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