Pancake Day

Today is Pancake Day in the UK! Apparently Pancake Day was started when the Brits tried to find a plain food to eat during Lent, and what's plainer than pancakes!!

So we had pancakes (which here are crepes, no fluffy buttermilk pancakes here) for dinner, which were delicious. Some girls decided to host, claiming they'd make the pancakes if people brought drinks and toppings. Soooo yummy.

Anyway, Happy Pancake Day!!

Oscars

Just a quick post on the Oscars before I start homework.

Sooo...being in the UK definitely has its downside. Downside #1: We're 5 hours ahead of Eastern Time. Which means big live events, like the Super Bowl, are broadcast at the same time as they are in the states, just much much later. Downside #2: The Oscars, for the first time in awhile, was not being broadcast in the UK.

What?! Yeah. Even though I had doubts about starting watching the Oscars at 1 am, I still wanted to! And yet they're not shown online (which would be mute, since I don't have a TV license for my computer and thus would be watching illegally), so I had no choice. This year I would be missing the Oscars. Except...

EPIPHANY! Communication with the parentals has primarily been via Skype, either voice or video chatting. And occasionally calling the house to tell them to get on the computer. But Dad finally had his webcam and microphone working, and has one of the best computer setups. The monitor is hooked up to a cable box so he can watch football/golf/whatever and do computery stuff at the same time (you're not fooling anyone!). So, feasibly, we could turn the monitor into a TV and watch the Oscars on there. Sooo...if you turn the webcam around to face the computer, and place the mic by the speakers...we have live red carpet Oscar broadcast in the UK!

It took quite a bit of testing, of focusing the webcam and getting it angled just the right way to get as much of the monitor without warping the image. I think it worked out pretty well! Slight lag (I found out I was about 5 seconds behind my friend watching on TV in NC), quality not great, sound sometimes faded, but it worked! It was comparable to watching a YouTube video of a movie illegally pirated in a movie theater. But I got to watch the Oscars, so I was happy.

Just imagine this: An empty office with closed blinds and lights off (so there was no glare on the screen). A webcam perched on something and angled toward the computer screen, which has the red carpet and Oscar broadcasts on. Volume turned up. No one in the office. Parents upstairs watching the Oscars from the comfort of the couch and taking advantage of the big TV. You may say weird or creepy, I say genius!

Quick thoughts:

 - Hugh Jackman is amazing and did a great hosting job. I loved the song-and-dance numbers.

 - Sometimes I wasn't a fan of the new presenting style. Felt like Film School 101 for Middle America. And I missed the video montages, which are always nice since I usually haven't seen all of the movies and performances.

 - Heath Ledger's win was one of the best parts of the broadcast. His family did a great job accepting the award.

 - Still not sure how I feel about the 5 actors presenting the nominees. It was nice and all, but seemed to take up a lot of time.

 - Having one or two people presenting multiple awards helped cut down on time. Yay! Rumors have it though that many turned down the honor, which is what it was supposed to be. Now it's just a ploy by the show to attract viewers. Which is why the show didn't announce a list of the presenters...because there weren't many big name ones. Acting categories excluded.

Unfortunately I had to stop watching at 3:20 am (umm...right after the documentaries section, around 10:20 pm Eastern) because I had class at 9 am the next morning and needed some sleep...especially since some idiot burned their toast Saturday morning and the fire alarm woke me up at 5:30 am after only 4 hours of sleep, and then I couldn't go back to sleep before we left for Stratford-upon-Avon at 8 am.

Digression: Fire alarms. They are alarmingly (hah) sensitive in York House, where I live on campus. They go off from cooking, showers, smoking inside...even supposedly a hair dryer can set these things off. Worst day was where it went off at 2:30 am, and we had to wait outside in the cold for 30 minutes. Another day we had 3 throughout the day. They're incredibly inconvenient. Most students know they're false alarms and stay in their rooms regardless that the alarm is going off. No other dorm seems to suffer from our unfortunate situation of so many fire alarms. I have a friend in a neighboring dorm. I'd be talking to her, the alarm will go off, and she'd be like, "Fire alarm again?! That sucks." And yes, yes it does.

Anyway, digression over. I had a great time watching what parts of the Oscars I did get to see (and I was on that video feed for 5 hrs, first just talking to Mom and Dad and then watching the red carpet and the show). Thanks Dad for setting that up! It made my night. :)

Cadbury World + Valentine's Day = Best. Day. Ever.

So I know I'm going out of order, but in honor (honour) of the recent holiday, I'll do the Cadbury World post first.

Once upon a time, for Valentine's Day, 8 girls decided to soothe their single hearts and go to Cadbury World and eat lots of chocolate. Actually, that's a lie. We just used it as an excuse to eat chocolate. And go on a trip.

The train ride to Birmingham (where Cadbury World is) used to be a straight shot from Brighton. Unfortunately, within the past year, the trains have decided to discontinue this particular route so we were forced to take 4 different trains to Birmingham. Time-wise, that equals about 5 hours. Yeah, not a short trip, but good for catching up on reading. We depart Friday.

Due to miscommunication and a series of train delays, we were separated into two groups--five and three. I was in the three-person group, and we arrived later than the five-person one. So we arrived in Birmingham around...10:30 pm Friday night. Arrived at the hostel, got checked in and settled down for a nightcap. We were all pretty exhausted, so no need to stay up late.

Awesomely cute and cheap hostel!

The bright colors were awesome. This place was decorated like IKEA!

Next day, Valentine's Day. V-Day, as it were. We left early for our 10:30 am entrance to Cadbury World!! For those not in the know, it's a chocolate factory (for Britain's premiere chocolate, Cadbury chocolate) that has rooms to walk through, parts of the factory to explore, history on Cadbury, a ride and various interactive rooms. AKA a lot of fun.

We have arrived! All of us, minus Rachael who's taking the picture. From the left: me, Sam, Kendall, Nicole (the other USC student who's here for the year), Reva, Kristin and Deepa. Quick story: I met up with Nicole on Wednesday and she showed me around. I shared our V-Day plans and she got excited, so I invited her. Apparently she doesn't know many American students here, so we've quickly added her to our group!

We're already enjoying our free chocolate! Kendall especially loved her Curly Wurlies.

Kendall's first Curly Wurly is gone. But it is not to be her last!

The beginning of the ride!! We felt like little kids, hyped up on sugar and going on a ride!

1 mile until the Magic Tunnel! Odd note: Brits, while on the metric system, use miles and yards for distance, such as on road signs. So, you'll see a sign for something 200 yards, or while driving it's 30 mph, etc. Not quite so different as us! Too bad they drive on the wrong side of the road.

Magic Tunnel!! It got way crazy black-lit! Twas awesome and over way too soon.

Now these are shoes that I would be down with. Let's get some shoes! Those legs in the left corner...those belong to the woman who was decorating them by hand in front of us! She looked like she would have a nasty cramp in her hand by the time she was done. Ouch!

Too true.

My name written in chocolate!!

Kristin, Kendall, Sam, Nicole and Sara...all written in pure Cadbury Milk Chocolate. Too bad you weren't allowed to eat it!

Kristin buys 1 kilo of chocolate. Yikes! Much better than the 5 kilo bar. Seriously, what can someone do with 5 kilos of chocolate?!

At the train station, waiting to head back into Birmingham. Kudos to Reva for the desaturation so you can see all the purple we were surrounded by. At this point we were feeling the chocolate overload.

Old Birmingham (church) meets New Birmingham (Selfridge's, which looked like it was covered in giant metal thumbtacks). 

Our train ride back was uneventful. Four trains from 5:10-10ish. Lots of tired kids. Reading happened, as well as additional consumption of chocolate. I'd guess that about 50% of the food we ate that day was chocolate, if not more percentage-wise. It might sound high, but we had a sparse breakfast (toast and coffee), a late lunch, and an even later dinner (after we got back). 

All in all, it was quite a satisfying trip. Dangerous for blood sugar, but satisfying nonetheless.

Cadbury World!

I'm off to Cadbury Wold and chocolatey goodness!

Snow!

So I realize I've been neglecting the blog. Like, three weeks behind neglecting. But I thought I'd give you an interim post to tide you over. English snow!

When it first started snowing, I began tracking it from my window while reading and doing homework. Snow began Sunday afternoon...the perfect time for it to start snowing for a snow day on Monday...

It begins! Check out how big the flakes are!

Dusting! The snow sticks!

Damn. Big. Snowflakes. Let it snow let it snow let it snow!

This is when we start hoping for no school...

Last picture before the sun goes down...

A bunch of us hang out and watch some TV, then go outside to play in the snow!!

Meeeee!! See Kate, picture of me! Anyway, this is me grabbing snow and flinging it in the air. Grabbing snow with my bare hands. And Sam kept messing up the picture (aka we were off timing-wise). So it took a few takes. And I couldn't feel my hands. :)

The headless snowman!

Someone made a snow angel! Very pretty...

Look at all the snow!!

Kendall (left) and Kristin (right) skipping! Kendall's from Louisiana, Kristin's from Texas...they were both very happy to see snow. I think this was Kendall's second time of seeing snow ever! They were possibly the most excited in our group about the snow. Them and all the British students who aren't accustomed to so much snow.

So the next day I had a 9 am class. And they hadn't officially cancelled classes yet. So I had to get semi-ready. Wake up at 7:45 am, putz around (aka stay in bed and obsessively refresh my email). Finally the email comes at 8:40 that classes are cancelled for the day. So I head back to sleep. 

Afternoon was spent walking around campus and observing everyone playing in the snow!!

Massive amounts of snow!!

View from afar up on a hill. See those dots on the far hill? Sledders. All sledders. People just grabbed stuff and wrapped trash bags around them and went sledding all day. :)

Close-up (kinda) of the sledders. So many! Quite the operation they have there.

So Mom has requested some pictures of the campus, and I figured it'd never look prettier than it does with snow, so I snapped some shots as I went to the library to return books due that day. Turns out they would've given me a day's leniency, but I found that out after-the-fact. Really, they should post information like this on the website!

Still snowing!

Not the prettiest architecture, but it's serviceable. 

The next day, Tuesday, was the worst. School was in session, but the sidewalks weren't *quite* clear, so we had to walk in slush and puddles and ice. Walking on Monday wasn't so bad because we could walk in the powder (good traction), but Tuesday...had to walk on the sidewalks. And it was messy. There were many pairs of wet and/or dirty pants.

Anyway, yay for an interim post! Now I have to post on London, Oxford, Stonehenge, Salisbury...I am waaaay behind.

Snow Update

SNOW DAY!!

Traffic to/from campus is either really bad or blocked, so classes have been cancelled for today! Something about professors actually having to get to campus to teach...

Back to bed. :)

Snow!

I'd post a picture but my camera battery is about to die...

We have snow! It snowed all day yesterday and all night, and now it is quite the winter wonderland! Makes me not want to trudge through the snow to go to my 9 am and 10 am classes. Cold and damp snow that will melt all over my jeans, or staying in my warm bed and grabbing a few extra z's after staying up late for the Super Bowl...

Guess which option sounds more appealing. :)

On the other hand, apparently friends are going sledding later! Yay!