Oxford is a lovely city when shared with friends, but it is an incredibly meaningful city when explored alone. There are plenty of places to go in groups, like pubs and dance clubs, but many of the most poignant experiences are best done by yourself. Luckily, I'm a very independent person, so I have no difficulty exploring on my own, and finding my own treasures.
Wednesday was an important choir service; it was the Eve of Corpus Christi, and we were singing very difficult music. It's a new thing for me to sing in a choir; I have some confidence in my voice, to an extent, when it's just me and my teacher, but when it comes to singing in an ensemble it's a bit nerve-wracking. There's just so much I don't know, and I do the best I can, but my inexperience keeps me from even knowing if I'm doing acceptably or not. I enjoy it very much, though, and it's been a great social experience as well.
I hadn't had a chance to take pictures of the chapel yet, but I made time this week. It's where the choir rehearses and our services are held, and it's absolutely beautiful. It's part of the intimidation factor that it's so lovely, because it's hard to break that impressive silence with sounds that are less than perfect. The rest of the choir seems well immune to that by now, but I'm not sure if I still feel it just because I'm new, or because I've always had a kind of reverence for sacred spaces.I really enjoy watching the Anglican services as well; it's so different from what I'm used to, and I like the formality of the ritual.
Plainsong is particularly lovely.
Thursday was an absolutely gorgeous day: 75 degrees and sunny with a perfectly clear blue sky. I managed to finish my essay at 10 o'clock in the morning, so I spent all afternoon after lunch in the Botanic Garden reading
Measure for Measure and sunning. The Garden, as I mentioned before, is beautiful, and it was incredibly relaxing to lie in the grass just reading and thinking. I put up many, many pictures, most of which can be found
HERE. That's the third of my Oxford albums now; you can find the first 400 pictures (seriously!)
here and
here. You might like to check them all out, if you're particularly interested in Oxford; I add a bit of insight there that I don't repeat here, and you get a much larger selection of images than I share in the blog.
Saturday I was in a bit of a foul mood, so I went out to get lunch and food for dinner about mid-day. As I walked down Cornmarket street, however, I was suddenly waylaid by a street performer and shanghaied into volunteering for his show. He was a knife-and-fire juggler, and the show was very impressive! My job, however, was not. While others got to shout things for the audience to repeat, or lie down on the ground and have knives juggled over them, I was given the task of keeping the stage alive whilst he switched tools between tricks. How, one might ask? ...I was given a large red baton, told it to wave it in the air and run about the perimeter of the circle shouting "LALALALALA" at the top of my lungs. Let us just say that I did as I was told and leave it at that. Not, perhaps, the job I would have chosen for myself, but it's something I couldn't say I'd done before, certainly. Saturday was a fun day in general, as Cornmarket street turns into a kind of street festival on the weekends regularly with all the street performers, and you can see more of the pictures toward the latter part of this album
here.
Today was my second-to-last service with the choir, and it was lovely. There's this really cheesy piece by Basil Harwood, Magnificat and Nunc Dimitis in A flat that's really silly, but it's my absolute favorite that we've sung for some reason. We did it once earlier in the year, and we did it again today. I can't find any recordings of it online, except this absolutely awful little midi file. If you want to hear what just the Magnificat sounds like,
this is as close as I can get you. It's nothing like hearing it with real organ and voices, but... I also had a really delightful conversation with an older gentleman who's been participating in Hertford Chapel Choir for 20 years about breeding cows. He actually has connections in Williamsburg about the Devon Milking cows that apparently have died out in the UK but are still alive and well in the 'burg. Small world, hm?
That's all for this week, I do believe. Time for Things I've Noticed:
- People are much less touchy-feely. Hugs are rare, and even shaking hands is not particularly common. I gave Helena a hug after our last tutorial, and she seemed a bit surprised. Not displeased, but...
- Religion here is very different from at home. There's a generally much more open attitude about people who are different from one's own self, and there's certainly no issue for people who are both gay and incredibly devout. In fact, probably about 60 or 70% of the ordained that I've met here are gay, including the Hertford chaplain.
- I've only known one of the hymns we've sung in chapel, and it was under a different name with different words. All the rest are completely new to me.
- Apparently turkey is a "very American thing." Who knew?
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