Alice Day in Oxford
Yesterday, I spent the day with Lindsay, Laura and Kate (girls also in my program in Toronto) and Sarah, celebrating 'Alice Day' in Oxford. There were many events planned for Alice Day, but unfortunately we only made the first one. Judging by that though, we probably wouldn't have wanted to see the rest anyways. The first event was at 12:15, on the lawn of the Natural History Museum, and it was like the crappiest live action kids TV show ever, lol. It was advertised as a 'caberet-style reinactment of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.' And it was pretty weird. There were 3 or 4 actors in really awful costumes, (except for one lucky person who got to play the tea table), and when they weren't awkwardly dancing and lipsyncing to the Disney's Alice in Wonderland 'unbirthday' song, the Mad Hatter was singing really awful schmoozy love songs...for example, "It Hat to be You." Lol, awkward.
So yeah, thought Alice Day was a bit of a bust, but we still had fun exploring Oxford. Sarah and I just found out yesterday that our Ashmolean cards actually get us into the University college grounds for free (whereas visitors have limited access and often have to pay a fee to get in). We were also allowed to take one guest each, which worked out since Kate didn't arrive until later. So, after visiting the Natural History Museum and the Pitt Rivers, the four of us had a picnic on the beautifully manicured lawns inside Trinity College. Nice.
I was quite glad to have learned that my pass gets me into the colleges. They are much more interesting and pretty from the inside than from the outside. I wouldn't have known if Helen and Sadie at the office hadn't asked Sarah and I to go with them to have lunch inside Balliol College (right next to Trinity) on Friday. Balliol is one of the oldest ones, founded in 1263, and some famous members include: Aldous Huxley, Richard Dawkins, three Brit PMs and a German president. (Thanks wikipedia.) Cool.
I wonder what else my pass can do? I know I can get into the Bodleian's non-touristy sections, but I haven't been yet. More exploring clearly needs to be done before I leave in 25 days.
After our picnic, we met Kate and headed to the Bodleian, which was absolutely packed with people. There was a miniature Alice-related exhibit there on Salvador Dali's illustrations for Through the Looking Glass. We saw some very nice and strange pictures. We weren't really sure about going through the library with so many tourists out and about, so we just went to the Bodleian gift shop, and left to go on a quest for ice cream. That led us down near Christ Church College, where we had a nice long walk through the park along the Thames/Isis river. There were lots of punts and other boats going by, and we would have liked to rent one ourselves, but once we finally found a boat hire they told us they were closed. That sucked, it would have been fun to relive our Stratford rowing experience.
One good thing about England is that you can drink outdoors, haha. Sometimes there will be signs posted saying no drinking is allowed in certain areas, but no one bats an eye at having a bottle of wine in a park with some friends. So thats what we did after Christ Church. Afterwards, we went to dinner at a place called Giraffe, had some really really good Ribs, and then everyone went their separate ways. Good day.
Today was much more boring. Dorothea left for Germany this afternoon, and she won't be back until September or later. So its just Sarah and I now in the house. As far as I can tell, there isn't a whole lot of green space in Oxford, outside of the colleges and university properties. Near Osney Island, where I live, there is a 'Thames Path' following the river with about 5meters or so of grass on either side, and thats the only public green space I've really found. Since it was another really nice day, so I took a towel down to the path and tanned/wrote postcards/read a book for a few hours. There were lots of people around, making it a bit crowded, but I didn't mind. And of course there were tons of canal boats lining the river - these are like houseboats, but very long and narrow. Many of them are very brightly decorated too. I also saw 2 kids swimming in the river, which I thought was a little gross. The water isn't exactly clean and clear, especially with all the boats going by. Hopefully they live.
And that was my weekend! I'm kind of watching the World Cup game right now on the BBC website, but I can imagine how it could be more boring. This week at work looks to be fairly dull, but one the weekend I have plans to go to Portobello Road in London, then see Les Miserables in the West End! Then next week (next Wednesday, actually) I get to go on the excavation at Marcham! Yay! I need to buy some excavation clothes. And an Indiana Jones hat.
So yeah, thought Alice Day was a bit of a bust, but we still had fun exploring Oxford. Sarah and I just found out yesterday that our Ashmolean cards actually get us into the University college grounds for free (whereas visitors have limited access and often have to pay a fee to get in). We were also allowed to take one guest each, which worked out since Kate didn't arrive until later. So, after visiting the Natural History Museum and the Pitt Rivers, the four of us had a picnic on the beautifully manicured lawns inside Trinity College. Nice.
I was quite glad to have learned that my pass gets me into the colleges. They are much more interesting and pretty from the inside than from the outside. I wouldn't have known if Helen and Sadie at the office hadn't asked Sarah and I to go with them to have lunch inside Balliol College (right next to Trinity) on Friday. Balliol is one of the oldest ones, founded in 1263, and some famous members include: Aldous Huxley, Richard Dawkins, three Brit PMs and a German president. (Thanks wikipedia.) Cool.
I wonder what else my pass can do? I know I can get into the Bodleian's non-touristy sections, but I haven't been yet. More exploring clearly needs to be done before I leave in 25 days.
After our picnic, we met Kate and headed to the Bodleian, which was absolutely packed with people. There was a miniature Alice-related exhibit there on Salvador Dali's illustrations for Through the Looking Glass. We saw some very nice and strange pictures. We weren't really sure about going through the library with so many tourists out and about, so we just went to the Bodleian gift shop, and left to go on a quest for ice cream. That led us down near Christ Church College, where we had a nice long walk through the park along the Thames/Isis river. There were lots of punts and other boats going by, and we would have liked to rent one ourselves, but once we finally found a boat hire they told us they were closed. That sucked, it would have been fun to relive our Stratford rowing experience.
One good thing about England is that you can drink outdoors, haha. Sometimes there will be signs posted saying no drinking is allowed in certain areas, but no one bats an eye at having a bottle of wine in a park with some friends. So thats what we did after Christ Church. Afterwards, we went to dinner at a place called Giraffe, had some really really good Ribs, and then everyone went their separate ways. Good day.
Today was much more boring. Dorothea left for Germany this afternoon, and she won't be back until September or later. So its just Sarah and I now in the house. As far as I can tell, there isn't a whole lot of green space in Oxford, outside of the colleges and university properties. Near Osney Island, where I live, there is a 'Thames Path' following the river with about 5meters or so of grass on either side, and thats the only public green space I've really found. Since it was another really nice day, so I took a towel down to the path and tanned/wrote postcards/read a book for a few hours. There were lots of people around, making it a bit crowded, but I didn't mind. And of course there were tons of canal boats lining the river - these are like houseboats, but very long and narrow. Many of them are very brightly decorated too. I also saw 2 kids swimming in the river, which I thought was a little gross. The water isn't exactly clean and clear, especially with all the boats going by. Hopefully they live.
And that was my weekend! I'm kind of watching the World Cup game right now on the BBC website, but I can imagine how it could be more boring. This week at work looks to be fairly dull, but one the weekend I have plans to go to Portobello Road in London, then see Les Miserables in the West End! Then next week (next Wednesday, actually) I get to go on the excavation at Marcham! Yay! I need to buy some excavation clothes. And an Indiana Jones hat.