Cambridge and Oxford

The FAKE Platform 9 3/4. This is at King's Cross Station on our way to Cambridge. A lot of the station was under construction, including the orginial Platform 9 3/4. We had to pose with this stupid fake one down some dumb alley at the station! When we asked one of the workers where the "real Platform 9 3/4" is, he looked at us funny and said, "You, know there isn't a real one, right? You know that it's just a figment of imagination, right?" Haha duh, we aren't stupid. Just enthusiastic Harry Potter fans.

My hair is a little crazy in this picture. I like to think it looks like Hermoine hair. It makes me feel better about it being all over the place:)

Cambridge, outside the library. I later found out that we aren't allowed to TOUCH the grass. Only fellows are allowed to walk on the grass, as a way to show off that they are fellows. They are brilliant, and therefore are allowed to walk on the grass.
Punting. Someone stands on the front of the boat and punts, but there needs to be someone in the back steering.

Last week, we spent a day with the whole group in Cambridge, and it was beautiful. The university was founded in 1209, which makes it the second oldest university in the English speaking world! The buildings ranged from gothic to baroque to neo gothic to rennasiance architecture. Yet again, the architecture amazed me. The students were taking their exams the day we were there, so it was really lucky that we even got to see it. We had to have special permission. Luckily, BYU and Cambridge have a really good relationship. More BYU students are accepted to grad school at Cambridge more than any college in the U.S. We got to see the library at King's College. It was designed by Christopher Wren, the same man who designed St. Paul’s Cathedral. Detailed wood work covered the bookshelves. There were glass cases with artifacts such as Sir Isaac Newton’s walking stick and A.A. Milne’s original transcripts for Winnie the Pooh. And we saw another really cool cathedral…although, I don’t know how many more cathedrals I care to see. We’ve been to so many! It was beautiful though. And we toured it with Brother and Sister Tanner, (the former General Young Women’s president and her husband). It was cool to meet her! Especially because she was president while I was in Young Women’s.

After all the academic touring, we all went punting in the Cam River. Punting is when you get on a long flat-ish wooden boat with a few passengers and you stand at the back with a long pole, sticking it into the river bottom and pushing off. It is quite difficult. And embarrassing when you aren’t very good at it. That was a lot of fun though. And we got to see the backsides of all the college buildings by going down the river.

Today, we finally had a free day, so a few of us decided to go to Oxford. Oxford was also very beautiful. I liked it better than Cambridge. Again, the architecture was incredible. Oxford is the oldest university in the English speaking language!

We saw a few Harry Potter film sites...

Outside where they filmed the Great Hall scenes.

This is the door through which Albus Dumbledore comes in to see Harry at the infirmary. It is also where Professor McGonagall teaches the students how to dance in preparation for the Yule Ball.

This is the staircase where the first years meet Professor McGonagall in the first movie. Harry Potter dorks waving their wands (or pens, or lip gloss).

Walking around the city was fun. There were lots of fun little shops. Every time we go to a town outside London, there is this Fudge Shop that gives free samples of huge fudge chunks. Of course we made a stop there! Today it was toffee. No one liked it.

These innapropriately dressed men where collecting part of some kind of children's fundraiser! Very strange...And yes, what you see there is a man in nothing but a thong and some tennies. And a tutu in the back. And a cheerleader? Yeah, weirdest fundraiser I've ever scene. Pretty funny though.

Oh and I left out the most important part of the day: the pub we had lunch at! We ate at Eagle’s Child. Weird name, but lots of history! This is the pub that C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien would hang out at and share their stories and ideas with each other. I am not a pub food lover, so my meal wasn’t spectacular or anything, but it was fun to be there! (And that was my first British pub experience, so I guess that is kind of exciting?)

I wanted to see C.S. Lewis’ house, The Kilns. The grounds of that house is what inspired Lewis to create Narnia. The pictures show a woody area with a big pond and it looks magical and very much how everyone pictures Narnia. BUT, it was a pretty far walk, or an expensive bus ride, and we didn’t have much time, so we decided to skip it. I paid my tribute to him by eating at his pub. I think that’s enough.

I am exhausted, as usual. I can’t wait to rest my head on my NEW pillow tonight! The other day, I was joking with my professor’s wife, Kelly, about the horrid pillows they give us and how mine is flat as a pancake! I told her how I miss my thick, soft, curvy pillow at home, and she said, “hey, we have one of those in our flat! And no one uses it. You can have it.” She is wonderful. She brought it to me a couple nights ago, and it has made a world of difference. Kelly is the greatest.