Blenheim Palace

I had my ideal morning today. I woke up about 7, which was difficult, but once I was awake I was very happy I did it. I went to an 8 o'clock Mass at a different church than last week; this time I went to one called Blackfriars. The church was smaller than the other one I went to, and very plainly decorated. There was something really nice about how simple it was, and the service was wonderful. The priest gave a really touching call to prayer for the people of Norway. Also, this time around I was aware of the wording differences, blending in with everyone else with relative ease.

I went from there over to the little park next to Christ Church Meadow I like so much, and read some of The Sicilian Vespers. I'm trying to knock it out before school starts back up. It's about the politics and history around the Mediterranean in the 13th and 14th centuries, so it's helping a lot with my Dante thesis at school. Not to mention it reads like a suspense/thriller novel, which is always welcome with history texts. I sat on the grass under a tree and read for about an hour and a half, and then headed back to Exeter to meet up with Blake.

We went out with two other people from the program, Daniella and Sean, and got paninis at a little sandwich shop for lunch. Once we had talked an eaten, Blake and I split up with our friends and caught a bus going to Blenheim Palace, the amazing birthplace and home of Winston Churchill.

When we pulled up to our stop, we saw 2 huge fields with hundreds of cars parked in each one. We found out later that there was a game exhibition going on today with events like hot-air balloon flying, dog shows, archery, fishing, and shooting ranges. Sir Winston would have loved it I'm sure, he was all about that kind of stuff. Blake and I walked past the cars pulling in to join the others and down the long road towards the palace. Even from a distance the place was overwhelming. It's a massive collection of buildings that rightly deserve to be called a palace, and the vast expansion of property they sit on is almost too much to take in during one visit. We got a ticket and went through the three, not one, but three huge and ornately decorated gates until getting to the main palace. 

The two of us took pictures of the statues in the courtyard and the front of the building as well as the tall victory statue off in the distance to the front of the palace. If you were to stand at that monument, facing towards the palace where we were, and walk in a straight line, you would first come to the front entrance of the palace, pass through out the back, continue walking straight and eventually end up in the small church at Bladon, where Churchill and his family are buried. The entire walk probably wouldn't take more than 45 minutes.

Blake and I went through the left side of the palace, which is set up as a museum to Churchill's life. I was able to read hand-written notes he wrote to his father as a school child while listening to them play snippets of his most famous speeches in each room. The notes made me kind of sad, he started off almost every one with "My dear Papa, I'm so happy you wrote to me," or "My dear Papa, I'm so happy to be writing to you, I know how busy you are so you don't have a lot of time to read my letters," or something like it. I learned in the Churchill lecture last week he had a very cold, distant father, but Churchill idolized him anyway.

I saw pictures of the man from all through his life, letters from the Queen and world leaders to him, many of his books and possessions, and even a few of those landscape paintings I mentioned when writing about the lecture Dr. Jackson gave. They were very impressive. One of the stranger sights in the tour was walking through the room he was born in. They had the bed there, and above the bed was framed "Winston's curls, cut from his head when he was 5 years old." That would have sort of grossed me out, being framed hair and all, but when I was in Florence I saw two of Galileo's fingers and some of his teeth that had been preserved, which makes hair from the late 19th century not as jaw-dropping. I'm building an impressive resume as a creepy secular relic hunter though, which has always been a sort of back up professional dream of mine.

We walked through the rest of that side of the palace, and each room was more impressive than the next. There were paintings of the family for generations back, as well as amazing tapestries, maps, letters and furniture in each room that was all very interesting. I walked through the gorgeous dining room, with the beautifully set table and ceiling with a cathedral-like painting on it. While in there, I read that the family only uses it to eat on Christmas. Probably because the rest of the year its filled with tourists, many of whom don't speak English and might not understand "Please stop touching my food sirs and madams! You most certainly do not live here and this microwave ravioli is not rightly under your jurisdiction! No! I live miles from any city, it took me an hour to drive to the nearest Target to grocery shop I'll have you know!" That's how I imagine the Duke of Marlborough speaks.

Blake and I went from the photo-less indoor area into the back garden (garden of the year in 2008, no big deal), and took in the scenery. There is a little cafe and ice cream shop in the front of the garden. The actually fountains and plants that make it up are all neatly trimmed and well taken care of, as you could probably guess. There are three levels of garden area to walk in, and they all overlook to one side a big field, where today they were flying hot air balloons, and to the front a lake and forested area. We walked through, took pictures, and stopped at the cafe for a quick soda. From there we walked the lake-side path through the woods. We came across "the Cascade," which is a little man-made waterfall, and looked out over the lake. Then we stopped to watch a woman who was training her dog for the contest. We went from there through the rose garden and then to the Temple of Diana, where Churchill proposed to his wife. 

Blake and I finished the walk back in the garden, and then walked out of the palace down to the victory monument before leaving. We wanted to see Bladon and his grave site, but the fair that day had blocked our path. We would have needed to take a bus if we wanted to go there, and we were both feeling that it was some serious nap-time, so we called it a successful end to the trip and got a bus back to Oxford. 

I went back to my room and took a much-needed nap. Then I got up and went down to dinner, went on a long, aimless walk to a part of Oxford I haven't explored yet, read and revised my essays one final time, and ended my day at The Royal Oak with a Guinness and more Sicilian Vespers reading. 

I'm really looking forward to my last week in Oxford, I can assure you I'll make it count. Here's to you, my loyal readers and friends, cheers. 

And Now For Something Completely Different

I will now attempt to do something no man has ever done before and lived to tell of. I am going to include two days of my English adventure in one blog post. Please pray for my stamina and courage to keep up during this ordeal.

Friday-Essay Completion
I went to lecture on Friday morning, which was called Sustainable Cities: Environment, Economy, Equity, and Emotion. It was given by Dr. David Howard, and he discussed the geo-social ramifications of building sustainable cities in the future. He is a Geographer, so his take was very interesting and insightful. I went from there to work on my papers some more, and after numerous revisions, running out of free-prints and refilling my balance, and one final go around with revisions, I finished, huzzah! It was very fulfilling, so I awarded myself with a nice walk. I went farther than I've walked since being here, and found Oxford Castle as well as some really pretty side streets. I ended up over by Christ Church Meadow again, and enjoyed the scenery as I wandered aimlessly for a while and listened to music. I ended the walk with a well deserved visit to Blackwells Poster Shop.

When I got back, I was able to skype with my friend Adam who is participating on the prestigious Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts. I went from there to dinner and then hung out with a bunch of people in our friend Anna's room. We all talked and had a good time, and then everyone went to a club. I walked with them, but didn't stay at the club. I was too tired from the walk and long day, so I went to bed early.

Saturday-Bath Time
Today I woke up very early and went to breakfast, where I met a large group of students I was traveling to Bath with. We loaded up on a bus for the trip, and had a nice ride (about an hour and a half) through beautiful English countryside. We arrived at the city of Bath, which is located in an very pretty, hilly area of the country.  I walked from the bus with a big group, and we first grabbed something quick to eat. I had my first pasty (for my American friends, its pronounced like past-ee, so I sounded dumb when I asked what one was). It is basically a croissant with vegetables and meat inside, and I had a chicken and vegetable one. It was delicious, I'll have to check the ones in Oxford out more often now.

Stewart, Anna, Kaitlin, Daniel and I went to the tourist center to buy a ticket for the Roman Baths, and we found out the price also included a visit to the Fashion Museum. We headed straight into the baths and began walking through the museum built around the ancient Roman ruins. The whole place was extremely impressive; they have very well preserved areas of the baths and Temple to Minerva that used to exist. The baths actually still look pretty good, though the water was not what I would call bath-worthy by my refined, American standards. It was more like something a pig would bath in...or an ogre, yeah it was totally ogre water.

We walked through and saw all the amazing preserved statues of gods and where the hot spring was first found by the Romans. I also saw the hot and cold bath areas, which reminded me of the bath house I went to when I visited Pompeii. It was surreal seeing and hearing (I had an audio guide) all the history there. We ended the tour of the baths in the Pump Room, a really fancy restaurant. We didn't eat there, however we did taste the spring water. They had a small fountain of the natural hot spring water and with our ticket we got a free taste. At first the woman asked "Do you want just a few to share in case you don't like it? Or do you want five separate ones?" We said something along the lines of "Five separate of course! We're brave enough to try this!" That was a mistake, because it tasted like if you boiled a glass of water with pennies in it. We all downed the water though, unable to risk the shame of returning them to the woman who doubted us from the start. Having successfully done that, we moved on.

The five of us walked through the Bath Abbey, which is a beautiful Gothic church right in the center of town. The stained glass window and altar were both gorgeous. They had a massive pipe organ and ancient British flags across the aisles. When looking at the graves inside, I noticed one for William Bingham, a U.S. Senator. Bingham being the name of renown it is in Louisville, It caught my eye, though he was from Philadelphia. We went from the Abbey towards the Circus, which is a large circle of what I can only assume are very expensive apartments. The apartments are built so they have three different types of columns going up the sides of the walls, and the area of the town was very pretty and nice to walk through. We went from there to the Crescent, another world famous apartment complex, which costs you about 3 million pounds to buy. After Bellarmine I'll probably get it as a summer home.

We walked through the Fashion Museum, which had models and clothes from different centuries. One section had wedding gowns worn by royalty, inspired by the recent royal wedding. I got some photos for Stewart and Kaitlin (since they are in the Literature program) of them dancing in the Assembly Rooms, which are two ballrooms from the time of Jane Austen. We walked to a small cafe from there, and then it was about time to head back to the bus. We passed the Jane Austen Center on the way as well as street performers and people singing.

On the bus ride home, I saw some of the breathtaking views I missed early this morning while I napped on the ride from Oxford. I saw one of the most amazing scenes in my life when we went over a hill and had a view of the rolling country side, with farmland, forests, and sheep all across the hills. It was unbelievable. When we got back we had dinner together and all agreed heartily that Bath was a great trip.

Tonight I think I may go on a walk and read next to the river. Tomorrow Blake and I want to go to Blenheim Palace, where Winston Churchill was born and buried. G'night and thanks again so much for reading.

First Drafting

Today was a small victory, but it began in defeat.

I woke up weary and with my eyes still burning from the long night of staring at my computer screen, making marginal progress on my papers. I reached over to grab my phone and check what time it was, "9:05 is it? Hmm...I missed breakfast." I put the phone back down and thought for a moment before doing a deadly double take/fall out of bed combo upon remembering I had a 9 o'clock class. I expertly brushed my teeth in close to one second and then got dressed as I ran down the stairs, hoping against all odds that I hadn't forgotten any vital books, notebooks, or articles of clothing. I caught my breath in front of the classroom door, and sauntered in like it was no big deal. Unfortunately, the only seat left was at the head of the conference table, literally right next to the professor. Having only missed ten minutes of class, it wasn't really that big of a deal. It still was a defeat though, and I was able to rise from the ashes the rest of the day, like the majestic phoenix, soaring through the skies of oxonian academic success. I also spent about 2 hours on youtube.

The EU class was focused on lobbying in the euro zone, and it was really interesting. We broke up at one point into two groups as an exercise; mine was acting as a Chinese company that just bought the British car producer Rover, and the other part of the class was an eco-conscious group. We had to lobby against each other. I learned that the U.S. does one of the best jobs lobbying the EU actually, in part because they don't have to represent a member state government, while everyone else does.

The lecture of the day was simply titled Churchill. It was given by Professor Ashley Jackson, who did an awesome job detailing Churchill's early and young adult life, showing us how he developed into the man we all recognize. One one the many things I learned was Churchill, apart from being arguably the most recognizable statesman of his day, won a Nobel Prize for Literature and was a prolific landscape painter (he did these things before becoming famous, so he really earned them too, not just because he was Winston Churchill). The talk inspired me to try and one up Sir Winston in each facet of his success. At this rate, I will only need to live to be 240.

I went to lunch in the undercroft bar and then headed to class.  The British Politics course was also really interesting today; Dr. Buchanan continues to impress me with his deep knowledge of the rich history in this country.  We discussed England in the 1930's, the National Government (led by Ramsay MacDonald, the first Labour PM), and the abdication crisis. Fun fact: The King's Speech is a pretty accurate movie, but Churchill was portrayed incorrectly.  He was actually in favor of  Guy Pearce remaining King, which upset everyone because A.) They felt he should focus on more pressing maters like the failing world economy and rise of Hitler, and B.) No one had seen Memento yet.

After class, I headed back to my room to write some more. I went to a quick dinner in the dining hall, and then went straight back to write again. I stayed up rather late, but completed my first draft of both papers, huzzah! Hopefully tomorrow I can clean them up some more and be finished by this weekend.

Essays, Reading, and More Essays

I'm in the middle of essay madness right now. I'm about to pass out from all this researching and writing, so forgive me if any of this post is incoherent.  I'm almost finished with the British Politics essay, I know I'll have some final touches for tomorrow though. As for the EU paper, I am about halfway done with my first draft. I'm aiming to have them both finished by Friday, it's realistic, but with a long day of classes tomorrow it's gonna be hard work. I was expecting to work hard, being at Oxford and all, but I mean come on Professors, this is really tough.

Today's lecture was called Capitalism and Liberalism: Between Reconcilability and Responsibility. It was delivered by the German scholar and Oxford professor Christian Glossner, who gave one of the most interesting talks so far in my opinion. He gave a brief history of Neo-Liberalism, arguing with the popular belief that it started in the 1970's. He thinks, and convinced me pretty handily, that it started about 40-50 years earlier. He also gave a short lesson on Locke, Marx, Keyenes and Hayek, which was fascinating for an Political Science and Economics nerd like myself.

After that I ate lunch and headed to the Bodleian Library's Social Sciences wing and Law Library. I did a lot of journal browsing and headed back to write more in the room. Today was mainly eating and writing again, but I need to get these things done.

My main motivation right now is working pretty well too. I stopped by Blackwells on my way from the Law Library to see if they had some books I could use on the EU paper. While walking through the languages section, I noticed they had tons of French, German, English, Icelandic, Irish, and Spanish literature on one back wall. I was upset at the lack of Italian reading material, being the studente della bella lingua that I am, so I turned around upset and defeated only to find the Italian section was on a shelf right behind me. They have about two shelves devoted only to Dante and tons of dual-language books of short stories. I quickly left Blackwells and decided I would not go back until my essays are complete. Then I will treat myself to some readin', Italiano style.

Classes: Week Two

Today I resumed classes after a long weekend break, and getting up at 7 was about as difficult as I planned it was going to be. I did it though, and even made it to breakfast in the dining hall. I need to start going to that more often, the orange juice/tea and cereal combo is a good way to start the day.

I went to the European Union course at 9, and today we discussed the unification of Germany in 1990's affects on the Deutsche Mark. We also talked about the Celtic Tiger and how the Euro has been both a blessing and a curse. It's been good because without the Euro Ireland would have lost a lot of its investments to England (with nearly all of the businesses starting in Ireland from the U.S.). It is bad though because the Euro made them raise corporate taxes, which was the reason they grew so much in the first place. It was a really interesting class, and I am going to try and get started on my essay on Italy in the EU tomorrow.

After class I went to the lecture for the day, which was on the Arab Spring, and was given by Dr. Farhang Jahanpour. He was really cool, and was certainly qualified to talk about the issue. He was head correspondent for the BBC in the Middle East at one point. The talk focused a lot on what the U.S. can do (and stop doing) in the Middle East, as well as how the societies there can empower themselves.

I went to lunch with Blake from the lecture, and from there I headed to The Missing Bean coffee shop to get a chai tea latte before my next class started. In British Politics, we discussed the coalition government of the 1920's, the uncertainty of the country and the decline of Lloyd George politically. This was also the time Labour really developed as the third major party, eventually to steal the Liberal party's spot as one of the big two.

Classes were both really interesting today, and I headed back to my room to work on my British Politics paper some more. Unfortunately a large part of my paper dealt with Ireland pre-1900. With this being a class on 1900-1945, I decided not to press my luck and actually write about what the Professor wants me to. I got some good work done in correcting my paper, and then headed down to meet with Dr. Buchanan and some of the other students for 'Directors Drinks.' I went to one of these meetings (where students gather and are able to chat with the program director) last week but realized today that I was supposed to go to this one. Luckily I passed Dr.  Buchanan earlier in the day and asked if I could still come to this one, "The more the merrier." was his welcome response.

I went down from there to dinner, and then back to my room to finish up this essay once and for all. So far tonight I have also done laundry, talked with friends and family and my lovely girlfriend, and gone on a nice nighttime walk. On the stroll, I was passed by a big group of kids about my age who were less than sober and letting everyone on that side of the city know they were present. An older man passed me after they did and joked that you'd expect better in Oxford. I asked him if he thought Cambridge had these kinds of problems ad he said "I'm sure they do." Then he said "cheers" and  went on his way. I don't care how many times I hear people say that, it still sounds so cool.

Lazy Day in Oxford

If you are a bright person, you can guess that this was a lazy day for me. You figured that out from reading the title of this post, yes? (That's how people here talk, they say "yes?" instead of "didn't you?" or "right?"). Well good job, you should be at Oxford with me you smart, clever person.

Today I woke up right as breakfast was ending, which usually isn't that big of a deal. But my stomach was grumblin', so I headed to Cafe Nero in Blackwells, which I've decided is my favorite coffee place here. I got my usual morning snack of an almond croissant and a mocha and headed out on a walk. I went and looked at the official Oxford Store for a while, and found a sweater I want but can't afford. Message me if you want to wire me money. I haven't been to work in over two weeks now. Not all these posts can be free.

The lecture for today was called "The Social Dimensions of Climate Change," and was given by Dr. Emmeline Skinner, a specialist in International Development. She wasn't interested in debating whether or not climate change was real, she wanted to discuss the implications it had on impoverished people. An interesting thesis she is researching and writing an article on is how it affects genders differently. Women are often the ones most affected because they have to work with the water supplies in developing countries, and are often the ones left behind when climate change forces immigration.

Obviously in a good mood after the lecture, I went to lunch feeling good about sitting in an elaborate dining hall after seeing pictures of impoverished people. Joking aside, it really was a good lecture, and it was interesting to have a new perspective on the issue. I headed from lunch with Joanna and Blake to try and resolve an issue we are having with our flight scheduling. We booked a flight for the 31st to leave from London but we need to leave Exeter on the morning of the 30th. So we have an extra day to try and find something to do, and we may have to book a hostel in Oxford or London that night if we don't want to sleep in the airport. A hostel is sounding good because when we land in Newark we have to spend the night in that airport. Jolly good planning on our parts!

I worked some more on my paper and successfully have a draft done of it. As soon as the final touches are put on this I can get started on my European Union paper, which I want to have done by the end of the week. If I can do that, as well as plan my brief presentation for the British Politics course, I will have my final week in Oxford with no homework, and oh what a glory that would be. I think I can safely say that I have never had a more appealing reason to get a massive research paper done in such a short time.

I met my friends at dinner and then headed to the undercroft bar to celebrate Joanna's birthday with everyone. We all sang to her and presented her with a chocolate muffin someone had kept from lunch and put candles in. We all got drinks and Blake and I played pool for a while. It was a successful lazy day. Tomorrow I have another long day of classes. Two of my good friends from high school will be in town as well, so if they are still around when I'm finished I can hopefully see them. Maybe they know a thing or two about the Eurozone they'd be willing to share with me.

World Cup

Early on, I was worried today was going to turn out like yesterday. I was determined not to remain a sedentary Oxonian all weekend though. I got up early and began working on my paper again, with minimal progress at first. I went out to a pub called "The Grapes" for lunch and had a beef pie with mashed potatoes and peas, which was a little pricey, but delicious. After the massive lunch I walked back and worked some more on my paper.

Around 2 o'clock I decided I wanted to go on a walk. I headed out towards where I went punting, and took a little side road called Rose Lane, which was beautiful and scenic. It took me past a little cottage onto a road that followed along with the creek the punters used. To my right I saw Merton Field, outside Merton College, and the awesome Christ Church Meadow. I walked past people in boats and families walking together, it was really nice. I am going to have to remember this general area for the next couple of weeks when I get more free reading time. 

I took pictures and went down a windy street with really neat old buildings on my way home. When I got back to Exeter, I worked some more on my paper and took a brief nap. After finishing a very rough first draft of my Irish Home Rule paper (I mean, this thing is an abomination of academic attempt at the moment) I headed down to dinner in the rain to meet my friends (that's what I'm going to start calling all the other students here). We had a nice dinner, though there was some tension because Joanna and I thought Blake wasn't coming after he didn't show up for the first fifteen minutes, so Joanna took his bread roll. Blake eventually came down, and I think it will take him a while to get over that. He was very hurt and upset that he had no bread with dinner, I think I'm going to take him to get ice cream tomorrow to cheer him up.

We walked with a big group to various pubs after dinner trying to find a place where we could watch the women's World Cup game between good ole America and Japan. After a few failed attempts, we found one that switched the channel for us. Our group took up the whole pub, and we really got into the game. It was the first time I had really invested any interest in a soccer match, so I was pretty upset when Japan beat us. Either way, it was a great game and we all had fun. Bryan and I don't know if we can face the U.S. again though after such a loss, so we may get an apartment in Oxford and move our families over here with us.

Now I'm back in my room again and am going to do a little reading before bed. Tomorrow it's back to lectures and school, and I want to start some research for my European Union paper. Ciao for now.