oxford

Because my bags were in a self-storage unit in Headington (right above Oxford), I got to take my Grandfather over to pick them up and see my haunts. Because there isn't a line from where we were near Cambridge to Oxford, we took a train into London, switched stations by Underground, and then caught a second train into Oxford.

We arrived to sunshine and spring flowers everywhere.

Snagging a bus to High Street, we walked away from Christ's church and turned onto Cornmarket. Of course, the first place I took him was The Nosebag, home of what I hold to be the best cream tea in town. As we sat there, I thought about all of the times I'd gone in before. The sunshine oozed in the window and set the wooden floor alight while outside petals looped along in the breeze.

[photo credit: rs]

Continuing down Cornmarket considerably refreshed after our tea, coffee, clotted cream, jam, and scones, we turned down Broadstreet and found ourselves in a spring shower. We hopped into one of the stores, snagged an umbrella, and continued on to the Bridge of Sighs. I felt quite the tourist.

[photo credit: rs]

Broad then leads to the Radcliffe Camera and the main Bodleian and down we went along Brasenose Lane to Turl Street where we stopped in Scriptum because it is irresistible. From there it is only a few yards back out onto High Street where we'd begun and the large bus bank where we got our bus up to Headington. Once we'd procured both of my bags, we waited once again at the bus stop, rode back down to the Train Station, and followed our footsteps back to Mildenhall, Suffolk.

[two above photo credit: rs]

oxford to glasgow

Out the door at 7:30am, hugging everyone we were leaving behind and trying to keep the tears from coming while simultaneously getting jittery from excitement.

So began the backpacking phase of my travels around Europe after Oxford!

The first day was a simple jaunt from our home in Oxford, up to a Headington self-storage where we left my suitcases, back down to the Oxford train station where we caught a train to King’s Cross London, along the underground to Paddington Station where we caught an express train to Heathrow where we left Sonya’s suitcases, back to Paddington, onto a second train which took us up to a Glasgow train station in Scotland from whence we walked to our first hotel. Waiting for us was a hotel tea spread to warm our hearts and the peace to sit and eat the food we’d packed: a carrot, green beans, banana bread from a wonderful friend, digestives, oranges, nuts, and, of course, chocolate rations.

It also gave us the time to think about how heavy our packs felt even while walking the short distances we went while not on the train. We both made little piles of things to leave…a sweater, large toothpaste, leggings, etc for Sonya, and a pair of nail clippers for me. Every little bit makes a difference, right?

seminar essay final wordcount

5:30pm : ... completed
10:00pm : ... edited
2:08am : 3,854 ... completed
2:10am : submitted

From the beginning of term to 30,500 words later, I have now completed an Oxford term!

hip hip ... huzzah!

seminar first draft wordcount

7:22pm  //  3,937

seminar first draft wordcount

12:24pm  //  918
8:50pm  //  1,528
9:12pm  //  1,613
10:38pm  //  1,857
10:47pm  //  1,964   ...   110 words in eleven minutes
11:22pm  //  2,411   ...   450 words in half an hour
12:45am  //  3,042

seminar paper quote

"Rather than spending a great fortune on such embellishments, Darcy has obviously avoided the fashionable improvement movement."

...hmm....

I can't decide if that's witty or just makes me sound ridiculous. It's all correct in its information, it's just that blasted rhyme!

word

My Microsoft Word spell check just switched over to British spelling. With five days left, it seems a little late.

seminar outline wordcount

10:10pm  //  1,343
2:22 am  //  3,220

bahahahah

Some of you have been asking what it's like here...this might give you some ideas as to the academic side. Now that this is almost over (4,000 words to go out of 29,000!!!), I'm beginning to be able to laugh about it. Just add a lot of giddy "oh my gosh we're actually at Oxford!"s and you'll be about right.

Whenever I have to go to the Gladstone Link...

After the last tutorial of term...

When someone quotes the tutor's book in tutorial...

When people ask me if I've done my summer reading...

Figuring out a book from my reading list completely nullifies my essay argument...

When there was blue sky this morning...

How I feel in line at the St. Giles Tesco near dinner time...

All of these wonderful compilations are from I'm Having an Essay Crisis at essaycrisis.tumblr.com.

reason 1027 that my roommate is wonderful

She repeatedly brings me flowers when I'm sick and stuck at home.

seeing the Queen!

Today.

Rushing from lecture to Christ's Church where the Queen was attending their Maundy Thursday service.

And here is where I lowered my camera and just watched as she was driven by, waving and looking right at us.

Now when everyone jokes about whether I saw the Queen I can say "Yes. Yes I did."

snowing again

wales

Eighth week is now over. I've survived an entire term at The University of Oxford. Our house is now all wandering about with this eerie feeling that we've forgotten something because we're not working on a paper.

Hopefully that will have stopped by the end of post-term break, which is this coming week. We're leaving today for Wales and we'll be back on Wednesday evening.

See you then with pictures and a rested mind.

eighth week

hamlet

I don't think Shakespeare was thinking of us students of his this some half-century later when he wrote Hamlet. Otherwise, I don't think he would have had two important Hamlets in it and named the play Hamlet as well. I keep running into such conundrums such as "In Hamlet, Hamlet is required by duty to avenge Hamlet."

Sigh.

utilizing the light

The British really know what they're doing with their architecture. For all of its reputation for being grey and cloudy here, they use every last ounce of light that they get. The majority of new buildings here (that meaning built in the last 50 years or so) have skylights, large windows, or a combination of the two. 

These pictures are of the church I am attending here. There are only four ceiling lights in the sanctuary and they aren't always kept on. The rest of the light comes in naturally. 

This last picture of the front of my church has nothing to do with interior light; I just wanted to remember that I attended a church with a red telephone booth out front.

This next picture is the English Faculty Library. It's a newer building...I would guess it was built in the seventies based on the concrete slab that it is on the outside. When I first went in, I was horribly disappointed. Why couldn't the English Faculty have the Radcliffe Camera, or a section of the Bodleian? It has grown on me though, especially once I noticed that the entire ceiling is windows. No lights are necessary until about five thirty in the evening. Clicks from the lamp knobs echo among the desks as I get up and head back to the Vines for dinner.

Of course, in the evening we're all using lights, but I don't mind one smidge when I'm opening the back door in the glow of the kitchen window.

my last creative writing tutorial

As usual, I arrived a little early and got to treat myself to ten minutes of sitting by the Thames with nothing to do but wait. The river is lined with hardy summer boats and the cleats to secure them.

It was then a simple matter of slowly pedaling to his house, chaining my bike to the toaster racks out front, and knocking on the door. As soon as the door opens, you can smell the books. The small flat is brimming with them. bookshelves are on top of bookshelves and stacks of books have crept onto the mantelpiece and into vacant corners.

After a blissfully challenging hour had passed, we shook hands and it was over. On the slow way home I stopped in at Blackwell's for a suggested thesaurus. Walking out with the thesaurus and the most gorgeous copy of Jane Eyre I've ever seen (the only thing I've bought myself besides food and my teapot), the sun was lowering into golden hour.

I will most certainly miss this tutorial. Not only has my writing changed, but my attitude towards writing has changed. I have practical ways to critique myself and a much better understanding of the wider discourse of poets and somewhat where I fit into that. 

rhyme

I am currently working on my last of four creative writing pieces for my secondary tutor and have run across a funny problem. This compilation must be rhymed so I am utilizing Penguin's Rhyming Dictionary. In case you care, it is one of the most wonderful books I have ever bought myself. And it counted as a "school supply" in my budget. Win.

Here's the funny part. I am working on finding a rhyme for "yaw" as in the yaw, pitch, and roll of a ship. I look it up in the back. It's there! Yay. Very promising. So I head to the list at the front...list 9...and the first word in it is "oar."

What? Yaw...oar...yaw...oar. Not computing.

I go further down. "forescore" and "coleslaw." I think these are not rhymes...they're certainly not full rhymes, and no one could argue that they're even sight rhymes. Then it hits me.

Accents.

When they say "oar" it really does sound like when they say "yaw." I will forever find these kinds of differences interesting. Also, I'm quite giddy over the fun of having a rhyming dictionary based on British pronunciation.

So that's my geeking out over that.

where i study

quite impossible

Here's something I wasn't expecting to be difficult: capturing these buildings. With so many centuries packed into these narrow streets the details can't have helped but form layers that are inches thick. The problem is not finding details to photograph, but capturing the size and scope. No lens could communicate the feeling of walking down a street and turning the corner to beauty like this.

Another trouble is the compactness of these streets. I keep finding myself plastered against an opposite wall endeavoring to get a whole structure into a photograph. Needless to say I haven't succeeded yet. Even so, it's worth it...even when I get the "tourist" look from fellow students.