Christ's Church, downtown Oxford
I did not have much of a chance this weekend to update what I have been up to, so now that I have a bit of time it seems a good oportunity to do so. Throughout this course, although we are all taking two classes of our choosing for credit, we are also all taking a Christianity in the British Isles course. We began this on Friday along with a lecture series: Churches: How to read them. In this we discuss the history of many of the churches around where we are staying. The first one we visited was the Romanesque church in Iffley, near Oxford. This is one of the oldest churches in the area that has been the least altered.
The rest of the weekend was fairly free and we were encouraged to explore around Oxford. On Friday we went to the NAtural History and Pitt Rivers museum. The building it is in is almost more impressive than what is in it. The back section was donated in the victorian era under the condition that the exibits were never moved so it is interesting to see how things were set up in museums in that time period. After traveling around for a while, we headed back for our weekly movie night and watched "MOnty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail."
Saturday we spent wandering around town and shopping. We got souveneirs, both for us and for our families. We also visited the botanical gardens in downtown Oxford and were able to appreciate many of the increadible plants they have there. It is one of the places worth visiting if you are in Oxford. It is one of those places that you simply cannot describe the beauty of even if you were to try so I do not think I could give it credit.
Sunday we finally went grocery shopping since the communal food was begining to become sparce. The people at The Vines bought food for the begining so that we would not have to go shopping first thing, but eventually that ran out with fourty people in one house. We then met Simon, one of the employees of SCIO (Scolorship and Christianity in Oxford), for afternoon tea. It was a bit cramped with that many people but was a nice break for the day. After tea we went on a walking tour around Oxford and learned more about the town. We ended the day at Evensong at Christ's Church. It was a gorgious church and the service was beautiful (although I may have enjoyed it a bit more if I was not so hungry and had been allowed to sit for more of it).
Overal, Oxford has been very interesting and I am glad we have had enough time in the begining of the program to explore since we will soon be busy with schoolwork. It is an increadible town and everywhere you look is even more beautiful.
