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.

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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!!

The Open Arms

Scotland is officially one of the beautiful places I've been to in the whole world! We all met up early at 5:45 to walk over to the train station- except poor Audrey was running late but we all managed to pull it together and make the 6:30 train to Edinburgh. The ride was around 6 hours with one train switch so I slept for most of the way except that during the last 2 hours the train was absolutely slammed with people traveling to the city for the weekend to go to the British Open. We finally made it to Scotland and with our backpacks in tow we walked from the train station, through the park to our hotel. Despite the heavy bags and difficult-to-walk-in-hunter-rain-boots, the walk was absolutely GORGEOUS! The park there is so well manicured with the most beautiful flowers- mostly colorful geraniums and roses- with Edinburgh castle overlooking the park. And there really were bagpipers and kilts everywhere! We were all very camera happy. Kathryn did a fabulous job booking our hotel- we stayed at the historic Caledonian hotel (built in 1903) on Princes Street across from the castle. After throwing our bags into one of the rooms- and being very thankful we weren't staying in a hostel- we asked the concierge for a lunch recommendation and walked over to Brown's. Kathryn had the largest glass of cider I have ever seen- and finished it I might add- and after drinks we decided to find an open top bus to tour the city. On the way, we stopped at a local bookstore and grabbed some coffee and some new reads and hopped on one of the tour buses. I am so thankful we did! We got to see all of the city which included views of the countryside and also some more modern buildings (like Scottish Parliament which is the craziest building I've ever seen and looks like it is covered in hairdryers). It was exactly what I had expected- a gorgeous, historic Northern European city with a little eclectic thrown in. Our tour guide drove us through part of the city where most of the large churches had been converted into bars. Naturally, after walking through the city (which included a hike up 129 steps- yes, i counted), this was our next stop! We found a super interesting one- a large old church converted into the themed Frankenstein's bar. Jane got a "Dr. Frankenstein" cocktail that was green and black and honestly, a little scary. So we drank pints and watched the Open until it was time to go shopping cashmere and then grab dinner at a sushi restaurant (not the best customer service experience ever to say the least- Audrey ended up eating fried tofu that no one ordered...). We found out that the rest of the group was at Frankenstein's so we headed back to the bars and then late-nighted at Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde's. Drew was hell-bent on taking their "7 Deadly sins" challenge, a shot for every sin, but after finding out there was no t-shirt involved, and being lactose-intolerant, that some of the shots contained milk, decided against it. Anyway, turned out to be a very eventful fun night and it was very difficult to get up the next morning for the Open!

The next day, we woke up early and headed to the train station to catch our train to Fife/St. Andrews. We were all bundled up and in our Hunter boots thinking that we were going to have a very cold, blustery day on our hands. Catching the train turned out to be super complicated, as they had a secret hidden line for the train to the Open hidden behind the restaurants with no signs or anything! So that's how we lost Alison. One down. Anyway, we hopped on the train and all got a table together and let Jane entertain us for the ride over. To our dismay they do not allow cameras OR cell phones so not only do we have no pictures from the entire day but we were so worried that we were not going to be able to find Alison who had talked into coming with us. Luckily after we got there, we headed straight for the food pavilion and found Alison! It was unlike any event I have ever been to. I was expecting something close to the Byron but this put that to shame. St. Andrews is gorgeous and the set-up for the tournament is just spectacular. Everything is so well manicured with large pavilion tents and big screens to watch. We grabbed burgers and pints from "The Open Arms"- the beer garden- and watched the golfers on the big screen. After a few pints, we had fun checking out the Lexus tent with all of the new 2010 cars AND getting in the cars with the steering wheel on the wrong side. After souvenir purchases at the merchandise pavilion, we found out that you could actually walk around with beers so we decided to see some golf in action. We got to see all of our big names- Tiger, Phil, and Jon Daly- who was wearing red/black tiger stripped pants which I was convinced was for the Georgia bulldogs. We had absolutely beautiful sunny weather- with a few random drizzles here and there- and got to walk the entire course so we definitely got the full St. Andrew's experience. The countryside and the course there are absolutely breathtaking. As we walked out, the entrance had become sort of a "screen on the green" where everyone had setup blankets on the ground to watch the players play the final holes on the big screen (and they played until 9:30 because it stays light for so long!)

After 7 hours, we hopped on the train and headed back to the hotel to shower and then grabbed dinner at Deacon Brodie's Tavern (named after the man who was the original inspiration for Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde), traditional Scottish bangers and mash. The girls bought a bunch of crazy Scottish and Haribo candy for a slumber party and watched Wimbledon- not the match, the terrible movie with Kirsten Dunst. We had had a crazy travel weekend so we all slept in the next morning and hopped on the train back to Oxford.

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High Table

Class are officially in full swing- which included an 8-page paper on the British Constitution due Wednesday. Funny thing is.... Britain doesn't really haaaave a Constitution.... so writing 8 pages on a non-existent Constitution to appease my very English tutorial professor was pretty difficult. So I decided to wing it by turning in 4 pages instead of 8 raving about the benefits of this "constitution" and ended up doing pretty well! It also helped that instead of having the hour and a half discussion about this fascinating topic- my tutorial professor had to leave early to go to London to receive an O.B.E. award from the queen. And her own crest. NBD.

We also had our first high table this week. High table includes getting all dolled up, a 45 minute reception before dinner- basically 45 minutes of throwing back glasses of champagne with the professors, a three course meal in the Alington dining room, and a speech from a distinguished guest during after dinner coffee (at which point everyone has really had so much champagne and wine that they are giggling and not really paying any attention). Actually, the speaker this week, Robin Darwall, was really interesting. He was a archivist/historian who knew absolutely everything about University ("Univ") College and presented his speech by introducing 5 objects that could give you a taste of the college's vast history. Oh, and theres a beer reception at the campus pub afterwards. Basically the whole night is a fancy boozefest. The only real problem with this is that most everyone has papers due the next day but that didn't really seem to slow very many people down! Well, one other problem is that they served mullet with lobster innards this week. Hmm... no wonder they didn't set out a menu and decided to tell us this after-the-fact.

We are making plans to go to Edinburgh and the British Open this weekend which should be really fun!!

Foggy Londontown

Plans were to meet at the Porter's Lodge (front door to the school) at 7AM to catch the bus to London but as usual I was 5 minutes late and missed the bus! I already had a return train ticket to London though so I went to the train station and met up with Carrie and Vicky to take the train into London Paddington station. The weather was gorgeous so the trainride was really relaxing. When I arrived I took a cab to the hotel in Mayfair to drop off my bag, grabbed a coffee and croissant at a cafe and shopped on New Bond Street. Most gorgeous Hermes and Burberry shops ever. After some damage, I hopped on the tube down to Westminister while the group rode on the London Eye (not my "cup of tea" with the heights in a small space) and walked around Westminister Abbey and Parliament. I met Kathryn, Audrey, Allison, Taryn, and Jane at Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant outside Covent Garden for lunch. It was DELICIOUS! I got the most amazing salad that I know my sister would absolutely love because it came atop about 10 slices of proscuitto. A few glasses of wine later we decided to walk around Oxford Circus- which ended up being named correctly because there were so many tourists you couldnt move- down to Harvey Nichols to go shopping. I looked for my perfect birthday dress but was unsuccessful so we grabbed sushi from the restaurant on the 5th floor and then walked through Hyde Park back to our hotel for a nap and showers before dinner. We met up with Drew, Jen, and Jason and took the tube to Kathryn's old hood and went to this cool Belgian pub for burgers and high-gravity beers. We decided to go for drinks closer to the hotel but by the time we got back only the clubs were open so we called it a night. In the morning, Kathryn, Audrey and I went to this adorable cafe for brunch and I had this awesome french toast. We did some shopping- which included a lot of cashmere- and checked out some of the boutiques in Mayfair that Brent's sister Allie had recommended along with Anthropologie (coolest location ever! 3 stories) and some other large stores on Regent. After a long day of shopping, we hopped on the bus at Victoria and headed back to Oxford.

First Week

So- turns out we have a lot of homework and not a lot of extra time to do things like blog and post pictures! I'm taking 2 classes: a large class with 18 of us and an SMU professor (comparative contracts: UK vs. US) and then a small one-on-one class with an Oxford professor (English legal system) where we meet once a week. The large class is about 30 pages of reading a night and the smaller class has an amazing amount of reading from a thick textbook and various articles I have to locate along with an 8 page essay due each week. On top of this, we have various events each night that are actually pretty fun. On Wednesday, we were formally inducted into the Bodleian Library. For this 16th century historic library, its an honor to be admitted and you have to recite an oath. The oath was pretty long and contained some weird provisions in it like saying we would smoke in the library or bring fire inside- apparently that has been a problem in the past with such old buildings. This library is where Harry Potter was filmed- the infirmary and the library of Hogwarts- and the librarian said that everyone was freaking out because the crew members would smoke in the stairwells in between takes. After the induction, Drew, Jason, Jen and I checked out the "infirmary" and Duke Humphrey's library. The library was amazing- no books newer than 1600 and of course you aren't allowed to touch anything. We also visited an exhibition on John Aubrey that was really interesting. He studied at Oxford and studied everything from algebra to blood transfusions to botany. I'm hoping that- as Professor Winship says- the wisdom will come to me through osmosis. He literally has us rub our textbooks.

The welcoming dinner at Freud's on Thursday was pretty interesting. On the walk over, being my clumsy self I had what Brent likes to call a "shoe bomb" or "sniper" and broke my sandal. Of course the converted church restaurant is a 20 minute walk away that I had to do half barefoot and all of the shops close at 5 so I had to just rock one shoe at dinner. We had English "barbeque" which was basically just lots of sausage. Seems like most of the meals here consist of either fried fish, sausage, or potatoes or a combo of those. After lots and lots of wine at dinner, Kevin, an American who works at an English firm Slaughter & May, took us out to one of the fun bars in Oxford called Raolo's (I made a quick roundtrip to the dorm in a cab to grab new shoes!). We played paper/scissors/rock all night for drinks and the Budweisers taste like Newcastle. The bar was too much fun and Friday morning classes (which of course this was the only week where we will have Friday classes) were pretty painful. Didn't make the pub crawl on Friday and plans were underway for Saturday's trip to London!

Hogwarts Express

Cheers from Oxford! So it seems like ages but its only been a few days since I left Dallas. While it's taken awhile to get here and get settled in, I'm finally starting to get used to the fact that I officially live here!

Sunday was absolutely crazy with last-minute packing and trying to figure out how to charge my camera abroad but after a few mambo taxis over lunch I settled down and got ready for the airport (which consisted of putting on the most comfortable clothes ever and taking a xanex). Saying goodbye to little Ellie was so hard and she could definitely tell I was leaving- it was the cutest thing! (Her new bf, Mr. Darcy- Kathryn's ckcs- did the same thing to her!) My mom upgraded me to first-class last minute which was the most fabulous treat in the world!!! The plane was absolutely amazing and had everything from movies to live tv to hulu. After they gave me a few glasses of champagne and bose headphones, I was in absolute heaven. Unfortunately, the flight attendant liked me a little too much (everytime I said "I'm fine" he said "you're more than fine"... creepy) and kept refilling my glass of champagne a little too much until I got sick. Luckily I had plenty of time to sleep it off! As my flight was late at night, I slept most of the way and landed in London Heathrow at noon the next day. To my dismay, this is actually 4:00AM Dallas time so lugging 80 pounds of suitcases over a mile to customs was pretty difficult but I go to go in the fast line (5 minutes instead of 2 hours) and jump on the Heathrow Express train to London. From Paddington station, I took a taxi cab over to Chelsea to Kara and Tony's. They live in the cutest neighborhood ever! They live above a salon so the nice salon owner let me into their building and I left their luggage outside the flat so that I could walk around a bit and do touristy stuff. So I walked around the Royal Bureau of Kensington and Chelsea- amazing neighborhoods, museums, and parks- and finally ran in to Phil and Zach in time to head out to dinner. They had gone to see Jay-Z and Lilly Allen in Hyde Park the night before and I was extremely jealous when they showed me all of their pictures. Phil was nice enough to bring Kara and Tony American items they truly missed which included industrial-sized packages of sour patch kids and 5-hour energy's. And luckily Kara found a Cosco in London that sells Coors Light! Zach's friend Amanda was also in town (en route from Africa on her way home to Nashville) and so we met up with her and hopped on the tube to meet up with Kara and Tony and head off to dinner. It was so good to see Kara! She had been at work all day nannying for a little terror that bit her hand. We walked over the bridge over the water by the London Eye and went to dinner at a noodle place called Wagamama's on the river. The weather was absolutely amazing and we couldn't beat the view! So I got to hear all about Kara and the boy's travels and then we decided to go out for more drinks closer to home. We went to this awesome pub called Troubador's next door to Kara and Tony's and which served gigantic glasses of beer. After last call, they gave us plastic cups so we late nighted out in the streets with some guys from Tampa and 2 Frenchmen- pretty random, they asked us if we knew Justin Bieber- of course Phil said yes- and the only place they had been in the states was Albany, NY. Tony and Kara had work early the next morning but I was still on Dallas time so Phil and I stayed up late and watched funny euro music videos and drank Carlsburg tallboys (which Phil and Zach discovered has asparagus-like consequences). Dinner on the river and beers at the pub- could not beat my night in London so I'm going back with the our SMU group this weekend!!

The next day I was planning on doing super touristy sightseeing with the boys but had to leave early to jump on the train to Oxford! I made it here by noon and got my dorm assignment. We took tours of the town and our portion of the campus and then I headed with some of the girls to Marks & Spencer (a department store that has a grocery store in the back) get dorm room essentials (which of course included new bedding). The campus is absolutely gorgeous and looks exactly like Hogwarts and the town looks fake with all of the old shops. I honestly cannot describe it so I took as many pictures as possible! We were all surprised at the amount of tourists and teenagers. We had a delicious informal buffet dinner during which our end of the table won the "red wine race" that no one else seemed to be competing in and then we got a large group together to find a pub to watch the Uruguay v. Germany World Cup game. To our surprise, most of the pubs only have small TVs so we trekked down to a Mexican pub called Que Pasa! Not at all close to the Tex-Mex we are used to but they sold Peroni and had lots of flat screens so we were definitely content. We closed the place down and a few people went to another pub for late night but I was so sleepy from walking all day so I headed back to my room. This town is really starting to remind me of Athens though because as I walked home, the streets were lined with the hot dog stands that I am so used to, except these sell kebobs- which confusingly is not at all a kebob but more of a chicken pita. Late night but overall a very fun first day in Oxford!!