Written on an Evening in Early Spring

Pics: Daffodils in the Parks, Me in front of Westminster, Crick kitchen, Crick living room, the outside of Crick (it's the building on the right).







































Seventh week has begun, which means that we are down to
our last fortnight before Hilary Term ends. Will I be relieved? YES. Have I been busy? The fact that I haven't posted in a month answers that question. February has been a good month though. Spring is beginning to make an appearance, in the form of flowers in the Park and coatless days. I can't wait to see all these trees get dressed again. Although they have so much character, even without their leaves. Eric took me on a surprise trip to London for Valentine's Day. We visited Westminster Abbey, the highlight of which was the grave of Charles Dickens. I stood on it. Wow. No other pilgrimage in my life will compare. We continued the day with several hours in the National Gallery, then on to an incredible Lebenese restaurant, and then concluded the adventure with "The Phantom of the Opera."

Don't be too jealous of me though. Typical days in Oxford are no picnic for us scholars. We in Crick frequently swap horror stories of all-nighters, essays gone sour, and the dreaded words of a tutor: "I know you can do better." But there are ways of coping. Supper at the pub, taking advantage of the sunshine in the Park, and gathering on Sunday afternoons for teatime are some of the ways we do it. And then sometimes, we come to a tutorial and hear these words: "This is your best essay yet!" And the world gets three shades brighter.

So, Sprink Break is rapidly approaching, and I think we can make it. Will we? But I believe it's time for supper now, so I'll have to leave you hanging. I'll let you know in a couple of weeks.

Concerning Scholarly Life and Old Buildings

We are into our third week now, and I have been to both of my tutorials: I feel like a real scholar.  For my secondary tutorial last week, which meets every fortnight, I wrote a short story in the form of letters between two people, set during the 1850's.  It was great fun to get caught up in the period.  Even more fun, because my primary tutorial also dealt with the Victorian era--I was assigned to write a 6-pager on Jane Eyre.  It was fascinating to be reading about life in Victorian England, and at the same time to be adding to the canon myself, so to speak... as I was writing correspondence between two "typical" Victorians.  The essay for this week's primary tutorial will be on Tennyson and Browning.  I have yet to think of the next story idea........

Lectures here are equally enjoyable, at least for the most part.  Each lecture is attended once a week, and I only have about five to attend.  It's a nice break from the States' system of about twenty lectures per week!  Last Thursday, after getting out of my favourite lecture, Six Kinds of Victorian Fiction, I was delighted to find that the professor was also walking through the University Parks!  I caught up with him and we chatted for a while, mainly about Oxford at this time of year and William Morris, before parting ways.  Quite a highlight.

Other highlights of the past couple weeks have included a first visit to the Bodleian library, a meal at the 400-year-old pub King's Arms, and a symphony at the Sheldonian theatre.  The Bodleian is quite impressive.  The best visual highlights are the Radcliffe Camera and the old books section.  There are shelves upon shelves of books housed in the Bod, but what's amazing after seeing all those is realising that only a fraction of the library's books are on display.  Millions more are housed in buildings throughout the city and underground in basements, some are even kept in other cities.  We're talking over ten million books here.  I felt awed to be able to access this wealth of books and to sit and study with them for hours. 

Near the Radcliffe Camera is the Sheldonian Theatre, designed by Christopher Wren at the start of his career.  Christopher became quite the architect, if you'll recall.  He also designed St. Paul's Cathedral and the Royal Observatory in London, the library at Trinity College in Cambridge, and a lot more.  Eric and I enjoyed surveying the architecture of the Sheldonian Theatre, while also enjoying Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony performed therein.  And it was incredible.

Again, thanks for reading, and for leaving comments!  Eat lots of quesadillas and Jiffy peanut butter for me, as we lack both in this part of the world.  Eat them separately, though. 

So Now I've Been Here a Week

Left: "The Hall" (dining) of Christ Church college Below: Looking at Tower Bridge

Left: Eric and I in London

Below: A typical Oxford street

Left: Christ Church Cathedral

Below: Scholars thinking. Amy (left) and Alana also go to Covenant.

Left: The Thames beside Port Meadow

Below: Inside The Hall at Christ Church

Ruins of a nunnery near Port Meadow.

Greetings! Much has happened in this past week. Orientation is over, and this week we begin lectures and tutorials. My first tutorial assignment is a six page essay examining some issues in Jane Eyre. This will begin a routine of essays due each week, regarding Victorian Literature. My secondary tutorial is in Creative Writing and will be held every other week. Besides tutorials, which are always one-on-one sessions, I'll attend about four public lectures per week, and also one itegrative seminar with other SCIO students. My workload here will largely consist of reading and writing.

Part of our orientation last week included a fieldtrip to Christ Church College, which was beautiful. We were given a tour of the cathedral there, which is the only cathedral in Oxford. To qualify as a cathedral, a church must have a bishop's seat (Latin cathedra=seat, chair). Another highlight of Christ Church was seeing the staircase and the great hall that are used in the Harry Potter movies!

Almost every day since I arrived I've made some sort of excursion into the city or our surrounding neighbourhood. It's handy that we in Crick live only about five minutes from the city center. Oxford is beautiful in any kind of weather, and there is always so much to explore.

Yesterday we went on a second fieldtrip, this one a little farther away to London. London is an amazing city, despite anything you've ever heard to the contrary. I was fascinated by the mix of old and new throughout the city, rather than there being "old" areas of town and "new" areas, as you'd see in other parts of Europe. We travelled through London mostly on foot, seeing quite a lot in a condensed time. Highlights included Buckingham, Parliament and Big Ben, Scotland Yard, the balcony from which Charles I was beheaded, Trafalgar Square, The National Gallery, Tower of London and Tower Bridge, the London fire Monument, and even the oldest coffee shop in London. We only saw the outside of these places (with the exception of The National Gallery), and heard a little history about each. We finished off the day with evensong at St. Paul's and supper at The Friendly Inn in Chinatown.

Well, this concludes today's post. Once again, thanks for reading, and tune in next time for more of Elsie's Adventures in Oxford.

Beginnings

I like it here. To settle the most important things first, yes I have been inside the Eagle and Child pub, and yes I have already drank about three pots of tea. The English sun isn't fierce enough for the English clouds, so Oxford is overcast, but as yet we haven't had any English rain.

I arrived in Oxford on Friday, early afternoon, at 8 Crick Road--my new residence. There are about twenty or so other students in Crick, and forty more who live in The Vines, which is a thirty minute walk from Crick. All the students here are from Christian colleges around the U.S. After unpacking and meeting some of the other students, I joined a group of girls on a walk to Port Meadow, a lovely area just outside of town. We followed the towpath along the Thames (!) for a ways before heading back. Our junior dean, Jonathan, who lives in the house year-round, prepared an excellent supper for Crick residents that evening. Supper was followed by a brief house orientation and meeting some of the other SCIO (Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford) staff who dropped in. With virtually no sleep in thirty-two hours, I was heartily thankful for the thirteen hours of sleep I got that night.

Saturday was a low-key day, with only a barbeque at the Vines on the schedule. Some of us explored the city a bit more, passing the Radcliffe Camera, the Bodleian Library, and Balliol College (which I believe is about the oldest one here--Oxford is made up of many colleges). We also passed through the university Parks, which lie on the banks of the Cherwell. Oxford is situated between the Cherwell and Thames rivers, and yes, it is believed that oxen used to ford here. I have not yet seen Emma Watson or Richard Dawkins, but I will let you know when I do.

This morning several of us from Crick and Vines walked to St. Andrews (Church of England) for the 8 o'clock communion service. The people were very friendly, and I made the aquaintance of several elderly ladies over croissants and coffee after the service. For lunch I got my first taste of pub fare, which was a delicious bacon and brie sandwich and a few sips of an apple-raspberry drink (I spilt most of it). This pub was called the Gardener's Arms, and after leaving it, Eric and I went to Port Meadow and followed the towpath for a couple miles up to Godstow lock.

Orientation continues Monday and throughout the week.

Thanks for reading, all. I have no plan for scheduled posts, so keep checking in.

-Elsie

NB-There's a five-hour time difference between here and Georgia, so when it's noon in Oxford it's 7:00am in Georgia.