Today in Photos from the Shire (Day Four)

Today, I had class, which was a lot of fun. I volunteered yesterday to kick-off the class discussion of "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," which leads into our "Moby Dick" discussion next week. The weather was great for the walk across the park, where the crepe stand was open and the cricket dudes were out.

Earlier this morning, Lena and I bought tickets for an official "city and university" Oxford walking tour. While we toured a number of things we already know (like Lincoln College) we learned some fun facts (i.e. Shakespeare's out-of-wedlock son with Lady Jane went to our college here at Oxford) and got a better sense of the layout of the city.

Among other things, we visited T.E. Lawrence (yes, of Arabia's) college, Jesus College, across the street. If memory serves, it was built about 100 years after Lincoln College, in the 1500's.

Near the end of the tour, we checked out, first-hand, "punting on the Thames" (the river also known as the Isis here in town), and Lena put punting on the list of "things to do on her 30th birthday," coming up in just a couple of weeks.

We also saw, for the first time, Radcliffe Camera, part of the Bodleian Library, and the oldest circular reading room in the world (the largest circular reading room in the world is the Library of Congress). This is not open to the public, but we can access it with our Bodleian cards. We went inside for a peek and decided to make this our official study spot, with its big windows and total quiet.

Last, we went to the amazing Turf Pub to sit on the deck in the sun. Among the celebrities who relaxed here formerly: Bill Clinton (while a student at Oxford), Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Steven Hawkins, and Ben Kingsley. A varied group!

Tonight, Lena and I go see a production of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None" (known alternately in the states as "Ten Little Indians") at the Oxford Playhouse. Students can buy day-of tickets for 8 pounds, or around 16 dollars, with cash and student ID.

Have a great Friday and weekend, everyone!

Today in Photos from the Shire (Day Three)

I'm blogging earlier today. Classes are now underway, and I need to reread Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" for class tomorrow as I volunteered to kick off class discussion of the poem. My albatross, I guess.

So much happens each day here, it's hard to choose photos to capture it all. Do me a favor and check out the Flickr photo link at right, and you'll see what I mean. I post about forty more photos a day out on Flickr for the truly bored or curious.

Here's Lena, in the street in front of our college. Every day, we enter and exit through the main gate, right in front of that bus. We walk through the "Porter's Lodge," which is also where I ask dumb questions and take Ed's daily letter for metering and posting.

After the photo above, Lena and I walked with half of the Bread Loaf crew for our formal introduction to the world-famous Bodleian Library. Witness:


Not bad, 'eh? It's an enormous and rare honor to study and research here. Each of us has a top security Bodleian ID card, for which we had to pledge that we would (quoting directly from the pledge here) "not bring into the Library or kindle therein any fire or flame" among other things.

Here are the Loafers in line for passport checking and pledge reading. We're in a room that housed Parliament a few times in British history, like after the Great London Fire. Later in the day, we attended an intense hour-long tutorial on use of the library, which is a research-only library (i.e. no books leave the Bodleian; you order what you need delivered to a reading room and, well, read it). The Bodleian holds a ton of treasures, including one I saw today: The original draft manuscript of Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," opened to its title page in a display case. Extremely moving.


Next, it was time to walk to class. I hiked the twenty minutes to a neighboring college with three other classmates, and passed a cricket match en route.

My class is located here, at Lady Margaret Hall, another of the colleges within Oxford University. Our initial class meeting lasted about a half hour, mostly for introductions and a review of the syllabus.

After class, my classmates and I ducked into Oxford's free Natural History Museum, which also houses the truly weird and awesome Pitt-Rivers Museum, described as "a museum... of a museum" that not only showcases things like shrunken heads and mummies, but highlights how the Victorians organized and cataloged Lots of Unusual Stuff. In general, loving it here. Love to all.

News from the Shire #2

Melanie and Lena at High Table Dinner.


Our campus.


Yummy soup and a lot of silverware.


In Deep Hall after dinner: Alison and Annie.


Right outside our door.

Today's highlight, among many, was the first "High Table Dinner" of the Bread Loaf session. Unique to Bread Loaf Oxford, the High Table Dinner generally features a guest speaker (for example, later in the season, the actor who plays Bottom in Royal Shakespeare Company's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" speaks at a High Table Dinner; incidentally, all 70 of us go see "Dream" in Stratford) and (as I now understand) fancy dress, lots of silver, and great food (zucchini soup, salmon hollandaise, guinea fowl, potatoes/carrots/green beans, and something called "strawberry vacherin").

We kicked off the evening with a 5:30 introductory meeting, followed by drinks on the quad, then use of the proper fork and knife, and after-dinner tea and coffee in something called the "Junior Common Room." Bread Loaf, known generally for its fleece and shorts, turned up looking fine. Afterward, about 25 of us landed in Deep Hall, the campus pub, located (appropriately) under the dining hall. Given the prices in Oxford, it's definitely the most inexpensive place to hang out! There, I caught up with my friend Annie, who used to work in college admission at Bowdoin, and who had just started Bread Loaf when our friend Matt Lane introduced us at our national admission counseling conference in Milwaukee.

Otherwise, today was a blur of Oxford information and discovery: our first breakfast, served buffet style and taken in our very Hogwartsy dining hall; walking around downtown Oxford (we're smack in the middle of Oxford, so downtown is right outside the door); an orientation to Lincoln College's beautiful library; naps; "registration" (i.e. "this is how to do laundry" and "this is the location of your first class"). My first class meets tomorrow late morning, after we all tour the Bodleian Library (which involves a "Bodleian Pledge"), considered one of the three-or-four best research libraries in the world.

I meet my tutor and four other classmates (some of whom I met at dinner) tomorrow and will report back then on class and class expectations! Have a great day, all!

News from the Shire (so hobbity!) #1

If I stretch out my feet, they don't reach the seat in front of me.


"2001" plus curried scallops and shrimp.


Approaching Oxford in the coach from the airport.


The adorable counter in my bathroom (we all have single rooms).


More dorm room.

And now, the news!

The last 30 hours have been fan-tastic. First, Jess surprised me by joining Emily and me for a combination Emily birthday dinner/pre-departure dinner. We ate four-cheese pizza and bean salad at Tutta Bella, so I was already stuffed full when...

I arrived at Sea-Tac, and learned my World Business Class status gained me access to the Northwest World Club! Hot diggity! Suddenly, I'm surrounded by lemon bars, cookies, sharp cheddar, fresh fruit, juice, pop, coffee, tea, magazines, wireless, and the Olympic swim trials on TV. All behind those doors that "whoosh" shut on the South Satellite.

As if that wasn't enough, I boarded for London and luxuriated my way across the Atlantic. First, the 180-degree (technically 176-degree) lay-down seat is a pod straight out of "2001: A Space Odyssey." (Check the photos on my Flickr site by clicking the link at right.) I said as much to Mom when I talked to her before I took off. Someone at Northwest Airlines has a good sense of humor, because one of the 25-or-so movies available to me on my personal entertainment unit was none other than "2001: A Space Odyssey." Of course, I watched it. So there I am, in my Kubrickian pod, listening to the "2001 Theme" and its wonderful Brahmsy soundtrack, staring down at freaking GREENLAND as if I'd just pulled the plug on HAL himself.

The list of World Business Class fun goes on and on: Socks, earplugs, toothpaste, toothbrush, eye mask, Aveda products, headphones, after dinner liqueur, fancy ice cream sandwich, stinky cheeses, good sleep, etc., etc. I arrived feeling great, and navigated my way from the plane to the train, from the train to the coach, and from the coach to the college.

Oxford is, as promised, CUTE. Lincoln College, our home base, is triple-charming: a collection of 1400's buildings encircling perfectly manicured quads (one with a sign that reads, "Croquet Only"). I'll take and post pictures tomorrow. Five of us, each connected to one another in some way, are housed in single rooms on the top floor of "Staircase 13" (including Ali, my first-year roommate in Vermont, and Lena, from Juneau and Santa Fe). Six of us walked to a nearby pub to get dinner-out as we missed dinner-in (earlier than normal) this evening. I had carrot soup, a marinated veggie salad, and a pint of cider for around $30. Definitely not affordable to eat out very often!

On my walk home from the pub, Ed called! (Hi, Ed!) Ed and the Alsek crew had one of their most productive days of fishing ever (filled the 50,000 pound capacity of the boat in a single set, for those in the know), so it was fun to celebrate that and celebrate my arrival in Oxford on the phone with Ed tonight. I posted in my room the map of Southeast Alaska I use every year at Bread Loaf to chart Ed's progress in the summertime.

My room is settled, and I feel great. Time to go to bed and see what fun awaits tomorrow.

Ready to raaaaawwwwwk!

Darlings,

Bags = packed. Fridge = cleaned. Recycling = recycled. Brows = waxed. Checklist = checked. Then double-checked. Then re-written, in Word and on paper, then triple-checked. Bags = repacked. Books = er, mostly read. Excitement = unabated.

I promise a real sky-high geek-fest tonight when, upon seeing for the first time my Northwest Airlines Business Class, 180-degree lay-down seat (thank you, air miles), I ask a fellow passenger take a picture of me IN IT. Now, if only I could bring the Pendleton blanket...

Direct flight = smokin'! (Well, hopefully not smokin'... that would be bad.)

If the I.T. gods are with us, and the mid-1400's super-thick walls of my residence hall pump out the Internets, I'll post a big "Oxford is so cute!" (I mean, really, how can it not be so cute?) email early this week. In the meantime, if you're in Seattle, get yourself a lime popsicle, obey the Heat Advisory, and stay cool. If you're anywhere else, know that you already are cool and I love you all big-time.

Searching for summer reading? Wharton it up!

Finished Edith Wharton's "The House of Mirth" for the Loaf. Loved it, loved it, loved it. If a turn-o'-the-century (the last one) hot social critique (marginalia: "Go Wharton!") with heaps of Old New York details sounds better than a corndog at the fair (actually, anything sounds better than a corndog at the fair; I'm not really doing this book justice, am I?), git yerself some "Mirth." Warning: Don't invest someone else's money to buy it, nor borrow money to buy it. Even though the book is TOTALLY WORTH EITHER of the above, we learn (especially for women in 1905) these can be Very Bad Things. Now, on to Eliot's "The Mill on the Floss" to see if 19th century England is any kinder on its women. (Care to take a guess how that's going to turn out?) Unrelated: I'm off to Chicago to tour colleges for a week, after which we'll really get this Oxford party started. Love to all. (P.S. For the 140 minute "Mirth," watch Terence Davies' 84% faithful 2000 adaptation, featuring Dana Scully herself, then watch it again with Davies' commentary: a track so insightful, it --- don't fall over --- genuinely added to my understanding of the BOOK.)

School's out... for summer!

The kids have been gone for almost a week, but today's my last day at school until August 9. Right on! I'm drinking a big throwback to my own high school days: the tall raspberry mocha. Seattle Academy hosts a BBQ this afternoon. I go to Swoon Spa and get the winter grit buffed off my feet. Then I really kick a** in the Bread Loaf reading department: Before the end of next week, I'll finish Wharton's The House of Mirth, Brockden Brown's Edgar Huntly, and Wordsworth's Prelude. As a going-away present, Ed bought me Stephen Greenblatt's National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist Will in the World for a little "how Shakespeare became Shakespeare" background. It's one of Ed's favorites. Thanks, Ed! I'll check-in next when more of the assigned reading is done. Wish me luck!