Ireland: The Cliffs of Moher (Day 1)

Our whirlwind week-long tour of south-western Ireland and Dublin began Monday evening… We found our way from the Dublin Airport towards Galway on the west coast, and settled into a little B&B in the country for our first night. We awoke to the sound of geese and an amazing Irish breakfast (very similar to the classic English breakfast, just replace black pudding with white pudding… Haha). We headed down the coast from Galway early, winding through “The Burrens” towards the Cliffs of Moher.

By 10am that morning I could without a doubt state that Ireland has more rocks than any other place on earth that I’ve ever seen. And trust me, I thought I knew rocks. When we were little, Papa used to gather the family out on the cabin-property in the mountains, and we would… Pick. Up. Rocks. Needless to say, we kids thought this was a fairly particular kind of torture. But we had no idea. Apparently our Irish ancestors had clearly fields of rocks down to a near science. For as far as the eye could see it was rock walls, containing fields, gardens, cattle, and houses… It was fairly impressive. Just about everything that could be made of rock was.

We got to the Cliffs of Moher by mid-morning, and within 10 minutes of our arriving the cloudy skies opened up into beautiful blue and sunshine (the first of our amazing weather luck for the trip!)… The cliffs were breath-taking to say the least. And mom and dad seemed to particularly enjoy the bird-watching. :)

 

The Cliffs of Moher!  

AND… Then there is Carolyn… ;)

 

 

 

  IRELAND! (As I topple over in excitement… Haha) 

We took off from the cliffs and headed further south down the coast. We took the ferry at Killimer, and ended the day in a B&B just outside Tralee. We wondered down to the coast for seafood, pints, and an amazing sunset view of the Dingle Peninsula across the bay. :) I even achieved one of my personal goals for the trip: To stick my foot in this side of the Atlantic! :)

At the Bed and Breakfast (working farm) in Tralee! 

Have I mentioned that my mother is just a little excited by cows… :P

Dingle Peninsula at sunset…

With Love from Ireland… –Mary Elizabeth <3

St Patrick’s Day/Girls Night! :)

So we had grand plans for St Patrick’s Day… Bowling. Needless to say, I’m awful at bowling, but we (especially the guys) were convinced that was nothing a few pints and some laughter couldn’t cure… But what do you know, the boys bailed… Not for different plans, but to stay-in for the night entirely… So our evening turned into a scramble of a girls night when Anna, Jacki, and I refused to be deterred from going out… Especially when Jacki mentioned she knew where we could get 7 quid pitchers… Haha

And of course, where Jacki goes fun shall follow… So we all ended up having a hoot! Along with several rainbow colored pitchers at the pub… Don’t ask. I could not tell you what was in them. Apparently, all that was important was that we sampled every possible color. But we had a good time, and left quite happy with our home-body selves for not entirely wasting St. Patrick’s Day! Haha

Jacki in all of her colored mixed-drink glory… Haha

And did I mention Anna and I were there too??? ;)

And what, you may ask, did we do to top of a wonderful evening with the girls? We returned home to curl up on the couch and watch “Texas Has a Whore-House In It”… Not a classic either Jacki or I had heard of, but what we lacked in knowledge Anna made up for in enthusiastic singing! Haha Apparently it was a childhood classic in her family. ;) As if the title wasn’t enough to foreshadow the entertainment to come, Jacki and I were perfectly content to watch Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds for the evening… :)

So the lesson is: Rainbow Drinks + Texas Whorehouses = Amazing St. Patrick’s Day!

With Love from Oxford… <3 Mary Elizabeth

Bringing the Southern USA to England! :)

In true “surviving graduate school ” tradition, Hilary Term was peppered with various pot-luck dinners with our little gang… But without a doubt, our best-hatched plan yet was Southern USA night!  After months of craving biscuits (and yes, I mean the real ones, not the British version of cookies… Haha) and gravy (and you should see the looks of shock and horror when we attempted to explain that “Yes, you put the gravy ON the biscuits”), we decided it was time for an introduction… Oxford. Meet collard greens, fried chicken, and homemade macaroni and cheese! :)

So Anna and I insisted (with much urging and promises of home-made fried chicken from Steve!) on bringing a little of our own culture and heritage from southwestern Virginia to all our British (and even occasionally northern American) friends! It only seemed a fair turn-about, since we’d spent the better parts of the past 6 months adapting to their British “Fish n’ Chips” and “Bangers and Mash”…

Two southern gals and a tableful of home-cooked food… How very appropriate… :)

Anna and I spent the WHOLE afternoon in the kitchen, having a fabulous time… We admittedly made quite the cooking duo with I taking all glutinous, meat based foods, and Anna on vegetarian/gluten-free duty… There was much wine involved… Some of it even made it into the food (Yet another great southern tradition)… ;) And we had a great time reminiscing old recipes, while also making several up along the way (often in an effort to adapt our recipes to the availabile ingredients! Haha Don’t even get me started on the lack of cheese selection in England!) It was the perfect way to unwind from a morning spent sitting for my first Oxford Written Exam! :)

All in all, the evening was quite a success… The men even managed to find Southern Comfort (for a toast, that was NOT directed at the Queen, for once… Haha) and Budweiser… If we’d had NASCAR or football (American style), the evening would have been truly  quintessential! We have decided that when Trinity Term convenes in May, we will have to put a night of either “Breakfast for Dinner” or “Americanized British Classics” on the calendar!

Until then, however, I’m headed home for 5-6 blissful weeks of break in Germany and Ireland!… Yay for some much needed rest and relaxation!

With Love from Oxford… <3 Mary Elizabeth

Finally! Spring in England! <3

 

St Mary’s Cathedral

Finally finished with my first, dreaded Oxford Written Exam!

(In front of the Examination Schools)

The University Parks…

(Just around the corner from home)

A Very “Oxford” Weekend…

Hilary Term is coming to a close! And with it, there seems to have been a rush of social events attempting to distract me (and successfully so) from all that studying I should be doing for my Science and Technology Studies (STS) examination in Week 9…

Last night was the annual St Cross Hilary Feast… As always, a fun night to dress up and catch up on the social goings-on in the college.  The meal was delicious and all the post-graduates and fellows alike  managed to drink  way too much… No surprise there, right? I was a little disappointed the Master didn’t indulge us with another comic routine (apparently that’s only a Founder’s Feast performance), but we were entertained by a wonderful piano performance of the “Moonlight Sonata” (one of my old favorites) during dinner… So all in all it was the perfect night away from the books. :)

And in true Oxford style my Saturday was spilt between studying in the Radcliffe Camera with Anna and checking out Torpids 2011. I have to admit that my rowing lingo and knowledge is completely unacceptable. Who would’ve known there was so much to it all?! A one year Master’s is just not long enough to get the hang of all these Oxford-isms… :) I was shocked to witness my first bump, which subsequently sent a boat (worth 30,000 GBP) sailing into the bank… Yikes! Torpids has been going on for the past several days, and is quite the Oxford social event… So I’ve now heard some pretty rough stories of rowing accidents and battered/tipped boats, which have completely changed my original perceptions of rowing as a sport… Definitely a serious event around here! :)

Anna and I were feeling very “typical Oxford”…. Heading straight from the library to rowing… :) 

Notice the white-boat in the bank… :)

With only one week left in Hilary Term, I officially have one more tutorial paper left in my degree! YAY! So this Tuesday evening will bring cause for brief celebration, before continuing onto cramming for my STS exam. Looking forward to taking a break and enjoying the weather in a few weeks… Everyday seems just slightly warmer and sunnier! Yay for spring! :)

With Love from Oxford… ~Mary Elizabeth <3

Oh that’s right… This is Grad School…

I’m learning that occasionally things happen in your personal life that you just have to brush off and remind yourself… “It can’t be helped;this is grad school…” Like having no clean socks. I don’t think it’s a problem I’ve had since my mother threw a laundry coup d'état when I was about 10, and declared that all Bird-kids officially had to do their own laundry… It took running out of clean underclothes for me to get the message, but I’m happy to report that since then I have lived harmoniously with such little “house-chores”… That was until, I discovered that I literally forgot how to function outside of the library… Enter: the joys of graduate school.

It’s hard to believe that I’m already half way through Hilary Term; which means that I’ve completed exactly half of my coursework for my graduate degree already! (Not counting all that thesis writing which still has to occur sometime before October!) Hilary term seems to be much more difficult in terms of work-load and pressure(and rightfully so, I guess), but at the same time I have to admit that I’m finally hitting my stride. I know my strengths and weaknesses in anthropology much better now, and have a feel for the field enough to finally start focusing in on my own research interests… Which has been an amazing feeling! I never thought I would read philosophy, but I can now rattle off political theorists and phenomenology philosophers (Foucault, Mauss, Merleau-Ponty, Bourdieu, Descartes, and Durkheim have become my constant companions over the past month)… And sometimes I actually even understand what they’re talking about! Haha :) Definitely a big transformation from constantly talking about tissue matrices and mammary-based stem cell lines this time last year!

The massive reading lists (which I balance from 3 separate courses each week) keep me pretty thoroughly buried under books. (The picture beside was last Saturday’s reading pile) I never thought I could physically read so much in my life; talk about making your eyes bleed. Just finding/gathering them all seems to be a part time job; I’m a frequent visitor at 5 different libraries acorss the city on any given week. But at the same time, as an anthropologist I get to read awesome things like “Wombs and Alien Spirits” and “The Sociology of Monsters”… Haha Reading about how the Anlo-Ewe of northern Sudan conceptualize the placenta as a stool that a fetus balances upon is definitely helpful in mixing up the philosophy readings… :)

But in a moment of rebellion this past weekend, while in the midst of a particularly difficult tutorial-paper-writing-spree, I decided to take up crocheting again as a stress relief (a wonderful suggestion of my downstairs-neighbor, Anna)… And it’s been somewhat of a life-saver this week, which was particularly brutal and doesn’t show signs of stopping… And we have done pretty good mixing up the monotony of grad school with dinners and other little “get together and complain/destress” sessions… A necessity, to say the least… :)

Anyhow, I’ve managed to delay moving to the stack of articles sitting beside me for long enough… So it’s back to the grind…

With Love from Oxford… <3 Mary Elizabeth

2011 New Years Shenanigans :)

Some young adults go out and party away the New Years… Others decide they’re too lazy to get out of their sweat-pants, and instead stay home and play charades until 3am with their family… And that would be us… Haha We had grand plans to go reign in 2011 in downtown Stuttgart, but after spending the past two days in Strasbourg, France… Jet and I decided we were going to be the “old ladies” that stayed home… But we actually ended up having a ball at home celebrating!

Our night went something like this… First: Kidnap Melissa… Check! Second: Let mom whip up some amazing cocktails and snackies… Check! Three: Pull out the outrageous charades topics!! :) All in all, it was a hilarious night of fun… The next day we slept in, and headed out to celebrate Melissa and Jet’s departure back to the States! Yay for a trip to the Schonbuch brau (the local beer brewery restaurant with the most amazing German food!)… Too much food and several beer tasting menus later, we were stuffed… And unfortunately, Jetta’s world-wind German adventure was at an end… <3

Jetta in charades… Hilarious to say the least… :)

  What is he?? An earthworm?? Haha

Happy New Years! :D