Weekend Excursion to London and Wales

Quick post, since I've got a monster of a week ahead of me (and since the last three weeks of term are looking like a sprint down to the finish with classes, papers, lectures, weekend trips, and social events -- so goes it at Oxford). I somehow made it intact to the end of last week, then hopped on a bus and headed to London on Friday night to spend the weekend with a good friend from Stanford, Reagan. She was in my freshman dorm, was my roommate junior year, and also came to Oxford to study abroad the last time I was here through the Stanford program. She's also one of the kindest, most remarkable people I know, and I was thrilled when she decided to pursue a master's program at LSE this year when I was at Oxford. Reunion time in the UK! After some chatting at a pub on Friday night with some of her friends, we spent the night at her flat in London, and then made a trek out to Wales all day on Saturday.

Reagan and I took this exact same photo three years ago in London -- flashback Friday!

Lights dancing off the Thames at night

And, well, I can't say I understood any Welsh (and were the signs strange there with all the long, convoluted Welsh words with their numerous "w"s and "y"s!), but Reagan and I had a fun time wandering around Cardiff, visiting a castle, grabbing Welsh rarebit and sausage for lunch at a cozy cafe, and then stopping for cake later before boarding the bus back to London. I'd wanted to go to Wales for a while, and although we had joined a quick one-day bus trip and didn't have very much time to explore, the change of scenery (not to mention the company) was very welcome after a solid couple of weeks in Oxford.

Cardiff Castle

Just one example of Welsh-language oddities

On Sunday, Reagan and I got up and visited a few markets in London, then stopped at an Indian restaurant for lunch and some good conversation with her flatmates. An hour later, my face stuffed, I proceeded to hop over to Leicester Square to… stuff my face even more, since I'd been able to plan afternoon tea with some of my new deaf/signing/ASL friends in London. I got to meet a few more amazing American deaf ladies over the course of the afternoon, all of whom have found themselves in the UK for various reasons, and had a wonderful time talking (I mean signing!) about many different topics over tea and scones and sandwiches. Three and a half hours later, I couldn't believe how the time had flown, and had to head back on the tube to make the bus back to Oxford. As I started the trip back, I realized how positively happy this weekend of friend time (both new and old) had made me feel.

And that wasn't the end of it, either -- a friend of mine in Oxford had mentioned that she'd be cooking Mexican food with a larger group of Rhodies, so I naturally had to stop by once I got back. "Stopping by" turned into another two-hour conversation over yet more food and yet more dessert, which meant going to bed late, without having done any work the entire weekend, and with an early-morning rowing practice awaiting me at 6am this morning. Alas, c'est la vie. I'm feeling very fortunate to know and spend time with such wonderful people here. Now, back to locking myself in the library...