A Yank in Oxford: Day 5

I've managed to pick up a cold which is very uncomfortable and fatiguing. I want to be out every spare moment between classes exploring and writing, but with my throat a gravel road and my nose a faucet, I've had to tone it back a bit.
Last night we took a walk around University Park, which is beautiful but full of insects and in certain spots, litter. We almost trampled the cricket green, but our chaperon, Richard, stopped us in time.
As we walked through town to get to the park, Richard told us anecdotes about the various colleges we passed. Apparently Trinity and Balliol have a major rivalry. In the sixties it is reported that students from Balliol turfed the JCR of Trinity college and in turn, Trinity hoisted a "For Sale" sign over Balliol.
Keble college has a tense history with some of the other Oxford colleges as well. The red brick design was considered to be so ugly that a society was formed for the destruction of Keble. Members would pull bricks out of the building to tear it down slowly. Another student, Cate, said she went to get a closer look at Keble, and indeed, there are pocks in the building where bricks are missing. Some say that they would give you a free drink if you brought a Keble brick to The King's Arms.
Exeter, the college I'm at is one of the most central colleges in the town. We're right off the High Street, next to the covered market, and other major shopping areas. The benefits are that we walk out of our door and are immediately near something to see or do. Unfortunately, for rooms facing the street, the pubs can get quite noisy at night especially for staircase 15. Since we aren't within the college, walls, but out on the street, we hear quite a bit of shouting and singing late at night from the pubs.
However, staircase 15 was spared the hubbub of this morning. Apparently an insect flew into the smoke detector and somehow set it off around 4 am. Everyone in the first 14 staircases had to stumble out in their pajamas.
I'm having trouble with my card reader, but promise to get some photos up this weekend!
Last night seven of us hit Eagle and Child and then Lamb and Flag, I'll have to give my full view of those later  in some sort of pub master post.