Striped Socks and Spiral Stairs

Wow, i'ts been several days since I last posted. (Thank-you Captain Obvious) I'm sitting here in the lab waiting for my laundry while listening to In-Grid on my cd player. I'm so so so glad I brought my CD's- I can't take not having music now and then.

Anyway, we had grand plans for today of going to Trafalgar Square and to the National Gallery, but those were abandoned when we finished lunch at our flat and realized that we're all exhausted, and that a long nap sounded far more attractive than sight-seeing. Mmm, unconsciousness.

Anyway, I suppose I should finish the story of the weekend, eh? So, there we were on a Saturday afternoon in SoHo- fun place. Parts are really clean and attractive, and others are seedy (for example, the alleyways lined with strip-clubs and sex-shops). "China-Town" is comical in it's size- it's all of one block long, and ined with restaurants. It was still exciting, though, to see a fruit that's as big as three basketballs. Oh, and the best part of SoHo? The socks! That's right, I bought two pairs of wild, over the knee socks. Steppie, you'd love them. One pair is black and turquoise stripes, and the other is purple argyle. I cannot express the joy these give to my shallow and stupid side. It's actually kind of depressing, being in London and not being able to afford to be well dressed- everyone here looks smart and very much "together." We Americans really are so very tacky.

Let's see, let's see... after SoHo we went to O'Niell;s (the pub) to watch some of the soccer game. Unfortunately, they didn't have the T.V. near our table on, and we were all tired, so we left pretty early.

On Sunday we went to Oxford! We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day- it was cool, the sun was out, with distant puffy clouds, and Oxford itself is always gorgeous. We went as a group of 11, so our train ticket was really cheap, though once we got there we separated into much smaller groups. My friends and I went to Carfax Tower, which is all that's left of St. Martin's Church, and after braving the spiral stairs (of which we had so many the day before), looked out over the skyline. We got lunch at KFC, of all the bizarre places, and went into Blackwell's (the biggest bookstore in the world). We also went to the University Museum of Natural History, and to the Christ Church Picture Gallery. The picture gallery was really interesting, because it had a couple of Tintoretto's, two Botticelli's, and several Van Dyke's. We finished the day with a bite of cake at the Old Tom pub accross from Christ Church College, and I slept very hard on the train ride back in between reading "Persuasion."

I enjoyed Oxford much more this time than when I went several years ago, because I was in contact with the guide book, and was able to navigate and see where and what we were doing. It's weird, but I enjoy everything so much more when I can see a map.

Yesterday we had three hours of lecture on English history in the morning (gag me- interesting, but that's a really long class). In the afternoon we took a tour of the British Museum, which was interesting up until Mel fainted. She revived pretty quickly, and since I'd seen the museum before, I was more than happy to volunteer to sit with her for a while. We joined up with the other tour, and got to see some interesting stuff. The major problem at this point (other than the fact that food costs a small fortune here) is exhaustion- we've been getting up to sightsee or go to class everyday, and we're all very, very tired. Despite napping this afternoon, I know I'm still wiped out. Alright, my laundry should be done! Tomorrow we're going to Dover and Canterbury with the classes, which should be very pleasant- I wrote a report on Dover back in 7th grade, but I've never gotten to see the White Cliffs before!
Tscheuss!