1. pedicures. i need (and want) one badly. a good scrub of my yucky feet, a pretty color on my toes...i miss that.
2. cooking. this is something that helps me unwind at home...and i know that if i cook, i'll probably like what i'm eating...and it's much easier to eat healthily when i'm at home. i miss my kitchen and trader joe's and trying new recipes.
3. the daily show with jon stewart. enough said. my love for him knows no bounds.
4. my bed. have i told you how horrible my bed is here? it's a twin (fine - but i miss my big bed) with one okay pillow and one pillow with about 2 ounces of stuffing in it. less fine. the mattress itself is old, and no matter how i fall asleep i always wake up with a spring stuffed up under my rib cage and into my chest cavity and one lodged into my hip bone. amazing how that works.
5. my yoga studio. i've led little classes for the students here every sunday and now i have adoring little girl fans, but i miss real yoga, with someone challenging me. kelly: we need a yoga date PRONTO.
*silly things...not important things, like people...
Friday, July 29, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
i think mike was hoping i'd forget
back story: last year while working in england, a (straight) english guy i worked with wore white linen capris (man-pris) several times over the month of the program, and i decided this was the most english-y thing to do EVER. no (straight) man in america would wear white + linen + capris, or any combination of two or more of those items. i told my friends at home about it. somehow home-friend mike agreed to wear a pair of white linen capris (purchased by me in england) out on a saturday night in atlanta, unable to tell anyone that this is a joke/social experiment. in exchange, mike gets (a) one free pair of white linen capris, and (b) free drinks all night. [am i remembering this correctly, atlantans?]
today: i purchased said pair of white linen capri pants. mike, you actually have to do this now.
[don't worry, blog readers: i promise we'll take pictures.]
today: i purchased said pair of white linen capri pants. mike, you actually have to do this now.
[don't worry, blog readers: i promise we'll take pictures.]
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
oriel
for the first two years i worked in oxford i lived in pembroke college, as you probably know. this year i'm in oriel college, so i thought i'd show you what this college looks like! i've actually struggled a bit with what to photograph and put on the blog this year, because i've put a lot of picture on in the past and i don't know what is NEW! and INTERESTING! to show you this year. and then i remembered that you haven't seen oriel. so here it is!
oriel was founded in 1326. this is not a typo. in 1326 it was just a collection of teachers and students, and the physical college wasn't built until the 1600s. this is the front of the college today.
this is a close up of the main gate to the college, where we enter and exit - you'll see that a door is cut into the larger gate so you don't have to open the whole huge gate when someone wants to enter or leave.
the first quad you enter as you go into the college is called...wait for it...first quad. this is the view after you walk through the gate; the dining hall is pictured here with dorm rooms and classrooms on the left and right sides of the quad.
if you go into the dining hall, it's exactly as harry potter-esque as you'd imagine it would be. at the top of this photo you'll see (vaguely) the largest painting in existence of queen elizabeth II. oriel is a royal college (founded by king edward II or something) and is the only royal college at oxford university. so perhaps this is why they get this fancy painting? the other paintings are of former heads of the college, benefactors, etc.
if you go back out into first quad and walk through an archway to your left you enter...second quad!
i live in second quad, in this building on the right; the entrance is between the two tall bushes/trees/whatever.
there is a third quad through a passageway if you were to walk straight ahead in the above photo, and then there is a tunnel under the street that emerges in a fourth quad, called "the island" because it's set apart from the rest of the college. neither of those quads are particularly different from the ones i've shown here, so...i got lazy and didn't photograph them. oops.
oriel was founded in 1326. this is not a typo. in 1326 it was just a collection of teachers and students, and the physical college wasn't built until the 1600s. this is the front of the college today.
this is a close up of the main gate to the college, where we enter and exit - you'll see that a door is cut into the larger gate so you don't have to open the whole huge gate when someone wants to enter or leave.
the first quad you enter as you go into the college is called...wait for it...first quad. this is the view after you walk through the gate; the dining hall is pictured here with dorm rooms and classrooms on the left and right sides of the quad.
if you go into the dining hall, it's exactly as harry potter-esque as you'd imagine it would be. at the top of this photo you'll see (vaguely) the largest painting in existence of queen elizabeth II. oriel is a royal college (founded by king edward II or something) and is the only royal college at oxford university. so perhaps this is why they get this fancy painting? the other paintings are of former heads of the college, benefactors, etc.
if you go back out into first quad and walk through an archway to your left you enter...second quad!
i live in second quad, in this building on the right; the entrance is between the two tall bushes/trees/whatever.
there is a third quad through a passageway if you were to walk straight ahead in the above photo, and then there is a tunnel under the street that emerges in a fourth quad, called "the island" because it's set apart from the rest of the college. neither of those quads are particularly different from the ones i've shown here, so...i got lazy and didn't photograph them. oops.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
atlanta is "the city in a forest"?? who knew? though i do love all of our trees...it's a fitting nickname when you think about it...
yesterday we took 421 kids to london and returned with all of them! whoopie! it was tiring - the loading of buses and unloading and then loading again at the end of the day. the teachers take the kids around during the day, so i was actually able to do whatever i wanted for a couple hours. i went to the imperial war museum, read my book in st. james park, wandered around, and ate dinner with coworkers at a yummy indian restaurant. good day.
today marks (incredibly) the midpoint of the program for the students! in two weeks they'll be out of here and we'll be closing up shop for another year. for those who are counting, delta.com informs me that i'll be home in 17 days and that i have a window seat. yesssss.
today marks (incredibly) the midpoint of the program for the students! in two weeks they'll be out of here and we'll be closing up shop for another year. for those who are counting, delta.com informs me that i'll be home in 17 days and that i have a window seat. yesssss.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
on the day that the new harry potter movie premiered we asked the dining hall if they would have a harry potter themed dinner, and they went for it. it was normal food but with harry potter names provided by the dining hall staff, like "bertie botts green beans" and "hogwarts pie" and "cauldron cake." we encouraged the kids to dress up, but only a couple of them did. kids are lame.
as i was walking to dinner, though, three of our PAs (oxford undergraduates who work in the office with me) ran up to me in costume with an extra one for me!! can you guess what we were?
dementors!!! this is some dementors eating dinner...
and some dementors ransacking the city of oxford (aka going over to the other college to giggle a lot and show off our costumes / embarrass ourselves by wearing these costumes in public).
i love the PAs for including me in this...and i loved the chance to be silly and get excited about harry potter. i didn't see the movie on opening night...i saw it on tuesday night with several members of the staff and really liked it (and the mini break from the kids).
it has been cool here - damp, and with highs only in the upper 60s. today's mission may be to find a warmer sweater for the chilly nights...
as i was walking to dinner, though, three of our PAs (oxford undergraduates who work in the office with me) ran up to me in costume with an extra one for me!! can you guess what we were?
dementors!!! this is some dementors eating dinner...
and some dementors ransacking the city of oxford (aka going over to the other college to giggle a lot and show off our costumes / embarrass ourselves by wearing these costumes in public).
i love the PAs for including me in this...and i loved the chance to be silly and get excited about harry potter. i didn't see the movie on opening night...i saw it on tuesday night with several members of the staff and really liked it (and the mini break from the kids).
it has been cool here - damp, and with highs only in the upper 60s. today's mission may be to find a warmer sweater for the chilly nights...
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
cambridge!
yesterday on my day off i took the bus to cambridge to visit other claire! it was a great visit - really nice to see her and meet all her friends (i love them, of course) and see how the other campus of our program is run. we didn't do much other than (a) go punting, (b) eat, (c) drink, and (d) sleep. and that was FINE BY ME.
punting is this activity that is big in oxford and cambridge (but i'd never been!) where one person (in this case, other claire's friend justin) has a pole and propels the boat down the river by pushing off the bottom.
claire, me, and two of claire's friends sat in the boat and were punted down the river by justin while we drank prosecco. IT WAS INCREDIBLE. so relaxing, so beautiful, and a really oxford/cambridge thing to do. i am in love with this picture:
the river runs right through cambridge, past buildings built right up to the water. this building has a little door at water level from the time when people punted/boated/whatever grain up and down the river and apparently stored it in this building. in addition to punting quite well, justin gave us lots of fun facts. and you know i like fun facts.
the trip UP the river was gorgeous, and the trip DOWN the river was rainy, but we all had rain jackets and umbrellas, so that was fine, too. typical england - sunny one minute, rainy the next.
after punting we had dinner and went to a pub with her friends, and then back to her room to sleep before i got up this morning and took the bus back to oxford. excellent day off!
(i will say that i like oxford better, as a town, but perhaps i'm biased. i mean: of course i'm biased. oxford = amazing.)
tonight i'm going to see the new harry potter movie! so exciting!
punting is this activity that is big in oxford and cambridge (but i'd never been!) where one person (in this case, other claire's friend justin) has a pole and propels the boat down the river by pushing off the bottom.
claire, me, and two of claire's friends sat in the boat and were punted down the river by justin while we drank prosecco. IT WAS INCREDIBLE. so relaxing, so beautiful, and a really oxford/cambridge thing to do. i am in love with this picture:
the river runs right through cambridge, past buildings built right up to the water. this building has a little door at water level from the time when people punted/boated/whatever grain up and down the river and apparently stored it in this building. in addition to punting quite well, justin gave us lots of fun facts. and you know i like fun facts.
the trip UP the river was gorgeous, and the trip DOWN the river was rainy, but we all had rain jackets and umbrellas, so that was fine, too. typical england - sunny one minute, rainy the next.
after punting we had dinner and went to a pub with her friends, and then back to her room to sleep before i got up this morning and took the bus back to oxford. excellent day off!
(i will say that i like oxford better, as a town, but perhaps i'm biased. i mean: of course i'm biased. oxford = amazing.)
tonight i'm going to see the new harry potter movie! so exciting!
Sunday, July 17, 2011
updates
with MUCHO thanks to abby and rachie, i have abandoned jonathan strange and started moon tiger, which one of the girls i work with let me borrow. it's a novel where the main character is a woman who is writing a memoir of her life, but she goes off on these crazy and wonderful tangents all the time. she's an old lady and a little bit senile. and it is 100,000% better than jonathan strange. life is so good now. this is one of those books where i talk out loud to the book because it is saying things that are SO TRUE. here is a passage for you:
there was a spaniel on board the mayflower. this little dog, once, was chased by wolves not far from the plantation and ran to crouch between its master's legs "for succour." smart dog - it knew that muskets are sharper than teeth. what i find remarkable about this animal is that i should know of its existence at all, that its unimportant passage through time should be recorded. it becomes one of those vital inessentials that convince one that history is true.
i know about the little spaniel. i know what the weather was like in massachusetts on wednesday march 7th 1620 (cold but fair, with the wind in the east). i know the names of those who died that winter and of those who did not. i know what you ate and drank, how you furnished your houses, which of you were men of conscience and application and which were not. and i know, also, nothing. because i cannot shed my skin and put on yours, cannot strip my mind of its knowledge and its prejudices, cannot look cleanly at the world with the eyes of a child, am as imprisoned by my time as you were by yours.
why do i find this so wonderful? i'm not quite sure. i think the history teacher in me connects to it. or something. whatever the reason, i'm liking it a lot.
(additionally, i cannot lift my arms above my head, and going down stairs is prettttty painful. growing muscles is hard, i guess.)
(and i'm oddly REALLY sad about the us women losing to japan in the world cup finals. this is odd because i didn't care about how the team was doing until, oh, today, and now i'm really really invested. sigh. hard way to lose.)
there was a spaniel on board the mayflower. this little dog, once, was chased by wolves not far from the plantation and ran to crouch between its master's legs "for succour." smart dog - it knew that muskets are sharper than teeth. what i find remarkable about this animal is that i should know of its existence at all, that its unimportant passage through time should be recorded. it becomes one of those vital inessentials that convince one that history is true.
i know about the little spaniel. i know what the weather was like in massachusetts on wednesday march 7th 1620 (cold but fair, with the wind in the east). i know the names of those who died that winter and of those who did not. i know what you ate and drank, how you furnished your houses, which of you were men of conscience and application and which were not. and i know, also, nothing. because i cannot shed my skin and put on yours, cannot strip my mind of its knowledge and its prejudices, cannot look cleanly at the world with the eyes of a child, am as imprisoned by my time as you were by yours.
why do i find this so wonderful? i'm not quite sure. i think the history teacher in me connects to it. or something. whatever the reason, i'm liking it a lot.
(additionally, i cannot lift my arms above my head, and going down stairs is prettttty painful. growing muscles is hard, i guess.)
(and i'm oddly REALLY sad about the us women losing to japan in the world cup finals. this is odd because i didn't care about how the team was doing until, oh, today, and now i'm really really invested. sigh. hard way to lose.)
Saturday, July 16, 2011
my first excursion to an english gym
1. i took a weightlifting/squats/abs class, like i take back home. with the music on, the instructor could very well have been speaking german. no clue what she was saying, and i couldn't lip-read her english accent very well. i copied the woman in front of me and was a half step behind everyone the whole time. AMATEUR HOUR.
2. um, they use barbells instead of free weights. and they're in kilograms, not pounds. and i have no idea how much the bar weighs. all of this came together to mean that i used more weight that i usually do and about two-thirds of the way through the class i was like "i may die right here, right now." but i didn't. whew. now, can i lift my arms over my head? no, no i can't.
3 (unrelated). it is raining. properly raining. the english way, where it's not raining terribly hard, but it has endurance and will keep this up all day. this is our first rainy day since i got over here three weeks ago, so i can't complain too much. but yuck. (i guess i am complaining.)
2. um, they use barbells instead of free weights. and they're in kilograms, not pounds. and i have no idea how much the bar weighs. all of this came together to mean that i used more weight that i usually do and about two-thirds of the way through the class i was like "i may die right here, right now." but i didn't. whew. now, can i lift my arms over my head? no, no i can't.
3 (unrelated). it is raining. properly raining. the english way, where it's not raining terribly hard, but it has endurance and will keep this up all day. this is our first rainy day since i got over here three weeks ago, so i can't complain too much. but yuck. (i guess i am complaining.)
Friday, July 15, 2011
toMAYto, toMAHto
today i craved fresh tomatoes.
without a kitchen, i'm forced to eat a granola bar for breakfast (fine), get a sandwich or salad from a takeout place for lunch, and eat in the dining hall or go out to dinner. I MISS COOKING. the tomatoes i get in sandwiches are the yucky mealy kind (boo) and there aren't many fresh veggies in the dining hall. today i had to take matters into my own hands. i found some beautiful grape tomatoes at the grocery store and then put them in everything i could get my hands on. pre-made pesto pasta salad? with tomatoes! pre-made wild rice salad? with tomatoes! hummus? with tomatoes! i ate an entire carton full of tomatoes. it was awesome.
life is good.
(in general, my days are working/eating/hanging out with friends/going to the pub/sleeping/repeating. nothing super exciting to report, other than that i'm still really enjoying the people i work with and i'm getting to know the kids and (mostly) enjoying them as well. oh, and i joined the gym in town for the month! have i been yet? well, no, but i've got big plans to go tomorrow morning. it's been three weeks since i did any exercise other than walking and i miss it. i'll report back on whether i can get my act together, but the 40 pounds i paid for the month's gym membership will guilt me into going, i'm pretty sure...)
without a kitchen, i'm forced to eat a granola bar for breakfast (fine), get a sandwich or salad from a takeout place for lunch, and eat in the dining hall or go out to dinner. I MISS COOKING. the tomatoes i get in sandwiches are the yucky mealy kind (boo) and there aren't many fresh veggies in the dining hall. today i had to take matters into my own hands. i found some beautiful grape tomatoes at the grocery store and then put them in everything i could get my hands on. pre-made pesto pasta salad? with tomatoes! pre-made wild rice salad? with tomatoes! hummus? with tomatoes! i ate an entire carton full of tomatoes. it was awesome.
life is good.
(in general, my days are working/eating/hanging out with friends/going to the pub/sleeping/repeating. nothing super exciting to report, other than that i'm still really enjoying the people i work with and i'm getting to know the kids and (mostly) enjoying them as well. oh, and i joined the gym in town for the month! have i been yet? well, no, but i've got big plans to go tomorrow morning. it's been three weeks since i did any exercise other than walking and i miss it. i'll report back on whether i can get my act together, but the 40 pounds i paid for the month's gym membership will guilt me into going, i'm pretty sure...)
advice
to finish or not to finish?
i'm 115 pages into jonathan strange & mr. norrell, by susanna clarke, which is 1005 pages long.
i'm intrigued but not eager to read it.
has anyone read this book? i think i need to decide in the next hundred pages or so whether i want to finish this or whether i want to give up on it. argh. it's no fun reading something that isn't compelling...but maybe it just takes a while to get into? would love advice if anyone has it...
thankyouverymuch.
i'm 115 pages into jonathan strange & mr. norrell, by susanna clarke, which is 1005 pages long.
i'm intrigued but not eager to read it.
has anyone read this book? i think i need to decide in the next hundred pages or so whether i want to finish this or whether i want to give up on it. argh. it's no fun reading something that isn't compelling...but maybe it just takes a while to get into? would love advice if anyone has it...
thankyouverymuch.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
things i have learned from teaching that i will use as a parent
#1 - send your kids to summer camp when they are little.
don't send your kid to summer camp for the first time when they are 16 years old and the camp is four weeks long and in a foreign country. they will get homesick. OF COURSE. let them get homesick when the camp is an hour away and they only have to make it through a couple days.
two days ago i had a parent ask me to help make his daughter a friend, which DOESN'T WORK because no one wants an adult to tell you who your friend is. but whatever, i tried. and then the parent told me that the friend i tried to set her up with was "more homesick than [his daughter]" (which just isn't true), and i had failed and could i find his daughter another friend? NO I CANNOT.
sheesh, people.
[i actually have a lot of parenting tips saved up from 9 summers of working at summer camp and 7 years of teaching - mostly things NOT TO DO - so get ready for a very exciting series of occasional posts. you're welcome.]
don't send your kid to summer camp for the first time when they are 16 years old and the camp is four weeks long and in a foreign country. they will get homesick. OF COURSE. let them get homesick when the camp is an hour away and they only have to make it through a couple days.
two days ago i had a parent ask me to help make his daughter a friend, which DOESN'T WORK because no one wants an adult to tell you who your friend is. but whatever, i tried. and then the parent told me that the friend i tried to set her up with was "more homesick than [his daughter]" (which just isn't true), and i had failed and could i find his daughter another friend? NO I CANNOT.
sheesh, people.
[i actually have a lot of parenting tips saved up from 9 summers of working at summer camp and 7 years of teaching - mostly things NOT TO DO - so get ready for a very exciting series of occasional posts. you're welcome.]
Monday, July 11, 2011
the kids arrived yesterday. controlled chaos. as usual.
i went to bed at 11pm after having worked straight - and been on my feet 95% of the time - since 8am. boo hiss. i was tired.
at 1am i was awoke by frantic knocking on my door. in quirky oxford fashion, my room has two doors, with a little corridor in between that's about 3 feet long. don't ask. the outer door locks and the inner door...is there for no reason that i can understand. but when i go to sleep i shut both doors. i have no idea how long the knocking had been going on because it's quite muffled with another door in the way.
i go to the door, putting my glasses on as i go, and there stands a boy with no shirt on. direct transcription of our conversation:
boy: "i'm so so sorry, but i sleepwalked out of my room..."
me: "go to the porter."*
boy: "...and locked myself out."
me: "go to the porter."
boy: "what?"
me: "go to the porter and he'll let you back in your room."
boy: "okay, thanks!"
me: "[indistinguishable mumbling as i went back to bed]."
in the light of day, i'm not totally confident that he knew where the porter's lodge is. oops.
but he SLEEPWALKED OUT OF HIS ROOM?
this is going to be a long summer.
*a porter is sort of the guardian of the college - they deal with security and are posted at the main gate of the college 24 hours a day. they also let kids into their room if they lock themselves out.
i went to bed at 11pm after having worked straight - and been on my feet 95% of the time - since 8am. boo hiss. i was tired.
at 1am i was awoke by frantic knocking on my door. in quirky oxford fashion, my room has two doors, with a little corridor in between that's about 3 feet long. don't ask. the outer door locks and the inner door...is there for no reason that i can understand. but when i go to sleep i shut both doors. i have no idea how long the knocking had been going on because it's quite muffled with another door in the way.
i go to the door, putting my glasses on as i go, and there stands a boy with no shirt on. direct transcription of our conversation:
boy: "i'm so so sorry, but i sleepwalked out of my room..."
me: "go to the porter."*
boy: "...and locked myself out."
me: "go to the porter."
boy: "what?"
me: "go to the porter and he'll let you back in your room."
boy: "okay, thanks!"
me: "[indistinguishable mumbling as i went back to bed]."
in the light of day, i'm not totally confident that he knew where the porter's lodge is. oops.
but he SLEEPWALKED OUT OF HIS ROOM?
this is going to be a long summer.
*a porter is sort of the guardian of the college - they deal with security and are posted at the main gate of the college 24 hours a day. they also let kids into their room if they lock themselves out.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
walking back from a pub tonight:
me: has that tesco's [a grocery store] always been there?
jen (my co-dean): i don't think so. [pointing to the police station across the street]: i had to go to the police station last year to try to get the police report on that girl who shoplifted and i don't remember the tesco's.
me: yeah, i went to the police station with the girl who got hit by the bus, and i definitely would have remembered the tesco's.
oh, summer camp...
this year's set of kids arrive tomorrow!
me: has that tesco's [a grocery store] always been there?
jen (my co-dean): i don't think so. [pointing to the police station across the street]: i had to go to the police station last year to try to get the police report on that girl who shoplifted and i don't remember the tesco's.
me: yeah, i went to the police station with the girl who got hit by the bus, and i definitely would have remembered the tesco's.
oh, summer camp...
this year's set of kids arrive tomorrow!
Friday, July 8, 2011
eek - i have been really bad about updating since i got to oxford. the truth is (a) i'm really really busy - working from 9am until dinner time, then having fun with all these friends - fun we can't have as much of once the kids get here, and (b) nothing terribly exciting is happening. we work, we eat, we drink, we laugh, we sleep. there is very little claire time. while we're having a lot of fun in addition to working hard, there just isn't much interesting to SAY. so, apologies for not having much interesting to say.
i'm really liking my new office; the old office (when i was in the other college) was very male-heavy, with lots of banter and little organization, and i loved that and was very frustrated by that at the same time. two of my friends from that office are back again this year (in the other college, so i see them only in the evenings when work is done), and we've done lots of laughing and bantering and that has been wonderful. my new office is very female-heavy, so there is a lot of giggling and a lot of organization, and it's a more comfortable environment for me - i don't have to be the responsible one who makes us get back to work - we're all on the same page. i love my female co-dean (jennifer) and our two female PAs (oxford undergraduates) and we work together really well. we feel bad for the two men in our office (who are awesome, as well) - one dean and one PA - who have to listen to us talk about kate middleton and get excited about multicolored index cards. the vibe is just very different, and i'm able to go back and forth between the two, getting the best of both worlds. it's really really nice.
the kids arrive on sunday. eek.
i'm really liking my new office; the old office (when i was in the other college) was very male-heavy, with lots of banter and little organization, and i loved that and was very frustrated by that at the same time. two of my friends from that office are back again this year (in the other college, so i see them only in the evenings when work is done), and we've done lots of laughing and bantering and that has been wonderful. my new office is very female-heavy, so there is a lot of giggling and a lot of organization, and it's a more comfortable environment for me - i don't have to be the responsible one who makes us get back to work - we're all on the same page. i love my female co-dean (jennifer) and our two female PAs (oxford undergraduates) and we work together really well. we feel bad for the two men in our office (who are awesome, as well) - one dean and one PA - who have to listen to us talk about kate middleton and get excited about multicolored index cards. the vibe is just very different, and i'm able to go back and forth between the two, getting the best of both worlds. it's really really nice.
the kids arrive on sunday. eek.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
terminology
note: pub quizzes in england are hard for americans. i got maybe...oh that's right: 0 answers correct on my own. awesome. hahaha...still a lot of fun, though, and the british people on our team pulled up our score while i drank cider and looked interested.
at one point the question was: what do these two things have in common: buffalo and bingo. the answer (which we did not get) was that they both have wings. what are bingo wings, you ask? it is what brits call the flabby arm fat on an old woman when she raises her arm in the air and yells "bingo!" i never knew what to call that arm fat, and "bingo wings" is the best. phrase. ever.
at one point the question was: what do these two things have in common: buffalo and bingo. the answer (which we did not get) was that they both have wings. what are bingo wings, you ask? it is what brits call the flabby arm fat on an old woman when she raises her arm in the air and yells "bingo!" i never knew what to call that arm fat, and "bingo wings" is the best. phrase. ever.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
euros
the scene: it's our last day in ireland and other claire and i are doing a good job using up all our euros, because when we drive into northern ireland and then fly from belfast back to london we will be using pounds. turns out we did an awesome job using up all our euros - we spent the last of our cash (down to only change left over) buying gas for our rental car in ireland a couple miles before crossing the border. yes! we are excellent planners!
approximately one exit down the road we see signs for a toll booth.
in ireland. where they use euros.
not northern ireland. (not that we have any pounds either.)
frantic search of the car for euros. we come up with 1.40 in euros. much of it is in pennies.
the toll is 1.80.
this would only happen to us.
our plans foiled, we are forced to take out the minimum withdrawal (20 euros) at an ATM at the exit before the toll booth.
it wasn't funny at the time.
approximately one exit down the road we see signs for a toll booth.
in ireland. where they use euros.
not northern ireland. (not that we have any pounds either.)
frantic search of the car for euros. we come up with 1.40 in euros. much of it is in pennies.
the toll is 1.80.
this would only happen to us.
our plans foiled, we are forced to take out the minimum withdrawal (20 euros) at an ATM at the exit before the toll booth.
it wasn't funny at the time.
Monday, July 4, 2011
oxford
for the third year in a row i'm not in the US for the 4th of july.
no fireworks, no decorations, no patriotic music, no plans of how to celebrate.
of course i don't need those things, but i still feel that absence. so happy happy 4th of july everyone!! enjoy some fireworks for me!
i'm in oxford, settled into my room where the internet works (yay), and i started work yesterday (well - dinner and drinks yesterday...work started today). it was so good to see friends from past summers (it feels, genuinely, like days have passed since i saw them, not months), and i'm enjoying getting to know the new people, too. hooray! oh, and i did laundry! which was good, since i was on my second to last pair of underwear and my last pair of socks... i guess all this is to say that i'm enjoying all the little comforts of being someplace (semi-)permanently.
no fireworks, no decorations, no patriotic music, no plans of how to celebrate.
of course i don't need those things, but i still feel that absence. so happy happy 4th of july everyone!! enjoy some fireworks for me!
i'm in oxford, settled into my room where the internet works (yay), and i started work yesterday (well - dinner and drinks yesterday...work started today). it was so good to see friends from past summers (it feels, genuinely, like days have passed since i saw them, not months), and i'm enjoying getting to know the new people, too. hooray! oh, and i did laundry! which was good, since i was on my second to last pair of underwear and my last pair of socks... i guess all this is to say that i'm enjoying all the little comforts of being someplace (semi-)permanently.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
ireland hearts obama.
i heart obama.
and this is the best shirt ever!!!
other claire and i were walking through the touristy area of galway a couple days ago and saw this shirt. obama was just in ireland a month ago, and the shirt was discounted because, i guess, his visit had already happened. irish is spoken a lot in galway - there were places where the signs were ONLY in irish, which was not the best situation for us - and other claire and i decided the shirt meant "obama is irish." so we go in the shop and ask the dude behind the counter, who wasn't exactly amused with us, and he said that "is feidir linn" is irish for "yes we can."
other claire and i promptly plopped down our 6 euros each and bought the last two smalls he had.
i am in love with this shirt.
you should also watch this video, because it is adorable (and proves that mr. t-shirt man's translation is correct).
i heart obama.
and this is the best shirt ever!!!
other claire and i were walking through the touristy area of galway a couple days ago and saw this shirt. obama was just in ireland a month ago, and the shirt was discounted because, i guess, his visit had already happened. irish is spoken a lot in galway - there were places where the signs were ONLY in irish, which was not the best situation for us - and other claire and i decided the shirt meant "obama is irish." so we go in the shop and ask the dude behind the counter, who wasn't exactly amused with us, and he said that "is feidir linn" is irish for "yes we can."
other claire and i promptly plopped down our 6 euros each and bought the last two smalls he had.
i am in love with this shirt.
you should also watch this video, because it is adorable (and proves that mr. t-shirt man's translation is correct).
Saturday, July 2, 2011
claire and i leave dublin this afternoon (after lunch, of course - food takes priority) to drive to the belfast airport, return the rental car, and fly to london. we're staying at a hotel near heathrow airport tonight, then we'll go into the city in the morning; i'll take a bus to oxford (!) and other claire will stay a day in london before going to cambridge (her program starts a day later than mine). so lots of traveling in the next 24 hours, but then i'll be able to settle in for a while. exciting!
ireland, you were good to us. goodbye for now...
ireland, you were good to us. goodbye for now...
check out #66! (flawed methodology aside - NCSSM doesn't offer AP classes or push kids to take AP tests - i'm still proud, of course.)
Friday, July 1, 2011
google maps...and the cliffs of moher
let me just say something about google maps. in the US, when i google map something and it says it will take, let's say, 3 hours to get there, i think, "i could get there in 2.5, but with a stop that's probably right on." google maps is accurate to how i drive. THIS IS NOT THE CASE HERE. if google maps says it will take 3 hours, we have learned that there is no way in the universe it will take 3 hours. it will take 4 or 4.5 and that is just how it is. because you can't go the speed limit on these roads - we will LAUGH at the speed limit. "100 km/h on this road? if i wanted to die going around that corner, perhaps. i will go 60, and that is pushing it." when there is a stone wall 1 foot from the car to the left and a tour bus speeding by 1 inch from the car on the right, you don't exactly go the speed limit. so...google maps will get us there, but how long it will take is up for debate.
yesterday we drove from doolin to dingle, with a stop at the cliffs of moher on the way. THE CLIFFS OF MOHER ARE GORGEOUS.
in this picture it looks like we were the only people at the cliffs of moher. this is not true (according to the brochure, 1 million people visit a year, and a fair number of them were there yesterday), but i like looking at that picture - i like pretending we were there alone.
there was actually a relatively unobtrusive fence-thing keeping us back from the edge. good idea, i say.
and these are the cows grazing, um, right at the cliffs of moher. these cows have a rockin' view, and a million people a year to come and say hi to them. this is so funny to me - how close private land is to these national parks (or whatever they're called).
we got to dingle, you know, an hour after google maps said we would. then we did what i'm calling the "claire is your navigator" move, as this has happened in EVERY place we're staying (no exceptions): we drive through the town one time, totally lost, and then i actually get us to our hostel on the second attempt. go me!
we had reallllly good pizza for dinner and INCREDIBLE ice cream for dessert (thank you, lonely planet!) - i got sea salt and dark chocolate (one scoop of each) - other claire had honeycomb and dark chocolate. yum. the dude running our hostel recommended a pub to go to with a band (two women singers and a guitarist) he really likes - turned out to be an awesome recommendation. this is them - not from last night:
we wrote postcards and befriended the 60-something canadian couple next to us (they were really interesting) and listened to great music while having a drink. the band played joni mitchell's "carey" at one point, and you know i almost died. great night.
we're off to dublin today!
yesterday we drove from doolin to dingle, with a stop at the cliffs of moher on the way. THE CLIFFS OF MOHER ARE GORGEOUS.
in this picture it looks like we were the only people at the cliffs of moher. this is not true (according to the brochure, 1 million people visit a year, and a fair number of them were there yesterday), but i like looking at that picture - i like pretending we were there alone.
there was actually a relatively unobtrusive fence-thing keeping us back from the edge. good idea, i say.
and these are the cows grazing, um, right at the cliffs of moher. these cows have a rockin' view, and a million people a year to come and say hi to them. this is so funny to me - how close private land is to these national parks (or whatever they're called).
we got to dingle, you know, an hour after google maps said we would. then we did what i'm calling the "claire is your navigator" move, as this has happened in EVERY place we're staying (no exceptions): we drive through the town one time, totally lost, and then i actually get us to our hostel on the second attempt. go me!
we had reallllly good pizza for dinner and INCREDIBLE ice cream for dessert (thank you, lonely planet!) - i got sea salt and dark chocolate (one scoop of each) - other claire had honeycomb and dark chocolate. yum. the dude running our hostel recommended a pub to go to with a band (two women singers and a guitarist) he really likes - turned out to be an awesome recommendation. this is them - not from last night:
we wrote postcards and befriended the 60-something canadian couple next to us (they were really interesting) and listened to great music while having a drink. the band played joni mitchell's "carey" at one point, and you know i almost died. great night.
we're off to dublin today!
june: 15, 16, 17, 18
break in regularly scheduled travel posting to tell you about what i read in june! june was a pretty prolific reading month - summer vacation has given me a lot of time to read, and i love it.
the golden compass, by philip pullman (this is no hunger games, but this is still some pretty good young adult fiction. and there was oxford in it, too! i was definitely entertained by the storyline and will be reading the next book in the series when i get back from england. after reading the book i decided to get the film version from netflix...and that was a mistake. it was cheesy in that way that movies for kids are. the book was sophisticated as far as YA fiction goes. skip the movie.)
the immortal life of henrietta lacks, by rebecca skloot (did you spend ANDERSON'S BIRTHDAY WEEKEND in charleston with me? if so, i subjected you to fun facts from this book every 10 minutes or so. I AM OBSESSED WITH THIS BOOK. an incredible true story of a woman and some cells. i really can't recommend it highly enough - it is science and oral history and family and race and medical ethics all smushed together, and i read it at a breakneck speed. WHY ARE YOU NOT GETTING IT FROM YOUR LIBRARY RIGHT NOW?!)
how soccer explains the world, by franklin foer (this book was interesting and all, but not that interesting. or maybe i'd just finished the best nonfiction book i'd read in a LONG time and this paled in comparison. it didn't really explain the world at all - it just told me some quasi-interesting stories about soccer in different cultures. huge soccer fan? read this. anybody else? skip it. if it hadn't been summer - when i can read during the day - i think i would have been reading this book for an eternity, 10 slow pages at a time.)
year of wonders, by geraldine brooks (fictional portrayal of a real life event - in 1665 in rural england, the plague came to a small town and the local pastor convinced everyone in the town to quarantine themselves by staying in the town - thus not spreading the plague, but killing more than half of the town's inhabitants. the story is told from the viewpoint of the pastor's maid. some of the fictional plot lines within this larger story were a little improbable, i thought, but overall i really enjoyed it!)
the golden compass, by philip pullman (this is no hunger games, but this is still some pretty good young adult fiction. and there was oxford in it, too! i was definitely entertained by the storyline and will be reading the next book in the series when i get back from england. after reading the book i decided to get the film version from netflix...and that was a mistake. it was cheesy in that way that movies for kids are. the book was sophisticated as far as YA fiction goes. skip the movie.)
the immortal life of henrietta lacks, by rebecca skloot (did you spend ANDERSON'S BIRTHDAY WEEKEND in charleston with me? if so, i subjected you to fun facts from this book every 10 minutes or so. I AM OBSESSED WITH THIS BOOK. an incredible true story of a woman and some cells. i really can't recommend it highly enough - it is science and oral history and family and race and medical ethics all smushed together, and i read it at a breakneck speed. WHY ARE YOU NOT GETTING IT FROM YOUR LIBRARY RIGHT NOW?!)
how soccer explains the world, by franklin foer (this book was interesting and all, but not that interesting. or maybe i'd just finished the best nonfiction book i'd read in a LONG time and this paled in comparison. it didn't really explain the world at all - it just told me some quasi-interesting stories about soccer in different cultures. huge soccer fan? read this. anybody else? skip it. if it hadn't been summer - when i can read during the day - i think i would have been reading this book for an eternity, 10 slow pages at a time.)
year of wonders, by geraldine brooks (fictional portrayal of a real life event - in 1665 in rural england, the plague came to a small town and the local pastor convinced everyone in the town to quarantine themselves by staying in the town - thus not spreading the plague, but killing more than half of the town's inhabitants. the story is told from the viewpoint of the pastor's maid. some of the fictional plot lines within this larger story were a little improbable, i thought, but overall i really enjoyed it!)
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