London and Wales!!!

Since I last updated, our seminars have ended and our tutorials have begun. We are beginning the third week of the Oxford term (there are 8, but we will be here one additional week). So far so good. Joseph and I both like the tutorial we have together (Chaucer), although it is rather difficult. It is at Trinity College- I hope to put pictures of it up tomorrow. I am enjoying Spanish. We are doing a mixture of language and literature. So far I've read two Garcia Lorca plays: La casa de Bernarda Alba and Bodas de sangre. Spanish is at Christ Church College (snooty) which is really beautiful and boasts the only cathedral in Oxford. Cardinal Wolsey founded Christ Church in the 16th century. John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement was a student here:

So far, I have written eight papers (in five weeks) and have at least eight more to go. Joseph and I also decided not to go to the Keble Ball. It was just too much money. So... we traveled! Last Saturday, we took a day trip to London. We saw Buckingham Palace, Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Hard Rock, Hyde Park, and HARRODS!!! Here are some pictures:

Lucky for us, London is only about an hour away by train or two hours by bus. In the next couple weekends we hope to go back and see the Tower, London Bridge, Piccadilly Circus etc.

This weekend we went to Wales with some friends. Tenby, which is on the west coast of Wales is about 5 hours by train. This was my first time on a train and it was AWESOME. Very easy to travel, cheap (thanks to our Britrail Pass) and really relaxing. I highly recommend it. Tenby was absolutely gorgeous. It's one of the oldest resort towns in Wales and has one of the nicest beaches in the UK. Oddly, people there must be very hot natured. We saw people in shorts and tank tops when I was cold in a jacket and jeans. Here are some pictures (note the tidal extremes):

Wales is a very interesting place. Welsh, a Gaelic language, is still spoken. There is a dragon on their flag which represents Uther Pendragon, King Arthur's father. Wales also boast more castles than anywhere in the UK. I would definitely go back!

Keble Ball

On May 5th, most of the UGA students will be attending THE party of the year: THE KEBLE BALL. It's a balck tie event with unlimited champagne, alcohol, food (they will have a roasted PIG!), magic, massages, silent films and fun, fun FUN! It's put on by the JCR and everyone will be there. Joseph and I can't wait!

Seminars: 3 Weeks Down, 1 to Go (Thank God!)

So it's been a little while since we updated this. We do have, of course, a very good reason. Since Joseph and I have been here (starting Monday April 4) we have seminars. Each UGA student has two seminars (with 10-15 other UGA students) which meet twice a week. Currently, I am taking ENGL 4690: 20th century British Poetry with Dr. Rosenbaum, a UGA professor (she's great) and HIST 3371: Tudor/Stuart England with Dr. Archer, the eccentric, self-scribed "whimsical" Oxford tutor. Joseph also has Archer and ENGL 4590: 19th Century British Literature: Tales of Unrest (Adventure Stories) with Dr. Bradshaw, also of Oxford. Basically, these four week seminars give us the opportunity to get a semester's worth of credit while we are here (Oxford students only take 2 or 3 classes a semester); this means that we are doing 15 weeks of work in 4 weeks, i.e. dying slowly and painfully. Actually, I don't have it that bad. Each week, I have two collections of poetry to read, two two-hour classes and one 4-5 page paper. For history, I have about 200 pages of reading two two-hour classes and a 2000-3000 word paper. Poor Joseph has the history requirements plus his crazy English class. He has 3-4 NOVELS to read for EACH class (800 pages) and a 6-7 page paper on an ambiguous topic like "what is imperialism?" or Degeneration. Additionally, each week two students read their papers aloud while Bradshaw criticizes them line by line. This sounds like punishment to me :(

Yesterday was actually one of the worst days yet. On Thursday, I had my poetry paper due, which had consumed my week (it was really difficult), so I had Thursday night and all day Friday (minus two hours for class and two hours for this little cocktail reception thrown for us by Keble College, our host institution) to write my History paper on family dynamics in the early modern period. No sweat I thought. Turn it in by midnight- I'll be fine. About this time I should mention the food that we consume at the Dining Hall ( which looks like something out of Harry Potter). The English love mystery meat. Half the time I have no idea what I'm eating. Apparently I ate something that didn't agree with me on Thursday, because Thursday night and most of Friday morning and afternoon I was sick with food poisoning. So I actually didn't start on my 2000-3000 word paper until about 4pm Friday (keep in mind it's due at midnight). I should also mention Joseph, who had TWO papers due on Friday. He spent his week researching and reading for Bradshaw and thus was also starting his paper for Archer at 4pm. At this point, I'm still not feeling very well, but at Oxford there are no sick days. So we write and write and write. At 11pm I finally finish. Great, I think, I have 1 hour to e-mail this to Archer I'm set. I should also mention that Joseph and I have been working at the Keble Library, which conveniently doesn't have Internet access. So I start walking back to the UGA house to e-mail my paper and finally go to bed. After the 1.5 mile walk, I find out that the Internet at our house has been down all day and won't be fixed until Saturday. It's 11:30. Still, it's ok. I can print off my paper and take it to the Porter (night watchman at the gate to the college) to put in Dr. Archer's mailbox. Apparently, the printer at the house is out of toner. All store closed 5 hours ago. This is when, sick, exhausted Sara begins to freak out. It is now 11:45; my paper is due in fifteen minutes and I am 20 minutes away from Keble, which doesn't have Internet. I take my flash drive and run the 1.5 miles back to Keble. Finally after 25 minutes of searching and asking around, I discover that Keble has a computer lab that's open 24 hours- but as a UGA student, I don't have the key to get in. Luckily, Andrew, a very nice African student, took Joseph and I to the computer lab where we printed off our papers- at 12:35am. I run back to the Porter and ring his little bell. He comes out groggily and begins to yell at me. Apparently, you only ring the bell after 12am if it's an emergency. Once again, I didn't know. Luckily he took my paper. At this point, it's one in the morning and I have had nothing to eat all day (with being sick and working and running around like a chicken with my head cut off). Joseph, being the nice boy he is, takes me to the only restaurant still open: MacDonald's.

The MacDonald's in City Centre is quite the hang out. We saw thugs (yes they have ghettos here,too), and whores (real ones and wannbes) and a strange group of women coming from a batchelorette party with cat ears on. We also saw two Italians who we think were on Ecstasy (they keep talking about the lights :()). After spending £7 ($14 US) we finally made it home. It was pretty awful.

Today, Keble College's JCR (Junior Common Room- like student government) threw a Bop at the college pub (yes, all colleges have their own pubs) with "punch" and beer. Oddly, Dr. Archer was there. Joseph and I both talked to him. He didn't say anything about our papers being late, so we'll see in class I guess. Anyway, it was quite fun, althougth the UGA students tend to stick together. The English can be scary!

Other Interesting facts/things I've noticed:
Salad- the only salad dressing here is called Salad cream. It's mayonnaise.
Clothing- Girls: The 80's have thrown up all over the UK. Girls wear tiny skirts with bright tights and shirts with holes in them and huge hair. Day-glo jewellry is also very big. Boys: Tight, tight TIGHT pants, usually showing some underwear and small short sleeve shirts. Also fond of messy hair and sunglasses.
Money: The dollar is very weak here. £10 will buy you dinner at a casual restaurant like Doc Chey's or Moe's. This is about $20 US dollars, but is treated like $10 US dollars. The cost of living is very high and I am constantly in sticker shock.
People: The stereotype is true. The British are not very attractive in general. And yes, they all have bad teeth because they all smoke.
Transportation: Most people ride bikes. Most of the UGA students rented bikes for about £50, including Joseph. I, however, did not. I was really scared about getting hit by a car considering I don't know the traffic laws because they drive on the wrong side of the road. Tragically, a student was just killed by a car while riding his bike a few yards away from Keble just this week. I do really worry about all the UGA kids on their bikes. Cars: I have seen more luxury sports cars in Oxford than anywhere else. On the walk to Keble, I daily see 3 Porches, 1 Aston Martin, 1 Bentley Continental and a slew of other foreign cars that look really fast. It's quite strange to think of a BMW as the Oxford's Honda Accord, but it's true.

Well, that's all for now. I'll try to get Joseph to update soon, but he understandably has a lot to do. Next week is our last week of seminars, but (lucky for us) we must begin preparing for tutorials. I am taking Spanish at Christ Church College and Chaucer at Trinity College with Joseph. My Spanish class actually starts next Friday. Thus I will have my normal seminars plus a tutorial. Additionally I have 200 pages of Middle English to read by Tuesday. That being said, I think some of us are taking a day trip to London so we don't go crazy. It's about 1.5 hours away by bus (£10), which is just enough time to get into some Chaucer.

Miss all y'all in the states! I could kill for a hamburger from Steak 'n' Shake or some MEXICAN!!!

Love,
Sara (and Joseph in spirit)

Stonehenge and Bath

Yesterday we visited Stonehenge and Bath. Stonehenge is about an hour and a half's bus ride outside of Oxford. I had been to see it once before, but was nonetheless excited to see if anything had changed since my trip 6 years ago. It had not (they are STONES, after all). It was also very chilly and windy. The site is out in the middle of nowhere; its only neighbors are these stupid sheep grazing on a burial mound. The current theory surrounding the stones is that they were created by a group of people who inhabited the are before the Celts some 4000 years ago. Some scholars also believe that Stonehenge was built to worship the sun. We didn't see any worshipping, just a lot of Japanese. Here are some pictures that are pretty self-explanatory:

Bath was about an hour away from Stonehenge. It is Britain's original tourist destination because it is the only city on the isle to boast of natural hot springs. Bath was a Roman settlement and once the empire disintegrated it became a hangout for gamblers and hookers! In the Georgian Era (18th century) Bath became the fashionable place for holiday, where the rich and famous would "take the water." These included Jane Austen and Dr. Livingston. Bath is also quite a metropolitan area today. There were a lot of neat shops and restaurants. Joseph and I had a fabulous lunch with some of the other kids at Sally Lunn's. This bakery has been making a special sweet bread for over 400 years! The sandwiches were great and the sweet bun with cinnamon butter was even better! Here are some pictures from the area:

Oxford: The Incredibly Abridged Version According to Sara

Today was better than yesterday. We did very little yesterday due to the fact that most of us got little sleep on the plane ( I managed about 20 mintues). Joseph met us at the airport and we took a two hour bus ride from Gatwick to Oxford.

The house is wonderful. It looks exactly like it does in the picture below. There are 11 rooms with 1,2 or 3 people in them. Each room has a bathroom and a kitchen with a stove, oven, broiler, toaster, sink and refrigerator. We also have a large kitchen and TV room. There is also a beautiful conservatory that will be great when it gets warmer (we've all been wearing heavy coats and scarves here- it's been the 40's and drizzly all week). We have a very green backyard which I imagine will be quite enjoyable in nicer weather.

Today we went as a group to the Bodleian Library (above) for our orientation. It is the second largest library in Britain after the National Library and has a copy of every book published in the UK since the late 16th century! (That's about 8 million books) It is also a reference-only library, meaning that even the Queen cannot borrow a book. We all had to swear an oath citing that we would not do a number of things including "kindle flame!" This statue is of a big time patron of the arts, the Duke of Pembrooke (Shakespeare dedicated his first manuscript of 32 plays to him!)

After that, we went on a walking tour of the city. I took a lot of pictures (described left to right):

1) This is the square where three Anglican bishops were burned at the stake during the Reformation. To further embaress the last, who was a graduate of Cambridge, Bloody Mary had him executed in the Oxford Square. (They have a Georgia-Georgia Tech or Georgia-Florida rivalry.) 2) This is a cute little street belonging to one of the colleges. The church at the end is one of five in Oxford that has been unconcenacrated and turned into a library for the college that owns it. 3) This is the Radcliff Camera, a reading room for the Bodliean Library. We had our orientation, but haven't been allowed in yet. This structure houses thousands of literature books and is where I am most likely to be found.

4) This is the Sheldonian Theatre were Oxford students are welcomed as freshman and leave with degrees when they graduate. 5&6) Here are two pictures of the University Chapel. It is massive. It was built during the 14th century, but the facade and spires indicate that it was remodeled in the 17th century. It has been a morge when the plague swept through Oxford, a place to keep the town's firetruck and most recently, a cafe. I'm going to try to go to the Easter service here.

7) Jesus College has the largest of all the college chapels. It's nearly as big as the University Chapel! Queen Elizabeth I chartered this college. The real Lawerence of Arabia was a graduate. 8) This is the front gate of New College. Hugh Grant went here. 9) Unlike every other college at Oxford, All Souls College does not have an admissions process. They invite a few number of fellows to come study at their college. This is the most elite college at Oxford.

10) These are the newly renovated dorms of University College. This is where Bill Clinton study when he was a Rhodes Scholar. 11) The tower you can make out over the trees belongs to Murton College's chapel. As part of a tradition, all the students in Oxford gather below this tower every May Day at 6 am (May 1) to welcome in Summer. The night before the students stay up all night and go pubbing. And yes, there is class the next day. 12) Ok, this is just the post office. But look how cool it is! It has a lion and a unicorn over the door (for England and Scotland).

13) And, well, you know what this is. Joseph in a red tellie booth! That's really about it. There is also a huge shopping area and a couple of open air markets. Tomorrow we will be going to Stonehenge and Bath! Check back in a couple days to hear about our exciting adventures!