It's Been Awhile...

I know I haven't written anything for some time, but this month has been simply crazy. Like all my months really. However I took some pretty pictures and thought I'd share them with you.

These pictures were taken after the first mini-snow falls in Nottingham. The Great Blizzard of 2009 came a few days later. These are shots I took on my walk to class early one morning.



This is a shot of a random man carrying a fistful of balloons down a Nottingham back street that I take to get to Waterstone's Bookstore. I thought he looked a little out of place and amusing.


This was why the man was carrying all those balloons. Nottingham was copying the Eye of London, with it's own Eye. Considerably smaller and less grand, but it was fun to see. I didn't have the time that day to enjoy the views from it, and frankly those things make me queasy, so I avoid them.


This just happened today. The Canadian geese at the doors are residents of the Jubilee Campus, and were born in a flower planter near those doors two years ago. They finally came home and were checking out how to open the doors. It was so cute.

Birthday!!

Today is my birthday and what a strange and busy day it was. I had classes from 9 am to 1 pm about statistical analysis in regards to SPSS and psychological experimentation. Fun stuff!! Then I went to archery, and shot a really bad score. Although last Sunday I FINALLY broke 400 and scored 447. I was high on cold medicine, and I'm attributing it to that. The question is whether I should continue to shoot on medicine, or simply try without?

Afterward, the archery team went out to the local pub, 3 Wheatsheaves, and brought me a present. A red-velvet cake! When they asked me what my favorite was, I told them this was it, but they had no idea what it was. The questions ranged from: "Does it have velvet in it?" and "Why is it so red?". Most food items that are this red, people in Britain expect a fruity taste, but they were all pleasantly surprised to taste actual sweet cake. My friend Stuart baked it for me, since he's the only one in the club that likes to cook and has an oven. I gave him about five variations of recipes and told him to pick one. He brought a three-layered cake, that tasted just like home.

While at the pub, there was the whole Nottingham Rugby Team having a male bonding/drinking fest event going on next to us. Somehow, my fellow archers convinced a few of the rugby players to sing me a drunken rendition of the "Happy Birthday" song. It was so embarrassing, but fun at the same time.

Now I'm back to my room, in need of sleep. I have another 9 am class tomorrow and I need my rest. Good Night!

Sneezing, Snowing, Shooting...

I'm sick. I woke up yesterday with a severe head cold and migraine. Today, I can't stop sneezing. It's so annoying! I have to go to archery tonight, I can just see myself sneeze at the exact moment I shoot an arrow, and it crashes into the wall and breaks. Or hits someone. Hopefully everyone will be safe from my lethal sneezes.

My cold I'm sure was spurned on by all the cold weather and snow Britain has been getting. In the midlands, where I am, there is possibly 6 inches of snow and the whole place is in a deadlock. In Wales, they had over a foot of snow. They simply don't have the resources to deal with this amount of snow. This is the most they've gotten in nearly 20 years. There are salt shortages for the roads, and not enough machines to clear the roads of snow.

Yesterday, the one thing I did was order a new sight and string for my bow. The sight is slowly mal-functioning, because it's a cheap one. The string is slowly unraveling, and it's a safety issue to keep shooting with it. I was surprised today that it came. So quickly and with snow on the roads! The delivery man looked at my last name, and I got the comment, "That's an interesting name? Where's it from?"

Spain.

No I'm not Spanish.

I inherited the name from my half-brother.

No he's not Spanish.

It's a long story.

All the while I'm thinking, 'Just give me my package already. I have a strange last name. So what?'

My last name seems to be of endless fascination for the British People. In America, I barely get a second-glance at my name. And only then to ask how it's pronounced. Here, I'm grilled on it's origins, my ancestry, everything, by perfect strangers. It's so disconcerting.

Maybe I should have just sneezed on him.

OXFORD!!

On Saturday I was lucky enough to hitch a ride with the archery team and visit Oxford. Since I'm still getting used to my new bow, I didn't make the team, but seeing Oxford was fun.

After gathering at the Oxford Blue pub before the competition, I headed out to explore. I stayed on the high road of the city, but most of the buildings I wasn't allowed into, because I'm not a student with the university. I only had 3 hours to kill, so I had to hurry my sightseeing.


Queen's College:


Found Another One!









First stop I made was a bookshop that sold very old books, for obscene prices. There was even a local student that started to beg the bookseller to give him a discount on the book on top of the discount given to all the books. I found his begging strangely funny. Only in Oxford would a teenage kid haggle over an ancient book.

Next I went into an Antique shop. British antique shops always have the best stuff. I even found some really interesting coins, like the two that were from the reign of Elizabeth I. I would have loved to have one of those. They had a portrait of her on the coin face. A portrait in good condition is very rare apparently.

The last place I went into was a pen shop that sold calligraphy, fountain and ink pens. Some of the pens were selling for over 50,000 pounds! I got myself a considerably cheaper one. It's a pretty blue and writes like a dream. While I was in the shop I met an American Oxford student that was just as enthralled with the pens as I was. He was studying Neuroscience, from Minnesota, had greasy hair, wore his baseball cap backwards. He defined the American geek from the mid-west.

On the way back to Nottingham the team stopped at a restaurant where I had hands-down the weirdest experience since coming to England.

We went to an American-themed restaurant.

Yes, you read that right. It was called the Baltimore Bar & Grill. The plates had an American flag on them. There was an American Eagle statue above the toilet sign. They were proud to serve American beers. There was a see-through decal on the windows of American landmarks, like the Brooklyn Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. Burgers, steak and Mexican-ish food was on the menu.

I was left speechless.