Austin ~ Austen

It’s crazy and sad to think that I’m already half way through my time here at Oxford.  It has already been one month.  On the other hand, as this week has shown me, I have done quite a lot in the span of this one month and that I still have a lot more to look forward to in the coming one.  And more importantly, I need to slow down to enjoy all of it.

I started off the week on a great note.  After finishing my paper Sunday morning at yet another café (Morton’s, which had a yummy hazelnut cappuccino), I had the rest of the day free to celebrate Halloween.  So many people had warned me that Halloween here is not as crazy as it is in the States.  I don’t know if it’s because I’m not so interested in the creepy or because two of the big Rice Halloween celebrations include being naked, but I’ve never been a huge fan of the holiday and I wasn’t too bummed about missing out on the “American” version.  I thought I was just going to skip the whole thing, go back to my room, and finish editing my paper, but my Hertford friends had other plans.  They made sure that not only did I go to formal hall that night, but that I accompanied them to the Halloween BOP afterwards.  And I must say, it was one of the best Halloweens I’ve ever had.

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I was really nervous about leaving for my trip today.  Even though I flew over here by myself, I thought I would be traveling with friends instead of entirely solo.  But when faced with the options of either traveling to Bath alone or not at all, I had to take a leap of faith and trust myself.  And it was beyond worth it.

When I got to Bath, I expected to struggle with a map or a bus schedule, but after just a quick walk up one street, I found myself in the center of a courtyard with the Bath Abbey to my right, and the Roman Baths on my left.  I was almost too excited to decide what to do.  I had watched the Rick Steves special and various Jane Austen movies filmed in these locations and I couldn’t believe that I was seeing them with my own eyes.  But in the end I knew exactly where to go first: the Jane Austen Centre. 

I turned a corner and I knew I was in the right place by a sign on the door and the man dressed in Regency era costume waiting there just to greet me.  Inside the other guides were also dressed in Regency era costumes: men with breeches, white shirts, and patterned vests; women in simple linen/mock-muslin dresses—empire-waisted of course.  The tour at the beginning was actually helpful.  I learned a lot more about Jane Austen’s life.  I’ve read all her novels by now, but besides that, my only knowledge of the women behind the books comes from Becoming Jane.  And there was only one mention of Tom Lefroy in the entire museum so I doubt that film’s version of events has much to do with the truth.  Best of all, I learned that Jane came to visit Bath for the first time when she was 21.  It was fate that I was to visit this year.

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