A ride through the English countryside



On Saturday, a group of us set out to explore the English countryside on our bikes. The route that was supposed to be 15 miles turned out being about 20 after some unscheduled detours. Cycling through the country was a great way to experience rural England. As we went down the narrow country roads with rolling hills, we saw many aspects of the countryside such as stone walls dividing different fields, small one street villages with houses built of brick and stone, and of course, plenty of sheep.

This is a typical view of the English Countryside. Oxford is far in the distance to the left.

One of the highlights of the trip was Jarn Mound, which has an interesting history. The mound was built by Sir Arthur Evans so that people visiting the countryside could get a better view of Oxford. He also purchased the land around the mound to prevent it from being developed. The ironic thing is that the land around the mound is now so overgrown that you can not get a clear view of Oxford.

A few of the many sheep that we saw along the way.

Aside from my trip to the country, this week has been for the most part uneventful. I spend most weekdays researching and writing essays for my tutorials. I had two tutorials this week, which meant twice the workload of a normal week. This week should not be as strenuous because I only have one tutorial.

Cheers.

Its hard to believe that I have been here for over two weeks. Time has been flying by and I am in the full swing of things in regards to academics. I spend most days researching for my weekly topics about the gospels and about Judaism in the time of Christ. I probably spent about 8 hours reading today and I still have more to go. I have one or two essays due each week and I need to have enough knowledge about each topic to be able to defend the position that I take to my tutor, who has a doctorate in their field.

But don’t worry, its not all academics here. There are times when I do manage to slip away from the library for some fun. For fun on the weekends we sometimes check out different pubs around Oxford. The pub scene is pretty big here and all the locals have a pub they call their own. Pubs are a good place to hang out with a group of friends or to meet locals and each one has its own unique characteristics that distinguish it from others. I usually go to a place called the Radcliffe Arms, which has American Football on during the playoffs. (Go Bears!!!)

Oxford also has plenty of museums, all of which are free. I went to the Oxford museum of Natural History last weekend and it was incredible. The University has been collecting different things from all over the world for quite some time and have compiled an astounding collection with millions of items. On display, they have several life size dinosaur skeletons and actual skeletons from animals like deer, elephants, giraffes, ostriches, and even people. (About 250 years ago, , those who received the death penalty had their bodies donated to the University science and afterwards and the skeletons were used for teaching.)
The museum has another room which is almost indescribable. I spent about and hour walking through a room filled to the top with many display cases each filled with random anthropological objects from around the world. Rather than put just a small amount of their vast collection on display they have put so many items out that it is almost impossible to look at all of them. Among the highlight of the collection, there is case filled with shrunken heads, an antique gun collection, model boats from around the world, a mummy, clothes from around the world, different writing utensils from different periods in history, and hundreds of other objects that are too numerous to mention.

Cheers. (That’s the British way of saying, “Have a good one!”)

Running in Oxford

Today I had my first experience running with the Oxford Cross-country team. Back in the states, cross-country is a fall sport, but here they run it year round. I arrived a bit early at the meeting place and wasn't exactly sure what to expect or if anyone was even going to show up. I was the second person to arrive and I wasn't even sure if I was in the right place. In just a few minutes runners began to trickle in and before I knew it there were about 25 people there.
When the time came to go, we just took off running. I did not really know how far or for how many minutes we were going to run. There was no coach and no meeting like I am used to back home. As we started going, I kind of just went along with the flow of runners and I got to talking to a grad student who was from Chicago who was running next to me. (It is kind of funny how many people from Illinois I am meeting here.) The group maintained a pretty good pace for the most part, stopping at different places to wait for those who couldn't keep up. This experience was very different than practice back at home.
After the run was over, I was invited to come back Tuesday for a repeats workout. I am looking forward to running with a new crowd of people for a while.
There is a rich history of running here at Oxford. The cross-country program is about 125 years old. The track here at Iffley Road holds the distinction of being the place where Roger Bannister (Now Sir Roger Bannister) became the first person to break four minutes in the mile back in 1954. There was fierce competition to be the first person in the world to accomplish this feat, and after many attempts, it was finally done here at Oxford. Bannister became a national hero overnight for the feat and over 3000 people watched him break the mark. No matter how many times the current mile record is broken (it is now 3:43), Bannister will aways be remembered as the first to break four minutes. It is humbling to be running at a place with so much prestige.

Today I finally had the chance to wander around Oxford and take pictures. Here are just a few of the ones that I think you might find interesting. The first few are from Oxford while the rest are from Hampton Court Palace, where many prominent people in Britain's history have resided in the past 500 years.

This is "The Vines", which is about 120 years old and currently houses about 45 Scholars Semester in Oxford students, including myself, from many different Christian Colleges all over America.



This is Wycliffe Hall, my college. Oxford has around 32 different colleges and together they make up Oxford University. Wycliffe hall has a great theology Library so I will probably spend a lot of time here over the next few months doing research for my papers.

I believe this is St. Giles' church. It is interesting to see this church and its graveyard right in the middle of the city center in one of the busiest areas of Oxford. There are tall buildings and shops all around the church and the fence around the graveyard has become a popular place for people to lock their bikes up.

This is Christ Church College. It is a spectacular building inside and out and the dining hall is said to be the inspiration for the dining hall in the Harry Potter series.

This is Hampton Court Palace which is in London, about one hour from Oxford. This is just a small section of the palace which I spent about five hours exploring without seeing the same room twice. Many of England's royalty, nobility and Statesmen have lives in the palace in its history, most notably Henry VIII, who is famous for having 6 different wives in his lifetime and starting his own church apart from the Catholic Church in order to divorce the 5th one.

An eastern view of the palace from the Fountain Gardens.

A view of the now empty moat and the first of two gates one must go through to enter the main courtyards of the palace.

Tutorials
It has been a pretty busy week so far. I finally have a clearer picture of what I am going to be doing in the next couple of months. I am taking two tutorials for the next 8 weeks and aside from working on a seminar paper about a topic that I have yet to choose. Oxford has a completely different system of teaching than in America and it seems like it suits my needs better than back at home.
In the tutorial system, the focus is more about developing a discussion between the tutor and the student. Rather than lecture to a lot of students at the same time and holding the student accountable for what they are supposed to have learned through tests, my tutor and I will meet and discuss different topics that he assigns me to research. My tutor will give me a topic or question to develop a thesis about. I will spend the week researching the topic and writing a paper about it. Some tutors assign books to read while others allow the student to find their own books. Once a week, I will meet with my tutor and read the essay to him. Afterwards, we will discuss what I wrote and he will essentially pick apart everything that I wrote and question it. The point is not so much to write a good essay as it is to be able to thoroughly defend the position I am taking.
Every student does two tutorials at a time, a primary one, which meets once a week for 8 weeks and a secondary tutorial which meets every other week for 8 weeks. My primary tutorial is called Jesus and the Gospels and my secondary tutorial is Judiasm:100 B.C.-100 A.D.
All this being said, it seems that I am going to be pushed academically more so than I ever have been before.
Besides academics, I am also enjoying the city of Oxford itself. There are many features to this city and it is full of surprises. It is also a very pedestrian friendly city and I have no trouble riding through the city center on my bike. All of the buildings are made of brick or stone and are usually between 100 and 400 years old. The architecture is simply stunning and there are buildings from many different periods in Britain's history. As soon as I get the chance to take some good pictures of the prominent ones, I will post them here.
Blessings.

Hello all,
I am finally here.
Oxford is a beautiful place with many interesting people and lots of wonderful architecture.
Unfortunately, the only I have really done since getting here is sleep.
Thats what you get when you mix jetleg and not sleeping so much in the past 48 hours.
After Harold and Erica's wedding, Theresa and I drove through the night for about 6 hours to Winfield where I got some things I needed to bring and then it was off to O'hare.
My plane got to New York at about 2:30 (NY time) and after some delays I took off at about 11. I met some interesting people in the New York Airport including some that had already traveled here and gave me some great advice about England. Its amazing how friendly people can be when they have nothing to do but wait for their plane.
We landed in London at about 9:30 (UK time) and hopped on a bus to Oxford.
This is a wonderful city that I have yet to see much of thanks to my excessive sleepiness.
This week promises to be a busy one with all of our orientation activities.
I feel very blessed to be here and am looking forward to my experiences here.

Peace.