Touring the Bodleian

Guys... The oath I took at the Bodleian, in order to get my ID card and be able to look up books - that oath contained the word "therein." That made me really happy.

This also made me happy.


Yes. That's the Radcliffe Camera.

This is the Bodleian:


Oh, whoops, sorry. That's me IN the Bodleian. ME! In the BODLEIAN! WHOA!

They really did make us swear an oath, by the way. We can't check anything out of the library (it's probably a good call on their parts, since it would be hell trying to track down all the books - they own a copy of every book ever published in England since the 16th century), we can't bring in anything dangerous to the books (I got a kick out of the woman who administered the oath, defining "dangerous" as including sandwiches), and we can't light the library on fire. Oh, those crazy scholars with their candles at night! Secret arsonists, every one. Roger Ascham, your secret is revealed!

Maybe this is it:


Oh, right. That's me outside the Eagle and Child!!! (I'm making progress. One of these days I'll actually go in and order something.)

Okay, so I didn't get a good picture of the Bodleian. Liz fail. It's huge, though! It's multiple buildings! It's hard to get a picture of it unless you're in an airplane!

I did have Guinness tonight. That was interesting. I like it - Leffe blond is still my favorite beer, but I do like Guinness. And I'm coming to appreciate the coffee they serve here (with plenty of raw sugar and some milk).

We'll see how long it takes me to get drunk...

The lectures have begun!

We had our first lecture today at 11, and it was fantastic. Michael Dobson, who gave it, is a hoot and a half - I'm genuinely sorry that he won't be lecturing again. (I don't think we have ANY repeats, so I hope they're all as good as he was!)

His specialty is (joy of joys!) theater, and he cracked a couple jokes about how he wasn't sure why they had him giving the history-overview lecture. He was fantastic, of course. He's co-written this book on Elizabeth I and her image/mythology over the past four centuries that I really want to find:


His lecture covered the Tudors from VII to James. Most of it I did already know, but it was great to hear it told with the panache and humor that this guy is capable of!

And here's a brilliant story I'd never heard before. When Wolsey was still working on Henry's divorce from Katherine, he was also getting old and thinking very seriously about establishing his legacy. So (among other things, like pulling down abbeys and using the stone for building projects), he founded what is now Christ Church College at Oxford (and indeed used the stone from a nearby church). Of course, HE called it Cardinal College ("to stand as a symbol of Wolsey's humility," as Michael Dobson put it). Here's the portrait of him with the completed college on the left.



The problem, though, was that Wolsey died before the college was finished. Died, let me remind you, in part because of stress from handling a certain belligerent and horny king with an inflated sense of self-importance. So after Wolsey kicked the bucket, who do you think picked up the tab for the rest of his legacy college?

This guy.



And to add insult to injury, here's the head of the Hall at Christ Church, which was at that time the largest hall in the country. Someone is in pride of place at the center. And someone else - who conceived the whole thing - is shunted off to the side.


OH, THE IRONY!

Henry, of course, renamed it Christ Church College, thereby obliterating Wolsey's legacy, which was the whole point of the entire exercise. I was practically falling apart in the lecture. I can just imagine THAT meeting in the afterlife!

"Hey, Harry."

"Hey, Tom."

"So...thanks for finishing my college."

"No problem. Kind of fun, actually. Anne told me I had to get off my royal copulating arse and do something, anyway."

"Yeah...yeah. Much obliged. Thanks for STEALING MY GLORY ONCE AGAIN, YOU LAZY MANIPULATIVE PRICK!"

"...can't...breathe..."

I say! I'm at St. Anne's now! What ho?

Before you ask, St. Anne's is not one of the ancient, classic colleges with the absolutely glorious medieval architecture. It's actually rather modern. I'm okay with that. For one thing, it's not like I have any shortage of glorious medieval architecture - I can just GO DOWN THE STREET! And for another thing, my room seems to have air conditioning. HURRAH.

Here is my room - this time, I knew to take a picture before I threw my stuff down.



(I had an epic fight with a bug that got into my room when I opened the window. And it WOULD NOT go out. I had the window open, the door open, I was trying to chase it everywhere. It just kept climbing UP the window, not down and out. Finally it got the point and left, right when I was about ready to hit it with a shoe heel or something.)

To prove my point about St. Anne's being modern, here's the view from my window:



Right now that building's full of men in suits and women in dress pants, wrapping up a conference going on here at the same time as VPO move-in. (Now who was the genius who thought up THAT timing? The British academics have to deal with clueless American students, and the Americans feel kind of intimidated by all these smart dressed-up Brits. Genius...)

I went out wandering once I'd gotten partially unpacked. Got lunch, got ice cream, picked up a pair of really cute sandals for three pounds (five dollars, basically - eat it, Urban Outfitters, you and your twenty-dollar sandals!). And - this was pretty much the Good Highlight of My Day - I WALKED PAST THE EAGLE AND CHILD. Which is the Inklings' pub. OH MY GOD I WAS RIGHT OUTSIDE TOLKIEN'S PUB HOLY CRAP MY LIFE IS NOW COMPLETE.

Well, except that it won't be fully complete until there is photographic evidence. (Because I forgot my camera again, like an idiot. Twice now! It won't happen again!)

The Shitty Highlight of My Day was my struggle with the adapter for my computer. I moved every single piece of furniture in my room trying to find the ethernet connection. And in doing so, I bent one of the prongs of the plugged-in adapter. And then my computer decided to fry. So I spent about an hour trying to bend the prong back/find a place with an adapter/keep from screaming in frustration. At the moment, Katy is being a saint and letting me borrow hers. Tomorrow, I'm off to find one of my own.

But this makes me feel better. This is the view from the ground right beneath my dorm.



*deep breath* I'm in OXFORD. All better now.

I'm here!

So!

I've now been in the UK for two days. Two days marked mostly by sleepiness, but also by pub food, new people, incredible architecture, and LOTS of walking!

For instance. I got off my bus from Heathrow yesterday and knew I had to walk down the road a bit until I got to my B&B. Well, that sounded fine in my head, except my head wasn't reckoning with a small duffel, a huge rolling bag, and a f*cking HEAVY computer bag! By then I knew to stick the computer bag on top of the rolling suitcase. But it still really hurt my hand to lug it down London Road on a rather lengthy walk, when you know only that the B&B is SOMEWHERE in this general direction. (No street signs, or at least very well-hidden ones. I was panicking by the time I finally found it.)

But find it I did! And I got checked into this adorable little room:



Well, obviously it didn't come with my stuff splattered all over it. Sorry about that.

Would a view make amends for my sloppiness/failure to get a picture before I fell asleep? Here's the view from my adorable room:



The sky was rather ominously gray when I took that picture...it doesn't really come across. (Speaking of which, the weather has been lovely today!)

About an hour after I arrived, Jeni checked in, and we've pretty much done all our exploring/food searching and eating together. (She was braver than me at dinner last night - she got an ale, I just opted for tea. The Brits make it STRONG! Holy CRAP!)

Today we went shopping in central Oxford. I have now seen the University Church of St. Mary, the Radcliffe Camera, and Oxford's Bridge of Sighs. (And I forgot my camera at the B&B! CURSES!) My shopping spoils were more comforting: a diary book (because I was a bonehead and left the current one in Philly), and...hold your freakin' breath, people...



I HAVE DONE IT! I am now the owner of a CELL PHONE!

(Only temporary, for use in Britain. Still figuring it out - updates on my phone number/callability forthcoming. BUT STILL! Can I have some applause, please?)

And I think I'm getting over my jet lag. I only took a tiny nap in the afternoon today. (My body said it was 6:30 AM. Fool that I am, I believed it.) Progress! This is progress!

Oh - and a little side note I almost forgot. This video was on TV last night when I turned it on, utterly unaware of what was in store. Because I am kind, I will not do the same to you. Expect British disco pop and backup dancers with white cucumbers for eyes:



What cracks me up is that she doesn't freakin' DANCE. I'm certainly giving more thought to this than it deserves (for all that it gets stuck in your head REALLY FAST), but I just stared at the screen and thought, "Funny. She's singing about moving and dancing, and yet...all she's doing is shrugging her hips and Saturday-Night-Fever-ing that microphone. Contradiction...?"