Barbour Blenheims

Last exam= finished! So I calculated that I could study 3/9 essays and two of them would be on the test. Wrong. Everything worked out fine though! Scribbled out an essay on separation of powers in England from whatever I could remember and now I'm done with it! Even though I only took 1/2 of a 5 hour energy, those calculations also do not equal 2.5 hours of energy. Even after 2 hours I was still cracked out so I came back to the room after my test and packed up everything. I can't believe I brought so much stuff! And Ellie is going to be a VERY happy girl when I get home because she is getting lots and lots of goodies. Kathryn called me with an emergency today- she found quilted Barbour jackets for Elle and Mr. Darcy- they are going to look so cute and British! Off to donate my ridiculously expensive hair dryer and straightener from Boots to future SMU Oxford students and then Kathryn planned a large group dinner at- surprise, surprise- Jaime's! So excited!

90 High Street

This week has been all about exams. We had class Monday and a "review session" Tuesday. This "review session" consisted of 2 hours of going around the room debating whether law students should use laptops in class. Do you handwrite your notes? What about laptops for exams? Oh, actually, the first hour was spent going around the table and each telling the professor a question that we would put on the exam- while he took notes. Not that I'm calling the guy a liar, but I didn't really think he had the exam prepared. Needless to say, I left feeling completely unprepared. Even moreso than I was during- as evidenced by that fact that I got called on to answer the question "when is it wrong to breach?" and just simply refused to answer because I was too tired to think. (It was ok in the end because the exam question ended up being very similar to mine). Monday night was spent crunching out a paper on human rights for tutorial- I didn't think I had one more in me but actually managed to put out a decent work product. Our final tutorial Tuesday was such a relief!

We had our final formal high table dinner Tuesday night honoring all of the tutorial professors and the staff that has attended to us during our stay. Each tutorial group had to come up with a poem for their professor- which sounded pretty terrible to me- but our group actually came up with a funny anagram definitely had the best presentation. After dinner, we grabbed beers in the college pub with the whole group which was really fun. Of course, Professor Winship and Professor Lischer got penced, and Lischer even ended up getting Drew! I left a little early because I didn't want to be hungover for reading day but the rest of the group ended up at the King's Arms and had a pretty fun night.

I spent Wednesday compiling the most massive 70 page outline for contracts (a collective effort my the class, not just by myself!) and attempting to cram everything about English, French, and German contracts that my little brain could fit. Which actually ended up in watching Gossip Girl re-runs to try to calm myself down about the massive amount of material and hoping that the exam would consist of multiple choice questions related to ice-breaker answers.

Even though I was planning on getting up at 6AM this morning to study, I'm my own worst enemy and turned off my alarm clock but got up at 8 just in time to grab coffee and review before heading to the exam. The group is split into 2 classes: some taking income tax and some taking contracts. And considering that contracts was completely open note and I could take in my school project of an outline and that the income tax students could only have their code book and a calculator- I was surprisingly ok with the idea of a 3 hour hand-written essay exam. Anything to avoid codes and calculators. Especially with Bob next to me muttering "shit" every couple of minutes. I don't think I'm cut out for income tax. Also, I don't think I have ever written that fast before. Actually, I think it was to my own advantage that I thought the test was supposed to end 30 minutes before it actually did since I rushed to put everything in and had enough time to review and write a conclusion. Anyway, exam went well. Got to nap after and study for my tutorial exam tomorrow- 2 hours hand-written on the English legal system, closed book. Not really looking forward to it but VERY happy to have this one out of the way!

CHEERS! British Beerfest & Blenheim Palace

College Pub after High Table with some of the girls and our guest speaker Kevin

So, because tutorial were on Tuesday this week, I turned in my 10 page paper and then headed straight to High Table where apparently I celebrated a little too much! After the college pub and a Persian club in business attire, Kathryn had to pull me out of bed late for class on Wednesday. Wednesday night was chill- walked with the girls to the Bear pub for bbq and Wagamama for dinner Thursday.

After some hardcore resting for 2 days, I headed to London Friday to meet up with Cathy and Kara! I was planning to do a tour of the Cotswolds with the girls on Saturday, but unfortunately they could only book for Friday so I had to miss out :( But I hopped on the bus to London and walked straight to Harrod's from Victoria. I've been to Harrod's before but forgot how much I love it! Their Hermes tie selection is ridiculous. Why am I impressed by things like this? Anyway, got to eat sushi and grab a glass of wine at the bar and after wandering around shopping for awhile found out they had an entire "pet kingdom" floor dedicated to Ellie so I had a field day. I finally got in touch with Kara and grabbed a taxi to her flat so that we could walk over to Earl's Court for the Great British Beer Festival! The festival was so fun- even though Tony and I were mostly hanging out at the American table! Some guy asked me if I had ever had "Budvar" before. Apparently, this is a fancy name for Budweiser. So, after the festival, we hopped on the tube and ate at this awesome Mexican food restaurant with the group and grabbed beers at Brogan's, one of their fav hangouts (where we had lots of Coors Light- and caught Tony staring out the window where we guessed he was missing Mike). I had so much fun with them I didn't want to leave! So I shacked up with Cathy and we all headed to Victoria in the morning. Kara, Tony and Cathy headed to Dover to go to a bed & breakfast on the beach and I was headed back to Oxford.

Saturday night, the girls and I grabbed dinner, and lots of red wine, at this cute little French Brasserie. We had lots of fun talking over a long dinner and made plans for a day trip for Sunday. In the afternoon, we headed out to Blenheim Palace- the birthplace of the cavalier! Kathryn, who also has a cavalier king charles spaniel, and I were really looking forward to all things CKCS. The breed originates from Blenheim- most specifically the orange and white color- the quintessential British lapdog, from whom Ellie could use some manners lessons. Kathryn said they must have seen a dozen on their Cotswolds trip. The Palace was amazing! Winston Churchill's birthplace and the home of the Duke of Malborough- and a recent film location for the Young Victoria with Emily Blunt- the rooms were amazingly ornate with gorgeous grounds. Very disappointed that we couldn't take pics inside. But even MORE disappointed that there wasn't any cavalier stuff! We kept a count and did see 6 in the oil paintings but the place seemed to be more dedicated to boring things like Winston Churchill and history. So after walking around the gardens, we headed home and got ready for dinner at this amazing restaurant on the river, The Trout. Kathryn, Jane, and Audrey walked the 4 miles to get there, but Alison and I weren't feeling up to it so we decided to grab a cab and meet them there. Even though I had a whole fish to de-bone, the food was awesome and we had a blast! After dinner, we ordered a bottle of champagne and sat out by the river to celebrate our last week in Oxford. It has really flown by! Everyone is ready to go home and this week is definitely crunch time for final exams but its all very bittersweet. It was definitely a gorgeous night in the English countryside with good friends.

Alex in Wonderland

Yes, I couldn't resist the cheesy title!

After a long week 4, I decided to stay in Oxford for the weekend because I still felt like I really hadn't seen everything I wanted to yet! Audrey's boyfriend Howard came in town Wednesday and we got a group together to go to All Bar One for happy hour wine and apps. The whole group had gone punting down the River Thames- kind of like canoeing meets gondolas! We all went to an amazing dinner at Jaime's Italian (Jaime Oliver's restaurant- time #3 and still yummy!) and then grabbed pints at the White Horse pub. After pencing wars commenced and many pints had to be chugged (if someone drops a pence in your beer, you are required to chug it in order to "save the queen" from drowning), being loud Americans, volume levels escalated- not mine of course because I am a lady- but needless to say, it was clear that we were unwanted in the cute little English pub and needed to find a more suitable venue. So we trekked down to the Turl and sat outside for another round of drinks and after my first Guinness- of which I had to ignore the pence at the bottom- yours truly had to walk home early (or be escorted by Drew) due to one too many pints. Class Thursday morning was not fun, but I got to curl up in bed all afternoon.

Saturday, I spent the day doing touristy things. I visited the Covered Market and bought little gifts for my fam and then walked down the streets to the Museum of Oxford. Snooze. I'm totally a sucker for everything Alice in Wonderland and as it was written here, and based on Christ Church, everything is Alice. LOVE. But the Museum was totally boring so I decided to walk through Christ Church Meadows and see the Alice and Wonderland gardens. In front of the Botanical Gardens is Rose Lane where they have a maze full of all different types of roses. Its absolutely gorgeous and looks like it jumped off the page of a children's book. I toured the Botanical Gardens, which have been there for forever, many scientists and scholars used to go and study and sketch all of the different species, but lets be honest- what girl doesn't love flowers so I took about a million pictures trying to get new backgrounds for my MacBook and my iPhone. There's thousands and thousands of exotic flowers all with small plaques denoting their species, along with ponds and benches and greenhouses and its set up against the river. It was sooo pretty and def one of my new favorite places in the world!

George, Alison and I met up to get dinner at Fire & Stone- delish pizza- and see Inception at the local movie theater. Loved Inception but all of the thinking to try to follow along totally fried my brain! I took Sunday to finally catch up with all of the reading I have been supposed to be doing while I've been here so it was so nice to stay in Oxford and not spend the weekend frantically traveling! And with exams rapidly closing in and papers due every week, honestly I'd like to leave with some decent grades as a souvenir.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2739026&id=4901156&l=902714bc55

Legal London

Once we were back in London, we got a room in Kensington to stay for the night in order to meet the group in the city in the morning. We all took nice naps and showers and went to an amazing sushi restaurant for dinner. We stayed up to watch Toy Story 2 and the Wedding Date but crashed pretty early. The next morning, we threw on our business attire, grabbed coffees and headed to Middle Temple to meet the group for the Legal London tour. Everyone in the group had just returned from weekend trips so there was lots of story-swapping and not much paying attention but our tour guide was a London solicitor (lawyer) and was very knowledgeable- or at least seemed so with her proper British accent. We toured Middle Temple (a lawyers inn housed by the Knights Templar) and the Royal Courts and ate lunch at the high table in the inn before sitting in a trial (where they wear white powder whigs!). The Courts were absolutely amazing- opened by Queen Victoria and modeled after a gothic church it was really stunning. We continued on to view 2 of the other inns (Lincoln and Greys) and the barrister's buildings. Unfortunately, we didn't get to tour Parliament or Westminister Abbey but I had already done that on my own so I was ok with calling it a day. It was all really interesting but we were all very tired and ready to hop on the train back to Oxford. Unfortunately, the express train wasn't coming until later so we thought it would be a good idea to hop on the slow train. Fortunately, Audrey and I grabbed some high gravity beers from the pub in Paddington before taking the train because it was a commuter train and was disgusting. People, food, spills, not exactly where you want to sit for 2 hours but we made it home, walked home from the train station, and got some much needed rest.

Bienvenido a Espana!

After class Thursday, we hopped on the bus to Gatwick (which was a little too bumpy of a ride and made everyone sick). Security was extremely different than America and not at all a pleasant experience. Not only did they steal my travel Fekkai products- apparently 3 oz is WAY too much- but, in America, the way the security people frisk you- would land you in jail. I felt very violated to say the least. But what made it all better was the shopping at Gatwick! no joke! They have Harrods, Jo Malone, you name it- kind of like the D terminal in Dallas on crack. AND a Mexican restaurant. We were very happy to be able to order guac, queso (kinda gross but we'd take what we could get), quesadillas and Coors light! But the weirdest part about the airport is that they don't tell you your gate until 10 minutes before. Then you go stand in a line and pick your own seat (similar to Southwest) but you can only have one bag. Period. No purse. And if you want to check a bag, one bag will cost you $75. It was ok though because we were prepared and packed very light (despite the textbooks). We got in very very late Thursday night, hopped on a shuttle with some annoying hillbilly people and finally crashed in the room around 2AM.

Mallorca is absolutely beautiful! The Spanish beaches kind of look like Destin sand meets Mexico clear blue water. Its in the Port of Alcudia in a bay on the island. For some reason, the place totally felt like camp- maybe it was the twin beds and sandy sheets. And lack of A/C. So we got up early the next day, went to breakfast, grabbed some awesome beach towels (with dogs in hats on them) and headed to the nearest bar on the beach. Taryn and I grabbed some pina coladas while Audrey and Alison grabbed beach chairs under umbrellas and we were all in heaven laying out in the sun and people watching. There are lots of European families so everything is translated from Spanish into English, German, and Scandinavian, which was really odd. For lunch we sat out on a patio and drank sangria and split a proscuitto pizza. We noticed that there was a bounce house in the bar at the beach and thought that was kind of strange. Little did we know that the Spaniards love a good bounce house and put them absolutely everywhere! On our walk home, we noticed several "Texas" steakhouses and even a Dallas one! We headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner, where I noticed that my hair dryer and straightener wouldn't work because, of course, the plugs are not British! Anyway, I got over it and for dinner, Taryn found this amazing restaurant Satyricon in Old Town. It was an ancient Roman cinema converted into a Spanish restaurant and had amazing food and local wine. Our absolutely favorite part is that after every meal, Spanish waiters bring you complimentary drinks- or shots- as a nice little surprise with your check. So we sipped our champagne and then walked around to the local vendor tents on the streets. There was a toga party going on so people were really celebrating.

The next day, we woke up and went back into Old Town for brunch and walked around the streets. We tried to find a vineyard for wine tasting but most of them are located pretty far inland and you have to take a 6AM bus. So instead we grabbed beers and neon rafts and layed out at the beach again. The water was absolutely amazing and the weather was perfect. We walked farther down the beach and stopped for some sangria at a patio on the beach for happy hour and then found another beachside restaurant for dinner. Lots and lots of seafood pae-ella and wine and of course, shots with the check. We walked along the beach and took lots of pictures and headed closer to the hotel for dessert and drinks. For dessert, presentation is key. We got very excited when they brought out a sundae with a fiery sparkler on top, but quickly realized that this is completely normal and all desserts must be served with a sparkler. Actually, Alison later got a frozen drink and was surprised with a sparkler. Its really an easy way to make people happy. So while we were enjoying dessert, we heard this awesome karaoke guy signing Garth Brooks and Neil Diamond and all kinds of other great karaoke songs and had to run across the street to this open bar to drink pints and watch him in action. As loud Americans, he really loved us, but we were disappointed to find out he was only the opening act for this band of 2 old guys so we didn't stay long. The next morning, we woke up bright and early at 5:30 to head to the airport and we were ready to get out of Spain. Gorgeous. Loved it. Amazing beaches. People at the airport had no concept of personal space and for 4 cranky American girls tired from traveling all weekend, a smelly European lady shoving past us in the security lane was really the last straw. I did find the airport somewhat amusing though because the announcements in Spanish really sounded like those recordings that our Spanish high school teacher would play on tape for the exam! "Última llamada del vuelo British Airways uno cinco cinco- señores pasajeros, embarquen URGENTEMENTE por la puerta quince"- What gate do the passengers need to go to? 5 pts.

The Tempest

Week 3: class is getting super boring. We used to start off each class with an "ice breaker" like "what's your favorite movie?" but everyone is so indecisive that by the time it got around to the end of the table it was "what's a recent movie that you have seen?" or "any movie you have seen." So now we have moved into more of an opinionated ice breaker, which by the time you get to the end of the table every possible opinion has been said so everyone ends up agreeing. Recently, we have come to reading the table of contents of our previous contracts textbook out loud. "Chapter Five: Breach of Contract... frustration of purpose... impossibility." Seriously. Then we go through the chapter that we read for this class and the professor goes through each section of the chapter and asks if anyone found this section interesting. "Chapter Eight: Finding the terms of the contract... section 1- the terms of the contract... did anyone find anything interesting here... no? ok next section... finding and interpreting express terms... anyone? no?" Like literally- Ferris Beuller... anyone... anyone. Oh and we have a midterm exam on Thursday and no has a clue what will be on it. We are dying. Everyone's pretty much given up on lunch also. I'm not sure if lasagna and potatoes are what you want to eat everyday. BUT there's hope! Kathryn discovered this adorable delicatessen across from the school called Olive's that has sandwiches and salads that has pretty much become our staple. We had our second High Table which was nice because we got to have the champagne reception in the Fellow's Garden since it wasn't raining. Side note- I really expected more rain but it has been awesome weather and pretty sunny most of the time we have been here! (knock on wood...) Oh except that on Thursday it poured raining after lunch for like 5 minutes in which Drew bit it and ripped his dress pants in 3 places. We are going to London on Monday for our legal London tour.

Our speaker this week at high table was Dorota (um... yes like gossip girl!) who is a Polish research student who has been at Oxford for like forever. We also got to go to Wadham College on Wednesday to watch the Tempest which was really neat! They performed it in the round with minimal props so it was very interesting. I got to see a lot of Oxford this week- Kathryn, Audrey, and I wen tot the top of St. Mary's church and took pictures of the city and walked around Christ Church Meadow and Merton Field where they have all kinds of neat stuff like cows, honey bees, and punting (like canoeing on the River Thames) and thus I discovered my new running place. Especially because we have decided to head to Majorca, Spain (or Mallorca in Spanish/Catalan) this weekend to go to the beach! It's an island next to Ibiza off the coast of Spain near Barcelona and even though its a trek to get there, the pictures look absolutely gorgeous! We are also planning on staying the night in London on Sunday so that we can just meet up with the group on Monday morning for Legal London. So excited!

Halfway over? I can't believe it!!