Countdown!

I have decided for this last week, I am going to (attempt to) do a short reflective blog each day of all the lovely things I have come to know and love (and will dearly miss!) here in Oxford. They will mostly be a series of "lasts," starting with my last evensong tonight. 

Evensong has been one of the highlights of my time here in Oxford. I've been able to attend services at New College, Westminster Abbey, and, most often, at Christ Church. I have grown to love and appreciate the tradition of liturgy. I will miss the intricate architecture of the cathedral, the breathtaking singing of the choir, the echoing acoustics of high ceilings, the responsive readings, united kneeling, flickering candles, reverent silences.

Tonight as we sang this opening hymn, all hearts and voices lifted in unity, I was nearly moved to tears: 

My God, I love thee; not because

I hope for heaven thereby,

Nor yet because who love thee not

Are lost eternally.

Though, O my Jesus, thou didst me

Upon the cross embrace;

For me didst bear the nails and spear,

And manifold disgrace;

And griefs and torments numberless

And sweat of agony;

Yea, death itself—and all for me

Who was thine enemy.

Then why, O blessed Jesu Christ,

Should I not love thee well?

Not for the sake of winning heaven,

Nor of escaping hell;

Not from the hope of gaining aught

Not seeking a reward;

But as thyself hast loved me,

O ever-loving Lord.

So would I love thee, dearest Lord,

And in thy praise will sing;

Solely because thou art my God,

And my most loving King.

On the Scale From 1 to Awesome…

Life continues to be AWESOME here in Oxford, and I’m still afraid to pinch myself thinking I’ll wake up and find out I'm dreaming.

[Speaking of dreams, quick side note to show how English culture has even begun to creep into my dream life: The other morning I woke up from a nightmare that I had to get braces. But not only that, I had to get them in ENGLAND. And true to the Brit’s reputation for bad teeth, mine turned out HORRIBLE. I spent the rest of the night chasing the dentist around a massive castle trying to get him to fix them, but he wouldn’t. Then I woke up, ran to the mirror, and breathed a sigh of relief.]

Port Meadow

Port Meadow continues to be one of my favorite spots in Oxford. Although I started out running there, I must say it is not the most conducive environment to getting rigorous exercise. Most of the time the landscape is just too breathtaking and I have to just stop and stare. There’s nothing quite like running through a meadow with horses and cows and bunnies next to a river with swans and ducks.

One night, a group of us wandered back there to get away from the city lights and stargaze for a while. Two of us had taken swing dance lessons before, and one of us had an iPod with swing music on it. We happened to have four guys and four girls, so we did a quick lesson and then danced for the next half hour or so. There’s nothing quite like a spontaneous swing dance party at midnight under the stars in a huge field in England.

We also did a night of s’mores, campfire singin’, and poetry over a bonfire one night.

London

The eye!

Since my last post, I’ve been to London twice. But it has yet to get old. As Samuel Johnson once said: “If you’re tired of London, you’re tired of life.”

The first time I went in to see a friend from nursing school who was traveling through the area (I’ve lucked out with the amount of friends from the States I’ve gotten to see over here!) and he and his friends and Lis and I spent the day walking around London. We toured the London tower where SO much history happened, got to see the Crown Jewels, took a ride in the London eye, and then out for a lovely dinner.

Lis trying to decide if she is afraid of heights or not...

Inside the eye

George and moi

Lis and I

View from the eye!

The second time, I got to see some family friends who took me to Covent Garden, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Harrods (a ritzy seven-ish-story shopping center that is just…crazy. There are entire ROOMS full of handbags, other rooms full of perfumes, others full of chocolates, coffee, and tea.. you name it. “A woman’s heaven” as Andrew described it. Although, grandiose as it is, I personally think it’s a little overwhelming). We got sandwiches at Harrods and took them for a picnic dinner in Hyde Park. It was one of the best days weather-wise and sitting on the lake was the perfect conclusion to the day.

Covant Garden

St. Paul's Cathedral

Andrew and Anthony! How are they taller than me now?!

Uncle Mikhael

REPRESENT!

Hyde Park

And to answer your question, no royal baby sightings yet.

Theatre!

Got to see two outdoor plays in one week!

Taming of the Shrew!

In the Bodlein quad

Pride and Prejudice!

in the Trinity College Gardens

Windsor Castle

C.S. Lewis weekend

This past weekend was particularly enjoyable for me, because I happen to be a huge fan of C.S. Lewis’ writings. Saturday, I spend the day at Magdalen College (pronounced ‘Modlin’ strangely enough) where C.S. Lewis was a professor. I had four hours of thinking, journaling, processing, introvert-time which was glorious. There’s also a beautiful path called the Addison Walk that runs along the Thames which I walked for a ways.

Sunday, three of us went to Lewis’ church in Headington. We sat in his usual pew, now marked by a Narnia-themed window. I think it was pretty clear to everyone around us that we were not regulars at that congregation: We were ‘THOSE people,’ whispering excitedly and snapping photos ‘inconspicuously’ and sitting on the ‘seat cushions’ which were actually the ones you put on the floor to kneel on during responsive prayer.

After the service was over, we went outside and visited his grave:

Then we decided to walk to Lewis’ house because google maps told us it was less than a mile away. We got there and were taking a couple pictures from the outside when a man (who we soon found out is the current resident) rounded the corner and asked us, "Can I help you with something?" We explained that we had been in the area and just wanted to see the place where Lewis lived. He replied, "Well, why don't you come see the garden?" So he opened the gate and we sat in the garden talking to him for a while.

Then he said "Well, I'm gonna leave here soon, but why don't you come in and see the common room (living room) real fast?" So we got to go INSIDE and see where Lewis had a couple bookshelves, a couple couches, and this stuffed chair where he would sit a lot.

We talked for a few more minutes. Then he looked at his watch and said "Well, I'm gonna leave here soon, but why don't I show you two more rooms." Then he took us into the dining room and, afterwards, the kitchen where we chatted a little more.

He looks at his watch one more time and says, "Well, I only have a couple more minutes, but let's go upstairs and I'll show you his study and bedroom."

study

Saw the wardrobe where the original one used to be (aka entrance to NARNIA)

..and saw pictures of Lewis' friends with friends who he developed characters from! The man on the left was the inspiration for Puddleglum!

Then he had to get ready to leave, but left us to hang out in the garden for a while if we wanted. So we took a few pictures (reading C.S. Lewis books in his garden...no biggie.) :

He was leaving around the same time, asked where we were headed, told him Oxford. He looked at his watch and said "Well why don't you just get in the car and I'll drive you to Headington. You can catch the bus much more easily from there." So we did!

And he dropped us off 30 seconds before our bus came!

I still can’t believe that happened.

Punting

Sunday night we got to see András Schiff perform two of Schubert's sonatas at Christ Church Cathedral. Here’s a little clip of his: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4FgsVhP9GM

"Uni" (aka, school)

After all this, you might be wondering if I’m actually doing any studying. YES. A lot of it. But the cool thing about Oxford is that as a student you can get into all these awesome places to study that no one else can get into. Probably my favorite place has been the upper reading room in the Radcliffe Camera. Not gonna lie, it’s pretty fun to march right past the “No Visitors” sign and feel like a true Oxfordian.

Upper reading room in the Rad Cam

And yesterday was my last day studying here! I turned in my final paper this morning!

I can hardly believe that one week from today I’ll be waking up at home. Until then, my planner is packed full of last-minute bucket list adventures.

Cheers, friends! 

Send me your updates too :)

Reflections from a day journaling at Magdalen College

[I understand that not all my readers will agree with me in these reflections, but these are honest thoughts I’ve had recently, and I just ask you read them graciously. Cheers :) ]

DOMINUS ILLUMINATIO MEA.

As humans, we love the light—be it bold rays of summer sunshine, the blazing of a bonfire, the flickering of a candle in a corner. We are drawn to it. We gather around it. We bask in it.

We rejoice in its brightness and the sight it provides. It allows us to perceive colors and textures, shapes and shadows, giving artful form to our surroundings. By it we see oceans and hills, flowers and fields, pictures and paintings, the smiling eyes of another person. Things that cannot be heard or touched or tasted or smelled, we can see with our eyes. Even when we are unaware, we love the light.

Our physical eyes are not the only lovers of light. Our souls also crave it. We hunger for illumination and understanding. We reach for any strand of truth to anchor us. We seek knowledge as a sun to orbit around, to give us direction, to lend gravity to our lives. We search for any source by which we can make sense of existence and find meaning in life. Like being drawn to light, we are drawn to that which provides stability, security, sweetness. Even when we do not acknowledge it, we long for light.

DOMINUS ILLUMINATIO MEA.  In English, “The Lord is my Light.”

"The Lord is my Light." Oxford’s motto. The theme upon which it was founded. The plaque which students and faculty and tourists walk by daily.

Another related inscription I often walk by when at home in Boston:

“What is man that Thou art mindful of Him?”  -Inscribed on Harvard’s philosophy building.

And yet every day as I walk by the inscription on George Street, I think about how far we have come from this foundation. Were it not for the history books that have told us how Oxford and Harvard and Yale and Princeton*—the list goes on—began as seminaries where men could learn of the greatness of God, it would be hard to believe that these values ever existed in these places. Universities that once saw God as the ultimate source of light and held as their mission the spreading of that Light to the nations now scoff at His existence. Where He once stood as Judge, He now stands on trial. Rather than a Person to loved and obeyed, He is a theory to be questioned—or better still, doubted.

Truth, once clear and simple (though at times, difficult), is now relative. Abstract. Unstable. Professors boldly claim, “There are no absolutes!” (Which begs the question, ‘Are you absolutely sure?’) Our search for light has become darkened by the absence of the only One who has authority to give it. “’Let there be light’…and there was light.” The relativizing of truth has contributed to the very chaos we wished to resolve. Instead of answers, it has only created more complex questions. The yearning for light remains.

And yet truth is not changed for lack of believing it. As C.S. Lewis (Oxford scholar) once said, “Man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.” Light exists, even if I am blind. Even if I shut my eyes.

As these inscriptions in stone are not easily removed, so the eternal truth remains: DOMINUS ILLUMINATIO MEA. The Lord is my light. I have hope, and I pray that one day we return to these foundations.

As Charles Malik has said: "What I crave to see is an institution that will produce as many Nobel Prize winners as saints, an institution in which, while producing in every field the finest work of thought and learning in the world, Jesus Christ will at the same time find Himself at home in it - in every dormitory and lecture hall and library and laboratory.”

 Let it be!

*Other mottos: 

Yale: To be a school “wherein Youth may be instructed in the Arts and Sciences [and] through the blessing of Almighty God may be fitted for Publick employment both in Church and Civil State.” 

Princeton: “Dei sub numine viget,” which is Latin for “Under God she flourishes.”

A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words

Well it's been more than two weeks since my last blog...and they have been the busiest two weeks thus far. As I have also started my tutorial and written three 2000-word essays in the past 10 days, I have decided that the best way to catch up is to post a lot of pictures and let them (mostly) speak for themselves. Hope you enjoy!

On the 8th I started my Philosophy of Bioethics tutorial. Melissa (another Summit student) and I meet with a tutor every 4 days or so to discuss various topics and the assigned readings about them. Before each tutorial, we each submit a 1500-2000 word essay. So far I have done three:
1) Should alcoholics be de-prioritized for liver transplants given the scarcity of resources?
2) Should the government be allowed to place a ban on trans fats?
3) Is assisted-suicide permissible? Is there a difference or similarity between killing and letting die?

The beautiful Bodlein library that I get to study in! One of 113 libraries in Oxford.  

Oxford University is made up of 38 colleges. This is the crest for the one I am a member of, New College

Then, another highlight of my time so far is that CASEY DUBIE randomly came to visit me!!!

And we went to go see WICKED in London....

....with Lis!!! It was phenomenal, so say the very, very least.

The next day we explored London with the rest of the gang....

Trafalgar Square

And had a picnic at Buckingham Palace...

Flat-mates and Casey at Buckingham!

We attended evensong at Westminster Abbey, which was breathtaking.

The martyrs at Westminster

And of course, we visited Ben :)

The group walking through Trafalgar to go to the National Gallery

 

The next day, we walked around Oxford.

Had lattes at the oldest coffee house in Europe

Then climbed St. Mary's tower for the view of the city from the top..




Followed by a sunset walk to what has become one of my favorite spots on the planet: Port Meadow.

 Later, we met up with a few more people from our group and strolled around New College, which is beautiful at night. (For those of you who are Harry Potter fans, some of the shooting was done under that tree on the right.)

Then we woke up at 4a.m. to go to DUBLIN!!

But it was so worth it once we got there...

Trinity College Library

Trinity College Library

Dublin Castle

St. Patrick's Cathedral

View of the city from the top of the Guinness Storehouse

After hitting all the major touristy spots in one day, we decided to go to a coastal town to walk, read, drink more lattes, and get Irish icecream

This is where we spent a few hours reading (annnd writing my bioethics paper. But I'd rather write it in Dublin than a lot of other places, so I'm not complaining :)

Marley House. I seriously felt like I was in Pride and Prejudice walking around the grounds.

Later in the week, we were privileged enough to have a lecture and drinks reception with Lord Stirrup, Knight of the Garter,  which is "the highest order of chivalry existing in England."

Annnd here's the group lookin' all fancy shmancy:




After all that serious business, we had a candy-bar pancake night and watched Monty Python (my first exposure) at the guys' flat.

 

So, all that to say, it's been a great two weeks.


And I must say, I'm impressed if you have made it this far :)


Cheers!