Fantastic Adventures and Where to Find Them :)

Hello everyone,

It would seem as though I have neglected this blog for far too long again. Rest assured, I will try harder over break to actually post things about my adventures (but I am not going to make any promises :P )

So, Oxford term is officially over and my last SCIO paper has been turned in. I have a lot of feelings that hopefully will come out as we progress through the past month. 

As some of you know my roommate, Sadie, and I were able to get tickets to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child last month. I can honestly say that it was one of the best pieces of theatre I have ever seen. The magic was, well, magical. From my theatre background I could deduce how some of the tricks were accomplished, but even for those the speed, agility, and fluidity was astounding. Other tricks completely blew my mind and I cannot conceive of a way that they were accomplished without the use of magic. In terms of the story itself the play worked much better on stage then it did on the page, as most plays do. The actors created some really amazing new characters and breathed new life into some old favorites. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were every bit as wonderful as they were in the books. Scorpius and Albus were also brilliant as were their interactions. I really cannot describe how absolutely brilliant this production was from the costumes, to the magic, to the characters, to the great care paid to even the smallest of details. I laughed, I cried (like actual tears), but most of all I felt like I was home again at Hogwarts :)

After witnessing some of the best theatre I have ever seen, I got to participate in some theatre for myself. Pirates of Penzance was such a fun production to be a part of. My cast mates became fast friends. The shows went quite well after some last second panicking. (Is it possible to have a show without last second panicking?) My friends all came to see me and another SCIO student perform. They were shocked to discover that I can pretend to be a bubbly, giggly, little girl when in reality I would have challenged the pirates to a duel :) This show was quite a roller coaster to be a part of, but I had so much fun that hope to be involved in the G&S production next term :) 

The OUPhil concert went really well as well. I miss playing with these people already and can’t wait to play with them again next term. This is easily the best orchestra that I have been a part of and I am loving every minute of it :)

Some of my friends and I had a whirlwind trip to London to see the RSC's production of Cymbeline. It was my first time seeing this show and I really enjoyed it. All of the acting was amazing :) 

As an end of Oxford term adventure a bunch of my friends and I went to see Fantastic Beasts together. It was amazing to have a new Harry Potter-ish experience again and to experience the story for the first time. My roommate and I spent a significant amount of time afterwards dissecting the characters and the plot and what these would mean for the future films. Eddie Redmayne was a brilliant Newt and James Newton-Howard’s score fit perfectly within the Harry Potter universe. I am quite excited for the future of these films :)

Continuing on the Harry Potter related train, Christ Church, home of the most fantastic dining hall on campus, held a Christmas Carol themed tea just after term ended. The food was amazing, but the best part was eating in the Hogwarts great hall :) (Of course the friends at tea were lovely as well). All of the Wycliffe hall ladies also had tea at the Grande Cafe, which was the first coffee shop in England. 

And with that we have reached the end of Oxford term. I miss my tutorials already. If anything, being a student at Oxford has shown me how much I do not know. Yes, I have learned so much in just these past 14 weeks, but I have also been exposed all of the holes in my knowledge. I am looking forward to next term when I get to discover more holes and hopefully fill in a few. This term I have written 16 essays and papers, which is almost 4 times as many as I had previously written at Gordon. How all of that work got done is yet to be determined. Perhaps next term I will figure it out, but probably not. The final paper was the longest I have ever written, 4043 words that fought against me every step of the way, but I felt very accomplished the morning I turned it in. 

One thing I will really miss about this term is how close I have gotten to the 16 other people I lived with in the North Wing of Wycliffe Hall. Each and everyone of them brought a unique and beautiful point of view to our little family. I know it is cheesy and a cliche, but these people were just like family. We laughed together, we cried together, we went to G&D’s for ice cream at 11:30 pm while pulling all-nighters to finish papers together. To say that I couldn’t have survived this term without them would be an understatement. Never in my life have I been a part of such a hard-working, encouraging, God loving community. These people would discuss intense theological concepts over breakfast and then start talking about the amazing new tea shop they had found. I will miss our dinners together, movie nights, and study parties at 8 (SCIO office building). 

Thankfully, I get to spend Christmas break with some of my fellow SCIO friends. Alea and I journeyed to Cardiff together for the first few days of break before she headed home. On our first day we attempted a journey to Tintern Abbey, only to discover that it had been taken over by a film crew for the day and we were not able to enter. We then hiked up Devil's Pulpit and got an amazing view of the Abbey and the surrounding valley. The rest of the day was spent in adorable little lunch shop and tea shop trying to avoid the rain. 

On our second day in Cardiff we went to the Doctor Who Experience. My desire to be the Doctor has only grown because of this adventure. When you first enter they take you on an adventure with the Doctor through time and space and fight against some of the best monsters. The exhibit hall had many of my favorite characters' costumes. There were also many versions of the Daleks and some weeping angles :) We spent the rest of the day Christmas shopping and exploring the city. I wish we could have had more time there, but we did a lot with the time that we had :)

The next day we made our way into London and said goodbye at Victoria Station. Since I had some time before Rebecca arrived so we could continue on our journey, I went to see the RSC perform King Lear. This was my first time seeing it and I was blown away. The RSC has very cheap tickets, which is helping to fuel my Shakespeare addiction :) Rebecca and I spent the next day together roaming through Notting Hill, yes we found the travel bookshop and the house with the blue door, and then headed off to Stansted airport to meet Josh where the three of us and Elisha all flew to Edinburgh. 

I am writing this very late post to all of you from our little flat in Edinburgh :) We have just spent a packed day climbing King Arthur's Seat and exploring all of the Harry Potter inspirational places and the Royal Mile. The views from the top of King Arthur's Seat were incredible, but the climb was slightly terrifying. We had lunch at the Elephant House where J.K. Rowling wrote a good portion of Harry Potter and then explored Old Edinburgh and visited places like Tom Riddle's grave and Victoria Street that served as inspiration for my favorite novels. The Royal Mile was a nice down hill walk from the Edinburgh Castle and was covered in tweed, tartan, and cashmere shops. 

l have really appreciated this past paper free week and am looking forward to the rest of break and exploring more of the UK and Germany :) (Also, Josh is here which is pretty great!)

~ Brynn 

Only in Oxford

Dearest Family, Friends, and random others who stumble upon this blog,

I am alive.

I know this may come as a shock after over four weeks of silence, but it is indeed true.

As some of you probably know, I have had an exceptionally busy first half of term. All SCIO students take two tutorials per term. Meetings with primary tutors happen every week. Secondary tutorials are supposed to take place every other week during term. I happened to be placed with a professor who preferred to teach these tutorials every week for the first half of term. This made doing anything outside of reading, writing, and attending lectures nearly impossible. Activities I did not have time for included, but were not limited to: sleeping, breathing, breakfast, movies, internet activities, blogging, sanity, etc. I am so thankful for the SCIO community and how supportive they have been when I would get frustrated with my studies. People would check up on me and make sure that I took breaks periodically while studying so as not to get overwhelmed. When I had a long night of reading and writing ahead of me, there were always others who would come to the study room with me and hold study parties and study breaks of ice cream at G & D's.

I will now attempt to play catch-up with all that has happened over the last four weeks. (Please forgive the exceptionally long post that is to follow)

My primary tutorial has been very enjoyable. Each week I am given a piece or two by the same composer and a short reading list. From there I have to write a 1500-ish word essay on whatever I want. This freedom, while exhilarating at points, is actually quite daunting. Some weeks it has been easy to critique scholarly opinions and understand the complexities of the pieces that I am working with. Other weeks I hear the music and my mind goes blank. (I am sure you can guess which weeks I prefer.) Regardless of the number of ideas I have the average finishing time for an essay that is due at 10 am is usually 3 am with a final read through and edit at 9 am. Though this may seem like the result of procrastination, I spend almost every waking moment with my nose buried in books. There is no time to waste time.

After attending lectures for a few weeks I can definitely say that The String Quartet After Beethoven, and Techniques of Composition are my favorites. Walking to the Exam school for a lecture at 9 am is not a chore when I get to hear about my favorite musical ensemble. A couple of weeks ago the professor talked about Shostakovich's 8th String Quartet, which is my favorite piece of music of all time. It was nice to not only to understand what the professor was talking about, but also to have known pretty much all of that information already :) Techniques of Composition is also quite enjoyable. Although I am not learning many new things, there is a lot of review of theory I material, the lecturer is quite engaging and I feel like I truly understand the material at this point.

My secondary tutorial, Music History, was much more enjoyable than I had originally thought it could be. Although learning about motets and madrigals was basically like learning a second language, I feel like I have a deep understanding of the topics we studied. I am amazed at how much information I was able to cram into my already overstuffed brain in just four weeks. That being said, it is nice to focus on Romantic music and beyond.

Pirates of Penzance is going quite well. We were successfully able to run Act 1 yesterday and did some smaller dissection work today. I have enjoyed playing a giggly and hysterical girl. The cheese of the show rivals that of 1960's Batman, but I enjoy it nonetheless. Our show will be over in less than two weeks, which is tragic and also exciting. I have made a lot of great friends in the cast and I am not looking forward to leaving them, but I also love performing in front of an audience. I am hoping that next term I will have plenty of opportunities to perform as well.

Orchestra is highly enjoyable. My stand partner hates Mozart just as much as I do, which is brilliant. He was highly entertained by the political turn of events this past week and was quite inquisitive at rehearsal. Our American conductor was a bit put out by the results, which made rehearsal interesting. I really love the music that we are playing. Sibelius No. 2 is my favorite, but the Hanson is growing on me as my mind has started to treat it more programmatically. Our concert is next week in the historic Sheldonian Theatre, which I am told does not have the best acoustics, but it will be fun to play in such an old theatre.

That pretty much sums up my regular activities. However, I have had a multitude of exciting things happen over the past month.

During third week I had the opportunity to play in the pit for a production of Guys and Dolls. One of the cellists was unable to perform on the last day so I got to play for two of the shows. The American accents were really good in this production, which made me feel a bit like I was home. The candy that many of the pit members brought with them made me feel like I was on another planet, albeit a tasty planet.

During third week I also went to see Kiss Me Kate. Some of their American accents were spot on...others not so much. It was a really fun night out with my friends and a nice break from all of the studying we do.

On Friday I submitted the final proposal for my end of term research paper. I am writing about how modern worship music has impacted evangelical worship. Hopefully this will give me a chance to explore the power of music in a theological setting. Prayers would also be appreciated that my ethics procedures are approved for this project in a timely manner so that I can interview some worship leaders to get their take on this issue.

Today I had the opportunity to visit with some unexpected friends in Stanford in the Vale, a lovely little British village. When I went to see Cats about 6 weeks ago my friends and I met a lovely British family who invited us to join them for lunch at some point in the future. Today we joined them for their town's remembrance day service. They gave us a tour of their town and everything was so quaint. It's amazing how a 30 minute bus ride can take you so far out of the Oxford city mindset. We had lunch at their house after the service and I was able to pet their cats. These past few weeks I have started to realize how much I need cats in my life. (Fortunately if I can get into grad school here there are some airlines that allow you to bring your cat as a carry-on so Sigvard can come with me!) We then went on a tour of Bampton where a great deal of Downton Abbey was filmed. I stood on the spot where Lady Mary was married and where Matthew was buried. Although I have a great deal of work left to accomplish for my tutorial, today was such a beautiful day to take a break and to be reminded that real homes with real families still exist, and not just through FaceTime.

This week has been a rather challenging week filled with interesting experiences. Thursday felt strangely empty when I didn't have to rush off to my tutorial on less than 3 hours of sleep. It has been hard to motivate myself this week without the extra deadline, but with the craziness of a concert and performances in 7th week and an exciting theatre trip this coming week I will have to jump back on the motivation train soon. My friends both here and at home have been an amazing help to keep me going throughout the craziness of this adventure. I am so thankful for all of you.

I commend each and everyone of you who has made it to the end of this post.

~ Brynn

Arrivals and Survivals

Hello everyone!

I am happy to announce that I have survived my first week of real Oxford. Yes, I have been in Oxford and writing papers for the past month and a half, but REAL Oxford did not start until this past week. I have had my first meeting with both of my tutors and have started attending lectures.

First off, there have been many changes in the city. All of the students who do not already live here have arrived. It has been exciting to see a rush of new faces around the city. This also means that the quite dorm building I have lived in has suddenly become much more noisy. The common room is no longer a place of refuge for quiet study. Fortunately, it does not seem that the number of people sharing our kitchen has grown. This has now become the place of SCIO student gatherings. The grocery store is also always crowded making it difficult to navigate your little wheeled basket behind you. The libraries are no longer quiet and peaceful places. Even the upper level of the Rad Cam, which is probably the quietest place on campus, is now full of the sounds of studying. It has definitely been a weird week watching the campus spring into life.

Tutorials are amazing. Oxford uses a very different system of teaching than most other universities. During the eight week term students do not really have classes. There are lectures that are highly recommended, but not required. No body takes attendance and you are free to attend any lectures you would like to. The tutorial itself is a one on one meeting between you and your professor. Each week you prepare an essay and either bring it to your tutor, or send it in early. The tutorial then becomes a conversation about your essay and the topic you have been assigned for that week. This past week I looked at the function and effects of various forms of musical analysis and the chronology of thirteenth century motets. While writing papers this week I learned that it is not necessary to stay up until the next morning writing papers, and then promptly disposed of that discovery as I worked on my second paper of the week. Analysis was not too bad this week, but as we progress through the term, each week will be spent analyzing and talking about different pieces. This week I am focusing on Beethoven's Tempest Sonata.  Learning about motets was like learning another language, and therefore quite difficult. I am thankful that I have another week to grapple with them before we move onto madrigals.

One perk to the suddenly congested campus is the beginning of extra-curricular activities. I am very pleased to have gotten a spot in the university's philharmonic orchestra. Our first rehearsal was last Wednesday. We are playing Sibelius No. 2, Hanson No. 2, and the Karelia Suite. The people are all very friendly and it is fun to be a part of such an advanced ensemble. This term I will also be performing in the ensemble of Pirates of Penzance with the Gilbert and Sullivan Society. This is my first G&S show, so I am excited about that as well. Additionally, all of the student groups who rehearsed last term are putting on shows this term. Last night we saw Anything Goes. It was very well done. Some of the American accents were a bit off, which made my friends and I laugh even more.

I am looking forwards to another week of studying, writing, growing, and late night ice cream runs to finish papers :)

~ Brynn

Before Real Oxford

Hello Everyone!

These past two weeks have been absolutely psychotic, hence the lack of blog posts. Life here is still amazing, but I am starting to understand why everyone warned me about all of the work. The official Oxford term starts on Monday, and I am quite excited to dive into my tutorials. Before those begin, here is an update on all of my adventures. (Unfortunately pictures are still not cooperating...but they will get here eventually.)

Imperial War Museum

On Monday (9/26) we took our final British Culture field trip to the Imperial War Museum in London. Housed in what used to be Bedlam, the museum was full of artifacts from Britain's various war experiences. Due to our limited time at the museum I was only able to visit the World War One and the Holocaust exhibit. The WWI exhibit contained various artifacts from military and civilian life as well as quotes and letters from soldiers. There were interactive displays which allowed visitors to pretend to do things such as winding bandages for soldiers. The most compelling piece was a fifteen-ish foot replica of a trench that visitors had to pass through to get out of the exhibit. Though I have always heard about trenches and seen them on TV, it is hard to gain perspective on how miserable they must have been. I can't say that I experienced anything close to what the soldiers would have experienced, but this helped me to realize that these experiences are real and to gain a small bit of understanding as to what their living conditions must have been like. 

The other exhibit I visited was the Holocaust exhibit. Since I was in middle school I have always been fascinated by the Holocaust. This exhibit did an excellent job of telling the stories of the individuals. This made it far easier to see the victims as people, and not just some nameless beings to whom terrible things happened. I was not able to spend half of the time that I needed to read everything, but the stories I did read were truly heart breaking. The most tragic part of the exhibit was a case of the victims' shoes. There were pairs of shoes in those cases that were not unlike some of the shoes that I own, which just reminded me of how these unspeakable acts happened to people just like me. It was a sobering experience but very informative. 

The End of British Culture

I turned in my final two British Culture essays on Wednesday (9/28). For these essays I wrote about the women of Shakespeare's time and about film adaptations of Jane Austen's Emma. The Shakespeare paper was fun to research, and even more to compare with the women in Much Ado About Nothing, my favorite Shakespearean play. The Emma paper was also quite fun to research as I focused on modernized adaptations. However, I read the entirety of Emma and watched Clueless and Emma Approved all in about 5 days. Needless to say, I have had my fix of Emma Woodhouse and her shenanigans for quite a while. 

Mid-Term Break

After my papers were turned in I officially began my midterm break. My first act of break was to take a nap. (Or maybe to go to bed...things get complicated when you turn in a paper after staying up until 8 in the morning.) The first couple days of break were spent composing (more to follow) and exploring Oxford. I finally had time to do some much needed shopping for things like food. On Thursday (9/29), a group of SCIO students and I went to see Cats at the local theatre. All of the actors were incredible, especially in their movements. It took me a while to get into the show, but by the end I really enjoyed the characters and the music. Grizabella was my favorite because she was one of the few characters who were actually a part of the show's limited plot. Also the actress playing her had an incredible belt. 

Composing

As some of you may know I am currently in the process of trying to write my own musical. Theatre, and musicals in specific have always been a crucial piece of my existence and I think I am ready to start contributing to this community. I am also a deadline driven person and was motivated to start actually writing and composing by a composition workshop application. I hope to hear back soon, but even if I was not accepted this was the kick in the butt I needed to actually start this project :) 

Visiting Family

I was so blessed to have my mom and my grandmother come visit me during my break. These women have been with me through everything and to be so far away from them has been difficult. Fortunately I have the internet which makes them feel much closer. (Thanks to my mom, my grandmother now can send me messages on her computer!) For the four days they were here I got to share my new home with them as well as be a tourist again. (After living here for over a month I don't feel like I can be a tourist anymore...but I got to pretend with them!)

Oxford Tourists

For the first couple of days that they were here we spent a lot of time exploring Oxford. With my Oxford ID/Bodleian Card I am able to visit the various colleges in Oxford. This prompted a return to various Harry Potter filming locations around the city. We took a tour of the Divinity School and Duke Humphrey's Library in the Old Bodleian Library, which was quite informative. We also visited my favorite place in Oxford, Port Meadow :) As a finale to our days of Oxford exploration the three of us and my roommate cooked dinner for the other SCIO students who stayed in Oxford over break. 

London

On Monday we took a trip to London, another one of my favorite places. Our first stop of the day was Harrod's. I don't know what I was expecting, but the door man, light up escalators, and department after department of designer clothes were definitely more extravagant than I had imagined. It was fun to walk through and to see all of the extremely expensive clothing and to imagine how people would walk in shoes that high or dresses that tight. There was also a large number of cello appropriate dresses, which I greatly appreciated. 

After our run through of Harrod's we continued on past Buckingham Palace to the British Museum. We say the Rosetta Stone, sculptures from the Parthenon, and an Aztec turquoise dragon. My favorite exhibit was a man that had either died in or been tossed into a swamp and his body was preserved for over a thousand years. It was amazing to think about how we can find people from thousands of years ago and know nothing about them, but we still think they are quite important. It really makes you think about what happens when you die and how random it is that we put dead people on display. Between the mummies, skeletons, and swamp man I would love to know how many dead bodies are in that museum. 

Our final stop of the day was a performance of The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie. The killer was !#@#!$!##@#!. As the curtain closed the audience was reminded that the secret of the killer has been kept for 64 years and therefore we should not be the ones to go and spoil it for future audiences. The cast was superb and the plot had me sitting on the edge of my chair the entire show. I can see why this is the longest running play ever. 

Blenheim Palace

For my family's last day here we took a trip up to Blenheim Palace, the home of the Duke of Marlborough. First off, I cannot imagine people actually living here, but they do. We toured the state rooms and I imagined what it would be like to live there. I imagine it would be quite similar to What a Girl Wants or Downton Abbey. All in all, I would much rather live my adventures, albeit not as comfortable, life than to be kept on display for the world at all times. For lunch we had a traditional afternoon tea with sandwiches, scones, coffee, and of course tea!!! We then spent some time exploring the palace grounds and getting lost in hedge mazes. For our final dinner together we went to a pub and enjoyed watching all of the Oxford students that were arriving for the coming term. 

The Calm(-ish) Before the Storm

So here we are, ready to start our time at real Oxford. No more British Culture essays, no more research seminars. It is just us, our tutors, and what feels like half the Bodleian of books in our back packs. Today was the Freshers' Fair and I signed up for information about many different clubs and organizations. I am so excited to dive into my tutorials and to see where this semester takes me!!!

Congratulations on making it to the end!!!

~ Brynn

Oxford Oddities

Since I have come to Oxford there have been quite a few differences between life at home and life here. I now present you with a running list of some of those differences that will be updated as I discover them.

• Toilet paper comes in individual sheets
• Paper towels are blue 
• Bandaids are called Plasters
• Q-Tips are called Cotton Tips 
• Some faucets are reversed with Hot and Cold on the opposite sides
• Shops close before 7 pm
• Military time is very common
• People drive on the opposite side of the road
• Term is only 8 weeks long
• There are 3 terms per year
• People carry their books in cloth bags
• There are sheep in most fields
• The playgrounds are much more dangerous
• There are many more public parks
• Elementary School is called Primary School
• Most pre-college age students wear uniforms
• People bike everywhere 
• Packets of soup are called sachets
• Different pronunciations (and my bad attempts to explain how they sound)
• Renaissance = Re-NAY-sance
• Controversy = Con-trov-esy 
• Baroque = Barock
• Pants are NOT trousers
• Cheers is a universal phrase

Hampton Court Palace, Port Meadows, London, and Portsmouth

Hello to my family, friends, and anyone else who has wandered upon this blog.

First off, I want to apologize for not posting in a while. I have done quite a few exciting things (which I hope you continue scrolling to find out about) as well as started class. This means that blog posts will be highly erratic in terms of scheduling. I hope to post at least once a week, but as you can see I have already failed in that department.

Also, I will probably only put a few pictures in each blog post because I am lazy and take lots of pictures. All of my pictures will be on my Facebook page if you want to see more pictures.  Pictures for this post will come tomorrow probably...if I can convince my computer to cooperate!!!

Hampton Court Palace

Last Tuesday we took a wonderful field trip to Hampton Court Palace, home of King Henry VII. Tudor and Elizabethan England are probably my favorite parts of British history, and basically all history in general which made this trip quite a treat. We started with a tour of the kitchens. I am amazed at how so much food came out of these places. I only have to cook for seven people in my food group about once a week. I cannot imagine cooking for over 600 people every day! We then toured Henry's apartments as well as William III's apartments. Although the palace on the whole was beautiful, one of my favorite parts was the gardens. Behind and beside the palace there were extensive gardens which were all still very much in bloom. There was also a significant number of Canadian geese, something I had hoped to avoid while away from Gordon. One was exceptionally curious and tried to help itself to my friend's lunch!

Port Meadows

I have been led to Narnia. That is all. 

London

On Saturday we had an optional field trip to London. We walked around a good portion of the city starting near Buckingham Palace and ending up in Leicester Square. While walking through the park I was hit in the face by a pigeon, which was a new experience for me. We ate lunch in Trafalgar square and then headed to the monument for the London Fire. The view from the top was incredible. I could see the Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral and the London Eye! The climb up the 310 spiral steps was not as enjoyable. The highlight of the day was definitely an Evensong service at St. Paul's Cathedral. The acoustics were incredible and the music was amazing beyond description. I have never particularly enjoyed Organ music, but I sat in awe through the entirety of the exit music. This trip was quite enjoyable and I look forward to returning to London in the near future!

Portchester and Portsmouth 

Today we went to Portchester Castle and Portsmouth. I finally saw the ocean!!! Oxford is one of the furthest places from the ocean in the UK. This separation from my natural habitat has been difficult, but school has definitely kept me busy enough. I enjoyed walking around the castle walls and taking in the views. We then headed over to Portsmouth, which is another place that my New Hampshire brain had preconceived notions of. Fortunately, those notions were kind of correct as Portsmouth, England is also a functioning naval ship yard. We toured the harbor to get a feel for the British Navy today and then boarded the HMS Victory to get a feel for what the British Navy used to look like. It is hard to imagine over 800 people living on one ship. Our professor told us that each person was allotted 14 inches of hammock space. Even though the ship seemed small on the outside, it felt much bigger on the inside. Personally I think there was some kind of undetectable expansion charm worked on that ship. Our final stop of the day was the Mary Rose, the flagship of Henry VIII's Navy. Only a piece of the ship was available for viewing as it had been raised from the English Chanel and this was all that was left. I was truly amazed when I saw it. There is something indescribably magical about seeing a piece of history that has been preserved through unconditional means (like sitting in silt at the bottom of the Chanel). 

School

Our introductory British Culture course has taken me on some quite enjoyable field trips. I feel as though we are being taken to all of the places that we missed out on visiting because we were not proper English school children. My first paper was completed last Friday and I have two more due next Wednesday. That being said, I will probably not be able to post until those papers are done. I am greatly looking forward to the start of Oxford term and the start of my music tutorials!!!

Until the next adventure,

Brynn

Salisbury, Old Sarum, and Stonehenge - Oh My!

Yesterday all of the SCIO students took a field trip to Salisbury, Old Sarum, and Stonehenge. Before doing that we had a day of lectures on Thursday to help us gain an appreciation for what we would be seeing. Today was a day filled with amazement at how people hundreds and even thousands of years ago could build such massive structures out of even more massive rocks without the use of modern machinery.

Salisbury Cathedral

The first place we stopped was Salisbury Cathedral. Living in New England has conditioned me to expect places called Salisbury to include Sal's Pizza and a sub par beach...this was not the case. First off, the Cathedral was massive! The inside of the Cathedral was beautiful and housed many amazing things as well. In the Chapter House there was an original copy of the Magna Carta. Even though I would not consider myself to be a history buff, it was still quite exciting to see such a historic document. (Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures of the document itself.) As a part of our field trip we were taken on a tour of the Cathedral's bell tower. Few people know this, but I am terrified of heights. (Disclaimer: Spinning roller coasters/thrill rides that take me hundreds of feet in the air and then plunge me to what seems like my death = totally fine. Bell towers with outlooks = totally not fine. Riddle me this Batman...) The inside of the tower was filled with many terrifyingly tall spiral staircases and each level had wooden floors with small gaps between the boards. If you peered closely enough through said gaps you could see just how far you would fall if the floor happened to break. Needless to say, this was not an ideal situation. However, the view from the top of the tower was incredible. I also watching the bells. The sound up close was even more amazing (and much louder) than what you could here from below. The large bell continued to ring for another 30 seconds after it was initially struck. While perusing the cathedral after our tour I was struck by how some people received elaborate tombs and others were buried under the cathedral floor to be trampled. (I would say be trampled to death, but as the worst has already befallen these poor souls...) I have also decided that my new favorite architectural features are cloisters. The cloisters of Salisbury Cathedral opened out into a beautiful courtyard similar to those at New College (where parts of Harry Potter were filmed).

The north side of the Cathedral 

The western entrance

Inside the Cathedral

View from the second level of
the Cathedral. 

What lies above the
beautiful ceilings

Inside the tower!

The bells

The inside of the spire.
Thankfully we did not
climb up there!

More views!

The view from the top!

Looking down upon the Cathedral.

One of the views through a
larger crack in the floor

Important tombs...

Not so important tombs.

The cloisters

The bell tower as seen from
the cloisters

Old Sarum

Old Sarum is an old fortress dating back as early as 400 BC. It was built on a hill and then a giant moat was dug around the city. Inside of the fortress was yet another moat to protect the castle. Though the water has long dried up a large ditch is still quite visible around the property. Many of the people who lived in Old Sarum eventually moved down to Salisbury when the Cathedral was brought down there. (Yes, they did move pieces of the Cathedral from Old Sarum to Salisbury to help build the new Cathedral) It was quite impressive to walk around this old hill fort. Only bits and pieces remain of the castle, but the views from the hill itself were spectacular. The foundations of the Cathedral were also visible.

The outer moat

Crossing the inner moat

Castle remnants

More castle remnants

An Iron Age loo

The cathedral foundations can be seen in the grass

The views

Walking through the old Cathedral

The bridge into the inner part of the fort

Stonehenge

I knew the stones would be large, but I didn't realize quite how large they actually were. I do not have much to say about this sight, besides the fact that I was utterly amazed. This was one moment where I realized that I am actually living in England :)

What the people who built Stonhenges'
huts could have looked like

Initial Observations

After a long plane flight and what felt like an even longer bus ride (thank you London traffic) I arrived in Oxford Friday afternoon!

First off, I can't believe that I am actually here and that this place is going to be my home for the next 8 months. I have always been fascinated with British culture and have wanted to live here for as long as I can remember. A lot of the other Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford (SCIO) students and I cannot believe that these are our lives now.

Wycliffe Hall - My new home!

My window is the middle on on the left.

The first few days were kind of a whirlwind of meeting people and exploring the city. There are 56 SCIO students in total from different Christian schools across the country. I have enjoyed interacting with all of them and learning about different people's experiences.

Sunday was an excellent opportunity to take part in some British experiences such as an Evensong service at Christ Church Cathedral. The service was lovely and the acoustics in the church were even lovelier. I found myself getting lost in the music as the choir sung prayers and scripture passages while weaving in and out of complicated harmonies and counterpoint. I was also "kidnapped" for lunch by a lovely Scottish couple at the church I visited. They took a group of us back to their home and made us a delicious meal and of course, plenty of tea.

Because Oxford's Michaelmas term does not start until the beginning of October, we have a chance to get to know the city and the libraries before all of the students arrive. However, this does not mean that I get a month of vacation. For the next few weeks I will be taking a rather whirlwind class about British culture for which writing three essays as well as a theology seminar which will culminate in a research paper due at the end of the term.

St. Gile's fair was a particularly enjoyable portion of exploring the city. It is a street fair that completely takes over one of the major streets in the city. There where carnival games, rides, and food. From my limited experience I have found that British carnival rides are faster, taller, and overall far more dangerous looking than their American equivalents. Some of the higher rides provided an excellent aerial view of the city (although most of that view was skewed by being upside down). In terms of carnival food there were many booths boasting that they served the best "American Burgers." I tried some "american" doughnuts, which I found to be far tastier than actual american doughnuts. They tasted almost like fried dough and were coated in white sugar :)

Much better than american doughnuts!!!

Each arm of this star rotated on its own as the whole star spun around.
Riding this during the day provided excellent views of the city :)

The little pod at the top of the arm rotated on it's own as the whole arm spun around. 

As many of you probably know I am a huge Harry Potter fanatic. Though not many scenes from the films where actually filmed in Oxford I have managed to track down most of the filming sights. Today I toured the cloisters of New College whose passages and courtyard where used in 'The Goblet of Fire.' Yesterday I visited the restricted section of the library. I believe this will be my chosen study spot for the year. The smell of old books permeated the room creating an overwhelming air of history and knowledge. The Bodleian is by far the most incredible library I have ever visited. I cannot wait to dive into its depths of knowledge!!!

No pictures allowed in the Restricted Section, but here are some places from Goblet of Fire!

Tomorrow we embark on a trip to Stonehenge, Old Sarum and Salisbury. (For any of my friends from home: looking at maps and not thinking of their NEW England equivalents has proved to be quite a challenge.)

I am completely awestruck by every little thing that I have experienced here. I cannot wait to share my coming adventures with all of you!

~ Brynn :)