One Paper Down

Hey everyone!

Didn't want to keep you all in suspense until the next time I do something fun. (Which will probably be around April 29th!) So, I thought I'd just post a little update to let you know that I've finished the first of many papers to come, and am about to start writing my second paper.

The first is a History paper answering this prompt:

"Patriarchal in theory; permissive in practice." Discuss this view of family relations in seventeenth-century England.

I finished it tonight at a total of 8 pages, 2,212 words and 22 footnotes. Whew!

The second is an English paper with no specific prompt, just the instructions to relate the following texts to New Imperialism:

King Solomon's Mines by H.R. Haggard
She by H.R. Haggard
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
An Outpost of Progress by Joseph Conrad
An Outcast of the Islands by Joseph Conrad
The Ebb Tide by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Beach of Falesa by Robert Louis Stevenson

This is the paper I'm worried most about. I only get five pages to tie all of those texts together!!

Holding on to Matthew 6:33 tonight!!

Sarah

But...

Lest you think I am simply having way too much fun to be learning anything, let me give you some numbers:

For/on this trip alone I have read

4 books
3 short stories
5 chapters of literary/historical criticism

which comes to a grand total of 1,122 pages. And that doesn't even include the document packs I've read for history!!

I think that the number of books/pages is going to be astronomical by the end of this, so I'm keeping a running tally.

These next three weeks are going to be pretty rough--I have two papers due every week, and for my seminar next Monday I have four three-hundred page novels due, plus five chapters of literary criticism for one seminar alone.

I'm so glad we got to go to London and blow of steam before this craziness! We're all already looking forward to April 29. First, because that's the last day of seminars, and tutorials begin on the next Monday, and second, for the Royal Wedding!!!! We've booked our bus tickets to London, and they're the reward we're giving ourselves for getting all this work done!

See you soon!!

"I Dreamed a Dream..."

Hey guys!

Sorry it's been a few days since my last post, things have been busy yet boring around here. I think my next post will probably be about our daily routine here in the house, but I wanted to fill you in on the wonderful day I had yesterday!

I guess I should start at the beginning. On Friday, my friend Nicole and I avoided schoolwork by going shopping. It started out as a shampoo run and turned into an afternoon getting cookies other girl stuff (sunglasses, headbands, hats). We were commiserating over how we felt like our seminars were eating up our travel time, and the thought struck us. Why not just go to London for the day? Instead of complaining about not traveling, we decided we would grab a bus in the early afternoon on Saturday and spend the evening in London. Then I threw out the thought of going to see a play. What play? I've been dying to see Les Miserables, and what better place than London?

So after more studying and dinner that night we started planning out our course. It's amazing what the internet can do, because we were able to purchase tickets for the next night on the second row of the "dress circle" or balcony level. That's my favorite place to sit, anyways, because I'm so short that when I sit on the main level I can never see anything. So we were all really, really excited!!

We left the house at about 11 yesterday morning, and our bus left the station at about 12. But because of other stops and traffic, we didn't make it to the city until about 2. Since we didn't really have time to do much until the show started, we managed a whirlwind walking tour of a lot of the major buildings. First stop: Buckingham Palace

Next, Big Ben,  and the Houses of Parliament:

We also caught sight of the London Eye, the National Gallery, and stopped for a while in Trafalgar Square:

Then after a dinner break for Fish and Chips, we headed to the Queen's Theatre to see the show. When we went to pick up our tickets from the box office, we noticed another little sign: SOLD OUT. We were so glad to have gotten the seats we did!

Here's a picture of our amazing seats--you might not be able to tell, but this theatre was smaller and more intimate than any other one I've been too. It was so cool. Even sitting in the balcony you felt like the performers were "right there."

The show was phenomenal! I have never seen Les Mis before, but I had listened to the music and knew the story. All of the performers were amazing. I would definitely recommend it to anyone! And to think, we bought our tickets the night before!

Then we took the Tube (which is an interesting experience) back to the bus station and wandered around for a while trying to find our stop. The stop we went to first was out of commission due to construction, and either because of bad directions, bad maps, or our bad navigational skills, we didn't end up back in Oxford until 2am. Yikes! But I've slept in this morning, and now I'm off to do the loads of work I should have done yesterday. But I definitely don't regret a minute of the trip!!

Talk to you soon!!

Sarah

First Two Seminars and a Tour

Hello Again!

Just wanted to let you know how my first two seminars went and give you a little tour of some of the UGA house and Keble College. 

Yesterday (Monday) I had my first seminar: Tales of Unrest in 19th Century Literature. The professor, Dr. Bradshaw, is the director of all English faculty at Oxford, and his wife, Barbara, is our house administrator. She takes care of scheduling maintenance and stuff. Dr. Bradshaw is pretty intimidating--he gives you an oral grade after you read your papers out loud. The novel we were discussing was King Solomon's Mines by H.R. Haggard. We didn't get to discuss much because we were going through introductory type things--paper topics, lengths, etc. For our next session (next Monday) we are reading another Haggard novel, and two short stories by Robert Louis Stevenson. I think that overall the class will be interesting, but right now he's a little scary. He started the discussion by quizzing us on dates that none of us knew or remembered. 

Today I had my second seminar with Dr. Ian Archer. The seminar is titled Tudor/Stuart History, but before you get excited--it's not all about Henry VIII and his women troubles. No. Actually all of our readings so far have had to do with population change and social polarization and class structures. And Thursday we're discussing family structures. I think eventually we'll get to the royal family and the interesting stuff, but for the first few weeks it'll be a lot of statistics and economics. Yuck.

Next I thought I'd give you a very brief, quite incomplete tour of the UGA house and Keble. I haven't had time to take pictures of everything yet, but here's what I do have!

This is the UGA@Oxford Center. Note the bright red door. Doors here are typically painted Oxford blue, so the door of our house really sticks out. It's about a 0.8 mile walk from here to Keble College, and I would guess about one mile from "City Centre." Since today I've walked back and forth twice, I'd say I'm getting my exercise in!

 When you walk in the house this is the view you get. The stairs, dining room, kitchen, and office are on your left. The open doorway leads back to the gardens, the shut door on the right is the library, and the TV room is not pictured, but it's also on the right. 

I don't have any pictures of the library because there's usually someone studying in there, but I'll get some!

This is the TV room. It has, you guessed it, a TV! There are also movies and games.

More on the ground floor coming later, but this is a view of the stairs as you walk up to the second floor landing. There are three floors, and the house can hold 40 people at once.

This is the second floor landing, complete with little sitting area. The door in the middle leads to a hall with more rooms, more bathrooms, a mini kitchen, and a back stairway. My room is the farthest door on the left (next to the couch.) Room 6, which is, in my opinion, the best in the house. 

Room 6! There are three other girls in the room besides me, and the windows look out over the back garden. If that isn't enough for you, we also have a walk in closet and a bathroom right inside our room. Perfect!

Like I said, I don't have pictures of everything yet, but this is one of the views out of our window.

Now for Keble, our second home while we're here. Keble is where we eat and take classes, and they also have a cafe and a bar inside their gates. Oxford students are required to live "In College," so this is their home, too. 

 This is the view to your right as you come in through the gatehouse--that's the Chapel. 

 This is another view of the quad area. The chapel is still to your right, and on the left is the library and dining hall. The Hall is actually one of my favorite parts--where we eat our meals each day. Here it is in all it's splendor!

So, as you can see, the living and dining arrangements are quite nice over here. I don't think everyone in Europe lives as spaciously as we do, but I have to admit it's much nicer than my Auburn dorm!

More to come!

Love,

Sarah

Sunday in Oxford

Today was a slower day in Oxford. We didn't go anywhere exciting or see any sheep, but classes start tomorrow so everyone was finishing up last minute reading. In order to eat at the dining hall "in college" (i.e. at Keble College, our college in Oxford) you have to book your meals online. It's like making a dinner reservation, and you must have it made before 10 am. During term time breakfast is a come-and-go affair, so you don't have to book that. But we did have to book Sunday brunch. Next Sunday I'm going to try out a church or two, but this week I ate at the hall with members of the group.

The rumors are true, they really do eat beans with breakfast in England. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that, but it's a fact of life!

After brunch I wandered around for a little bit. I went inside Blackwell's bookstore, which was amazing! It has like 7 floors full of books. Then I bought my school supplies and such and found my way back to the UGA house. If you're ever looking for a fun vacation spot, check out Oxford--today they were having a Chocolate festival on Broad Street. It really does sound fake.

Then I spent a slow afternoon reading and studying (and dozing) before dinner in hall at 7. I haven't taken any pictures of Keble yet, but the dining hall is absolutely beautiful. There's a high table and then three looooong tables with benches. Tonight we had lamb, roasted potatoes, and carrots, with cheesecake for dessert. The lamb was interesting, but I probably wouldn't order it if I had other choices.

Classes start tomorrow and I have one seminar in the house from 11 to 1--"Tales of Unrest." We'll be talking about the book King Solomon's Mines.

Sorry it's a short post, but there wasn't that much going on here!

Talk to you later!

Excursion Day

Hey Everyone!
**Sorry about the picture layout, I couldn't really control it the way I want!**


I just wanted to fill you in on what's been going on here! We had a pretty busy day today. We left the house at 7:30 and headed out on a three part excursion: Salisbury, Stonehenge, and Avebury.

Salisbury first: 

We got to Salisbury and stopped in at a parish church where there is one of the oldest "Doom Paintings" in Europe. It shows Jesus coming back to earth and the saints rising. The church was small by European standards, but it was still a pretty large cathedral! (That's the picture you see to the right)

Then we went over to the Salisbury Cathedral. (On the Left) It has the tallest church spire of any church in England. Once inside we were guided around by a lovely British lady. She told us all about the different quirky things inside the church--misspelled tombstones, funny carvings, and interesting facts. She also told us all of the reasons that the cathedral shouldn't be standing. I'll list them here for emphasis: 

1. There is a 29 inch bend in the spire. It's so heavy that the columns actually bend, and it's visible to the naked eye. (Or, in this case, my camera, as you can see it for yourself in this picture on the right!)

2. There is only a 4 foot foundation to the cathedral. Underneath that is a bed of shale with water running through it. Our tour guide dipped a broomstick through the foundation and it came up wet. In all of the acres around the church, the spot where the church is located is the only spot where there is a layer of shale. (Here you see our sweet tour guide demonstrating this idea. She dipped the broomstick down into the foundation and it came out wet!

3. The front part of the church has four columns. Engineers say it shouldn't be possible for those beams to support the weight, but somehow they do! 

Inside the Cathedral they have a beautiful little cloister with open corridors running around all four sides. The grass was perfectly smooth, and there were two trees growing inside. 

 These first few days have been a little difficult, and I've been struggling with some homesickness and culture shock issues. I am so glad we went to the cathedral, because I was really encouraged by some of the artwork they had there. Maybe they will inspire you too! At about 10:00 one of the priests came over the loudspeakers and led all the visitors in a prayer. It was really, really cool. Salisbury isn't somewhere I would have visited on my own, so I'm glad that we went as a group.

 The picture of the anchor below represents the anchor of hope. It made me think of Hebrews 6:17-20, which I've pasted below:

So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, ¹⁸so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. ¹⁹We have this [hope] as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, ²⁰where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

 After the Cathedral we ate lunch at a little pub called "the New Inn," and then headed to our second port of call--Stonehenge. I don't know if I can say much about Stonehenge, because I don't think anyone really understands what it was. I did learn that the rocks are cut and grooved to fit together, they aren't just stacked on top of each other. It was interesting to see Stonehenge basically on the side of a road in the middle of nowhere. And about 20 feet to the left there were sheep grazing.

 Apparently it's a common thing for sheep to graze near World Heritage sites, because the same thing happened at Avebury. Avebury is another collection of standing stones, but there are a lot more and you can actually go up to them and touch them. There were a lot of hiking paths around Avebury, and, as you'll see, some ineteresting characters...

This was one of the first signs we saw upon entering the stone circle.

I guess these little guys really like ancient history.

This man was actually doing tai chi near the standing stones, and among the sheep. 

After that we went back to Oxford and ate our first dinner "In College." I don't have pictures of that yet, but I'll have plenty soon! Thanks for reading, and thanks for keeping me in your prayers!

S.

Busy Day in Oxford

I saw these signs in a covered market and it made me laugh. "Nothing" and "Next to Nothing" are cute names for stores, but not adequate descriptions of what we did today! My feet are sore from all the walking, but I've learned a lot today!


First we headed downtown to shop for cell phones we could use while we're here. When I say "downtown," I really mean it next time, because I discovered that the little shopping area we went to last night is really a suburb of Oxford called Summertown. This time we hit the truly old part of the city--with street names like "Broad Street" and "High Street."


Then after a lot of shopping around for the best pay as you go phone (Hint, Orange is the best deal we found!) we met the rest of our group at the gates of Trinity College for a walking tour. Trinity is one of the most famous colleges at Oxford. There are 38 Colleges in all, and as I learned today, each functions as its own university, but they all fall under the umbrella of Oxford University.

This is the original gatehouse of Trinity College. Each College has a chapel, a library, and a dining hall. When you're a student at Oxford you are required to live "In College." There are only single rooms, and each college is gated. Apparently a long time ago if you missed curfew you were locked out. I also learned a lot about the traditional gowns they wear at Oxford. (Think Harry Potter!) If you're an undergrad your gown only goes to your knees, if you're on scholarship it's slightly longer than your knees. The saying is, "The longer the gown, the more important the person."


We saw other Oxford sights on our tour, like Blackwell's the famous 7 floor bookstore,

The building where the Oxford University Press was founded,

The bridge of sighs, where you're supposed to make a wish, 

All Soul's College, 

 And then we moved on to our most important appointment so far. Induction to the Bodleian Library. The Library here is incredible. It is housed in 5 buildings on campus, but most of those buildings consist solely of reading rooms. The stacks are housed in various places--a large building in downtown Oxford, and, oddly enough, a salt mine in Cheshire. The Bodleian Library is NOT a lending library, but a reference library. You can't check books out, and if the book you want is in the Salt Mine it might take you 2 to 3 days to even get the book pulled out of the stacks. The catalogue system is very intense and all done online.


We had an introduction with the admissions officer of the Library. When I think admissions I think college acceptance, but she's in charge of admitting people to the Library! We had a brief history lesson and a quick lesson on how to request books from the stacks, and then we had to sign the Bodleian Oath. Not even that, we had to swear the Bodleian Oath out loud. And I quote: 

I hereby undertake not to remove from the Library, nor to mark, deface, or injure in any way, any volume, document or other object belonging to it or in its custody; not to bring into the Library, or kindle therein, any fire or flame, and not to smoke in the Library; and I promise to obey all rules of the Library.

So, after that bit of business was accomplished, we wandered around some more. Apparently the room in which we had our orientation was once where the nation's parliament was housed. So the chair that I sat on may or may not have been used by Charles I. (Don't worry, we totally had permission to sit there!)

The building on the right is the Radcliffe Camera--a largely undergrad series of reading rooms, and one of the most well-known buildings in Oxford. 

Tomorrow is a big day--we're heading out to Stonehenge. More to come!