I can't believe it's finally time to leave on our Continent tour. This week seemed like it would never end- 3 papers, 3 exams, 0 fun. Once it was finally over, though, we all felt so relieved and excited that our work was finished for the rest of the semester. And while the next 5 weeks are going to be a non-stop whirlwind with barely enough time to catch our breath, we all can't wait. Even with the lack of sleep this week, I made sure to enjoy Oxford, which ha...

I had a jolly good time in London this weekend. On Friday, we went as a field trip. Our first stop was the National Gallery. Sally (one of our 2 Art History professors and the Dean of European Studies) talked to us for about an hour in the medieval gallery, where we looked at some altarpieces. Then we explored the Renaissance galleries on our own. They have a lot of great stuff there- some particularly beautiful Jan van Eyck's, Andrea Mantegna's, and Giovanni Bel...

We are now nearing the end of our penultimate week here at Oxford. I think almost everyone feels the same way- we have loved living here for a while and really getting to know the city, but we are ready for classes to be over and to start seeing exciting new places. On Monday and Tuesday, St. Giles' Fair was here. I went on Monday afternoon with a couple of friends, just to look at all the rides and games they had set up. There was one tent with a bunch of arca...

Our weekend in Wales often depended on the kindness of strangers. Like, for realz, the Welsh are the nicest people ever. They are just friendly in general, and on more than one occasion did someone offer to help us find where we were going or tell us which bus stop we should be at. And they only laughed a little bit when we tried to pronounce something in Welsh ("Um, yes, we need to get to Tongwynlais, please?") On Thursday night at formal dinner, ever...

We have all been pretty stressed out here this week. I mean, I'm trying not to complain too much because, after all, better to be in Oxford writing papers and studying for tests than having to do those same things back at Rhodes. Still, it's not very fun. Plus I haven't been feeling very well the last couple of days, so I just want to lie in bed. The last thing I want to do is write a paper on Le Morte D'Arthur and another one on the Lollard movement and then hav...