Letters from London: Oxford and things...

So, as promised, I will be posting my London adventures after being home. I apologize for taking so long. Life has been really crazy busy... with getting engaged, working and going to school... life just sort of catches up with you. But, I will press on and keep updating this blog until I am completely done. So, bear with me, and I hope these next posts will keep you all happy and be everything you ever dreamed of ;)

Wednesday February 23rd

Today our group went to Oxford. We hopped on the coach and made our way over to perhaps get a bit smarter. On the bus we had a little lecture on the history of Oxford, which was pretty interesting. When we got there we had an assignment to visit a few different places before we met up again to head back to London. Our first stop was a museum where I got to see lovely paintings and sculptures. Plus, they had a very large collection of Japanese art. I've taken some Japanese history classes and we've talked about the art before so I really enjoyed getting to see those pieces. After that we wandered around to Christ's Church (part of the university). We paid a few dollars to get in and guess what we saw. The staircase in the 1st harry potter movie. Yes, in Christ's church they filmed a lot of scenes for the harry potter movies. It was really cool getting to see those things and just flashing back to the movies. I love Harry Potter, as did most of the group, so we had a lot of fun. I even posed on the staircase with my 'wand' aka a ball point pen.

Great Hall staircase from Harry Potter

Me with my wand... eagerly waiting to be sorted in the Great Hall

The Great Hall. This is where they actually filmed it. Pretty cool.

One of the things my professor talked to us about was Lewis Carrol and other famous authors that went to and were at Oxford. Right across the street from Christ's Church there is an Alice and Wonderland store. They had really cute tea sets, but I didn't get anything.

The Alice Shop

We also were told that there was a pub, called the Eagle and Child where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis used to go. Apparently they were in a club of sorts. It was really cool to hear about that. Especially because I idolized Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit for so long. Seriously, though. So, it was cool seeing that.

Where Tolkien and Lewis use to hang out

I stopped at a second hand bookstore. It was lovely. There was a really adorable old man that worked there. When I was walking past his counter he was helping this little boy and he was asking him what kind of books he liked and how his day was going. It was so cute. I love bookstores like that, where the owners are so personal with their customers. I found an old copy of some John Keats poetry (he's one of my favorites) as well as an early edition of Jane Austen's Mansfield park. All for under 5 pounds. The old man was super cute when he checked me out. I just love bookstores. Maybe someday I'll own one... haha. Also, my trip to Oxford wouldn't be complete without getting a nice and comfy sweatshirt. So, I did. And it's lovely. Anyway, after the bookstore it was time to go back to London. The rest of the night I watched North and South with some of my roommates and relaxed. Here's some pictures of Oxford. Now that I have good internet again, I'll be able to post a lot more pictures :)