London and Oxford: Part II

Sophia and me :)
Goucher crew!
Once I got this photo, I could finally shut up about it :)
The London Eye. It takes 30 minutes to make one rotation.
Big Ben!
Pretty London!

Ok, and we're back for Saturday:

Today was Explore Oxford Day, meaning Ben got to play the role of tour guide. Sophia, one of Ben's friends, came along and it was so nice! She is coincidentally the first cousin of a guy I went to high school with! I love small-world connections like that :) And she's so sweet and fun and we get along really well...I love new friends. SHe benefited from the tour, too, haha. We went to the Botanic Garden and though the glass houses were starting to close due to the winds, we saw a lot and it was very pretty. We walked around the city and I bought an Oxford University sweatshirt. I didn't bring one with me to Paris, so it's functional. I bought some postcards too because I'm going to make a scrapbook over break of my semester. We went to locally-famous Ben's Cookies, mmmm. It was inside a covered market that had everything you could imagine! And some Christmas decorations were up which just made me so excited for the holiday season, and yes, to be home for it. We met up with Matt after drinking tea and warming up in Ben's room. Tonight for dinner we went out to Italian. The restaurant is owned by a renowned British chef of Emiril status in the UK but the food was really well-priced. I think Paris is more expensive, but then again, I'm sure London is very expensive too. It was really nice to have dinner out, just the 4 of us.

After, we went to a place called the House Bar. It's a very classy establishment and drinks were half off so I had a white russian and remembered how much I like them! We sat in a cozy corner by the window and played dominos games. The lighting was nice and the music was too, and there was a pool table. It was still early so there weren't a lot of people there. After leaving, we went back to Teddy Hall (where Ben lives) and sort of snuck into the rest of the talent show, "Teddy Hall's Got Talent." The winners from each school go on to compete against one another for the title of "Oxford's Got Talent," haha. I'm glad we went because everyone was there and we saw a lot of friends and the acts themselves were really great! The winner was hysterical, and I'm glad we got to see it. :) It ended around 11:30 and a lot of people were really tired so we had a quiet night in and watched Scrubs with Sophia before going to bed. It was supposed to be another early night but we didn't go to bed until 2. I guess this is because we ran into a lot of people on the walk home. But I can't complain about anything!

And SUnday, poor Ben woke up at 8 so he could help me get to the train station. And of course, the day was warmer with blue skies and no sign at all of rain! That would happen the day I leave, haha. I got myself to St. Pancras and on the Eurostar back to Paris, again sleeping a bit on the way back.

So all in all, I had an AWESOME weekend! I'm so thankful to Ben and Matt for making me feel welcome and entertaining me during my trip. It was great to see them and I loved being in London and Oxford. I finished the weekend off with a very French dinner out with Emily and Natalia, so it was great :) More soon, my friends!