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| STONEHENGE!!! WOOT!!!!
today me kristin hannah travis dustin and nathan took a bus to salisbury then headed up to stonehenge!!! SO COOL. k so i rode a double decker bus for my first time, and i was all excited but to be honest, it was pretty freaky! you feel like you're gonna tip over all the time and you're so high up you can't tell that you're in a bus driving so you think you're gonna collapse. ok so it was prob just me but still kinda scary.
stonehenge was absolutely UNREAL. ok so yes, it IS a bunch of rocks, but it is SO incredible. it was built in 3000 BC... 5000 YEARS AGO!!!! and it's so funny cuz no one knows what it's for. obviously we've heard the calender thing, and the first day of everyt month, the sun rises perfectly in the center of each little archway. some other myths were to show a sign of power, or the one about this woman making a deal with the devil. but apparently what's there today isn't even half of what it used to be,and you could still see old trenches, SO amazing. and the rocks that are sticking out of the ground... 1/3 of the rock is underground to keep it stablized, and the tops all fit together like a jigsaw piece and have been taken away thru the centuries before they were protected... there's all these little cool tidbits that i had never known. pictures will be up as soon as i can burn them on a disk from my laptop :)
so then we went back to salisbury and randomly went to the salisbury cathedral (pretty much on accident) and it was SOOOOOOOOO beautiful. it's just indescribable, but once again, pictures will be up soon.
the greatest part of the trip though was definitely getting to know everyone and hanging out with new people. kristin, hannah, nathan and dustin are HILARIOUS!!! we've formed a new family. hehehe. it's just fun to be with people that you can have a good time with, even if you do have a 2 hour train ride!!!
so yes, definitely a good day. i'm going to a catholic mass tomorrow and i've never done that so i'm kinda excited and a little nervous. i'm off to bed, walking around all day wore me out!!
hugs and luv!
-sarah | | |
| AHHH!!! so i'm already getting bad about not updating my blogs!!
so first week in oxford... i survived!! that's prob the most important part. haha, no you think i'm joking but i'm so serious. see in britain, pedestrians aren't given the right of way (and in america, as most of us know.. they are) so i've stepped out in front a few city buses that instead of just slowing down, they honk their horn and make you move before they come FLYING by. also, it's so hard to get used to looking the other way down the street!!! for anyone that hasn't been over here... you understand, but anyone else reading this prob thinks i'm crazy!!! since the cars drive on the opposite side of the road, it means you look the opposite way when you cross!! that's also caused for a few life-threatening incidents... MY BAD!!
just about everyday me, travis, tyler, todd, brian, erin, dustin, and others here and there have gone to university park. OH MAN. i'm gonna have to post pictures on my yahoo thing of it, but it is absolutely AMAZING!!! it's just this HUUUUUUGE park with huge green fields and trees all along the trails through it and the most relaxing place in the whole world. towards the back of the park there's this real peaceful creek that has this super cute bridge and you can go canoing down it and feed the ducks and there's always people picnicing... *sigh* it's so great. it's the place where j.r.r. tolkien and c.s. lewis wrote to get their inspiration which in itself is so amazing. i definitely know why. it's been so nice! there's always interesting sights at the park, from the little kids that don't wear clothes, to the rugby players starting a pick-up game, and the random guy practicing his karate movies by himself, and OF COURSE the typical old englishman with the sweater-vest, plaid collared shirt, tiny glasses, little british hat, and definitely can't leave out the cane!! hehehehe so great.
as for other things not necessarily oxford related... i REALLY need to learn how to cook. basically i think i've lost about 10 pounds since i've been here solely because i can't cook. let's just say i feel EXTREMELY sorry for my future family :\ in a way though, i'm actually really glad that i'm experiencing this now instead of later.. but at the same time i REALLY miss christina's chocolate chip pancakes and taco bell. haha. or even just ordering a pizza... wow, i'm REALLY hungry.
plans for this weekend... hmm.... i'm really wanting to go to stonehenge for the afternoon and look at some rocks, cuz that's something you just have to do while you're in england!! so yes.. hopefully stonehenge on saturday but we shall see.
ANYWAYS! i should be writing more next time but just wanted to throw the little update out there. care packages will be accepted gratefully *wink wink nudge*
love to all!!!! | | |
| day 2 in oxford, woot!! it was awesome. well... i woke up about noon and had orientation stuff with the on-site director from 1-5. the crazy thing is food. ok so there's no cafeteria to go... and some of the cheaper meals in resturaunts and even some fast food places are about 7 pounds which is about 14 dollars. so that's rediculous. so in the past two days i've eaton 2 rolls, some grapes, and tonight for dinner i had some soup. k if any of you know me even just a little... i can usually put down a medium pizza on my own... so i either need to learn how to cook REAL fast or i might just starve. haha it's crazy. so i went and bought groceries, and it looks like i'm gonna be eating a lot of pasta cuz it's soooo cheap here. sorry, this probably isn't the least bit interesting for anyone reading, but it's life in oxford!!
funny story:
so i'm still not used to the accents here and we were in the grocery store and there were these two boys with their dad (who seemed to be in a rush) and the boys were prob about 8 or 9. so they were goofing off and just being boys, but goofing off boys are SO different here, THEY HAVE THE PROPER ACCENT AND IT'S HILARIOUS!!!! so the one boy picked up this book (that apparently came with a little suprise) and yelled enough to embarass his dad "LOOK JOSH! IT COMES WITH A FREE WHOOPIE CUSHION!!!!" i wish there was a way to type the accent out, but it was HILARIOUS. i still haven't stopped laughing about it, but even the people that were there don't think it's funny... so i guess it's not even a had-to-be-there funny... it's just sarah humor, oh well!
new learning:
sooooo i was at the grocery store checking out and i try to talk as little as possible since I'M the one with the accent now... and the cashier asked me a question so i responded with "yes sir" out of habit from being in texas. the guy gave me the WEEEEIRDEST look. so we start talking and he's actually REALLY cool and explains that "sir" is only used when someone is being recognized for doing something great for the country... kinda like being dubbed or something i guess... (i thought back to a knights tale and heath ledger when he was called sir olerick vanlitchenstein, and i don't know how to spell that, but ANYWAYS!!) so by calling the grocery store clerk, sir, i guess that was a little akward, haha. apparently here instead of sir, they say "might" not mate, but it totally sounds like they're saying mate cuz of the accent. and for women instead of ma'am they say "love"
just an interesting tidbit for ya! so first FULL day has been great. love the people, love the environment here... it's SO awesome. i'm excited for the rest of the semester and all the new stuff i'm gonna be learning just by walking around. SOOOOO happy to be here. | | |
| WE ARE IN OXFORD!!!!!!!!!!!
i'm starting up my blog again to keep everyone posted on the goings on while we're over here!!!
last night we had to say bye to everyone at acu and it was SO hard. we had just all gotten together saturday then travis and i left wednesday. after very little sleep tuesday night, we got up early wednesday morning (and after a few delays) boarded the bus to dallas. the plane was late and we ended up leaving around 5:30 that evening. sooo... the flight ended up being about 9 hours long and trying to sleep was interesting. suprisingly the food was amazing and we were served tea and red wine complimentary! fun fun fun!
so we landed at 8:00 london time (we're 6 hours ahead of central, and 8 hours ahead of west coast) and i got my passport stamped from a horribly mean lady that slapped the passport stamp so hard, i think symbolizing that she wanted to punch me in the face... it was scary. oh and i walked out in front of a city bus and got honked at without the bus even slowing down. i screamed. ok so ANYWAYS!!! england is GORGEOUS!!!!!!!
weird things about england:
people here really do say "cheerio"
the roads are flip flopped
the steering wheel is on the right side instead of the left
"smashing" seems to be a popular word meaning cool...
instead of yield signs there are "give way to" signs
you honestly can tell who's from britain and who's a foreigner
oh and ok... so i've never really left the U.S. before this trip, and i'm starting to feel for the international kids that come to the u.s. seriously, i'm afraid to talk around any of the locals here cuz they'll here my voice and know i'm an american. plus oxford is apparently pretty liberal and not supportive of the u.s.-ness going on, so it just feels weird and i feel REALLY out of place and like i have a flashing neon sign that says "stare at me! i'm lost!" oh and the fact that a guy on the trip thinks he can speak in a british accent, and starts talking to the locals in this "accent" AND the fact that every two feet someone wants to take a picture which sparks a group picture with EVERYONE'S cameras... i kinda just wanna grab some alone time and walk around and at least be touristy by myself ya know???
ok so oxford. WOW. IT IS AMAAAAAAAAAAZING!!!!!!!!!!! every building is like at least 500 years old and BEAUTIFUL with SOOOOOOO much detail, and there's a story to everything. like the pub where c.s. lewis and j.r.r. toilken used to go to write, or the x in the street where people were burned at the stake for their faith... SO MUCH HISTORY.
so yes. oxford is great. i LOVE it here and already know i wanna live here :) if you didn't send me your address... send it to me so i can send postcards to ya!! i miss everyone and hope that i can keep in touch with emails and blogging and whatnot.
LOVE TO ALL!!!!
-sarah | | |
| !</a></td></tr></form></table>
<table style="color: black;" width=400 align=center border=1 bordercolor=black cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2>
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<h3>Sarah Ann Iverson's Aliases</h3>
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Your movie star name: <b>Goldfish James</b>
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Your fashion designer name is <b>Sarah Venice</b>
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Your socialite name is <b>Chera Seattle</b>
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Your fly girl / guy name is <b>S Ive</b>
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Your detective name is <b>Seahorse Eastlake</b>
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Your barfly name is <b>Popcorn None</b>
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Your soap opera name is <b>Ann Bristol Rd</b>
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Your rock star name is <b>Snickers Goat</b>
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Your star wars name is <b>Sardud Ivetra</b>
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Your punk rock band name is The <b>Silly Pillow</b>
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<a href="http://www.blogthings.com/meganames/">The Amazing Meganame Generator</a>
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ok so the other people that took this quiz got really coooool answers and ok if i ever walked onstage and said "HEY EVERYBODY HOW YOU DOIN TONIGHT!!! I'M SNICKERS GOAT AND WE'RE THE SILLY PILLOWS!!! ENJOY THE SHOW!!"
who thinks of this stuff?! | | |
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