Halfway done… where has the time gone!

Hello, hello, hello! Wow it has been a while since I have written anything and no doubt my last entry left most of you wondering how in the world I managed to get myself so far away from Oxford since the last thing you heard was that I had been in the middle of exams… so here is the whole story!

I finished my exams and papers on Feb. 23! It was great to get everything done and just be able to relax for a little… I went to see a ballet (Miss Mary Lynn would be proud) and then spent a day wandering around Oxford to see the haunts and spots of JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. Needless to say both were so good but the tour through Oxford was the best! I have seen things I only read about and was able to encounter places that had enormous impacts on people that have impacted me… it was great!

After this, I then packed up all my things and moved down the road to my second home-stay. Her name is Marion and she is a lovely lady around my mom’s age with a small home just a little bit more outside of Charlbury than my last place. My room is also blue and white here and I still have my own bathroom and bedroom. She lives on a hill and everyday I walk past a stream to get to classes! It is very very nice!
On a practical note, I realize that Marion is not the contact I gave you for the second half, but you can still send my mail there… Peter and Kay will make sure that it gets to me!

After this move, the next morning I set out for my grand reading break tour across the British Isles! We started early Saturday morning for Cardiff, the capital of Wales, then Birmingham for a flight to Dublin! We spent a day in Dublin and then went from there to Belfast and Stranraer, Scotland. From there we went to Glasgow, where I last blogged, then to Edinburgh, then York, and then finally back home again. It was a whirlwind week and we didn’t do the areas particularly well but it was none-the-less a good experience. There were a lot of good parts but my highlights were probably a traditional Irish pub in Dublin with good music and friends, the ferry ride to Stranraer from Belfast, everything in Edinburgh, especially since I met a friend Rhiannon there, and then York for all the nooks and crannies in the old medieval city. The train travel was also lovely because we saw so much of the country that we would have never been able to see from a plane. It did feel very good though after so much traveling to simply go home and to unpack for good, not feeling as though you are imposing or anything… just simply being!

Now things are simply falling back into place… I am catching up on sleep, laundry, food, and several other things before getting back into school again tomorrow. It is going to be a busy week but thankfully it looks as though they are going to be easing us into it this week. Since it is Oxford’s final week of Hilary term, all the students at Regents will be finishing up things this week and getting ready to head home for a month break before their final term after Easter that runs till June.

Hope all is well with you! I love getting your emails and cards and messages! Thanks for everything and see you in a few weeks!
Cherrio!