Anyhow, sorry it has been such a while between blog posts. Things have been busy to say the least. Surprisingly enough I am beginning to get used to the workload, which is something I never imagined would happen. If you had told me I would be accustomed to a reading list of 15 books a week and writing an eight page paper every week, I would have laughed at you... Yet somehow it has happened. My course work is really interesting, and now I feel like I have some expertise on the European Union. In fact, I've tossed around the idea of coming back over here over the summer to do more research on the EU (sounds like a good excuse to get back to Europe, no?). So courses are going well, quite enjoyable. As for those of you who have been admonishing me to make sure I have fun, don't worry! That's what I spent the past week doing-- I was lucky enough to have my best friend come visit, so I spent nearly the whole week doing fun stuff (which you will hear about shortly).
Other than that, there really isn't too much to report. Went to watch the Oxford Blues Rugby team play (it's our varsity team) on Monday, which was a lot of fun. Oh yes and I had rugby initiation a couple weeks ago, which was quite entertaining. Nowhere near as bad as I expected, although it did involve raw squid...
So on to my week of vacation. Carrie (my friend) got here on Saturday, so after getting some lunch and dropping off her stuff at my homestay, we went with most of the Pomona people up to the Radcliffe Arms, which is a pub in Jericho. In case you hadn't been following world sports (hah), England made the Rugby World Cup which is of course a huge deal since it pits countries against one another and only happens once every four years. And the final match was on that night-- England vs South Africa. So we were in this pub with at least fifty Brits, including an incredibly drunk rugby squad. They sang some of the best drinking songs I have ever heard, and otherwise were quite possibly the best entertainment I have ever had. Sadly England lost the match after a somewhat dubious call dis-allowing a try... But regardless, we all had a wonderful time. Really it's probably one of my favorite memories of the whole trip so far, just because it was so British.
The next day I had to spend doing work (those papers don't write themselves) so that was unfortunate, but oh well. On Monday we took the train to Bath and at the first stop were greeted with this sight:
Now I don't know about you, but thats definitely not something I would typically see in the states. Nuclear power is quite impressive, and while I knew the French use it almost exclusively I was not aware there was a plant here near Oxford.
Anyhow, Bath was very similar to when I went, but we had a great lunch at this Nepalese place called Yak-Yetti-Yak (no lie). It was an awesome little place that served good food. The only other big difference was we both tried the water from the Bath springs, which is supposed to have marvelous healing qualities. It tasted like it was chock full of heavy metals, but we both chugged down a glass just to say we had done it.
The next day we spent hanging around Oxford and otherwise touring some of the colleges. The perk of being young is you can just walk into these supposedly "closed" colleges and if you act like you know what you are doing they don't even stop you. One of my favorite spots is this location inside Merton College (which is right behind Univ) overlooking Christ Church Meadows. And we had stunningly good weather, so just spent a while talking/people watching from there.
Wednesday did the rest of the stuff in Oxford--the museums, snuck into Christ Church, went to The Turf, etc. Also had a memorable debate over which major is more useful--art history (Carrie's major) or Economics (my major). Need I even mention who won hands down??
Thursday afternoon we went into London, but not before getting creme tea... This was my first time getting tea while in England (heresy I know!), but it was very good. I hadn't been to London yet, and it is a very cool city. Stayed at a backpackers place in Picadelly Circus, which was a great location for the price. The first night we went and got half priced tickets to see Chicago and then collapsed from exhaustion. Chicago was amazing, totally worth the price of admission, let alone half priced tickets.
The next day began our whirlwind tour of London. In a nutshell, we saw the British Museum (pieces of the Parthenon and the Rosetta Stone), the Tate Modern (lots of cool modern art), and rode the London Eye (big Ferris wheel). Rather than blabbing on some more, I'll just have some pictures and then wrap this up since it is already far too long.
Do you know the Muffin Man??
Note Big Ben in the background
Trafalgar Square
Millennium Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral in the background.
Big Ben and Houses of Parliament.
So that was London in one day, then Carrie left early the next morning. All in all it was really a heck of a lot of fun, and we definitely got to see a lot of cool stuff. Nothing like having a mini-vacation halfway through term. Anyways, thanks for reading hope all is well on your end!!
----------------
Now playing: The Eagles - Desperado
via FoxyTunes
No comments:
Post a Comment