Three Weekends, Four Cities, Zero Time

Over the past three weekends I have done a lot of traveling and sightseeing. I went to Bath, my parents visited me here in Oxford and we toured the city together, and this past weekend, for my 21^st birthday, I went to Switzerland! These few weekends have been a great time, but since I’ve been doing as much sightseeing as possible on the weekends, during the week I have been working like mad, which means less time for blogging, unfortunately! But I have decided that this has gone on long enough and must change…therefore I am not doing my reading right now so I can write to all my faithful readers! (P.S. Don’t tell my tutors!)

Bath was a lovely city. I was very concerned it was going to rain the whole day, but for this day at least I lucked out and it was a beautiful day! We spent a full day exploring the quaint and pretty town, but our major stops were the Roman Baths, the Pump Room, and the Jane Austen Center. I loved going to the Roman Baths. I studied Latin in high school, so it was great to see what I studied. Plus, I have seen so many pictures that I always wanted to get there and see what it was actually like, and it’s even prettier than I thought it would be! Here are a couple pictures from the Roman Baths:

I explored Bath with other American friends: Prianca, Rebecca, and Margaret, who is a fellow Stonehiller. They all go to different colleges at Oxford.

Right next to the baths is the Pump Room, which is now a restaurant, but was also mentioned in a few of Jane Austen’s novels. It was kind of a social watering hole during the Regency period. The most famous part of the Pump Room, however, is the fountain from which you can still drink the water from the spring! I drank the water…it was warm! So strange! Here I am drinking the water:

Finally, we went to the Jane Austen Center. Austen lived in Bath for five years, and also set two of her novels in Bath. The center was a bit disappointing because it focused mostly on her time in Bath, a city which Austen did not like very much, and on clothing used in film productions. But I was very excited to be in a city that was home to the author I am studying this term.

The next weekend my parents came to visit! I was so excited to see them, and while I made them do some things on their own so I could do some reading, I got to see them each day at least for dinner (which means it was an inexpensive weekend for me!), and got to see more of the city that I hadn’t yet. I showed them around, took them down to see the Isis where I row, went on a bus tour of the city, ate fish and chips, visited the Oxford Castle (which used to be a fort and then a prison until 1996!), and had afternoon tea. I was very excited to show my parents around my most recent home. One of the places we visited on our walking tour of Oxford was Christ Church College, famous because scenes from the Harry Potter films were shot there. And I get in anytime I want since I am a student there!

Above is the Quad at beautiful Christ Church, and below is the hall at Christ Church, the Harry Potter Great Hall!

Finally, this past weekend may have been the most exciting yet! It was the first time I took a trip out of England, and it was the perfect way to make my 21^st birthday memorable! I traveled with my friend, Christine, who is from Stonehill and studying at St. Catz in Oxford, to Geneva. Our trains to the airport were delayed and I got stuck in security (the security guy decided to choose me to pat down and to search my backpack by literally unpacking my backpack), so by the time we made it through the separate shoe check in security, we saw that our gate was closing, and literally ran through the entire airport, without our shoes on, to our gate, which I swear was the furthest one away! We made it just in time! It was stressful at the time, but now we have looked back on it and laughed.

We made it to Geneva to stay with our Stonehill friend Ben, who is doing an internship at the UN. It was so nice to just relax, go to dinner, and walk around Old Town in Geneva with friends from home. The next day we toured Geneva, but it was raining! So we saw as much as we could, but our main stop was a tour of the UN. Here's a picture of the member flags outside the Palace of Nations and one of the front of the building:

That afternoon we traveled by train (a three hour ride!) to Interlaken, the capital of extreme sports. Our reason for going to Interlaken was to go skydiving, but it SNOWED! Because of the weather, we weren’t able to go skydiving. L It was disappointing, because we have been planning this since last spring, and for me, it was exciting that I would be skydiving for my birthday. But it just wasn’t in the cards for us, and it must have been for some reason that we couldn’t go. I think we may have been even too close to making our flight home if we had gone! So despite the disappointment, Interlaken was beautiful! We also met our friends Brooke and Angela from Stonehill, and I was just so happy to be with all these friends to celebrate my birthday! Even though it was different than it would have probably been at home, since the drinking age is 18 here, it was nonetheless a very memorable one! Here are some pictures of the picturesque Swiss Alps and countryside:

This is the view from our hostel balcony when we woke up on Saturday morning. Can you see the mountain? I swear it's there! (Clearly not the best weather for jumping out of a plane!)

See...I told you there was a mountain there!

The Alps basically surround the entire town of Interlaken! Above is a picture of Brooke and Ang and below are Christine and Ben.

Here is the whole Stonehill gang!

On our train ride back to Geneva, we were in awe of the scenery. Here are some of my favorite pictures:

After a trip out of the country, it was so nice to return back to the UK and Oxford. It felt like home! Especially because here they speak English and not French or German! Now I only have two weeks left at Oxford, and it’s going to be another busy two weeks! This week I am looking forward to Christ Church Regatta, Thanksgiving dinner (black tie at the Provost’s Lodgings), and the Boat Club dinner. I’ll update at the end of the week!

The Worcester Trifecta and London Excursion

Boy, have I got loads to catch you all up on!

Well, first we have got to talk about academics…hey, it’s Oxford after all, right? So in my opinion there are definitely benefits as well as difficulties with the tutorial system. I am really enjoying having only two areas at the most to focus on at one time. It is possible to go more in depth with the novels and plays that I am reading than I have been able to before. It is also really rewarding to focus so much on you topics because you get to see how everything works together. For me, I am seeing Jane Austen’s progression in her writing style and sophistication from her first novel to her last. I am also seeing why Shakespeare’s thoughts behind his plays because I can see similarities in characters, plot, and theme. The toughest part in my opinion is the quick turn around in between papers. This week I had two papers due and my two tutorials both on Tuesday! So as soon as I finished one essay, I had to try to finish the reading for my second tutorial, then I had to finish the other essay, and now that I have finished both essays I began right away on my reading for my paper for Tuesday. It’s just non-stop! I am enjoying meeting with my tutors one-on-one. I don’t often think of tutorials as work because I get to sit around with my tutors, sipping tea or coffee, and discussing literature! Yay! Sometimes though I don’t like the tutorial system, because when your tutor asks you a question and you don’t know the answer, you can’t just wait for someone else to raise their hand, because there is no one else! I have had many times when I have been confused, and gotten tongue tied, thought originally I had a good idea I was trying to communicate, and then mid-sentence I would forget what my good point was! My tutors are really nice though and they don’t get mean or anything. The tutorials are meant to be an exchange of ideas, and the tutors like you to propose thoughts and challenge them just as much as they ask you questions.

Right, so after all that work, I need to work off the stress somehow right? Well, I row! Unfortunately, I haven’t been on the river in two weeks! L We were short a cox one morning and couldn’t go, and this week the river warning has been too high because we had too much rain and the river was too high! But this week instead of rowing on the Isis, I have gotten to work on my skills on the Erg machine, which I found to be much more helpful! My coach was right there explaining to me what she wanted to me to do, rather than yelling at me from the side of the river bank when she is trying to watch all eight of us at once. I felt like I did much better after her instruction, so hopefully we can get our act together as a team, because our first race is in 10 days!

I have to admit that I think I know why I may be finding the work to be non-stop. The past two weekends I have been off campus! Two weekends ago I went on the home stay in Worcester. (Hence why I now have the “Worcester Trifecta.” I am from outside of Worcester, Massachusetts, I am at Worcester College, and now I have been to Worcestershire, England too!) It was relaxing to be able to relax in a home for the weekend. It wasn’t too much of an exciting time, but it was a nice little break. I stayed with Avril, a woman in her sixties originally from Wales who has been living in Worcester for twenty years now, with another student from another college at Oxford. Avril fed us lots of food and gave us even more hot drinks (tea, coffee, chocolate). I think she asked me at least six or seven times each day I was there if I would like a hot drink! Each night we were there we just relaxed and watched a movie, and then I slept in! That was the only time I have slept in the whole time I have been here! The one thing that the program did have planned for us was a tour of the city of Worcester. They have a few claims to fame, like Worcestershire sauce, Worcester Porcelain (it’s really expensive!), John Wesley founded the first Methodist church there, and supposedly Shakespeare had to go there to get his marriage license! I enjoyed walking around the city, and getting to see the place where the name for my hometown comes from. My favorite was the cathedral though! It was beautiful! Here are some pictures from the weekend:

This is an assembly hall in the Worcester Town Hall (a Georgian style building...cerca Jane Austen's time!)

A cute traditional "black and white" style house.

Inside the cathedral...so pretty!

This past weekend I was in London for the London Excursion Weekend put on by my study abroad provider (IFSA-Butler). I had a fabulous time in London! I got to do a lot more sightseeing and actually spend some time at the sights we saw. But my favorite part of the weekend was getting to see friends from Stonehill! There were eight Stonehillers in London for the weekend! Some I have seen at Oxford, but others I hadn’t seen since the end of the spring semester! Friday night I went on the London Eye with a couple of those Stonehill girls and some of their friends from St. Catz (the Oxford college they are at). Here are some pictures from the Eye:

Here are the Stonehill girls on the London Eye!

On Saturday we went to Westminster Abbey (which was my favorite! I loved seeing Poet’s Corner), the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, the Churchill Museum and the War Cabinet Rooms, and finally the Globe Theater! By the end of the day it was pouring rain! And we had to hurry back to the hotel to change into our Halloween costumes for our Halloween party boat cruise on the Thames! Then on Sunday morning we had a nice big brunch, and I zipped back up to Oxford on the train!

We had to do all the tourist-y things! So here I am at the Harry Potter tourist trap!

Who goes to London without seeing how many people they can fit in a phone booth? Us: 6!

The single Londoner we met at the changing of the guards felt bad that I was short and couldn't see...so he let me sit on this shoulders. Too bad I didn't even get his name!

Here I am with Christine, fellow Stonehill English major, in the Globe! Yay!

On the boat cruise, I got to see Kathleen and Kaitlyn, Stonehill friends studying at the University of Kent.

I also got to see my fellow witch friend (Rebecca from St. Edmund's at Oxford), Sarah Palin (Maria), an angel (Erica), and Joe the Plummer (Tiina) - all Worcesterites with me!

It has been interesting being here in England during the election, and so Maria and Tiina's costumes were quite a hit!

This Saturday I am taking a day trip with a couple friends from other Oxford colleges to Bath. Now that I have seen the Globe, I will get to see the setting for a couple of Austen’s novels! It’s really neat to be where the people I am studying were a couple hundred years ago. So much history in Oxford…and England!