farewell!

i just wanted to send out a quick good-bye to everyone. tomorrow we all head out for two days in london and then on friday jodi and i are off to scotland and ireland! first, we take on overnight bus to edinburgh where we stay until monday. then, we have a flight out to dublin. spend a few days there, take a train up to belfast. while in belfast, we plan to take a bus up to northern ireland to see the giant causeway by the ocean. i am so excited!! we are going to have the best time ever. for one, we each only have a backpack...so yes we are going to get a bit grungy. but i am ready and willing to embrace the role of tourist until i arrive back in charlbury next sunday. essays are done...now its time to travel!! so, i will not update my blog for quite some time...but trust me, when i do next, there is going to be so much to show you and tell you! and for all of you who are transfers over from jodi's blog because hers hasn't been updated in a long time, she also says farewell and will update as soon as she gets back (yeah right!!)
i cannot believe it!! soooo much fun!! yeah ireland!

valentines day, lewis, and tolkien

valentine's day in charlbury!! it was a blast. we decorated the church in red and white streamers, balloons, and candles. the night was filled with poems and readings, songs and skits from a few local charlbury talents and of course all of us! as you can see, jodi and i manned the bar for that evening (and did quite a good job!). it was a nice, relaxing break from exam studying!

well, i wrote my last exam yesterday morning and after only 8 hours of sleep in two days, i was quite relieved! now...essay. but before i

continued with those, we took a break and went into oxford for the day yesterday. dr. loney (laura's dad), who had come in to england just a few days before, is well known in this program for his cs lewis and jrr tolkien tours. so, for a few hours in the afternoon, he took us all around oxford to the schools, chapels, houses, and other places associated with the two famous friends in some way. we went to see so many different places and dr. loney knew all the facts about what stories they wrote when they were at certain colleges, when they attended college, when their friendship had begun, and so on. very very interesting!! so i posted a few pictures below of our afternoon out:

above is university college. this place is actually closed to the public...but dr. loney was very convincing and they allowed us to come in and check it out!! we were very excited. apparently, lewis wrote the entrance exam for this college and was rejected - so that makes me feel better!
this is laura and myself in the university college chapel where lewis attended. like all chapes in engalnd, it was breathtaking!

this is fellowshall - where lewis actually lived for awhile! his windows are apparently the two just above those people walking. and then we went on addison walk which was very much enjoyed by lewis who actually wrote about it in one of his poems i believe. and of course we saw deer park which, as the name implies, is a fenced off area filled with deer. mom you would have loved it!
this is an area of one of the colleges (i think university college) that lewis would have walked through every day - the gargoyles that surround the entire area are actually characters that he put into the chronicles of narnia. he got the idea of them from these!

we also saw some other neat and random things not quite so relevant tolkien and lewis, but still interesting. the the left is jodi making her confession...i just like this picture. what happened after the picture was not so funny though...sorry jodi!

the picture below is a building we passed in which the first living cell was identified by robert boyle and his assistant robert cooke. crazy!to finish the tour, we went to the lamb and child for a pint - one of the pubs where lewis and tolkien's group called the 'inklings' met to discuss literature. it is right across the street from the eagle and child where we had gone before.

afer, we went to see cloudcuckooland in oxford. it was so hilarious! it was intended to be a childrens production, but because it was adapted from aristophane's greek play the birds, it of course fit into our course! it was about a bunch of birds who are tired of the pollution that humans are creating. so, in order to get them to stop, they make a plan to, well, to poop on everything until they give in. you can just imagine how funny

this play would be! it was so much fun, i felt like a kid again. a great stress reliever!

after the play, we all went to an italian pizzeria nearby and the pizza was amazing! so good and the perfect ending to a wonderful day! but now, unfortuately, i can procrastinate no longer...back to the essays!

more adventures!

so, i determined that if i was to be completely honest in my blog, i should begin by saying that i am a tad bit homesick today. i mean, i am having an amzing time here in england and i absolutely love it...but there is something about a warm hug from your mom and dad or a sloppy kiss from a little four year old girl that you begin to desperately miss when you can no longer have them. and so while i am here, across the ocean, i miss everyone terribly and wait in anticipation for the millions of hugs i will get when im back! but for now i just got a wonderful hug from beth....that should tie me over for awhile!

well, the weather here is absolutely beautiful! we have been walking in the blazing sun, gazing at all the flowers beginning to bloom. life is good and spring just may be here!!

this past friday, jodi, laura, heather, alisha, and myself went to formal hall at regents park college. before cathching the train, we of course had a modelling shoot in which heather turned out to be a budding model!! we had a few good laughs looking at the pictures after! at regents, we began supper with a questionable salad...there was a creature in it...i think it was an oyster...but thats unsure. all the food that followed, however, was delicious and not abnormal in any sense. we had a wonderful dinner conversation with some friendly brits who were more than enthused to discuss american politics with us (apparently they follow it really closely here...who knows!). it was a fun evening ending with a hitchcock movie at laura's house.

the next morning we set out for stratford - the city that shakespeare put on the map! we began our explorations at anne hathaways cottage (shakespeare's wife's family home) - a quaint, picturesque cottage filled with scandolous stories of shakespeare and anne during their courtship (according to our enthusiastic, quircky tour guide)! after a packed lunch by the avon river, we walked over to the birthplace of shakespeare - the house where shakespeare grew up....very very cool!!

above is a picture of shakespeare's house

and here i am touching the handle that shakespeare along with billions of other tourists have touched. hey, he still touched it at one point right?

although cameras were not allowed, i managed to snap a picture of the famous folio, which was published in 1623 - the first pulished compilation of all of shakespeares works.

after, we continued to explore through out stratford and visited the nash house/new place.

new place was purchased by shakespeare in the late 1500's during his retirement. it is at this house where he passed away in 1616. the house was then given to his daughter, elizabeth, who married thomas nash (hence, nash house). i loved the gorgeous gardens behind the house. following, we went to halls croft (pictured to the left). this is where shakespeare's daughter, susanna, and her husband, john hall lived after they were married in the early 1600's. it was really intriguing to walk throughout the house because the oldest part of it has been dated back to the early part of the 15th century. absolutely beatiful inside.

after touring around, we all congregated back at the holy trinity church in stratford. this is the chuch where shakespeare along with his whole family was buried. interesting to see - i wonder if he ever thought that centuries after his death, billions of people would still be coming to look at his gravesite. kinda weird, isnt it?

regardless, below is a picture of his actual grave which is located inside the church.to conclude the day, we stopped in long compton on our way home to look at the rollright stones. there is a myth that some king from long ago, was told by a witch that if he took 7 paces and saw the town of long compton it would all be his. unfortuntely, the witch caused a hill to rise up and he could not see so he along with his whole group of soldiers were turned to stone. or something like that. so this circle is thought to be all of his soldiers.

check out the country side - no matter how many times i get to see views like this, they still take me breathe away ever time. God is amazing!

just briefly...

well..this was the exciting thing that i had mentioned before...this car!! isnt it amazing! one of the older gentlemen that came to dinner at lee's house had this car and it is from 1924...1924!! how amazing is that? and he took laura, mark, and myself for a drive around the country and we had such a blast. every person that we drove by we waved to...good times! it really was incredible - not the fastest car bust still so much fun!

this week i have gone to do research at the bodleian library. which, besides the fact that i had to do school work, it was a neat experience! i had good intentions of going again tonight...but well i went shopping instead (and bought some adorable shoes by the way - i love england)!

last night, we went to see "a trip to scarborough" at the oxford playhouse. what

a play!! i laughed so much. after the initial confusion of three different time periods occuring in the play and characters leaving and entering the stage a lot...i absolutely loved it! it was such a great production. i realized that before i came to england, i had never gone to the theatre (and jenn, the movie theatre does not count!) - and i feel like i really missed out! so, when i come home i want to keep seeing plays! definately, it is such a great time. so, the guy to the left is lord poppington (well thats his character in the play, i kinda forget his actual name right now) and he was by far the best actor in the production. alisha and i (along with our driver peter and kay - two wonderful people!) stayed after the play to chat with the cast. that was really cool. and afterwards and went to talk to this guy and get his autograph. fun!

before the play, we all went to the eagle and child (which as i mentioned before was the place where jrr tolkein and cs lewis used to meet over drinks to discuss literature). the person at the head of the table the the right of me is lynn robinson and she is the academic coordinator of the program. she will also be our tutor in shakespeare later in the semester. it was really wonderful that she came with us. when beth and i heard that swan lake was going to be in theatre at oxford, she said that she would look into the price of tickets and she would go with us! i thought that was very sweet of her!

okay, well, besides school work, things have been quieter around here. tomorrow night is formal hall at regents park college and on saturday we will be spending the day touring around stratford! i cant wait!

what fun!

what a weekend! i just got back from an evening of entertainement at The Shed (and yes it actually is, as its name implies, a real shed) followed by a pint at a local pub (our way of truly engaging in the english culture :)). to my surprise, charlbury is streaming with talent! we watched the locals belt out tunes, recite poetry, and even crack jokes about george bush. until tonight, i was oblivious to the amount of talent that hid behind virtually every door in this small town of 3000. the people here are wonderful and brilliant!

the day began with a trip out to warwick to visit warwick castle - the most significant medieval english castles. it was so amazing to be walking through the castle grounds that had hundreds of years ago been walked through by earls and duchessess of medieval time. it was quite an adventure! built way back in 1294, warwick castle is submersed in a rich history!

this picture to the left is "the mound" which is the oldest part of the castle and grounds as it was first built in 1028 - crazy!!

much of the castle today has been transformed into a virtual reality that allows us to truly grasp the medieval way of life. the rooms were intricately put together and the people were extremely life like! each room was so detailed and beautifully constructed. there was also the peacock gardens to visit, the party room (where a few of us girls spent a lot of time playing dress-up) and the dungeon (which was very sombering). all-in-all warwick castle was quite the entertaining experience and i thoroughly enjoyed myself!

after our time at the castle we went just outside of warwick to the conventry cathedral. the cathedral was absolotely stunning - filled with beautiful artwork and craftsmanship. the whole cathedral cried out "holy" and sacred - it truly felt like God's house.

after viewing the new cathedral, we walked across to the first cathedral which had originaly been built in the 14th century but had to be rebuilt after it was bombed in WWII. as i walked through the remaining shell that was once an acient and glorious cathedral, i felt the devastaton and despair. but i also felt God truly dwelling in that building, in his house. it was an experience that cannot be described but it truly touched me and moved me deeply.

this picture to the left is the 'monument' displayed at the front of the tattered cathedral. it was made from the charred remains of the original roofing that had fallen after the explosion and landed in this shape.

this monument was also placed in the old cathedral, was given as a token of reconciliation 50 years after WWII. the incription reads: "Both sculptures remind us that, in the face of destructive forces, human dignity and love will triumph over disaster and bring nations together in respect and peace".

Enough said. Good Night!