National Lampoon's European Vacation, Sisti-Style

After finishing exams and saying goodbye to our visitors (and some other notable events including falling into the River Isis during rowing practice, having tea time with Jola at News Cafe, and attending a Garden Party in the Linacre quad), we prepared for the Main Event: the arrival of the Sisti's! Mom and Dad Sisti came to visit us in Oxford for a day and then took us on a European Cruise. It was the trip of a lifetime! We spent a few days in Venice and then hopped on the ship to Dubrovnik, Croatia; Kusadasi, Turkey; Corfu, Greece; and Santorini, Greece. We made so many memories on this trip that it would be impossible to detail all the stories and laughter, but here are some of the highlights, and the pictures...

Venice!

Basically, we toured around the city (after comically missing 3 different buses) and ate our weight in gelato. My favorite memories of Venice include Will dropping his (45th scoop of) gelato off his cone and my mom, worried that he would be upset (and likely feeling the affects of four glasses of Italian wine), picking the scoop up off the dirty Venetian streets and telling him 'Don't be sad! You can just eat the top.' Problem. Solver. Equally comical memory was watching my dad use unknowingly inappropriate hand gestures to question the Italian-only-speaking pastry-shop-worker about what type of filling was in the croissant he spotted. When I saw the look of utter confusion/disbelief on her face, I thought for sure the Sisti's were going to be politely escorted out of the shop. For the rest of the trip, I did all the dessert ordering for my dad. Ah, memories.

Croatia!

We walked all around this beautiful old town, and, of course, ate some gelato along the way.

After a fantastic pizza lunch (very Croatian, I know), we stopped at this cliff-side restaurant where we enjoyed some wine and the unbelievable views.

Turkey!

We took a really cool tour of Ephesus, an ancient Greek city with tons of Roman ruins. We saw the Library of Celsus (the second largest library in the world), some enormous theaters (like the Colosseum in Rome), and the remains of the Temple of Artemis (one of the Seven Wonders of the World). Oh yeah, and I rode a camel.

The next stop was Santorini, Greece. After climbing 600 feet through donkey poop (as tons of people ride donkeys up the hill instead of burning off the calories they gained from the hourly feedings on the cruise ship), we finally arrived at the city on top of the mountain. We spent the day walking around this beautiful city (and trying to rid ourselves of the poop stank).

Thought I was joking about the donkeys? oh no.

Here are 2 of about 200.

The next stop was Corfu, Greece! We took a bus tour of this beautiful island and its Achilleion Palace. Each time the bus turned a corner, we ran into another unreal view of water crashing onto the cliffs, crystal clear blue water, and sandy beaches. When people imagine paradise, it looks like Corfu.

In addition to seeing all these amazing cities, we spent time on the cruise ship laying in the sun, playing TONS of Spades, ordering 5 entrees and 6 desserts EACH for dinners (and then ordering MORE food via late-night room service), attempting to run off all those calories on the gym treadmill, playing three-card poker and roulette in the casino, watching a 70 year-old man in a fluorescent orange speedo do a pole-dance on the pool deck to win a keychain, and generally just laughing, laughing, laughing with each other. We made memories to last a lifetime, and are already looking forward to the next Sisti-Snyder adventure together.

The Italian Invasion

The weekend after my exams, we had a visitor to our Oxford pad: our good friend Nate!

Lucky for us, even though he's American, he's working in Italy for the year, and thus, came bearing AMAzing Italian treats! See below...

We had a great time introducing him to Survivor Triple Frisbee, learning new card tricks, eating gelato, pub quizzing (although I can't remember if our team name was Risky Quizness as Nate suggested or Quiztiano Renaldo as Will did - you boys will have to correct me there), listening to (and then ditching thanks to a fake emergency bathroom break) some choir music, watching him totally bite it in the middle of the night due to some loose wooden boards in the quality cot we got him...

drinking Pimms...

hitting the pubs...

touring the city...

...and just laughing. What a great weekend.

Survivor Frisbee - my new favo(u)rite game

The week after my exams, to our amazement and joy, the sun finally decided to descend upon Oxford. So, everyone in the city headed outdoors in droves. We hit the park. We watched some cricket, played some footie and flip cup, enjoyed the new flowers and pink-blossom covered trees, ate ice cream from the ice cream vans, and invented a new fabulous sporting event: survivor triple frisbee. (i.e. one person throws three frisbees simultaneously towards the rest of the group, and then in an every-man-for-himself, rugby-style, wrestling-type mosh pit, the 8 or so of us battle it out to be the last man standing with frisbee in hand. totally awesome.) It was such a great day. We even got sunburned! (There's a sentence I never thought I'd say in England.) We're really hoping that the sun decides to visit again sometime in the next few months.

Just a sampling of some of the amazing flower blooming right now...

Thought I was joking about the pink trees, eh?

Some of the crew picnic-ing and listening to Kev play guitar...

Anna and I getting pumped for Survivor Triple Frisbee...

In addition to bruising and some blood shed, our feet were permanently stained...

The Snyders before the soccer ball pummeled us.

Exams: A reminder that school is not always AWESOME.

After getting back from our fantastic trip to Morocco and Portugal and reminiscing about the amazing beaches and entertaining anecdotes that we had almost forgotten (e.g. when the airport attendant asked to see our hand luggage and I held up my hands, having missed the word 'luggage' in that request, and then misreading the scale and telling him my bag weighed 278 kilos, not 27.8; I did Americans no favors in that airport), I had to buckle down to study for exams. Studying was tedious and tortuous and went on for two weeks. But it was such a fantastic relief when they were over!

Will got me these good luck flowers....

This is a picture of my friend Jennifer and I right before the final exam. (And yes, we're required to wear the crazy outfit to take exams!) On the first day of exams, you wear a white flower. If you have a second day, you wear pink. And, the last day, you wear red, to symbolize the blood you've shed over the ordeal. We all wanted to cover ourselves with red flowers. Our fingers were rubbed raw from writing for three hours straight each of the two exam days. Each day we had 3 essay questions to answer in 3 hours -- my hand was numb afterwards. At least the Examination Schools where we took them was breathtaking, so whilst frantically essay writing, we could look up at 15th century paintings, gilded ceilings, and sculptures. We literally took our exams in a museum. Oxford is amazing.

Post-exams to celebrate, Will took me for burgers and to Jack Wills (my favorite store) where I spent my weight in clothing. (pounds, get it? haha.) And then we had a great dinner with all the people from my course to celebrate. And finally, I finished the celebration -- in traditional English-style -- in a pub.

A picture of our class during the last day of class.

(And likely, at least my mom prays, the last day of class that I will ever have!)

3 bottles of Pepto: $20; 5 bottles of sunblock: $50; Hanging in Portugal with friends: Priceless.

After saying goodbye to Tangier (and the accompanying stomach irregularity), we hopped on the 'fast' ferry to sail back to Spain (where clean clothes stashed in the rental car eagerly awaited us). I finally got to let my hair down and take off the baggy wool sweater that I had worn in the Moroccan heat for four days -- that's a smell I won't miss. In Spain, we picked up our car and drove through the beautiful Spanish countryside for four hours until crossing the border into Portugal (this time without the uzi-clad soldiers and resulting pants peeing). And after a whole day of traveling, we finally arrived at our final destination: the Rising Cock Hostel in Lagos, Portugal.

We felt right at home, as we were assigned to the Teabag Room - how English! I slept in the Earl Gray bunkbed; Will cozied up in Camomile.

The next five days were a mixture of beaching at three different locales (which for me meant sunblocking, every 20 minutes, and holding an umbrella over my head, constantly, to the point that a local commented, in Portugese, 'Why is she under an umbrella like Rihanna?'), volleyballing, city exploring (including finding an abandoned shack that Will wants to adverse possess and turn into a hostel), gelato eating (at least twice a day, and yes, I gained eight pounds), flip cupping (it was Spring Break in the hostel afterall), and finally, an amazing day trip to Lisbon. You'll see from the pictures below why we fell in love with Lagos, Lisbon, and basically the Portugese coastal town lifestyle.

The streets of Lagos looked like they were covered in mosaic artwork, and you walked on pretty blue and white patterned tiles everywhere you went. The houses were brightly colored and had such charm with their wrought iron balconies and hanging lamps. Such a pretty, comfortable, small beach town, with character.

Beach #1 - similar to Miami

Beach #2 - gorgeous rocky coastline

Beach #3 - most beautiful beach I've ever seen

Will and 'Kev on Kev'

Big V and the Dubya

The Crew

One of the fantastic seafood dishes I had: squid! They were so big that you could see their huge eyeballs, which I had trouble chomping down on... so I gave Kev all the heads. After the sixth eyeball, even he had trouble.

Will and I took a day trip up to Lisbon and spent the day trying to quickly soak up all the amazing sights in this huge city. You could fit 150 Lagos's (population 18,000) inside Lisbon (population 2.8 million)! We wished we had more than just a day, but we definitely tried our best to squeeze it all in. Let's see, we toured:

The Castle of Saint Jorge,

The Lisbon Cathedral,

The Largo das Portas ao Sol,

The Arch at the Commerce Square,

and, Will's favorite, The Jeronimos Monastery in Belem.

In between jetting from Alfama to Belem and all around town to see these (and numerous other) cultural sights, we spent time wandering around the winding, cobblestone-covered streets of Lisbon, where you'd look up to see sunflowers covering balconies and elderly couples staring down at you, whilst soaking up the sun. It was lovely. We even had time for some shopping, some pastry-eating, and a nice long lunch in Belem, on the water, overlooking the Monument to the Discoveries. The perfect day.

We spent our last day in Portugal hanging out at the beach, laughing with our new friends that we'd met along our journey, and helping our host, Selmo, celebrate the opening of his restaurant, NahNahBah that evening. Me and Yas even spun some tunes.

Thus, we had a fabulous time on our holiday, from the cultural experience in Morocco to the relaxing beach time in Portugal. We saw some amazing things, had a ton of fun with our friends, and made memories that will force us to smile (and even snort-laugh) when we think of them that night when we're stuck in the office at 3am writing a legal brief. Now that is some holiday.

Throwin' our mac down in Moroc

On March 24, a few weeks before I had to buckle down to study for exams, we took off with our good friends, Kevin and Yasmine, for a ten-day adventure to Morocco and Portugal. Each day was full of laughs to the point of snorting despite the travel-related mishaps (including a one-hour ferry that took four, and a manual rental-car for an automatic-only driver -- somewhere near the Portugese border, I'm fairly certain we lost the clutch), hourly pee-stops (whether we were near a bathroom or not, and honestly, after seeing some of the bathrooms, I'd prefer not), random injuries (including sunburns, as Kev is as pale as me -- sorry Kev-o, 'pink' is not the new 'tan'), illness (my stomach decided it disapproved of housing Moroccan food in my system for more than approximately ten minutes), and the fact that most of us wore the same outfit for four days in a row (which likely prevented us from dodging the street vendors; they could smell us coming). There are so many stories from this trip that I could go on for pages, but I'll just give you a few highlights, and hope that our memories are good enough someday (when we're sitting behind a desk at midnight working on a brief) to recall all the little moments where we laugh-snorted our way through Moroc-tugal.

So, here goes... Our adventure started when we arrived in Portugal and picked up our rental car. Lesson #1 - Portugese rental car companies have two options: manual and manual. Below is a picture of Kev trying to teach Yas to drive stick, to do a four-hour drive, in the dark, in a foreign country. After ten minutes of not being able to make the car move from the parking spot, she realized she had her foot on the brake. When she said this, Kev realized he was driving. Plus, we needed to get moving, as the rental car peeps were starting to stare wondering what the heck us foreigners were doing sitting in the lot revving the car. Crazy Americans.

We drove four-hours, crossed the border into Spain (despite the soldiers with uzis stopping us at the border, causing Kev to pee himself -- the first of the no-bathroom pee-breaks) and spent the night in a Spanish hotel in Algeciras without air conditioning (and thus, I can pinpoint the moment where our clothes started to stank). We woke the next morning and hopped on the 'one-hour fast-ferry' into Tangier, Morocco.

Four hours later, we had arrived. Bonjour Morocco! (I say 'bonjour' since they speak French there. Arabic is the main language, but I failed to learn 'wussup' in Arabic. I didn't need to know though, as my travel-companions preferred that I keep my loud-American-yapper shut so as not immediately identify us as U.S. tourists. Unfortunately, I don't think it helped, as my paleness and pink bandana didn't really scream native. I tried, every once in a while, though, to throw in a "what's it all aboot, eh?" so that at least they'd think we were Canadian.) We arrived at the beautiful Hotel Continental (interestingly, where an Indiana Jones movie was filmed) and settled in.

The lobby...

We couldn't find someone to take a pic, so someone had to be photoshopped in. Thus, the Will-sized space.

We were going for a Modern Moroccan Magazine cover look.

The next day, we explored Tangier. We shopped in the souks which were full of pretty lanterns, colorful spices, sparkley caftans (traditional dress), and sadly, some Louis Vuitton knockoffs.

We checked out the city, including its museum, winding narrow streets, and coastline.

We also ate a ton of food. Everything was so inexpensive that we were able to get a huge lunch for about 12 dirham (1 euro!) For 4 dirham, I got a donut (see below) and complimentary cleansing of my system ten minutes later.

Although it was a very picturesque area, it was also a very poor area, without the basic infrastructure that we take for granted. Garbage services, law enforcement, health codes, even hot water -- all of these things are a luxury that are not always present. Sometimes you just don't appreciate how good you have it until you're in a Moroccan bathroom which consists of a hole, without toilet paper, plumbing, or any control over your stomach due to a suspect donut.

The culture shock is the thing that I will remember most about Tangier. Women were completely covered and did not hang with the menfolk in any social settings like restaurants or even in the mosques. It was always groups of men sitting together, drinking mint tea, watching footie, or kneeling for prayer together. Also, hearing the call to prayer five times during the day, chanted by the muezzin over the loud speakers like an announcer at a sporting match, was startling (especially at 5am). It was interesting to see the devotion to prayer -- people stopped what they were doing, left work, and knelt on their mats to pray. Also fascinating, they did not sell any form of alcohol anywhere (we're sure, we looked).

I tried my best to respect the culture while we were there and to blend (although, as I mentioned, this is tough for a pale redhead). I covered myself from head to toe, wore my baggiest sweatshirt (even in the heat, which again, didn't help the clothing-stank-situation) and a bandana over my hair, and tried to speak discreetly (which, again, was hard as anyone who has heard the volume of my laugh knows all too well). The toughest thing for me, though, was trying not to smile. It's a natural impulse, and one that I hadn't realized did not transcend cultures. The first thing the hotel manager told us when we arrived was "don't smile, or they'll make you pay for it." Quite a statement.

All in all, we had a wonderful time in Tangier. I enjoyed experiencing such a drastically different culture, and am eager to explore more areas now beyond Western Europe. You just don't realize how different things are in other areas of the world until you're lost in the maze of a moroccan souk and you can't ask for directions because you either 1) don't speak Arabic 2) can't find a woman to ask, or, 3) can't ask anyone because they've all hit the mat for prayer -- it just 'aint your average shopping mall. I learned a lot during this portion of our trip... about Morocco, and America.

In the next post, I'll describe the next leg of our journey: Portugal! Stay tuned...

Boyce Avenue crosses the pond

During 10th week, on March 23, the boys of Boyce Avenue arrived in Oxford. In anticipation of their arrival and upcoming concert, Will and I set to the streets like promotors hanging BA posters anywhere without a 'we'll throw you in the slammer if you flyer this wall' sign.

We got to spend some time showing the boys around town...

...at Christ Church, doing a BA poster shot.

...at the Cape of Good Hope pub doing some fish-n-chips.

They really didn't need us to show them around though, as some of their fans recognized them and wanted to give them tours of their colleges! That's so Beatles. Such rockstars.

Quizzing at the Rotary Conference in Eastbourne

In Ninth Week, I headed to Eastbourne on the southeast coast of England for the Rotary District Conference. All the scholars studying in the district attended, and we just had a blast visiting with each other, meeting Rotarians from various clubs, spending time with Rotarians in our host clubs, and participating in sessions where we learned more about the amazing work Rotary does around the world.

All the scholars along with Peter, our fearless leader and program Chairman.

On Friday night, I had a lovely dinner with the Rotarians in my host club, the Rotary Club of Bicester, and then headed to a show and a pub with the other scholars. And on Saturday, I attended sessions where Rotarians described the work they were doing in orphanages and hospitals in Africa, in the devastated areas of Haiti, and all around the world. It was inspiring. Hearing their stories makes you realize the impact just one person can have, and how important it is for all of us to strive to do so. It is all too easy to get wrapped up in our own worlds -- Rotarians like the ones who spoke remind you of the bigger picture.

It wasn't all business at the conference though; we had a ton of laughs, a few games, some dancing, and a bunch of eating too!

Me, Jola, and Lars at the Ball on Saturday night.

One of my favorite conference moments (besides the 'Knicker Lady's' session on the history of knickers, my jog along the boardwalk, and the spontaneous opera singing during the Ball dinner) was when the scholars competed against a Group Study Exchange team from South Africa and England in a University Challenge/Jeopardy-like gameshow. See below...

We started out strong, by answering some questions about Oxford (thanks to Peter for some freebies there). Even though I didn't know what Oxford College Bill Clinton attended (I do now: Univ), I knew about the Isis River thanks to rowing and the Ashmolean which luckily we just visited. Our luck stopped there though, because I, and the rest of my shy teammates I might add, blanked on Obama's daughters' names (seriously? I didn't know Bush's kids names -- other than as the 'Bush twins' -- and he was there for 8 years and they liked to party; so odds were not in my favor for knowing the names of the new non-scandalous grade-schoolers), the last country to win the world cup (even with an Italian on our team!), and the identities of Oscar winners (ok, we have no TV). We got crushed by the competition, who apparently watch CNN, footie, and the Oscars.

All in all: we laughed a lot (largely at ourselves), met a lot of great people, and were inspired to serve -- what a lovely weekend, Rotary style.