Halloween at St. Hilda's College

In England they celebrate Halloween in a similar fashion as the U.S., but not to the extent. Mainly just the real young kids put on costumes, and they are pretty simple ones (nothing huge and elaborate). We didn't expect any trick-or-treaters except for our American neighbor's little girls. But unfortunately we weren't home when they stopped by. We were on our way to a formal dinner at one of the colleges - St. Hilda's.

St. Hilda's is the only remaining all-women's college in Oxford. In the past, there had been about 5-6 women-only colleges. But starting next fall, St. Hilda's will also begin admitting men. To attend dinner at a college, one must be invited as a guest. You can be a guest of a student or fellow of the college. We were invited by an honorary fellow of the college, Dr. Lorna Casselton. Dr. Casselton is also the Foreign Secretary and Vice President of the Royal Society. Her academic focus is sexual developement in fungai, or rather, sex organisms in mushroooms. Brian made a wonderful contact with her during the Royal Society Soiree, and they have had lunch at St. Cross college, where Dr. Cassleton also is past fellow. Oct. 31st was guest night at St. Hilda's, and Dr. Cassleton kindly invited Brian and I as her guests so we could experience dining at a college. In the colleges, there are typically two dinner seatings, the early one is for the students and is a regular dining service. At the later seating, it is more formal and there is typically a dress code. Brian had to wear a suit and I had to wear something smart (as they call it here). I wasn't sure what they really meant, so I just played it safe with a black skirt and jacket.

We arrived at the front gates by 7 to meet Dr. Cassleton. Then we headed into the Senior Common Room, for sparkling wine and meeting the other high table guests. We met the new female principal of the college and other Oxford-esque guests and fellows. When it was time to enter into the dining room, we followed the server to our designated places at the head table. Head table is where the senior fellows, principal and guests are allowed to dine. It's usually one very long table on a raised part of the dining hall. (Seriously just like in the Harry Potter films). Probably seats about 40 people. I was seated in between Dr. Cassleton and another guest of the music director. He is an Oxford author (there are many authors around here) and wrote a book on Sigmund Freud. I was worried about feeling intimidated amongst all of these big league academics and others, but luckily they were all very kind and easy enough to talk to. And when conversation turned into thoughts on the recent DNA nobel laureate scientist's comments about African's IQs, luckily I knew what they were talking about - thank goodness for Newsweek! So at least I could follow all conversations, but just didn't really have much to contribute!

The dinner was wonderful, and here's a list of the menu. As they were serving the main, I quickly told Brian across the table to ask for the vegetarian option - he likes chicken and turkey, but duck isn't on his list. I thought it was absolutely delicious. And the soup was very good too. I guess if you are served high quality British food, it does taste great, even if the ingredients sound really weird put together. And the wines are always specially chosen by the college sommelier to match the evening's dinner. So we had a white and red, I think both from France. Yum!

After dinner, we went back into the Senior Common Room for coffee, tea or after dinner drinks. We were so full, that we passed on consuming anything more. So we visited awhile longer and then realized it was half past 10 already. Nicely enough, the Oxford author gave us ride home since he lived not too far away. Although the walk could have done me well to burn off the calories!

The Last Hurrah

Starting on Monday, we only had about 2 1/2 days left of our US trip, and I'd say we did a pretty good job to fit it all in! Monday we drove over to Owatonna, my second hometown growing up, for a family BBQ. Owatonna, Minnesota is where my parents grew up and met, and we have spent numerous family holidays and celebrations in Owatonna with the entire fam of grandma and grandpa, aunts, uncles and cousins on both my mom and dad's side of the family.


The BBQ was at uncle Bob and aunt Diane's house (my mom's side of the family). We also celebrated Brian turning 30 so he received some great cards and a nice big cake! We had steak again (I was so spoiled!) and shrimp for Brian. Almost the whole fam was there: Grandpa Dick and Grandma Pat, Bob and Diane, Aunt Melinda, cousin Jen and husband Brian, their twin girls Ashley and Taylor, and cousin Lisa. Cousin Steve lives in Texas and Charlie wasn't home yet from Belgium. It was great to just hang out and eat and be merry like our usual family get-togethers. Living far away, we've been missing out on so many of them, and it's been hard. But when we can get a chance to be with family, it's wonderful. We also had the chance to visit with Grandma and Grandpa at their home before we all headed over for the BBQ. So that was nice to talk with them before it got crazy with everyone.

Tuesday I had a great surprise finding out that two of my best friends from high school were also home during that week. Sarah, with her new baby Kaitlyn and Sonja were both home visiting their families. So we met up for lunch at the Hungry Mind and then hung out at Southbridge Mall in Mason City. I tell you it was big excitement!!! Was sooo great to see the girls and especially when unexpected.

Tuesday night Charlie arrived home from 6 months in Belgium. It was late when he arrived, so the next morning we all got up to have a nice turkey lunch and then put up the Christmas tree!! Yes, you read correctly. Since we were all home at the same time, Mom wanted everyone to be together to put up the tree. . . in October! But it was fun and she's got it all ready to go now. We also had to celebrate Halloween too. :) We only had this afternoon to visit together, because Brian and I were flying back to the UK in the early evening. Dad drove us up to the cities with all of our luggage, and we flew home on Iceland Air. It was tough getting back into the swing of things here (mainly from jet lag) but we're doing great now and enjoying a beautiful fall. So more to tell you about in the next posts!

Hanging in the Cities & Mapleton

After chilling at John and Marcy's for the weekdays, and while Brian was in Canada, Mom and I drove up to the Cities on Friday morning. I wanted to fit in some fave mother/daughter bonding time shopping at the mall! We ended up shopping at Southdale in Edina and some of the surrounding stores. We were definitely successful in our efforts, and it sure was nice to be spending my British pounds, since it made everything seem like 1/2 price! By about 7, we met up with a number of my good friends from Gustavus at P.F. Changs in Edina.

Here's a good group pic of the Gustie girls.

As usual, we crashed at the Batz motel in Bloomington (I realize I don't have any pics from hanging with the Batz fam!). On Saturday, we finished running a few more errands and then took my cousin Anna with us to lunch at Wallys for a roast beef sandwich. Yum! Marcy had to head back to Mason City, and I went to my new cousin's 1-year old birthday party.

My cousin Patty and her husband Scott have two adorable girls, Ashley (about 3) and Hannah (just turned 1). Brian and I are Hannah's God Parents and it was so great to be able to be with her on her special birthday. She's grown so much since her baptism back in January.

Here's a cute pic of the Doyle family.

Saturday night I hung out with good friend Meghan for some drinks and good catching up on conversation. Sunday I went to church with cousin Katie and ran into an old high school friend Sarah Larson, who attends the same church as the Batzs. Brian also arrived back in the cities from his Canada trip mid-afternoon.

We quickly hit the road to get down to Mapleton to help celebrate Jackie's birthday with her. Al BBQ'ed some awesome steaks and we brought a cake, and it was just really fun and relaxing.

On to Iowa

For the mid-part of the week, we planned on heading down to Mason City, Iowa where Kelly's folks live. On the way, we first had lunch in Shakopee with a good high school friend Rhea and her son Evan (who is a carbon copy of his dad BJ)! We also ran some errands with Aunt Melinda before we left the cities for Iowa. I realize I don't have much for pictures for the couple of days we relaxed in Mason City. But I know we tackled some of Kelly's fave things to do back home including; chicken salad on greek bagel at the Bagel Depot, shopping at Younkers for the deals, chippermint shake at Birdsalls ice cream, and walk/run around Eastbrooke, the subdivision where I grew up. I think we also did some laundry and Brian cleaned up John Boy's computer. It was pretty wild! :)

Actually by Thursday, Brian left to head up to Canada with dad Tom and Karen to their new cabin for some fishing. I stayed back to head up to the cities again for the weekend to see more family and friends.

Back to Minnesota

The next day, Sunday we said goodbye to Rick and Kate and headed back to Minnesota with Al and Jackie. We drove straight there and stopped for dinner at Olive Garden. Brian and I still had a busy week coming up, so they next day we planned on getting going to start visiting some friends and other family members while we were back in the U.S.

Our first stop on Monday was to see my college roommate Laura, her husband Jacob and their kids. Evy is two and Wilson was just born a few months ago. We hadn't met Wilson yet, so were excited to see him. And he has a cute Oxford onesie as well! We were also super glad to see Laura's sister (and also a past college roomie of mine) Sarah at their place too. She was helping watch the kids and really getting in practice since she was 9 months pregnant! (As of this blogging, Sarah's had her little boy Roman Scott Kreykes and mom and baby are doing great.) As usual, it felt like a short visit, but was great to see them all.


Next stop was Bloomington at the Batz hotel. The Batz hotel is the home of my aunt Melinda and uncle Paul and three cousins, Ben, Katie and Anna. Many of you might remember I would live with them during the summers in college while I had summer internships in Minneapolis. The Batz hotel is now where Brian and I love to crash when we're in town to hang with the fam. We were really on the way to the high school musical practice, Joseph and the Techicolor Dreamcoat. Ben had the lead part of Joseph for his final year in high school, and Katie, a junior was the lead dancer. Brian and I were going to miss the actual performance dates of the show, but luckily could sneak in and watch a good hour and a half of rehearsal. They practiced almost all of the first half and Kelly cried watching cousin Ben sing and perform. Ben was in 5th grade when Kelly moved to Oregon, and so much has changed since then! It was absolutely great, and we're looking forward to watching the full performance on DVD.


The last stop of the night was to visit Brian's good college friend Ben Threinen and his new girlfriend Meghan. We haven't seen Ben in quite some time (well actually we saw him briefly in January, but it had been years before that). We were looking forward to just having a nice dinner and visit with him and see what all is new. We went to his loft in Minneapolis and grilled out steaks, chicken and shrimp (all was so yummy!) and had a great time. We got to know Meghan a bit and the guys ended the night as they used to, playing guitar together. They are so good playing together and have a great time. Brian has missed his guitar these last 6 months, so we brought it to the UK on our trip back. Anyway, it was so great catch up with Ben and see that he's doing well.

Day After Part 2

After we loaded up on two breakfasts, we caught the shuttle bus taking a number of the wedding party and friends and family to The Ohio State University football game tailgating party. We didn't actually go to the the game, since tickets are extremely hard to come by and expensive. Especially since they are the #1 collegiate team in the nation. The day was extremely hot and there were lots of people wandering the area where you could get food, beer and watch the game on large TVs. It was a lot of fun, but honestly I wasn't used to the heat and thought I might not make it through the whole day. So a lot of water was consumed!

Rick and Kate had their red and white on and we learned all of the appropriate cheers and chants to show support.

The Smith clan having fun during the tailgating party.

More fun partying pics!

Day After Part 1

We celebrated Brian's upcoming 30th birthday in the morning during the hotel breakfast. Some of the family members had to get driving home to northern Minnesota, so 9 a.m. breakfast was the best time. (Whew, and it wasn't too easy getting up and going the next morning!)


Rick, Kate, Dottie and Uncle Tom enjoying the birthday breakfast . . .

Brian with his aunt and uncle, Amy and Jeff and cousins Nathan and Dustin and Grandma Dorothy.

Our second breakfast with the Smith fam.

Charissa and baby Morena. She has a cute Oxford University baby onesie on!

The Smith clan before parting for the day.

Good thing we had two breakfasts to stock up on nutrients before we headed to the Ohio State football game tailgate. Ohio State is #1 in the nation, so it was going to be a big one!