England, Day 2

Yesterday, Ben woke up bright and early, and headed out for coffee. I still felt a bit sleepy and jet-lagged, but dragged myself out of bed. After breakfast, we headed out for a busy day, which would include a local sport, "punting." But first, we did a bit more sight-seeing. We started out at Queens college, a beautiful place with a cool chapel, but it was under a lot of construction so we headed on to New College. "So it's the newest one on campus?" Ben asked? "Well, it was built in the 1200's replied Cole." And that's something that makes an impression on you around here. Everything is so OLD! It really puts into perspective how young our country really is.

New college was amazing and beautiful, but I have to say I was extra excited because there was a courtyard with a huge tree, where in Harry Potter, Mad-Eye Moody turned Malfoy into a ferret. You could totally recognize the spot too.

Then we headed into the New College gardens, which in Cole's words, is very "Wonderland-esque." In the middle of the garden though, is this weird mound with many many steps leading up, which we couldn't associate with anything except Mayan human sacrifice! The top of the mound didn't give us any better clues - it was just a platform. At that moment, I wished for a table and a sword so we could re-inact a head chopping for the camera. Maybe better that those items weren't available.

Our next stop was at the punting rental place. Punting is a sport where you push a boat along from the back, similar to the Venetian gondolas. It sounded very ideallic and fun, and with very little instruction, we hopped on, with Ben taking the "wheel" first. We would be punting around a small island: down one side and up the other, and we rounded the first side within about 10 minutes, so we decided to be adventurous and continue down, floating toward the Thames. We almost made it to a second, miniature island, when we realized we At  were actually off the map, and had better turn around and head back.

That's when the trouble started. When you push from the back and the current comes from the front, it is very easy for the current to spin you around just when you think you're situated! We were turned around once, and straightened ourselves with some tree branches. Then twice, and straightened ourselves with the wall on the other side of the stream. Then the guide came floating by heading up-river like a pro. "We can't seem to get in control!" we cried, "what should we be doing?" First the guide just said "well try not to cut me off here, try not to cut me off!" All of the people in our boat were thinking "didn't we just say we're not in control?" Then he said that there was a number we could call to arrange a pick-up, and to watch what he was doing as he left us in the dust. He was putting his pole into the water, then pushing off it in a very straight line. It wasn't very helpful since obviously, that's what we'd been going for as well.

So, we called the number. Basically, their message was "ok, you need to turn around, and head up river." What great advice! But, although they didn't offer to pick us up, they seemed ok with us coming in late since we'd called in. At that point the boat was backwards, with the punting platform in the front. Cole was on that end as well and said "well I haven't tried punting yet, I'll just do it from here." So he started pulling us from the front, rather than pushing from the back, and if you think about it—when you're fighting a current this is really the best way to keep on course. Ben rowed like a pro from the back, and I was the "cheerleader" in the middle. At one point, we passed an embankment where dozens of people were enjoying the sun and watching the punters. We started talking about how much we missed our homeland of Canada, and how beautiful Vancouver and Montreal were this time of year. This became an ongoing joke to avoid proving ourselves to be "stupid Americans."

Our very last hurdle was a concrete tunnel that we needed to go through, then turn left to park the boat. Unfortunately, the tourguides who sat only a few feet away offered no help whatsoever, and before we parked we nearly plowed into a young family. But eventually we got out of the boat (to our great relief). Cole walked confidently up to the window and said "we got here on time. We just had to wait to park." I think his confidence confused them and they gave us the 1 hour rate without argument. As we walked away, Ben said "Well, I'm glad we did it…but I never want to do it again."

We decided to have a pint at the King's Arms to simmer down a bit. We sat outside and enjoyed Strongbow, a tasty cider. Then, we headed over to the Oxford athletic club, where we would be meeting friends of Cole's for some Cricket. Tom, Paul, Emily, Shro, and Chin all came along, and the more experienced people showed us how to pitch the ball. You have to keep your arm straight as you pitch, and take a running start, then bounce the ball once before the batter hits it. For Cole, Emily and I, it was a comic attempt at concentrating on too many things at once. Ben picked it up much more easily, and was soon making decent pitches, then even took a turn at bat. Cole, Emily and I ended up standing on the sidelines chatting and admiring the advertisement hot-air balloons.

Once we finished, we went out for pints at the pub called "On the River." It was beautiful, and we were surprised that such a swanky place was like any other pub, and there were no servers. We met Cole's friend Mfundu, who told us about her experience with baboons attacking her picnic in South Africa, and Ben picked Tom's brain (the only Brit in our group), to try and wrap his head around the fact that Whales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and England are sort of separate countries, but yet under the UK. Emily explained that it was sort of like states all under the United States - and although these are separate countries, they share just one seat in the UN.

Our final stop of the night was a restaurant called Checkers. It too had a gorgeous interior, and totally surprised us in that it was still considered a pub, and therefore had no waiters. I ordered Chicken Tikka Masala, and the guy behind the counter laughed, saying I pronounced it very posh. I still don't get the joke!

A quote from Ben-----
As an aside, when you go to a pub, there is no wait staff so you always have to go to the bar to order. Food, drinks, everthing. I had a british man straight up laugh at me when I asked if we would get a server at our table. You also don't tip bartender at all. The first night here I put a pound down after being served my drink and was told by another bar patron to take it back. When I said I was leaving a tip he said "You dont tip a bartender!". So that saves a little money.