Second Star to the Right: Me Go Oxford Someday

Today I went to Oxford and now I am much smarter. I learned that you don't push on the revolving door as it is self propelled, that even if the forecast says sunny you should always have an umbrella, that it costs money to enter many buildings even if they seem silly and that candy stores are delicious on days like today.

We had another early morning as we packed ourselves lunches and hopped onto a bus to go out to Oxford! Fortunately I managed to sleep through the entire two hours drive to Oxford so it flew by extremely fast! The first thing that amazed me about Oxford is that it took up the entire city. I thought that I have seen other large campuses, but this thing really takes up the whole place. The colleges are far apart and require much walking, so we walked much. Our first stop was a Ashmolean museum where we looked at artwork from all OVER TIME!!! Egyptian, greek and all that jazz! I even got to see some Stratovarian violins! It was neat! After that we walked over to the Bodleian library where they had a free exhibit for Charles Dickens! It was really neat and I learned a great many things, but once again we were not allowed to take photos. Following that we were given free reign so we began many adventures. We stopped by lots of the colleges from our history class (like Morten college). We also went by Magdaline college where C.S. Lewis taught for a while. Oddly enough they didn't have any sort of exhibit for him at all, which was very depressing. To make up for the sadness we went to an Sweet Shop to buy some delicious British sweets. It was funny because they had an "American Sweets" section where they sold candies, Poptarts, cereals like Lucky Charms or Fruit Loops, and sodas that you don't see here like Root Beer or Dr. Pepper. It was all very pricey! Our final stop was Christ Church, though we didn't actually go in because it cost a lot of money!

Another bus ride took us to our next sot pat Blenheim Palace, home of a Duke and birthplace of Winston Churchill. The estate was HUGE! We were given a guided tour that only took us through half of the palace (since the Duke currently lives in the other half) but even then it was still massive and very fancy. Liz, our guide, was super funny in an old lady that says funny things sort of way. We were looking out for the Duke the whole time because he is known to wander the grounds. Some people claim to have seen him, but I'm not so sure. The tour concluded at a massive library that made me very happy! Once given free time we ran to the gardens and took ridiculous pictures that made other tourists stare at us. Silly Americans.

To conclude the day we came back to London and went to a concert at The Temple Church. It was a string quartet plus an oboe playing old fashioned music. The Temple Church was small and circle shaped, and it was actually a very fun performance....once we found the thing. The church was tucked away in a little courtyard and while other people went to get food, I went to Waterstones, a bookstore that I love here. Afterwards I had to find the little church and almost got lost, though I did manage to find Fleet Street! I made it in time for the performance and had a good time.

It's getting late here and it's rather hectic as we all try and make last minute adjustments to our personal travel weekends! Next time you hear from me I shall be in Ireland!