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.