Good Grief

"Katie McCarver is skipping class today to get some work done...how does it even make sense that she has to skip class to get her CLASS work done...good grief..."

I'm not one to quote Facebook frequently, but Katie's status aptly describes the life of the college senior. Photo projects, extensive readings, stories for class and for the Red & Black, internship applications, English papers -- where does it end? 66 days from now, according to my calculations. Including weekends. That's how many days are left this semester and I'm counting down!

But Katie brings up an interesting point -- can skipping class to get work done actually work? Or is this just counterproductive? This is the first semester that I've seriously considered skipping a class to do just that. Coming from someone who never even thinks about skipping a class, this is quite a statement to make. But some days I just feel a little overwhelmed by the amount of work I have. And it doesn't help that I have professors who think their class is the only one I'm taking and therefore I have hours to devote to the subject matter. Hmmm, about that...

66 days and counting...

Today's News: Higher Education Reform and My Dad's Golf Game?

Congress just passed (and the President is about to sign into law) new legislation to change how graduates repay student loans - now the amount you pay back will be based on how much you earn. The "College Cost Reduction and Access Act" also gives more money for Pell Grants and reduces interest rates on loans. This is a great piece of legislation -- why didn't someone think to do this before? I mean, how long have people been paying back student loans? Well, regardless of its timing, I hope this act really does help people making those payments. Check The Red & Black on Thursday for more information...

More surprising than this legislation (well, for me, anyway) is today's feature in the AJC's Travel section. This is one of my favorite sections of the Sunday paper; I really enjoy reading about interesting places to visit and looking at the pictures they provide. But I wasn't expecting to see an article my dad wrote about golfing in France. He went to France in July on his honeymoon and told me about his golfing "adventures," but I didn't expect to see it in the paper.

Story behind the story: I asked him earlier today if he had any articles coming up this week, expecting to hear him mention something more related to his health care beat -- you know, a hospital's attempts to improve long-term patient care, health care insurance changes, something along those lines. When he said he had an article about golfing in the Travel section, I laughed and said, "No, really, Dad -- do you have any stories coming up in the paper?" I was slightly caught off guard when he told me he wasn't kidding. I immediately checked the AJC's website and sure enough, it was there. Check it out! (shameless plugging, I know, but at least I'm admitting it.)

Summer's over. Time to get back to THE OFFICE.

As of today, we are merely 20 days away from the premiere of Season 4 of THE OFFICE, which is, perhaps, one of the greatest shows on TV. If you don't watch it, you should. And if you do watch it? We can still be friends.

"Thanks to the fearless Steve Carell, an ever-stronger supporting cast, and scripts that spew American corporate absurdist vernacular with perfect pitch, this undervalued remake does the near impossible -- it honors Ricky Gervais' original and works on its own terms." -Entertainment Weekly"

"Hey, Can I Take Your Picture?"

That one question sums up how I spent my free time for the past few days. In my photojournalism class, we had to shoot "mugshots" of 36 people we didn't know for our first assignment. This was meant to help us get used to using the camera and to talking to complete strangers. "You can't be shy as a photojournalist," my teacher reminded us.

36 people we didn't know -- this was a little nerve wracking but definitely doable. I started by going to a park near my house in Snellville last Sunday and hitting up parents of little leaguers. I got a few families to agree to help, as well as a few strange looks from passersby. I found the project much easier to complete when I walked around the Tate Student Center yesterday. I decided to start with people standing at tables set up -- why not solicit those who are already soliciting? I had to sign a petition and take a free volleyball poster, but it was worth it. I also stopped by a frat house...that's where I took the majority of my photos.

And having a really nice camera doesn't hurt, either. Every student taking JOUR 3610 gets issued a Canon camera to use throughout the semester. I had to sign a waiver (aka sign my life away to the Grady College) agreeing to their "you break it, you buy it" policy. My camera is worth a whopping $1,400; therefore it's my baby this semester.

This Week's Ramblings

I feel like everything that's been going on in the past two weeks is jumbled in my head...and so my jumbled ramblings are here for you to peruse...

Football ticket pickup was fun. Oh, wait, I'm being sarcastic. I understand the University's attempt to prevent people from skipping classes and fainting on the sidewalk outside Stegman Coliseum by having us line up between 5:00 - 9:00 p.m. instead of at noon, but the 100* heat doesn't really drop significantly until after the sun goes down. And opening the ticket booths on the side of the coliseum that was getting direct sunlight might not have been the best plan.

I suppose I shouldn't complain that much...at least I got tickets.

















On a lighter note, I saw the movie Superbad this past weekend. For those out there who haven't seen it, it's hysterical all the way through. One of the great things about this movie is the fact that they chose actors who actually look like they could be in high school instead of the actors in their mid-20s playing teenagers. I commend the casting director for that. Also, let me say that the main three actors were fantastic. I already liked Michael Cera (left) from his performance in Arrested Development as the awkward George Michael, but the actors who played Seth (center) and Fogell/McLovin (right) were great as well. They had great chemistry. I wouldn't recommend it to those who can't stand vulgar dialogue because it's chock full of it, but if you don't mind it or you enjoy it thoroughly, go see it right now!

Stateside Again

The past few weeks since returning from Oxford have been nothing short of jam-packed. Two days after landing in Atlanta, I returned to Athens to move into my new apartment and get ready for the semester. From there, I went to staff meetings, a Red & Black breakfast, college bookstores, Wal-Mart and the like, my first few classes, North Carolina for my great grandmother's funeral, and back here to Athens. It seems that I jumped right back into my ridiculously busy routine from last semester. Hopefully I'll be able to make it through the semester without too much trouble...

But there are some things I'm definitely looking forward to:

• My photojournalism class. This one should be pretty interesting. I can't say that I wasn't slightly intimidated by the course demands and the complicated lecture today on f-stops, shutter speeds, and ISOs, BUT I think I'll be able to manage if I can keep all that information straight in my head.
  
• Football games. I've said it once and I'll say it again: Football game days in Athens are an experience. Personally, I'm more of a basketball person, having played it myself for years and being part of a family obsessed with the sport. But that doesn't mean I don't look forward to spending a few Saturdays in the 92,000-seat Sanford Stadium cheering on the Georgia Bulldogs.
  
• Breaks and holidays. If you compare the Fall and Spring Semesters, you'll find a considerable number of short holidays in the fall to break up the semester -- Fall Break, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, etc. Spring semester always feels much longer and much more tiring, part of which I attribute to the long periods without a break.

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane...

"Time it was /
And what a time it was /
It was a time of innocence /
A time of confidences /

Long ago it must be /
I have a photograph /
Preserve your memories /
They're all that's left of you..."
-Simon and Garfunkel, Bookends Theme

So it's here...our last full day in Oxford. I've packed most of my stuff and I've gone to almost all of my favorite places for the last time. I've taken pictures with friends and bought my Trinity College hoodie. We had our final Kavoori class today (and we sang the song above before we left) and we're going to hang out together as a class one more time in University Parks today. But leaving Oxford is going to be difficult.

I guess I should explain the picture as well. This is my friend Kristen's picture (she's on the far left) of some of the girls in our class doing the quintessential Kavoori pose before one of our High Table dinners. I'm going to miss them and the rest of my friends here.

But the bright side? "I'm leaving on a jet plane" and coming back to my friends and family in the States! And I think I'll have a greater appreciation for certain things in America. For example:

• Drinking glasses and ice. The glasses they give you in the dining hall and in restaurants are REALLY small -- they look more like large shot glasses. And when you get water in a restaurant, you get about 2 ice cubes per gallon of water. LAME. I want to go somewhere in the States where I can get a massive cup of something when I get back!
• The value of the dollar. Basically, the dollar is worth NOTHING here in England. The exchange rate is 1 British pound = 2 American dollars. My money will actually mean something again when I go home! Hooray!
• Contact with family and friends. Since my cell phone refuses to cooperate and I'm literally an ocean away, my contact with friends and family has been rather limited. This blog has helped, along with my e-mail and Facebook (for those who use it). But it'll be nice to be able to call people when I want and to see their faces regularly.
  

I can't wait to see my family and friends at the airport!

Living in a Bubble

Since the first week I came here, I've said that living at Trinity College is like living in a UGA bubble within Oxford. I dine, travel, take classes, and hang out with UGA students and don't have as many British acquaintances as you might think. I share my time and my experiences with my fellow students here -- it feels as though we just transported a section of the university into the walls of Trinity College.

And that's precisely why it's going to be difficult to go back to UGA. I'm within walking distance of some of the greatest people I've ever met, and when we return to the university, we won't be able to walk 10 feet to each other's rooms. We won't be in the same classes or eat every meal together anymore. We'll be spread out across a campus with 36,000 other students. So when we get back, I'm going to make every effort to keep in touch with these people because they've touched me, and I'm not ready to let them go just yet.

I wish all of the people reading this could meet them and experience what it's like to live in Oxford. Choosing to participate in this program is perhaps one of the best decisions I've made in my life. Going home will be exciting, but I'm going to miss Oxford.

Hairspray -- A Lighthearted Look at the '60s

About a week or so ago, my friends and I went to see the new "Hairspray" movie, which was probably one of the most entertaining movies I've seen in a long time. And one of the things that stood out the most to me was it's lighthearted approach to segregation and weight issues in the 1960s.

If you listen to the lyrics of the fast paced, get-up-and-dance songs in the movie, you can see how the movie (and the Broadway play) give tough issues a more playful spin.

I can't see / why people look at me / and only see the color of my face / And then there's those / who try to help, God knows / but always have to put me in my place / But I won't ask you to be colorblind / 'cause if you pick our fruit, you're sure to find /

The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice / I can say it ain't so, but darling what's the use / The darker the chocolate, the richer the taste / And that's where it's at so baby run and tell that...
-Seaweed Stubbs, "Run and Tell That" from "Hairspray"

The lyrics and video above are from the song "Run and Tell That," which is sung by the one of the main black characters in the movie. The song is very upbeat and fun to listen to, but it's also discussing the fact that people "look at [him] and only see the color of [his] face." Instead of dancing every day on Baltimore's "Corny Collins Show," Seaweed only gets to dance once a month on "Negro Day."

Or take some of the lyrics to Tracy Turnblatt's "I Can Hear the Bells":

Everybody warns that he won't like what he'll see / but I know that he'll look inside of me...

She doesn't seem to think that her weight will be an issue when it comes to true love. Her possible love interest, Link Larkin, will see the good inside her and it won't matter what she looks like on the outside.

Lucky for the characters and the audience, these problems are easily solved by the time the movie ends. *Spoiler alert* -- Tracy gets the guy and the Corny Collins Show is integrated.

And now these songs keep getting stuck in my head...

Adventures at Warwick Castle

"Did you see her hem? Six inches deep in mud. She looked positively medieval." -Caroline Bingley, Pride and Prejudice

Yesterday was Journalism Excursion #1: Warwick Castle. We traveled about 45 minutes away to see what was essentially the Renaissance Festival in a 1,000-year-old castle and learn how one would go about marketing a place like this to the general public. I filmed some of the jousting and fighting we got to see before speaking to the one of the PR reps for the castle, which explains the video above. I apologize for the shoddy filming...it's not often I film with my small digital camera.

When I got there, I expected to see tons and tons of tourists with cameras around their necks and small children pulling their parents around. There were plenty to go around, but I didn't expect many of them to be British. That probably sounds completely ridiculous -- I mean, we're in England. But I thought of this castle and others like it as primarily international tourist meccas because I assumed British citizens were used to seeing castles all the time. I thought castles wouldn't be that impressive because they're everywhere in the U.K. -- in the same way, I oftentimes forget that people who live near me go to see Stone Mountain all the time. I can see it from my mom's house and I can hear the fireworks from the Laser Show from my dad's house. It's always been there and I've visited several times in my life, and plenty of my neighbors and friends go often to picnic in, hike through, or just walk around the park.

One of the women in charge of PR for the castle also reiterated this for me. She discussed three different segments of the general population -- older people, nuclear families, and young couples -- and how they try to appeal to those segments. Obviously, most of those people live in England and probably go to Warwick Castle the same way someone who lives in Atlanta would drive about thirty minutes to see Stone Mountain.

Soccer...I mean Football...

One thing you have to remember about traveling to England is the fact that they have different names for certain things. Cookies are "biscuits." The trunk of a car is called the "boot." Instead of a phone card to call the States, I have a "Dog 'n' Bone" card.

Here's a really big one -- soccer is known as football here and across the world. If you call it "soccer," you get all kinds of dirty looks from passersby. But either way, the sport is "kind of a big deal," to quote Ron Burgundy.

Take, for example, the annual soccer match between the UGA @ Oxford and the Georgia Tech @ Oxford students. Here's a quote from an e-mail from one of the graduate students in my program:

"The players who come back from the game victorious will stand proud whenever THE OXFORD BOWL is invoked. Just think of it: when you’re tailgating in the ATH, or maybe even when you’re old and retired and living in Florida, and someone mentions THE OXFORD BOWL, you can reminisce and bask in the glory of conquest over the Techies."

Unfortunately, we did not pull out a victory over those crazy Georgia Tech kids. But in our defense, we're pretty sure they bribed the ref. And one of our best players, Sam Franco, rolled his ankle the day before the game. And the goals were about 3 feet wide by 2 feet high...which is about the right side for a 7-year-old kid. Wait -- see what I'm doing? Soccer/Football can really take over.

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.