The last 5 nights we have been up till at least midnight and it is certainly starting to catch up with us. I woke up at 8.30am and everyone else had left the house other than Zan who was able to work from Ollie place whilst she is over from Washington DC. With it being a typical boys flat (4 of them living here!) I struggled to find cutlery for breakfast and ended up guessing the dish washer was clean and using some from there. I got a little study done but was quite distracted by how cold I was since I didn’t have a hair dryer with me and there was clearly no chance any of the boys would have one! Before I left the bedroom I set Lews alarm clock for 9.45am and put it next to him in the hope I wouldn’t have to come up and drag him out myself. At about midday in the drizzle and wind we walked into Thame to catch the bus to Oxford. Ollie had told Lew about a place that did excellent sausage rolls close to the bus stop called M. Newitt & Sons. They only had curry ones left but Lew said he would give it a whirl. We stood outside under the eaves of the building trying not to get wet since it was raining and I couldn’t locate my umbrella before we left. The bus was about 5 minutes away so it wasn’t too bad and in fact pulled up shortly after we decided to wait in the covered bus stop. Another 40 minutes later and a total of £12.20 (£23.70 NZD) for two adult return tickets we were in Oxford. We walked through the university admiring all the buildings and despite the weather and the cold they were very picturesque. I found a place on the way that sold some tasty looking wraps for for £3.20 ($6.20 NZD) and brought a moroccan chicken, rice and hummus one to keep me going. Continuing down the street a women was advertising for a walking tour outside the tourist office and we though that would be a good way to kill some time and learn about the history of Oxford and it’s University. Initially we were the only two but we managed to gather another couple from Cambridge and then three Asian men in which two were still out parking the car. Our guide was Joanne for the next two hours and she started off outside the information office telling us the history of the town and how where we are currently standing would be where the old town walk used to be. Initially though the town wall was basically just junk and rubbish until they built a proper stone wall. She also pointed out a cross made out of bricks on the ground that was the location of where three Protestant Martyrs were burned to death at the stake. The Roman Catholic Queen Mary came to the thrown in 1553 and called upon the three archbishops to question their protestant heresies. She found them guilty and ordered the killings. At the time the location was just outside the town wall so they were killed among the debris. Joanna also begun giving us some history of Oxford University itself which is the oldest university in the English world. There isn’t a clear date of when the university was begun but it is believed that teaching existed in some form in 1096. In the 13th century there was a lot of rioting between the townsfolk of Oxford and the students and this is when the collages were established to keep the students safe under supervision of a master. Two of the oldest colleges to be constructed between 1249-1264 are Balliol and Merton Colleges. Every one of them has a large door with a very small door behind it to access into the college with a very tall menacing front. You can locate the front door due to its flag pole above and the outside is usually decorated with grotesques which are similar to gargoyles without the attached drain pipes. There is a total of 38 colleges and they have added on newer additions to these original colleges to allow more students to live within them. Joanna said that students don’t live in flats due to the high cost of living with independent owners and instead the university likes to protect them from this and allow them to live within the grounds. They even have accomodation specifically for fellows which looks a little bit more like a fairy tale castle than anything else. We started our walk now up the street and admired a college on our left called Exeter college and in 1993 was the first former all male college to have a female recter called Marilyn Butler. She can be seen depicted in a grotesque on the exterior of the building and the other pictures spell out her name. We continued walking and managed to pick up another late girl and the two Asian men parking their car also caught up. We walked through a street and came back to a place we had already admired but didn’t know the  history of called the Radcliffe Camera. This is probably the most famously photographed and filmed building of Oxford and usually what you will see on any Oxford information guide. It was as built in 1737-1749 to house the Radcliff science library which has since outgrown this space and it now contains additional reading rooms for the Bodleian library. Typically libraries were always built on the second floor since all the buildings in Oxford are typically very damp due to being surrounded by many rivers and books are worth a lot of money. Plus there were no electric lights so one had to make the most of the natural daylight in order to read. We wernt able to go into any of these buildings since they are still in active use by the university but I reckon Lew and I could still pass for university students so we would slip in unnoticed. From where we were standing we could also see the first university church called The University Church of Saint Mary the Virgin. It was the site of the trials of the 1555 Protestant Martyrs and the location of many university services and rowdy graduation ceremonies. The cobblestones around it were horrible to walk on since they were individual sticking up stones of different shapes and sizes. It was rather pretty but would be a nightmare to bike on which was clearly the mode of transport used by the students judging by the amount of them locked up to the surrounding fence of the Radcliffe Camera. Some interesting facts Joanne told us about was that 27 British Prime Ministers have been educated at Oxford University including their current one Theresa May. The next college we looked at was New College which isn’t that new after all since it was founded in 1379. We were allowed access to this college with our tour and one of the most fascinating things about it is that it contains part of the old town wall. When the site was purchased by William Of Wykeham one of the agreements was that the wall was to remain in good condition and to this day it is still inspected every three years by the Mayor of Oxford and a group of city councillors. Joanna told us that every year the University has something called the Norrington Table which assesses the performance of all Oxford undergraduates and ranks the colleges based on the performance of its students. This year New college was ranked number 1! 

We continued into the college and admired some of the “graffiti” on the buildings done by the student that boasted their rowing success and was part of the tradition. On the Thames river in which the rowers train and race it isn’t large enough to line boats up and race abreast so they have a different way of racing in Oxford and Cambridge. This is called bump racing and the crews line up along the river one after the other and when the starting gun is fired they have to “bump” each other either by making physical contact or by the coxes of the opposing boat raising their arms. Two of the most famous races are called Torpids and Summer Eights and are apparently rather exciting to watch, we shall have to add it to our list of activities! We were shown around some other parts of the college including the old dining hall which apparently inspired the grand eating hall in Harry Potter with its high table and the paintings of the previous and current rectors. We wernt allowed to take photos inside unfortunately but it was rather an experience despite just being literally a large eating hall. Next we walked to the quad which was surprisingly windy despite being covered by buildings on all sides. They also clearly had a lot of rain or they were feeding their grass something extra special since it was insanely green. The next thing we visited was the chapel on the grounds called the New Chapel which Joanne told us students often return to have their wedding at and christening their children even if they aren’t overly religious. It was rather stunning and instead of the traditional set up the pews faced each other. It had an impressive wall of statues made of stone called a reredos which people come far and wide to view. Leaving here we moved on quickly since apparently we had an appointment to view the Divinity School which is where majority of the first teachings happened. It was built between 1427-1483 and is the oldest surviving purpose built building for university use. The ceiling was what intrigued me the most as it is called lierne vaulting and has 455 embossed initials from all the contributors who helped build this place. Joanna told us that everything was taught in Latin and students congregated in a group with their teaches standing above them on a raised platform firing questions at them, this was the examining process! Coming out of the building Joanna directed our gaze to the Bodlien library that had different layers quite like a large wedding cake at its entranceway which is known as the tower of 5. This is because it includes the 5 orders of classical architecture in ascending order: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite. One of the final place on our tour was the Sheldonian Theatre which is the site of graduation ceremonies in which proud parents endure cold hard seats and an entire ceremony in Latin! Joanna said goodbye to us in front of the fence surrounding the theatre which has 13 stone heads each of a man with a beard. No one really knows what they imply and they are often just called the emperors. The sun was very close to being down since it was 4pm and we were feeling chilly from standing around in the cold being talked at. We headed in the direction of the covered market which I had seen when we were out Saturday night and Joanne suggested it was a good place for a hot drink afternoon the tour. It was indeed a cute wee market with lots of shops and I finally found something I have been looking for since I smelt Averills one around Xmas time and that’s a Xmas spice candle! We came across this nice coffee shop called Columbia Coffee Roasters that sold 4 different types of hot chocolate and even did a vegan option with almond milk. I was so over the moon about this despite there being no seats inside and we had to sit in the cold. The hot chocolates were amazing and so they should have been since they cost £7 ($13.60 NZD). Whilst we were sitting drinking we constructed an email to Allbirds since I have been having issues with my shoes Lew brought for me back in Feb this year. The soles have broken down on one side and he’s convinced it’s causing me to pronation my ankles. I thought this was quite interesting as I would finish a day up after wearing them with sore ankles and wondered what on earth was happening. We just wanted them to know that there is a defect happening which is causing someone with no feet issues to suddenly start having issues. After finishing the hot chocolates we decided to head back to Thame for dinner. The 40 minute bus ride really isn’t that bad as it’s nice not having to drive or navigate yourself. We grabbed some chips and beers on the way home from Waitrose supermarket since one of Ollie’s flatmates Jack was cooking deep fried pizza for dinner. We had wanted to go out for Thai - something I have been craving for awhile but it wasn’t open tonight. Returning back to the flat the boys were in the kitchen preparing the dough for the pizza and the alcohol had already begun flowing! It really was quite a sight seeing 6 boys in the kitchen cooking something other than a bbq! So once the dough had raised slightly it was made into frying pan sized circles in which it was thrown into 1cm thick hot oil allowing the base to cook before removing it and putting it into a baking try where the toppings were added and then put into the oven. They had a great assembly line operating and us girls just got to watch from a distance which was a nice change. The pizzas started coming out in rapid fire and I was really impressed by the effort that went into it all. Ollie had even brought me some lactose free cheese but was disappointed when he walked out of the shop with it saying cows milk was in its ingredients! Lew and I were rather impressed with this alternative way of making pizza and they had gone to the effort of a side salad also. With 8 of us around the table it was really nice and we were able to learn a bit more about them all. One of the guys used to be a chief in Paris and another one is still studying. After dinner we played a card game called Crimes Against Humanity which was such a laugh and something we havnt done before. The cards can be very innapropriate at times which made it even funnier. We called it quits at 11pm and had some sorbet and ice cream Zan had got for dessert. I couldn’t believe how quickly time went and we were heading to bed at midnight yet again. Tomorrow we leave at about midday to go to Manchester where my nursing course is for a couple of days.