I will now attempt to do something no man has ever done before and lived to tell of. I am going to include two days of my English adventure in one blog post. Please pray for my stamina and courage to keep up during this ordeal.
Friday-Essay Completion
I went to lecture on Friday morning, which was called Sustainable Cities: Environment, Economy, Equity, and Emotion. It was given by Dr. David Howard, and he discussed the geo-social ramifications of building sustainable cities in the future. He is a Geographer, so his take was very interesting and insightful. I went from there to work on my papers some more, and after numerous revisions, running out of free-prints and refilling my balance, and one final go around with revisions, I finished, huzzah! It was very fulfilling, so I awarded myself with a nice walk. I went farther than I've walked since being here, and found Oxford Castle as well as some really pretty side streets. I ended up over by Christ Church Meadow again, and enjoyed the scenery as I wandered aimlessly for a while and listened to music. I ended the walk with a well deserved visit to Blackwells Poster Shop.
When I got back, I was able to skype with my friend Adam who is participating on the prestigious Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts. I went from there to dinner and then hung out with a bunch of people in our friend Anna's room. We all talked and had a good time, and then everyone went to a club. I walked with them, but didn't stay at the club. I was too tired from the walk and long day, so I went to bed early.
Saturday-Bath Time
Today I woke up very early and went to breakfast, where I met a large group of students I was traveling to Bath with. We loaded up on a bus for the trip, and had a nice ride (about an hour and a half) through beautiful English countryside. We arrived at the city of Bath, which is located in an very pretty, hilly area of the country. I walked from the bus with a big group, and we first grabbed something quick to eat. I had my first pasty (for my American friends, its pronounced like past-ee, so I sounded dumb when I asked what one was). It is basically a croissant with vegetables and meat inside, and I had a chicken and vegetable one. It was delicious, I'll have to check the ones in Oxford out more often now.
Stewart, Anna, Kaitlin, Daniel and I went to the tourist center to buy a ticket for the Roman Baths, and we found out the price also included a visit to the Fashion Museum. We headed straight into the baths and began walking through the museum built around the ancient Roman ruins. The whole place was extremely impressive; they have very well preserved areas of the baths and Temple to Minerva that used to exist. The baths actually still look pretty good, though the water was not what I would call bath-worthy by my refined, American standards. It was more like something a pig would bath in...or an ogre, yeah it was totally ogre water.
We walked through and saw all the amazing preserved statues of gods and where the hot spring was first found by the Romans. I also saw the hot and cold bath areas, which reminded me of the bath house I went to when I visited Pompeii. It was surreal seeing and hearing (I had an audio guide) all the history there. We ended the tour of the baths in the Pump Room, a really fancy restaurant. We didn't eat there, however we did taste the spring water. They had a small fountain of the natural hot spring water and with our ticket we got a free taste. At first the woman asked "Do you want just a few to share in case you don't like it? Or do you want five separate ones?" We said something along the lines of "Five separate of course! We're brave enough to try this!" That was a mistake, because it tasted like if you boiled a glass of water with pennies in it. We all downed the water though, unable to risk the shame of returning them to the woman who doubted us from the start. Having successfully done that, we moved on.
The five of us walked through the Bath Abbey, which is a beautiful Gothic church right in the center of town. The stained glass window and altar were both gorgeous. They had a massive pipe organ and ancient British flags across the aisles. When looking at the graves inside, I noticed one for William Bingham, a U.S. Senator. Bingham being the name of renown it is in Louisville, It caught my eye, though he was from Philadelphia. We went from the Abbey towards the Circus, which is a large circle of what I can only assume are very expensive apartments. The apartments are built so they have three different types of columns going up the sides of the walls, and the area of the town was very pretty and nice to walk through. We went from there to the Crescent, another world famous apartment complex, which costs you about 3 million pounds to buy. After Bellarmine I'll probably get it as a summer home.
We walked through the Fashion Museum, which had models and clothes from different centuries. One section had wedding gowns worn by royalty, inspired by the recent royal wedding. I got some photos for Stewart and Kaitlin (since they are in the Literature program) of them dancing in the Assembly Rooms, which are two ballrooms from the time of Jane Austen. We walked to a small cafe from there, and then it was about time to head back to the bus. We passed the Jane Austen Center on the way as well as street performers and people singing.
On the bus ride home, I saw some of the breathtaking views I missed early this morning while I napped on the ride from Oxford. I saw one of the most amazing scenes in my life when we went over a hill and had a view of the rolling country side, with farmland, forests, and sheep all across the hills. It was unbelievable. When we got back we had dinner together and all agreed heartily that Bath was a great trip.
Tonight I think I may go on a walk and read next to the river. Tomorrow Blake and I want to go to Blenheim Palace, where Winston Churchill was born and buried. G'night and thanks again so much for reading.
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