Oxford, July 22, 2010

I apologize for the infrequency of my updates, but this has been a week of work. I had to write and edit my papers for my classes, and now that they are turned in, I am free to party in Oxford!

Sunday, as I mentioned, was a day for writing. I did not finish my paper on Samuel Beckett, but I did get a good start. Ben, Sam, Kyle and I had a good lunch of pies and pints in The Eagle and Child Pub, where "The Inklings" literary group (C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien...) hung out and talked about stuff. We also talked about stuff!

Monday was another double-class day. I turned in my Shakespeare paper, and that's about it.

Tuesday I finished off my Beckett paper, and Ben and I decided to celebrate having our papers done. So, it was time for water pong in the common room with Rachel and Emily. Eventually, we got to teach water pong to a lady who is also attending the summer school. I think she was from South America, so now she can take this classic American game back to share with her country!

Wednesday was the final day of classes. To celebrate, Emily and I rushed out of dinner before dessert to get to the 7:30 showing of The Taming of the Shrew. The show was put on by the Oxford University Dramatic Society in the Magdalen (pronounced Maud-lin) College President's garden. The show was very funny and misogynist, so everybody had a great time. The college and gardens themselves were beautiful, so with the play on top it was a great evening. We headed back to play cards with Ben, Rachel, Jordan and Shelby. During a card break, we took a trip to Hassan's Chip Van, which has now become an almost-nightly ritual.

Today has been nice as well. After a terribly dull lecture in the morning, I gave some books to Oxfam, and Emily and I split a delicious Terry's Chocolate Orange milkshake from Moo-moo's, in the Oxford Covered Market. Then, as I tried to nap, Exeter was hit with a brief but powerful thunderstorm. One lightening bolt hit so hard, Ben still swears that it went into the Great Hall while he was eating lunch. But, as with all English rain we've had so far, it cleared away immediately. So, after lunch, Emily, Rachel, Shelby, Kyle, Sam and I went to the (free) University of Oxford Natural History Museum. The museum only has two rooms, but these rooms are HUGE and have A LOT of stuff in them. We got to see dinosaurs (cool), early Neanderthals (ugg), meterorites (old) and shrunken heads (AAAAAAHHHHH). Yeah, the shrunken heads kind of freaked me out a little. We plan on going to the Ashmolean art museum tomorrow. Hopefully there will be no shrunken heads.

After that I took another nap, and then took a solo walk around Oxford. I went some places I hadn't been before, such as the Westgate shopping centre (mall), Christ Church meadow (cows), and the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin (beautiful). It has been wonderful here. Oxford truly is the city of dreamy spires. There is so much history and yet so much life in this little town.

Tomorrow is our last full day, and then Jordan, Shelby, Ben, Emily and I go to London. Wish us well.