'til we meet again

i know, i know - this is sooo four months ago. what can i say? america's been keeping me busy.
i wasn't able to finish my blog while in england because my laptop bit the dust just in time for my last week of classes. great timing. and as soon as i was back stateside, i was thrown into a whirlwind of school and sorority and i haven't had much free time since then. but i've always been determined to finish this blog with the last of my abroad adventures, so four months later, i'm finally making it happen.

on the monday of my last week, my friends emma, tatum, mary, and i decided to spend the afternoon exploring oxford. we finally climbed the tower in st. mary's cathedral, from which you can see the whole town of oxford. it was super cool. except that you could only see the city from one side of the tower at a time so we had to keep rotating. and squeezing through tiny spaces around people we didn't know. lots of awkward moments. unfortunately, i didn't have my camera with me that day so i have no pictures to share. sorry friends. after clambering back down the tower, we decided to try punting on the river. we had the option of letting one of the (very attractive) punting guides take us around or punting ourselves. we figured we might as well get the full experience so we chose the latter. um... punting is hard. for those of you who have no idea what i'm talking about, let me explain: punting refers to standing on the back end of a small, flat boat and using a giant wooden pole to steer the boat by pushing off the bottom of the river. that pole was no joke. it was probably twice my height and really heavy - not exactly the easiest thing to move around quickly through water. we each gave it a shot and i think i lasted about a minute before giving up. let's just say our boat made good friends with the riverbank while i was up there. i just don't think punting is my calling. i'm okay with it.
later that night, we went to a pub called the eagle & child, where jrr tolkein and cs lewis used to hang out together in their oxford days. no big deal. just another piece of the crazy cool history english people get to live with every day that i'm not jealous of at all... right.

tuesday the four of us hopped on a train after lunch and headed into london to see...

jersey boys! i'd been wanting to see it for a while so i was super excited. it was a really good show! my favorite part was hearing the british actors try to speak with new jersey accents - hilarious. A for effort guys but you didn't quite get it. after the show, we walked a couple blocks down to chinatown to get dinner. i successfully used chopsticks for the first time in my life! i really didn't think that would ever happen.
after dinner we had some time to kill before our train back to oxford, so we just wandered around the city to see some sights we hadn't had a chance to see yet. first up was cleopatra's needle on the thames, which mary really wanted to see.

i'm still not entirely sure what it is, but it was cool. then we walked up to trafalgar square, where there are lions everywhere! i really think england's abundance of lion-themed artwork increased my adpi pride. weird but true.

from there we pretty much just wandered aimlessly to see what we'd run into. turns out we were just down the street from sherlock holmes' pub, which is, you guessed it, themed entirely around the sherlock homes novels. it was pretty cool. we stopped there for drinks and then made our way to piccadilly circus - the times square of london - and took our train back to oxford.

wednesday we took our last class trip - to kenilworth castle and stratford-upon-avon. i'm not gonna lie, i was definitely asleep when professor baker explained the historical significance of kenilworth castle. whoops. but i'm pretty sure it was used by queen elizabeth I back in the day. now it's just a bunch of ruins but it looks kinda cool.

it was unbelievably windy that day, so i spent most of my time at kenilworth taking shelter in the cafe, talking with my friends gabby and charlea. from there we got back on the bus and went on to stratford. we had several hours to do our own thing that afternoon, so a group of us went to see shakespeare's birthplace.

i'm going to be honest with you - i don't really remember anything about it. i think i have a vague memory of boredom? i don't think i was feeling really into shakespeare that day. but i still got to go there so that's pretty cool. from there, tatum and i decided to go get something to eat because, if i remember correctly, we were both ravenous. at 4:30 in the afternoon. geriatric much? we went to the garrick inn, which boasts of being stratford's oldest pub. i had a steak and ale pie (duh) and it was so so good. where can i get one of those in austin?? seriously. i need to know. my taste buds are sad without them.
after dinner, we went to see "a midsummer night's dream" performed by the royal shakespeare company. i read that play in my shakespeare class last spring but i'd never seen it performed so i was excited. it was SO. FUNNY. i mean, it started out really weird. i think it was set in a 1960s brothel? but after the first few scenes i got used to that and really enjoyed it. i literally did not stop laughing the entire second half of the play. it was definitely my favorite of the performances we saw on the program.

thursday was our last day of the program. so bittersweet. i never wanted to leave but at the same time i was really missing home. i spent the day finishing my souvenir shopping and doing all my "this is the last time i'll get to do this" stuff. like getting one last milkshake from shakespeare's and one (okay, two) last hot, fresh cookies from ben's (far superior to tiff's treats). and i bought a box of crunchy nut clusters cereal to take home with me! i don't remember if i've talked about this stuff before but guys... it's like crack. it's the best cereal in the world. i'm obsessed. but they don't sell it in the US. i'm not gonna lie, it's been difficult living without it. the box i brought back only lasted about a week. i knew only buying one was a mistake... guess there's just one more reason for me to go back to england!
anyway, thursday night was our final banquet in the hall. it was scrumptious.

after the banquet, we had a little after party/talent show with our professors. emma and tatum made me sing... okay fine i wanted to too but it was their idea. and charlea read one of her poems and derin and cameron did a dance that combined thriller, the dougie, and many more that i can no longer remember. and mary made a slideshow out of everyone's pictures of our whole time in england. it was really cute and i may or may not have cried a little. no judgments, i'm a sentimental person. it was a really fun party and a great way to end the semester.

friday morning, i had to say goodbye to oxford. i had an early train to london to meet my parents, but tatum, emma, and mary came with me because they wanted to spend one more day in the city before leaving. so we said our goodbyes to oxford bright and early and tried not to let ourselves get too depressed. not an easy task, but it's also kinda hard to be depressed when you're going to london. so we made it to the city and my parents met me at paddington station where we set off on our last english adventure. after dropping my things at the hotel, we set out into kensington park just to see what there was to see. turns out one of those sights was the peter pan statue! i was overjoyed.

for those of you who don't know, peter pan is my favorite movie of all time. i can watch it anytime, anywhere, and i will never stop loving it. so i was super excited.
from the park, we walked to notting hill and took a little stroll down portobello road. cutest place in the world. so many antique shops and little boutique stores. i loved it. but unfortunately, everything i'd done for the last five weeks - the constant go-go-going and the lack of sleep - caught up with me that day and walking around for hours was only adding to the massive wave of exhaustion that had just come over me. so sorry, mom & dad, that i wasn't the best sport that day, but i really did enjoy it. i was just really stinking tired.
my father, being the beer connoisseur that he is (i hope he's okay with me saying that...), used his handy pub guide to find us a place to eat lunch after exploring notting hill for a few hours. we went to the churchill arms, where winston churchill made his wartime speeches from during world war II and holy moly i was not expecting this:

flowers. everywhere. incredible. i also wasn't expecting the menu inside to be entirely thai food, but hey, no complaints there. we made friends with a man and his lady friend at the table next to us who told me i looked like i was 15 and my blonde hair came from a bottle. clearly, i was a big fan of his. anyway, after lunch we went back to the hotel where i promptly collapsed into bed and slept until i was dragged back up again.
after we'd all freshened up a bit we headed to piccadilly circus to see "the 39 steps," a play based on an old hitchcock film. it was at the hyperion theater which is actually underground, so you can hear the tube every time a train goes by. that was a strange experience. but it's a beautiful old theater. and the play was hilarious. a good time was had by all.

the next morning was goodbye for real. i didn't cry, but i wanted to. y'all, i can't even begin to express to you how much i love england. it's the greatest place in the world. even better than chicago or disneyworld. and that's saying a lot. i was very sad to have to leave, but i know i'll be going back someday. and i really did miss texas a lot.

so that's the end. i hope i haven't bored you and i really do appreciate you taking the time to read this. i love you all dearly and if you ever want to go to england with me, just say the word.
cheerio!