Oxford

Sunday, November 8th – 9th:

Today we moved from Canterbury to Oxford. Moving days are not always my favorite, but they do have some random perks such as being able to zone out in the bus listening to music as you watch the English countryside roll by outside the window. And since there are only 25 of us total in the group, we usually all get our own seats on the bus so it tends to be a good time to be alone and think…or sleep.

On the way to Oxford we stopped at a palace called Blenheim Palace, another historical en-route-destination, where we were given a preface from our professor that was something to the effect of, “This is a really cool place; it has tons of historical and literary connections. Go find them!” Haha. Personally, I started off finding the connection between my stomach and some food by having lunch in a nice café. Then I spent the rest of my time wandering through the Winston Churchill exhibit they had set up and seeing the state rooms. What I found most fascinating about this house was that it was the childhood home of Winston Churchill; his exhibit was my favorite part (Dad, you would have loved it.) My second favorite part was on the way out when I had to walk through the gift shop and was joyfully greeted with Christmas music that made me smile from ear to ear because it made me think of home! Ahh…I can’t wait for Christmas, and it’s no where even near Thanksgiving!

Shortly after, we arrived in Oxford and unloaded into a youth hostel on the edge of town. This was actually our first hostel of the entire trip, which is really surprising, and overall it wasn’t half-bad, except for the smell of our rooms when we first arrived, which was soon remedied by dramatically waving dryer sheets around and keeping the shower and bathroom doors shut. Some of the girls in my room went out right away, but I laid down for a while to think; and then Allison and I went out to meet Emily C. and Annie at “The Mission” for dinner. We had spotted this Mexican restaurant in the map/brochure from the hostel, and quickly realized it was an imitation-Chipotle so we had to go! It even used the exact same font as Chipotle on its name-board and menu; we theorized that some English chap had probably gone over to the US, been to a Chipotle maybe twice, and said “hey, I can do this!” and then came back to England and mimicked what he thought he remembered. Let’s just say the chicken wasn’t spicy and their interpretation of ‘pico de gallo’ was mostly chopped up onions with a few tomatoes. Though definitely not Chipotle, it was an amusing and yummy dinner experience nonetheless.

The following day was – Monday – was our only full day in Oxford, so we were all on a mission to cram in as much walking, site-seeing, shopping, intelligence, or what have you, as we could. At the top of my list was going shopping at the Oxford University store, of which there are actually several, and purchasing some apparel, which was a fun and successful trip. Afterwards, I left the girls I was with and happened upon the Carfax tower I had read about in the Lonely Planet, so I decided to walk up it for the sake of the view, which was totally worth it! It felt like you could pretty much see all of Oxford when you got to the top of the tower – which is the only section still standing of what used to be a medieval church (if I remember my facts correctly).

Later that afternoon we met as a group to have a tour of Oxford and the colleges by a highly-recommended tour guide, apparently known to be the best of the best at what she does; her name was Felicity. She gave us a fabulous tour of Oxford for a good two hours that was very entertaining and informational; I would highly suggest connecting with this woman if you’re ever planning on going to Oxford. She’s a fabulous resource! Probably the most amazing thing that I saw on the tour was the exterior of the infamous library that receives a copy of every newly published book in England, which is brought from London once a week! Talk about an English-major’s dream – we were all in awe. After the tour we all dispersed; I wandered the streets with Katy a while until we made it back to the hostel where we waited for the “bank to open” (a.k.a. Mark Bruce to appear with cash) so that we could afford to go out to dinner. Then, a large group of us set out to go eat at the ‘Eagle and Child’, the infamous location where C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolkien would often sit and chat. There were so many of us that we took up almost the entire back room so it felt like we were having our own little party – such fun, and a great ending to a wonderful, though short, stay in Oxford.