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| Palladian Bridge |
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| Where I will avoid doing homework |
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Prior Park, heading for spring break
Went with my Georgian Bath class to Prior Park on a nice, torrentially-raining day. Ralph Allen, one of the "big three" of Georgian Bath (the other two being socialite Beau Nash and architect John Wood) owned the land and built a nice big house up on top of it. Though he came from humble origins, Allen made a ton of money through providing new post routes and then made more money opening quarries around Bath. It would have been considered a social disaster if Allen built the huge house without a reason, though, because the complex and generally incoherent social system in England would frown upon an originally poor man building a huge house. So, Allen opened Prior Park, and built his house to show everyone the capabilities of Bathstone, which many criticized as being too soft for building. Pope, the great poet, was also into landscaping and gardening and stuff, and he helped out with the design of Prior Park. The thing I found most interesting, though, was the view you have of the Bath skyline from parts of the park. A perfect place to sit on a nice Spring day and avoid the loads of coursework. It's supposed to be super cold in Norway (surprise!), but I'm really excited for a break. Really not enjoying my program too much; it is far too similar to my college experience at home, and I'm really starting to get quite annoyed with it. Some pictures of Prior Park and Bath skyline stolen from the internet:
Monday, March 28, 2011
Oxford Summary
Got back to Bath on a beautiful Friday afternoon. Oxford was cool, but I was really looking forward to returning to home base. As we got off the highway onto the road that leads into Bath, I was able to see the beautiful scenery surrounding the city for the first time (since it has been foggy the other times). Bath itself is surrounded by hills, which are known for their picturesque qualities and responsible for buildings in the city not exceeding a certain height. The countryside beyond the city consists of rolling green hills. First Morgantown, then Granville (Denison) and now Bath, there's something inviting about returning to some hills. Oxford was pretty flat, and definitely not as beautiful as Bath.
So, didn't see any ghosts at University College. Took some classes, walked around, looked at stuff. Notables include (related pictures below):
-Pitt Rivers Museum: tons of cool stuff, like TONS of stuff. Don't really know how to describe it. Just a bunch of stuff from all around the world from different time periods, categorized by functions. Things ranging from 13th century opium pipes, to totem poles, to (real) shrunken heads, to weapons, to everything. You could spend a lot of time there.
-Christ Church College: one of the most visually impressive and famous of the Oxford colleges. Much bigger than the college where we were staying. Saw the staircases and dining hall used in the Harry Potter movies.
-The Turf: A surprisingly large tavern found down a winding alleyway. Good food, good beer, and supposedly a popular stomping ground for people such as Bill Clinton during his stay at Oxford. It is, supposedly, the exact location where Clinton, on one occasion, "did not inhale." It may have been due to the fact that most British students were on holiday, but there were a ton of American students there. Even our two bartenders were American.
-Shelley Exhibit at Bodleian Library: Exhibit at Oxford's main library, The Bodleian. Contained lots of letters, notes, manuscripts and even locks of hair from the Shelley family (Wollstonecraft, Godwin, Mary and Percy Shelley, some Lord Byron stuff too). Cool stuff included: original manuscript of Frankenstein, books that were on Percy's body when he drowned, Percy's doodles on manuscripts of his poems, personal letters between the couples.
-The Eagle and Child: pub where the Inklings, including Tolkien and C.S. Lewis met and talked about books and stuff.
-Blenheim Palace: Home of the dukes and duchesses of Marlborough, an impressive palace built in the English Baroque style. Very big. Built for the first Duke of Marlborough (John Churchill) by Queen Anne(?) in the early 18th century to reward the Duke's impressive military victory over the French. It's quite an extravagant present. The palace is full of luxurious furniture, rugs, tapestries, paintings, etc. Makes you think about how ridiculous the old-monied English aristocracy was. The Marlboroughs have an interesting history. People like Consuelo Vanderbilt (of the famous American Vanderbilt family) were married into the family. Winston Churchill, related to a number of Dukes who lived there, was actually born in Blenheim Palace. A lot of his stuff was on display there. The palace grounds are really beautiful, and it was a sunny day with temps in the 60's. Oh yeah, it's pretty warm here.
-Kebab Trucks: Bath has a few burger stands around town, but they come nowhere close to the one's in Oxford. Extremely delicious drunk food for great prices. My personal favorite was fries, cheese, and hummous, but the doner kebabs weren't bad either.
-Ashmolean Museum: Art museum at Oxford. Worth mentioning because it has a pretty respectable collection. Lacking a bit in the modern department, but had a cool collection of Sickert stuff. Also funny because it recently underwent a number of renovations that lead singer of the band, Radiohead, Thom Yorke, disproved of. This was, of course, because he has a house right behind it.
Well, gearing up for a big week. Don't think I'll have much internet access in Norway and Prague, but I will update sometime between the 10th and 12th of April. Expect a lot of pictures.
Oxford Pics:
So, didn't see any ghosts at University College. Took some classes, walked around, looked at stuff. Notables include (related pictures below):
-Pitt Rivers Museum: tons of cool stuff, like TONS of stuff. Don't really know how to describe it. Just a bunch of stuff from all around the world from different time periods, categorized by functions. Things ranging from 13th century opium pipes, to totem poles, to (real) shrunken heads, to weapons, to everything. You could spend a lot of time there.
-Christ Church College: one of the most visually impressive and famous of the Oxford colleges. Much bigger than the college where we were staying. Saw the staircases and dining hall used in the Harry Potter movies.
-The Turf: A surprisingly large tavern found down a winding alleyway. Good food, good beer, and supposedly a popular stomping ground for people such as Bill Clinton during his stay at Oxford. It is, supposedly, the exact location where Clinton, on one occasion, "did not inhale." It may have been due to the fact that most British students were on holiday, but there were a ton of American students there. Even our two bartenders were American.
-Shelley Exhibit at Bodleian Library: Exhibit at Oxford's main library, The Bodleian. Contained lots of letters, notes, manuscripts and even locks of hair from the Shelley family (Wollstonecraft, Godwin, Mary and Percy Shelley, some Lord Byron stuff too). Cool stuff included: original manuscript of Frankenstein, books that were on Percy's body when he drowned, Percy's doodles on manuscripts of his poems, personal letters between the couples.
-The Eagle and Child: pub where the Inklings, including Tolkien and C.S. Lewis met and talked about books and stuff.
-Blenheim Palace: Home of the dukes and duchesses of Marlborough, an impressive palace built in the English Baroque style. Very big. Built for the first Duke of Marlborough (John Churchill) by Queen Anne(?) in the early 18th century to reward the Duke's impressive military victory over the French. It's quite an extravagant present. The palace is full of luxurious furniture, rugs, tapestries, paintings, etc. Makes you think about how ridiculous the old-monied English aristocracy was. The Marlboroughs have an interesting history. People like Consuelo Vanderbilt (of the famous American Vanderbilt family) were married into the family. Winston Churchill, related to a number of Dukes who lived there, was actually born in Blenheim Palace. A lot of his stuff was on display there. The palace grounds are really beautiful, and it was a sunny day with temps in the 60's. Oh yeah, it's pretty warm here.
-Kebab Trucks: Bath has a few burger stands around town, but they come nowhere close to the one's in Oxford. Extremely delicious drunk food for great prices. My personal favorite was fries, cheese, and hummous, but the doner kebabs weren't bad either.
-Ashmolean Museum: Art museum at Oxford. Worth mentioning because it has a pretty respectable collection. Lacking a bit in the modern department, but had a cool collection of Sickert stuff. Also funny because it recently underwent a number of renovations that lead singer of the band, Radiohead, Thom Yorke, disproved of. This was, of course, because he has a house right behind it.
Well, gearing up for a big week. Don't think I'll have much internet access in Norway and Prague, but I will update sometime between the 10th and 12th of April. Expect a lot of pictures.
Oxford Pics:
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| one of the quads at Univ College |
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| High Street, right outside Univ |
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| Christ Church College |
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| Punting |
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| Univ Collge |
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| Dining Hall at Christ Church. Harry Potter |
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| some famous bridge thing |
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| Oxford's main church? |
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| Blenheim Palace |
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| shrunken head |
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| pals and I in front of Blenheim |
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| the Camera (right next to Bodleian Library), or as my professor says, "The Center of Western Civilization" |
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| Blenheim Palace. photo cred noah friedman |
Monday, March 21, 2011
Oxford
Well, while a large portion of the inhabitable world is in turmoil, I am sitting in my room at Univ overlooking Oxford debating whether or not I will do my homework. Beginning to think the amount of work that I have (as much as I have at Denison, generally) is antagonistic to the whole cultural experience thing. Reading The Satanic Verses by Rushdie for a class this week, though, and pretty impressed thus far.
Ok, so when I originally envisioned Oxford, I imagined a grand, sweeping campus with lots of old buildings and stuff like that. Wrong. Oxford actually consists of 30something colleges, each containing a few hundred or so students. While certain lab-related functions and lectures are run through the university, most of the actual "school work" takes place within each respective college. So, once you get into a particular college, you do most of your work there, live there for a lot of the time, take classes, etc. So my program is staying in the oldest college in Oxford--University College (it's their term break). Basically, Oxford is a city of 100some thousand, and all around there are walled buildings with wooden doors. There's a good chance if it's old looking, walled, and lacking any signs related to what it actually is, it's a college. So, from the outside, there is practically no way of knowing without actually knowing, hey, there's so-and-so college. But, walk through the wooden door, and you're met with a quad or something.
University College is the oldest college at Oxford, like I said. Its date of foundation is debated, but the general consensus is 1249. So, walk through wooden door, and there's a quad. And then there are more quads, separated by the residential parts of the college. There's also a library, chapel, stuff like that. I'll add pictures some time this week. Compared to the quads at, say, Denison, Univ is very small and contained. You aren't allowed to walk on the perfectly trimmed grass, though (only the fellows of the college are allowed that privilege), and the American, hang out on the quad-ness is lacking. The actual residential buildings are a few hundred years old, for the most part, and it is CONFUSING finding your room. There aren't really set floors, so much as labyrinthian hallways and stairs. Your room isn't associated with a floor, but a particular stairwell. It's very complicated. There's a rather dramatic statue of Percy Shelley (who was actually kicked out from Univ for promoting Atheism), nude, right down the stairs and hall from my room. Lots of famous people went here, basically.
On that note, my class on Thursday is going to a Shelley exhibit (Godwin, Wollstonecraft, Shelleys) and it's supposed to be really cool. Supposedly original manuscript of Frankenstein and things of that nature. So yeah, I'll add pics and more info throughout the week. Also, there are supposed to be ghosts here. I want to see them, but yeah right.
Ok, so when I originally envisioned Oxford, I imagined a grand, sweeping campus with lots of old buildings and stuff like that. Wrong. Oxford actually consists of 30something colleges, each containing a few hundred or so students. While certain lab-related functions and lectures are run through the university, most of the actual "school work" takes place within each respective college. So, once you get into a particular college, you do most of your work there, live there for a lot of the time, take classes, etc. So my program is staying in the oldest college in Oxford--University College (it's their term break). Basically, Oxford is a city of 100some thousand, and all around there are walled buildings with wooden doors. There's a good chance if it's old looking, walled, and lacking any signs related to what it actually is, it's a college. So, from the outside, there is practically no way of knowing without actually knowing, hey, there's so-and-so college. But, walk through the wooden door, and you're met with a quad or something.
University College is the oldest college at Oxford, like I said. Its date of foundation is debated, but the general consensus is 1249. So, walk through wooden door, and there's a quad. And then there are more quads, separated by the residential parts of the college. There's also a library, chapel, stuff like that. I'll add pictures some time this week. Compared to the quads at, say, Denison, Univ is very small and contained. You aren't allowed to walk on the perfectly trimmed grass, though (only the fellows of the college are allowed that privilege), and the American, hang out on the quad-ness is lacking. The actual residential buildings are a few hundred years old, for the most part, and it is CONFUSING finding your room. There aren't really set floors, so much as labyrinthian hallways and stairs. Your room isn't associated with a floor, but a particular stairwell. It's very complicated. There's a rather dramatic statue of Percy Shelley (who was actually kicked out from Univ for promoting Atheism), nude, right down the stairs and hall from my room. Lots of famous people went here, basically.
On that note, my class on Thursday is going to a Shelley exhibit (Godwin, Wollstonecraft, Shelleys) and it's supposed to be really cool. Supposedly original manuscript of Frankenstein and things of that nature. So yeah, I'll add pics and more info throughout the week. Also, there are supposed to be ghosts here. I want to see them, but yeah right.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Will Update This Week!
Sorry, not much has been going on in Bath. Lots of school work. We're at University College in Oxford right now but we don't get internet in our rooms until Monday (I'm using the computer in the common room at the moment). Weather has been great and there's a lot to say about Oxford, which I'll make happen this week.
Friday, March 4, 2011
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