that's me, obviously, standing in the same garden, with a part of Merton in the background
Friday, July 13, 2007
Thursday, July 12, 2007
not enough hours in the day!!
So first off, I feel the need to apologise for my obvious lack of commitment to this blog. And for the absense of promised pictures (although I AM working on that--camera charging as I write this!)
I'm never going to be able to recount everything I'd like, but here's an attempt at some of the highlights!
Friday night was my first chance to breathe, I think. Everything is so beautiful and captivating and distracting here that one is constantly craving solitude in which to just soak everything in. So Friday night I grabbed my journal and some reading material and found a courtyard to enjoy. I don't think there's a single place here that I couldn't just sit and revel in all day. The old stone and beautiful viney flowering plants everywhere create a different kind of peace than the shores of Lake Madison. Equal, maybe, just an entirely different feeling.
Anyway, Saturday was exciting; several of us hopped on a bus and headed to London to watch the start of the Tour de France. We also walked around the bridges by Parliament and Westminster as well. Beautiful sunshine, loads of people, and huge screens everywhere so that you could see the racers up close--with sometimes hilarious expressions on their faces. :) Afterwards we all met up at a pub, had some drinks, and headed back to London...very very tired.
Sunday was probably one of the best days I've had here so far. Four of us started the day off punting in the Thames, where we had a bit of an accident resulting in Jessica hanging from a bridge and consequently falling into the river. The art of punting is much harder than it looks! (It's done in a flat-bottomed canoe, with one person standing on a ledge in the back, steering and propelling the canoe with a 20-foot metal pole. ) I'll try and get pictures up of that....I think one of the guys even got an action shot of Jess falling in....I'll have to get those from him.
After punting, we visited the Natural History and Pitt Rivers Museums with a huge variety of artifacts, including shrunken heads! So fascinating!!!
After the museums, we climbed St. Mary's Cathedral tower and got the perfect view of all of Oxford. Upon descending, we took tea in this beautiful tea/desserts room that used to be Oxford's University Chest, where all of the money to pay tutors was kept.
Skipping ahead a bit, Tuesday was our trip to Stratford Upon Avon to see MacBeth at Shakespeare's Royal Theatre. I seriously cannot begin to equate the performance to anything I've seen before. We were second row in a theatre built to resemble the Globe, so we literally had swords right in front of our faces and sweat flinging past us. (probably on as well) :) I have never seen acting like this, or an interpretation so interesting. Or brutal. I was barely able to stomach parts of it; at one point, when Lady MacDuff and her children were murdered, they actually made it look like they were ripping the baby from her womb--blood, baby and all--and it was RIGHT in front us, looking way too real....ok I hope I haven't grossed you out too much...oversimplified, the production was in a realm of its own; impossible to classify as the type of theater I've seen before, beacause it was SO REAL.
Anyway, :) ... Wednesday my Roman Britain class took a trip to Fishbourne to see the Roman Palace recently excavated. Apparently in the 1960's, someone was digging to put in water pipes, and dug into the remains of a roman palace that had burned down in its day and had pastures grow to hide it. The floors remained relatively untouched, however, and the mosaic work was amazing--especially considering it was all cut, dyed and laid by hand. Every room in the palace had different mosaic floor patterns. We also got a tour of the archived artifacts by the director of the museum himself, and even got to hold some pieces! ...not something you get to do every day...
...time is going so incredibly fast here...always doing something, seeing something, getting ready for something, etc...I know I'm not finding the time to record as much as I'd like. And I'm already half done! And there's so much more to see and do!
A list of what I hope to see/do in the next week:
1. Explore the Bodliean
2. Explore Merton's Library
3. Visit the Eagle and Child (Tolken and Eliot's fave pub)
4. Visit Christ Church's Hall (where Harry Potter was filmed)
5. Attend a service at Christ Church
....and I'm sure there are more, but those have been nagging at the back of my mind.
Today started with breakfast, lecture, tea and another lecture--the later one by a Lord from the House of Lords on Labour Party Prime Ministers, particularily Blair and Brown and the differences between the two. One of his points that was particularily interesting was that Brown's politics will depend heavily on who we elect next year. Apparently Brown and Obama get along quite well...(that one's for you, molly!)
Tonight we have High Table and then out to enjoy another beautiful night. The weather here has actually been extremely pleasant--usually sunny and dry with cool nights.
Tomorrow after lectures and classes, some of us are tentatively planning on seeing Oxford Theatre Company's Open Air Production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. Hopefully the good weather continues!
Thank you to all of you who have been emailing, sending messages with the goings-on back in SD!!!! I really appreciate all of them and will get to replying eventually. It's really hard to find a spare minute here. I miss everyone a lot; Oxford is breathtaking and exciting, but I've always believed that you're happiest surrounded by people who really know you and love you anyway. And it's nice to know I'm missed as well!
Love you all** and hope you're having a relaxing, agreable day.
Bye for now!
[correction: There are 39 colleges within Oxford, not 12.....that's a bit embarassing...thanks to Sam for pointing that out.]
I'm never going to be able to recount everything I'd like, but here's an attempt at some of the highlights!
Friday night was my first chance to breathe, I think. Everything is so beautiful and captivating and distracting here that one is constantly craving solitude in which to just soak everything in. So Friday night I grabbed my journal and some reading material and found a courtyard to enjoy. I don't think there's a single place here that I couldn't just sit and revel in all day. The old stone and beautiful viney flowering plants everywhere create a different kind of peace than the shores of Lake Madison. Equal, maybe, just an entirely different feeling.
Anyway, Saturday was exciting; several of us hopped on a bus and headed to London to watch the start of the Tour de France. We also walked around the bridges by Parliament and Westminster as well. Beautiful sunshine, loads of people, and huge screens everywhere so that you could see the racers up close--with sometimes hilarious expressions on their faces. :) Afterwards we all met up at a pub, had some drinks, and headed back to London...very very tired.
Sunday was probably one of the best days I've had here so far. Four of us started the day off punting in the Thames, where we had a bit of an accident resulting in Jessica hanging from a bridge and consequently falling into the river. The art of punting is much harder than it looks! (It's done in a flat-bottomed canoe, with one person standing on a ledge in the back, steering and propelling the canoe with a 20-foot metal pole. ) I'll try and get pictures up of that....I think one of the guys even got an action shot of Jess falling in....I'll have to get those from him.
After punting, we visited the Natural History and Pitt Rivers Museums with a huge variety of artifacts, including shrunken heads! So fascinating!!!
After the museums, we climbed St. Mary's Cathedral tower and got the perfect view of all of Oxford. Upon descending, we took tea in this beautiful tea/desserts room that used to be Oxford's University Chest, where all of the money to pay tutors was kept.
Skipping ahead a bit, Tuesday was our trip to Stratford Upon Avon to see MacBeth at Shakespeare's Royal Theatre. I seriously cannot begin to equate the performance to anything I've seen before. We were second row in a theatre built to resemble the Globe, so we literally had swords right in front of our faces and sweat flinging past us. (probably on as well) :) I have never seen acting like this, or an interpretation so interesting. Or brutal. I was barely able to stomach parts of it; at one point, when Lady MacDuff and her children were murdered, they actually made it look like they were ripping the baby from her womb--blood, baby and all--and it was RIGHT in front us, looking way too real....ok I hope I haven't grossed you out too much...oversimplified, the production was in a realm of its own; impossible to classify as the type of theater I've seen before, beacause it was SO REAL.
Anyway, :) ... Wednesday my Roman Britain class took a trip to Fishbourne to see the Roman Palace recently excavated. Apparently in the 1960's, someone was digging to put in water pipes, and dug into the remains of a roman palace that had burned down in its day and had pastures grow to hide it. The floors remained relatively untouched, however, and the mosaic work was amazing--especially considering it was all cut, dyed and laid by hand. Every room in the palace had different mosaic floor patterns. We also got a tour of the archived artifacts by the director of the museum himself, and even got to hold some pieces! ...not something you get to do every day...
...time is going so incredibly fast here...always doing something, seeing something, getting ready for something, etc...I know I'm not finding the time to record as much as I'd like. And I'm already half done! And there's so much more to see and do!
A list of what I hope to see/do in the next week:
1. Explore the Bodliean
2. Explore Merton's Library
3. Visit the Eagle and Child (Tolken and Eliot's fave pub)
4. Visit Christ Church's Hall (where Harry Potter was filmed)
5. Attend a service at Christ Church
....and I'm sure there are more, but those have been nagging at the back of my mind.
Today started with breakfast, lecture, tea and another lecture--the later one by a Lord from the House of Lords on Labour Party Prime Ministers, particularily Blair and Brown and the differences between the two. One of his points that was particularily interesting was that Brown's politics will depend heavily on who we elect next year. Apparently Brown and Obama get along quite well...(that one's for you, molly!)
Tonight we have High Table and then out to enjoy another beautiful night. The weather here has actually been extremely pleasant--usually sunny and dry with cool nights.
Tomorrow after lectures and classes, some of us are tentatively planning on seeing Oxford Theatre Company's Open Air Production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. Hopefully the good weather continues!
Thank you to all of you who have been emailing, sending messages with the goings-on back in SD!!!! I really appreciate all of them and will get to replying eventually. It's really hard to find a spare minute here. I miss everyone a lot; Oxford is breathtaking and exciting, but I've always believed that you're happiest surrounded by people who really know you and love you anyway. And it's nice to know I'm missed as well!
Love you all** and hope you're having a relaxing, agreable day.
Bye for now!
[correction: There are 39 colleges within Oxford, not 12.....that's a bit embarassing...thanks to Sam for pointing that out.]
Thursday, July 5, 2007
New Goal: Study Old English
In about an hour I need to start getting ready for cocktails and high table (a thursday tradition) so I'll attempt a breif rundown of the last two days:
I left off last time mentioning that our evening plans were to try out some interesting pubs. The night ended up being SO pleasant. We began in Merton's Bar, which is within the college walls and has this beautifully old scholarly feel to it. It was Quiz Night, so my friends and I competed against other teams answering trivia about Merton. Needless to say, my team of new yorkers and mid-westerners didn't win. The only way we got any points was when the sweet old bartender snuck over to our table and whispered answers.
A couple welsh Oxford students--Gwyn and Sam--then took us out to try The Turf, The King's Arms, and this underground cocktail nightclub with beautiful private lounges glowing with all sorts of neat lighting. Afterwards, we walked back to Merton and found a place to sit in one of the many courtyards. (our keys let us in at any hour) We sat around a round table that was actually C.S. Lewis's inspiration for the table where King Atlan was slain. (C.S. Lewis was a Mertonian.) Every nook and cranny of this place is so insanely rich with history. Everything has a story.
Then yesterday, on the 4th, We had lectures in the morning--one of which was one of the most captivating things I've ever experienced. A professor here who is an expert on Old English discussed selected poems and talked about the uniqueness and unrivaled beauty of the langauge. The best part was when she read the poems alound in Old English. I don't know if I've ever heard anything so beautiful. The way the words are structured and compounded is amazing as well.
Then jessica and I walked around discovering Oxford in the early afternoon. The town actually is quite big--over 100,000 locals, not counting thousands of students.
The rest of the afternoon (3&1/2 hours) consisted of our class on Roman Britain. I'm definitly going to come back with a decent amout of knowledge on the subject--and our professor (as you can imagine) is awe-inspiring in his knowledge, charisma and vocabulary. He also plays double bass in a jazz band that travels world-wide, and they just happened to be preforming at this jazz club opening in North Oxford. So several of us hopped a bus last night to the jazz club. The band consisted of him, the scholarly, english double-bassist, a young, tall danish electric guitarist, and a swedish drummer, dressed in white linen with hair past his rear. They had all original pieces and were absolutely fantastic.
After the concert, several of us decided to check out this Independance Day Party at a club called the Purple Turtle. The club was amazing--a huge mass of underground tunnels, bars, lounges and dancefloors, all lit with purple lighting. Mostly americans, but what did we expect, you know? Gwyn assured us that americans aren't THAT annoying.
Well the bells are tolling, which means I need to get out my umbrella and head back to my room.
Quick QUICK rcap of today then:
breakfast (fantastic breakfasts here)
lecture on Elizabethan and Jacobean poetry--really excellent)
nap...
lunch
As(h)molean Museum--world famous for roman artifacts
Oxford Museum
a bit of shopping
and here we are.
hope this wasn't too dry and sketchy!
feel free to email and post--I love to hear from you all.
Bye for now*
I left off last time mentioning that our evening plans were to try out some interesting pubs. The night ended up being SO pleasant. We began in Merton's Bar, which is within the college walls and has this beautifully old scholarly feel to it. It was Quiz Night, so my friends and I competed against other teams answering trivia about Merton. Needless to say, my team of new yorkers and mid-westerners didn't win. The only way we got any points was when the sweet old bartender snuck over to our table and whispered answers.
A couple welsh Oxford students--Gwyn and Sam--then took us out to try The Turf, The King's Arms, and this underground cocktail nightclub with beautiful private lounges glowing with all sorts of neat lighting. Afterwards, we walked back to Merton and found a place to sit in one of the many courtyards. (our keys let us in at any hour) We sat around a round table that was actually C.S. Lewis's inspiration for the table where King Atlan was slain. (C.S. Lewis was a Mertonian.) Every nook and cranny of this place is so insanely rich with history. Everything has a story.
Then yesterday, on the 4th, We had lectures in the morning--one of which was one of the most captivating things I've ever experienced. A professor here who is an expert on Old English discussed selected poems and talked about the uniqueness and unrivaled beauty of the langauge. The best part was when she read the poems alound in Old English. I don't know if I've ever heard anything so beautiful. The way the words are structured and compounded is amazing as well.
Then jessica and I walked around discovering Oxford in the early afternoon. The town actually is quite big--over 100,000 locals, not counting thousands of students.
The rest of the afternoon (3&1/2 hours) consisted of our class on Roman Britain. I'm definitly going to come back with a decent amout of knowledge on the subject--and our professor (as you can imagine) is awe-inspiring in his knowledge, charisma and vocabulary. He also plays double bass in a jazz band that travels world-wide, and they just happened to be preforming at this jazz club opening in North Oxford. So several of us hopped a bus last night to the jazz club. The band consisted of him, the scholarly, english double-bassist, a young, tall danish electric guitarist, and a swedish drummer, dressed in white linen with hair past his rear. They had all original pieces and were absolutely fantastic.
After the concert, several of us decided to check out this Independance Day Party at a club called the Purple Turtle. The club was amazing--a huge mass of underground tunnels, bars, lounges and dancefloors, all lit with purple lighting. Mostly americans, but what did we expect, you know? Gwyn assured us that americans aren't THAT annoying.
Well the bells are tolling, which means I need to get out my umbrella and head back to my room.
Quick QUICK rcap of today then:
breakfast (fantastic breakfasts here)
lecture on Elizabethan and Jacobean poetry--really excellent)
nap...
lunch
As(h)molean Museum--world famous for roman artifacts
Oxford Museum
a bit of shopping
and here we are.
hope this wasn't too dry and sketchy!
feel free to email and post--I love to hear from you all.
Bye for now*
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Is "magical" too cheesy?
Because it is honestly the only way to describe this heaven. My room is enormous with a fireplace and a spiraling staircase leading up to it. the streets in front of Merton (my college--one of the three oldest, built in 1264) are true cobblestone, and everywhere you look are huge wooden doors, stained glass windows, ornate carvings, gargoyles, statues, and crests adorning every doorway. The flower gardens everywhere are just as breathtaking. I hope to get pictures up on here soon**
Yesterday a girl named jessica and i spent most of our day walking around Oxford, just taking everything in. we also had a formal english lunch, with four courses and constant filling of our wine glasses. This caused most of us to become quite sleepy in our introductory courses a little while later...
We headed to our first English pub experience as well, at a pub called the Kings Arms. You definitly can't be shy when trying to order drinks here! There are about a dozen different pubs in Oxford, and it will be neat to compare them all as the weeks go by!
This morning, after a very different English breakfast (ever tried scottish eggs??) I attended lectures from two different Oxford professors--one on the history of the Oxford English Dictionary, and the other on trends of leading world powers. The dictionary lecture was given by a woman who is considered to be the leading authority on the OED in the world. Believe it or not, it was fascinating.
Between lectures was tea time, (there are about 5 poortunities to get tea a day) and after lectures we had our induction into the Bodliean library, which houses 8 million volumes...and is again, is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. (Rivaled only by Oxford's other architecture.) Harry Potter was filmed there. (and we also saw the square where Malfoy was turned into a ferret!) After the Bodliean, we had our first formal walking tour of Oxford and all its colleges. There are almost a dozen colleges here at Oxford, if you were unaware, each of them unique but equally stunning.
Tolken and TS Eliot both stayed at Merton, and Louis Carroll lived next door (not at the same time of course) near Christ Church College, and drew his characters and settings from thins right outside my window.
So much of what I'm experiencing will be better shared through my pictures, so I apologise if this is dry! I'm in a bit of a hurry, as a bunch of us are headed to The Bear tonight--the oldest pub here at Oxford--and then maybe Merton's College Bar.
I've discovered (moreso than ever) how I love English food. The food at Oxford is amazing (I know I keep using that word) and the desserts (we all agree) just keep getting better.
My professor is also (once again) amazing. Not only does he teach and write books, but he also plays in a recording jazz band (that has toured the US) which is giving a concert tomorrow night at a pub in North Oxford (quite a lengthy walk from Merton). Some other students and I are planning to attend.
We had about an hour of spare time today (with the induction and tour taking up a bit of time) so we found this beautiful old bookstore on the High Street (main street) and I'm definitly headed back. There's this quiet feeling of reverence (??) that you get when you look at writings older than your country.
There's so much more to describe--hopefully it will come out in my next couple of postings. THANK you to all who commented on my news story on KELO--it was SUCH a surprise when Matt called me here for an interview. I hope I didn't sound too uneducated...cause I didn't know much...
Anyway, night for now--enjoy your SD sunshine!!
Yesterday a girl named jessica and i spent most of our day walking around Oxford, just taking everything in. we also had a formal english lunch, with four courses and constant filling of our wine glasses. This caused most of us to become quite sleepy in our introductory courses a little while later...
We headed to our first English pub experience as well, at a pub called the Kings Arms. You definitly can't be shy when trying to order drinks here! There are about a dozen different pubs in Oxford, and it will be neat to compare them all as the weeks go by!
This morning, after a very different English breakfast (ever tried scottish eggs??) I attended lectures from two different Oxford professors--one on the history of the Oxford English Dictionary, and the other on trends of leading world powers. The dictionary lecture was given by a woman who is considered to be the leading authority on the OED in the world. Believe it or not, it was fascinating.
Between lectures was tea time, (there are about 5 poortunities to get tea a day) and after lectures we had our induction into the Bodliean library, which houses 8 million volumes...and is again, is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. (Rivaled only by Oxford's other architecture.) Harry Potter was filmed there. (and we also saw the square where Malfoy was turned into a ferret!) After the Bodliean, we had our first formal walking tour of Oxford and all its colleges. There are almost a dozen colleges here at Oxford, if you were unaware, each of them unique but equally stunning.
Tolken and TS Eliot both stayed at Merton, and Louis Carroll lived next door (not at the same time of course) near Christ Church College, and drew his characters and settings from thins right outside my window.
So much of what I'm experiencing will be better shared through my pictures, so I apologise if this is dry! I'm in a bit of a hurry, as a bunch of us are headed to The Bear tonight--the oldest pub here at Oxford--and then maybe Merton's College Bar.
I've discovered (moreso than ever) how I love English food. The food at Oxford is amazing (I know I keep using that word) and the desserts (we all agree) just keep getting better.
My professor is also (once again) amazing. Not only does he teach and write books, but he also plays in a recording jazz band (that has toured the US) which is giving a concert tomorrow night at a pub in North Oxford (quite a lengthy walk from Merton). Some other students and I are planning to attend.
We had about an hour of spare time today (with the induction and tour taking up a bit of time) so we found this beautiful old bookstore on the High Street (main street) and I'm definitly headed back. There's this quiet feeling of reverence (??) that you get when you look at writings older than your country.
There's so much more to describe--hopefully it will come out in my next couple of postings. THANK you to all who commented on my news story on KELO--it was SUCH a surprise when Matt called me here for an interview. I hope I didn't sound too uneducated...cause I didn't know much...
Anyway, night for now--enjoy your SD sunshine!!
Sunday, July 1, 2007
made it!
Just a quick note to let you all know that I arrived safetly, with ALL my luggage, despite a scare; someone had taken my suitcase off the belt and set it with another pile of suitcases, but a nice man (who ironically is a student at Oxford) helped me to relocate it.
I am currently in Redding with my dad's brother's family--Graham, Jane, Oliver, Fraiser and Tom. I managed to (barely) stay awake all day yesterday, while visiting dad's sister's family and grandparents in East Grinstad, so sleep felt gooood last night. I'll write more after I get to Oxford!
I am currently in Redding with my dad's brother's family--Graham, Jane, Oliver, Fraiser and Tom. I managed to (barely) stay awake all day yesterday, while visiting dad's sister's family and grandparents in East Grinstad, so sleep felt gooood last night. I'll write more after I get to Oxford!
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