Summertime in the city

We visited Oxford on Saturday. It’s a cute British town, and the colleges were all beautiful. But what did we all want to see most? The Great Hall from Harry Potter. We hung around for a couple hours after our guided tour ended to see this famous, glorified dining hall (we compared it to Collins). It’s a lot smaller than in the movies, but we all got a kick out of it. We also stood on the stairs where Prof. McGonagall stood for one scene. Sarah insisted on getting her photo taken.
On Sunday I stopped by the Victoria & Albert Museum. I only had an hour so I went to their famous fashion exhibit. I was looking at an 18th century dress when two women walked by and said, “How lucky are we that we don’t have to wear that.” It looks like a worthwhile museum, so I’ll try to stop by again. There’s a courtyard with a huge fountain where you can sit and dip your feet. If I ever get rich/change my major, I’m going to buy a house with a large fountain where I can sit.

On Monday Elvia and I walked around Holborn during our class break. We stopped in this communist book store, and I found a copy of Getting Open: The Unknown Story of Bill Garrett and the Integration of College Basketball. I’m still confused as to why a communist bookstore in London would carry a book about NCAA college basketball’s integration. But hey, it’s always nice to be reminded of IU.

Nick and I went to the British Library after class. They have an exhibit called “The Sound and the Fury”, which lets visitors listen to different speeches given throughout history. Some were pretty famous (Winston Churchill’s “We will fight on the beaches…”), but others were new to me (Ernest Hemingway’s Nobel Prize acceptance). My favorite was Earl Spencer’s eulogy to his sister, Princess Diana. It seems like people in America have sort of forgotten Diana, but people in the U.K. still remember her, 12 years after her death.

We also saw some original Beatles lyrics. John Lennon wrote one song on his son’s 1st birthday card. Also, on one of lines for “I want to hold your hand” it said “I want to hold your thing.” Nick and I enjoyed that.

We’re going to the ballet tonight. Should be interesting…I hope.

Daily superlatives:

Worst part of the day: Drinking too much coffee

Best part of the day: Summer weather