Since the last time I wrote, I have had so many adventures!

It started the night after I got back from Scotland. A small group of us decided to go to the Eagle and Child because Marc and I had never been. It was such a nice quaint little pub, if a little cramped. And they had Tolkien and Lewis quotes all over the place, but at the same time, it was such a town pub, that it wasn’t a tourist attraction. It’s interesting because it seems like people in the states are more obsessed with Tolkien and Lewis than people in Britain. At least, in Oxford. They don’t even have a class on Tolkien and Lewis.

Elissa and I decided to take a break from work on Saturday and go around to Christ Church and New College, which were two places where they filmed Harry Potter. Christ Church’s staircase and Great Hall are used in Harry Potter 1 and 2. The hall is not used as much because it is so small compared to the one they wanted, so they built a Great Hall in a studio modeled exactly after Christ Church’s. We couldn’t see the Great Hall because it was being used for something, but we did find out that we can go there for brunch on the weekends as students and therefore, Elissa and I both plan to go as soon as possible. Eat in the Great Hall which is like Hogwarts? YES PLEASE!

It took us awhile to find the courtyard in New College where they filmed. At least we are college age because I’m pretty sure we went in a bunch of restricted to the public areas. We finally found the cloisters and again, it was as if we were in Harry Potter. The cloisters are so old and are exactly like the ones in Harry Potter (Christ Church’s also look almost exactly the same and they based the ones in the movie off of both of them if they didn’t actually film there). And then there was the tree where Moody turns Draco into a ferret. It was such a photogenic tree that Elissa and I kept getting photos from all angles. And I got pictures of the parts of the cloisters where the actors walked or stood because, yes, I’m going to fangirl over Harry Potter, and I might as well because I am living in an old city with beautiful architecture where they have filmed movies.

My Creative Writing tutorial is super fun. Our prompt for this time was to describe a room. I had so much fun with it and ended up writing half of it outside in the morning, because it was a beautiful fall day, and the other half at Starbucks and Cafe Nero. I think I rather like writing in coffee shops. No wonder many great British writers (like J.K. Rowling) write in coffee shops. It’s a nice environment.

My prompt for my Victorian Literature essay was to compare Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice and Mr. Thornton and Margaret Hale in North and South. It was a super fun prompt and I got to read most of the books again and watch the movies (the long BBC versions!). But when it came to the actual writing of the essay, I suddenly had writers block. There was no reason why I should have. I loved the prompt and the stories, and I knew what I wanted to write but I couldn’t get it down on paper. This happened for two days. Finally I had to force myself to write because, well, it was the night before it was due (aka, last night), and I kind of needed to write the essay. Finally, after talking to Jessica, taking a 20 minute nap, and drinking coffee at 10 p.m., I got unstuck. Unfortunately, since I was still in the writing process at that time, it resulted in my first Almost All Nighter. I finished the essay (with edits) 10 minutes before 5 a.m. I have never done that before. Currently I am running on adrenaline and caffeine. But my essay actually turned out pretty well for the circumstance, and I really like it, and my tutor really liked it! However, I don’t recommend that for every essay. I think I will try to be better.

Anyway, at this point in time I have a few awesome things to look forward to this weekend. One of which is seeing Benedict Cumberbatch in Hamlet tonight. And going to see Henry V on Saturday at Stratford Upon Avon done by the Royal Shakespeare Company.