Here come the aliens!!

The Space party last night was awesome.. there were lots of people - some dressed up in kitchen foil, some half naked with painted bodies, some in robot costumes made of cardboxes. Here are the pictures :)

Traditional pre-theme-party-photoshoot.

We didn't know the guys, but their costumes were great. Inkeri kept telling the one on the left that he was sooo cute ("Hasn't anyone ever told you that?"), but then said he was so YOUNG and just a SMALL BOY. It must have been really embarrassing to him. Poor space warrior.

I love Noora's kitchen foil flower.

Of lesser craftsmanship was this hat, which was passed on from one to the other. On the photos you can virtually find out when the picture was taken by measuring the damage of this hat. Here it still had its antenna.

Marco, Noora, Philip (who scared the hell out of me because he started a fight with some English guy later on, while we were waiting for our taxi at 4 am), Inkeri, Spanish guy whose name I forgot, Marko.

Noora and me having a good time.

Aggressive French people :) I think it's kind of funny because of the stain on Bertrand's shirt. On the left is Arnaux, who is a friend of Judith's. While he is visiting her here, he sleeps on a blow-up mattress in Blandine's room. Blandine has gone to France over the weekend.

Today, I had my Utopia & Dystopia seminar from 10 to 3 o'clock.. crazy. Seems like old people don't have anything to do on Saturdays. One of them, a nice Scottish lady of about 75, invited me to come to her home some time when I told her how disappointed I was about not having any contact with English people. So sweet of her.

Afterwards, Michi and I slept a little and cooked dinner, vegetarian Spaghetti Bolognese. We were going to go to the cinema, but it got really late, and now we'll just watch a movie at home.

Hippies, Crêpes, Michi and Oxford

This entry is upside down and includes Monday - Friday, starting with today :)

Friday

Today, Michi and I went to Oxford with the two Nooras and Inkeri.

I felt so sorry for Margaret.. you almost overlook her name.

In an inner yard of one of the colleges we found doors with different fields of studies on it, and each of us had a photo taken with the field closest to hers. 

Michi in front of the Radcliffe Camera.

Noora, Inkeri and Noora and one of the colleges.

This is the tower of St. Mary's church, which we climbed for three pounds.

The steps were so narrow!

But the view was worth it.

Oxford is soo beautiful.

The weather looks great on photos, but in fact it was cold and very windy.

Afterwards, we went to a market hall with many small shops in it. I bought a blue scarf.

At home, we had the rests of yesterday's dinner. I will go to a Space party in Rubix tonight, but I'm really tired.. *yawns*

 

Thursday

Thursday, Michi and I invited the whole flat to a German Dinner. We had Butterklößchensuppe, Käsespätzle and Apfelstrudel with Vanilleeis. All of us cooked together, and it was a bit stressful, but also fun and YUMMY. Unfortunately, I was too busy cooking to take pictures. After that, we went to The Legion and had two teapots of Cosmopolitan.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, we had a chocolate pancake orgy. Then we took the bus to town centre and saw Avatar in 3D. If possible, it was even better than when I saw it for the first time. Afterwards, I collected Michi from the station ^^

 

Tuesday

Tuesday, we watched some more episodes of The Vampire Diaries. 

Inkeri taping the motion sensor with tape. The lampion is a souvenir from the Chinese New Year celebration in London last Sunday.

Monday

On Monday, we went to a theme party in Rubix. We dressed up as hippies, which was the most fun about the party, because the music was bad and there were only few people.

Look, and thou shalt see

This entry is again upside down, I'll start with Sunday and then go on to Saturday.

Sunday

On Sunday, we went to London, too, but this time we managed to go at the same time as the Erasmus girls and get a cheap group ticket. The first thing we did was: fly with LONDON EYE!

The Houses of Parliament, St Margaret's and Westminster Abby.

I was really glad I've been in London a few times now so that I could actually sometimes tell mom what was what.

Afterwards, we crossed the Thames and walked to Westminster Abby, but it was closed and so we visited St Margaret's, which is just a few metres to the left from where this photo was taken.

Then we took the tube to Buckingham Palace.

From there we went to Green Park, where we saw three gray squirrels. They came close to us, but they quickly noticed that we didn't have any food for them and ran off again.

After that we walked through Chinatown and enjoyed the celebrations of Chinese New Year . 

We met with Jenny in a lovely vegetarian restaurant called Food for Thought. At first we were afraid we might not recognise her, but she hasn't changed a bit. We talked about the old times and about new things in our lives, only interrupted by our attempt to see the fireworks at 6pm, but Leicester Square was so crowded that we just heard the banging :(

Saturday

On Saturday, Mom and I met for breakfast and then when to London, just the two of us.

We first took the tube to Notting Hill and visited Portobello Market. It was nice, tough crowded. We had originally planned to be in Covent Garden at 3 to take a tour in the Old City of London, but the tube station that we wanted to use was out of service, and so we missed it.

Instead, we took the underground to Bank and strolled along the river Thames to Tower Bridge.

The Tower of London. Unfortunately it closes at 5.

The Tower Bridge and me with my new handbag.

Back in Guildford, we went to eat at Pizza Hut because I had these vouchers that said 2 for 1. But when it came to paying we had to find out that they can only be used with deliveries. Crap.

After that, we went to Holy Trinity Church and saw Romeo + Juliet together with Michaela, Blandine, Inkeri, Svenja and NDN. It was awesome!! I didn't understand every word, but the atmosphere in the church was great, especially in the vault scene. 

This photo was taken at the bus station. The initial idea was that Inkeri should act as if she was blowing into the trumpet on the poster behind us. However, the flash ruined it. It still looks funny.

Mom's here!!

Hey, you have to read this entry the other way around (day-wise), so please start at the bottom :)!

Friday

Today, we slept long. Mom was very surprised at how long she could stay in bed. I guess that's due to my student influence. We had a nice brunch and walked to campus, first of all visiting Guildford cathedral. 

I like this picture because you can see just the tops of typical English terrace houses.

The stag is the mascot of the university because it was built on a hill called Stag Hill. In the background, you can see boarding houses for students and the top of the Cathedral.

The cathedral, which BTW is only 50 years old.

After seeing the campus, we took the bus to town and had a snack at Marks & Spencer. It was truly English - coke and crisps. You can't imagine how many crisps the British eat. If you bump into someone on campus, they certainly were totally focused on eating their crisps while heading to the next lecture.

After that, we went to the tourist information and took a map that included a self-guided tour through historical Guildford. On this photo, you can see the High Street, Guildford's pedestrian precinct.

One of our first stops was the castle, which you might know from the header of this blog.

From there you can see Stag Hill with the cathedral all over town.

Treasure in the midst of Guildford.

We never finished the tour because we made the mistake of stepping into a shopping centre, where I purchased two pairs of shoes and a handbag. As you, dear reader, probably know, I'm not that much of a new-shoes-and-handbag-person. I guess I'm trying to blend in with the others. I think I was always the only girl who didn't wear high heels to parties.

After shopping, we went back to my flat and cooked. Mom moved to her guest room on campus. We'll meet at ten tomorrow to have breakfast here, and then we're going to London. This is why I won't go out tonight and just hang out in the kitchen with the others until they leave. I should really get on with my reading.

Thursday

On Thursday, I slept very long and then cleaned up my room for the first time. And GUESS WHAT, by the time I'm writing this, it's messed up again. After that, I started reading the book I have to have read by Tuesday, Children of the Dust. It's another dystopian novel and tells about a nuclear war its consequences on individuals. Not really a fun to read, as you can probably imagine. Everyone dying slowly from internal bleedings or starving. Or killing themselves to avoid this.

Mom arrived at about two pm. One of the first things she did was to repair my jacket. Thank you!!

After that, we went to the town centre and bought an air pump. More precisely, we bought it, gave it back again because we thought Noora probably already has one, and then bought it again when we realised she actually doesn't. Then we went shopping at Marks & Spencer and cooked dinner. 

Later that evening, lots of Erasmus people went to an open mic night at Chancellors. It was great and would have been even greater, had we been there in time to get a table.

Me, Inkeri and Michaela.

When Chancellors closed at 11 pm, some of us went to a pub in the town centre, called The Legion. It was awesome because cocktails are half prize on Thursdays, and they serve some pineapple stuff and cosmopolitans in teapots for 5 pounds each.

Bertrand, Mark and Judith.

Michaela, me and Svenja.

Judith, the queen of icecubes. We played a game of skill in which everyone tried to grip crushed ice with two straws. Judith could do it three times.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, we went to the movies and saw Valentine's Day. It's a nice, romantic movie with lots of big stars, e.g. Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Aniston, BOTH hot guys from Grey's Anatomy, Taylor Swift, Taylor Lautner.. and many more. I missed Michi SO MUCH while watching it!!

A also met a German girl called Tatjana there, and there's quite a story to tell about her. When she arrived in Guildford, she refused to live in her university accommodation in Hazelfarm because it was too messy, and now she lives in a hotel, paying 200 pounds a week. I guess I was really lucky with my room.