WINTER!!! (and Ally wants snow ;) )

Heehee, yup, just got back from skiing in Val Thorens - and it was Ama-zing :D. Sooo much fun! I swear Varsity Trip gets better every year!!! We had clear days and snowwy days and SNOW!!! Lots and lots of Snow!!!! The skiing was amazing! Got to do some of the off piste I never got around too last year as well as improving my speed and technique on piste (thank you Ewen :D) and just yeah - soooooo much fun *grins* - oooh! and I got to go down the race course doing the combi (with gates and jumps :D ) a few times which was awesome! (even if my times weren't ;) )... heehee, yup! Ooh! and mini-snowball fights and rolling down mountains and playing spoons and silent discos and incessant jokes about every imagineable type of mump :P *shakes head* tooo funny, I so don't know what I'm gonna do without you guys next year, such a great room! (though I'm shocked at myself for not taking any pictures!!! *shakes head in despair* how come you always forget to take pictures when you're having too much fun????)

Anywho, back in Ox now to pick up all my stuff (and see Flashdance :D) on my way home! (there had better be snow *glares at the supposed raininess* grrrrr) - Stopped at Charlotte's on the way and had an awesome time baking (but not making (teehee)) a gingerbread house and just being there :D.

Awww, Overalll this was such a great term! Did loads of stuff, got to meet and chat to Moazam Begg, which was incredible and go to an 'end of the world is nigh' forum and just fool around and have fun working and writing my dissertation and hanging out with friends... yupyup, definitely an awesome term *grins*

hmm, best be off to go cook and change for the show!
Merry Chritmas/Happy Holidays to all!!!!
muchos love
xx

Obama Won, Obama Won, Obama Won!!!
*dances around in her happiness*

heehee, yup, definitely still on a high from staying up to watch on tuesday - It was Incredible.
To think that only two years ago I was convinced that none of us would ever try to do anything, that we were all just too apathetic, to see that people who had never voted before actually believed enough and to go out and reclaim their country... that was amazing.

I can't wait to see how the world changes over the next four years *shakes head* and no one can say it wont, just look at how much it changed under Bush!

*wanders off still singing and dancing*

Sooo, poor little Ally was just sitting here with nothing to do (WAIT! - wow, how often does that happen??? Ally??? nothing to do??? *shakes head*... that one's gotta be documented for the history books :P ... the most shocking bit is that she genuinely has nothing to do - not nothing she wants to do - just, nothing to do... well... I suppose she could sit around and mope about the fact that evil-scary-souless-Harper just got voted back into power to rule (read, ruin) her country in a minority government - AGAIN. But that's just not pleasant to think about now is it *shudders*) *a moments pause where the non-ramble-y bit of Ally's brain glares at the bit responsible for the seguay, before continuing on with what it was saying before* so, naturally, she decided to post. :D

*Points to bit above* Wow, that was a long title...
Right. Moving swiftly along... lesse, what is there to update in the life of Ally? Term started as-per-usual, on the Sunday of the Thanksgiving weekend - only this time, tragedy struck! There was no word from the Canadian Society about their annual Pumpkin Pie, Timmy's and Hockey-fest to start off the year! Naturally, something had to be done. So, Ally, who had at this point already been in Oxford for two weeks writing up the research from her dessertation (nope, that's not a spelling error ;) and just generally hanging around and doing stuff during fresher's week, decided to bake!!! *grins* I made four pumpkin pies last wednesday and they didn't even last a week before they were all eaten!!! In fact, most of them were gone by the end of the day :P. The best bit was definitely making them though, what with me grating cinnamon sticks with a cheese grater and Julia whipping the egg whites by hand - with a fork no less!!! Heehee *giggles* They were yummy (as my pies always are ;) Hopefully I'll be able to find some more pumpkin in Oxford so that I can bake some more for the American Thanksgiving!!!

*Shakes head* yup, other'n that, and getting rediculously ill for a few days after getting back from my travels - Oh! And Papa's weekend visit to Ox and seeing Jersey Boys (which was AWESOME! I love Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons!) with him and Charlotte in London! Nothing much has been too exciting since my return... the trips which formed my 2-month long crazy adventure, however, were amazing :D!

Morocco was really cool - well, no, actually, it was absurdly hot ;) - and it was fun to be travelling with Nal (and Ma and John) again. We went everywhere well, 'cept the Rif, which wouldda been nice to see as well. We went to Casablanca, Rabat, Meknes (sooo my fav!), Fes, Merzouga, the Toudra Gorges, Ourzazat, Imlil, the Ait-Ben-Hadou Kasbah (Awesome!), Essaouira (the happy-hippy city!) and Marrakech - it was crazyli-fun and packed with stuff - wouldda been quite nice to have some extra days in some places but, overall a very cool trip. The food though, was quite possibly the best part. It was Incredible. I never realised how much I liked Moroccan food. Yummy :D. Ooh! ANd the trip into the Sahara was amazing! I never, ever want to sit on a cammel for over 3hrs, for 2 days in a row ever again though. never :P. The heat was insane during the day! It was 50-some-odd degrees!!! *shakes head* oh! but climbing the highest sand dune in Africa at a rediculous hour of the morining and sleeping outside on the roof and under the stars multiple times due to the heat were also amazing!

I have to say, Morocco was pretty cool, but the trip just kept getting better and better! After parting from John and Nal in Marrakech, Ma and I headed off to Turkey with a one night stop-over in Madrid. It was awesome, we got to the hotel - which was rather dissapointingly outside of the city - at 8pm - only to find that it was right next to a train line leading directly to city centre!!! So off we went exploring all of the sites of Madrid - and we managed to see most of them too! - before making it back to bed and waking up to travel onwards. Madrid is an incredible city. It's just gorgeous! I so wanna go back one day!!!

Turkey was equally, if not more amazing. Instanbul was just mind-blowingly awesome. We stayed right in the sultanahmet area near to the Topkapi Palace, the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. It was so unreal!!! We could even see them from our window!!! Instanbul marked my first ever passing into Asia with a cruise along and then a crossing over the Bosphorous straights *grins*! Istanbul really is amazing - definitely a place I wanna go back to... I'd place it nearly on level with Rome. And the people in Turkey!!! Their soo friendly!!! and the food is yummy too! And there are so many sights! After Istanbul ma and I headed on to Ephasus and Pamukale - which had the most incredible white travertine terraces! OMG, it was hilarious, from Pammukale we headed on to Cappadocia on an overnight bus only to arrive in what we thought was the middle of nowhere at four in the morning, fall asleep on a table in a coffee shop where the bus left us and get woken up by a man who owned the travel store next door and let us sleep on his couch *shakes head* it was too funny! awww, I love Turkey! Cappadocia was indescribable - it just had the most insane rock formations you could possibly imagine, and underground cities - and our hotel was in a cave!!! Next it was back to Istanbul for the night before parting ways and the beginning of the next half of my journey.

Jordan was amazing!!! And I got to go swimming in the dead sea!!!!!! *grins very very very widely* Aman was pretty cool. Travelling with Charlotte was awesome - so much fun!!! OOh! and going into Petra extra-early so that we had it (and the beduin) all to ourselves for several hours. and being led on top of the monastery because of it *grins innocently* and getting fee rides 'cause we were two girls and lots of yummy tea and *sighs* soo good. We also went to Wadi Rum for a night, which was equally as neat, before heading on to Aqaba for our crossing into Egypt! OMG! The Red Sea is amazing!!!!! I spent over 5 hrs snorkelling one day and saw fish and coral that I never thought I'd see without being able to scuba dive!!! Stunning. Oh! And we also got to climb Sinai for sun set, and see the burning bush, and the Suez Canal, and head onto Cairo to see the PYRAMIDS!!!! (to which I became rediculously addicted) and the Cairo Antiquities Museum which held the treasures of Tutankhamum and the mummy room and the Narmer Pallette - the Narmer Pallette!!! *jumps up and down excitedly*, and on to Aswan where we went swimming in the Nile, and played with baby crocodiles, and saw Abu Symbel and Philae, Onwards was 2 days on a feluca down the Nile (Ama-zing!!) and KomOmbo, and LUXOR (Thebes *grins*) and the West Bank!!!! and the Valley of the Kings, and Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple, and Dier el Bahri and Dier el Madina and the Ramasseum and the Seti I temple and the Collosi of Memnon and Medinat Habu and Gurna, but most importantly, the Winter Palace!! Into which Charlotte and I managed to get, be allowed to explore all of the famous fancy dinning rooms and have high tea *grins and sighs* sometimes I just love being a girl! Oooh! Next was Alexandria and her mediteranean charms (and pompey's pilar and her (new) library and her catacoms and numerous other sites ;) and then on to Siwa Oasis with the melted 13th century fotress of Shali and the Mountain of the Dead (Bones!!! :D) and the Temples of the Oracle and Amun, the innumerable springs and gorgeous saltwater lakes - and yummy yummy yummy dates :D!!! and then onto Bahariya and the Black and White Deserts, which were absolutely unbelievable, for some more camping out - they were incredible!!! Lastly, it was back to Cairo where we met up with Fady and had an awesome day with him visiting all of the Coptic sites and I managed to drag Charlotte to Saqarra and Memphis and Dashur!!! Dashur was awesome!!! And we even got to climb halfway up the Bent Pyramid (with a little bribing and some nicely directed smiles ;)!!!! Sooo much fun!

YupYup! So that was my crazy 3 continent-wide adventure! Marking my first entry into both Africa and Asia (Middle East really). It was just sooo amazing! And I've absolutely fallen in love with the Middle East- I want to go back!!! Travelling around during Ramadan was really neat too, lots of fun in the evenings! I'd just love to get to Syria! and more of Turkey, and Africa, and well, everwhere really, so that doesn't mark much of a change ;P.
Next adventures should be finishing my degree and skiing in the alps... after that, we'll see ;)!


PS. Links to Charlotte's videos of of our trips are at http://www.youtube.com/user/cisterland
PPS. She made me be serious! I was giggly most of the time (hence the shakiness of some of the filming :D)

It's Update Time!

lol, no really... actually, it was probably update time a few months ago... but slacking's always just so much more fun :P.

So, what has happened in the wonderfully wacky life of Ally? hmmm... good question
*insert moments pause while previous postings are rifled through*
Started off last term travelling 'round Ireland (both South and North - the Antrim Coast was definitely my favourite :D - though Blarney, County Claire and the Burren are up there - oooh! and bog jumping, how could I have forgotten bog jumping???) with Andy. Saw lots of cool stuff, met lots of grat people and overall just had an awesome, awesome trip (thanks for letting me drag you everywhere around Belfast on a wirlwind non-stop morning-long tour btw Andy - you definitely made it more fun :D!) ... Oh! And while in Dublin I got to see Josh!!! YAY! also, had guiness at the storehouse :). Next was term with many essays and readings (though not nearly as many as last term), beginning with a fun tantrum-and-song-filled collection *grins* (I beleive I wrote a page long rant about feeling as though I was talking to myself despite writing about stuff I didn't care about (and neither did the examiner most likely) before moving on to writing poem about viking raiders-turned traders *sheepish smile*) ... *coughs* moving right along, I ended up deciding (with Tabby's blessing *shakes head* I can't believe you became our coach :P, it was undeniably fun and you were undeniably good tho) to quit rowing so that I could actually have time to breath (inhale, exhale). It was actually probably a very wise descision given that I everntually wound up dancing about four hours a day on top of everything else, but that's for later ;P. Em's visit was fun, took her punting (YAY! Punting :D!!!), had formal hall, attended Hertford Ball, dragged her everywhere around Ox, went to Blenheim on a holiday weekend and watched jousting, had pims on the lawn and acted like kids, went in to London (where we saw the aforesaid-ly awesome Avenue Q) and took a lovely 5 day trip up to Scotland *grins*. Edinburgh's AMAZING :D. I loved it. Just as I loved loch ness and the highlands - especially the part where our bus broke down for a few hours and Em and I discovered the 'Loch of the Legend of the Lost Sword' (no joke!) as we hiked along the West Highland Way :D.
OOOH! Before Em's visit came Alan with his friends involving another good fun-filled punting adventure and D&G's sorbet in ChristChurch College! Oh! And later in the term was Nal's visit with Hertford Sports-day (Go Bouncy Castles!!!), formal hall, frisbee in the parks, (no punting sadly due to river overflowage), tree Climbing with Chris Black and many other food and fun filled adventures ;).
Nal's visit came just after the performances of our Ballet show (we did Elite Syncopations, a bunch of russian pieces including parts from La Bayadere and Cygnets - both of which I was in :D). The shows were just sooo much fun and sooo worth it - I loved every minute of it, both onstage and off, rehearsals were too much fun, you guys were awesome and I so wish I had the time and energy to do it again next year! As if that wasn't enough dancing for one term, Ollie and I decided - a week before they were set to happen - that we were gonna do our Ballroom and latin gold exams :S - How we passed them I'll never know, but pass them we did (with a commended in Ballroom :D!!!), thanks in no small part to Bruce and all of his last minute teaching :D.
With that, five-a-side football games and fun times at the pub with the boys, term was coming to an end... oh! and I also saw Alan Rickman somewhere in there! and crahsed many MCR BBQ's with the american visiting students *grins*... but yes, aside from that... hung around for a bit after term ended and had wayyy too much fun just hanging about, baking up all of the left over food ingredients (those chocolate things we made were yummy! *grins*), playing mafia until 5 am... the highlight of the term though definitely has to go to our crazy double punting trip up the cherwell which we spent reading shakespeare in otrageously funny accents (Much Ado About Nothing :D) drinking pims and laughing at the boys when they decided to jump off the punts :D!!!!!!

Yup, so that about covers my term, *grins* it was a fun one... trinities are definitely turning out to be my favourite - hopefully I'll be able to say the same about next year! Oh! and congratulations to all the Hertford Arch&Anth grads, you guys did amazing!!!

I guess that brings us up to summer then... hmmm... well let's see, I've pretty much just spent it doing the reading for my dissertation and splitting my time between hanging out with all my friends and family and chilling out at home - Basically just enjoying being home for a decent length of time for my first time in a long time :D... Canada day was muchos fun, as was seeing everyone again at Winnie's and hosting our party at Jess's :D. Cottaging and Wonderland with the cousins were definitely also high points! (the New Behemath with Trina was Awesome!!!)... what else??? Much reading and catching up on movies with friends was also fun - wanted rocks!!! as did Get Smart, WallE, 21 and Penelope! (Oooh! I still need to see Ironman and Highschool musical!) I also managed to go see a play and go to dinner with Mrs B., spent a few long but fun nights in Jess's hot tub, got to see Marc :D! who we dragged to the science centre, found awesome drop in Ballet Classes and got to have lessons for a bit with Kimberly Glasco (former NBC principal) while she was filling in *grins very, very excitedly* and got back into Flying :D!!!!!!! (very excited about that one, can you tell???... I also did a silks class (finally!) which was fun, but which we wont talk about as it took me an hour to figure out how to climb all of four feet :P)... also finally gave into peer pressure and read the Twilight series - definitely wasn't as bad as I'd feared, and each book definitely gets better than the last... if pressed, I might even admit to driving Ju and I out to the midnight madness sale of the fourth book last weekend *looks innocent* What?! it was 11:30 at night and we'd already watched 2 movies ;D... actually, I just saw a sneak peek of the Twilight movie on the penelope trailers (honestly, I can't escape!!, it's everywhere)... it actually looks like it might be decent despite how it's trailers have made it look! (don't tell Ju I just admitted to that!). What else - oooh! Football with the boys on Saturday!!! It was soo great to get to run around and see everyone again - even if they have all grown into oversize monsters :P, honestly, you'd think a bunch of gifted asian boys would be properly nerdy and scrawny! Nope, you guys are like tanks! *wrinkles nose* ;)...

So yeah... I guess that brings us up to now... hmmm... and I should probaly go to bed! Off in two days to Morocco, Turkey, Jordan and Egypt before term starts and I am once again in Oxford - I'll keep you posted! (or at least I will after the fact ;) )
Lot's o' Love!

PS.

Avenue Q is ridiculously, hysterically and pretty freakin' awesome!!! :D.

Wait! Hold it up! HALT!!!

*somehow imagined to the sound of screeching tires*
heehee... sorry... right, (back to serious mode) so, what was that all about you ask?
I think I've decided to institute a strict policy of agnosticism in regards to the future: I can't possibly know, I don't really need to know and, trufully, there's no point in worrying about it 'til I get there, I can't do anything before then :P. I mean, knowing just takes all the fun out of life! where's the surprise in things? The shock in finding out about something about to occur and the adrenaline in making it just in time? The horrifying realisation that you've just remembered you forgot about your last tutorial, have an essay due in 3 hours and haven't started yet? Now that's living (well... maybe the last one not-so-much :P)
I just feel like I've been rushing my life the past two terms (possibly due to the fact that I've been doing ridiculous amounts of stuff *wrinkles nose*) and there's really been no need to. It's not as though I actually have a plan or any solid incling of what I want to do with my life when I graduate - why should I???
Gah! I should just focus on learning as much as I can while I'm here and enjoying it to the fullest!
Worrying about what comes next and how this pertains to it is exactly what I swore I would never do! (am I just letting other's questions get to me? Why am I felling so insecure about it..?) Even thinking about it makes me feel as though this is just a step on the way to something else - and I've never wanted that. I've always maintained that university should be for learning's sake the way it was orriginally intended and not just some step on the ladder to a career or job.
Only I seem to have forgotten that at some point... When did I lose track of that thought and begin to think of this as something I just had to 'do' in order to get on with my life??? I don't want that. It needs to stop. Not that I haven't been taking advantage of all the oportunities and all the enormous libraries and craziness to learn... I've just sort of being doing it because I'd programed myself to, rather than conciously doing it. It was like part of me was working on autopilot while the rest worried away and planned what it would do in the future...
It's not right, I haven't taken enough advantage - must rework strategy from now on :P.
At any rate, agnosticism worked in highschool :P. I just sort of enjoyed life as I lived it, did what I wanted to do or felt was right, and overall just didn't worry about the future - and look where I ended up :D. See, it all ended happily *grins*. That said, in large part I suppose that was more because I had faith that I could do anything with my life based on the marks I was getting and the range of courses I was doing... faith I just don't seem to have now (look! The wellspring of insecurity has been found :P). I mean I know that's ridiculus given that I'll have an Oxford degree... but it's only in Arch&Anth and it will only be a 2:1 at best... is that good enough to give me complete freedom of choice?... not really...
Ah well, nothing to be done about it now (look! *grins* I'm putting my preaching into practice!) 'cept of course to enjoy myself and take advantge of the rest of this term and all of next year without worrying at all where it will lead. Just having faith that life will turn out all right in the end. It always does anyway, because it will be lived in whichever direction it goes, and that's all that really matters. It's never too late to change course and it's never too late to begin accepting what's been learnt in the interim as acceptible and enjoyable.
Yup. so that's it. Agnosticism regarding the future is the way forward ;).

Flibbertygibbet!

(I donno, it just seemd like a good word to start with :D!!!)
just an update before I head off to the land of the little green men (otherwise known to most sane people as Ireland ;) ). Rent was fun - as was Dinner with Ju and Kimmy and Stefan! OOH! Easter was hillarious! Em flew in from BC to surprise Marc and Jess for their b-days (and me - although she had to tell me beforehand to help with the surprise :D!!)! So that was awesome. The looks on their faces were Priceless *grins*!!!!!! heehee. The rest of Easter was good too, spending time with family and being run around (and over) by my cousins. Overall a good break, fairly relaxing - got to hang out with most of my friends - more than once too! (which is always shocking)! Visited Woburn - also more than once *nods* - and the chiropractor's two!!! (yes, :P, that was intentional... yeah, I know. I realise that it officially makes me a nerd *wrinkles nose at anyone who's ever doubted it before*). heehee. so, yup, fairly good break over all - and now, it is time to take on the world Muah-muahahahahahaha... *coughs* uh, yeah, not entirely sure where that one came from... sorry about that... not a really feminine sound, was that?... anyhow! It's off to Ireland with Andy for me (and I get to see Josh, YAY!!!) for a week before heading back to Ox for the most wonderfullest term that is Trinity :D.
Enjoy your Springs (and darn you to all my friends who get off just as I'm going back :P).
Lot's of love!
Me ;)

Post Scripts

PS. On a side note. that was my 100th post... so, yeah, Congratulations to me I suppose ;)!

PPS. heehee... was just re-reading some of my old posts *shakes head* there was definitely one of the earlier ones where I was absolutely disgusted and unconvinced of the prospect of me ever being in mud *laughs uncontrollably* who wouldda thought I'd go into archaeology??? *grins*

*shakes head again* and I couldn't've been more right when I said I that woburn was never gonna be rid of me *laughs* I definitely only intended to visit for a few minutes yesterday after going to Dr. Gammie's - instead I ended up going on a field trip to see "Stuff Happens" (it's by studio 180 at CanStage and it's amazing, if a bit wordy) with Mrs B and the lit classes!!! It was fun ;P! And now I'm going back next week to watch the play projects!

Wow.

 It's been a while!
hmmm... lesse, not too much to report I guess. Term was good and I'm now 20 - AH!!!!! Ally as an adult is quite the terrifying thought :P.

Christmas and New Years were fun (if not overly exciting in the case of the latter - silly boys and preferring to watch ratatouille over going to Nathan-phillips :P - it is a good movie though :D!) OOh! Saw Dirty Dancing with Papa and that was really good too!!!
Term was fun, a bit overfilled with Dance and Rowing - but still good *grins*. Managed to work in some baking (and the subsequent eating of the cookies *wrinkles nose*;) ). A good walk into the Countryside with Lisa and an awesome bump right in front of the boathouse! on the last day of torpids - which was AWESOME :D!!!! OOOh! Pancake cooking for MardiGras and Charlotte's birthday were also tons of fun - as was my, Charlotte and Chris's excursion to the skating rink in 8th week :D. YupYup. Celebrating my bday after term with those who were left over was also good and hanging around to enjoy the serenity of reading for pleasure and exploring (heehee, namely claire and my expedition to 'map' out how the colleges fit together ;P) in a much quieter out-of-term Oxford was also really really nice :).

Home in time for my birthday (and Zia's, and Nonno's 80th!) where there were 152 candles on the cake, and then spending time hanging out with friends - And toboganning with Ju :D!!!!!!!!!! were also awesome... *Nods* Yup, so now it's off to see the Darwin exhibit at the ROM with Evan, Em, Ben and Alan and then to see Rent (YAYAY!!!) with Ju today!!! Then Easter with the Family - And Marc and Jess :D! and yeah.. then I have no clue what my plans are before term - hmm.... ;)

HAppy Easter & lot's of love everybody!