Pixtures

High Tea with Megan and Kathryn! That's all for now:)

All the ladies in High Tea garb in front of the Radcliffe Camera - my favourite building in the world.

Happy in the punting boat with Megan Shaub!

The Whomping Willow ATE us...

This is the view of Magdalen Tower, and the Botanical Gardens (hothouses) from the Cherwell.

This is my feeling inside when we started punting... and drifting...

12 more hours

We're only going to be in Oxford for 12 more hours and I'm bummed. I'm going to miss everything. I want to live here for ever and ever. I love lists:

Yesterday:
a) we went punting
b) we got tangled in a willow and nearly died
c) were rescued by a chaffeur from Leeds who punted us safely
d) was very, very fun
e) watched Blackadder

Today:
a) we visited friends of the family
b) had good food
c) missed the Brideshead Revisited filming in Radcliffe Square but there were extras in tweed suits!
d) had tea at the Vaults under St. Mary the Virgin's University church.
e) had the best time of my life laughing with all the new friends
f) walked back through the park and saw the Rhodes House (Cecil Rhodes, governor of Rhodesia - it said Goede Hoop on his door)
g) just read out loud with lots of people who like to do it
h) and acted out the book
i) have finished packing a monster big bag
j) will watch Blackadder

This week:
a) Thursday - Salisbury (Stonehenge)
b) Friday - Bath (Jane Austen)
c) Saturday - Bristol and Cardiff, which is in Wales
d) Sunday - Edinburgh (Scotland)
e) Monday - on our way to Stratford
f) Tuesday - see Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare), travel to Oxford (pick up Harry Potter book)
g) Wednesday - Leave for USA

I love England. I am planning to decorate my walls with British maps. I am perhaps very lame. Photos soon, I promise. Especially of the punting!
f)

Exploring Oxfordshire

A view at the Botanical Gardens, though my camera ran out of batteries just afterwards and I was so upset that I couldn't get a good shot of the Cherwell river, with all the punting boats. Maybe tomorrow, when we turn in our papers, and punt with strawberries straight afterwards.

This one is for Laura: it's a stuffed otter in the Oxford Museum of Natural Sciences.

The Radcliffe Camera, from the view of the top of the University Church.

This one is for Kristin: care of our dear friend Bridget Jones.

The High Street (main street) in Oxford, just after nine in the morning. Not crowded; pleasant.

At the cafe, Justine and I had "Cream Tea" which means tea with scones, jam and Cornish clotted cream.

Ha ha ha. Those hogs were huge.

My favourite friends: SHEEP!

The manor and the gardens. In true English fashion.

A Norman church at the Victorian manor farm of Cogges, near Witney (11 miles out of Oxford). We visited last Saturday afternoon.

Into the Wardrobe

Movies and Mythology

And lastly, in front of Wells Cathedral - in Wells - are all four of my roomates (I am one of the four hmmmm....) Claire McCullough, me, Kim Kim and Sara Rowe. Wells Cathedral is one of the smallest Cathedrals in Britain, is very very old (eleventh century) and has the second oldest working clock in the WORLD still with its original face and little jousting knights that ride around on every quarter hour. It was a very good outing and a good day. We had muffins.

Oooooo...Arthur....

Megan and I in front of some of the ruins. Thereafter, when it began raining (since we were starving), we took coffee under a pavillion. Justine was smart enough to pack lunch but I had a Glastonbury pasty.

Here, at the supposed burial site of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere (I told you Glastonbury was full of myth) are some OSP friends, from left to right: Megan Shaub (whom we are going to visit in Nashville some fun weekend), Marla (sweetest person here), Rob (who looks and acts just like Patrick - you should see his jacket), David (who used to be Amish), Joy and Katherine (who just had a birthday). Oh, and Mike Brown who likes to call us "little women".

This is me in front of one of the ruins of the Lady Chapel, I think. Who knows.

Yesterday's field trip was to Glastonbury Abbey: one of the oldest sites of Christianity in Britain - rumoured to be the place where Joseph of Arimathea buried the Grail. It was a gloomy and rainy day which fit the atmosphere of the ruins - the magnificent Abbey was destroyed by our dear friend Harry the Eighth during the Dissolution of the Monasteries to benefit the Royal Purse. Glastonbury in itself is a weird town - not only is there a heavy atmosphere of ancient and Celtic Christianity, but also neo-paganism because of the old Celtic druidic holy places. So most of the stores sold herbs and fairies and hemp and angels and there were conferences on Goddesses and Spirituality and people walked around barefoot with dreadlocks and their babies tied around their necks in large hankerchiefs. It was a pretty town, only 7000 people, but reminds one very clearly of Knysna, near George, if you know it.

This is me and my friend (and one of my roomates) Kimberly Kim (Kim Kim) and also one of my new favourite people. She and I are sitting in seats H12 and H13 in the Odeon Theatre on Magdalen street anticipating the movie: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Note the Gryffindor scarf I may or may not have knitted while Kristin read me Bridget Jones Diary 1 and 2. We were very excited - over seventeen OSP students attended of our own volition. The air was ripe with excitment and the inside was beautiful. It was all hung with red drapery that looked like velvet and there was a curtain in front of the screen which when it was raised made everyone cheer with excitement. It was fun to watch it surrounded by British people - all the trailers were for American end-of-the-world movies (with Will Smith) and so we all writhed in our seats in embarrassment. It was a very fun night, with the whole audience being very involved: clapping at the drop of a hat for a funny line, applauding for the scene with Harry and Cho, and nearly exploding with laughter and appreciation for Fred and George. Umbridge made everyone squirm: I will not tell lies!

Wendesday Woes

I am sitting in the common room, with a blanket, looking at the grey sky and contrary to my title, I am not full of woe. I have basically written all four of my papers - though only three of them have been edited for the first time and actually resemble papers. (My ones on The Painted Veil, North and South, and the Chronicles of Narnia). I have my fourth paper - the 2500 word paper on Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials to do, but since I need to pick up a source from town later today, I will leave it until tonight or tomorrow to do. It is fun being a Literature student - no practicing instruments, just reading and thinking. I don't think I've ever been so intentionally studious in my life (along with everyone else in the hall, it's weird). And I've really enjoyed doing it, despite the obvious pressures.

Everyone is off in town doing whatever, classes, lunch. I have yet to make my lunch, but as I'm not feeling all that well, I'm content to ruminate in my blanket. Last night we watched the 1989 version of the Chronicles of Narnia and I have never noticed how TRULY AWFUL those are. Our favourite moments were Trufflehunter the Badger and Reepicheep as people in costumes with fake noses... and poor Lucy and how none of those children could act...Edmund wasn't bad, neither was grown up Caspian, but Ramadu's daughter was a vision in Eighties sparkle glam turquoise robes. Her father too. Crinkley hair and bangs and all.

Justine and I plan to eat at the Eagle and Child tonight - I've been once before for a class for a coffee, but this is the first time we'll actually eat at a pub and that's exciting. Some true English fare coming up. I'll leave you all to enjoy your warm American summers (and my parents to enjoy their cold South African winter). Hey, Jason - your twentieth birthday is coming up...I haven't forgotten. :)

The maze in the Pleasure Gardens of Blenheim. We got lost several times, but it's supposed to be a symbolic maze and not very difficult. Boo. Anyway, that's all for now - I've got class in a few moments and I must walk the long walk to Wycliffe Hall and then spend the rest of my day in research and contemplation of literature. I have four papers due next Tuesday and this week is crunch time! Bet you guys aren't missing school at all.

The Rose Gardens at Blenheim are breathtaking - at least four different kinds and colours of roses, and lavender too. It smelled divine.

The temple of Diana where Winston Churchill proposed to his wife, Clementine.

A sphinx. I heard a child say to it's friends, "Look, there's that lady - lion- birdy- thing."

The back side of Blenheim - another bright and beautiful day; we had coffee on the terrace.

A better view of the courtyard.

A picture of my big head along with the inside courtyard of Blenheim.

Blenheim Palace - which we visited yesterday; home to the eleventh Duke of Marlborough, birthplace of Winston Churchill.

A Stradivarius in the Ashmolean!

This is the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford; Justine and I visited it on Saturday. It was the first unrainy day we'd had in a while, and it was also Alice Day (Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll was a Maths Professor at Oxford). There was a display of Alice manuscripts in both the Bodleian Library and the Ashmolean; there is a wonderful collection of Greek Statues and of Ancient Egyptian relics.

Friday Outings

I liked seeing the gardeners in the gardens. I didn't get to see the maze gardens because we ran out of time (due to the traffic on the way there). Sorry about this font, I don't understand what's just happened. I did get a book about Henry VIII and his wives, like I wanted:) Oh, and Happy Birthday, Mom.

This one is for Kristin.

At the back of the Palace - looking much more Classical and less pre-Restoration.

A dragon of the castle.

We went to Hampton Court Palace today - standing in front of it are my new friends Kim and Marinda, along with my old friend Justine. People who lived in this palace include: Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII, Jane Seymour, Katherine of Aragon, Katherine Howard, William and Mary, George and Caroline and their kids, and many others. It was amazing. Couldn't take pictures inside (sadly).

This is a bad picture of the lovely meadow with lanterns we walk through - you can see Justine in the background - and a daredevil cyclist...those bicycles clip past us at every turn. If something were to kill us in Oxford it would be either a bus or a bicycle. Or the floods.

This is the cutest skinniest house. I think a giraffe lives inside with a ladder...that's about all that fits...

This is another street we walk down. I took a picture of it because it's so quintessentially British and it makes me happy. Everything so cute and squashed and seventies...Little mini Coopers everywhere...climbing vines and hydranges in the gardens - these people LOVE their gardens...

This is the beginning of the way of the forty minute walk to Wycliff we do at least twice a day from the Vines. Isn't it beautifully green? That's because of the rain. At least three times a day. It's the wettest summer since like 1846 apparently. Oh, our Climate Change. I am wearing my new Oxford zip-up and I am very proud of it. It is fleecy. Of course I look like a dorky tourist in Oxford - which is currently entirely populated by American teenagers (to my consternation). Anyway...the walk to town begins...

Glowing with a secret

I feel like I've just been a witness to the discovery of gravity or electricity or of the continent of America or something. The BEST lecture in my life given by a man called Reverend Dr. Michael Ward on a book he'll publish in January called Planet Narnia, uncovering a system of thinking and interpreting Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia that has NEVER been been discovered. We all sat in the theatre with our mouths gaping as he merrily led us to his thundering thesis. I will never be able to relive that moment. Needless to say, all of us in Fantasy Literature are walking around with a glowing coal for a heart and the emotional feeling of needing to cry with being overwhelmed.

I won't spoil it for you - if I described it it would be in no way as masterfully discussed as it was this morning. If you are interested in literature, theology and a new kind of Lewis - ORDER THIS BOOK. I'm going off to buy every Lewis book I can get my hands on...and to weep.

I'm Grumpy in the Rain

It turns out that all the movies are right: it rains all the time in England. At least in Oxford. I had to wield my umbrella at least five separate times today - I got slaughtered on St. Aldate's Street but it. And then everybody has so many umbrellas that you can't walk abreast on the sidewalk. And your pants get dirty. And your bag gets wet. Deep down I am still cheerful but I wish I didn't have anything else in my hand. Oftentimes it's so windy (think the scene in Sense and Sensibility where Marianne falls down and hurts her ankle and Willoughby rushes by on a great black horse and carries her in his arms...with no Marianne or Willoughby or horse...just fierce gales and pounding rain) that my umbrella will turn inside out a la Laura Dwyer.

It does make everything so beautifully green however. There are ponies that we see on our way to Wycliffe; lampposts built in the middle of a meadow. I'll put in pictures some day soon. Today I had one class and it was Fantasy and we discussed the Chronicles of Narnia and it's racism, sexism, sometimes curious theology, allegory etc. All of us were a little walking wounded because those characters have been living, breathing members of our families for the last sixteen years. It hasn't changed anything for me; I still love them. I am a little more embarrassed of the C.S Lewis-cult that Americans have. Trying to airbrush out the tweed and pipe and pint, when those were the things he loved best and they were good.

Britain's just gone Smoke Free on July First and so there is no more smoking allowed in public places which is nice for most places but it makes me sad about pubs. What are pubs but places nice old men can have their pipes? Lewis and Tollers would be outraged.

I found a nice bookstore (second hand mostly) called St. Philip's on St. Aldate's Street near Christ Church and it specialises in theology and history. Kristin, Patrick and Dr. Hartley would DROOL at this treasure hoard. I got away with Lewis's essays on fantasy and story (for a class) and some other little trinkets. But it was fantastic. This is a great city for books. How am I going to bring them all home?????

Camera lights and Roman Remains

The Roman remains at Verulanium - once an old theatre. Boudicca burned it down on way to Chester, I think. It was awesome. Also part of our field trip yesterday.

The magnificent altar at St. Albans - used to be Benedictine, but thanks to our pals Harry Tudor and Oliver Cromwell and the Dissolution of the Monasteries...it is now Church of England.

Here I am in front of St. Alban's Cathedral (1750 years old and Norman-Gothic) in the town of ...St. Albans. It was a sunny/rainy day as you can see by the warring clouds. St. Albans is about an hour and a half away from Oxford, south of London, I think.

This is a view from the base of Broad Street, which turns off Carfax (the old Saxon crossroads) and Magdalen street which eventually leads to Wycliffe. This is my favorite Street in Oxford. Blackwell's is there, coffeeshops, Oxford shops, Balliol College is up there on the left and you might be able to see the cupola of the Sheldonian Theatre (its blue against the clouds) and beyond that, the Bodleian.

This is the monument built for the martyrs Latimer, Cranmer and...one other...who were burnt to death by Bloody Mary in Broad Street, Oxford. There is a bronze cross on the cobblestones on Broad Street which is supposed to commemorate the spot.

This is Wycliffe Hall - a Christian private hall - not college, still a full member of Oxford University. It's Victorian, as you can see. A good forty minutes walk through meadows and swamp from the vine, and ten minutes fast walk to the city centre.

Here's a photo from Tuesday night, the night of the filming. We had to wait until it was quite dark for the filming to begin...and for us to get chased out.

This, as you may remember, was the Infirmary...where is Madam Pomfrey