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Okay--that's it. I'm enrolling at Oxford! It's no
matter that they don't have a wonderful music program; as long as I can study in that wonderful city, I'll be perfectly
happy. :-)
Fine, fine. I'm not really going to become an Oxford scholar,
but I would give almost anything to spend at least a little time burying my nose in a book within those
incredible walls. I've never seen anything like the town of Oxford in my entire life. Every building is quite
literally hundreds and hundreds of years old (some dating back to the 1000's), and they're all built out of the same white
stone. The city is nestled among green, rolling hills, and it looks so quaint and impressive and unified all at once.
It's like I told my new buddy Kristine, "Only the people and the occasional McDonalds give away the fact that Oxford is functioning
in the year 2006." It's true! Oxford is timeless. It must be the perfect place to shoot
movies because, walking down its cobblestone streets and gazing at its grand old buildings, you'd never be able to guess
the decade or even the century! And actually, many scenes from "Harry Potter" were filmed in Oxford.
That sent Kristine into raptures because she's obsessively fond of the books and movies. In Christ Church, we were able
to walk up the grand staircase, wander through the Great Hall, and see the courtyard where the actors performed.
I had to snap photo after photo of Kristine posing. :-) I, on the other hand, was actually more interested
in the way Christ Church inspired Lewis Carrol's "Alice in Wonderland." For example, the college was founded by Henry
VIII (notorious for beheading his wives), so Carrol decided to have his Red Queen constantly bellow, "Off with her head!"
In the dining hall (or "Great Hall" in the Harry Potter movies), I found a portrait of Lewis Carrol, stained glass representations
of the characters in his books, and the window where he used to watch a certain little girl play (who would eventually inspire
the character Alice).
But--oy!--I'm getting ahead of myself. :-) Let me rewind
and start from the beginning of the day. I woke up this morning and headed to the church. I don't think it
was through sheer luck that the first person I saw was a girl named Kristine who began chatting with me in a friendly
way. Come to find out, we're both Utahns and both music majors! What are the chances? Even more incredible
was the fact that, as we continued talking, I realized that she is a definite kindred spirit. She looked to me like
a cross between my friends Kristin and Kristina (funny that her name should be Kristine!), but as far as beliefs and passions
and personality go, the two of us are like twins separated at birth. We
stuck together all day, and most people assumed, by the way we acted, that we were sisters. I was sorry to
say "goodbye." Hopefully we'll be able to meet up next week to do some sightseeing.
Shoot! I'm getting ahead of myself again. Let me rewind
one more time. :-) Our trip began in a big, double-decker bus. Kristine and I sat on the top level and had
a great time. They served us muffins, croissants, and orange juice on the way there, and it was all very enjoyable.
The view out of the windows was gorgeous, too. I was so happy to finally catch a glimpse of the rolling English countryside!
When we arrived in Oxford, everyone split into groups and trotted off to sightsee. My group consisted of Kristine, two
other girls from the ward, and two LDS brothers who actually live in Oxford. I'm not sure how we manged to bump into
them, but I'm glad we did! I had such a fun time with Mike, especially. He taught me how to do Oxford British,
Cockney, Scottish, and Irish accents, and Kristine and I helped him with his American accent. He's never been to the
US, but it's his dream destination.
Anyway, we all headed first to the Radcliffe Camera, which was beautiful,
and then climbed the highest tower in Oxford to get a proper view of the city. Oxford is, if possible, even lovelier
from a distance because you can see all the white spires and the green, rolling hills surrounding the city. We then
tried getting into the Bodleian Library (Kristine wanted to see yet another spot where they'd filmed "Harry Potter," and I
just wanted to get into Oxford's main library), but unfortunately, it was closed to tourists for the day because of graduation.
Kristine and I were determined to get inside, so we came back later and posed as students needing to research William Hazlitt
for a Literary London course (not a lie--I really am studying Hazlitt in my class right now!). Unfortunately, they still
wouldn't let us in. They told us to come back on Monday to study. Humph. At least I got to see the entrance
to the library. . .
We also visited Trinity College and Christ Church. I think Christ
Church was my favorite spot. Again, it had so much history! I was delighted by its connections with "Alice in
Wonderland," and the center courtyard was beautiful (with architecture by Christopher Wren). Kristine and I were actually
the only two who wanted to spend the money for admission, and we sort of lost track of the rest of our group until it was
time for lunch in the park. We ate some fruit, dodged the swarming bees, and then headed to the river with
the rest of the group to do some honest-to-goodness English punting. :-)
Mike, Kristine, another girl and boy, and I all rented a boat together.
We took off down a charming little river with white bridges and all sorts of greenery. At first, Mike and his friend
did all the rowing/punting, and Kristine and I just relaxed and called out orders in lazy tones. Finally, though, I
got to try my hand at the punting pole, and it was a lot harder than it looked! Kristine and I didn't fare as
well with the rowing/punting, but Mike enjoyed watching our endeavors. "Brilliant!" "Smashing!" he
would cry out at intervals. Or, in a twangy, overdone American, "Awesome, dude!" "Gnarly!" We also had a
few adventures along the way; Mike's friend dropped his glasses in the water and Mike actually dove in to retrieve them.
And right before we pulled back into the dock, Holly (the current punter) lost her balance and fell straight into the water!
I felt so badly for her. She also lost one of her shoes and never did find it again.
After that, Kristine and I just wandered the streets of Oxford until
dinner time. Oxford is wonderful, but it's a definite tourist attraction and everything costs. Luckily, roaming
the streets doesn't have a price tag. :-) For dinner, our whole group found a spot in the park again (which,
by the way, was absolutely lovely and green, green, green) and ate pizza. By this time, it was actually getting a little
chilly (something I haven't experienced yet in England!), so Kristine and I wrapped up in a blanket and took a walk with with
two guys from the group. One of them insisted on buying us all ice-cream, which didn't help the chilly problem
much. The ice-cream certainly was good, though.
All in all, it was a day unlike any other. And I still have this little
ache in my heart. Might it be possible to study at Oxford for just a month or two. . .?
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