Of Graves and Drag Queens

Monday and Tuesday of this past week were relatively boring.  It rained, in proper British fashion, and I managed to finish my work early, so I legitimately had absolutely nothing to do until I received my next assignment.  In an effort to shake off the general malaise associated with being utterly at loose ends on a gloomy day, I decided to venture forth to try to visit Tolkien's grave.  It had been spitting a bit all morning without fully raining, so I took an umbrella but wasn't overly concerned.  I figured out the bus routes all by my lonesome, and got on my merry way.

Can I just point out, by the way, that the Oxford city buses don't announce the stops?  They're not very tourist friendly, since it took me half an hour online to even figure out which bus goes where I wanted to go, and you have to be able to recognize your stop by sight without any indications.  Conveniently for me I had written down which streets were close to my stop, so I managed to achieve transportation victory, but really, it wasn't overly easy.

To return to the point, as I sat on the bus, it began to rain.  Not terribly hard, just a constant drizzle. Okay, thought I, that's not too bad; I have an umbrella.  The moment that I identified my stop approaching, however, the gravid clouds gave birth to an approximately infinite number of tremendous rain drops.

In short, it poured.  And I wasn't wearing my wellies.

Despite this, Wolvercote Cemetery is lovely. Apparently it was voted "Best Cemetery" in 2001, and while I'm not sure what that would entail other than keeping its dead people soundly interred, it was a beautiful place despite nearly drowning.  Tolkien's grave is pointed out by a series of little stone markers.  The grave itself is a little cluttered with fans' tokens of admiration, some of which are completely inexplicable, but it was nice to see it for myself.  I had nothing to leave, but I was there, and that's enough for him and me both, I think.  I'm glad I got the chance to go while I was here.

Wednesday I had my tutorial with David.  I'd read and written on Measure for Measure, and I have to say that it was the first time in my Shakespeare tutorial that I actually felt mildly brilliant.  The conversation was really engaging, and I really felt like both David and I really enjoyed it.  Plus, I apparently uncovered something he didn't know: the name "Isabella" is associated with the phrase "consecrated to God" in Italian, and it works particularly well since Isabella in the play has every intention of becoming a nun.  To say that I did not do a mental happy-dance when he said he hadn't known that would be to lie.  I only have two more meetings with David, though we're doing them both next week, on Wednesday and Thursday.  I have to write on The Tempest, and already wrote another essay on A Midsummer Night's Dream about how the movie/play "Closer" by Patrick Marber starring Natalie Portman and Julia Roberts is the same story retold.  It was a challenging essay, but I'm not too worried.

Friday I finished my tutorial with Jennie.  I'd written on religion, myth and fairy tales in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson, which I didn't find to be a particularly challenging book. I'm working on finishing up my tutorial with David now.

Saturday was Oxford Gay Pride!  There was a parade and a huge fair, and it was a lot of fun.  I went with friends, but ended up staying more than twice as long as they did; I got a lovely henna tattoo on my hand (for those of you who aren't familiar with henna, don't worry!  It's not permanent, it's just a stain that wears off within a week or so, depending on how well you treat it.)  I also took some fantastic pictures, which, as usual, you can find here.  It was a ball, and I'm glad I got to experience how Oxford does it.

Today's the last service with the Choir.  It all went very fast, and I can't believe this is the last one.  There's the Hertford College Music Society dinner on Thursday, which is a costume dinner based on the theme of "Children's Television."  I've got my costume all set up now, but I won't give it away yet; wait for pictures next week!

For my penultimate post while still in Oxford, I'll introduce a new category: Things I Miss:

• Mexican food
• Seafood other than fish (which is usually fried anyway), but right now particularly crab  (Mama, can I get the all-you-can-eat Maryland Blue Crab when we go to Tim's Rivershore?)
• Milk with meals (the Hall only has flavored milks, chocolate/banana/strawberry most of the time)
• Veggies other than peas and cabbage

Pretty much food in general other than carbs and meat, actually, so let's move on from that.

• The various cats that deign to share their existence with me
• Legitimately hot summer
• William and Mary
• Family
• Friends
• Night time.  The days are 16 and a half hours long and we're still more than a week from the solstice!

And of course...: Things I've Noticed:

• The bumble bees here aren't the big fat yellow and black ones back home.  They're smaller and gray.  The hornets, however, are huge and nasty.  I killed one (accidentally, while trying to catch it and put it outside, actually,) while TJ was still here, and we joked for the rest of his visit that I'd slain a dragon.  Seriously, massive.
• Dogs, according to my observances, are not nearly so pampered/appreciated/generally adored as they are at home.  If you smile and look at someone's doggy, the person gives you a weird look.  What, I just like your dog!
• "Trashing" is an Oxford post-exam tradition.  After you've finished your last exam, your "friends" pelt you with all sorts of detritus, from champagne, silly string and confetti to eggs, mayo, flour and all sorts of other nastiness.  What they throw is kind of up to them, so some people are nice and only throw relatively inoffensive things, but lots are less considerate.  Personally, for someone like me who really appreciates being clean, it sounds dreadful, but since I don't have exams I don't have to worry about it.
• Strangers make more eye contact than I'm fully comfortable with.  Cities like DC and New York have taught me the golden rule of "Look straight ahead, don't engage, use your peripheral vision" for strangers.  People here (particularly the homeless, but that's another story) will definitely look you in the eye before moving on.  It's mildly discomfiting. 
• Hand-rolled cigarettes are much more of a thing.  I see them pretty frequently.

Of Gardens and Cities

Forgive me, readers, for I have sinned.

I have committed the basest of transgressions available to the American world traveler.  I have worshipped at the temple of the most unholy.

I have eaten at a McDonalds in a foreign country.

Allow me to make a few excuses for myself before I'm utterly condemned.  Around 5:00 on Thursday afternoon, my innate clumsiness, passed down carefully from generation to generation finally down through my mother to me, reared its persistent head.

Basically, I whacked myself in the face with my own laptop and gave myself a nose bleed.

After pouring out my lifeblood into a tissue for a while (for the concerned adults: yes, this is hyperbole.  No, I wasn't dying) I felt decidedly shaky and displeased, and I really just wanted a taste of home.  Since I think it'd be pretty impossible to ship my cat overseas in a box, I went for the next best thing.  What could better ring true of the American experience than a big, nasty quarter pounder with cheese and a side of fries?  So, dear reader, I have sinned.  And it was good.  And it made me feel better about hitting myself in the face, too.

On a less graceless note, I had my first session with my third tutor on Wednesday.  It's held all the way up and across the river at St. Catherine's college (pictured), which is much more modern than Hertford or any of the others I've visited.  Large, airy, modular buildings.  My tutor is different as well; first of all, he's the only male tutor I've had here, and he's a bit more traditional in the way he conducts our meetings.  Instead of emailing him my essays in advance, I must bring two copies with me to each session, where I must read them aloud.  He stops me every couple of sentences to discuss what I've said, and enlighten me on what I've gotten wrong.  And I do get quite a bit wrong; I've never had much exposure to drama in the past, so I'm not very good at writing on it yet.  I analyzed 12th Night in a literary way, and didn't address the aspects that are found only in plays.  I'll get better, though; David's an interesting tutor, and not nearly as scary as I was fearing.

TJ and I went to the Botanic Gardens on Thursday.  They're amazing!  I'd seen them without realizing on my walk through Christ Church meadow many times, and had admired the flowers nearest the fence.  Going in is a whole other experience though.  I think my favorite areas were the greenhouses.  They have a lily house, fern house, palm house, insectivore plant house, and cactus house.  Perhaps even more wonderful, I found Tolkien's favorite tree at the back of the main section.  It's a beautiful tree.  It deserved a hug, definitely.  The best part about the gardens is that I get in for free with my Oxford student card, so I can go back as often as I like.  I absolutely plan on doing so, especially if we have more nice days like we did this week.

 On Saturday, we went to London.  This was one of the highlights of my trip thus far, I think, just because it was such a fun, relaxing day, and we got to see so much.  We took the Oxford Tube bus to the city, (about an hour-and-forty-minute to two-hour ride,) and then booked an open-top doubledecker bus tour for the day.  This was the best idea.  While it's true that it was a very touristy experience, sometimes it's better to just admit that you're a tourist and go with it.  We never would have seen as much as we did otherwise, and it allowed us to see a ton without getting worn out walking across the entire city.  Westminster Abbey is probably what we saw most in-depth, though we also saw Big Ben and Parliament and got off at Piccadilly Circus, the Times Square of London.  We thought about trying to see a show, but the best price for tickets we could find was 29£ for a show we weren't particularly interested in.  Avenue Q would have been fun, but it was 44£ per person for the Saturday 4:30 showing, and that's a bit steep for college students on a budget.  London's the kind of place that you absolutely can't do justice in a day, though, and I'd love to go back.  If you want to see all my pictures, you can find them HERE.  The first 30 or so are from the Natural History museum in Oxford, but once you get through those it's all London.

Tomorrow's my 21st birthday.  Not sure exactly what I'm doing yet, but I think I may go to the Eagle and Child and have a pint or two.  Should be a good day.

To wrap things up, here are Things I've Noticed:

• I saw no street vendors in London.  No gyro guys, no souvenir hawkers, not even a kebab stand.  There were a couple of ice cream trucks, but that was it.
• British people cannot take the sun.  It hit 75 degrees (24 C) and was sunny yesterday, and I can't tell you how many people I saw with terrible sunburn.  Personally, I found it delightful and didn't get any color at all.
• While it's true that driving in all cities is stressful, I do have to say that at least the bus drivers in London are pretty awful.  We actually dinged a traffic light at one point yesterday.
• This country really is just swimming in baby animals at this time of year.  I saw more foals, calves and lambs than I've seen in my entire life just on one direction of my trip to London.
• Speaking of, there's been much less beef on a day-to-day basis, and much more lamb than I'm used to.  I suppose it would have something to do with having a country that doesn't have nearly as much open grass space for cattle, so I guess what cows you have are mostly for dairy.  You just don't have room to have an ever-reproducing supply of maturing meat wandering around.