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Published: October 18th 2007
Well I have been such a busy bee here making the time fly by so much faster! I like to try to keep on top of my blogs because I have so much to share and don't want to forget any of it! This weekend was great and all of it was spent in England. Friday we went to Oxford and Saturday and Sunday were both spent in London. I was just thinking the other day, that if I were to leave now, I would feel homesick for London. I'm beginning to feel like I fit in so well here, and I'm really getting used to going to London even though I don't live there on a daily basis...it will definitely be missed!
On Friday, we woke up bright and early to take a train to Oxford. We took a train from Egham to Reading and from Reading to Oxford. It was less than two hours away, and it was great to see a different side of England. We roamed around the city for a bit, and then did some shopping and checked out the Covered Market. It reminded me a lot of the Allentown Farmers Market and I felt
just like I was back at Muhlenberg (almost...). The highlight of the trip, was when Becca almost ran into a giant "creature" as we have coined it. I've seen birds and pigs and other animals hanging around at farmer's markets before, but nothing like this! We don't know what kind of "creature" it was, but it was very large, bloody and hairy, so we quickly ran around and made sure not to go back in that direction! One of the best features of the market is Ben's Cookies. They're located throughout England but the original is here in Oxford so of course we had to take a stop there! After our scary creature experience at the market, we went to the Noodle Bar for lunch (though we didn't have much of an appetite after the sighting!) It was delicious and college students receive free prawn chips. I had never had them before, but they're always sitting around the kitchen in the flat, so I'm glad I got to try some!
After lunch, we decided to do a walking tour of Oxford because that's usually the best way to get to see a city. We were a little disappointed with
the tour guide, but it was interesting nonetheless. Apparently there is a lot of confusion about attending Oxford University. The University actually contains about 30 individual colleges which students attend. This is where you live, eat and take all of your classes. However, the University regulates graduation and exams, which is why your degree comes from Oxford University, however you apply to an individual college within the University if you wish to attend. The class style at Oxford is different than many in the United Kingdom. Students meet for a seminar style class once a week, write a paper, and then go to their individual tutor's house to get critiqued and return to write another paper. The UK seems to put much more emphasis on independent learning than college in the US.
After learning about the university in general, our tour guide took us to visit an individual college. We visited the Queen's College. Each College has its own chapel, hall (a dining hall, but not allowed to be called that), classrooms, and residence halls (which can be rented out in the summer to visiting groups!). The College was so much more formal than I'm used to! After our
A replica of the Bridge of Sighs in Venice
And the most photographed object in Oxfordtour was over, we had some free time before heading back. First we attempted to visit Christ Church College, the most famous of Oxford colleges. It was a beautiful campus and walking along the paths next to children playing rugby felt so English! Next we went to the Church of St. Mary the Virgin where we climbed up a set of very steep and narrow stairs to get a view of the city. It was quite a beautiful view and we could see Tom Tower, which Muhlenberg's Haas Tower is supposed to resemble. Unfortunately, the rest of Oxford is nothing like Allentown, so I didn't quite get the Muhlenberg feeling. After descending the stairs (and fearing for our lives) we took the train back to Reading and back to Egham to return to Royal Holloway for Friday night.
Saturday morning, Becca and I walked to the train station (again!) to take a train to London. We met Sarah there, who had stayed overnight. We were very excited about today, because Muhlenberg College President Randy Helm had flown over to the UK to meet with some alumni in the London area and visit the students studying abroad there! We were
scheduled to take a boat and luncheon cruise on the Thames and then a flight on the London Eye. We got to London, and to our surprise, our friend Adam was there! Adam is our friend from Muhlenberg, but he was visiting his friends in London because it's 'Berg's fall break and he joined in the festivities. It was a very pleasant surprise! After waiting at Embankment, we come to find out the boat is having "technical problems" and therefore we will not be cruising. (Keep in mind, this is the second time this has happened to us! Last time we had tickets for a boat tour and the boat had technical problems again! I guess we just have bad luck...) Luckily we still had a delicious lunch while docked at the pier. We sat with a woman whose father is on the Board of Trustees at Muhlenberg. They live in London because her husband's job transferred him out there last year, but they love it! They also have the most adorable son, Fletcher, who was the highlight of our table!
After lunch, we took a two minute boat ride across the Thames to the London Eye. The London
Eye is spectacular! All 25 of us fit into one "bubble" and the ride took us about 30 minutes. It was great to get a different perspective of London from 440 feet in the air! After our trip on the Eye, our time with Muhlenberg was done but we decided to stay in the city since it was such a nice day. Erin and Katherine (the non Muhlenberg friends) met up with us and we went to explore Harrods. After Harrods, we decided to go to a pub for some traditional fish & chips. Also, the Rugby World Cup Semi Finals were on Saturday night - England vs. France - a very heated rivalry! We thought it would be so much fun to watch the game in an English pub and it definitely was! I had never seen a rugby match before, but it was so fun! Everyone was so into the game and we knew it would be disastrous if England lost. We left before the game was over to make sure we could get back to school, but soon found out England was victorious. I definitely felt a sense of patriotism after this 😊 This weekend, the finals
are being held in Paris (where I'll be) so I'm sure that it will be mass chaos. The match is between England and South Africa...you know who we'll all be rooting for!
Then on Sunday, we had yet another trip to London, this time with Royal Holloway. They sponsored a trip for all of the study abroad students to the Tower of London and Greenwich. It was another beautiful day (we are getting lucky, knock on wood!) and this time we had a boat ride that worked. We left RHUL around 8:30 Sunday morning and picked up a tour guide in London who was able to point out some London hotspots. We traveled to the Tower of London and our guide gave us a tour as well as some free time. I finally learned where the term "beefeater" (the royal guards) comes from. Back in the day of King Henry VIII, he was worried someone would try to poison him and therefore would make a guard test his food before Henry ate it. Hence, they were coined "beefeaters"! We saw the Crown Jewels, various armor and weapons from history, and of course the ravens. The original observatory was located
here at the Tower, but the astronomer complained the birds were interfering with his work, so he said "I go or the ravens go". The ravens are still there, so you can figure out what happened to Mr. Flamsteed. (However, we got to see his new observatory later in the day at Greenwich). It is now said that if the ravens leave the tower the Tower will fall as well as the Kingdom, and no one is willing to test that out. There are always 7 birds at the tower (6 are required and one's kept around as a spare). We also learned about King Henry's wives. I can't remember the order of the names, but our tour guide did teach us a way to remember what happened to each of them in order..."Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived".
After the Tower, we took a (successful!) boat ride to Greenwich. We ate lunch at the Royal Naval College, where they were filming a movie! Apparently it's a new movie called "The Duchess" starting Kiera Knightly. I didn't see her, but some people on the tour claimed to have caught a glimpse. After a brief tour of the Naval College,
we began our trek up to see the Prime Meridian. Greenwich is an absolutely beautiful town. It is still part of London, but it is so much less congested. It was a lovely autumn day so the green lawns were filled with people lounging and enjoying the weather. We hiked up the hill for a beautiful view of London. (As a side note, something else I learned on the tour is that what we typically think of as "London", such as Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, is actually in the town of Westminster. London is where the financial district and more urban area is) Then of course we had to see the Royal Observatory and stand on the Prime Meridian. It's an interesting concept, thinking that you're standing at the beginning of time! Then it was time to head back to Royal Holloway. There was a lot of traffic through the city, so we got back to school around 6:30 PM. It was a great but tiring day! (This weekend was particularly great because Muhlenberg paid for our trip Saturday, and Royal Holloway on Sunday! The exchange rate is definitely not something to be happy about) There is so
much to explore in London and it is an unbelievable place. I will leave you with a quote by Samuel Johnson , "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life". How true! Although I have not tired of London, this weekend I'll take a break from it for a trip to Paris with Aunt Pat! Au Revoir!
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Barbara Majkszak
non-member comment
A Real Education
I think everyone is getting a little education with your "study" abroad semester. Based upon your blogs, you are a super candidate for an internship at the British Embassy in Washington, DC. I hardly recognized President Helm out of "uniform".