So today was the fourth of July, and as one of my friends aptly said "I'm celebrating American freedom in Britain at an Austrailian's house with a Canadian." Oh, and in England it's Alice's day in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland being published. It was definately a unique experience, but a fun day.
We started the day with a tour of C. S. Lewis's house. We visited his wife's house (from before she lived with him), his house while he was at University, the church he was barried at, his favorite swimming hole and his home: the Kilns. It was a fun journey and our guide, Johnathon, was a scholar in residence at the house for three years so he was quite knowledgable about everything C. S. Lewis. Here are some of the fun Lewis facts from the day:
-Lewis loved swimming and was known to swim in random bodies of water he thought looked inviting as he passed by them.
-Tolken openly said more in praise of Lewis' brother's work than Lewis'
-Lewis' brother wrote (about French court history)
-Lewis loved to smoke and drink tea (like any self-respecting Englishman)
-Lewis hated technology and wrote everything longhand
The walk to Lewis' house was about and hour or so so we did our fair share of walking there. Once we got back I worked on papers for a while since I have a tutorial on Monday. Quite a few of the people here are stressed about papers. I am somewhat glad that I am in a literature class as opposed to a theology or phylosophy class. As much fun and as much as you would learn in these classes, I am more comfortable writing about literature and I think that is helping me deal with the stress of the papers. I think it was also good that my first tutorial went well because it gives me a little confidence for the next one. Either way, tomorrow I plan to close myself up and study.
We have been using the Bodlian Library to study and get resources, which is an increadible library with millions of books, but it is a reference only library. This means that we cannot check books out and can only access them while the library is open. This would not be as bad if it was not summer. During the summer the library hours are reduced because there are not as many students. This means that the library is not open on Sunday, is only open 10-4 on Saturday, and is open 9-7 on weekdays. Many people have run into issues with the library times and it is definately something that needs to be kept in mind when writing papers.
Anyways, I digress, as for the title of my post, the 4th of July, it is definately not as big of a thing here (surprise) as it is in America, so that is a bit sad. One of our hosts, Simon, however, hosted a barbeque at his house so we had grilled burgers, icecream, and fire works. In fact, he bought one the largest legal firework available in England and set it off as the finale. Unfortunately, it went off course and ended up going off on a neighbor's roof... Thankfully, nothing caught fire or was severely damaged and apparenly that neighbor happens to be deaf so, no harm no foul? It was a required event, which may seem odd, but it was a good, guilt free, excuse to stop working on papers for a while and enjoy the company of friends for the evening.
It is so odd to think of how quickly the programme will be coming to an end. We will be entirely done in a week. I am excited to have the papers done; however, I am sad to say goodbye to all of the friends I have made. I have three roomates right now, which may seem crowded but I will be very sad to say goodbye to every one of them. Also, I will be sad to say goodbye to our family/food group. This is the group that we eat with every night. (This way we only cook once a week and there aren't thirty people in the kitchen making dinner.) Our group has gotten quite close and I will miss the opportunity they give at the end of each evening to decompress and talk about the trials and tribulations (or occasional victories) of the day.
Either way, I am excited to see what will come of the last week in Oxford!
