Study Week

June 20

A list:
1. People here love Gap like its going out of style-- which, I guess technically it is? Like in America no one wears Gap logo tees or sweatshirts, I know this from experience they don't even sell those except for toddlers anymore. But every person walking down the street here has on something Gap. Interesting style here.
2. I've become a local. Local at my kebab stand, and my tea place, and the pub down the street.
3. I've written more papers in a month than the whole past semester.
4. I love afternoon tea.
5.Still never leaving here.


Well its been a good little while since I blogged. It's been study week. Friday and Saturday were rest days. Well Friday was fun, we finally all ate mexican! Finally! I've been missing mexican alot. Anyways we ate at Las Iguanas and then went out to Camera, which is my favorite club. That was the last night for our friends from Michigan, and we had a good time.
Saturday we slept in, and Melissa and I walked to the movie theater to see Snow White and the Huntsman. Then we went with Taylor and Alex to this Lebanese restaurant Al-Salam. They just bring a huge plate of fresh vegetables. Not like cut up, just a whole tomato, cucumber, green pepper, and some olives. That was kinda weird. But they had the best hummus ever. That night we just stayed home and tried to work on our papers.
This week I had 3 papers due and lots and lots of reading. Since Sunday I read half of a law textbook and the Children of Hurin. I'm a little proud of my brain right now.

Sunday was more study day, and Melissa and I finally found The Missing Bean (hahah) coffee shop, which is like the only good coffee in Oxford. Then we took that over to the lawn at Trinity and read our books outside. It was a nice day, and then we went into the library to study a little more. Already getting stir crazy from studying.

Monday morning we had class, and I had a paper due that night. We went to class and then our good friends in Christ Church let us come to lunch with them in the Harry Potter dining hall. It was really fun. We got to walk all around like we belonged, and then we ate there. It's really really pretty, a little bigger than Trinity. I'm still biased though and enjoy Trinity's food more and the smaller college. So we ate and then Khanh took me into the Christ Church library, all the colleges have their own small libraries. Im trying to see as many as possible. I took tons of pictures that day. Then I went home and studied for the rest of the night and finally finished one paper, knowing that Tuesday I had to write two. Thats the worst feeling.

Tuesday we woke up and returned the favor to the Christ Church people and we took them to lunch at Trinity. Spencer was there and had made friends with a student that was sitting there. So we sat down with this boy. Im just baffled. He went to Princeton for undergrad, then came to Oxford for his masters to study the Philosophy of Physics. After this year he is going to Harvard for his Phd. The people you meet in Oxford really are quite extraordinary. They usually are all very well brought up and super smart. Then his friend sat down who was 25 and finishing his Phd in something. Can't remember what he said because I was staring at how cute he was. He was way too cute. Went to college in South Africa and majored in math and chemistry, then hes at Oxford for his doctorate. These people! I was like, well... I go to Mississippi State.
After lunch I finally went to the Bodleian Library to study. This probably doesn't interst other people, but to me it was like the best day ever. Its a really gorgeous library, and it definitely makes you feel smarter when you study in there. I'm that girl that gets to walk past all the silly tourist into the door that says "do not enter."

After studying for awhile, I walked towards home to my favorite little bakery/coffee shop. I had my first afternoon tea. I sat in Granola, which is like super cute and all organic etc etc. Anyways, I sat and read and had tea and homeade organic scones with clotted cream and jam. YUMMMM!!! It was so worth it. I'll be doing that again for sure.

Then I came home to study study some more.... and we all went to our favorite pub the Four Candles for dinner. Its a nice pub, and they are really cheap so its always packed lunch and dinner. Then more studying...AHHH im even tired of typing it. So woke up for class today, Wedneday, and turned in another paper then came home and wrote the last one in 4 hours. Now I'm done with tutorial papers and only one more while I'm here then a research paper at home. Not so bad. I survived.

Except, we may not survive tonight. Tonight we are taking the train at 10 pm to go to Stonehenge for the Summer Solstice. Tomororw is the longest day of the year, and of course the pagans all go out to Stonehenge. So we thought its something that we might want to do. I think sunrise at 4:52 am tomorrow will be pretty in England. Sooo
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/stonehenge/
It'll be a long interesting night filled with hippies, pagans, and druids. Yay!

Trinity library. They literally move in for awhile

The quad at Christ Church

Harry Potter Dining Hall

 I loved this library!