Flamenco Dancing in Madrid

In Madrid, Tony and I went to one of the most famous clubs for Flamenco Dancing in the world. Here a few clips of the amazing dancers.

Street Band in Madrid

Look at that clarinet go!

Christmas Videos in London

Covent Garden Fiddlers


Covent Garden Fiddlers

Westminster Abbey Boys' Choir

Thankgiving, Ring Night, Oxford

Happy Belated Thanksgiving, everyone!

Well it's a little hard to celebrate a holiday that doesn't exist here, but we seemed to find a way! My housemates and I decided that we were too cool NOT to have a Thanksgiving dinner, so we all started planning the big day about a month ago and it all came together wonderfully on Thursday! I must say, I'm pretty impressed with us. Everyone made 1-2 things for dinner using one kitchen with one oven and 4 stove tops on a day that we all had classes, with no major disasters. Well, there was a pie that was dropped, but it was rebaked in time. WOW. I made mom's stuffing and it made the whole house smell just like Thanksgiving at home, and it tasted perfect; just like Mum makes it! And the best part was that people who hadn't even eating the stuffing all their lives liked it, so it was a definite success. Anyway, the reason I called it 'in Hell' in the title is because my house is a little obsessed with Gordon Ramsey, especially the reality TV show Hell's Kitchen, so halfway through our cooking experience we decided to have a Gordon Ramsey Thanksgiving and Brooke happily filled the role and proceeded to insult everyone and yell dramatically about our shit cooking skills. Traumatic as it sounds, it was actually quite fun. I just felt like I should explain that before anyone goes off to see the pictures in my album, as the pictures might seem a bit alarming without an explanation. No, she's not really about to cut off my hand, she's just pretending... I think. Anyway, the Ivys lent us a table, table cloth, and hot plates to help make our Thanksgiving a complete success (we decided against candles, as they would probably give Mrs. Dr. Ivy nightmares about house fires for the next week) and we had a wonderful dinner with fantastic food. I pretty much laughed the whole night; I actually started getting cheek cramps.

Anyway, the next night was RING NIGHT! Now for those of you who don't know about what a big deal class rings are at R-MWC, let me fill you in. Back at home, juniors get their class rings. This is such a big deal that we have an entire Ring WEEK, and a first year student picks 'her junior', decorates her door, they leave each other presents, and at the end of the week the firstie makes a scavenger hunt for her junior, and at the end the junior finally gets her ring. And then once the ring is obtained, she has to get it turned in full rotations towards her pinkie a certain number of times (100 plus the year of graduation, so mine is 110 times) by some specific people (like her best friend for the first turn, her enemy for the 13th, and the person she will marry for the last, who turns it the last full turn and then back the other way to 'lock' it). While she's still at the college, the lamp faces in towards her to represent the knowledge flowing into her, and when she graduates she turns it outwards to show the knowledge she is giving the world. If she's unmarried or not engaged when she gets her ring, she wears it on her left hand and saves her last turn until her soon-to-be fiance proposes, and he turns it and locks it before taking it off, putting on the engagement ring, and then putting her class ring on her right hand. Basically, it's a Really Big Deal. A ring is far more than a ring at Randolph-Macon Woman's College, it's a symbol of a student's achievement of the class, honour, intelligence, outspokenness, and maturity of a true Randolph-Macon Woman. Knowing that I was going to miss Ring Week was a big draw for me to stay on campus for this semester instead of coming to Reading, and that's saying a lot. After all that said, and all that pressure put on the poor Ivys to make arguably the most important night of our college experience measure up to our first-year expectations, they did a fantastic job. We had a wonderful dinner at a nearby fancy hotel where alums were present (I love alums and always love to see them; they are a fantastic and irreplaceable link to the college's respectable past and they've always been wonderful to us, especially during the first-year protests) and told of their Reading experiences. One of them graduated in the 70's, and I happily received my ring from her. After we all got our rings, Mr. Dr. Ivy announced that he and his wife were considering retiring after our group and asked if we could, just this last time, sing the school song on their last Ring Night with the last class of Randolph-Macon Woman's College. So we all stood in a circle and locked arms and I didn't make it past the first two lines, I started crying so hard. Beside me I heard Reena doing the same thing and saw glassy eyes from Mrs. Dr. Ivy, the alums, and many others around me. After the song was over, Reena and I hugged and cried for about a minute, then we turned one another's rings for the first turn. And, just writing this, I'm tearing up again.

After running around frantically getting everyone to turn our rings, we all went out to the dance floor for the disco. I wasn't expecting to stay past midnight, but I was having so much fun with my Randy-Mac women (past and present) that I didn't go home until the last taxi came at 1. The Ivys even graced our dance floor for one of the last dances, and it was beautiful. I'd write more about it, but there's no capturing it in words. Just imagine the best night of your own life with a group of people you love, and you'll know how my night went. After we all went home, we were planning on singing R-MWC spirit songs at the top of our lungs for the next hour, but only made it halfway through the fight song (I go to Randolph-Macon WC, I will always have my virginity, I will study for eternity...) before we all decided it was no use and we'd better at least make it to our beds before we passed out from exhaustion (give us a break, we'd been dancing for 4 hours).

And then the next day Reena and I went to Oxford! Yea, probably not the brightest idea ever after such a night, and we didn't make it very long before every joint in our bodies started protesting from the soreness and the frigid cold of the day, but it was still wonderful. We found a book store which I think was taken out of my dreams and recreated brick for brick, and which I will most definitely be returning to at least once before the end of Christmas break. We didn't look around the college much for the aforementioned reasons, but we made it to the Alice Shoppe that Reena wanted to go to (she loves Alice in Wonderland; it's the store where the original Alice used to get her sweets as a child) and the Eagle and Child which I wanted to go to (meeting place of JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis, my childhood heroes) then called it a day. We then stumbled our way back through Oxford, the train, and the bus home and spent the evening warm and snug on the couch with a pot of tea. Ah, perfection.


I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was lovely! Thanks once again for reading, and stay tuned for Christmas adventures in England, France, and Spain, this time with special guest star Tony Shannon!



With Love,
Kattherine (<--a happy medium)