Greetings, dear readers!
It is me, yours truly, back with another instalment of English adventures. This time, your favourite duo explores the parks around Oxford.
As we explored the historical part of Oxford the day before, this time we once again decided to take a walk along the local river and see what this city has to offer when it comes to nature and parks.
We weren't disappointed, as the walk was pleasant even though there were plenty of people out and about. Even this time, we were pleasantly surprised by the fauna of this place as we encountered a flock of sheep (isn't it interesting how the word "flock" is used even though it's usually reserved for birds?), a gaggle of geese, and even a fox along the way.
Another "fun fact" about me you might not know if you aren't one of my students is that I really like lexicology (the study of "words") and etymology (the study of how "words" evolved through time). With that also come collective nouns (words that basically mean "a group of something"). These words are no longer as popular as they once were but occasionally come back in waves. At first, they were used as "look at me, I'm rich" words, mostly for hunting. They are quite fascinating, so I shall share with you some of my favourites: a murder of crows, a wisdom of wombats, a bike of bees... (There are many more, but three is a magic number). Do you have any favourite English (or any other language, really) words? You can leave them in the comments below!
Our plan was to walk to Tolkien's bench, where we saw a statue of Gandalf sitting on it on Google Maps. To our huge disappointment, he was not present at the time of our arrival—probably too busy stealing Hobbits from the Shire to grace us with his presence. We continued on to explore the park, watching people play quidditch (that's what the game from Harry Potter is called, right? I've never seen the films nor have I read the books) and rugby.
When we got back to the city, we quickly realised it was a magnificent idea to escape to the parks, as graduation ceremonies were taking place all over the city and thus loads of people were out and about the streets.
Realising we had enough walking for the day and the sun was soon setting below the horizon, we bought our last two packets of digestives (a type of biscuit) and went back to our place to play god-level Tetris.
Aaaand that's all for this post! I hope you enjoyed reading these little tidbits and maybe even learned something new!
Yours truly,
Adrien ✨
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