Oxford Revisited (aka fixed up version)

Hiya all,

I am fixing up this blog post, so that it is properly detailed and interesting! I just read Inbar's blogs and they made me feel bad about this one...so here we go!

One important fact about Oxford University is that it is a myth. Basically, no one who is studying at Oxford or involved with it in any way thinks about it as one big university. It is divided up into about 39 colleges, and each college commands a greater loyalty and attachment from its students than the university as a whole. We stayed at University College, which is the oldest college, founded in 1249, and therefore the best. End of discussion. If you ever go to Oxford and don't want to seem like a tourist, do not wear anything that says Oxford University on it. Myself, I am now the proud owner of a University College hoodie. It's pretty much the best.

We arrived on Saturday, and spent the majority of the day doing orientation things, so that was fairly unremarkable. My friends and I did make a visit to Shakespeare's Milkshakes, which is a thing that exists, and therefore we had to go there. I had a delicious Othello milkshake. (Titus Andronicus shake anyone? (pat yourself on the back if you got that joke)) My room at Univ (as we locals call it) was really nice, I had a bedroom and a little study. Also, every room was fitted with an electric kettle, tea cup, tea and coffee, milk and sugar.  Is that not the most British thing you have ever heard?

Punting, with Hannah looking appropriately Italian!

Sunday morning after breakfast, I went to the Queen Lane's Cafe, the oldest continually in use coffee shop in Europe, had a mug of tea the size of my head, and read Hound of the Baskervilles. Ladies and Gentlemen, my life. That afternoon, we went punting along the river (I'm not sure what river it is), which was really fun and a new experience for sure. It is sort of hard to explain, so I'll include a picture so you can get the idea. At one point, we passed a couple of swans. Now, swans, as everybody knows, are terrifying. They may look pretty, but go too close and these heartless creatures will break your arm without a second thought. So, we had a good laugh being terrified of the swans. Then they started to follow us. Seriously following us. Quickly, one of them passed us, so that we were boxed in. We got stuck against a wall, due to some turning issues that the driver was having, and as the swans slowly approached the boat, we were sure that this outing was to be our last. Luckily, we got back on the river just in time. The demons, both in front of us now, led us under a bridge, and as we were going through we realized that they were waiting for us on the other side. Thankfully just past the bridge was our destination, and we were able to escape the foul creatures.  That concludes my punting adventure.

You can tell by the look in his eyes

Monday I actually had to go to class. Imagine my disgust. After those, I went on a tour of Christchurch college, which boasts many famous landmarks, including the Hogwarts Great Hall. So yeah. I went to Hogwarts today. After Hogwarts, a few of us went to the Eagle & Child, which was C.S Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien's favorite pub. So yeah. I had a half pint of cider, and there was a sign on the wall with the "it comes in pints?!" quote from LOTR, which was fabulous. 

Tuesday, I didn't have any classes, so I planned for it to be a big tourist day.  I toured the Bodleian Library in the morningtimes. The Bodleian is absolutely magnificent. The tour...less so. Basically I got talked at for 30 minutes by an old man, and then eyed suspiciously through two more rooms where I unsuccessfully tried to sneak a picture of the Hogwarts library. I almost managed it. Here is what I came out with: 

Behind the desk on the left is Harry Potter's library

Maddi and a cheetah!

Still a pretty cool picture, with the added benefit of having been taken out of the side of my sweatshirt pocket.

Anyway, after the three room tour, I met up with Maddi, who also had the whole day free, and we went to the Pitt Rivers museum and the Natural History Museum. They were both marvelous, and too large to see everything. I did see the dodo that inspired Lewis Carroll, as well as many fabulous fossils and boneses. We also got to touch a cheetah!

After that, Maddi and I treated ourselves to delicious baguettes at Olives, and then cream tea at the Queen's Lane Cafe. Mmmmm. Nothing better than tea and scones with clotted cream and jam.

Then we met up with Hannah C and Kaylee and headed off for our next museum, the Ashmolean. If I thought the last museums were large, the Ashmolean is staggeringly overwhelming. We had already spent an hour in the Egypt exhibit, when we realized we had yet to leave the first floor. There are five floors. After that stunning realization, we skipped around a lot, and hit up Rennaissance art, pre-Raphaelites, and some cool ceramics, ending up utterly exhausted. Now, I have never been a huge fan of art, but I have increasingly found that pre-Raphaelite paintings are my absolute favorites, as in I actually care about them quite a lot, hence my insisting that we stop at that particular gallery. They really are gorgeous, and the detail is amazing! Anyway, moving on...the Ashmolean was exhausting. I stopped off at another cafe to read some Shakespeare, and got home just in time for a quick potty break before dinner! It was curry night, so ASE took us to an Indian restaurant, where we got unlimited poppadoms and naan, and one entre. SO DELICIOUS. So that was Tuesday.

Wednesday I went for a nice walk around Christchurch meadows in the morning, met a nice hobo who was a little bit drunk, and new all of the best bars in Bath. Unfortunately, I had another milkshake that did not make my tummy happy, so I spent the rest of the evening relaxing in my room being anti-social. Saved me the price of dinner, anyway. I had a leftover scone and little box of cereal. Gourmet!

Thursday I had another class, poo on that. After class though, our professor took us on a civil war tour of Oxford, which was fun and interesting. We had really beautiful weather all week, so we were always happy for an excuse to be outside. Continuing the outdoors trend, I walked over to Magdalen College (pronounced Maudlin because British people are weird), and had a nice lie-on-a-bench-and-read. We had our smart dress dinner that night, which was absolutely delicious, and completely free!

The view from my window...seriously

Friday we left Oxford. I honestly was really sad to go. It is an amazing city. The fact that there are about 50 or so 200 year old buildings all crowded around each other makes for some amazing sights. Understatement. I don't understand how people just walk around like this is normal! You literally cannot avoid these buildings, but people are just like oh nbd, just walking to work past this college established in 1249. I was in awe all week. The view from my window! GAH! Well they say a picture is worth a thousand of my rambling unable to get across my meaning words:

So maybe you can understand why I left this wondrous city, filled with bits of Rowling, Tolkien, Lewis, Carroll, and 800 years of fascinating history, not to mention some delicious baguettes and cream tea, with considerable regret.

Before we returned to Bath, however, we had one last stop.
May I present, for your perusal, Blenheim Palace:

Or should I say, about 1/3 of Blenheim Palace? It actually would not fit in the frame. While I did enjoy its magnificence, and the grounds were lovely, my mind kept going back to the absolute ostentatious-ness of it all. Really, Duke of Marlborough, really? You thought about 200 rooms would suffice? Why stop at 200? Oh I forgot, you also have a lake and fabulously large gardens. Not to mention the Butterfly hothouse, and the hedge maze that actually took us five minutes.  Leaving out the fact that we had to take an actual train from the main palace to reach the far end of the gardens, where the maze was.  You're right, I feel like all that is pretty sufficient for a place of residence. You wouldn't want to seem grandiose. No seriously. People currently live there. Well, in the East wing, to be specific. Because there aren't enough people in the UK to fill up Blenheim Palace.


That is basically it for Oxford, everyone! I hope you enjoy this blog post, because I am beginning to resent the amount of effort they require. I will be in Spain next week, so unless I write another post tomorrow, you won't hear from me for at least a week and a half. Deal with it.

A Three Hour Tour

Right. It's been a while, I'm sorry for the delay, but life has to be lived, you know, before it can be written about. I think I'll avoid the small stuff and spend this post on my walk to Dyrham Park on Friday, March 16th. It was me and six friends, and we decided that the 8 mile hike from Bath to Dyrham was completely within our abilities, and that the manor house and grounds at Dyrham would be a really cool destination. We ignored the fact that every British person we told our plan to looked at us like we were crazy.  With typical American bombastic-ism, we figured England was just full of wimps.

The walk is along the Cotswolds way, sort of the British answer to the Appalachian Trail. It spans much of England, so what we were hiking would only be a small portion. We set off joyful and optimistic, and about 2 hours in, we figured we were getting close. Then we came to realize, slowly but surely, that what we had thought was 8 miles was in fact much much more. Try 14 miles (some of my friends thought it was at least 15, but I wasn't so sure). Still, we soldiered on, admiring the entrances to Narnia and fairyland, which were plentiful. We were getting tired, but we sang about making men out of people, and about hills that were alive with various sounds, and we kept our spirits up. It really was a beautiful day, and it wasn't too difficult to have fun, even as our legs began to ache. Our tummies started rumbling, and as we approached civilization for the first time in hours we were desperate for a pub. Our minds were filled with tea and cakes, fish and chips, and scones with clotted cream. What we got was a shell station, with chicken sandwiches, chocolate donuts, and candy bars. It was the best gas station food I have ever eaten.  We moved on from the gas station, satiated and believing that finally we were approaching our goal. After another 30 minutes, we finally reached Dyrham Park. The cheer that went up as we came over the rise and sighted the manor would bring tears to the most hardened of hearts.

We happened to arrive at the back entrance, so we ended up not having to pay, which was, I gotta say, pretty great. It seemed like someone up there was apologizing for making us come all of this way over hills and through woods. However, our saga had not quite ended, and whatever deity was overseeing our excursion had not finished messing with us. Since we had already walked for 5 hours, the original plan, walking back, was definitely out of the question. Well now what? We'll take a bus. Where can we catch a bus back to Bath? Nowhere, you'll have to walk. Are you serious? Yes. Well alright, no bus then. We begin to get desperate. Imagine, if you will, a plea for mercy: Gift shop lady, can you please give us the number for a taxi service? We really need to get home somehow that doesn't involve our feet. Yes, of course, one moment. We call a taxi, and it is on our way to pick us up. We are delivered! But wait. Where will we meet this taxi? Well, by the main entrance of course. Right. We came in the back. Where exactly is the main entrance? Well you have to take the shuttle up to the main gate and wait there. So, at the main gate we explain our predicament. The main gate is kept padlocked, but if the taxi is really meeting you there, then I will unlock it for a moment so you can get to the other side, and I will lock it again behind you. The padlock won't unlock. So, where are we going to meet our taxi now? Guy with key, please help us! He calls the taxi service and tells them to meet us at the back gate. That's where we came in. So, two shuttle rides later, exactly where we started, hallelujah the taxi is waiting for us. Getting into that taxi was the best thing that has ever happened to me. The end. Now look back at the title and get the reference and see how clever I am.

Life is short: get on the wrong subway train

Hello everyone! I hope you are all having lovely days, so that I can ruin them by making you super jealous of how awesome my yesterday was! If it helps, it is no longer yesterday, so even I am jealous of yesterday me.

After class and normalcy, Kaylee and I prepared to go to London, to see the Civil Wars. If you haven't heard of them then you are wrong. The greatest part of this plan was that it was a free show, so we just had to get a wristband, which we did, and then we were allowed in. We went and grabbed dinner in between the wristband-ing and the band watching. Then it was time to go be amazed! And amazed we were. Considering that their sound relies heavily on the quality of their voices, I was not surprised by how absolutely talented they were. It was a marvelous concert! They only played 5 songs, because it was a tiny in-store gig, and it was free, but that made it even better in some ways, because the small-ish audience felt really close to Joy and John, and they were so adorable! He is just really attractive, and she was being all cute and pregnant, and they sang and played so beautifully! I forgot to charge my camera until five minutes before we had to leave, but it had enough battery juices to take 5 pictures of the civil wars before it died on me.

I got one good picture of each of them, I think, complete with other people's hair in the foreground.

Before they played their last song, they announced that they would be signing some autographs, but only a limited number. I seriously considered being the butthead who goes and stands by the table while they were still playing, just so that I could make sure I got an autograph. I settled for standing and enjoying their last song (Poison & Wine) where I was, and then I was instead the butthead who pushes everyone out of the way to get to the table.

It was way worth it though. While they were signing my poster (also free), I asked Joy what part of California she was from. Without looking up, she said "Santa Cruz." I think I almost had a heart attack trying to make coherent words come out, but I managed to get across the point that my sister goes to UC Santa Cruz. At that point she looked up and saw me and smiled, raised her fist and said some wise words, that will stay with me forever. They were: "go banana slugs!"

All in all, Kaylee and I were pretty much euphoric when we left the store. So much so, that we forgot to pay any attention to where we were going, and just stepped on the first subway train that presented itself. Basically that was a mistake. But really, that just contributed to the awesomeness of the night. Since the concert was so short, we had an extra 90 minutes before we had to be at the train station. Seeing that the subway we were on stopped at Westminster, and seeing that we had so much time on our hands, well, we did what any self-respecting world travellers would do. We exited the subway at Westminster.

Coming out of the underground station, the first image to confront us was beautiful Big Ben, lit up and backed by the full moon. To say that we were euphoric is not at all stretching the truth. Kaylee and I wandered around London aimlessly for the next hour and a half, passing by Westminster Abbey, Whitehall, the Supreme Court, going through Trafalgar Square, where there was this really cool Olympic countdown machine, and all in all just thoroughly enjoying life. A lot of "hey. We are in London. Just chillin." happened, along with some "Umm...so life is great? Yeah."

In conclusion, it was probably one of the best days of my life.

Set list with links to music videos: First they played some song I don't know, then 20 Years, then Barton Hollow, then Billie Jean (a cover, obviously), then Poison & Wine. 

je te deteste, pomme de terre! Or, Newcastle Perambulations

Perambulations...yeah I am in England. 

Anyway, last weekend I went to Newcastle, which generally generates the reaction of "huh. Why?" Also, don't bring coal there apparently. It's silly.

The reason for Newcastle (yes...the reason for Newcastle. Like, the reason for its existence) is that I have to complete a big senior research project next year, and I thought since I was in England maybe I could get a head start on the research bit. After looking around last semester, I found out that Newcastle University has some really cool archives of children's literature, which is tentatively what I will be looking into for senior research. I requested some material from the archives ahead of time, using an online thingy (technology, amirite?), and so when I showed up (which of course meant actually finding the library, a challenge in itself) I just showed them my ID and they gave me all of this cool old stuff to look at! I spent a fascinating two hours looking at 18th and 19th century literature, some of which I had assumed was for children, like Aesop's Fables, but turned out to be really intense and complex, and some of which was definitely for little girls and boys, and absolutely adorable. My favorite was a two volume compilation of all of the 'facts' and stories about Robin Hood, published in 1785. I mean come on! Robin Hood! Like...really? It was awesome. Robin Hood! Did I mention Robin Hood? I wanted to take it with me and keep it forever. Unfortunately that probably would be frowned upon. Since then, I have been thinking that a potential senior research project could involve lots and lots of Robin Hood.

Overall, I learned that Newcastle is a pretty awesome place. The hostel that Maddi, Hannah C and I stayed in was really nice. It was my first time staying in a hostel, and I was really impressed by how clean and bright it all was.  I just hope all of my hostel experiences are that cheery. I had a lot of fun wandering around Newcastle by myself on Friday while Maddi and Hannah were in York. There was a cool castle thing (I think its a requirement in England. "cool castle thing?" "check!"), an old monastery thing, and a really enjoyable (and free) art gallery thing. I was personally amused by the castle's unfinished staircase, begun in the 17th century (or so), and then just never completed. It is literally 17 steps and then a wall. I thought it was really funny. Then I thought it was very Tevye-esk. There was a farmer's market also, and this really cool indoor marketplace, where the three of us bought a big bag of assorted British candy before heading home. The city itself had a great, young, student-y atmosphere, and I could definitely understand why people like it so much, despite the dismal weather.

The most exciting thing on my mind right now is that on Thursday, I am going to see the Civil Wars! FOR FREE! Of course, it's in London, so I had to pay for a train ticket, but that was really cheap, and no more than what I would have paid ordinarily for a concert ticket. I can't wait! I would like to thank Anna for introducing me to this marvelous duo.

The reason for the French in the blog title is that I realized that both Hannah and Maddi speak French, and I demanded while we were on the train that they teach me all of French immediately. We started out with the important things, which for me were "I'm lost, help me please," and "exit." Then we got progressively sillier, as Maddi and Hannah thought it was very important that I know the words for cheese, cake, and the difference between apples and potatoes, and between bus stations and wars. We collapsed into fits of uncontrollable giggles when I started constructing sentences out of the few words they had taught me. For example, "I hate you, potato," "where is the war," and "I don't have speaking French" which was supposed to be "I don't speak French." Also I kept saying that I was an American boy, which really was not what I wanted to get across. Altogether, I am terrible at French, but I can now tell people (badly) that I don't speak French, that I'm lost, and I can ask for directions (to the library or the bus...or the war). Downside: I won't be able to understand any directions that they try to give me, unless they only use the words left and right.

Fun fact for the day: In England, trousers are pants, and pants are underwear. Do not ask British people about their pants, or talk at length about your own.