Oxford and a lazy Saturday

I didn’t make a post for yesterday because we went out to a dance club and I was too tired at 3am when I got back to do one, so I’ll go over the past two days now!

Yesterday we woke up really early for our day trip to Oxford. The bus left at a little after 8am and the drive took almost two hours, but luckily I slept most of the way. It was nice to get out of the city for a day and see some grass! The town and the University of Oxford are so adorable! Seeing it and spending the day there just made me wish that I went to school there. We got a tour of some of the main buildings that make up the school. They do things a lot differently there though—there isn’t really a main campus per say, but there are lots of different colleges (38 I think) that make up Oxford. We got to tour Christ Church College and saw the Cathedral there—gorgeous as well! The surrounding town is so nice—and it’s definitely got more a college town vibe to it. I don’t do Harry Potter—but there are a lot of places in Oxford that were either in the movie, or inspired parts of the story. I couldn’t tell you the specifics, because I haven’t read the books or seen the movies, but it was pretty neat to see everyone else get excited about it.

After our tour we had some free time, so I bought an Oxford University sweatshirt. Probably the most expensive souvenir I’ll buy—but it was only £23 (roughly $35 though). Then after that we just strolled around until we found this place where you can rent small boats and ride down the river for £14 an hour. The eight of us split up into groups of four—three girls with each guy—and rented two boats. It was kind of like a gondola and Patrick punted (official term) Caitlin, Kathleen and I down the river for the entire hour. It was so fun to just relax and float past people and geese, ducks, and even swans! We gave Patrick the title of “Captain Patty-cakes” and took lots of pictures of him mastering the art of punting. He did a good job! Then it was off to Kellogg College in Oxford to have poetry and short story readings by Jane Draycott and Clare Morgan. They were both great—we heard a new short story from Clare that she hasn’t published yet, and a few poems from Jane. One of Jane’s poems that I really liked was called November and it was about female spies in training during World War II. We all got copies of there most recently published collections as part of the class and got their autographs in them. Then it was back to Ability Towers on the bus, where I slept again, to get ready to go out to a dance club Kendall looked up called Cargo. We left later than we’d planned and got lost on our way there. After nearly an hour (maybe less—it felt like an hour) of walking around we finally found the place, and of course there was a HUGE line to get in. Alex, a feisty 5ft tall Italian girl decided that we should walk to the front to see if we could get in. She told the bouncers that we had nine girls and only two guys, they looked around at all of us, and then lifted the rope! The other people in line weren’t too happy, but I thought it was pretty awesome! It was SO dark and SO crowded in there, but we found our way to the bar for a drink, and then found our way to the dance floor where we proceeded to dance our faces off. The music was so fun and we just stayed in one big group and danced together. Eventually I looked around and we had wound up in the center of the dance floor in the middle of a giant circle of people—mostly single men. We tried to just dance with each other but men kept coming up behind us trying to get us to dance with them, and unfortunately I got my butt grabbed more times than I ever thought I could. It was pretty gross! I just don’t understand how strange guys think it’s okay to invade my personal space by trying to rub themselves against me!! I just turned around and said to one guy, “did I say you could touch me?” He was like, “I just want to dance with you!” I told him he should have asked and to leave me alone. He did, thankfully. Then it started getting really hot in there and the guys started getting a little too brave, so we decided to leave after the two guys, Kendall and Patrick suggested that it might be a good idea. They were so nice about making sure all us girls were okay, but I think it stressed them out a little. Such nice guys.

Today I slept in since we didn’t get back to the flat until almost 3am, and because we’ve been through an intense London boot camp this week! It was nice to not have anything that we absolutely had to do today. I took my time showering and getting ready and then finished my postcards to mail home to the family. Then Sara and I had to walk all the way to King’s Cross Station (about a half hour walk) to get our tube/bus passes renewed. We got Oyster Cards like the London Locals instead of the little temporary paper vouchers we’d gotten for our first week. Now I feel like I look less like a tourist! We went to Oxford Street after that where all the big shopping is. We just walked around and window-shopped and went into this place called The Yellow Market. It was full of really high-end stuff like Rolex, Tiffany Co., Hermes, really nice stuff! We just walked around looking at all the sparkly things that we’ll never be able to afford (because we’re both going to be teachers) and then went to another shop before we walked some more and ended up in Hyde Park. The park is huge and there were so many people out rollerblading, just hanging out, and even break-dancing in the park because it was such a beautiful day. We walked around the river and just talked for a few hours before getting back on the tube to get back to Angel. On the tube I was pressed up against this guy because it was so crowded and we started making small talk about how hot it was being crammed together like that. He said, “You’re American, right?” I said that I was, and then he said, “Let me guess—Colorado?” I don’t know why I thought it was so funny. He then asked me, “Do you know were Minnesota is?” because he said he’d been there. It was so nice of him to just make conversation—all week people have just been bumping into us, stepping on our feet and just generally being rude without so much as an, “excuse me,” or a “sorry!” When I got off at the station he told me to have a nice day and to enjoy my visit to London. I was just so appreciative to meet a nice stranger today.

So I’m back at Ability after a nice fish and chips dinner with Sara getting ready for bed and another busy day tomorrow. Re-assessed my budget and I’m thinking now that I can actually afford to go to Paris! I’ll probably buy tickets tomorrow with a couple of the other girls for the train.

Another gorgeous day in the wonderful city of London!

Until tomorrow,
Whitney