Where the Harry Potter hall was.... grrr
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Oxford
There was a day trip planned through school to go to Oxford one Saturday a couple weeks ago!! I jumped on that bus and got to go see where all the smartie pants studied..
First thing learned- Oxford is not just one school. Oxford is the town where a bunch of different smart schools are located. Each school offers all the same majors; one school does not specialize in one area, which I find quite weird. It must be hard for the students applying to decide which school to go to since all of them offer everything... very peculiar to me.
Right when we got there, our tour guide, who was graduate student at one of the school warned us that we really really really need to be careful of bikers. They are very dangerous and many people have gotten seriously hurt when they weren't paying attention. Great one more thing to have to worry about when crossing the street... bikers. I instantly became worried about my well-being.
We walked around the town, viewing all the different schools for an hour or two. It was yet again a GORGEOUS day.. actually quite hot. I definitely dressed to warm for the adventure. Our guide was kind of odd though. When she would try to explain things, she hesitated a lot and she really didn't seem to know what she was talking about. Which is yet again odd considering she attends one of the most prestigious universities in the world. I zoned her out half way through the trip when she couldn't remember what the name for an arch was.
The last time we made was to the famous Harry Potter dining all. Yes, the dining hall that is in the Harry Potter movies is in Oxford. But did we see it, NOOOOOOO. It was under construction that day. The one day out of the whole year it was under maintenance. You would think that since we were going through the school they would have warned us or known that it was not opened that day. After learning this, EVERYONE was furious. That was really the only thing I was interested in seeing and it was shut downnnn.
The next 4 hours we had to ourselves. A group of 10 or so of us got lunch at a cute little pub on the river. It was lovely and the sun was sooo wonderful. Unfortunately when I got home later that night, I discovered that have of my face only was enjoying the sun... I was two faced: burnt on one half and pale on the other. Attractive I know.
We walked around for quite awhile after our long, lovely lunch. Happened to come across an Alice in Wonderland shop. (Meg is OBSESSED with Alice in Wonderland, we always joke about how she is like Alice) Ended up spending quite some time in that store with the rabbit....
Then we went to a church tower, climbed the top and saw a wonderful panoramic view of the glorious Oxford willage. Our guide lady also informed us that we COULD NOT by any means go on the grass. TRuly, I have never seen such well-kept, green, short grass in my life. Luke and I wanted so badly to step on, but were nervous that there was an alarm system or something on it that would get us in trouble. Anyways, from the tower view it looked even better! We were able to refrain ourselves, luckily and made it the whole day without going on it.
Our last stop was a famous pub that many famousssss people hang out.... wish I remembered the name of it but I will figure that out and get back to ya. It was a very cozy, relaxed setting and I could definitely see some celebs hanging, sipping on some drinks at that place.
First thing learned- Oxford is not just one school. Oxford is the town where a bunch of different smart schools are located. Each school offers all the same majors; one school does not specialize in one area, which I find quite weird. It must be hard for the students applying to decide which school to go to since all of them offer everything... very peculiar to me.
Right when we got there, our tour guide, who was graduate student at one of the school warned us that we really really really need to be careful of bikers. They are very dangerous and many people have gotten seriously hurt when they weren't paying attention. Great one more thing to have to worry about when crossing the street... bikers. I instantly became worried about my well-being.
We walked around the town, viewing all the different schools for an hour or two. It was yet again a GORGEOUS day.. actually quite hot. I definitely dressed to warm for the adventure. Our guide was kind of odd though. When she would try to explain things, she hesitated a lot and she really didn't seem to know what she was talking about. Which is yet again odd considering she attends one of the most prestigious universities in the world. I zoned her out half way through the trip when she couldn't remember what the name for an arch was.
The last time we made was to the famous Harry Potter dining all. Yes, the dining hall that is in the Harry Potter movies is in Oxford. But did we see it, NOOOOOOO. It was under construction that day. The one day out of the whole year it was under maintenance. You would think that since we were going through the school they would have warned us or known that it was not opened that day. After learning this, EVERYONE was furious. That was really the only thing I was interested in seeing and it was shut downnnn.
The next 4 hours we had to ourselves. A group of 10 or so of us got lunch at a cute little pub on the river. It was lovely and the sun was sooo wonderful. Unfortunately when I got home later that night, I discovered that have of my face only was enjoying the sun... I was two faced: burnt on one half and pale on the other. Attractive I know.
We walked around for quite awhile after our long, lovely lunch. Happened to come across an Alice in Wonderland shop. (Meg is OBSESSED with Alice in Wonderland, we always joke about how she is like Alice) Ended up spending quite some time in that store with the rabbit....
Then we went to a church tower, climbed the top and saw a wonderful panoramic view of the glorious Oxford willage. Our guide lady also informed us that we COULD NOT by any means go on the grass. TRuly, I have never seen such well-kept, green, short grass in my life. Luke and I wanted so badly to step on, but were nervous that there was an alarm system or something on it that would get us in trouble. Anyways, from the tower view it looked even better! We were able to refrain ourselves, luckily and made it the whole day without going on it.
Our last stop was a famous pub that many famousssss people hang out.... wish I remembered the name of it but I will figure that out and get back to ya. It was a very cozy, relaxed setting and I could definitely see some celebs hanging, sipping on some drinks at that place.
panoramic view!
Wimbledon
Considering the weather has also been super nice, we are able to do other activities besides going to the park that are touristy. One day a couple weeks ago Luke, Lain and I took the tube alllllll the way until you could not go anymore at the WIMBLEDON stop. We walked around the area surrounding where the tennis matches were for about an hour. Wimbledon is a suburban area, which I really like. Being in the city has been very eventful, but seeing houses and parks was really comforting and made me really excited to go home.
Weather was sooooo beautifulll. Wimbledon also is not as big slash exciting as I thought it would be... still AWESOME to see though. Saw the scoreboard of all the people who had won. ALSO, as we walked out of the courts... there were other courts next to wimbledon. There were little kids playing that we stoppped to watch. Kids were crazy goooood. Working to go next to door to the big courts Forrr Suree.
Weather was sooooo beautifulll. Wimbledon also is not as big slash exciting as I thought it would be... still AWESOME to see though. Saw the scoreboard of all the people who had won. ALSO, as we walked out of the courts... there were other courts next to wimbledon. There were little kids playing that we stoppped to watch. Kids were crazy goooood. Working to go next to door to the big courts Forrr Suree.
Good Life
Ever since we got back from Prague, the weather has be UNBELIEVABLE!! It has made it sooo hard to stay inside and do school work. Most of our days are spent at the Kensington Park, a couple blocks away from our campus. We either do homework there and bring blankets, take a stroll in the park or mainly kick the soccer ball around. It has been so much fun getting a bunch of us in our program who have or haven't played soccer to try to juggle or play pick-up soccer games. Also since the weather has been nice, one of our housing directors, Thomas (who is by the way is the cutest English Man I have met since being here) anyways, he's in his late 20s maybe early 30s and has organized pick up soccer games for every Friday afternoon. He sends emails out early in the week so everyone in the program who wants to can join in the park to play soccer. Literally it has been so amazing and so much fun. SO much fun. It has made me really miss soccer though but that's okay because I can actually play now without my knee hurting!
A couple weeks ago, only a few of us showed up to play Friday. Instead of playing 6 on 6 or 7 on 7 like we had played in previous weeks, we only had enough to do 3 v 3..... thus a lot of running. It was also extremely hot that day. Got a sweet tan actually. That's besides the point...afterwards, we decided to go jump in the pond that was located in the middle of the park. Many people thought we were crazy. When I said it was hot, I was talking like 60, 65 degrees. When we jumped into the pond, people started to take pictures of us. In the pond, there are little row boats you can rent as well so people rowing by also snapped some shots of us as well. The water was BEYOND freezing. I had jumped in with my tshirt and shorts and when I got out I was soaking wet, with nothing to dry off with. Making the truck home made me resent jumping in.
One afternoon, instead of playing soccer, we decided to throw a baseball and frisbee. There was a group of probably 6 or 8 of us in a huge circle right near the pond tossing the ball and frisbee. You had to be on your toes because you had to watch for the frisbee and baseball. I freaked out one time when the ball was thrown to me and then a second later the frisbee was thrown to me too that I accidentally chucked the baseball into the pond. The ball had landed just far enough into the pond where you it was arm distance away, almost reachable but not quite. It was a the tip of our fingers. This kid Tyler almost fell trying to reach for it. We didn't know how deep the water was so we literally had a line of the 6 of us holding arms to dip Tyler over the pond to try and grab the ball. Yet again, people surrounding the pond took pictures of the stupid American kids trying to get a baseball out of the pond. They probably just didn't understand why the baseball was that important to us, considering they don't have baseball in the UK.
A couple weeks ago, only a few of us showed up to play Friday. Instead of playing 6 on 6 or 7 on 7 like we had played in previous weeks, we only had enough to do 3 v 3..... thus a lot of running. It was also extremely hot that day. Got a sweet tan actually. That's besides the point...afterwards, we decided to go jump in the pond that was located in the middle of the park. Many people thought we were crazy. When I said it was hot, I was talking like 60, 65 degrees. When we jumped into the pond, people started to take pictures of us. In the pond, there are little row boats you can rent as well so people rowing by also snapped some shots of us as well. The water was BEYOND freezing. I had jumped in with my tshirt and shorts and when I got out I was soaking wet, with nothing to dry off with. Making the truck home made me resent jumping in.
One afternoon, instead of playing soccer, we decided to throw a baseball and frisbee. There was a group of probably 6 or 8 of us in a huge circle right near the pond tossing the ball and frisbee. You had to be on your toes because you had to watch for the frisbee and baseball. I freaked out one time when the ball was thrown to me and then a second later the frisbee was thrown to me too that I accidentally chucked the baseball into the pond. The ball had landed just far enough into the pond where you it was arm distance away, almost reachable but not quite. It was a the tip of our fingers. This kid Tyler almost fell trying to reach for it. We didn't know how deep the water was so we literally had a line of the 6 of us holding arms to dip Tyler over the pond to try and grab the ball. Yet again, people surrounding the pond took pictures of the stupid American kids trying to get a baseball out of the pond. They probably just didn't understand why the baseball was that important to us, considering they don't have baseball in the UK.
doing hw in the park the basball
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