at the halfway point

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This is the part of every post where I apologize profusely for not being consistent, and then I promise to post pictures soon...blah blah blah...okay, now to catch you up:

Saturday, July 24th
(Yes, I am this behind...)
Jennifer JB and I woke up early and headed off for London. Jennifer had our day planned out and her copy of Wear to Where- London in hand. (But you must know that when I say "planned out" I mean that she had every shop she wanted to go to written down and categorized by genre, neighborhood, street, and tube stop, and directions to each one. Needless to say- she's my favorite person to travel with.)
We began the day at Leichster Square, with the motive of discount theatre tickets for that evening. As it turned out, we were even more successful than that, as we obtained not only discounted tickets, but two of the best seats in the theatre! Tickets in hand, we were off to Harrod's.
I had no idea what Harrod's was, much less of its enormity and extravagance. "Department Store" is the knowledge I walked in with, but this was the first department store that I have walked into where they had you a booklet when you walk in with maps and direction, amenities and facilities. Holy Cow!!! When I pulled a jacket off of the 80% off rack that had a discounted price of $2,000 I became very aware of my surroundings. It was at this point I opted forget the shopping routine, and decided to play gawker. I'm a great gawker. I pointed and poked-fun at and made a merry time for myself. You wouldn't believe these outrageous pieces of crap that they call "designer" clothes. Puh-lease! But I did have a great time- it was huge, gorgeous, amazing, gaudy, full of "interesting" types of people, and was all-in-all a great learning experience, i.e. I learned that I belong back on the Drag at the vintage stores and the occasional trip to the mall.
We went into Harvey Nick's and many other crazy places. I honestly have no idea how people afford to shop at these places. I decided that they all live in shanties and survive on a diet of tea and scones. I had a great time, and Jennifer was an awesome guide!
After shopping until we were ready to drop, we made our way to dinner and then the theatre. We had tickets to see "When Harry Met Sally" at 8:3pm, starring Molly Ringwald. I LOVE MOLLY RINGWALD!!! And this will make my little sister so very jealous because she and I love Brat Pack movies. Sorry Moo, I swear I did it for you. :) The show was too cute- we laughed and laughed. And yes, that famous cafe scene is still there, and yes, it is still that funny! We were just about dead on the bus back to Oxford that night, but it was totally worth it. I had in hand my T-shirt from the show that reads "I'll have what she's having" across the front.

Sunday, July 24th
Church was great because I met some of the coolest people ever! Nicole and Dan are from Seattle- he is studying here at Oxford, and she works so he can study, and Leanne and Graham are from Australia, and he is here doing engineer work. They were so much fun that I didn't want to leave the after-church tea time.
I busted out a quick paper in about an hour that was due the next day. I know people hate me for this, but it is a gift...really. I can't help it. :) I updated the blog for the week before, as I am doing today. That evening, Jen R, Jo, Kristen, and I hung out in Jen's room and danced. It was a blast! We have a routine and everything, though I'm not sure if I was supposed to mention that, so shhh...don't tell. Jen is a great dancer, and she is quite patient with those of us who move like the white girls that we are.

Monday, July 25th
I followed the girls on an "unshopping trip." Apparently, when Jennifer JB and I went to London, the girls here went shopping as well, though they failed to try on their purchases, so we returned quite a bit of clothing.
At this point in the week I knew that something was wrong with my computer, so Daniel offered to help me with it that night, and he removed quite a bit of Spyware, though that didn't quite fix the problem. After he fixed my computer, a bunch of us watched a Tom Stoppard film, called "Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead," which was a strange film about 2 characters from Hamlet and their version of the tale. I still don't quite know how I feel about that movie...it was quite strange...

Tuesday, July 26th
Toby Stephens, who played Hamlet when we saw it in Stratford, came to speak with us. He is not only the son of Maggie Smith, but also has appeared in such movies as "Die Another Day." He was a delightful guest, and answered our questions with much more knowledge of Shakespeare and Hamlet than I had anticipated.
This was the day that I had the run-in with the IT guy. Read the entry called "bad news, bad day" to get the full potency of my feelings from that day.
That night, a few of us hung out on the grass in the quad and had one of the funniest nights of my life. I can't believe how hard I laughed or how much fun I had. Laughing at drunk people has to be one of my favorite passtimes here.

Wednesday, July 27th
We hopped on the bus at 3pm to head to London. The bus dropped us off at Covent Garden, where we went through a wonderful outdoor market and watched street performers. We ate dinner at Ye Olde Cocke Tavern, where Jen and Jo tried bangers and mash for the first time. It had to be one of the most unappetizing dishes I have ever seen, but it received rave reviews when they got past its grotesques appearance.
We then walked to The Globe Theatre, and hung out under the Millennium Bridge until the show started. Martin bought a bird call and competed with the guy who sold it to him. It was quite the Hitchcock atmosphere. We saw "Measure for Measure" which I had never read or seen before. Unlike my peers, I very much enjoyed the play, though afterwards I was told that I had seen a comical version of it. I will admit that the casting was quite poor, but I enjoyed the plot line. On the ride home, I sat in the front and talked to Daniel, who gave me pointers on where to go and what to do in Paris. I am so ready to go to France! (Sorry Daddy....)

Thursday, July 28th
We left right after classes and were definitely on the bus for almost six hours...enough to make everyone go a bit crazy. We ended up in Haworth, up in the Yorkshire moors, which is where the Bronte sisters lived. We took a walking tour of the town that evening, and five of us went off with the professors to see some of the moors before nightfall. We climbed to the top of a cliff to get the full effect of our surroundings, and then meandered though the grave yard. This was the creepiest grave yard I have ever seen- and I love old grave yards. There were about 46,000 bodies in about a half an acre site, all stacked one on top of the other. An eerie mist hung low on the tree tops, as the shadows began to crawl. We then went to a local pub, though I just watched everyone have a drink, and then we walked back to the hostel. Our hostel was in an old Gothic house and was absolutely beautiful.
Our room in the hostel held 8 girls, though not all of us fit. The bunk beds were almost toddler size, so Joanna ( the tall blonde bombshell) wasn't too keen on attempting to shrink into one. To save money, the hostels don't wash all of the bedding, just the sheet cocoon that they expect you to sleep in. It has a pocket to stuff the pillow into, and then you crawl into it like a sleeping bag, placing the comforter over it. But, those who didn't fit so well into the beds obviously didn't fit so well into the sheet cocoons, so there were many laughs to be had as we made our way to bed.

Friday, July 29th
We rose early and headed off to the moors. Our hike was 4.5 miles long, and took us up to the top of what may have been the setting for Wuthering Heights. I am proud to say that I was able to stay in the front of the pack (aren't you proud, Bart?) and was the second person to reach the top. There were ruins on the top of the final hill, where we stopped to rest and contemplate moorish things. The weather as incredible, which is strange for that area, though we were fortunate to experience a taste of the moors as we sat on the ruins. An eerie, low cloud moved past us, over us, and through us, all at once, as hands grasped for jackets and friends. The land was silent and still, and a sharp chill passed over the crowd. But the weather was back to blessed as soon as we began the trek back to the bus. We were exhausted by the end of it, ate lunch on the bus, and headed to Haworth. The hike has been my favorite activity so far for this entire trip. It was absolutely amazing. The only damper to this awesome hike was that when I got back on the bus, i realized my feet were bleeding on the insides of my shoes. The backs of my shoes rubbed against my Achilles tendons so hard that they drew blood. It stung like heck, but the Girl Scout in me (thanks, Mom) was smart enough to bring bandaids, neosporin, and masking tape, so I was good to go in about five minutes.
We then traveled back to the town of Haworth and went through the Bronte Parsonage Museum, followed by a Bronte tour of Haworth. Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights are two of my favorites, since we all know that 18th and 19th century female authors are my genre, so I was enchanted by this afternoon of literary history. We then got back on the bus and headed to a different hostel for the night.
When we arrived at the hostel in Eyam we literally took over the place, as we were the only guests for the night. We hungrily devoured our dinners and then played board games until bed time. The game of choice that night was Backwords, in which we found out that girls have an innate ability to hear a word backwards and then retort it forwards, an ability which the guys did not possess. (That's okay- the next day we found out that guys have this same ability with mazes, and girls do not.)

Saturday, July 31st
Chatsworth is literally the Disneyworld of English gardens. The day began with a tour of the house and HOLY COW!!! To borrow a few words from my peers yesterday, "ostentatious display" and "absurd wealth" come to mind, as well as "gaudy," "tacky," "expensive," and "just wrong." The main qualm I had with the house was the fact that in one room an original Rembrandt was hanging across from a jet engine on the floor and a painting of dogs at a table on the opposite wall. It was just wrong. The house was interesting and we had tons of fun while making fun.
Chatsworth also had shops, restaurants, water displays, ponds, a petting zoo, amazing views, picnic areas, and so much more. We perused the garden at leisure, making observations for class. We had afternoon coffee, tea, and scones at one of the restaurants. I spent the day with a different crowd, and had a blast! Daniel, Shaun, Chad, Jessica, and Carrie were great...thanks guys!
The ride home was silent, as most were asleep after the long weekend. We got back, had dinner, and then got ready to go out. Chad, Jessica, Kristen, Daniel, Brittany, and I went to The Bridge. The crowd was much older than the last time we went dancing there, and the music left something to be desired. The techno beat with a raggae melody left one wondering how in the world they were supposed to dance to that crap. When we left the club, we were all a bit hungry. Even though I swore up and down that I wouldn't go anywhere American while I was here, the only place open last night was McDonalds, and I am not even kidding when I tell within an hour I saw hundreds of people go in and out of that place. It was a madhouse! However, we met some really cool English people and stayed there for probably and hour and a half talking to them. They were just as amused by us as we were by them. At 3am, we strolled back to Brasenose and hit the bed.

Sunday, August 1st
This morning after church we hung out for tea and coffee again. Kristen and Dallas went with me today. We spoke with Bryan again, who is very amused by American girls. After church everyone got to work on their papers that are due tomorrow. We all met up again at dinner, then parted ways again to hit up the computer room, where I have been sitting for a few hours now getting caught up on everything.

Now you are up to date. Check out all the pictures I posted today, too. It took me a while.

This posting is called "at the halfway point" because I am. Three weeks down, three more to go. The next three are going to fly by, as we will be so very busy. Jen, Jo, Kristen, and I are going to Paris this weekend. We leave on Friday. We are so excited! It should make it pretty interesting that none of us speaks any French, but they are all so cute that I bet we'll get by somehow. :)

I still love Oxford, I love England, and I'm still having the time of my life. Thank you all for the emails and comments on the blog. I think of home all the time, I promise Mom! I love you all and I would love to hear from you if I haven't yet.