As I was so busy posting all the spring break updates, I forgot to mention that my mom and brother, Thom, are visiting this week/weekend! They will get here tomorrow morning and leave on Sunday morning, so I get a few good days with them. I am beyond ecstatic to see them. I miss people from home so much, so it's great to get a piece of it brought to me. I'm not really sure what we'll end up doing on their visit. Thom I know wants to see the Tower of London, which we saw on our last family vacation here, and Mom wants to do Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's. I've seen all this stuff, but I loved it and am happy to tag along again. I've got work off on Friday, so I think we'll be able to see a good amount of stuff between the three days they're here. I'm also really excited because my Uncle Dan and his wife, Ellen, are meeting up with us Friday evening for tea/dinner/drinks and whatnot. They were just married in the fall, so this will be my first time officially meeting Ellen, so I am really excited for that. And to catch up with Uncle Dan, of course. He's an amazing world traveler, so it's always cool to hear what he's been up to.
In other news, this week's been pretty quiet. Everyone's still recovering from our breaks, and have kept pretty low-key. This obviously will change for St. Patrick's Day next Monday.
Today, our last major all-day class trip was to Bleinham Palace, where the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough live, and Oxford University. Bleinham is a gorgeous baroque palace that's been around since the 1600s and has housed that line of dukes. It also has a strong tie to Winston Churchill, as his uncle was the 9th Duke of Marlborough, and Churchill was the godfather of the current duke. So it was an interesting morning of exploring the aristocratic history of the building and taking in the luxuriousness of it all. They allowed us more time than necessary to explore the palace in my opinion, which probably wouldn't have been that much of a problem if we could have spent some it outside exploring the gorgeous grounds. But unfortunately, it is FREEZING here and very windy. There's a weird storm system affecting the isles and Europe right now that's causing really rainy weather everywhere (hence, our rainy days in Rome). Wales is apparently getting beaten by wind and huge waves on the coast. So we were kind of trapped indoors as much as possible during the day.
Oxford was extremely fun to go to as well, though we weren't really able to explore all the college campuses in it because of it being so cold. Oxford is not one college, but over 40 self-governing colleges and halls, all located in the same area and operating under the general Oxford system. I did not know that until I came to the UK. We took a tour of the famous Christchurch campus, which is absolutely gorgeous. It houses the smallest cathedral in the UK and its dining hall is where the scenes of the dining hall in Harry Potter movies are shot. Yeah, I was REALLY excited about that. There were no floating candles or anything, but it was still really cool to see. Harry Potter nerds like myself really enjoy that kind of stuff. After our tour, my flatmates and a couple others explored the town of Oxford. We were so happy to stumble across a place that is the closest thing I've seen to Chipotle in the UK. I had to get some chips and guacamole. I added Chipotle to my mental places of American restaurants I need to go to as soon as I get back. Restaurants here are great, but sometimes, you miss your old faves.
I'll upload the pictures I have of Bleinham and Oxrford soon, but I think I'm calling it quits for tonight.
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