Too much happens too fast here! Some new pictures are up on facebook of my visit to New College and to Hampton Court Palace. Brief descriptions of those times are below.
New College, Oxford
Rachel (one of my residents from last year) and I visited New College last week. Most of the colleges are fairly private, and New College is especially so. Each college has a porter who lives in an apartment near the gate and directs visitors. We told him we were going to be studying there for Michaelmas term, and he said, "Let me guess, you want to have a look around the place?" Yes, we did. And it was absolutely amazing. It looks like a castle. The grounds have flowers and trees everywhere, and there is an enormous lawn around a mound with steps like an Aztec temple. The mound is off limits to everyone except students, and shrouded in trees. Rumor is that we sacrifice students from the other colleges up there. They also say that if you stand on it and clap, it “claps” back. We couldn’t go in the chapel or the JCR (Junior Common Room), but we’ll see all of that when term starts in October. The cloisters are lovely and very quiet, and there are funny little gargoyles around the tops of the buildings. The New College gargoyles are featured on many, many postcards in Oxford.
Hampton Court Palace
Outside of London, this palace was built by King Henry VII, I believe, and was the home of several Tudor monarchs. Later, King William and Queen Mary renovated two-thirds of it. Finally, King George renovated the back section. It’s been remarkably well-preserved, and the gardens are extensive.
The fountain courtyard and the Chapel Royal (which, unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to photograph) were my favorite parts. I sat in the chapel for about 20 minutes. I lit a candle and prayed, and then sat and stared at the place. They had angelic music playing in the background; the ceiling was painted royal blue with little gold stars, and all of the molding was golden, with cherubs everywhere. The red carpet and wood paneling of the walls were beautiful, but everything made you want to look up. I can’t imagine going to church every week in a place that beautiful!
That's a bit of what I've been up to, but I'll post about my weekend in Whitehaven (and put those pictures up on Facebook) soon!
Monday, September 19, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
"I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember, the place is so beautiful"--William Butler Yeats
I'm in my flat eating honey, plain Greek yogurt, and raspberries. I feel like you can't understand the biblical honey imagery unless you've had honey and plain Greek yogurt. I want to live in a land flowing with milk and honey; what is sweeter than honey on your lips?
But now about Oxford, haha. I just got back from the Ashmolean Museum. Really gorgeous exhibits. I took pictures of jewelry across many centuries. I also stood face to face with a bust of Nero, gaped up at an enormous statue of my favorite goddess, Athena, and stood with my nose six inches from an Assyrian relief.
Last night, we went to the Turf Tavern. It's through a winding alleyway under Oxford's Bridge of Sighs (Hertford College). The wall in the back courtyard is from the 13th Century. Amazing!
One of our lectures yesterday was on Children's Lit authors circa WWI: Lewis Carroll, Kenneth Graham, A.A. Milne, J.M. Barrie, Rudyard Kipling, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Many of these authors had ties to Oxford that are evident in their writing. Carroll's Alice, for example, searches for little doors leading into wondrous gardens. Oxford is full of these. Many of the doors are just as tall as me, and lead into the gorgeous, lush grounds of the colleges. It's easy to feel like Alice, for many of them are locked, as if the city is keeping you out of Wonderland. Once you get in, it's not quite as pleasant as it seemed, for someone may well shout at you for a confusing reason. I haven't had that experience yet, but some of the other students here have been shouted at or laughed at on a bus or in a store. It can be a little harrowing walking around here, because you forget you're in a foreign country and all of a sudden you've offended someone by saying "cents" instead of "pence."
Though prices are expensive here, there's a market in Gloucester Green every Wednesday that is very affordable, if you can stand to walk a few miles with your arms full of groceries. They had HUGH bowls of apples, oranges, and bananas for £1 each. I was shopping for a flatmate and myself, so I carried 2 bunches of bananas, 7 nectarines, 6 oranges, 6 apples, 4 peppers, and 1 HUGE butternut squash (only 80p!!), around town all afternoon.
My first night here, I took a shower, but since then I've only taken baths. Many British homes still don't have showers. And, if you take longer than a 15 minute shower, you've used more water than it takes to fill the tub. I brought Maud Hart Lovelace's novel, Betsy and the Great World, with me. It's near the end of the Betsy/Tacy series, and tells of Betsy's trip to Europe as a 21-year-old in 1914. It's also impossible to read without wanting to take a bath. Have you ever taken a shower in the morning? Or when getting ready to go out in the evening? It is fabulous! Especially when you're living in a narrow, four-story flat in Oxford, Oxfordshire. Plus, next to drinking a steaming cup of tea, it's the easiest way to warm up while feeling British.
Our first travel break is coming up, September 23rd-October 2nd. If all goes as planned, I'll be in Italy for the second part of it with APU girls Heidi and Hannah. We might go to Italy for the whole time, but I'm also considering Paris for the first couple of days. I have another travel break from December 5th-13th, and I just received news that I may have a place to stay in Switzerland (cross your fingers!). It's amazing how random friendships from my past are popping up. God's definitely taking care of me. A girl I went to AWANA Camp with in 10th grade and have kept up with on facebook is in Florence for the semester, so we'll be seeing each other when I'm in Italy. If any of you have suggestions for things to see/do in Venice, Florence, Rome, or Verona, feel free to comment!
Before I go to the Continent, however, I'll have at least three amazing adventures here in England.
First, next Wednesday, we'll be taking a field trip to Hampton Court Palace (home of the Tudors). This will be my first castle visit!
Second, Saturday I'm going on a trip to the Kilns (C.S. Lewis' house!). Our tourguide is a G.K. Chesterton expert, and we're going to go visit a pub GKC used to frequent.
Third, next Thursday I'll be taking a train to Whitehaven, Cumbria, in the Lake District. My mum, as some of you know, went to Capernwray Bible School (Carnforth) when she was 20, and did a homestay with the Bowmans (Harry, Jennifer--for whom I'm named--and their sons Warren and Elton). They've visited us in the States a couple of times, and I'm going to stay with them Thurs-Sun. I spoke with Jennifer on the phone a few nights ago, and she listed some of the extensive itinerary they're planning for me, including a trip to see Beatrix Potter's house!
I really can't describe how grateful I am to live here for this term. There's so much to see--so much history--that it's overwhelming sometimes. Today, in the Ashmolean, I was looking at art from hundreds and thousands of years ago. I've been listening to lectures from absolutely brilliant scholars. I'm going to be in college with future authors and politicians, come October. It's a heavy and beautiful opportunity, and I'm still in shock that it's happening.
P.S. For pictures of some of the things I've described in this and previous posts, look at my Oxford (Beginnings) album on Facebook.
But now about Oxford, haha. I just got back from the Ashmolean Museum. Really gorgeous exhibits. I took pictures of jewelry across many centuries. I also stood face to face with a bust of Nero, gaped up at an enormous statue of my favorite goddess, Athena, and stood with my nose six inches from an Assyrian relief.
Last night, we went to the Turf Tavern. It's through a winding alleyway under Oxford's Bridge of Sighs (Hertford College). The wall in the back courtyard is from the 13th Century. Amazing!
One of our lectures yesterday was on Children's Lit authors circa WWI: Lewis Carroll, Kenneth Graham, A.A. Milne, J.M. Barrie, Rudyard Kipling, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Many of these authors had ties to Oxford that are evident in their writing. Carroll's Alice, for example, searches for little doors leading into wondrous gardens. Oxford is full of these. Many of the doors are just as tall as me, and lead into the gorgeous, lush grounds of the colleges. It's easy to feel like Alice, for many of them are locked, as if the city is keeping you out of Wonderland. Once you get in, it's not quite as pleasant as it seemed, for someone may well shout at you for a confusing reason. I haven't had that experience yet, but some of the other students here have been shouted at or laughed at on a bus or in a store. It can be a little harrowing walking around here, because you forget you're in a foreign country and all of a sudden you've offended someone by saying "cents" instead of "pence."
Though prices are expensive here, there's a market in Gloucester Green every Wednesday that is very affordable, if you can stand to walk a few miles with your arms full of groceries. They had HUGH bowls of apples, oranges, and bananas for £1 each. I was shopping for a flatmate and myself, so I carried 2 bunches of bananas, 7 nectarines, 6 oranges, 6 apples, 4 peppers, and 1 HUGE butternut squash (only 80p!!), around town all afternoon.
My first night here, I took a shower, but since then I've only taken baths. Many British homes still don't have showers. And, if you take longer than a 15 minute shower, you've used more water than it takes to fill the tub. I brought Maud Hart Lovelace's novel, Betsy and the Great World, with me. It's near the end of the Betsy/Tacy series, and tells of Betsy's trip to Europe as a 21-year-old in 1914. It's also impossible to read without wanting to take a bath. Have you ever taken a shower in the morning? Or when getting ready to go out in the evening? It is fabulous! Especially when you're living in a narrow, four-story flat in Oxford, Oxfordshire. Plus, next to drinking a steaming cup of tea, it's the easiest way to warm up while feeling British.
Our first travel break is coming up, September 23rd-October 2nd. If all goes as planned, I'll be in Italy for the second part of it with APU girls Heidi and Hannah. We might go to Italy for the whole time, but I'm also considering Paris for the first couple of days. I have another travel break from December 5th-13th, and I just received news that I may have a place to stay in Switzerland (cross your fingers!). It's amazing how random friendships from my past are popping up. God's definitely taking care of me. A girl I went to AWANA Camp with in 10th grade and have kept up with on facebook is in Florence for the semester, so we'll be seeing each other when I'm in Italy. If any of you have suggestions for things to see/do in Venice, Florence, Rome, or Verona, feel free to comment!
Before I go to the Continent, however, I'll have at least three amazing adventures here in England.
First, next Wednesday, we'll be taking a field trip to Hampton Court Palace (home of the Tudors). This will be my first castle visit!
Second, Saturday I'm going on a trip to the Kilns (C.S. Lewis' house!). Our tourguide is a G.K. Chesterton expert, and we're going to go visit a pub GKC used to frequent.
Third, next Thursday I'll be taking a train to Whitehaven, Cumbria, in the Lake District. My mum, as some of you know, went to Capernwray Bible School (Carnforth) when she was 20, and did a homestay with the Bowmans (Harry, Jennifer--for whom I'm named--and their sons Warren and Elton). They've visited us in the States a couple of times, and I'm going to stay with them Thurs-Sun. I spoke with Jennifer on the phone a few nights ago, and she listed some of the extensive itinerary they're planning for me, including a trip to see Beatrix Potter's house!
I really can't describe how grateful I am to live here for this term. There's so much to see--so much history--that it's overwhelming sometimes. Today, in the Ashmolean, I was looking at art from hundreds and thousands of years ago. I've been listening to lectures from absolutely brilliant scholars. I'm going to be in college with future authors and politicians, come October. It's a heavy and beautiful opportunity, and I'm still in shock that it's happening.
P.S. For pictures of some of the things I've described in this and previous posts, look at my Oxford (Beginnings) album on Facebook.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Exploring
Yesterday was orientation, and we received all kinds of information on where to shop and eat, how the term will go, and who/what our resources are. As an APU student, I'm studying through something called OPUS (Oxford Programme for Undergraduate Studies). The way this program works in the Fall is that for the month of September we go through a lecture series, with about 7-8 lectures each week from various Oxford faculty. During this time we write some papers, go on some field trips, and become acclimated to Oxford. The first week of October, we begin Michaelmas term (Fall Quarter, essentially). That's when the rest of the Oxford students arrive, along with the very hard work of tutorials. For those of you who don't know, Oxford, while it has some seminar classes, uses the tutorial system, where students meet one-on-one each week with their tutor (professor) to discuss the paper they have written for that week.
Last night, I could not sleep at all. By 1am, I got up and washed a bunch of dishes, read a magazine, and watched the first half of Breakfast at Tiffany's. I finally went to sleep around 3:30am. My alarm went off at 9, but I turned it off and went back to sleep.
Next thing I know, I'm waking up and looking at a clock that says 3:35. Yes, it was 3:35 in the afternoon (I confirmed with one of my roommates). And the APU students were meeting at the train station at 4pm for a bus tour. I threw on jeans and a t-shirt and ran out the door. Thankfully, Oxford has an excellent bus system, and even directionally-challenged American Jennifer can navigate it. Paying is another thing, however, since I can't decipher the coins without reading them yet. I got on a bus to the station, spent about five minutes digging the correct change out of my wallet, and made it just in time. The tour was fabulous. We got a map of the city, and our tickets are good for 24 hours. It's a hop on/hop off tour, so tomorrow I'm going to get on again and do some exploring. I cannot believe how beautiful the colleges are here. From the outside, the architecture is gorgeous, but that's nothing compared to the vast gardens and lawns inside. They say the easiest way to recognize a tourist is by hearing them say, "Where's Oxford campus; I want to see the university campus." There's no such thing. Oxford is made up of 38 separate colleges. They all share the University administration which examines students, confers degrees, and keeps the Bodleian Library up and running. The Colleges, however, admit the students and teach the classes. They're each beautiful and unique, and I can't wait to walk through a few tomorrow.
After the tour, we went to a pizza place and then to our APU Faculty Advisor's flat for dessert. It was really lovely. To get there, we walked along the canal that connects to the Thames, and past Port Meadow. Port Meadow is an enormous expanse of grass where the law permits any Englishman to graze their cattle and horses. It has a path through it where people run or bicycle.
It's becoming very difficult to keep an American accent. The more I'm around the British the easier it is to slip into it without thinking. We'll see if I sound different when I come home.
Signing off now; hopefully I'll sleep tonight!
Last night, I could not sleep at all. By 1am, I got up and washed a bunch of dishes, read a magazine, and watched the first half of Breakfast at Tiffany's. I finally went to sleep around 3:30am. My alarm went off at 9, but I turned it off and went back to sleep.
Next thing I know, I'm waking up and looking at a clock that says 3:35. Yes, it was 3:35 in the afternoon (I confirmed with one of my roommates). And the APU students were meeting at the train station at 4pm for a bus tour. I threw on jeans and a t-shirt and ran out the door. Thankfully, Oxford has an excellent bus system, and even directionally-challenged American Jennifer can navigate it. Paying is another thing, however, since I can't decipher the coins without reading them yet. I got on a bus to the station, spent about five minutes digging the correct change out of my wallet, and made it just in time. The tour was fabulous. We got a map of the city, and our tickets are good for 24 hours. It's a hop on/hop off tour, so tomorrow I'm going to get on again and do some exploring. I cannot believe how beautiful the colleges are here. From the outside, the architecture is gorgeous, but that's nothing compared to the vast gardens and lawns inside. They say the easiest way to recognize a tourist is by hearing them say, "Where's Oxford campus; I want to see the university campus." There's no such thing. Oxford is made up of 38 separate colleges. They all share the University administration which examines students, confers degrees, and keeps the Bodleian Library up and running. The Colleges, however, admit the students and teach the classes. They're each beautiful and unique, and I can't wait to walk through a few tomorrow.
After the tour, we went to a pizza place and then to our APU Faculty Advisor's flat for dessert. It was really lovely. To get there, we walked along the canal that connects to the Thames, and past Port Meadow. Port Meadow is an enormous expanse of grass where the law permits any Englishman to graze their cattle and horses. It has a path through it where people run or bicycle.
It's becoming very difficult to keep an American accent. The more I'm around the British the easier it is to slip into it without thinking. We'll see if I sound different when I come home.
Signing off now; hopefully I'll sleep tonight!
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Departures and Arrivals
I'm in my flat in Oxford, after 24 hours of traveling. Packing was a nightmare, but I finished and got out of the door somewhat in one piece.
Travel went without a hitch. In fact, it's very apparent that God is watching out for me. The worker at Seatac who checked me in didn't weigh my checked bag because he said it "felt right around the weight limit." I found out during my layover in Calgary that it weighed 64 lbs (that's 14 overweight). The lady in Calgary said she couldn't charge me because they should have done it in Seattle. But, she weighed my carry-on (who's ever done that before?), and it was overweight, so I had to shuffle things around a little. All in all, if they charged me for both bags as overweight, I would've had to pay $170.
Traveling alone wasn't lonely at all, as it turned out. In line to check in at Seatac, the woman in front of me asked me where I was going. 5 minutes later, she and her husband (who were going on a Rick Steeves tour of Europe) declared me their adopted daughter for the trip. We waited for our flight together. In Calgary, I hung out with a recent UW graduate who was meeting a friend in London to travel before she starts grad school in 3 weeks. We talked about travel, the Philippines, and school during the 7 hour layover.
I got out of the airport and managed to find the bus to Oxford. I fell asleep on the bus, and woke up incredibly confused. Oh yeah, I'm in England. That's when the jetlag was hitting me. But I forced myself to stay up, and my goal is to stay up at least 5 more hours.
The appliances in my flat are pretty new; the kitchen's gorgeous, and there's lots of natural light in the rooms. There are 8 or 9 of us in this house, and I got to pick between 3 rooms. I'm on the bottom floor, and my room has its own sink. I'm just probably going to need earplugs, because sound carries here, and we're right on the street.
Time to go unpack!
Travel went without a hitch. In fact, it's very apparent that God is watching out for me. The worker at Seatac who checked me in didn't weigh my checked bag because he said it "felt right around the weight limit." I found out during my layover in Calgary that it weighed 64 lbs (that's 14 overweight). The lady in Calgary said she couldn't charge me because they should have done it in Seattle. But, she weighed my carry-on (who's ever done that before?), and it was overweight, so I had to shuffle things around a little. All in all, if they charged me for both bags as overweight, I would've had to pay $170.
Traveling alone wasn't lonely at all, as it turned out. In line to check in at Seatac, the woman in front of me asked me where I was going. 5 minutes later, she and her husband (who were going on a Rick Steeves tour of Europe) declared me their adopted daughter for the trip. We waited for our flight together. In Calgary, I hung out with a recent UW graduate who was meeting a friend in London to travel before she starts grad school in 3 weeks. We talked about travel, the Philippines, and school during the 7 hour layover.
I got out of the airport and managed to find the bus to Oxford. I fell asleep on the bus, and woke up incredibly confused. Oh yeah, I'm in England. That's when the jetlag was hitting me. But I forced myself to stay up, and my goal is to stay up at least 5 more hours.
The appliances in my flat are pretty new; the kitchen's gorgeous, and there's lots of natural light in the rooms. There are 8 or 9 of us in this house, and I got to pick between 3 rooms. I'm on the bottom floor, and my room has its own sink. I'm just probably going to need earplugs, because sound carries here, and we're right on the street.
Time to go unpack!
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