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!