These Cats are on the Naughty List.

These are my mom's cats: Thelma in the back, and Louise in the front. As the title of this blog entry may suggest, they are on the naughty list. The teacher in me wants to say that they are not bad cats, but it is their actions which are of a deviant nature... but I am not entirely convinced that this is true... I can handle them unplugging the Christmas tree once, but everyday? Multiple times a day?? Christmas lights on... off... on.... off... there must be a solution to this. I foolishly left the ear buds for my Zune sitting on the bed, and when I returned they had detached the left ear bud in what I can only imagine to be rambunctious playtime... however, the following day I returned to find the other ear bud mangled from its source... I can only conclude foul play... also carelessness on my part.

The picture above was taken after I had left to make a cup of tea... which takes so much longer at my parents' house because they do not have an electric kettle... To say that these cats are needy is a bit of an understatement, especially Louise. She will actually run up onto the back of a chair and try to jump into your arms so you will pet her. Quite cute actually.

Please don't misunderstand me, I love cats. I have a kitty cat blanket that my grandmother made me when I was a child, I was a black cat on Halloween for a decade of my childhood, not to mention the blue ribbon (okay now I am just bragging) as I was saying... the first place blue winner mcwinnerson ribbon I won all by myself in kindergarten for drawing 100 cats in the district wide art competition. (In storage in my parents front closet, viewings available upon request.)

I guess the moral of the story is that whilst the cats are indeed a bit mischievous and troublesome, I have enjoyed their company in my mornings of jet lag since returning to Washington State... we are on the same schedule. 5am! time to wake up! I can take a little bit of their penchant for trouble (as long as I hide my electronics!!) if it means I have a friend with whom to snuggle next to the fire during the winter storms. :o)

breaking news..... Okay a little amendment to this blog entry. Louise (the primarily white cat) just came sprinting into the living room as if her tail was on fire, obviously startled by the Starbucks bag she had managed to fall into and get the handle caught around her neck... oh man. I wish I had taken a video. The cat is fine, startled but fine, and my mom and I could not stop laughing. Of course there are now Starbucks gifts all over the house, and Louise was wearing the paper bag handle like a necklace, but my sides hurt from laughing... so I would say I got the good end of the deal.

I'll be home for Christmas...

Just after Thanksgiving this year, I decided to fly to Washington State to visit my friends and family in the greater Seattle area for the holidays. It was quite an adventure, I chose to keep my homecoming a secret surprise from my mom as well as from my housemate for two years and friend, Tracey. I do love giving a good surprise! I flew in on Thursday, and not a day too soon! Turns out that Thursday night the northwest was hit with the worst snow storm in at least a decade! People are stranded at the airport unable to get connecting flights out, or in... I had an unusually large amount of good travel karma for my trip... I think maybe stored up from all the bad luck I've had with trains for the past few months... Not only did I score a direct flight on British Airways, but it was fully booked and I was bumped up to business class :o) free wine! better food! It was one of the more enjoyable flights of my travels thus far.

Coming home I had my dad go in first then knocked on the door and my mom almost choked on her broccoli as she came to the door to give me a hug and trilled repeatedly: "Rachey's home!" Was great fun surprising her. :o) I've decided to include a little photo I took in the height of all the excitement as she called people to tell her that I had returned for the holidays. ha ha ha.


It is lovely being with my parents for the holidays. I arrived amidst the flurry of snowy weather, but also amidst the flurry of Christmas cookie preparation... one of my favorite bits of Christmas is the over abundance of cookies made especially by family... especially by my madre. As any one of my longtime friends will attest, my mom really has the magical touch when it comes to baking. I think it is because her recipes include love. Yup. that's right... LOVE...


Friday I was off to surprise Tracey. I arrived at the Tacoma house and it was really strange how normal it was to sit and chat with Mike on his lunch break, as if I hadn't been gone for months. Eventually I cozied up in Tracey's bed and waited for her to arrive home from cross country skiing. When we finally heard her come through the front door I put the blankets over my head and waited for her to walk into her bedroom where she thought someone had been taking a nap in her bed until I popped up and said, "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" She proceeded to tackle me witha big hug and hit me on the back saying, "What are you doing here!?!" "You are suppose to be in England?!?!" "How are you here!?!" And though I will be a little bruised on my back... it was so worth it; I'll never forget her face!

All in all not a bad start to a holiday. I think it really set the right tone of celebration for me. I have no gifts to bring but tea and some jaffa cakes, and the real present for me is being here with people that I love, an added bonus is the realization that being present with the people you love is a gift you can enjoy anytime you come together... anytime of year... Merry Christmas!

Chester

After finishing course work (excepting essays) for the term, and before going home for the holidays, I took a little trip to the historic town of Chester! What a great little mini-break! I adore Chester, the city is fantastic, retains a small town feel whilst having all the pubs and shops for which one could hope. I also really enjoy the fact that Chester is also the name of my brother's pet bunny, so when I often think of my brother :o) This first picture is me under Eastgate clock. I am told it is one of the most photographed clocks in England. I can see why, it is really lovely. One thing you can't sense from this picture, however, is the smell of the donuts shop that is directly to the right under the bridge. All good sense tells me I should abhor the smell of fried dough covered in sugar, but for some reason in that moment it completed the clock experience.... and made me hungry...

View from the bridge. Chester is unique because it has the remains of a the Roman wall that still surrounds most of the city and all these lovely Tudor style buildings that those crazy Victorians saw fit to build. I think the Christmas lights are fairly modern.

I went to my first proper tea shop whilst in Chester. It was great! Tim and I ordered tea for two and then I wavered between the Victorian sponge cake and crumpets. In the end, after having the proprietor of the tea shop explain to me the different types of cakes, I went for the Victorian. I am practicing my British smile in this picture :o)Friday night, Tim and I went to this really awesome celebration on the waterfront in Chester. I think they called it some sort of wish festival and involved ambient hippie music and ethereal paper lanterns that they then ceremoniously released into the water, glowing as they floated past the crowds. the lanterns and paper shapes were floating from the trees and all around, it was beautiful. There was one point that defies description, but I will try my best by saying it involved large electronic swans the size of small boats and there was a person on the back of each of these swans doing an interpretive dance. Yup. I think that sums it up. Then there were the fireworks... best display I have seen in quite sometime! I very much enjoy Chester.

The One Where Rachel Actually Becomes a Superhero...

end of term already??

That's right folks! It is time for the illustrious first term of my graduate school experience to come to a close... hence the lack of blogging for the past few weeks... been a little more than preoccupied with some reading and writing and criticizing. (I know what you are thinking, oh Rachel! You read and write now too!? Leeds must be a great University... it is).

This entry may be ever so disjointed as I intend to use it as a little mental vacation from my work that I am doing at the moment and may return to... any second... but you will not know because I will publish these various episodes of distraction in one lucid and shockingly fluid post reflecting upon my university experience this year. Yes, that's right. LUCID. Besides, I know how annoying it can be to regularly check someone's blog and see the same post remain for weeks on end... How am I meant to properly procrastinate by reading about my sister and bro-in-law's adventures if they do not move on from their experience with 'Judy the Travel Nurse'. Am I meant to get actual work accomplished for my courses? I mean, really. When I am most busy is when I find time to write and read about everything not related to the task at hand (hence current blogging).

Back to life as an EnglishpostgraduatestudyingattheUniversityofLeeds...I would like to draw your attention to the last sentence in the preceding paragraph. Please note that the period/full-stop is placed outside of the parenthesis as according to MHRA style guide. This rule also applies if I were to tell you, 'How much my very nature revolts against putting the period outside of a quotation, especially when using the single quote'. Yet there we are, and here I am in England and oceans away from MLA. It is not all fun and punctuation here in England, but will save that for the next blog... holidays are just around the corner...hooray! Last bit of that line was written after I finished my unassessed essays... :o)

okay back to the books. :o)

Charlotte's Birthday :o)

My flatmate, Charlotte, is from Belgium; it was her birthday this last week. Charlotte teaches me something everyday, but I think my favorite lesson, and one that I am most likely to retain for a long period of time is the perfection that lies in a great piece of chocolate and a cup of Nescafe. Drinking Nescafe would otherwise be a horrid proposition for a native western Washingtonian (land of independent coffee shops and the corporate giant, Starbucks) if it were not for the addition of chocolate to this equation :o) During reading week, whilst Charlotte and I stayed hold up in our respective rooms reading and writing essays we took periodic (read: frequent) mental vacations to enjoy Belgian Chocolate dipped in Nescafe. It was brilliant.

To celebrate Charlotte's special day, I invoked a special Gramenzekesen tradition of covering her door with newspaper so that one can burst through to a new year!
























Then made really down right decedent pancakes that were chocolate with chocolate bits in them, topped with raspberry preserves and accompanied by a cup of Nescafe, yes please.























For dinner we all made risotto together. :o) This is a picture of our other flatmate, Sam, and myself wearing my aprons. Charlotte recently brought me one from Belgium that says Chocolate on it :o) Happy Birthday Charlotte! Thanks for being magnifique!

Brotherton Library and Rent, the musical

I know these seems like an odd combination, and indeed, it very well might be. In the spirit of John Donne's conceits, I thought I would write a little blog entry that connect two seemingly disparate things, and share one of the many idiosyncrasies of my life which makes it that much more full and makes the world a little more Rachelified.

Today I was listening to my mp3 player on the way to the library, and upon arriving to the library the song, "Take Me Or Leave Me" from the Original Rent Soundtrack began playing. If you are not familiar with this little ditty, let me briefly share with you that it is two women singing to each other about how they are completely different, and want the other to understand and "take me for who I am," and both threaten to call it quits to the whole relationship. There is one particularly brilliant bit where the two women belt out, "Women! What is it about them!? Can't live with them or without them!"

This song is one of my favorites to sing quite loudly in my room, so my flatmates are fairly familiar with the music and I think learning the words a little more every time. :o)

Return to library: This afternoon, I am walking up the stairs to the section of the library where I spend a good deal of my time (4th floor between G and H) and maybe it was the sunny day, maybe it was the good breakfast, or truffles from Charlotte, but the music MOVES me, so I check to see no one is looking and do a little dance and mouth the words to the rest of the song all the while envisioning a musical taking place in my library (which I think would be amazing.) Stifling my laughter a bit as to not completely fulfill the stereotype of a loud American and also to not disturb the other library patrons, I regain my composure and find a seat (near the Shakespearean Criticism) and settle into my reading of John Donne and George Herbert.

It was a good moment.

Mince Pies.

I have not, as of yet, spoken too terribly highly of British food. To be honest, as a vegetarian, it is not terribly easy to sample all of the local cuisine of Yorkshire, most of the dishes involving a sort of meat substance. Which is why I had always assumed that mincemeat pies, were also of animal origin, not so unreasonable, the English love their meat and their pies. I was completely wrong. Mince pies are not only a sweet without meat, they are ambrosia. I was right pleased with these little holiday treats, they are lovely. Maddy came over to my flat, and my friend, Laura, is visiting for the weekend and we had tea with mince pies fresh from the oven (well from a box but then warmed in the oven.) They smelled delicious, and tasted even better. I will learn how to make these from scratch.

Robinhood

Part of Justin's English cultural education involved a viewing of Robinhood: Prince of Thieves, Kevin Costner style. An all around great film, if you ask me, which you implicitly did because you are reading my blog. hahaha. Although there are two letter writing snippets in the movie, and it is integral enough in the plot to show the hand of a person writing.... upon seeing this bit of the film I said aloud, much to the amusement/annoyance of my fellow movie watchers, "ugh that is so culturally inaccurate to that time period, there is no way that someone would write with that manner of script during that period!"

Some background on that outburst: I recently partook in a few paleography courses where we took to deciphering texts from the Early Modern Period, well after the time of tale of Robinhood. It wasn't until after the 1600 did people begin to use italic and even then it was mostly women, men still sticking to the Elizabethan secretary hand until around 1650.

In addition to that there is a few geographic slips in the movie that Maddy and Kayleigh spotted such as landing on the white cliffs of Dover and almost instantaneously arriving on Haydrian's Wall (which is hours north, by car) Jim pointed out that tree on Haydrian's Wall is actually a Sycamore disguised as an Oak so that it could contain mistletoe as the dialogue of the movie dictates.

I am not sure why I felt like being such a myth buster when watching this particular Robinhood last Saturday. I hold complete suspension of disbelief when watching the Disney version, never seemed to have any qualms with a fox shooting a bow and arrow :o) You know you want to get that song stuck in your head, and maybe this one too. :o) Such a classic.

Justin visits York-shuh

Last Thursday, a friend of mine from Tacoma stopped by Leeds on his way from India to Tacoma. I picked Justin up from the train station at TWO in the morning! Which in my other life would have been beyond late, but I am grateful that this rowdy graduate school lifestyle has acclimated me to late night adventures such as this; we certainly sat up talking until the weee hours of the morning.

Partially due to my upbringing in the great Northwest United States of America, and partially from my experience with weather here in Leeds, when it was sunny on Friday I ensured that Justin and I had a decent amount of outdoor time. We headed up to a little town near Leads, Knaresborough. The train ride alone would have been enough to satisfy the eyes with their fill of rolling green countryside and trees with leaves turning that last bit of rusty yellow before the next storm strips them bare, but wait! There's more!

I love the changing of the leaves. Deciduous forests can be so beautiful. I can hardly contain myself. :o) Upon arriving in Knaresborough we discovered a path that wound through (maybe not as literally through the trees as the picture above may suggest) the trees and next to the river Nidd, and we could look up to the historic bridge which gives really adds to the beauty of this town.

We stopped by Harrogate on the way home, wandering around town and stumbling across some really lovely rose gardens.

We rounded off the evening with viewing of a cult classic, With Nail and I. Let me just say this: hilarious.There. That's it. Done. My friend, Maddy, joined us for the film and whilst Justin fell fast asleep in the first 30 minutes, Maddy and I stayed up to watch the main characters use plastic bags for rain boots and we acquire great fodder for movie quote banter such as: "Don't threaten me with a dead fish." There is also apparently a couple drinking games that can accompany this film (they are especially clever here in the UK for their games involving alcohol) and one variation involves matching the main characters alcohol consumption drink for drink... well, this would make you very ill indeed.

Are you celebrating?

Seems like there is much about which to be festive this week; my dad's birthday on the 5th, I watched the elections, and commemorated Guy Fawkes day with fireworks, chocolate, mulled wine and marshmallows... but who knew that all the while it was National Sausage Week? Certainly not I, that is until my visit to Harrogate this very day; so I ask you:Are you celebrating?

This is where I spend my time...

I love fall leaves. I love leaves falling. I fall in leaves loving. You get the idea. This is a picture of part of the English House where my professors offices are located and is where most of my seminars are held. This is an especially lovely, sunny fall day a few weeks ago. So lovely, in fact, that I felt compelled to attempt to capture the sky in this picture.

Aw the English Faculty House. That's not me in the front door, but I reckon it is another of my ilk here at Leeds. The English house has a great computer cluster upstairs and pretty cozy chairs in which to sit and read downstairs. On a whole, the place is like a maze, and I have more than once made a fool of myself at that front door; all intuition leads one to push, but it is, in fact, a pull... or the other way around... who can keep these details straight? :o)

I wear a nerdy backpack, and that's okay! You know why? I carry around a mess of books where ever I go, also I'm a nerd.

This is a shot from the staircase inside the English House, look at all those studious people, working their way through the difficult texts and sitting in surprisingly comfortable chairs. I know I go on about the chairs, bu when you find yourself sitting in one place for hours on end, you become acutely aware of the quality of chair. haha. That rhymes.

More English Faculty houses on the other side of the lane.

Aww the Parkinson's Building, within is the GREAT Brotherton Library, one of two libraries on campus and the one at which I spend more of my time. It is booktastic.

As requested I have now included two views form my kitchen window. The above view is if you look down, the one below is if you look striaght out; below... gipsey camps, out... rolling green fields. :o)

Creatures big and small

For Halloween this year, I traveled with a selection of my fellow English Postgrads on what is referenced as the Otley Run! You can find more information about these phenomenon on Wikipedia as I discovered, I will do my best to succinctly sumerise this festive tradiation.

The general idea is to start in Headingly at Woodies Ale House and then hit all 16 or 18 pubs and bars to downtown having at least one drink at each. YIKES! Other stipulations in the Otley run tend to involve the themed costumes of any given group. I sat one sunny sunday afternoon with friends at a Starbucks along the same road in Headingly down which the Otley Run holds its course. I was surprised/appalled/amused to see groups of 8-15 students at a time pass by as clowns, golfers, mimes... you name it, the more creative the better. So the unique aspect of our venture is not in that we wore themed costumes, zoo animals, but that it was Halloween where such attire is relatively expected for parties, also that we orderded half-pints for most of the evening and saved our livers a little extra work.

Drinking is interesting to me here at Leeds. As a subwarden (and someone obssessed with cultural activities,) I often see large groups of freshers start their nights out on the town and the general attitude about drinking seems to be: "hey! why just get drunk!? when we can get drunk wearing a tutu, clown wig and drawn on with highlighters." and that's just the fellas :o) Well... not our fellas... They were proper animals! In England, were people are a bit more reserved this dressing in costume and then partying is a social construct that seems to have created a loop-hole in standard propriety. In the states, we employ this device on most readily on Halloween, seems to be a little more called upon here in Leeds.


the Otley Run was an adventure I was told I needed to experience at least once while I was here in Leeds, so there it was, now I have completed it.. nearly... I did drink water at the last few pubs... the Otley RUN! To be honest, it was an awesome good time, and I think a good cultural experience for a book worm like myself... I mean, when else will I have a chance to go out to a bar dressed like an animal, let alone 18 bars with an entire group of people dressed as animals?! We facepainted, everyone had great costumes, I went as a zebra (pronounced zeh-brah) We started the adventure at roughly 4:30 in the afternoon and were finished with the pubs at around 2:00 AM... Happy (Late) Halloween! I definatly slept in on Saturday. :o)

Welcome to Cambridge

First of all, let me say this on record: Screw the 24 hour clock system... I would use harsher words, and in fact, did when I realized that my train left at 8:40pm and not 10:40pm; so that is 20:40 friends. (As a side note, now that I have immortalized my distaste for the 24 hour clock, I choose to embrace the system, and master it as quickly as possible.) When I received a text from Jim at roughly 19:50 saying that he would be at my place at 20:05, I was a little bit panicked, because in my head, I had somehow changed the time of my departure.. I ran quickly into the kitchen, threw a slew of train tickets in front of my neighbor, Jake, demanding: "What time is my train!??" I would have missed it. Luckily I panic packed everything into my suitcase in t-minus 5 minutes and was off to the train station! Barely made it, skipped my dinner and grabbed two muffins, one for my dinner and one for Jim for saving the day. Maddy helped me struggle my belongings down the stairs and all in one breath, I shouted back to my flatmates something that amounts to: "sorry about the dishes, eat the dinner I left on the stove, see you on Sunday, bye!"

That was the most complicated part of the trip, once arriving at the train station I was good to go! Cambridge is lovely. After breakfast and coffee, Mi and I did some work in the morning and then went to meet Ross for lunch at his college, Pembroke. Then we embarked on a series of intellectually stimulating, multi sensory activities and lectures from the Festival of !deas. Hooray! First stop was to the CRASSH center to listen to a speaker on the phenomenon of the use of the MP3 player. He spoke of ways in which people shaped their space through music, and that by creating play lists for certain activities or places, you are associating that music with that event and presumably, whatever emotion is evoked by that music will also be associated with that activity/place/event. At one point, the speaker asked if anyone puts their music on shuffle all and hits the button until there is a song they like. I thought, well he has watched me with my Zune! Has he not?! So I raised my hand, only to discover that I was the only one (though I know that is not a true reflection of reality, there must be other shufflers out in the world!) The implications of this action appear to be that I select my music to fit my mood at any given time, instead of shaping my mood through the sound experience I prescribe... chicken egg, egg chicken... I think this observation holds true for me, because sometimes I want to go running to Norah Jones, or Everclear and sometimes I would like a little P-Diddy in the morning.. who doesn't??

After the lecture at CRASSH we raced over to the Faculty of Law to listen to Catherine MacKinnon speak on gender, human rights and international law. This was my favorite part of the day, she is a dynamic speaker, eloquent and intelligent. Some highlights from her talk, included her discussion of treating inequality between men and women as a "value" argument and her stance that it has nothing to do with values, it is reality, it is a fact; and facts can not be argued, values can. She stated that her reality is subject to evidence, which she can supply; whereas, morality is open to opinion, and "objective morality" does not exist, according to MacKinnon.

She talked pointedly about the the idea that whether equality for men and women is good or bad is not the issue, whether inequality exists is the issue; if it does exist (and it does) it is illegal, and that is a fact. She gave examples from her practice in the work for inequality, including a case where she was a defending a woman who was fired from her career (I think in some office job, I do not recall) because she used to work in prostitution. She spoke of "victim" as being a VERB and not a noun; a person is not a victim, we are so hesitant to define ourselves as such, but victimized, according to MacKinnon. At first, I thought I differed in opinion on this idea; that is to say that I think that living life with a victim mentality can lead to a harmful cycle of self-fulfilling prophesy. However, that example still used "victim" as an adjective, and not as a verb. If one is able to understand the forces at work within their own victimization, then they can begin to change their situation. Well done Catherine MacKinnon.

The talk was fascinating; agree with her ideas or not, she does address issues central to international human rights. One aspect about the talk that I thought was a little personally poetic was that it took place in room LG17 in the Faculty of Law. This particular combination may not mean anything to most people, but allow me explain: My very good friend for over a decade and all around quality individual, Lauren Gotchy is a lawyer and her lucky number is 17. :o) I loved that. You were there in spirit, Lauren!

After a tasty dinner of aubergine/eggplant parmesan at the local vegetarian restaurant, we attended a screening for the film, "Manifactured Landscapes" which is a photographically beautiful film about the destruction of the natural landscapes of the world, particularly focusing on China. I recommend it, but it is not exactly a feel good romantic comedy. It does, however make a visual impact on the viewer, I felt, about the consequences of the pace in which we live our lives, and the self destructive nature in our society.

On a lighter note, Mi and I walked out to the vending machines to procure some snacks for the film, and when returning the girls running the front door said, "oh sorry, there is no food or drink in the auditorium." To which Mi replied, "oh no, we aren't going to eat these, we are just going to put them in our bags for later." Of course this was a bold faced lie, but they didn't really want to not let us take them in, and we didn't want to not have them, so they said, "oh okay," and off we went. Thanks random Cambridge students for being so rad!

All in all an intellectually stimulating and all around lovely day, even topped off with some chips back at Mi and Ross's apartment :o) yum yum yum yum.. salt...

Football Americana

Teresa spent some time studying in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, which is very close to where my grandma Bea was raised, and where my grandfather and she met and lived part of there lives. To me, Wisconsin will always mean running around in fields, swimming lessons, and that time Nate put on his trousers, only to find that a bat had made it their home whilst on the drying rack- scary and funny. In any case, I thought that my family would especially appreciate that Terry came into the kitchen one day wearing this shirt. For so many reasons, Terry is awesome, this is just one of them.

More Fall Pictures from Roundhay Park

If you will remember from my previous entry, when we arrived at Roundhay Park, I had a camera, and the batteries promptly went coput. However, Jim was able to take a few pictures with his camera phone (thank goodness for technology!) while our group strolled around Roudhay Park.. They are 2MP pictures, piccies... but they give an idea of the lovely fall day which we enjoyed and do just fine for the purposes of my blog :o) I really did want to chase after a Frisbee and roll down hills; there is something about large expanses of green that is a bit magical and rejuvenating...

I really like the light through the trees in this photo, the greens illuminated in the leaves of the trees and the sunlight across the grass is lovely.

Imagine if this was the view you had from your back porch in the morning? Grab a cup of coffee, and head out to see survey the land.