The last few weeks in Oxford have led me to a somewhat unbelievable conclusion: spring is springing here! I can't say it's sprung already, because we've still had a smattering of days where my breath visibly precedes me as I ride my bike to class, but overall the weather has gotten noticeably sunnier and warmer, and daffodils, crocuses, and cherry trees are all starting to bloom and break up the pervasive grey that defined all of the winter months.
With the better weather have come many visitors and more opportunities for outside activities (along with a generally more positive outlook on life in general). First, I was finally able to climb Magdelan Tower, which is basically a rite of passage here. I never understood why it was such an accomplishment until I saw the hundreds of narrow and steep tightly spiraled stairs in the dark tube up the tower. Being both somewhat afraid of heights and a tad claustrophobic, I considered myself pretty darn lucky to have made it to the top! Once there, however, we were treated to beautiful views of all of Oxford that made the climb completely worth it, including a panorama of the High Street leading up to the City Centre:
Due to the Tower's prestige among students, none of us could turn down the priceless photo opportunity, so we shamelessly snapped pictures like tourists on their first day in the UK:
(the others pictured are 2nd and 3rd year Rhodies, and one visitor in town from China). After the tower, we strolled through Magdelan's famous deer park, including a section called Addison's Walk, which is quite famous. You see, there was a long period when both J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis were fellows at Colleges here (Merton and Magdelan, respectively), and they became very good friends. Lewis was a noted atheist, and Tolkein was a devout Christian, and they used to spend a lot of time walking along this particular path and talking about their beliefs. It was during his time at Oxford that C.S. Lewis became a Christian, and as some of y'all may know, he later on became one of the most influential Christian writers of modern times. As such, we came across a memorial stone that's been put up to the memory of the two great men, and inscribed with a Lewis poem that seemed to me when I read it to have been written just particularly for this time of year:
Needless to say, it was a pretty cool day to be had in terms of Oxford experiences. The next day, I had a friend of mine from high school who is living in Germany into town, meaning that yet another day of possible academic productivity was sacrificed (not so reluctantly, to be honest) to touring around Oxford in the beautiful weather. I took Tommy to see Christ Church, the college where much of the Harry Potter movies were filmed, the Ashmolean (an amazing museum in town run solely off donated and loaned relics), lunch at The Eagle & Child (a pub famous for its literary guests, Lewis and Tolkein among them), and then in the afternoon we climbed yet another tower. This time, it was that of St. Mary's Church, which is right in the middle of the city centre, and actually overlooks my college, Brasenose. Here's one of the most famous views of Oxford, which you will probably recognize from just about every Oxford publication.
After he left to head back into London, I had to scootch on home to quickly get ready before a Guest Dinner at St. John's with Joe. Guest Dinners are black tie formal four course affairs, and we all love them as an excuse to get dressed up and eat an amazing meal (with lots of free wine!) with friends. This one was particularly special, as several Rhodies had their significant others in town from the States. We took the opportunity of being all dressed up for the girls to take some pretty pictures:
After the meal and post drinks, we were all so exhausted that there was really no option but to head home and sleep. Saturday was a study day (as penance for the fun of visitors in town), but we did get to have a full Southern meal together. I think I've written previously about the NOMs cooking group that we do all together, and since one of the other Southerners had her boyfriend in town from North Carolina, we decided to throw a full on artery-clogging feast in his honor. There was pulled pork, macaroni and cheese, cornbread, coleslaw, and pecan pie, and it was undoubtedly a success.
The next day, four couples (Joe and me, and then three other Rhodies whose partners were in town) organized a trip to head to Bath, a city in the UK famous for its history and spas...incidentally, two of my favorite things! When we woke up and walked outside, we couldn't have been happier; it was the sunniest and warmest day we've had since probably the first week we arrived in the UK in October. Considering the high was 55 degrees, I got to have the liberating experience of ditching my heavy winter coat in exchange for a vest and long-sleeved shirt.
Although there's one switch, it's still only about an hour and a half train ride from Oxford to Bath, through a beautifully agricultural section of Britain. Once we made it to the city, we made a beeline for an ice cream shop, and ate our cones as we strolled toward the city centre.
I should probably give a quick preface to say that Bath is famous both as one of the premier sites of Roman ruins, due to the baths that were built there to take advantage of the natural mineral hot springs, and for a renaissance during Georgian time that led to amazing examples of architecture (and several mentions in famous Jane Austen novels). Therefore, our first stop was Bath Abbey, a huge and absolutely gorgeous neo-Gothic cathedral that marks the centre of town:
We'd planned for the next stop to be the Roman baths, but when we realized that they were rather small and cost 13 pounds to enter, we decided against it and moved on to the Circus, which is a famous "roundabout" surrounded by buildings made into a perfect circle. Joe and I had to take a cheesy couple picture, of course:
After that, we made our way back down to one of the beautiful parks along the river and joined the ranks of the people laying in the grass to bask in the sun. It was only about half an hour, but I swear it was as therapeutic as a week at the beach.
The last thing we'd planned for the day was to attend one of the new baths (in Bath, hence Bathception) that have been built to take advantage of the same mineral springs the Romans discovered thousands of years ago. Nowadays, these baths include saunas, steam rooms, and multiple levels, including a rooftop pool with gorgeous views of the city. We'd found a deal affordable on grad students' budgets that included dinner, so we spent a full three hours relaxing, eating, and exploring our way through the building. We even got a photo of the whole crew in the rooftop heated pool:
By the time we were finished, we were all so relaxed that we basically slithered back to the train station and took hard naps on the train back to Oxford. I don't think I've slept as well as I did that night in a long, long time!
This week has been mostly composed of catching up on the work that I'd neglected the past few days, but it was completely worth it for the experiences and amount of time spent in the sun. Today is actually the last day of our term, so we're starting on another six week break tomorrow.
I'll be spending the next week and a half trying to get all of my academic work in order so that I can head out on the 26th of March for an entire month of traveling. To give you a sneak peek of what's to come, I'll be heading to Madrid for a few days, spending a week in Morocco, twelve days in Italy, and then ten around Greece. Needless to say, I will soon have much more exotic news to report than my progress on my dissertation research, so stay tuned until then.
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