I spent a lot of time reading this week, first Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, which I read most of (again) in the garden behind St. Paul's Cathedral, and Vanity Fair, which I finally finished today.
On Monday a bunch of us went to St. Paul's Cathedral for evensong, which was lovely. I walked there from Trafalgar Square (having walked to the square from class) and then as mentioned read in the garden in the sun. It was a nice, warm and sunny day, so though the walk was a little longer than I'd anticipated, it was fun, and along the Thames.
Speaking of the Thames, on Tuesday after a day of double classes, I went on a river cruise with Patty, Marla and Liz, as well as a number of the British Bulldog kids. It was sponsored by the
Adam Smith foundation and was for young libertarians, but apparently there weren't enough of them so they opened it up to young people. It was free, and there were free sandwiches and wine, which was pretty nice. We tried to find ice cream on the way back and walked to Covent Garden. Eventually we resorted to buying pints of Ben and Jerry's at a little supermarket near the dorm. Half Baked? Delicious.On Thursday, Patty, Ashley and I went to Wimbledon! It was just as fun as the first time, and there was no queue, which was amazing. We even managed to sit at Court 2 (our tickets were only supposed to let us stand) and watch Bryan and Bryan, the Americans who were seeded 1 for
men's doubles, lose. There were a couple of rain delays but it was still great, and the match was really interesting. We then watched B. Bryan (whose name is apparently Bob; we were really hoping it was Brian) and his mixed doubles partner dominate, from right next to the court. There were a few times that the ball seemed pretty close to our heads, haha.On the 4th of July, I headed to Oxford with Nell, Lissa, Conor and Patty. We climbed a tower to get a view of the city, where we were terrible people and left graffiti. Oops. But we had to join the thousands of other visitors who'd done it, and so we added some nice Yale touches.
We got some lunch after that (Patty and I went to Pizza Hut, to celebrate the 4th of July with some American fast food), checked out a little shop with Alice in Wonderland memorabilia, a used bookstore, the Oxford bookstore (where I bought a red t-shirt so I could further express my patriotism; I'd been wearing orange), and Christ Church college. We saw the steps where part of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was filmed (the bit right before the sorting) and the dining hall that inspired the Great Hall. We checked out the art gallery, and then made our way to the Ashmolean, the oldest museum in the world. I was excited there because I saw Rosetti's sketch for his painting Prosperine, and I'd seen the painting in the Tate Britain the week before.We met up with MJ and went punting, which was a lot of fun. Our chauffeur (or punter) took us on a canal or something behind Magdalen college, and we talked and ate and laughed at the
people who were trying to punt on their own. MJ then took us to see Merton College, which she's affiliated with during her internship, and which was I believe the college of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.I spent most of Saturday reading, though in the middle of the day Matt Long arrived for session 2! We caught up some and went to the grocery store, and later I had dinner with him and Amy, another session 2 person. That evening Nell, Bill, Lissa and I went to the Bree Louise, the pub we took MJ and Heather to when they visited, and sat outside and talked for a while. We met a guy who kept asking if we had Nokia phones (his was dead and he needed to call a friend), asked where the Dragon was (we think it's a pub) and then decided to sit and chat with us for a while. It was kind of hiliarious.
All I've done today thus far is church with Matt and reading, but Blair arrives today! so we're planning to do something this afternoon/evening. Two weeks to go, three papers, and one three day field trip!
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