Oxford and things...

Golly gee, this week went by fast. 'Twas a fairly ordinary week, as far as weeks in London go for me. Classes, trip to the Chelsea Physic Garden and Kew Gardens, visit to the National Gallery (for like the fourth time...), researching in the British Library, and seeing Much Ado About Nothing at the Globe Theatre. And then a day trip to Oxford, of course.

We went to the two gardens for my tea class. They were both beautiful. It was sad that I was there to learn and not just take pictures of the pretty flowers and crazy awesome trees. I ended up doing a little bit of both.
Here are some of the pictures I took at Kew Gardens. The orchids were my favorite.

The production of Much Ado we saw was decent, but it was wayyyy less awesome than Doctor Faustus, which we saw at the Globe a couple weeks ago. I was a groundling once again and somehow managed to elbow my way to the front so I could lean on the stage. Before the show started, there were two men on the stage with a bunch of oranges. One of the actors was literally a couple inches away from me and handed me a slice of orange. It was yummy. But sticky. I absolutely love being that close to the actors and being able to interact with them.

Thursday I began actually researching at the British Library for my tea class. It's really intense and frightening. You look at the books in what's called a reading room (I'm doing my work in the Asian and African studies reading room). You're only allowed to bring in pencils, notebooks, laptops (on silent)....and that's pretty much it. You are also only allowed to do research at the Library if you had a reader's pass, which we had to get. It's all just really intense. You don't check out the books, you can only read them in that one room. You have to order the books over an hour in advance and they bring them to the room for you. Today I was reading a 200-year-old book that smelled like tobacco. Some of my fellow group members got to look at ship logs that were huge and awesome and over 2 centuries old. They're terrifying to even touch. They seem like they could just fall apart at any second. It's almost impossible to read them, too, because the script is so fancy. I LOVE IT.

Oxford is a really great town. Oxford University is made up of a bunch of colleges, some dating back to the 13th century. They're sooooo pretty. We got to tour Christchurch College, which is where they filmed a few scenes for Harry Potter. It's dining hall was also the inspiration for the Great Hall in Hogwarts. We were all geeking out hardcore.

Also while in Oxford we went punting, which reminds me of the gondolas of Venice. You ride in a boat with several other people and one person has to stand at the back with a huge metal pole and push you along. I was too scared of falling in the water to properly "punt"(?), but I was excellent at using the pole as a rudder.

The rest of my Oxford pics. And a few of the Globe, too.

And that's what's new with me. Oh, also last night the fire alarm went off in our apartment building. It was like living in a dorm all over again. Someone started a little fire in their kitchen. We just had to chill outside for a bit while the nice fire brigade men hung out with us.

Today I was supposed to go to the Doctor Who Experience with a couple friends, but then we realized that Lauren was stupid and got the tickets for tomorrow instead of today on accident. It actually worked out quite well, but I wanted to go todaaaay. :(

Ah well, I still get to see the Doctor Who season finale tonight. :D

Actually, in about an hour. Yipeee!!!