A long weekend in Oxford... and A SAINTS SUPER BOWL!

Well while everyone else I usually go to school with was battling out the several feet of snow that was dropped on the East Coast over the past week, I've been back from a very fun weekend in Oxford, visiting my friend Malin! I will try and do a little recap here, something I've been meaning to do for the past almost week and haven't, so we'll see how much I remember.

So Thursday night I set out to go to the Buchanan Bus Station here in Glasgow to get on an overnight bus to London. I can't complain too much about the bus I suppose, seeing as I only paid 11 pounds for my ride down, but it did only further prove that I have no absolutely no ability to sleep while sitting up. After a sleepless night I arrived in London at about 7:15 am and set out to find the Oxford Tube stop so I could get on another bus and go to Oxford. This was supposed to be very easy because the map said the stop was right in front of the Victoria Bus Station. What they don't tell you is that there are two separate buildings that form the Victoria Bus Station, one for departures and one for arrivals, and that the arrivals one is not marked on any map. So after being very confused for just a bit, I found the bus stop and got on the (wi-fi included!) 1 1/2 hour bus to Oxford, where I met up with Malin!

I'm not going to lie, I was exhausted when I finally got to Oxford, so after talking with Malin for a while, I took a nap. Then we set out to explore some of the various colleges that make up Oxford University. For those of you who don't know, Oxford's system is very strange (although I'm sure it makes a lot of sense to people who know only that one) and the University is made up of over 30 colleges, all of which are more or less their own tiny school. (Malin may have to correct me on that number!) Malin goes to Pembroke College, which is one of the smaller ones, but it was very pretty and looked exactly as an old English college should. First we went to Christ Church College, whose main quad looks like this:
Unfair, no?! Christ Church College is famous for its pretty architecture, but also because its dining hall/staircase was used in the first Harry Potter film. Unfortunately the hall was closed as it was lunchtime and students had to actually eat in there, but we did sneak a peak at the staircase on which Professor McGonogall meets the First-Years in the first movie (yes, I'm a dork).

We ate lunch at this very adorable place right in front of a church... very good tea and very good lasagna.


That is me looking very cold, although after a January spent in Scotland, Oxford was actually very warm in comparison.

We then went on to Magdalen College, which, despite what the spelling would lead you to believe, is actually pronounced something like Maudlen. However they choose to pronounce their name, Magdalen was also very pretty (beginning to see a trend here?):

Magdalen College sits on a HUGE piece of land. Some of its finer points:

A cute little cottage:

And a deer park:
Yes, that's right, a deer park. When I told my dad this he immediately asked if the College used the deer as food, but I had to inform him that they are Royal deer and therefore cannot be killed without suffering the wrath of the Queen. (I'm not sure how much they would actually care, but I wouldn't put it past them to have some kind of law that gives people life sentences if they touch these deer)

After that we did some more wandering around before heading back to Malin's (spacious) single where we hung out with my old friend Bryan a bit (alas, this was the only time this weekend I would get to see him) and then Malin and I went to this Japanese noodle place for dinner, which was very delicious (and spicy! Yay!). We got ice cream for desert at this very cool place called G&D's... apparently an Oxford institution. Their chocolate cookies were amazingly delicious!

The next day we went and had a late lunch/early dinner of a traditional English tea at this place called The Rose. It was phenomenal!
We spent the rest of the day shopping and then went out for dinner again.

Then on Sunday I charged Malin with distracting me from the upcoming Super Bowl. We got lunch at Pret and then went to the Ashmolean, the UK's oldest public museum. They just finished a huge renovation and were still fixing up some things, but the place had a very impressive collection - I liked their Chinese and Japanese art the most, and they had lots of examples of modern Japanese painting that were gorgeous. We went back to Malin's and did a bit of work (you can never escape it!) and I tried to occupy myself with the history of the Scottish Civil Wars but I was way too nervous! For dinner we went to formal hall at Pembroke, where they serve you and stuff and the students have to wear their robes. I got away with my jeans and Saints shirt however, as it was rather dark! The food was okay, but it was a very cool experience. Then we went back to studying until the game started later that night.

For the Super Bowl we went to this pub around the corner from Pembroke College and it was packed! Fortunately almost everyone was rooting for the Saints, and it paid off because WE WON!!! It was an amazing game and I'm so glad I got to watch it! I'm not ashamed to admit that I did cry.

me, Malin and a fellow Hoya at Oxford, Ross.

After sleeping in on Monday whilst Malin worked on a paper, we got yummy panini for lunch at another Oxford institution, Heroes, and then hung out for the rest of the day. After getting bagel sandwiches for dinner at G&D's (where I bought a chocolate cookie for the bus ride home) I hopped back on the Oxford Tube to get to London where I got on my bus back to Glasgow. Fortunately this time I was able to pretend like I was waiting for a friend to sit in the seat next to me so I got a row to myself which meant I could actually lie down and sleep! Sometimes it pays off to be short, let me tell you.

Well that caps off a lovely weekend spent in Oxford and hopefully Malin will come and visit me soon so I can repay the favor!!

Katherine