The Iffley Tower

Sadly, there is no Iffley tower- BUT there is a church in Iffley dating back 800 years into the 12th century! We took a day excursion on Thursday over to Iffley! It was Jessica's Birthday, and we celebrated in style!

We took a boat ride up to Iffley (pictured below.) I shall never grow tired of the English countryside. You can't capture its beauty on camera- but just to see it on either side of the River is just so nice and peaceful.





Once we got to Iffley we explored the Church! I was the first one who dared to enter the church- where it was breathtaking. It was quiet and elegant- gave me the shivers! I sat down and said a prayer of Thanksgiving. I feel so lucky to be here! That's the first blessing I count on a daily basis.

I keep finding these lamp posts! If only I could find Spare OOm! I might be able to enter Narnia at last!!

Then, I entered the Church and saw the glory it beheld:



I don't know if I could capture the beauty on camera. It was so simplistically beautiful. Overwhelming, really. Afterwards, we hung outside the church for a little bit.
Do you know those creepy graveyards you always see in the horror movies with the fog, etc? Or like in Harry Potter in the fourth movie? This church had one......and it was completely peaceful...so we hung out there for a little bit- just soaking everything in.






Can you see the face of the guardian to the graveyard?

While I was sitting on the wall in front of the church, looking into the cemetery a car pulled up to the cemetery. Out of the passengers side (which is the left side instead of the right), an old gentleman with a cane, hobbles up the steps into the cemetery. He makes a slow beeline for a gravestone. He stood there and talked to it for a bit. Then, he stooped down on his knees and started cleaning off the gravestone and putting flowers around it, making it pretty. He was there still taking care of his wife's gravestone.

I started crying. That kind of Love is something to cherish and aspire to have.


On a more random note- we saw meerkats on our walk back to the bus station!
Cheers from Iffley!
J.

PUNTING!

On Tuesday, July 27, we went punting on the River Isis! (In oxford, the Thames River is known as the Isis River...don't ask me why, but that's the way it is! ha!)

For Punting, in Oxford, you stand on the back of the boat and you use the pole to guide yourself. I started out punting and then Karma took over. She is the Assistant Program coordinator- and she's pretty much awesome. She turned into Ninja Karma! Enjoy the pics!


OK, so we cheated- we had to use the oar in the boat to balance us out. The pole ends up slightly angled at all times, thus pushing the boat in one direction- thus the crashing into the wall. lolz. Anyway- it was fun! and: No one in our boat fell in! :-)
The "Wild" geese that hang out on the river bank. I think they watch us for entertainment.

We are being watched: apparently we are the afternoon's entertainment!

Magdalen (maudlin) College from the River! (This is where C.S. Lewis taught)

Ninja Karma!
Cheers from the River Isis!

J.

TIGHT Tights!

OMG! WE WENT TO NOTTINGHAM! THAT WAS SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUSLY FANTASTIC!

Thursday afternoon we left Oxford after class about 5pm. Between planes, trains and automobiles, we finally arrived to Nottingham! It was about a 3 hour adventure. We had to change trains twice. The people at the ticket windows are deceptively nice and not really that helpful. :-( Anyway, we arrived safe and sound! We checked into our B&B, which was close to HEAVEN! hahaha. I sunk into the bed and didn't want to get up! We also had windows in which we could curl up and sleep. Jackie enjoyed a nap there at one point during our trip.



The view from our B&B was BEAUTIFUL! We were RIGHT NEXT TO NOTTINGHAM CASTLE! It was FABULOUS! Nottingham is known for its Indian food, so we dined at one of its excellent Indian restaraunts.

Afterwards, we explored some of the night life, which was fun and highly entertaining! An excellent first night in Nottingham :-)

Friday morning we ate breakfast at our B&B and headed for an exciting adventure! We are in fact in Robin Hood's backyard! We were just merry men to have such luck and be able to go exploring! We started with Nottingham Castle, where we all purchased a Maid Marian tiara OR a Robin Hood hat!

Maid Marian

Robin Hood

We went into the Museum that was inside Nottingham castle and saw some cool stuffs! :-)

This is Charles II armor during the Civil War concerning Oliver Cromwell.

The "Sherwood Foresters" uniforms back during WWI and WWII.

Some of the medals that the "Sherwood Foresters" have been awarded (above and below).

Where the "Sherwood Foresters" fought in WWI and WWII.

A pretty Madonna & Child sculpture/whittling done in the museum that was inside
Nottingham castle. and then we decided to walk around on the grounds for a while, which was highly entertaining, since we just goofed off :-) I got a couple of moments on camera :-)

Blind Justice?

Girls just wanna have fun!

Lance serenading Jessica with "How Sweet it Is" by James Taylor.

We then lunched at Ye Olde Jerusalem Inn. It's the Oldest pub in the city of Nottingham. Fun fact: Nottingham is the fourth biggest city in England. (London is first. Manchester is second. Leeds is third.)

We then found this museum of pop culture and daily life in Nottingham dating all the way back to World War I and the Victorian Era.

Is Jeff trying to say something about women? :-P (just kidding)

I liked this poem! (I hope you can read it!)

It's similar to the pram that I was pushed in as a baby! :-)

It's a mellophone!
They knew what Mexican Dominoes were back then! (Okay, so maybe not, but it's still one of my favorite games!)
Jessica (the hobbit in our group) even had to duck in the passageways! They were so tiny!!!
The teacher's desk in an old school house.
The maps and desks of an old classroom. The desks were filled objects that would be in student's desks.
Jeff is looking for Narnia now...we found the Lamppost. Jackie and Jessica found the Wardrobe. Where is Spare Oom?


Mortimer's hole. There's an epic ghost story behind Mortimer's hole and Robert Mortimer's demise with Queen Isabella. This is a classic perspective for the touristy part of Nottingham. So many postcards have this image (without us pictured, sadly)- so here is the Nottingham tourist picture! ha!
We hit Canal Street next on our way to Crime & Punishment- a cool tourist trap that you play the role of a convicted criminal and you walk through the justice system as it has evolved over time. Sadly there was no purse shopping on Canal Street- wrong continent!

Some of the graffiti we passed on the way. I thought it was so pretty!
This is Lance (he's like my little brother) and I standing in front of St. Mary's (the spire in the background)...this is where Maid Marian and Robin Hood tied the knot :-)
I'm sitting on the judgement throne of Crime & punishment.
Robin Hood's my homeboy! ha!

Sadly, we were all arrested and put in the stocks to begin with for public humiliation. Some of us did not take it as well as others......




The Black cat sat there in judgment, just watching, waiting for us to break free.....


I was given the role of a 15 year old maidservant who watched over the son of a Lord. Apparently, this girl murdered the two year old! She was the youngest person to be hung at the County Gaol.

Our jailer in the background, leading us towards our fate in the dungeons...
These shackles are what you would wear if you were caught after you escaped. I made the clarification with the jailer: You must be caught first in order to be punished by wearing these shackles. With that in mind.....
Jeff made an escape! (over the wall, where a 1000 foot drop awaits the escapee...)
I made myself comfortable in the woman's quarters, sharing a bed with five other woman, one of which snored. One had the plague. One was pregnant and constantly sick. Not the most convenient of circumstances.......
The black cell where prisoners were taken before they were hung. Here they would have quiet contemplation of their life and their last rites and last confession.
In the Victorian era, there was significant "gaol" reform. The hood that she is holding is what prisoners would wear while they walked in a line in the courtyard of the "gaol." This was a way to make all the prisoners look the same and maintain control while allowing the prisoners some exercise.

The criminals would scrawl and chip away at the bricks, their name, a last message, or their duration of their stay at the gaol.
Lance, sadly, was headed for the gallows....
Here are four headstones found in the prison courtyard. It was not abnormal for prisoners to be buried underneath the pavement/cobblestone of the gaol courtyard....what is unusual about theses four headstones is that they exist! There are many unmarked graves- but not marked ones. It is still quite curious why these four were marked. They haven't quite figured that one out. Although the headstone on the far left (the one you probably can't see....) is the name of the last person hung at the county gaol.


They caught Jeffrey- off to the stocks for him!
much to his chagrin.....

Jessica had the nicest living arrangements of us all. I think that's because she's the most well behaved of the crew of miscreants that we are. She keeps us all in line! :-) lolz.



In more modern times, escaping is an idea of impossibility, because The Great Eye is ALWAYS WATCHING! (also more commonly known as CCTV):

We then spent the night hob poppin, checking out the local night life! Nottingham is known for its nightlife. (a possible fun LHS reunion??) It was highly entertaining going to the different themed pubs. There was one called the Pit & the Pendulum, and it was done in a gothic style- very creepy but very cool! ha! There was also a carnival going on during the weekend. We decided to join all the other "grown-ups" and ride on the swings and go down the slide! We partook in the JM Barrie experience of Neverland as well as the Robin Hood experience this weekend. ha!

On Saturday we slept in just a bit. The girls got tired of waiting on the guys, so we headed to the market to shop. We stopped in all kinds of boutiques! I'm glad we have these plastic cards that you can use and you don't need cash up front :-) just kidding. It was a fun festival weekend where there were all kinds of unique things! I had an absolute blast....but the best was yet to come! We met boys for lunch near an Aslan sighting (!) where we ate paella for lunch.
Then.....

We headed over for horseback riding through Sherwood forest!!!


(Mounting or horses and getting ready for our adventure!!!)

Setting off for our adventure. I rode atop Smudge. I was told that she would never be a show horse. That was fine with me. Smudge was very responsive to me! She took very good care of me and didn't buck me and didn't go running off into the forest. She did have the munchies, though!!! :-0

Sherwood Forest is so pretty!

After horseback riding, we grabbed an early dinner and the nightlife started creeping out, so we took part once again! :-) We began the night with a ghost tour! Jackie and I bought Yellow T. Roses :-) gotta love your sisters!!! <3



Sunday was a special day for me! Happy Birthday Mommy! I slept in the latest. Breakfast lasted until 10:30am- and I still missed it! We went to the City of Caves. There is a network of Caves underneath Nottingham, where everyone escaped to during WWII and the Blitzkrieg.







The City of Caves was located in an underground shopping mall. Of course, we went shopping more! I bought more cute stuffs...and another book or two! ha!!

We got back to Oxford about 5pm- in time for me to surprise mama and call her to wish her a Happy Birthday! :-) We also had a Birthday to celebrate here as well, so we went and did work at The Chequers, one of our favorite pubs, until about 10:30pm. We then grabbed ice cream for dessert <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIKdvBXEOxrtyb7CEbdiP0Kr9UCjHLiSHXInCTmyukuYw94nY8MLlFUp2OGPalZ5UbHZxtxtIU1GxHZhFnK34LqmjyU3qRwyqDH25cfl35yB25GNwU9FbR3-nizbWQyx-6GNc7jZLNW172/s1600/IMG_4054.JPG">












Monday, however, I was a complete bum. I did a load of laundry and started packing up some stuffs to see how much room I don't have in my suitcase. (we only have 11 days left in Oxford!) I managed to make it to class on time :-) and got several good grades returned !!!! :-) We watched Harry Potter and then went back to Far from the Madding Crowd! (our usual Monday night hangout where we do work. They have free internet connection.)

Cheers from Nottingham/Oxford!
J.