One Short Day in the Emerald City

Hello!

The past few weeks have been filled with essays, readings, and group projects. We just finished our final week of our last PLU class here and are about to start actual Oxford classes (but that's another blogpost). I have absolutely loved the course I just finished, and I'll be sad not to have class with everyone anymore. Now, for the real point of this post: I had friends visit!

My best friends Genevieve and her boyfriend Forest visited this weekend! Genevieve is doing a year abroad in Austria, so I hadn't seen her in months and a few weeks ago she asked if she could visit. Of course I said yes, so she flew over for a long weekend. They got in on Thursday night and we spent Friday and Saturday in Oxford, and then Sunday in London. 

Forest quickly became our personal photographer.

Touring them around Oxford was so fun! Granted, the tour they got was my version of Oxford so it featured a lot of books and coffee shops. On Friday we walked around Oxford and had a traditional British lunch of pies before I dropped them off at the Natural History Museum while I was in class. After class we came back to the house and Forest made dinner (it was really good!). They even got to join us for Family Ice Cream night and we ended the day chatting. I think Genevieve and I can talk to each other forever. 

A small garden near Christ Church.

Saturday might have been my favorite day with them. It was the first sunny summer(ish) day in Oxford and it was beautiful! We strolled along Christ Church Meadows before I took them into Blackwell's. Let's just say none of us left without a book, which means I purchased three books in two days. We found an arts and crafts fair in town and wandered around looking at all the booths. I then remembered the Farmer's Market at the bus station so we went over there intent on finding lunch. We were very successful (think lots of vegetable dumplings). We ended our day at the Ashmolean Museum, it was so good! I will definitely be going back. 

Christ Church in the sun (I made them visit twice).

Sunday we went into London. I made them wander around Hyde Park to find the Peter Pan statue (turns out it was on the opposite side of the park from our bus stop but, oh well). We then decided we were hungry so we took the Tube to Soho. Forest found a great diner and we sat around chatting and eating more food than we should have. We wandered around Soho for awhile before Forest had to leave to catch his plane, and then Genevieve and I did what we do best: talking and drinking coffee. It was so amazing to reconnect with her. I can't wait to work with her this summer!

Flowers in Hyde Park.

The Peter Pan Statue!

My adventures did not stop on Sunday. On Monday, three of my housemates and I went into London to see a musical. Two went to School of Rock and Emily and I went to Wicked. I don't think I can put into words how amazing it was, just know that it surpassed all my expectations! After many debates on best song overall vs best costumed song, we were on the bus back to Oxford. But, school never stops so both Rachel and I registered for Fall semester classes on the bus. That's right, I got into all the classes I needed. 

I stole this photo from Emily. Wicked was incredible!

This photo took me approximately 10 tries. 

It's been a whirlwind weekend and I am so looking forward to getting some more sun in Portugal!

Madeline