Despite my better judgement...

... I went to London today and had a great time with Tommy with no incidents. Although I was a bit scared to ride the Underground, the sheer number of police that were at every station was comforting. That and people were totally going about their own business as if nothing happened, I'd like to think it's the resillience of the English rather than their super reserved nature, makes them look better that way. Today was very much the "see as many things as cheaply as possible" day partly because I went to places that were free or closed or were just areas, like Covent Garden and Trafalgar Square and partly because I've spent tons of money in this super expensive country.

While waiting for Tommy, who was delayed in the train for about 40 minutes, I went to Sir John Soane's museum. This guy had collected the most random things in the world and covered just about every open space in his very beautiful and very tall house with them. I couldn't take pictures but if you Google him you'll definitely find just how weird this guy is. He had a sarcophagus in his basement, alternate building plans for the Parliament and Bank of England, plaster casts of random greek statues, coins, bits of rock, just the most random things. It was interesting to see the plaster casts of different grotesques (water spouts in the shapes of animals making nasty faces) and such. Once Tommy did meet up with me we headed over to the British Museum to see all the Egyptian stuff the English stole ;-). And I got to see the Rosetta Stone!! How awesome is that! It's actually more brown than black, and it's absolutely amazing how something like that survived all that time while remaining almost entirely intact. I also got to see such exciting things as the Lindow Man, the artifacts found in the Sutton Hoo ship burial, and some very naughty Egyptian papyrus' and toys which made both me and Tommy snicker, and a near by guide glare at us.

Afterwards we grabbed lunch at Pret a Manger, like Panera but way cooler, and headed to Covent Garden. We watched a few street performers and just walked a bit around the market square. The weather was very pleasant so it was easy to sit on the sidewalk and watch people walk by and the performers do silly things. This one guy we watched, named Gigi, had on a teal suit and red/black striped shirt and socks did all these silly circus things like juggling and riding a tiny bike. We also asked a nice lady to take our picture. Adorable++, me and Tommy in Covent Garden:
















Then we headed out to Trafalgar Square which sadly had very little pigeons in it but I did take a few pretty pictures of Nelson's Column and the fountains and such. Then we walked down past the Royal Guard house and I took a picture of one of the guards in his outfit standing there not moving while the tourists lined up to take pictures with him. I felt bad so I just took one of him and kept walking, he looked like he was about ready to shoot someone. Finally we ended up at the Big Ben and Parliament, of which I took many many pictures. Sadly it was closed but I wasn't going to go in anyways, I just really wanted to see the outside and take some pictures. We walked over to Westminster Abbey, also closed because it was converted into a counceling center for 07-07 bombings. So instead we lounged around on the grass outside the Abbey and I took a few pictures lying on my back of the church as well as St. Mary's Chapel, which according to my guidebook is the popular place for society weddings. Here's a view of the Abbey from the grass:

















I went home fairly early that night mainly because Tommy had work early in the morning. But I definitely enjoyed myself. I really like London, it's so vibrant and full of people and different things. I hardly hear people speaking in English though, for the most part I walk by people speaking everything else. It's like New York, except it is more expensive and has much more history, so now it's ranked as my second favorite city. Maybe after a few more weeks here it'll beat NYC :)

Spending the day "Stoned" a.k.a. How to break into a national monument

So today, Steve and I ventured out of southeast England and headed to Salisbury to see Stonehenge and hopefully Avebury (a bigger, slightly less well known circle). When we got to the city though at around 1pm, the lady said that there was no way we could cover both sites since Avebury is a good two hours bus ride away. We chose Stonehenge of course and decided to see the Salisbury cathedral and go down to Old Sarum, a few thousand year old Roman fort and original Salisbury site.

I can't even convey just how amazing seeing Stonehenge is. A lot of people are unimpressed when they come back because it's such a hyped up place and is totally full of tourists and right next to a road and you can't come up to the stones unless you arrange outside of opening hours and all that. But really to me it doesn't matter, this place has been around for thousands of years in an amazing state of completeness. Plus the strange, mystic earth energy line stuff makes it that much cooler :). I took about a billion pictures of all the angles of the circle and we managed to meet up with some other people in the program and there is in circulation a picture of the "human Stonehenge" we made with me as the slaughter stone :). Yeah, I was really there today:

So afterwards, we headed back to the city and visited the Salisbury Cathedral as well as the Chapel of St. Thomas a Becket which had the coolest Doom Painting ever with Jesus sitting on a rainbow and all these old guys in heaven with him, and lots of women burning in hell below. It was fairly humorous to see. The Cathedral is absolutely gorgeous and boasts the tallest church spire in England at the height of 123 feet as well as the oldest operational medieval clock with no face that was designed to strike only on the hour to ring the bells. The first thing I thought when I looked at it was the Monty Python sketch about Ron Obvious attempting to be the first man to eat an entire Anglican Cathedral. So I attempted too:

After taking lots of pretty pictures of 13th century architecture, Steve and I hopped a bus out to Old Sarum. The thing is, the site was closed at 6pm and we got there about 6:15. A travel guy at the train station said that the site it big and open and we could probably jump the fence and walk around the grounds if we wanted to. Old Sarum really is a big hill with a flat top, with two giant ditches/mini-ravines dug around it, it was a common style of fortification in the early days. So Steve and I leisurely walked up the side of the first hill and around the edge of the first ravine. The view from up there was amazing; you can see the spire of the cathedral from up there.

But because Steve and I are slightly "stoopid" we decided it would be a good idea to climb down the first ravine and back up to the second edge and then rinse and repeat to get to the actual fort site. We also decided to do this in jeans and flip flops. That was probably one of the most fun and the most stupid things I've ever done. I generally have good judgment but for some reason climbing up a super steep hill and climbing underneath a barb wire fence slipped through the net. So with the ravine conquered we took a picture and climbed out onto the flat edge of the second ravine. Let me tell you, the Romans had the right idea with those defenses. I would not want to be in 60lbs of armor with a giant sword, climbing up that hill with people shooting me. I refused to do this again with the second ditch, so we walked around until much to our chagrin found that we could have just walked up the civilized asphalted road all the way up both edges. The way to the hill fort actually had a gate in front of the bridge which was padlocked. So we climbed over it, ran across the bridge, Steve took a few quick pictures, and we sprinted right back. This is Steve looking smug afterwards in front of the Old Sarum sign:

I was sure that by the time we made it back down there would be police wanting to deport us for breaking into an English Heritage monument, but no. Without incident and with lots of smugness we went back to Salisbury and hopped a train back to Oxford. I was definitely exhausted after all that climbing, walking, running, and most assuredly breaking the law in the sun. I'm having so much fun here :)

Can't have good without the bad

Yesterday was such a great day for England. London won the 2012 Olympics bid and everyone was cheery and celebrating. My blockmates and a few other people went out clubbing last night and just danced the night away, people were getting ready to head out to Barcelona for the running of the bulls. Weekend plans were made and everyone was happy. Today we wake up to bombings and casualties rising by the minute. Parents calling the OIE demanding that the program be stopped and all of us sent back home. Teachers taking headcounts in class and asking kids for lists of friends that may have already left for their weekend trips. Checking my AIM after class to find people leaving me "Are you ok?" messages. Needless to say all our plans for visiting London this weekend have been cancelled partly because the authorities are pleading with tourists and residents to stay out of the center of town to allow investigation and clean up, and partly because a lot of people are scared. If it happened today, it could happen on Saturday or Sunday too.

So now I think me and a few girls are going to visit Blenheim Palace in the morning, and then go to Manchester and Liverpool on Saturday, pending train times/delays. Sunday we may go to Stratford-upon-Avon or Stonehenge, but definitely no London. I'm sad about this whole affair mostly because it's such senseless killing of innocent people who have nothing to do with whatever this stupid terrorist group is opposing, but the other part of me is upset because this was the weekend I could spend touring the city, all my other weekends are full of travel plans. This whole situation makes no sense to me, but that's probably because I'm a nice person and am not out to get the world. For now I'm staying tuned to the news and avoiding the city...

Busy busy bee

Two exciting things happened today!
1) Tommy came to visit which was pleasant and great
2) I pretty much settled my travel plans for the rest of my time here

Seeing Tommy is always great fun because overall he is a very entertaining person, even without his adorable accent and cute English quirks. I introduced him to my travel group last Saturday and they all thought he was great, although I'm not sure if they were saying that just to keep me from getting upset ;-). We hung around town in the morning and had gigantic breakfast baps full of all kinds of fattening things like sausage and egg, and then went to the Orange shop (a cell phone company store) to get a charger for the cellphone he got me for my birthday to use in the UK. So now I have a pay as you go cell phone and I got a free charger to use as well! How convenient! Tommy also fell in love with the apple/raspberry juice I have in my room and insisted we go back to the grocery store so he can buy more... sadly they were out. Apparently the rest of Oxford just found out just how riddiculously amazing this juice is. He and I talked about our travel plans while I'm here and because of his work schedule it seems that I won't be able to go up to Aberdeenshire to see his house and meet his sister. Although I may have a chance to meet his parents at his graduation in a few weeks. Why graduation excercises are held a month after classes end is beyond me, but I've learned to keep my mouth shut, the English are very proud of their strange traditions. We did decide that we're still going to go to Paris so that should happen towards the end of my trip.

After he left I talked with my suite-mates about their weekend plans and apparently they're going to be in London on Sunday for the WWII comemorative parade and Queen appearance and then for high tea at Harrods. So this weekend looks like a day trip to Manchester and Liverpool on Friday, back to London for touristy fun and Ministry of Sound on Saturday and then the Palace, high tea, and more London fun on Sunday. I also finally booked my transportation, flight and hostel in Dublin!! Yes, I'm officially going to Ireland in two weeks! I'm going to Edinburgh next weekend but the travel plans haven't been settled for that yet.

All these travel plans fill my weekends up till the end! Day trips this weekend, then Edinburgh, then Dublin, then Paris, then home! But I really don't want to think about coming home yet because it seems that I just got here. I do miss everyone at home a lot but I almost wish I could stay for another 6 weeks, I'm sure I could find plenty of things to do to fill in the time. For now, I'm going to read my medieval history book and the last act of Merchant of Venice. I do still have schoolwork to do :-/. Toodles!

Exploring the Ashmolean

After a weekend of glorious absense from school I'm back. I'm still working on that London entry so be patient with that, it was a very interesting two days so it's taking some time to upload the pictures and what not. I actually had to do *gasp* homework yesterday so my other choices were catching up on sleep and writing, in which I chose sleep.

Actually yesterday I ventured outside of campus for a few hours to see some more of Oxford's sites and visited the Ashmolean Museum. I gotta say that it's the most eclectic collection I have ever seen in my life. This museum isn't all art, or all natural history, or all antiques, it's a bit of everything rolled into two very large floors. There are originals and plaster casts of Greco-Roman statues of various things, red/black Athenian pottery, as well as very old armour and swords. There's also a quite interesting collection of Egyptian artifacts including a full sandstone shrine. But these things I've also seen in other places, what really got me excited was the huge collection of Anglo-Saxon artifacts from around England. They had pots and pans and jewelry and swords and armor as well as models of houses and settlements. They even had Neolithic, Bronze and Iron age artifacts!! Way cool.

I also got to see Indian, Japanese, Chinese and Arabic displays that had pottery, caligraphy examples, statues, and other various things. And one room tucked away from the rest had some really interesting Native American items, including the mantle of Powhatan (Pocahontas' dad). There were also lots of different paintings in the museum, lots of Renaissance and a few Impressionist and Post-Impressionist ones. They actually had a few sketches by Michelangelo and Da Vinci. My favorite part of the art display were the English painters, of which I know so little. There were some Turner watercolors as well as one Gainsborough and two or three Constable paintings. I especially liked Constable's "Study of Clouds". It's so simple and pretty, I very rarely see just paintings of the sky. Plus the texture of that work is indescribable, I just really really liked it. I've included a picture of it above. See, it really is just some clouds.

For now I'm going to head to dinner, today was fairly uneventful aside from the return of the nasty drizzly rain and the return of the ducklings from the pond in my history class. But I do get to see Tommy soon since he's spending his day off here tomorrow. The weather service promises that Thursday is going to be a nice sweltering 84 degrees but I don't believe it. We shall see :)