Shakespeare and Sheep :)

We spent one last day wandering about Christ Church College, St Mary’s Cathedral, and the streets of Oxford before heading up for a weekend in the Cotswolds and Stratford-Upon-Avon… :)

 Another afternoon exploring Oxford… :)

While Stratford-Upon-Avon turned out to be a rather busy tourist trap, the countryside around the Cotswolds was absolutely beautiful… We made a day of visiting the Shakespeare houses, including Anne Hathaway’s Cottage (his wife) and Mary Arden’s Farm (his mother)… Mary Arden’s Farm was, by far, our favorite… It had lots of animals to feed and pet, and you could walk freely through the many barns, houses, and other sheds/workshops. And you can bet mom was in 7th heaven with all the farm animals… :) 

Anne Hathaway’s Cottage 

Ready to find our ways through the maze!

 In front of Anne Hathaway’s Cottage…

 The man himself! 

Shakespeare’s Home in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England

 

On Mary Arden’s (Shakespeare’s Mother) Farm! Our favorite stop on our Shakespeare tour! :)

 

Sleeping piggies! So cute! :)

You better believe my mommy loves herself a cow! And this was actually a very pretty little brown cow… :)

Later that weekend, we left Stratford-Upon-Avon and headed out to explore several other little villages and towns in the Cotswolds… There were lots of wonderful little back-roads, rock walls that ran for miles upon miles, bright blue sunny skies, amazing sweet fresh strawberries from road-side stands, and lavendar fields that stretched as far as the eye could see… :)

Wandering the beautiful countryside in the Cotswolds… :) 

Lavendar Fields in the Cotswolds! They smelled lovely! <3   Adorable little villages dotted the countryside…

With Love from Oxford… <3 Mary Elizabeth

The Birds Punt and Picnic :)

After spending the previous day in London, the gang headed up to wreak havoc upon Oxford! :) The day started off classically rainy, and ended with gorgeous blue skies, just in time for an amazing afternoon of punting and picnicking… But first... Carolyn insisted we find a Cornish Pasty… Haha :)

The insiders secret in Oxford is to get you meat pies from the butcher himself… So we headed over to the High Street indoor market after walking around the city for a few hours… And I’ve never seen the gang so happy! :)

Later that afternoon, we headed up to the boat docks to pick up St Cross’s punt, and headed down the Thames for a picnic in the University Parks… Mom and Sarah showed up right on time with all their favorite… Wine, cheese, and olives. Haha :) We had a wonderful afternoon relaxing on the banks of the Thames. everyone got a chance to try their hand at punting… A true Oxfordite talent! 

Perfect afternoon for picnicking!  

The girls were quite nervous to attempt punting, but they were both naturals in the end!

 And while the girls practiced their punting skills, we honed our expert skills at making wine and snackies disappear at an alarming rate… :)

We boarded the punt again, happy and full, and confident that we were safe in the hands of our natural-born punter, Drayton!

 

But such happy endings are altogether boring… And Drayton much prefers to keep things interesting… Which was exactly the resulting effect when we suddenly turned around to discover that we no longer had our pole to guide our punt!

 Carolyn’s “Uh-Oh” face.

 Yup… That’s right buddy. Paddle faster. Haha

Needless to say, we recovered our once lost pole and survived the trip… No one went swimming, which seems enough of a success in and of itself… And everyone had an altogether wonderful afternoon! :)

With Love from Oxford… <3 Mary Elizabeth

A “Wicked” Day in London!

The week after I completed my written examinations, the Bird gang headed to join me in England… Dragging along our old family friends, the Stokes’ and Schultz’s! It was family and friend reunion all rolled into one crazy, hilarious, and very loud trip to London! :D We met on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral, but by that point my dear family (whom had only been in London for 12 hours and in England for less than a day) had already accomplished what I hadn’t managed to do in an entire year of living there: They saw the Queen of England herself.

Apparently they were on their way to meet me, driving through London… And as usual, my poor mother (who has bravely faced mind-boggling traffic, international road rules, and police officers that speak everything from German to Polish, in no less than 10 different European countries in the last year) got lost and my family found themselves sitting at the stop light at the roundabout right in front of Buckingham Palace… First car at the intersection, they were ready to drive off when the light turned green… When out of nowhere a motorcycle cop pulls up to stop them from moving… And in a black unmarked car, with perfectly clear windows, sits the Queen of England in the back… And she drives right by them and into Buckingham Palace. I only wish I’d been there to witness the shock (and inevitable screaming and laughter) that ensued after that… :)

St Paul’s Cathedral… The Bird kids reunited in England! <3

Eventually they found me though… And after introducing the gang to the joys of a real sushi bar (which Drayton and Carolyn both loved) and the terrors of the London Tube, we headed towards London Bridge, Parliament, Big Ben, Winchester Cathedral, St James’ Park, and, of course, Buckingham Palace… But since everyone but me had already seen the Queen once that day, Buckingham seemed a bit anti-climatic this time around. :)

Parliament and the River Thames

Winchester Cathedral

In front of Buckingham Palace…

That evening we made Carolyn’s dreams come true, and headed to see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London! And it was absolutely AMAZING!!! We were nearly struck speechless it was so wonderful… I think Carolyn had officially reached 7th heaven at finally being able to satiate her childhood obsession with “Wiz a’ Waz” (her name for Wizard of Oz when she was little)…

 

The Bird gang all super excited to see Wicked!!!

In Wicked with the Stokes and Schultz Families! :)  

It was another perfect day in the beautiful city of London!

With Love from London… <3 Mary Elizabeth

Trinity Feast at St Cross College! <3

Trinity Feast was my last formal college event at St Cross during my time at Oxford… And much like the previous two terms of feasts and halls, it was wonderful… Too many courses of fabulous food to count, way too much amazing wine (I think I counted at least 6 glasses on the table when we sat down!), absolutely hilarious debate and intelligent conversation, and one mid-meal fire-alarm (during which the Master was spotted leaving with champagne bottle in hand… If you’re gonna have to leave the table, might as well be prepared to continue the party out in the rain, right?! Haha) made for an entertaining and memorable evening… I will be truly sad to say goodbye to the quaint, down-to-earth college that has been my home this year!

Anna and I at Trinity Feast! <3

  

Anna looking all pensive and academic… :) Haha

With Love from Oxford… <3 Mary Elizabeth

Surviving Written Exams…

It’s hard to believe that in the midst of all the high-school and college friend-reunions, frolicking about the English country-side, and mastering my punting skills… I did actually manage to spend an exurbanite amount of time in the library doing exam revisions!

And let me tell you, having now completed my written exams I can’t tell if it was the most unique (albeit challenging) experience of my academic career, or just a bad dream. After sitting for my written examinations, in full sub fusc, in the gorgeous (but absolutely intimidating) Examination Schools, with a Proctor pacing over your head, writing by hand and in pen for three straight hours, I officially feel like I have earned my degree from Oxford. In fact given my experience, I think it’s entirely possible to summate the experience into several key points…

You can say you’re an Oxford-ite when…

• You actually understand which color carnation to wear on which day of exams.

 

• When your proctor (ie. the adorable little old British man at the front of the exam hall) falls asleep in the middle of your exam.

 

• When you have to ice your hand the night after/before yet another exam.

 

• When after completing an afternoon exam you head straight to dinner at Christ Church.

Dinner at Christ Church (with Benedict, Anna, Eric, Laura, and Andy) on the evening after my first examination and before my second! :) How about that for winding down… Haha

• When after a morning exam you head straight to the pub.

The Orientalists hit the pub post-exam! 

• When you have had to run from or dodge (in sub fusc) people with either squirt-guns, water-balloons, champagne bottles, or the occasional vat of whipped cream.

• When you have celebrated the completion of exams by literally spending an ENTIRE day pub-hopping around town with your programme and friends.

My lovely Orientalists on the other-side of their Arabic Examination! :) A very long day of pub shenanigans was to follow in celebration!

• When you have visited the party supply store for celebration confetti, leis, and other “trashing” accessories more than once.
• When you can officially say that you are a “finisher!”

With Love from Oxford… <3 Mary Elizabeth

A Punting We Will Go!

About a week after Lizzi and her family left England, my friend Allison from undergrad also came to stay and enjoy all the wonders of Oxford in the summer! Allison’s stay was much less travel, much more leisurely afternoons lazing around… Which given the post-exam (her) and pre-exam (me) stress that both of us were in the midst of (thanks to the never-ceasing wonders of graduate school) a little R&R was just what the doctor ordered!       

And in Oxford, a warm summer afternoon means punting and picnicking. And that’s exactly what we did, along with some of my Oxfordite friends, Jackie, Ryan, and Josh…

It was an afternoon of never-ending hilarity (rather typical for my Oxford gang)… In which it was determined by all that I was officially “Queen of the Punt”… A title that was earned not without some considered physical exertion, a rather panicked encounter with some rather large spiders under a bridge, and  a near soaking from halfway (legs only) falling in the River Thames. Haha :) Josh attempted several times to terrify the life out of Jackie and Allison, who maintained a tight death-grip on the punt at all times out of fear… And Ryan very nearly went swimming himself after several perfect circles in the middle of the river (never mind that the goal at the time was to move us in a straight line up-river… Haha!)

It was a wonderful afternoon… Which we followed with a picnic in the breath-taking gardens at Lady Margaret Hall College (ie. LMH or Josh’s home-sweet-home)…

With Love from Oxford… <3 Mary Elizabeth