Diary of My Last Week

Sunday: I procrastinated all day long on my Shakespeare essay. I eventually started it around 10pm. Clothilde and I went for a rejuvenating walk around Oxford at 4am and I was finally able to go to sleep at 630am. The recycling trucks were already collecting, so it took me a while to fall asleep.

Monday: After waking up at 11am, Clothilde, Emily and I went to breakfast at a little diner down the street. Very greasy food. It was delicious. Then Emily and I went to MooMoos, my all time favorite milkshake place. They have 200 flavors. It's ridiculous.

I then returned all of my library books, which felt very liberating. On my way home, I noticed a sign directing toward the Pitt Rivers Museum, which I had been meaning to go to, and so I went. It's an anthopology museum, and it was pretty neat. Along with musical instruments, pottery, masks, charms, etc., they had shrunken heads on display. Very creepy. We were going to go punting, but there was a thunderstorm, so we played outside in the rain instead. Then we watched Thelma and Louise.

Tuesday: After my last tutorial ever (ah!) Clothilde and I went to the Botanic Garden. It was pretty neat, but nothing too spectacular. A gigantic water lily was there though; that was pretty neat. Oh, and Tolkein's favority tree. I love how they make things so touristy by mentioning things like that. How do they know it was his favorite tree? I took a photo anyway, obviously:

Then we got some milkshakes and killed time by going to Oxford Castle. At 6pm, we were scheduled to go punting. Emily and Erin met us there, and we had a little picnic on the punt. It was so much fun. I love punting. Then we went to "Batwillow Palooza", which was a party in Batwillow Meadow of Magdalen. There was a bbq with doner kebabs and sausages, live music, a twister-like game, and a moon bounce. We had an amazing time. The moon bounce was definitely a highlight. I want to own one.


Wednesday: I went to the OSAP office to return some things and just ask about the moving-out procedure. And then I stayed to heard Dr. Hurst give a lecture on Elizabethan England to a group of kids here studying Shakespeare. It was a pretty boring lecture, but he was actually really glad to see me there, which was cute. Then I got a pasty and wandered around town a bit. Not a very exciting day, but it was raining on and off, so I stayed inside most of the time.

Thursday: I woke up around 4am and lay in bed until about 5. I then got up and walked around town listening to The Hold Steady while I took photos of significant places around town. Though I often complain about getting up early, I do love when I'm one of the only people out and about. It's really the only time I can find to be alone in a city, and I really enjoy it. And this morning, I finally came to terms with the fact that I'm leaving in three days. I'm obviously really sad to have to leave this entire experience, but I am ready to go home. The past six months have been absolutely amazing, and I don't regret anything, but I know I could never stay here long term. I am, and probably forever shall be, a homebody. But I have miraculously learned how to cope with the anxiety of being away from home. I don't know whether it was being so far away and knowing I absolutely had to be independent, or being extremely busy with new and interesting things that distracted me, but I have never felt as homesick here as I have at times in Ohio. It's very strange. I guess I'm just growing up. Which in itself is strange. We were talking about the LSAT and MCAT at dinner tonight. I am going to be taking the MCAT in August, and it is finally time for me to start studying for it. This is a big step toward the real world, and it's terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time. Anyway... During my walk, I noticed that The Merchant of Venice was playing at the Oxford Playhouse this afternoon. So my flatmate Teri and I went to go see it. It was alright, but not fabulous. They used 20th century costumes and it was set in a prison, which both were kind of distracting. It was an all male cast though, so that was interesting. I had never seen one before, so it was fun to see how they accent certain jokes because of the male actors. Then Teri and I ran some errands, went home to meet up with the other girls, and we went to dinner. Emily and I then wandered around New and Magdalen Colleges taking photos. New College is where some Harry Potter scenes were shot, and Emily had never seen Magdalen.

Friday: Emily and I got up early to catch an 8am bus. 3.5 hours later, we were in Cambridge. She has a friend going to college there, so after touring around a bit by ourselves, we met up with her and she showed us her college (newnham) and some other places around town. It was a very good day. I was glad to see Cambridge, even though it was farther away than I was expecting. It's a nice little town, and very different from Oxford. It is basically the university whereas Oxford has other people contributing to the culture of the city. We ate at The Eagle, a pub where Watson and Crick apparently announced that they had figured out DNA. I was very excited about this when Emily was mentioned places to go, so I made her eat there with me. On our way there on the bus I spotted Cavendish Labs, where Watson and Crick worked, and I got all excited, so going to that pub was equally exciting. Geek? Yes. The students there had just finished exams, and we saw the spot where their scores were posted. All the students were hurrying to it to see what they got, so we went to just pretend like we were part of the group, and their names were listed. I figured it'd be a student ID number or something, but nope, it was their name. How intimidating. I would hate if everyone else in the university was able to see my scores. We went to Trinity College, which apparently owns the third largest amount of land in the UK, after the Queen and the Church. In the Wren Library at Trinity are a lot of old books on display; the first edition of Shakespeare's First Folio, Newton's Principia Mathematica, with his own editing marks, Milne's written copy of Winnie the Pooh, and old scriptures were some of the items on display. It was really neat.

Saturday: Packing. All day long. I hate packing, but oh well. It had to be done I guess. By this point I was ready to go home. Sad to leave, of course, but ready to see everyone else. We all went to a curry place for dinner, which was delicious, and then just hung out until around 3am.

Sunday: Got up around 7 along with the rest of the flat. After getting ready, we trekked on over to the bus station. All seven of us. I was really thankful that everyone saw me off. It was very sweet, and it would have just been depressing to leave by myself. My flights went well, and then Laura, Mom and Dad all picked me up at the airport. Home, dinner, and then I crashed.

Thank you to all who read this during my time away. I considered it my journal most of the time, so I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my thoughts. I am now in New Hampshire, soon to be in Ohio, and since neither is anywhere near as exciting as Europe, I am going to stop blogging. Until next time, then. Cheers!

One Week Left

This past week flew by so quickly that I'm nervous about how this week is going to be gone in a second. I am flying home a week from tomorrow, and it's a very bittersweet feeling. I cannot wait to see my family and friends and to be at home where I am entirely comfortable, but I am going to miss Oxford so much. It's very exciting to have the opportunity to do something new every day. Now that I only have a week left, I feel like I need to do so many things! After I finish my Shakespeare essay for tomorrow, I will be done writing Oxford essays! So I have all next week free to do whatever I want.

A few weeks ago I went to see The Comedy of Errors at the Globe. OSAP had some tickets, and since everyone else had something going on, I went by myself.

This wasn't a big deal at all, but I'm glad that I had been to see the Globe before with my family or I would have been lost and alone on a Friday evening in London. I'm still not used to city life. It intimidates me. The play was fantastic; I laughed out loud many times, which was slightly embarrassing because my laugh is ridiculous and I was alone, so I probably seemed kind of crazy.

We went to London with OSAP a few days ago. During the Tube strike. Without the Underground, the traffic was absolutely obnoxious. It took us about an hour and a half to get through the city to our drop-off point. The lines for the busses were so long. And what did the strike accomplish? Nothing but irritating the entire population of the city. OSAP was doing the same tour that we did last term (which I think is lame and cheap and another reason why OSAP is frustrating) so I decided to tour around Westminster Abbey. Emily came with me. It's wonderful inside. Emily described it as an attic, which I think is great - there is just so much in there, that it's pretty crowded actually. But this doesn't take away from it's beauty, which is obviously appreciated. I got to see the tombs of Henry VII, Elizabeth, Bloody Mary, and Mary Queen of Scots, all of whom I have been studying about very recently, so that was exciting.

When we were taking a look around the Cloisters, I saw that the flag was raised on Victoria Tower. Rick Steves had just enlightened me about how when the flag is raised, Parliament is in session, and people can witness the debates. Oh Rick Steves, how I love thee. So Emily and I went to both Houses. Pretty boring debate topics, but it was neat to see inside. There were only about fifteen members in the House of Commons, and they were debating whether or not to add the Red Chrystal as a non-religious symbol for protection, along with the Red Cross and Red Crescent. It was really funny to watch them actually. Some had no interest whatsoever, and would get up and walk out whenever, some were very opinionated about it, and they joked around with each other the entire time. I loved it. And hearing the particular way in which they speak was interesting: the honorable gentleman this, my honorable friend that... There were many more members of the House of Lords present, but it was kind of the same deal, where some people weren't very interested. They were discussing something about Sri Lanka, but we came in during the middle of it, and to be honest, I have no idea what was going on.

Then Emily and I went to get a snack. We were going to go to the Tate, but we thought that we didn't have enough time. We were heading back to meet up with the bus when Clothilde texted me saying that we were meeting a half hour later. So Emily and I had tea at a pub. With scones and clotted cream and Victoria Sponge cake and sandwiches. It was very cute.

On Thursday, Emily and I went to a reading by JM Coetzee. I had never heard of him actually, but it was in the Sheldonian Theater, which I have been meaning to see inside, and so I went with her. The Sheldonian was designed by Christopher Wren, and it's pretty neat. It is where they hold matriculation every year. Coetzee read some exerpts from the third installation of his autobiography that is coming out soon. I had never been to a reading before, and it was kind of fun. He wrote it from the perspective of a third party who interviews people who knew Coetzee, who has died. I think that's a pretty creative way to write an autobiography.



All of the Oxford students have been taking exams for the past few weeks, and so there have been people running around Oxford in "subfusc", which is the uniform that they have to wear during exams. It is a tradition to wear a carnation during them as well, and they wear a white one for their first exam, a pink one for their middle exams, and a red one for their last exams. And after their last exam, they get "trashed", which means all of their friends throw water, champagne, silly string, confetti, etc. all over them. And so people will be walking down the street completely covered in ridiculousness. I think it's an awesome tradition.

I hung out with Karl and his friends last night, which was really nice. So Jin is from Korea, and she made sushi for us. It was excellent, of course. I love Karl and all of his friends, and it's a shame that I live so far away from them now because I never get to see them. I hadn't seen Karl all term, which I felt really bad about. He is friends with all international students, and they're all wonderful. It was great to see him and hang out with chill people.

Summer Eights!

The rowing competition for this term, called Summer Eights, was last week. We had a team dinner on Tuesday night to carb load for our first race, which was on Wednesday. Dinner was a lot of fun - it's good to hang out with the girls in a non rowing setting. Our coxswain bought us all sunglasses so that we would look "intimidating" while we warmed up together, and she labeled each of them with our boat number and name. It was very nice. And another girl made a cake. They're all so sweet. And they get very excited about rowing.

We rowed over on Wednesday, which means that we didn't bump (catch up to) the boat ahead of us, but the boat behind us didn't bump us either. So we were at the same starting position the next day. When a bump occurs, both boats drop out of the race, but since that didn't happen to us, there was a boat chasing us the entire time on Wednesday. So we had to race the entire course at full strength. It was the most exhausting thing I've ever had to do.

We bumped on Thursday, which was very exciting. We had to row for a while, but we eventually caught up to the boat ahead of us. Our coach was shouting at us the entire time, and it's amazing that after hearing "you have overlap!" you can actually exert more energy than you already are in order to make the other boat give up. It's a ridiculous adrenaline rush, and I love it! There was absolute carnage on the river on Friday. We were chasing a boat that we should have been able to bump, but they ended up bumping first, but they did not get out of the racing line quickly enough, so we were going straight for them. We couldn't veer out of the way quickly enough, and our stroke (rower in the eighth seat) hit another boat's coxswain in the back with her blade so hard that the spoon snapped off the blade. As we were trying to get away after the collision, the spoon was dangling for a while before it finally completely fell off. We had to stop completely in order to get ourselves in order, and the boat behind us (Merton, who we had bumped the day before) was closing in on us, but we were able to pull away with only seven girls rowing.

Then a girl down the river caught an ejector crab, meaning her blade got caught under the water so strongly that the oar handle swung back hard enough to lift her up out of the boat and into the water. So, the race was "klaxoned", and everyone had to stop rowing. So we rowed over by default.

Saturday was the last day, and there were loads of people at the boathouses to watch the races. It was almost impossible to get our boat out because people were in the way. When we finally got it out, some other crew had stolen our raft, so we had to hold the boat while we waited for what seemed like ages for someone else to get their boat out of the water. Waiting around holding a massive boat is not exactly easy. And people were just staring at us struggle. It was kind of embarrassing. We again had to row the entire race with a crew chasing us. Overall we did pretty well even thought we only got one bump. We didn't get bumped any day, so that is good. Apparently we're in the highest position that Magdalen W2 has ever been in, so that's pretty impressive.

When we landed on our raft after our race, the W1 girls came running over and sprayed champagne all over us. We then got our boat out and drank Pimm's all afternoon while cheering on our other crews and then spraying champagne on them as well when they came in. My housemates all showed up to watch my race, and we lounged around in the sun waiting for races that I actually cared about. It was an absolutely beautiful day. M1 raced in the last division, so once they had come in, we threw our coxswain into the river. Apparently it's tradition to do this to the coxswains, but it ended up turning into a massive brawl to get everyone into the river as well. I don't even know who pushed me into it, but I had to ride my bike home absolutely sopping wet. It was a lot of fun. I'm so glad to have done rowing; it was really neat to be a part of Summer Eights because they are such a traditional part of Oxford life. We had a dinner with the whole boat club on Saturday night at an Italian place in town. It was a lot of fun, with speeches and gifts for the captains and everything.

Scotland

After staying up until 5 am to finish a paper, I left for the train station at 830 on Saturday to head up to St. Andrews with three of my friends. We got in around 5 pm and then went out to dinner with Kendra and a few of her friends. On Sunday, we wandered around St. Andrews. It's a very small, quaint town, which I greatly appreciated. Kendra goes to GW in D.C., so being stuck in a small town has been making her go crazy, but I loved it. We went to see the ruins of the Cathedral and Castle that were both destroyed during the Scottish Reformation.



Then we went to see the golf course area. Not really that exciting, but you can't go to St. Andrews without seeing where they hold the British Open. There was an area on the way to the main course where many people were on putting greens. It was basically mini golf without the cheesy obstacles, and it looked really goofy to see tons of people putting on open grass. It probably isn't uncommon, but I got a kick out of it. Then we went to the pier, where this group of kids were jumping into the water. I put my feet in (hooray, i've been "in" the North Sea!), and they were instantaneously numb, so I have no idea how they were fully jumping into it.

We went to a pub for dinner, tried to get Haggis, but they were all out, which is probably an okay thing. I wanted to try it because it's the Scottish delicacy, but mashed sheep organs aren't exactly high on my list of food choices. I did try irn bru, which is the popular Scottish soda. It was liquid bubble gum. Pure sugar. Obviously, I loved it. We then went to see Star Trek. We felt pathetic going to see a movie in a new town, but there really wasn't anything else to do. And Star Trek was pretty amazing, so it was worth it.

We woke up early on Monday morning to head down to Edinburgh.

I really enjoyed it a lot as well. I could live in Scotland I think. We weren't in the Highlands of course, but all the Scottish (and tourists) are obsessed the Highlander cows, and there are postcards and calendars of them all over the place. Seeing them made me very homesick for the hairy cows on Sugar Hill Rd. We went to Edinburgh Castle, which was the coolest castle I have been to. It was just more market-place-like than the others.


And the road inside wound up a hill. I could imagine a medieval town having to move inside the walls for cover. They shot off a canon at one o'clock. Not at high noon though, because they are frugal and want to save the eleven extra rounds (says Rick Steves, my travel guide hero). We wandered around the New Town and the Old Town. We saw the Sir Walter Scott Monument, statues of many many random Scots whose names I did not recognize, and the St. Giles Cathedral (where John Knox preached during the Reformation).

Then we went to the Elephant House for Lunch. The Elephant House is where J.K. Rowling wrote the first few Harry Potter Books. And this little fact has done wonders for that cafe, I'm sure. We went there strictly because J.K. frequented it, and I can't imagine how many other people have done the same. They have "The Birth Place of Harry Potter" written on their shirts and their mugs and things like that. I found that pretty disappointing. Oh well. Then we wandered down the Royal Mile, which is the road heading from the castle to the modern residence where Lizzy stays a grand total of two hours every year. We visited a whisky shop and then realized that it was time to high tail it to the train station. Luckily, we made it in time. Because as Erin and Clothilde learned in St. Andrews, the trains do not stay at the stops for very long (they were on one side of the door, and Emily and I were on the other, as the train continued on to its next stop. They were able to turn around relatively soon, and met us in St. Andrews about a half hour later). We got back to Oxford around 10:00 pm to find Rob back from Hong Kong and Teri back from York. Overall, it was a really great trip. It was wonderful to see Kendra and to experience Scotland, even if it was only for a day and a half. Flights to Dublin are only five pounds right now, so we'll see if I can make it everywhere in the UK...

Yay Learning

I don't know why I get so excited about this kind of thing, but I am writing about the Protestant Reformation right now, and I have been reading about Thomas Cranmer. He was pretty much the leader of the Reformation in England, and I just realized that the site that I took a photo of during my first week here was where he was burned at the stake. I've been in the church where he basically called the Pope the Antichrist, I walk by the tower where he was imprisoned every other day, and I ride my bike over the site where he was burned. He's the most significant Protestant martyr in England, but it's no big deal really... I love this place and studying history here. It's crazy. Oh, and the Duke of Warwick was one of the main guys to crush rebellions during the Reformation. And I just visited his castle last Sunday. This is great. Proof:


I was actually rather disappointed by Warwick Castle. It was way too touristy. Not in the sense that there were a lot of tourists, though. It was cheesy and too commercial. There were people dressed up in medieval clothes and we could pay to learn how to shoot an arrow. There was a King Arthur style sword-in-the-stone on the Mound for Pete's sake. It was weird. And there weren't any tours or anything, which I would have appreciated (see nerdy enthusiasm about history above). There was an exhibit (with creepy wax figures because Madame Tussauds owns it) about what Warwick was like in 1898, but that was kind of lame. And terrifying - I don't understand everyone's obsession with Madame Tussauds.

I traveled to a place outside London on Tuesday to visit with Aunt Sue at her hotel. We went to a pub with one of her colleagues and I showed her photos of everything I've been up to. A very short and sweet visit. I had a great time. I forgot to get a photo of us together, and we weren't able to contact anyone when we were together, but I promise, it happened.

Yesterday a girl from OWU, Tory, came to visit. She is traveling around Europe for a few weeks, was in London visiting her cousin, so she came to Oxford for a day. We spent a few hours wandering around and being touristy, and it was great to see an OWU friendly face.

On Saturday we (meaning the four OSAP girls I spend most of my time with and I) are traveling up to Scotland. I wanted to visit my friend Kendra at St. Andrews before she leaves from New Hampshire, and they are tagging along. I am very excited to see Kendra and Scotland. I asked about ticket prices when I was at the train station yesterday, and the woman recommended I get this pass for 16-26 year olds that will save me tons of money on rail tickets. I knew about this from the beginning, but I just never got one because I didn't think I'd be traveling by train that much... But, it'll pay for itself when I go to Scotland, so I'm going to get one for the last month that I'm here. Excellent.

But in order to go, I have to finish two papers by tomorrow, and i haven't started reading for my Shakespeare essay.

Random British-English fact: They call "studying", "revising". To me, "revising" means "editing". I wouldn't revise my Biochem notes, I'd study them. Anyway, I love that blank stare I get from the rowers when I point out something different between British and American English...

As of Last Friday, It Has Been Four Months

It is kind of amazing that i have been living here for one third of a year. I love the fact that when I return I will know a European city really well - like the back of my hand, as they say.

This term is starting to fly by, and since the end is near, I'm getting more and more homesick but I am also realizing everything I still need to do. It's a strange combination of feelings.

I'm rowing again, and we only have two boats this term, so that means that I am on W2. To be honest, I really miss W3. We have practice every day, and it's the worst having an outing one night and then having to get up bright and early the next day. I guess I shouldn't complain too much because it is keeping me active, but I feel like I'm missing out on some things that my flatmates are doing. They all go to Trinity College, and so I like to tag along on their dinners and such. Two girls, Emily and Erin, also study at Trinity, and they are always over at our flat, so we basically have two honorary flatmates. They're both really great girls. Anyway, sometimes I feel like I am missing out on things because of rowing since it's not like I'm best friends with any of the rowing girls. The boat club has a strange dynamic. It's very cliquey, and I feel badly for the girls who aren't a part of it. I would hate it if I was going to be a part of it for three years. Now that I think about it, actually, I guess that's kind of how I felt about OWU soccer. The girls are great and nice enough, but they were just too cliquey. It's interesting how people don't realize how cliquey they are being, and I hope that after this I am a lot more welcoming to people. It's not like anyone is ever mean, but well, just not as welcoming as people should be to newbies.

My tutorials are going pretty well. Mrs. Hurst brings me a beverage and cookies (and even a banana and apple to take home sometimes) when I go over for my Tudor tutorial. She is absolutely adorable. They are such a great little old couple. Dr. Hurst has me read my papers out loud to him, which at first was very intimidating, but I understand his theory; he says that if I read it out loud then we both are thinking about the same thing whenever he interjects (which he does simply by raising his hand slightly) to add some tid bit or to ask a question. He'll often ramble on and on about random things, and we are often distracted by really random tangents. I love it. This was the way that he was taught, and how he has taught for decades. He also recommends books to me that were written at the time when he was a student; he obviously believes that he was taught the proper way.

My Shakespeare tutorial is okay. I love the essay topics and reading the plays, but Sam is obviously very new to the tutorial process. I never leave the meetings with him feeling very fulfilled with new knowledge about the plays we've just discussed. I don't want to make an excuse, but I am a science student, and I have a very analytical mind, so I of course don't "get" everything right away. But then during our discussions, I feel like he doesn't want to offend me, so he says something to the effect that it could be one of these three reasonings or something... I understand that there may be double meanings in a lot of circumstances, but not in every single passage. So I never leave feeling like I've learned anything very significant. I leave knowing the plot, but not what is so significant about the different themes, or why they were written the way they were. I'll understand then better with practice, I guess. But it's frustrating right now.

I bought a bicycle from a boy who was here last term. The gears are pretty much broken, so it is exhausting to cycle for two blocks. And after rowing, it's the worst. Cars are zooming past me. Other bikes are zooming past me. Old ladies with walkers are zooming past me.. I feel very pathetic. Oh well. At least I have a bike. It only takes me five minutes to get to Magdalen by 6.00 am rather than the 20 minutes it would take to walk there. Hooray for an extra fifteen minutes of sleep.

We are going to Warwick castle on Saturday, and then I am visiting with Aunt Sue on Tuesday and then I am going to visit my friend Kendra in Scotland on next Saturday. Then Summer Eights (the races this term) start two weeks from today. So i'll be busy busy for the next couple of weeks.

Back to Harry Potter. We are watching the Order of the Phoenix to get pumped for the Half-Blood Prince. It's coming out in July, but we got very excited about it when we saw the preview before Wolverine the other day. Why haven't I run into Rupert yet? That's what I want to know. England isn't that big..

Trinity Term

So I moved into my new flat on Friday. I am living with two girls who just arrived for Trinity term, Teri and Clothilde, who both go to UMass. Rob is our fourth flatmate. He is a British graduate student studying maths, and he has been living in this apartment all year. They all seem like great people. Clothilde is a classic Bostonian, and it's kind of hilarious. The flat is pretty nice. Not the best, but it'll work out. Ted, a boy who was here for last term, has been chilling here until his flight in a few days, so we've had an extra roommate staying in our living room. It's been fun having him around, and it's going to be kind of weird to see him leave since he seems like a fifth roommate at this point. This group has such a different dynamic than the Wilson Place crew, and it'll be neat to have a different experience this term. I miss those guys though. Karl and I have been trying to get together, but it just isn't happening easily. It was so nice to just live a few meters away from the guys. But it's nice to have more people in my own house too. It got lonely when Amanda was away.

I met with both of my tutors today. And I love them to death. Sam Thompson is my Shakespeare tutor. He is about thirty, and he just finished his doctorate. He seems like he is going to be able to teach me a lot, am I'm excited to read all of the obscure plays that I would never do on my own. He liked my essay, so that was good to hear, and we had a better discussion than I ever had with Gareth or Rob. It was just more two-sided than it ever was last term, so that is good.

After my meeting with Sam, I wandered over to Dr. Hurst's house. His wife answered the door, and was absolutely adorable. She asked for my name, and then she brought me into the study that was stock full of books. Books on the shelves, on the tables, on the floor. It was amazing. Then Mrs. Hurst introduced me, and then asked me of what origin my surname was. And Dr. Hurst immediately said, "it's Hungarian, of course". And so I said, yes, and went into my family history. And then Mrs. Hurst brought me tea and some biscuits. And Dr. Hurst and I chatted about random things and about what we were going to study this term. He is probably 85 years old, and absolutely adorable. And he's probably the smartest person I have ever spoken with. He just has so much wisdom crammed in that head of his. I told him that my parents lived in New Hampshire and that I went to school in Ohio, and he said "oh, so you must have grown up in Ohio?" I am guessing he could tell from my accent or something. I don't know. He spent a year at Bowdoin in Maine and some time at "Harvard, of course".. hilarious. Then in the end, he got my phone number (because he doesn't use e-mail) and he guessed at the spelling of Gerseny.. and he put a "z" in it. How funny is that? He knows his Hungarian, apparently. Anyway, I think that he is great and I love his cluttered house and his Swiss wife, and I am very excited for this term. I am going to learn everything there is to know about the Tudors and Shakespeare. Yay learning.

Family Vacation 2009

After a few days of rest after Italy, I met Mom, Dad, and Laura at the bus stop on Saturday morning. We wandered around Oxford that afternoon and walked up the tower of the University Church to get a nice aerial view of the city.

On Sunday, Mom, Dad, and Laura went to Bath while I read for the Shakespeare paper I didn't write before they arrived.

We took a tour of the Bodleian Library on Monday, which I'm sure will make all the Hopkinton Librarians very jealous.

Mom, Laura, and I got pies, peas, and mashed potatoes (how cliche) for lunch in a covered market while Dad went to the Oxford Rotary meeting. We then met up and went to Blenheim Palace, the estate where generations of Churchills have lived. The gardens around Blenheim are absolutely amazing, and it was a shame that we were kicked out so early because we probably could have spent all evening there.

Laura and I went to a Wailers concert on Monday night. It was so much fun, but probably nothing like it would have been with Bob Marley.

On Tuesday, we all went to Stratford-upon-Avon. Since I had already been there with the OSAP program, I sat in a cafe and wrote my Shakespeare paper (how appropriate to do so in Stratford) while they toured around. We went to see As You Like It that evening. It was such a good show. Absolutely hilarious. I loved it. Beforehand, we went to dinner at a place where Dad had been as a kid, and we made friends with this old lady at the table next to us. She was all about Stratford and England. It was cute.

We went to Wells on Wednesday to check out the market, bishop's palace, and cathedral. It was such a cute town, and the cathedral was pretty amazing.


We went to Cardiff on Thursday. Hooray for adding another country onto my list! We didn't really do anything other than check out the castle since it took a while to get there, but it was interesting enough to occupy us for the day.

The inside of the newest building is absolutely amazing. It might even be considered gaudy, but I appreciate bright colors and busy patterns, so I loved it. I was pretty surprised by the decor of it.

We went to Stonehenge, Old Sarum, and Salisbury on Friday.

It was amazing to be able to see Stonehenge after hearing about it for so many years. I wish I lived nearby so that I could sneak in at night and not be forced to stand so far away; that is kind of ridiculous. Old Sarum is one of the oldest settlements in England. Romans and Normans were both there before the British used it, but it was eventually abandoned when the town moved to the present town of Salisbury. This is a photo of the foundation of the old cathedral.

Then we went to Salisbury Cathedral. I don't know why, but I didn't get any photos of the outside. Neither did Laura. We both must have been distracted. Anyway, this is the oldest clock in England I guess:

What surprised all four of us about Salisbury Cathedral is that there is an original copy of the Magna Carta on display in the Chapter Room. There were 40 copies made in the thirteenth century, and the first thirteen on them were written in one hand. Of the 40, there are only four that remain. The one that is in the best condition, and just happens to be one of the first thirteen, is on display in Salisbury. It was very random and incredibly exciting to see. We were all astonished at how little security was guarding such an important historical document.

We headed for London on Saturday morning. We tried to go into Westminster Abbey, but there was an event going on, so unfortunately, we never got to do that. We did go to St. Paul's Cathedral though, and that was good enough for me. What a beautiful building. It was one of the nicest cathedrals I have ever been in. And I guess I can thank Queen Victoria for that, because she apparently visited at one point, and complained that it was too dull, so many beautiful mosaics were installed. We took a tour of the cathedral and the crypt (where Duke Wellington and Lord Nelson are buried) and then went up into the dome. The Whispering Gallery is the area at the top of, but still inside, the dome. Laura and Mom stood on the opposite side from Dad and I, and we were able to hear each other whispering from across the way. That is amazing architecture, let me tell you. Nice work, Christopher Wren. We also went into the tower with a staircase that does not have any support other than the wall and the previous stairs. It was pretty remarkable. Part of Harry Potter was filmed there. I shamefully admit that I didn't recognize them from any of the movies.

That night, we went to see Sunset Boulevard at Leicester Square. It was one of the best performances I've ever seen. The actors were the orchestra, and they played their instruments while acting, singing, and dancing. It was amazing. I was very impressed. The story's plot was kind of strange, but it was still a wonderful show.

The London Marathon was happening on Sunday, so that made navigating through the city a little difficult. Laura and I went to the National Gallery and wandered around before meeting Anastasiya, our Russian exchange student from sophomore year of high school. We were so happy to see her. It had been a really long time. She is pretty much exactly the same. We eventually made it to the Tower of London, and took a tour with an hilarious tour guide that I couldn't get enough of.

We saw the crowned jewels and some films of Lizzy's coronation, showing that those ridiculous things are actually used in real life. I can't imagine. We walked over Tower Bridge, past the Globe (we sadly could not get any last minute tickets), and then had dinner in Covent Garden.

On Monday morning, us girls ran around Harrod's department store while Bobby went to the Methodist center. Mom, Dad, and Laura left for the airport around noon, and I left for Oxford. Overall, it was an amazing week, and I am so happy that I was able to see my family. It will make these next two months much easier, I'm sure.

Roma! part 2

Now for my time in Rome…

We just hung around all day Saturday until we went to meet Barbara Anne at the train station around 18.00. After we dropped her stuff off at Julien’s apartment, we went to go get pizza at this little hole in the wall place. They just make huge sheet pizzas and then cut rectangular pieces to whatever size you want. They use huge scissors to cut the pieces. It was goofy. We ate our pizza while watching all the cats run around the ruins. I forgot how infested Rome was with cats. It’s kind of ridiculous.

We then continued our nice nightly stroll through the Vatican and then up this hill that Julien loves because you can get a pretty good view of the city from it.

The next morning, Sarah and I got up early to go to Palm Sunday service at St. Peter’s. It was pretty amazing. There were seats set up in the square, and then tons of people were standing farther back. We did not want to get up early to try to get seats, so we just stood in the back. There was a processional where all these priests brought palms up to the steps of St. Peter’s, and the Pope followed them from the monument in the middle of the square.

They had a really great choir and several passages were read in a few languages. The Pope gave the sermon, but it was in Italian, so we got kind of antsy standing in the heat for so long, so we left.

We went to a café near the Pantheon to get a drink, and afterward, when we were maybe two blocks away, I realized that I had forgotten my palm on the table. We went back to try to find it, but the table already had another patron at it and our waiter was not in the mood to ask around for us. Oh well. I’ll just have to go back some day.

When Sarah and I got back to Julien’s, the rest of them were having a picnic out in the courtyard. We hung out there for a while and one of the old men that lives in the complex fell in love with Sarah (she has blonde hair and blue eyes, so go figure). He came outside and started painting these small statues of the Virgin Mary, and then he motioned for Sarah to come look at them and then he showed her all the statues around the courtyard that he had painted. He was adorable. And Sarah knows a little Italian because she befriended a lot of Italians in France, so that was good because they old guy knew no English. That night we made chicken, risotto, and asparagus for dinner and we brought the table out to the balcony so that we could eat outside. It was awesome. Then we went on a walk to the Forum and Colosseum. I loved wandering around Rome at night when all the (other) tourists were at dinner or asleep. It was really peaceful.

We found a random mattress in Julien’s apartment, and so Alex and I decided to bring it out to the balcony so that we could sleep outside. Around 3.00, Julien’s really drunk roommates came home and outside and they woke us up. They went to the other end of the balcony so it was no big deal, but then the balcony was shaking and we didn’t know what was going on. Alex and I were both groggy since we had just been woken up, so I thought that he was moving around and it was just the mattress that was shaking, but he thought Julien’s roommates were making the balcony move. Whatever we thought, we were annoyed, so we moved inside. When I went into my room, Sarah asked me if that was an earthquake or people jumping on beds. I laughed because I thought that the idea of an earthquake was ridiculous and so it must have just been people jumping on beds. The next morning, I walked into the dining room and Julien goes “so, how bout that earthquake last night”. We looked it up at it was like a 6.3 on the Richter. That’s not a small earthquake. It was about 60 kilometers away from Rome, and it shook the house that much. Granted, we thought it was people jumping on beds, but we were tired and confused. But it’s pretty crazy to have experienced an earthquake. It shook the house for ten seconds or so. I don’t know how I didn’t realize what was going on.

On Monday we bought a ticket to go see the Colosseum, Forum, and Palatine Hill. There were lilacs all over the place and they were so beautiful and smelled like heaven. I was happy. We then went to check out the Trevi Fountain.

We decided to make Tuesday our day trip day, and we agreed on the beach. This place called Ostia Antica is apparently a wonderful little town on the coast, so we decided to check it out. We never really made it to the little town though because the metro went past it to get to a stop closer to the beach. Oh well. We brought a picnic and just hung out all day long. We had so many picnics, and they all consisted of bread, cheese, and fruit. I don’t know how much cheese we all ate that week, but it was a disgusting amount. It was just too delicious to pass up. It wasn’t the warmest of days, but it was sunny and the water was actually surprisingly warm for April (probably just because we’re all used to the freezing NH beaches). The boys went swimming. We got gelato at a little place in the town, which was a cute Italian version of a beach town. I loved all the houses.

We went to the Pantheon and the Spanish Steps on Wednesday.

And then we went to this huge park and rented a four person bike and a two person bike. The seats were side by side on both of them, so they were like little cars. We had a blast racing around the park on those things. That night, we went to dinner at a place that Sarah had read about in a travel book. It was called Alfredo e Ada. And they don’t have menus. We sat down, and Alfredo (who was the cutest old man alive; I fell in love with him) brought us over a jug of wine and a basket of bread. He then brought out the first course, which was a pasta dish with absolutely delicious marinara sauce. I don’t know what Ada did to it, but it was awesome. We then had a choice between veal, beef, or fish for the second course. I chose the beef, which was also fantastic. Italians really have it down. Then Alfredo brought out these desert cookies that we had been watching other dip into their wine, and so we did the same. I didn’t think that made them any better really, but they were still great.

On Thursday we did the Vatican thing. They were setting up for that weekend inside St. Peter’s, so I couldn’t get directly underneath the dome to take a photo laying down like I did back in the day, but oh well. We climbed to the top of the dome again, but then it was absolutely packed at the top, so we didn’t spend too much time outside.

That night we made pizzas. So many pizzas. They were fabulous, but we pretty much couldn’t move after eating so much food. And we couldn’t find yeast (or we didn’t know how yeast was said in Italian) so we just kind of made the dough with flour. It was weird, but it turned out okay.

Julien’s professors had told him about a park a few miles outside of Rome where there are really neat ruins of the aqueducts, so we went to check them out on Friday. When we got off the metro stop, we didn’t really know where to go, so we just started walking in a random direction. Eventually, we could see the aqueducts in the distance, so we just kept walking toward them. This was a bad idea, because we got to the park a really roundabout and ridiculous way. We had to cross train tracks and climb over fences and then walk through random fields. But in the end we got to the nice part of the park. And, of course, we had a picnic.

We went out to dinner on Friday night for Alex’s birthday. I got an amazing artichoke pasta dish with veal. It was delicious.

Sarah and Barbara Anne had to leave on Saturday afternoon, so Julien and I took Sarah to her metro stop while the other two walked Barbara Anne to the train station. Then the four of us just hung out all day. That night we went out around the Trastevere neighborhood, which is where Julien’s apartment is. Italians are crazy. A network of about ten streets is just packed with people during the weekend nights. The cars and scooters have to go so slowly to get down them. And people just hang out on random people’s doorsteps. We were sitting on one for a while, and the guy who lived there just knocked on the door so that he could come outside. It was goofy. I had a good time.

The next morning, on Easter, I had to get to the train station at about 9. The service at St. Peter’s was at 10.15 and I couldn’t find any earlier services (probably because every Italian is out so late on Saturday nights), so I had to miss Easter Sunday this year. It was really weird. I hadn’t even thought about when I booked my flight a few months ago. Oh well. As I walked to the train station, tons of bells were chiming throughout the city. That was pretty neat.

My flight went well, but this Australian kid wanted to talk to me the entire time. I was not in the mood for small talk; I just wanted to sleep. Oh well. I got into London Gatwick, caught the bus, and was back in Oxford around 16.00. I was so happy to be home and able to stay in one spot for a while. But then I was locked out of my house. Our deadbolt was loose, and I was consistently tightening the screws so that it wouldn’t fall off, but while I was away, it got to a point where one of the screws had fallen off and made a problem. I don’t really know what happened with it, but Amanda couldn’t even open it from the inside. We just took the entire deadbolt off and it was fine, but I was very annoyed with the whole deal.

For the past couple of days I have just been lounging around, watching LOST, and getting ready to move. I am moving to:

11a Little Clarendon St.
Oxford, UK OX1 2HP

It’s in an area called Jericho, which is really busy and where lots of students hang out, so I’m thankful to be moving. It’ll be nice to have two different experiences for my two different terms. And I emailed a kid from the OSAP program to see if he would sell me his bike, so hopefully that happens. My family is getting in on Saturday morning and I am so excited! I cannot wait to see them.