Oxford, a play, Portobello & Camden Town, Harrods again, and Liverpool

It has been awhile since I last wrote and I have a lot that I have done! On Wednesday we took our day trip to Oxford with Philippa. We took the train and when we arrived it was freezing! I wish that the weather was like my first week here! Sunny and warm! Anyways we first met up with two students who Philippa knew that attend Oxford University. One was girl in here first year studying geography and the other was a second year boy studying engineering. They talked about life and studying at Oxford and then answered any questions that we had. I learned that it is cheaper to go to Oxford than it is to go to Ball State! At least it is for now, the government is thinking of increasing tuition rates. Oxford has over 40 different colleges, which are basically schools separated into majors. We took a tour of the church on Oxford and saw a beautiful dining room where the students eat, which is also where parts of Harry Potter were filmed! I also saw a library that holds over 80 million books underground. Every book that is published in the UK has to be sent to this library before is can be published. We took a lunch break where I found a great Mexican place called Mission Burrito. It is kinda hard to come by Mexican in England so it was really good! Then Philippa took us to a store where we could buy Oxford apparel. I think I was the only one that didn't buy anything! We were free to go after that so I headed back to the flat and took a nap and went to bed early! I was exhausted!






On Thursday I meet up with Curtis and we went to lunch at a cafe near Regents Park. He got the English Breakfast which he has been getting a lot lately and I had a salad. They don't really put dressing on salads here so I didn't think it was very good. After lunch we walked around Regents park for awhile. It was very pretty and I can't wait to go back towards the end of my trip when the trees and flowers are blooming! From there I went to class for British Life and Culture. We watched a movie called Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and then discussed social class in the UK. Straight from class I got on the tube for a long ride for a play we were going to see. It took almost an hour to get there! We grabbed some food right next to the theatre and made it just in time! We had a quick talk with the director of the play beforehand. It was a round theatre and the first round theatre I had ever been to. The play was a modern play about people at a dinner party when the tsunami hit Haiti. It was better than I expected it to be, but I was still a little upset that it was so far away and we got back so late!



On Friday I had British Life and Culture and then I went straight to meet Curtis at the tube. We went to Portobello Market. The market was a lot different than I thought it would be. It was a lot of fun to just walk through the market and experience the atmosphere, but I didn't think it was the best place for shopping. The stuff in the street stands was just a bunch of random stuff or of clothing items that you can't try on. All of the indoor stores were all really expensive. We just walked around for awhile and enjoyed it though! From there we went straight to Camden Town. This also has a very big market, but it has a very different vibe. Camden is where you can find a lot of music and punk and rock. This is where Amy Winehouse lived and died if that tells you anything. It was really fun though! I stopped at an H&M and bought a shirt and then we just walked around for a little while longer. From there we went straight to Harrods and walked through the furniture and toy floors! The toys were a lot of fun to play and look at! They had a whole section dedicated to Harry Potter wands. It looked just like the movie! You could pick from any character! We found an Italian Restuarant that Curtis went with his family when they were visiting his sister, Kristen, in London. They had the best burschetta ever! We also each got a pizza. Then it was time to go home and rest up for Saturday!

Saturday morning we got up to get on the train to go to Liverpool to watch Everton take on Chelsea in a football match. It was about a 2.5 hour train ride and when we arrived in Liverpool I was not very impressed. It was a very dirty city. Maybe it was just the part of town we were in but it wasn't very nice at all! The only thing I thought that they really had going for them was that the Beatles came from there! And the football of course! Also, we tried to grab lunch before the game at a pub, but none of them served food on match days so we found a small cafe and ate there. Everything was much cheaper than it London so that was nice! The game was a lot of fun! I didn't realize that Landon Donovan and Tim Howard, both Americans, played for Everton! Everton won 2-0 over Chelsea!