Friday July 23- Sunday July 25

Today I only worked till 4 as my train to Oxford was at 6pm. We spent this entire week setting up the GOM Aramis strain analysis system. The system is very complex and requires the precise positioning of the high speed cameras located under the glass plate. The field of view of the cameras to be the perfect size to entirely capture the bottom of the foot as it walks across the glass plate. It captures this image via an angled mirror. In order for this capture to occur, the lighting must also be perfect, as any slight shadow will decrease the ability of the computer program to pick up the dots painted on the bottom of the foot, therefore decreasing the accuracy of the strain calculation.

Anyway, enough of that! This weekend I went to visit my friends studying at Oxford, as georgia Tech has an exchange program with the College of Worcester at Oxford. Being that I had already been there once before, I was very excited to see my friends and just hang out rather than see the city. Casey met me at the train station and the walk to the college was very short..probably only about 10 minutes. A lot of people had gone to London to see a Broadway show and thus were not there. I didn't get in to Oxford until about 8pm, so Casey and I just walked around for awhile and grabbed a bite to eat at an awesome restaurant that was kind of like Johnny Rockets except it wasn't a chain and had a lot more personality to it. The name of the place escapes me, but I believe it was called Atomic Burgers..and boy those burgers sure were good...and the milkshakes..YUM! By the time we had finished eating some of the other students had come back and we just hung out with them for a bit. Although I have not seen a majority of the colleges in Oxfrod, Worcester was absolutely beautiful. Casey's room had a view of a nice little swimming pond and even had its own side door entrance through a tree patio thing. SoooOO pretty! Watched a movie and went to sleep quite early.

Saturday we woke up quite late (lazy!) and we went to the same Atomic burger place for breakfast. Yes, it was just THAT good. Strolled around the covered market for a bit, walked along the river, and went up to the top of the a famous church. Being that I am writing this entry a few weeks after the matter, again the name of the church escapes me. If any of you Oxford kids know the name or those I know who live in Oxford, please give me a holler and I'll insert it here into my blog. Thanks! We also watched a cricket game in the evening!

Finallllyyy everyone returned and we met up with Elizabeth, Hayden, and a couple of my other friends! We all went out to dinner and it was so nice to catch up with everone. Being that in Loughborough I was basically the only American give or take some Canadians and other people, it sure felt weird to talk about life in the States..while in Oxford! It was cool though! After dinner we just hung out by the pond and talked some more. So fun!

Sunday I woke up early to attend mass at Christ's Church. The church is gorgeous and massive, and the choir is supposedly unbeaten. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to hear the choir as they were not performing at the service I went to! Casey and some others opted to go to some air force show a few towns over from Oxford, so I roamed around for a bit on my (which is always a very fun thing to do :) and then met up with Hayden. After a bit of maneuvering and searching, Hayden and I went to the turf tavern for some famous Pimms. The turf tavern is one of the oldest pubs in Oxofrd and serves up the greatest amount of Pimms yearly. It is very tricky to find and very famous people have drank there!! It was SUCH a nice day out, and it was good to enjoy the atmosphere there for a bit. After that we went to this medieval park located a little ways down the canal. So much for thinking the only downfall of Oxford was that there were no good places to run! Man, how wrong was I! It was this massive field that just went on and on and on and then ended with woods in the back. unfortunately I had not brought my running shoes and could not run there arg!

We did not stay at the park long as we were meeting others for a proper English tea at a restaurant nearby. Delicious! I would definitely say that I am hooked on tea now..but only with milk and sugar :P The tea included 4 little finger sandwiches (I opted for crab), 2 scones (favorite) with jam, and a pastry and a cookie. I think that was it. I was SOOOOO full...happy place. Elizabeth has pictures of the tea, and I didn't really take any other pictures other than that. I was too busy catching up with friends! Please excuse this picture-less blog :P

After tea I caught the train back to Loughborough. Unlike my last trip to Oxford, the way back was completely uneventful..thank goodness! What a great second to last weekend in Loughborough, eh? :D