Oxford!

I am so bored writing blogs with no pictures! Anyway, today I spent the day exploring Oxford on foot! I started the day reading...I am ashamed to say that I am just now beginning to read books that would be considered "classics", I decided to start with Wuthering Heights which I picked up from the official Oxford University Bookstore. There is something special about reading a classic of English literature in the English countryside, I am really enjoying it! So I read for a little bit and then headed off to my tour put on by the Oxford City Counsel and led my an Oxford educated PhD...who received his degree from Oxford in 1975 in Organ Performance. The guide was very funny and knowledgeable, he led us by some of the most famous places in Oxford and gave us the abbreviated history of the town. My favorite part of the tour was our visit to Jesus College, it was stunning and had such a rich history! During the tour I met two very nice friends who were traveling together. One was from Bulgaria and the other, who I believe was from Fargo, was now a contracted worker in Afghanistan. I spent the rest of the day with these two, moving from one location to the next. We started by climbing the tower in a college thats name is some combination of the words Mary, Virgin, St, and College. The climb was awful but the view was more than worth looking like a fat American panting the entire way. We then went to eat in a restaurant that was a Shakespeare favorite and is now.....a pizza place. Surprisingly enough the Pizza Express has maintained its original charm and artwork. The artwork, in fact, was copied from the walls of this former Inn and recreated in Shakespeare's house in Stratford-upon-Avon. We tried to make it to Christ Church College before it closed but were unsuccessful...same goes for the Botanical Gardens. So my train leaves tomorrow at 3:15pm and in the morning I will return to Christ Church College to take pictures of the famous Hall and staircase that were used in the Harry Potter movies!

My hostel in Oxford is not as modern as the other YHA hostel but I don't really mind it...I feel like everything should feel a bit older in Oxford. Last night I shared the room with two women, one who is Ugandan, raised in England but now lives in Spain and the other is an Oxford Alum who is from Nigeria, tonight there is a new addition, a woman visiting from Jamaica. The Alum has come back to Oxford to meet with her former advisor, seeking advise on a book she is writing about educational missionary work in Africa...needless to say I feel super smart. :)