Happy happy Thanksgiving!! Even though Thanksgiving is strictly an American holiday, we still got to celebrate with our little Oxford family. Dr. Vess arranged for us to eat at this cute little restaurant where we all crammed around a few long tables. It had an incredibly homey feel!! We had a great time chatting and enjoying the (surprisingly) awesome food!! They had all of the traditional Thanksgiving foods from turkey and dressing to mashed potatoes, yams, and pecan pie!! Our liaison Peter was able to join us as well as the woman who helped him arrange all of our heritage trips (Stonehenge, Bath, Salisbury, etc...). While Peter had experienced a couple of Thanksgivings with past HPU students, This was Emma's first time!! She was really interested in learning all about our different family traditions. Ava, Dr. Vess's daughter, brought her school friend who had never experienced Thanksgiving either. The little girl was confused as to why we all got so excited about having pumpkin and pecan pies. It was really funny!!
GREECE IN TWO DAYS!! Can you tell I'm just a little stoked? Until then my friends!!
Hey friends!!
We had a very mellow weekend so there isn't too much to report!! Here are some pictures from the past few days though just because London and Oxford are absolutely spectacular during Christmas time!!
Sophie (my Australian friend) and I went to the midnight premiere of Mockingjay pt. 1 on Wednesday night. It came out a day earlier in the UK so that was extremely exciting and I know a lot of my friends were super jealous. They gave us these massive Katniss posters (pictured above) that nobody knew what to do with because they were so awkwardly huge!! It was extremely well done and turned what in my opinion was a horrible book into an amazing movie! Can't wait for part two next November!!
On Friday, Lindsay, Sophie, and our Canadian friend Lindsey went out to explore Oxford because they had a bit of a Christmas festival with all kinds of things going on. Unfortunately, it was very cold and raining for a majority of the evening so we didn't spend much time exploring outside. We did, however, go to the Christmas themed evening at the Ashmolean museum. They had all kinds of crafts and game booths set up as well as having all kinds of different singing groups that sang carols from all over the world. They were in full costume too which was fun!! To end the evening at the museum, we watched this "Cabaret" performance. The two performers were making up the songs on the spot with information audience members gave them. It was quite funny!!
We spent the first half of our day in London at the Winter Wonderland festival in Hyde Park. It was really cute!! They had an ice rink and ice/snow sculpture garden, both of which we visited! They also had a Christmas market, rides, and so much food!!! The three of us (Lindsay, Sophie, and I), ate these awesome churros covered in melted milk chocolate and it was one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth dessert wise! We almost froze our fingers off in the ice/snow sculpture garden so we all got hot chocolates on the way out and drank them at the spinning carousel café. It reminded me a lot of Reunion Tower for you Dallasites reading!
We spent the rest of the day wandering around London looking at all the decorations. The lights spectacular and rival those in Time Square. I was so blown away that I forgot to take pictures... Oops!! We also got to see some reindeer who were super cute and surprisingly friendly.
Nothing beats a great day in London, but I'm super stoked for Greece this weekend!! However, first we are having a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday so be expecting a post about that!! Until Turkey Day my friends!!
¡Hola mis compadres!
Voy a hablar de mi vacación a Barcelona, España con mis padres y mi amiga, Lindsay. Tuvimos un tiempo increíble ver toda la arquitectura increíble, comer toda la comida deliciosa, y paseando por todos los mercados al aire libre. Sin embargo, antes de ir a Barcelona, pasamos unos días en Londres... Even though this was like my fifth or sixth trip into London, there is still so much I hadn't done or seen yet. My parents had been to London once before, but they were there for exactly 24 hours in between flights and didn't get to do too terribly much. The first day, we got on one of the open top buses and rode that all around London to give our feet a rest after the insane amount we walked in Paris. I am still awestruck every time we visit because it is absolutely beautiful.
I love seeing all of the ads on the sides of buses... especially this one for Mockingjay pt. 1!!
This is the plaque that marks the location of the old Republic of Texas embassy in London!! Pretty cool!!!
Lindsay joined us on our second day in London before we left for Barcelona. We spent the first half of the day touring the Tower of London which is basically this huge fortress that held prisoners, an exotic animal, no cage zoo, and is now home to the Crown Jewels. We also got to witness a cannon ceremony to honor Remembrance Day which was on the 11th of November. After we were finished with the tower, we took afternoon tea at a restaurant. It was very very tasty and my mom and I have decided that afternoon tea needs to be a thing at home.
(this is where King Henry VI died)
All of the red you see in the pictures of the courtyards are ceramic poppies! There are 888.246 of them, one to commemorate each person that lost their life in World War I. We got to watch a video on how they were made and it was pretty spectacular.
Harrods was all lit up and decorated for Christmas!! It was really cute and fun!!
¡Tiempo para hablar de BARCELONA! Nuestro vuelo era muy temprano en la mañana de sábado, así que llegamos a pasar la mayor parte del primer día de caminar alrededor y ver la vista. También hicimos un montón de tiendas. Volvimos al hotel a las cinco en punto para las siestas y las duchas antes de la cena. La gente en España no cenan hasta como 10 en punto de la noche así que Lindsay y yo cogí un aperitivo en el restaurante. Nos dieron algunos nachos grasosos que me dejó bastante nauseabundo. Comimos en un restaurante de tapas para la cena y tuvimos tanta comida, que era irreal. No terminar hasta que una en punto de la mañana. Dormimos a última hora del domingo y luego nos dirigimos a ver la iglesia de La Sangrada Familia (la gran iglesia diseñada por Gaudí, que no se completará durante otros veinte años). No puedo describir la iglesia y su belleza, así que voy a dejar las fotos para hacer eso. Había una muy grande ceramony pasando más tarde ese día, así que estaban cerrando todas las salidas y entradas por lo que Lindsay y yo quedó atrapado en el interior hasta que finalmente encontramos una salida abierta. Después de nuestra visita autoguiada, pasamos el resto del día paseando por Barcelona hasta que era hora de prepararse para la cena. Comimos en otro lugar de tapas que tenía muy buen postre y mini hamburguesas.
La entrada al mercado de que caminamos a través y uno de los museos de Gaudí.
I had an amazing ten days with my parents and cannot wait to see them again in a little over a month!! Next weekend we're going to London to see the Christmas festival complete with Christmas lights and an ice skating rink in Hyde Park!! Cannot wait!! Until then mis amigos!!
