Oxford

After arriving back in Norwich at 1:00 am after the Stonehenge tour, I headed out 24 hours later for a "day trip" to Oxford. My friend Silvia was determined to go before we left England and it was a place I had been interested to visit, so realizing how little time we had left we decided, what the heck, lets just do it. We caught the National Express coach from Norwich at 1:50 am and after changing buses at Stansted airport (a place where I have passed far too many hours in the middle of the night) we arrived in London where we had to catch another coach. We were in Oxford before 8:00 am and it was so strange seeing the city as quiet and empty as it was. We were able to see aspects most tourists wouldn't though, such as the Oxford crew teams practicing on the river and the punters preparing their boats for the day. It was fun wandering the city and watching it slowly come to life. We visited the botanical gardens there and several museums. We went to the famous Christ Church College where John Locke, Lewis Carroll and so many others have graduated from, but is now so frequently visited since the Harry Potter movies were filmed there. Though we were limited to specific areas, it was pretty walking through the courtyard, the cathedral, and the dining hall. Too bad the dining commons at UMass do not even slightly resemble those at Oxford with their long, fancily set tables, stained glass windows, and massive portraits of past deans, graduates, and benefactors. We also walked through some of the other campus like Trinity College and Magdelen College. It was fun just wandering around in and out of stores and past renowned sights like the Bodleian Library which holds a copy of every book ever published in the UK, the unusually shaped Sheldonian Theatre, and the knockoff Venice style Bridge of Sighs. Exhausted, we left around 7:00 and arrived back in Norwich at midnight. Although we spent just as much time traveling as we did exploring Oxford, it was a fun day and I'm glad I was able to go before leaving England.

Big old rocks

The tour that a friend and I did last week was great! It was the same company we saw Scotland with and was an excellent way to visit major sites that we wanted to see but may not have had an opportunity to, as well as to see other things that were really interesting that we wouldn't have known about otherwise. 18 of us boarded the big yellow bus in London at the crack of dawn and headed to our first stop: Stonehenge. It was amazing seeing something so old and so famous that I had only read about and seen pictures of. Though it was roped off, we were still able to walk around the monument and with the admission, we were given an audioguide which provided interesting information on the arrangement of the stones and speculations on how and why they were laid. Our next stop was Devon, where we did a short walk up the "tor" (aka hill) and had a nice view of the surrounding area. We spent that night in Cornwall in Newquay, which is said to be the surfing capital of England. It was neat a town and our hostel was right by the water.

(I started this post forever ago but never finished it and now I'm in ITALY with a million more things I could write about so I'll quickly sum up the rest of the tour.)
We spent all of the next day in Cornwall, the south western part of England, stopping at various places along the way including St. Ive's- a quaint seaside town where we walked around and stocked up on the famous Cornish pasties, a light house with Caribbean-like views of the ocean, Sennen Cove from which we walked to Land's End- the most westerly point in England, Minack Theatre- an amazing outdoor stone theater built into a cliff overlooking the water, as well as other stops (including my first official cream tea- a delicious English specialty consisting of a pot of tea, a fresh scone, jam, and mounds of clotted cream). The third day we went to Tintagel-- where the ruins of what was supposedly King Arthur's castle remain, Glastonbury--a hippie town that also made Arthur claims and had an abbey and another fun hill to climb, Cheddar Gorge-- where cheddar cheese originated, and ended in Bath where we spent the night. We were free to do as we pleased until 12:00 the next day, so friends and I spent time just wandering around and gazing at all of the Georgian architecture and gardens and other things we came across. Of course we also went to the Roman Baths and it was so interesting to see what remains from when they were built 2000 years ago and how the area has changed. That was our final day of the tour so on our way back to London, we made several stops including Avebury- a giant though not as well preserved version of Stonehenge, and Lacock, an old fashioned village that hasn't really changed since the 16th century. It was a great trip!

Classes are finished! It is a relief to have all of the course work in and only have to deal with exams now. Last weekend I participated in a program called HOST that is organized for International students to do a home stay with an English family. I had signed up for it in January, but unfortunately wasn't placed until now. However, it was fun to get off campus and stay in a house. I was placed with an nice older single woman and her two dogs which were like her children. We went on several walks, including one with the Rambler's Association that she is a part of, visited a National Trust estate, went swimming, played a few games, and ate lots of food. It was an interesting change of pace from university life.

The week was primarily dedicated to finishing up my massive history project, but some friends and I managed to squeeze in a day trip to the Norfolk broads--a series of lakes and streams. We didn't do the typical thing and hire a boat, but we did rent bikes and wander all around which was fun. It was so pretty seeing all of the flowers in bloom and the little lambs out in the field. However, despite the appearance of Spring and in typical English style, the weather decided to change and we were caught in a hail storm and then were soaked in the rain. Fish and chips helped warm us up though and make a nice ending to our day.

On Saturday night we went to the circus as it came to UEA as part of the two week long Norfolk Festival. It was weird and unlike anything I've seen before, but it was good. Basically it was standing room only inside of this big silver tent where we were continuously herded from one side to to another as the position of the act changed. You'd be watching the tightrope walker and all of a sudden you'd have to move because a trapeze artist would be dangling above your head.

Now I'm off on a four day tour to Stonehenge, Bath, and Cornwall with the same company that we saw Scotland with. I'm excited! (except for the fact that I have to leave at 1:50 am on a 4 hour bus ride to London...)