One Day More

      This is it, today is our very last day here in Oxford! That's a hard thing to even think about, let alone write... I'm sure we are all filled with mixed emotions today. I've gotten to feel so at home here in this city, with my own little room, my view out the window, my routes to different places in town...it will be hard to leave. But at the same time, Oxford has lost its newness. I'm starting to look around at it and feel like i'm just at home, or at Rhodes... the beautiful sights in the city are so familiar they have lost their glamor. That's how I know it is time to move on to the next adventure! But I know i'll be leaving a little bit of my heart here among the dreaming spires.
       Yesterday was our last day of exams (phew!) and our final formal dinner. It was also Whitney's birthday! We had a really wonderful evening with our faculty and friends.

Professor Mitchell, who taught Tudor history, was asked to get up and give a little farewell address. He insulted the north of england and the people who live around the Mediterranean in typical Oxford fashion. At the end he said: "You've probably read the 7 million books in the Bodleian Library, found the gateway that led Alice to Wonderland, and hopefully some of you have found the home where one of George Washington's grandfathers was born. And If you haven't done one or more of these things, that is an excellent excuse for you to come back and see us!"

After dinner I went down to the campus bar with everyone and finally had my white russian!

This morning I went and sold my textbooks at Blackwells and got 54 pounds back (that's over HALF my money I paid for them!) Alex and I bought some tape and detergeant, and our final lunch in college was some delicious fish and chips! I have been packing this afternoon, trying to decide what to take and what to leave here in England. Alex had a few inches at the top of her tiny suitcase she's leaving that I was miraculously able to fit a HUGE pile of clothes i don't want to take in. Then I went to the covered market and took one of the discarded cardboard boxes to put some miscellany I won't need on the continent in. I still don't regret only bringing one suitcase, but I wouldn't have been able to do it comfortably without Alex's generous help!
       With some of the money I got back from my books I went over to Scripthum and got Uncle Larry and I each a little hot air balloon to commemorate this part of the trip. I hung them in my window for a little while--it is such a beautiful day!

      There are so many things I'll miss about living here in Oxford. I'll miss this wonderful room I have, where every night I can look out at the tower on the library lit up as I go to sleep. I'll miss posh nosh and the crepe stands and Ben's cookies. I'll REALLY miss formal dinners, and having tea in the JCR. I shall miss all the faculty i've had, especially Sally (we'll see her again before it's all over though!).

      Despite these things, I feel a thrill of excitement when i look over at my packed suitcase--so many wonderful things still in store! I am ready for the next adventure! so heeeeere we goooooo!

My Favorite Things!

      Finally the day arrived and it was time for Alex and I to go into London to see THE SOUND OF MUSIC at Regent's Park Open Air Theater! We got up and hopped onto the X90 (note: if you ever need a Oxford to London bus, take the Oxford Tube cause X90 was not as nice, made more stops and was then more complicated to catch on the way back). Because of a triathalon going on in the center of London we couldn't get off at Baker Street, so we rode all the way to Victoria Central and took the Tube (with lots of help from a kind Londoner behind us in line who helped us know which zones we needed). We took the Victoria Line to Oxford Circus then switched on to Bakerloo to get to the Regent's Park stop, easy as pie!
       After a lovely walk through the park we arrived at the Box Office and effortlessly got our tickets. We had time to go back to a cafe a little outside Queen Mary's Gardens for a very affordable and yummy lunch of tomato soup and toast!

      The weather was cool and cloudy but we had very little rain all day (Alex and I both wore a t-shirt, sweatshirt and raincoast so we were READY). We got back to the Theater about 15 minutes before the show and took a sneaky picture of the set which is copyrighted but I did it nonetheless mwahahaha. I had hoped for some Sound of Music merch but there wasn't much out. Our seats were PERFECT (row E seats 9 and 10). Honestly they could not have been more perfect.

       From the second the show started on I was grinning constantly. Maria came in from the top of the arena singing "The Sound of Music" and I pretty much wanted to bawl. The nuns were perfection with some really interesting harmonies that made their singing more interesting than in the film. The choreography was really great too, especially with the children in "Do Re Mi." Captain Von Trapp (Michael Xavier) was incredibly tall and have a very luxurious beard. He was very in touch with his feelings and made for an interesting deviation from Christopher Plummer. My favorite Von Trapp child in this production was Kurt because he was adorable and a really strong soprano. Liesel was not quite as coy, sassy and wonderful as in the movie, but really, how could she be? The Reverand Mother was sooo good--really solid singer and such a warm relationship with Maria that you don't get in the film, probably because "My Favorite Things" actually happens between the two of them at the Abbey in the musical and "The Lonely Goatherd" is the one Maria sings to make the children feel better in the storm. Baroness Schrader was a much less complex character on the stage--much more evil and less graceful and sly. She and Max had two songs that aren't in the movie!
        Overall Alex and I decided that the tone of the film is more serious and grand while the actors in the musical had to have a lot more energy in their acting to put across the story (the cameras and setting are a huge advantage to the film). The cast overall seemed much younger, especially Maria. She was a really amazing singer and a fiery, cute personality, but she had a lot to live up to. Julie Andrews is the only Maria that will ever be canon for me, but I enjoyed this take on her! The biggest difference: RALPH DID THE RIGHT THING!! After all these years he finally didn't betray them! Instead of Captain Von Trapp playing that weird mind game, Liesel just looked at him and he told the lieutenant he didn't find them. Yay Ralph!

        At the end we all jumped up and gave the longest standing ovation I have ever participated in. The actors took 4 bows and were visibly pleased, especially Von Trapp and the Reverend Mother. It was the matinee on their very last day of performing so I'm sure it was a fairly emotional moment for them--who am I kidding, it was a pretty emotional moment for me!
      After the show I had post-Disney Blues (that's where you did something so wonderful that the rest of your life momentarily feels meaningless) so we walked aimlessly until we took the Tube to Leicester Square for some fish and chips which were deeee-licious.

     I tried to persuade Alex for us to get some discount tickets to another West End Show but she was smarter and said no, so we Tubed to Westminster to look at the Abbey and Big Ben before we began the arduous journey back to Oxford.

Basically it was THE BEST DAY EVERRRR.

Victoria and Albert

       On Friday we went into London to the V&A to see the Raphael cartoons for the Sistine Chapel tapestries as well as their Renaissance and Medieval collections. We spent an hour with Sally (yay!) looking at the Medieval collection and then an hour with Caroline Brook looking at the Renaissance stuff upstairs, including a wax preparatory figure by Michelangelo and one of Leonardo da Vinci's journals. I was a little tired because I stayed up too late the night before, but it was a fun day!

 The beautiful chandelier in the V&A entryway

The oldest piece in the Medieval Collection--the back of a wax writing tablet with a priestess of Jove, c. 400 

The Gloucester Candlestick, an excellent example of English metalwork and my faaavorite thing we saw! 

Bishop's crosier with a nativity and the story of saint Nicholas engraved 

Funeral monument for a knight--kinda boring compared to the other stuff 

Michelangelo's preparatory wax figure 

Little gold and enameled tabernacle for the bread of the Mass

I really enjoyed seeing the Raphael Cartoons but they were behind glass so the glare was terrible. Still these are probably the greatest masterpiece of the V&A and since many of the actual tapestries have been destroyed they are the true originals! Anyways the cartoon is ALWAYS better than the tapestry...tapestries are the worst...

Whoops

I forgot to mention that on Thursday I was on High Table!! I got to sit right by Sally, so it was extra loud when she hit the table to announce the beginning and ending of dinner. Since there was an actor who came to introduce the play and talk about the Globe, the reception beforehand was open to everyone and extra fun.

            Our seating chart for the evening!

Olivia did my hair so I got to have the fancy fraulein braid for High Table! Afterwards we all went down to the campus bar and then out for a little bit.

The Lincoln imp down in the staircase next to the campus bar! 

Those Oxford Days

      After a last minute decision not to go back into London today, Alex and I spent a really incredible day in Oxford! You know, I'm sorry to say that during the busy weeks of class I don't have as much time to go out and explore this most amazing city, and so these saturdays are really precious to sight seeing and really soaking in my temporary home!
       Alex and I had really been yearning to go over to Magdalen (pronounced MAUD-LIN) College, where CS Lewis was Don for a number of years, and walk the famous path where he and Tolkien were  when CS Lewis became a Christian. It didn't open until noon, so we stopped into our favorite Cafe, the Queen's Lane, and had some hot chocolate first! It felt like a very important pilgrimage, and Alex and I had the loveliest time retracing those authors' steps and talking together in a similar way :) As much as any cathedral, that walk feels like a foretaste of heaven, and the sun was out shimmering off the narrow strip of the Cherwell, making the leaves glow bright and leaving sun spots on the path beneath our feet. Simply magical! I wouldn't have been in the least surprised to turn a corner and find myself in Narnia!

After 2 hours on the paths of Magdalen, I got to fulfill another great desire of my heart: I bought some Oxford merch! The prices are WAY better than the Rhodes bookstore and I got a really great sweatshirt (Oxford blue, of course) and a Lincoln College t-shirt with our crest! It even has our little Lincoln imp on it...so ya know, that was a must.

       Later Alex and I bonded with the French crepe man on the corner--he was absolutely charming and had a jar of nutella the size of a bucket. He seemed a little confused that we American students were still hanging around, but we assured him we would be remaining at university for 2 more weeks!
       After a crepe, we headed over to the Bodleian Library for their Magical Books exhibit which was FANTASTIC! It was packed and the space was a little small, but it was a wealth of interesting items including some of the original Middle Earth and Narnia maps drawn by the authors themselves, one of Tolkien's watercolors for The Hobbit, and Richard II's actual illuminated astrology manuscript. I wouldn't mind going back and having a little more time there, actually, since it closed at 4:30, and the apologetic librarian had to usher us all out!

       All in all it has been a very laid back and wonderful day in Oxford. A trip to the food truck topped it off with an order of cheese fries!

The Globe!!

     Yesterday was our day excursion to London for a performance of Shakespeare's Henry VI Part 3! Yes, I know, it sounds like a pretty random Shakespeare play... but luckily we've have a whole week of Shakespeare class this week studying the play to prepare! We left Oxford around 9 and bussed into the city--I was napping and kept peeking out to see if we were there yet! And then we were and all those familiar feelings came back: London! The most beautiful city in the world! It gave me the greatest feeling of joy to walk along the Thames again, see the bridges and the dome of St Pauls. It was my third time in London and it almost felt like a tiny homecoming.
       We had lunch at Borough Market on the East Side very near to the Globe and I had (surprise surprise) fish and chips! Then Alex and I walked the short distance to the Tate Modern--which, it turns out, is different from the Tate Britain and had NO Pre-Raphaelite art boo. It is housed in an old fire station with a huge tall tower overlooking St Pauls on the West Bank, so its quite imposing and has beautiful views!

It was very fun to go investigate and try to wrap our tiny, insignificant brains around famous modern art works of deeper meaning, such as these gems (note especially the middle canvas):

 

I'm sorry, I know many people devote their lives to the careful study of such works and artists have devoted much more in creating it! I hope one day to better understand contemporary art, but I have to say that for this visit it went straight whoosh over my head. Ah, well. It was still fun to go! I know Sadie and Olivia had studied the art and knew much more about it, so my favorite part of the visit was when we ran into them and Sadie explained minimalism to me, so that at least the photo on the right meant a little more to me. To know is to have passion!
       After the Tate Modern we headed back to the Globe for our 2 o'clock matinee. We had GREAT seats on the bottom tier of seats and I made sure to get a cushion as the benches are a little hard. It is difficult to sit that long with no back on the bench but the play was so good I hardly noticed it! I couldn't sneak a video, sorry :( but I did get some pics of the stage with the heads stuck everywhere (spoiler, people lose their heads in this play...)

Our view!

It was a really wonderful day in London and I am looking forward to more!! After we got back there was a pizza part in the JCR and then I just had watch Shakespeare in Love--after the day I'd had, I almost felt like I had lived the movie!

Ireland!

Once at Heathrow, I found a waaay better way to get to Dublin than by airplane!

Seriously though, I actually had my own row on the airplane so I could just lay down and sleep. It was only a 50 minutes flight from London to Dublin, so the travel was very easy! Our first stop was the Guinness Factory which was SO FUN. We had a tour, then a taste test, then learned how to pour our own perfect pint! It was awesome!

         After we left Guinness storehouse we headed for Trinity College where we stayed, which was founded by Queen Elizabeth--at that time the only university in Ireland! Our rooms were really nice and they were suite style in what was really more like a small house with kitchen, living room and five bedrooms (sorry West Village...) My room was soo nice for sleeping. We went a grabbed some pies out for a snack at this adorable Irish pie shop--I had chicken and asparagus with gravy!
        Friday night we had the most delicious meal I have had this entire trip and that is really saying something, at a Dublin restaurant called Dobbins. I had a fried goat cheese appetizer (best thing I have ever had!) followed by a delicious lamb entree and then a chocolate mousse. It lasted a long time but the company and food were perfect!

      Saturday was our free day in Dublin with some optional group activities and OF COURSE I took advantage of every group thing. The highlight for me was getting to finally see the Book of Kells whch has been on my bucket list. It was absolutely as beautiful as I'd imagined and BETTER. The minuteness of the detail is impossible to understand from a picture. Unfortunately the exhibit was not pulsing people or very well organized so I had a hard time getting near the manuscript let alone perusing it to my hearts content. We got a much better page than we did when we saw the Lindisfarne Gospels: the author portrait of Matthew and the carpet page at the beginning of his gospel!

SO MUCH BETTER IN REAL LIFE but these are the best images of what I actually saw that I could find!

       After Book of Kells we had a really nice lunch at the Irish National Gallery--Stevens was like "have as much of anything that you want!" so I had fish and chips and an enormous piece of white chocolate cheesecake that I really wish I had a picture of because it was soooo good. 

       The gallery was really good but not quite as overwhelmingly full of wonders as the Scottish one. I did see some gems though including a Caravaggio, The Taking of Christ--My first in person! 

       That night a group of us went out for Indian food at a surprisingly upscale restaurant (the list said "affordable" but...) called Jaipur, then I had a chocolate orange shake. It was Molly Mugford's birthday so a big group of us went out to a Latin club and danced--I had a really good time! Trinity College is right next to an area called the Temple Bar which is an equivalent to the French Quarter so there was lots of do! 

      Sunday we were up bright and early to have an excursion into the Irish countryside. I was ill-prepared for this trip with my 3/4 sleeve white sweater, because with the wind chill it felt about 40 degrees out there! Our first stop was the monastic site at Glendalough which is also home to two very beautiful lakes and a forest that looks like a fairytale. Once I had narrowly escaped hypothermia I was able to admire the sheer wildness and beauty of the place. 

After Glendalough we moved on to a country hotel where we had a three course lunch that was very fancy but not quite up the standards of Friday! The hotel however had a beautiful view of the technicolor green mountains. Last we visited an Irish manor house that had some of the most beautiful gardens anywhere...unfortunately I forgot my camera on the bus! 

        After we had boarded the plane to come back to Oxford, they fount a dent in the side of the airplane and we had to get off and move to another one! Sarah and I read Henry VI part 3 outloud on the flight for our brand new Shakespeare class due to start the next day. We made it back to Lincoln College at about 10. 

      I really had an amazing time in Ireland--It was such an adventure! Dublin really felt very different and much newer somehow than the places we'd been thus far, and I found it a very neat place to visit! Ireland is a country that has had more than its share of suffering, not only in the past with the Famine and English oppression but even recently with the economic crash of 2008, and it is evident when you are there. Even so, I found the country beautiful and the people charming--through it all this beautiful green island has endured! I feel so privileged to have been able to visit it.