Exploring Oxford

So I've had no classes this past week, which has meant that I have not been getting much done at a very fast pace. Basically this last week has been our version of Spring Break, though there were still a few classes and some people still had work to do. Fortunately, not me! So this past week has been pretty nice, if unproductive.

This weekend was a big travel weekend for some as well. Most of the building was gone, and for the past 2 days there's only been 6 of us here; Me, Jason, Alix, Lauren, Shannon, and Claire, it's really weird. Craig and Laura went to Ireland, a lot of people went to Scotland, and then another group went to France. Easier to keep track of who is here rather than who's gone and who went where. I ate breakfast by myself Thursday and Friday, eveyone else who is willing to get up having left. Still, much as I like Craig, it is really nice to have the room to myself for a while.

Thursday I went around with Alix, Jason and Lauren M. to look at some of the colleges around Oxford while our Bod cards could still get us in for free. Saw Lincoln, Merton, All Souls and two others that I can't think of off the top of my head. They are all gorgeous, and much bigger than St. Peters. A lot of them have little passages connecting the various courtyards, and all of them had at least 4, whereas St. Peters has more like 2 1/2-3 depending on how you look at it. After that we climbed St. Mary's tower. There was a stupid idea. One of the staircases was outside, like a fire escape on a modern building. Then there were these tiny, narrow spiral stairs with ropes hanging down the center to help you hold on. The view up top was amazing, and it's kind of obvious where many postcards have been shot from. But the walkways are super narrow, and getting by people was very ackward. Often if two groups collided, one of them had to turn around, which was a definite problem with the one set of stairs. Good thing I'm not generally scared of heights or anything. Going back down was even more fun, cause first we had to squeeze our way back to the stairs, then we had to wait a while for groups coming up the stairs, and finally some idiot college kids were trying to take a group shot of themselves up there. Oh wait, that was us. We finally had to ask someone to take the picture, no one's arms were long enough to get the 4 of us in such a narrow space. After getting back down (which makes the stairs in Michigan look easy) we decided to come back, since it was almost time for dinner. Pretty relaxing night after that.

Yesterday was pretty much the last day to use my Bodleian card, which I am really going to miss. I really like being in there, especially the camera and old library. So despite someone's protest, I went to the Bodleian after lunch just to read for fun in the Duke Humfrey library. I may also have taken some pictures with my laptop and phone while I was there, but whatever. It was my last day, so I wasn't as worried about getting thrown out. Also, I saw from the window a gorgeous garden that I wanted to visit, that looked like it was part of Exeter college.

Also stopped in the Divinity school when I was leaving, just to have a look around. It's part of the original Bodleian and also where they shot parts of two Harry Potter films. While I was in there Jason, Alix and Shannon showed up, who were just starting to see more sights, so I decided to tag along with them. We went to Magdalen (pronounced Maudlin), New College, University College, Exeter, and poked our heads in Jesus. Again all very pretty, but the gate into Exeter's gardens was locked and said private, and since it was so late already no one was in the mood to find another way in. Maybe I'll go look for one another time. So hours after I planned to be back, finally got here and just relaxed till dinner.

I'd like to say that I spent the rest of the night just relaxing and we had just hung out, enjoying having the building to ourselves. Sadly, such was not the case. There has been quite a bit of drama last night and today, the result of something that happened last weekend and has been building up throughout the weekend. While I am not directly involved, with so few people in the building right now it is rather hard to avoid. Still, being social has not been as fun the last bunches of hours.

Otherwise, things are going well, and classes are starting up again on Monday, so hopefully that will help me to get back into a schedule and motivate me to finish some things. Mom and I are stressing about her visit, there's so many details to figure out. If someone wants to make a lot of money, they should come with a website that explains the best ways to utilize and pay for all the various methods of transportation and how to figure out the cheapest cost to you. It's all very confusing and each little thing is run by different companies and erg, I hate figuring this stuff out. One of the reasons being a homebody is so nice.