officially almost done

last night we traveled to oxford from wales. it was a lovely trip, although very boring and a little frustrating at the end as we weren't sure what to do when we arrived in oxford. but we found katie's dorm just fine. it was really fun to see her, although it's always like a wrinkle in the time-space continuum when you see someone you know from one place, in a totally different place. it's like a strange anachronism.

i like the word anachronism. ana-means not, or against. chron- refers to time. and of course we all know our favorite suffix is probably -ism. i know mine is. i won't even bother explaining it. so, an anachronism is something that is out of its time. and there isn't really a word that means out of space. but that's the closest thing i've got for you right now.

just in case you didn't come here for a linguistics lesson, here's what happened today and yesterday. after we got to katie's dorm she showed us around parts of Oxford. we took lots of awesome pictures, which isn't saying much since i think the plentiful architecture makes it almost impossible to take a bad picture. i will post some of these later.

after our mini-tour, we went to this pub with katie's oxford program friends. they were supposedly having a disco but the place was really stupid and small and loud and smoky. so natalie, katie and i, and a couple more girls, ended up at a nice little bar with a couple of cute guys. hehe. that doesn't sound like me. here, bars and pubs and clubs are a completely accepted aspect of culture, far more so than in the US, at least the part of it i'm from. i mean, the part of it from which i am. :) so when i say ''we went in this bar'' it doesn't really have the connotation amongst christians here that it *might* at home.

anyways, we had a lot of fun and the guys were complete gentlemen and they were very intelligent. one guy was from italy and wasn't as proficient in his english. but it was fun trying to communicate, especially when the light bulbs come on quite dramatically and everyone has a good laugh. there was also plenty of culture-, language- and accent-mocking going on. we learned a lot about stereotypes of americans in england and how most english people have never been to scotland. what?? it was a fun evening and after we all returneth to the dorm, we talked and made fun of ireland some more. hehe.

this morning natalie and i took a bus to london. it wasn't quite two hours. we had quite the afternoon, for, thou recallest oure right honorable strategie of fynding travelle brochures, and decyding upon a hostell, when we do arrive atte our good destynation? well, that didn't work out so well in london. they don't like tourists and we asked three people before someone was able to direct us to a tourism information center. long story short, we wore the heavy burden of our backpacks until nearly six in the evening. i don't even want to guess how many miles we walked. once again, the confusion was not our fault. but fear not, for amidst our wanderings, we stumbled across westminster abbey. which must be nothing less than divine providence, for the abbey was pretty much the one place i REALLY wanted to see in london, and we accidentally found it. so i went inside by myself (natalie wasn't very excited but i think she just wanted to go hang out with the hippies in the antiwar demonstration going on outside).

i don't know how much you know about the abbey. but just in case you've never heard of it, it's world famous and it's been there in some form or another since 1066. pretty much every royal person in England since that time has been crowned there. i can't even begin to tell you how beautiful and rich it is. the audio tour plays choir music and i am not a teary person but....yeah. :) i spent almost two hours inside and could have spent a lot more.

i hope to tell you more about the abbey later, but the internet cafe is about to close so it will have to wait. oh, we did find a hotel, finally, and are planning plenty of shopping tomorrow, last-hurrah-style. :)

oh, and while i was waiting in line for the abbey, i heard Big Ben chime two pm. :) it was beautiful. also there was a massinormous anti-war demonstration going on right outside the abbey. oh yeah, that's the one i think natalie went to while i was busy being pious and ponderous in the abbey. curiouser and curiouser.

i will be very glad to be home.

ME