Maymester in Oxford

Sunday and Blenheim

Yesterday, I decided to attend church at the Oxford Church of Christ. There were about 9 people other than our group present. The preacher, David Barker, was from Paris, Tennessee. He knows John Dale very well. It's a small world. Most of the people at the church were not from England, but in Oxford because of military. After that, Dr. Bailey took us on a quick tour of a cemetary where there are many World War I graves. He said England lost almost 1 million people in that war alone. After that, we came back and I had my first taste of On the Hoof, a wonderful pastery shop/bakery. I had a Brazilian sandwich and something that had a crumbly crust with caramel and white chocolate! It was delicious. I met a guy in there from Pennsylvania who is here for a whole year. The owner is a delightful lady who really loves our group. After lunch I slept through a movie in the commons room then went outside with Blake, Jayma, Luke and Josh and played football, soccer and frisbee. Blake wanted to go see if he could join a pick up soccer game at University Park, so I took my text book and went with him. Everybody was starting to leave, so we just walked around the park and had a nice talk. He and I went to Abilene High together and he is now studying at Oxford. He is an architecture major. In fact, he just finished classes and will actually walk in September. For dinner I had french toast with honey instead of syrup because we don't have any syrup. It was Delicious! We had a devotional and communion as a group at 9 p.m. It reminded me of Life Team that would be starting only a couple of hours later. It was neat to sit in church and just picture all the different services going on back in the United States. I suppose I was worshipping thousands of miles away at about the same time the Glendale Rd. extension service was going on. Today we had class, then went to Blenheim Palace. That is the home of Sir Winston Churchill. The palace was beautiful and even more so the gardens. Mallory and I had some ice cream even though it was SO cold. We did a maze through hedges, I can't remember what they are called and then headed back home. At the bus stop, it began to rain. So now, we were cold and wet. We met a nice Canadian couple who talked to us and shared their umbrella with us. They were from British Columbia. Mallory and I ended up getting off the bus too soon and had to walk at least 20 minutes to get back to the houses. We were damp and cold and tired. The gates of St. Hughes were a much welcomed sight. Now, here I sit, warm and dry. I think I will take a short nap before studying for our first test tomorrow!!

rvw

posted by Tori Watson @ 9:04 AM