ducks and a lobster

I think my favorite day so far in England has been the one I didn't spend in London. On Sunday, a group of us took a bus through some of those classic rolling green hills to Oxford to spend the day wandering around. We sat in a cemetery eating tiny desserts that had been beautifully wrapped in tissue paper and tied with a little white ribbon like a birthday present. I saw more clock towers and gargoyles than I could ever imagine existed. And by the time we left, I was wishing we had spent the two weeks there instead of London, although I guess that Oxford isn't really the biggest hotspot for new media and other forms of art.

Maybe it's just that I haven't gotten around enough in London, but other than the area around the river, it really isn't that pretty. The architecture is not terribly impressive, although I do think it's cool that there are curved buildings built on curved streets. And then of course, there are the famous places and cathedrals and stuff, but just taking a random walk through London, not much strikes me as being beautiful. Oxford is just the opposite. Everything is old and covered in moss and beautiful relief sculptures and the houses are so cute and British. It's quaint and majestic at the same time. And I know my description is not doing the place justice at all, which is why I'm posting some of my photos from the day.

We ate dinner at The Eagle and Child pub, which is where CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien hung out on a weekly basis with their other scholarly friends (they were known as the Inklings) and drank beer and discussed philosophical issues. And read and discussed thier writings in progress. There is just so much smart stuff that has gone on and is still going on in that town. We walked through a couple of the 39 colleges scattered throughout the city (unfortunately it's tough to get into the one where much of Harry Potter was filmed) and were amazed by the bright green perfectly manicured lawns and huge buildings. Who wants to go back to Mudd and Olin and the LDC after that? Seriously. Then again, Oxford is also quite the tourist town. I got the feeling that everybody there was either affiliated with a school or not from there. It would make for an odd living dynamic, although I'm sure I would fit right in as both a student and a tourist.

Alas, we leave London tomorrow for Amsterdam. I'm happy to be going... off to somewhere new where we hopefully won't be quite as busy and will have more pleasant living arrangements. There's some crazy Dutch or German or something kids staying here who are loud and obnoxious and just really rude. I guess we're staying at a cute little hotel in Amsterdam that's on a park, and I'm excited for that. My next post will most likely be from there... yay!