The Oxford Adventure - Week Two

Trafalgar Square, right in front of the entrance
 to Buckingham Palace

     Another week has come and gone. I can't believe that I've been here for two weeks! Before I know it, I'm going to be boarding a plane back to America. Don't get me wrong, I like America, but I'm loving England!!! I could see myself living here after college ... not sure if I would, but I think I'd get on just fine. :)

     This week was pretty blasé ... not in the sense that I didn't enjoy myself but in the sense that nothing really happened to be important enough to post.
     Classes went full steam this week. I think I was running around from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day. Sure, I had little breaks in between classes and dinner but not long enough to really something substantial. I'm really enjoying my classes, though!! My History of Modern Ireland tutor (professor) is from Belgium and has a Belgian accent which sounds French so it's like I'm among my "people." :) I began my U.S./UK Media and Culture course this Monday, and I'm in love with it! The tutor is absolutely adorable with his Scottish accent and cute, little smile. He is so knowledgable and is really enthusiatic about the course. Natty World is proving to be much better here in Oxford than it would be at Bona's. Our tutor really knows his stuff and is really good about not expecting us to know everything about science. So classes are wonderful ... very demanding, but hey, it's Oxford and it's a semester's worth of work packed into six weeks. You'd be a fool to think it wouldn't be time demanding.
     My week was pretty much just classes. We had High Table on Thursday like usual and, again, had a lovely meal and a great time.

Lovely ladies at Thursday's High Table

     Before High Table, on Thursday, we went on a field trip for Natty World to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. It was so wicked awesome!!! It's nothing in comparision to the size of a NYC museum but it was jammed full of stuff. There were exhibits on the story and animals behind Alice in Wonderland, dinosaurs, rocks, minerals, animals from all the continents and a whole room on different artifacts from different cultures throughout the years. Wicked cooooooool.

Bonessss from the museum

     On Friday, we went with one of our directors to Christ Church, one of the colleges in Oxford, to listen to EvenSong which is the night prayer service Anglicans go to. The cool part was that Christ Church is where they film the dining scenes in the Harry Potter movies. As an avid HP fan I was probably comparable to a kid in a candy shop walking by the entrance to the dining hall. We didn't get to go in because the campus was technically closed to tourists at that time of day, but we'll be back for sure. The  service itself was absolutely wonderful. The Georgia Boys Choir was visiting so they sang for us and it was just so peaceful and relaxing I didn't want to leave. And absolutely amazing night.

Harry Potter!!

     The highlight of the week would have to have been the trip to London on Saturday. Amazing!!!! We spent the whole day just exploring. We saw the London Tower which was really cool. I never realized how much history was behind the piece of land. We didn't go inside to see the Crown Jewels, but just looking outside was nice.




Tower of London

      Other attractions on our adventure included: Big Ben ( I think I have 20 pictures of that dumb clock), the Tower Bridge, West Minster Abbey, Trafalgar Sqare, Downing Street, and the London Eye. We took a boat ride on the Thames River and a bus tour on a double-decker bus. Best day I've had here so far for sure! When we saw the Tower Bridge on the boat the bridge opened which is something that happens only about four times a year - it only opens for the Queen and large barges. Many great memories were made and many great sights were seen.

Big Ben

     Maybe this week was better than I thought! Can't wait for the next one to begin ...