KT's Meadhall

Back on Track

2011-07-23T16:48:00.001-07:00

Went for a run today at Raab park. Not a great run, but not a terrible one either. 10 min walking, 20 min running. Too hot and gravelly, but at least I got out there!

Pizza!

2011-07-22T19:18:00.001-07:00

I'm posting this from my new phone. How exciting!

Tonight is pizza and great escape night! The pizza crust is a new recipe from the King Arthur Baking Companion with some added whole wheat flour. It was a big hit.

Accomplishments of the Weekend

2011-06-05T16:59:00.000-07:00

aka, what I've been doing to avoid finals...

Food:
Yogurt (in the crockpot)
Granola with nuts, currants, and quinoa
Sesame Peanut Dressing
Ranch Dressing
Veggie Orzo Pilaf

All delicious, though the yogurt has a slightly odd consistency.

Running:
13min running, 2min walking

Not bad for my super wimpy state!

Music Mix Wednesday

2011-05-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

Pretty bad quality, but my new favorite song.

A New Start

2011-05-19T07:15:00.000-07:00

Today I went for my first run in months. I have trouble running when it's cold and dark out, so this perpetual winter we've been having certainly doesn't help. It was a very short run, 15min of 2min running, 1min walking, but I think it's a good start.

The problem with not running for a long time is that you forget how much you like to run and it just becomes an onerous chore that your putting off for as long as possible. Now I remember how much I enjoy it and the sun is shining. Maybe I'll keep it up this time.

Goal: Run another 5k by the time I leave for Santa Barbara

1st Run Back

2010-11-30T13:23:00.001-08:00

Today I went for my first run after the Gobble. I've decided to post each time I run, so that I can keep track of my progress and be more encouraged to run regularly.

It was my first run in the rain, which was kind of a nuisance but allowed me to LEAP over big puddles, which is always fun. My FiveFingers aren't really good for the rain so my feet were sopping by the time I was done. I suppose that's the point, really, for shoes that simulate barefoot running. I'm certainly more aware of and connected to my feet with these shoes, though sometimes that's more of a bother than a joy.

I did a very short run, just 5x2x5, alternating running and walking. It was only 1/3 of what I did for the Gobble, but I needed a nice short run to get back in the swing of things. I was worn out by the end (which tells me that I shouldn't take over a week off in the future!) but in a good way.

First Day

2010-09-22T19:53:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of school! Possibly my last ever first day of school, which is a pretty scary thought. I only had one class today - Latin - so it wasn't actually all that eventful. My Latin class has a surprising number of people (around 30, though Megan gets grumpy when I claim that that's a large class) but, from what I've heard from other people who have taken Latin at SU, a large chunk of that number will drop out after the first quarter. Yikes! I'm determined to stick it out, especially since only the second two quarters of Latin count towards the medieval studies minor.

My professor, Dr. Madsen, is very much the stereotypical Latin professor. He's very curmudgeonly, spent most of class off on random tangents about how much he hates modern technology, and claims that he will be teaching us just as he was taught Latin at SU in 1963-64. This should be an interesting year.

Today is also mine and Eddy's third anniversary! Woohoo! Since we had to go to school today, we celebrated last Saturday by taking a picnic to the zoo, going out to dinner and then out salsa dancing (we were pretty dreadful). It was a really nice last hurrah before school started.

Work Woes

2010-09-01T08:56:00.000-07:00

My boss does not have the best record at getting our monthly schedules to us in a timely fashion. Usually he gets it to us a couple of days before the month starts, despite the fact that he asks us weeks in advance what days we can and cannot work for the month. Today is September first, and I just checked my email to see that he sent out September's schedule at 11:48pm August 31st.

I, of course, am working today. I really don't want to go in :(

Music Wednesday - Suffrage Edition

2010-08-18T17:14:00.000-07:00

Today's the 90th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Yeehaw!

Feminist London - Days 20 & 21

2010-07-23T16:07:00.000-07:00

I think this is going to be my last post! We're moving to a hotel near Heathrow tomorrow, so I don't know if I'll have internet access.

Yesterday was a pretty slow day. We had a class meeting in the morning and I spent the afternoon doing some GRE studying and thinking about my Honors Thesis (which I just found out that I was officially accepted to do! Woohoo!)

Today was much more exciting. First, we went as a group to visit the grave of Emmeline Pankhurst, the great English suffragette. So that was cool, but I felt a little weird taking smiley group pictures in a cemetery. Oh well. After that, I went to the British Library where they were having a big exhibition on maps, which was pretty cool. I'm really glad I went back though, because they had a bunch of different manuscripts on display in their "Treasures" collections than they did when Eddy and I went over Christmas. This time I was able to see the Sir Gawain and the Green Knight manuscript, which was so cool!

Also today, Anna and I went to see Les Miz! We had the worst seats possible and could only see about 2/3 of the stage. That was fine for the most part, except Eponine died in the corner of the stage that I could not see at all, but we could hear everything just fine. The most ridiculous part of the show was Marius, who was played by Nick Jonas. Of the Jonas brothers. Seriously. He was surprisingly good!

From Feminist London July 23

Bed now. I have to finish packing in the morning!

Feminist London - Day 19

2010-07-22T06:33:00.000-07:00

The days are beginning to wind down! Today was a free day, and I spent the majority of it at the theater! I went back to Regent's Park to see a production of "Macbeth" in the afternoon. It was a production specifically aimed at children, so the play was condensed a bit, but most of the original language was preserved. I thought it was a really odd choice to turn into a children's play, as it's a really gruesome story, but I thought it was really well done.

From Feminist London July 21

The puppets are the Weird Sisters. Very creepy!

In the evening I went with Anna and this friend of her grandfather's that she was meeting up with (I was there for moral support) to see the play "Warhorse" which was just amazing. It's the story of this boy from Devon who raises a horse that eventually is sold by his father to the cavalry at the onset of WWI. Even though the boy is only 16, he enlists in the army to try to find his horse and bring it back to England. The show was incredibly moving in how it portrayed the affects of WWI not just on people, but on the animals as well. But the puppetry of the horses was just unbelievable. The puppets were so complex that it allowed the puppeteer to make it seem like the horse was breathing. So cool!

Feminist London - Day 18

2010-07-20T13:35:00.000-07:00

This week has turned into the week of plays! We went to see "The Woman in Black" today, which was just a terrifying as I remember it. Dr. Smith assigned the book that the play is based on for our class, so we discussed that before hand and then headed off to see the show. There were a bunch of younger school groups in the audience, so there was so much screaming during the scary bits! I don't think I've ever seen a play or movie where the audience actually screamed like that. It was quite funny really. I absolutely loved the show, and am planning on writing my final paper on a feminist analysis of the books. I think it's such a good ghost story!

We have another free day tomorrow, and I'm going to see two plays! I'm going back to the open-air theatre at Regent's Park to see "Macbeth" and then I'm going with Anna and some family friends of hers to see a play called "War Horse." Her grandparents are insisting that she go meet some of their friends who live in London (who she's never met before) so she's dragging me along for moral support - I can't protests, since I'm getting a free meal and play out of it.

Only five more days left! I'm so bummed!

Feminist London - Day 17

2010-07-19T15:35:00.000-07:00

I feel much more lively today! Hurray!

Since I was so tired yesterday, I decided to take today pretty easy. Anna and I headed to Leicester Square this morning to try to get half priced tickets to go see Les Miz (which, sadly, we were unable to do). After that, I spent a long time at Regent's park, just walking around, taking way to many pictures of birds (they have black swans!) and doing some studying for my class and for the GREs.

During my stroll around the park, I happened upon their rather famous open air theatre and decided to splurge and by myself a couple of tickets. I went and saw Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors" tonight, which was just lovely.

From Feminist London July 19

They set it in 1940's Casablanca and added a couple of song and dance numbers - hilarious! My seat was way in the back, but I still had a great view of the stage. I'm going again Wednesday afternoon to see Macbeth, which I'm hoping will be equally as enjoyable. I was a bit disappointed that we didn't see any actual Shakespeare when we went to the Globe, so I'm making up for it by going to these two shows!

We have a class day tomorrow and then we're seeing "The Woman in Black" in the afternoon. This week is just filled with theater!

Feminist London - Day 16

2010-07-18T13:21:00.000-07:00

Tonight I feel really worn out. I'm not sure why though. Today wasn't really an active, walking around town kind of day. I think all the activity from the past 16 days has just caught up on me and now I'm just exhausted.

Today we went to the Globe Theatre to see a play. Not a Shakespearean play, sadly. There wasn't anything playing that Dr. Smith could relate to our class, so we ended up going to a reading of the 1682 play "Virtue Betrayed or Anna Bullen" by John Banks. This play was written as a kind of sequel to Shakespeare's "Henry VIII." The two plays were ofter performed concurrently in Banks' time.

I honestly don't have anything really intelligent to say about the play, because I'm super tired. More tomorrow.

Feminist London - Day 15

2010-07-17T13:21:00.000-07:00

Whew. I'm tired.

Today was a free day, so Anna, Lidia and I spent the day at the British Museum! It's so big! And so full of stuff! And people! The last time I came to the British Museum, I left the memory card out of my camera and could only take about 5 pictures. I guess I wanted to make up for it this time, so I took about 300. Which, in retrospect, was kind of ridiculous.

From Feminist London July 17

We spent 4 hours in the museum and there are still big chunks of it that I haven't seen. I skipped most of the sections that Eddy and I saw last December (I had to go back and take pictures of all the medieval stuff) and looked at the Asian, African, Middle Eastern and parts of the European artifacts. It's an amazing museum! And I'm so tired now. I always forget how tiring it is to go to museums, especially giant, overwhelming ones like the British Museum.

It's worth it though.

Off to the Globe tomorrow!

Random

2010-07-16T15:20:00.001-07:00

I just logged on to facebook and noticed that it's suggesting that I become a fan of Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga, and the TV show House, all because I'm a fan of Barack Obama. Apparently people who like Obama like all of those things as well. I'm really amused by this.

Also, I just saw the preview for the movie about the creation of facebook. It looks pretty dreadful and I really don't understand why anyone would make that movie. Is it really that dramatic of a story? I guess I need to see it and find out.

Feminist London Day 14

2010-07-16T13:30:00.000-07:00

Day fourteen! I can't believe that it's been two weeks already! I'm not nearly ready to go home yet.

Today was another museum day (though, to be honest, most days are museum days!) We went as a group to the Florence Nightingale museum, as we had briefly studied her along with Mary Seacole (another nurse working during the Crimean war) in our class. The museum is pretty small, but details her life, her work during the war, and how she revolutionized nursing. For a small museum, it packed in a lot of information!

After a group lunch at a nearby Japanese place

From Feminist London July 16

I headed off to the Imperial War museum, which was way more depressing than I remember it being. Really, I guess I should have seen that coming. I went through the sections on the First and Second World War, the British Secret Service, modern international conflicts, and the Holocaust memorial. (I didn't take too many pictures from this museum, cause I thought that would be a little tacky). It's a really well done museum, but it's left me feeling a little gloomy.

We have a free day tomorrow and I think a bunch of us are going to tea in the morning and then to the British Museum. Eddy and I went last Christmas, but we barely saw any of the museum; hopefully I'll be able to spend a lot more time there tomorrow!

Feminist London Day 12 & 13

2010-07-15T12:21:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the belated post! I tried to do this last night, but blogger was being funky.

We've had horrible weather for the past couple of days! It's been all cold and rainy.

From Feminist London July 14

Having been warned that London in July would be horribly hot and sunny all the time, I so did not pack for this kind of weather. I only have one pair of pants! Oh well. I have my raincoat at least, so I'm not totally unprepared.

We went to Anti-Slavery International yesterday, the oldest non-profit social-justice organization in the world. We had a woman from Seattle give us a lecture on human trafficking in our area before we left, so this talk was meant to compliment what we already knew about human trafficking in the States and show us what goes on in Europe. The organization focuses on more than just human trafficking, but that issue was mostly what we talked about. It seems like a really cool organization, that works on a national and international level to end modern day slavery (which, I'm sure, many people don't even realize exists.)

Today was a bit tense because we've been having a bit of in-fighting within our group. I suppose that's bound to happen when you have 11 adults spending so much time together, but it definitely throws off the whole group dynamic and makes everything uncomfortable. We had a big mix up in communication this morning, dealing with a group plans for today, and a couple of girls just blew up at each other. Thankfully, I wasn't involved!

Anyway. After everyone cooled down, we went to a coffee shop to have our class discussion about our visit to Anti-Slavery International as well as our readings about Mary Seacole and Florence Nightengale. I love how informal our class days are. All we do is just sit together and talk about stuff, which I think is how the best classes go. I sometimes feel like this class could be much more focused on the academics, but I don't mind too much that it's not!

I went with Uliana, Diana, and Ryan to the Natural History Museum after our class, which was enormous!

From Feminist London July 15

We were able to get through the exhibits on dinosaurs, insects, plants, human physiology, and marine invertebrates before the museum closed at 6. We spent a good three hours there and barely covered a third of it! I would love the opportunity to go back, but I doubt I'll have time.

Off to the Florence Nightingale Museum tomorrow!

Book Review - Selling Olga

2010-07-14T04:18:00.000-07:00

Selling Olga: Stories of Human Trafficking by Louisa Waugh

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

We read Selling Olga for my course, as an introduction to a more modern feminist and social justice issue - having spent most of the class reading older texts about the women's rights movement, this text was definitely needed to ground our course in what is going on in the now. Before leaving Seattle, we had a speaker come in to talk about human trafficking in Seattle; this text offers an interesting comparison between the two situations.

Louisa Waugh sets on a mission to research human trafficking, focusing mainly on Europe, more specifically the Balkans, Italy, and Britain. The books is a record of her trip throughout these states to discover the root causes of human trafficking, to see what is being done to aid those who have been trafficked, and to hear the testimony of these people, to see just what happened to them.

The text focuses almost exclusively on sex trafficking, which I found to be somewhat problematic. Waugh states that one of the aims of her book is to refute the claim that all people who are trafficked are victimized sex slaves, yet she seems to confirm this stereotype by focusing so heavily on sex trafficking. She briefly mentions that trafficked migrants are also forced in construction and agricultural work, yet only cites one example.

Despite this, the stories of the trafficked women that the books mainly focuses on are completely devastating. One of the major strengths of this book is their testimony of how they were trafficked, what happened to them, and how they escaped; Waugh (I assume) leaves this testimonies in the women's own words, making them extremely powerful. Ultimately, the books is an excellent introduction to the problem of human trafficking across Europe.

View all my reviews >>

Feminist London - Day 11

2010-07-13T12:20:00.001-07:00

Ahhh. Today was a much needed day of rest. Originally we were going to have a class day in the morning, discussing our trips to many museums of the past few days and Virgina Woolf's A Room of One's Own and then do a walking tour of the area where the Bloomsbury group - a group of artists and intellectuals that included Woolf and her husband - lived and worked. But when we met in the morning, we realized that a gray and rainy day was not the best setting for a walking tour! The walk is postponed until Friday and we all had a free afternoon.

We were unable to reserve a classroom on the University of Westminster campus for any of our class days, so we've been having class in odd places. The first time we had class in a nearby park, the second in the hall's common room, and this time in the kitchen of the 19th floor, where some of us are living.

I spent the afternoon reading Selling Olga, a study of human trafficking in Europe. We're visiting the headquarters of Anti-slavery International, one of the oldest non-profit, social justice organizations in the world, so the books is meant to give us a background on the practices of human trafficking going on today. The books is a fascinating, if depressing read; after reading so many historical texts relating to feminist issues, I think its really good that we're dealing with a more contemporary issue that disproportionately affects women.

On a cheerier note, Anna and I bought a six pack of chocolate mousse from Tesco's for 78p. We were super excited.

From Feminist London July 13

Yum.

Feminist London - Day 10

2010-07-13T00:20:00.000-07:00

Sadly, there will be no pictures today because I completely forgot to bring my camera!

Today we had another big museum day and went to the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. Since we were all so tired from yesterday's big museum day, we went out and got waffles and ice cream for breafast, so we'd have sustenance throughout the day! We didn't meet as a group, but Dr. Smith had us all go and see the Rokeby Venus by Velazquez. In 1914, a woman who was part of the British women's suffrage movement took an axe to it as a form of protest. When I went to see the painting, I was surprised by how hard it was to detect the damage that she had done; the museum had repaired it so well that the cut marks looked just like the normal cracks in the painting.

I found the Portrait Gallery to be a bit dull, but really enjoyed the paintings of the Tudor period. The more modern paintings were also much more interesting to me, as they were painted in an (obviously) more modern and experimental style, but there was a whole lot in between to slog through.

Class day tomorrow!

Feminist London - Day 9

2010-07-11T15:04:00.000-07:00

Today I had a very trying morning that thankfully was more than made up for by a wonderful day at the Tate Britain and Tate Britain, and the fact that Spain won the World Cup! Go Spain!

Anyway. I had to put money on my oyster card today, couldn't do it with either my debit or credit cards, got lost trying to find a bank to get cash, finally got the money on my oyster card, walked forever to get the bus to the Tate Britain, only to have the bus diverted for about 20 minutes because there's some kind of marathon going on in London. When I finally get to the Tate, everyone had gone to the other entrance, so I was freaked, thinking that I had gone to the wrong Tate first. Whew.

Luckily, I met up with the rest of my group pretty quickly after I got into the museum. The Tate Britain was lovely, but I think I really preferred the Tate Modern. This was one of my favorite paintings:

From Feminist London July 11

Picasso "The Three Dancers" 1925

I wasn't supposed to take pictures, but I sneakily took a couple. We took a boat between the two Tates, where I discovered just how nasty the river Thames is. The water is completely brown! Yuck.

Later we went to the Marylebone pub to watch the World Cup. Most of the crowd were for Spain (as they should have been) but there were two really loud and obnoxious Netherlands supporters. We showed them though!

Another museum day tomorrow - The National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery - but we're free to go to those whenever we want. A group of us are sleeping in and then going out for waffles. Yum!

Feminist London - Days 7 & 8

2010-07-10T13:31:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the belated post! We went out for a drink Friday night, and I got back around 11:30 - too late to blog when I knew I had to get up early to meet Eddy's parents in the morning!

Friday started with a bit of a mishap. We were headed to the Women's Library, when we realized that we only knew how to get the tube station nearby, not how to get from that tube station to the library. It's a pretty obscure place, so of course no one on the street knew how to get there. When we finally found it, the tour had already started and Dr. Smith was a bit peeved with all of us.

From Feminist London July9

The Women's Library is just what it sounds like: a research institution devoted to women's history, women's issues, feminism, etc. It has a huge archive of material to do research, and the idea was that we'd start doing research on our final papers there. I'm still not sure what I want to write mine on, but it was still really neat to go and see.

After that we explored the area around Brick Lane, the historic Bangladeshi area of London. We watched the film Brick Lane for our course, which is the story of a Bangladeshi woman's experience in London - I really enjoyed this film! Lots of shopping followed, until we were exhausted by the heat and headed back to the hall. We went out for a drink later to celebrate our first week in London!

From Feminist London July 10

Today, I got up early and met Eddy's dad and step-mum at the Tower of London. We had a terrific time! The crown jewels of the English monarchy are on display there - which are just stunning - and they had an exhibit on royal armory from Henry VIII's time until today. It was still super hot, but not as bad as yesterday. Later we went to Covent Garden, a big shopping and restaurant area for Indian food. Lovely! I had some trouble on the way back to the hall, as they had closed down certain parts of the underground for repair, but I finally made it back safe and sound.

Tate Britain and Tate Modern tomorrow!

Feminist London - Day 6

2010-07-08T14:22:00.000-07:00

Another fairly slow day today! Which is sometimes nice. We had a class discussion day, and had Finn McKay, the founder of the London Feminist Network. She was super nice and told us all about her organization, the activism work that it does, as well as a brief history of the modern UK feminist movement and how it's changed in the last 30 years or so.

After the talk we went out for delicious thai food and I somehow ended up going on a shopping spree with a bunch of the girls afterwards. (Seriously. I have no clue how this happened. I was walking with them, thinking that we were just going back to the hall and all of a sudden we're in an H&M.)

This happened later as I was trying to go to Regent's Park to do some studying and then caught up with people going grocery shopping - all of a sudden I'm carrying tons of groceries back to the hall.

From Feminist London July 8

Later some of us got together to watch the film Brick Lane, the story of a Bangladeshi woman's experience in London. We'll be visiting Brick Lane tomorrow after our tour of the London Women's Library, and I'm expecting some good food out of the visit!

Feminist London - Day 5

2010-07-07T13:04:00.000-07:00

Not too much happened today. We spent the morning exploring Westminster Abbey, which is totally overwhelming. Not only is the building so impressive from the outside that you feel that you will never be able to take everything in, the inside is stuffed full of people - living and dead. There are tombs and memorials to fascinating people in every nook and cranny of the abbey. You would have to stay there for days to adequately see everything.

From Feminist London July 7

Sadly, I didn't have that much time or stamina. They provide you with a guided audio tour - narrated by Jeremy Irons no less (at least the English version) - that takes you around to the most famous attractions. As a group we did what Virginia Woolf tells all women who make their living through writing and literature to, which was visit the grave of Aphra Behn, the first English woman to earn her living through her writing. So that was pretty cool. Though, as she is a pretty obscure figure, you could tell that all the people around us were wondering why were getting so excited over a completely unremarkable grave.

I, of course, was really excited to see Poets' Corner, where many famous artists and literary figures - including Chaucer!! - are buried. As I was walking away, I happened to find a floor panel dedicated to Caedmon, the only Anglo-Saxon poet whose name we know. He isn't buried there or anything, but I thought it was really cool that he's celebrated there.

After I finished with the abbey, jet lag must have caught up with me, because I was super tired. I headed back to the hall for a quiet afternoon and evening of study. Lovely.

Class day tomorrow.

Feminist London - Day 4

2010-07-06T13:09:00.001-07:00

Well, I was expecting today to be a pretty relaxing, but it ended up being super busy! We had our first class session this morning, discussing Mary Wollstonecraft and Bathsua Makin for 10-12. We don't have a classroom anywhere to do the actual class portion of the course, so we went to a nearby park and sat in a lovely gazebo.

I had planned to go by myself to visit Southwark Cathedral today - the cathedral where medieval poet John Gower is buried - but Anna and Christina decided to go with me, making the trip much more exciting.

From Feminist London July 6

Instead of just going to the cathedral (which was stunning - though I was quickly informed that I couldn't take pictures inside without a permit...I snuck some of Gower though), we ended up finding the ruin of a medieval palace, a random Elizabethan ship, and the Clink Prison museum! Apparently the Clink Prison is where we get the slang term "clink" from. It was a bit silly, with spooky lighting and random noises, but really fun. It's one of those places where you can put your friends in the stocks and take pictures and things.

We found some dinner after that at another Italian place. I officially need to go to a pub and get fish and chips! But we were given a little coupon book on the Big Bus tour yesterday, with a coupon for the Spaghetti House, so we figured we might as well.

Off to Westminster Abbey tomorrow!

Feminist London - Day 3

2010-07-05T14:33:00.000-07:00

Today I am absolutely enamored of the London bus system. It's great! Not only are the double decker buses just fun to ride on, (though kind of terrifying if the bus starts moving when you're only halfway up the stairs), but there are maps at nearly every station that outline the major routes and alphabetically list destinations that you might want to go to. So, after our bus tour was over and I wanted to head back to the Hall while Anna and Christina wanted to continue shopping, I just hopped on a bus and easily found my way back. Seattle has a whole lot to learn!

The London bus tour was fun, if a bit touristy. I took tons of super blurry pictures as we were riding around, but it was really cool to be able to see all the well known spots of London within 2 hours. We drove by Big Ben right when it was striking 12!

From Feminist London July 5

We went to Harrods after the tour and I bought prezzies for people, so be excited. Then I headed back to the hall to do some studying - tomorrow is our first class day, so I have some reading to do!

Feminist London - Day 2

2010-07-04T11:29:00.000-07:00

Happy Fourth of July Americans! I feel a bit unpatriotic here, but oh well.

It was a bit of a slow day today, which was nice since we're all still jet lagged and fuzzy brained. I got up early and walked around Regent's park, which is HUGE and only a few blocks from our hall. I'm going to try to get up early and go for a walk every morning.

From Feminist London July 4

We all met as a group for breakfast as a little coffee shop near by, and then split up to explore on our own. Most of us took a bus to Camden Town where Dr. Smith had recommended a 99p store. We stocked up on needed supplies and then explored the market area.

I've spent to rest of the evening studying - catching up on my reading for this course and then doing some GRE prep. I have a ton of vocab words to work on! Yikes!

Sightseeing tour tomorrow!

Feminist London - Day 1

2010-07-03T12:56:00.000-07:00

Well! I made it to London! I flew by myself internationally for the first time, waited a god-awful long time at customs, took the tube, lugged my suitcase up many stairs and finally made it to Marylebone hall, but only after walking up and down the street for about 15 minutes before I realized that I needed to get to the other side to get to where I wanted to go. Whew. Of course, by this time it was only 11, and I couldn't check in until 2.

I finally did check in, and settled in to my itty-bitty room, with it's cute, but slightly claustrophobia inducing bathroom.

From Feminist London July 3

It's like an airplane bathroom, only with a shower.

Sadly, all the members of our group are scattered throughout the 20 stories of Marylebone Hall, but I was lucky enough to be on a floor with two other girls - Christina and Annelise - who I went to dinner with (Italian - yum! The nearby pub was too full of soccer hooligans to go). The group is meeting for breakfast tomorrow at 10 - which seems super late to me - but then we have a free day for the rest of the afternoon. I don't have many plans yet, so we'll see what happens!

Finals. Yuck.

2010-06-10T14:38:00.000-07:00

Blarghl. Blarghl Blarghl Blarghl.

That's how I feel right now. I have almost 6 pages of an 8-10 page paper done, and my brain has simultaneously turned to mush and taken up residence somewhere other than my head.

2 more pages to go. Blarghl.

Music Sunday - WWAD??

2010-05-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

I've been so caught up in mid-quarter stress that I haven't posted in ages, but here's a little Adam to get us through it. 3 more weeks and 3 ten page papers to write until the end of the quarter!

Food Musings

2010-04-03T17:17:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I wish that I could subsist on guacamole alone...yum.

Book Review - Agincourt

2010-03-29T10:48:00.001-07:00

Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle That Made England by Juliet Barker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book took me forever to finish! Not because it wasn't good or anything, but just because I was so busy with school that I never had time with it. Of course, because the political situations that the book discusses are so complicated, it was a little difficult for me to remember all that was going on and who everyone was with since I spent so much time not reading the book.

Putting my confusion aside, I really thought this was a great book. The politics behind the battle were complicated, but Barker was always very clear about what she was talking about. The book was never dry, but always exciting and engaging. I loved how she would sometimes talk about aspects of medieval life that were just tangentially related to the main historical action that was happening. It really fleshed out the time period that she was talking about, so you had a much broader picture of medieval society than what was just related to the battle.

One thing that I both appreciated and found a little anticlimactic was how short the description of the battle itself was. I liked that she wasn't obsessive about describing battle tactics - I think I would have become really bored if she did - but the shortness of the battle made the book a little anticlimactic. Otherwise, this was a great book.

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Harumph

2010-03-29T10:35:00.000-07:00

So. I apparently misread my work schedule and I am not working at all this week. I'll start working Mondays and Wednesdays next week. That of course leaves me on campus with nothing to do until 3:45...argh!! It's the start of the quarter, so I have no homework today, I don't have anything for lunch, and Eddy has no time between classes to hang out with me. Thankfully I have a book, but I'm still frustrated!

Grades

2010-03-25T08:16:00.001-07:00

Grades came out yesterday for winter quarter! I got 2 A's (Chaucer and Hebrew Bible) and 1 A- (Medieval Philosophy.) I'm kinda bummed about the A-, but that was a hard class for me and the grade was based on only 3 tests, so I'm trying to be ok with it.

Can't wait for next quarter to start!

Book Goals

2010-03-15T20:45:00.000-07:00

Books to be at least looked at, if not read, during spring break:

Civilization and its Discontents - Signmund Freud
Broken for You - Stephanie Kallos
The Man of Law's Tale - Geoffrey Chaucher
Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco

Thankfully I have a at least 12 hours of traveling between here and Bend to get through some of this!

Music Thursday - Muppet Edition

2010-03-11T20:55:00.003-08:00

It's the week before finals, so in order to de-stress, I give you Muppets and the Village People!

When I was little, I used to think that this was the official song of the Navy...I'm still bitterly dissapointed.

The New Robin Hood

2010-02-10T21:42:00.001-08:00

Eddy with his Valentine's Day present. Because nothing says love like a longbow

Scholarly Embarrassment

2010-02-10T12:39:00.000-08:00

Oh my god.

So, good news is that I was accepted to present at the NUCL in March. Bad news, I attempted to forward my confirmation email to Dad, with a big "I GOT IN" attached to it, and I just realized that I hit "reply" instead of "forward." Which means that I sent it to the NUCL submissions as well.

I think I might die of embarrassment.

Food

2010-01-30T11:28:00.000-08:00

I know I said that I was going to post pictures of my Coconut Curry about a week ago...but I forgot or got distracted or something. But here it is now!

This wasn't my favorite curry that I've made - admittedly, it's only the third - but it was still tasty. I could have gone with more heat, more coconut and less cinnamon, but I'll know for next time.

This morning I made Cheddar-Jalapeño scones, which were honestly a bit of a disappointment. They were tasty enough, but they needed more salt and more heat to be really good.

Barbaric Impulses

2010-01-21T21:25:00.000-08:00

This evening I punched a can of coconut milk - resulting in me gouging two of my fingers and bleeding all over the counter - and then ripped a chicken in two with my bare hands. All in all, a good evening.

Pictures of the coconut chicken curry tomorrow...

The Great Gnocchi Experiment Pt II

2010-01-16T10:44:00.001-08:00

Well. The gnocchi was both good and bad. I absolutely loved the gnocchi by itself - it was super easy to make, had a great texture and was just barely sweet. Butternut squash is officially my new favorite vegetable. Unfortunately, a couple of the recipes I was looking at suggested that I toss the gnocchi in a brown butter and sage sauce, which at the time sounded wonderful. After making the brown butter sage sauce and tossing all of my beautiful orange gnocchi in it, I realized that I really do not like sage. Sadness!

Eddy loved it though, so I'll say that it was a success.

The Great Gnocchi Experiment

2010-01-15T12:42:00.000-08:00

Originally Eddy and I (along with half of the SU physics department...which amounts to something like 5 people) were going to have dinner with one of our friends who has recently graduated. Sadly, Eddy has informed that she is sick and the dinner will have to be postponed. So, of course I decide that tonight should be a night to make something crazy for dinner, and I've spent the last 20 minutes googling for Butternut Squash Gnocchi recipes. This may turn out to be a disaster, but stay tuned!

England! Last Day :-(

2010-01-02T00:25:00.000-08:00

Off to the airport soon! USA here we come! My plane should get in around 12 Sunday. See you there!

England! Day 8

2009-12-31T15:37:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year Everyone! (In about 20 minutes here.) And happy birthday Mom! I hope you all are having a lovely time.

We had a lovely day today! Eddy and I went to Tesco's with Karen in the morning so that we could stock up on Jaffa Cakes and Yorkshire Tea before we went home. After lunch we drove to Rochester to visit the castle and cathedral. Sadly, Rochester Castle was closed due to safety concerns - it was dark and rainy and they didn't want us to fall down the staris - but the cathedral was really lovely. No good pictures though; I don't like taking pictures with the flash in churches, and it was quite dark so they've come out all blurry.

Curry for dinner and then games until midnight! We had a blind chocolate tasting, which was fun, but now I'm feeling a bit ill. Champagne soon!

England! Day 7

2009-12-30T15:56:00.000-08:00

Not too much going on today. We were planning on going to a castle, but the weather was so dreadful that we stayed home and watched the new BBC Day of the Triffids remake and played games. I really liked this version, though it had a few big plot holes that are bothering me a little bit. It had Eddie Izzard as the main bad guy, which is a bit distracting because all I can think about is his "CAKE OR DEATH" sketch whenever I see him in serious films.

We went out to a lovely pub for dinner, which did a pretty dreadful garlic chili prawn stirfry, but had delightful lentil soup. I knew I should have stuck with the fish and chips! More games after dinner.

Tomorrow we're hoping to go out to a castle or something like that, but the weather may stay gray and gloomy.

England! Day 6

2009-12-29T16:13:00.000-08:00

So. I did something silly today. Eddy, Alexis, Andrew and I all went to London today. I packed my camera, with extra batteries just in case, but as I got to the British Museum, I realized that I had left my camera card in Eddy's computer. Oh no! I was able to take about 13 pictures using the camera's internal memory, but I have no idea how to upload them onto the computer. Sadly, I have no pictures for you today.

Despite my silliness, we had a lovely day today! We took the high-speed train into London, which took about 40 minutes. It really didn't seem that fast to me, but it got us there and that's all that really matters. Eddy and I headed off first to the British Library, which was about a block from the train station. The British Library not only houses thousands of archival texts, but has a large museumish display of precious documents. My favorites were the medieval illuminated manuscripts; they had the Lindisfarne Gospel on display, which is just truly stunning. They also have the Cotton MS Vitellius A xv - which contains the oldest copy of Beowulf among other texts - and I really enjoyed seeing that. It was much smaller than I thought it would be, and quite tattered around the edges, but it was still really cool.

After we spent about 2 hours in the British Library, we trekked our way over to the British Museum! It was only about a mile away, and a lovely walk at that. We saw the early European exhibit - which displays the artifacts from the Sutton Hoo dig - as well as the Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Mexican, North American, Assyrian and a little bit of the Ancient Greek exhibits. Of course, I wish I had been able to take pictures of all of them. The British Museum is seriously overwhelming. Not only is it so enormous that you have no idea where to go first, there are immense numbers of people trying to see whatever it is that you want to see. The rooms with the Egyptian mummies were completely insane - you had to shove your way through just to get from one end of the room to the other. Actually looking at a display was another trial all together. We busted out our pointy elbows, though, and made our way through!

We had burgers at a nearby pub when the museum closed - they were out of fish, so no fish and chips! - and then made our way back to the train station. After we got back to Hawkinge, we finished our day with tea and were thoroughly trounced at Trivial Pursuit by Eddy's Nana. I don't think the game was fair though, because it was clearly prejudiced against Americans!

No plans for tomorrow, but we'll see what happens!

England! Day 5

2009-12-28T12:25:00.001-08:00

Off to Dover today! During the last couple of years, the British Heritage Foundation has undergone a HUGE restoration of Dover Castle. From what I understand, it's one of the most intact castles in Britain. They've completely redecorated with reconstructions of what would have been in the castle during the reign of Henry II; there are great tapestries, wonderfully colorful furniture, swords, shields as well as the more common items such as cooking implements and a medieval toilet. It is pretty much the coolest thing ever to go through.

When you walk into certain rooms, a holographic image of a person comes up and starts talking about their life and what went on during their time and so on. Even greater than that, there are actors walking around the castle dressed up like Henry II and members of his court! When Eddy and I first got there, he was knighting very small adorable children, but he went on to interact with his son John and his ward Alice. It was all a bit silly, but great fun.

The castle itself would be impressive enough without all the decorations, but the decorations really bring out the culture of the place as it would have been during the 12th Century, instead of just presenting an interesting architectural specimen.

London tomorrow!

England! Day 4

2009-12-27T11:25:00.000-08:00

Back to Canterbury today! Eddy and I did the Canterbury Tales Experience, which had to be the most ridiculously fun thing yet. We were each given a headset to listen to and wandered around this series of connected room while the audio tour (narrated by Chaucer himself) told us the story of the pilgrimage and a few of the tales. Each room had life sized figures of the character and other figures from the tales; sometimes they moved, or panels would light up. It went through 5 of the more famous tales - The Knight's, The Miller's, The Wife of Bath's, The Nun's Priest's and the Pardoners Tales - in an abridged retelling. Dad will be happy to note that the Nun's Priest's Tale was the one with Chanticleer, so I thought of him the whole time.

I made Eddy take my picture next to each of the Pilgrims who told tales.

KT with the Miller

It took us about half an hour to go through the whole experience and we headed off to the cathedral afterward. I was a bit shocked to find out that they charged you to go into the cathedral! I suppose it makes sense, considering the amount it takes to preserve and restore everything, it just seemed odd to pay to get into a church. It was well worth it though, as the inside of the cathedral was just stunning. There was one room down in the crypt that still had the original 12th century wall paintings, which was so cool. I couldn't take many good pictures though, because I didn't want to use the flash in case it damaged anything and the cathedral was quite dim. Oh well.

Off to Dover tomorrow! They've recently done a huge restoration of Dover Castle and it's all made up to look as it did during the reign of Henry II (so mid 12th Century, my favorite!) More tomorrow!

England! Day 3

2009-12-26T16:22:00.000-08:00

We didn't do too much today. It was mostly a game day; we had an epic 5 hour King Maker battle and we've just finished playing charades. I've somehow become a charades fan, despite dreading the prospect of playing when Eddy told me that it was a family tradition.

Tomorrow will be an exciting day however! We're off to Canterbury to get a proper look around the Cathedral and then we're going to visit the Canterbury Tales visitor attraction. I'll have to take pictures and bring them into my Chaucer class next quarter.

England! Day 2

2009-12-25T11:52:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to All! I don't believe I've eaten so much food in my life as today! Apparently in England you have a big Christmas Lunch instead of Christmas dinner, so we polished off goose, potatoes, parsnips, chestnut stuff and all sorts of lovely things around 1ish and then waddled off to the living room to pass out. Here's my plate:

Just lovely!

It's about 8 now. We've just finished opening all of our presents and I think we're about to have round two at the goose!

England! Day 1

2009-12-24T09:32:00.001-08:00

We drove to Canterbury today, to do some last minute shopping and to walk around the town a bit. We didn't have too much time to spend there - we had to get back in time for dinner after all - but we walked around the big shopping district, saw Canterbury Cathedral (see above) and Canterbury Castle. The Cathedral was having their big Christmas caroling service today, so we weren't able to go in, but we're hoping to go back to see the inside. As we were walking around, we managed to catch a big procession that included the Archbishop!

He's looking rather fetching in that shade of yellow I think.

After we walked around Canterbury, we stopped for a cup of hot chocolate and then headed back to Hawkinge. We're now sitting around relaxing in the living room, reading and playing Wii, waiting on dinner. More adventures to come!

Testing

2009-12-19T12:04:00.000-08:00

Figuring out some picture stuff, so ignore please! Or Sir Oatmeal will come for you!

ETA I figured it out, but this picture is too awesome to take down

Book Review - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

2009-12-19T11:47:00.000-08:00

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is truly a lovely and charming book. Christopher, an autistic (though that word is never used in the book) 15 year old living in England discovers that his neighbor's dog has been killed with a garden fork. Inspired by Sherlock Holmes, Christopher decides to investigate the dog's death, against his fathers wishes. In doing so, Christopher discovers the truth of his family, and that his own independent capabilities. The book is interspersed with drawings, diagrams and Christopher's random musings about life, humanity, physics and math. Christopher's is a genuinely inspiring story.

View all my reviews >>

Curry!

2009-12-19T11:06:00.000-08:00

Tuesday was my great curry adventure! I've had Raghavan Iyer's 660 Curries for over a year now, but had never made anything out of it. The book, though incredibility thorough and helpful, is a little daunting. For one, there are - as the title suggests - over 600 curries to choose from, which makes choosing just one curry to make somewhat difficult. Secondly, most recipes have long lists of ingredients that include spice blends and pastes that I would have to make myself. It always seemed like so much work, so I never managed to do anything with it until now.

In the end, all of my fears were unfounded. I picked Chana Paneer to make - paneer and chickpeas with tomatoes with a toasted fennel spice blend. We had all the spices I needed for the Balti Masala, and the toasting and grinding of them took no time at all. Even making the paneer was easy. Sure, it has to drain for 3-5 hours, but the parts that I was actually involved in only required me to stir and pour. Simple! Once I had prepared all of that, the actual curry making took about half an hour.

This curry was so wonderful! I'm trying to eat less meat, so the paneer and chickpeas were perfect - hearty, without being heavy. The only thing I would have changed would be the heat level. The recipe called for 1-2 thai or serrano peppers, but since I'm such a spice wimp, I ended up using only half of a jalapeno. That made the curry mildly spicy, but I could have handled a good bit more heat.

I'm making this again on Monday for Mom to take in to work. I hope they all enjoy it!

School's Out....

2009-12-16T20:13:00.000-08:00

This quarter is officially over and I made another 4.0!! This will be my 5th 4.0 quarter in a row, out of 7 quarters. Woohoo! This was a tough quarter for me, so I'm really proud.

Finals Update

2009-12-01T22:47:00.001-08:00

We've now come to the part of the quarter where I really feel like I'm going to die. Ha. This quarter has been especially tough because I'm taking 20 credits instead of the usual 15, but I'm powering through! I have FIVE WHOLE pages of my Pilgrimages paper written (6-8 needed) and Dr. K loved my prospectus for my Arthurian Romance paper. I need to outline my PoliSci in class essay, but that's not until next Thursday. Everything's going pretty smoothly, but I can't help freaking out every once in a while.

So! To relieve stress, I leave you with Flight of the Conchords!

Enjoy

Insomnia

2009-11-14T04:03:00.000-08:00

So. It's 4 in the morning. I've been up since 1. I've watched Finding Nemo. I've written a 500 word French composition. I'm considering moving on to some Lit homework, but I may try to go back to sleep.

Meanwhile, here's a video!

This is my absolute favorite Belle & Sebastian song. The album version (from If You're Feeling Sinister) is much more subdued, but I do like this raucous live version.

Hamlet Musings - Gertrude

2009-10-02T14:09:00.000-07:00

We were talking about Hamlet today in class and the topic of how we feel about Gertrude as a character came up, which got me thinking.

One of the essential questions I think we need to ask when judging a character like Gertrude is how much personal autonomy does a woman like her have in what is presumably medieval Denmark? Sure, the question gets thrown out the window if you set the play in a more modern time, but I think that the question is valid when contemplating the play in its original setting. How much power did she have in regards to her marriage? It seems highly doubtful that she would have had the freedom of choice to choose who she marries. While we have a romanticized view of marriage in our modern world, this was not so for the time period that Hamlet is set in. More likely, Gertrude was married to King Hamlet for dynastic reasons; maybe their two families formed some sort of alliance through the marriage, maybe she would inherit great wealth and land from her father or some other sort of similar scenario, but I find it highly unlikely that they married for love. Sure, Hamlet claims that his father cared for her dearly, but what child doesn’t romanticize their parents’ relationship? Additionally, he has been gone at school in Germany for presumably some time and thus his memory of his father’s relationship is obscured from lack of everyday contact. Stricken by grief and what he feels as the horror of reality, Hamlet venerates his father to make him out to be a glorious figure. It makes sense then for him to think of his father as this great devoted husband.

How then, can we judge Gertrude too harshly for her actions? It was very likely that she didn’t even love King Hamlet in the first place – but this begs the question why do we care if she loved him in the first place? Why does her being a good person revolve around her loving her husband? Because we have the expectation that a woman should be a good and loyal wife? True, if she was part of the plot to kill Hamlet then we should condemn her for that. But why should we judge her for trying to find happiness – through marrying Claudius – within the confines of the place of the woman in this society? Others cite her treatment of Hamlet as cold and distant, condemning her for that, but again, can we really blame her for feeling distant from a child that she was forced to have? In this society she would have essentially been forced to have children; though she obviously has a high political status it is still her role as a woman to do so. Is it any wonder that she might feel distant from a child that represents the fetters that society has forced upon women? This is a moot point though, because she obviously shows affection for Hamlet, even if she does act perhaps insensitively towards his father’s death. But why should she sacrifice her happiness for his comfort? As she wisely states, all people die. Hamlet will eventually get over his grief. But will if marrying again will bring her happiness, I think that it was prudent for her to jump on this chance.

I don’t necessarily think that Claudius loved Gertrude. If he had, I think he would have found some way to stop her from drinking that poisoned wine and afterwards he would have not claimed that she was just swooning from the sight of blood. He wanted her to wife and, as with her marriage to King Hamlet, did she really have the power to refuse his desire? He would have been the king regardless of whether he married her. If he found another wife, where would Gertrude be? Her husband can no longer protect her and her son is an adolescent studying in Germany. Marrying Claudius was safe. Yet there is evidence that Gertrude values romantic love. At Ophelia’s funeral she states that “I hoped thou shouldst be m y Hamlet’s wife. / I thought thy bridebed to have decked, sweet maid, / and not have strewed they grave” (Act V.1 line 233-236). Ophelia and Hamlet would never be married because of their disparate social statuses, but Gertrude wishes that they had been allowed to. Perhaps she even wishes this for herself.

All in all, I think that Gertrude is as trapped in this society as Ophelia is and that we judge her far too harshly.

Music Tuesday - "The Final Countdown"

2009-09-22T19:04:00.001-07:00

Europe - The Final Countdown

SCHOOL STARTS TOMORROW!!!! I'm super excited.

Music Monday - Back to School!

2009-09-21T21:41:00.001-07:00

Pete Seeger - What Did You Learn in School Today?

Yikes! School starts in two days!

A Note

2009-09-19T13:49:00.000-07:00

The new Beatles Rockband? Totally awesome.

Book Review - The Wasp Factory

2009-09-09T22:42:00.000-07:00

The Wasp Factory: A Novel by Iain M. Banks

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I have really conflicted feelings about this book. I honestly cannot say if I enjoyed reading it at all. I suppose that enjoy is really not the right word; The Wasp Factory portrayed a great deal of violence against both animals and humans that I found difficult to stomach. The pivotal scene that explained Eric's mental illness made me dry heave for an entire afternoon.

Basically, The Wasp Factory tells the story of a Scottish boy named Frank. As Frank has no birth certificate and does not officially exist, he lives in seclusion with his controlling father Angus. Frank narrates the book and tells us of his childhood, the rituals of his daily life, the atrocities that he has committed, etc etc. A great deal of his psychological issues seem to be a result of a terrible accident that he has as a child (the family dog attacks and castrates him). The plot set in the present revolves around Frank's brother Eric who has escaped from a hospital for the mentally ill and is making his way back home. As Eric nearly reaches the house - lighting an entire flock of sheep on fire on the way - Frank discovers that he was actually born and girl and just raised by his father as a boy after his accident.

I'm still not really sure what to make of this book. Frank has some serious issues with women and his masculinity in the book, yet once he realizes that he's actually a girl he comes to terms with it remarkably quickly. That really doesn't make sense to me. Eric's mental illness also seems a bit iffy. The books seems to suggest that his violence and psychosis stems primarily from this one afternoon in the hospital when he discovered an infant with it's brain eaten out by maggots; it's a horrific image, but does mental illness actually work like that? I admittedly don't know enough to be a good judge, but Eric's actually are so terrible that I don't think they can be a result of the trauma alone.

Despite my objections, The Wasp Factory was a compelling read.

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Music Wednesday - Bumbershoot Edition

2009-09-09T22:20:00.000-07:00

This is super late, since Bumbershoot was this past Sunday, but I figured I'd post it anyway. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs live are fantastic. Karen O has such an exuberance that it was just a joy to watch her on stage doin' her thing.

Maps by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

History Musings

2009-08-20T20:08:00.000-07:00

The one thing that is always disappointing when you actually study history is that all those glorified heroic figures are never as cool as you want them to be.

I absolutely love the Robin Hood myths. I watched the Errol Flynn version at a very impressionable age and the Disney Robin Hood was probably my favorite Disney movie. So while I was reading Alison Weir's biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine it was a huge blow to learn about the true character of Richard Coeur de Lion. According to the Robin Hood myths that I've encountered, Richard is supposedly a great and honorable king who champions the cause of the Saxon peasantry and fights courageously in the Holy Land. Once he returns to England, he saves the nation from the clutches of the evil Prince John who has attempted to usurp the throne.

For one thing, it is completely unlikely that Robin Hood would have lived during Richard I's reign; most sources place him in the 13th or 14th century, at least 100 years after Richard was king. But to make things even worse, Richard was a horrible king! He had a reputation of excessive cruelty, to the point that the character of Malik-Ric (evil Richard) was used for centuries by mothers in the Middle East to make their children behave; while on crusade, Richard had nearly 3,000 Turkish men, women and children beheaded because Saladin wouldn't surrender to him. His sexual appetite was so voracious that he abducted and raped the wives and daughters of his vassals and fathered numerous bastards. The man didn't even speak a word of English! (While the monarchs of England were still Normans, they usually had lived in the country long enough to speak some of their subjects' language. They'd be just beginning with Middle English I think.) Raised in Aquitaine with his mother, he understood only the culture and lange d'oc of Southern France. Richard I spent less than a year out of his 10 year reign actually in England; the rest of the time he spent in France or crusading in the Holy Land (the expense of which sucked the country dry). King John's early reign actually proved that he was a better king than Richard and was morally neither better or worse than his brother. (From what I've read, King John became much worse later in his reign - which is why his barons forced him to sign the Magne Carta - but the book ended with Eleanor's death, not with John's).

Robin Hood was probably just a bandit who stole for his own gain too. Phaugh. I'll take Errol Flynn any day.

Book Review - Eleanor of Aquitaine

2009-08-20T20:04:00.000-07:00

Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life by Alison Weir

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really like Alison Weir's biographies. She writes in a very accessible tone so that her books are neither too stuffy nor too dumbed down to read. Weir's biography follows Eleanor of Aquitaine's life from her childhood in Aquitaine through her marriages to Louis VII of France and Henry II of England, her reigns as queen in both countries and on through her old age as she championed the causes of her remaining children. This book portrays a fascinating picture of the politics of Medieval Europe in the 12th and very beginning of the 13th century. As it is a biography of the queen of France and England, it focuses mainly on those two countries, but also deals with the Middle East as both Louis VII and Richard I go on crusade (the 2nd and 3rd respectively).

The only real problem that I have with this books is that it focuses so much on the people and events that surround Eleanor of Aquitaine rather than Eleanor herself. I understand that this is due simply to a lack of primary sources that deal with Eleanor, but I feel after reading this that I know much more about her husbands and sons than I do about her. Despite this, the book was an enjoyable read as this was a very interesting period of European history.

View all my reviews >>

Food Update!

2009-08-16T19:22:00.000-07:00

I've cooked a whole bunch of stuff lately, so here are some pictures!

I was really surprised that this cobbler turned out to be so delicious. Well, it's a Cook's Illustrated recipe, so I shouldn't be too surprised, but I so love Mom mountain pie style cobbler that I was a little wary of the biscuity topping. The biscuits tasted really good though - they were moist and just barely sweet...really tasty with the peaches.

I can't take full credit for this pie. It was totally Eddy's mom Vickie's idea to bake it, she made the crust and I just assembled it. It's a banoffee pie, which is toffee topped with bananas and then covered with whipped cream. The banoffee pie is pretty much the most ridiculous pie I've ever seen, but it was definitely good. I'm not a huge toffee/caramel fan, so I though the toffee layer was a little overpowering, but it went really well with the bananas and whipped cream.

This was a big fussy pistachio cake that I was honestly disappointed with overall. It has layers of marzipan, apricot jam and chocolate ganache between the layers of cake and all those flavors way overpowered the pistachio. I absolutely loved the way the plain cake tasted, but the dominating flavor of the put together cake was just dull chocolate. I think the cake would be really good maybe baked in a bundt with a lemony glaze. The marzipan was a pain too - mostly because I bought chocolate covered marzipan by mistake, but the rolling out and cutting process was just way to fussy for my taste.

I also made Pasta Carbonara, Chicken Marsala, Lemon Cream Scones and Zucchini Bread, but I don't have pictures of any of those.

Music Friday - Psychedelic Edition

2009-08-07T18:38:00.000-07:00

For Eddy this time

I want to tell you a story
'Bout a little man if I can.
A gnome named Grimble Gromble.
And little gnomes stay in their homes,
Eating, sleeping, drinking their wine...

KT and Eddy's New Hobby

2009-08-07T10:31:00.001-07:00

That's me climbing through a tiny hole in Bend's Boyd Cave

After nearly a week, Eddy and I finally went caving! We were originally going to go down to the Lava Beds National Monument in California to go through the lava caves there, but it was way too hot down there to go camping. There are tons of lava caves around Bend though, so we're going to spend the next couple of days going through them.

We went to Boyd Cave yesterday and it was so much fun! It was a little tricky getting through - we had to crawl on our stomachs a few times and there were two places were we had to wriggle through very small holes - but there wasn't anything too hard. We're definitely going to have to do this more often. Eddy and I are going to try to find some caves in Washington when we get back, and anyone who wants to come with us is welcome to!

Catch - Up

2009-07-27T21:20:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted in ages, but I've just uploaded some pictures from the last month onto my computer and I figured it was a good time to do so!

First some cooking pictures...

This is Julia Child's Cheese Souffle recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I know it doesn't look like much, but it was really delicious! A perfect light meal for a Vegetarian Tuesday.

Next are some cream scones (recipe here)

These were amazing! According to Eddy, these scones were much more of a traditional English scone than most you find in America. They were moist and flaky - pretty much the same texture as a biscuit - and just barely sweet. I did just currants the first time (yummy) but then did another batch with craisins and orange zest (SUPER yummy). This is definitely a great recipe, one I'll be making over and over again.

Other updates:
My room is painted! It's a bright sherberty orange on three walls and a lovely turquoise on the fourth. The room is so cheerful that I absolutely love being in it. We've rearranged my furniture too so now the room seems to have way more space than before. I've even brought in a rocking chair and have a little reading nook.

Eddy and I are leaving for Bend on Friday (woohoo, 6 hour drive with no air-conditioner!) for his family reunion and then we're heading down to Northern California to do some spelunking at the Lava Beds National Monument. I've been looking forward to this since we came back from Crater Lake. Hopefully it won't be too hot!

It's way too hot for Poulsbo right now and I just don't feel like doing anything. Off to bed!

Book Review - Four Queens

2009-07-19T21:57:00.001-07:00

Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe by Nancy Goldstone

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I absolutely loved this book! Goldstone's writing was so engaging - much different from most other historical texts that I've read - that I could hardly stop reading this book. It details the lives of four sisters from Provence who marry the kings of France, England, Germany and Sicily. The books begins with the history of the parents of the Provencal sisters and their future husbands and ends with their eventual deaths. Their stories encompass crusades, civil wars and other great political dramas. While the political intrigues are oftentimes convoluted, the author leads the reader clearly around the key issues and illuminates the characters of the lead players. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, and not just those interested Medieval history.

View all my reviews >>

Music Saturday - Jimi Hendrix

2009-07-04T19:35:00.000-07:00

Happy Fourth of July!

Music Tuesday - Birthday Edition

2009-06-23T21:37:00.000-07:00

For Dad, Eddy and I.

Music Thursday - Flight of the Conchords

2009-06-11T07:57:00.000-07:00

"Hey Bowie, do you have one really funky sequined space suit? Or do you have several ch-changes?"

Love it.

Finals Update - 4

2009-06-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

I finished my French final in half and hour. No more tests! I just need to write two more pages for my philosophy paper, edit my biblit paper and turn them all in. (Oh and finish packing of course.) Right now I'm taking a break to go to Café Presse with Eddy.

Last Day!

2009-06-08T19:05:00.000-07:00

Today was my last day of classes for the year. I'm a little sad about that, but I'm excited for the summer and next year! Things are going pretty smoothly final-wise. My biblit paper is mostly finished (I just want to go through and edit it a little bit) as is the take-home test for that class (turned it in today). I took my French oral exam today and il a été fantastique! My French final is on Wednesday at noon, but I've been studying for that over the weekend and it shouldn't be hard. The last big thing I have to do is finish up my philosophy paper (5.5 pages) but I'll have all of tomorrow and most of Wednesday to get it done.

As per tradition, today was Senior Streak Day. I missed it last year, so Eddy and I made sure to go to the quad to watch this time. It was definitely entertaining.

Finals Update - 3

2009-06-06T14:34:00.000-07:00

BibLit Paper: FINISHED! (10 2/3 pages. I think this is the longest lit paper I've ever written)

Only 5.5 pages of Philosophy to write, and that shouldn't be hard.

In other news, I went over to Eddy's apartment today and made apple fritters. Actually, Eddy made them, but I helped. They were my first deep frying experiment, and I think they went well!

Finals Update - 2

2009-06-05T17:53:00.000-07:00

COMPLETED:
Biblit Paper 9/10 (well, in reality the paper will probably be more like 11-12 pgs)
Biblit Exam, in class and take home
Philosophy 1/6.5 (haven't done much more on that one)
French oral written

TO DO:
Finish Papers
Study for French Oral/Take French Oral
Study for French Test/Take French Test

THIS WEEKEND:
Finish Biblit Paper
Study for French Oral
Do at least one section of the Philosophy Paper

Finals Update

2009-06-03T18:13:00.000-07:00

COMPLETED:
BibLit Paper 7/10 pages
Philosophy Paper 1/6.5 pages
French Oral Final spiel written

TO DO STILL:
BibLit Final - this Friday
French Oral Final - Monday
French Written Final - Wednesday
Papers 8.5 pages to write - next Friday

Phew! I'm getting there...

Music Wednesday - Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan

2009-06-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

Feelin' low late at night...

Pasta alla Vodka (or White Wine)

2009-06-01T20:23:00.000-07:00

Look at the deliciousness that I have just created!

It's basically Pioneer Woman's recipe, but I've substituted white wine for vodka (since I didn't have any and didn't have a legal means of acquiring any) and about a third of a shallot for the onion (since I'm an onion hater!) It's mostly regular pasta, but with a couple of handfuls of whole wheat to get to a pound.

This was pretty much the best thing I've eaten in a while. Eddy and Tyler both loved it as well. I want to try it with vodka sometime and see how it tastes, but I loved the floral wineyness of the sauce, it really went well with the tomato. (I think I lose all foodie cred using a word like "wineyness". Ah well.)

HAAWWT (channeling my inner dad here...)

2009-06-01T14:35:00.000-07:00

Today I thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster for yogurt parfaits and Italian sodas. I don't know when I became a wimpy Seattle-ite, but it is way too hot for me today. Sadly Janet took her fan when she moved out, so my room is broiling right now.

Paper Update

2009-05-31T20:11:00.000-07:00

3 pages down, 7 more to go! (Only 5 if I'm going for the minimum, but the way I've outlined it, it should work out to be 9.5-10) I figure if I write a page or so day this week, I'll have it done by the weekend, giving me plenty of time to write my philosophy paper and study for my French exams.

I am also apparently channeling my inner Kafka and writing gigantically long paragraphs. Good times.

Movie Review - Mongol

2009-05-31T12:31:00.000-07:00

Another film that Eddy and I watched recently, Mongol tells the story of Genghis Khan's rise from being a slave to the Khan of all of Mongolia. The film humanized a historical character who is usually thought of a cruel and ruthless person and was an interesting story about a culture that I have pretty much no knowledge of. The sweeping shots of a barely populated Mongolia were stunning. The film was pretty bloody - lots of warring Mongol hordes - but the violence was realistic without being gruesome. The score consisted of what I assume was tradition Mongolian music, which was really interesting and added a lot to the ambiance of the film.

This apparently is the first in a trilogy about Genghis Kahn's life, and I will happily go see the next two. ***1/2

Movie Review - Up

2009-05-31T11:53:00.000-07:00

Eddy and I went to see Pixar's new movie Up yesterday and I was honestly a little disappointed. I'm not saying that it wasn't a good movie - I don't think I've seen a Pixar film that was without any redeeming qualities - it just wasn't as good as many of Pixar's other films. The story revolves around Carl, an elderly man going on the adventure that he and his wife had planned before her death. One of the things that I respect Pixar for is that it deals with themes like death and aging (or environmentalism with Wall-E) that you don't normally find in children's movies. They always strike me as very sophisticated for movies geared towards younger audiences. Anyway, Up's plot felt fairly disjointed to me, with the first part of the movie not really meshing with the second part until the very end. I though the talking dogs were a little gimicky, but Kevin the bird was absolutely gorgeous and charming. This, like many of Pixar's past films, was devoid of any major female characters, which annoyed me.

One thing that I've always liked about Pixar that I missed in the films is that the subjects of their movies are usually not something you would think of making of film of - like robots, monsters, fish, toys etc. There is something so clever about making films about these un-thought of subjects, and Up felt somewhat dull because it only focused on seemingly normal human beings. Yes, it is unusual to have an old man as the protagonist of children's film, but Pixar's medium seems better suited for more fantastical and visually interesting creatures. The imagery of the balloons, Kevin the bird and South American were all visually interesting, but I didn't think that the main characters were in anyway improved by the medium - certainly not in the way that Sully or Wall-E were.

The film is definitely worth seeing, but I don't think that it was Pixar's best effort. ***1/2

(The short at the beginning was fabulous. That's the kind of creativity that I expect out of Pixar.)

Music Sunday - Steve Miller Band

2009-05-31T10:19:00.000-07:00

I played this on guitar hero yesterday, and now it's stuck in my head.

Hair Update

2009-05-26T13:07:00.000-07:00

So. Don't freak out. Being sick of my current state of shagginess, I finally buzzed off all of my hair. Here's a picture.

(Please ignore the ridiculous messy room. My roommate apparently moved out over the weekend, though that doesn't excuse my side.)

I think it looks cute!

Music Monday

2009-05-25T13:54:00.000-07:00

In honor of Memorial Day

ETA: Apparently Dad and I think the same way...

Il fait soleil!

2009-05-21T14:26:00.000-07:00

Today is a glorious day, even though I have to work for 8 hours! I woke up early, went to the gym and then had a pretty un-eventful day at work. Now it's bright and sunny outside, I had a package (full of shoes!) waiting for me and Dr. K just emailed me and told me that I was officially in Arthurian Romance. All is right with the world!

Music Tuesday - "Ce Jeu"

2009-05-19T17:39:00.000-07:00

Unlike Dad, I don't have an official day for posting random music, so have a music Tuesday. This has been my favorite song for the last month or so. It's upbeat, poppy and I can understand a good bit of the French. I think it's a perfect song for a crappy gray day.

Ugh

2009-05-19T17:09:00.001-07:00

Today, one the school washing machines decided not to go through the rinse/ spin cycle - leaving my clothes sopping wet - one of the dryers ate my quarters, proceeded to leave my clothes wet after 80 minutes of drying and then ate more of my quarters. It's raining, I locked myself out of my room and the library gave me the third volume of a book that I put on hold instead of the third.

Today had so much promise! Blarghl

Random

2009-05-19T14:08:00.001-07:00

Things Today:

I went to the gym for the first time. I've been meaning to go for ages, but I finally got my butt out of bed early today and went for about half an hour. I felt really good afterward though, so I'm going to try to go again sometime this week.

I register for classes tomorrow, yikes! I've become really paranoid since registration last quarter was so awful, but I think I'll be able to get the classes I want this time. Hopefully!

I'm meeting with Dr. Earenfight - the chair of the Medieval Studies department - this afternoon to talk to her about history classes and how to officially declare a minor. I have what lit classes I want to take in the next couple of years down, but I really want to take at least one history class. She's apparently an awesome professor, so I hope I'll be able to take something with her.

Hmm, I think that's it for today...

Á l'Opéra

2009-05-14T20:08:00.000-07:00

The opera last night was fantastic! Eddy and I had some stressful adventured actually getting there, but we made it with 5 minutes to spare! Whew! The show was a great deal of fun and the seats we had gave us a great view. It was a bit difficult to read the supertitles though, being so close. I definitely want to go back sometime.

Bagel Update

2009-05-09T16:59:00.001-07:00

Success! Though, they're a little soft. It's not that they're undercooked, they're just a little soft. I think next time I'll boil and bake them a little longer so they're a bit chewier. Still, they taste really yummy. I'll post pictures soon.

Recipe here

Music Saturday (Copying Dad Here...)

2009-05-09T14:38:00.001-07:00

I went through this phase in junior high and high school when I decided that I did not like country music (because it wasn't cool!) and rejected a lot of the music that Mom and Dad played when we were growing up. In the last couple of years, I've started to slowly phase much of it back into my music library and I'm really happy that I have. The lyrics of this song are a little weird (as is Mr. Lovett's hair) but I really like it.

Book Review - The Name of the Rose

2009-05-06T17:51:00.000-07:00

I finished Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose a couple of weeks ago. I've been meaning to review it, so here we go.

First off, I absolutely loved this book. LOVED it. Set in an Italian monastery in the 14th century, the main plot of the book revolves around a series of murders. The visiting William of Baskerville - an English Franciscan - is the story's Sherlock Holmes figure, armed with empiricism and the philosophies of Roger Bacon and Aristotle. The novel is narrated by William's scribe, Adso of Melk. The story goes beyond the simple mystery, however, and largely discusses the politics of the Roman Catholic Church, medieval heresy, the nature of truth and the danger of knowledge. This heavy discourse, coupled with the suspense of the mystery, make the book absolutely fascinating. Of course, the Medieval period fascinates me, so of course I'm going to enjoy this book.

The only complaint I have is that the subplot with Adso and the young village woman (she has no name in the book) seemed really forced to me. The writing of that section was gorgeous - the prose of Adso's narration was mixed with quotes from the Song of Soloman and other texts - but I really cannot understand the girl's attraction to Adso or why she got involved with him at all. This was not a hugely significant subplot though (unlike in the movie) so I didn't mind it too much.

The prose is a little dense, but totally rewarding to get through.

Boldly Going...

2009-05-06T17:41:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I'm seeing the new Star Trek movie on Imax at South Center Mall. Ahhh! I'm super excited. It's a 10:00 show, which means I won't be getting home too late (I have a French midterm on Friday.)

ps. Sara, do you want to go see it this weekend when I come home?

Ice Cream Epiphany

2009-05-06T17:36:00.001-07:00

One thing I love about living in a big city is finding fabulous shops and restaurants that have been right under my nose for months. Yesterday, while walking to the mall to do some mothers day related shopping, I found the most awesome little ice cream shop on 10th and Pine that I had no idea existed until then. They make fresh waffle cones in the store, which you can smell a couple of blocks before you actually see the store. Eddy had a cone of balsamic strawberry ice cream and I just about died. The chocolate was good too. Sadly, I have no idea what the name of this store was, but it was pretty much divine. You can buy their ice cream in pints too...yummy!

Interview

2009-05-01T14:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I think that went well. It was a little weird though, because the student consultants were the ones interviewing me, so I was interviewed by a guy in my philosophy class. Hopefully I didn't say anything too stupid. I think I'll hear whether or not I got the position next week. Here's hoping!

FREAKOUT!

2009-05-01T13:47:00.001-07:00

My interview is in 45 minutes and right now I'm sitting in my room flailing my arms and going "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Good times.