Tourist Time

For the beginning of my last week, I decided to try and knock off some of my list of Oxford attractions I have yet to see. I started off the day by getting up early and returning my six Irish History books to the Rewley Library where I checked them out almost two weeks ago now (hard to believe). My desk looks a heckuva lot emptier now. I walked from there over to Carfax Tower, which is the only remaining part of the medieval St. Martin's church. The tower advertises a birds eye view of the city of dreaming spires, so I had to do it. Since I got there as they opened, I was the only person there for a little while. The view was wonderful, I saw Exeter's chapel and the other buildings that make up the famous image of Oxford. The weather was perfect for it too, it was a good way to start the day.

I grabbed a mocha and a piece of baklava from an Italian coffee place in the covered market for breakfast. Yes, I had baklava for breakfast and I'm proud of it, I'm just sick of corn flakes! I took my healthy choice breakfast with me over to the lecture theatre for the day's talk, which was on, you guessed it, divorce. It was titled Divorce: Reasons and  Repercussions, and was given by Dr. Amanda Palmer. She discussed the divorce rates and changing trends in family life in England and how our society is becoming more accepting of divorce as a normal thing. She also spoke of how it affected children in the divorce and how that differs with age. She did a very good job, and it was obviously a lecture people had a lot of questions for her by the end of.

From the lecture I had lunch and went over to the Oxford Botanical Gardens. I wasn't sure how I would like it since I knew nothing about the gardens, but when I walked in I couldn't have been happier. I spent about an hour and a half walking around and looking at all the plant life from around the world. They had rooms for different kinds like an arid room, a lily room, and a palm room, and they were all fascinating. To get around in that area you have to walk through a jungle-like hallway of giant leaves and vines, pushing them out of the way and ducking under others. The rest of the gardens were beautiful as well, with beds of different flowers and fruit trees. I sat on a bench in the center of the gardens and just took it all in for a few minutes. I also got distracted by a lady bug that was walking around on the arm of the bench next to me for entirely too long before deciding to head back to Exeter.

When I got back, I wet to a couple shops around the area and got an Exeter sweater to add to my small arsenal of Oxford clothes (I didn't pack enough from home) and some souvenirs for my family. Then I took a brief nap, which is always a glorious recharge for the rest of the evening. I had dinner in the dining hall and then got some work done on my presentation for the British Politics course on Thursday. I hung out with Bryan for a little while afterwards and then called it a night. Tomorrow night people want to go to a club for karaoke night. That may be fun for me to go watch, but if I want to keep any of the friends I've made here I should probably stay away from the microphone.