Paddington Brow

Week Two!

2009-09-27T21:00:00.018+01:00

Well, this week was a whole bunch of days off! Obviously, a number of adventures ensued.

First of all, four of us took a little excursion into London on the weekend. There were some things that I had a hard time interpreting.

What I DID understand was that riding in the front seat of the top floor of a double-decker bus is more or less the best thing ever.

After wandering about and doing some wholly unnecessary shopping (please understand that this "wandering and shopping" represents several hours), we had a lovely dinner on the water before heading home.

A great number of the weekdays were unscheduled, so I didn't take many pictures then. But do not let this lead you to believe that these days were wasted! No no, dear readers, we simply filled our time with exploring the town, finding a hidden street market, trying new sandwich shops, having a tasty Thai dinner, meeting and greeting another American program, visiting some of the 60 principle pubs of Oxford, and doing the eensy weensiest amount of actual work.

Wednesday was my only day of class this week, wherein I met my History of Architecture professor and found out NOT ONLY that he is totally chill and is planning a very laid back curriculum, NOT ONLY that he has an awesome Scottish accent, NOT ONLY that the class has but 2 big projects, BUT ALSO that one of those projects is DESIGN, NOT ESSAY! We're ALSO using pretty advanced 3D modelling and video software to model our designs! This software is ALSO used in movie production! He ALSO suggested that I audit a lecture section on today's most advanced animation software that ALSO happens not to conflict with any of my tutorials! Needless to say, this was a pretty good day for me.

Thursday was our big excursion day. At 8:30 sharp we boarded the bus and headed off to Old Sarum, which is pretty much a pile of ruins. Ruins atop a very beautiful green expanse, ruins that tell a story of yestermillenium, yes, but pretty much just a pile of ruins.

(Might I add that the new panoramas that you see in this post are of a much higher grade, because I have upgraded to PanoLab Pro, which, as you can see, is much higher quality, and which, as I can tell you, is only very slightly less free than the original.)

After Old Sarum, we rolled down the hill to Salisbury, where we saw swans on the River Avon as we walked in....

and the Salisbury Cathedral as the main attraction!

By the way, this is a clock in the cathedral, which is supposed to be the oldest working clock in existence!

Before boarding the bus again, we grabbed some lunch at a nearby pub (what was essentially a hot version of a ploughman's lunch and cheesy chips with salt and vinegar mmmm!). Pub food may be unhealthy, but it is the most delicious combination of fats and starches that you will ever let settle, heavy and warm, into your midday stomach.

Next up was Stonehenge! It was about as amazing as you'd expect, though I admit that the paved walking path that circled the thing sort of took away from the splendor. (You can't actually go up to the structure, you just have to follow this path that goes around several meters' distance from it.) Pictures!

Our last stop was Avebury, which has its own henge, but was largely uninteresting after seeing THE henge. I did enjoy the sweeping green fields and the sheep that graze all around the henge rocks, though! (Apparently the government owns the land and uses it for grazing land as well as a tourist attraction, so you wander around looking at the rocks and there are sheep everywhere! No fences!)

Here is the wide view (notice the large stones).

And a flattering close-up.

And that was the week! Today was the beginning of Maths Week, which is where the math-related freshmen come a week early for review before starting the term. (Oh, to be around my people again; it was wonderful.) And tomorrow, I have my first real History of Architecture class! Term starts soon, which means next update (or the one after that) will include Freshers' Week (a series of informational fairs and HUGE school-sponsored parties for the freshmen), moving into our homestays, and my first Graph Theory class. So stay tuned!

P.S.

2009-09-19T15:33:00.002+01:00

Have to thank the big brother for Panolab, which is perfect for the enormous Oxford vistas!

Week One!

2009-09-19T11:55:00.018+01:00

So! I've been in Oxford for about a week now and TONS OF EXCELLENT THINGS have happened! So I shall break it down by the day for you.

SUNDAY

The plane touched down at 6:30AM in London. I was relatively happy because I had finally managed to sleep in the last two hours of the flight and they had given us coffee and delicious banana bread for breakfast. We were funneled through a number of empty-ish halls until we reached immigration, where I was swept through pretty quickly with only minor hassle from the immigration guy. In baggage claim, I found Grace patiently waiting for me, and we grabbed my bags (though it took a while to locate one of them, which had been floating around the room with a confused baggage handler for a while, apparently) and headed out to the bus station. And were off to Oxford!

... where we proceeded to get a little lost on High St. before finding the entrance to Univ, which, as it happens, is in the form of big foreboding wooden doors. The porter kindly showed us to our incredible rooms. I mean INCREDIBLE. I have a sitting room. With an electric tea kettle!

Seriously.

There's also a cute lil bedroom with a sink!

The rest of the day was spent unpacking, waiting for the others to arrive, and exploring the town (and finding out how expensive everything is here). Michaelmas term doesn't start for a few weeks, so it was pretty quiet out there. Having forced myself to stay awake all day, I finally succumbed to the sleepiness and slept like a rock, and that was the first day at Oxford!

MONDAY

Orientation! We met our program director, Brian Loughman, who is the sweetest old man you'll ever meet, and speaks very slowly, and has an endless number of stories to tell us about all the cool stuff that's ever happened at Oxford. He's pretty excellent. After he FINALLY gave us our internet passwords and other info, we got a little break before having our official Pomona Welcome Dinner, definitely one of the best meals I've ever eaten.

They had a tasty vegetarian dish of stacked grilled eggplant, tomatoes, and zucchini on a bed of beans and veggies, instead of the lamb, and the veggie starter just didn't have the ham on it. You would not believe how amazingly well the brie and pistachios and figs work together. (Sigh!) Delicious.

And then another night off! We visited the Univ Pub, which is adorable, and should be a lot of fun once it's full of students, then went on a night adventure past the Radcliffe Camera, which is a little alarming at night, but beautiful. Once we get our Bodleian cards, we can actually go in there!

TUESDAY

Bright and early we visited the Univ Library and learned how to search the system (and also about the Bodleian Library, which has every book ever published in England!). Then we had out very first Modern British Politics class with Leslie Mitchell, who is without a doubt the coolest person in the entire world ever. Not only does he have an incredibly extensive knowledge of both British and American politics, he can do the accent of each region of England plus Northern Ireland and Scotland, and he is 0% politically correct. It's great. In the evening we had a drinks party and met some of the tutors for our courses, which was fun, but a little sad because my Graph Theory tutor is in the US and couldn't come. Ah well.

WEDNESDAY

Not much happened class-wise — another great Modern British Politics class, and an intro to some architectural features of Oxford for Friday's tour — so I will tell you about sandwiches instead! Oxford has a thousand FANTASTIC sandwich places. The first place we tried this week was Pret A Manger, where I got a simple and delicious brie and basil baguette mmm! The competing sandwich superstar we discovered on Wednesday, which was Cafe Creme; they make a mean falafel and hummus wrap and a cheese/pesto/roasted tomato panini which looks amazing, but which I have yet to try. Point is, these are complete lunches for about £2.80! Yesssssss.

THURSDAY

Bath! We spent the whole day in Bath, looking at architecture, eating yummy brick oven pizza, and visiting the Roman Baths (and for me, feeling like I was in a Jane Austen book). I got to taste some spring water from the pump room (where they were having a beautiful High Tea) and it was predictably warm and sulphur-flavored (but so good for you, right?). We also learned about their natural spa, which offers a 2 hour spa visit for £22. Definitely going back for that. I'll let the pictures say the rest.

The Royal Crescent: huge!

A magnificent ballroom. Wish I knew contra dance.

Another meeting room! So pretty.

The main Roman bath.

And I almost forgot! When we got back from bath, we all had dinner, and then headed out to The Eagle and Child , the pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien used to hang out. Pretty nerdy, but also extremely awesome.

FRIDAY

Today we toured Oxford for a look at the architecture of the different colleges. We went to Christ Church, but the Hall, where the Harry Potter Great Hall shots were filmed, was closed. I have to go back another day, because I am NOT leaving Oxford without seeing it. Again, the pictures tell the story best.

Christ Church entry hall.

Christ Church Chapel stained class (huge and beautiful).

Christ Church quad (huge and beautiful as well, kind of a theme here).

A natural history museum that we visited to see the (literal) glass ceiling.

Me getting eaten by a dinosaur, of course.

Well, that's about it so far. I'm probably heading to London on Sunday, so hopefully I'll get some good pictures then. I'm going to post on this thing at least once a week, so stay tuned for more adventures of Paddington Brow!

Look! Look at me!

2009-09-12T05:43:00.000+01:00

A travel blog! Novel idea!

It's midnight and I'm off to Oxford tomorrow morning. The don't-forget-anything nerves are jangling, as usual, and the eyes are stinging a bit in anticipation for the insufficient nap ahead, but it's finally time for Elaine's Big Adventure, and I think that's a good thing. More updates once I've deboarded the Hogwarts Express, I promise.