Today was our last excursion ever! :( Sad day. We started off with a trip to Christ Church where our Tudor-Stuart History teacher teaches. It was so beautiful!
Christ Church is the location of the dining hall that Harry Potter's Great Hall is based on..
Just some more pics of course..
Inside the church..
We lit candles for remembrance and safe travels!
And outside in the church's gift shop I found some interesting objects..
The Church's own beer and wine..
We then climbed University Church's tower and it had incredible views.
127 teeny tiny steps going up
Then we stopped in Pizza Express (again) for lunch and it was even more amazing than the last time. I got Quatro Formaggi (say it in an Italian accent) and it was so delicious. And the Chocolate Glory dessert wasn't too bad either..
We walked through the mall on the way back and I had to take a picture of the fish pedicure set ups.. So weird. Kelsey, Bowen, and I were supposed to go get one but I think they chickened out.
Tonight was also our last play.. Much Ado About Nothing. This was my favorite play I read, and I also had to watch the movie and I loved it. The play was alright.. it was sweltering hot up where we sat so I was pretty miserable the entire time. BUT Jeffrey from Fresh Prince (the butler) was one of the main characters! That was pretty cool! We sang the Fresh Prince theme song on the way home.
Tomorrow is the last day of everything scheduled. Classes all day, then going to eat Thai as a group and maybe, just maybe, there will be some fun superlatives. :)
It's been a few days.. sorry about that. We've been really busy with excursions and class assignments and I haven't had too much sleep the past few nights!
Since I last updated we saw 2 plays: Macbeth and Richard III starring Kevin Spacey! Macbeth was amazing and dark and gloomy and Richard III, well, I saw probably 20% due to the "Limited View" seats we had. Also I was a little sleepy.. oops.
Thursday we had an excursion to Chastelton House which was a huge house that rich people lived in. Pretty cool. It was a beautiful day in a beautiful area and we got some sweet group pictures of us in a graveyard..
On Thursday night we all grilled out as a group. Guacamole, burgers, salad, fries, and chocolate cake. Delicious. Then a few of us went out with the Franklin Spring Semester kids who were celebrating their last day. It was really fun! I wish we would have been able to get to know them a little bit more while they were here, but they were very busy writing essays the first week we were here.
Friday we were able to travel into London early to do whatever we wanted before our play. Me and Kelsea figured our way around on the "Tube" (subway) and although it was pretty confusing at first, I think we're basically experts now. We ate lunch at a conveyor belt sushi place which was awesome then headed to Covent Garden to shop. We just had to find the Urban (Outfitters) duh. I randomly bought a laptop case and a scarf. Both on sale. Much better deals at this store than at home! (Until you convert the money to American dollars..)
We then ate dinner with Julie and Stephanie at an amazing french restaurant. I got tortellini in a tomato cream and basil sauce with mozzarella cubes. So. Good. And cream puffs!
We didn't get back into Oxford until 1am and on the way back we just had to stop at McDonalds (of course) where there were tons of drunk teenagers eating delicious food. I'm pretty sure this McDonalds has a special late night deal because I got a double cheeseburger and fries for 2.38... not the normal prices. We finally got back to the house around 2.
Today we just had classes all day and then I was woken up from my 3 hour nap by some ferocious knocking on my door. Apparently it was dinner time. So a group of us went out to get some Thai food. Once again, I've never eaten Thai food but it was delicious. I got Egg Noodles which was basically just lo mein with chicken but it kind of had a spicyness to it. Good thing I have some left in the fridge for tomorrow...
Then we came home and started playing games like never have I ever.. pretty hilarious considering some of the things people were saying. "Never have I ever kissed a fish.." "Okay Dr. Seuss" among others. I haven't laughed that hard in awhile. I was crying. I'm going to miss these frequently cider induced moments!
Tomorrow is another free day and Ryan Adams is coming in to town for a concert. He's married to Mandy Moore so obviously I'm going to want to hang out and see if she's there. It's also supposed to be 79 degrees tomorrow. YIKES. Shorts time :) But that means I may have to go do a little more shopping.. oh well!
Only 4 more days with these peeps :( so sad! I promise I'll actually take more pictures soon. And there may or may not be some more videos, depending on how appropriate for blogs they are. :)
Yesterday was an all day excursion into Stratford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare. It was a much larger town than I expected, it even had a Subway, Toni & Guy, and Lush. Sorta weird.
The birthplace
Kelsea as Shakespeare
Me as Shakespeare
The Town
First we ate lunch at a little cafe across from his birthplace and I got a "chicken and mayonnaise" croissant which basically means chicken salad. It was pretty good. Then we got Moo Moo's... again. And I got Chocolate Fudge Brownie... again.
"I came from America for Moo Moo's" .. No that's not from us but it might as well be.
Milkshake flavors
Then we travelled through the Shakespeare house/museum and got to see some cool stuff that I couldn't take pictures of. I thought the house was pretty cool and nice for that time.
At the end of the tour there was a performance of some Shakespeare work and of course the boys were completely split from the girls just like at middle school dances. This has become a regular occurrence here.. they obviously don't like us.
Instead of the Shakespeare people performing for us first, we had Kelsey and Jennifer act out a few lines from Shakespeare. It was a very riveting performance:
The dollar store
Next we walked to Trinity Church where Shakespeare is buried. It's a functioning church where they still hold service, weddings, and funerals and there was actually a funeral earlier that day. I wonder how much it costs to have a function there.
Where Shakespeare is buried
Shakespeare's grave
Boys are separated again.
Then we went to Shakespeare's daughter's house. She was married to a doctor so the house was really big, especially for that time. The difference in that house (high class) and Shakespeare's family house (working class) was huge. I could have lived in Shakespeare's family house.. until I saw the doctor's house and decided that was more my thing.
Then we walked to Shakespeare's wife's cottage. Her name was Anne Hathaway.. not to be confused with today's actress. It was a smaller house with huge gardens in the back and they still sell produce and plants there.
Finally we headed back to the town center to get some food before the play. We ate at an Italian restaurant that makes all of it's pasta from scratch and it was really good. I had gnocchi with spinach and butter sauce and of course I had to order a Bellini to remind me of home:
We saw the play Merchant of Venice starring Patrick Stewart, the actor from Star Trek/X-Men (both of which I've never seen) and it was located and adapted to Las Vegas. It was really really interesting and I thought it was really good and creative! Although I kept falling asleep in some parts the second half was awesome. Except the end.. which didn't make too much sense to me or anyone else in the group. I think I would watch it again if I had the chance, but it was really long - 3 hours. The actors put on horrible southern and New York accents but I'm sure they think our British accents are horrible too.
When we finally got home around 12 I went right to sleep. Such a long day!
Today we just had classes. I only had my Tudor-Stuart History class and we just talked about the things we've seen so far and had our presentations on our discussion topics this week.
Then we all went out as a group for dinner and drinks and it just keeps getting more fun with these people! I feel pretty close with the other Oxford-ers even though we've only been together a week. We have so much fun together and everyone gets along so well.
Special cheers :) Y'all know!
I wish I had more pictures from tonight because it was so fun, but if you want to stalk my Facebook there's plenty there from other people. I'll maybe post up a video tomorrow from tonight.
Since today was another free day and most people wanted to work on homework, I decided to devote my day to shopping and homework. I had a few more stores I wanted to go to in the City Centre (Primark basically) and had a few more gifts to get. I also wanted to find a cheap hair straightener and get a Moo Moo's milkshake.
I got a Chocolate Fudge Brownie milkshake and it was SO. GOOD. Definitely going back there soon. They had tons of choices for milkshakes, I should have taken a picture of that. I'll get one next time (because there will most definitely be a next time).
Primark was the first stop on my shopping adventure. I took the most round about way to get there and I hadn't realized it was just about right next to Topshop, in another little shopping mall. I was amazed when I walked in because I wasn't too sure what to expect. It was like a Forever 21 but as big as an entire department store with guys and kids clothes. And so cheap! The first thing I saw when I walked in was tons of cute sundresses for 5 pounds, which is about 9 US dollars.
I bought 2 shirts, a pair of white sandals, a scarf (for only 4 pounds!), and 2 nail clippers (why they sell a pack of 2 I don't know..) for only 28 pounds. Which I thought was a pretty good deal.
I found a hair straightener for 9 pounds and finally found a crewneck Oxford sweatshirt. They have SO many hooded sweatshirts here but I really don't like those. And this one is purple.. exactly what I wanted. I also got Andy a Banksy t-shirt that I've had my eye on.
I really love the stores here. I've noticed some kind of weird things about them though:
Their sizes are different so I feel huge when I have to get almost double the size I get at home.
Before they ring you up, they ask if you want a bag. If you do want a bag you have to pay for each one! Good thing I don't like carrying bags anyways.
Stores sell a lot of American things. One store had a wall full of sweatshirts/sweatshorts (?) with Florida Keys, Houston, America, New York on them. And I tried on a shirt with an Eagle and an American flag with American Pride written across it.. do British people where these things?
Silk silk silk everywhere. Silk shorts, silk shirts, silk pants. I love it.
Leggings are huge. Racks upon racks.
I could really get used to the shopping here. And the fashion.
My purchases thus far
After I got home I started working on my homework and that's what I'm going to do for the rest of the day/night! The grocery stores close early here so I'm going to have to rummage up some food in the kitchen. I have egg salad and peanut butter and jelly and rice pudding so I'll have some combination of those. I've also found that the British love their egg salad. But so do I!
Sorry for not actually posting yesterday but after a full day (8:30am-11pm) of walking around London, I was pretty tired!
We started out the day at the National Portrait Gallery where we got to see dozens upon dozens of Tudor & Stuart family portraits. Sounds fun, huh? It wasn't so bad. And this drove by us as we were standing outside:
General Lee, complete with Georgia License Plate
Next we made a trip down to the Banqueting House where Charles I was executed. It was basically just a huge room with nothing in it but a throne and a beautifully painted ceiling.
Next we went across the Thames River and took some cute pictures with the London Eye and Big Ben on the way.
We ate lunch at Eat. Eat. restaurants are all over England and the running joke here is something along the lines of "I'm not going to eat somewhere that's commanding me to eat." but I'm so glad we chose to eat there. I got some delicious pasta salad, which is a common occurrence I have come to find:
Matthew asked if I was taking a picture of my food so I could blog about.. he was mocking me. So that's for you Matthew even though I was going to post it anyways.
After lunch we took a boat to the Tower of London which focuses mostly on torture and killing people.. not really my thing. So I most enjoyed Jewel Tower that housed all of the crown jewels. I would have lots of pictures of them if I was allowed to take them.. unfortunately we couldn't. I just loved the rings and the crown made entirely out of diamonds. I'm lucky to have diamonds as my birthstone.
Next we walked over the Tower Bridge to the Southbank area where the Globe is, but had to take a ton of pictures on the way of course.
Dinner was at a pub. Of course. We ate in the Fish and Chips shop inside the pub, centrally located to the bar. Of course again. This time I got a Pimms and Lemonade (beer and lemonade) which was good but not as good as my Strawberry Lime lemonade from a few nights ago. Fish and chips were good but I could only eat half; the lady gave me a huge honking piece of fish and I really don't like fish all that much.
The green things are mushy peas in case you were wondering.
After we saw the play Dr. Faustus at the Rose, which was the first theatre in London even before the Globe and where Dr. Faustus was first performed. It was a tiny, tiny theatre which was much different from the Rose. There were 3 rows of fold out chairs and the actors were literally no more than 10 feet in front of the first row.
Quite a long day and I was very tired by the end of it!
