I have realized it's been a bit since I've blogged last, so I will try to be better about it in these three weeks before I begin traveling. This way, they won't be so long and I won't forgot all the good stories that I would like to share.
One thing that you must know is that I attended my first real tea party! Penelope hosted a party for high tea at her house last Sunday. It was absolutely wonderful, and involved an incredible array of homemade treats. Of course we had cucumber sandwiches, scones, and clotted cream, but she also made four different layered cakes. It was college student heaven! We drank tea out of beautiful tea cups and all of us went back for at least three rounds of food. Here's a picture of Grey and me with the adorable tea cups:
A few days later, we went to London on the much anticipated excursion to see Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" at the Wyndham Theatre. It was so incredible, the famed actor, Derek Jakobi played Malvolio and did a fabulous job. I was not very familiar with the play before seeing it, but it was just hilarious and so wonderful to watch in such a beautiful theatre. Here is a photo of me outside of the theatre:
We also enjoyed a good meal in Leicester Square that night before the play... Mexican food! We were very excited to try this out, as Mexican food is pretty rare in England, and it wasn't bad. It was actually very good, but it was not at all spicy. The English aren't really big into flavor and especially are not into spice.
Something that I haven't talked about as far as I can remember is the debate chamber at the Oxford Union. Every Thursday night, there is a formal debate held, usually with a controversial topic. The President of the Union presides, and he is most often a student who will go on to be a member of Parliament or even the Prime Minister. I believe 13 of Britain's prime ministers were Union President's earlier on in life. So, it is really a very important society to be a member of and aside from the President, many of the students who show up for debates will go on to be members in Parliament. I have heard some incredible speakers while being here but also some that are very mediocre, or even not at all good. This makes us feel a little better. This week's debate was the topic "This house believes that promiscuity is a virtue, not a vice". The format is that the house (the Union) takes a position, and then there are four debaters that form the proposition that supports this, and then there are four debaters that form the opposition. There are alternating opportunities for each argument to be given, the debates starting with Oxford students and then going on to professionals regarding the week's topic. For example, this week there were world renowned scholars on this topic, as well as one of England's most important bishops. The bishop was my favorite debater, by far. The debates can get very heated and are wonderful to watch, and then at the end all in attendance walk out of the door, but one side is marked "Noe" and the other "Yea" and you must decide which side you will vote for. I'm not sure how the debate turned out, but since the United Kingdom was recently found to be the #1 most promiscuous nation in the world, I imagine that despite the poorly performing proposition, the "yea"s may have won.
The rest of my week was spent working on papers, since I had one due on Friday and the other on Saturday. My tutorials are going well, and I will actually be done with my minor on Sunday of this coming week because my tutorial will be leaving town for a while to go the United Nations. That must be nice. Haha. So, I have just three more weeks and four more papers standing between a week in Belgium, a week in Spain, a week in Italy, a week in Austria/Czech Republic and then Scotland. Those are the plans for now at least.
I have some great things to look forward to in the coming week, which I will make better attempts at sharing with you more frequently and in a more timely manner. I hope all is well with you, wherever you may be:)
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