London: last week

Alright, this will be my last post for this trip besides probably a final, summarizing post after I get back home.

Yesterday, Alyssa and I caught an early bus over to Oxford and decided to spend the whole day exploring there. We started out at Oxford Castle and opted to do a tour there which was really interesting. After the tour had ended, we were allowed to roam around the castle some more and we decided to check out some of the prison cells (the Castle having served mainly as a prison for many years). As Alyssa poked her head into one of the dark cells, I grabbed her shoulder from behind and casually said, “boo!” – the scream she let out, I’m sure, scared the shit out of anyone else in the castle too. Particularly those just above hearing the ghost stories about the crypt. Naturally, it was hilarious. For me.

After the castle, we decided we would return later for a ghost tour of the town, but before then, we were free to wander around at our leisure. After checking to make sure we could catch a later bus (so we could stay for the ghost tour) we set off in the direction of the Eagle and Child pub. On the way there, we shopped and took our time wandering around. I got a toffee crepe and Alyssa ended up with the most interesting ice cream cone we have ever seen: because she ordered a double, she did not receive a cone with an especially large scoop of ice cream like most American places do, rather, the cone itself had two sort of cups on top, side by side in which each scoop was. We wandered through stores and marveled at street performers for a good long while before we ended up making it to the Eagle and Child pub. We did not eat there, but I got enough pictures of it so as to consider my mission complete; the particular interest for me being that it was the favorite meeting place of “The Inklings” (CS Lewis’ and Tolkien’s writing group which was also frequented by other famous authors).

We stopped by the Museum of Natural History and spent a while in there checking out the dinosaurs and interesting animals before heading back in the direction we came so we could find a place to eat lunch/early dinner. We got pastys and then went over to McDonalds to get some fries just as an excuse to have a place to sit. As we sat there at the counter in the window, we overheard some guys a few seats over talking; one was saying how after he bangs a girl, he inadvertently finds her disgusting afterwards and forgets her face, saying he couldn’t even tell ya what color her eyes were just because he can’t remember. Alyssa and I gave each other a look with raised eyebrows. They continued there conversation and eventually started talking about the museum that we had just come from to which Alyssa piped up and told them the closing time which they were wondering about. Her and I continued talking and we saying something about shopping when we realized their conversation was paralleling ours. She paused for a moment and whispered to me, “I think they heard me” to which there was a reply of “sorry.”  We laughed about it and Alyssa struck up a conversation with them after that. There were three of them but only one was especially chatty. He was the best looking but unfortunately had been the one we overheard saying those things in the beginning, so even though he was aesthetically pleasing to be sure, he had inadvertently kicked his own feet out from under himself.  But he was friendly and easy to talk to and we talked to the three of them for quite a long time. We asked questions about Britain and they asked about America (accents, words, politics, etc.), talked about sports, where we were all from, city preferences, and so on. Turns out the chatty one’s name was also Ashley, spelled the same way too. According to him, he was a “sort of model” but “didn’t like the word model” even though he’d been offered to be shot by Diesel before, he had turned them down – “no big deal.” Before we left, he added Alyssa on Facebook, and later on the bus home we looked at his profile – as expected, he was really quite full of himself, far more topless selfies than any guy should have. Despite that, they were fun to talk to if anything.

From there, we returned to the Castle and met up for the Ghost Tour. As we stood there waiting for the elderly guy in the top hat and coat to begin leading us around, we struck up a conversation with another girl in our group who was the same age as us and also America; Abby from Ohio who is also majoring in English.

The guide for the tour was really good and assumed the perfect story telling character voice for the entirety of the trip. It was more funny than scary, but there were some pretty good stories. On a few occasions he asked for volunteers so he could illustrate particular aspects of the tour; for instance, he was talking about how they used to identify witches and asked for a volunteer which Alyssa nominated me for. So the guy used my thumb to illustrate how a thumb screw used to work, a vice that would compress the tip of the thumb, increasing and increasing the pressure until…pop! At that instant, he pulled one of those little confetti launching firecrackers which he had hidden in his hand. Things like that, a later instance had him letting off a surprise sparkler which caused Alyssa to jump and scream as she was the volunteer in that instance, and later he had a few of the guys in the group pulling a Monty Python and galloping down an alleyway with coconuts to imitate the kind of sound that had been heard there of a ghost cavalry.

During the tour we had been chatting with Abbey and when it was over invited her to join us for a drink/dessert. So we all found a local pub that she had heard about; her and Alyssa had dessert and I settled with a cider. We all continued to talk for a while until it was time for Alyssa and I to head for the bus station and Abbey to make her way back to her hostel. On the way back I claimed two seats for myself and laid down in an effort to get some sleep on the way back, having only gotten three hours the night before and beginning to feel sick from the deprivation; probably the first time I’ve been able to fall asleep on a bus this whole trip.

And that was my last little adventure for my time here.

It’s strange that the semester is ending already – doesn’t feel like it should be. Far too soon. Well, my bank account would beg to differ, that’s for sure, but for me personally I wish it was longer. I am not ready to go back.

Those in the Health Services program have already left because at the end of their semester is a week in Jamaica that is part of their particular program, so I had to say goodbye to Tula earlier this week and that was really sad. It’s hard to make friends in places like this and then realize that you’ll barely get to see them anymore because they live all the way across the country….

Today I meant to study. I should have. But I was still out of whack from lack of sleep so not long after I woke up this morning, I found myself again in bed for a nap. You know, there is a reason I don’t sleep and this is it: while napping today I dreamt that I was holding my dying mother in my arms, talking and half singing to her trying to comfort either her or myself, I don’t know which. When I looked down her head hung limply over my arm with eyes shut and mouth hung open. In horror, I released my grip and simultaneously stood up from the edge of the bed on which I had been sitting and backed away. Her limp body then slipped from the bed and slumped to the floor without my support and her head bashed the ground with a sickening thump. You can imagine the state I woke up in.  Especially because I still haven’t recovered from the other nightmare I had earlier this week.

It’s no wonder I don’t sleep.

I’d rather drive myself mad from sleep deprivation than live those hells over and over again anytime I shut my eyes.

So I was rather messed up for the rest of the day and spent most of it just hanging out and watching TV to get my mind off it. In my defense I didn’t know what the movie was about when I started it, but I watched Requiem for a Dream which was probably NOT the most helpful movie for my mood. But it was a really, really good movie and I am glad I watched it finally as I have heard of it many times and meant to get around to watching it. Probably one of the most intense but also most beautifully done films I’ve watched in a long time. It may be because I just watched it, but at the moment, I would put it toward the very top of my favorite movies list – perhaps just below Donnie Darko which takes #1 for me. We’ll see how I feel about that after a while, but I really did like it a lot.

Truth be told, it really wasn’t the best movie to watch on this particularly day as I found myself emotionally hollowed out afterward and entirely unable to even hope of studying. It’s taken me ridiculously long to even type this. Tomorrow though Alyssa and I are going to go watch the changing of the guard and then head to Hyde Park to go spend some time studying in the sunshine. And with any luck, my subconscious will show me some mercy tonight…