Note of interest

For those interested, I've begun writing about Anglo-American History (the focus of my history studies) on this blog: http://angloamericanhistory.blogspot.com/

All Good Things...

Yes, its the title of a Star Trek episode, but it seems apropos for the moment.


I am sitting here in the common area at The Vines, keeping track of the various departure schedules, as at long last our motley crew of Historians, Theologians, Philosophers, Classicists, and Literary Critics has come to the parting of ways. The last week has been an exhausting blitz on our Long Essays - the capstone project of the semester, where all we've learned is (hopefully) brought together in one 4,000 word paper.


This morning we had a last lunch together and farewell to our excellent SCIO staff, and punctuated throughout the day tomorrow students will be leaving - some for home, and some on various tours of Europe and the UK.

This is probably the last England post on here - I will be touring the UK for the next two weeks, and then I will come at long last on April 28th back to Spring Arbor.


I look forward to seeing you all,

Daniel

After a month....

Yes its been forever since I've updated, mainly for essay-related reasons.

Now, however, that we are 7 days and 1 essay away from finishing, I have some time.

I believe I left off at the end of Term, as I was crazily polishing off an essay on the Navy.

After term came Spring Break, a welcome relief to all involved. Mom and Dad came over (which was amazing), and we did stuff in Oxford and in London. Oxford they got to see th ecity (well, City Centre, mainly), and we got to hear Handel's Messiah performed by the Bach Choir, which was spectacular (why we don't use the sacred music of the old classical and baroque composers in our American protestant churches I'll never quite understand - the lyrical glory of English choral music puts American praise songs to shame), Then we went to London and saw the British museum, which you can just spend days and days in without getting bored; among other things we saw the Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles, and the Sutton Hoo hoard - the place has centuries' worth of archaeological treasure hunting in its neoclassical frame.

We also got to see the "classic" London sights, and stayed at an amusing B&B with an eccentric (internet-loving) keeper; as a bonus, we got to hear Bach's St. John Passion at St. Paul's Cathedral, which was superb.


After that it was back to the salt mines, but soon enough Easter arrived, and I took off for Glasgow with a group of friends from the program. We got to see the city known in its heydey as the "Second City of the Empire," as well as Stirling Castle and Stirling Bridge (and the Kirk of the Holy Rood) in an eventful day-trip to Stirling.

Easter service was spent in Glasgow Cathedral, conducted from the good old Church of Scotland Hymnary.

The trip also brought a new appreciation for finding places in coach stations to sit and enjoy bread & cheese (a staple for traveling students) - for the record, Somerset Brie is better than French Brie, and bagettes make for good snacks.

After that, its back to the salt mines again (including a long night writing an essay that somehow earned positive reviews despite my sleep-deprived and caffeine-saturated state).

All that - as well as so much more (including trips to a Roman Castle, the HMS Victory [Nelson's flagship], and Coventry - best known for it bombed out cathedral and Lady Godiva) - is passed, and I shall now go and read for my final essay. Cheers.

Winchester

Yes so I finally got around to doing something other than reading, writing, going to lectures (yay I love my lectures), and going to Church. A friend of mine here (Alyssa Lord) and I went to Winchester today to see, among other things, the house where Jane Austen died, the great hall of Winchester Castle (where the Round Table is kept - and yes, we also saw the table), and Winchester Cathedral (where we saw Jane Austen's grave and attended a concert by the Oxford University Orchestra). Aside from that we managed to traipse around Winchester and see things like the Royal Hampshire Regimen Memorial and Museum (boy those guys were busy on the 18th century - service in at least 3 continents and 5 theatres of warfare), the St. Giles lookout point, Woolsey Castle, Winchester College (old medieval buildings, yay!), an old medieval house that looked built for Hobbits (I was as tall as the rafters), and the King's Gate.

All in all, a satisfying day (capped off by a fun time trying to navigate the British Rail System).

In other news, I've also (maybe) set a personal record with 8 trips into city centre in the last 5 days, 3 straight times being among those fortunate few scholars who get to hear the bright bell bidding Bodley's bibliophiles bon-voyage, and hadd Fish and Chips at the Eagle and Child (mushy peas are actually pretty good).

A pretty eventful week. And now, back to reality - time for my last tutorial essay, this one on the British Navy (yay for narrow topis ;)

At the risk of being repetitive: I have a ship to attend, O Revoir.

Fine

The title should be read as Italian.

Anyway, its been awhile ere I updated; the main reason for that is that the last two weeks the essays have been harder and the reading lists longer. Now, however, I can finally see the light of spring break at the end of the tunnel; I finished off my secondary tutorial today, and now only have one essay left in my primary - the second to last meeting is tomorrow.

Term winding down does not mean the end of my stay here is in sight, but it does mean things get a little less frenetic. We have another class with the SCIO staff after term, and also a seminar with a long essay (the draft proposal for which was due this morning).

Other than tutorials (hah - do we do anything other than tutorials here?), I've been to church at Magdalan College and at Christ Church Cathedral the last two weeks. Both were excellent, and the architecture only made things better. I've come to rather enjoy the liturgical Anglican services, and of course the choral music can't hurt.

I've also attended some really good lectures over the last couple weeks - today one on Halley's Comet and the Fall of Jerusalem was particularly good.

Anyway, that more or less summarizes whats been going on the last few weeks.

Low and High Church

This week was a bit more eventful than the previous; yes, most of the time was consumed by the reading of books and the writing of essays (and the doing of logic exercises); however, I managed to go out and do some other things as well.

On Tuesday, I attended a Shrove Tuesday meeting at the home of the vicar of St. Mary Mags (the really high church of last week); there, we had English pancakes, after which a group of us headed over to Hertfordd College and attended Complins sdervice there.

Wednesday was an Oxford Amnesty Lecture on Islam and Human Rights, which also turned out to be really interesting (and worth the £4 it cost to get in).

Earlier today, I went to a church on the low church side of things, an Evangelical Free Church, that was very similar to home; since it was a family service, it was quite reminiscent of Caring during the summer. After that, I went to Christ Church College for lunch, as they open their dining hall to University members on Sunday afternoon. Finally, this Sunday evening, I went to Evensong at Wadham's, where they had a good service followed by a nice meal.

And now I am back to essay-writing.

However, to give one humorous quote:

"There are two things in life you should never try: Scottish dancing, and incest." ~ The Bishop of Lincoln.

Essays and A Really High Church

This weekend was consumed by a long (4800 word) essay. I read multiple biographies and wrote a brief account of the career of Pitt the Elder.

In all of this, however, I did manage to make it over to a new church; this week: St. Mary Mag, ostensibly the highest church in Oxford (incense, holy water, &c.); the music there is of particular comment - the choir was one of the best I've heard here. The congregation also seemed quite personable - I think it counts as my favourite of all the churches I've been too thus far.

Thats about it for the weekend, however, to give you a sense of some of the amusing things that happen here, I've decided to sporadically give lists of quotes & anecdotes; frequency will depend on the wit of those here.

Quotes:

Academics
"If you're psycho, you're not right," ~ Dr. Leftow, Existence of God lecture
"I sometimes have oak-hallucinations," ~ Dr. Leftow, Existence of God lecture
"This is my translation, so it may be confusing." ~ Dr. Tunstall, History and Modern Language lecture
Dr. Kilburn: Did you do anything exciting this week?
Me: Mainly just working on this essay
Dr. Kilburn: I thought so when I saw you'd sent me a file with 22 sides [pages]


SCIO Students
"Certainly anything less than sub-atomic weapons should be legal" ~ Me, comments on Gun Control
"Why do people always say 'be a man' and then tell me to do something stupid?" ~ Paul Ferrell
"Only a philosopher would understand that diagram." ` Nevin Climenhaga, comments on Existence of God lecture
"No one told me it was the big beautiful Georgian building," ~ Faith Dever, after failing to find the Examination Schools

Reading and Long Evening Walks

Yeah, running theme for Fridays: I've spent the last few days reading. This time its Pitt the Elder, a rather interesting chracter. Anyway, I suppose the only other thing of real interest to happen of late is that I am developing a predilection for long evening walks into the city to clear my mind before studying - it seems to work fairly well, and we certainly need times to just do something other thanr eading and writing here.

I suppose to give a little more commentary on churches, I'll probably be attending a charismatic Anglican church in the near future; I enjoy the high church services, although the mood is different - its not dry, but there is definitely more of a sense of awe to them than one of excitement. Its different, and I rather enjoyed the ones I've been to.

Tutorials and Choral Evensong

This weekend (as usual) was more or less consumed with writing my essay (the last one involving Walpole, it least as a political figure)); and, as last week, the 2500 word goal turned out a 3900 product (no, 2500 was not a guideline from Dr. Kilburn - I simply set it as a decent goal to have for each Primary essay).

However, I was not too busy reading and writing to make it (twice) to church at St. Mary the Virgin (the University church; in medieval times, Oxford University was entirely contained in the old Norman [11th century] cathedral. Coincidentally, Cardinal Newman was Vicar there at one point, and among notable attendees were the Wesley Brothers). The service was liturgical (its a High Anglican Church) and a marked contrast to the low churches (St. Andrews and St. Ebbes) that I had attended. I enjoyed the service, and appreciated the depth in the liturgy and hymns we sung (and the scholar in me loved the Latin). That evening, the same church had a massive choral evensong (like, 200 people in the choir; 14 different college choirs combined); thatwas amazing to hear - and we also got a pretty good (if debated, at least among SCIO students) sermon from the Bishop of Lincoln.

I had tutorials again, and they seemed to go well (Dr. Bell has now taught me both truth tables and tableau in logic).

That about sums it up.

Chess and Reading

You'll find it no surprise that the better part of my week (as usual) was spent reading in preparation for my next essay; this is only the third essay of the term, and I'm already about half way to the page count I racked up last semester; no class back home will feel like alot of reading by the time I'm finished here.

Beyond reading, the main event of note from the past week involves an old pastime of mine: chess. There are several of us living here at the The Vines who enjoy the Game of Kings, and with three of us at about an even skill level, we get some fun games going. Tuesday evening, myself and one of the other guys from here decided to go and pay the Oxford Chess Society a visit, and found that we liked, and - when homework permits - will go back. There were people there of all different skill levels, and it was an enjoyable evening.

That's about all that has happened recently - I've done some work here at The Vines, and some at the Bodleian, but my tutorials have manged to keep my fairly (but not overwhelmingly) busy.

Bells and Essays

Since Friday I have been mainly working an essay (one that turned into a 3500 word monstrosity); Saturday was devoted to reading, Sunday evening and Monday to writing.

I did, however, find some time to go to church and evensong Sunday during the day. Church was at St. Ebbes, an Anglican low church; it felt similar to church at home (escept there was actual wine for the Eucharist - and pretty decent wine, at that); the preaching was good, and the worship effective. I prefer it to St. Andrews, and unless I visit another one I like better, will probably go there regularly.

For evensong, I visited St. Giles - a high church Anglican church. There, they were having a special bellringers evensong, which meant we got to hear a handbell choir (which was pretty amazing). I enjoyed that service as well, and very well may go back.

As a last note to all you tea drinkers back home (Mark & Angie especially) - an interesting tidbit from Jonathon Kirkpatrick (one of the Junior Deans here, a student at Baliol College, and a proper English gentleman by any measure); when you get tea with milk, put the milk in first, then the tea - it tastes better that way (and is a proper English way of doing it).

Reading

Yeah, the title says it all; I've pretty much been reading straight since I last updated you all (as well as attending a few lectures). I suppose the only other thing of note (beyond the 3 near 4 books I've read since then) is the genesis of a Bible Study here amongst the men of The Vines (really everyone - we meet the other SCIO guys once a month).

I've another essay due Monday, so I will depart now for the land of 17th century English politics.

London and Tutorials

Its been a few days since my last update, and so I will curtail my Walpoling activities (yes I do have Walpole sitting by my desk at the moment) for a little while and give you chappos an update. I will try to be more regular - perhaps look for these thingees on Teusdays and Fridays, although I may include some randomness to keep things interesting.

We'll start out with London, which consumed my entire Saturday. The trip started with us running to reach the bus stop in time to get on the same bus as Johnathon and the people from the Crick Road house (the other house where SCIO students are lodged). Safely aboard, we went to marble arch, where Simon and Johnathon lead a brisk walk through the American embassy, past Grove Park and the aristocratic part of town, down to Buckingham Palace, St. James, and through the government areas - where such sights as Whitehall Palace, Westminster Abby, Westminster Cathedral Parliament, Downing St., the Foriegn Office, and the Exchange where all pointed out.

Finally, we reached Trafalgar Square, where we spent about an hour and a half (far too little time) touring the National Art Gallery. From there, we grabbed the tube and took a tour of Old London (the medieval part of the city), starting at the monument to the Great Fire and ending at St. Paul's Cathedral (with a side trip to see the White Tower [London Tower] and the Tower Bridge; London Bridge of course is in Arizona), where we participated in the Evensong service (and got to hear their world-famous choir). After service, we went and ate at a nice inn in Chinatown, before returning to Oxford (getting back around midnight). That was London.


The other thing that happened (the one that kept me securely fastened to books on the Revolution of 1688 and thus not updating here for a few days) wass meeting my tutors and getting aroundd to my first essay

My primary tutorial is in British History from 1685-1830; the tutor, Dr. Matthew Kilburn, is an extremely knowledgable fellow; I met him on Friday, where he assigned me an essay on the Glorious Revolution, which managed to consume my weekend until it was due Monday. I like the course, and while it will be far more reading and writing than any other course I've done (perhaps equal in reading load to my entire from last semester, and with twice as many long essays, although none of those killer exams).

My secondary tutorial is in Introductory Logic; the tutor, Dr. Jordan Bell, not only is an expert in philosophy, but he is an extremely personable and friendly man. We met in his office, and were able to have tea as we worked on validity, consistency, formal logic jargon, and truth tables. This course won't have much reading, but I have a list of logic exercises as thick as a book to keep me busy. We've decided to ignore the 1 hr. set time for tutorial meetings, and we may schedule an extra meeting; this course is especially reminiscent of homeschooling, because we have no set curricula - its basically going to go as far as we can take it.

That pretty much covers whats gone on the last few days; I shall leave you all now, I've an appointment with a Cornish Pasty coming up, and would hate to miss it.

Sludge and Pudding

Today was an interesting day, to say the least. Orientation is finally nearing its end (not that orientation isn't scintillating, but - as necessary as it is to know what we are doing - it is always more fun to be doing things than it is to be told what one is going to be doing, when the time comes to actually do something.

Today, however, provided a memorable occasion. We went on a field trip to Stonehenge, Old Sarum (an iron age fort used by the Britons, Romans, Saxons, and Normans - it had a Norman Castle, and was where William the Conquerer had the landholders swear allegiance to him before releasing the Domesday Book), and Salisbury Cathedral (that of the 400 ft. spire).

Stonehenge went as planned - we went to go see the mysterious big rocks that have been sitting there for nigh on 5000 years now, as well as the wooden post-holes that have been around even longer (and are currently marked by white circles in the carpark). It was a grey, rainy, blustery English day, but nothing too badd.

Old Sarum, however, provided as formidable for our bus to enter as it was for any number of Romans and Saxons. On the narrow roadd up, as we were crossing the ditch in front of the outer battlement, our bus lost grip in the wheels, and - knocking out a fence - proceeded to try and toss 60-oddd SCIO students and 3 staff members (not to mention the odd driver) into the ditch. It wound up with one wheel off the groundd, rocking precariously (for the 7 of you who might recognize this reference, it was eerily reminiscent of Mom, the Van, and Kentucky). However, Simon Lancaster, our guide, efficiently evacuated us, and soon we were trooping along into the fortress with its castle and cathedral ruins.

There, the wind attempted to whisk us off the battlements, but with the wind and a pleasant rain, touring the area was thoroughly enjoyable. However, our bus was having much less fun, and so we had to go and hire a new one to take us to Salisbury. Getting to this new bus was a rather messy business, involving all 70 of us packing into a little giftshop about the size of the dining room here and waiting, only to go on a log around the circumference of the fort to reach our new vehicle. The path of course was turned to mud by the rain, and the winds and rain only increased. By the time we reached Salisbury, we were a rather bedraggled lot.

Salisbury was more than worth it, however, with its beautiful cathedral, a 220 foot climb to the base of the spire, and a chance to see one of 4 surviing original copies of the Magna Carta.

When the dday ended, we were all wet, tired, and pleased with our trip. Even better, Dr. Rosenberg had pizza and pudding (puddding here meaning desserts of all types) awaiting our return.

To any who is interested, I highly reccomend cordial. Its a great drink, but be sure to dilute it to one part cordial, 4 parts water - any more and it will overpower you.

And now, I have a ship to attend, O Revoir.

1st update

Hello all

Well, I arrived safely in England, with no major travel travails (although a bit of excitement helping find room for everyone on a train from Birmingham to Oxford). The first day was uneventful - mainly getting here, meeting the jr. deans who will be running the house
where I am staying (for you SAU folks, think giant coed K-house with about 40 people in it), meeting my roommates (who I have gotten along with excellently) and moving into the spacious room (triple the size of my SAU room) we will be sharing. The evening was quite, as we were all pretty jetlagged.

The next day also was spent meeting people and recovering from jetlag, although a few of us did find time to go into city centre and find some of the easier to locate places (most importantly the Bodleian, where copious amounts of time will be spent reading their millions of reference-only books)

Sunday one of my roommates and I did a more thorough exploration of city centre, including stopoffs at St. Mary's (the Oxford University Church, and a most beautiful Cathedral - Cardinal Newman preached there, and the Wesleys attended church there for a while) and Oxford's botanical gardens. Then we went for afternoon tea, followed by a trip to St. Andrews for services there (St. Andrews is an evangelical Anglican church - think garden variety US evanglical church with communion every week. The worship, except one hymn with a pipe organ and an awesome vocal arrangement, was the same style as US contemporary. The message was interesting and well-presented, although the conclusions weren't thoroughly thought through. I'll probably go to the evening service there after tea, but will keep looking for a morning service to go to).

Today was the first day of orientation, and we all went over to Wycliffe hall to met the SCIO (the organization we are here with) staff and learn a bit more about how our stay here will work. Then we had afternoon tea.

The one irritating thing so far has been the internet connection here at The Vines - flaky would be an understatement in describing it. That would be the explanation for why I've not updated anything since arriving here.

See you all later,
Daniel