"Normal"

Yesterday I was talking to a friend and she asked what I intended to do that day and I replied, "Oh, nothing much. Just spending some time in the library. It's a pretty normal day."

Things I had just labelled normal with that sentence:
- Working in the Radcliffe Camera - an iconic building in the University of Oxford
- The fact that I probably ran into people of four or five nationalities that day. Probably more, if you include people I didn't speak to or hear talking. Many people I run into here are not British, which is just a tad different from George Fox.
- The cars are all on the left side of the road
- I understand Celius without having to math in my head everytime
- I successfully found my way to and from my home, the library, and the exam schools
- Within the library I can find almost any book I need without too much confusion
- Tea, tea, and more tea.

All of these are things that I would have taken note of just a week ago, now they are "normal," whatever that means. Guess I must be settling in ok. Fancy that!

Tugging at My Heartstrings

Many of you know about my irrational love for Latvia developed by a semester attempting to follow its current events. I truly enjoyed learning about this tiny country and its rather complicated history, as well as its complex current political situation. No one knows anything about Latvia and it was fun learning about a different culture.

Now I have spent a week learning about postwar Poland from 1943-1956. Again, I feel an irrational respect and love for this country. Yesterday I almost convinced myself I need to learn Polish and translate Polish literature into English for my career.

This is interesting to me because few countries have the ability to capture my interest like this. I have found the history of Latin American fascinating and I liked learning about Italy last week, but Eastern Europe just has an ability to capture my attention.

I think its because it has the ability to tug on my heart. Each country in that region is considered a little backward by the rest of Europe, but they have a rich cultural history that few actually try to see. The affects of Soviet occupation and before that the Nazi invasions have left scars on each individual nation, but they still retain their identity in various ways. Whether its through preserving the language or through writing literature that captures the time, Eastern European nations are able to create a national culture that I admire.

Am I romanticizing? Yes. But that’s not completely all. I see problems of economic instability and hyper-nationalism that seem to plague much of the region, but still. I like learning about it, though I hardly have scratched the surface.

Church

I wasn't intending to get particularly plugged into a church here, since I'm leaving so soon and all. But I found this lovely little church just a 5 minute bike ride away. It reminds me of Lake Samm back home and also of the Vineyard my parents used to go to when I was tiny. The bit of home is nice. Though they all speak British, the songs are often the same. I'm not sure how involved I will be, but it's a nice little church and I am thrilled to have found it.

Here's the website for Oxford Vineyard if you want to check it out:
http://www.ovc.uk.com/Groups/71673/Oxford_Vineyard.aspx

Stupidity

Being in a new country means being an idiot. This week I have:

- Pulled on push doors and walked away deciding they were locked
- Slept through my alarm
- Started going up a street, only to realize I was headed the wrong way
- Ran my knee into a pole while on my bike (luckily not hurting my bike)
- Introduced myself to people who don't actually go to the college/church I am attending. It's awkward.
- Taken forever at the grocercy store because I have no idea what to buy, then hold people up as I attempt to use self-check out
- Almost stepped on a bird, then informed it of its impoliteness (though... I guess this is my normal behavior)

Those are just a few stories from the last few days. While its depressing to constantly be feeling a little out of place, I'm learning to laugh at myself and that is a wonderfully good thing.

Tutorials

This week I had my first real tutorial, complete with paper and one-on-one discussion as well as a preterm meeting with my Crusades tutor.

The real tutorial, my Cold War one, went well. The tutor did not seem either impressed or disappointed with my work, which I will happily take. She is a very nice lady who is understanding of the fact that I have never studied these topics before this week. I think I am getting quite a bit of grace from her and I am so grateful for that. She is also wicked smart and knows something about everything, making me feel like an idiot. It is a privilege to be learning from her and I believe I will come home with solid understanding of my topics.

My preterm meeting went rather less well. I meant to leave at 8:00 for the 9:00 meeting as I had never been to this location and I wanted to leave time for getting lost. But apparently didn't set my alarm, so I woke up at 8:30, rushed out the door by 8:35, and miraculously found Jesus College by 8:55. However, by now I was so flustered that I had trouble completing sentences and was generally feeling inarticulate. So, anyway, I meet my tutor and he leads me into a 17th century library that is grougeous. I just wanted to stay for hours. He proceeds to inform me that being in Oxford is a privilegde, and he is going to tear my papers apart in order to help me become a better scholar. Ha. Ha. Not intimidating at all...

So those were my tutorials. Both will teach me a lot, and both tutors are incredibly skilled. Academically, I couldn't be in a better place.

Snow!

There has been snow on the ground for the past few days. It is a beautiful, soft, quiet nuisance. I have to leave my bike at home and walk everywhere. Which gives me time for thinking and talking to friends, but still. I miss my bike. Who knew I would love it so much?

Also, the Brits have the same feelings towards snow as Portlanders and Seattlites. A couple inches of snow sends them into a slightly delight, but shocked, tailspin and everything tries to shut down. It reminds me of home, especially when people ask if I get snow at home and I need to explain that we have the same reaction as they do.

Birds

This, my friends, is a white wagtail. In addition to having a terribly silly name and being very pretty, it also happens to be the national bird of Latvia! Seeing one is almost as good as visiting the country itself, so when one flew across my path today, I was just a tad excited.

http://www.birdinginmalta.com/species/wwagtail3.jpg

Learning

Italo Calvino.

He is an Italian neorealist. What is a neorealist? Well, let me tell you a story.

Once upon a time, in 1943 to be precise, the Allies were marching on into Italy. As they marched, they encountered resistance from the evil fascists. Eventually, the noble allies were able to drive back the enemy and free the southern part of the magnificent boot of Italy.

However, there was still darkness in this fair land. The Germans had occupied the northern part of Italy and perpetrated great evil against the innocent people. Thus, the partisan movement was born. An underground movement of brave civilians fighting for their honor and freedom, these men and women were able to drive the invaders back, but at great cost. Thousands died (about 35,000 out of 100,000) and those that were left felt the impact of the Resistance for their entire lives.

A new movement developed out of this experience: neorealism. It was an attempt to portray the realities of life during the war through literature, while still keeping symbolism to express emotions of the time. Italo Calvino is one of the most famous of these writers, and I have spent the past two days in the library learning about him.

So, Italo Calvino. Responsible for keeping me from adventures, but a great writer who captured a unique time in Italian history. I am coming to have a great deal of respect for him, though I must admit resenting being locked up in the library with him for hours.

London

London is an amazing city. The area I wandered around in was easy to navigate and pedestrian friendly. Every street seemed to have a combination between fashionable newness and functional history. I could have spend days there, and I am desperately hoping to take more day-trips as well as spend some time there with my family.

Where did I go? Well, not the places an American tourist is supposed to go upon arrival at London. I chose to spend the day with a friend exploring the British Museum, and then shopping down Oxford Street and munching in Soho rather than follow the mob of Americans through the more exciting bits of London. So no classic pictures of the tower bridge or Buckingham Palace.

But! What I did was better, just sayin'. Honestly, all of you need to go to the British Museum at some point. I thought it would be like the Smithsonian - impressive, but not overwhelming. Was I ever wrong... It is one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been with each corner causally adorned with a piece of irreplaceable history. It was spectacular - just look at these rooms! My pictures in no way do them justice.

 But, of course, the rooms are just the stage for the history to be presented. These are a couple of my favorite things I saw:

Early time-telling devices. Yes, there was a room for clocks.

My first sighting of a real wampum belt. Some of you will find this highly amusing.

This is a gigantic structure that is just casually sitting in the middle of a room. The British just took it, and then put it in their museum. They apparently used to really like stealing things - which is beneficial for me because now they are all in this wonderful museum.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of our wanderings in the shopping district of London, but it was a lot of fun. I learned that, as an American, I am completely unfashionable by European standards. To which I roll my eyes and reply that I am more comfortable and warmer. However, I promptly shelved my bootcut jeans and will attempt to wear skinny skins or skirts for the rest of the term.

That was my first day in London and it was wonderful. To end the day, my friend and I enjoyed another afternoon tea (I am getting rapidly spoiled... I could spend all my money on afternoon teas). This time we had a Belgian waffle with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. It was perfectly lovely. 

English Joys

Some things I'm loving about England:

- I can bike everywhere. Now, I haven't had to bike in the rain yet, but it is nice to be powered by my feet. Besides being fit, it is better for the environment and allows me to have greater independence.
- Chocolate! The milk chocolate here is soooo much better than chocolate in the states. I haven't tried dark yet, but seriously guys. Yum.
- Oddly enough, the lack of friendliness. I've never been one to be overly enthusiastic in talking to strangers and the British are happy to leave me to myself. However, the people I have encountered in shops and even just on the road have been polite and happy to help. It's a nice combination for me.
- Tiny cars. Trucks have always felt rather wasteful to me, except in certain circumstances. Most people around here have nice, small cars that look as if they are nice to the environment.
- Accessibility of fair trade and local food. It is a stuggle to find either of these in the states, but Britain makes a point about it. These things are clearly important to the people here and the stores reflect that.
- Tea! Enough said.

So those are just a few aspects of English life I am particularly enjoying at the moment. Part of me hopes I never have to leave. This will inevitably change from day to day, but for now, I am content.

My Highly Complicated Classes

People keep asking me about my classes, so let me give you a brief explanation. It is long and tedious, but in case you were wondering, here it is:

I am taking:

Two tutorials

One Integrative Seminar

One British Landscapes Course

Tutorials are one on one meetings between a professor (tutor) and a student. They meet once a week to discuss a paper the student has written and prepared in answer to a question (prompt) the tutor assigned. Each paper is 8-10 pages long and takes about 20 hours to research properly and then write. I have two of these. My primary one meets once a week and is on Politics and Culture in Cold War Europe. My secondary tutorial meets once every two weeks and it is on the Crusades.

Ok, so that’s the main part of my course work. They start next week.

The History Integrative Seminar focuses on historiography and will meet during the last four weeks of the semester. However, throughout the semester I need to be thinking about and beginning to research the 4000 word essay that is due at the end of the term. I get to choose the topic!

The British Landscapes course takes place in the last four weeks of the semester, so I’m not going to talk about it.

In conjunction with each of these, I am required to attend 32 lectures on topics related to them. The lectures are just walk-in talks on lots of different topics that an Oxford professor giving. They tend to come in series of 8, once-a-week, lectures but each stands alone. So I will probably pick and choose 8 lectures on the Cold War from different series on Modern History. But I will probably go to all 8 in the series “Aspects of the Crusades,” because it reflects what I am learning in my secondary tutorial.

Now, that ought to be as clear as mud, but hopefully it makes a little sense.

Afternoon Tea

England and tea are very good friends. This leads them to some lovely traditions, one of which is afternoon (or cream) tea. This generally consists of a pot of black tea, served with milk, and scones with clotted cream and jam. Clotted cream is heavenly, it was worth paying the extra money just to eat it. Finding a cheaper place to eat it was hard for me, but it has great potential to be a fun treat to enjoy with friends.

Sun in Oxford!

Sun, sun, sun, sun! It's the first time since I got here. Oxford is lovely in the sunshine, especially the parks.

Details, Details, Details

This is way too much information for some of you, so read or not. It's basically a summary of how hectic the first week at Oxford has been, as shown through today's example:

I woke up this morning at 7:15, for the first time sleeping almost seven hours straight from when I fell asleep at 12:30. I still have a cough and a sore throat, plus a slightly stuffy nose, but I am feeling so much better.

When I woke up, I had a lovely email from my boyfriend informing me that I would get a letter in the next week or two! Eeeee! I like mail (hint hint).

At 8:30, Katie and I left so that she could quickly show me the grocery store in Headington. Which is next to the post office. Now I will one day be able to send you mail back! This was my first bike ride in traffic and was rather intimidating, but I can get there. Really, I can. Maybe.

Then we rode down to Wycliffe Hall, the Oxford college our program is affiliated with. Total, this was 3.5 miles, which is probably the furthest I have ever ridden in one stretch in my life. My fitness needs to increase greatly before I will be comfortable biking in Oxford…

Then we were orientated at some more. All of the orientation. Today we learned about tutorials and clubs and libraries and what to do if we are having a personal emotional crisis. I will get to these later, except the personal crises stuff. It would be boring to an outsider. Though, I will note that the people at this program are amazing. I am definitely independent to do my own thing, but if I get into some sort of trouble I couldn’t get out of, I would trust the people here to help me.

Today we had two tea and coffee breaks. Tea is everywhere and so far, all the types I’ve tried have been wonderful. My favorite was Twinning’s Jasmine Green Tea. Tea gets old for some, but not for me!

After orientation, a group of us went to the Eagle and Child pub where C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, and the other Inklings used to spend their time. It was a nice little place, but not at all how I had imagined a pub… I think I need to try some more before I make a judgment on pubs. Unfortunately, I did not drink a beer. First, it looks gross. But the larger reason is that my program strictly enforces the drinking policies of our home institutions. George Fox University does not all me to consume alcohol, so I’m not going to break the trust of the staff at my program. It’s the first week, and that sounds like a very bad place to start.

So, that’s what I did today. It’s pretty much what I’ve been doing every day: random adventures (when I have energy), learning more about Oxford life, and drinking tea.

Exploring Oxford

Today I went on a tour of Oxford, particularly focusing on the actual university and the city center. It is a lovely town, with vibrant history and fascinating architecture. Here are a few pictures I took, though remember, I'm not the biggest fan of taking pictures, so these don't truly capture the beauty or the personality of Oxford. 

  

 The above picture captures a bit of life in Oxford, the feeling of walking in history. But it doesn't convey the constant feeling of bustling people walking, biking, busing, and driving throughout the city. There are so many different types of people and they are all very intent on getting to their destinations. But sometimes you find a corner like this one, which is peaceful and captures the reason why people travel to Oxford.

 

This is the Radcliffe dome, looking quite deary on this grey day. But the inside is filled with books upon books about science-y things. So, obviously, I will not be spending much time in it. However, the building next to it, which I don't have a picture of, is the main building of the Bodleian Library. I will be living in this place as I do my research for essays. The Radcliffe Dome is a part of this, just a specialized reading room. There will be more pictures and information on libraries coming as I learn to navigate the 100+ libraries that make up the Oxford system.

 

Finally, one other tidbit. This is the Bridge of Sighs, supposedly modeled after a bridge in Venice with the same name. However, the Venetian bridge is actually a rather ugly little thing, not romantic at all. In fact, it was the bridge prisoners crossed to go to their cells. The Bridge of Sighs in Oxford is actually copying a larger, grander bridge elsewhere in Venice that the builders liked more. However, they also approved of the name, so they took it and turned it into a romantic notion instead of a depressing one. Oh, the power of the Victorian imagination.

Home

This is my home at the Vines (a very old house that actually has it's own wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vines,_Oxford). I live on the 3rd story (or the British 2nd floor) and while being back in a dorm setting is taking a bit of adjustment, I enjoy having the bustle of people around me.

 Since I'm next to the roof, the room has skylights! Which mostly show a slightly forbidding grey sky, but then again, what else is new?

My little corner of friends. From left to right: Oliver, Totoro, Chubby Charlie, Stubby, and Lewis. All are from dear friends or family, and I like having the reminders of home. The pictures were drawn by my boyfriend and the teapot-rug-thing was made by a roommate. Happy memories.

The Power of Cute

When you are in a strange country and you wake up realizing that everyone you know is probably asleep, having an image like this in a facebook message can be the best thing ever:

Day 1

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Here are a few interesting things I have already discovered in England:

1.     Everything sounds more friendly when introduced with “miss” or “sir”

2.     Brits really seems to like spreadable things on their sandwiches… Since chicken salad and tuna are not my favorite, this is a little alarming

3.     The dollar store = Poundland! Tell me I’m not the only one who thinks this is funny.

4.     Pence is much cuter than “cents”

5.     Though books in general cost more, I have already discovered a bookstore that sells all its books for 2 pounds

6.     England looks a lot like Northern Washington, just a lot older. Everything is old here.

7.     Sheep in fields really are as picturesque as they are in photos. At least the ones I saw today were. It was impressive.

8.     Since England is so close to other countries, I have to deal with French accents as well as English ones. Didn’t even think of that.

9.     Libraries are always the best place to find information. Any information.

Oxford!

I’m going to Oxford today! Normally I would provide an count of the hours left until I land, but with an eight hour time difference, I am finding the math rather challenging.

Anyway, in spring semester freshman year, I sat on my bed exploring different study abroad programs as an interesting opportunity in college. I figured I probably wouldn’t go, since political science/history majors don’t have many different options and I wasn’t positive I wanted to be out of the country.

Then I came across the page to study history at Oxford and I immediately decided I wanted to go. Now, most of you know that I tend to think over decisions for months before I make them, but not this one. I have been set on Oxford for the past two years.

The application process took a while, but I won’t bore you with details about that. Just know that it took a year and a half before I knew whether I was going. In college time, that’s practically forever.

But now I’m finally going! I’ve packed and repacked my two suitcases (and a backpack) four times, checked that I do indeed have my passport in a safe location, and printed all of the necessary forms I need in case of emergency. As far as I can tell, everything is ready for my departure. Except my nerves, but they are always a little upset before a big adventure.

A few details: I’m using this blog to write up some of my adventures. Many of them will be short, and if you want to see pictures, go to my roommate’s blog, How I See It (http://katiebeth-katie.blogspot.com/). She has a nice camera, while I have a tiny one that often has problems focusing, so checking her blog will give you much better photos. And if anyone has any advice for me or places that they loved in England, please tell me. I’m always looking for first hand accounts of what works and what is worth doing.