Of Gardens, Flames and the Beginning of the End

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?

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.