Visit to Oxford.

This past weekend I spent a day at Oxford, which was a beautiful city that was bigger than Cambridge but let me just say right now: CAMBRIDGE > OXFORD. Even though I'm not a legitimate student here at Cambridge, I definitely have that Cambridge pride.

We started off the day by gathering at the back gate, where much to our surprise, a gigantic group of Japanese students who were also studying here but part of a different program, showed up. Our PA Luke had gotten a text the night before saying that "a few more students were coming". Let me just say right now, that text lied. Our little UCSS group was easily dominated by the Japanese group. So we went on the public bus to Oxford and our driver was NOT happy about our gigantic group (blame the Japanese) and was also angry that none of us had the right change. The bus is supposed to pick up people and drop some off on the way to Oxford but the bus left with literally only one spot open. Not ideal, that's for sure. It was a long three hour and twenty minute journey and we all arrived very hungry. Naturally we went to the open market square, where we ate some delicious baguette sandwiches. I got some postcards to send and some fun baby recipe books. Then we were off! We strolled the streets of Oxford and Luke was actually FROM Oxford but unable to tell us the names of all the colleges. Oxford Fail. We went into St. Mary's Church, which was beautiful and very lovely. Then we were off to the Natural History Museum, which was AMAZING. Let me just say, I am a huge dinosaur and rocks & minerals (mainly minerals) gal. There were these huge blocks of quartz and pyrite (fool's gold) and a skeleton of a T-REX! RAWRR! Quite a bit of fun. Then it was off to the Bodleian Library, where we got an hour tour of the place. Did you know that they actually filmed part of Harry Potter there? In one of the main rooms (which is breathtakingly gorgeous) they filmed the infirmary for the Harry Potter movies in there. Naturally, I freaked out just a little bit. Or maybe not a little bit. We also got to go into another room where two previous kings had sat in this little wooden throne. SUHWEET. Okay this post is getting childish. Ranting about rocks and dinosaurs and Harry Potter? People are going to think I am twelve years old!

Anyways, we had dinner at a very popular pub named The Turf Tavern. It's quite hidden and you have to go through this creepy alley to get there. At first I thought Luke was trying to lead us into a death trap. Hey, you can't blame me for being too cautious. I was going to go the healthy route and get chicken but Luke persuaded me to get the steak and ale pie because it is such a traditional British meal. So I did. And it was quite delicious. They call their mashed potatoes here simply "mash". It had chives and an accompanying delicious gravy with peas on the side. Yum. I might have gained 10 pounds by eating it, but hey it's like they say here in England, We're on holiday!

Speaking of holiday, today is a national holiday here in the UK. It's Bank Holiday. I'm not sure what it means but I've been told that no, it is not related to banks. Or at least not directly. I think.

Back to Oxford. So we were also informed that the movie The Golden Compass was also filmed in the streets of Oxford near the Bodleian library. I'm a huge fan of Philip Pullman's series, but the movies were a bit of a disappointment for me. Still pretty excited to be part of it all somehow! After some trolling around town, we went back to the bus stop because the bus was about to leave. It was all a tiring day but oh so fun. There was a sailing trip to Norfolk planned on Sunday but due to the winds and terrible England weather (typical!) it was canceled. I did however, get to enjoy a hot brunch, which made up for everything. I miss hot breakfast. Did I mention that the British eat baked beans as part of their breakfast? As well as tomatoes and mushrooms. No joke. They also generally don't eat scrambled eggs, but prefer them poached or hard boiled. It's quite interesting.

This is my last full week here in Cambridge and it breaks my heart. Today is my last Monday here and while it is Bank Holiday, all the students here still have class and are scrambling to finish their papers. Last night we went to watch Inception at the movie theatre, which was pretty cool to see. I had already seen the movie but wanted a reason to procrastinate and was also curious to see what the British cinema was like.

I'm going to try to make the best out of my last week here and I know that I will miss it with all my heart when it is time to leave. Some of these people don't go to UCI or have already graduated so I will be very sad because I will no longer get to see them everyday. Still, this has been such a great experience and I don't regret a single thing!

Except maybe bringing so much here because now my luggage have the weight of a full grown adult and they will charge me ridiculous fees to bring it back. Shucks.