Well, here I am three weeks after returning to the states….I miss Oxford more and more every day, honestly. Whether a song on the radio, a random memory, or the epic amount of money I owe my parents from the trip….I think about it constantly.
The Monday after returning, I immediately started spending basically all day every day at the sorority house doing rush stuff. That kept me busy and exhausted, so I didn’t have a lot of time to think about the trip. I managed to unpack at the same time, and somehow got over my jet lag…but it wasn’t fun to say the least.
As soon as rush was over there were meetings and trainings and appointments then classes. Throw in a little bit of being social…and well, it’s been hectic.
I’m ready to get back to going to the gym regularly and eating a healthy diet…let’s just say Hot and Tasty shack and beer every day didn’t really help out my routine I had going before my trip.
Now I’m working and taking classes and my weeks are scheduled and structured and super busy. Definitely a change from Oxford.
After coming back, I saw Bobby first…we went to see Harry Potter again during rush workshop week. I later saw Elizabeth at El Rincon, then Candice came to my bid night party with me, and Sarah and I finally saw each other the Thursday after classes started. I run into other people around campus, and it’s weird that we all have this bond now. Really cool though. I mean, it was the same with Brazil, but there were only 4 of us then.
Last night John threw a reunion where several of us showed up….it was a little weird (Sarah and Candice couldn’t come) but we watched the videos of the last night there and caught up a bit…I plan to throw another reunion soon where even more people can come. It was a weird, fun, sad experience…
I’m even doing my CBH independent research project on Oxford.
Looking back, Oxford was one of the best experiences of my life. It truly was. I want to talk about it all the time, to anyone that will listen. I’m actually probably really annoying because people don’t want to hear all my stories.
I love wearing my Oxford dresses too
Right now, I wish I was in my dorm room at Worcester, getting ready for a night out with the girls at the Bridge or Kukui, with Hot and Tasty Shack to look forward to, then a couple hours sleep before inhaling apple juice and delicious breakfast before fighting to stay awake through English and going on some adventure with Arts of Oxford, then naps and adventures and cramming in homework, then starting it all over again. Oh well, I’ll always have the memories.
Oh, city of dreaming spires, how I can’t wait to return one day.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Moving Day – August 2, 2009
I slept for a few hours, but my sleep schedule was really off because of jet lag and sleeping on the plane. I woke up pretty early and immediately got to work washing clothes and unpacking. I shockingly got through with that fairly quickly, then started packing again to move into my apartment.
Phil cooked me mexinoms for lunch…oh how I missed them. Delicious. Afterward we took the first trip over to my new apartment…okay I was expecting to have like my bed and a cardboard box for a table or something…but no, my amazing parents went ALL OUT and my place looked AWESOME!! I almost cried I was so excited. It’s the most precious thing in the world. Love love love. We ran some errands and what not, then Phil grilled burgers and Bethany, Caitlin, Grant, and Matt all came over to hang out for dinner. It was so nice to see everyone. Afterwards we headed back to my house and Jennifer came over as well and we just sat around talking and catching up. We called it a pretty early night because everyone was exhausted.
It was a jam-packed day of all sorts of things…I came home, unpacked, moved into a new apartment, hung out with friends….about as different from Oxford as possible. Complete culture shock. Miss it already.
Phil cooked me mexinoms for lunch…oh how I missed them. Delicious. Afterward we took the first trip over to my new apartment…okay I was expecting to have like my bed and a cardboard box for a table or something…but no, my amazing parents went ALL OUT and my place looked AWESOME!! I almost cried I was so excited. It’s the most precious thing in the world. Love love love. We ran some errands and what not, then Phil grilled burgers and Bethany, Caitlin, Grant, and Matt all came over to hang out for dinner. It was so nice to see everyone. Afterwards we headed back to my house and Jennifer came over as well and we just sat around talking and catching up. We called it a pretty early night because everyone was exhausted.
It was a jam-packed day of all sorts of things…I came home, unpacked, moved into a new apartment, hung out with friends….about as different from Oxford as possible. Complete culture shock. Miss it already.
Goodbye City of Spires – August 1, 2009
The end of Friday leads right in to Saturday and my dramatic exit of the city….
I got home around 4:30 and hung out with Sarah and Candice for a bit. I was planning to get up at 5:30 to shower and finish packing, then take a 7:20 bus to Heathrow…so Sarah and I both set alarms and agreed to make sure we got up and got going….
…well….next thing I know, Anna is walking in my room at 8:05 to make sure I’m awake…which I clearly wasn’t. Oops. Enter complete panic mode, since I should already be practically at the airport at this point. Needless to say, a shower was not part of the picture, and Candice and I indiscriminately threw my toiletries and other random things into my suitcases. I threw on my t-shirt and was out the door and off to the bus station in…take a guess….20 minutes. Yes, I looked hot. You have no idea.
In panic mode, I arrived at the bus station. I knew I had hidden away 20 pounds for my bus fare the night before, but of course couldn’t find it and had to buy a ticket on my credit card. Luckily I made a bus that was leaving right as I arrived. On the bus I was so busy freaking out and trying to make myself look presentable I barely registered that I was leaving Oxford. It’s probably really better that way though, as I probably would have been bawling my eyes out otherwise.
I arrived at Heathrow for a 12:15 flight at 10:15, which ended up being perfectly fine. I waited in line to check in, then proceeded on to my gate, after stopping to buy a couple of bottles of water, haha.
Then began my horrible journey back to the states.
Once we got on the plane, we had an hour long delay on the ground. Those are never fun. Once we were finally in the air, things weren’t so bad though. The meal was good and my neighbor didn’t bother me….so it was shaping up okay….until they told us the movies did not work. Okay, an 11 hour flight with no movies is...awful. Especially since it was a mid-day flight…like my body was not programmed to be sleeping at that time….oh dear. Well, I spent those 11 hours taking as much Tylenol PM as I could without dying, fading in and out of sleep, draining my iPod battery, and reading Alice in Wonderland (which was so cool this time around since I know so much about it and have seen where it was written…). It was not a fun flight. At all. Add on the fact that I was disgusting…you can only imagine how happy I was.
We finally arrived in Dallas, where I was supposed to have about a 2 and a half hour layover. I successfully made it through customs and pushed my thousands of pounds of luggage around the airport…then finally got to my gate with plenty of time to spare. For my first meal back on American soil, I definitely went all American and ate delicious buffalo chicken fingers and TGI Fridays. I’m pretty sure my waitress thought I was insane…this sketchy, really disgusting girl sitting alone in the corner inhaling buffalo chicken fingers and drinking 40 glasses of free ice water (it’s FREE)….oh yeah, I was cool.
I also got to know my blackberry again….I called and talked to several friends and definitely enjoyed being able to text again! Fun times.
Well, unfortunately, the weather in Dallas was not so good, and my flight kept getting delayed. My short layover turned into a long long fiver hour layover, where I hadn’t showered in about 48 hours. Don’t even get me started on how disgusting I was.
By the time I finally made it on my flight to Birmingham, I was exhausted, gross, and cranky. The flight home was nothing horrible, I was just ready to be done traveling.
I arrived in Birmingham around midnight, and Phil met me with a sign We grabbed my luggage, loaded up, and headed home. It was a long day to say the least. I was so excited to just take a shower and climb into bed.
I got home around 4:30 and hung out with Sarah and Candice for a bit. I was planning to get up at 5:30 to shower and finish packing, then take a 7:20 bus to Heathrow…so Sarah and I both set alarms and agreed to make sure we got up and got going….
…well….next thing I know, Anna is walking in my room at 8:05 to make sure I’m awake…which I clearly wasn’t. Oops. Enter complete panic mode, since I should already be practically at the airport at this point. Needless to say, a shower was not part of the picture, and Candice and I indiscriminately threw my toiletries and other random things into my suitcases. I threw on my t-shirt and was out the door and off to the bus station in…take a guess….20 minutes. Yes, I looked hot. You have no idea.
In panic mode, I arrived at the bus station. I knew I had hidden away 20 pounds for my bus fare the night before, but of course couldn’t find it and had to buy a ticket on my credit card. Luckily I made a bus that was leaving right as I arrived. On the bus I was so busy freaking out and trying to make myself look presentable I barely registered that I was leaving Oxford. It’s probably really better that way though, as I probably would have been bawling my eyes out otherwise.
I arrived at Heathrow for a 12:15 flight at 10:15, which ended up being perfectly fine. I waited in line to check in, then proceeded on to my gate, after stopping to buy a couple of bottles of water, haha.
Then began my horrible journey back to the states.
Once we got on the plane, we had an hour long delay on the ground. Those are never fun. Once we were finally in the air, things weren’t so bad though. The meal was good and my neighbor didn’t bother me….so it was shaping up okay….until they told us the movies did not work. Okay, an 11 hour flight with no movies is...awful. Especially since it was a mid-day flight…like my body was not programmed to be sleeping at that time….oh dear. Well, I spent those 11 hours taking as much Tylenol PM as I could without dying, fading in and out of sleep, draining my iPod battery, and reading Alice in Wonderland (which was so cool this time around since I know so much about it and have seen where it was written…). It was not a fun flight. At all. Add on the fact that I was disgusting…you can only imagine how happy I was.
We finally arrived in Dallas, where I was supposed to have about a 2 and a half hour layover. I successfully made it through customs and pushed my thousands of pounds of luggage around the airport…then finally got to my gate with plenty of time to spare. For my first meal back on American soil, I definitely went all American and ate delicious buffalo chicken fingers and TGI Fridays. I’m pretty sure my waitress thought I was insane…this sketchy, really disgusting girl sitting alone in the corner inhaling buffalo chicken fingers and drinking 40 glasses of free ice water (it’s FREE)….oh yeah, I was cool.
I also got to know my blackberry again….I called and talked to several friends and definitely enjoyed being able to text again! Fun times.
Well, unfortunately, the weather in Dallas was not so good, and my flight kept getting delayed. My short layover turned into a long long fiver hour layover, where I hadn’t showered in about 48 hours. Don’t even get me started on how disgusting I was.
By the time I finally made it on my flight to Birmingham, I was exhausted, gross, and cranky. The flight home was nothing horrible, I was just ready to be done traveling.
I arrived in Birmingham around midnight, and Phil met me with a sign We grabbed my luggage, loaded up, and headed home. It was a long day to say the least. I was so excited to just take a shower and climb into bed.
Last Day (No Other Title Fits) – July 31st, 2009
The morning started out much like any other. Breakfast in the dining hall – my last bacon, hashbrowns, and toast for a long long time as I’m going to have to refrain from such to lose the weight this delicious food has put on me, haha. After breakfast it was back to the room to shower and get ready, and read over all my notes from English – as that was really the only way to study.
Our English exam was pretty exhausting. Three essays in an hour and a half – 2 were based on comparing and contrasting examples of poetry (Yeats and Blake to be exact), and the third was discussing why learning British lit in England is different than learning it in the states. That one was pretty easy, and awesome – it makes all the difference in the world.
For our Arts of Oxford final, she just told us to show up, bring cameras and water, and wear comfortable shoes. My guess was a photo scavenger hunt – and I was right. My group was super competitive – but we had a huge loop we had to make to complete our list….which was…
The 12th century structure on Worcester campus that looks like it could belong to Gryffindor (one of the original monastery structures has a red and gold shield on it – isn’t it great that this is the kind of group of students where you can make a Harry Potter reference and you KNOW at least 1 out of 4 students in the group will understand it?)
There’s a pub called The Turf where it has 2 entrances but neither are from a street – both are tiny passages. We had to photograph one of those.
The place from where they took the material to construct a platform that should never have been built – inside St. Mary’s Cathedral there is a column where they chipped away a piece to make the platform for the trial of the protestant martyrs.
The place where the singers still sing from on May Day of each year – the bell tower of Magdalen college.
Parrots and owls, parrots and owls – has to do with some of the architecture and design at the University Museum, which we learned about in class.
The hunt ended at Tolkein’s bench in University Parks, and even though we hurried as much as we could, we didn’t win the scavenger hunt. It was really cool though, because all the groups had different clues, but we all knew the answers to everyone’s…it was just remarkable because it really made us realize how much we learned about the city in the short time we were there. After checking out pictures, we had an “un-birthday party”, Alice in Wonderland style, and just enjoyed the weather and the park and our last afternoon in Oxford.
After the scavenger hunt, Sarah, Bobby, and I, struck out on the epic journey of finally going punting. Punting is basically going in these little boats, bigger than canoes and with flat bottoms, and one person has a really long pole which they stick into the mud at the bottom of the river, and that propels the boat. We had been wanting to do this the entire time we were there, and finally went on the last day. Before we could go though, we first stopped to grab a picnic for while we were on the river, then had to walk all over the place to find somewhere we could go to the restroom – I do miss public bathrooms. But finally we made it out on the river.
Now, for Sarah and I, punting involved sitting in the boat, enjoying our picnic of sandwiches and wine, and watching while Bobby actually steered the boat and we played bumper boats with all the inexperienced punters. It was quite fun. We finally found a calm spot where we just kind of hung out and floated and fed the ducks…we didn’t go far but we got the experience. And we got lucky because it was a beautiful afternoon to be out on the river. To get a better idea..check out facebook pictures.
After punting, we hurried back to the college to get ready for the evening festivities. I fully intended to take another shower at this point, but was tired so I took a nap instead. This point becomes important later…haha.
Before our last dinner, we had drinks in the provost’s garden, which was really cool because it had been off limits the whole time. It was a beautiful garden though, and the provost was extremely nice. And we drank Pimm’s – the official summer drink in England…and it was just so very British.
After drinks we headed into the hall for our last dinner. It was formal hall, so we had all sorts of fun things for dinner…like prawn and duck….I liked guinea fowl and lamb, but I’m not a big duck fan. And of course at the end of dinner they made us sing Yea Alabama one last time.
Once dinner was over, the whole group gathered for “Alabama in Oxford Follies 2009”, where different groups in different classes got together and put on little skits and stuff. The highlight of the evening was the Shakespeare class. One of the guys, who has a real talent for writing parodies and stuff, as well as playing the piano, wrote several song parodies. There was “I am a Tyrant” about Julius Caesar, sung to “Survivor” by Destiny’s Child, “Let it Bleed” instead of “Let it Be”, and “I Just Can’t Wait to be King”, which involved actual royalty instead of lions…the best was the final, which had nothing to do with Shakespeare but was “Sweet Home Alabama” but about our time in Oxford. It was absolutely fantastic to say the least.
Finally, it was time to go out for our last time.
We began our evening around 10:30 or 11 at the college pub, where we stayed until it closed. A few last pints of Carlsberg and car bombs served up by Collin…almost the whole group was down there so it was really fun. Afterward, we headed out to the clubs. We ended up at Thirst, the hookah bar, just hanging out in the garden area, then dancing with lots of foreign boys as usual. Collin showed up and got us free drinks, and it was a really fun night, just hanging out for the last time. We might have stayed out kind of late….I called it a night around 4:30 AM. Unfortunately I had already had to turn in my key and swipe card, so the Oxford porter kindly walked me back to my room :)
Our English exam was pretty exhausting. Three essays in an hour and a half – 2 were based on comparing and contrasting examples of poetry (Yeats and Blake to be exact), and the third was discussing why learning British lit in England is different than learning it in the states. That one was pretty easy, and awesome – it makes all the difference in the world.
For our Arts of Oxford final, she just told us to show up, bring cameras and water, and wear comfortable shoes. My guess was a photo scavenger hunt – and I was right. My group was super competitive – but we had a huge loop we had to make to complete our list….which was…
The 12th century structure on Worcester campus that looks like it could belong to Gryffindor (one of the original monastery structures has a red and gold shield on it – isn’t it great that this is the kind of group of students where you can make a Harry Potter reference and you KNOW at least 1 out of 4 students in the group will understand it?)
There’s a pub called The Turf where it has 2 entrances but neither are from a street – both are tiny passages. We had to photograph one of those.
The place from where they took the material to construct a platform that should never have been built – inside St. Mary’s Cathedral there is a column where they chipped away a piece to make the platform for the trial of the protestant martyrs.
The place where the singers still sing from on May Day of each year – the bell tower of Magdalen college.
Parrots and owls, parrots and owls – has to do with some of the architecture and design at the University Museum, which we learned about in class.
The hunt ended at Tolkein’s bench in University Parks, and even though we hurried as much as we could, we didn’t win the scavenger hunt. It was really cool though, because all the groups had different clues, but we all knew the answers to everyone’s…it was just remarkable because it really made us realize how much we learned about the city in the short time we were there. After checking out pictures, we had an “un-birthday party”, Alice in Wonderland style, and just enjoyed the weather and the park and our last afternoon in Oxford.
After the scavenger hunt, Sarah, Bobby, and I, struck out on the epic journey of finally going punting. Punting is basically going in these little boats, bigger than canoes and with flat bottoms, and one person has a really long pole which they stick into the mud at the bottom of the river, and that propels the boat. We had been wanting to do this the entire time we were there, and finally went on the last day. Before we could go though, we first stopped to grab a picnic for while we were on the river, then had to walk all over the place to find somewhere we could go to the restroom – I do miss public bathrooms. But finally we made it out on the river.
Now, for Sarah and I, punting involved sitting in the boat, enjoying our picnic of sandwiches and wine, and watching while Bobby actually steered the boat and we played bumper boats with all the inexperienced punters. It was quite fun. We finally found a calm spot where we just kind of hung out and floated and fed the ducks…we didn’t go far but we got the experience. And we got lucky because it was a beautiful afternoon to be out on the river. To get a better idea..check out facebook pictures.
After punting, we hurried back to the college to get ready for the evening festivities. I fully intended to take another shower at this point, but was tired so I took a nap instead. This point becomes important later…haha.
Before our last dinner, we had drinks in the provost’s garden, which was really cool because it had been off limits the whole time. It was a beautiful garden though, and the provost was extremely nice. And we drank Pimm’s – the official summer drink in England…and it was just so very British.
After drinks we headed into the hall for our last dinner. It was formal hall, so we had all sorts of fun things for dinner…like prawn and duck….I liked guinea fowl and lamb, but I’m not a big duck fan. And of course at the end of dinner they made us sing Yea Alabama one last time.
Once dinner was over, the whole group gathered for “Alabama in Oxford Follies 2009”, where different groups in different classes got together and put on little skits and stuff. The highlight of the evening was the Shakespeare class. One of the guys, who has a real talent for writing parodies and stuff, as well as playing the piano, wrote several song parodies. There was “I am a Tyrant” about Julius Caesar, sung to “Survivor” by Destiny’s Child, “Let it Bleed” instead of “Let it Be”, and “I Just Can’t Wait to be King”, which involved actual royalty instead of lions…the best was the final, which had nothing to do with Shakespeare but was “Sweet Home Alabama” but about our time in Oxford. It was absolutely fantastic to say the least.
Finally, it was time to go out for our last time.
We began our evening around 10:30 or 11 at the college pub, where we stayed until it closed. A few last pints of Carlsberg and car bombs served up by Collin…almost the whole group was down there so it was really fun. Afterward, we headed out to the clubs. We ended up at Thirst, the hookah bar, just hanging out in the garden area, then dancing with lots of foreign boys as usual. Collin showed up and got us free drinks, and it was a really fun night, just hanging out for the last time. We might have stayed out kind of late….I called it a night around 4:30 AM. Unfortunately I had already had to turn in my key and swipe card, so the Oxford porter kindly walked me back to my room :)
Monday, August 10, 2009
How much can we get done in one day? – July 30th, 2009
Definitely didn’t want to get up this morning, but had to so that I could rewrite the final draft of my last English paper, as well as write some Arts of Oxford responses. I wasn’t really irresponsible on the trip…I mean, I turned all of my assignments in on time every time, but I still did a lot more “waiting until the last minute” than I usually do. Oh well, I am going to have a really busy semester, so I’m having fun while I’m here.
Last day of classes! Well, really just English for me since Arts of Oxford has been going on excursions all week. Today we ventured out to Keble College to see their beautiful chapel and the original Light of the World painting – a very famous painting. It was quite beautiful.
After our journey, Sarah and I ate at Noodle Nation for the very last time. So delicious but so sad. I shall miss Noodle Nation a lot.
After lunch, we did some flea market shopping at the Gloucester Green open market. We didn’t really buy anything (although it was very difficult to resist an early edition Alice in Wonderland), but browsing was lots of fun.
We finally made it to our goal for the afternoon, the University/Pitt Rivers Museum. The University Museum is this awesome natural history museum, and Pitt Rivers is an anthropological museum. Both were awesome, but naturally I was obsessed with Pitt Rivers, as I am an anthropology major. The University Museum had lots of dinosaur fossils, and a dodo skeleton, which was quite cool. The architecture of the building was awesome too – if a train station and a cathedral had a child, it would be this building.
The Pitt Rivers Museum was totally different though. It was about as far from the type of museum you would generally imagine as it gets. There was tons and tons and tons of stuff crammed in to standing display cases, and it was dark and things were tagged with handwritten tags….none of the sterile lighting and neat organization of most museums. Everywhere you turn you’re looking at different artifacts of culture and human history – I was looking at religious icons, turned around and was staring at shrunken heads (which were really really really creepy). It was awesome, to say the least.
I was exhausted after all of this, so I headed back to the college to take a quick nap. Then I headed to Primark to grab a dress for Molly that I really thought she would like, and just do my last bit of shopping in Oxford. Oh, I’ll miss it.
Headed back to the college for dinner, then had an open evening, since we weren’t going out because of exams the next morning. Bobby still hadn’t been to a classical music performance for Arts of Oxford, so I went with him to a concert at the Sheldonian theatre, the official theatre of the University where they do graduation and such. It was absolutely awesome. We sat in the cheap, nosebleed seats, but it didn’t matter. We had a good view, and the sound was what mattered anyway. We had a really awesome time.
After the concert I was supposed to go meet the girls in the pub to hang out, but it was 10:00, and no joke, I was exhausted. So off to bed I went – had to rest up for my last day in Oxford!!
Last day of classes! Well, really just English for me since Arts of Oxford has been going on excursions all week. Today we ventured out to Keble College to see their beautiful chapel and the original Light of the World painting – a very famous painting. It was quite beautiful.
After our journey, Sarah and I ate at Noodle Nation for the very last time. So delicious but so sad. I shall miss Noodle Nation a lot.
After lunch, we did some flea market shopping at the Gloucester Green open market. We didn’t really buy anything (although it was very difficult to resist an early edition Alice in Wonderland), but browsing was lots of fun.
We finally made it to our goal for the afternoon, the University/Pitt Rivers Museum. The University Museum is this awesome natural history museum, and Pitt Rivers is an anthropological museum. Both were awesome, but naturally I was obsessed with Pitt Rivers, as I am an anthropology major. The University Museum had lots of dinosaur fossils, and a dodo skeleton, which was quite cool. The architecture of the building was awesome too – if a train station and a cathedral had a child, it would be this building.
The Pitt Rivers Museum was totally different though. It was about as far from the type of museum you would generally imagine as it gets. There was tons and tons and tons of stuff crammed in to standing display cases, and it was dark and things were tagged with handwritten tags….none of the sterile lighting and neat organization of most museums. Everywhere you turn you’re looking at different artifacts of culture and human history – I was looking at religious icons, turned around and was staring at shrunken heads (which were really really really creepy). It was awesome, to say the least.
I was exhausted after all of this, so I headed back to the college to take a quick nap. Then I headed to Primark to grab a dress for Molly that I really thought she would like, and just do my last bit of shopping in Oxford. Oh, I’ll miss it.
Headed back to the college for dinner, then had an open evening, since we weren’t going out because of exams the next morning. Bobby still hadn’t been to a classical music performance for Arts of Oxford, so I went with him to a concert at the Sheldonian theatre, the official theatre of the University where they do graduation and such. It was absolutely awesome. We sat in the cheap, nosebleed seats, but it didn’t matter. We had a good view, and the sound was what mattered anyway. We had a really awesome time.
After the concert I was supposed to go meet the girls in the pub to hang out, but it was 10:00, and no joke, I was exhausted. So off to bed I went – had to rest up for my last day in Oxford!!
Books as Far as the Eye Can See – July 29th, 2009
Again..the usual morning of getting up, breakfast, and class. English is just so exciting…not. I mean, I guess it could be worse. And Dr. Halli is pretty cool to listen to, even if his grading does make me angry sometimes.
For Arts of Oxford, I finally got to visit the place I had been dying to go to since I arrived in Oxford…but I had to wait because you have to have a group of a certain size to go on the extended tour --- which I had to do – and which is what we did today. Anyway…the Bodleian Library.
The Bodleian is the official library of Oxford. Each college has a small library, but the Bodleian is the main thing – the place to be. It is absolutely unbelievable. Miles and miles of shelves – many of which are underground; and over 8 million books. 8 million!!! Oh my goodness, I was in heaven. We got to see the Duke Humphries library which is extremely old and beautiful…they use it to shoot the library scenes in Harry Potter. And inside the Radcliffe Camera, which is the reading room of the Bodleian….and the conveyor belt they use to get books from the shelves to the reading rooms. Oh my gosh, it was amazing. You can’t check books out of the library – even the king himself tried back in the 1600’s and was denied – and to have a reading card you have to take an oath that you will not harm the books. It is probably the coolest place I have ever been. I know I’m a dork, but I don’t care. It was absolutely awesome.
After browsing the library store and limiting myself to a poster and bookmark, a bunch of us headed to the Four Candles for lunch. Can I reiterate how much I love pub food? What am I even supposed to eat when I go home? After lunch, it was again raining, so we walked around for a little while but ended up at the college, just working on stuff and starting to get ready for our departure --- so sad.
We had dinner in the hall as usual, and I just hung out on the grounds for a while and took in the beauty. I will miss it so much.
Finally, it was time to get ready and go out. We headed down to the college pub for a while, as usual, then a big group of us headed down to Jericho to the Jericho Tavern. It was cool – I mean, it’s always cool to go somewhere I haven’t been before…but the group was really big and it was kind of awkward, so Ashley, Bobby, and I decided to go do our own thing. We wanted to go to the pub Jude the Obscure, but it was closed. Sad. We headed back to the college pub and hung out with Collin for a little while – Collin is our favorite bartender. Then we decided to try something different and headed to the hookah bar/club, Thirst. We actually ended up sitting around talking to a bunch of Brazilians, which was really cool. Even though I love England so much, I will always love Brazil too. We danced and hung out…and it was a really awesome night. Except for when a very large, very drunk man celebrating his birthday fell. On top of me. Like, pushed me off my stool. It hurt...a lot. His friend who was supposed to be taking care of him was super nice though, and hey, we've all been there. And now I have an additional reminder to take home in the form of huge bruises, haha.
For Arts of Oxford, I finally got to visit the place I had been dying to go to since I arrived in Oxford…but I had to wait because you have to have a group of a certain size to go on the extended tour --- which I had to do – and which is what we did today. Anyway…the Bodleian Library.
The Bodleian is the official library of Oxford. Each college has a small library, but the Bodleian is the main thing – the place to be. It is absolutely unbelievable. Miles and miles of shelves – many of which are underground; and over 8 million books. 8 million!!! Oh my goodness, I was in heaven. We got to see the Duke Humphries library which is extremely old and beautiful…they use it to shoot the library scenes in Harry Potter. And inside the Radcliffe Camera, which is the reading room of the Bodleian….and the conveyor belt they use to get books from the shelves to the reading rooms. Oh my gosh, it was amazing. You can’t check books out of the library – even the king himself tried back in the 1600’s and was denied – and to have a reading card you have to take an oath that you will not harm the books. It is probably the coolest place I have ever been. I know I’m a dork, but I don’t care. It was absolutely awesome.
After browsing the library store and limiting myself to a poster and bookmark, a bunch of us headed to the Four Candles for lunch. Can I reiterate how much I love pub food? What am I even supposed to eat when I go home? After lunch, it was again raining, so we walked around for a little while but ended up at the college, just working on stuff and starting to get ready for our departure --- so sad.
We had dinner in the hall as usual, and I just hung out on the grounds for a while and took in the beauty. I will miss it so much.
Finally, it was time to get ready and go out. We headed down to the college pub for a while, as usual, then a big group of us headed down to Jericho to the Jericho Tavern. It was cool – I mean, it’s always cool to go somewhere I haven’t been before…but the group was really big and it was kind of awkward, so Ashley, Bobby, and I decided to go do our own thing. We wanted to go to the pub Jude the Obscure, but it was closed. Sad. We headed back to the college pub and hung out with Collin for a little while – Collin is our favorite bartender. Then we decided to try something different and headed to the hookah bar/club, Thirst. We actually ended up sitting around talking to a bunch of Brazilians, which was really cool. Even though I love England so much, I will always love Brazil too. We danced and hung out…and it was a really awesome night. Except for when a very large, very drunk man celebrating his birthday fell. On top of me. Like, pushed me off my stool. It hurt...a lot. His friend who was supposed to be taking care of him was super nice though, and hey, we've all been there. And now I have an additional reminder to take home in the form of huge bruises, haha.
It’s like the Sahara in here! --- July 28th, 2009
Usual morning of rolling out of bed, stumbling into the shower, and heading down for class. So much fun.
For Arts of Oxford we walked over to Harris Manchester college, which has a fully collection of Pre-Raphaelite stained glass windows that are absolutely beautiful. I suppose if you don’t know what Pre-Raphaelite is then that means nothing – but the artist William Morris designed them – he really cared a lot about making art functional…he didn’t paint on canvas or anything, he made things people needed anyway beautiful, like stained glass windows or chairs…stuff like that. Anyway, to have a chapel fully done by him is remarkable, I mean, Harris Manchester is the only place in the world. We also had the High Steward of Oxford give us a little tour and tell us the history of the chapel and everything – it was quite interesting.
Afterwards, Sarah and I were starving, but couldn’t figure out what we were craving. As we walked along, it hit us! Pizza! So Pizza Hut has a lunch buffet, even in England, so that’s where we headed. It was quite delicious, except they were a little slow putting pizza out on the buffet…and there were a lot of people trying to get it…so people would crowd around and like attack whenever food came out. It really was like some kind of animals in the Sahara show or something. Pretty amusing…but we were hungry. Sarah is so non-confrontational though, it definitely stressed her out. Haha. It hit the spot though. I have now eaten Pizza Hut on 3 continents. Woot.
After lunch we had grand plans to go out running errands and shopping and just walking around taking pictures and stuff…but of course it was pouring rain and freezing. Not exactly conducive to our plans. So we ran to the Varsity Shop which sells all the college stuff – like sweatshirts and hats and t-shirts and stuff with your college’s crest and everything – and I picked up the Worcester fleece I had decided I wanted, then we headed back to the college for homework, naps, and general walrus-ing all afternoon.
Since GA Tech had formal hall, our whole group ate dinner together in the hall. And we had the magical time of getting to wear our “Where in the World is Big Al?” t-shirts…these (awful) t-shirts given out by Capstone International, because afterward we had a group picture and our last group meeting. Oh, those t-shirts were beautiful.
Group meeting was super sad because it was all about how to leave. I don’t want to leave.
After the meeting we got ready then headed down to the college pub to hang out with everyone and play darts and whatnot – the usual. I wanted to go out to Kukui, but I was just too exhausted…so I made the responsible decision and went home at the decent hour of midnight, haha.
3 days left.
For Arts of Oxford we walked over to Harris Manchester college, which has a fully collection of Pre-Raphaelite stained glass windows that are absolutely beautiful. I suppose if you don’t know what Pre-Raphaelite is then that means nothing – but the artist William Morris designed them – he really cared a lot about making art functional…he didn’t paint on canvas or anything, he made things people needed anyway beautiful, like stained glass windows or chairs…stuff like that. Anyway, to have a chapel fully done by him is remarkable, I mean, Harris Manchester is the only place in the world. We also had the High Steward of Oxford give us a little tour and tell us the history of the chapel and everything – it was quite interesting.
Afterwards, Sarah and I were starving, but couldn’t figure out what we were craving. As we walked along, it hit us! Pizza! So Pizza Hut has a lunch buffet, even in England, so that’s where we headed. It was quite delicious, except they were a little slow putting pizza out on the buffet…and there were a lot of people trying to get it…so people would crowd around and like attack whenever food came out. It really was like some kind of animals in the Sahara show or something. Pretty amusing…but we were hungry. Sarah is so non-confrontational though, it definitely stressed her out. Haha. It hit the spot though. I have now eaten Pizza Hut on 3 continents. Woot.
After lunch we had grand plans to go out running errands and shopping and just walking around taking pictures and stuff…but of course it was pouring rain and freezing. Not exactly conducive to our plans. So we ran to the Varsity Shop which sells all the college stuff – like sweatshirts and hats and t-shirts and stuff with your college’s crest and everything – and I picked up the Worcester fleece I had decided I wanted, then we headed back to the college for homework, naps, and general walrus-ing all afternoon.
Since GA Tech had formal hall, our whole group ate dinner together in the hall. And we had the magical time of getting to wear our “Where in the World is Big Al?” t-shirts…these (awful) t-shirts given out by Capstone International, because afterward we had a group picture and our last group meeting. Oh, those t-shirts were beautiful.
Group meeting was super sad because it was all about how to leave. I don’t want to leave.
After the meeting we got ready then headed down to the college pub to hang out with everyone and play darts and whatnot – the usual. I wanted to go out to Kukui, but I was just too exhausted…so I made the responsible decision and went home at the decent hour of midnight, haha.
3 days left.
Primark = Life – July 27th, 2009
Last Monday in Oxford. Boo. You know I love Mondays.
So, it started out like pretty much any other day…getting up at the crack of dawn to have delicious breakfast and finish papers we should have finished sometime before 2 hours before class. We were always prepared.
After class, a bunch of the group headed to Bath, but Candice and I had already been, of course. Instead, I headed to the train station for a completely different reason…to meet Kelsey!! Yes, Kelsey was already in England visiting a friend, and she had a free afternoon so I convinced her to come take in the glory that is Oxford.
Our first stop was Worcester, where I showed her my dorm room and whatnot, and we met up with Sarah. We struck out for the Red Lion for lunch…one of my favorite pubs. Delicious. What will I do without pub food? Afterwards I gave Kelsey a walking tour of Oxford…at least the main area. It’s amazing how much I know about the place after being here for only a couple of weeks. I was able to take her to Exeter, one of my favorite colleges, and Blackwells, my favorite place in the world….then we headed down to see Christ Church where a lot of filming is done for the Harry Potter movies…then to the Alice Shop, where everything in the shop is Alice in Wonderland based. We had a really fun afternoon of just walking around, taking pictures, and being silly. Even though she was only there for like 3 hours, Kelsey deemed Oxford her favorite city in England. I couldn’t agree more.
After seeing Kelsey off at the train station, I met up with Candice and Sarah to do a little shopping. We had heard about this magical store called Primark, but had not yet checked it out. Well…it was amazing. No joke. Imagine Forever 21, but 20 times better. Dresses were like 5 pounds (about $7-8), I got a really cute pair of heels for 6 pounds, and they had like everything you could possibly imagine. Needless to say we spent quite a while there, trying on like everything in the store. You can’t resist a good deal! Who cares if you have to cram it in a suitcase later…?
After shopping we headed back to the college for dinner in the hall and reading/homework time. Then we finally began our very last Eurotrash Monday….
Of course we had to make it epic, and we did J We hung out at the pub for a while, then headed to the Bridge for our last Monday night dance party. Lots of people were out, so we had a great time just hanging out with people from our group and lots of GA Tech people and random people we met. It was a lot of fun, of course. Clubbing in England is so much fun – like, I don’t go out to bars and stuff at home, but here it’s so much more fun. I mean, I guess it helps that I can actually buy drinks…but more than that – it’s just a different atmosphere. And it’s such an international crowd; it’s really cool to just start talking to people and they could be from anywhere.
After we were exhausted from dancing, Sarah and I jaunted over to Hot and Tasty shack for some late night food – delicious, of course. What in the world will I do without Hot and Tasty? And we had a nice political conversation with the guy working there. Always nice when it’s 2 in the morning and you’re barefoot … haha.
Finally headed home and hung out with the girls for a little while, then headed to bed. Starting the week off right.
So, it started out like pretty much any other day…getting up at the crack of dawn to have delicious breakfast and finish papers we should have finished sometime before 2 hours before class. We were always prepared.
After class, a bunch of the group headed to Bath, but Candice and I had already been, of course. Instead, I headed to the train station for a completely different reason…to meet Kelsey!! Yes, Kelsey was already in England visiting a friend, and she had a free afternoon so I convinced her to come take in the glory that is Oxford.
Our first stop was Worcester, where I showed her my dorm room and whatnot, and we met up with Sarah. We struck out for the Red Lion for lunch…one of my favorite pubs. Delicious. What will I do without pub food? Afterwards I gave Kelsey a walking tour of Oxford…at least the main area. It’s amazing how much I know about the place after being here for only a couple of weeks. I was able to take her to Exeter, one of my favorite colleges, and Blackwells, my favorite place in the world….then we headed down to see Christ Church where a lot of filming is done for the Harry Potter movies…then to the Alice Shop, where everything in the shop is Alice in Wonderland based. We had a really fun afternoon of just walking around, taking pictures, and being silly. Even though she was only there for like 3 hours, Kelsey deemed Oxford her favorite city in England. I couldn’t agree more.
After seeing Kelsey off at the train station, I met up with Candice and Sarah to do a little shopping. We had heard about this magical store called Primark, but had not yet checked it out. Well…it was amazing. No joke. Imagine Forever 21, but 20 times better. Dresses were like 5 pounds (about $7-8), I got a really cute pair of heels for 6 pounds, and they had like everything you could possibly imagine. Needless to say we spent quite a while there, trying on like everything in the store. You can’t resist a good deal! Who cares if you have to cram it in a suitcase later…?
After shopping we headed back to the college for dinner in the hall and reading/homework time. Then we finally began our very last Eurotrash Monday….
Of course we had to make it epic, and we did J We hung out at the pub for a while, then headed to the Bridge for our last Monday night dance party. Lots of people were out, so we had a great time just hanging out with people from our group and lots of GA Tech people and random people we met. It was a lot of fun, of course. Clubbing in England is so much fun – like, I don’t go out to bars and stuff at home, but here it’s so much more fun. I mean, I guess it helps that I can actually buy drinks…but more than that – it’s just a different atmosphere. And it’s such an international crowd; it’s really cool to just start talking to people and they could be from anywhere.
After we were exhausted from dancing, Sarah and I jaunted over to Hot and Tasty shack for some late night food – delicious, of course. What in the world will I do without Hot and Tasty? And we had a nice political conversation with the guy working there. Always nice when it’s 2 in the morning and you’re barefoot … haha.
Finally headed home and hung out with the girls for a little while, then headed to bed. Starting the week off right.
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