Monday and Tuesday last week I had my final exams. I am still waiting to hear what my grades are. Monday I had to sit my marketing exam. We basically had two questions to answer. The first was compulsory and then for the second we were given a list of about four questions to choose from. It was two hours straight of writing and drawing out entry models and let's just say I have not done that much hand writing in a long time. I don't know how I used to do it in school. I'm so used to typing everything now, my hand was cramping after 2 hours. Tuesday I had my advertising exam. My professor gave us the essay topics to study before hand so I think I did well on that one.
Wednesday was the start of our mid-semester break. All but one of my flatmates left for break. Two of them went to Paris, another two went to Italy, one met up with her parents and did a mini road trip to some small place in the english countryside and the other went to visit family elsewhere in England. That left Lyndsey and I. We slept in Wednesday morning since we, well I anyways, hardly ever get the opportunity to do so. The cleaning people brought us clean sheets which we put on our beds and then continued to sleep. At some point some men came to fix our hot water tank while we were sleeping and evidently locked the bottom lock of our flat door when they left. We usually only use the top lock because the bottom one jams frequently. So when Lyndsey and I woke up and tried to leave the flat, we found we were lock IN our flat. We called the RA on duty who didn't seem to understand that we were locked IN our flat so he took his time calling someone to come release us. After waiting for well over an hour we called again. This time I spoke to the person and explained our situation once again. This time they finally understood and sent someone over. We still had to wait about an hour for this person to arrive, only to discover they did not have the necessary key. Finally, around 5:00 p.m. we were freed from our own flat. It was an interesting experience, and all I can say is I'm glad we didn't have flight to catch or something.
Thursday we declared 'national be a bum day'. This basically entailed doing absolutely nothing and loving every second of it. The weather was nice so I did get out of the house for a bit. I went for a nice long relaxing walk, sat down read a book, took shelter in a coffee shop when it started to rain, and then I continued to sit there and people watch for a good 2 hours. It was just really nice and relaxing.
Friday Lyndsey and I decided to go to Oxford for the weekend. I checked the national rail site to see what times trains were going out. We found one leaving around 1:20 so we packed our bags and headed to Paddington. We made perfect time. We left the flat about 12:45, got to the tube by 1:00, got to Paddington about 1:05, bought our tickets and popped on the train and were off promptly at 1:20. We got to Oxford about 2:10 and by the time we walked from the train station to the OSAP/WISC office on George street it was 2:30.
My roomie from Tampa is studying at Oxford for the semester so we were meeting up with her. She and her new roomie Jess came to London last weekend so it was nice to see them again. Amanda doesn't have a phone and she didn't think she could give us clear directions to her house in Oxford so we met up with her at the students abroad office. It was very easy to find. Then we walked to her house which is about 20 minutes from George Street in Jericho and just up the road from the Oxford Press. The housing accommodation she has is arranged and provided through the study abroad programme. There are 2 guys living in the basement, one guy on the ground floor where the living room, kitchen, and laundry room is, and then Amanda and Jess share a room and a british girl named Mouse also lives upstairs. It is a really small little house that at first seems really dirty and old, but after a few nights there it kind of grows on you. It is definitely a well-lived in house by young university students but it has a VERY english feel. My flat is definitely a lot nicer and newer and just generally in A LOT better condition, but like I said, in a weird way, her place grew on me. All 6 of them share one bathroom on the top floor so there can be quite the queue in the morning waiting for a shower. The basement guys and Mouse we didn't see that much. They are always off doing their own thing, but Sam, the guy who has the room on the ground floor, is really nice as is Jess. Obviously they were all studying hard and busy reading loads of books so Lyndsey and I tried to stay out of their way and entertain ourselves.
We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! This was my fourth time to Oxford so I have a pretty good idea of how to get around, and it is such an easy city to walk. From Amanda's house to the city centre and closer to the classic oxford places it is about a 35 minute walk. I took Lyndsey to the Bodleian Library, we explored around New College, we walked down Cornmarket Street where a lot of the shops are and then we went to Christ Church. We walked down the wooded paths behind the college and walked along the river. It was so pretty, and I'll bet it will be even prettier in the next few weeks since some of the trees are starting to change. We found a nice tree to sit under next to the river where we sat and people watched. We also watched some new freshers learning how to row. It was rather amusing. Then we headed back to meet up with Amanda. A group of us went to this little restaurant called Posh Fish to grab some dinner. After we ate we headed out to meet up with some other kids in the programme that are living in a mansion in St. Giles. Everyone was really nice and we had a great evening out. We met up with the other 2 guys that are studying at Oxford from Tampa.
Saturday we all slept in and all the Oxford kids continued to labour away at their studies while Lyndsey and I wandered the city some more. I think she and I have seen more of the city than all of the others combined. We kept telling them to at least go outside along the river to read because the weather was SO perfect out, why waste a gorgeous day indoors. We walked alllll over. Lyndsey and I are a good travel team. It was nice not having an agenda to have to adhere to and we were both down for aimless wandering. We would turn down random side streets, without a clue where we were going, and both of us have a good enough sense of direction to always find our way back and not get completely lost. We went back down by the river and a lot of studetns were outside reading or snoozing in the sun. It was really nice. We came back mid afternoon. Everyone was tired so we all had a cup of tea, read a little, and next thing you know it's nap time for everyone. We all woke up about the same time and went back up to Posh Fish for dinner and to watch a bit of the England vs. Kazakhstan football game. We were all in the mood for a chill night so we stayed in and watched some terrible british television, drank tons of tea, ate biscuts, and watched notting hill. It was nice. We put another movie on, more or less as background noise, and we all sat around talking until almost 4 in the morning.
Sunday we got up, showered and went out again for awhile. Lyndsey and I grabbed a coffee and headed back to our trusted spot by the river. We sat there for about 30 minutes before we had to head back to grab our things and make our way to the train. We checked to see when the shortest train back to London was and we found one leaving around 3:50. So around 2:30 we left the riverside and made the 35 min walk back to Amanda's. On our way we passed Adam, this guy I met in London over the summer that goes to Pembroke College at Oxford. Turns out he had just gotten back from playing rugby at Cambridge all weekend. We also passed this guy Lyndsey knows from the BU programme who offered us a ride back to London, but we already had our return tickets. What a small world! We got back to Amanda's around 3:05, grabbed out bags, and then walked to the train station. We got there about 3:30 and we were on the train and back to London by 5:10.
I know this is all a bit detailed, but I haven't been that great about posting frequently so at least when I do post you can get a good idea of what all I've been up to.
All in all, it was a GREAT weekend. Amanda, Jess, and Sam were happy to see us and invited us back and we likewise left them with an open invitation to London. Lyndsey said she had a great time and I'm glad she came. We bonded a lot over the weekend. Everyone just got along so well and it was nice to get away from the big city for a bit.
This coming weekend (Saturday) I will be going to Leeds and Canterbury. That should be a lot of fun. The following weekend I might go back to Oxford.
While I was away I also received an email about my internship. Today was supposed to be my first day on the job. My supervisor, however, ended up in the hospital and all the other staff are in New York so they sent their appologies that I will not be able to start until next week. BU won't just let me sit around doing nothing of course, so they are having me work in the student life office for the rest of the week where I believe I will be assisting with the newsletter. My boss said not to worry, when I come in to work next week there will be A LOT for me to work on and some nice juicy accounts to 'sink my teeth into'.
So yeah, I think I've brought you all up to speed. As you can tell, I'm still having a blast here. This will definitely be one of the best years of my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment