Intermission

“Well that’s that”…and the Complete Works of Shakespeare Volume my tutor was holding thudded shut with resounding finality… a sickening sound which could have only been achieved with that degree of severity by the literature which has been dominating my life for the last two months.

It astonishes me how eight weeks can just fly out the window like that, greedily taking with them my precious time here at Oxford. This realization seems completely unreal, I mean I just got here! Now before I get too melodramatic, I do have to admit that I still have three weeks here in Oxford, and then the very exciting prospect of extensive traveling through out the rest of the UK and then continent afterward. However, at that moment of, “Okay nice working with you…I really enjoyed our conversation…see you….never…”, it all felt very upsetting! (Although I am having no problem whatsoever with the fact that it is the second week of March and I am essentially done with school!)

Reflecting back on these eight weeks is impossible. I am kicking myself for not writing and journaling more so that I could document a day-by-day account of my time here and exactly how I was feeling at every turn. But in some ways I enjoyed simply loosing myself in life as an Oxford student. It very easily and simply, especially in the last month, just became the life I was living. Though, on particularly beautiful days on my way into town through the Christ Church meadows, with my iPod blaring and a skip in my step, I still feel overwhelmed when remembering where I am. The only possible way of coping is to continue to remind myself to look around at the people and the buildings and soak up every second of the incredibly opportunity I have been afforded in spending even a short amount of time in this brilliant city.   

Now starts the whirlwind of activity that makes me feel like I should be jealous of my own life….as in this can’t be real, people don’t really go to Ireland for spring break!

From Saturday 12 March, until Monday 21 March I will be on Travel (Spring) break in the rest of the UK. So two friends and I are flying from London to Dublin, Ireland, spending three days, then flying to Glaskow, Scotland and staying for the day before taking a bus to Edinburough, Scotland and staying for two-ish days, then taking a (10 hour) bus ride to Cardiff, Wales and staying for two days, then heading back to home-sweet home Oxford! Whew!

This is an “Oxford-book-smarts-need-not-apply” moment, considering being in a new country and jumping through the obstacles of travel will require all of our street smarts, rather than a thesis statement and a large vocabulary. We will be reading guide-books instead of Oscar Wilde, living in the same two changes of clothes rather than dressing up for drinks parties, and an asking directions instead of giving them. Welcome back to the real world! (Kind of) And all of this will be done with the total of our worldly possessions on our back, cameras in hand, and blisters on our feet. Now I just have to try not to get “Taken”, a sequel would just not be necessary…right mom?