Christmas Sparkles

Now it is December it is getting all Christmassy and we bought a tree, a real one and along with the decorations and lights which we inherited in vast quantities from the year before we have now successfully decorated the tree and the lounge in the boys apartment, I have also put some up in my apartment and in my room. We also had a lot of excitement with the snow in a can which is now sparyed on the windows after much fun making star and snow flake templates to spray over. A little premature I hear you say but no, we only have 2 weeks to enjoy the tree so why not.Also this week it was the Christmas concert with all the 6 choirs at the university singing and evern at one point all together. there is a christmas party on monday for the choir which should be fun. Getting so near the end now. Only one week of lectures and then half a week of exams to the end of a very long semester. August feels like years ago. I can't deny it, I am very jealous of anyone at Oxford, Cambridge or Warwick right now, finished for the holiday 2 weeks before me when they didn't wven start until 6 weeks after me :O

It's Christmas in the Weather Centre too!

Las Vegas, The Hoover Dam, and the Grand Canyon

So I finally got time to go through all my photos and things since I got back on saturday night.

The trip was very intense and started badly with mine and Rob Graham's plane being delayed by an hour, but we got there fine and were eventually picked up by one of the others who'd arrived in Las Vegas around the same time as us.

From the hotel we headed out to a buffet to fill us up for the long trek around the hotels along the Strip. We didn't quite manage all the hotels on the first night so the next day whilst everyone slept in past mid-day I got up and went for a wander to some of the places we'd been the night before and also to a couple of other places. In Ceasar's PalacePossibly the biggest Chocolate fountain in the world!The waterfall in the Palazzo

My favourite hotel was definately the Venetian. It was all set out like Venice inside and even had a changing sky, Saint Marc's Square and Gondola trips down canals!

My other Las vegas highlights were definately the rain show inside (not that we needed it really as it was raining both days we were there, typical only I can go to the desert and get rain!), the Bellagio water show, and M&Ms world. I must have walked miles up and down that strip.Being Dwarfed by the big blue M&M :)The ful 32 flavours of M&Ms amazing!

Breaking free from the M&Ms museum end picture in M&M world shop

One night we went to the top of the stratosphere tower and you get an amazing view from up there though it was a bit cloudy so I'm sure it could have been better. then we went to the Freemont in Downtown Las Vegas to watch the light show and lose a few dollars (not that many I didn't find it too exciting really).The Stratosphere tower (above) and the view from it (below)

On our final day we looked at a few last minute things and went for dinner in the rainforest cafe which was excellent, and really fun to be surrounded by all the animals and trees that had been put out to make it feel like a real rainforest.

The journey back was a long one. We drove from Las Vegas to the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon between Nevada and Arizona crossing the first of the 2 time lines, before finally stopping at Flagstaff in Arizona on the friday night.

The mountains I saw as I left Flagstaff in ArizonaSitting in the BIG chair at the Big Texan a steak restraunt where if you manage to eat a 72oz steak in under an hour you get it for free

I thought the Hoover dam was really cool a truely fascinating piece of engineering and you could stand in 2 time zones at once on the border with Nevada and Arizona.
The Lake which acts as a reservoir a the top of the Hoover Dam, you can see how low the water level was this year from the white tide line on the rocks.Looking down the massive wall, it's amazing to think how it was ever built

The grand Canyon has to be the uncontested highlight of the trip. It was so vast and so beautiful . There were so many photo opportunities, the only draw back was that it was extremely cold but I suppose that's what happens at 6737 feet up in the mountains at the end of November. The beautiful canyon in all its evening gloryThe Meteorology gang, Rob W, Rob G, Becky, Rob L, Me and PeteSat in an old tree at the Canyon on the woodland trail

Me right on the edge of what felt like the world, how tiny do I look?!

Me and my met boys on the edgeLooking pensive as I take in the scale of the Gran Canyon

I was glad to get home though and have my own bed, and I'm now getting all excited at the propect of Christmas, it's only 17 days until I come home now, it's so soon.

Fall Fling

On tuesday I went to the Fall Fling with Becky. We were taken out to the stables at Lake Thunderbird and where there was a hay ride waiting for us, Just like being back at the Reaseheath open day riding in to straw on a flat back trailer pulled by an old vintage tactor.

It took us through the woods into a clearing where there was a bon fire with logs to sit on around it. We had hot dogs to cook in the fire and afterwards made the s'mores again, but its still not so good with out Cadbury's chocolate!Cooking dinner, the hot dogs
We then sat and talked to people around the campfire until the hayride came back to take us home. It was a clear sky that night and as we were no where near any where built up when you looked up you could see so many stars it was really beautiful and I even saw a shooting star, maybe two.

A very good night but it was very cold and we smelt all smokey when we got home.

Last Week, A Long and Slow one

Last week was a very tiring week and it dragged on , probably because I had so much work to get done, the final 2 week push before thanks Giving, (next week now YES!) However the week did perk up a bit at the weekend.

On Saturday i went to a bar called the Vista which is at the top of a 6 storey building and shard a few birthdat drinks with our friends David- the American who came to Reading last year- and his friends. Needless to say there there was numerous consumption of Hurrican cocktails for him.

On sunday, Becky and I sang in one of the 3 concerts that we will be giving with OU Women's choir, it all went well and it was really nice to hear some of the other emsembles sing too.
In the evening we drove out to Moore to the Warren theatre to watch the new Jame's Bond film Quantum of Solace and it was a very good film, there a little to many changes of camera angles at times but otherwise I enjoyed it which I was worried about as the person who'd written about it for the news paper was not very complementary about it at all. My theory is just that they didn't like it because because its a British film.
The cinema is a new one and there is entrance music and itwas so huge.

When we got back we slumped back into sadness that there was another week of intensive work to do before the break.

The National Weather Festival

Yesterday I went to the National Weather Festival which took place in the National Weather Centre. THere were hundreds of families who had turned up to watch the weather balloon launches, meet and get autograpghs of the weather presenters on Channel 5, see the chasing cars and get advice on alsorts of weather issues. There were also rooms with fun activities to do for children.

I went with Becky, Rob Lee and Dean (the really tall guy from Australia who's in the hail video). We got lots of free pens and pencils and some flying thing that you drop from high places outside so we are going to take them to the weather centre on monday and drop them down from the 5th floor. We all met thr channel 5 weather people and one of the men gave Dean his e-mail address so that we cna e-mail him together and he says he'll organise a trip for us to the tv studios which should be really fun if we get to go but I suppose it will depend on a lot of different things.

We talked to lots of people as we all knew differnt lecturers and people who work in the building so it was nice to talk to people outside of lectures.
We came back and I was ready for my lunch. Walking outside makes you hungry especially now it is much colder.

Nature's own fireworks

Wednesday was bonfire night and as it is obviously not celebrated in America it was set to be rather a dull evening. However, there were storm alerts out the night before and on checking again in the morning we decided to go chasing in the afternoon in the hope yet again that we were going to see a tornado, which unforetunately we did not.

We did however see some of the chase trucks from various new channels so we can't have been far off from the action. We ended up setting off back home but getting caught in ahail storm which we stopped for to take cover. The hail stones were quite large, bigger than garden peas by a long way which was very cool and you could see how how it had built up layers and layers of ice around it when it started as a small stone. Also we got caught in A LOT of rain and when driving the car we went though quite a large amount of water which splashed up in a wall and just hit the wind screen. It was long after that we pulled in.

All the chasers on the move as different storms strengthen

Some of the really big hail that fell on us

The video shows the size of the hail, the noise it made, and some very excited met students.

We got back to the weather centre a little ahead of a storm that was heading to Norman from Edmond and went up to the observatory and were treated to hours of endless thunder and lightening which eventually passed over us dropping floods of water and more large hail storms. There were flashes of all colours as we saw the lightening hit several transformers in the city but it was fantastic to see and made up for not being able to have a bonfire and fireworks.

The thunderstorm view from the Observation Deck in the National weather centre, Norman

Halloween

Yesterday was Halloween and I dressed up as a witch to go out. First I went upstairs to a house party where there were lots of people in different costumes. Three was a costume competition and Pete won a pair of witch slippers which are really fun but the flash when you walk so I can see them getting on your nerves after a while.

Little Red Riding Hood gets attacked by Pete the ware wolf.Laura, Becky and I, the housemates.
Jean-Baptiste, Rob and Laura are pirates!

Later I went out to Club 101 where there were some people in very interesting costumes, my favourite had to be the people dressed as I-Pods, complete with head phones and everything. I came home early but there was a knock on my door as Pete had come back but his girl friend was still out and had his keys so we chatted and looked at photos of the night until everyone came back so I didn't get to bed until quite late, but it was ok as I slept until mid-day! As it was so late I decided to make pancakes for a brunch, it is nice to have a slow day.

During the week the meteorology department was really getting into Halloween. There were bats hanging from the stairs and creepy things put up on the walls. Lots of people from the offices were all dressed up in costumes. One of my lecturers bought us biscuits in the shape of pumpkins with bright orange icing on, and another lecturer bought in lots of sweets for us to help ourselves to and on monday our choir leader did the same.

Now we are 10 weeks into lectures everyone is very tired and it feels like we should be having a holiday now but there are another few weeks to go unforetunately.

Freezing in England =GOOD / Freezing in America =BAD

I am very jealous today, and not just because I'm still sat trying to do work for tomorrow at quarter to 9 at night when I've been at it all afternoon no. I am very jealous becasue here it is very cold, a dry cold, and the wind makes it worse, but word come to me from across the pond that that's where all the weather is at. Snow in fact. SNOW IN OCTOBER! I wish there was some here and it would make the cold all the worth while.

It's all about my family

This week was Rob's 21st birthday. To celebrate we went out to a restraunt called Himalayan and had a curry buffet. I can't say it was the best curry I've ever had but it wasn't bad. He opened all his cards and presents, an Elmo live that does just about everything, but Rob loves Sesame street and was really pleased and a DVD of Sixth Sense. Then the waiters brought out the cake we'd bought and decorated and they gave him a lay made of blue feathers and a sikh hat to wear when we sang happy birthday to him.

On friday I went ot my host familie's house, Sandy and John, for a Jack O'lantern carving party, it was really messy but good fun and everybody brought a different dish for dinner. There was salads, rice dishes, very spicy buffalo wings, cabbage wraps which were very tasty and korean bean and pumkin soup for main courses and chocolate browies, a pancake dish, cookies and my scones for dessert, all that I tried was really good and some one even asked for the recipie.

Today was the friends of internation students family cookout, there was a BBQ with out the grill and you cooked your hot dogs on a long, thick wire over the flames and I managed to burn a prefectly staight line across one of my finger tips. There were alsorts of relishes things to go on top but I was a little sceptical. Then we all had to make a S'more which is 2 graham crackers sandwiching together chocolate and toasted marshmallows, they are supposed to be called S'mores because you want more but I really didn't, they were so sweet I'm not sure I could have physically managed another one, that and Hershey's chocolate has nothing on a bit of Cadbury's Dairy milk. We also had an interesting conversation trying to describe exactly what a crumpet is.
I keep being introduced to new people by my host family as Katy, who speaks proper english, from England, most people can really tell I'm English and so I'm not entirely sure what other language they really expect me to come out with to warrant this comment, but it is fairly amusing.

There will be some pictures of saturday coming soon too but I need to get them off Sandy first.
Until then I'll leave you with the knowledge that I will definately be coming home for Christmas!

Home Coming parade

Today was the Homecoming Parade, I'm still not entirely sure what homecoming is about but they invite all the alumni back and all the Fraternity and Sororities get to gether and make floats for a parade. It was suddenly very warm again today and was excellent weather for the parade but very hot. This is the Sooner Schooner being pulled by the ponies Boomer and Sooner.
OU's Pride the marching band
The flowers in South ovel are all out for homecoming, can you see the overlapping letters of OU in them?
South Oval
Me with all the flowers in South Oval.

It was a really good day with lots of university chants and clapping.

BOOMER.....!
........
....SOONER!

Thunderbirds are GO!

Last week there were are few storms so we went storn chasing only it wasn't that good. We did see some interesting cloud formations and lots of lightening and got stuck in lots of very heavy rain, but I could have seen the lightening at my apartment was was slightly dissappointed.



From one thunder to the next, yesterday afternoon we took a short 20 minute drive out to Lake Thunderbird for a lazy sunday afternoon. It is a really huge lake and we found a jetty to relax on. The weather was warm again and its supposedly as warm as its supposed to be at the beginnign of September.