As the semester progresses further I am actually required to do work and study! It finally feels like I am in England to go to school rather than travel and enjoy myself. I have so much work to do, if feels like I'm back at Purdue. I spent somewhere between six to seven hours this afternoon preparing for my lab this coming week! Although I am busy with school work, I am still devoted to seeing the rest of England, even if has turned into touring around just on Saturdays.
This week, my mission was to conquer Oxford! I had heard good things and I really wanted to see it, so I decided to go! But, before I get to that story here is how the first part of my week went...it was a boring Thursday afternoon, I had just gotten off the phone with my parents and I was craving some food. I went to the kitchen and made myself some tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. I brought my lunch back to my room so I could continue doing some work before I had to venture to campus for class (and ideally get some errands done while on campus). Everything was fine, until I got an unexpected email. Curiosity struck, so I reached over to open it up....suddenly my whole bowl of soup flipped over and landed on me, my desk, and my computer. It was dreadfully hot and I was in total shock, still not completely understand what had just occurred! The though of my computer breaking while I was studying abroad (or really ever) would have been the end of me. Luckily I was able to semi clean it up before I had to run to campus to make it to class barely on time. When I returned home I decided to remove each individual key to clean under it, so the keys weren't so sticky. I managed to break only the 'y' key while tediously removing every key. Still, my laptop was stained an awful orange color and it reeked of tomato soup, but everything still worked. The next day after classes, I went to the Apple store (one of the largest Apple stores I have ever been to) and explained what happened. I asked if I could somehow buy one key or if they had a spare laying around. I proceeded to find out there were six possible models of keys, so I had to quickly run home grab my computer and bring it back to the store before they closed. My broken key got replaced and I asked if they could suggest any other cleaning methods to get rid of the stains. I then found out they could remove the entire top casing of the keyboard to check to see if any soup reached the hardware. I was also pleasantly surprised when Apple said they would replace my keyboard, track pad, and casing unit for free!!!! This made my day, I don't know why they replaced it or even had a stateside model of the keyboard in stock, but luck was with me. My computer no longer smells and is a beautiful glimmering white, looks brand new!
Now for the Oxford adventure...I highly recommend visiting this town if you are ever in the UK. It has so much character to it. I think it truly encompasses the idealistic British university. The group of us that went decided to go on a walking tour of the city. The tour was fairly cheap...if anything was actually cheap in this country...and the guide knew tons of interesting information. I found it really interesting learning about the set-up of Oxford. The university is composed of 38 colleges. The colleges care about the student's well-being and tutorials, while the university gives out degrees and arranges lectures. Each college is fairly small with the largest college having about 800 students. It happened to be degree day at Oxford, the day students come back to graduate from their respective colleges and earn a degree from Oxford University, so we got to see a bunch of students in their full out gowns. A little fun fact I learned: the students have to wear full gown attire to sit for exams, I am uncomfortable wearing full out sweats for a two hour exam, I can't even imagine wearing a tux, bow-tie, cap, and gown to take a test! I think one of my favorite parts of the tour was seeing the great hall inside New College (not a new/modern college as the name suggests). It looked very similar to the hall shown in the Harry Potter films. It amazes me that the room is used three times a day to serve meals, it is just too attractive and elaborate for everyday use. Much more impressive than any of the dinning courts at Purdue. We were told students had to dress for dinner, which is a slight turn off, much easier to eat dinner in comfier clothes. The hall was set for a special dinner, so the menu appeared delicious, but an actual Oxford student confirmed that meals served in the college halls were yummy.
Back to the Harry Potter reference....I always thought that some of the scenes from Harry Potter were filmed in Oxford and some of them actually were, but it is a myth that the great hall in Christ Church College was used for filming. Instead, the great hall was used as a model for the film, the film was actually filmed in a studio. The difference between the model and the actual hall is the number of tables; in Christ Church there are only three tables, while the HP films show four tables. We were able to see a courtyard with a distinctive tree that was used in the films, but I don't recall the exact scene it was used for. Walking around Oxford was really neat it had a very college-town feeling about it and it was absolutely gorgeous! Other highlights included seeing a preserved blackboard Einstein wrote onwhen he gave a lecture at Oxford explaining the age of the universe. We also saw the Turf Tavern, but unfortunately it was overcrowded when we arrived (probably because it was a Saturday evening and the popular thing to do is to go to the pub for a beverage or two), but at least we got to see it. I loved the town and I think it would have been really fun to be an exchange student at Oxford, not that I don't love Bath...it's just very different. It would have been really neat living in the student accommodations, they remind me of castles (kind of like Windsor at Purdue, but more realistic). Another thing I found interesting was the numerous demonstrations and protests occurring on the main street, this added to the university/college feeling.
I almost forgot the best part. We managed to find the British version of Chipotle. It was not as good as the American chain, but it filled my craving for Mexican food. This whole post is a bit out of order and random tidbits are added here and there, I blame it on the fact that I have been working on chemistry for the majority of my day and my mind is officially boggled. Oh well...it is crazy to think I have been here for a month. Next week, I plan on traveling to the southern coast, I have heard it is beautiful and I can't wait to see the water :) I also may have to have more fish and chips...it really is amazing over here. I pretty much have every weekend till my exams booked, which is a scary thought, the time is flying by so fast. My first weekend trip out of the UK has been booked for the first weekend in April...I am going to Barcelona....I can't wait...sangria on the beach...it's going to be fun! I think the most interesting part will be experiencing a RyanAir flight, I'm a little scared, but it will be good practice for my spring break travels throughout western Europe!
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