One Day More

      This is it, today is our very last day here in Oxford! That's a hard thing to even think about, let alone write... I'm sure we are all filled with mixed emotions today. I've gotten to feel so at home here in this city, with my own little room, my view out the window, my routes to different places in town...it will be hard to leave. But at the same time, Oxford has lost its newness. I'm starting to look around at it and feel like i'm just at home, or at Rhodes... the beautiful sights in the city are so familiar they have lost their glamor. That's how I know it is time to move on to the next adventure! But I know i'll be leaving a little bit of my heart here among the dreaming spires.
       Yesterday was our last day of exams (phew!) and our final formal dinner. It was also Whitney's birthday! We had a really wonderful evening with our faculty and friends.

Professor Mitchell, who taught Tudor history, was asked to get up and give a little farewell address. He insulted the north of england and the people who live around the Mediterranean in typical Oxford fashion. At the end he said: "You've probably read the 7 million books in the Bodleian Library, found the gateway that led Alice to Wonderland, and hopefully some of you have found the home where one of George Washington's grandfathers was born. And If you haven't done one or more of these things, that is an excellent excuse for you to come back and see us!"

After dinner I went down to the campus bar with everyone and finally had my white russian!

This morning I went and sold my textbooks at Blackwells and got 54 pounds back (that's over HALF my money I paid for them!) Alex and I bought some tape and detergeant, and our final lunch in college was some delicious fish and chips! I have been packing this afternoon, trying to decide what to take and what to leave here in England. Alex had a few inches at the top of her tiny suitcase she's leaving that I was miraculously able to fit a HUGE pile of clothes i don't want to take in. Then I went to the covered market and took one of the discarded cardboard boxes to put some miscellany I won't need on the continent in. I still don't regret only bringing one suitcase, but I wouldn't have been able to do it comfortably without Alex's generous help!
       With some of the money I got back from my books I went over to Scripthum and got Uncle Larry and I each a little hot air balloon to commemorate this part of the trip. I hung them in my window for a little while--it is such a beautiful day!

      There are so many things I'll miss about living here in Oxford. I'll miss this wonderful room I have, where every night I can look out at the tower on the library lit up as I go to sleep. I'll miss posh nosh and the crepe stands and Ben's cookies. I'll REALLY miss formal dinners, and having tea in the JCR. I shall miss all the faculty i've had, especially Sally (we'll see her again before it's all over though!).

      Despite these things, I feel a thrill of excitement when i look over at my packed suitcase--so many wonderful things still in store! I am ready for the next adventure! so heeeeere we goooooo!