Thanksgiving

The vid wont upload so you will have to go watch it on my youtube page!!!

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything. I have gotten lost in time during my last few weeks in Oxford. But now we will go back in time a bit to Thanksgiving...

This Thanksgiving could have not been any more perfect. Megs and I spent all day cooking the turkeys and Jess and I spent the night before mashing 5 bags of potatoes. Everyone else who attended brought some sort of dish. We had sweet potatoes, beans, bread, cranberry sauce and lots and lots of dessert.

We were really lucky to be able to invite some of our International friends to have their first TG ever. It was so much fun to watch they try and figure out what everything was and even funnier to see them just totally stumped in my TG trivia game.

The week before TG I was busy making little hand print turkeys for everyone that ended up turning out really really cute. I think that they will be a good keep sake, especially for the international kids who were totally confused by the whole process.

Of course, we did have a little whipped cream fight. I was totally surprised by it but it ended up being one of the funniest parts of the nights. Although as we went through our stash of wine the night keep getting funnier. By the end of dessert everyone was laughing and just enjoying our out of country TG. While our families may have been thousands of miles away it was nice to spend the holiday with my friends here who have been just like family over the past few months.

Blogs of Vienna and Belgium to come soon... I hope!

Borough Market and Tate Modern

Yesterday we headed over to London to go experience the wonderfulness of Borough Market and the Tate Modern Art Moo-se-um.

We started off at the Borough Market. The Borough Market is a amazing food market that many of the top chefs in London shop at to get their daily meat and produce. Its a small market under the subway line on the south bank of London, right near the London Bridge. The market has every type of meat, vegetable and fruit that one could want.

There are dead birds hanging on the outside of stalls along with rabbits and hares, in case you were looking to make a rabbit stew... There are fishmongers there as well. They, of course, are my favorite and I had to held back from attacking the beautiful tuna steaks that were on display. Had I known all that wonderful fish was going to be there I would have bought an overpriced British ice chest and brought back all the fish I wanted!!!!

After some time trying to make our way through all the people we walked down the river Thames and saw the Tower Bridge. It was such a beautiful day so the bridge looked extra pretty.

After meeting up with the boys for lunch we headed over to Tate Modern Art Moo-se-um. I do like art, I really do. But modern art just makes me think to hard. In one room there was large palm tree, just laying on the floor and it had been like spray painted. I don't understand that kind of art, I actually just want to know how they got the palm tree up to the 5th floor! On the ground floor there is a large container, they call it the black box. And it is what it sounds like... a large black box that you walk into and hope you don't hit the wall. Once again, not sure how you call a black box you can walk into art, but I guess if it pays the bills it will work. There was a nice Andy Warhol room and a really cool room with a bunch of posters from the former Soviet Union. There was one really cool one that had the American flag, British flag and the soviet flag in the form of the lighting bolt striking down on some Nazi soldiers that represented the fight against Hitler's Germany. That one was my favorite.

The day was short, but lots of fun. Borough Market was just wonderful, I think that I will have to go back just to eat there again!

Paris - Round 2

Paris, France

Paris is a city that can never bore me. No matter what there is always something new to see and do. I went back to Paris so that I could do the things I did not do last time, and I am glad to say that I did them. I also highly enjoy the cafe life in Paris, sit down, order a sandwich and stay there for an hour or two just people watching. I had an amazing Creme Brule, which was given to me with a sparkler in it. That added some extra fun.

I befriended the Australian girl in my hostel home and we walked around and had crepes on Halloween night. It was a good way to spend Halloween considering that the French really didnt even know it was halloween!

There is something about Paris that is just magical, I cant quite figure it out but the city just captivates me every time I think about it. I love Paris, it is unique but yet seems to follow the crowd. I cant describe it, I just love it.

ps....

all the vid blogs can be seen in bigger formats on youtube. Just click here and you will be able to access all of them in a bigger format.

Salzburg, Austria

Beautiful Salzburg!

I spent 3 days in Salzburg, and I loved every minute of it. Its a beautiful town that has been well kept over the years. Every corner you turn down in Salzburg leads to something amazing. There we tons and tons of little pubs and shops to explore as well as old churches and grave yards. The Sound of Music was filmed in Salzburg and I had the joy of doing a SOM tour. It was wonderful. Singing the songs through the hills and around the lake district was just amazing. I also did a tour of the Barvarian Mountians, they are just beautiful. The alps in the background make everything picture perfect. I think that Salzburg is the most beautiful city in Europe and I would get on a plane to go back any day of the week!

Copenhagen, Denmark

For the first part of my mid-term break I flew to Copenhagen to stay with my friend Boris, who is also at St. Clare's for the fall term. Copenhagen is a wonderful city. Its full of life and full of people who are always happy, just like Boris! Although Copenhagen was beautiful, it was also VERY cold. It rained most of the time I was there but according to Boris the rain was giving me the real Copenhagen experience so I tried to enjoy the wet weather as much as I could.

Some time with Elieen

While poor Uncle Jim was busy working away in London, Eileen and I were able to spend two wonderful days together in both Oxford and London.

We had a wonderful dinner our last night with some nice English Boys and then went and saw Billy Elliott. It was an amazing performance, one that I would highly suggest seeing if you ever get the chance!

The Dave Basler McDonald's Report

Dave,

I have done some research for you. I thought that I would list my findings incase there is anyone would would like to dispute me over my thoughts.

The Grading Scale

*- Horrible, Id rather eat poo

**- Still horrible, but there is potential

***- Only eat there again if I have no money left

****- Ok, this was pretty good.

*****-Why would you pay money for a 5 star meal when you can have this?

The List

America - *

France- **

Italy - *****

Denmark - **

Sweden - ***

Austria - **

Switzerland - **

England - ****

Ireland and Germany remain as unknown factors. But I am going to to Germany soon and will find out!

On a final note, Burger King in America is much better than Burger King in England. Starbucks tastes the same in every country but is greatly over priced in all places but America. We have a KFC in Oxford but I dont think that anyone should eat KFC if not in Kentucky, I do not wish to find out how it tastes here. I was the the American Airforce Base in Kaiserslautern, Germany and had Johnny Rockets... it did not taste nearly as good as it does in America, the milk shake was the only good part of it.

Enjoy!