names & faces and the fourth of july

i haven't been too motivated to write anything down about this trip. it's absolutely gorgeous here and so many amazing things have happened, but i haven't wanted to sit and write it all down. anyway, here we go. i'll attempt to write more often now.

this past weekend i went to london with izzy. but that's not where the story begins.

the story begins on friday afternoon, the fourth of july. izzy and i, being scholarly and classy, decided to explore even more of oxford. we went to the ashmolean museum and wandered around quite a bit. on the way home from the ashmolean, i suggested that we stop at a bar for a drink before we grabbed dinner. as you may guess, dinner never occurred that night, and one drink turned into a few more. i was told not to make a big deal out of being an american by my friend who was originally from bristol. i understand why people here might dislike loud, crass, unrefined americans, but that didn't stop izzy and i from yelling every few minutes about our status as AMERICANS. we told everyone in the bar that it was the fourth of july, and luckily (possibly since we're girls) we didn't get beaten up. everyone seemed pretty amused and a few people even bought us drinks. the night culminated in us walking home arm in arm singing elton john's 'your song' at the top of our lungs. needless to say, we were starving because we hadn't eaten dinner. izzy-- and god knows how she pulled this off-- managed to order us a pizza at about 1 am. there was a minimum for delivery, so she just kept adding more and more food to the order until we reached about 15 pounds (30 american dollars). we just finished the leftovers yesterday. oh, and something really creepy happened. izzy had to give her cell phone number to the pizza place so that they could call us when they got here with the food (we live in a gated college so they can't just walk up to the door). when the food gets here, the creepy delivery guy immediately gives us his number (which is hanging on my bulletin board as a testament to our drunken endeavors). thinking nothing of it, we ate our pizza and decided to head to london the next day. at about 5 pm on saturday, as we were walking around london, izzy received a text message from a random number-- it turns out that this creepy pizza guy took her phone number off the receipt and tried to call us. the text message basically asked what we were up to and if we wanted to go out (gross!). we didn't answer, obviously, but we remain determined to get a free pizza for our pain and suffering from this place.

on another note, london was amazing. i don't feel like i saw very much, but we definitely walked around a lot. the bus ride was about 2 hours (half of that was pretty much city driving, trying to get to the bus station etc). luckily saturday was beautiful. we accidentally wandered through soho and saw the biggest gay pride parade ever. there were so many half naked latino men running around all greased up. it was absolutely fabulous. on every level. stay tuned for photos/videos that i took. we ate pizza for lunch-- again, clearly that's all we eat-- and wandered around the city until about 8 pm. we saw parliament and big ben, the london eye, and all those fabulous things. next time i go back i will see buckingham palace, the british museum, and some bars...

sunday night we were exhausted from our trip to london and i passed out at around 10 pm and didn't wake up until 830 am the next morning. i've become thoroughly obsessed with downloading episodes of digging for the truth (a history channel show). izzy and i have tried to watch various episodes on various occasions, but we always fall asleep. i'm pretty sure my roommate might have some pictures of us passed out in front of my computer...

monday night izzy and i decided to plan an excursion for this coming weekend. we agreed on dublin and spent wayyyy too much money on plane tickets because they were so last minute. so, to drown our sorrows, we went out and spent MORE money on drinks. since it was a monday night, all the bars were closing around 11. we ended up at THE SHADIEST nightclub EVER. first of all, i really hate night clubs, but we went anyway. there was a cell phone floating in one of the toilets and the entire place smelled like puke-- that pretty much sums it up. so izzy and i stood at the bar and took shot after shot after shot (the bartenders thought we were superhuman) and then walked home, somehow. then she ate 2 croissants in my room and we passed out. as you can tell, we're clearly classy.

last night we had our second high table dinner, so again i had to get all dressed up. afterward, the summer group met in the beer cellar (the on-campus bar) to talk with some professors. then we went out to a bar called the kings arms, which was enjoyable. while i was ordering drinks for izzy and myself (as you can tell, this is becoming a trend), a random english guy walked up to me to inform me that he and his friends were taking bets on where i was from. one guessed new york, one guessed new hampshire. both were wrong (but close), so they gave me 2 pounds, with which i bought a drink. haha, suckers.

so-- dublin this weekend! our flight leaves early friday morning and we come back on sunday evening. it'll be an expensive but worthwhile trip. i'll write again tomorrow, and pictures will be posted somewhere soon!

england so far: the city of dreaming spires

landed in london heathrow at about 7 am (7 am here, 2 am at home) on june 29th. i took a long bus ride from the airport to oxford-- one with very enjoyable scenery that i didn't enjoy because i was so exhausted and jet-lagged. it almost looked like western mass, but infinitely more beautiful-- lots of cows and sheep grazing, but quite a bit more picturesque, all surrounded by a low mist that lolled over the grass. a few girls from my program were on the bus with me, but none of us were really motivated to speak to each other. we arrived in oxford at about 10 am and my first order of business was to almost get hit by a bus. a big bus. i hadn't thought to look a different way when crossing the road (they drive on the left here, obviously, because they're nuts)...and the rest is history.

i'm exhausted now as i write this, still not completely adjusted to the time change and still fairly shocked at how beautiful this place is. i didn't expect so much to be so different from home. i went grocery shopping today with some friends-- even the food is completely different. one of the most jarring things is that they heat treat their eggs (or they do something to them) and in grocery store's they're not refrigerated! same goes for some milk. ew.

i've been meaning to write in this for the past few days, but between meeting everyone and sleeping and unpacking etc etc, i've been incredibly busy. so, i'll just fill y'all in on a few key events that have occurred.

i'm living at trinity college (one of oxford university's 39 colleges), which is absolutely and easily the most beautiful school i've seen in my life. my room has a fabulous view of the garden quad. my roommate, genevieve, and i got really lucky-- we have a huge common room that we share, with a fabulous view. off of the common room, we each have our own bedroom. between our bedrooms we have a private bathroom with a sink, toilet, and shower. to lock the door to the bathroom, you have to pull on a red cord hanging from the ceiling. it's pretty badass.

one of the weird things about living here (and it's something i feel really weird about) is the fact that we have what is called a scout. A scout, at oxford, is a person who comes into your room every morning to check on you/clean up after you. they make your bed for you, vacuum your room, take out your trash...i haven't met our scout yet, but genevieve has. apparently he is a few years older than us and is from poland. i'm looking forward to meeting him-- maybe he can teach me some polish! anyway, i feel really weird about someone having to clean up after me, so i've been trying to do it myself...

oxford is a beautiful city and a beautiful school. i've loved everything about being here, but there are a few strange things that i find highly amusing and somewhat odd. for instance, if you vomit on campus, you have to pay a 27 pound (equivalent about 60 US dollars) vomit fine. yes, we get charged for vomiting on this beautiful campus. my friend izzy got sick and had to go to the hospital on our first day here, and i feel bad (but secretly am laughing at the fact)-- she has to pay the vomit fine.

we're not allowed on any of the grass, ever. except the quad i live off of. we're not allowed to carry red wine or hot liquids on it-- red wine could stain the grass, hot liquids could burn it. my mother would love this place. a guy from georgetown that i met said he saw a guy edging one of the lawns with a pair of scissors, but i won't believe it until i see it.

we had our first high table dinner last night. we have this formal dinner every tuesday, and we are joined by our professors (tutors, they call them here) and are served food and wine by candlelight in the great hall that looks like something straight out of harry potter (some of harry potter was filmed at oxford, but more on that later).

anyway, plans for the weekend include a hike to wytham (a small town about 3 miles from here) that will take us through the cotswolds (which are beautiful), a pub crawl friday night to celebrate the fourth of july (we americans are assholes and want to rub our freedom in their british faces), and a trip to london, possibly saturday-sunday. i have to give a presentation on yeats's drama on monday, and i have a 12 page paper due in a few weeks for my modern irish literature class. FABULOUS. i'll try to update this as much as possible, but until then...happy trails! i'll post photos later!