Oxford, Shakespeare, and C.S. Lewis

Quite the action-packed title, isn't it? I feel like that's what the last couple of days have been... The only reason I have time to write a little on here is because we're burning time before going back to London. We'll be grabbing a train out of here and then finding our way to the hotel at the edge of Hyde Park, where we'll be living for the rest of our trip.
So far, we've walked a lot and experienced a lot of great literary things. York will always hold a special place in my heart, I have loved being in Oxford. It had the smaller town feel, even though it is larger than York. I've gotten to talk to a lot of people, too. Yesterday at breakfast, I talked with a man from Yorkshire and it was great to hear some of his stories and what was going on with him. Before, I would not have been one of those people to talk to complete strangers, but I guess I'm getting more comfortable with strange situations... if meeting strangers can be considered strange... ;)
Stratford-upon-Avon was a great little town, but the obvious toll that tourism took on it really bugged me. It was very obvious that everyone wanted to visit the town of Shakespeare, but it's really all just relics that could have been during the time of the great author... and it felt creepy after a while. It could almost be considered a form of idolatry, if you take it to the extreme. I mean, you're following the life and marveling at the possessions of a deceased person... and that just seems wrong to me. I mean, I enjoyed seeing the houses and learning more about Shakespeare, but it started to bother me greatly.
Visiting the Kilns, C.S. Lewis' house, felt different. While there are things that were put to the artifact status, the house is still lived in by students and isn't a museum. I have to admit, I'm a little more biased toward Lewis, so I was a little more interested with the story... Overall, it was a great experience.
I'm glad to be leaving Oxford, mainly because our room at the hostel STUNK really badly. When we first entered into the room, it smelled strongly of mildew and b.o. Every time we would come back from walking around the town, people would remove their soaked socks and the room would smell even worse... I'm so thankful that we'll be in a hotel for the next two weeks. I'm hoping it will smell pleasant... or at least tolerable ;)
I've learned a lot here and it's hard to imagine that we'll be going over even more information and literature. Looking at the syllabus, we've only discussed 1/4 of the material for the course... The next two weeks are going to be very intense. Thankfully there will not be as much traveling or time lost with that. I'll just need to be intentional with the use of my time.
Now back to London...