but what about the Oxford companion?

British Word of the Day: torch - An illuminating tool, generally used while camping with an on/off switch or button. (American's "flashlight"). eg: "Quick, grab the torch! I heard something over there!"

I wonder if they storm any castles with pitchforks and torches anymore. Perhaps not.

This morning:
Greek Orthodox Church - Church of the Ascension. Much incense and gold. Was looking for the myrrh. Keep you updated. Was mostly strange and distracting and not sustaining. Baptist Church next week--for sure.

This afternoon:
Read Cymbeline aloud with Megan, a new Oxford friend. Took us 2.5 hours. It was definitely a tragicomedy. (Not everyone died in the end.)
Had a cup of excellent french press coffee.
Grabbed Battenburg cake, a chocolate digestive biscuit, a grape, and a tangerine and ran off to Wadham College for choir practice until 6:30

This evening:
Sang several songs during Evensong at Wadham College Chapel. Sang worse than in practice. Will get better.
Ate after the service for free at the church including: roast chicken with mushrooms, cheesy eggplant, delicious potatoes, carrot chips, broccoli, and all with a glass of white wine! This people know how to party--even at church!

I have much sleep to get.

Cheers!

hilary term-inal illness

British Word of the Day: Gammon steak - fleshy pork slab served atop "chips" topped with fried eggs. (American's ham.) eg: "I thought I got the Gammon steak, not the ham--oh dear."

Ordered the Gammon steak and eggs at The Eagle & Child with a Guinness. However, when I came back from getting my pint, I was surprised to find a pink hunk of ham on my plate atop a pile of chips. I ate it anyway, not about to waste a single pound.

Soon, I'm going to bed. I've read a few sections of Tennyson (it's entirely too long of a poem) and I've read Macbeth and written some notes on it. I hope to read Cymbeline for fun tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'm going to a Greek Orthodox church just down the road; I'm sure that will be interesting. Very soon I need to try the Woodstock Road Baptist Church, but I cannot find anyone to go with me. Next week--it's become a mantra: next week, next week, next week.

Tired of it.

On a happier note, I've finally figured out the name of my favourite English confectionary delight:

Battenburg Cake -- a checkered inside, a marzipan outside. A wonderful joy for the taste buds.Supremely delicious Battenburg cakes. Good luck finding them in the U.S.!

We have Sunday afternoon tea tomorrow at 4:30, as per usual at Crick. I'll have to leave nearly straightaway for practice at Wadham College Chapel for Evensong tomorrow night at 6:30. I've already rooked several persons into coming Lovely!

Cheers!

one thing i know

British Word of the Day: pudding - Any kind of sweet generally eaten after dinner, following something savoury with something sweet--and NOT just liquidy tapioca, vanilla, chocolate, or butterscotch. (American's "dessert"). eg: "Is anyone else getting pudding? I don't want to be the only one; I'm getting the chocolate eclair."

I know. It's been a couple of days since my last post. It was a mad, mad couple of days. But my essay for Victorian Literature is complete (also complete-ly horrible) but it was 2,000+ words; I'll do a better one next time.

My Victorian tutor did not make me cry--she was rather entertaining. She did a bit of joking under her breath, which was really hard to catch, especially with her accent and all that. However, she's from Sydney, Australia, and I could tell immediately that she didn't have a conventional accent, and figured she was from Down Under, but I didn't want to ask.

I made bread yesterday night. I must say, not much is as satisfying as a warm slice of bread you've baked yourself with a bit of strawberry jam on it.

I'll be making some again next week, I bet. I'm almost down to half the loaf already (I split it with Amanda). The only thing bad about the bread is that we didn't bake it quite long enough, and it's quite small slices--it gets stuck in the toaster and I burn my fingers trying to get it out.)

I'll make it bigger next time.

Today, I tried out for Wadham Chapel Choir, and I made it! I was quite pleased. There's another guy in the SCIO program with me that also made it, so we see each other while we're there, but we live at two different houses.

However, this evening I made friends named Sally and Claire. Wonderful singers; there's about fifteen of us in total, of which I am a Soprano I. I love it; we've started working on a piece by Palestrina that's simply beautiful. So many pieces resound well in the chapel, but the director has chosen very renaissance (pronounced reh-NAY-sahns) pieces, and I can't get enough!

Modern Day Wadham College.

We'll sing on Sunday (every Sunday) at 6:30 for Evensong, and we get there at 5 to brush up on our songs. However, the biggest sadness: practice on Fridays from 5:30 - 7. That's a ton! Oh well. We already sounded awesome; I'm supremely excited.

This weekend I'll be reading Macbeth and Cymbeline, both Shakespeare, as well as three Tennyson plays. Both Macbeth and Tennyson will be involving an essay. Wooh! Shakespeare's due Wednesday, Tennyson's due Friday. No biggie.

Went to the Three Goats Heads pub tonight. It was fair, and the meat and ale pie looked oh-so-tasty. I actually grabbed a bite from the kebab van on the way from choir practice to the pub, so I couldn't reason spending more money on an unhealthy dinner. Next time. Next time.

I'm exhausted today. tonight. whatever it is. I have to call it a day.

Until then, cheers!

small triumphs: successfully avoided eating a slice of chocolate cake

British Word of the Day: coffee - a watery brownish substance that stands in for an alternative only when the tea cupboard has proved completely bare and one is in need of caffeine.

I kid. My coffee habits haven't changed, and so I've found the coffee in England (of my own making) quite to my own liking. The Crick House is fully equipped with two French presses and I've just bought Peruvian coffee from Sainsbury's. (It was the cheapest one...)

But Really: crèche - a supervised room, area, or playplace for young children, found helpful especially during church services. (American's nursery). eg: "Honey, could you go get the kids from the crèche? I'll get us some watery coffee."

I went to another lecture today on Realism and Romance. It's beginning to occur to me that I should have started in literature from the very beginning: the Classics. No, not the "classics." I mean Ovid. I mean Homer. I mean Aristotle.

The books that the authors I currently study have read all of these old Greek and Roman tragedies, symposiums, and myths. If one is to understand the author one is studying, I feel as though I should have started where they did.

Feeling anthropological.

I really should be finishing skimming Wuthering Heights. It's actually a terribly emotional book, especially with the famous lines the terrible Catherine (the original) speaks about her affinity with Heathcliff:

"My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods. Time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees--my love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath--a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff--he's always, always in my mind...as my own being..."

So much to skim and type up, so little time.

I may stay up unhealthily late this evening to ensure the reading and essay will be in my tutor's hands by Friday afternoon.

Tomorrow I may attempt bread-making. Eep.

Cheers!

mellow as the month of may

British Word of the Day: bollard - a large, mechanized post that can come out of the ground in pathways to keep out unwanted motorists off of walkways. (No American matches found.) eg: "Look out for the bollard when you're walking out of the University Parks." (See Below)

Bollards.

Today was surprisingly relaxing as far as "the first day of classes" goes. Maybe it's because they're not really classes, they're lectures. My first was "The Winter's Tale: Tragedy into Romance" and the second was "Shakespeare's Late Plays", both by Dr. Pitcher. The final "lecture" of the day was actually a film screening of Shakespeare. Tonight was Hamlet, starring Ethan Hawke, Bill Murray (excellent performance), and Julia Stiles. It was quite modern, as it took place in New York City. The most wonderful / ironic portion of the whole thing was the "To be or not to be" portion. Famous lines demand much attention.

This portion took place in Blockbuster. Hamlet scans the shelves asking himself whether to live or die. As he soliloquizes for far less time in the play (yet the audience still grows uneasy and bored), he walks through several aisles of ACTION films, the pennants on either side declaring exactly what he is not doing. ACTION ACTION ACTION ACTION. And Hamlet is all talk until the very end. He waggles his gun like a baby throughout the movie, never having enough guts to shoot the incestuous murderers of his father.

Quite good.

Eric&Alex (affectionately called so), I haven't decided on a favoured reading spot in the Cam yet. I have more reading to do. Again, I'll let you know at end of Hilary Term, until then, I demand silence on this point. Or something close to it.

Yesterday I laid Jane Eyre in the dust. I would bury it in the backyard, but as it is rootless, nothing will come of it. I can give it to someone else to read.

Wuthering Heights is next. This one I'll mostly skim, as I've just recently read it (within the year).

In other news, not scholarly: I COOKED TODAY. I made a most excellent curry chicken with brown rice, apples, raisins, a LOT of onions, cilantro, yogurt, and bananas. it sounds terribly fruity, i know, but the curry over took the lot of it, and the apples especially soaked up the flavour. I wager I have never made anything more tasty than what I cooked with Amanda tonight. We also made chocolate cake in a mug, from a promising looking blogger's recipe. It turned out somewhat like lava cake, and I made whipped cream, and cut up an apricot.

This cooking thing is awesome. If you have money and time.
Both are in short supply, but I'll only be cooking once or twice a week for a lot of people. It was a thrill!

We ate rather late, so we made a starter plate of sliced bell peppers.

I haven't felt this accomplished in quite some time, which is dangerous. It makes me justify not reading and not writing because I spent so much time cooking dinner for 6 of us.

But I'm terribly happy. Dinner was so good. I made it myself.

I have to get on with things. I'm going to a Victorian literature lecture tomorrow at 12.00 so I'll get up early tomorrow and skim Wuthering Heights for good narrative conflict for Friday's 6.5 page paper.

In other, OTHER news: I saw Queen Susan from Narnia. She is quite a bit shorter than I imagined, and much to my comfort, she was walking into Introduction to Late Medieval Literature as I walked out of "The Winter's Tale." One of my new guy friends confessed his undying love for Queen Susan, and declared his wish to find and woo her. I gave him her digits. Of the classroom she went to today, that is.

Anna Popplewell as Narnia's Queen Susan.

I only looked at her once, and calmly walked away, but the first person I saw with whom I was acquainted got an earful of: "GUESS who I just saw! Queen Susan from Narnia!"

Or something like that.

There were no double-takes, I promise. But she goes to Magdalen College, in Oxford. And has a hankering for Medieval Literature, I suppose.

Much to do. (But not about nothing.)

Cheers!

you asked for it

British Word of the Day: juicy bits - Small, drinkable fruit fragments found in citrus juice. (American's pulp.) eg: "I don't like orange juice with juicy bits; buy the kind without next time."

Pictures, you say?

Good man. You know just how to ask. And I know just how to answer:

New friends Brit and Taylor pose in front of the Radcliffe Camera--my new reading spot.

At The Chequers Pub. (L to R: me, Daena, Rebekah, Anna)

Rebekah and me outside of Oxford Castle.

Christ Church Cathedral.

Painted glass window of Jonah and a not-so-eastern looking Nineveh.

Stained glass series (Christ Church)

Christ Church Cathedral Ceiling. Alliteration!

Best Photo of the Day: Christ Church's steeple.

The Great Dining Hall. (Free breakfast for season ticket holders--whatever that means.)

The East side outside of Christ Church.

A blue door & me.

Chinatown! (London's, of course.)

Jane Eyre awaits me.
Took a half-hour nap today, had some tea and digestives, and I'm set to go for another evening.

Blessings and cheers!

so tired

British Word of the Day: snippet - a small portion of description to get a feel for the whole, especially in library catalogues. (America's "abstract.") eg: "Quick, read the snippet, so you'll know if you want the book or not."

Today's entry will be short. Sound the alarum.

Went into London today, with Jane Eyre in my bag. Came back and she was still in there. And I still wasn't through with her. I don't believe I will be until tomorrow evening. 150 more pages to read in that one, and then on to Wuthering Heights.

I, I will survive.

Tomorrow is church. Today, I guess. That really means I should go to bed.

London:
-Saw St. Paul's Cathedral on the inside. It was spectacular--much more than my liberal arts math project on architect/mathematician Sir Christopher Wren could ever have shown. There was so much detail and there were mosaics everywhere. We had made it just in time for Evensong by the All Boys' Choir at St. Paul's. The music was so beautiful, so pure, and so rich that it sounded as if the Cathedral was singing itself, from its very soul--from the inside out. I can't imagine a more beautiful choir. I nearly wept during the first song.
-Ate in Chinatown. Was hungry an hour later.
-Saw Piccadilly Circus. Was under the impression that it was called "circus" not because there would be exotic animals, but because the general layout of the place was rather like a circle. It's hard to judge when one is in media res. I still don't know what the "circus" is all about. I could google.uk it, I suppose. No one would know, except for you, reader. (Dear reader, Jane Eyre has already had a disadvantageous effect on my writing style. Disaster will ensue; I am sure of it.)
-Went to / Came back on a rather expensive bus that took 2 hours to take us back (about average.) So, no, Oxford is NOT in the middle of London, contrary to popular belief.

Yesterday:
-Visited The Trout Pub. There was about an hour of trudging involved, as it had just rained that afternoon. I cleaned my new Chucks thoroughly upon my return. The Pub was nice. Not going again, unless I feel the need to work up an appetite for my next round of fish and chips and Guinness.
-Attempted to complete Jane Eyre. It was a hearty attempt--over 150 pages done this morning, afternoon, and night.

Conclusions:
-Jane Eyre is no good the second time around. You know the exact plot, and you dread the 30 pages of her wandering through the heath. Any minute now, I'll come up on the page where she deserts Mr. Rochester and Thornfield and I'll skip those long, boring pages during which a missionary tries to subdue her feminine will by whisking her away to some foreign land.


Fool! Jane Eyre cannot be had. Neither by me, nor by any. Every one of Jane's relationships is a failed one. (Credits to Elisabeth Wenger for that last idea, at its most basic.)

How do I expect to receive knowledge from Jane Eyre--is not it a relationship of book to reader? Of character to consumer?

I'd really like to put it away and dwell more on Heathcliff and Catherine and the incessant darkness of Wuthering Heights, but that shall come soon enough.

Cheers and good night!

P.S. St. Aldate's church tomorrow. I hear it's charismatic. (By whose standards, I know not.)