Day Eight: Uffington and Oxford

Oh hello again, Cardiff, its joyous to see you again this beautiful morning! 

It's 6:30, though the sun has been up for about an hour and a half now. I get up, dress, hair, makeup, grab my packed bag, a croissant and banana for breakfast in the van, and I'm on the road again a little before 7. 

Lets rock this day. 

We drove two hours deep into the countryside of England, still happily soaking-in the smell of fresh cut hay, the plethora of variations of the color green, the frequent farm animals in the constant surrounding fields, and that playful blue sky. 

I've decided that Tom is one of the smartest people I've ever met, and I definitely know some smart people. He just knows everything about everything. He's Jeapordys Worst nightmare, I swear it!! And he moves at a speed that defies the natural laws of physics; I've seen it for myself every day! He is only a little taller than me, and he must be in his fifties now, but he freaking cruises down the streets, especially when they are crowded and overrun with people. Thanks to the heavens for giving that man exceptionally white hair, as the back of that mans head is the only feature available to us, and it is indeed a guiding beacon to us all. 

Even when he drives, its at a gazillion miles an hour, I kid you not! It's 10:45pm, I'm in the very back of the van, the sun has set, and we are tearing through the countryside at breakneck speeds (let's pray that's just a figure of speech). The roads here are super tiny, backwards, and tightly enclosed by hedges (we've already aided the caretakers by giving a few lenghts of hedge a trim with our open windows), which means we can't see anything or anyone coming around the very tight corners. Seriously, this is better than any roller coaster I've ever been on. I'm almost to the point where I'll start putting both hands in the air when it gets real tight on the turns. :)

Okay, so our first stop was deep in the hills of England. We hiked up these huge hills, past a herd of sheep to see an old Celtic age castle: Uffington castle. As we climbed the last crest, we looked down the ledge of the hill top at... Nothing. It was an invisible castle! Cool huh? This was the location of the formidable Uffington castle, one which withstood many centuries of use and battle, until the Romans came and kind of took it down. 

So we walked across a few more neighboring hills over to see the more exciting Uffington White Horse. The UFH, as I'll call it for convenience sake, is a huge old Celtic carving in the top of the hill, in the form of a very Celtic-styled horse symbol. Because the hill is made of white chalk, the horse picture stands out starkly against the green vegetation of the hill. But the crazy thing is that its huge and it's just on the top part of the hill, and so there really isn't a good way to look  down at the whole thing from above, except by helicopter. So the question is, how on earth did the Druids manage to draw it so big and so accurately without really being able to see it? No one knows, but many think that the same answer solves the crop circles question too...

After we looked at the UFH for a while, we saw the site down below on a much lower hill where some say that St. George slew the dragon. Of course we couldn't pass a place like that up, so we started down the hill, which quickly evolved into more of an angled cliff face. No joke, I've never seen a grade that steep for myself before. So, how does one do something new they've never done before? You apply what you have learned from seeing others do it first. So I considered my selection of tutors from my memory, looked over the crazy hill my group was slowly slipping down...

and totally rocked that hill Man From Snowy River style, baby. Yee-flippin-haw!

Now that I found myself towards the front of the group, with the momentum a Twinkie-chasing American would envy, I launched up the steps of the St. George and dragon hill, spun around, and posed at the top for a victory shot, which Miya was kind enough to humor me with. Once we were all up there, we goofed around and took a million crazy pictures while we waited for Tom to bring the van around. 

From there we left the serene countryside and plunged back into the big city environment. Today: Oxford.

Oxford really was cool, but I'm actually getting tired of the massive crowds and trying to play Tom's favorite game of 'Let's See a Whole City in Two Hours.' I see the pros of walking all the way through big cities in a short time, as you can SAY you've seen and been to all the big things people are familiar with. But one thing that I'm learning about myself is how much tiny details make me happy. Often times, the big things are just too much for me to really appreciate, just because they really are just so big. But the smaller and more intricate the detail, the more I focus and appreciate it. So to cruise through a whole city is good for my bucket list, but I could more happily spend half an hour gawking at the different forms and faces carved into the decorative bricks outside a cathedral, or reading the final passages inscribed into ancient tombstones, or taking in the story depicted on stained glass windows. Moral of the story: if Tom doesnt kill me as I try to keep his pace, then I'll surely see a hundred more things than I would have on my own, but at the same time, if I also spend my free time in the cities the way I like best, then I wont miss a single thing. 

After we made it through the whole city, Tom told us to meet him back at the Tom Belltower (one of the entrances of the Christ Church Cathedral) in four hours for Evensong. So me and the other four girls I have been doing the most with split off to adventure on our own. 

First mission: get some lunch. Now honestly, I really am a bit of a penny pincher, and so I had packed a lunch and something to hold me over to dinner every day, but the opportunity to try out legit English and European food is a rare opportunity, so I have rarely gone a day without buying a meal here. I usually get one of the cheapest things on the whole menu, but whatever, I've been saving up to blow a little money. 

For lunch this day, I was not disappointed. Actually, up to this point, this was the most delicious thing I have had since I've been here, no contest. We went to the West Cornwall Pastie shop, and I bought the most delicious Pork, Stuffing, and Apple Pastie there for like two and a half pounds. Seriously, next time I get internet access (which I haven't had for a while now) I'm totally hoping to find a good recipe online so I can try making it when I get home. Will it be as good? most likely not...but I'm not the kind to give up without a fight. 

So we took our scrumptious pasties, found a big beautiful park, sat under a tree and ate up. When we finished, we just sat and rested there for a while, until a gigantic brown caterpillar fell out of the tree on Josie's head and convulsed long enough for her to flip out. We decided we were sick of the city, so we kept walking through the long quiet park. After a while, we came to a very narrow section of the river Thames. There were six or seven geese there that we decided would be fun to throw our extra bread too. Not long after we started, we turned to look upriver, and saw about fifteen more geese and probably twenty ducks running and flying down the lane straight us. It was a crazy sight indeed. Soon we were surrounded by all these birds, hoping to get some bread from us. I showed two of the girls how to hand feed the geese after finding a few that didn't bite as hard. After not too long, Abby pointed excitedly upriver again. I turned to look and saw two huge white swans swimming towards us now. When they came up close to the edge, all the other girls backed away. I really wanted the biggest swan to come out of the water so I could feed it better, so I wiggled a big piece of bread in front of it. It was definitely interested, and as I pulled it slowly higher, the huge swan stretched and raised up out of the water, almost coming up onto the ledge, but then it decided that was too much effort and settled back into the Thames. When I realized it wasnt coming out, I just hand-fed it from the ledge. It got super excited after a little while and actually cut my thumb. I saw that coming though, I thought it would be a goose that would do that though.

Once all our extra  bread was consumed by our feathered friends, we started walking back along the riverside towards the town. It wasn't long before we saw a small boat dock. When we realized that we could rent a boat for a few pounds apiece, we made the necessary arrangements and climbed aboard our darling little rowboat. Yes, gentle reader, I spent part of the next hour rowing our little rowboat down the Thames river in Oxford. How many people can say they've done that, eh? Obviously I've watched too much television, as I caught onto the motion within the first few strokes (it turns out that the biggest trick to getting really strong strokes is to move the oars high out of the water and get them to cut back in at a very clean angle at the same time) and had us going very quickly. My biggest problem was pulling both oars really evenly, as I kept managing to angle the boat along a diagonal instead of straight. I even figured out how to spin the boat around when it was time to go back by reversing the direction of one hand while rowing the other in the original direction. 

After we got back, Abby mentioned that she really had hoped she could sit and sketch some of the amazing architecture. We found a little field with some young Cricketers and figured we'd try to figure out the game by watching the young kids play while Abby sketched. We were there about an hour, sitting in the shade of a big tree. We chatted and dozed and told stories. It was very lovely.

When it was getting close to the time we were to meet our group again, Abby and I went to the post office and bought stamps (FINALLY, we've been trying to do that for a week now) and then stopped by the Eagle and Child tavern (the tavern that JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, AND JK Rowling often sat in while writing their most famous works). Then we went into the Christ Church Cathedral and met our whole group for Evensong. 

Evensong is a frequent Catholic worship service, where a choir comes in and sings some of the old Gregorian style prayers and chants, while a pastor reads some selected scriptures for the day. One of my favorite parts was when the congregation was told to kneel for the prayer that the choir offered. I know that this isn't the true church upon the earth, but I was really okay with being there for the service. This is because I wasn't there for the same reasons that I would go to the temple or to worship normally; i was there to see and hear beautiful things and to observe people trying their best to thank God for what he does for them. See, I don't think that a sung prayer is best, but it isn't sacriligious either. The words were heartfelt, things that I have prayed for many times, such as protection, understanding, and forgiveness. And the melody and harmony combination was gorgeous. Those things combined, as I knelt in that prayer, made for a really amazing experience. 

On our drive home:

We stopped at the graveyard where JRR Tolkien and his wife are buried...SUPER COOL!! Many devout fans had left trinkets and treasures all along the grave: framed poems, a rose bush, coins, and a small handmade Gandalf doll in the mini pine tree. While some in our company actually licked the tombstone, I was quite content to give it a quick peck before we headed out. 

Then we went to a very old church that had a rare surviving North Door. The cool thing about this North Door is that there were two super old trees that grew right close up against the door, framing the ancient archway, so that it really looked like a fairy tale doorway. It was the perfect place to be after seeing Tolkiens grave. 

We then walked to Greedy's pub for some of the best (and surprisingly cheapest) fish and chips around...but it was closed when we got there. Three cheers on saving money!!! 

On the two hour drive home, we saw a rare sight; a beautiful sunset. Usually there are clouds that cover up the sunsets here, so they are not often seen, but we had a perfect view as we flew past trees and hedges in our happy van. 

Once home (around midnight), some of the girls had reported their room closets opening and closing by themselves throughout the nights and weird voices, so Tom said a blessing on the house to invite the Spirit and remove any dark spirits there. Afterwards I popped over to the other house for about 20 minutes of wifi time, then it was back to our house for a late night shower, scripture study, prayers, and then bed. 

Congratulations to Ryan and Shalyse!! I saw the exciting news on Facebook!!!