Lessons in Cooking, Market Day, Kilts in Pubs, and Harry Potter college

Whew! Yes I realize that's a long title, but that's only because I have waited too long to blog and much has happened! This week was full of new and exciting things, which is typical because pretty much everyday is one big adventure. I'll go in order of my exhausting title.

Let's be clear, I am not a cook. My Dad is the pro chef and I somehow did not inherent those genes. I don't hate cooking per se, but I'm not exactly gifted in it either. All this to say, Ashley, Lizzie, and I cooked dinner for the other 6 girls on our floor in our house (we have family dinner most week nights where a different room cooks each night) this past week.  Family dinner is one of my favorite parts of the day, and it's a really great way to get to know the girls on our floor. We are all in the learning process of cooking, yet somehow it turned out pretty good. It probably helps that Ashley actually knows what she is doing and talking about, where as Lizzie and I just pretend to know. We made a pasta dish with sausage and peppers, here are some pictures.

Moving on, every wednesday there is a fresh open market in downtown Oxford. We went this Wednesday and it was such a fun experience! I don't think I had ever been to an open market like this before. We bought fresh fruit (pears and plums), tasted yummy cheese (we bought cheddar and another one with cranberries in it), and had vendors yelling their prices at us, it was great! There was even Turkish Delight like in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe! However, the turkish delight man would not let me sample any even though he let Ashley, so we didn't get any. I plan to get some next time, maybe Turkish delight man will be nicer then. (He's the guy in the second picture)

Thursday night we went out to a pub and low and behold a bloke (as they say here) in a kilt whipped out his bagpipe and started playing it. Everyone in the pub was clapping and cheering. After his first song this lady said she'd buy him a drink if he played Amazing Grace, so he did. (Apparently Irish men like their alcohol). Also as this pub we met a couple our age who are students at a school in London. The guy was from Luxembourg and the girl from Paris. As we were leaving and saying buy to them they wanted to take our picture, I am now friends with them on facebook and tagged in a picture that is titled "American Mates."

Lastly, this week we went on a tour of New College, one of the 38 Oxford Colleges. While I'm in England I like to pretend I'm in Harry Potter world, because I feel like I am a majority of the time. Well aside from this college being absolutely gorgeous and having fantastic architecture, they did actually film a part in Harry Potter 4 at this college! It's the part where Malfoy is turned into a ferret, don't worry I'm including the youtube link if anyone wants to watch, it you do, notice the background because I was there! (Well not there in the filming obviously). Time for pics! (The first two are in HP4!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF332nbXvN8 

Well this blog turned out long with lots of pictures, oops. Although I did go to London this past weekend I will wait to blog about that because I am going again tomorrow with our entire group, so I'll write about both of those later! I will leave with a picture of me and my girls eating at the Eagle and Child, a pub well known because C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein used to go there often and have what I'm sure were highly intelligent discussions. Well cheers for now, hopefully I'll write again soon!