lots of goings-on: holocaust talk, Oliver!, Leicester, Christmas...

"Do not hate." That was the advice given by Zigi Shipper, an 83-year-old Holocaust survivor who gave a talk at the University of Sheffield last Thursday.

He was such a sweet man with a seemingly good sense of humour, even after all the things he had to endure. He told us about living in a ghetto and, when he was eleven, jumping off a truck that was taking the ghetto-dwellers away - the luckiest decision of his life, he said. A few years later when he was old enough to be fit to work, he was taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau and from there another concentration camp. He said he was referred to as number 84303. I'm not sure why, but hearing that made me feel much worse. Finally, when he was 15, he took part in a death march that ended with the British troops liberating them. He ended up in England, got married, and still lives here.

It was really touching to see a survivor that close and listen to him talk about the events with his own voice. He was such a sympathetic person and I'm so happy I had the chance to listen to his talk. He said many memorable things: "My grandson said to me: 'Grandpa, you are so lucky to be alive.' And I looked down at him and said: 'My dear, so are you.'" He was also telling us how there was no point in hating anybody because the person would never know you hated them -- the hatred would just be in your own head making you suffer.

After Zigi's talk, I did something a bit more cheerful: I saw the musical Oliver! It was in the same theatre as The Winter's Tale. The children were really good, and there were a couple tiny boys that were so adorable and got the biggest applause at the end!

This is actually my last day in Sheffield for about a month. Tomorrow I go to Oxford (and we'll be seeing Cats!) and on Saturday we take the train to Devon where I'll spend Christmas and New Year's Day! I'm looking forward to experiencing an English Christmas.

Last weekend I had a little mini-trip to Leicester with Charlie's family! We stayed with Charlie's cousins for one night. It was such a nice visit! Too bad I didn't take any photos!

On Sunday we had a little Christmas celebration in the flat where we exchanged Secret Santa gifts, pulled some crackers, and took a lot of silly pictures. There was also a Christmas celebration at the Ridge (the reception building of our village) where they had a chocolate fountain and a photobooth!

  

Chocolate fountain!!!

 

Some produce of the photobooth...

 

 

 

It was such a fun evening! Even though we don't do stuff together that much, it's really nice to get together every now and then! I already feel like I'm going to miss them when I eventually leave.

One last thing! I baked some gingerbread biscuits on Tuesday with my Japanese friend and her flatmates. It was my second time ever making them from scratch without a ready-made dough, and their first time ever making gingerbread at all! Considering all that, I think it was success.

Look at them beauties!

Tomorrow I'm taking my suitcase to class and heading straight to the train station afterwards. It'll be my last ever Irish class, which makes me a bit sad. I've really enjoyed learning Irish, so I decided to get the teacher some chocolate and wrap it very non-festively.

Well, it's not all over yet -- I'll still have the exam in January!

What an eventful week it has been. Let Christmas arrive -- I'm totally ready for it!

some (in)formal photos

It's already been two weeks since I visited Oxford again, but I haven't had the chance to put any photos up from the formal dinner we attended so I thought I'd do it now!

The dinner was in one of the Oxford colleges. There was a champagne reception before it, but we didn't manage to make it for more than about 10 minutes. It was good though, because I was hungry!

It felt really cool to eat at a place like that!

The food was very tasty, even though I don't know what the dessert was supposed to be!

Us!

Two of Charlie's friends who were also there!

I felt like quite the princess in that dress! I hope I'll get many more chances to wear it.

21!

I've probably never been surprised as much as yesterday on my 21st birthday! I skyped my mum and brother in the morning before my Irish class, which was really nice! Other than that, though, the day seemed just like any other day, to the extent that I was sure it wasn't really a big deal and that I hadn't been exactly forgotten as I did get wished happy birthday by my flatmates, but somehow indifferently. Little did I know...

First of all, I've been receiving birthday cards and even some presents throughout the week, which has been really lovely and made me feel so special! I was especially touched and surprised by all the cards I've got from Charlie's family!

All the cards I got!

The first thing I noticed when I went to get breakfast in the morning was my door.

 

One of my flatmates Mathilde had decorated my door at 1 am! She must have been incredibly quiet, because I was still awake and didn't hear a thing!

I was prepared to spend just a quiet evening in as I didn't have any plans, which I started to regret as the day went on! However, I had been out to dinner and cinema (Catching Fire!) with two friends the night before so I felt like maybe that was something at least. It didn't seem like anyone was free though, so I was feeling a little gloomy because I thought maybe I should have been doing something special. This continued until about 8 pm, until there was a knock on my door...

My flatmates had got a gorgeous chocolate cake from an actual bakery, and not wanting to break the cake, they had stuck the candles to an apple... :D They had also got a card that made me want to both laugh and cry with all the lovely messages inside! And if I wasn't surprised enough already, they told me that they had messaged Charlie in order to find out whether I had any plans for the evening... Those sneaky girls (and boy)!

Oh, and I got some presents too!

The pretty silver stars are from Charlie's sister and the bicycles are from my flatmates! I also got a mysterious Christmas stocking from Charlie's parents and from home I got chocolate and a giftcard amongst others! None of them had to get me anything so it was so lovely to receive them and know that I was being thought about. All in all, it was a great fun day and I'm so happy! :)

Today is Finland's Independence Day so I'm getting together with some Finnish people later! That will be nice because I don't really know them that well and it'll be nice to speak Finnish!

in Shakespeare's hoods

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of visiting Stratford-upon-Avon, the town where William Shakespeare was born. It was one of the Give it a Go activities and went very well! The coach journey only took about two hours, and we had the day to explore the town as we wished. I didn't really know anyone else who was going, so I wandered around on my own. I did think of tagging along with some group, but somehow I felt like I wanted to experience the almost-sacred place with only myself. And I'm really glad I did just that!

I had done some research online before I went so I knew what I wanted to see. The two places I wanted to visit the most were Shakespeare's birthplace and his wife Anne Hathaway's childhood home. Anne Hathaway's cottage was about 1 mile away from the town centre, but I thought it wouldn't matter.

The town itself was really beautiful, and you could really feel the olden times there. A lot of the buildings looked just like they probably did back then.

This is the house Will was born in! To get in the house, first you had to go through this "Shakespeare Experience" (or whatever they called it) which was sort of like an interactive presentation with different rooms and special light effects and doors that only opened once the presentation was over. I didn't fully get it at first, but it was pretty cool! And I went so early that I was the only one there, which was even better. I got to explore the house in peace and one staff member shook my hand when he heard I was from Finland. "We don't get so many Finns here!"

This window used to be in the "birth room", but now it's behind a glass panel. It says under it that it was common for "pilgrims" to carve their names in the glass of the window, which I think is quite lovely.

This is the room that Shakespeare is said to have been born in. It was a bit difficult to get clear pictures inside the house, but I'm glad it was allowed anyway!

In Anne Hathaway's orchard. There were several different sculptures and pieces of art scattered around, and a footpath in the forest that took about 20 minutes to finish.

Her cottage! I think it's so lovely, too bad about the scaffolding. I would really love to live in a house like that!

"Shakespeare's church", Holy Trinity Church, where he and Anne Hathaway are said to be buried, but unfortunately I didn't get to go in.

River Avon

The reason why I didn't get in the church! When I got there, I thought there might be a wedding judging by all the hats, so I didn't dare go in. And when I was leaving, I actually saw the bride walk towards the church. I didn't dare take a picture when I was still facing her, so I did it more subtly... It must have been lovely to get married in Shakespeare's church!

Hall's Croft, the house of Shakespeare's daughter Susanna and her husband, doctor John Hall. I had got a "three-house" ticket, so I used my final house visit on this one.

I also happened to visit the town on the "Day of the Doctor", Doctor Who's 50th anniversary, so many places in town were in the appropriate mood.

These were in an Oxfam, where I bought three biscuits: a weeping angel, a Dalek, and a Tardis.

I had a Victoria Sponge and some hot chocolate in a lovely place called Hathaway Tea Rooms. Maybe I should have had tea, but I felt sufficiently like a true English lady anyway!

The building with the tower is the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

All in all, it was a great visit. It was so nice to spend the whole day with myself, doing and seeing the things that I wanted to. It was a good decision, because this girl in my Irish class who had also gone said that she and her friends didn't visit Anne Hathaway's cottage because they thought it was too far away. ;) Their loss...

Edinburgh!

I'm kind of ashamed of how infrequently I've written lately! It's been over a week since my Edinburgh trip, so I should definitely say something about that!

It was organised by the Erasmus Student Network together with a company called Travelholics who provided us with tour guides. Unfortunately the organisation of the trip was awful with the coaches being late and a bit broken, the tour guides not knowing anything or keeping us up-to-date, and making the attendees wait for pretty much everything. However, the trip itself was great, because we got to do what we wanted and I had a good time with my friends! Visiting Edinburgh is definitely something I'd recommend, but I wouldn't go on an organised weekend trip like that again, I think.

Here's a selection of pictures from the weekend!

J. K. Rowling's cafe

The hostel provided us with a great included breakfast!

As you can see, we were pretty lucky weather-wise. Especially Sunday was beautiful! I don't think it rained once during the weekend! We visited the castle, walked around the city and did some shopping. And ate, of course! And while the others joined the Scotch Whiskey Experience, I had some time to meet up with Becks who took a train from Glasgow specifically to see me! It was really nice!

Edinburgh is such a pretty place. It was lovely to see it again! But next time I'll take the train... With all the waits and breaks, the coach journey took about 8 hours on both times. But it was worth it in the end, I think!

Yesterday I visited Stratford-upon-Avon, so I'll try to write about that soon!