Leeds at Night

I had been meaning to take a picture of these two buildings at night time for a while because they always look so beautiful.  I didn't get around to it until Friday, February 25 but I'm glad I finally did!  Annnd I'm just getting around to posting them now, almost a month later.  Sometimes, I'm just lazy.

Town Hall

Leeds University Campus - The Parkinson Building

I'm Running out of British Words

I don't know if its because I've become accustomed to them or if there really aren't that many extremely different words that the English use.  I think it's more likely to be option A.  Any suggestions?

Epernay: [noun]- a champagne bar in Leeds

On Wednesday February 23rd the Wine Society had a champagne/sparkling wine night at Epernay.  We had 5 samples of champagne (Bollinger, Moet and Chandon, Taittinger, Veuve Clicquot and Sainsbury's Blanc De Noirs) and 5 samples of sparkling wines (Roche Lacour, Prosecco Ca' Rosa, Deutz Cuvee Brut NV, Lindauer Brut NV and M&S Prosecco).  One of the many intelligent things that the Leeds University Union organizes is Give It A Go, or GIAG, events with a lot of the Union's societies which allows people to try out the society with out fully committing to the society and paying the joining fee.  This champagne night was one of those GIAG events so there were about 75 people at the event.  Needless to say, it was a fantastic night.

Epernay before it was filled with 70 champagne drunk students

They had champagne bottle candle holders all around the room, it looked beautiful!  I want to try to make one myself.

 

Pictures gratefully stolen from Andy.  Thank you! 

York: [noun]- a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England.

This past weekend I had a lovely trip to the town of York with Aude, Zoe and Oliver Malone, the extended family of my family friends.  York is a beautiful town with an amazing Cathedral, York Minster.  We went to the Cathedral, did some shopping and had lunch at a beautiful tea room.  The three Malone's mentioned above as well as Dom took me in for the weekend which I greatly appreciate.  We had a very British weekend including fish and chips on Saturday night and a Sunday roast on (you guessed it) Sunday.  Thank you to the Malones, as usual it was wonderful seeing you all!

York Minster

Oliver, Me and Aude outside York Minster

Zoe, Aude and Myself in a pretty park with some pretty ruins

Oliver, Me and Zoe at the tea room

I thought I would take this oportunity to brag a bit about my cooking skills.  I made that spaghetti alla carbonara.  I know what you're thinking "There is NO WAY she made that. That's for sure from a restaurant" but if you pay close attention to the photo you will see that I'm eating out of a frying pan and most restaurants tend to serve food on a plate.  I may have been too lazy to unnecessarily get a plate dirty but that doesn't mean my meal wasn't supa dupa delish.

Fringe: [noun]- bangs

It never fails that when referring to the front bits of hair on someones head I always say bangs and then instantly regret it.  It is a guarantee that I will be corrected by my lovely British friends if I say "bangs" instead of "fringe."

The week of the fourteenth was a very uneventful week because I had a pretty bad cold.  There was one point where I didn't go outside for about 72 hours.  The only interesting thing I could have written that week is a synopsis of the entire first season of Community (if you aren't watching this show, start now).  In other words, sorry for the two week absence!

Now for a video of a girl with no fringe.  Ever since the BRIT awards I've watched this video an unhealthy amount of times.  Enjoy!

Masa's Retrospective

Yoshi, Rita and Gabi, you all did a wonderful job of putting this together.  It was a beautiful retrospective.

Oktoberfest: [noun]- a 16-18 day festival held each year in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, running from late September to the first weekend in October.

As my loyal readers may know, I was desperate to go to Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany at the beginning of my England adventure.  Unfortunately I was unable to go.  However, lucky for me, this past weekend I went to Munich and got to experience as much of Oktoberfest as one can when the festival isn't actually happening.  My cousin who is from Munich and has been to his fare share of Oktoberfests was full of information on the event and I shall now share this information with you.

For a brewery to participate in Oktoberfest it is a rule that they have to have a restaurant during the rest of the year.  Apparently breweries might not even make money from having these restaurants but because of the revenue they make from Oktoberfest, it is worth having a restaurant that breaks even.  We went to Hofbrauhaus' restaurant for lunch on Saturday.  The beer and food were delish.

 That right there is pork with gravy and potato dumplings and dark beer.

There were girls walking around selling pretzels.  Pretzel girls are to beer halls as cart girls are to golf courses.  There was also a traditional Bavarian band or, as my aunt called them, an "umpa band."

Most traditional beer hall type things in Munich have members (knights of the proverbial round table, if you will) who can store there awesome stone mugs in little mug lockers.

These regulars of the restaurant also tend to wear what you would expect someone to wear at Oktoberfest: lederhosen and a Peter Pan type hat with a feather.  Some of the feathers get very elaborate, either super fluffy or long. 


After we ate at the Hofbrauhaus we went to the Beer Museum, which was obviously cool.  I learned all about that history of Oktoberfest, it started as a wedding party for royalty if you were wondering.

Quality manikin in that last photo.  Regardless of the scary manikins, it was an extremely informative museum. 

We also went to a store that sells traditional Bavarian get-ups, like lederhosen for the boys and dresses for the girls.  This is a store where one would buy their outfit for Oktoberfest. 

STAY TUNED FOR MORE ON MY WEEKEND IN MUNICH!