The weeks just tend to fly by over here! I can't believe it's mid-March already! Next Monday is my last day of lectures for the semester--how crazy, less than a week to go.
Since Manchester I've managed to scratch off several things from my bucket list. The first Monday night after Manchester weekend I went on a pub crawl downtown with our college, and hit up 5 different bars with the Bowland crew. We all cut up red t-shirts (our color) and rep'd the Bowland lady (our mascot). I swear it's basically like Greek life over here. Then on Wednesday I had my 1st orgo chem lab--I forget if I've mentioned this before, but labs are so professional over here! We wear labcoats, gloves, goggles, and have lab reports that we have to write up (same goes for bio). And I actually don't mind the labs; they're quite fun. Although this is probably because we only had 3 bio labs total and only 2 for chem this entire semester, unlike HPU where they are every single week, blah. Speaking of HPU, on Friday Kris and I were off to Oxford to meet up with all of our HPU chums :) Candice was the only one already there so she got to meet us at the station, and how lovely it was to see her standing there waiting for us! By midnight we had the whole gang- Kara, Tommy, Eileen, Joey, Candice, Lauren, Maddi, Claire, Kris and me. Saturday Marshall managed to find us so our number grew. We did some sightseeing which included Oxford Uni (which is beautiful), a glimpse of Oxford's castle, and we were lucky enough to see a man playing a violin 5 feet in the air walking a tightrope! We went to the indoor market, Cupboard Market (I think it was called?) where I had the most delicious milkshake, PB & chocolate chip cookie flavored. What a treat! That night we all enjoyed a pasta feast, family style, and boy was it nice being with friends from home. We headed out on the town to a club, and let me just say, we brought the house down. We did not leave til close, and yes, we were the last ones in there dancing the night away. I don't think any of us went to bed til after 6am. And we all enjoyed kabobs on our return home (not kabobs like Americans think of...no sticks with meat/veggies on it.. it's more like a pita wrap) but it's the typical 'drunk food' over here (and in australia too according to Simone). Sunday morning Bristowe arrived to join in on the fun (it was supposed to be a surprise but that little secret got spilled). We all decided to go downtown for the traditional 'Sunday Roast' that England is so famous for.. and you can only order it on Sundays. After missing the bus by seconds (we literally watched it drive away and leave us--note: they do NOT wait for you) we walked who knows how long- over an hour- into the city center. Unfortunately I was wearing heeled boots which was not a great idea. I was definitely feeling sore the following day! After attempting to eat at 2 restaurants, the first place we tried (the oldest tavern in Oxford [1380]) was sold out of the Sunday Roast and the second place didn't have the nicest smell, but our third try was a charm, and the food was delicious. Sadly, Kris and I had to leave mid-dinner to catch our train, and I had such a great time with everyone I didn't want to leave so soon. But I'm so glad I got to see them even if it was a short bittersweet weekend.
Now moving a week forward...Friday night a bunch of us went to a little disco folk party in town. It was fun not having typical club music for once, and everyone was in such a happy-go-lucky mood. LT, you would have loved it :)
Saturday morning, we were up and at 'em by 7:15am to head off to Bath! Kristen and I went with the travel agency right here on campus, so lots of students from our uni went as well. When we arrived in Bath we went straight to the Roman Baths, which was amazing. Hot springs flow underground into these Roman 'pools' that were built long, long ago. The baths used to be social gatherings where people would hang out, pray, exercise, chitchat, etc. I was able to touch the water which was so warm, it definitely felt like bath water, and it totally made me want to just jump right in haha. Afterwards, we visited the Circus and the Half Crescent (a circle and half-circle of a bunch of connected buildings); we saw the Theatre Royal (after realizing we were standing right in front of it); and a bridge where you can take a boat up the river Avon (but it was too cold to do such a thing). We stayed in Bath's YMCA that night, and it was by far the best 'hostel' so far. The beds were already made and we didn't have to strip them the next morning; it was set up dorm-style, 2 bunk beds with a desk, armoire, and sink. Kristen & I lucked out getting the quad, (Murphy & Simone were stuck in a 10-occupancy room), so I guess it was a good thing we signed up early in advance for the trip! The following morning while packing up to head on to Stonehenge I was reading the ticket from Bath and realized that we could have tasted the water from the hot spring. So we hurriedly went back before our bus left so we could experience the taste.. I forgot it was going to be warm, but it basically just tasted like faucet water. Still it was neat. Then off to Stonehenge we went, and as we were leaving Bath our driver stopped to show us the view of the town, and we found out a neat little fact: in the movie Mary Poppins, she actually 'flies' over Bath (not London).
As for Stonehenge, it's located in the middle of nowhere and only takes about an hour to listen to the audio-tour, but all the info is fascinating. It was built sometime between 3000 and 1600BC..so old! And the stones were brought from all over--the farthest was 400 some miles (or km?) away, from Wales. The largest stone weighs as much as 7 elephants combined, imagine trying to carry and move that! The stones are implanted into the ground, so 1/3 of the rock is actually underground- they compared it to teeth inside the gums. The whole purpose of the monument is still a mystery. But it does act as a calendar and would be great to see during the winter and summer solstice. All in all, these past two weeks have been epic.
Now I'm anxiously awaiting our Easter holiday where hopefully we'll get to experience some warm weather. Everyone who just posted pictures from HPU's spring break were in bikinis and soaking up the sun. I think I'm ready for some of that. Spain and Greece can't come soon enough!
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