Here Goes...

I have now been back in Oxford for two days, and I’m not going to lie, it feels wonderful to be able to stay in one spot for a while. Even though I will have to move apartments this week, I will still be in the same city, and that’s nice. I had an amazing time traveling, but it’s extremely exhausting and expensive, so it’s nice to be back.

March 24^th…Amanda and I caught the bus bright and early on Tuesday morning to get to Luton Airport. Apparently you can’t buy tickets from the bus driver as easily as you can on the buses to Heathrow and Gatwick, so I had a slight heart attack when I thought that we weren’t going to be able to catch the bus. The bus driver was nice enough to let us buy a ticket from him in the end though, so everything worked out. We got to the airport and pretended to sleep for a while until our 06:10 flight to Amsterdam. Once at the airport in Amsterdam, we caught a train to the central train station, which was conveniently only a few blocks away from our hostel. We found it quickly, and it seemed nice enough, but I will never again stay in a room with thirty other people. They just had two large dormitory rooms, and it was cheap, so that was nice, but people tend not to be very conscientious when coming home late after a night out on the town. It was pretty obnoxious. Live and learn.

After not sleeping all night and not having eaten for a long time, the first thing we did after dropping our stuff off at the hostel was go for traditional Dutch pancakes. The waitress recommended apple and bacon, which was delicious:

Amanda got something that probably gave her the six cavities she had when she went to the dentist last week.

Over the next two days, we went to Anne Frank’s House, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Rijksmuseum, which were all really great. The Rijksmuseum was under construction, so we didn’t get to see everything it has, but we still got to see its best paintings, and we jumped on to a tour group to learn all about them. Anne Frank’s House was pretty neat, but I feel like they could do a lot more with it. It was definitely a strange experience being able to walk up to and around the annex where they hid for so long. The Van Gogh museum was by far my favorite. We had perfect timing because we visited when they were displaying Starry Night and other paintings on loan from the MoMA in New York; I was very pleasantly surprised. I really like Van Gogh. After visiting the sophisticated museums that Amsterdam had to offer, we had to go to a Sex Museum and the Hash, Marihuana and Hemp Museum. How could we not? One time is probably enough though. The Sex Museum was frightening and the Hash museum was just kind of boring.

One evening while I was napping and Amanda was reading, she was interrupted by the first of the several new friends we met on our adventures. Kane the Australian. He was a semi-professional surfer who had been on an internship in Japan and was now just running around Europe by himself. He hadn’t met up with anyone yet, so hadn’t talked to anyone, so he chatted Amanda’s ear off for a while. When I woke up, I was happy to hear that we met this kid because we wanted to check out the Red Light District, but we didn’t want to go alone. And Kane wanted to too, but he felt that it was even weirder for a guy to be going alone. So off we went. It was not as crazy as I thought it was going to be, but maybe it was because it was a weeknight? I don’t know. It was what I had heard it was. Bars and prostitutes.

The only thing that really surprised me was one morning, Amanda and I walked to the grocery store to buy some peanut butter and bread (which was the only thing we ate for two days straight) and as we were walking home, we saw several prostitutes sitting in their windows drinking cokes, reading the newspaper, doing whatever. It was hilarious. They weren’t really trying to get anyone’s attention like they do at night, but they were there if someone wanted them. Strange.

We also visited the street where Amanda’s grandfather had once lived. When planning our trip, we thought we’d make it a heritage quest and go to Holland for Amanda and Hungary for me, but then getting to Hungary was too expensive, so we bailed on that idea. In the end, as you will learn, I got a different type of heritage quest in the end. Hooray for the American melting pot.

It was raining or drizzling pretty much the entire time we were in Amsterdam, so that took a little away from it, but it was still a really beautiful city. All the canals have boats and houses on them, and everyone rides bikes. I was amazed at how many bikes there were. It was really great to see. Instead of parking lots for cars, they had lots for bikes. You wouldn’t really need a car in that city though; it’s pretty compact

.

On to Prague! Kane decided to tag along, so the three of us got on a train at 19:00. I guess I didn’t know how to book a sleeper car on the Dutch website, so Amanda and I didn’t have beds. We had a car to ourselves though, so we were able to lay down on the seats, so it worked out. Sort of. In the morning I woke up to discover that I had been robbed. I was so mad at myself. I don’t know how many times I read that sleeper trains are sketchy and that Czechs in particular are as well. I was just exhausted, and hadn’t thought about it when I went to sleep, but my purse was completely out in the open. We couldn’t lock our car, so if anyone popped their head in, they would have seen my purse right above my head. I had taken out 100 euros because I was running out in Amsterdam and I knew I would need euros in Vienna anyway. So they took 100 euros from me. Awesome. I was seething that morning, but I just had to remind myself that I was lucky that they hadn’t taken my entire wallet, my passport, or my life, so I was fine. I’m still annoyed by the whole ordeal though. Who steal like that? I’d rather they pick my pocket instead of sneaking around when I’m asleep. At least the former would take some sort of skill.

No matter. We arrived in Prague and got kind of lost on our way to the hostel. We eventually found it, and billions of high school kids were arriving at the same time. Some sort of Interact/Rotary trip. This was a really nice hostel. Amanda, Kane, and I had a room to ourselves for the first night, and then the second night two other kids stayed with us, but they didn’t bother us. We first wandered around and up a hill to get a great view of the city. Prague was so beautiful.

Then we checked out the Jewish Quarter, where we went into the oldest extant synagogue in Europe. Pretty neat.

We went to a small pub for lunch. I had goulash, and it was extremely delicious. I would go back to Prague just for that. That night, Amanda and I went to see Black Light Theater. It was probably the goofiest thing I’ve seen in a while. The performers weren’t the best acrobats, but some of the acts were creative, so it was cool. I enjoyed it.

The hostel gave us free breakfast (just cereal, but they also provided coffee or tea, which I hadn’t had in days, so that was wonderful), and the first morning there we met Jeff and Dan. Jeff and Dan are in the US Army. Jeff is a captain, and a medic. He is planning on going to PA school soon. Dan recently graduated from West Point, and is a lieutenant. They are stationed in Grafenwoehr, Germany, and were in Prague with their friends Mike (also a West Point grad) and Sarah (I have no idea about her, really). Sarah was running the Prague marathon that day, so they had all driven down for it. Amanda and I were at breakfast, and so I guess it was only natural for Dan and Jeff to strike up a conversation. We told them that we were planning on going to see the castle that day, and they decided to come along. Sarah and Mike had booked a hotel room, so we met up with them later in the day. The five of us went to the castle (Kane is still with us at this point). We got there in time to see the major changing of the guard deal at noon, which was pretty neat to see. We wandered around some more and went into the cathedral, which was really beautiful. That evening, Amanda and I went to see Salvador Dali and Alfonse Mucha exhibits before going to see a concert in one of the churches in the old square. I have decided that Mucha is one of my favorite artists. They had set up a little festival in the square, I’m assuming in preparation for Easter, so Amanda and I got this random pastry called a Trdelnik (good thing you made me write that down, Amanda) and watched some goofy singing and dancing routines.

The next morning, Amanda and I made the most spontaneous, ridiculous, and probably stupid decision we have ever or may ever make. In the end, it turned out fabulously, but I probably won’t do anything like it ever again. I actually probably won’t have the chance to, so it doesn’t even matter. Jeff and Dan invited us to go to their base with them. So we did. Kane opted out, which made sense, seeing as how it is in the middle of nowhere, and it wouldn’t be that cool for him to see a US base anyway. He headed off to the airport to go somewhere (Paris, we would later learn), and we drove to Germany with four strangers. Mike has a big house that we all crashed at, and he has unlimited minutes to the US on his landline, so if anything had gone wrong, the trip would have been worth it to be able to call my parents and Griffin. And I got to go to Germany, which is even more relevant than Hungary actually, so I had my heritage quest as well I guess.

We went to the base with them, which is where Hitler used to watch his troops train and whatnot, so it was pretty neat actually. And Bavarian architecture is awesome. All the houses look like giant gingerbread houses. I loved them. We went grocery shopping at this mall that is basically mini America right inside Germany. I got some taco bell. I have not seen taco bell anywhere else in Europe. It was nice to have a taste of home after being away for three months. And it was nice to get out of a city. Amanda and I are both countryish girls, so even though Grafenwoehr doesn’t really have anything to offer, we were thrilled to go there and see some fields. We were very excited on the drive down to see all the small villages scattered about.

That's the Welcome to Germany sign...

We made some pasta that night and watched It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I really felt like I was back in the States. It was weird. The next day, we were supposed to go get lunch with Jeff and Dan on their break and then head to Nuremberg, but they had to get back to work sooner than they had expected, so they quickly drove us to the train station to see us off. This is the only part that was a real problem, but again, it turned out okay. I don’t know how we were so lucky, but we were definitely well looked after. The guys had to hurry off to work, so they dropped us off at the train station which is a little shack in the middle of nowhere with a dilapidated building across the tracks. It was very sketchy. They left as soon as the train was pulling in. And then these German men who were farther down the tracks started screaming at us and waving to us. We had no idea what was going on. We got on the train, but only one other woman was on it, and so we asked her if it was going to Nuremberg. She didn’t really speak English, but she said no about Nuremberg. So we hopped off the train, and luckily, the guys had come back because they had not felt right about leaving us there all alone, not knowing a bit of German. They figured out for us that the tracks are down farther on, so a bus was taking people from the station to another station. That’s what the German’s had been yelling to us about. We thought we had been in trouble. Whoops. So they drove us to the next station, where we thought we’d be able to catch the train. They left us at that one, which was okay because it was more legitimate than the other one. But the tracks were still down at the second one. There was at least a sign that said so in English, though. So we knew that we had to get on a bus. We had to wait for it for a while, but it came eventually, and we caught our train and arrived in Nuremberg in one piece.

I absolutely loved Nuremberg! It’s such an old city, and you can tell that it was surrounded by a moat; it’s awesome.

We were able to walk around the city and see all the significant churches and the old castle in a couple of hours. They had a little market square that we wandered around, and we made friends with this vendor who sold a tea cup to me. He was really goofy, and he brought us to this random ring that, when touched, apparently gives you good luck.

The army boys had told us that we had to try a Hefeweizen, so we went to a pub to try one out. Amazing. It tasted like bananas. We had to walk through Nuremberg’s Red Light District to get to a pub the guys had recommended. It was no big deal really. Just a bunch of half naked girls tapping at windows. A few of them tapped at us. I had no idea that it was legal anywhere else other than the Netherlands. But I just Wikapediaed it, and there is actually regulated prostitution in several countries and in parts of Nevada and Rhode Island. What? You learn something new every day. Back to our hostel, which was another pretty nice one, even though a kid stole my bed after I had made it so I had to make another one… Overall, it was nice though.

The next morning, we got on a train to Vienna. Doris, our couchsurfing host, met us at the train station. She is twenty years old, German, and studying in Vienna after a year as a au pair in Kansas. She had a class to go to, so after dropping our stuff off at her apartment, Amanda and I ran around Vienna together. We got on one of the trams that goes all around the center of town, and just stayed on it to get our bearings. We were obviously tourists, and this old woman sitting behind Amanda started pointing sites out to us. It was so cute. She couldn’t speak English, and we couldn’t speak German, but we could figure out what she was saying anyway, and she would point to the map and things. It made my day.

I gave Alex, my friend from high school, a call, and we met up with him for a bit before he had to go to dinner with his classmates. Then Amanda and I went to the Opera. It was about 3 euros to get a standing room seat, and so we got some. The ticket office guy was extremely unhelpful, but a man behind us in line tried to help us get the right tickets. We didn’t get what we wanted, but whatever, we were still sort of able to see. Die Tote Stadt (The Dead City) was the name of the opera. It was very strange. They had electronic subtitles in front of every person in the audience, so that was awesome. But we didn’t figure out how to switch them from German to English until the second half. That was less awesome, but at least we were able to figure out what the heck had been going on the entire time. The bulk of the opera is a weird hallucination/dream, so it was odd.

After the opera we met up with Alex for a drink, and then took the tram back to Doris’ apartment. We hung out for a while, but ended up going to bed without really getting to chat with her that much. She seemed like a really interesting and down to earth girl. It would have been cool to have stayed with her a little longer. I learned a lot about the couchsurfing network, and it seems pretty cool, so I’m going to look into it more and maybe find out more about the Oxford network. We were going to get up early to see some more things, but at this point, we were just very very tired, so we slept in and then wandered around the city until we had to go to the airport. Doris had class again, so Alex met up with us for lunch. We got some Wiener Schnitzel, which was pretty good. Not my favorite, but we had to try it. Then Alex brought us to the station so that we could take a train to the airport. It was easy enough, and after a long bus ride, we were back in Oxford around 22:00. It was an amazing trip that I absolutely loved. But I don’t know how people could backpack around Europe for several months. I guess I don’t have the free spirit mindset that a lot of people (like Kane) have; I wanted to plan everything, and it made some parts of the trip really stressful for me. And perhaps most of that stress was unnecessary. Oh well. It was still a great experience that I am so happy to have taken advantage of.

Roma!

After catching the bus at 3:00 am for my 7:00 flight, I arrived in Rome around 10:30.  Blackmer met me at the gate and we got some food while we waited for Pat to get in.  He came out around 1:30, and then we took to the train to a station where Sarah met up with us to bring us to Julien's apartment. It is so beautiful.  It used to be a convent, so there is a lovely courtyard and terraces and it's just perfect.  Julien has twelve roommates, who are all away for their spring break, so we have the place to ourselves.  

We went to check out the Pantheon yesterday, and some random ceremony was going on in it, so that was cool.  Then we just wandered around, got gelato (yes!), and then came home and made pasta for dinner.  This morning we woke up (acknowledged that we would be waking up in Rome for the next eight days) and just hung out on the balcony overlooking the courtyard.  It was so perfect. The weather is going to be so nice all week, and I'm very thankful that I won't need my winter coat like I did during our trip last week.  We're fixing breakfast right now (and by we I mean all the others), and then more sight seeing I think. We might plan a day/two day trip, and I'm hoping that I can convince everyone to go to Venice, because I'm sure that would be amazing.

It's so nice to be with good friends from home.  It's very refreshing. And being in Rome makes it ten times better.

24 hours in Oxford

We got back from Vienna at about 10:00 last night after a wonderful trip. A full update will have to wait because I just don't have the energy for that right now. Looking through all of my photos, I predict that it is going to take a few hours to describe everything Amanda and I experienced. So, I'll have to keep you in suspense for a while. I am catching a 3:07 am bus for the airport, and I will be arriving in Rome around 10:00 tomorrow morning. I wonder if it'll be less amazing than when I was in the fourth grade... Doubt it. I am staying at my friend Julien's apartment, and four others from Hopkinton will be staying there as well. I am so excited for this reunion. I'll update again once I'm in Italy.

We are safe and sound in Prague! Amsterdam was fun, and now we're off to see a Black Light Theater performance. Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still alive.

Off to See the World!

Amanda and I leave in two hours to catch a bus for Luton Airport. Then we will take a four hour nap before we check in for our 6:00 flight. There was no better way to get to the airport, and this was the cheapest flight, so no sleeping in a bed tonight! We will be a wreck tomorrow. Hooray for being young and stupid. We will get into Amsterdam around 8:30, check into our hostel, and then go exploring for two days. Hopefully we will be able to meet up with a girl Amanda has met through her Truman Scholarship interview process. We are also going to find the house where her grandfather grew up. Then, on the 26th, we are taking a sleeper train to Prague. When we arrive, we will find our hostel there, and then again, go exploring for two days. Then probably a bus to Vienna on the 29th, where we will stay with a woman we met on couchsurfing.com. Parents/Grandparents, I haven't mentioned this because I am a little wary of it myself, but we are staying with a woman close to our age, and other couchsurfers are staying with her. On a limited budget, we figured we'd give couchsurfing a try. Plus, we figured that it would be more safe since we will be together. If it is extremely sketchy, I will get in contact with Blackmer (who I am sure we will see, anyway) and beg his house mother to let us stay with him. We are flying back to Luton airport on the 1st. So there's our very rough itinerary. Keep us in your prayers!

Three more days

I only have to read two more articles and then meet with Rob on Monday to talk about them, and then I am done for the term. I don't even have to write an essay for Biochem this week, which is a relief. Egyptology was awful this week. I just didn't care about the topic, and I literally spent all day at my computer trying to write a decent essay. I turned in a terrible one two hours late. And then complained to Gareth about the topic during our tutorial. He told me that he gave me an A for the term though, so I couldn't complain too badly. If only OWU counted these grades...

Amanda and I have been planning our travels for the end of term. Next week, we are heading off to Amsterdam, Prague, and Vienna. She knows a girl in Amsterdam, and Alex Blackmer (a friend from Hopkinton) is in Vienna, so we're pretty set. We just have to figure out the cool things to do in Prague. I am very excited, it should be a fun week. We are flying to Amsterdam and back from Vienna, taking a night train from Amsterdam to Prague, and then either taking a train or a bus from Prague to Vienna. We're covering all the bases.

Tuesday was Karl's birthday. One of his friends is from Korea, and she made sushi. And his Iranian friend made Sangria. A very random combination, but both were delicious. We wore party hats and in no way celebrated St. Patrick's Day like the rest of UK/USA. We went to a club that night and a live jazz band was playing. I recognized the song when we first went in, but I couldn't figure out what it was. I expressed my wonderment to Karl, and he went up to the guitarist and asked him. After trying to figure out what a Swede heard from a Brit, I realized it was Bossa Madeira. Yes Luke and Emily (I think you're the only two who read this that would appreciate it), Bossa Madeira. For everyone else, Bossa Madeira is a song we played in middle school jazz band. These guys were playing songs from the same book we used. I may have requested Blues at Frog Bottom. They didn't play it. I had a lot of fun listening to them though. And reminiscing.

I am moving in the middle of April to an area called Jericho. It is all the way across town, and I will be living with four other girls. Many more OSAP students live close to the house I will be living in, so I am pretty excited about moving. As convenient as it was to live so close to Magdalen, I didn't become great friends with any British students last term, so I don't mind being far away. And since Amanda, Ben, and Ryan are leaving next month, there was no sense staying here. I have gotten pretty lonely as it is, so it would be terrible to be the only OSAP student living in the area. Even if Karl would still be here... I rarely hang out with him. I can't decide if I should get a bike for next term. Now that I know my way around, it seems sensible to. But Chelsey recommended just getting a bus pass, so I'll probably do that since it will cost about the same.

Chelsey and I tried to get dinner at a pub called the Lamb and Flag last night. It's really old and pretty popular, but they don't serve food. It was the first pub I encountered that didn't when I expected it to. It was strange. So we went to this little pasty/panini/ice cream shop instead and got paninis. The sign about milkshakes had a bunch of bullets with sizes, flavors, etc. One of the bullets said "cold or hot". What could that possibly mean? We didn't ask.

Such a Great Week

Griffin left about an hour ago. What a bittersweet week. We had so much fun, and it was incredible to get to see each other again, but now I'm in the same state that I was in at the beginning of winter break - knowing that it will be a very long time until I get to see him again. Although the past two and a half months did pretty much fly by, there is a longer span of time until we'll see each other this summer, and it's hard not to dwell on how long that actually is.

But enough of that. Here's a rundown of our fabulous week:

He got here last Sunday morning, and we just hung around the flat for a while, went grocery shopping, and made tacos for dinner. The film society was showing Brazil, so we went to see that. Then the jet lag overtook him, and Griffin crashed pretty early. The next day we wandered around Oxford, and I pointed out all the buildings that are significant to my life here. Then we went to bed early so that we could get up at 5:00 in the morning to catch a train to London.

I was too excited to sleep though. I think I only got about 2 hours in total. We walked to the train station in Oxford, and then went to London Paddington. We had to take the Underground to the International train station, and then we got on our train to Paris. Through the chunnel. It was a very exciting expedition, but we both fell asleep too soon to know we were under water crossing the British Channel. Oh well.

We had google-mapped our hotel, so once we got into the train station, we figured it would be pretty easy to walk to our hotel. However, Google maps is not the best tool to use in a city without blocks. We didn't want to spend the money on a taxi though, so we just headed in what we thought would be the right direction, and we actually found our hotel relatively easily, considering the circumstances. We were checked in around 2:00, and we picked up a map and decided to go exploring. The area our hotel was in was pretty neat. It was in northern Paris, and right next to a metro station, so that was very convenient. The buildings in Paris are so beautiful. Griffin probably wanted to kill me by the end of the three days because of how often I commented on them. Every apartment has balconies surrounded with decorative, metal railings. I loved them. And there were small bistros all over the place, each one pretty much the same as the last. But they were pretty expensive, so we only went to them a few times.

The view from our hotel window:


After checking in to our hotel, we went to this little hole in the wall pizza/sandwich place. The guys working there didn't speak any English, and neither Griffin nor I speak French, so we had to get by with pointing and sounding out the words. I have no idea what I actually got, but it was some kind of meat sandwich, and pretty good actually. I am not sure if it was ignorant or hot-headed of us not to think about the language barrier at all before we left, but it just never occurred to me. It's true that most people did speak English, but we were on a limited budget, so we didn't go to touristy places to eat, and so three of our meals were ordered with awkward pronunciations and gestures. As convenient as language is (obviously), it's kind of neat that we don't actually need it. Human nature allows us to be able to get a point across with facial expressions and pointing. But it was nice when our waiter or waitress could speak English.

It was raining, so instead of walking, we then hopped on the metro and headed for Notre Dame. The metro system is huge and pretty intertwined, but really easy to navigate. We just wrote down all the stops and line changes we would have to make, and we got everywhere very easily. The second day we were in Paris, I got to experience being squished up next to strangers for ten or fifteen minutes. As good as public transportation is, I'm glad I don't have to do that all the time, because it was just weird.

Our first ever Paris metro ride, however, was so perfect. We hopped on, and all the seats were taken, so we just stood in front of the doors. We were the only ones standing other than this guy who was standing across from us, playing the guitar. He had his eyes shut the entire time, and he was playing and singing Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World. It was a perfectly romantic beginning to our stay in Paris.

We got off the stop, turned a corner, and immediately saw Notre Dame. It is so ornate and beautiful. We wandered around inside for a while and then went up to the top and to the belfry. It was exhausting climbing the spiral steps up to the top. I felt pathetic.




After we came back down, it had stopped raining, so we decided to walk home. We got a little turned around at first, but then we managed to find the right direction. We saw signs for the Bastille memorial, so we went a little out of our way to see that before heading home.

We went to a little bistro for dinner that night.

On Wednesday we took the metro to Champs-Elysees and got something to eat and just walked up and down both sides of the street. I convinced Griffin to wander around the Louis Vuitton store, because come on, we just had to. It's disgusting how expensive the things are in that store. We tried guessing how much a simple t-shirt would be. We guessed around 70 Euros I think. It actually cost around 250. Insanity.

At the end of Champs-Elysees, we ran into the Arc de Triomphe.

Shamefully, I must admit that neither of us really knew what it was, but we obviously recognized it. It is in the middle of a large round about, but we saw people under it, so we went mad for a while trying to figure out how to get across the multiple lanes of traffic. Then we noticed the stairway leading underground to it. Of course. It is really fabulous. It honors all those who fought for France, particularly during the reign of Napoleon. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from WWI is there too. It's pretty beautiful.

Then we wandered down the other side of the street, turned around, and went back down Champs-Elysees. On our way to the Eiffel Tower, we passed the National Gallery and the Petit Palais, which we randomly went into and wandered around for a while to see the exhibit. We didn't know what it was at first, so we were wandering around like fools, and then someone showed us where to get tickets. It was a very random stop, but it had some neat pieces of art. Then we walked across the Sienne and took a look at the Military Museum at Les Invalides. It is an immense complex, and we didn't have time to enter it to make is a legitimate visit, but next time...

Then we continued to wander, picked up some croissants, and then went to the park in front of the Eiffel Tower to relax for a while.

We were already getting exhausted from the trip. Walking around constantly really tires one out. We waited in line for about an hour, and then headed up the elevator. It stopped on the second floor, and we got out to walk around for a bit before going up to the very top. We finished our croissants and took some photos. Then, up we went. And we staked out a fabulous stop on the western side to watch the sunset. It was a pretty cloudy night, but oh well.

We stood in the same spot for about an hour waiting for the sun to set. We had the best spot, and I think people were getting impatient with us for staying where we were for so long when they wanted to take photos of the sunset. But oh well.

Then we went back down, and on our very roundabout and confused way to the metro station, we stopped by a couple of other American tourists who were taking photos, and we asked them to take one of us in front of the tower.

So cheesy, and I love it!

After finally getting home, we ate a random Chinese food place right by our hotel. Then we crashed. The next day we got up and headed over to the Louvre.

I had no idea how enormous that museum is. You could spend a week in there and still not see everything sufficiently. We went to see the Mona Lisa first and then to the Venus de Milo.

After those two, we wandered around Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, French Sculptures, European Paintings, etc. At one point, we were in a gallery full of huge murals, so we sat down to look at them. I remember thinking to myself that if I laid down, I would fall asleep for days. It's remarkable how exhausting only a few days of site seeing can make you.


Eventually, we just couldn't take in anymore, so we left for the hotel. We got something to eat, picked up our bag, and then headed for the train station. We tried to get an earlier train, but they wouldn't let us exchange our tickets, which I thought was ridiculous. So we did a crossword puzzle (Griffin had collected NY Times crosswords to bring because we usually do one together every day) and waited for our train. We got into Oxford around 12:30, and I had forgotten that the buses stop running after 11:30, so we had to walk about 40 minutes home from the train station. Oh well.

We slept late on Friday, didn't do much in the morning, and then went to see Watchmen in the afternoon. Then we made dinner and waited for Chelsey and Amanda to get back from dining out, and we went to the Magdalen End of Term Party together. I had originally wanted all of the Magdalen OSAP kids to go together, but three of them decided not to go, so it was just the three of us and Griffin. I had a lot of fun. Magdalen rented out a small club, so it was just Magdalen students there. Griffin and I just kind of did our own thing the whole night, and on the way home, we got a kebab. They are probably one of my favorite things about Oxford. Paris had them too. The US needs to adopt the kebab stand.

On Saturday we were lazy all day long. Griffin downloaded and burned all of the LOST seasons for me onto CDs, so we watched a couple of episodes. Then we made a romantic pasta dinner, and watched Burn After Reading after dinner. I didn't think it was very good. The characters are creative and funny, but the plot is just lame and doesn't really go anywhere.

Then this morning Griffin had to leave, so here I am, not wanting to write any essays. I only have one week and then I get a month off, but I cannot motivate myself at all right now.