Last Full Day in Oxford

I can't believe it's my last full day in Oxford! My feelings are mixed: definitely excited to see folks at home and sleep in more than a twin bed, and awed at the great experiences of the last six weeks. Today, a dark chocolate raspberry milkshake from Moo-Moo's in the Covered Market seemed the appropriate complement to some thick emotion.

Lena left by bus this morning for Gatwick Airport, where she caught a plane to Pisa to meet Ilja, her long-term entanglement, for a week-long post-Loaf holiday. I walked Lena to the bus, and we talked about next summer in Asheville. I worked away on Seattle Academy projects for a while in my room, until BBC broadcast the Olympic Opening Ceremonies live! It's hard to see in this photo, but here's a small crowd watching the spectacle on the Junior Common Room's flatscreen TV.

I packed everything but the last few items I need tomorrow morning, and headed off with Alison to a favorite cafe in the bottom of St. Mary's Church (below).

This is the cafe! And its view, of Radcliffe Camera from its churchyard garden (below), isn't too shabby. In fact, when I studied in Radcliffe Camera, part of the Bodleian Library, I often read at the window directly facing the garden cafe.

We split spicy chai for two and read pleasure books. Alison's reading Bolano's "The Savage Detectives", below.

This evening, Bread Loaf planned a nice spread to celebrate graduating seniors and thank the Lincoln College staff at large. Here are the "hearty" appetizers!

Me, Alison and Heather at the reception, below.

They even had a nice cake for the "seniors." Congratulations to Alison, and to all the graduates!

It's definitely hard to close both the summer here in Oxford and the blog about the summer in Oxford, so I figured I'd make some lists (as is my coping mechanism):

Things I’ll Miss
The bells (sometimes)
The friends on my floor
That dog that chases the Frisbee in University Parks every day at the same time
Buying postage for Ed’s letters everyday from the Porter’s Lodge
Pain au chocolat at breakfast
Regular curry for lunch
The fun of an extremely small class on a topic I love
Finding mail from home on the table at lunch
Marks and Spencer Simply Food grocery store
1,50 pound t-shirts at Primark
All the natural light in my bathroom
“Dreaming” spires
Lincoln College’s unreal (and perfectly manicured) quadrangles
Access to the Bodleian, and the satisfaction of figuring out the Bodleian
The “tourists” who twice now asked me for directions I could actually provide
The leafy green alongside the Thames that outgreens any green
The tops of buildings in the golden twilight
SO much to learn and to do
More things than I can list

Things I Won’t
The bells (sometimes)
Nearly tripping (or actually tripping) on cobblestones
Nearly getting run over by bikes
So much meat at dinner (tactical error… should have picked the vegetarian meal plan)
The exchange rate
Twin bed

Favorite Spots: If You Visit Oxford, Definitely Enjoy…
Edamame (“homestyle” Japanese)
Chiang Mai (Thai)
G & D’s (bagels and gourmet ice cream)
Gretchen’s in the Covered Market (funky-fresh upstairs café)
Moo-Moo’s (source of the chocolate-raspberry shake)
Ben’s Cookies (last sampled: orange marmalade-chocolate)
St. Mary’s Garden/Vault Café (mentioned above)
Aziz (cleverly combines the Thai and the Indian, riverside)
Turf Pub (where Clinton supposedly inhaled)
King’s Arms (the first place I ate in Oxford; I still remember the carrot soup)
Head of the River (you can’t beat that patio along the Thames)
The Bear (college boys get their ties clipped and hung on the wall)
Jamie’s (Italian… with service just like home)

New Places (At Least for Me) We'll Visit on a Next Trip to the UK
Natural History Museum, where Jon and Ellinor work (London)
Edinburgh
Dublin
Brighton
National Gallery (London)
The Victoria and Albert Museum (London)
The Trout (Oxford)

I board a bus for Heathrow at 2 PM (my time) tomorrow and board a plane for Seattle at 6:55 PM (my time). To the Bread Loaf folks who read these posts, thanks for an unusually good summer and have a great year. To everyone who made this summer even more terrific by sharing the experience online, THANK YOU! I'll see most of you, soon, stateside. Much love!