Oxford

Yesterday Rachel, Julie and I spent eleven hours in Oxford. Oxford is a very pleasant city; it is very clean, nice to look at, small, and safe-feeling. I think I will even look into what grad programs around here because it is such a nice place. 

In the morning when we arrived we first had to find somewhere to purchase a map, which proved more difficult than we had thought. After finding the map, we were able to find the tourist information center, where we planned where we would like to go during the day. We ate some lunch, and then headed out to Rachel's pick, a castle where there supposedly was a "great scenic view." We all paid a pound to go up what we thought was a tower, but ended up being just an overly glorified hill. When we got to the top, it started raining very hard, so Rachel took some pictures of Julie and I being miserable: 

The Mound for a Pound

After leaving the Mound, we were walking down the street, and we ran into a girl from Smith that lives in our house! She is studying at Oxford this semester, so I guess it made sense that we ran into her, but it was very shocking to see someone familiar! 

We then made our way to the Botanic Garden so that Julie could find some sort of bench that is referenced in the Philip Pullman books. I haven't read all these books, but the bench had "Lyra and Will" engraved on it. We had a friendly garden worker point us in the right direction of the bench, and he requested that we "don't steal their bench." 

We then continued on to Christ Church, mostly because we read that parts of the first two Harry Potter films had been filmed here. I felt a little conflicted about admiring the church since Cardinal Wolsey and King Henry VIII were its main constructors and I have a hatred for them. I did however find a stained glass portrait of Sir Thomas More, the writer of Utopia (who eventually was executed by King Henry VIII and his corrupt parliament) who I adore. We saw the basis of the "Great Hall" for the Harry Potter films, which was neat. 

Next we went to see two free museums, the Museum of Natural History and the Pitts Museum I think. We saw lots of neat dinosaur skeletons, which made me think of Celine and her love for dinosaurs. Rachel and I were exhausted, so we rested on a bench in front of a bunch of human skulls for about an hour while Julie learned about evolution. 

After the museums closed, it was dark and we looked for a place to find dinner. We ate at "The Cape of Good Hope" a fun hipster pub with good food. After dinner, we all became exhausted and the day started to crumble a bit, but eventually we took a taxi to the hotel where Rachel's aunt was playing bridge, and rested there for a couple hours until she was finished and could drive us home. I admit I became a little irritable as the day became too long, it was a very tiring day running around to all the sites, but nevertheless very enjoyable. 

This morning I got up and watched Rachel's aunt's salt water fishtank for a very long time, it's so mesmerizing! I really like the clownfish and the urchins that have little suction cups instead of spines. I wonder how Walden, my fish, is doing at home and whether my mommy is remembering to feed him. 

Today we are taking it easy and I am going to work on some trivial things hopefully like my resume. It's very rainy and cloudy today so we probably won't be able to do much outdoors. 

Gros bisous!

Kay