Taru's visit

Last week my friend Taru came to visit me for a few days! I picked her up from Manchester Airport and we spent that day wandering around Manchester. The next day we walked around Sheffield, then we went to York, and then we had another day in Sheffield!

Manchester

The reunion was happy! It had been months since we saw each other! In Manchester, we had lunch at a rather disappointing Chinese restaurant, but at least we didn't have to be hungry! After that we walked until we found ourselves at the cathedral. There are so many beautiful churches in England!

We also found a football museum, which is to be expected in Manchester!

When we got to Sheffield, it was already quite late, but that was okay! Taru had also brought me the biggest surprise ever, I was so excited!

 

Sheffield tour

First we went to the botanical gardens which are only about 10 minutes from where I live. I haven't seen it properly in bloom yet!

We got very lucky weather-wise, it was a beautiful day! We took all sorts of back routes that were new to me as well, so that was really nice. The Peace Gardens in the city centre were a lovely place to sit down for a bit.

York

The next day wasn't as beautiful at first, but it got better! We decided to do a day trip to York which is only an hour away. I think I will definitely go again, I really liked it!

There were lots of peaceful ducks sitting or walking around in the city!

We tried to go in this tower, but when we got to the top of the hill, we found that you had to pay to get in. So we just took some photos and went back down.

We finished our trip by taking walk on the city walls. York was really beautiful!

It was a lovely week-ish with my friend! It's nice to have visitors from home! The next one will be my mum at the end of May!

In a couple of hours I'm leaving for Barcelona! I've never been to Spain before, so that will be exciting!

a London weekend!

Hi!

It's been a while since last time, but this time I have a good reason: I was in London for the whole of last weekend, and the day after I came back, my friend from Finland came to stay with me until yesterday! It's been an eventful start to the Easter break, but at least I have something to write about!

The reason I went to London was that my dad, Laura, and Christian would be there that weekend and that would be a great time to see them! Charlie came along as well, and we also had the chance to meet up with his sister Georgia twice that weekend, which was great!

We had agreed to meet on Friday at a hotel where we would have afternoon tea (not the hotel we stayed at). Charlie and I decided to meet at the Piccadilly Circus tube station (because our trains came to different stations) where we would continue on the tube together. He was already waiting when my tube came in, so I ran out, grabbed him, and we hopped on the same tube I had just come out of - he must have been quite scared!

All of us eventually met at the tea hotel and were shown around by a lady who was apparently trying to lure us into staying with them the next time! Everything was quite sumptuous, and I barely dared to breathe - but it was a beautiful experience! I also had never had afternoon tea like that before, so that was especially nice. First, we had some sandwiches, and then a few little cakes and scones.

After the tea, we had to make our way right to our hotel, because we were going to meet Georgia for dinner there! We hadn't even finished checking in when she already arrived - I guess the tea took us quite a long time! It was great, though, because she was able to join us for the tour of our hotel room and all its technological details. She also remembered all the intricacies much better than me, and she wasn't even staying there! Then we got ready and went down to have some food.

My fish was absolutely delicious, even though I don't remember its name anymore.

The next day, we did some shopping in the morning and then did something I had wanted to do for a long time: went to see Wicked! I had seen it before in Finnish, but of course it's not quite the same. It was perhaps the highlight of the weekend!

We were so close to the stage as well, it just couldn't have got any better.

Then we walked back, got some rest, and had dinner at a Jamie Oliver's Italian, like that one time in Leeds! I even had the same meal I had then - carbonara! It was just as tasty as I remembered.

On Sunday, after a delicious breakfast, Charlie, Georgia and I went to try out the hotel's pool, which we had been looking forward to! They even had a sauna!

After that it was time to meet the others in the science museum which was pretty cool! Charlie, Georgia, and I stayed there for a bit after the others went back to pack and get ready for their flight back.

It was such a lovely weekend and it was great to spend it with my dad, Laura, and Christian whom I hadn't seen for a couple of months! After they had to leave for the airport, Georgia took Charlie and me to see her flat, which was great because it's nice to be able to picture where she lives!

It was also my dad's dream to be featured in my blog, so I hope this lives up to his expectations!

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!