Oxford and two seconds in Stratford-on-Avon: a Lesson in Flexibility

So, this was the plan:

8:30--meet in front of Bedford Place (where the students are living)
Take Coach bus to bus to Stratford-on-Avon--take some group pictures in front of the Shakespeare's birthplace and then head back south to Oxford for
11:00--presentation at Story Museum
12:30--lunch reservation at The Bear Inn, the oldest pub in Oxford, established in 1242
afterwards go over to the Bodleian Library
3:30-4:00--leave Oxford, arriving in plenty of time for students to go see the plays they had arranged to see.

However, there was a planned bus driver strike in London.  The strike was planned for 4 PM through rush hour tomorrow morning, so all the people who usually take the bus decided to drive to work today.

The bus driver told us our plan was not going to work before we even got out of London. It was already taking too long, and there was no way were going to get to Shakespeare's birthplace and make our 11:00.  He suggested that we just go straight to Oxford and then go to Stratford-on-Avon last, so we did.  I knew how to get from our different venues, but I had no idea where the bus was going to drop us off, so I could not look up directions before leaving the apartment like I did for everything else.  We have a handy group because they have phones to look things up and lead the way.

 This new plan actually worked very well because it allowed time for students to look around Oxford for almost and hour while it was still sunny, and it gave me time to find the The Bear Inn and the Bodleian to see if we could get a group tour even though you are supposed to book two weeks in advance.  This was the BEST thing because I think I would have missed the small street where The Bear Inn was, and we did miss Catte ST, where the visitor entrance to the Bodleian is, because we were on the other side, and it looks like a cobbled walkway not a regular street the way it is showed in Google maps.

The Story Museum (http://www.storymuseum.org.uk/about-us/) was a great place where they do all sorts of work with the public schools to help with literacy, reading, and writing skills.  We had someone talk to us about the work they do with schools and some of the challenges teachers face in England, and we got to go through the 26 Authors Exhibition, where famous authors dressed up like their favorite characters from books they read as children and whole exhibits are built up around them. For example, the above picture is of Phillip Pullman dressed up as Long John Silver.  We even got to walk through a wardrobe (through fur coats) to get into Narnia! I don't have many pictures because my favorite places were way too dark.   I think it was good for our students, so many of whom plan to be teachers, to see the kinds of similar challenges that teachers of elementary school kids have in other places.

We then walked over to The Bear Inn (http://www.bearoxford.co.uk/)and had a private little room.

Because we had a big group and they aren't used to getting so many at once, we did a preorder with three different options to choose from: a mushroom pie, steak and ale pie, and fish and chips.  I took pictures of the fish and chips when they started coming in because they were giant, and I didn't get a picture of the dish when I had it.

By the time my steak and ale pie came out, I was so hungry that I forgot to take a picture until I had nearly eaten it all.

Thankfully, Jane sent me a picture of hers, so I can add it here.  This was another delicious pie.

I could have easily ate this for hours.  I really do not understand the people who told me the food in England was not good.  How can you go wrong with pie crust, gravy, succulent meat, and mashed potatoes? You can't.  I really wanted to lie down and take a nap.  And perhaps this food euphoria was the reason why I was not paying attention to details. I should have been paying attention, but I wasn't. If I had, I would have remembered to heed Lee's warning: remind students that there is no bathroom in the Bodleian and make sure to go to the bathroom in the pub.  We had plenty of time, but I was seduced into a gravy coma and blithely got up and went out the door to take pictures of the other happy and extremely full-bellied people.

Next, we were off to the Bodleian Library, which has got to be one of the most beautiful places on the planet.  And that is not my English major-geek speaking.  

We first stopped to allow people to buy souvenirs because we were early for our time (which means I still had time to remind people about the bathroom, but I still forgot); Jane also wanted to go to Barbour Store and look at the waxed coat that she has really been wanting. Look up Barbour (http://www.barbour.com/barbour-history); the queen wears these coats (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2212561/Impeccable-British-pedigree-Why-Barbour-jacket-Queens-wardrobe-staples.html). 

With over 14 millions volumes, the Bodleian Library (http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/) has something for everyone.  I do not have many pictures because you cannot take pictures of many of the places during the tour; they even take your purses and bags and phones and cameras and lock them up to make sure.  It is a working library, so you have to be quiet, and you get a amplifier/speaker thingy so that you can hear the tour guide as they practically whisper all the information.  When we went up to one of the reading rooms, some students at the other end (blocked off) looked up bored and annoyed at this crowd trooping through.  I don't blame them because we found that some are sitting for exams this week.

One of favorite tidbits about the library is that to become a reader, someone who can actually use the library, you have to recite a declaration about how you won't steal or deface any of the holdings as well as not to bring in any flame.

To get to the library, you first have to walk by the Radcliffe Camera:

Doesn't this make you want to read, read, read?

Wait, there is more.  Here is what it looks like when you first walk through the visitors' entrance (almost all these people are my students trying to get pictures):

And this is what it looks like when you look back from where you enter.

We were split into two groups because they do not allow more than thirteen at a time for the standard tour in the Divinity School.  Many of students were really excited about this because the room in the school we sat in was used as the infirmary for the Harry Potter films.

But remember what I had forgotten and how we had such a huge meal with free Pepsi? The first thing students asked me was about bathrooms and that is when I remembered: "No bathrooms for visitors at the Bodleian!"  You should have seen the look on their faces. It would have been funny if it hadn't been frightening :).  They did well; no one followed the Globe practice of just urinating where you stand, and we all had a great discussion about the use of urine led by the students who had went to the exhibition at the Globe for the students who did not, so it was still a learning experience.  I will use every teachable moment I can get! 

Below is a picture of the ceiling of the reception room in the Divinity School.  They raised money to do this room by promising donors to add their coat of arms to the ceiling--smart fund raising technique.

These are the last pictures from this day, partly because of the picture ban and partly because this is when the anxiety starts. 

Once the tour was finished and we had all gathered together, we asked the guide about bathrooms and several people also wanted to go to the museum store.  [Sidenote: I have fallen in love with museum stores. I think I want to take just one trip where all I buy are things from museum stores.] Immediately, people dispersed--after all many of them had had to go to the bathroom for over an hour, but we really had very little time.  We were supposed to be back at the bus stop by 3:30, and we finished the tour at 3:15.  

Right now, you should be humming the theme music to Mission Impossible while you read the rest.  In case you do not know the theme, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAYhNHhxN0A

I went into the bookstore (in my magnet obsession) and then I went to gather people (Jane rushed off on her own to buy that coat!). I got everyone out of book store, but then those people also had to go the bathroom! Some went to bathroom in the Kings Arm pub and others went to bathroom in Blackwell's bookstore. I stood on the steps outside the library showing the group on my map where they were supposed to go--down on Broad st, left on Magdalen st, look for bus on St. Giles, but we were still missing two students! I sent students ahead. Then I waited for the ladies to come out of the Kings Arm. Rachel volunteered to wait for them because she had a map on her phone, and her husband Dan, who is my student, and I started off to look for the two students. I started calling and Dan went in to look for them. Of course, my student did not have her phone on, but Dan found them in the book store; they were still waiting for the other students to come out of the bathroom!

In any case we rushed over to the bus. We were fifteen minutes late and went on our whirlwind trek to Stratford-on-Avon.  We didn't get there until a bit after twilight and nothing was open by that time.  I thought it was a good thing because I did not want to lose anyone in shops when we really needed to get on the bus soon.  I did get people to go to the public bathrooms (for 20p) because I warned them we were NOT stopping for a bathroom break on the way back.  We needed to get to London as quickly as possible--people had theater tickets for 7:30.  It was  fairly anxious ride, even our bus driver was worried. I actually talked to him for a bit while we were in Stratford-on-Avon about how to reschedule the trip next time, and he said to definitely leave by 7:30 or 7:15 if we are going to try to do it this way. Frankly, I would have rather just spent a whole day in Oxford; no offence Dr. Beilin!

We didn't get back until 7:00, and I made everyone wait to allow the theater people to get off first. I have never seen my students move so fast (okay maybe when they were running off to the bathroom in Blackwells).  I hope they made it.