Advertisement
Published: October 5th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Howdy peeps!
Another week past in good ole Oxford, England! It's been quite a week as I've been getting more and more into my classes. It's such a different experience to have "tutors" that don't quite give out assignments but expect things to be done and the only deadlines you are given are the ones for the final exam and the papers. There is a lot more trust and expectation for the students to perform. It makes it feel like the American educational system kind of handholds its students but we expect an exact syllabus with dates and the exact assignment. Here they don't do that and it's kind of maddening. My professors are so great though. Dr. Catto, who's the history professor is sooooo cute! I want to stick him in my pocket and he is soooo freakin smart! I don't understand how he knows so much and he has this really dry sarcastic humor. He's a kind of short old guy with white hair and thick glasses and he's so happy. Such a great guy. Dr. Dormer (who everyone just calls Sally), is the art history professor and during the year she works in a museum, is just
as cute and always dressed very well. She brought her little boy William, who is 4 1/2. He's so funny and quite adorable with his blond blond hair and blue eyes. He always has some type of hat with him and runs up and down the dining hall at every meal. I gave him piano lesson and it was so great, now he looks for the middle of the table which is what he eqautes with Middle C. Awww yay!! I'm also taking an Arthurian Literature class with Dr. McClune who has the best style, EVER. Me and Twin are like, "Why is she so cute?!?!", every day. She's really cool though and smart just like everyone else. She teaches at Merton and graduated from Exeter, I think.
So this week we got invited to Oriel College by Dr. Catto for a lawn party before High Table, which I was on this week. It was really nice they served snacks and Pems. I've never had Pems but it's like alcoholic iced tea with fermented fruit and the wait staff just kept filling up glasses. I had to decline soo many times and was still buzzed when I went to
the High Table Reception where they, guess what, served more alcohol. Wine in the EU is soo much stronger than in the States, so I didn't drink at the reception. It was cool because everyone is dressed up and the students get to converse with the profressors. It was a fun time because we were conducting these intellectual conversations with our professors. It was a very classy affair. The dinner is four courses instead, of the usual 3, and they serve wine (which they keep flowing as well). It's so weird getting liquored up at school, with your professors. They sure no how to have a good time though, lol.
Friday we went on a field trip to Bath and to see Stonehenge. We pulled out at 9am and the ride was pretty decent, I slept some. There was a group of girls in the front who were cackling like hyenas because they were still drunk, it was annoying. When we got there and got off of the bus this one chick was just standing in the middle of the sidewalk while we were trying to walk talking about how she was going to throw up. When we past
her I was talking about how she should stand in the middle of the sidewalk like pile of nothing. Needless to say all of my friends laughed at me... Anna was like, "They can probably hear you". Oh well, I didn't care because they are totally spoiled and my response was, "Good, if they have something to say they know where to find me." I know, that was quite ethnic of me, very stereotypically attitudinal but my fuse has been running kind of short as of late, so sue me. Anywho, we walked around the city and got our touristy paraphernalia (post cards, shot glass) and the went and met the group to tour the Roman Baths. The Baths are the only that are still working in Britain. It was so cool. We got these things that are like a cell phone that do an audio guide. It was really nifty.
Outside of the baths were street performers. One little dude in particular, was dressed in island garb and playing/singing Bob Marley. It was good I was singing along, like a dork 😊. Next we went the Bath Abbey. Outside of that were gold people statues. They moved when
people dropped money in their little bin. The Abbey itself was breath taking. When we went in my eyes went up to the ceiling. It was magnificent! So was the choir and the alter. After that the group disperse and our little group went and took a tour of the Jane Austen museum because she lived and died in Bath. We actually saw the house which is a private residence or business now. Very cool stuff.
Saturday me and my lovely bookends went into London for the day. We took the bus and walked around the city. We saw the biggest Primark in life. Primark is like discount shopping heaven. This one was soo large that it was simply overwhelming. We were there early in the morning so the streets were kind of clear. We went to the British Museum. The nice thing about London is that all of the museums and galleries are free 😊. So we went there and saw the Rosetta stone and the statue of Ramses and all of this really awesome stuff. After that Sarah went to see Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. Anna and I walked around London. We saw the London Bridge,
the Eye, Big Ben, and Buckingham Palace. We went to Trafalgar Square, and went to the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. Anna and I navigated them both in like an hour and a half. It was sooo funny. On the way back we got Ben's Cookies. It kind of hit the spot. I swear we walked about 10 miles that day and then couldn't find the bus stop! So when we all met up and got on the bus both of our feet were just done. Great day, good times.
Peace and Blessings,
~SC
Advertisement
Tot: 0.093s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0354s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb