Just your average day of croquet

Woah have we been busy! Term-time (we're in the last of three 8-week terms during which you have classes, which is deceptive since we don't actually have classes this term, yet, alas, it is still called Trinity 'Term' -- typical confusing Oxford terminology) is always jam-packed full of events. So let's see, during third week, we did a little, what I like to call, Extreme Bowling.

Yes, Will is blindfolded. Each frame involved a different challenging twist on how you had to bowl -- backwards, with ball in the other hand, and, the piece de resistance, blindfolded. And yes, there were balls thrown into lanes other than our own. Good times.

I also danced at my first Ceilidh, a traditional Scottish social gathering where you do coordinated dances almost like line-dancing. My personal favorite was the one where I got spun in circles, and was airborne, until I started to feel a little nauseous. Again, good times.

I went to an exchange dinner at Lincoln College, where the buildings are ancient and the libraries look like this:

Unreal, right? The Lincoln college kids study in a Harry Potter film set. I also played my first game of croquet, where I was a natural, of course. (That may be a slight exaggeration, but there is no video footage, so I feel like I can take some liberty with this one. The only evidence to the contrary is a picture where I'm swinging the stick like a golf club. However, I maintain that would be a much more efficient way of croqueting. You just can't get a big power hit by swinging it between your legs. Especially when in heels.)

Also Harry-Potter-ish, my friends and I had brunch at Christ Church College, in the dining hall where they actually did film Harry Potter. Very cool.

In addition to pub quizzing at the Royal Oak, juggling lessons, a Graduate College Bar Crawl (and late night visit to the Purple Turtle), and multiple BBQ's (because the weather is SO amazing right now - sunny and 70's in England - who knew?!), we also fit in a trip to Blenheim Palace with the Rotary Club. It is a stunning monumental country house (interestingly, where Winston Churchill was born) and the current home of the Duke of Marlborough. We toured the interior and beautiful garden grounds and met the Duke's daughter, Lady Henrietta Spencer Churchill, who told us a little bit about the history of the place. What a great day.

Will and the Palace.

Snyders do Blenheim.

Me at the entrance.

Also this week, we celebrated our second anniversary! We went to the neatest restaurant in Oxford, the Old Parsonage, saw a movie, went for ice cream, and walked all around this beautiful city. Oxford was a great place to spend our special day -- it made it very memorable. I hope this won't be our only anniversary in Oxford...