Social Happenings

As I was wrapping up my Paris post, I realized that I haven't really blogged about anything social since Bond night a few weeks ago.  Well, I figure if you are reading my blog, you know I am not one to sit around and twiddle my thumbs.  So here ya go, here are some fun pics of what we do during the week. 

Last week, we had a reception to honor Judge Tacha.  She is one of the professors with our program, but more importantly, she is a retired US judge for the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.  She is now the Dean at Pepperdine's Law School.  Pretty legit, if you ask me.  At these receptions, they provide us with wine and champagne.  Then, we always have a big dinner, with more wine and champagne.  Our dinner consisted of salmon AND steak.  They know how to treat us well!

Sidney and me at the reception 

This week, they had trivia night at the pub that is located underneath our classroom.  Still cracks me up.  This pub is great though.  You can go and purchase a bottle of wine there and then haul it on over to dinner on the nights when drinks aren't provided.  Anyway, my team came in 2nd place (woop woop!)  We "graded" the scores of the other OU team- the Oklahomies.  The 7th question was what is the name of the actor that plays Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II?  Their answer: ERIC. Not even close, dudes. Not even close.

We sometimes go out to a bar called the Purple Turtle.  It is a very interesting place.  And a very smell place.  We went on Tuesday night, because we were itching to sing some karaoke.  However, THEY ARE LIARS AND DIDN'T HAVE KARAOKE! I had been warming up my T. Swift voice all night with Elizabeth, all for nothing!  Oh well, we told our class to come anyway, so here are pics of my classmates and me:

Me, Elizabeth (but I have shortened her name to Zabeth and will continue to call her that), and Logan

Josh and Sidney

Me and Rachel

My eyes weren't doing what they were supposed to do, so I practiced keeping them open

"The Arkansas Girls!" Sidney, me, and Zabeth

Ok, so there is proof that I am having a grand ole time during the week, not just on the weekends.  I'll try and do better to take more social pictures.  Just don't judge me if I repeat an outfit ;)

XOXO,

Barbara

PARIS WEEKEND! Oooh la la!

Before you read this, be sure you have a napkin or something of the sort to wipe your drool.  Many delicious food pics are about to make your tummy growl!

We left for Paris on Thursday night.  Hopped a train to London and then to Paris.  We finally found our hostel after wandering around for awhile (this is becoming our speciality...) and conked out.  Our room was great though... 3 beds with a bathroom inside.  That is luxury, baby!  We woke up around 9:00 or so the next morning and headed to breakfast.  I had croque monsieur, which is toast with eggs, ham, and a special cheese sauce.  The salad was somewhat wilted, but the dressing was good.  And the French fries were great (duhhh because we were in France... kidding, I am going to the french fry origin next weekend).

We then headed on over to the Eiffel Tower to see about climbing to the tippy top.  But beforehand, we had to take solo shots in front of it! We have been learning some really cool poses from Asian tour groups that we have seen all over Europe.  So vogue, no?

GO TEAM EIFFEL TOWER!

We waited, and we waited, and then we waited some more.  Then we finally climbed in the elevator to get about 2/3 of the way up and this was our view:

rain, rain, go away

Well, we wanted to go all the way up.  So we waited, and we waited, and then we waited some more.  Only to get to the ticket lady and have her turn us away because we had the wrong ticket :( But we just laughed about it and headed to the gift shop.  In the gift shop, I encountered the one and only rude Parisian from the entire weekend.  Basically, she asked me a really long French question, and my response was "durrrrr uhhhhhh."  Miss Madame at The Cathedral School did not prepare me for this... sure, I can rattle off a ton of Christmas Carols in French, but I don't know how to say, "How much?"

The Eiffel Tower turned into a 3-hour ordeal, so we decided we needed to reward our patience with some crepes!  Our waiter liked us and just jumped right in our picture!

found myself a cute French man!

itty bitty table

first time to eat chocolate crepes! ya droolin' yet?

Anyway, after that, we headed to get some essential things I had somehow forgotten to pack.  I'll let you guess what that might have been.  On our way, we saw Laduree!  It is an AMAZING macaroon store we had heard about from one of Sidney's friends.  How cute is this place?!

And how yummy do these macaroons look??  Yes, to answer your question, we were fat pigs all weekend.

vanilla, raspberry, and chocolate macaroons! no, i didn't eat them all in one sitting

Next, we skiddadled on over to Notre Dame. Gorgeous.  It was beautiful because the rain had finally let up.  Yes, it had been raining pretty much the whole day, starting when we were on top of the Eiffel Tower.  Great timing, huh?  Look how gorgeous Notre Dame is- such intricate and beautiful details.

After Notre Dame, we headed back to our hostel to get ready for dinner.  We wandered around searching high and low for our dinner spot, but we never found it.  Finally at oh... 11:00 pm, we were directed to go to Cafe Louise.  Thank you to whoever told us to go there- yummmmmy!  Our waitress was great, and she didn't even laugh at us when Sidney and I ordered a second order of escargot.  This was my first time to try escargot... definitely not the last.  I did have trouble with the utensils though.

mmmm green garlicky snails

For my main dish, I had an old favorite... ratatouille!  I had first tried ratatouille a few weeks ago in Bath.  Zucchini and eggplant, what could be better?  Oh wait, I know! Add 3 GIANT prawns on top- that makes it wayyy better.

We were exhausted, so we cabbed it home and called it a night.  The next day, we headed to brunch.  Lucky for us, we found the restaurant we had been searching for the night before!  It was called Cinq Mars- another Gwyneth Paltrow recommendation (thanks, girl! BFF).  I ordered an omelette with mushrooms and a side salad.  Heavenly!

French bread and Diet Coke. I love you.

For dessert (gotta get it at every meal in Paris!), I tried profiteroles.  I had never had them, but I have always been a sucker for Shipley's cream puffs.  They were amazing.  Love me some pastry, chocolate, AND ice cream.

We then wandered on over to Musee Dorsay.  Like I have mentioned and will probably continue to mention, I am not one for museums.  However, this place was great.  It had Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Degas, and many more I can't think of off the top of my head.  And when my legs got tired, it made for a great people watching spot.  Pictures weren't allowed... sorry guys.  Next was L'Orangerie.  Another great museum.  It houses Monet's Water Lillies.  I also wandered around and found 2 paintings that I have in my house in LR.

these are my favorite types of pictures... thanks, dude!

now that's mo' betta

look familiar, parents?  can't remember which one of y'all has this painting

and does this look familiar, mom and bebe? great taste, ladies!

this is what the sky looked like when we left the museum. creeepy

We then wrapped up the day with a visit to Sacre Couer.  We took a tram/elevator thing up this super steep hill and we were there!  What a beautiful sight- everyone was in such a great mood while we were there.  The sun was out, the church was beautiful, and some dude was playing every Beatles song he could think of on the guitar.  Good times were had by all.

the crowd jammin' out

That was our last touristy thing of the day, so we went and freshened up and headed out to ANOTHER awesome dinner.  This dinner was at yet another Gwyneth-recommended spot called Brasserie Balzar.  The maitre'd was great and was rockin' one sweet mustache.  I mean it would have probably poked anyone that walked within 2 feet of him.  I had French Onion soup for my appetizer, a french staple called chateaubriand (a filet + fries and bernaise sauce), and chocolate mousse for dessert!  Didn't feel guilty at all though, because we had been walking our booties off allll weekend.

French onion soup. Cheesy goodness

chocolate mousse!

The next morning, we headed to brunch one last time at a cafe right beside the Pantheon.  I had a croque monsiuer with goat cheese, ham, and tomato.  I also had NUTELLA CREPES as my dessert. Perfect way to end my Paris trip!  Until we realized we were late for every single train so we had to run through the town like chickens with our heads cut off.  Oh well!  We made it back in one piece.  Good thing I brought things with an elastic waste :)

these crepes surpassed the other ones by far.  a great end to such a fun weekend

Sorry some of my picture quality is messed up.  Don't know what's going on there... will do my best to work on it.

Next stop: Brussels!

Avuoir!

Barbara

LONDON WEEKEND! Part II

We woke up bright and early on Sunday to carpe diem.  We have been doing a really good job at that, considering the three of us would looooove to finally get to sleep in at least one day.  That's just not gonna happen on this trip, and I am okay with that.  Anyway, we packed up our stuff and headed out into the rain to the Globe Theatre. Yay!!!  This is one of the things I was most excited about.  It's not the original Globe Theatre, which burned down, but it's a scaled-down replica. Our tour guide was hilarious and told great stories.  Thanks, Glennis!

solo pic for mom!

standing where the groundlings stand

even the nails are wooden

After the Globe Theatre, we were starvin' marvin.  So we headed next door to the Tate Modern Museum for some grub.  Their restaurant was very nice.  Their service was very poor.  Their food was very mediocre.  I ordered the sea bass, which I assumed was going to be awesome.  Instead, it was just expensive. Oh well, gonna show you a picture of it anyway!

mehhh

The Tate Modern was interesting.  I'm not really an art person, but it was cool to see some of Picasso and Andy Warhol's pieces.

Andy Warhol's self portrait

i just don't quite get modern art... 

After the museum, we scurried over to the Tower of London.  We thought we'd just hop in, see the jewels, hop out. WRONG. Very long line with very slow people.  But we rushed through, saw what we wanted to see, and then headed over to one of the best parts of the trip... Evensong at Westminster Abbey!  That's right folks, we got to attend a service at Westminster!  Not to mention we were seated right by our friend Jane Austen's grave.

thanks, bus

After the Evensong service, we headed over to the Wolseley for a spot of tea.  How British does that sound?? Really though, we had afternoon reservations for tea! A lot of celebs head over there because it is right by the Ritz.  We didn't see any though :( We tried the typical Wolseley tea and then divided all of the finger sandwiches, scones, and desserts by 3.  I drank more tea than anyone, which is weird, because I'm not a huge tea drinker.  My favorite dessert was the pistachio oreo type thing.  It's the green thing in the picture

isn't that just the cutest thing?

our little teapots, short and stout.  pinky's up!

After tea and crumpets, it was time to truck it back to Oxford.  We boarded our train and made it back around 10:30 or so.  It was a great weekend! It rained the majority of the time, but we didn't let that stop us.  Next stop: Paris!

Barbara

LONDON WEEKEND! Part I

London weekend started bright and early Friday morning.  We all met and loaded up on a bus from Oxford to London.  Yay for free transportation!  Once we got to London, we began our "Legal London" tour.  Joanne was our tour guide, and she forgot to wear a bra that day. Gross, I know.  However, she was wonderful.  She is a solicitor, which is one type of lawyer over there.  The other type is a barrister, which is a more specialized form of lawyering.  Solicitor is to Barrister as General Practitioner is to Surgeon.  There's a little SAT analogy for you right there.

where Prince Charles and Princess Di's divorce lawyers work

We walked around the 4 Inns of Court, which are basically clubs for lawyers.  They even have their own colors and scarves and whatnot.  Hellooooo Hogwart's!

We also went to the wig store.  Because yes, the judges and some of the barristers are still required to wear wigs.  Seem pretty itchy to me.

wig store!

After we had to leave the lovely Joanne and her crooked teeth behind, we headed to our hostel.  It was a quaint hostel called Astor Quest in the Bayswater area of London, near Hyde Park.  Our roomies were 2 sweet Argentinian gals.  We wandered around and grabbed some lunch at a place called Nano's. Yummmy Portuguese restaurant that I just discovered exists in Oxford, too. Suh-weeet! We shared a hummus appetizer and I got this wrap:

Peri-Peri chicken wrap with lettuce and mushroom; "chips"... i need to remember that chips = fries!

Then, because it was such a lovely day, we decided to go on a double decker bus tour.  But first, we had to snap some shots of Big Ben, the House of Parliament, and the London Eye:

Our bus tour was great.  Took us all around town so we got to at least spot the sites and finally relax.  But then it got super windy! Brrrr so we decided to seek shelter in the London Eye.  So glad I am not scared of heights, because this thing goes crazy high!

great view!

After freshening up at our hostel, we went to a dinner spot recommended by one of Sidney's BFFs, Gwyneth Paltrow.  Everyone that worked there was great! Wonderful food, too.  Mom, don't scoff at me for ordering cream sauce, it was an accident!

broad bean tortellini with ricotta and basil

Then, we met up with our buddy Josh and we went to a bar called O'Neill's.  Oh and before that, a man approached us and asked if we would give him money to buy drugs.  At least he was honest, right?  While at O'Neill's, I briefly fell in love with an Irish boy named Rory.  But then I had to go to the bathroom and our relationship ended.  Oh well! We went upstairs and had fun making fun of the American youngsters trying to be all suave with the European ladies.  Hilarious. We called it a night around 2 am and headed back to the hostel.

The next day, we jumped on the tube (and ran into people from our class... real bizarre) and went and got breakfast.  I had a bacon and egg sandwich- nothing too extravagant, but it was exactly what I needed.

Then, we attempted to go to the changing of the guard.  BUT IT RAINED. HARD. Bummer dude! We tried. :(

see em? kinda?

sorry your field trip was ruined, children

After that, we wanted to do something inside.  We went to St. Paul's Cathedral.  Absolutely breathtaking.  Overwhelming.  I had to sit down so I could take it all in.  Pictures weren't allowed inside (boo).  Oh and we ran into some of our friends here, too. How bizarre do do do do do do how bizarre, how bizarre.  Yay, now that song is stuck in your head!  Elizabeth and I climbed to the VERRRRRY top! 528 steps! So proud of her, she faced her fears and did it!  I'm not scared of heights, but this was realllllly scary.  You get dizzy because you are constantly climbing up spiral staircases.  But we did it!

see how high we climbed!?

side ponytails yeahhhh!

After that, we were famished.  We headed to a yummy Italian restaurant called Strada.  I got this delicious salad.. very, very fresh and a perfect flavor explosion in my mouth.

mixed greens with goat cheese, roasted red peppers, zucchini, and orzo with a light balsamic dressing

We then attempted to go to the Tower of London, which said that it would sell tickets until 5:00.   LIARS! We got there at 4:55, and they weren't gonna sell us a ticket no matter what.  So we went ahead and bought our gifts in the gift shop there and then planned to go back on Sunday.  Because we had a late night the night before and a long day, we decided to have a lazy night.

We went shopping at the mall (no luck for this gal) and then ate at another one of Sidney's BFF Gwyneth's recommendations, Taqueria.  MEXICAN FOOD AYIYIYIYI!  It was so great, but unfortunately we had to rush, rush, rush because we had some VERY important plans for later that night.  Here's what I had:

huereras: steak tacos with guacamole and pico

black beans... so simple, so delish

And here is the very important thing we had to do later that night:

we love harry! couldn't have seen it in a better place

Sidney and I bawled during the movie. I just love those guys.  Thanks for your amazing brain, J.K. Rowling! We called it a night around midnight and got some shut eye.  Since this is a super long post, I'll put Sunday's events on another post!  Sorry for such a delay on this one.. been a busy week!

Cheers!

Barbara