London in Color

I'm pretty proud of this one, from the Millenium Bridge

Me and Amanda, in front of St. Paul's.

This is Saint Paul's Cathedral...you know, the lady who sings "feed the birds.." in Mary Poppins.

This is after we fed the birds some chips...bad idea by the way, we got swarmed by them.

This is my friend Josh, he was singing the "feed the birds" song, a riot this one..

I turned the corner and there he was: Big Ben!

Yup, it actually exists in KingsCross Station...

Me, in front of Buckingham Palace...to bad the queen wasn't home..

This is us in the tube station!

This is Christy and I, outside Buckingham Palace, in the King's park.

Ok, so these pictures are in reverse order. We actually started by the Embassy and Buckingham Palace. This was the most incredible day!!

Really Here: Oxford

Today I walked out of the Radcliff Camera, the library featured above, went through an allyway and turned right onto Cornmarket Street. On the corner there was a man playing the most incredible bagpipes I have ever heard. Now picture this...rockin bagpipes echoing down the whole street, an upbeat, constant rhythm you can walk in step to, tall old buildings lining a european street, people everywhere, the sun on your face, a stack of books in your hand. Purpose in your step. I don't think I will ever get over it.

Painting in the Park

On Sunday a few people found out that I like to be artistic sometimes. Quickly teatime turned into a frantic planning mode and running around to get art supplies. John, a hero by the way, rode his bike all the way back to the other house just to get his paints. We converged in the middle of the park and found a nice place, by a bridge and a beautiful willow tree, to set up.

The next hour and a half consisted of painting while talking about theology, philosophy and life. I gave out a few technique points and they returned the favor with overenthusiastic worship of my knowledge.

Happy.

We decided to make a weekly tradition, painting in the park before we go back to Crick ( the house that I live in, so dubbed because it is located at 8 Crick road) for tea. John came up to me this morning and said "Dude I'm dyin! My painting needs to be finished, I can't wait for next week!!" Yay, the creative inspiration continues to spread.

Bodleian.

So yesterday was my first chance to walk past the crowds and enter into one of the oldest and most dedicated places of academia. There actually weren't any crowds, being that it was a Monday, but the feeling of anticipation was still there. You walk down a circular staircase, open a heavy door and before your eyes opens up an enormous round room and books are lining, filling and covering every square inch of the walls. Have you ever experienced the frustration of going into the library and not being able to find any sources on your current project? Not here friends, they have basically a room dedicated to Shakespeare, and entire libraries dedicated to other various subjects such as History, Theology, Philosophy and English.

There are 8 MILLION volumes in this library, and if what you need isn't on the shelves someone will go fetch it from a different library, (or from an underground book stack) and hand deliver it to you.

My first paper is on the women of Shakespeare's plays and I had stacks of books around me today. It is incredibly silent in this room and everyone in it is pouring over books and frantically taking notes. The longer I sit in there the faster the time goes by. The worst thing about having the privilege to use the Bodleian, is once I leave here I can never go back, and I will leave ruined for any other library in the world.

For Caleb and Rebekah

Hey guys! I made this video for you when I was in London. I love you and I miss you so much.

Hugs and kisses.

Magical Mystery Tour

Today we went to London.

 We hopped on the 830 coach from Oxford to London, and an hour later we arrived. We went through the park, saw the embassy and the statue of Roosevelt outside it, then went through more park and arrived at Buckingham Palace. The Queen was, unfortunately, away today. So we frolicked through more park, some posh areas of London, and then turned the corner to see none other than Big Ben himself. (I gasped in realization). Off to Trifalgar Square, the National Museum and a Peace Festival that was going on this weekend. Then we went to Licester Square, some shopping and lunch. We had a little time to kill before meeting again at 4:30 so we decided to jump on the Tube and ride up to King's Cross Station, following a rumor that platform 9and3/4 actually exists.

We found out....that it does. :)

Next we jumped back on the Tube and headed for St.Pauls Cathedral, the second largest in the world. We went to a service there and sat and listened to the choir sing while gazing up to the beautiful ceiling above us. After this we walked down past the Globe Theatre across the Millenium Bridge as the sun was beginning to set. We walked through the Thames River Street Fair that is going on right now and up to Piccadelli Square, where we got some dinner. Then we really wanted icecream and our hunt led us back to Oxford where we know that the GandD's is open until 12.

I love London. Pictures to follow.

Neolithic Ruins, Salisbury Cathedral, and Stonehenge

So this is our fieldtrip day, academic of course, but we had a lot of fun as well. This is us on the spire of the Salisbury Cathedral, 220 ft up. (We had to climb lots of old rickety wooden stairs to get here). I was scared but Josh, the curly haired kid, pulled me out there and I am so glad he did.

Stonehenge! It was amazing to see this. We all had a tun of fun learning and playing around in the grassy fields surrounding this site.

All in all a full day.

Icecream

Picture 4 girls running around the cutest house ever whispering in people's ears that the icecream shop is open until midnight. That they have to keep it on the DL, but tell everyone....and then they "sneakily" run out of the room, giggling.

I like my new friends. :)

Black and White...and Grey

Today I realized how depressed I am not to have a 35mm camera with me. This afternoon I set out on a walk through the University Parks with my digital, hoping to capture some of its contemplative beauty. But somehow its just not the same, to hold a deck of cards and take a picture. I miss the feeling of holding a heavy tool, switching the aperture and shutter speed to capture just what I want to. The feeling that you have just caught something great and its just waiting inside your camera for you to develop it and pull it out of the dark. It almost makes it worse that this condition I'm currently suffering through...is completely my own fault.

Oxford University..Where Your Best Isn't Good Enough Since 1117.

Today the sun is shining and the birds are singing. Yet a storm is brewing, it hasn't hit yet but it is definately looming.

I have a little graph in front of me, and in it there is some interesting information. One that would frightening to media crit students everywhere.

Case studies (x3) 2000-2250 words
Long essay proposal 1000 words
Long essay 3750-4000 words
Tutorial essays (x8) 2000-2250 words

Due? Case studies...in 3 weeks. The rest..by December 13.



Things we have access to to help us accomplish this incredible amount of
scholarlyness:

107 Libraries, one of which, the Bodleian, has 8 million volumes.

A database, like JSTOR that has thousands of articles and journals that JSTOR doesnt have.

A database that has every book written in English before 1820.

The most beautiful parks to walk in that I have ever seen.

(Ps. Catherine. It looks like, though I havent figured out the loopholes yet, that I may be able to get you access to the Bodleian database...)