacio Real! That night I met up with my flat mate Laura who showed me around the various pockets of town and down one of the main streets Gran Via. She also treated me to dinner at a bocadillo (sandwich) restaurant with some of the best little sandwiches ever!


Armed with my local knowledge, a french bread stick and some chorizo slices, and I wandered around the next day. Finding the Reina Sofia museum, I got in with my handy dandy student ID and spent a good 5 hours amongst the Picasso and Dali pieces. I also found a new favourite: Liubov Popova. Cool propaganda-style art. I can tell you that after that stint, I was all museum'd out for the next few weeks.


Real Madrid v. Zaragoza



That evening I met my friend Jessica at the hostel. We were having issues calling each other, so thank goodness we were at the same hostel. We went out after catching up a bit to try to get some tapas for dinner. Success! Mussels and potatoes for dinner! We chatted for quite some time and got back at around late o' clock and met up with Ryan, another pal of mine. To cut to the chase, the next few days were filled with gardens, parks, site-seeing, a Real Madrid game, persimmon-picking, food, more museums and a trip to the Haribo sweet shop! Transportation is always interesting, so this time it proved no different. Jessica and her fam split off for more sight-seeing of Spain, but it was time for Ryan and I to head home to Leeds. We camped out in the airport overnight to catch an early morning flight and the lack of sleep in addition to the insane amount of sugar consumed resulted in mild delirium, to say the least. But it was a good time and we got back to Leeds with everything and most of our sanity.

Liverpool
My friend Elaine was kind enough to invite me to her home (nicknamed the 'Mad House'; watch the film While You Were Sleeping for a good American translation of 'Mad House' and visuals of my experience) and to celebrate Christmas (and Boxing Day) with her family. She was truly a Godsend. Loads of you will be pleased to know that she lives in the Beatles-y part of Liverpool! As her folks drove me to and from the coach station, they would point down roads and say "That's where John lived! Paul lived down there! John met Paul right here!" They even go to the church where Eleanor Rigby is buried!



It's also a bonus that I LOVE the Scouse accent, so I got 5 days packed with it!
Pre-Christmas, Elaine took me to the Cavern Pub on Mathews St. (where the Beatles often played gigs) to see Kappa, a fantastic local cover band. It was a great night out. :)

On Christmas Eve, Elaine and I basically vegged all day and watched Friends, Top Gear (my first episode of Top Gear just happens to be the one where they go to America and try to piss off as many hicks as possible, go figure. But it was hilarious.), and a bit of Barefoot Contessa upon my request. It should be illegal to go through the holidays without watching Ina Garten's cooking show. Her voice is warmer and homier than a pair of socks right out of the dryer. Seriously. If that woman ever gets angry, it may just be the end of the world as we know it.


What part of this picture doesn't say 'Please bake me cookies'?

Nothing gets you more in the Christmas mood than a watching of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (the new one) and that's exactly what came on on Christmas eve. The snow. The lamp post. Father Christmas. The Lion. Perfect.

Christmases in Britain aren't exactly the same as American ones, and that's why I was wishing for an English Christmas this year. For one, Christmas "dinner" (a bit like American Thanksgiving, actually) is served around noon time while "tea" (basically a full dinner) is served at 6-ish. Plus, you don't hear "Santa" as much as you hear "Father Christmas." The English also have crackers! Let me show you:



In addition, they have fantastic desserts! Trifle, Christmas pudding and mincemeat pies (which strangely have no meat in them whatsoever). For those of you that know me, I can eat enough food for about three full-grown cows, but I never went even slightly hungry in the Siddall home!




I was adopted for Christmas :)

Christmas morning, we got up at about 6 to be at the church at half-seven (that's 7:30am for you Americans) for a lesson in campanology (that's bell-ringing). Coming from churches that don't even have bell towers, let alone bells, this was a very new and slightly intimidating experience because even I had a go at it. In Elaine's village (yes, they call their part of Liverpool a village) just about everyone rings bells or has rung a bell, so I was quite a greenie. I rang bells 1 and 2 to Noel and a version of It Came Upon a Midnight Clear that was not the pop version (so no, I had no clue how it was supposed to go). Luckily, the chart they had for us to read had symbols for where the eighth notes went even though it wasn't in note form.

After getting back to the house, a good cup of tea was needed (cold temperatures come with having a white Christmas). The Siddall family was incredibly generous: not only did they let me stay in their home, but they also gave me gifts! I'm set for all my chocolate needs for a long time (unless I eat it all this week, which very well could happen :P). Next up was Christmas dinner, and like I said, it was held at noontime. At about 3:00 was the annual speech by the Queen which grandma was waiting to see. It lasted for about 15 minutes, but for some reason, that 15 minutes made me feel like my English Christmas was legitimized by the little old lady on the telly. We wore paper crowns that day, but that little old lady's was still better. Elaine's sister and sister's boyfriend had come over for the day and brought their Wii fit which covered all entertainment needs for the rest of the day. It was a good time. :)



Boxing Day was almost just like Christmas Day except with the kids; Elaine's niece and nephew came to make the 'Mad House' even madder, but in a fantastic way. They were adorable, so that was a bonus. Basically, the day was spent opening more presents and playing with the toys in them (to be honest, I think the adults had more fun with the toys than the kids did). More Wii Fit was played, working off the damage done by a second Christmas dinner and then at about 9 in the evening, Elaine and I joined some of her friends at a pub to celebrate a birthday. Despite my lack of drink, I had enough moxie to sing Proud Mary with Elaine's friends at the top of my lungs. Gettin' souuullllfullll! Yeah!

Sadly, my English Christmas had to come to an end as all things do, but it was one of the best times I've had since I've been here. I really did feel at home in the Siddall house. I'm now back in Leeds sitting in a fairly lifeless building, but with more than enough stuff to do to keep me busy. The only words I can use to truly describe it are these: post-apocalyptic. Whenever I'm going in or out of the building (the lift is broken so that's 12 flights of stairs to the 6th floor, baby!) I feel like I need my nine iron with me in case I run into a gaggle of zombies.

Hoping my brain doesn't get eaten,
Raechel

P.S. Thanks for the encouraging emails and prayers! I really do appreciate every bit of it!
P.P.S. For more photos of any/all of this stuff, hit up my Facebook!