Last days in Oxford

July 28th 2010 was our last full day spent in Oxford, and despite the general feeling of sadness for our approaching departure, it was a day well spent and very enjoyable. We chose the right things to do to make a perfect ending to our journey so that we could experience our Oxford in its natural glory. After breakfast, the Bridgewater group walked down to St. Mary the Virgin's Cathedral located behind the Radcliffe Camera. We all had our sneakers, inhalers and hydration ready thinking we would be near dead by the time we got to the top- but it actually wasn't so bad. We went pretty early so luckily it wasn't busy with other climbers. To be honest I am not sure how so many people can access the stairwell at once, as it is extremely narrow and spiral, equipped with a climbing rope for assistance. This was reminiscent of Goodrich Castle, although I think Goodrich was a bit more challenging and daunting considering the staircases were more narrow and pitch black-exhilarating indeed. So a few levels and we were at the top of the cathedral looking down on the beautiful architecture and landscape that is Oxford, lit up by the sun breaking through the clouds. This is always fun to look down on the familiar streets and thinking of oneself in context, where you've walked before and seeing it from a different perspective. When you're on the ground you're engulfed by your surroundings, whether hills or buildings and plucking oneself out of it, you're such a small piece of the earth!

Following St. Mary's, Megg, Casey, Caitlin and I walked down High street and found ourselves a punting chauffeur. We got on a punting boat adjacent to the Botanical Gardens, and our chauffeur's name was Rachael. The weather was great and there were several other boats of people enjoying the punt. We punting through a break-off stream of the Thames, a small portion of it that runs through Oxford. There were baby ducks and geese, and even a Pimms boat that one could punt up to and order the delightful drink. We just enjoyed the scenery and the calming ride. Afterward we had a look at the Botanical gardens- one that Tolkien and Phillip Pullman were familiar with- sat under Tolkien's pine tree and saw Lyra's Bench, a bench that was featured in the Golden Compass in Lyra's world. So that was neat. Lots of interesting plants and flowers. For lunch, the four of us took Casey to the Turf tavern. Some of us had been there before, a surprising discovery considering you can't see it from the road. It is like walking into Hogsmeade and suddenly there is this huge pub with multiple rooms each bustling with poeple eating and drinking. For our last dinner, we were served a four course meal with two types of wine, Wadham water and coffee and mints. The meal was a Lamb shank with potatoes and vegetables, followed by a caramelized pear. We had had a Pimms and Sherry party with Dr. Plaskitt before this to say farewell, it was enjoyable to have met her. She took a bag of bones home with her for her dog. Our last night out, we enjoyed some drinks at the Eagle and Child and the White Horse, two of our favorite pubs.

And so the next morning we brought all of our luggage out to the Wadham courtyard as we did in the beginning and returned our keys. One last trip to Blackwell's as well, one of the best bookstores (the retailer of Knowledge) and it will all be missed. Just as it takes awhile to hit you that you have arrived somewhere, so to is it that you have left it. We drove away in the coach bus, rewinding our journey's through the English countryside, back to Heathrow airport and onto the plane. I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in England, it was such a privilege to study at Oxford University! I think that it is very important to explore the world we live in, as there is always room to learn the unexpected about the country, oneself and ones' peers. My experiences will not be left forgotten and I am appreciative to those who have aided and inspired me to seek beyond what is readily available.

The last few days were quite great. We managed to complete the square on Shakespeare plays- history, romance, tragedy, comedy. Last Thursday the 22nd's performance of Romeo and Juliet was very much enjoyed at the Said business school. It was stadium seating outdoors, and the music and costumes were quite different. Tuesday the 27th evening's performance of a Midsummer Night's Dream was also highly entertaining, with costumes from the earliest 20th century and this I would have to call my favorite. Having seen Megg's sister's performance of it, it was familiar and enjoyable to make connections.I think it was a good note to end on as well- hilarious.

I managed to jeopardize the weekend a bit with my lack of a working essay- so this was frustrating. I think the topic change threw me off slightly but I know myself and this is the type of thing to learn from. The results though were rewarding and it's been pretty great to learn under an Oxford English professor at any rate-I will remember this. Two papers for this course complete, anthropomorphism and routes of morality being the topics. Discussions over tea have been wonderful- both stimulating and inspiring. I'd like to finish the rest of some of the fantasy series we read. It was a very helpful course for posing questions and initiating discussions, it's inspired me to take a different perspective on participating in my geography and anthropology courses- one that I hadn't quite exercised before.

Monday was the White Horse as I had written about, Tuesday (27th) a few of us went back to London. This time went much more smoothly despite the running around afterward. First we walked by Buckingham palace, the Queen's quarters. We saw a pack of deep brown horses being rid by men in their red guards- not quite the changing of the guards but they were on the way to their posts. There was a stature of queen Victoria before the palace. We went to the British Museum which had quite an extensive collection. I was happy to see the Rosetta Stone and the Olduvai hand tools(thanks to the Leaky's), and the South African landscape exhibit. Megg got to meet up here with an Estonian friend, so I was quite happy for her as well : ), making global connections is a beautiful opportunity. We also attempted to run to Harrods afterward, but it was too far to go to get back to the bus in time. I'd say the day was a pretty fulfilling experience. London has so much to offer, but I've learned from all of our journeys here that the most remote and rural places are also the most vibrant. When speaking of towns, Oxford is one that will stick close to the heart, it's familiar and nostalgic, whereas I think London is so big that one remains distant from it even after repeated visits.

White Horse of Uffington

Tuesday was just grand. After breakfast in hall, Megg, Casey, Caitlin and I took a taxi from Wadham right to the base of White Horse Hill. Our cab driver's name was Richard, and he prefers the movie Babe with all the sheep over the Toy Story series. We had to drive about 45 minutes to Uffington, again one of those small, isolated places where you really realize you're in England. It was a misty day, but almost perfect for seeing the White Horse, and the sun broke through the clouds toward the end. The White Horse is a prehistoric hill figure from roughly the Bronze Age, the design of a horse cut into the ground and laid with chalk. No one knows its true purpose but it is thought to be symbolic of identity and/or carry religious value. It is the oldest chalk figure in the Vale of White Horse, where there are many other chalk figures to be found!

We took the foot path from the parking area, and walked through the hills of grazing sheep(adorable ones with black faces and white bodies), and the view was great. You could see for miles out over England, and there was a map to demonstrate what was seen in the view. Taking photos couldn't replicate what we saw, but it was beautiful. We had a look at the White Horse from several angels. It was so strange and surreal to be there standing next to it in the grass; having only seen it in pictures the distance was certainly minimized. So we went right up to the horse on the hill and walked among the carved out shapes, put our hands in the chalk, enjoyed the view...

Behind the White Horse hill we walked up another hill to the remains of Uffington Castle, from about 300Bc! It was a huge circular foundation of where a castle would have been- only just grass now and a bit of stone that can be seen under the grass. You can see the form of it underneath, the empty space and the gray sky made it eerie and exciting. Many more of the black and white sheep were grazing there, and a few brown ones. They stood on the castle mounds against the horizon and we stepped through their poop. Awesome! Also near the White Horse is Dragon Hill, where a legendary dragon was slain by Saint George. It was a hill at the base of the White Horse that had a flattened top- it was quite a hike downwards- but Megg and I remembered the technique we learned in Nicaragua, take steps sideways to make it down without falling! This was one of my favoriate excursions on the trip, it is so difficult to replicate.

On our way back to the parking lot, we found that our taxi driver, Richard decided to stay and wait for us. In all his time spent in Oxford he had never been to the White Horse, so he had a look around. He didn't even charge us extra for anything, just a really nice English man.

Cheerio

mažas pasaulis

Small world-

So at Wadham there are these cleaners called scouts, who come by each morning and take away the trash and give you new towels and that sort. We used to have this woman named Avril, but recently another woman has been working in our staircase instead. I was coming out of my room the other day and overheard Casey and the scout talking, and Casey says- oh Frances's heritage is Lithuanian....WHAT? How exciting, our scout is Lithuanian and I had no idea! Her name is Dzeneta (I'm assuming and hope this is the correct spelling, pronounced like the English Jen-etta, J's in Lithuanian sound like a y). So she lives outside of Kaunas and I hope to befriend her, because one can never have enough Lithuanian friends and connections! She was saying how her English wasn't very good ( I would argue against this) and that she speaks just Lithuanian at home. She is far from home though, and since the language isn't common here I hoped it was somewhat heart-warming? to hear one's own language unexpectedly. My own skills are so minimal but now we have the entire hallway of BSC students saying Labas Rytas when we see her. I speak English and pretty much only English (unfortunately) at the moment, and I'm in England where they speak English; I'm less distanced from my own culture in that sense. So I would imagine it would mean something different for Dzeneta. I told her I'm traveling to Lithuania next summer...

Stratford-Upon-Avon

Tuesday July 20th BSC and Westwood groups took a bus to Stratford-Upon-Avon, home of Shakespeare's birthplace and burial. The first thing we did was eat at the Black Swan pub, also known as the Dirty Duck- it has a two-faced restaurant sign. The pub used to be a place where people would go after seeing the nearby plays in the theater and adjourn for a drink or two. There were quotes on the walls from Shakespeare's plays and multiple rooms. Afterward, the BSC group walked down the street to the Holy Trinity church, where Shakespeare is buried. We had took it upon ourselves to purchase a bouquet of red roses and place them on his grave, and sure enough we were allowed to do this. The guard had said "go for it," and we were all quite pleased. He was buried inside the church with his grave marked as

"Good frend and jesus sake forbare,
to digg the dvst encloased here.
Blesse be y man that spares y stones
And cvrse be he y moves my bones"!

So the red roses lay o n his grave for some time, and perhaps they are still there! Afterward, we went toward the middle of town, a street busy with people and small gift shops- and Shakespeare's house. This was interesting, the house was set up as it would have looked in each room, and a few people were inside dressed in the attire appropriate for Shakespeare's time to answer any questions. Then followed the gift shop and bookshop, and a bus ride back to Oxford!

London

Saturday July 17th was a day in London with the entire BSC and Westwood group there. Each group split and did separate visits until we met again in the evening at Shakespeare's Globe Theater. There is so much in London that I did feel rushed through it (some of the circumstances were not in the majority's favor I might say) like an animal tourist so that I should like to return. I would like to get to the British Museum and see the Rosetta Stone. So we arrived and bought tickets for the hop on hop off transportation (which is also narrated for tourists) and made an entire route through the city. From the bus we saw Big Ben, the parliament building, the Eye and drove over the tower bridge (not London Bridge) over the River Thames. We as in Megg, Casey, Caitlin, Heather and Jen visited Westminster Abbey, which was beautiful and crammed with tombs of famous kings including Edward the Confessor, Richard II (not the lionhearted Richard), Henry III, I believe and some others, as well as the tomb of Geoffrey Chaucer, but I don't know that he's actually in there (Megg says it is speculated). An interesting part was the Poet's Corner in honor of some of England's well-known poets and literary writers- Shakespeare and Lewis Carroll I recognized, but there were many more either in name on plaques or in sculpture.

We also went to the London Tower, also known as Her Majesty's Royal Power and Fortress. This is where the crown jewels are and was a refuge for some monarchs- but we didn't get to explore much. Our group was shuffled into a guided tour and suddenly it was time to go, but it was a pretty interesting place. I felt bad for Casey because she really wanted to see the crown jewels!!

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre was the best part of the day! Casey, Megg, Caitlin, Jen and I managed to eat dinner at Pizza Express which was across from the theater and though it was a relatively sophisticated restaurant, we were surprised to order and eat margarita pizzas with basil within a 20 minute time span and get to the theater in time for the gift shop! After the gift shop we received our tickets and found our designated doorways to enter the theater. The front of the theater is made of a glass doorway, but when you go inside it connects to the theater replicated how it looked in Shakespeare's time ( it burned down on June 29th in 1613) and was rebuilt twice since then but it still looks the same. Note the picture, the stage was at the back, with an open pit in front (for the peasants) and rows of balcony seats in a circular pattern around the stage and open space (for the nobility). Most of us were in the first row of seats through door 4, but Caitlin had a seat on the opposite side on the second or third balcony. I was not familiar with the plot of Henry IV ( I admit all I have read in the past are King Lear and Romeo and Juliet) but it was really exciting to experience the performance- something the English have been doing at this theatre for centuries in his honor. Clearly more than the English perform his plays today but what I mean is that reenacting them in his theatre is such a tradition and it is not going to die off any time soon. I enjoyed the performance and the actors and music were great, I enjoyed the costumes and the simplicity of stage setting changes as well. So having seen the Tempest and Henry IV, and looking forward to seeing a Midsummer Knight's Dream at the Bodleian (performers from from the Globe), I am thinking I am inspired to read a bit more of Shakespeare's plays sometime soon as I would like to be more familiar!

Goodrich Castle

My apologies for everyone waiting in anticipation for my next exciting update, it has been such a busy week. We went to a few more places and worked on our papers. For my first paper I chose to write about the use of anthropomorphism in fantasy literature! I thought that this was pretty interesting so I chose a few characters from the Magician's Nephew, The Horse and His Boy, by C.S. Lewis, as well as Phillip Pullman's the Golden Compass. Each authors view of animals and imbuing humanlike characteristics were different...C.S.Lewis having heavy Christian elements and Pullman being the opposite, the role of animals in the plots were essential but conveyed with different motives. So that was fun.

Wednesday July 14th
After breakfast Megg and I went out for a walk around Oxford with the intentions of getting coffee and looking for a post office to send our post cards. At the end of Broad street we turned left unto what I think is Cornmarket street, it is a slightly more commercial street with no cars but shops and people walk and reminds me of a similar space in Lyon. So we walked down this road and kept going and stumbled upon Alice's Shoppe, a small narrow gift shop that Alice Lidell used to go to buy sugar across from Christ Church. This was the most adorable gift shop and was filled to the brim with all kinds of Alice things- mad hatter tea in little top hats, pins, magnets, clocks (Megg got the White Rabbit) aprons, chess sets- everything! I got one of those pens where you turn it and and image floats by...I have been collecting pens..and pins! So this was a really great discovery. Afterward we walked through one of the college pathways and found Merton College where Tolkien went and Magdalen College where Oscar wild attended.

Thursday July 15th
I think that besides the first weekend trip to Wales, Thursday was one of the most exciting or fulfilling days- resulting in the good kind of exhaustion. Since plans were changed for the entire group the following week, Megg and I decided to use Thursday as the day to get to Goodrich Castle instead. Having family heritage associated with it, Megg was hoping someday to reclaim her castle ruins, but the journey seemed impossible. We managed to figure out the multipart travel route though and basically took a pilgrimage to the heart of England. We took an almost 2 hour train from Oxford to Hereford (where the Mappa Mundi is that we didn't have time to see), then managed to find the bus route to Ross-on-Wye, and from there we were lucky enough to get a ride on a shuttle that stops at Goodrich Castle lane. This last ride and the following hour was the best part of the day. It was compressed into such a short amount of time compared to the travel but it turned out to be a rich experience that was incredibly worth it. It was kind of neat to have made the trip on our own separate from the BSC group and visit a place so far a way. And it really did feel far away as this castle sits on top of a hill in the heart of England and it was regal.

It could be seen from the bus driving toward it, and Megg and I were dropped off in a very small, isolated town. Once off the bus, we had to run up the hill to make the best of time and a realization came over us that we were actually in the middle of England...of England! And it is this part of the country that extends into Wales that has been most beautiful to gaze upon.
The castle is made up of this magnificent red sandstone and is made up of several additions. The keep is the oldest part from about the 10th century, and the rest from the next 2 or 3 subsequent centuries. Megg and I charged through the castle and managed to get into almost all of the rooms, hallways, latrines, dungeons and stairwells in the next hour (and run back and catch the shuttle). One stairway was a spiral and it was so narrow and dark that a rope was added in so that visitors wouldn't fall- and the rope was made use of very well. What is also funny is that this castle was attacked by the Roaring Meg- a giant cannon during the English Civil war. A mote was also dug around the foot of the castle, all grown in with grass, and the giant mounds of red sandstone the castle sat on were weathered from the waters that had once been there. Literally this sandstone was red which made for a pretty awesome castle, and all of Ross-on-Wye was deposited with the sandstone because you could see mounds of it naturally or carved into structures coming out of the town. Exploring with speed was really fun, and I was glad my friend could visit a family-related place as i got to do this in Wales- and it is something really to be cherished! I love doing things like this.