The Program closed officially yesterday evening. Of course, we've already desensitized to the awesomeness of three-course meals after growing fat off of five weeks of them, but we had one last belt buster for the road.
We ended the final evening with two hours of Regency dance-- the quadrille, the cotillion, English country dances-- according to our hired guide, who seemed very legitimate when she appeared in a period costume and fancy up do, these are early phases of the waltz. Some of the waiters were enlisted to participate, but the room was predominantly female. Thus, I spent the majority of the evening as a male (albeit the most beautiful boy you've ever seen). We were all equally bad and got caught up in the spirit of the event.
Today I've walked all around and through Oxford in a farewell... and I've packed. I will dream tonight of weighing my suitcase at check-in tomorrow, only to discover that it's 52 pounds. It was a magical 49.5 pounds on the way over, but that was before I spent a month and a half shopping. I've tried to be crafty and shift some stuff. It also helps that I blew out an alarm clock and a blow dryer after problems arose between the converter, the adaptor plug, and myself, so that's a pound or two that I can (and did) replace with other stuff.
I leave with a couple of others at 5:45 am tomorrow morning in the hope of catching a 6am bus to Heathrow. My flight departs at 11:15, and I'm supposed to arrive (10 and a half hours later) at 3:30 in Houston.
