Formal Hall & Week in Oxford

So on Tuesday night we had a "Formal Hall" for Georgia Tech, a tradition that apparently goes back several hundred years here at Oxford. Basically all of the students wear their best clothes, all the professors wear robes, and everyone gets together for a very fancy meal. The most interesting parts were the toasts initiated by our program leaders--we toasted everyone from the Queen to the head of the Porters (like campus security) to the food staff to all of our professors. We finished out the evening with a rousing chorus of "The Ramblin' Wreck" (Georgia Tech's fight song), which I must say has A LOT of words, especially considering it was originally written as a drinking song. I much prefer the greatest fight song of all time (according to John Philip Sousa)... at least I know all the words to that one! :-)

Other than that, life has been kind of quiet around here... since we only have one more week of class left, there's a lot of studying and paper-writing to be done. I'm writing my final paper for Computing Ethics on the ethical and security implications of the RFID chips in the new e-passports, and it turns out that there's a HUGE amount of controversy around the issue that I didn't even know about. It's really interesting, although writing an APA-formatted paper is never that much fun. I'm just not the biggest fan of parenthetical citations, not gonna lie.

Other exciting events of the week include me finishing up my penicillin and getting over my tonsillitis, as well as my laptop charger breaking. I now have a new Apple charging brick with British adapters, which will clearly be very useful to me in life. Oh well. Kathryn and I also went to see "The Hangover" last night for our weekly movie date, which was HILARIOUS. I wasn't sure that I was going to like it, but I'd definitely recommend it.

So we're heading to London tomorrow morning for our last full weekend in the UK, and it should be really fun. I'm going to see "Jersey Boys" in the West End on Friday night while my friends go to see "Hairspray" (since I've already seen it), and other than that it's just going to be lots of sightseeing. On Tuesday night Uncle Bob is going to be coming to Oxford for dinner, which should also be very nice. Other than that, I have class all next week, finals on Friday and Saturday, and then I fly back to Boston Sunday afternoon! Geez... time flies.

Anyway, back to work. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Dara

This pic: The girls all dressed up for Formal Hall. From left: Andrea, me, Jasmin, and Kathryn

Weekend in Dublin: I'm on a Boat Take 2

To start out, the most random fact I learned this week:

Because every swan in England is property of the queen, killing a swan can (in some cases) get you more prison time in the UK than killing another person.

Weird, huh?

ANYWAY, this past weekend a big group of nine of us went to Dublin. It was SO MUCH FUN, and arguably the best trip we've done thus far.

We left Oxford at 6:30 PM on Thursday, after which we took four different trains, waited for two hours in Holyhead (the far tip of Wales) in the middle of the night, then took a ferry (which turned out to be a cruise ship) to Dublin and arrived just before 6 AM. It was tiring to say the least, but we had a lot of fun together and it was great to have two and a half full days in Ireland. What we didn't know when we made our reservations was that this was the weekend U2 was playing in Dublin, which means that the city was CRAZY with tourists and natives alike. It was great.

First we went to Trinity College, the university at the center of the city, and a few of us paid to see the Book of Kells. Although mighty expensive, it was definitely worth it! The Book was absolutely beautiful, and we also got to see one of the reading rooms of the College, which was very the-library-in-Beauty-and-the-Beast-esque. After Trinity we still had some time to kill, so we went to the National Museum, where we saw some really interesting stuff. They had some incredible examples of Celtic metalwork, but they also had objects recovered off of the "bog bodies" (cool but gross) and Celtic cursing stones, which were apparently used all the way up to World War II when the Irish were attempting to curse Adolf Hitler.

Everyone who we asked about Dublin recommended that we leave the city to see the countryside for at least one day, and we chose Friday so we could sleep on the bus to and from our destination. We ended up choosing Glendalough (pronounced glen-dah-lock) on a recommendation from Kathryn's dad. It's a beautiful little national park situated between two lakes and a bunch of cliffs, and at the bottom of the valley there are ruins from the monastery which was once located there. We spent the whole day wandering around, and we saw all the waterfalls and lakes and mountains and ruins. After a quick lunch in the park, we got on the bus back to Dublin, passed out asleep again, and got back in time to check into our hostel and head to a pub for dinner. We were all so tired by the time we finished dinner that we just headed back to our room after that and passed out asleep.

Saturday morning we got up (rather more refreshed than when we went to sleep) and went to St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was the most eclectic cathedral I've been to yet--it had a lot of historical artifacts on display throughout the building, and the walls were just covered in random and slightly mismatched memorials to famous figures of Irish history. The funniest part was that they had a gift shop RIGHT IN THE NAVE OF THE CATHEDRAL, where I actually bought a shot glass. In a church. It was just too good a comedic opportunity to pass up.

After St. Patrick's we did another one of the Sandeman's free tours, which was even better than the one we did in Amsterdam. Our tour guide was much more dynamic and engaging, and it was just a great time. He opened the tour by covering 11,000 years of history in ten minutes, which was impressive. Apparently only 5% of the population of Ireland are redheads... who knew?

After the tour ended we grabbed a quick pub lunch then walked to the Guinness Storehouse, Ireland's largest visitor attraction (over 1 million visitors per year). It was a very strange experience--think Disney does beer. It was definitely a major tourist attraction, but it was fun anyway. I now understand how Guinness is made, learned that the Guinness Book of Records was originally created to solve disputes in pubs in Ireland and England, and got a free pint in the "Gravity Bar" at the top of the building which has 360-degree views of the entire city of Dublin.

After meeting up with Dustin and Andrea at the hostel (they decided to take a day trip to the cliffs on the western side of the country), we had a great Italian dinner in Temple Bar, the area of Dublin known for its clubs and pubs (ironically not named after temples or bars). Everyone else went to bed right after that, but I wasn't sleepy yet so I stayed up with a few guys staying at our hostel in the pub behind the building. I met people from the US, Australia, Belgium, Norway, Finland, and Tunisia (he was really impressed that I knew where Tunisia was--thank you Sporcle map quiz), and we just had a really great time talking and getting to know each other. One of the guys from California had been traveling for approximately the last DECADE and had been to 62 countries! They all made me feel really boring :-)

It turns out that nothing is really open in Dublin on Sunday mornings, so we basically just did some touristy shopping and then got on the metro to go to Dun Laoire to catch our boat. On the way back we took a high speed catamaran ( you have no idea how many times I've heard "high speed catamaran" in the last three days), which was sweet! It only took 2 hours to cross the Irish Sea, and the boat had a food court and a bar and a coffee shop and a store and even a play area for kids! Admittedly, I was asleep for much of the journey, but it was fun nevertheless. Four trains later, we got back to Oxford, grabbed a quick bite, and went to bed.

Time is totally flying right now... I'm heading home in less than two weeks! As happy as I'll be see my family and to go back to school, this summer really has been completely amazing and I'll definitely be sad to leave Europe.

Anyway, enough of that... here are pictures of Ireland for those who are interested: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017718&id=1326450024&l=49b9bf8e1c

Dara

Wow, it's been a long time since I've updated.

Hi, everyone!

So it's been a whole week since I last posted, which means there's tons of stuff to tell all of you! I'll try to make it as quick as possible, though.

Highlights from last week in Oxford:

1. I got sick (not really a highlight, but significant nonetheless)

2. Harry Potter Opening Day (wasn't really a fan, not gonna lie...quippy one-liners and intense special effects do not a great movie make...although it definitely was a beautifully done film and everyone should see it)

3. I bought a pack of 5 walking tours of Oxford which I'll start doing this week (if I feel better)

Okay, so on to last weekend...

Sydney, Bryan, Amy and I left for the airport at 4:55 Friday morning, and we got to Gatwick with plenty of time to hang out and eat breakfast.  Our plane ran perfectly on schedule, so we got to Amsterdam around noon and probably got into the city by 1:00 or so.  We checked into our respective hostels (we were all staying at different ones, with the exception of Bryan & Amy), then went to the Anne Frank House together.  The line was MASSIVE but it was totally worth it... I had a HUGE interest in Anne Frank when I was in middle school, and it was incredible to see the Secret Annex for myself.  It was a really well put-together museum as well, and I was very impressed.  After doing some wandering (including a stop in the gift shop of the Tulip Museum) and shopping for the rest of the afternoon, we turned in--by the time we finished with dinner we were all EXHAUSTED.

After meeting up for breakfast the next morning, we went to an exhibit called "The Complete Rembrandt" which was really cool, even if it didn't have any actual paintings (which we did not know when we paid 12 euros to get in).  It had a print of every single Rembrandt in chronological order so you got to see his development as an artist throughout his entire career.  My favorite painting was of four guys doing a medical dissection; it sounds kind of gross, but each of the doctors just had so much personality!  (See photo below)

After a delicious kebab lunch (kebab, how I love you so), we went on this amazing free walking tour by Sandeman's New Europe, a company with free walking tours all over the world (Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Dublin, Edinburgh, Hamburg, London, Jerusalem, Madrid, Munich, Paris, Prague, and Tel Aviv).  The tour guides are paid on a tips-only basis, which means they have a big motivation to make their tours uber entertaining.  Most of them are also 3-4 hours long, which means you really get a chance to see a lot of the city.  We learned a lot (my favorite tidbits were that 1. approximately 22,000 bicycles are pulled out of Amsterdam's canals each year and 2. people in the Netherlands didn't have last names until the French occupation when King Louis forced them to, so they picked terribly offensive ones that their ancestors are now stuck with).  It was definitely a great way to get acquainted with the city.  Amy had already done one of these tours in Edinburgh, and we'll most likely be doing the Dublin and London ones on the remainder of our weekend trips.

After the tour, I tried to make it down to the Van Gogh Museum, but I kept getting distracted by cool shops on the way (plus it was REALLY FAR), and by the time I got there it was too close to closing to merit paying the admission fee.  I did get to see the "I Amsterdam" sculpture, though, and I found us a nice area to go eat dinner in.  After that we took one of the tacky and touristy boat cruises around the city.  After some wandering, we found a nice cheap pub to end the evening with a hot cup of tea (for my throat...I'm kind of lame).

By Sunday morning, I was getting kind of sick of Amsterdam (it's just really not my type of city), so I took a day trip to The Hague on my dad's recommendation.  It was absolutely lovely...I did a lot of wandering around and taking pictures, which was definitely nice and relaxing.  In the morning I went to the MC Escher Museum which was AMAZING and then I grabbed a nice lunch and did my reading for class today.  After that, I went to the tourist information centre where they had 2 euro walking tour booklets, so I spent the rest of the afternoon showing myself around the city.  You know, I know we're not a fan of monarchies in the US, but there's something to be said for sweet palaces and beautiful public gardens :-)  My favorite part was that there are flowers EVERYWHERE in the Netherlands, even though we missed tulip season by a couple of months.  

After another afternoon cup of tea, I headed back to the airport, where we proceeded to have one of my worst travel experiences of this trip to date.  Highlights include: our plane was delayed by over half an hour, then held in a holding pattern when we got to Heathrow, the line at immigration in the UK was the longest I've ever seen it, and our bus driver missed the road to Oxford so we were on the bus for an extra 45 minutes.  It was incredible to finally be home, though, and I'm so glad to be back.

Here's the link to all the pictures (there are a lot, I warn you): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017238&id=1326450024&l=26fbdf1dd7

Less than three weeks 'till I come home! :-)

Dara

More Oxford and Trip to Lisbon!

I apologize in advance for how epically long this post is going to be, but so much has happened since I last posted!

Last week in Oxford was great, after the HP6 premiere on Tuesday the highlights were going to see "Public Enemies" on Wednesday (not so good), going to Christ Church (one of the most famous colleges at Oxford and where the HP movies were filmed) on Thursday, and then heading out to the Eagle & Child again on Thursday night with the gang.

I left VERY EARLY on Friday morning to catch the bus to Heathrow, and then got a bagel with lox at the airport while I waited for my flight (again, not so good, but a little piece of home).  Trevor and I found each other, then our flights to Madrid and Lisbon went seamlessly.  We took a bus into the city center and found our hostel, where we dropped off our stuff.

First of all, this hostel was incredible!  The interior design was really quirky and colorful (just my style), and the free breakfast was homemade crepes with Nutella!  Our roommates were nice as well, and I've totally been spoiled at this point when it comes to hosteling.  Next week in Amsterdam should be a definite reality check :-)

After figuring out our plan of attack, Trevor and I headed out into the city (even though our hostel was right on the main square so it wasn't exactly that long a walk).  Lisbon is really an amazing city--throughout the last 2000 years it has been ruled by Romans, Muslims, Catholics, and slightly intense 20th century governments, so the culture (especially the architecture) is a blend of all of these influences.  There are beautiful marble monuments EVERYWHERE--Portugal is still apparently very proud of its past as a colonial power--and many of the buildings are covered in beautiful ceramic tiles.  It's colorful and vibrant and there's music playing wherever you go... basically I fell in love with it.   Even the sidewalks are beautiful; they're all these inlaid mosaics, and they make the city have so much depth.

For our first adventure, Trevor and I hiked up to the castle on top of the hill, which would be the first of many uphill climbs over the weekend.  The castle has been standing for 900+ years and has survived a major earthquake as well as all of the aforementioned rulers.  The view was really beautiful, and on the way back down we ate at a sweet Indian-Portuguese fusion restaurant.  After we changed back at the hostel, we walked up another big hill and found a little cafe in a square (with another monument, of course), and had our evening nightcaps of port, which the Portuguese are famous for.  Delicious.

After our crepes the next morning, we went to Belem, an area about 6 km west of the city centre.  After a bit of train confusion, we made it there and went to the Electricity Museum (Lisbon has a bagillion different weird museums, from a Water Museum to a Coach Museum to an Air Museum to a Presidents of the Republic Museum and a Pharmacy Museum).  The electricity part of the museum actually wasn't all that great (fluency in Portuguese may have helped), but there was an exhibit of the International Photo of the Year contest winners, which was AWESOME.  I heart photojournalism.

After the electricity museum, we went to the Torre de Belem (pictured below), a huge monument that's a tribute to Portuguese colonialism.  We took a lift to the top, took a few pictures, and then went to a movie inside on the history and culture of Lisbon.  After that, we went to a delicious lunch (the Portuguese ROCK the preparation of seafood), then went to the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos, a lovely cathedral with the best vaulted ceiling I've ever seen.  After that we went to the FREE modern art museum, where I got to show off all the knowledge about modern art I got on the travel portion :-)

After a little shopping/afternoon naps, we climbed another massive hill to go to a place recommended by my travel book for dinner.  It wasn't open yet, so we went down the street to a place called "Be Gold", where everything was golden and decadent.  Dinner was fantastic, and afterwards Trevor and I waddled happily back to our hostel with a quick sangria stop on the way.

In the morning we wandered up the Avenida de Liberdade to a park (on another hill) that had another great view of the city.  After moseying back down and checking out of our hostel, we grabbed lunch and then went to an amazing exhibit on the Titanic at what turned out to be the Rossio train station... weird.  It was super cool, though, and definitely one of the best-designed historical exhibits I've been to on this trip.  It had all these artifacts recovered from the wreck, and even a fake iceberg you could touch.  The coolest part (no pun intended) was definitely a perfume case recovered from the wreck that still smelled like the perfumes it used to contain after almost a hundred years under the ocean!  I thought it was pretty sweet.

After traditional Portuguese custard tarts, we headed back to the airport and had an incredibly smooth travel experience on the way home (besides a long line at UK immigration).  I made it back to Oxford by about 11:30 last night, when I crashed and woke up just in time for my exam this morning.  Craziness.

That's all for now... it's looking like it's going to be another great week in Oxford.  We're seeing Harry Potter 6 on opening day this Wednesday, then Bryan, Amy, Sydney and I are off to Amsterdam on Friday morning.  Hooray!

Dara

Two photo albums for you today (sorry for the volume)--

More life in Oxford & the Potter Premiere: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016776&id=1326450024&l=9f8d8220f0

Lisbon Trip: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016777&id=1326450024&l=83bf20724f

Harry Potter and our Craziest Day Thus Far

Oh my goodness, what a day!

First of all, things have been going really well in Oxford--I'm starting to really know my way around since every afternoon after my second class I've been trying to take a walk by myself and explore more of the city.  Yesterday I also bought my required Oxford University gear (sweatshirt and t-shirt), and now that it's cold and I need to wear my sweatshirt all the time I look like a complete tool.   It's great :-)

So...today.  The plan originally was for my friend Carol and I to meet up in London this afternoon for the Harry Potter premiere, with her taking the 1:30 train from Oxford and me taking the 3:30.  This, however, did not really end up happening--check it out:

My day started out normally, just class and then homework and then lunch in my room (a terrible quiche that I threw half of away... will be important later) and then a group meeting for my ethics class.  My group meeting got done early so I decided to run and get a Kebab for lunch (since I was still hungry after the terrible quiche).  On my way back with my Kebab, my friend Amy essentially tackled me outside of my dorm, telling me that the woman running my program needed someone to take the train to London Paddington RIGHT AWAY because one of the group leaders forgot their passport in Oxford and they were flying back to the states today.  They offered to excuse me from class and pay for my train ticket and everything, so I ran to the office, grabbed the passport, ran to the train station, and met Carol for the 1:30 train.  We made it and got to London by 2:30 or so, where we caught a bus and headed to Leicester Square, where the premiere was to be held.

For one thing, the square was CRAZY--some people had been camping out in the rain since ten am the previous day, which is a bit much if you ask me.  Anyway, after wandering around for a bit Carol and I decided on what we thought was a good spot, which actually turned out to be an AMAZING one...we were right next to the entrance to the actual theatre behind an overhead red carpet walkway, so we had a clear view upwards of all of the actors as they walked into the movie.  The really exciting part was that in the five hours we were standing there, it

A. Was sunny

B. Drizzled

C. Rained

D. Poured

E. Hailed

It was so much fun, though!  The atmosphere was fantastic (we all huddled under our umbrellas together), we talked to a bunch of cool people (and some slightly odd ones), and it was just a really exciting place to be!  We saw most of the major actors (Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter and the people who played Dean, Neville, Seamus, Luna, the Weasley twins, Mr. Weasley, and Malfoy), as well as a bunch of British pop culture personalities who I didn't recognize but who everyone else screamed at.  I took lots of blurry pictures, although I definitely found myself more interested in seeing the actual film next week than getting glimpses of the celebrities.  It was still fun, though, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.  Even if we did have to take the train back all cold and wet afterwards :-)

I grabbed some Thai food on the way back from the train station, and now that I'm full and warm and dry I think it's time for bed.  Pictures will hopefully be up tomorrow; right now I'm too tired.  The one below should give you some idea of the crowd and it's demographic--you can see Alan Rickman tiny tiny in the middle signing autographs for all the screaming teenaged girls.

Night!

Dara

The Fourth of July in Jolly Old England

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!  Not gonna lie, it's really not that big a deal out here (can't imagine why), although our waiter today at lunch did wish us a happy Independence Day.

So last Wednesday my friend Kathryn and I went to see "Transformers" (we've decided to have Dara-and-Kathryn-Movie-Wednesdays from now on), and even seeing a MOVIE we got to see cool cultural-difference things!  For one thing, when you go to see a movie they actually assign seat numbers, and you can pay an extra pound to get comfier seats in the ideal viewing area of the theatre.  We did not elect to do this, so we were kind of stuck to the front, but that's okay.  Also, there was NO ONE in the theatre until five minutes into the previews, and then suddenly EVERYONE showed up.  They also had different rating systems for movies and sweet British advertisements--our favorites were the advertisements with the international perception of Americans in them.

After class ended on Thursday, we went to the "Turf Tavern" with Chris & Tara, our two group leaders who left on Friday to head back to the States.  This pub was SO AWESOME--it's really hidden and so it's not so touristy, and it was just a good time overall.  We will be going back often, I'm sure.

Friday, six of us went to Bath (pronounced "Baaaaaahth" there).  It was actually a really sweet place--first we went to the Roman Baths, which was definitely one of the best-organized historical museums we went to.  We got to see the baths as they are today, as well as a lot of the archeological excavation they've been doing of the rest of the complex underground.  On our little audio guides there was also a "Bill Bryson" option, where we could listen to his thoughts on what we were seeing as well as the actual info.  After lunch there we took the FREE two-hour Bath walking tour, which was really great--it was nice not to have to take notes and just to be able to appreciate the city!  After a lovely Thai dinner and a visit to the oldest pub in Bath, we headed back to Oxford on the train.

This morning, we decided to visit "The Cotswolds"--a region in the UK known for its picturesque villages.  It definitely lived up to all the hype (see photo below)... it was absolutely beautiful country, and all of the towns we visited had flowers EVERYWHERE, which was just lovely!  We visited three villages today: Moreton-in-Marsh, Stow-on-the-Wold, and Bourton-on-the-Water.  At Bourton-on-the-Water, my friend Bryan and I decided to go off and take a walk and we found this nature reserve that was essentially a bunch of cow pastures with trails running through them.  The views of the countryside were fantastic there, and we definitely made friends with a couple of cows :-)

Once we were done with Bourton-on-the-Water, we stopped by Stow-on-the-Wold which has a slightly famous Roman Well that has water so clear you can drink it (which we all did).  After a dinner in Moreton-in-Marsh we came back to Oxford with plans to go out to a pub, but then we were all too sleepy.  I'm planning on going to bed ASAP at this point and taking tomorrow as my one opportunity to sleep in all summer.  Besides some emailing and some shopping, I have absolutely NOTHING to do before dinner... it should be wonderful.

Anyway, that's all for now.  If you'd like to see pictures of life at Oxford and/or our trips this weekend, here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016210&id=1326450024&l=352f458d1a

Happy 4th!

Dara

First Couple of Days in Oxford

'Ello all!

So I know that it's only Wednesday, but I feel like I've been living on this campus FOREVER.  I'm not sure if that's because I feel really at home here or just because we're not packing up to leave already (like we would have on the travel portion).  In either case, it still feels great to be here, even if being in a college town has made me slightly homesick for Ann Arbor :-(

So my classes are good so far; I'm taking International Business and a class on Ethics in the Information Age.  Business is okay--it's at eight fifteen in the morning, though, which makes it kind of hard to focus throughout a 1 1/2 hour lecture.  Ethics is definitely my favorite...we're talking about things like internet addiction, privacy issues, and whether or not identity theft is actually theft...things like that.  There are only nine of us in the class, so we basically just sit around talking to the professor, which is cool.

Considering my only obligations are breakfast, dinner, and three hours of class a day, I've had lots of time to go and wander the city.  Yesterday afternoon I was looking for a place to do my ethics reading and I just randomly stumbled upon the Camera, the very famous dome reading room in Oxford.  I've also gotten all of my essential shopping done, like groceries and silverware and such.  I also needed to buy another duffel bag so I can get all of my presents back to the states at the end of the summer :-)

In the evenings, we've been getting our homework done early and then going out to do various things--yesterday we hung out with the group from our travel portion (each week we're celebrating "Group Two'sdays"), and the night before Bryan, Parker and I went to the Eagle & Child, the famous pub where JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis hung out in their Oxford days. 

This afternoon, I'm meeting Laura Jackson (another alum of the Hollis Brookline High School Cavalier Chronicle) for coffee, which should be lovely!  After that I think that my friend Kathryn and I will be going to see a movie, but we'll have to see how the homework goes.

Now, off to class!

Dara