Oxford and other tales

We just returned from Oxford where we stayed at University College for a week. The rooms we stayed in were fantastic. They had a large living room and then separate bedrooms for two people. It was very cosy though it was always cold no matter where you went. The buildings were made of stone and I felt like I was living in a castle, which I had absolutely no objections to.

The Main Quadrangle, though calling it a courtyard is more fitting.

 Then every time I ate I felt like I was in the Great Hall at Hogwarts. I should have taken better pictures because these don't give the full effect. It had high a high ceiling with painted wooden rafters and stain glass windows along the walls. The tables had benches instead of chairs which resulted in quite a few banged up knees, but the bruises were worth it.

 The Marks of Genius exhibition was in Oxford at the Bodleian Library. It was a collection of the library's most important artifacts such as the original conducting score of Handel's Messiah, The Gutenberg Bible, the dust jacket design by Tolkien for The Hobbit, so much more. I did get pictures, but there were so many people at the exhibition that I didn't have time to check the quality of my photos. As a result some of them are blurry.


 Then after sitting around for the whole week working on homework I got out and went to the Natural History Museum in Oxford. This one of the high lights of the week for me. The majority of the museum was animal skeletons displayed out in the open. As odd as it was being so close to skeletons it was also fascinating studying them up close. I learn some things about about animal bone structures that I never knew.

 Like this Bison for example. I didn't know that they had bones going up from there spine and then the claws of a polar bear point up rather than going straight out.

 One of the most fascinating experiences of the museum was comparing myself to the sheer size of some of these animals. Though I have seen most of these animals one tv or at the zoo I didn't have the right idea for their size.

 I could walk under these elephants without ducking my head and the T rex was more than twice the size of the elephants.

This is the skeleton of the last Dodo bird in Europe. It was stuffed until the 1800s, but had degraded so much that it was stripped down to the skeleton.


















On our final night at Oxford we all dressed up and went to dinner in the Great Hall. (Not really it's name, but it's much more fun to say.) There was an over abundance of eating utensils and Latin grace as part of the traditions of Oxford. The food was all fantastic, but I favorite part of the meal was the dessert. It was white chocolate and raspberry ingot with mint and it was the bet dessert I have ever tasted. I wil forever be in search of this dessert.

After dinner one of my tutors was to provide entertainment. He told us a story of a man who went to Oxford and had written a song which was to be performed for us. He told us the man's life story making us laugh at almost every detail and gradually we started suspecting that this story was completely made up. By the time the man died in a tragic picnic accident we were sure that it was all an elaborate tale, and then he pulled out a guitar that he had told us he wouldn't play and started playing what sounded like Home on the Range, before changing. He mash up an least twenty different songs together into his tune consisting of Yesterday by the Beatles and Scarborough Fair. He was and excellent guitar player and if he weren't an Oxford professor he could make a living on being a comedian.

We went back the Bath the next day and as much as I loved Oxford it was nice being in a familiar place again.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.

The Storyteller and other tales

This week has been a little hectic because of homework which seems to always be a trouble during the school year. Today is the first day I have had that wasn't dedicated to finishing chapters in a book. And it doesn't help that I feel obligated to pet this little guy every five seconds.

She is one of those animals that instinctively knows that you are taking a picture of it therefore she is never facing the camera when I try. If you didn't see my post about her on facebook I'll give you a little blurb about her. She is the unofficial house cat of Prior park and is only let into the kitchen during meal times when we are in the kitchen long enough to feel guilty. Her name is still yet to be determined even though have been here three weeks. It was Gregory at some point (this was when we were questioning the gender), and then Mary Queen of Scots. Now, she is kind of just the Cat.

I just looked back and realized how much has happen since my last post. Well, I'll start off with the most important. I turned 21! Yeah! Truthfully not very exciting since the legal age is 18 here, but I still had a lot of fun. My housemates made me a cake which took eons to finish. Fun Fact: The stoves and ovens here do not heat up as much as they do in America. It takes twice as long to cook anything.

Unfortunately, the cake finished right before we left to go an Open Mic, but not before my housemates could sing me happy birthday without any lit candles for me to blow out. They apparently forgot a lighter, but that makes it more memorable. We went to a pub where I got a free drink, some kind of cider, and I got to sit and hang out with everyone before we moved up to where the open mic was. It had fun music, mostly guitar and singing, and some poetry, but the most memorable part was that accordion player and the singer. They did fun little tunes, in an undetermined language, that made you smile.

When I finally was too tired to sit around anymore I went to leave, but not before one of the people who show us around Bath brought out a cake. This one had one candle on it and the few people that were left, some people had gone to a different pub not too interested in the music, sang a hurried happy birthday before I blew out my candle.

We sat down and I cut apparently huge chunks of cakes according to English standards. Though as soon as I took a bite of it I had to agree.

Stonehenge and other tales

Today, I have officially been here a week. I'm thankful that I am not carting my exhausted self through the airport like I was last Monday. I have it significantly easier than last Monday considering I have nothing to do, but a little homework and picking up the rest of my books. I was lucky in my scheduling because I don't have any classes Monday which I'm sure I will be even more grateful for as the semester goes on.

Since I have so much free time I have started on the task of laundry which is quite the task with our little washer and dryer. I put my wash in at about 9:30 and it is now 10:50, it still hasn't finished, and I have to ring out the towel every thirty minutes that sops up the leak at the bottom of the washer. After it is finishes washing I still have another hour twiddle my thumbs waiting for the load to dry. Oh, and did I mention  this is only my pants. I will have to work out a system with this. How the past residents of this house got any laundry done is beyond me.

Now, we come to the title of this particular blog post, Stonehenge.

I took about thirty pictures of these stones as I wondered around the edge. This one I think was the most artistic of the lot minus the half a person on it's edge. I thought this would be better considering the thousands of plain photos that people have seen of Stonehenge. I will post some of the better ones on facebook.

I desperately wanted to wander around in the middle of the stones, but alas there were ropes and signs barring my way. I think if I had been closer it would have been more amazing. To actually understand first hand the height and weight of the stones. To try and comprehend the effort it would have taken to move these stones more than twenty miles on wooden rods. These stones were placed by ropes and the sheer power of men. That concept is hard to understand when you have to stay at least twenty feet away at all times.

Stonehenge was the first stopping point in our trip for the day. My whole program, which consists of 31 students went to Stonehenge, Sailsbury, and Lacock.

Sailsbury was our next visit and it was my favorite. We went to Sailsbury Cathedral which had gorgeous architecture.

The outside was pretty, but my favorite parts were on the inside.

The columns and the pointed arches are beautiful and there were tombs scattered around the cathedral decorated with their own columns and statues. It was all intricate and detailed. I wanted to take a picture of everything.

This was one of the most memorable pieces of the cathedral. It's a fountain with water so smooth it becomes a mirror. I wanted to go back when there was no one around just so I could get a picture reflecting just the cathedral. It's hard to believe it was only install in around sixty years ago for the 750th anniversary of the cathedral. It has a very timeless quality and fits perfectly into the style of the cathedral. I would visit this Cathedral again just so I could wander.

The last place we visited was Lacock Abbey. The first two Harry Potter movies were filmed here.

Lily and James' house is also in Lacock. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it. This whole village was very quaint with a lot of little cottages. It was a timeless place with such old architecture and modern things.

This is the first of many trips I will be taking while I am in England. Perhaps I will do a tour of Bath blog post. I show the different things I see when I walk around.

Sleep Deprivation and other tales

 I did not sleep on the plane and dragging my bag through the air port to the bus station was exhausting. I got outside and it was so cold that I could see my breath. That was a weird transition from eighty degrees at home. The bus was like a charter bus except you had to wear seat belts, and it was like pulling teeth to get any slack on them. I finally got some sleep on the bus, despite the constricting seat belt.

When I woke up it was green everywhere. The fields were lined with bushes and trees that made them look like pieces to a patch work quilt blanketing the country side.

Oh, and the hills!

The picture is blurry, but it is still beautiful. I will get a picture that does them justice before I leave.

Thankfully, after the sleepless plane ride, the people in Bath knew that we would be exhausted and let us hang out in our house after we arrived in Bath. My roommates and I had a meal of pasta which took longer to cook than any pasta should and sat down to watch Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on VHS. Apparently previous students of the program just went out and bought Video tape from thrift shops for 50p (about 50 cents).

We could barely stay up long enough to watch the whole movie. Everyone was nodding off during it and it was only 8:30 when it finally finished. The people from the program told us not to go to bed until ten so we had another hour and a half to trudge through. I slept like a rock, thankful to be stretched on a bed rather than squeezed in a chair, but I woke up at seven in the morning. I had to leave before nine and shower, but I still didn't want to wake up that early.

I did not pick this comforter our. It was already there or I wouldn't have chosen pink floral, but it is about an inch thick which is very useful because it is always pretty cold.

There are two but the other one is missing strings. The director of the program said that they would restring it for me since it is technically their guitar. It also has everyone who has played it sign it. I think it would be cool to leave my mark at the house.

I can't believe this is only the end of the second day. It feels like I have been here a week and known my housemates for longer.