Saturday July 09, 2011 at 1:50

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I just looked over that last post.

Here’s a fun little anecdote that made the day a little more entertaining.

I was sitting next to a guy on my flight from Atlanta to Memphis. He was there with a group of army guys who had just come from Germany. We got to talking and I mentioned that I’d been studying abroad in Oxford. 

He asked if I was an Ole Miss fan.

I was a little shocked. I said no. I said something mean about Houston Nutt. I said something about always being a Razorback fan even though I don’t go to the school.

Then I told him it was Oxford, England. Not Mississippi. 

He turned out to be an Ole Miss fan.

Whatever. He had it coming. Ignorance is not bliss in his case.

Posted 10 months ago | 3 notes

Thursday July 07, 2011 at 20:46

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Today is exactly six months since I left for Oxford

I guess it’s the right time for me finish up this blog.

My trip home was probably the worst experience traveling I’ve ever had.

I had to say goodbye to people. :(

About fifteen minutes into our bus ride at four in the morning, the girl in front of me vomited.

Our plane leaving London was delayed almost two hours.

We had to wait on the tarmac for half an hour before we could go to the gate because the gate crew was not ready.

Because of that, I missed my connecting flight to Little Rock.

Heather and I went to Concourse B while Blake went to C. We didn’t realise then that it was our last time together. Heather and I went up to the Delta “here’s where we give you a hard time” desk to get our new flight. 

Mine was set for the next day.

I was furious. and tired. and I just wanted to get home.

I talked to the man on the Delta phone but he wasn’t helpful at all.

I went to the desk in Concourse A where the 7:30 flight to Little Rock was supposed to be. There was no one there. I went to the next desk over. By the time the woman actually spoke to me and I explained what I needed, she said she couldn’t help me for two hours. I cried a little.

I went to the bathroom and washed up before calling my mom to explain the situation and then start crying again. Heather was already on a plane to Dallas and I’d just heard from Blake saying he was getting on his flight to NWA. I was all alone with no plan to get home.

My dad looked up and saw there was a flight to Memphis leaving in a bit. I went back to Concourse B where I was told by the Memphis desk lady to stand to the side and they’d see about putting me on the flight as standby. After most of the line dwindled down, she called up the other standby guy. Then she called me. I explained my situation. She then scanned my ticket and told me that my bags were en route to Little Rock. I was very relieved. She asked if Little Rock was my final destination. I said yes. She looked up and saw that there was another flight from Memphis to Little Rock leaving two hours after I landed in Memphis. With seats! No one else was able to do that for me. She got me on the flight to Memphis and booked me on the flight to LR. 

As soon as I landed in Memphis, I went to the Little Rock desk to make sure I was on that flight. There was a little confusion with my ticket because they apparently didn’t hand me everything. The manager came over, saw I was about to be reduced to tears again, and settled it all. He said since it wasn’t my fault, they wouldn’t worry about it. They’d just let me on regardless.

Thank you, Memphis.

After that was settled, I found a bar, had a drink and a bowl of soup, and finally calmed down.

I went to the gate at the right time and got on the plane. I was finally on my last leg of this awful trip. This would be a short flight and then I’d be home at 8:50 PM and I could finally have Sonic! Add to that, there was no one in the seat next to me! I moved to the window seat and tried to sleep. I couldn’t.

They shut the doors to the aircraft and told us to turn off our electronics. I did. I texted my mom to tell her we were about to take off and shut off my phone.

Then they told us that we were going to have to wait at the gate for a bit.

They needed to run tests on the electrical system.

And the engine.

We sat there for a very long time. 

At 8:50, the time when I was supposed to land, we finally took off. Luckily, it’s only a 26-minute flight. Unfortunately, the woman behind me complained the whole time.

That’s an hour and a half of a woman complaining.

I had about had it. As soon as they told us we could turn our electronics back on, I put “Dueling Banjos” on repeat and listened to that three times before we had to turn it all off again.

We landed. I was in Little Rock. I was essentially home.

We stood up. That woman was still complaining.

She said, “I have been traveling for six hours!”

That was it.

My 40+ hours of little sleep and many hours of traveling had caught up with me. I was not taking her complaints anymore.

I turned around, put on my pissed off face, and stared her in the eye. I stared and said, “I have been traveling for twenty-four hours. Six hours is nothing.”

I turned around got off the plane.

By the time I went to sleep, I had been awake for forty-six hours. I had been traveling for twenty four of them.

It was a very stressful experience getting home.

Now I’m home and all I want to do is go back to Oxford. There is so much I miss about that city. I miss the history and the libraries and the book shops and the people and the stores and the atmosphere. I miss not needing a car to get me from point A to point B. I even miss staying up all hours of the night to finish a paper.

I even miss the criticism over my work week after week.

Now that I’m back, though, I guess it’s time I start thinking about the coming year. I have a lot of work ahead of me.

We’re seniors. When did that happen?

Posted 11 months ago | 4 notes

Friday June 24, 2011 at 23:36

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In just under 24 hours I’ll be landing in Little Rock

I still haven’t finished packing nor have I finished cleaning.

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Thursday June 23, 2011 at 19:10

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24 Weeks, 16 papers, 16 translations, 7 short stories in German, 7 reports in German, 8 German news articles, 25 lectures, 6 plays, 2 excursions, and countless memories.

All finished.

Well, except for the memories part. I still have a day and a half left of those.

While things are sad and winding down, I still have the feeling that I made it through all of this. It was a hell of a lot of work. I would really enjoy looking up how many pages I read. Maybe I’ll do that after I post this.

But I am finished with Oxford. Well, the academic side, anyway.

WHAT DO I DO NOW?!

Oh yeah. Pack.

Posted 11 months ago | 0 notes

Thursday June 23, 2011 at 1:58

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Tonight was my last tutorial with Susan

I read and wrote about Günter Grass’s Das Treffen in Telgte. Reading it and writing my paper made me realise just how important literature is to both myself and the world. It was fabulous talking with her about how literature in any form has the ability to console the fretful or incite a riot. Monarchs have understood the power literature has over the people to such an extent that rulers have sought to ban literature at times. Various monarchs around Europe tried that (unsuccessfully I might add) after the French Revolution. Hitler’s misuse of various words or taking one meaning and twisting it a bit caused the German language to suffer. Many words became taboo. This has happened in every language including English. Words are used to incite hate and all other meanings become pointless. 

After the war, authors and poets sought to reinstate some of these words and were thusly banned from writing in their home countries. The fear and hate those words now stood for were so strong that the people couldn’t bear to hear them, even when finally used correctly. Those poets who sought tirelessly to reinstate these words left for other countries, wrote, and eventually (thought their literature) got their home countries back on the right foot again.

This was literature people.

So the next person who questions why I would study literature?

Monarchs are scared of us. Why aren’t you?

Well, now that that rant is over, I’ll finish what I started.

It was actually quite the emotional tutorial. I realised that everything I’ve learned from Susan was coming to an end. She helped shape the way I speak, hear, and read German. Not only is it quite a feat listening to her speak English quickly, listening to her speak German meant I had to keep up, listen closely (she is very soft spoken), and translate all at the same time. My grasp of the language improved so much thanks to her.

She told me she was proud of everything I’ve done these two terms and would very much like to write me a recommendation when the time comes. This woman is probably the kindest and smartest woman I’ve ever known and she wants to write me a recommendation?

She suggested some further reading based on what I liked and said that if I ever needed anything to just let her know. She told me to keep her updated on what is going on with my life post-Oxford and then Jack arrived for his tutorial and we parted ways.

I’m really going to miss Susan.

Now that German is over (two months then I’m back to the German grind with Oudekerk’s short fiction and poetry course… :D) I have only one paper left between me and the end of term. Well, packing too. But I don’t really count that.

I must get back to my reading, though. One more paper on Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love and then I am home free (literally!).

It’s hard to believe I only have two more days left in this beautiful country!

Posted 11 months ago | 1 note

Tuesday June 21, 2011 at 20:06

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Trinity Term: Eighth Week-Stück Eins

Just two days into Eighth Week and I’m already updating?

That’s because Eighth Week is super emotional and if I wait until the end I won’t be able to get it all correct.

Yesterday we had our final lecture. 

Very.

Last.

Lecture.

Jacquie gave a fantastic lecture on the Romantics. You know? Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats? Yeah, those guys. I felt like I was back in AP Lit with Mrs. Washington senior year. We read all the poems that Jacquie had on the handout and I wrote a few papers on these guys. 

Needless to say, I really enjoyed the lecture. 

After the lecture, we gathered in the Warner’s garden where we took as much of a group photo as we could (Tosha mysteriously did not show).

Well aren’t we a cute group?

After we took a few photos, we went into the Warner’s kitchen where Francis had laid out a few of his first editions. There was Purcell, Spencer, a ridiculously old Bible, and the same edition of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales that Shakespeare used. Granted, it wasn’t the same exact book, but it was the same edition. The table was just covered in these books and we were free to browse as we saw fit. These things were absolutely fabulous. I wish books were still made this way. The paper was just so… it was all just so beautiful!

After this I hurried off to return a library book but got coaxed into a store by Debbie where we ogled the sales. She wanted to try on a dress but she said she only would if I would. She found me a blue dress in my size and it turned out to look really good! It was originally £30 but it was marked down to £15. I figured that was a good enough price but when I paid, it turned out they were having another markdown. The dress was only £9! That’s my kind of dress. Oh, and it’s blue! 

:D

I then finally returned my book and proceeded on to a few shops where I scouted out a few more souvenirs and bought a couple of gifts. I think the people receiving these gifts will be pretty excited! I am ridiculously excited for them!

I ended up in Christ Church Meadows with my book where I sat next to the river and watched the punters push by.

Saw a deer!

At one point it started to sprinkle so I turned back and headed back to my house. There I did some of my reading before going to our last burger night.

We had our biggest turnout for burger night that night. I don’t remember the final count but there were a lot of us crammed into 4 tables.

After burger night I returned home where I spent the rest of the night reading and writing and probably spending a little too much time on Facebook.

Today is Tuesday. We had our farewell lunch at St. Peter’s today. It was rather sad but my mind was preoccupied the whole time so I was not bogged down too much with the sadness of the event.

Francis and Penelope gave us each a packet and a handout. The handout covered our leaving checklist. You know, clean out the fridge, wash your sheets, clean the house, etc. Nothing I wasn’t expecting. There were rumours however, that Francis gave signed copies of his works to us as final gifts. I figured we were all getting the same book, but as I looked around, I saw everyone was getting different works. They all seemed to have something special to do with our studies here. I opened mine and found his Goethe’s Weimar by Francis Warner.

On the inside he wrote

For

Diana Brown

to remind her of her

student days in

Oxford

with warmest wishes

from

Francis Warner

Oxford 21.vi.2011

I really will miss the Warners. How adorable are they?!

He went around and pointed out various significant parts to certain plays. In the pictures from the production in mine were Francis and Penelope’s two children, Miranda and Benedict, at a very young age. In Emily’s, Francis I, there was a young Hugh Dancy, the famous British actor now married to Claire Danes. 

Penelope then announced the winners of the Favourite Biscuit vote held the previous week.

And the winner is…..

The Viennese biscuit!

I was excited. It was not what I voted for but when I was voting I was between that and the chocolate digestives. The digestives won out, however, as they were the last thing I’d had. Penelope then had the two young boys of Leslie (former Hendrix student now living in Italy and works with the program) distribute a package of biscuits to each student. We each got what we voted for! It was wonderful!

After these were distributed, we split up and I made my way to Jacquie’s for a tutorial on David Lodge’s Nice Work. On my way I realised that it was about to rain and I did not want to get caught in the rain. I stopped in at the Ashmolean and perused some of the exhibits there before heading on. I left too early, though, and so I stopped in to Oxfam—bad, bad decision. 

Not too bad, though. I found two more of Francis’s plays in the drama section and purchased them. With the one Francis gave me and the one I bought sometime earlier in the term, I now own four of his plays! I’ll keep looking out for a collection of his poetry until I leave! I’m much more into poetry than drama. Either way, it’s Francis’s work which is really the most exciting part!

I went to my tutorial. Jacquie liked it a lot. We talked about music for a while, Battlestar for a bit, then moved on to the Victorian ideals and how they relate to Nice Work. After we chatted for a bit about nonsensical matters, I left and walked back to my house slowly as I enjoyed having one more paper down.

One down, two to go.

Posted 11 months ago | 7 notes

Tuesday June 21, 2011 at 0:28

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Mom and Dad. In case you’ve forgotten what I truly want at the airport upon my return, here’s a clue.

Mom and Dad. In case you’ve forgotten what I truly want at the airport upon my return, here’s a clue.

Reblogged from Live broadcasting from Dreamland..

Posted 11 months ago | 1,062 notes

Monday June 20, 2011 at 21:25

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Trinity Term: Seventh Week

Last week absolutely flew by.

We started out with a lecture by Francis on Handel in the St. Peter’s Music Room. It was a fabulous lecture (as always) and I especially enjoyed all of the music talk. I had a paper for Jacquie due Wednesday morning so I spent the majority of my time between working on that. I was supposed to have another tutorial to get back on schedule on Thursday but she moved it to this week’s Tuesday. So this update will be brief as I have three papers due over the next three days. Luckily, not much happened.

I spent a lot of time indoors reading and writing and watching Arrested Development. Thursday I gathered all the books and DVDs I’ve acquired over my stay then made my way to the DHL place. I walked in, said I needed to ship some things to the US, and when the guy asked me what size box I needed, I laughed and then showed him my backpack full of books, my souvenir bag from the Tower of London full of books, and my arms holding three other books. He went and got me a box and I filled out paperwork and packed the box. I heard from my mom today and it got there safely so my books are now in the US. 

I’ve had a very difficult time avoiding bookstores since then. I can’t afford the space to buy anymore!

Friday we had an engagement party for Carrie, a girl in the program. I had all of these marshmallows that were supposed to get used for a s’more night but that never happened. Instead, I made s’more pies. Unfortunately, graham crackers just don’t really exist in Sainsbury’s or Tesco. Instead, I crushed up some plain biscuits and made that into a crust. I melted some chocolate, then topped it all with marshmallows. I drizzled more chocolate over top then wrapped it up and took it over. I also made skillet zucchini. 

At 25, there were balloons all over the place and people were really enjoying themselves. The Oxford Union had their elections that day and a friend of the people in the program was running for a position so we all gathered up and those of us who had not yet been to vote voted for Tristan and the rest just followed along. There were five of us who voted and the next day, we found out Tristan won his position by five votes. I was pretty proud of that!

The rest of the night was just us at 25 having a great time. At one point, a couple of the guys came over as entertainment for Carrie and then it turned into a whole OOSC party. 

I spent Saturday and Sunday at home not really doing much besides reading (it was rather dreary outside). I packed a few of my clothes and made up a list of what else needed to be done. 

But now it’s Eighth Week. Our final week. I got an email from STA Travel today saying my flight leaves in five days. It’s very difficult to imagine that in five days I’ll be in the US (to the hour, actually. In five days to the hour I’ll probably be sitting on the plane waiting to depart the Atlanta airport). This has been such a surreal experience. My life here is so different from that life I have at home. I can already imagine how strange it will be when culture shock sets in going home.

Posted 11 months ago | 0 notes

Thursday June 16, 2011 at 12:09

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Last night I was tippity typing away and was updating from an excursion I never wrote about on here and then I refreshed the page instead of opened a new tab so therefore I lost all I had written and got too frustrated to type it again.

So here we go.

I thought I was all caught up on reporting our happenings here, but looking at pictures from my time here, I’ve realized that in the frenzy week before Scotland, I never wrote about our excursion to Broughton Castle and Houghenden Manor! Of all of our excursions, this was one of my favorites!

We awoke early, packed our lunches, then met the bus for a drive up to Broughton Castle where we were greeted by Lady Saye and Sele. We waited outside for a bit before she realized we were here and when she greeted us, she said, “Come inside out of the cold. It’s colder in here!” Indeed it was! She offered us wool blankets and shawls as the further we got away from the lived in part of the house, the colder it got. 

Broughton Castle has been in this family for many hundreds of years and is the only castle that still retains a moat! Lord and Lady Saye and Sele’s son, William Fiennes, is next in line to the Lordship and has written novels, one of which was about the Music Room in the house! William Fiennes?, you say? That name sounds familiar? Well, it is probably because you are familiar with his cousins.

That bit of beautiful is his cousin, William Shakespeare. Well, it’s his cousin, Joseph Fiennes (an actor), portraying the Bard in the Oscar winning film, Shakespeare in Love. Never seen that movie? Shame on you! Go see it. It is absolutely fantastic!

Well, Joseph Fiennes still doesn’t ring a bell? Try his brother, Ralph.

Oh? You say he looks familiar but you cannot place exactly where you have seen him? Well, he has been in a few critically acclaimed films. Maid In Manhattan? 

Just kidding.

Well, he was in it, but it was not exactly critically acclaimed…

He was in this well-known children’s series, though. You might recognize him from that!

Now does he seem familiar?

Yeah, so Lord and Lady Saye and Sele are the aunt and uncle of Shakespeare and Voldemort. Pretty awesome, huh?

So Broughton Castle went through this huge restoration period in the 20th Century, spearheaded by the Lady herself. Some historical society of England came and helped her restore a whole lot. 

The house was beautiful and has been used as filming locations in many different films including The Scarlet Pimpernel, Shakespeare in Love, Emma, and most recently Jane Eyre. If you were a lucky American near a limited release theater in March, you might have seen that movie! So… here are some pictures from the house!

I would just like to point out now, that I have saved this post at least 4 times now.

After our tour, we were ushered into their private apartment where we were served hot lemon (lemonade and hot water) by a Lady. Pretty cool, huh? We stood around chatting with her and with each other while Penelope and Francis chatted with the Lord out in the hall.

We left Broughton and ate our food on the bus on the way to Houghenden. Houghenden was home to Benjamin Disraeli in the 19th Century and during World War II, it was home to military personnel as a map-making location. Since the ground had changed drastically since their last maps, Houghenden was used for reconnaissance work and map making. Houghenden was on Hitler’s list of most important places to bomb, but the Germans never could find it. It’s not like it is a small hideout, it was actually quite large, they just didn’t know where to fire ze missiles. 

These huge trees out front? Yeah, they weren’t there in the 40s. This area was used as a training area for new recruits.

Queen Victoria slept in that bed.

Compared to Broughton, Houghenden was not nearly as awesome. I really enjoyed the WWII parts, but I thought Broughton was more beautiful. No complaints, though. We were originally supposed to also go to Syon House but something happened and we couldn’t go. Penelope found us another substitute and Houghenden it was! The Warners had never been before!

When we got back that evening we were all exhausted and had to get to work as papers were still due, regardless of excursion-ing.

Posted 11 months ago | 2 notes

Thursday June 16, 2011 at 0:34

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Saturday, 4 June 2011, our group went to Stonehenge, Stourhead House and Gardens, and Avebury. Honestly, Stonehenge was a bit of a letdown. They charge you to see this and after all the hype about how awesome it is, when you get down to it, they’re just rocks. I know the fascination is the mystery surrounding how they were placed there, but an hour was way too much time to spend there. It’s roped off and you cannot get close at all.

Stourhead, on the other hand, was much more engaging. It used to be a family home but after the son of the owners died in the Great War, the house was passed on to the state and is mostly only for tourists. There are relatives of the family who still live there on occasion but it is owned by the state. The gardens were absolutely beautiful. There’s a beautiful lake and we ate our lunch by the lake trying to avoid the ducks and geese! We walked around the gardens and saw the grotto, their version of the Pantheon, a cottage, a cool bridge, a waterfall, and the Temple of Apollo. The Temple of Apollo was featured in the 2006 Keira Knightley/Matthew MacFadyen Pride and Prejudice film. It was featured in the storm scene when Darcy professes his love to Elizabeth. Pretty exciting. We tried to recreate the scene but sort of failed.

The house itself was pretty awesome. There was a gorgeous library filled with so many books and there was a piano available for anyone to play! Sarah played the opening chords from Wicked and then Francis sat down and played some ridiculously awesome classical song. What else? There were also trunks of costumes that were probably meant for children to adorn but of course we’re all children at heart!

After Stourhead we went on to Avebury. At Avebury Francis took us to a little shop where the owner sold ridiculously old and well-preserved coins for cheaps. Seriously. You want a 4th Century Constantine coin for £10? Okay. Go ahead. The rock formations were much more interactive at Avebury. They weren’t roped off. Plus, there was a section of field filled with sheep and we could walk among the sheep! We all sort of enjoyed running after them.

Like I said, children at heart.

Who said that’s a bad thing?

Posted 11 months ago | 7 notes