Sick and Beautiful

I've been feeling a little sick these past couple days. That waking up achy feeling and the going to sleep stuffy feeling and the runny nose all day. But I've been able to get up and get work done and go the library (more on that). And I've been eating and getting lots of liquids.

Not debilitating, just uncomfortable.

Yesterday, Tess and I walked down to the Botanic Gardens. Unfortunately, a lot of construction workers with their machines also decided to go at the same time, so it was a lot more rumbly-er than I had expected and all the greenhouses were closed, but we walked around for about 10 minutes. It was nice, but would have been nicer if it had been a quiet escape.

Also! I bought a hat! It was only 3 pounds.

Classes are still going well. I did much better on my Magic paper comparing magic and science and my tutor, Rory, said so. We had a really good conversation during class and we went through my paper and discussed all the points and the reasons behind the argument that I made. I really liked that. It was pretty laid back in terms of environment, but rigorous in terms of discussion.

I also went to the library today, the Radcliffe Camera, and read for most of the afternoon about medieval medicine for my next paper for Magic.

I wish I could take pictures inside the library, because it is beautiful in there. There are busts on top of almost all the bookcases, small curved staircases. I was on the upper floor and the ceiling opened up into the dome. There were intricate marble carvings all over the archways and ceiling and balcony railings.

I am really glad that I went to study there, but I still want to see more of the other parts of the other libraries as well.

And then I came back, took a small rest. Then I looked out the window and saw this as dusk settled in.

One thing I had heard about Oxford was about it's "dreaming spires." I knew it referred to the towers that rose above most of the other buildings.

But I don't think I had really seen them until tonight.

P.S.- More pictures are up from the past week.

Venice?!

I'm going to Venice! The last week in February, the 24th through the 27th, Tess, Ally and I are going to Venice. Here's what it's going to look like, I hope.

We bought our tickets the other day. I had a little trouble trying to use my credit card, it got denied, but we still got our tickets.

We are planning on staying at a hostel there called Sweet Dreams which cost about 22 pounds night. We also checked several websites; they have consistently good reviews, no word about bed bugs, and its also very close to the center of the city.

I am super excited! I have wanted to go to Venice for a long time. The canals instead of streets, the architecture, just the thrill of exploring a new place. I am really looking forward to it and I will be sure to take lots of pictures.

More recently in Oxford, I've been doing homework. I'm still working on that balance between doing reading and finding time to go out and explore the city. I did go the Bodleian on Saturday to read. What a cool place! There's all sorts of portraits on the walls and there are paintings all over the wall and books everywhere (well, it is a library). Along with that the small, dark wooden stairwells, the stone courtyards. I really liked it there.

Also, recently found out about a place/ pub/ venue for live music really close to St. Michael's Hall called The Cellar. Apparently there's live music most nights there. Something I would definitely like to check out because I love live shows.

The weather's been pretty nice, it's been pretty clear today, about 4 degrees all day.

Nesting

Last night I went to jujutsu, got there on time and was there for 2 hours. The class cost 2.50 and everyone there was very friendly and helpful. They were also very helpful and thankfully I wasn't the only beginner in the class. The only real problem I had was understanding sometimes when other people were talking (because of their accent), but I think it was mutual.

The class started with about 25 minutes of stretching, followed by practicing (learning for me) falls and rolls. Then we did warm-ups of attack and defence stances, foot movements with snake wrist grabs which were then combined with punches and kicks.

Then, the teacher, David, probably in his late 40s, worked with the 4 new students, teaching us wrist crushes, arms locks, and strangle defenses.

It was really nice to be outside of CMRS and meeting new people. And to be getting some physical activity. I think I will definitely go back next week.

Also, today I noticed a pair of birds building a nest in the tree right outside my window. I took a picture of one of them. Does anyone know what kind it is? I also notice that is had kind of a bluish streak on its tail and I thought I noticed a streak/ spots of green (just 2 spots potentially near its wings), maybe.

I feel a little like these birds, collecting things from all around, slowly making myself a home here, even though it won't be there for long and I'll be somewhere else next spring. In the meantime though, to continue the metaphor, what's going to hatch?

I definitely need to do more reading and I have postcards to write. My tutor yesterday for Magic class told me that my paper could have been much better and that I need to read more, so I will. I'm glad he was up front about it and I got that immediate feedback. That was really helpful.

Off to lunch now!

Pictures from Ambling

Also, more pictures are up!

http://picasaweb.google.com/pfsparklin

Houseboats and Tea

I had my first experience of going out and having tea the other day. Not drinking tea, but going to a place with the specific intention of drinking tea around the middle of the day. We went to a small tea drinking establishment called "The Grand Cafe" around 2:30 in the afternoon. It was a group of 8 of us, but it was very crowded inside, so we couldn't all sit together.

It was however very cozy inside and not too expensive. Only 2.50 for a small pot of tea (I got a kind called ceylon) which was about 4 cups of tea. I discovered that I like both milk and sugar in my tea and I very much enjoyed the sugar cubes.

It was very nice to sit in this warm, cream colored cafe with copper chandeliers and get to know each other better.

I can see how this could easily could become a tradition. It did very nicely in tiding me over until dinner and it was an excellent break from work. Well, it would have been an excellent break from work if I had been doing some earlier, but instead Tess and I had gone to see the houseboats.

In reality, we only saw the houseboats accidentally. We had gone out to see if we could find Port Meadow, a large field west of the city centre. In searching, we wandered along a canal path, the Oxford Canal, thinking it might lead us there. It didn't.

We walked only part of the path and then turned back but later saw if we had stayed on it we might have gotten there. It was a little confusing. But anyways: houseboats.

Along the side of the canal, tied to the bank were a row of houseboats. I had never really seen anything like this before and at first I thought they were just moored because they were for tours and it was icy and winter. In fact, they were residences. I knew because they had mailboxes and there were people inside of them cooking and cleaning. Here's a picture. Unfortunately the pictures on this post aren't mine (I really should take my camera more places and not be so shy about using it).

I really wander if the houseboatpeople have their own separate community and what that's like. Do they visit each other? How many people can a houseboat hold? What are interactions like? Do they mind being tied up along a pedestrian footpath (but I guess they could move very easily)?

It was also very strange because this houseboatcommunitycollective was only about two minutes away from the city centre. Oxford, I am finding, has many different parts that seem very mashed together, but yet somehow it seems to work.

After the houseboats, Tess and I continued to try to find Port Meadow, since it was a nice sunny, warmish day. We walked down a main road, didn't really find it, so we turned around. Upon later reviewing our journey on a map we found that right where we turned around, if we had gone up that street, would have taken us directly to Port Meadow. Oh well, maybe another day. But we will go, because when I searched for pictures of Port Meadow, this came up.

I hope there are tiny ponies everywhere.

In recent days...

Went for a walk at Christ Church Meadow. It was about a mile long walk, and Tess and I saw the Thames, and the the cathedral (from the meadow). It was very quiet and soft and pleasantly away from the city center. We could still hear the street and and people talking and children shouting at a nearby school, but muffled. It was really quite beautiful hearing the sounds of all that life contrasted with the sight of the imposing, gothic towers of the school. That juxtaposition, I feel is very indicative of how I see Oxford (except sometimes not quite so muffled). The street outside almost always has people walking, shopping, talking with the buses rumbling, screeching, bumping with the new buildings leaning and becoming a little like the old buildings, watching, waiting, blending.

I also now have all of my classes set up. I have not met my Russian tutor yet, but I will be having an assessment of my Russian skills next week...we'll see how that goes (I have been reviewing). Also, I have my first assignment for my Occult Sciences in the Middle Ages (hereafter most likely referred to magic class) due on Tuesday, where I have to write a 1000 word essay on what things were "new" in the occult learning during the middle ages. I think most of it was taken from older works, but there was just an increased interest/ use of occult sciences because of changing political climate, religious views, etc.

Also, I will try to go to Ju Jitsu this week. At 8 this time.

And today Tess and I went to the Barracks Lane Community Garden. It was about a 45 minute walk away and through a much different part of Oxford than the City Centre. It was much less touristy, less focused on the university it seemed, and also a little more run-down. Is this because it's not focused on the visitors or the tourists? Maybe it's what Oxford would have been like without the University. It was on Cowley Road (if you wanted to find it on a map).

The garden we visited was a little small and not much was growing because, well, it's cold, but there were some people there. One woman who was visiting with her son and a couple 'trustees,' who helped organize and create the garden. We sat with them and drank tea in their yurt and talked about the garden and the community events they have there and how they created the garden.

It was, I think, a really good experience to get away from Oxford and see something that wasn't focused on the University, to see, at least a little bit, of how the "ordinary" people of Oxford live/ what they do.

In the common room tonight, we played an intense game of Cranium and talked. It's nice and a little easier to spend time with other people here I don't know as well and I will continue to do that.

I have been feeling a little homesick and tired and missing people from home, but I got a bunch of postcards and would like to write to people and will be Skype others soon, so that will help.

Sorry about this, but I am ending on a more tragic note: I am almost out of Cheez-its. And they are not sold in the UK.

Christ Church Meadow Pictures

New pictures! We visited Christ Church meadow today.

First Seminar, More Potatoes

Today, I woke up a little late (11 ish) and went to lunch where they had mashed potatoes (I think I'm going to eat a lot of potatoes). We had mashed potatoes and vegetable casserole with dumplings (the casserole was not too good).

I then walked to a community center about a mile away (about 25 minutes) where I might be joining a ju jitsu club that they have once a week. I think it will be a good way to meet British people and to see more than just the city centre. The walk was along a well lit and very populated main road with a police station on it (in case you were worried about my safety). I found it very easily and I think I will be going tomorrow.

After that I came back and puttered around a little bit until 3 when I had my first real class, my Shakespeare seminar. The tutor is a man from Texas, professor Hanna, and there are 9 students in the class, Ally, Tess, and Julia included. The tutor mainly talked about Shakespeare's life and his works in general. He said in later classes he won't talk as much and we will be discussing Twelfth Night next class and we have to write a 15-16 page research paper for the end of the semester. We only meet once a week every Tuesday at 3.

Then hung out in Ally's room for a little while with her and Tess. We did some logic puzzles and looked for places to see live music. Then we went to dinner, Indian dishes tonight with potatoes and rice and spinach and vegetables.

I think later tonight we will either be going out (where, I don't know) or staying in and reading Twelfth Night together.

Some people are going to Portugal this weekend and I am invited to go, but I'm not sure if I will. I think I might instead go with Tess with a group that does wilderness and park conservation outside of Oxford. We will see.

The Bodleisdfgernen and St. Peter's

So yesterday, I went to The Bodleian, the library, which I will supposedly be using for most of my research while I'm here. The main building has these huge pointed gothic, spiky spires and all the doorways are enormous stone arches. Unfortunately I did not have my camera, but I will go back and take pictures because I thought it was beautiful. All the CMRS folks went together because we were going to get our "reader cards" (basically library cards, but much more so). After leaving St. Michael's Hall, we went through several snow covered alleys and courtyards, finally coming to a large wooden door in an archway, which was maybe 15 feet tall. The senior tutor, Mark Philpott, knocked solidly on the wooden door three times, and we waited as the sound echoed about the silent courtyard.

Then from behind us, came a woman walking quickly, telling us to go on in and apologizing for being late and not being inside to open to door. So it was a little anti-climatic, but we went in and got our Bodleian ID cards which allow us to go into the library. We can't check out books, no one can, but we can actually go upstairs to look at books, which you can't do if you don't have a card.

Also, it is a little confusing because most of the books aren't on shelves, they have over 8 million books, so you have to request them and then go pick them up in the reading room, where you can look at them. I'm not quite sure how to request them yet though.

Then we went to St. Peter's college where we got a tour of their library and common room (where they have dances) and chapel and bar. Oh, the Bodlien is the library for all of Oxford University. I still didn't have my camera here either, but I can go back and take some because I have to go there everyday to eat.

Speaking of eating, yesterday was our first time in the cafeteria. They have a small selection of food, most of which is served by the workers there. The line is separate from the eating area. For breakfast there were hash browns, eggs, baked beans and fruit and yogurt. Lunch was bread and salad and tomato soup and vegetables and potatoes. Dinner was potatoes and vegetables and mushroom ravioli. They do have meat options like chicken and beef, and they serve a lot of potatoes. We swipe our library cards after we get food to pay. There are three long tables the length of room and on the width of the room (this is at the end of the room, looking out over the room). That table is for tutors only and they have fancy bread and fruits on the table as well as their water pitchers. There are two tables for students and the St. Peter's College kids eat there as well, but I haven't talked to any of them. They also don't wear robes. The only Oxford affiliated person I've seen in robes has been the woman giving us the library cards at the Bodleien.

Then in the evening we went to lecture by one of CMRS' tutors, Dr. Crowe, who talked about the Renaissance and the ideas about art and the changing feelings of the people and the ideas that were present. We got a list of reading to do prepare for future lectures, but I have not started on that. I'm going to have to do a lot of reading here I think.

After all that I was pretty tired, so I hung out in my room read a little and just relaxed.

A Brief Overview of the Past Few Days

Which will be Updated and Expanded and Explained in Greater Detail (one day)

1/6-1/7
Plane
Airport(s)
Bus
St. Michael's
Oxford
Orientation
Dinner

1/8
Woke up very early
Went for a walk
Fire Drill
Pita things for lunch
Orientation stuff
Shopping
Walking tour
Made dinner (pasta and spinach)
Eagle and Child
Tried to find others
Came back to St. Michael's
Played Camp/ Kims/ Kimps
Bed

1/9
Lecture
-trips for integral
-tower of london
-kennilworth castle
-statford upon avon
-bath
-hampton palace
ate soup and leftovers for lunch with julia
took nap/ laid around
walked around with ally, joanna, anna
eviscerated animals
blackwells poster store
o'neill's
kings arms
attempted thirst
bed

1/10
woke up late
food at sainsbury's with alexis and julia and tess
went to museum of history of science
bought knife, sandwiches
looked at trips with ally
watched love actually in common room