Famous.

Smell the Roses

Jeffery is taking the rest of our furniture up to Willits today. It's his only day off after a work week with half a dozen hours of overtime. I watched Dan in Real Life tonight. Good movie. I am so glad that I have found the man I love and after all of this I'll get to be with him for the rest of my life. Getting through the next 12 days with three assignment due and an exam is going to be a challenge for me, but I'm going to do it well, and after that I'll have a month to travel and see this amazing country. I am learning a lot, I already have, and I know I have more to learn. It is exciting to be where I am. All I do is look forward to the future. But I should really try to appreciate the present as well. Smell the roses and all that (there are no flowers blooming here. They won't bloom until Jeffery come in spring--how appropriate).

I appreciate having a warm room and bed, and flatmates that are easy and fun to talk to. I always look forward to going down to the kitchen, because interesting conversations always await.
I appreciate the girls on my team, and how hard they all work to be good footballers.
I appreciate the lengths my professors go to to teach, even if it sometimes puts me to sleep.
I appreciate the welcomed distractions of Jane Austen novels and films, and I look forward to the class I'm going to take next semester.
I appreciate the support of my family and friends.
I appreciate having free health care for the first time in my life.
I appreciate the opportunity to wear boots, hats, gloves, scarves, sweaters, and layers of socks.
I appreciate the opportunity to talk to people and establish friendships across the world.
I appreciate that San Francisco and all my friends will be there when I get back.
I appreciate the uncharted cities that await my arrival.
I appreciate the invitations to Christmas and the homes that will be opened to me for the holiday season.

♥

An English Thanksgiving

Undoubtedly the best Thanksgiving ever. It started with a 6-0 victory over Warwick. Colney Lane (the pitch where we play) consistently gives us gusty conditions followed by incredible skies at sunset. I love my team. I can't wait for tour in Rimini, Italy in April!


I decided to organize a potluck Thanksgiving dinner, with the help of my fellow American girls in Orwell Close. Rose (from Arizona) found an oven off campus and ambitiously took on Tallulah, a 17 lb beast of a bird. I prepared apple crisp the night before, macaroni and cheese the morning of, and stove top apple sausage stuffing.

It was the largest scale T-day meal I have ever had. And the most diverse. We 21 attendees, representing 6 countries. Other dishes included: sweet potato mash, nut loaf, Greek salad, broccoli salad, orange cranberry sauce, roast turnip and carrots, mashed potatoes, the best gravy ever, couscous salad, rolls, steamed spinach, vegetarian stuffing, mixed berry cobbler, mince pies, chocolate turkeys, and Christmas puds. Needless to say, everything was delicious and tasted like Thanksgiving. The most impressive part was that everything but the turkey was cooked without an oven.

From left to right: Ingrid from Norway, Kat from Colorado/Oregon, James, Jamie, Alex, Bianca (all British), Tim from Australia, and Rachael from Southern California.

We went around the table and gave thanks. The consensus was that we were all thankful to be with one another, and to experience the diversity of holiday traditions. It's nice to be part of a international community of students. We live in the oldest, smallest residence on campus, and we all feel lucky to be the chosen few.

After so much food I felt like the one in the middle.

See's chocolate turkeys and mince pies.

♥

Jane Austen

Last night I watched Becoming Jane, which was absolutely beautiful. The cinematography was enchanting, the costumes, set design and location breathtaking, and the acting divine. The story itself is heartbreaking. But the three British girls I watched it with agree that if Jane Austen had had a happier ending, then she wouldn't have found it necessary to write such great love stories. It was a sacrifice. It was filmed in Dublin and rural Ireland instead of Hampshire, England, the birthplace of Jane Austen. The reason being because Hampshire is now groomed and manicured and they were looking for a sense of countryside that felt more unchanged. It made me want to start reading Pride and Prejudice again immediately, which I did.

I already received my syllabus for the Austen and the Brontes module I am taking next semester. I need to have Pride and Prejudice read by the first seminar in January. We will also be examining Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Wuthering Heights, and Jane Eyre. I read Jane Eyre cover to cover the first couple of weeks I was in England. I think I am at the perfect point in my life to appreciate true romantic classics. Even if one has read a book before, every time they pick it up again it has new relevance because the reader has changed. I feel very changed, and I have only been here two months.

Watching the movie last night made me realize how 200+ years ago, everything was poetic. I am currently finding it difficult to romanticize my memories and write any decent poetry. Then again, I spend a lot more time thinking about how I have nothing to write about than actually attempting to write. I have to have a 6-10 poem collection in the first week of December, and a 15-20 poem collection for my dissertation next spring. Better get writing...

Norwich in November

On Saturday Lois and I ventured into the city center for groceries. Because it was a beautiful day we decided to go to the castle and the cathedral, which neither of us had seen. We were impressed.

The Norwich Castle was built in 1067 when William the Conqueror (1066 - 1087) ordered its construction because he wished to have a fortified place in the important city of Norwich. In the event, it proved to be his only castle in East Anglia. Ninety-eight Saxon homes were demolished to make way for the castle.

Archway to the cathedral

Standing at 315 feet, the cathedral's spire is the second tallest in England, and dominates the city skyline; only the spire of Salisbury Cathedral is higher at 404 feet.

The cloisters at Norwich Cathedral (engraving).

The cathedral was built between the late 11th century and about 1145.

Secret Garden

I have a seminar in the law building, and to get there I have to take a path across a field and through woods and some gables, hedged gardens, and greenhouses to this ancient brick building that has ruined arches and is covered in ivy. It looks like it is right out of Wuthering Heights. It is so charming. I think the seminar room itself was once a drawing room, with windows all around. There is also a student's lounge, that looks like it has been taken out of a Harry Potter movie. England is so beautiful in Autumn.

Football in Warwick

The pitch we played on in Warwick was perfect, and very picturesque. The sky was dynamic and the sun was just setting near the end of our game.

Pregame shenanigans.

Warwick was the most competition we've seen. The first 20 minutes of the game were fairly equal, and the ball moved from one end to the other. They scored the first goal, which made me nervous. We possessed the ball most of the first half, and got two in before halftime. There was a definite shift after that, as we gained momentum and they became demoralized. In the second half it was clear we were the stronger team, and we scored six more goals. Final score: 8-1. Our closest game so far...

National Gallery Favorites

From the National Gallery in London, these were my favorites by Monet.

The Gare St-Lazre

Bathers at La Grenouillère


The Museum at la Havre

The Thames at Westminster

When I first saw this painting, I was struck by its subtle use of contrast, and how beautifully Monet captured a foggy morning. It wasn't until later, after I had been there, when I was looking at the postcards of these paintings, that I realized it was Big Ben and Parliament and the Westminster Bridge. Now I love it even more.

Camille Pissarro
The Boulevard Montmarte at Night

London!

I really did have an incredible time in London. It was better than I imagined it could be. But it made me really miss Jeffery, and long for March. There were times in London when I questioned my adventuresome spirit. Like when we first got there we wandered around for hours not knowing where we were, we couldn't decipher our map, we had no landmarks to go off of, and then it started to rain. We had been up since 4 am, because we caught a 5:30 train, and so when we got there, nothing was open yet and we were exhausted at the start. And I thought, "this is not fun. My feet hurt already, my back hurts...." and I started to think I wasn't cut out for traveling. It was the first time I have been in a new city on foot without my parents. But then as the day progressed, we became more decisive. There was a definite learning curve, and as we figured out the tube system (absolutely amazing!) and the street maps, it became so enjoyable. It was really rewarding figuring it out. And now I feel like I know London and could get around no problem. My favorite part of the trip was the National Gallery, where there was a Monet exhibition, but I couldn't take any photos. I just loved all of the parks and museums. It reminded me of Paris. I love that walking around and taking photos doesn't cost anything. The Tower of London was the only thing that we paid for.

The London Eye

Big Ben and Parliament

I think people were afraid of the little bit of rain we got, because there were no crowds on a Saturday. Sunday was so beautiful that all of the museums were packed, but we covered so much ground on Saturday that we really had a leisurely day Sunday, and spent most of it in the Kensington Gardens/Hyde park area.

St. James's Park

Buckingham Palace

Green Park

The funniest moment came about because I had to pee incessantly. Finding a bathroom was always a problem. I was delirious from walking all day, and I told Alex, "I've had to pee a lot since I got here. I think it's the minerals in the water building up on the inside of my urethra" and we had a good laugh. Alex was a really good traveling companion. He relinquished the role of map holder to me early on, and I enjoyed navigating.

Kensington Gardens


Royal Albert Hall

Part of the Albert Memorial

Natural History Museum

Hyde Park

Eaton Park

This is Eaton Park, a five minute walk from campus. I scheduled a "kick about" here with the football girls a couple weeks ago. It is so nice to have accessible a group of girls who enjoy kicking the ball around. I have never before seen a park with so many football pitches. ♥