Asperatus

Let me take this time to tell you about my good friend Asperatus. 

I met him when I arrived to Kilburn, London and as soon as we started talking, I knew that the friendship was going to be a lifelong one. I don't meet very many unicorns so as soon as I found out that Amelia's friend, Kristine, had a unicorn I was sooo excited! 

Anyway, I wish we could travel more together, but he seems to be frighteningly scared of the outside world. I think he's a little bit sick right now, so I really hope he could travel with me in the future... Well, I get to see him when I go to Kilburn, at least. 

Much love, 

Ouchii

The City of Dreaming Spires

I adventured the city of Oxford last Friday. On the trip, there was a tour guide by the name of Victoria who showed us around some of the important places around Oxford and gave us tidbits of history every so often. 

We discovered that the University of Oxford was, in fact, a collegiate university consisting of 38 independent colleges. There is, obviously, a central administration that governs the whole university, but each college is separate and independent of each other. If you were to ask a student of Oxford what school they go to, they would immediately answer with their college first and then if you were unaware of its affiliation with Oxford, only then do they reveal the name of their university. When one graduates however, they are granted a diploma from Oxford University, not their college. Yeah, I know. It's a little confusing. 

Anyway, our group visited the most famous of the colleges called Christ Church. The school is known for harboring the English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), the author of Alice in Wonderland; it's hall is known for being the model for the Harry Potter films; and various other famous/well-known people including Bill Clinton. 

Christ Church also has one of the largest cathedrals in Oxford. It was fun hanging out there, to be completely honest. After the tour, I just wandered the city and found that much of the buildings and the way things were set up are ancient! They were soooo very old. Blackened and worn down over hundreds of years. It truly was amazing.

Love, 

Ouchii

Guy Fawkes Day

"Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot..."

Most people (that are not from the UK) know about Guy Fawkes through the movie V for Vendetta, however the English hold a much larger significance for this day. 

Brief history:

During the reign of King James I, the Catholics at the time thought that he would secure them religious tolerance because his wife, Anne of Denmark, was Catholic herself. Hopes had faded and many Catholics were left disappointed when they realized that they weren't going to get religious freedom. Well, Guy Fawkes belonged to a group of extremist English Catholics who detested the government and thought that by blowing up the houses of Parliament he could bring England back to a being Catholic country. At midnight, on 4 November 1605, they found Guy Fawkes with 36 barrels of gunpowder under the House of Lords where he was planning on setting it off during the State Opening of Parliament the next day. He was convicted of treason and sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. 

Ever since the Gunpowder Plot was thwarted, every year afterwards on this day, it has been commemorated with special special sermons and ringing of the church bells which eventually evolved into what's now called bonfire night. On this day, most people go to public events that hold firework shows and bonfires. I went to one tonight at my host sister's school in Muswell Hill. 

Today really is a big deal for most of the English because, well, much of the hatred for Catholics back then still kind of exists to this day. They celebrate this event because many of the British can't stand the idea of the UK being a Catholic country one bit. Well anyway, there's a bit of history for you all today. I hope you enjoyed!

Cheers, 

Ouchii

ULU Halloween

Hello again!

At Amelia's school, there's always advertisements about drink specials and such from the 3 different bars on campus. They've been advertising for a Halloween party this week so of course we all got dressed up tonight. Amelia was a mime, her roommate Paige was a cat, and Kristine was a mouse. 

It was great fun when we got there, especially when the drinks are only £1.75 on Fridays! There were various people dressed up pretty crazily and we met many of those awesome people from all parts of the world. However, the Londoners that we've met so far pretty much SUCK. I don't like people from here. I may be generalizing, but that's just from my personal experience. Anyways, tonight was very fun and hopefully I get to meet more people and have more adventures!

Love,

Ouchii

Bath Day

I know this day was inevitable, yet I didn't realize it was going to be so soon... the wretched bath day.

I'm completely aware of the fact that I'm a penguin, thank you very much, so please don't tell me that I shouldn't hate water. 

I do though. I hate water. The sensations of the cold and wet on my baby feathers feels unpleasant and miserable. However, I must endure the pain and torture of the evil water because Amelia says that I'm stinky and dirty, so in order to continue going on adventures I need to be clean. 

Its almost unfair, really, but if that's the only thing she wants from me, so be it.

It takes me about 2 days to dry off, but at least we're not going on any adventures any time soon. 

Love always,

Ouchii

Manchester & Liverpool

Phew... I'm sooo tired! This weekend was full of great fun and adventures. 

On Friday, my host mum, Maria, said that she was going to drive through Manchester to get to one of her client's house and since she knew that we wanted to go to Liverpool, she offered us a ride. It really was nice of her! Anyway, she dropped us to Manchester on Oxford Street and from there we went to go look for Amelia's CouchSurfing friend, Jorge. He told us to meet him near Piccadilly Gardens at the city centre (there were these cool fountains in the middle of the square). 

We met him at a pub called "The Castle" with one of his friends, Steph. She bought us all drinks and was very fun to talk to. Then we met a couple more people, one of which was from Liverpool and told us that it was only known for 5 things besides the Beatles: "docks, docks, docks, slave trade, and docks". I loved the people of Manchester since everything was jolly and everyone had great fun.

After the pubs, we went to a house party nearby and met a whole bunch of people. The house was owned by Lithuanian students that go to University of Manchester. It was weird because they all asked Amelia if she was Lithuanian, yet the girls that asked were either brunette or blondes with blue eyes. Maybe there are many Asians in Lithuania? Haha...

Well, after the party, we took the taxi back to Jorge's flat where we passed out. Poor Amelia, she wasn't feeling very good at the end of the night, but its okay because I cuddled with her and made her feel better. The next day, we woke up, got ready, found a bus back to the city center where we bought tickets to go to Liverpool for only £ 6.50 at the couch station.

When we got to Liverpool, the first thing that we wanted to do was go straight towards the water. However, there were other things that distracted our eyes on our way to the water. There were old buildings, big advertisement screens, markets, modern shopping areas, parks, and they even have their own Ferris wheel. 

The Albert Docks house the Beatles exhibition, but too bad it was closed. Got a great picture in front though!

(Fun Fact: everything in the UK closes really early, but the pubs, clubs, and restaurants are kept open)

After watching the sunset, we just pretty much wandered the city. Checked out the cathedral, got some bubble tea, wandered through this shopping center area that people like to hang out at, eavesdropped on their funny accents (they sound Irish in Liverpool), and just walked and walked and walked. 

Took the 23:40 coach back to London and arrived home at 09:00... Soooo tired! There's school tomorrow so I should get my rest... but yeah, this weekend was really, really fun.

Your friend,

Ouchii

Visiting Cousins

So the other day, I went to my cousin's house at the London Aquarium and was thrilled when I found out that they love their new place. I know that they were somewhat peeved when their landlord in Antarctica kicked them out, but when they heard from some friends in London that the Aquarium was a good place to live, they dropped everything and just swam here.

 It's always nice to have a good home and nice neighbors. Speaking of neighbors, I met some of the fish next door and they were wonderful! They told me about how they discovered the place and how its just nice to live in a nice and safe neighborhood. Some of the other neighbors that I visited were sharks, jellyfish, starfish, sea turtles, stingrays, and octopus just to name a few. It really was quite a diverse area!

The security here is also just quite lovely because I know that at times, there are lots of humans wandering about and when they see us, they just want to touch/grab/chase us. So, the landlord tries to keep it safe for us by putting up these wonderful signs:

Again, I'm so glad that my cousins found an amazing place to stay at. I, on the other hand, am not ready to settle down. Nope, I have much more travelling to do!

Cheers,

Ouchii