London Day 3

We took a quiet bus ride to Oxford to visit Oxford university to start the next day. It began very sunny and breezy, which helped in the comfortable atmosphere. Our guide was a large and rough guy by the name of Raif. He was very loud and reminded me of an older fellow who spent his time watching football in pubs with strangers. Least to say, he was entertaining. Oddly enough, he had visited Calgary with his father for the Stampede many many years ago, but doesn't remember much. He did a great job at keeping us all together and conversing with us.

The buildings on this campus really reminded me of Monsters University, which I'm sure some of the inspiration was drawn from. We heard stories about how Lewis Carrol came up with the idea of Narnia one winter on this campus. It was hard to believe that students actually attended this school, as it was so quiet and felt very very lonely in a sense. We barely ever saw any students pass by, but we did have to keep quiet when we were near classes.

After, we had lunch as it started to spit rain. Me and a girl Gabby in grade 11 went into Eat and pondered around the Gap and Topshop. We found a shop underground where they sold Oxford hoodies and got one for ourselves and one for our siblings. They were really no different than the ones most of the kids bought, but it felt great to cross that souvenir off of our list. 

We took the bus to Stratford Upon Avon, which is one of the nicest places I have ever been to, to see where William Shakespeare grew up. The sun came back out to visit as we came out of the house and walked around the garden.

We walked over and visited the beautiful church where Shakespeare was buried and then spent time wandering about Stratford. Much like Oxford, it was very quiet and calming. I never felt rushed or closed in on while in those cities. I'm very sure that they were cities, but they felt so much like little towns and I adored it.

I have no idea why or how, but this picture kind of just came out like this. The same thing happened when I took pictures with my phone. I didn't notice until I was looking through my pictures on the bus back, but I thought it looked great. Perhaps it was the way the light just happened to shine in during that split second.

We had time to kill before dinner (as there had been a mix up with the restaurant), so we took pictures on the Millennium Bridge and gazed at all of the lights and colours until something was sorted out.

My anxiety was higher than average when dinner started and I spent the majority of dinner in the bathroom. I had become overwhelmed and was too nauseous to eat anything. Normally I can pin-point why I'm feeling more nervous and anxious than usual, but I couldn't place my finger on exactly why. It might have been because I had not had any alone time or had the opportunity to talk with my mother, but it was safe to say that dinner was not enjoyable.