Random

The world is trying to tell me that "Sarah" is the correct spelling of my name. Every day I'm confronted with people reasserting that my name should be "Sarah." My Starbucks drink is always labeled as such. Whenever I tell my name to people, it's not just my last name I have to spell out. Searching for me on Facebook is a nightmare for people who don't type in "Sara."

It's even getting to me! All my Sarah friends (OK, all of one) are/is named Sarah. So I'm always typing "Sarah." Whenever filling out forms online, I either have auto fill-in or I just go through it so fast I don't think about it. But sometimes, when referring to myself or just writing a statement in the third person, I type "Sarah." Or find myself almost typing "Sarah." And have to check myself. Because society constantly reinforces that "Sarah" is the correct and universally accepted spelling of the name.

Why does the world hate Saras?? It's just not fair.

I'm the minority. :(

Update...Sorta

So Kate tells me I must update.

However, Sussex decided to shut off its electricity and internet for 6 hrs yesterday and my internet at my computer now does not work. I am now forced to use the computer lab with its UK keyboards. Bleh.

But yeah. When I get my internet back I fully plan on doing some updating. Because I am done with traveling for the break. I'm glad I have almost a whole week of recovery time. I have a feeling I'll need it.

Anyway, Happy Commercialized Christian Holiday Set Up On a Pagan Holiday Day! According to Cecil. I hope you all enjoy one of these today, since they're pretty amazing.



:)

Snowboarding

Spring break has begun! Here's to a month of no classes!!

First stop, the French Alps for a week of snowboarding! Alp D'Huez, to be exact.

I'll be back in a week! See ya!

<3 me

Ack!

It's been too long! Need to update...

Unfortunately I only have time for a quick one. Tomorrow I'm off to Dublin for the weekend before St. Patrick's Day! Here's to having a lot of fun!

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.