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Sunday, 28 January 2007
Friday, 26 January 2007
the first week. come and gone.
Dear friends and family,
We are officially done with our first week here in Oxford, and have actually been here a full seven days now. I'd like to think myself fully inundated in the English culture now. But that would be a bit of an exaggerated admittance or claim.
I still carry my purse with me wherever I go. I focus quite intently on the different coins when attempting to hurry up and pay for something. I laugh too loud. I ended up wandering into a neighboring village on Tuesday, after walking so far in the wrong direction, waiting to see a shorter route back than that from whence I came, to no avail. England English still sometimes sounds like a different language than my own to me. The one time I've ridden a bus was when I walked all the way to Marston, the neighboring village, and had to get back somehow. I was afraid I would end up in Wales or....perhaps the ocean. So apparently I have some sort of subconscious fear of the British transportation system. I always feel like everyone's staring at me, which probably has something to do with the fact that I'm always staring at everyone. I have learned not to say 'excuse me' constantly as I was very recently informed that one only says this when one has passed gas, or, perhaps, belched. So numerous poor innocent bystanders believe me to be an overtly honest American regarding my personal bodily functions. And I can't seem to resist pulling out my camera in public places to take pictures every five minutes.
But I am getting there.
I walk miles every day. With the exception of today. I rested. I finally look to the left before crossing a one way street, which as important, for the prevention of unexpected infliction of serious bodily harm. I attended St. Aldates for church on Sunday morning. It's an Evangelical Anglican church. And I loved it. A pub is my new Starbucks where I go to write. Or hang out. I try to restrain myself and only smile slightly rather than grinning outright at strangers on the sidewalk, as it seems to make the British uncomfortable. I bought concerts to a concert in London for next weekend. I adore milk in my hot tea (although, it still has to be sweet. I am a Texan after all). I have discovered a strong affinity for British poets, such as Keats, Wordsworth, Donne and writers like Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft. I eat crackers called biscuists with my tea. I've not verbally accosted any of the attractive British boys I've seen. And I've seen my fair share of surprisingly attractive British boys. I am developing a tendency to abuse the word 'iconic' in the frequency of my use of it, as it seems to be a favorite here. I bought a three pound red plaid poncho at the market yesterday, in the city centre. I actually follow the conflict between Blair and Gordon, amused by political satirical comics illustrating said conflict. My own new Bush. Though I guess I didn't vote for either one.
I hear the bells from the church across the street outside my window. I still cannot believe I'll be living here for four months. I am so so blessed.
We already have a pseudo-couple developing among us. Only a week in. Don't worry, Daddy. I am not involved in any way. You know better. Somehow, mine and Katie's room has become the room to come to other than the common room or stair landings, which is usually quite nice, except that I have to always be sure to be decently dressed and have my bed made since it functions as a couch, and people tend to just enter without much warning or knocking. This afternoon, for example, four girls trickled in and just chilled. Bud came in and played guitar. Brian came in and parked himself on the floor, seeing what everyone was up to this weekend. And Trevor came in and plopped himself down on my bed, with his bowl of dried cereal, chomping away, like we were in his room. All of them just hangin out in here. It's nice. We seem comfortable. Like we're home.
Sarah A is supposed to come tomorrow, if she feels better, and it's about time. I don't know how much longer I could have lasted without a visit from or to her. We are in the same country still, after all. I'm getting a library card. And going to the park in the morning. I may not be the neo-Brit, quite yet. But I am not just the American in England either. I am changing. Every moment, like we tend to do.
As Lord Byron wrote,
"I knew that nought was lasting, but now even
Change grows too changeable without being new;
Nought's permanent among the human race."
Write me. I love you.
~k.
We are officially done with our first week here in Oxford, and have actually been here a full seven days now. I'd like to think myself fully inundated in the English culture now. But that would be a bit of an exaggerated admittance or claim.
I still carry my purse with me wherever I go. I focus quite intently on the different coins when attempting to hurry up and pay for something. I laugh too loud. I ended up wandering into a neighboring village on Tuesday, after walking so far in the wrong direction, waiting to see a shorter route back than that from whence I came, to no avail. England English still sometimes sounds like a different language than my own to me. The one time I've ridden a bus was when I walked all the way to Marston, the neighboring village, and had to get back somehow. I was afraid I would end up in Wales or....perhaps the ocean. So apparently I have some sort of subconscious fear of the British transportation system. I always feel like everyone's staring at me, which probably has something to do with the fact that I'm always staring at everyone. I have learned not to say 'excuse me' constantly as I was very recently informed that one only says this when one has passed gas, or, perhaps, belched. So numerous poor innocent bystanders believe me to be an overtly honest American regarding my personal bodily functions. And I can't seem to resist pulling out my camera in public places to take pictures every five minutes.
But I am getting there.
I walk miles every day. With the exception of today. I rested. I finally look to the left before crossing a one way street, which as important, for the prevention of unexpected infliction of serious bodily harm. I attended St. Aldates for church on Sunday morning. It's an Evangelical Anglican church. And I loved it. A pub is my new Starbucks where I go to write. Or hang out. I try to restrain myself and only smile slightly rather than grinning outright at strangers on the sidewalk, as it seems to make the British uncomfortable. I bought concerts to a concert in London for next weekend. I adore milk in my hot tea (although, it still has to be sweet. I am a Texan after all). I have discovered a strong affinity for British poets, such as Keats, Wordsworth, Donne and writers like Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft. I eat crackers called biscuists with my tea. I've not verbally accosted any of the attractive British boys I've seen. And I've seen my fair share of surprisingly attractive British boys. I am developing a tendency to abuse the word 'iconic' in the frequency of my use of it, as it seems to be a favorite here. I bought a three pound red plaid poncho at the market yesterday, in the city centre. I actually follow the conflict between Blair and Gordon, amused by political satirical comics illustrating said conflict. My own new Bush. Though I guess I didn't vote for either one.
I hear the bells from the church across the street outside my window. I still cannot believe I'll be living here for four months. I am so so blessed.
We already have a pseudo-couple developing among us. Only a week in. Don't worry, Daddy. I am not involved in any way. You know better. Somehow, mine and Katie's room has become the room to come to other than the common room or stair landings, which is usually quite nice, except that I have to always be sure to be decently dressed and have my bed made since it functions as a couch, and people tend to just enter without much warning or knocking. This afternoon, for example, four girls trickled in and just chilled. Bud came in and played guitar. Brian came in and parked himself on the floor, seeing what everyone was up to this weekend. And Trevor came in and plopped himself down on my bed, with his bowl of dried cereal, chomping away, like we were in his room. All of them just hangin out in here. It's nice. We seem comfortable. Like we're home.
Sarah A is supposed to come tomorrow, if she feels better, and it's about time. I don't know how much longer I could have lasted without a visit from or to her. We are in the same country still, after all. I'm getting a library card. And going to the park in the morning. I may not be the neo-Brit, quite yet. But I am not just the American in England either. I am changing. Every moment, like we tend to do.
As Lord Byron wrote,
"I knew that nought was lasting, but now even
Change grows too changeable without being new;
Nought's permanent among the human race."
Write me. I love you.
~k.
a little address on canterbury road.
kate, lady kathryn, miss k (or whatever you so choose) whitworth
9 Canterbury Road
OX2 6LU OXFORD
UNITED KINGDOM
Write me, at least once, please as many times as you possibly can. Or I will send Tony Blair on a miniature pony right after you. Don't you dare think I won't. So love me. Write Me. I will write you back. It will be a beautiful thing.
ciao.
9 Canterbury Road
OX2 6LU OXFORD
UNITED KINGDOM
Write me, at least once, please as many times as you possibly can. Or I will send Tony Blair on a miniature pony right after you. Don't you dare think I won't. So love me. Write Me. I will write you back. It will be a beautiful thing.
ciao.
hello, jude law.
greetings friends and family,
per popular request, i am starting this blog to save myself and all of you the trouble of the e-mailing process as means of an update. the sole purpose of this blog is to write for all those back home of all, or almost all..., of my experiences while i study abroad in oxford, england. i must warn you, that this is a first for me, and i can guarantee you that my thoughts will most likely come in all forms and colors, whether it be narrative, poetry, song lyrics, or simply pictures, i hope to share my experience with you to the fullest extent possible. so please enjoy. cruise through and just look for interesting points, or pore over eveyr blog looking for subtext and metaphor in between every line. and please, let me know if i'm not focusing enough on some things and too much on others, etc. as this is really for y'all. i have a journal for me. and DAGNABIT. you better write me while i am here. i don't do one-way relationships. that just is downrigh unfair. this is a give and take situation. so write me. i could not ask for me. i promise you it would be the highlight of my week, with the exception of the week i will be in italy perhaps.
now that all of that is out of the way, i will try to provide you with the briefest synopsis possible of my trip to and first few days at oxford.
we were supposed to leave abilene on a bus for dallas on wednesday, but thanks to the perfectly ironic blanket of snow we woke up to wednesday morning, we were unable to leave for the DFW airport until Thursday morning. Everything went much more smoothly on this morning, except that, just as we were about to pull out, I got a call from Team55 as I had left my driver's license at the library, so i hauled bum back across campus while everyone waited for me in the bus. What timing. That, my friends, is cutting it close. what are the odds? But we made it safely from there on out, with a direct flight from Dallas to the London Gatwick airport. we even got to see the montevideo group at the airport, and i ate dinner at the airport with some of them. the flight was long, but i managed to get an aisle seat with no one on the other side of me, which was quite nice. We arrived in London around 7:15 a.m. made it through customs, and with all of our luggage on some fairly rowdy carts, almost impossible to control. I put everyone around me, innocent bystanders, at risk with all my luggage on one of those obstinate carts. Then we all loaded onto the bus and got to the houses around 11 something.
Katie Buckel is my roommate. Oh, lucky me. To have such a good friend here with me. We are on the top floor of House 9 on Canterbury Road at the back left corner of the house, which means we have a window with a wonderful view out onto the Saint Hughes college campus, which is beautiful, and the grass is just so very green. I almost died carrying my luggage up four flights of very narrow steep stairs, but being on the fourth floor should provide me with even more exercise. and i have to think of this as good, seeing as we walk everywhere. exercise is inevitable. its a part of european life. so we got here on friday and all went out walking to get a tour of town and sort of get accustomed to finding our way around. my favorite so far is christs church cathedral, which is one of the most wonderful things ive ever seen. and i got to watch children playing soccer...or futbol, and even got a little salute from this pimpbritish little 11 year old or so boy. it made my day. then katie and i were going to go to dinner at the eagle and child pub, where c.s. lewis and tolkien used to meet to discuss their genius, in downtown, and it ended up being a group of about 20. which was interesting. but good. i got sausage and mash. it sounded pretty dang british. and it was quite good. everyone was dead on their feet but determined to stay up until 9 at least so as not to throw ourselves off too badly, but we were all glad to be home and off our feet after dinner. i went out around town with scott around 945 or so though, because i couldnt seem to get to sleep and he hadnt had dinner. but it was good because we got to go out to jericho, the kind of hip area with lots of cheap places to eat. so we went to the posh fish. i didnt know fish could be posh but they were cheap. so that was fun and we got back around midnight, after walking around some more. so i slept soundly.
too soundly. we were supposed to have orientation at 1:30 the next afternoon, and katie and i slept in and missed it, not being able to figure out where they'd gone. but they came back to the houses for the second half, so we ended up sufficiently informed. and ron told us all we'd missed was him saying "get drunk and ill put your butt on a plane and send you home" and that theres no real curfew enforced. just dont come in too late too often. so we rested up saturday. then i went with a group of girls walking out to summertown around 6 or so and got some "chips" (french fries) from a street vendor which were only a pound and were served with salt and vinegar. delicious. then a big group of us watched "persuasion" downstairs while others played oxford monopoly. it was really nice. most everyone seems to be getting along very nicely so far. that night we still couldnt sleep and ended up until about 5 15 am that morning.
but we were able to get up at 9 sunday morning and walked thirty minutes into the city center to go to church at st. aldates, which is an "evangelical anglican" church. and it was incredible. this church has existed for 1000 years, which is just beyond me, and i couldnt believe i was actually worshipping inside a room/building that looked like something out of a history book. it was breathtaking. whats funny is that the foyer, band, audio and tv system were all even more modern than many places ive been back in the states, while we sat in between marble columns under beautiful arched ceilings looking out incredible glass windows. im not so sure what evangelical anglican means, but it was so so casual and comfortable, the music was modern worship music, which i thoroughly enjoyed, and a woman introduced events and communion, which everyone goes to the front for, with real wine, but a man preached. about the design of God for us that we have lorst and need to seek out again. it was really very inspiring and a good message. i must admit i was surprised. i look forward to attending many different churches while im here, but love st. aldates. i relaxed saturday, bought my first concert tickets, which i am THRILLED about, and then had chapel at 9 with the group, which was good. still, i couldnt sleep. i ended up sitting in an ancient porcelain tub in the bathroom just contemplating life at about 4 am this morning, because i simple couldnt sleep but didnt want to keep katie up.
we started classes this morning, and i managed to only be about 5 minutes late, seeing as apparently i turned my alarm off without remembering. so i threw some clothes on and made it to my humanities class, which meets monday through thursday at 9. monday and wednesday are the history portion and tuesday and thursday are the literature portion. im going to enjoy this class, as these are my two favorite subjects i think. and we are here. where the authors wrote these masterpieces. where these kings and reformers walked. its remarkable. this afternoon i had my honors colloquium which is over medieval christianity-catholicism, and this is its first time. im really looking forward to seeing where this is going to go...it looks like it could really have some serious depth and prove to be more thought-provoking, and we will be taking special trips while in italy, that i can't wait for. after class a group of us walked out to port meadow, and its down to 31 and so so windy, which i didnt expect, and the meadow is flooded by the river thames right now, so it was perfect to me. and i went to the le paris patisserie for some hot coffee, which was less than wonderful. but i will have to adjust. those who know me would be proud of me. i have not had coffee since starbucks when we got here on friday. that's huge. sadly, i believe i could be replacing this addiction with tea, as thats so much more accessible and less expensive. and so british. and i drink it with cream and sugar. i have a little tea tray and everything.
my desk is set up where i look out the window and i cant imagine anything more wonderful. i love hearing students from saint hughes walk by with their clipped accents. i fall in love with every male voice i hear im afraid. i'm going to stop for now. ive typed myself exhausted, and im sure for those of you other than my dear mother, who have actually made it this far, are done in yourselves. this should easily be the longest blog i will write while i am here. but please do message me if you want to hear more about something or another.
i love you all and already miss you fiercely!
kathryn d. whitworth
per popular request, i am starting this blog to save myself and all of you the trouble of the e-mailing process as means of an update. the sole purpose of this blog is to write for all those back home of all, or almost all..., of my experiences while i study abroad in oxford, england. i must warn you, that this is a first for me, and i can guarantee you that my thoughts will most likely come in all forms and colors, whether it be narrative, poetry, song lyrics, or simply pictures, i hope to share my experience with you to the fullest extent possible. so please enjoy. cruise through and just look for interesting points, or pore over eveyr blog looking for subtext and metaphor in between every line. and please, let me know if i'm not focusing enough on some things and too much on others, etc. as this is really for y'all. i have a journal for me. and DAGNABIT. you better write me while i am here. i don't do one-way relationships. that just is downrigh unfair. this is a give and take situation. so write me. i could not ask for me. i promise you it would be the highlight of my week, with the exception of the week i will be in italy perhaps.
now that all of that is out of the way, i will try to provide you with the briefest synopsis possible of my trip to and first few days at oxford.
we were supposed to leave abilene on a bus for dallas on wednesday, but thanks to the perfectly ironic blanket of snow we woke up to wednesday morning, we were unable to leave for the DFW airport until Thursday morning. Everything went much more smoothly on this morning, except that, just as we were about to pull out, I got a call from Team55 as I had left my driver's license at the library, so i hauled bum back across campus while everyone waited for me in the bus. What timing. That, my friends, is cutting it close. what are the odds? But we made it safely from there on out, with a direct flight from Dallas to the London Gatwick airport. we even got to see the montevideo group at the airport, and i ate dinner at the airport with some of them. the flight was long, but i managed to get an aisle seat with no one on the other side of me, which was quite nice. We arrived in London around 7:15 a.m. made it through customs, and with all of our luggage on some fairly rowdy carts, almost impossible to control. I put everyone around me, innocent bystanders, at risk with all my luggage on one of those obstinate carts. Then we all loaded onto the bus and got to the houses around 11 something.
Katie Buckel is my roommate. Oh, lucky me. To have such a good friend here with me. We are on the top floor of House 9 on Canterbury Road at the back left corner of the house, which means we have a window with a wonderful view out onto the Saint Hughes college campus, which is beautiful, and the grass is just so very green. I almost died carrying my luggage up four flights of very narrow steep stairs, but being on the fourth floor should provide me with even more exercise. and i have to think of this as good, seeing as we walk everywhere. exercise is inevitable. its a part of european life. so we got here on friday and all went out walking to get a tour of town and sort of get accustomed to finding our way around. my favorite so far is christs church cathedral, which is one of the most wonderful things ive ever seen. and i got to watch children playing soccer...or futbol, and even got a little salute from this pimpbritish little 11 year old or so boy. it made my day. then katie and i were going to go to dinner at the eagle and child pub, where c.s. lewis and tolkien used to meet to discuss their genius, in downtown, and it ended up being a group of about 20. which was interesting. but good. i got sausage and mash. it sounded pretty dang british. and it was quite good. everyone was dead on their feet but determined to stay up until 9 at least so as not to throw ourselves off too badly, but we were all glad to be home and off our feet after dinner. i went out around town with scott around 945 or so though, because i couldnt seem to get to sleep and he hadnt had dinner. but it was good because we got to go out to jericho, the kind of hip area with lots of cheap places to eat. so we went to the posh fish. i didnt know fish could be posh but they were cheap. so that was fun and we got back around midnight, after walking around some more. so i slept soundly.
too soundly. we were supposed to have orientation at 1:30 the next afternoon, and katie and i slept in and missed it, not being able to figure out where they'd gone. but they came back to the houses for the second half, so we ended up sufficiently informed. and ron told us all we'd missed was him saying "get drunk and ill put your butt on a plane and send you home" and that theres no real curfew enforced. just dont come in too late too often. so we rested up saturday. then i went with a group of girls walking out to summertown around 6 or so and got some "chips" (french fries) from a street vendor which were only a pound and were served with salt and vinegar. delicious. then a big group of us watched "persuasion" downstairs while others played oxford monopoly. it was really nice. most everyone seems to be getting along very nicely so far. that night we still couldnt sleep and ended up until about 5 15 am that morning.
but we were able to get up at 9 sunday morning and walked thirty minutes into the city center to go to church at st. aldates, which is an "evangelical anglican" church. and it was incredible. this church has existed for 1000 years, which is just beyond me, and i couldnt believe i was actually worshipping inside a room/building that looked like something out of a history book. it was breathtaking. whats funny is that the foyer, band, audio and tv system were all even more modern than many places ive been back in the states, while we sat in between marble columns under beautiful arched ceilings looking out incredible glass windows. im not so sure what evangelical anglican means, but it was so so casual and comfortable, the music was modern worship music, which i thoroughly enjoyed, and a woman introduced events and communion, which everyone goes to the front for, with real wine, but a man preached. about the design of God for us that we have lorst and need to seek out again. it was really very inspiring and a good message. i must admit i was surprised. i look forward to attending many different churches while im here, but love st. aldates. i relaxed saturday, bought my first concert tickets, which i am THRILLED about, and then had chapel at 9 with the group, which was good. still, i couldnt sleep. i ended up sitting in an ancient porcelain tub in the bathroom just contemplating life at about 4 am this morning, because i simple couldnt sleep but didnt want to keep katie up.
we started classes this morning, and i managed to only be about 5 minutes late, seeing as apparently i turned my alarm off without remembering. so i threw some clothes on and made it to my humanities class, which meets monday through thursday at 9. monday and wednesday are the history portion and tuesday and thursday are the literature portion. im going to enjoy this class, as these are my two favorite subjects i think. and we are here. where the authors wrote these masterpieces. where these kings and reformers walked. its remarkable. this afternoon i had my honors colloquium which is over medieval christianity-catholicism, and this is its first time. im really looking forward to seeing where this is going to go...it looks like it could really have some serious depth and prove to be more thought-provoking, and we will be taking special trips while in italy, that i can't wait for. after class a group of us walked out to port meadow, and its down to 31 and so so windy, which i didnt expect, and the meadow is flooded by the river thames right now, so it was perfect to me. and i went to the le paris patisserie for some hot coffee, which was less than wonderful. but i will have to adjust. those who know me would be proud of me. i have not had coffee since starbucks when we got here on friday. that's huge. sadly, i believe i could be replacing this addiction with tea, as thats so much more accessible and less expensive. and so british. and i drink it with cream and sugar. i have a little tea tray and everything.
my desk is set up where i look out the window and i cant imagine anything more wonderful. i love hearing students from saint hughes walk by with their clipped accents. i fall in love with every male voice i hear im afraid. i'm going to stop for now. ive typed myself exhausted, and im sure for those of you other than my dear mother, who have actually made it this far, are done in yourselves. this should easily be the longest blog i will write while i am here. but please do message me if you want to hear more about something or another.
i love you all and already miss you fiercely!
kathryn d. whitworth
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