dream come true: meeting David Crystal

On Friday, I got to meet one of my "idols" - the linguist David Crystal! He has written several books about the English language, and I even had to read one of them for my university entrance exams.

The English Society at the University of Sheffield had arranged for him to come and give a talk to which I got a ticket right away when I heard about it - I couldn't believe the chance!

Before the talk, there was a question and answer session with him that not too many people knew about, at least there were only around ten people there. But it was better like that! I asked him what his favourite word in the English language was, and he said that he really liked Shakespeare's way of coining new words with the prefix un- and that he also appreciated the new words that people have come up with for different social media phenomena, like "blogorrhea". He also demonstrated how English was pronounced in Shakespeare's times. Actually, there's a video where he does a similar thing, have a look!

All in all, he seemed very funny!

His talk was also hilarious. The topic was "Language and the Internet", which I'm sure was especially fascinating to even people who aren't that interested in linguistics. It was just amazing to listen to someone who knows so much about something that I really care about!

The talk was held in St. George's lecture theatre that used to be a church!

The best part was that I got to have my book signed by him and also got a photo with him! I was so happy!

He was so friendly (and spelled my name correctly!). I said I was from Finland, and he said "That explains the double vowel".

ice skating

Well, I didn't think I would ever go ice skating in England! But that was what we did after Wonsun's birthday dinner that I mentioned earlier. There's a place called IceSheffield about 20 minutes away from the city centre by tram.

I thought I'd be very good at it, because I've done it quite a lot, but to my surprise the actual skates were different from my own ones, so it took me some time to get used to them! It was fun, and even the ones who hadn't done it before got the hang of it before we had to leave!

food (roast, Japanese, Mexican, Oxonian...)

Well, it's been a long time again since I last wrote. I've been quite busy recently with school work and I've used most of my free time this week writing an essay on A Midsummer Night's Dream (due next Wednesday). I'm happy with my progress so far though!

I was looking through the photos in my camera to remind myself of what I've been doing recently, and most of the pictures were of food. Well, here you go then!

A couple of weeks ago, the group from my last post - Sherry, Ollie, and Lasithi - went for a Sunday roast lunch at a nearby pub. It's something quite English!

I had roast chicken, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, and vegetables. It was really tasty, but I just could not finish it all!

Afterwards, Lasithi demonstrated some sari draping for us (she is Sri Lankan)! I thought it was very fascinating.

The next day, I had dinner at Ollie's - she had made Japanese food!

She had made miso soup and a chicken dish with diced potatoes, onion, spring onion and egg on top, to be eaten with rice! I don't really have any experience with Japanese food, so this was very enlightening and also tasted good! In turn, I promised to make her some makaronilaatikko, which is actually happening today!

I also made köyhiä ritareita (eggy bread?) the other day!

Last week on Wednesday we celebrated Wonsun from Taiwan's birthday. She's one of Ollie's friends whom I've met twice now, as well as a few others who all seem to Politics students! We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant, and it was lovely.

(from left to right: Jim, Tiffany, Wonsun, Lasithi, Lia, Ollie, me, Sherry)

Last weekend I went to Oxford to visit Charlie, and that was so relaxing and lovely. Probably because we ate a lot.

We went to an Italian restaurant on Saturday, and an ice cream parlour on Sunday, which seems to have become a tradition!

And that's what we look like full of ice cream!

spring is here!

Last Sunday was absolutely gorgeous. It was so warm and sunny, and it seemed like all of Sheffield woke up and went out. We decided to go for a picnic in Weston Park which I pass every day but have never really spent time there.

My Japanese friend Ollie has introduced me to some of her friends that I didn't know in the autumn, and I've actually spent quite a bit of time with them recently! They're really lovely. Sherry is from China and Lasithi is from Sri Lanka. They're still amazed by my blue eyes.

So many people were in the park! I wasn't surprised. There was also a tight-rope walker!

After eating lots of cake and muffins and crisps, we decided to walk a bit - and ended up in another park right next to the first one!

It was such a lovely afternoon. It hasn't been as warm since then, but it's been generally really good weather lately. Flowers are starting to bloom and everything! I think it's going to be a bit cloudy next week, but hopefully the sun will come out again after that!

reading

Oh it's been so long since I last wrote! I've been lazy, and on top of that I've hurt my elbow so I've been trying to protect it by typing as little as possible. However, it's much better now! So many things to write about. Let's start with my trip to Reading a week ago on Saturday.

I went there to see my friends Heather and Alice. Heather lives there and had promised to show us around in the town and take us to her favourite pub called Great Expectations that was adorned with quotes and characters from Charles Dickens' books. It was perfect for us, since we all like to write.

The day was absolutely beautiful and very warm! I ended up carrying my coat over my arm for most of it. I really liked the look and feel of Reading. I prefer studying in Sheffield, since the university is so good, but I wouldn't mind living in Reading! It was the perfect combination of a city and a town.

As we only had the day (and it took both Alice and I almost three hours to get there - she lives in Kent), we didn't do much apart from walking and eating delicious burgers in Great Expectations, but it was a really pleasant Saturday. I hope I'll see them again soon!