One of my friends at Teddy Hall interviewed me for a podcast she produced about how the Icelandic volcano affected the Oxford University community. You can listen to me and others talk about how the volcano affected spring break travel plans, and what that means about technology and our world.
Trinity is the name for Oxford's third and final term of their academic year. Matriculating Oxford students often don't have tutorials during Trinity Term. Theoretically, they should be spending the rest of the time studying for the exams, called "collections," that come in the second half of the term. (But we all know how creative students are at procrastinating studying... even Oxford students!)
Since I'm a visiting student, I don't sit for exams. I take two tutorial subjects, just like last term. The subjects I'm studying are:
18th Century British History - This tutorial is the perfect history course to take while studying in the UK, because the 18th century was the period when the modern British state took shape. It also saw the emergence of the modern form of Parliamentary government, the rise of the British Empire, and the "American War." (That's what scholars of British history call the American Revolution!) Strangely enough, my tutor for this subject is an American. He got his doctorate here a year or two ago and now is a tutor here. In my time at Oxford, I was taught British history my an American and American history by Brits... go figure!
Atlantic World History - This tutorial takes a trans-atlantic perspective to studying the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Instead of just looking at the history of one country, when I study Puritanism, the slave trade, and revolutions from this period, I'll be studying how these phenomena affected the Americas, Europe, and Africa. This tutorial only meets bi-weekly, but I'm really excited about it. I'm working with one of my tutors from last term again in this subject.
This term, my goal is to spend a little bit less time in libraries and a little more time sight-seeing! I've only got about six and a half weeks left at Oxford, so I'm making sure to take advantage of the rest of my time here. My friends and I are planning several day-trips for the upcoming weekends and really trying to see all that we can in what time we have left. It may not have all the excitement of D.C., but I'm going to miss Oxford!
Happy May Day! May Day is a very important holiday here in Oxford, and the town has its own unique ways to celebrate it.
Festivities begin at 6am on May 1, when the choristers from Magdalen College sing "Hymnus Eucharisticus" and "Now is the Month of Maying." Lots of students and Oxfordians come to High Street, just below Magdalen Tower, to listen.
The crowd on High Street, approx. 5:50am BST
A portion of "Hymnus Eucharisticus":
Where the choristers sang.
The past few years, however, some Oxfordians have adopted the peculiar habit of jumping off Magdalen Bridge into the River Isis to celebrate May Day. As an attempt to stop this, the police closed off the bridge from 4:30-7:30am to pedestrians, but judging by the number of people that I saw who were soaking wet their efforts were in vain.
High Street closed for the festivities.
Because most of my friends and I live on the opposite side of Magdalen Bridge, we had to cross the bridge before it closed if we wanted to see the events. Unless you take a very long detour, crossing the bridge is the only way to get into the city center from where we live. So, our May Day started very early -- at about 4 am! (That's 11pm EST, East Coast readers!)
A pub open at 7am.
After the singing had ended, we walked around some of the streets of Oxford to watch the different groups of Morris Dancers. Morris Dancing is a form of English folk dancing. You can see some pictures and videos below:
An Irish band.
Some friends of mine joined in the dancing.
Morris Dancers.
Another group of Morris Dancers.
A third group - all of these groups of dancers were very near to each other. All we had to do was simply turn a street corner and another group was performing.
Then after watching the dancing, we headed over to Wesley Memorial Methodist Church because they were serving a traditional English Breakfast (eggs, baked beans, bacon, tomatoes, tea) for free! It was good to know that even across the pond Methodists still like to feed people -- just like the Methodists I know in the states!
As you know by now, in the wake of the volcanic eruption I had to find an alternative way to get back to Oxford. Well, I made it back yesterday morning, and now that I have the comforts of using my own laptop again, I made a google map to show you what my trip looked like. You can see how a trip that was supposed to visit two countries and three cities over ten days turned into one that saw five countries over a period of almost two weeks!
You can see view the map here. By clicking that link you, too, can experience the chaos and confusion that can be known only as Kurt's European Odyssey!
My bed on the sleeper car from Rome to Milan.
Some views of the Swiss Alps on the way to Geneva.
Check-in at Eurolines, the international bus company that shuttles people from Paris to London and back.
The bus - it was a double decker one and every seat was full!
My apologies for the poor quality, but that is what the ferry I took looked like. The buses park on one deck, the passengers get off and spend the ferry ride on another.
The view from the top deck of the ferry. Those lights are the coast of Calais, France.
Wow.
I never thought I would ever write that sentence, but in essence, that's the truth.
My flight from Rome to London was cancelled because of the volcanic ash over Europe. I still can't believe it... the situation is too absurd to be true. I'm not mad about it - when I think about it, it makes me laugh - but it does throw a rather large wrench into the conclusion of my Euro trip!
Instead of flying back, I'm taking the train. That's right, travelling from Rome to London by train. I leave Rome in about 2 hours and get to Milan, Italy at 7am in the morning over here. From there, I take another train to Geneva, Switzwerland and another to Paris, getting into Paris around 4pm European time on Wednesday. That's three trains crossing three countries in over 20 hours - this will be quite the capstone to my Euro trip!
Then I'm stuck in Paris until Saturday, because that was the earliest day I could get to London. Yes, it is stuck in Paris... Don't give me any of that mock sympathy saying how much you'd love to be "stuck" in Paris. Though, I am glad I get to visit Paris again. Earlier this semester I was lamenting about how I wasn't able to make it to Paris over spring break.... funny how things work out!
My tutors at Oxford have been extremely flexible about this whole fiasco, which is wonderful. Had I been able to fly, I would have gotten back in just in time for 0th week (the week where we meet with tutors and arrange times for tutorials over the term) but now I get in just in time for the beginning of 1st week, the actual term.
I'll make it home in time for term... it's just going to cost me a small fortune to do it!
