Dutch Day

The 30th of May is the national day for Holland and Marja has been talking about it for as long as we could all remember! Just like the other strange traditions, this made us laugh...Marja explained that all the people in Holland will decorate their houses in orange (the national colour) on the night on the 29th. They then all wake up really early on the 30th and go to one of than many national car boot sales. Throughout the day people eat orange food, dress in orange and wear orange face paint. They then ALL go out clubbing until early the next day (young AND old people) and dance to cheesy Dutch songs such as "Kedang Kedang".
Today we decided to celebrate the day with Marja. However, she had dancing until late and during the day we found out that there had been an assassination attempt on the Dutch Queen and people had died. So, Marja was really upset and didn't want to celebrate.
Amelia and I decided that she couldn't miss out on something that she'd been talking about since we met her. We went to the party shop near Exeter college and bought orange streamers, plates, cups, cutlery and an orange feather duster (we figures Marja would appreciate it..). Wr the proceeded to the big Sainsbury's where we bought only orange food; Jaffa cakes, Fanta, Red Leicestershire cheese, icing mixture, orange sweets, houmous, orange crisps, oranges...
Back at college we took the key to Marja's door from the lodge and broke in to her room to decorate in orange. We covered the bed in orange sheets and HUGE orange balloons and set up all the orange food (tahini on the houmous to make it orange and decorated the cupcakes with icing and orange sweets). We then got Alice and Tom to help and hide before Marja came back from dancing. As she came into the room Tom turned on the "Kedang Kedang" song on her laptop before she turned on the light ...as soon as the lights went on we all jumped out and shouted "Happy Queen's Day!" She was SOOO surprised!

Rainy Day but Plant Tute Too!

Had the best tute in the world! As Caroline has left Hertford there are now only 3 biologists so i got to have a tute with Timothy Walker by myself. This was great as I got to be my nerdy plant self without feeling self conscious. Bets tute i've had in Oxford so far.

The most colourful meal

Amelia and I decided to make a lovely fresh spring meal. It's been the best one so far made at Hertford. We cooked prawns, mixed bulgar wheat with red pepper and cucumber and added an amazing home-made Greek salad. We must break all stereotypes of students having a bad diet!

The day..

...I forgot to take a picture. I don't remember what happened or why.

Talia's House

I had the best night's sleep and lie-in for a while. Ben rang in the morning to see if I wanted to go on an adventure to Whitam woods so we decided to meet later on. Talia also wanted to come but needed to pick up her bike from her house in Marshton (which she said was about 20mins away). We walked for about 45mins before arriving exhausted and hot! So, we wandered around her house playing Israeli and Mexican music(Enrique Iglesias and Belinda) and made ourselves at home. Then Ben rang to see what had happened to us and seemed a bit upset - apparently there wasn't any time left to go to Whitam. So, we made ourselves some sandwiches, took some chocolate and apples (healthyness!) and cycled along to the University parks.
We found a spot with really long grass mucked around taking pictures in the long grass. I got Talia to hide in some cow parsley (but I then got stung by some hidden nettles as I tried to take the pic) we then also made grass angles which ended up looking a bit wierd.Talia then found some daffodils and tried to make a mutant with two flowers. Afterwards, we cycled back to college and I realised just how much I had missed having a bike..

Exeter Ball

Finally, the long awaited Exeter Ball! We went early on in the day to collect out wristbands for entry to the ball. Before setting off Amelia had to adjust my dress as the back went a bit too low - her room was FULL of people waiting and getting ready. Once outside we took lots of pictures and has Sam (Talia's boyfriend) take a few with my camera. Everyone looked so colourful in their different black tie dresses and the guys looked really smart in their suits. We also took some pics in OB quad to the enjoyment of the porters and students in the library.
We set off to the ball around 8ish (as it was just at the other side of Radcliff Square) just as the sun was setting. Exeter's front quad had a huge dodgem car ride set up and various food and drink stalls surrounding it. We ate hogroast, salad, couscous, pitta bread and homemade humous in the dinning hall which had been decorated like the Mad Hatter's tea party. Along the tables were rows of trays with jam tarts and various different tea pots and balloons filled with helium. At the end was a jazz band playing music which gave it a summery atmosphere. Once outside, we had a go on the dodgems and them went to the shisha tent. Here we tried to blow smoke rings and pass the smoke along. I then went for a walk with Emily and Tom around Exter's high walled garden. From here they'd even managed to project "We're all mad here" onto the Rad. Cam. ! For the rest of the night we went on the dodgems, drank, ate freshly made doughnuts, held the snake charmer's snakes, went to the silent disco, danced and just wandered around the college. By the end we were all exhausted and people started to go home early. However, I stayed with a few to dance right until the end in one of the huge tents set up in the back quad. We also managed to take some decorations from the silent disco including HUGE daisy chains (one which now surrounds my notice board), plastic glittery butterflies and ladybirds which I sneaked into Tom's pocket throughout the night. We then headed back to Hertford exhaustedd but happy - it had been worth the wait.

Collections

Had collections in the afternoon which went Ok. Afterwards, people came to my room for tea and to sort out last minute Exeter Ball stuff. Tom (my college finace) decided to try on my super-cool Primarni heart-shaped glasses.