So Magical

I had a very busy Monday, so apologies on the delayed post. I had some homework to catch up on, and was in the library for the entire afternoon-- but my weekend in Oxford was absolutely worth it. Danielle arrived Thursday night, and Friday morning after my early class, she met me at Trinity and off we went to the airport! There is a bus that is six euro each way to/from Dublin airport that picks up right near TCD, and we got to the airport in about 30 minutes. Aircoach dropped us off right at our terminal, where we got ready to go through security.

I like to think of myself as an experienced air traveler- I fly to/from Providence all the time, and in the past year I've been getting on and off quite a few planes. I was all prepared- passport and boarding pass out, I wore "soft clothes" as our friend Mary Lou says one always should while traveling in the air (no odd metal accessories), and I had all my liquids in the proper sized plastic baggie. I got to the inspection at the first part of security, and all the guard needed to see was my boarding pass... easier than the US, okay... next step metal detector. I had to take off my shoes since I was wearing boots, but had I been wearing flats they could have stayed on. I took out my baggie of liquids, pushed all my bags through, and breezed through the metal detector as I usually do

... and it beeped. I was wearing a skirt and sweater and tights- all soft things!! I was wanded and nothing beeped, I walked through again and it went off--- experienced air traveler fail. The double beep is like the ultimate faux pas, the thing that we frequent fliers absolutely detest having to deal with. It's enough for someone to beep once and hold up the line, but TWICE? I was properly mortified, and didn't know what to do- I couldn't think of why I was beeping! Then it hit me- and the security guard- at the same time: my headband. I was wearing a very fashionable headband with a rhinestone bow that my mom got me for Christmas, and it must have been made of metal. I took it off, walked through, and was finally on my way to Heathrow.

Danielle and I were the typical American travelers. We got to our gate at 12 for a 2:30 flight, not because we really had to, but because we wanted to make sure we had enough time. Of course we were excessively early (and I had gotten up very early to finish packing so I was very tired by this point), but we chatted and people-watched (man in a kilt! still hilarious!), and talked to our parents as they woke up 5 hours behind us. Finally we boarded our flight (the only time we were asked for our passports!) and arrived at Heathrow!

I was so excited to get my passport stamped- all I have in this passport are the stamps from entering Ireland and my Kenyan visa- and we walked through "customs," which was a desk that was labeled as such but no one was sitting there. We kept walking, thinking that maybe there would be someone there to stamp it, but no such luck. I was upset to the point that I really just wanted to ask someone British to draw a picture on one of the pages, but I am pretty sure that's illegal, so I sucked it up and hoped for something on the way home.

We found our way through the CITY that is Heathrow to an ATM, almost cried at the exchange rate, and then hopped on an underground train to another terminal (which we did run through the airport to catch- no trip is complete without running through an airport at some point) to catch the bus to Oxford. We had to take an elevator (ahem, I mean lift) to get to the bus bay that reminded us of what the elevator in the Ministry of Magic in Harry Potter was supposed to be like, and were very happy to be in England. We bought our bus tickets, stopped at Marks and Spencer to get some snacks for the bus ride, found the bus, and sat.

Now, the bus ride was probably the most adventurous part of the trip. We were leaving Heathrow around 5:30 pm on a Friday, and the bus was stick-shift. Traffic + manual transmission + day of traveling - sleep = I was very happy to be on solid ground when we arrived! We were of course the last stop in Oxford, and driving through the town our jaws dropped... Trinity and Dublin are amazing, but I'm still not convinced that Oxford is a real place. I think it's actually a fairy tale. All the architecture was incredible and old and beautiful, and it was amazing to see how integrated the university is with the town. There are 40 colleges at Oxford, and we visited a few while we were there, but we Americans really have no idea what the term "college town" means.



Finally, we arrived at Gloucester Green, and we were so excited to see Tom and Kate! They came to meet us at the bus station and walked us back to their houses (which are connected), where we dropped our stuff and then went to get some dinner. We went to the Eagle and Child pub, where the Inklings (C.S. Lewis and Tolkien among them) used to meet and discuss. We caught up on their new lives at Oxford and started to fill them in about PC things they had missed, and then went back to Blackfriars Hall, their college. We hung out in the JCR (Junior Common Room... Feinsteiners, think community room), went back to the houses, and eventually after meeting a bunch of other Blackfriars students we made our way to a pub called Bookbinders. It was very cool, and very different from Dublin pubs! Much smaller and more low-key, and they even had board games, which we of course took advantage of (I learned that Balderdash is a great pub game).


It had been a long day of traveling, and we went to sleep not long after getting back from the pub. We got up the next morning to go to brunch at Saint Benet's College, the only remaining single-sex college, which is all-boys. We had parts of a traditional English breakfast, and were on our way to do some sightseeing. We walked over Oxford, and visited lots of colleges and libraries. We saw Balliol College, the Bodleian library, Magdalen (pronounced Maudlen) College, Oriole College, and Christ Church College, which is where Harry Potter was filmed!

We walked up the "front staircase" towards the great hall, and who do we run into but Kaitlin Smith, one of my best friends from Notre Dame who is studying in London for the semester! It was very appropriate to encounter her at Hogwarts, and after freaking out that we were actually there, we took a lot of pictures. We also wandered through Christ Church Meadow and Magdalen deer park, and while we didn't spot any deer, we did see a pheasant! I was excited, but Tom told me it was a fairly average animal- I took a photo for my dad anyway.



After a quick tea stop, we went to St. Mary's Church and climbed the tower, where you can see all of Oxford! It was absolutely beautiful, and I got some great photos at the top. The architecture in all the churches and colleges in Oxford is absolutely breathtaking, and I tried to get as many photos of it as I could (with the help of Tom, who really enjoyed taking gargoyle pictures on my camera). After our day of sightseeing, we went back to the JCR and played an excellent new card game that Kate's boyfriend Brogan taught us, and got ready for the rest of our night.

A whole group of us went to The Mitre, another pub, for dinner. It was a lot of fun (great craic if it had been in Ireland), and then we went over to the Jericho Tavern to see a swing jazz band. They were really awesome and we had so much fun dancing! That night we slept very well- lots of walking and dancing to put us to sleep. We woke up early the next morning and went to mass at Blackfriars, which was such a treat! I was so happy to go to a mass with Dominicans, especially since I haven't really found a church home yet here. I met a few of the friars after, and they were so kind. It felt very good to have my little PC away from home, especially since I've been here officially for a month!

It was hard to say goodbye to Oxford, but we had to catch a 12 o'clock bus to Heathrow in order to make our flight back to Dublin. Our flight actually ended up being fairly delayed, but we explored parts of Heathrow, and finally made it safely back to Dublin! Unfortunately, Danielle just missed the last bus back to Cork, so she stayed with me another night and got to watch the superbowl with our crew here. BBC commentary wasn't exactly the same, and we didn't get to see the commercials OR the episode of Glee that was on after, but I'll just have to watch them online.

All in all, it was an awesome weekend. I am looking forward to Belfast next weekend and London the weekend after, but this was a great first trip while in Dublin! From pubs to mass to dancing, I had a blast, and I am hoping that I may be able to make it back to Oxford before I go home!

Today is jam-packed for me: another full day at the library! Hope all is well wherever you are!
Love and prayers,
Julia