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 :)