Summer Daze, Part I

Hi everybody!

I am so good at this not writing for months on end thing! Here’s the plan… over the next week or so I hope to put out a whole slew of the “Summer Daze Chronicles” to recount my adventures of late.

The story begins (or picks up) with the completion of exams, which were as horrendous as anticipated. But it was fun to watch Oxford fill up with nervous students all dressed up in sub-fusc and gowns, most sporting a carnation – white for first dayers, pink for middle dayers, and red for finalists! We had a very fun afternoon and evening after our final exam… swimming, picnicking, BBQs, burning notes, and possibly some booze.




The next day, Queen Anya arrived from the kingdom of Montana! We had a day to nurse her jetlag and buy/rent dresses for the upcoming Linacre Ball, and then we carpooled with some of my classmates to Wales for some British-style camping. We pitched tents in the yard of a beautiful old farmhouse and cooked giant meals in the neighboring bunkhouse… but we had a great time with music, “speeches,” and toasts with Mongolian liquor supplied by Bama.

Back to Oxford the next day to catch the Linacre Ball, themed “Vintage Vegas.” Unfortunately, I had to work the bar from 12-3am and left Anya at the mercy of the Linacre lads. Fortunately, as we all knew, Anya knows how to take care of herself! In the end, a good time with the Wechsler gals obviously stealing the show.

The next few days were more relaxed. Running tours of Ox. A visit to the famous Pitt Rivers Museum, a collection of Brittan’s colonial exploits (and, incidentally, where Philip Pullman’s Lyra looks at the trepanned skulls… we got to see them, too! Plus real shrunken heads. Yummy.) Punting and pubbing. Anya tried her first English bitter (ale). Her description: warm, flat, and… bitter. Who knew? Not to worry, she chased away the nasty with some delicious “black ice” gum which turned out to be black licorice and mint. Good fun.

On the first of July, an uncharacteristically hot day for England, the sisters Wex strapped on their matching North Face Gompa packs and slung a giant Atmosphere Mountainworks duffle full of camping and climbing gear over the shoulder. Being Wechslers, time was ticking toward bus departure as the girls sweatily weaved through the throng of robe-wearing students and camera-slinging tourists. Will they catch their bus to the airport? Will they ever get to explore the mountains of Switzerland? Will they get to hobnob with the rich and famous? Or will Alyssa’s sweat destroy her passport and Anya tortured by an herb-wielding hippie? Find out in the next installment of “Summer Daze”…

Alyssa (and Anya)