misspotter | Oxford, Day 25

I woke up to discover that someone had indeed picked up and kept safely my Ravenclaw scarf (the one I accidentally left on the Quidditch pitch in my rush to get to afternoon tea on time). So I packed up my gear for the day, and headed out to Worcester College to collect it. I am relieved to write that I did not cry, however I babbled a bit about sending the Quidditch team some Tim Tams to show my appreciation for them (they not only let me train with them, they also invited me to their socials! And then they rescued my scarf!).

I used the trek up to Worcester to wander around the area near the train station. I walked around the Oxford Castle (which I have to admit, after seeing Windsor and stuff, was a bit of a letdown), across a few bridges, along the river, and down the streets that would lead me to Rewley Abbey, which is another part of Green Templeton.

Rewley was the venue for the college Sunday brunch. Where "bring a plate" actually means "bring an empty plate" (unless you feel like being a chef for the day). We feasted on pasta, noodles, curry, cheesecake, crepes, Indian sweets, bagels, and more...I really regret not going to these earlier (although I've generally been doing other things with my Sundays, like waking up in Scotland) because it was actually a lot more laid-back than I was expecting. Heaps of people were meeting each other for the first time, so it didn't matter that I only knew one or two people there. Plus, I got a free meal that kept me going literally all day!

Since the weather was good, I went college-hopping again, working my way south down Parks Rd. I've now seen Keble, Mansfield, Wadham, Balliol, Trinity (which I'd only seen at night before) and Oriel. Because the weather was generally quite good, I also took my robes out for a spin and took pictures with them at New and Christ Church. At New, I encountered a tour group that wanted to take photos of me! One of the dudes even said I looked just like Katie Leung...anyhow, I thought I'd make their day and ask if anyone wanted to borrow my robes for a picture, and about five of them said a resounding YES! In return they helped take photos of me :D

En route, I also squeezed in quick visits to the Natural History and Pitt Rivers Museums. This was partly to escape the rain, which sort of came and went all afternoon.

At 4:30pm everything closed, so I went window-shopping for a bit and picked up some pieces of jewellery from a cute shop called "Aspire". There were some nice dresses but they were all too big (for some reason the smallest they stock is a size 8 D:). On my way to catch my bus home, I spotted a sign advertising Evensong at Queen's College.

I've been wanting to visit Queen's, but you can only visit it if you're brought in by an accredited tour guide (well, I had a conversation with a former Christ Church student, and I understand that opening a college to tourists is actually like opening Pandora's Box, so I can understand why some colleges aren't easily accessible). I've also wanted to go to an Evensong, after hearing SXY tell me about her choral adventures, except I've always felt a bit too intimidated (and plus, I'm not remotely Christian, and the last time I was in a chapel apart from my friends' weddings was back in high school). Thirdly, I got stood up for dinner plans (was planning to go to Atomic Burger, which apparently looks like a comic book, with the other elective students but they were too tired) so my alternative plans were to go home and eat a frozen pizza while waiting for Mr Ravenclaw to wake up and get on Skype.

I had another hour to kill though, so I went to Starbucks and had a big Vanilla Spice Latte, caught up on tweets/instagram and read up about the Queens College Choir. They *are* the really famous group that I've heard of that make CDs and stuff! So naturally I had very high expectations...

...all of which were exceeded!

I showed up at Queen's at 6pm, about 15 minutes before the service was meant to start. This meant we heard the tail end of the choir rehearsal, which already sounded amazing. I also had some time to take some (terrible quality) photos of the college and chapel, skim-read the hymns to be sung (one of which I kinda recognised from school!) and watch the candles be lit by a very tall/dashing Englishman.

The acoustics of the chapel were stunning. The harmonies were magical. The choir was the best I'd ever heard. The organ was amazing. The minister was hip enough to discuss Big Bang Theory and spill the beans on a tutor of the college who had a "Bullshit" roll-on stamp for his students' essays. And the theme of "Love" was just such a nice, universal topic and something that had been on my mind lately, so it provided a bit of time for introspection.

I left Queens just as another one of my buses pulled up, which meant I was back at my flat in no time. Dinner was my frozen pizza (yay for 700 calories!), but instead of dessert, I had something (or should I say someone?) even sweeter. (I'm a little late, but Happy 5 months if you're reading this!)

And now for some ginger tea and a nice early night. Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh it's gonna break my heart to have to leave this place!