The Ashmolean Museum

 In lieu of a classroom lecture this morning, Dr. Snyder opted to take us on a field trip to the University of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum!  The museum was the world's first university museum, opening its doors in the mid-17th century.Today it houses a world-class collection with exhibits covering the pre-historical period, Ancient Egypt and the Middle East, Classical Greece and Rome, European History, Far-Eastern art, musical instruments, painting, and sculpture.

We began in the newly opened Ancient Egypt exhibit.  Dr. Snyder discussed J.R.R. Tolkien's influences for Lord of the Rings including that of ancient Egyptian headgear in his depiction of the Gondorians and Númenorians.  We also saw the Scorpion Macehead, a highly-decorated ceremonial mace so named because of the scorpion glyph which proceeds every appearance of the pharaoh.

Dr. Snyder leads the discussion.

 Next we passed through the Classical Greece and Rome section, stopping to admire the pottery and sculpture of the ancient artists.

 

The Ashmolean has a good collection of classical artifacts.

Zeus!!!

 

We then made our way upstairs, bypassing the Asian and Near-Eastern collections "which had nothing to do with Tolkien."  We'll certainly need to return later and see them. 

At last, Dr. Snyder found the Anglo-Saxon collection! Click here for Dr. Snyder's feelings on the matter.

While Dr. Snyder was discussing Anglo-Saxon sword and coin hordes, the rest of us were distracted by the shining artifact in the central case, the Alfred Jewel.

Everyone wants a photo of the Alfred Jewel

Close-up of the Alfred Jewel

 As we made our way over to the musical instruments collection, Maddy and I couldn't help but notice a familiar face amongst the tapestries.  The elusive Monster of Venneit Close!  We've had several sightings of a mysterious mammal near the Venneit Close apartments and railyard but have been unable to hit upon a matching description of any local creature after consulting with several residents of the neighborhood.  I'd like to think it's just a fox with a skin condition, but could it be a capybara?

Maddy finds the mysterious monster in a French tapestry.

  As a erstwhile guitarist and violist, I was quite at home in the musical instruments gallery.  Plenty of Strads and instruments by other makers to keep me satisfied! Unfortunately, no one is allowed to play Stradivari's Messiah violin, so named because a former owner often boasted about it to friends but never revealed it. It is in like-new condition and playing might damage it.

Stradivari's Messiah

Guitars by Stradivari, 1688 (l) and dos Santos, c. 1700 (r).

 In its current configuration, the Ashmolean now incorporates the University Art Collection containing numerous portraits and scenes.  The upper floors of the museum include a good selection of Pre-Raphialite art.  None of my photos of the paintings were any good due to the lighting, but here is a statue from the collection:

Close-up of Pia de' Tolomei and Nello della Peitra by Pio Fedi (1816-1892)

 A couple of hours racing around the Ashmolean had worked up quite an appetite, so we concluded our visit with a snack at the museum's rooftop cafe.  Caught a lucky break in the weather, too!

MSU Group at the Ashmolean's rooftop cafe.

Hannah and Maddy are looking forward to that coffee!

Hannah, Casey, Melissa, and Maddy

 Afterwards, several of us went to lunch at an unusual little restaurant in the University's 'Old Congregation House' next door to the Radcliffe Camera. The Vaults and Garden Cafe is actually located inside part of the University Church of St. Mary The Virgin.  We just caught the tail end of lunch service, and several people were disappointed that the cafe was out of their first choices.  I managed to secure a delicious soup and salad combo, however!

Lunch of tuna salad and tomato soup at The Vault, Oxford

I spent the rest of the afternoon at the Bodleian Library, researching and watching films for my Weimar-Era German Cinema tutorial.  The Gladstone Link has a good selection of film texts, and is relatively quiet, creating a very enjoyable atmosphere for film research.

Visit to a "New" College

10:00am - This morning's Tolkien seminar was held at New College, formally titled the "New" College of St. Mary and dating back to1379. Oriel College is also technically called the College of St. Mary, so the founders of the later, second college added the "New" designator and the name stuck.  (For the record Oriel takes its common name from a popular oriel window in one of its original buildings.)

New College offers a very good example of the old defensive walls which surround many of the colleges.  In the medieval period and even later, the citizens of Oxford had terrible relations with the various colleges in the city.  Many factors were at play, but then as today, the disparity between the commoner townsfolk and the aristocratic students was one contributing factor.  Due to the very real potential for riots and other violent acts, the richer colleges erected strong walls to shut out the townspeople.  These walls create quite enclosed spaces for the students but also play havoc with traffic flow.  Vehicle and foot traffic must often go several blocks out of the way to manuver around the various colleges.  My German cinema tutor Dr. Kiss is a resident of New College and her rooms are located just outside the south wall along the winding New College Lane. 

New College Chapel (from Wikipedia.com - image in public domain)

New College Chapel - interior

12:30pm - We scattered to the four winds: lunch followed by an afternoon in various libraries.  Most everyone has met with their tutors this week and been assigned a lengthy first essay. Dr. Snyder dismissed us with words of encouragement:

"Be Concise. To the point. 

Say something original. 

And say it beautifully." 

12:45pm - Attended another lunch at Trinity College as a guest.  Meals are billed to student accounts, so Maddy paid for my lunch with the understanding that we would return the favor with an invitation to dine at Christ Church. Trinity College's dining hall is about half the size of that at Christ Church. The decor is more spartan as well with wood paneling painted up to look like marble.  The usual obligatory obligatory portraits of college founders. The food, however, was not lacking.  Chicken Tikka Marsala,Turkey Escallop with Ratatouille, cakes, fruits, and a few other items. My meal cost about £4 altogether.


Afterwards, I elected to drop by Christ Church to pick up my electronic key fob from the porter's office, look up some of my reading list at the library, and attempt to make some headway in that department.  Maddy is taking a tutorial on dystopian literature and was looking for a quiet place to read, so after a quick stop at Blackwell's Bookshop for a copy of Ayn Rand's "Anthem", we walked to over to the Christ Church together. I offered her the quick tour of the facilities and we managed to visit the cathedral gift shop, the first time it's been open since I've arrived.  Lots of generic Oxford, Harry Potter, and Olympics items but only a coffee mug or two for Christ Church itself. The shop does sell some sort of college-branded beer, but I just can't bring myself to purchase beer from a cathedral gift shop.  Afterwards, we walked to the JCR and read for a few hours.

Books, Films, and Music

10:00am - Our Tolkien class met with Dr. Snyder at WISC office this morning.  Today's discussion centered on C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams, both members of the Inklings literary circle along with J.R.R. Tolkien. Lewis is famous for his novels including the Chronicles of Narnia series and also for his writings on Christian apologetics. Taylor Luczak led the discussion.  Williams was a self-educated man who gained prominence for his work as a translator and editor at the London office of the Oxford University Press.  He was deeply religious, bordering on mysticism, with a strong personal magnetism that drew a large following during his lifetime.  He wrote widely and is remembered for his "supernatural thrillers" and a variety of difficult, yet beautiful poetry as well as a number of plays and historical texts.

C.S. Lewis (1898 - 1963)

 Charles Williams (1886-1945)

 (Photos taken from authors' Wikipedia articles)

12:15pm - Crossed the street to the STA office in order to process our International Student ID Cards. Now we can receive certain student discounts and special rates at various museums, restaurants, and stores. This is a useful card for students traveling abroad but unaffiliated with a foreign university.  If Even without an ID card from a local university, you can still have access to student rates and programs. STA cards also include some student/travel insurance and are widely recognized around the world.

12:30pm - Lunch at Gourmet Burger Kitchen, a popular chain restaurant. Great hamburger and nice 40% student discount on several menu items.  The food is excellent, so long as one orders the burgers well done.  Otherwise they are served medium-rare, something that works for steak but not burgers. Like most food in the UK, the burgers appear overpriced when converted to US Dollars (£9 = $14, w/o fries or drink), but they are tasty.  The student discount only applies to the smaller burgers, but it goes a long way.

(A large portion of the afternoon was spent dealing with a student who had lost her purse, passport, and travel documents at a dance club the night before. This involved far too much drama, none of which is worth recording here, but it will suffice to say that it was a valuable lesson in learning to avoid putting one's self in an easily-avoided bad situation.)

5:00pm - Visited the Radcliffe Camera (from the French for "room"), a part of the Bodleian Library and an Oxford landmark, in order to meet Khanh and Ben. This was my third visit to this massive library and my first time to actually see a book there. (This is slightly better than my track record at the Library of Congress where I was not actually able to see a book until my fourth visit, and then only at a distance.)

(photo by Hannah Rogers)

The Camera was full of finalists (4th year students) preparing for their exams. Back at home many students are particular about their ritual study space and woe to any poor freshman who takes the wrong empty seat.  It's much the same here.  Khanh sent me a text telling me where to find her, and even the barely-audible vibration of my cell phone drew some dirty looks.

The Camera is connected to another library building to the north by way of an underground passage which contains an additional two-story annex of stacks and study space called the Gladstone Link.  The sterile white  corridors, bright lighting, heavy fire doors, machinery, and the lack of windows (excepting skylights) look like something out of a science fiction film.

"Hello, Dave..."

(Photo by Khanh Nguyen)

 I read with Khanh and Ben for thirty minutes and then headed off to keep an appointment with my tutor at the nearby New College. Dr. Orsolya Kiss lives and works in her rooms in the Old Barn and Brewery in New College Lane, a winding medieval passage between the walls of New, Hertford, and The Queen's Colleges.  It was clearly a barn at some point in the distant past but has since been converted into don's quarters.

New College Lane and the "Bridge of Signs," built so students and faculty could avoid interaction with the sometimes unruly Oxford townspeople.

 Dr. Kiss greeted me and we spoke in her rooms for about 15 minutes, going through the  syllabus and the Oxford essay system.  I will be "reading" German Film, as they say here. Really watching, but plenty of reading too as many of the films are silent with title cards and are accompanied by a lengthy reading list of reference material. I will watch a selection of films, read as much relevant material as I can find, and write a 2,500 word essay addressing a writing prompt from the syllabus. Deadline: one week from today! Go!  Dr. Kiss will be traveling to Berlin for the remainder of the week, but I will be able to email her with questions.

6:00pm - I collected Ben and Khanh from the Bodleian Library and we made our way through evening crowds to Nando's, a Portuguese grilled chicken chain near the canal. Nando's is reminiscent of a higher-end Raising Cane's or Abner's back in the States but with table service and a wider variety of chicken dishes and side items.  I had the 1/4 chicken with a variety of Peri-Peri hot sauces and a side of ratatouille, vegetables in a tomato sauce. Khanh gave me her side of Macho peas. (Seriously. That is the name. Khanh felt awkward ordering anything containing the word "macho", so she simply asked for "peas".)

Over dinner, Ben's old roommate Mohammed, an Egyptian computer science Master's student, joined us. We had a lively conversation about the Egyptian and US presidential elections. Talk then turned to our mutual interest in music and Led Zeppelin.  I ordered a coffee after dinner and immediately regretted it.  I had no idea if Mohammed was a practicing Muslim or not, but I know some Muslim societies consider caffeine as intoxicating as alcohol and refrain from its use.  I certainly didn't wish to offend anyone, but then I realized that Mohammed was downing a huge glass of Coke. Muslim or no, I guess all students need caffeine!

8:30pm - Back to Christ Church Cathedral for a performance by the C.C. Orchestra. I'm terribly impressed that a college of 600 students can field its own orchestra! Or it may belong to the cathedral. Or both.  The last option is more likely, if a bit confusing.  Christ Church encompasses both the college and the cathedral, and some social groups incorporate both.

The program was Beethoven's 6th, the Pastoral Symphony. It depicts serene country landscapes, an afternoon by a brook, a folk gathering, a terrible thunderstorm, and finally a celebration of deliverance from the bad weather.  The orchestra performed in the north transept, underneath the huge stained glass window of St. Michael the Archangel (dressed as England's patron St. George) casting Satan (as the dragon) out of Heaven. At first the martial image struck me as a stark contrast to Beethoven's lively country scenes. Then the "thunderstorm" began. The low strings rumbled and the woodwinds sent scale runs skywards, punctuated by violent stabs from the violins as the setting sun outside illuminating the blazing red dragon falling through the sky.

...Then the storm was over. The musicians  captured the sound of peasants running outdoors, cheering its passing. Day's last rays peaking over the rooftops of the city illuminated St. Michael the Archangel, triumphant as the brass sounded his victory. The dragon lay dark at the bottom of the frame, beneath the roof line of the neighboring building.

And then the cathedral fell silent and the musicians scattered, returning to their studies which would occupy the rest of their evening as well as mine.

9:30pm - I walked back to Jericho along the canal path. It is unlit, but the evening wasn't yet so dark as to dissuade me like it had the night before.  It was a pleasant walk since the flies were not so bad this time of day, and from the windows of the barges moored along the canal, I caught snippets of the BBC evening news program. A car smash here. Bad weather there. Several ducks and swans dozed along the footpath. The male swans are large, up to around 25 pounds. I've seen what happens when they are disturbed and it's not pretty.  At night the swans often glide in pairs along the river, looking like eerily pale shadows against the black water.

The canal path widens the farther north one goes and opens up into a nice green area on the edge of the city called Port Meadow. For the first time, the canal was pleasant and I actually wanted to venture north. But I had reached my bridge over to Jericho and there was work to  be done.

Another time then.

"All the news that's fit to print..."

Overcast, 22/27˚C

 Due to Dr. Snyder's unforeseen illness, our morning Tolkien lecture has been rescheduled for tomorrow morning: Tuesday.  We therefore opted to sleep in...er, used the valuable morning hours to further our studies. Right.
 
 11:15am -  After breakfast I walked along the canal path to pay a visit to Venneit Close. Along the way I passed many Germans out for a walk or cycling. German-speaking students and tourists seem to comprise a large segment of the Jericho neighborhood. The flies along the canal seem to be getting worse.

11:30 - Arrived at Venneit Close and conferred with Bailey about possible afternoon plans. A few minutes later, we received a distress call from Hannah who had lost her way along the canal.  This would prove to be the first of many such instances, as we will soon see.

11:45am - Hannah was quickly located in the most fly-ridden stretch of the canal. To her credit, she had gone exploring and simply taken a wrong turn a fork in the towpath.  I walked her back to Venneit Close and then set out for Christ Church to continue my studies. Yes continue, I like that.

12:15pm - Arrived at Tom Quad, Christ Church where I introduced myself to Ron the Porter. Charming man with a bowler hat, very helpful.  The porters  Dropped by Junior Commons Room (JCR) to eat my bagged lunch, a prepackaged Tandoori Chicken sandwich and salt and vinegar crisps, and to read for Dr. Snyder's seminar.

The material consisted of short early biographies of C.S. Lewis and his friend and fellow Inkling names Charles Williams, a novelist and fascinating Christian mystic figure, as well as selections of Williams' beautiful but at-times-impenetrable Arthurian poetry. With his mystical references, regular shifting of time and location, and wondrous imagery, Williams  in some ways prefigures the literary genre of magical realism,  but always with a Christian undertone, sometimes overt though oftentimes quite murky. It's very interesting stuff which I find far more appealing than anything I have yet read by C.S. Lewis.

The JCR remained mostly empty, but over the next two hours, I watched a variety of students, mostly finalists in dress clothing for their examinations, pass through, either to pick up a newspaper or to grab a snack.

Over lunch I read the student newspaper Cherwell ("Independent since 1920"). Top stories for the week included one college's dispute over the amount of funding for JCR garden party to commemorate the Queen's Jubilee. Once side argued that it was an important national occasion, while the other claimed that funding such a exclusive party promoted class privilege and was nothing more than a commemoration of "Elizabeth Windsor's knack for staying alive."

Meanwhile, the president of the university's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, and Queer Society (LGBTQsoc) apparently felt there were one too many letters in that acronym and was forced to suspend his reelection campaign after making some ridiculously disparaging remarks about transsexuals (as Facebook status updates, naturally.  The classiest way to do that sort of thing).

In other news, the world-renown political figure and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar/Burma is scheduled to receive her long-delayed honorary public law degree from the University  (as well as deliver her Nobel prize acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway) during her international tour in June.  She was famously under house arrest by the Burmese military junta for most of the years between 1989 and 2010.

Last but not least, the Oxford women's track team is doing very well.

3:30 - Returned to WISC offices on George Street to meet WISC's group of Christ Church students and returned with them to the college.

4:45pm - As a further part of our orientation, we met with Christ Church senior tutor David Maw (Music Faculty) who served us tea and biscuits (i.e. cookies) and questioned us about our priorities and goals for our time in Oxford. We had a very pleasant visit. He offered suggestions for things to do around Christ Church and the city as well as discussed recent developments in the music faculty.
A few students were arriving from tutorials, and the don's already crowded rooms were stretched even further over the course of the session.  Through it all, Mr. Maw was a very accommodating host. Piles of books were moved and extra mugs brought down from some hidden cabinet.  "Oh, another? Right, I'll just put some more tea on then."

6:00 - Those of us who had booked in for dinner made our way dining hall and visited one of two bars within the college grounds, The Buttery, to purchase a bottle of wine to go with dinner.  Most colleges have at least one bar and heavily subsidize them, allowing students to purchase cheap drinks. To borrow the words of a certain Tupelo, MS liquor store with terrible radio ads, "It's not cheap wine, it's GOOD wine that's cheap!" Bailey and I were inclined to agreed.

6:20pm - Informal Dinner in dining hall (I.e. the Great Hall from Harry Potter). Despite this being the informal dinner seating, the surroundings and the table service grant a certain lofty air to the proceedings. Portraits of the founder King Henry VIII, well-known alumni like the philosopher John Locke, and several notable nobles lined the walls behind us.  Dinner was a three course meal: rich potato soup, a baked salmon pasty with green salad and sweet carrots, and tiramisu.  We dined with several British students caught up in a discussion of whom they were currently Facebook-stalking (go figure) as well as an American PhD candidate who was quite willing to join in with some fellow countrymen. The ladies tried to flirt with him, while certain guys in our party tried to ascertain his positions on gun control and philosophical questions. I'll only say that, in all cases, Bailey and I were glad for our forethought concerning our previous purchase.  Formal dinner with gowns  and a reading of Latin and Greek graces begins at 7:20, meaning we were kicked out of the hall around 6:45.  We definitely need to attend formal dinner sometime in the future, if only to be allowed to linger in such a place!

After dinner we retired to the Venneit Close apartments to read and prepare for the morning's Tolkien lecture with Dr. Snyder.

Sunday in Oxford

Today, our first Sunday in Oxford, the Christ Church contingent decided to pay a visit to the cathedral for College Communion.  We then spent the afternoon with some unexpected guests!

6:50am - The ever-scholarly Spencer can be a recluse at times, but today he was excited about our visit and knocked on my garret door early! I'd been working late into the night and was glad for the wake-up call. We ate a light first breakfast, read through some paperwork, and then ran off to town.

Side view of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford

8:45am - Arrived at Christ Church gate. Met Ben, Bailey, and Hannah and proceeded across Tom Quad to the college cathedral to take our seats for the service. (for more cathedral info, click here)  Communion takes place in the Lady-chapel, a mid-12th century chapel at the rear of the cathedral to the left of the altar.  (Directions include "turn left at the grave of John Locke!") The chapel has a rare painted ceiling (quite faded, unfortunately) and a beautiful stained glass window.  Supposedly, the chapel was added in fulfillment of a stipulation by the woman who donated the Meadows to the College and asked that, in return, the cathedral pray for her soul daily.   Unsure of decorum, we'd dressed up and arrived early.  The College Chaplain Ralph J. Williamson  greeted us and assured us that neither was necessary.

Nave of Christ Church Cathedral with view towards the altar

Choir ceiling of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford

9:05am - The service begin promptly on "Oxford Time."  Oxford lies 1° 15' 24" west of Greenwich and its Royal Observatory  and is therefore 5 minutes and 2 seconds behind Greenwich Time. Many events, tutorials, and meetings maintain a tradition of starting five minutes past the hour. Even then the service was sparsely attended. A few late-comers, including the two student readers clad in boardshorts and flip-flops, trickled in. Another student provided piano accompaniment. As might be expected, the Anglican service was very similar to a Catholic mass with the exception of communion.  Our small group gathered around altar in a circle as the chaplain dispensed the bread and wine, a very pleasant difference which I felt added to the communal atmosphere.

Altar of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford

10:00am – We adjourned to second breakfast in the McKenna Room (adjacent to the main dining hall) hosted by the chaplain and his wife.  Rev.Ralph J. Williamson has served at Christ Church for 15 years and was more than willing to discuss college and Oxford trivia with us.  Our discussion quickly turned to the Queen's Jubilee service that took place in the cathedral yesterday.  This was a smaller, local commemoration before the official Jubilee celebrations which begins next Saturday on the 60th anniversary of the Queen Elizabeth II's coronation and will run into a four-day weekend and bank holiday (June 2-5). The chaplain explained that since Diamond Jubilee commemorations don't happen every day, the the planners of yesterday's ceremony just wrote their own guidebook and made up roles for any civic leaders with enough self-importance to participate. There was a good turnout.

Hannah Rogers and Ben Bailey in the McKenna Room, Christ Church.

 
Other topics of conversation included the London weather (dreary, as expected), the multitude of charming Cotswold towns which we must surely make time to visit, and local wildlife.  As one would expect, we've seen quite a different mix of animal life than we typically find in the States, especially in the rail yard between the Oxford Station and the student apartments at Venneit Close and also along the shaded canals and fields near the Thames.  Mute Swans and mallards clog the waterways, and foxes and maybe even a badger have been spotted by students walking at night.

10:45am - Departed Christ Church and paid a visit to the Oxford Covered Market, an 18th century structure designed to give order to the city's garbled medieval market practices and to remove the butchers' and craftsmen's stalls from the high street.  You can still buy a good cut of meat or your daily produce, but these days the traditional trades share space with a few small coffee shops and boutiques. 

11:00am - Spencer and I decided to pay another visit to Blackwell's bookshop. I gave Spencer a tour of the math section and ordered a book I'd been hunting.  (Despite the five levels and miles of shelving, Blackwell's doesn't have everything!  However, it's usually available in a day or two with no shipping fee.)  


11:45am - We wandered next door to Trinity College and ate brunch in dining hall.  Spencer is member of the college and treated me to lunch, paying with his student card.  I'll return the invitation later in the week and take him to a meal at Christ Church.  Guest meals and reciprocal invitations are a common part of student life here. Students may find themselves in strange parts of town, far from their home colleges, as they hunt down research material in out-of-the-way libraries and archives.  Fortunately, a friend's college is usually just around the corner.  MSU has students at Christ Church and Trinity, but some WISC students are studying at New College and perhaps others.

Spencer Hall at Trinity College, Oxford

12:30pm - Returned to the flat at Juxon Street.  We busied ourselves making a list of minor maintenance issues with apartment to hand in to the WISC offices and then read some texts for class. The pile is now a little smaller.


2:45pm - Four of the students in the MSU group, including myself, are Distinguished Scholars (holders of a prestigious MSU scholarship), and as an afternoon treat, we had the opportunity to meet with our recently-retired DS mentors Dr. John and Jean Marszalek. They are taking a group tour of England over the next several days and were passing through Oxford today. Rather than remain with their group, we offered to give them a behind-the-scenes tour of Oxford. This meant yet another trip to Blackwell's, but you won't here me complaining! Anyway, it was good to see the Marszaleks again and I think they greatly enjoyed the afternoon.

Jean Marszalek and Khanh Nguyen at Dining Hall, Trinity College Oxford

Spencer Hall and Marszalek on the Back Lawn of Trinity College, Oxford

The Marszalek's and Spencer Hall at Blackwell's Bookstore, Oxford

A Day At The Races

The Summer Eights are here again!

Since Wednesday all of Oxford's students have been making their way down past Christ Church Meadow to the college boathouses along the river in order to witness the most important intercollegiate athletic event of the year: the Summer Eights regatta.

Collegiate sports are not as big a part of Oxford life as they are on most American campuses.  Many of the colleges do have an inter-mural team or two, particularly for sports like rugby and croquet. Our friend Taylor Luczak, who played college basketball back home, is trying to join the Trinity College basketball team for a few games.  Typically these are just hobbies.  Rowing, however, is the major exception.

The University of Oxford holds three main regattas throughout the year.  The Christ Church Regatta is the shorter race for novices held during Michaelmas term (fall) while more serious rowers participate in Torpids during Hillary term (spring) and the Summer Eights in Trinity term (summer).
Eights Week or Summer Eights is the most important race of the year save for the annual Boat Race against arch-rival the University of Cambridge which takes place in London.

A women's crew prepares to launch.

  Today most of the MSU group went down to our college boathouses to catch the final day of races.  Thousands of students were lounging by the riverside, grilling and enjoying the unusually-sunny weather. Some were even sporting full boating attire: pastel-colored pants, waistcoats or jackets, and straw punting hats which would look out-of-place anywhere else. It felt like a scaled-down version of a football tailgate, minus the barbeque and cowbells.  There were a few cows out in the Meadow though, and some were wandering over to the fence separating the Meadow from the immediate riverside to see what all the commotion was about.

There are men's and a women's brackets, and colleges will often field multiple men's and women's teams of varying skill.  The best row in Division 1 with the other teams rowing in lower divisions. Each crew consists of eight rowers (hence "Summer Eights") and a coxswain who coordinates the team.
 
 Those of us studying at Christ Church made our way to our boathouse, the last on the row.  It was at one point likely a very nice building, but with the crowds out today, it was cramped and a little dirty. Some of the other colleges have much larger and newer facilities.  The "Greek" culture of fraternities and sororities which dominates many American campuses is unheard of here, but for today the row of college boathouses and the various factions of supporters made for a close substitute.

Khanh Nguyen at the Christ Church boathouse

The racing seems to be a rather convoluted process, but as it was explained to us by some students at the Christ Church boathouse, the section of the Thames river running through Oxford, called the Isis, is too narrow for the boats to row abreast.  Instead they have a series of bumps races. The competing crews have a staggered start, and each boat aims to overtake the boat in front of it.  This is called "bumping," and once a crew bumps the crew ahead of it, both crews drop out of the race, allowing other teams to pass.  In the next race, the bumper and bumpee will switch starting positions. Races for each division take place daily, and the overall leader at the end of the week is named Head of the River for the year.  Heads of the River are "bladed," receiving trophy oars from their college which feature the crew members' names, their weights, and the year of their achievement. Crews may also be bladed if they manage to bump the crew ahead of them in every race, a difficult feat. The blades are often featured prominently in the college bars.  Christ Church has quite a collection.


From the roof of the Christ Church boathouse we had a commanding view of the entire scene.  Crews were launching from the various docks along the river and heading east, downriver.  Meanwhile, a steady stream of boats was racing back upriver.  A team would be bump every now and again, and a cry and a cheer would go up from the respective boathouse.  Being new to Oxford, we didn't know all the college colors and had a hard time keeping up with the results.  I read later that the winner of the Men's 1st VIII was Oriel College and the women's was Pembroke College.  Each crew was name 2012 Head of the River.

View of the river traffic with college boathouses on right.

Boats approaching the finish line. The smoke is from all the grills set up by spectators.

After watching the rowers for about an hour, the MSU group headed back upriver towards the Christ Church Meadow and spread out some picnic blankets.  We lounged around and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. The wind picked up and Khanh jokingly loaned me some hair clips (see below).  We also discussed what other events on the Oxford social calendar we wanted to attend.  Christ Church is hosting a big Jubilee concert next month which seems appealing.

Khahn and Ben lounging by the Meadow after the races.

Khanh didn't like the pic of her at the airport, so in order to keep it up, I've posted this one of me. (Note: hair clips)

Melissa Atchley

Cameron Clarke

We had a fun afternoon and really enjoyed the opportunity to mingle with our fellow Oxford students in an informal setting.  We also learned a lot about rowing which is not a common sport in most schools in the American South.

London

Sunny, 75 degrees F

8:00am - Met WISC group in front of Ashmolean Museum to catch motor-coach for London. Heavy traffic.

10:30am - Finally arrived in London. Began driving tour.

11:30am - We disembarked the coach and took a walking tour of the Westminster Abbey grounds. However, we did not go inside.  Admission is around £15, so we were rather glad of that fact.  We'll need to make the visit at some point though. Next we wandered past the WWII-era Cabinet War Rooms, where some of the ground would be returning to in the afternoon for a tour, and made our way over to Kensington Park. Lots of families and young couples out for a stroll on a warm summer day.  From there we proceeded to Buckingham Palace where we caught the tail end of the Changing of the Guards ceremony. Many decorations were being set up for Queen's Diamond Jubilee next weekend which will mark her 60th year on the throne.

Bailey calls the Queen collect.

Maroon Friday at Westminster Abbey, London

Member of the Foot Guards outside St. James Palace

Changing of the Guard, Buckingham Palace

 
12:00pm -  Walked to Trafalgar Square where we were dismissed for afternoon activities. Bailey, Hannah, Spencer, and I ate lunch at the Sherlock Holmes pub, a decent London establishment with a rather kitschy upstairs mock-up of the fictional detective's study. I had a beef and onion chutney sandwich with a side of Yorkshire pudding. Also, a decent but pricy ale.  The meal was quite good, but prices in the City take some getting used to.

Sherlock Holmes pub, London

Crossing the River Thames

River traffic on the Thames, London

2:30pm - After strolling over the River Thames and down the south bank, we arrived at Shakespeare's Globe, the modern reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, to attend a performance of Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew." However, we had been forewarned to expect a surprise. As part of the theater's World Culture Festival featuring 37 plays in 37 languages, this performance was to be in Urdu, the national language of Pakistan. The acting troupe made minor changes to the decorations and character names to reflect the cultural differences. Also, the company added Bollywood flourishes including an onstage house band with traditional Pakistani instrumentation and several choreographed dance numbers. Quite an experience!

Hannah nerds out at the Globe!

(l to r): Spencer Hall, Hannah Rogers, Bailey Hansen, and me at the Globe

And the band played on... Shakespeare's Globe, London

The "Taming of the Shrew" is about a strong-willed elder daughter and her family's plot to teach her her place and marry her off. Americans may be familiar with the 1999 film adaptation "10 Things I Hate About You" starring Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles.  The play's ending is funny but rather misogynistic. Some critics view the play as satirical, but we couldn't help but note that the mostly-Pakistani crowd seemed to respond well "whenever a woman was put in her place."  I certainly don't want to make generalizations about an entire culture, and I must emphasis that none of my friends nor I understood the Urdu version of the script. (At the time I may have claimed total fluency in Urdu to my friends as a joke, so don't tell anyone. Our secret.) I imagine a typical theater crowd would skew more liberal and/or more cultured than others, but the fact remains that this audience did go cheer wildly during several tense scenes.  I suppose all I can do is chalk it up to cultural differences.

"Taming of the Shrew" at Shakespeare's Globe

Even though we could not understand a word, the performance was incredibly engrossing. I suppose it's cliché, but in this case Shakespeare definitely transcends linguistic boundaries.