Oxford and Bath

It's been awhile since my last post and I know some of you have been eagerly anticipating a post about my weekend in Oxford and Bath so here goes (it's going to be a long one, but I promise it will be good...and there are pictures!). First I need to discuss the events that occurred on Friday. Friday afternoon I had my Gothic Architecture final. I think it went fairly well and I'm pretty sure David just wants us all to do well. After our final, our whole class took a picture and then proceeded to enjoy pitchers of Pimm's in the CUS courtyard with David. It was quite an enjoyable afternoon spent with good friends, refreshments and a great professor.

Celebrating the end of our exam

The rest of the afternoon, however, was spent in anxiety about trying to find a costume in time for the Brit Bop that night. It seemed as if the whole idea of going to the bop was going to fail miserably until I got the brilliant idea to dress up as a Wimbledon linesperson. I had the perfect clothing for it (although I didn't have white pants, but I improvised and wore navy blue corduroys instead) and I also had the accessories since I had bought a lanyard and keychain when I went to Wimbledon. So I donned my linesperson gear and headed to the bop with Lauren and Heidi who both decided to go as tourists. The bop was great fun. One of our PA's, Ruth, dressed up as Hermione and it worked perfectly because she looks just like Emma Watson. Another PA, HY, dressed up as the great vowel shift (she studied Linguistics so it makes sense) which was really funny and far more creative than anything I could have ever come up with. Two other PA's decided to go with a James bond theme so Alexander dressed as Bond and Moses dressed as a Bond girl in a bathing suit. Funny stuff. So the night went very well and there were some really great costumes. Some of my favorites were the punters, the Black Death, a Remembrall and a chimney sweep. I left the bop around 11 because I had to be up early the next morning to catch the bus to Oxford.

I rolled out of bed around 5 am and met up with everyone an hour later as we headed over to Parker's Piece to catch the bus to Oxford. The bus ride was about three hours. During the ride I had a revelation of sorts. I was looking out at the beautiful English countryside and it hit me that I was really excited for all the weekend trips I had planned. I had obviously been excited about the trips before that or I wouldn't have planned them to begin with, but there was something about that moment that made me feel as though travelling was the most wonderful and perfect aspiration and something I wanted to do forever. It made me feel as though I had to plan out trips for every vacation I would ever have. So I started to plan and I now have big plans for Christmas break, spring break and next summer (which hopefully includes a PKP reunion in Bonaire). I'm also loving the fact that I just got back from Oxford and Bath and will be in Prague on Friday and Berlin five days after I get back from Prague. The travel bug is extremely powerful.

We arrived in Oxford a little before ten and dashed off to Christ Church College in hopes of seeing the Great Hall which is used in the first and second Harry Potter films. Christ Church is absolutely magnificent. Everything about it is beautiful. We entered the college and went into the cloister and towards the Great Staircase (also seen in Harry Potter) and found that the Dining Hall wouldn't be open until eleven. So we headed over to Christ Church Cathedral, passing through Tom Quad (which gets its name from the seven ton Great Tom Bell which hangs in the Tom Tower over the gatehouse) on our way. First of all, the fact that a college has a cathedral in it should give you a sense of the grandeur of Christ Church. Also, the cathedral was beautiful (although the architecture was rather odd and definitely showed signs of several different periods of construction) and there were Cathedral stewards there to point out interesting features and tell you about the history of the Cathedral. One steward found us and told us about various parts of the cathedral. We learned that the shrine of St. Frideswide had been destroyed by Henry VIII, but the fragments were found at the bottom of a well 350 years later and put back together. There is also a window in that chapel that tells the story of St. Frideswide and which also features a very modern looking toilet. On the south side of the cathedral there is a chapel that holds the Thomas Becket window which was made in 1320 and shows the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket who was murdered in his own cathedral. The window was ordered to be destroyed, but was cleverly preserved by simply blocking out Becket's face. After seeing the cathedral, we rushed back to the Dining Hall and got back just as it was opening. We took several pictures on the Grand Staircase and then headed into the Dining Hall to see where they filmed parts of the first two Harry Potter movies. That was probably the most exciting part of our visit to Christ Church. I was so excited. The Hall itself is actually much smaller than in appears in the movies, but it was still pretty awesome to be there (if only the portraits could move...). The Hall has more connections with Lewis Carroll's book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but you can look that up if you're interested. There were various Harry Potter related items (including very tacky looking wands) in the gift shop which I was very tempted to buy, but I ended up buying Hogwarts House pins for my sister instead. After leaving Christ Church, we headed to Magdalene College which is considered to be the most beautiful of the Oxford Colleges, a reputation which I certainly thought it deserved. The college was magnificent and very large. Upon entering the college, you can see the President's Lodgings and Founder's Tower which was the original entrance to the college. The cloisters were breathtaking, but it was disappointing to not be able to ignore the 'Private' signs like we can do here at Cambridge. We headed to the New Building at Magdalene which is where C.S. Lewis resided and which is marked by flower boxes in the three windows of his rooms. Edward Gibbon also resided in this building. Magdalene has had seven Fellows who have won the Nobel Prize including Erwin Schrodinger!! We then continued onto Addison's Walk which lead us into the Magdalene College Fellows Garden and eventually to the deer park. The rest of the day was spent walking around Oxford trying to get to the Kilns which is where C.S. Lewis lived for about 30 years. The story of how we got there is actually very entertaining. While Heidi, Lauren and Cassie were very excited to go to the Kilns, Barrett and I did not really care so we were walking very slowly while the other three sped ahead. We eventually lost sight of them and called them only to find out that they had been given incorrect directions and were heading back in our direction. A few minutes later we hear Cassie shouting our names as they pull up in a car being driven by an elderly English gentleman. So (with some slight hesitation) we got in the car as well. I know many of you are probably thinking that this was a bad idea, but everything worked out just fine and this elderly man was absolutely wonderful. It was very kind of him to give us a ride because our destination was actually about a 15 minute drive down the highway. He also referred to his wife as "my good lady" which we thought was quite funny. So after a slightly sketchy situation we finally made it to the Kilns. The house next to the Kilns has a sign on it that says "Narnia" with a picture of a lion. Very entertaining. We walked through the C.S. Lewis Nature Preserve. It was so peaceful and it was great to sit and relax for a bit before heading to the train station (where I proceeded to buy a massive box of biscuit curls which I devoured in less than 24 hours) to catch our train to Bath. Overall, my impressions of Oxford are mixed. The colleges are stunning, but the city itself didn't really impress me. It's much more urban than Cambridge. I would choose Cambridge over Oxford any day (and no I'm not just saying that because I go to Cambridge). Oxford is great, but I love the intimacy of Cambridge and the warmth of the people here and I would do anything to come back for grad school.

The staircase used in Harry Potter!!

In the Great Hall used in Harry Potter!!

In the Magdalene College Cloisters

We arrived in Bath around 10 pm and took a cab to Bath University which is where we were staying for the night. The rooms (like those in Scotland) were nice and modern. The rooms, which were very, very small, had 14 outlets! I feel the need to mention this because I have two outlets in my room at Cambridge and I am constantly having to unplug one thing in order to plug something else in. I presume students at Bath University don't have this problem. We all settled in for the night with plans to meet at 8:30 am for breakfast. We ended up meeting much, much earlier when the fire alarm went off at about 2 am. It was quite the experience. There was a large group of Spanish teenagers who had been being loud and obnoxious (or so I was told...I fell asleep right away and didn't hear them) all night and we presume one of them pulled the alarm. After debating whether or not to ignore the alarm (assuming it was going to go off rather quickly), I finally got out of bed and got dressed and went outside. For some reason (obviously we have too many fire drills at home), I felt no sense of urgency and just assumed nothing was wrong which is probably not the best thing to assume when a fire alarm is going off! Anyway, we were outside for quite awhile before the alarm shut off, but we finally went back to bed and I fell asleep again right away. After the alarm situation we had decided on a later meeting time so we met up around 9:15 and began our day. We visited the Pulteney Bridge and then went and took pictures of Bath Abbey. Barrett and I briefly stopped by the Jane Austen Centre so she could buy something and then went to see The Circus and The Royal Crescent while the others went on a tour of the Jane Austen Centre. The are hand painted lions all over Bath this year which will be auctioned off in the fall as part of a charity event. These lions were so cool and all of them had different themes. My favorite was "auROARa Sulis". Anyway, we all met up for lunch at Sally Lunn's which is the oldest house in Bath. After lunch we grabbed some (fantastic) ice cream and headed to the Roman Baths. I had been really looking forward to the Baths since I felt that they were clearly the most important thing to see in Bath and I was not disappointed as it was (for me) the highlight of the weekend. The baths were far more expansive than I had expected. There was a great museum that you walk through first and then you finally get down to the level of the baths and I was absolutely in awe. You get an audio guide so I was eagerly listening to everything it had to tell me about life in Aquae Sulis (which is what the Romans called Bath). I was also excited when I was able to correctly state that the piles of bricks in some of the rooms were used to elevate the floor so that the hot water would pass underneath and the steam would rise up to create a sauna. With admission to the baths you also receive free entrance to The Pump Room (a fancy restaurant) and a free glass of spa water. After we finished exploring the baths we went to get our glass of spa water. It was possibly the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted. It was warm and tasted like metal, but at least I can say I drank spa water from the Roman Baths. After that we just walked around for awhile until we got on the train back to Cambridge (on which Lauren and I enjoyed multiple free five minute previews on the TV's in our seats...we learned to manipulate the system by watching 5 minutes on one TV then 5 on the other and then realized the 5 minute trial renewed after each stop...it was very exciting because I have not been able to watch TV since I got here!) Overall, Bath was much more enjoyable than Oxford. Bath is very classical in style (except for Bath Abbey) and I was reminded of Tuscany as we drove down the winding hill from Bath Univeristy to the city centre. The Roman Baths were just overwhelming (I could have spent hours more in there) and have forced me to reconsider getting some type of further degree in Ancient History (I've been pushing this idea aside in favor of a further degree in Modern European History, but now I just don't know).

"AuROARa Sulis"

Roman Baths with Bath Abbey in the background

At the Roman Baths

This week has been absolutely crazy. Module II classes started and I am loving The British and Their Sports, but it's a ton of work. I have stuff planned for just about every single day that's left in the programme. Yesterday I did get to enjoy some time just sitting by the Cam which I haven't done in awhile. I am done with classes by 11:40 everyday so I've decided to make the most of my afternoons and plan some short half day trips in the areas around Cambridge. Today I went to Audley End House which is a short 20 minute train ride from Cambridge. Audley End is a small town and the train station was deserted. There wasn't even anyone there to check tickets! It took me some time to find Audley End House since there were very few signs to show the way and the "footpath" was actually just a sidewalk along the main road. I finally arrived and was very impressed. I began in the Parterre Garden which was designed to be admired from the first floor rooms. It was stunning. I made quick stops in the Tea Room and Service Wing. Then I went into the house itself. The house is massive. When you enter, there is a very large entrance way that leads to a staircase with a balcony at the top that made me feel like Evita could have been filmed there. Soon after, I entered the library and I fell in love. I wanted to take pictures so badly, but they have people stationed in every room preventing this. I learned that the first room of the library has 2,500 books and the second room has 7,500. There are about 11,000 in the whole house. 11,000 books. I was ready to move in. The house even had its own gothic style chapel with a stained glass window and mock fan vaulting. If you look over the chapel screen, you look down into the great entrance hall. Apparently the children who resided in this house were obsessed with taxidermy and there were two long corridors packed with birds and even the head of a bull and a moose. There were several painting in every room, a dining hall with two fireplaces and a clock that shows what the weather is like. After touring the house I got some ice cream and sat down under a tree to eat and do some people watching. Then I went to see the various other gardens around the property, the organic kitchen garden, the waterwheel and the stable yard. There is also a WWII pillbox on the property which I really enjoyed. The whole afternoon was just fabulous. It was so relaxing and beautiful. I have a few other afternoon trips planned around the area so I hope I get to do all of them and make the most of the time I have left in this amazing country.


I'm leaving for Prague on Friday afternoon and I am so excited!! I have alot of reading to do before then and I have to pack as well. I also somehow managed to lose one of my Ralph Lauren polo's in the process of doing laundry which I'm very unhappy about. I'll leave you with the video of the bumps races which I've been meaning to put up, but haven't been able to because the internet hasn't been working. I'm sorry this post was so long, but I hope you enjoyed it! Look for another update after I get back from Praha!!