Strikes!

Hiya blog readers!
I've been having a great time! Feeling much better now :) Tomorrow I'm off school again though because the teachers are striking!! It has to do with their pensions being cut. Anyway, I was supposed to be going to London to see the Tower but Heather and I decided it wouldn't be safe because there would be lots of people protesting. So I'm just going to hang out with some friends in Oxford instead :)
xx Emma

Thanksgiving part 3!!!!!!

Hello readers!
Well my Thanksgiving dinner went great!! Thanks to all of the amazing English people who came :) I had roast vegetables, green bean casserole (from scratch!), mashed potatoes, sweet potato souffle, salad, stuffing, squash soup, cranberry sauce, pecan pie, and pumpkin pie!  It went really, really well!!! I was really nervous before but it turned out alright. I'm glad I did it! However, now more Thanksgiving traditions are fulfilling themselves!! I've just missed school because I'm sick!! Which is slightly disappointing but I think it should be okay. I am going to go  back to sleep now though!
Hope you all are well!!
xx Emma

Thanksgiving part 2!!!

Hiyaaa blog world!! At the moment, I am prepping my Thanksgiving food for tomorrow!! ahhhh :) I've just made two pies (the best kinds, pumpkin and pecan!) and cranberry sauce. Now I am making a squash curry! woooh!! I just thought I'd let you know :) I'm really excited for tomorrow!! And I thought of another thing to be thankful for.... Tea when I wake up in the morning (thanks Harounyyyy)!!! I'll let you know more tomorrow.
xx Emma
ps. loved talking to you on the phone mum :)
pps. hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!

THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello blog world!!!! Welcome to the day of my favorite holiday in the whole entire world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness! First of all quick mention, I went to Stratford-upon-Avon last weekend but haven't had time to blog about it. I'll try to get on that :) Okay now. Just a quick little list of my thanks :)

1. My amazing family (Mum, Dad, Heather, Bo, Sophia, Cora, Raven, Grandma and Grandpa, all my aunts and uncles, and my lovely cousins all over the world!) 
2. My super fantastic, supportive friends! (JAMES ANTHONY KLUESNER THE THIRD!!!!!, Miss Chantel Marie, AnaEliza, Aida, and all my amazing new English friends)
3. This amazing opportunity I've had to come to England and Heather and Haroun for welcoming me into their home! 
4. My college acceptance letters!!!!!
5. And all the other amazing blessings that are part of my life everyday. 
6. And a little shout out to Sophia.... "my Aunt Tracy's whipped cream"

I hope that everyone is having a great Thanksgiving. I have to say I am a little disappointed that the Packers won. Jeeze Lions!!! Should have stepped it up! I am now planning my Thanksgiving party (I'm SOOOOOOO excited!!!!!!!!!!) when I should be writing my history essay... hmmm should probably get on that essay so I will update you all soon! 

xx Emma

ps. if any of you had some great Thanksgiving meals, let me know what you liked, inspiration/advice needed!!

pps. I feel that I must post a picture of my Thanksgiving dress after my party. I think it's very cute and suited to Thanksgiving :) haha

Would You Like Some Biscotti With That?

I just had a faaaaabulous day in the amazing city of LONDON! I'm quite proud of myself because I managed it all on my own without any help! Yay me :) first I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum but I was slightly disappointed (when I say slightly I mean extremely) because the fashion bit was closed!!! And it's going to be closed until May!!! So I won't get to see it :( which is what I wanted to see most out of anything there!!! But I did really enjoy seeing the theatre part of it. It was really interesting and I took loads of pictures! OHHHH MY GOD!!!!!!! Sorry for the interuption but I just got into the college that I really, really want to go to! They sent me my letter through email!!! I am literally sooooo happy!!! I also got the Ellen Browning Scripps Scholarship and the Knox Social Concerns Scholarship!!! Anyway haha back to what I was saying :) after that I went to this cute little Italian cafe in Kensington and ordered an esspresso and the man said, as you can see from the title, 'Would you like some biscotti with that? Your eyes are so pretty I feel like you deserve some on me bellissima' Ego boost right there :) so I got some free biscotti to go with my esspresso, go me! Then after that I went to the British Museum which was amaaazing! I love Ancient Egypt soo much it was so cool to see all the mummies  and the Rosetta Stone :) I took the coach back home and some lady ran into it! But everything was fine :) lots of school work to do now!!
Love,
Emma xx

Under Milkwood!

Just got back from my show! It went really well. I must admit, I was quite scared to perform for an examiner but it was perfect. I'd like to give another round of applause to my fellow cast members on their smashing performance! I have a video of some of the play, so let me know if you'd like to see it, I think I can email it... or put it up on youtube... possibly, I haven't decided yet. oooo I can upload it straight on here! We'll try it out and see if it works. Most of it probably won't make sense because the beginning's missed out but I'll ask my teacher if I can have a copy of the whole show. Ummm... yeah, I'm not sure if that video will work but we'll see! I think it's uploading? Anyway, I'm off to bed! Busy day tomorrow, I'm going to London, BY MYSELF to see the VA museum and the British museum! Mummies and costumes here I come!
xx Emma
ps. thanks to my Uncle Mark and Aunt Tracy for sending me their fabulous Thanksgiving recipes!!
pps. got a package from my mum today congratulating me on my college acceptance letters awww isn't she sweet?! :)

Brr!!!

It is suddenly getting cold in good old Oxford!! I am still refusing to wear my winter coat though haha. Our poor neighbors' boiler is broken! So they stayed at our house for most of this evening. They're so sweet :) Tomorrow is our play! I can't believe it! It's so close!!!! I've spent most of this evening reviewing my lines and practicing my accents. I hope it goes well! I'll keep you posted. Wednesday I'm going to London to see some more museums and have some fun on my own :)
xx Emma

Guy Fawkes/Halloween/Costume Partyyyy!!!!

Wow!! Well this has been a fun week! Let's start with Halloween. Here, Halloween isn't as big but it's gaining popularity. Haroun and I carved a pumpkin, watched some classic Disney Halloween movies, and made pumpkin pie!!! This is the first time I have ever made pumpkin pie, by myself, from a real pumpkin! It was pretty good though, if I do say so myself (it was a rehearsal for the pumpkin pie I'm making for my Thanksgiving party).  I have to say, I did miss seeing my little sisters' amazing costumes!! Sophia was a crayon and Cora was a unicorn, they are sooo cute :) xxx Then for Guy Fawkes we had some amazing fireworks in Heather's back garden, they're legal here!!!!!!!!!!! Afterwards, I went round to one of my friend's houses and we sat on his roof, watched fireworks and played guitar/ukulele, quite fun I must say. Last night, I went to a costume party which was really, really fun!! I went as a leopard and I met lot's of Cherwellians (people that go to a different secondary school called Cherwell). It was quite fun and I enjoyed meeting new people a lot!! Today, I had a bit of a lie and and then celebrated Bea's (Heather and Haroun's dog) birthday!! I just got back from youth group at an adorable church which may well convert me to the Church of England. It's Holy Trinity church in Headington Quarry and it's where CS Lewis went to church and was buried! I've met some really sweet people at church there and I'm looking forward to the nativity play which I will tell you about some other time. Speaking of plays... my play is on Tuesday! We are performing an excerpt from Under Milkwood in the style of Brecht. Hopefully I will get someone to video tape it for me and can put it up online somewhere :) That's all for now!
xx Emma
ps. Planning my first Thanksgiving dinner, any recipe suggestions?

Scotland!! n

First of all SCOTLAND IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!! I spent the entire train ride looking out the window, literally. Second of all Auntie Moira and Uncle Wally are some of the nicest people I have met in my entire life! I am so glad I got to meet them. From the very second that I got off the train they were there waiting to make me feel at home. I probably felt more at home with them in Scotland than anywhere else. On the first night, I met their son, my dad's cousin Robert and his wife Marie they were so nice and I think that Robert has the Wilson nose :) The next day I went to see my Great-granddad Alex, Great-grandma Emma, and Granddad Alex's graves. It was really sad for me but also quite good for me to finally find that connection. Moira told me lot's of stories about her mum (Emma) and showed me pictures of my dad when he was a baby. She also told me a lot about him when he lived in Kilmarnock. I loved hearing all of the old stories!! They took me to the street where my dad grew up and I saw the house he lived in!! Then we went and met his neighbors who were there when he lived there! They knew right away that I was Alex's daughter and were very excited to see me after all those years. Later that day we went to Kilmarnock Football Club and I got a special treat (which is secret for a while :)) The next day I spent the day learning about Robert Burns! He lived really close to Kilmarnock. I learned a lot about the Scottish hero's life! Then we went to the seaside which could quite possibly be my favorite part of the entire trip. It was amazing!!! I completely adored it. On my last day in Kilmarnock I actually went into town and looked at all the places where my dad might have spent time and then Auntie Moira and Uncle Wally took me out for tea which was really nice. The next day I spent some time looking around Glasgow which was much more of a city than I was expecting! I loved the architecture there. Then I took the train back to Oxford which was horrible! Basically, on the train ride from Glasgow to Wolverhampton (where I was meant to transfer) some kid threw rocks at the windows and so they had to stop and break out all the glass and patch the window. This made the train really late and by the time I got to Wolverhampton my connecting train had already left! So then I had to go through a huge ordeal and took two trains to get back to Oxford, I ended up getting back a couple hours later than I was supposed to and I didn't have a seat on the train the entire time! But I finally made it and got back to Heather's in time to skype with my mamma, Bo, Raven, and my baby sister Phia :) which was great fun!!
xx Emma
ps. check out my next blog for some Guy Fawkes/Halloween stories!! (should be up by Friday? or at least Saturday)

Yorkshire

Sorry!! I've been so busy with school lately! I'm so behind on my blogging!! So, York! It was amazing. It was such a beautiful city. I think it's the perfect combination of old and new. There's so much history there but at the same time there's so much great shopping and things like that! On the first day we went straight to the youth hostel which I was really excited about since I'd never gone to one before! Then pretty soon after I got there, my dad's sister, Lily and her husband Phil came to pick me up. Then we all went to a pub in Dewsbury (where they live) and met all of their kids as well as my dad's other sister Lorraine and his mum Margaret. It was really amazing to meet all of them. They were all so sweet to me and it was great to catch up on the past sixteen years of my life haha. It also made it really clear why I look the way I look! They're all like the same height as me and same type of body shape haha but they all say that my face looks exactly like my mum's. The next day I met up with my dad's brothers Charlie and Stuart and also Stuart's wife Dee. Stuart used to live in York so he knows a lot about it and showed us all around which was really fun!! They were soo nice and it was really obvious that they were my dad's brothers. My Uncle Stuart honestly looks just like my dad its so weird!! Their voices are really similar as well! When I was talking to him on the phone it was so surreal because it was just like I was talking to my dad! I spent ages in the minstrel which was beautiful!! Later that night I went back to see their evening service which was... honestly quite awkward because there were only ten people or so there haha but anyway the church bit was amazing!! There was this great museum about the Vikings which I really enjoyed. It was unique because as you went through it it was a Viking village but you also smelled all the smells that they would have smelt haha if that makes sense! I also went to the Roman wall which was really fun but I never figured out how to walk all the way around the wall! It ends for a little bit and I couldn't figure out how to get back on it! The next day I did some shopping in York which was great fun! There are so many great stores there!!  I also found this AMAZING restaurant called El Piano (this is their website http://www.el-piano.com/)  All it's food is 100% vegan and gluten free! It looked like it belonged in New Mexico it was amazing :) while I was in the restaurant I found of that I got into St. Catherine's University in St. Paul!! Later that night I found out I got into Drake University as well!! That was a great day let me tell you!! And then the next day I left for Scotland! (see the next blog for the Scottish saga of my continuing adventures in the frozen north)
xx Emma

Half Term!!

Hello blog-o-sphere!! How I have missed you!! Well I have had some great adventures on my half term however I think I may split it into two blogs. K, so before I headed up to the frozen north land I spent a night in London!! I went to Saint Martin in the Field during the day which was great fun because that's where my mamma and Heather used to always meet up when they lived in London. I also saw Buckingham Palace and all the which was cool as well but the real star was the Katie Costello show!! Oh. My. God. AMAZING! I had so much fun!! Katie and Greg's voices were so beautiful!! I had a great time and got to MEET KATIE!!! Sophia, my lovely sister, you have an amazing surprise waiting for you xxx okayyy umm actually the rest of the half term blog is going to have to wait... because I have philosophy homework haha but tomorrow for sure I'll get it done!!