Oxford - Harry Potter or the 18th Century?

Hey all,

So, one more update before I go on blogging hiatus for a while, since I'll just be hosting visitors and not actually traveling.

Last Friday my friend Allison from Trinity came to visit me from Paris! It was great to see her, and after gathering up our things and giving her a brief tour of Queen Mary, we headed to the bus for Oxford to see our friends Pat and Matt. Oh man, what an Oxford adventure - it was SO cool. Let me just say that if I had known that Oxford was this awesome, I totally would have 1. manipulated my GPA so I could have gotten in, and 2. applied to study abroad there. I literally felt like someone had picked us up and put us in about the 18th century. Either that or Harry Potter, it was a toss-up. Our friend Matt had tutorial for his crazy abstract math courses (I asked him what they were and I honestly could not repeat a word of explanation), so Pat met us at the bus-station and gave us the grand tour of Oxford. There are about 40 college in the town, so we had a lot of work ahead of us. Both Pat and Matt (I think it's so funny that their names rhyme) go to Worcester, so we started there (on a side note, their dorm rooms are HUGE). We hit about another 6 colleges, but to be honest I can't remember all of them. I do know that we started at Christ Church after Worcester, which is the Harry Potter college (they filmed parts of it there) - I totally felt like I was at Hogwarts, it was great. All of the colleges had beautiful gardens (the grounds keeping there is absolutely incredible - so detailed and absolutely perfect!), really impressive chapels, and generally amazing architecture. Al and I were quite excited because evidently actually getting into the colleges is hard (they have Porters - security guards - at every door) and we got to go to a few that Matt hadn't been able to get into yet. We all had a good laugh about that.

After walking around a ton, a delicious latte, and another really beautiful walk through University Park, we hung out and chatted for a while until Matt was done with his tutorial. Then we got dressed for "formal hall." Oh man, I really wish that I could have brought my camera, but it really wasn't the situation to play tourist - it was, however, absolutely hilarious. Pat and Matt (and all other Oxford students) have to wear these robe things to formal hall (over their suits and ties - Al and I both had on nice dresses). It was very Harry Potter. The dinner was delicious (three courses and affordable too!). It was so nice to have good fish. Cooking for myself doesn't mean I don't eat good stuff and I do go out occasionally, but I have to admit, I eat a lot of oatmeal and cereal. I simply lack the proper cooking supplies and I'm certainly not buying them when I'm only really here at Queen Mary for another month or so. Anyways, Oxford was absolutely a blast and Pat was a terrific tour-guide. I definitely recommend going to visit Oxford if you're ever in London.

When we got back to London, I did a little work while Al explored. We made dinner two of the nights she was here to save money, but the other night I took her to a cute pub I like in Notting Hill for fish and chips. Yum. I stuck with my usual jacket potato (a baked potato, usually with cheese or something in it). They're quite filling and usually quite cheap - the perfect college student's food. Al left bright and early this morning to go back to Paris on the Eurostar, but yesterday we had a wonderful walk through Hyde Park, did Kensington Palace (my favorite of the palaces thus far), and then went to check out St. Paul's Cathedral - I could go there everyday and still be totally amazed by the architecture. It's just breathtaking.

Anyways, I've got a LOT of visitors coming this month - Christina and Siena this weekend, Christina for most of next week, Courtney for next weekend, then a little break before Roger comes for a few days, and then I'm off to Brussels and Bruges with Katie! We've already got our hostel all set up - it looks like a nice one, so I'm hoping my first hostel stay goes well.

I'll update again after Belgium. I hope you're all having a wonderful week and that you're all well, happy, safe, and enjoying life wherever you are!