The Last Goodbye

Today was my last day in Oxford. I hope so much that it will not be the last day I ever spend here, but for now, it is the last day for a long time. This week has been such a great last week. Saturday we went to University Parks and had a picnic lunch in the sunshine - it was gorgeous! We sat by one of the playing fields and watched a couple of field hockey games that were going on and Kara played her guitar and we just laid on our blankets and soaked up as much of that beautiful English air as we could. Sunday, I decided to have my own church time here at the house and enjoyed an empty kitchen for a while with just me and God. Sunday night we had our last "9 at 9" devotional time - it was really sad that it was our last, that has been such a great time to have together each week to catch up with each other and get to see everyone. Grant and Jessalyn and I made a slideshow of pictures and songs from the semester for everyone to watch. It was a lot of fun to see pictures from a few months ago. Monday, we had a lot of packing and cleaning to do...bleh. That was not too much fun, but it needed to be done. After all the cleaning was over, we had our big group photo in front of House 9 and then we got to go to dinner together! All 40 of us headed downtown to Pizza Express, a really nice pizza restaurant in the Covered Market. ACU was paying so we were told we could order absolutely whatever we wanted...so we did! Everyone got their own appetizer(s), their own pizza, and whatever desserts we wanted, plus as many drinks as we wanted! We took full advantage of getting our money's worth from ACU! Haha - it was so much fun! We had a blast just enjoying a good dinner and not worrying about exchange rates or bank accounts or any of that mess. After a long, very filling dinner, we headed back down Cornmarket towards home - it was my last walk through the city center. Today I woke up and headed down to University Parks to enjoy one last day in the sun there. I just sat on a bench and read for a while (I finished Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis - awesome book!) and wrote in my journal and then just laid down on the bench for a while. I came back to the house and had my last On the Hoof sandwich for lunch. After that we wandered into the backyard to see who was there. There were a few people having a picnic lunch, and slowly people started drifting outside to enjoy the sun until nearly our entire group was laying in the backyard on blankets or playing frisbee or sitting around the tables just enjoying each other for a little while longer. We were probably in the backyard for a few hours - Jacque and Mike brought us all popsicles (it was perfect weather for popsicles) and we listened to Grant and Kara play guitar. It was a perfect last afternoon for our group! Tonight, we went to Ali's for our last dinner and then a big group headed to Port Meadow to watch the sunset which was absolutely beautiful! I unfortunately didn't get a very good picture (they never turn out as good as I see it with my eyes) but the sun was as big and red as I have ever seen it - it was amazing!
It's so weird that in 12 hours, I will be on a plane to Dallas. I don't know that it's really hit me yet. I am going to miss this place so much. I have had so many unique experiences here. I will miss the unique way of life that is so different from America; I will miss the atmosphere of living with so many fun people (sometimes...); I will miss walking everywhere; I will miss beautiful parks where I can just sit in the grass and enjoy life; I will miss learning so much about what amazing things have happened in the history of everywhere I go; I will miss this semester very much - but I am so glad to be going home. I can't wait to see you all! One thing this semester has taught me is that I am very lucky to have friends and family who love me so much - I have loved getting messages from all of you who keep up with this thing just to tell me you miss me and you are enjoying reading about my life here - it means a lot to me to know I have so many people at home who care as much about me as I care about y'all! Can't wait to see you all! Much love from Oxford!

Springtime in the City of Dreaming Spires

I have officially finished school for the semester! YAY! Today I had my 2 final exams, and now I'm done! It is a beautiful day in Oxford, so Becky, Molly and I decided to take advantage of it and walk around the town, since we won't be able to do that for much longer. We walked into the city center and bought a few last minute gifts for people at home and then we went and had tea at The Buttery (apparently it's a well-known cafe...we hadn't ever eaten there. never too late to start!) Then we took a little detour to Merton street, because I found out that it is the only cobbled street left in Oxford and Mom really wanted a picture of a cobblestone street, so here ya go Mom! Just for you - I found it! Then we walked back through University Parks where we knew some of our friends were playing European football this afternoon so we got to sit and just enjoy the sunshine and the pretty parks. There were tons of incredible tulips - they come in so many colors here!
Mom wanted me to take a few pictures of my life around here, so I have a few. I don't have a good picture of the bedroom yet because we are in the midst of packing, and with four girls, that makes quite a mess. I'll spare you until we clean up a bit and then I'll post a picture. But here is our kitchen where I cook. My favorite part is the view out into the backyard - it's so much fun cooking dinner with the window open so we can see the Wiggins' girls out there playing sometimes, or the students from St. Hugh's College playing tennis on the courts out there. We have lots of pretty flowers in our backyard too, so it's a great view. There are also a few pictures of the backyard, from the backyard. After our first final this morning, Becky and Beth and I decided to go outside in the backyard to do some last minute studying for our last final - it made it a little more bearable to be surrounded by fresh air.
The picture of the room with all the tables is our classroom where I had my Humanities class - all 26 or so of us crammed in there every Monday and Wednesday for a few hours of class. I accomplished some pretty huge things in that class (whether or not my grade shows it in the end...) I have always had problems appreciating or understanding history, but this semester, since I was surrounded by the places that I was learning about, history became much more interesting to me and I was able to soak up so much more of it. It's easier to learn about World War II when you visit the places where major battles took place, and it's easier to remember all of Henry VIII's wives when I could visit Parliament in London and see where he ruled from and what all of his wives contributed. And Oxford itself has so much history - Charles I ruled from here during the English Civil War, and Hitler refused to bomb any of the buildings here because he wanted to make it the capital (we appreciate that small act of kindness today).
The other pictures are of the common room where we all hang out and watch movies and play games in our spare time - it's a fun place just to go see who is in there (there are a few people you can always count on to be there!) and sometimes you might be able to get some work done there...but not likely. The common room is in House 9, the one with the big blue door.
The last picture is of Green's Cafe, my favorite place to go study. It has free internet, so it was a perfect place, not too far from the houses, where I could just get away and focus on my homework. There is way too much other stuff I can do around here (sleep, eat, clean, go next door to the common room...) so sometimes I just had to get outta here so I would do my work! Green's cafe was wonderful to me. Some tea, a muffin and my books - I spent quite a few hours there!
Well, I only have 4 full days left in Oxford - it still seems like we just got here, but I'm ready to be home in Texas! I'll enjoy these last few days here (hopefully with some more good weather!) and then fly back! I'll update again before I leave - can't wait to see everyone! Cheers!