Somerset

Lanacashire in the North; Somerset in the South. I'm doing pretty well touring England these holidays. For the Easter weekend I went to stay with Bethany, one of my friends from The Lion's Call, the Chronicles of Narnia forum I belong to. I was mainly looking for somewhere to spend Easter, not even knowing which county she lived in, but I ended up having a great weekend of touring around Somerset and seeing places I'd only ever read and dreamed about in real life.

On Friday, I left Oxford at 8.00 am. Since I had to switch trains in Bath, and Bethany had already offered to take me to Bath one day, we decided to meet and spend the day there before heading to her town. We started out at the Roman Baths. After having studied Classics for four and a half years, it was really exciting to see a real Roman bath complex. I couldn't help but think of the description of Quintus going off to the baths in Rome in my Latin text book. The baths were more than just a bathing and entertainment area; they were adjoined to a temple of Minerva Sullis (an amalgam of the Roman god of wisdom and her Celtic counterpart). They had uncovered some of the remains of the temple and the sacrificial altar which (like the altar of burnt offering in the Jewish tabernacle) had been located in the courtyard of the temple. After that, we went to the Jane Austen museum in Bath. It is located in a house that is very similar to the one she lived in with her family (the actual house is privately owned). It's a smallish museum and we had a brief talk on the history of Jane Austen and her family and her connections with Bath. The museum had various displays about what life would have been like in her day. We got to try on some 18th C bonnets.

After a toasted sandwich lunch at a small restaurant/pub, we wondered around town, visiting various shops. At around 5.00 we headed back to the station to catch the train to Bethany's town. She lives with her dad Simon, sister, Abigail, and their black spaniel, Ollie. It's the first time I've had a dog to pat since leaving home and Ollie looks a lot like our Juliet, with longer, curlier hair. I'm pretty sure Julie has some spaniel in her though her face is very clearly dachshund.

Roman Bath

Roman Bath

Temple Pediment

Reconstruction over remains of altar

 

       Jane Austen bonnets

On Saturday, Bethany and her dad took me to Glatonbury and Stone Henge. To understand the significance to me of visiting Glastonbury, you need to know a bit about my interests in King Arthur. During high school, I read a series of book by Stephen Lawhead called the Pendragon Cycle. They are set in the dark ages of Arthurian Britain. Much of the story takes place in Glastonbury (the "Glass Isle") where the Fisher King (an Atlantean survivor and Merlin's grandfather) sets up a kingdom with his remnant from Atlantis. The later books are about Merlin and Arthur himself. These books led to a phase during my high school career when I was really interested in King Arthur and the history of the legend. This culminated in me doing a research oral (speech) on him for English class in Grade 11. Outside of the book series (which is rather imaginative in it's links with Atlantis), Glastonbury has long been associated with the history of King Arthur and of early Christianity in Britain.

The old Glastonbury Abbey (occupied between the 7th and 16th centuries) is associated by legend with the site to which Joseph of Arimathea supposedly came, bringing Christianity to Britain long before the first Roman missionaries arrived. In the grounds of the abbey, is a thorn tree that was said to have been planted by Joseph himself from his staff. The current tree is a descendant of the original. We happened to arrive at the tree while a tourist guide (in Saxon dress) was explaining to his tour group about it. He said one of the interesting things about the tree is that genetic tests have shown it is not of the local thorn variety but more closely related to the type found in Palestine. It is possible that it was brought over during the Crusades to substantiate the legend associated with the place. Another interesting thing about the tree is that is is said to flower every Christmas and Easter. We were there on Easter Saturday and while it was not in full bloom, it was certainly flowering. Of course this is not unusual since it is spring. The tour guide claimed, however, that he has been there at Christmas time and that it does flower then.

Glastonbury Abbey Ruins

Lady Chapel (site of first church)

Glastonbury Abbey Ruins

Joseph's Thorn

In addition to the legends associated with Joseph of Arimathea, there is a site within the abbey where monks digging in the late 1100s claimed to have found a cross with an inscription declaring that this was the burial place of King Arthur. A coffin was also supposedly found with bones of a very tall man and a woman. Both have long since been lost and it is largely thought to have been a hoax (the abbey was in need of money), although it seems there was a real (forged) cross and coffin which have both been lost. The cross was lost in the 18th century but pictures of it remain.

The town of Glastonbury itself is quite strange. It seems to be a tourist centre for New Agers and every second shop is a fairy or crystal shop or the like. I imagine this has something to do with the legendary status of the town and possibly the connections of Merlin via King Arthur. So skirting the shops and town, we made our way to the abbey. The ruins of the abbey are quite substantial, the abbot's kitchen being the most complete section. After a picnic lunch in the grounds of the abbey (in a light rain shower that had kindly stayed off until then), we made our way to the Glastonbury Tor.

Ruins

King Arthur's grave

Abbot's kitchen

Picnic spot

Arthur's cross

The tor is quite spectacular, and a steep clime but well worth it. It has a good view of the Somerset plains. Historically, the plains would flood, making the tor an island. Even today, there are canals draining water away as part of the plains are below sea level. At the top of the tor, is a tower. This is the remains of the church of St Michael that was located on top of the Tor. The tor in it's island state has been associated with the legendary Avalon.

Glastonbury Tor

Sommerset Plains - view from Tor

At the top

St Michael's Church

After descending the tor, we left Glastonbury and made our way to Stone Henge. It is no longer possible to go right up to the stones but there is a marked of area and path surrounding them which make for good viewing. We were unable to get audio commentary devices as they had run out of English ones. At the time we thought that rather odd, but there were many American tourists who were clearly using the Easter weekend to make their visit. The stone circle seemed slightly smaller than I'd imagined but I think that was partly because of the distance we were from them. Interestingly, there is a kind of lichen growing on them, making them a lot greener than I would have thought. We saw two types of "wildlife" near the site. Crows, actually sitting on the stones, and sheep being herded nearby. The sheep are apparently a common site as the tourist shop was selling mugs with pictures of the stones and sheep among them. Apparently someone thought it would be funny to sell tourist paraphernalia with the motto "Stone Henge Rocks". It doesn't strike me as particularly appropriate, however.

That evening we had take-away chips. Bethany had the more usual fish with hers but I decided to try battered sausages, apparently a "thing" here. We also watched on DVD How to Train your Dragon, one of those films I've been wanting to see for a long time, but had never gotten around to.

On Easter Sunday we started out going to Bethany's church, an Elim Pentecostal. After that, we took a trip down to the coast and I got to see an English beach for real this time ;-) We went to a nice pebble cove known as Lulworth Cove, with chalk cliffs. The sun came out while we were there which was really nice. After that we walked across to Durdle Door. It was the second steep walk of the weekend but worth it again for the view. Durdle Door is a limestone rock formation carved out by the sea

Lulworth Cove

Lulworth Cove

Looking back on cove - walk to Door

Durdle Door

Bethany was working on Monday morning so I headed back to Oxford. I had to catch three trains. Unfortunately I had a 40 minute wait at one of the stations (with the trains running on bank holiday services) but it was nice and cosy inside the station. I managed to make all my connections and arrived back in Oxford around midday.

In all it was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. Great thanks to Bethany,  Simon and Abigail for putting me up for the weekend.

Bethany and Simon outside house

Ollie

At Lulworth

Eric the Red

Fond Farewell

Disclaimer: most historical, geographical and other facts are written from memory of things I've heard and read and may not be thoroughly accurate. Please don't quote me on them ;-)

Lancashire

Last weekend (23-25 March) I went up to Lancashire for Ben Sloman's (one of the guys I know from the Worcester Christian Union) 21st birthday party. I travelled up with a group of other Oxford CU members. We arrived in Barton, Lancashire just before the party started. It included a céilidh, (traditional Gaelic folk dancing which was lots of fun). We had someone instructing us on the sequence of steps before each dance so we knew what we were doing. As it went on we got familiar with some of the terminology: dosey doe (do si do), promenade etc. They were mainly progressive dances so you were switching partners a lot, which was fun. There was nice variety between them too. Some were in squares of four pairs, others in a circle. The one was in groups of three (in a kind of spoke formation). We did dancing both before and after supper, with a break halfway through each so, we had time to recover as it was quite exhausting. I was reminded how unfit I am :-P

Many of the Oxford people and a few of Ben's other friends stayed Friday and Saturday night (they had to use the church hall for the guys on Friday cause there were so many of us. On Saturday morning we took a short walk around Ben's neighbourhood village. We saw the remains of an old castle called Greenhalgh.

     

Building near Ben's House    

    

Greenhalgh Castle 

    

Walk through the village     

Village Centre  

 

In the afternoon we drove to Lancaster and did a scavenger hunt in two teams. This involved us walking around the town taking photos of landmarks and/or us doing silly things. My team won because we invented some of the things we couldn't find (e.g. one of the fun things was "on a boat" so we made a paper boat and stuck our fingers in it finger-puppet style, another was a "giant axe", so we made one out of a stick and paper and had a mock execution). We got to see a (still whole) castle and an old Roman bath house (which was really just an excavated ruin). 

 

Ashton Memorial 

 

Queen Vic Statue  

 

My team behind a market stall  

Roman Bath House  

Improvised Axe  

That evening we went to the coastal town of Morecambe and had fish and chips on the beach. It's the first time I've seen a British beach and I found it exceptionally weird. The tide was so far out we couldn't see it. The beach itself had a bit of shallow water which looked deeper than it was in the late afternoon light, but you could tell that it was shallow because it wasn't moving. Being used to Durban's beach it was really strange as our tides are never that differentiated. I didn't realise that the nearer you get to the poles the stronger the tides (although I found out afterwards that this beach has particularly high tide differences, even for this part of the world). We spent the evening playing a board game called Ticket to Ride which is a little bit like Risk but involves building train-lines between cities rather than conquering other countries.

Millennium Bridge, Lancaster

Morecambe Beach

Morecambe Beach

Ticket to Ride

Anyway, it was a good weekend and I feel more knowledgeable about the more northern parts of England. For the Easter weekend I'm travelling down south so  by the end of the holiday I should be well travelled :-P

Food, flowers and more food

Hillary term has come and gone. Everything happens so quickly here. I'm already into the second week of my six-week Easter Holiday. Before you start asking how they expect us to get any work done here, I should add that it's "officially" holidays, but that just means no lectures. I still have plenty of reading and other work to do.

So what has happened since my last post? Besides the continued work, I had a number of interesting nights out with my course-mates; now officially known as the "LingPals". On Friday 17 we went to a Thai Restaurant for Maryanna's birthday. After that we went to a Greek party at St Anthony's college.

This term we had an addition to the LingPals in the form of an Italian visiting student, Daniele. He is working on his PhD in Italy but came to Oxford for a term to learn about the form of syntax taught here, LFG.

As a visiting student, he didn't belong to a college so we all made sure he could see as much of our colleges as possible. I invited him to a Formal Hall dinner at Worcester in the last week, but this turned out trickier to organise than I imagined. We have to book a week in advance because Formal Hall only takes place four times a week and there is a limited number of places. 8th week only had three formals, excluding Sunday, and booking opened on Monday of 7th week. By the time I got onto my computer at 10.30 that morning, Wednesday was already sold out and Tuesday and Thursday filling rapidly. I was able to get us in on Tuesday by agreeing to be part of an "exchange" with Lincoln college. The catch was we had to eat at Lincoln on the Thursday of 7th week. In addition, one of the LingPals, Camille, invited us to a Guest Night at New College on the Friday of 7th week. As a result, I ended up going to 4 formal dinners in two weeks (one at Lincoln, one at New College and Two at Worcester - the second Worcester one I went to by myself, but that's another story).

Lincoln Formal Exchange

New College Guest Night

 LingPals at New College afterparty

Worcester Formal Exchange

The upside was that I didn't have to cook for about a week.

The weather has been starting to "warm up", by which I mean low double figures. Although the last couple days have even been hitting 16 and higher. It's also been sunny and so perceivably warmer. The daffodils started flowering at the beginning of March and I've seen a couple odd squirrels around. I'm excited to see what Worcester College is going to be like in Spring. It occurred to me that this will be my first Easter at spring time. In a way, this is actually more significant than my first winter Christmas, though I hadn't really thought about it much.

On the Sunday of 9th week the Worcester MCR (postgrads) had an Easter egg hunt. Once I'd gotten over the fact that the eggs were not Beacon marshmallow eggs (you can do a hunt without marshmallow eggs? O.o) it was great fun. I ended up joining "the German team" which consisted of two Germans, a Dutch girl, me and another guy. We had clues that we had to follow to figure out where the eggs were hidden. Although we were one of the last to set out, we were actually the first team back :-)

This Monday and Tuesday we had farewells for Daniele who's now back in Italy. He made us real Italian food on Monday night and we went to the LingPal's favourite pub, the Royal Oak, on Tuesday evening where I learnt that they serve lemonade in pints O.o. The food included yummy pizza made from scratch and pasta in the colours of the Italian flag :-)

Italian Flag Pasta

Master Chef at work

Pizza :-)

Pasta or pasta?

Well that's all I've got time for. I'm heading up to Lancashire today for a 21st birthday party and ceilidh. Thanks again for reading my updates and supporting me.

Christian Stuff, Chronic Fatigue, and Crystopher

Once again, I must apologise for the delay since my last post. The last couple weeks have been an odd mix of excitement and difficulty, highs and lows...this makes it a little tough to write about, but it's about time I make an effort to.

So, where to start...I've been attending a lot of really interesting lectures this term. One of my biggest difficulties though, is that I've been suffering from a kind of fatigue that makes me really sleepy in lectures, when I'm reading articles and doing translations. This means it's been quite frustrating too. But I'm trying to do the best I can to find the source of the fatigue. Everyone I speak to has a different theory; low sugar levels, low iron, low blood pressure, glandular fever, Vitamin D deficiency or just general winter blues etc. (Having said that I'd appreciate no further advice on the possible causes, but prayer that it can be sorted out soon). I'm working with the college nurse who has given me an iron supplement and I'm having a blood test on Friday.

I'm getting by, however, so it's not all bad. On the upside, I've had quite a busy term getting involved in various Christian events. At the end of January, I attended a conference run by Developing a Christian Mind (in Oxford) which is targeted at Christian postgraduates and academics with a focus on what it means to be a Christian in academics, and how our faith and work should interact. It was a great encouragement and it gave me to chance to meet Christian graduates from other fields of study, colleges and churches. I even met a few South Africans ;-)

Then in fourth week, the Oxford Christian Union put on their Tri-annual Mission Week, called "This is Jesus" (they have a mini-mission week in the two intervening years but every three years is a big one). Two well known guest speakers spoke at lunch times and in the evenings in the Oxford Town Hall. We had over 400 people attending the lunch talks and 600 in the evenings, mainly undergrads, although there was quite a mix in the evenings. The talks were good, open and honest and dealt with real questions people have about God and Christianity, targeted specifically at Oxford students.

Moving from the spiritual to the more trivial...I finally got to see my first snow fall ever!!!! :D It fell on 4 February. When it started at about 4 pm, I was shocked at how tiny the snowflakes were (really expected them to be bigger). I was too excited to work so I went to help one of our CU Reps, Claire, write notes on the Gospels of John we'd been given to give out to every undergrad in college leading up to Mission Week. By the time we were done, it was dark, but snowing heavily and the snow had started to settle. I had dinner in hall that night and was in complete awe of how the already beautiful college was transformed under a layer of white. It's almost like God looked at the beautiful architecture and said, "Impressive, but I think I can make it look even better."

The next day, I went all around college taking pictures. Unfortunately it was melting quite quickly, and when I finally took a walk around town, there wasn't much left to see of it. The college fields stayed snowy for longer though, so when I came back I was re-cheered by the sight. By the end of the day I'd taken something like 160 photos.

It snowed again the following Thursday night. I actually walked in it on the way to the Mission Week talk. Afterwards I went with some of my college friends to the ice cream shop across the road. So I can now officially say I have eaten ice cream in the snow.

The next day, Maryanna, who's studying linguistics with me, helped me build a snow man. We were going to make one in my garden, but again the snow was melting fast and there wasn't enough left. So we made his head in my garden and carried that over to the Worcester field to make the rest of him. We named him Crystopher Icicleston after one of the Doctor Who actors Christopher Eccleston.

Maryanna carrying Crystopher's head

Me and Crystopher

Maryanna and Crystoper

Crystopher with hair

Me eating icecream in snow

I guess that sums up my last couple weeks. As you can tell both exciting and challenging. I can't believe this term is almost over already.

Thanks again for your interest and prayers,

Sonja.