where did the week go?

we have all been having such an amazing time here in england! i find it hard to believe that it is already thursday - this past week has flown by! and so i just realized that i have left everyone wondering what new adventures i might have embarked upon recently. well, the week did not appear to start off well when we had our first drama auditions. poor jodi and i were freaking out about having to perform and it was well justified - lets just leave it at that. today we had intense rain and wind - jodi's poor umbrella did not survive. but with that being the only casualty and the fact that we have had wonderful weather so far, i cant complain.

sunday afternoon, after a riveting sermon at the baptist church from the president of regents park college, i was invited for lunch at laura's hosts house. there are no words to describe the food and arrangements that met my eyes when i walked in the door. the table was set with her finest china and lunch was an amazing beef dish followed by a hungarian apple pie for dessert. absolutely delicious. lee (probably the coolest english lady i have met so far) definately outdid herself. but nothing could surpass the event that occured when lunch was finished....but until i get the pictures from laura i dont think i will fill you in....

last night we went to see henry v in stratford. again, words cannot describe. the performance was spectacular and far exceeded all my expectations. the acting was impecable and i sat on the edge of my seat while laughing most of the night. shakespeare in stratford - it doesnt get better! jane and jefferey (our host) drove jodi and myself to the play and surprised me with a pink feather shakespeare pen which i am also pretty pumped for!

earlier in the week peter took us on a tour of oxford to the places we hadnt seen yet. even though i walk through the city almost every day, i am still amazed at the beauty of the buildings and the history that can be found around every corner. we saw so much but here are only a few of the pictures:

this is the pub where c.s. lewis and j.r.r. tolkein used to meet for lunch and discuss literature - super super cool!! definately going to eat there sometime soon.

this is the original wall that used to surround oxford - it was buit in the fourteenth century (old!!) and this is the portion of it that has been best preserved. very beautiful.

this is new college - one of the oxford colleges. im not too sure the significance but the architecture of the building is stunning, dont you think? i would also like to draw your attention to the colour of the grass - and its january. incredible. hows the snow by the way?

this is an actual COBBLESTONE STREET that cars actually drive on. now thats just cool.

so, in new college, we went into its church. WOW. so incredibly beautiful. absolutely amazing. to make the whole experience that much better, there was an organist playing. the moment was surreal. the statue below is of lazarus and was made by some famous guy.

check out the wall...i dont think i need to say much about it. the effort that went into this wall alone is mind boggling. it is utterly breathtaking. amazing. gorgeous beyond words.

so...thats the week so far in a nut shell. in between it all we have of course been going to classes and doing homework. this weekend is warwick castle and some other things. unfortunately however, tomorrow morning is part two of drama auditions....

It's the weekend!

HELLO!! so the weekend is here and it has been fun! last night a few of us had a game night and played bucaneers. quite amusing! and after a morning of sleeping in a few of us headed out to blenheim palace in woodstock. but FIRST the day began with a frightening ride on a double-decker bus. the roads in england are not very big so it often felt like we were going to hit either a car or a tree. but quite the experience for sure!!
blenheim palace was originally built in 1704 by john churchill, the first duke of marlborough, as a gift from the queen for defeating the french in the battle of blenheim. it was the birthplace of winston churchill in 1874. the current duke of marlborough (i dont who he is) lives there right now. crazy! it is absolutely gorgeous. we walked around the whole grounds. unfortunately, the palace and garden grounds were not open so we didnt get to go inside. the gardens are one of the most amazing aspects of the palace - so we will definately go back although next time we will have to pay! but this palace is huge and absolutely gorgeous!!

we had such a fun day. also on the grounds was a monument that was erected for i think the defeating french...but that is some information that i seem to have forgotten...sorry! but the picture is nice! hahaha

well...thats all for now..but thanks again for checking and ill update you again soon!!!

miss everyone lots!!!

January 24th

Hey Everyone! I just came back from supper and a quite fancy hotel restaurant here in Charlbury, called The Bell. The food was excellent! Our classes have been very interesting as well. We have only two right now, Shakespeare and Drama. Although the workload is quite significant, I am excited for everything that we will learn!

So, we have not done much else from the last time I wrote, so I figured that I would post a few from my past excursion throughout Oxford.
The picture on the right is of Oxford Castle - although I have not had the chance to go inside, I will soon! The next few pictures are of the Bodleian Library - specifically the courtyard. The round builing is the Radcliffe Camera - this is the actual building of the library where the literature books are housed and where we will be doing the majority of our studying and essay writing. Looking forward to that ;).

I am glad that everyone has been checking out my blog - I will try my best to update it on a regular basis. I have recieved quite a few emails from everyone and I just want to say thank you to all who have. It is great to hear from people back at home and know that everyone has been thinking and praying for me. I really appreciate the emails! It means a lot! Until next time...

Tuesday, January 22

Wow - things have been so insanely busy here! Already the workload is piling on for our classes and I still just want to tour around and see England :)! But the classes are amazing! And Oxford is absolutely brilliant and stimulating. After taking our first train ride into Oxford, we walked through the whole city and saw things like the Oxford Castle and many other beautiful historical buildings! As well, we went to the Bodleian Library (this pictgure is the entrance into the main part of the library). This library dates way back to like the 15th century and is perhaps the largest non-lending library - so to even be allowed entrance into the library is quite the privelege! It contains every book that has ever been published in the UK from that century on. There was a small "ceremony" if you will that was put on by the library administrator for each person when recieving their library card. It was very exciting! Monday was definately a day of firsts for us! We also had our first downpour and a thunderstorm while waiting for the train. Fun!
The people here are awesome and everyone in the group is wonderful - I am definately excited for the rest of the semester! Most exciting has been by far the performance put on in the Courtyard Theatre of Stratford last night of Shakespeare's Richard II. To be in Stratford - the home of Shakespeare - an watch an acutal Shakespeare performance was so amazing! It was an awesome performance and the whole experience was quite sureal. Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed and so there are no pictures - sorry! There has been so many other thing that we have done (like I've said - we've been extremely busy!). On Sunday, after a combined church service with all the churches in Charlbury, we went to the Baptist church for lunch. That was followed by a country walk - people from all over this area come into Charlbury for the walks in the country. Although it was beautiful - it was also very, very muddy! The rain is almost constant right now in England. Today has so far been the nicest day with little rain! So the walk took about 3 hours but was concluded by a yummy supper made by our coordinator, Mad.

Well, that is all the time I have for now - but I will update this as soon as I have a spare moment! Right now we are all looking for our first day with nothing planned - Saturday! Until then, we have plays to read, group presentations to present, and quizzes to write - back to the school work I suppose!! The last picture is of the whole group studying here - six from ABU and the other six are from Redeemer.

Sunday, January 20th

We walked a lot today! After church and lunch we took a long 3 hour walk through the country - it was extremely muddy! And tonight we will have supper with Mad (the coordinator). Jodi and I are living in a very cute house. It actually a garage that has been converted into a little apartment. I will definately post pictures soon, but I just figured out how to use this blog! Tomorrow, we are going to see Richard II in Stratford - very exciting. And we will also spend the day touring around Oxford. Should be fun!