Wordplay

Ha la la la la/
Listen closely to the verse I lay/
Ha la la la la/
It's all about the wordplay/
Ha la la la la/
The wonderful thing it does/
Because, because I am the wizard of ooh's and ah's and fa la la's/
Yeah the Mister A to Z /
They say I'm all about the wordplay...
-Jason Mraz, Wordplay

My friend Katherine Smith and I spent a little bit of time on Saturday coming up with great words that don't get used very often but should be used in everyday conversation. Here's the start of our list:

• superfluous
• galoshes
  
• huzzah
• cathartic
• swell
• repertoire
• connoisseur
• anachronism
• apotheosis
• hullabaloo
• brouhaha
• hoi polloi
• jargon
• antithesis
• indubitably
  

If you have any to add, feel free to post them below or e-mail them to me at claiderbaider@gmail.com.

The Tree Lady

Life is not seasonal

It's a flowing
fountain
stream

See the reflections
of
nature's beauty

In its clear waters
and
so

purely live

I was lucky enough the other day to meet the author of this poem and receive a copy of it in the card you see pictured here with the poem printed inside.

Who is this mystery poet, you ask? Well, I was introduced to her as "The Tree Lady." She sits on a bench near Christ Church College in Oxford, feeding the ducks and drawing pictures of the natural world around her. Her wizened features and soft-spoken nature make a wonderfully interesting combination. My friend Katherine Smith and I spent at least half an hour talking to her on Friday-- she told us stories of the trees around us and shared her poetry and sketches. I would have provided a picture of her too, but she believes that taking a picture of her steals her soul, and I didn't want to disrespect her beliefs. But she was probably one of the most fascinating people I've ever spoken to.

As we sat with her and listened to her stories, several people walked by and stared at her. Yes, it's human nature to notice someone or something that looks a little out of the ordinary, but more people should take the time to speak to her. She's full of interesting anecdotes and poetry for the person who stops to chat.

The next day, Katherine and I went to the Oxford Botanical Gardens, and instantly we thought about The Tree Lady living there. She did, you know, for 5 years. It's hard to imagine actually living in a botanical garden, but clearly it's possible. And now I can't help but walk by willow trees and think of the story she told about Samantha the willow tree, who has stood behind her bench for years.

Tutorials

Think about one of your classes at UGA (or at the university you’re attending/did attend). Imagine the crowded classroom – some students texting friends before class starts, others listening to their iPods, some just engaging in loud conversation until the teacher calls the class to attention and starts the lecture. Slowly everyone slouches down a bit in their chairs and listens half-heartedly as the professor drones on about the subject matter.

Now take that same class and remove everyone but two other students and your professor. Suddenly there’s an entirely different dynamic to the class. You find yourself sitting up a little straighter in your seat. The teacher asks the three of you a question, but you can’t resort to avoiding eye contact and hoping someone else in the class will answer (preferably someone who actually read the material for class today) like you usually do. You just have to make some sort of intelligent response and hope the teacher can make sense of your semi-coherent ramblings. Now you know what it’s like to take a class with an Oxford professor.

This can be an intimidating environment because all of a sudden you’re not just a number in a class of 300 people. You’re in the spotlight for an hour once a week. You’re expected to explain Wordsworth’s style of poetry and shades of meaning in Lyrical Ballads, or compare the three Virginia Woolf novels you had to read for this week’s class.

But after you get through the awkward pauses and seemingly impossible questions, you start to feel a sense of accomplishment because you muddled through an excruciating hour-long class every week. Your professor remembers your name at the end of the day and recalls the interesting point you made in your last session. And you have a better knowledge of the subject matter, partly because you’ve become interested in what your small class has been discussing and partly because you had to read the material before class so you wouldn’t sound like an uneducated moron. So perhaps taking this class wasn’t such a bad idea after all...

Oxford: Literal and Figurative Texts

Normally, when you hear the word "text," you immediately add the word "book" to the end and imagine the long lines and high prices of the books you buy for classes. Having worked at a college textbook store, I know this situation all too well.

But on our second day of class, Dr. Kavoori introduced the notion that everything is a text -- every person, every city, every little detail in society can be read and understood. And for me, living and studying in Oxford has provided me with a whole myriad of texts, both literal and figurative.


The most literal example has been reading the recently-released Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (my copy pictured here). You might be thinking, "This is just a children's fantasy novel -- so what?" I'll admit, I think there's some merit in that statement because yes, it's about a young wizard in his adventures at school. But there's so much more to it than that. The Harry Potter series has addressed so many social issues that it's hard to say it's just a children's novel. For example, prejudice based on blood line plays a huge role in the books. Harry's best friend Hermione comes from two Muggle (non-magic) parents and another student, whose parents are both wizards, calls her a "Mudblood," which is a derogatory term meaning "dirty blood." Suddenly the reader realizes some people (including the main villain in the story) use blood line as a way to unfairly classify people. Then it truly comes to the forefront when the villain starts trying to kill students like Hermione simply because of her Muggle parentage. It's very reminiscent of Hitler's thinking during the Holocaust -- some people must be killed to "purify" society. So are the books still "just for kids"now?

But that's not the only text I've read while I've been here. Probably one of the most fascinating parts of the city is Cornmarket Street, which is literally a two-minute walk from the front gates of my dorm. Once you turn onto that street, it's like a whole different world has opened up in front of you. I've seen several guitarists, electric harp players, and other musicians on the sidewalk, playing their music and hoping people will drop donations into their hats or instrument cases.


There are also a surprising number of teenagers congregating in the streets most days in small circles, giggling and pointing and generally being obnoxious. My brother, sister, and I have termed such kids "feckless teens." They make up a large part of the general congestion of Cornmarket Street, especially when they play cards in the street in front of the local McDonald's or gallivant around with no regard for others' personal space. My apologies for not having a picture of said feckless teens -- I think you can imagine what they're like.

But if you look past the people wandering the street, you can still see the history of the street and the city when you see the Saxon Tower, which is located at one end of Cornmarket Street.


Our speaker before last night's High Table dinner explained that this tower was part of the original wall around Oxford, serving as a bell tower for the adjacent church and a beautiful reminder of what the city used to look like when this was built in 1050 A.D. And Cornmarket Street was (and still is today) one of the most important streets in the city -- because over a thousand years ago, all you needed to have was a church (by the Saxon Tower) and a market (in Cornmarket Street, no surprise there) to make a city. It's as simple as that.

Harry Potter Extravaganza 2007

This is it! The last book in the Harry Potter series gets released Friday night at midnight, and I couldn't be more excited!! My friends and I will be walking down the road to the local Waterstone's bookstore in the heart of Oxford to claim our pre-ordered, prepaid copies of the final installment. There will be games, prizes, people dressed up as different characters, and of course the actual release at midnight.

What makes this experience really cool beyond just receiving a book we've been anxiously awaiting for years is that there are parties in bookstores in the U.S., the U.K., and presumably any other bookstore releasing the book on Friday night. Sure, we'll get it five hours before those kids back in America, but we're all gathering for the same reason: we want this book and now we finally get our hands on it! We're celebrating the last hoorah (in terms of the book releases) because after this book, that's all she wrote. Literally.

The cover pictured above is the cover of the U.K. Children's edition of the book (which only differs from the U.K. Adult version in its cover art). And people have asked me what's the difference between the American and British versions of the books -- to tell you the truth, I'm pretty sure it's just colloquial stuff that's changed so that American readers don't read things like "biscuit" and think J.K. Rowling is referring to a fluffy, buttery bread product served at southern restaurants. But I'll let you know after I read the British version!


In other Harry Potter-related news, the newest HP movie came out on July 11/12 and I have yet to make my thoughts on the film known to all you readers out there. 2 of my friends and I went to see it the day it came out and thought it was brilliant! (I took this picture of the poster outside the theater on George Street in Oxford after we watched.) Honestly, making comparisons between the books and the movies is becoming redundant and futile because it's difficult to bring a 600- or 800-page book to the big screen without making significant cuts and changes. My sister told me that a friend of hers stopped comparing them a few movies ago for just that reason. In the end credits, it should just say "Inspired by the books by J.K. Rowling," not "Based on the books by J.K. Rowling."

But book/movie comparisons aside, this movie was pretty incredible! The action sequences we all expected were intense and pretty satisfying, and the banter between the characters was great -- mostly because they incorporated A LOT of the quotes from the books, which I give the writers and director a lot of credit for. Nice work, guys.

More to come after I read the final book...until then, I'll probably be pretty incommunicado because once I get my copy of the book, people won't see much of me until I finish. Can't wait!

The Simple Things

You can offer me a diamond-plated pearl / You can send me all the riches in the world / You can tempt me with the palaces of kings / I'd give 'em back in a big ol' sack and keep the simple things...
-Randy Travis, "The Simple Things"

Confidence

Here's the assignment: read the chapter you're assigned and relate it to an article you've read or something going on in the world. Simple, right? Yes, superficially, this seems like an easy task. But for those people not comfortable or accustomed to speaking in front of more than a couple of people, leading an in-class discussion can be daunting.

Usually, I fit into that frame. The nervous, slightly quiet student in the class who speaks when spoken to or when she has to as part of her grade. "Miller, O Silent One," as Professor Conrad Fink once called me. But what's great about my Mass Communication class here at Oxford is that I've finally found enough confidence to put my thoughts out there without being so nervous. Today was my day to present my thoughts and connections to Chapter 6 of our "Media, Terrorism, and Theory" book, and as we finished up our discussion, I really felt good about what I'd said and how my classmates responded to my thoughts. And this is the first class I've taken in a long time where I've felt extremely comfortable speaking more than once in class every day. Now for me, this is quite an accomplishment. For other people, this probably isn't that exciting. "Wow, you spoke in class. Good job," someone no doubt is saying. But for me, this merits a blog post.

What might make this post take a more interesting turn (key word: might) is if I write briefly about the subject of our discussion. In this class, we've been discussing the "new and emerging media" and how they cover things like the war in Iraq and other important issues. Culture, nationalism, modernism, and other subjects play into what we talk about every day, which makes for very interesting conversation. In Chapter 6, the author talks about how pervasive the Internet can be and how anyone, from would-be terrorists to university students, can take a stand on an issue in front of a global audience. He also addresses the media's need to balance telling the story/revealing the truth and possibly promoting the terrorists' cause. He quotes another author, saying:

"Television certainly needs to show the cruel face of war -- whether in Iraq or the war on terrorism -- for the sake of truth and accuracy. But TV's hunger for shocking pictures ["If it bleeds, it leads"] is distorting Americans' view of this war, and its excessive use of terrorist video is spreading propaganda of an even more damaging sort. TV outlets run the risk of becoming mindless, amoral communications tools by which terrorists advertise their brutality, enlarge their reputations and belittle those who would protect us."

I referenced this quote in class as well as others from articles I've read on Slate.com because I think this topic is so vital for upcoming journalists to consider. And it's also important for people not in the media to think about these topics as well. I tend to stick up for journalists and their decisions because I am one (an amateur one, writing for a college newspaper, obviously) and my dad is one (he writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution). I mostly quoted from a Slate.com article and Anderson Cooper's blog, both of which I encourage others to read before passing judgment on journalists and what they do. We're not perfect, but we're doing our best.

"For I have learned / To look on nature, not as in the hour / Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes / The still, sad music of humanity..."

Today, we stood where Wordsworth probably stood over 200 years ago as he hiked a few miles above Tintern Abbey to compose his famous poem, "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798." And yes, that's the exact title of the poem.

Our trip started like any other trip: we rode the bus from Oxford to Tintern Abbey, which is just over the Wales/England border, and walked through the actual abbey itself. It was magnificent in its own ancient, slightly dilapidated way. Obviously it's not a functioning abbey anymore, but that doesn't take away from its appeal.


And it doesn't stop college students touring it from taking crazy pictures. (Elizabeth and I are clearly reliving our former cheerleader days...and yes, I'm making a "T" for Tintern Abbey.)


As my classmates and I walked through the high-reaching arches and grassy expanses, I couldn't help but feel grateful toward the people who built this beautiful scene centuries ago. It's hard to believe that generations of people have walked on these same grounds, seen these same sights, wondered how something so magnificent ever came into existence. And wondered how William Wordsworth expressed all these thoughts and descriptions in his poem.

After eating lunch at the neighboring Anchor Inn, we trekked up the adjacent mountain to see what Wordsworth might have seen as he wrote his poetry. We crossed a bridge and got a spectacular view of the River Wye, the abbey, and the mountainside before starting our hike up the mountain.

Take note, reader, of the large, tree-covered mountainside in the picture above. Beautiful, isn't it? We hiked up the ENTIRE thing, and probably all the way across it. Dr. Mee (my Romantic Lit professor who planned and led the excursion) originally made the trek sound like a short, leisurely stroll up a hill. Well, it may have started that way, but the 3 hour hike didn't finish that way. By the time we made it through the steep, muddy, narrow trail to the top, we were sweaty and exhausted. The mountainside was quite steep and precarious in many places, but the view from the top was spectacular. Think about it -- this is possibly the spot where Wordsworth got the inspiration for his writing. According to my professor, Wordsworth walked 25 miles a day most days, which put him in better shape than all of us today. And the hike up to this spot was probably the short, leisurely stroll up the hill my professor talked about.

Here's a shot from the top:


It was worth it. And the conversation on the hike made it that much more enjoyable.

• "I wish I was Spiderman right now -- then I could just swing from tree to tree instead of walk on this stupid trail." ... "But Batman is definitely better than Spiderman -- he's rich, and he's got the Batcave..." -two students in my class
  
• "Look out for the American students I lost on the trail last year." -Dr. Mee
• "Suddenly I was known as the man who walked up the mountain carrying his daughter on his back." -Dr. Mee

After 3 hours of stepping around muddy patches and maneuvering through the rocky paths, we all made it back to the Anchor Inn for free tap water and then clamored back into the bus for the ride back to Oxford. We made it back in one piece -- a stiff, achy, accomplished piece.

EDIT 1: Here are the pictures from the trip! Sorry if they're a bit repetitive.

Living in a Tourist Attraction

I sat in my window seat, reading Northern Lights and occasionally glancing up to watch people walk through the quad below me. Mostly students walking to the adjacent library, the occasional construction worker on his way to scale my building and bang as loud as he possibly could on the roof, just when I'd finally settled into a comfortable position.

But then a small crowd of about 15 students walked through the quad, laden with shopping bags and Oxford paraphernalia. I looked up from my book to see one of the students notice me sitting in the window, and then he did something I didn't expect -- he smiled and waved at me. Naturally, I waved back, but then this prompted a more noticeable reaction from the rest of his group. Everyone saw me waving and returned the favor.

I didn't really know what to think. This was probably the most surreal experience I've had since arriving at Oxford almost two weeks ago. I'm literally living in a place people travel and pay money to see. Since then, I've had one other group of students wave up at me and plenty of random tourists take pictures of my dorm. Some even point up at my window, like, "Look at the Oxford student in her natural habitat!" This is a far cry from living in the dorm my freshman year of college -- believe me, NO ONE would pay to walk around Brumby Hall at UGA. For those of you unfamiliar with my dorm freshman year, let me see if I can sum up Brumby's essence in a few words: it's a cramped, ugly high-rise dorm filled to the brim with girls. You do the math.

Side notes:

• I saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night and it was INCREDIBLE! A longer review to come later.
• My Romantic Lit class gets to travel to Tintern Abbey in Wales tomorrow. Hopefully it's just as beautiful as Wordsworth describes in his poem. Pictures and stories to come later.
  

Drunks All Around

So tonight was our high table dinner with Michael Adams, and it was ranks high on the list of most entertaining nights since I've been here. First, he gave a speech about the increased number of university students choosing to study abroad (from 3% of the graduating class in 1997 when he started to now 30%) and made connections between Oxford University and the University of Georgia. He really did his research about Oxford and dutifully noted that it's much older and a bit more prestigious than UGA.

Then after a short question and answer session (mostly students asking about the progress on Tate 2, the expansion of the current Tate Student Center), we headed out on the lawn for champagne and general chatting before dinner. This was great because the girls I sat with had three glasses of champagne each and held their own while talking with the president. I was impressed. But their relatively stable facades quickly disappeared at dinner when they served both red and white wine with the chicken. I forgot just how entertaining drunk people can be until tonight! The most interesting conversations can come out of these encounters.

"Drinking makes such fools of people, and people are such fools to begin with, that it's compounding a felony." -Robert Benchley

"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut." -Ernest Hemingway

"Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine." -Isaiah 5: 11

"Bacchus hath drowned more men than Neptune." -Dr. Thomas Fuller

"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." -Henny Youngman
-quotes courtesy of www.quotationspage.com

I think what makes this experience so intriguing is how UGA's infamous drinking culture made its way across the pond to one of the most distinguished universities in Europe. To some extent, I think UGA students are isolated from the rest of the Oxford community -- we live, eat, and attend classes within the gates of Trinity College, so it's easy for us to immediately feel at ease in our own little section of town. And with this comfortable atmosphere (and a lower drinking age) comes the desire to drink. A lot. So while part of me was surprised when my classmates decided that going out to pubs every night was a good idea, the larger part of me subconsciously (and now consciously) expected it.

Today was also interesting because we watched The Motorcycle Diaries in my journalism class. This isn't a movie I'll run out and rent and/or buy, but it was very interesting. It told the story of two best friends (Ernesto "Che" Guevara and Alberto Granada) from Argentina traveling by motorcycle (obviously) through South America on their way to work at a leper colony. Along the way, they meet so many people who have lost everything they had, been kicked off their own land, or by some other unfortunate circumstance become dependent upon their neighbors for survival from one day to the next. Ernesto's letters and diary entries help narrate their adventures along the way and show why he opted not to be a doctor and help lead the Cuban Revolution later in life. Here's a good quote from Ernesto toward the end of the film:

"Even though we are too insignificant to be spokesmen for such a noble cause, we believe, and this journey has only confirmed this belief, that the division of American into unstable and illusory nations is a complete fiction. We are one single mestizo race from Mexico to the Magellan Straits. And so, in an attempt to free ourselves from narrow minded provincialism, I propose a toast to Peru and to a united America."

Tomorrow in class we'll be discussing the answers to this question: "What can you, a child of capitalism, learn from an icon of communism?" Should be interesting. :)

"This isn't Camp UGA"

In case you were wondering, when you combine copious amounts of alcohol with locking yourself out of your room, bad things can happen. For one kid in my program, it meant climbing out on a ledge, trying to open his window from the outside, and falling 10 feet. Before you think the worst, he's okay -- he didn't remember what happened and they took him to the hospital pretty quickly. He had to get stitches or staples or something in his head, but 24 hours later he was walking around and acting as though nothing had happened. But in the meantime, the assistant director of our program sent out a strongly worded e-mail and gave us a speech tonight before dinner about being responsible while we're here.

"This is not 'Camp UGA.' This is a serious course of study at a prestigious University and an opportunity you should all be proud to have, as I am sure you are. By the same token, we in the administration are not camp counselors -- I say this primarily because I want you to remember that it is neither our interest nor our job to be moral police or to prescribe your actions day and night. We intend and endeavor to treat you as the adults you are, as you well deserve.

That means, of course, that you are solely responsible for your actions, no matter the time of day or night and no matter what, ahem, 'condition' you may be in." -Jamie's e-mail

I mean, I expected most of the kids in my program to drink more while they're here because the drinking age is 18, not 21. But seriously? There's no way that alcohol can impair your judgment that much to where you think the best way to get into your dorm room after locking yourself out would be to climb from one window to the next. That just has BAD IDEA written all over it. Thankfully, nothing worse happened. He seems fine (albeit pretty embarrassed), which is good. Hopefully no one else will do anything close to that for the rest of the trip.

On a lighter note, I'm almost 100 pages into Northern Lights by Philip Pullman, from which the new movie The Golden Compass is based. It's pretty good so far, and after looking at the trailer, I think the movie will be good, too.

And another cool thing on this trip -- Michael Adams will be here on Wednesday to give a speech and join us for our high dinner (he's the president of UGA, for those of you who don't recognize the name). More to come on his visit later.

Filming All Around Oxford

Reason #12 why I love Oxford: All the filming that goes on here for major motion pictures.

I was first informed of such filming on our walking tour, when Tour Guide Andrew pointed to the different places where they filmed scenes from the Harry Potter movies. My friends and I designated today to be the day we search out all the locations from the movies, so we trekked all over Oxford and happily succeeded in finding what we were looking for!

This first picture was taken at New College...this is where Professor Mad-Eye Moody turns Draco Malfoy into a ferret in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I could practically hear the dialogue from this scene running through my head as we walked in and around the courtyard.

Restricted section, anyone? Scenes from the library, especially in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, were filmed in the Bodleian Library. Walk up the stairs and there are several rooms with books that look just like this.

Here, despite my failed efforts to keep as many people out of the picture as possible, this is where some of the Great Hall scenes for the movies are filmed. The hall was long and beautiful, just as I'd pictured it.

To see the rest of the pictures I took from this outing, you can click here.

But the Harry Potter films aren't the only ones shot on location in Oxford. The other day, my friends and I were lucky enough to witness the crew from the movie The Golden Compass reshoot a couple of scenes from the movie just down the road from our dorm. It takes place in Oxford, and they wrapped shooting about 3 or 4 days before we actually arrived in Oxford, but we were told that they had to come back to do a bit of reshooting before it was completely done. We were hoping for a glimpse of the stars of the movie -- Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, etc. -- but we were disappointed when we found out that they weren't there.

So who were they filming if not the actors, you ask?

A cat. But wait, it gets better -- a stuffed cat. Apparently, the cat is important in the movie/book, but we just found it terribly entertaining that they spent so much time and effort filming a stuffed cat. Once I finish reading the book (which is actually called Northern Lights as part of Philip Pullman's 3-book series), I'll let you know more.

They also filmed at the Bridge of Sighs on New College Lane. Here you can see the massive floating lighting they used at night. It was tied with wire to either side of the bridge and they could adjust how much or little light it emitted. It looks like a giant, glowing battery, doesn't it? This was great fun to watch.

I hope more movie crews come while we're here!

Born in the U.S.A.

Happy late 4th of July to all! As you can probably imagine, there's not a whole lot of July 4th celebration in England, but there were plenty of American students from my program perpetuating the stereotype of the obnoxious American last night. Most notably the drunk student I could hear in the quad outside my window singing the chorus of "Born in the U.S.A."

I also got to speak with my friends and family that I normally spend the 4th with...I miss them and hope they had a blast at the celebrations at Lenox last night. "Is it an alllllll play?"

What's also interesting about the "Born in the U.S.A." reference is its correlation with my international mass communication class with Dr. Andy Kavoori from UGA. This ranks high on my list of favorite classes in college, and that's saying something (considering we've had 3 days of class in total). We sang bits from that song in celebration of the 4th, and one of the kids in my class noted the irony in singing it on the holiday. If you listen to the lyrics, it's clearly referencing the Vietnam War and doesn't really serve as a good patriotic, nationalistic anthem, he said. Good point.

But seriously, this class with Dr. Kavoori is great. Our class is mainly discussion based, and we've got a great class of extremely interesting people. Yesterday, the class invited Kavoori to a local pub called the White Horse for some obnoxious 4th of July celebration, but he told us this morning in class that he couldn't go because he was taking his kids around the city all day on the 4th. One of my more animated classmates, Jen, walks in and immediately yells, "Kavoori! Where were you last night?" The entire class erupted in laughter. Then we went into a detailed discussion of his novel, The Children of Shahida, and how history and memory relate to one another in a book about three generations of an Indian family. The books is really good -- it's told in three parts, with the narrators sharing stories and thoughts on family life, culture, and other topics.

At the end of the discussion, he asked us how we thought he should market his book. "I need to sell about 5,000 copies, so how should I do it?" he asked us. My classmates and I came up with a number of ideas, ranging from easily manageable to completely ridiculous. Here are just a few:

• make a video of a scene from the book or make a movie trailer for it and post it on YouTube
  
• go to the Indian Cultural Exchange club at UGA (which is the largest student organization on campus)
• find a way onto a tv show like the Today Show or get the book added to Oprah's Book Club list
• the idea his son came up with -- rename it Harry Potter and the Children of Shahida
• make a Facebook or Myspace group (for those who don't know, these are popular websites for teenagers and college students) to promote it
• get it on other book club lists

The possibilities are endless.

EDIT 1: More pictures here!

High Dinners and Harry Potter

11:34 p.m. Oxford time
Day 2 at Oxford -- Lots to see and do today as we acclimated ourselves a bit more to the town of Oxford. We took a walking tour of the city this morning, taking note of several of the 39 separate colleges that make up the university and their personal libraries and chapels. There were plenty of references to celebrities that attended different colleges and even some Harry Potter locations! Scenes from the hospital wing, the library, and the courtyard where Malfoy was turned into a ferret all reside within New College, University College, and the Bodleian Library. My new friend Michelle and I plan to set aside a day sometime this weekend to fully explore said locations.

Take the building in this first picture for instance -- our tour guide Andrew told us that Hugh Grant and Kate Beckinsale both attended New College, pictured here (more pictures of this building to come later...this was the only part of New College we saw on the walk). This college is also interesting because it's dedicated to the Virgin Mary...that's her in the middle with the Archangel Gabriel on her left and William of Wykeham on the right, who founded the college. Added bonus: behind the left wall is where the Malfoy scene was shot in the Goblet of Fire. As I said, I will be checking that out later.

Our next trip (after Michelle and I stopped in a sandwich shop for lunch) was to the Bodleian Library. Now, I'm going to bore you for a minute with some details about it, so feel free to skip a paragraph or two if you don't care too much about libraries. This one is one of Oxford's 34 libraries and it contains over 12 million books! After the Reformation took its toll on the library (most books with any associations to the Catholic Church were burned), a man called Bodley reinstated it and turned it into a reference-only library and made a deal with the government so that it became a legal deposit library -- it's "entitled to claim a copy of every book and periodical part published in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland," according to our information packet.

Other cool facts about it:

• The scenes from the hospital wing and the library in the Harry Potter movies were filmed in it!
• The 12 million books are stored in the main building (pictured here) as well as another building across the street and one around the corner. The building across the street has more floors below the street level than above the street, where there are MILES of stacks of books.
  
• When looking for a place to study and to find books, you choose the room that best suits your studies. There are reading rooms designated for different subjects, and if your book isn't located in it, you request it online. But this is the best part: once you order it, it's put in a crate in the underground floor, then put on a conveyor belt underground that sends it to a lift in the main building and a librarian takes it to the proper room. How cool is that?!
• When being admitted to use the library, you must recite and sign an oath saying that you will not take a book, set the place on fire, and abide by the rest of the rules. After this, you get a reader's card with your picture on it that must be shown to the porter to get in. Only Oxford students and graduate students with specific needs ("...who need access in order to undertake serious study which they cannot easily do elsewhere") can go in.

We had some free time after the library orientation before meeting the Oxford dons who will be teaching our tutorials (I'll meet with my Romantic Lit professor every Wednesday afternoon from 2:45-3:45) and having our first High Dinner. Everyone dresses "smartly" and we have a 3-course meal with the dons. Tonight's menu:

1. 1/2 Ogen Melon with Earl Grey Sorbet
2. Poached Barramundi Supreme with Chive Mash, Pea Puree and Asparagus Veloute
3. Iced Strawberry Souffle

Everything was delicious -- even the second course, which was fish with a layer of mashed potatoes and mashed peas underneath and asparagus cut in inch-long pieces. I'm usually not a fan of fish, but this tasted more like very bland chicken, so it worked. I'm looking forward to next week's Monday-night High Dinner.

Okay, I think I've said enough. And you're probably bored reading all this. So I'm off!

EDIT 1: If you want to see more pictures, just click this link and enjoy!

"A Rainy Day in London Town"

8:37 p.m. Oxford time
I'm finally here!

Jolly old England. Oxford, to be more precise. I'm staying in a dorm at Trinity College, right on Broad Street in the heart of Oxford. The trip here was...interesting...but it doesn't matter now because I'm loving it here!

The flight from Atlanta to London was pretty enjoyable. We departed at about 6:45 p.m. Atlanta time and arrived earlier than predicted (6:45 instead of the previously anticipated 7:30) early in the morning in London. I've definitely decided that international flights beat the pants off domestic flights -- better (and more) food, a personal screen at every seat, plenty of radio/movie choices, higher ceilings, and flight attendants with British accents in my case. Word to the wise, though -- if you want to sleep sometime on the flight, either take something like Tylenol PM or get a first class seat where you can recline your seats all the way back. Otherwise, don't count on getting much sleep.

Once we arrived, the only real hitch was making it through the passport check-in area and finding our bus to Oxford. The masses of people arriving into Gatwick Airport (including myself and my fellow UGA at Oxford people) stood in long, zig-zagging lines to reach the five or so desks where attendants stamped your passport. It seemed very unorganized if you ask me...

I slept on the bus ride between London and Oxford and woke up when we were heading into the main streets of Oxford. I've taken lots of pictures already, which will be up in the next few days. My single occupancy room with loft next to the Broad Street entrance and the Trinity Library definitely helps lol. And I've already walked along the main parts of town.

My first stops were, of course, at the several bookstores within a block of campus. I reserved my copy of the last Harry Potter book and bought my remaining textbooks. Can I just say that Blackwell's 3-story bookstore makes me so happy -- there should be more bookstores like that in the States!

More to come soon. I'm off to bed. Thanks for reading and I'll post again soon!