Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday's occurrences.

It's the morning of the 9th, a beautiful Saturday. My vision of outdoors was blurred this morning from the precipitation on the windows. The thought of staying in my nice warm bed and looking out on the cold of Oxford, England makes me exceedingly glad to be able to relax today. The entire group, save but some, have gone with Simon Lancaster and Jonathan Kirkpatrick on a trip to London. Therefore, apart from the boom from a circuit breaking, the house has been extremely quiet. This is the perfect atmosphere in which to write. I assume that you would want to know more about the circuit, but let's just say that Danielle and I discovered the limit that our British plugs can take. Being made apparent by the blue burst of a flame and as I said before, a loud "BOOM." Danielle, eyes wide open and feeling that she came within an inch of her life, and me...inhaling what smells like a powered, race car track. Some of you know what smell I am referring to. After these events, we came to discover that it had blown out the circuits throughout our room. But, thankfully we know what to do in a case like this: write a maintainance report! Haha. Soon, Jackie came to our rescue and pointed us to the circuit breaker panel and our room is up and running normal again!

It is time for reflection on this week. I can sum it up in one word: tiring! We definitely met the first week of orientation in full force. Walking to Wycliff Hall each morning takes about 45 minutes or more, depending on traffic, which is about 3 miles. Then we walk around the city of Oxford to scope out what's around us. By the time we've made it home, we've walked near 10 miles. It's like that every day, so needless to say, my body has been aching. I have been consuming a banana a day, trying to make sure that I have the necessary nutrients. Water is a constant companion as well. My calves are becoming HUGE! I don't think I've seen them look this way since highschool! Haha. So, due to the rigorous week we have experienced, Danielle and I chose to skip the group trip to London today. We have opted instead, for a day of relaxation and organization. It's nice to finally take a break to breathe.

Now that I finally have time to journal, I thought I would give you a summary of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday's occurrences, as stated in the title. Please prepare yourselves for a long post. I will have photos to include as well.

Wednesday:

Today's lectures were about Anglo-Saxon Literature, led by Dr. Santha Bhattacharji. As well as a lecture on St. Albans: Celts, Romans, and Christians, led by Jonathan Kirkpatrick. Both were equaling fascinating. Dr. Bhattacharji led the class through an old English writing called The Gospel Book:

Some enemy deprived me of my life
And took away my worldly strength, then wet me.
Dipped me in water, took me out again,
Set me in sunshine, where I quickly lost
The hairs I had. Later the knife's hard edge
Cut me with all impurities ground off.

Then fingers folded me; the bird's fine raiment
Traced often over me with useful drops
Across my brown domain, swallowed the tree-dye
Mixed up with water, stepped on me again
Leaving dark tracks. The hero clothed me then
With boards to guard me, stretched hide over me,
Decked me with gold; and thus the splendid work
Of smiths, with wire bound round, embellished me.
Now my red dye and all my decorations,
My gorgeous trappings far and wide proclaim
The Lord of Hosts, not grief for foolish sins.
If sons of men will make good use of me,
By that they shall be sounder, more victorious,
Their hearts more bold, their minds more full of joy,
Thier spirits wiser; they shall have more friends,
Dear ones and kinsmen, truer and more good,
More kind and faithful, who will add more glory
And happiness by favours, who will lay
Upon them kindness and benefits,
And clasp them fast in the embrace of love.
Say who I am, useful to men. My name
Is famous, good to men, and also sacred.

This is about a lamb who has given up its life for a manuscript. At the time this was written, lamb skin was the best to use because it was whiter than other animal skin. The skin from the manuscript was used from the back of the lamb, because it had a natural crease from the spine with which it was folded. It could then be folded twice again and bound with wood panels and leather, in this case it says "Now my red dye and all my decorations," red leather being the best kind of binding. This could be kept in the coat pocket. The quill pen was the "bird's fine raiment." The "useful drops" are the marks of the pen and they would look like bird droppings from the consistent mattern. The part about how the quill "swallowed the tree-dye" is being symbolic of a bird drinking. The quill would be dipped in an animal horn, which would serve as an inkwell. Needless to say, this was extremely interesting to me. I took Dr. Sheneman's History of English class and he led us through several Old English works in the same manner.

We also had our first seminars with our department tudors. The rest of the English majors and I studied/discussed Chaucer's The Parson's Tale. This was also a very exciting meeting.

Thursday:

Today we went to St. Alban's Cathedral and to the Roman Verulamium. The Cathedral was beautiful beyond words! Never in my life have I beheld something so huge and incredibly detailed! It was breathtaking! Many of us from the group ate at Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, which is the OLDEST pub in ALL of England. See the photos below. I was so hungry, I ordered their famous cheeseburger, and it was HUGE! I ate all my chips (fries) and finished off Danielle's sorbet, because she was full. Those sitting around me couldn't believe that I had actually eaten it all. I sure packed it in, and walked it off in an hour! Haha


When we returned, we went to the Crick Road House and had a very deep discussion about God's work in our lives with Nicola (a graduate of Oxford and staff member of SSO) and some other girls. This was enjoyed over a nice cup of hot tea. Yumm!

Friday:

Today we had our Library orientation. It's very confusing, so I won't attempt to explain it to you all. It would be better to do that when I return. We got out from seminars early today, so Danielle and I went walking around Oxford city. I purchased a drawing book and conte crayons from a little art shop. That made me very happy! Then, Danielle and I shared some very delicious raspberry icecream. :) We bought post cards at Clinton's, which I will send out soon. Then we came home and crashed upon our beds. I had a long relaxing shower and took care of beautifying myself. Haha. Because my feet have been so sore, I lathered my feet with cocoanut oil and put my cotton socks on. It was bliss! Haha

This catches you all up on what I have been doing. I'm sorry it's so terribly long. I hope you're all doing well and don't forget that I love and miss you all! :) Cheers!