field trip!

This is the oldest buliding in Oxford...but now its a cell phone store. haha
The HUGE pretty organ in the church.
Part of the original medieval wall on the south side of the gate.

This was the view from on top of the tower and see how high we are, because the tiny, tiny people below.

Me, Eryn, and Jessica
The tower from on the ground.
The bagpiper..who by the way was awesome

Today in Oxford Through the Ages...aka, OXTA went to St. Micheal's Tower. And then we walked all around town and we were shown were the original medieval wall was. The Tower that we saw was on the very north side of the gate, when Oxford was surrounded by the medieval wall. It was very interesting and I enjoyed it. Next to the original tower is now a church, and the church was very beautiful and historic(as everything seems to be over here). A guy playing the bagpipes was playing right next the church, and we could hear him playing Amazing Grace, while we toured it.

Something VERY exciting, well at least me to and other HP fans...is that my professor saw EMMA WATSON in Oxford the other day at Starbucks!!! That means I have just as much of a chance to see her, and I will definitely be keeping my eyes out. Also..the filming for the new movie is taking place about an hour away from here...at least that's the rumor. It would also be VERY exciting to go see the set and filming of it, if I was allowed to! OK, that's enough Harry Potter nerdiness for right now..but I know a lot of you reading this are excited with me, so that makes me feel better.

I am now an official member of the Oxford public library, which is very exciting. It's very big and I will have a lot of resources for papers, etc. They charge you money for reserving a book though, which is weird to me.

There's not much more to report right now, but I will be going to London this Friday! So I'll probably have pictures up on Saturday.

Cheers!!!

Lazy Sunday

Today i went to church at Christ Church..and I'm really glad I went. It was very different from what I have ever experienced before at church..but it was good for me. The cathedral was magnificent. Huge walls, big HUGE ceiling, and lots of the stained glass had numerous figures on it from history. We sat in tiny booths were there was a cushion where we knelled on, at various points in the service. It was very structured where they followed an outline of what was to happen and what the priest said and what the congregation said. During communion we went as rows up to the front where we knelled down and they gave us the bread, and then tilted a glass of wine for us to drink up to our faces, which everyone else has drunk from. Being a germ-a-phobia, it was very hard for me but it was really kind of a neat experience in a weird way. My favorite part of the whole service was the choir. It was an all-male choir..and the younger boys had these high, angelic voices that were BEAUTIFUL! It's hard to describe unless your there listening to it, in that amazing church. They sang in Latin and they had the meanings of the word in booklets.
This experience was really good for me because even though I don't agree with everything that they were saying and everything that was happening, I really felt God in that place, and it opened my eyes to not be so close minded when it comes to different divisions of Christianity. I was touched by the kind smile and words of the woman who greeted us when when we walked in, with the words of the songs, and the assurance by the man at the door while we were leaving that we were welcome anytime.
I do not think that I will be attending every week, in fact I may try to go to a different church every Sunday that I am actually in town.

Then the rest of today I have been hanging around in the house, doing homework, and being lazy. Me and Jessica made some pizza that she had bought for 79 pence..and lets just say that the price should have spoke volumes about the taste. Even though it wasn't bad per say...it just tasted like warm bread with cheese on it, and not really like a pizza. haha, I really do need to invent some more things to eat over here, i am jealous of all these chefs over here.

Also, Me , Jessica, and Karissa booked our flight for Prague today!! I am not sure if anyone else is coming with us or not...which is a little scary going to a country we don't speak, with only 3 girls...but i am sure it will be fine, and it will definitely be and adventure!!!

I hope you guys had a great Sunday!

A day in Bath

Today was my first official trip traveling outside of Oxford. We went for a day trip instead of spending the night. It was so much fun and we felt really proud of ourselves that we made it there and back on our own.
So out train left at 9:20 this morning and we got the the train station at 9 but when we got there we didn't see a listing for Bath posted on the departure board, so we went to ask..and the lady told them to switch trains at "dennington" to take us to bath. Well to make a long story short, right before we were going to get on the train, we looked and no "dennington" was listed..so jay RAN quick to ask the lady and she said that yes this was our train and we need to get off at "dicot"(the girls didn't understand what she was saying the first time) and we RAN onto the train just as the doors were closing..haha we knew we had to start off with a bang.
Then we got to Bath without much trouble..and we first went to the Roman baths..which were REALLY cool. that took about an hour and a half. One crazy thing that happened while we were there was that they were filming a BBC TV show called, "Bonekickers" and we had to go into a certain room for a time not to disturb the filming...BUT the first time they had to refilm because a lot of our faces were in the shot on accident.. that would have been really cool to get on a British TV show.
Then we walked around and saw a bunch of cool buildings, attempted to find where Jane Austen lived, but couldn't, went to a botanical garden park, and basically just had a really good time exploring and walking around. We were heading towards the train station to leave to go back to Oxford.. when all of a sudden i felt my pocket and realized my camera had FALLEN OUT!! I was SO angry with myself and i was freaking out. We split up into 2 groups of 3 and went back retracing our steps..and AMAZINGLY it was on a bench that we had been sitting at earlier. I was SO relieved and lesson learned...i will always put it back into my backpack, zipped up!
So all in all, today was an exciting, fun day and I am excited about all the other places I am going to get to go!
I love you all!



Me and Jessica in front of Royal Crescent..and
My dream house
Taken at the botanical garden park we walked through
These pictures are dedicated to my beloved sister, Sarah Easter

These was taken at the Roman baths



The cathedral is Bath Abbey.

Me, Laurel and Jay and Karissa, Beth, and Jessica on our way to Bath!..and i couldnt resist putting up that really cool picture of my banana. That view is the view from the train right before we got off at the Bath exit. and The last picture is the front view of Bath Abbey.

Market Day

Today was the fresh market, where everything is in booth type things, and basically its lots and lots of random things that you can find good deals on. I got a pineapple, bananas, a pear, some candy, dried fruit, laundry detergent, air freshener, and cheese for about 6 pounds...which is pretty good, i think. I am done with classes this week, because i dont have any classes on thursday and we dont have humanites on friday...so everyone is busy planning somewhere to go this weeked. Some people are leaving for the whole weekend while people, like me are just going to go on a long day trip. Me, Karissa, Jessica, Laurel, Beth, and Jay are planning on taking a day trip to Bath on Friday and possible taking a bus ride out to see Stonehenge. Ive heard you cant actually get very close to Stonehenge, but some people in my group really want to go, so I'm fine with seeing it.

I'm still really excited to be here..but the initial excitement has worn off a little bit. Right now I miss familiar things. Its hard sometimes feeling like a complete idiot when you dont know how things are done, like something so simple as how to order a certain food at a booth or resturant, whether because you can't understand what they are saying or theres just a different way that its done then you are used to. It does make me want to reach out to travelers or foreign people back home. I guess the best way to deal with it, is to try to laugh it off and to have the mindset that you are learning..and that its ok to say something dumb.

Well, theres not much else to report. I will put pictures up of Bath probably on Saturday. Sorry I dont have any recent pictures... I miss you all so much.

classes are here

This was me and Krisann's "rain is frustrating and sad faces"And then theres our very wet shoes and pants...and that cute dog was waiting outside the grocery store for its owner. It was trained to just sit there and wait!


Today was the first day of classes...and part of me was looking foward to it because then I will start to get a routine down, and not feel like I'm on a 4 month vacation...Then, we had class and I was reminded that I actually have to DO schoolwork here. HaHa. I will try to concentrate and get things done as quickly as I can. Part of what makes it hard is because each class is 2 hours and 50 minute long. What I am really excited about though, is getting to go SEE the things we are learning about. For example, we were talking about Bloody Mary and how she killed tons of people. Well, 2 of the Protestants that she killed were killed in downtown Oxford. There is a memorial that is still there today, which I plan on going to see.


In INTS, Great Britain, we listened to part of the Prime Minister's Questions broadcast. I thought it was so interesting that people could ask the prime minister whatever they wanted, and basically make fun of him to his face while a huge group of followers , yells, cackles, boos and laughs in the background. It's just so different than how the President of the US does not really have to experience that kind of "attack" on his beliefs and knowledge every single week. We are required to listen to the Prime Minister's Questions every week and I am actually looking foward to that.


After class today, it was POURING! and me and Krisann wanted to go get groceries. So we got soaked, we complained, and we laughed. I including pictures for your entertainment.


Tomorrow I just have 1 class at 1:30, so I am definetley sleeping in. I havent been able to sleep well the past few nights. I've been tired when I go to bed, but then I just can't sleep.


Well, I hope all is well in the states! =)

and onto the third!...

This is bridge at University Parks and
the other picture is a really pretty gazebo that we saw
while walking to Cowley Street.








Even in the winter time, the grass and the plants are GREEN!


Me and Karissa being dumb and "eating" one of the big trees at the Parks.


A cool building we saw while walking and me and KrisAnn in front of the door.

There were swans on the water that was flooding the Parks. Today, Me, KrisAnn, and Karissa left the house about 11 and we went exploring. We went to university parks, which is reallly close to the house, and when it warms up a little bit, it will be the PERFECT place to go read, study, walk, and run. So, I'm excited about that. Then we walked for a long time to a place called Crowley road. There were a lot of ethnic foods and shops. We did not eat there but I am sure we will go back and eat there sometime.
It's weird how its misty here...I won't put my umbrella up because its not exactly raining, its just misty...but before I know it, I am somehow soaked and my face is dripping wet.

I tried to plan out where I possibly want to go on trips..and here's what I've decided so far..: Prague, Germany, Italy, Scotland, and Ireland....Exciting huh?!? I mean those are just tentative, but its so cool how we can just decide where we want to go..and GO!

I ate at my first pub tonight. It was really good. I got a sweet and sour chicken sandwich for 3.90, which isnt really that bad.

Anyways, its late here and we have church in the morning. I miss you all, and dont forget to post comments on this blog, and write me emails, etc!

2nd Day

Me and Molly in front of a hotel which we were too underdressed to go in

Me being a "local" and on the right is the pub that C.S. Lewis and JR Tolkien met at often(Eagle and Child-not Green cafe, lol)

this a church near our house

Today, I woke up at 10, and had gone to bed at 8 the night before...wow i got a lot of sleep! Which is good because I needed. Me, Krisann, Jessalyn, and Casey walked around before we had orientation at 1. We found primark, which everyone had told us was like Walmart/Target. It has ALOT of cheap clothes but I dissapointed it did not carry tolitries and other departments. I know where to buy cheap clothes, purses, shoes, etc. now though. Then we had orientation, where we were split up into three groups, and we were given a lot of information about the house, rules, and travel breaks. etc. My class schedule is:

Monday

9:00-11:50 HUM 222

2:00-4:30 INTS 240

Tuesday

1:30-4:00 HUM 240

Wednesday

9:00-11:50 HUM 222

Thursday(no class!!)

Friday

9:00-11:50 HUM 222( which i am kinda bummed about having this on friday because we were told we would have NO CLASS on fridays, but she said it wouldn't be EVERY friday. I wish I could switch my thursday and friday schedule, but I am sure that I will adjust.

Then I went exploring more and we found the big Sainsbury grocery store, that I liked a lot better than the smaller one I had been to yesterday. It seemed more familiar somehow, but I am having a hard time figuring out what to cook/eat...because I don't know how to cook, lol.

Then, later tonight me and some other girls heard that there was free jazz music at a hotel nearby. I thought it sounded fun and i wanted to get out of the house. We showed up and it was a REALLY fancy place. Some of the girls walked in and everyone there gave them weird looks, so we left.

Please email me or facebook me because I really want to hear from you guys!!

First day!

a view while walking around oxford

this is the view from our room window

our house! (right)

this is our room, my bed is on the left

Oh my goodness! It has been such a long 2 days and right now i am really tired, but it is AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL over here! So we left from Abilene on Wednesday around 10, and we got to DFW with enough time for a 3 hour layover because our flight had been delayed a little bit. As soon as we went through security at DFW I already felt like I was in England. A lot of the workers had accents and it just had a European because we flew with British Airlines. The flight was LONG. I tried to sleep but I think I only slept for 1 and 1/2 hours, which was basically my nights sleep for Wed. The plane ride was very nice. They served dinner and breakfast and there were about 15 different movie/tv channels to choose from. AND each seat has its own personal TV in front of it.

The picture is of me and Karissa as we were leaving Abilene on the bus.

As as soon as we arrived in England we have been going,

going, going. They say that its the best way to fight off jet lag is to wait to go to bed until nighttime, but it sure has been hard walking everywhere in the freezing cold on just 1 and 1/2 hours of sleep. We split up into 3 different groups and were shown the highlights of oxford and whats near the house;grocery store, shopping area, ATM, etc.

I live in the all girls house and I have 3 other roommates;Krisann, Holly, and Beth. I think we have the biggest room, and we have a really big window that looks out onto the street.

I am excited about all that I am going to see, but I really feel like I will enjoy it and function a lot better when I have gotten some rest and become more adjusted to their time zone. I miss everyone from home, and in Abilene.....please know you are in my thoughts and prayers!!

p.s. I am still working out this blogging thing and I CANNOT for the life of me figure out how to do the captions on this thing, so sorry its so sloppy ;)

It's Really Here!

Hello friends and family or whoever might be reading this,



I am about to embark on one of the greatest adventures of my life! I am very excited, and nervous at the same time. I know that this blog will be a great way for me to show all of you what I will be experiencing.

I leave a week from today to go live in Oxford, UK!!



More to come.... =)