Send Me On My Way -Rusted Roots

Feb 4, 2013

Russell Visits the Land of Her People + Super Bowl in England

Hello comrades.

Oxford
     I would like to start off this post by apologizing for complaining about my broken heater. Turns out it's not broken; I'm just an idiot. When I complained the first time, the maintenance worker told me to buy a space heater which I thought was ridiculous since I am already paying so much to live here (without meals in a cafeteria), so I complained again on Thursday. This time, the guy they sent up replaced a couple of faulty dials on my heating unit and then politely showed me how to operate the vent which had been open since my arrival. Oops. Vents in a window. Who woulda thunk?

     On Friday, I had my first session of my Production Project class. Well... Second technically, but I missed the first one. Refer to previous blog post. This class seems promising. I enjoy the emphasis on Stanislavsky and we will be putting on a play (TBA) on March 27th and 28th. Later on, Daisy, Naomi, and I had our weekly Pretty Little Liars watch party. TOBY IS HEARTLESS. While we were all in the same room, we decided to order groceries together online. They deliver! Isn't that neat? It took quite a long time to order, but we finished in time for Anna Perinchery and I to Skype for a while. That night I also Skyped Kacy and Brittany. Finally. And then I tried to enter receipts into my Budget spreadsheet. Word to the wise. MAKE SURE TO SAVE. Ugh. I had to redo it all without my first ten receipts. That was fun. Not.
My Creation
     Guess what?! I cooked a meal! I made myself tortellini with spinach and cheese. Super easy. Perfect for an awful cook like myself, but at least I am learning, right? Baby steps. An hour later, I was being called back into the kitchen for some legit Chinese food courtesy of Kelly and Daisy. So... I ate again. No regrets. Tasty stuff! I would like to pause a moment to express my hatred of British sinks. Picture two faucets. One on each side. One is hot and one is cold. Not awful, right? Now picture trying to wash your dishes in either scalding hot water or really cold water. I'm over here thrusting the pot into the hot and burning myself, then moving over to the cold only to move back into the lava water after my hands are painfully frozen. Not the best idea, England! Good try though. I will give you a participation ribbon. -__- Another unique thing about England is that they try to lull you into a false sense of okayness. "Oh," I think to myself, "I live on the fifth floor. I suppose that okay..." After a flight of stairs, I see a sign on the wall 'First floor' "Wait a second... I thought I was just on the first floor..." NOPE. That would be their 'Ground floor.' So in America terms, I live on the sixth floor and in case you aren't aware, that's alot of stairs. What's that? An elevator? Yes they have one, but it is a metal caged contraption like the ones you see on Titanic and it only goes to the third floor. That's all England. I love you, but being me, I must complain. No offense.
Stairs in Harry Potter

Great Hall Inspiration Room in Christ Church
     On Saturday, I went to Oxford! The city was beautiful, but most importantly, they filmed some Harry Potter scenes there! I seriously almost cried of happiness and now I'm almost crying because of how nerdy I sound typing this. Oh well. We first visited Christ Church where the first scene on the inside stairs with McGonagall was shot. The long room was not the Great Hall, but it inspired the studio version. And then later on we visited the Cloisters where some of the courtyard scenes were shot. If you are a fan, you will recognize them. Funny story about the Cloisters. We visited about an hour after they closed, but the super nice security man let us have five minutes inside. I was so grateful. The cloisters were fantastic. And it is also just really fun to say cloisters. Try it. Cloisters. Nice isn't it?
Say it. Out loud................ Cloisters.
     Anyway, Oxford was grand so some of the other students and I decided to visit a few more places. We will be going to London in a couple weeks and then Edinburgh in a few months. I have plans. London has the Harry Potter studio tour and Edinburgh has The Elephant House (the coffeeshop JK Rowling wrote HP in). I shall visit both. And several (like 8) shows on the West End. But back to today. Today, some of the residents in the halls prepared a fabulous roast and for 3 pounds, I was able to have an actual meal! Yay! More tastiness. So with my full belly, I waddled down to the bar to watch the Super Bowl! Yeah Ravens! In case you were wondering, no, the American commercials didn't play here. UGH! I will have to Youtube them. Without them, I actually watched the game. I NEVER watch sports, but I did this time. In between listening to Alicia Keys' horrific rendition of the National Anthem and trying to ignore the English student's comments about Rugby vs Football I did manage to enjoy myself. The halftime show was really good this year. Luka thought so too and asked why there was football during Beyonce's concert. Good question. By the time the game was in the fourth quarter, most people had gone to bed or had fallen asleep on the couch. To be fair, we were watching it live and that means it ended around 3 AM here.
People should seriously play Quidditch here.

     I did realize something interesting though. Being abroad has made me a more patriotic person. In America, you identify with which state you are from. Abroad, you are simply from the USA and your state has little meaning unless by some miracle they know where Oklahoma or Kansas is. Well that's all for now folks. I'll try to post more often so that the writing is minimized per post. Sorry bout the essay.

Cheerio,

Russell x

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