July 22nd 2009

Hello all! So I found a cheap internet cafe that lets me upload my pictures, so I can keep you all updated on my adventures. Let me start off by saying thank you to everyone that helped make this trip possible; I'm not even a week into this trip and I'm already having the time of my life. The beauty and culture has far exceeded my expectations and I've already formed deep bonds with my classmates and professors. My classes are wonderful, the food is AMAZING, and the weather has been decent. Today I went running at 6:30 in the morning with one of my Professors (Dr. Bebe from Texas State) and two other classmates. We ran the track around Christ Church Meadow, and I saw some swans in the river and some deer and cattle in the meadow. I can't even begin to describe how green and beautiful it is here. This is the view right next to my dorm (St. Hilda's):

Today we took a tour of Magdalen college, where C.S. Lewis used to live. Dr. Bebe is a huge C.S. Lewis fan and showed us a handwritten letter that C.S. Lewis himself wrote. This is a picture I took of one of the older colleges at Oxford (Magdalen):

Tomorrow we leave for Isle of Wight. On Saturday we are travelling to Salisbury, and then on Sunday morning we get the privelege of spending sun rise at Stonehenge with a private guide. Later Sunday a group of my classmates and I are planning to visit Bath and then return back to Oxford Sunday night.