Ninth Week

This week started out really fun. Andrea and I went to a concert, Sleigh Bells, on Monday night. Before the concert started we sat in an outdoor cafe and had a drink. It was beautiful weather that day. The rest of my week was consumed with work (per usual); however, I got some great feedback from my tutors.

In my Roman Britain tutorial I gave a presentation of the effects of the Roman Military on Britain. My tutor told me that I had a natural knack for Roman Britain archaeology as someone who had never studied that particular culture. That was nice to hear, especially because she doesn't give me grades (and I hate giving presentations).

I wrote a paper for my Celtic archaeology class, but then on Friday morning I got an email from my tutor canceling class. This meant I could go join my friends in London for the afternoon (and get some shopping done for my travels afterwards)!

I met up with my friends, Sarah Smith, Sarah Conkin and Rachel, in Kensington Park. We then grabbed some lunch before splitting up. Conkin and I went shopping for the afternoon, but we found Smith and Rachel again at Paddington Station and grabbed a light dinner there before catching the train back to Oxford. In the station, the Paddington Station Band was playing; it was nice to listen to them while eating dinner. I had a great afternoon!

Here are some pictures from my week:

Sleigh Bells

Kensington Park

I ate all of my pasta at lunch! Yum

Paddington Station Band

The Lake District, Sunday

Today was Rachel and mine's last day in the Lake District. Our plan for the day was to go to eat at a cute restaurant for brunch, and then visit a castle before catching our train back to Oxford. It was quite an adventure-the bus system does not run very frequently on Sundays.

First we had brunch in Windermere and wandered around the town since nothing opened until noon. Then we started our adventure. We took a bus to Kendal and then had to change our bus because on Sundays the buses do not run the full route. One bus runs half the route and then another bus runs the other half. We  had to wait an hour and then caught our bus for the Sizergh Castle. So we ask the driver to let us off at Sizergh Castle, and he does, sorta. The bus stop is on the side of a four line highway. That apparently we need to cross because we see a sign pointing to the Castle down another road. After playing Frogger and dodging the cars, we started walking down the road and admiring the cows. Eventually we made it to the castle (I was pretty positive we wouldn't make it there before we needed to go back and catch our bus). The best part of walking to that Castle was everyone in their cars that stared at us as they drove past. What can I say, I must have looked like a crazy backpacker (I did and it was REALLY hot).

The Castle was wonderful even if we didn't have that much time. We could only go in part of it because the owner lives in the other wings. At the cafe in the castle we were able to buy the famous Kendal Mint Cake we read about. By the way, it's not cake. It is an energy bar that early English explorers took to the Antarctic or up Mount Everest. It is only sugar, oil of peppermint and water. Literally just sugar. We still bought it to try and brought some home to share. It tasted pretty good-like a peppermint candy-but I would not want to eat a whole bar. It would make you sick and really hyper.

After the Castle we wandered out to a bus stop on the other side of the street. We weren't sure if the bus was actually going to come pick us up, but it did (whew!). We then took it back to Kendal and caught out train from the Kendal bus station. And then we had an uneventful journey back home. In Birmingham we actually met up with some of the guys from UGA who went to Edinburgh, so we rode the rest of way with them.

I would totally recommend visiting the Lake District if you ever end up in England. See more pictures below:

Road to the castle

There are some cows

Sizergh Castle

Kendal Mint Cake

Our bus stop

The Lake District, Saturday

Saturday morning Rachel and I woke up and tried breakfast in the hostel. It was fine; just another normal english breakfast (always with beans). Our plan for the day was to meet up with the Sarahs and go to Beatrix Potter's home, Hill Top. Before heading out Rachel and I had to figure out the bus system which involved actually finding the bus stop (they have a great bus system throughout the Lake District that connects all of the small towns).

Once we hiked to the bus stop, we waited for the Sarahs and watched someone fail to parallel park. I was positive they were going to push the other car down the hill; they actually managed to push the other car, but I didn't see any damage to its bumper. It was more like they wedged their car under the stationary car and lifted it. I guess it was too early in the morning for them.

Then Rachel and I met up with the Sarahs and headed to the ferry area in Windermere (our hostel was in Ambleside, so that's why we had to take a bus back to Windermere). The buses are all double deckers with open tops. It was wonderful to sit in the sun, but my hair was really knotty by the end of the day. The ferry ride to Hill Top was fun; it was nice to ride in a boat in warm, sunny weather.

Hill Top was pretty, but I probably wouldn't recommend anyone going back there. You could wander through her house and gardens, but there were no plaques explaining things within the house. You didn't know which paintings were hers or her brother's. I mean it was really pretty, but as a museum lover I was disappointed.

After Hill Top we had lunch in a pub there (ham sandwich with english mustard-spicy!) and then caught the bus back to the ferry. The bus over on that side of the lake was a minibus and couldn't fit everyone. It was full when Rachel and I tried to get on, so we just said good bye to the Sarahs and decided to walk. However, this other man, with a private hired minibus (same company as bus we rode earlier, but a group of people hired that particular driver for the day), saw that we got left and gave us a ride. He wouldn't accept anything either; he was really nice. So we were able to catch the ferry back with the Sarahs and ate ice cream (like all of the other tourists) by the lake and watched the swans (swans are everywhere in England). I had no idea how large swans actually were until I came to the Lake District.

We then left the Sarahs and headed to Dove Cottage, Keats' home with his family and sister for about twenty years. The tour at the Dove Cottage was much better. There was actually a tour guide who led us through the house and explained early 1800s houses in general and told us amusing anecdotes about Keats and his family.

After Dove Cottage Rachel and I wandered through Ambleside (the town nearby our hostel) and got some take out Chinese to eat for dinner. We ate it in a park and just enjoyed the weather. We headed back to our hostel around 8 thinking we might do some school work (ha!). Instead, we joined the rest of the hostel in grabbing a drink at the bar and then watching the sun set outside (the hostel didn't have air conditioning and was suffocating with the heat). We went to bed early so we could get up for our adventure on Sunday!

Beautiful view from our hostel

Bus ride

Ferry boats

Village near Hill Top Farm

Hill Top Farm

More ferry ride

You scream, I scream, We all scream for ICE CREAM!

Crazy hair from the bus

Dove Cottage and Garden

The Lake District, Friday

This weekend Rachel and I went to the Lake District of England. We met up with our friends Sarah Smith and Sarah Conkin there. The Lake District is really popular for the poets and authors that lived there; it's also a popular vacation spot because of the beautiful scenery and lake activities. My friends are english majors so they were really excited. I just went because I like water and pretty scenery (not so much of).

Rachel and I left Oxford at 3:30 on Friday and arrived at our hostel at 11 pm! The train system was kinda messed up and we were delayed two hours in Birmingham. Luckily the train station is directly across Keats from the Bullring shopping center-the center I hung out in when I was on my pilgrimage in 9th grade. So Rachel and I wandered around there for a bit and ate some dinner since we had so much extra time on our hands. We had some delicious sushi from Yo! Sushi. It's a chain restaurant, one of those where the sushi comes by on a conveyer belt and you just pick up what you want. It was REALLY yummy! We finally got to Windermere and took a taxi to our hostel because the buses stop running at night (lame). Our taxi driver was really nice and our hostel was wonderful! Enjoy Friday's pictures below.

Excited to go!

Birmingham Selfridges

The Selfridges has a gourmet food section where they had some "American Food". I especially liked the Lucky Charms section because apparently the cereal is so unhealthy, it has to be imported separately.

Bullring Shopping Center Statues

Yo! Sushi

Almost there! One more train station to go! We had to wait at Oxenholme for a hour and in that hour the sun set, so it was dark when we pulled into Windermere

We had a private train to Windermere. Because that's how we roll.

Rachel calling people to figure out if we could still catch a bus. But then we couldn't.

Our hostel room. It was private-very nice! The bed was actually more comfortable than the bed at the UGA house.

Never take pictures at 11:30 at night. The pose you think is funny just looks weird.

Eighth Week

Well it was another  busy week here in Oxford. I had two papers due this week. Neither one of my tutorials went very smoothly. I think my lack of sleep affected my ability to think of explanations (for why Celtic peoples did this, why the Romano-British villas differ etc).

I did make one of my tutors laugh. She told my other tutor (Wendy, on Fridays) that it was refreshing to hear an honest answer. Zena asked me how I found the topic (Villas in Roman Britain). I told her I though it was dull and boring (apparently most people don't just admit that out loud).

My Celtic tutorial with Wendy was really awkward. She did that stare-at-you-until-you-sweat stare that apparently is very popular with Oxford tutors (from comparisons with my housemates). I can't handle the staring; it makes me talk in circles because it takes forever for your tutor to reply to your answer. I guess they are waiting to see if you come up with anything else, but when I finish talking that's usually all I have to say (I like to put it all out there at once).

This weekend I went to the Lake District with my friends. More on that to follow (with pictures).

This is my life...

Sometimes I can totally feel like this (above) when I'm holed up inside reading entire textbooks on a subject for a paper, but then I go outside and see this (below) and remember how lovely Oxford is and that I love it here!