Season's Greetings to everyone who's reading this! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and that your New Year's is wonderful as well.
Since December 7, I have been at home, enjoying the company of my family, my dog, and my cat, making numerous trips up to Jewell, doing a little bit of homework, taking naps, and reading and watching a lot of Harry Potter.
Satisfactory as my homebound break has been (I've loved it!), it's time for me to take off and...
See the world! For the rest of my Christmas break, I'll be traveling in Scotland and Spain. (I thought I might travel Europe based on letters. I was hoping to get through all 26 letters of the alphabet, but I don't think "Xciting Italy" will count for the letter X. Which is a shame, really, as the letter X is quite a neglected and lonely letter.) I thought you might be interested in hearing my travel itinerary.
Stop #1 is Scotland. I'm going to Edinburgh with my brother, Reid, and my friends Bill, Brett, Madison, and Robyn. Robyn, you may recall, lives with me; Brett and Madison go to Jewell, and are spending second semester in Oxford. We'll spend New Year's Eve and New Year's there, and on January 2, Reid and I will sally forth to spectacular Spain!
Stop #2 is Granada, Spain, where Reid and I will spend January 2-3. We'll then take a train to Seville, Spain, and stay January 3-5. On January 5, we'll fly to Barcelona, and on January 6, we'll return to London.
Sadly, Reid leaves for the US on January 7. Happily, I return to Edinburgh to rejoin Brett, Madison, and Robyn. On January 9, we'll come back to Oxford.
Soon after my return, I will post many pictures and stories of our travels!
So many of you have expressed good wishes and prayers for Reid and I as we start our travels. I'd like to thank you for those, and to ask for continued prayer as we journey, quite literally, into a great unknown. This is the first real trip that either Reid or I have taken without our parents, and that's a big responsibility. If you could pray for safety and health for Reid, Bill, Brett, Madison, Robyn, and I; for comfort for my parents and Abbie at home; for fun; and most of all, for God's guidance and revelation on this trip, that would be wonderful.
See you soon!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Michaelmas and holidays
As I typed that title, I realized that I may not have mentioned Michaelmas before. Oxford has three terms instead of two semesters, and the terms have names. First term is Michaelmas, second term is Hilary, and third term is Trinity. Michaelmas and Hilary are named because of saint feast days, and Trinity is named because...well, just because. If you go to the Other Place (that's what we call Cambridge), they call them Michaelmas, Lent, and Easter, named after holy holidays (is that redundant?).
Michaelmas is very nearly over! As far as I'm concerned, Michaelmas is over. My last paper was due Tuesday night, and my last tutorial was yesterday. I have totally checked out of academic life.
Actually, I sort of checked out of academic life over a week ago, which made writing those last two papers a little difficult. (Let's take a moment to talk about those last two papers. At Oxford, they technically give grades on a scale to 100. However, if you get an 85, that's publishable. Students realistically get grades on a scale to 70. 70 is a I, 65-69 is an Upper 2.1, 60-64 is a Lower 2.1, etc, etc, etc. My first two papers for my two tutorials were a 64 and a 63, which was acceptable. My last two papers were a 69 and a 70, which was exciting. Clearly, I should check out of academic life more often.) Why did I check out so early? The holidays came!
Last Wednesday was the JWS's (a church group I've joined) Advent Dinner. It was very good food (although I did not like Christmas pudding; Kermit clearly has no idea what he's talking about in Muppet Christmas Carol when he says Christmas pudding is magnificent), and there was a pantomime!
Pantomimes are a very big deal here. They are not silent with gestures, like you might think. Instead, they're long skits (or short plays?), usually about a well-known story. There's always a man dressed as a woman, usually a woman dressed as a man, and frequently bad jokes. The JWS did "Alice in Wonderland":
Mrs. Ross, Ryan, Erin, Brandon, Stacy, Kristin, Phil, Sabrina, Dr. Ross, me, Erin, Dr. Robson.
When we get bored, we take pictures of ourselves (I think this is some kind of commentary on my generation and its narcissism/obsession with photos, but whatever). I'm posting these because I think Reid would be proud of me and my sneakiness:
And finally, last night was the Christmas Carol Sing-Along at the Sheldonian Theatre. The Sheldonian Theatre is huge, and it was packed with students, and we all sang along to a brass band. It was amazing! I am so ready for Christmas carols now that it's past Thanksgiving.
Michaelmas is very nearly over! As far as I'm concerned, Michaelmas is over. My last paper was due Tuesday night, and my last tutorial was yesterday. I have totally checked out of academic life.
Actually, I sort of checked out of academic life over a week ago, which made writing those last two papers a little difficult. (Let's take a moment to talk about those last two papers. At Oxford, they technically give grades on a scale to 100. However, if you get an 85, that's publishable. Students realistically get grades on a scale to 70. 70 is a I, 65-69 is an Upper 2.1, 60-64 is a Lower 2.1, etc, etc, etc. My first two papers for my two tutorials were a 64 and a 63, which was acceptable. My last two papers were a 69 and a 70, which was exciting. Clearly, I should check out of academic life more often.) Why did I check out so early? The holidays came!
Last Wednesday was the JWS's (a church group I've joined) Advent Dinner. It was very good food (although I did not like Christmas pudding; Kermit clearly has no idea what he's talking about in Muppet Christmas Carol when he says Christmas pudding is magnificent), and there was a pantomime!
Pantomimes are a very big deal here. They are not silent with gestures, like you might think. Instead, they're long skits (or short plays?), usually about a well-known story. There's always a man dressed as a woman, usually a woman dressed as a man, and frequently bad jokes. The JWS did "Alice in Wonderland":
What you're seeing here is the Rev. Martin as the Rabbit, Jonathan as the Mad Hatter (which was so typecasting), Mark as Tweedledum (or maybe Tweedledee), James as Alice, and Gemma as Tweedledee (or maybe Tweedledum). Also a bunch of bottles of fizzy water, which is gross.
The next day was Thanksgiving! My first Thanksgiving dinner was at Spencer House, where a bunch of our American friends live. Brandon was our amazing cook:
This was the "family" of Thanksgiving dinner #1:
Mrs. Ross, Ryan, Erin, Brandon, Stacy, Kristin, Phil, Sabrina, Dr. Ross, me, Erin, Dr. Robson.When we get bored, we take pictures of ourselves (I think this is some kind of commentary on my generation and its narcissism/obsession with photos, but whatever). I'm posting these because I think Reid would be proud of me and my sneakiness:
After Thanksgiving dinner #1, we went to the Regent's Park pantomime! It was "Cinderella":
Salmonella the Ugly Stepsister, the Ugly Stepmother, and Rubella the Ugly Stepsister.
Saturday we had another Thanksgiving dinner at Stanley Road, where more Americans live! It was also delicious, but I did not take a picture of the food. But here I am with Erin!
And finally, last night was the Christmas Carol Sing-Along at the Sheldonian Theatre. The Sheldonian Theatre is huge, and it was packed with students, and we all sang along to a brass band. It was amazing! I am so ready for Christmas carols now that it's past Thanksgiving.
So, Michaelmas term is essentially over. I have:
--read a lot
--written a lot
--not 'rithmaticked a lot
--walked a lot
--watched House a lot
--blogged a lot
--eaten cookies a lot
--been wet a lot
--been confused a lot (seriously, sometimes it's like another country over here or something)
--taken pictures a lot
--taken naps a lot
--learned a lot
I don't think I'm going to post over Christmas break. Reid and I are flying back with several of my Jewell friends on Dec. 29, so stayed tuned then for our adventures!
Merry Christmas!
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