Orientation and Tour
here comes the rest of my first day...and a whole lot more...happy reading!
after dropping our things off we were rushed into orientation. Dr. Allen Chapman is our main lecturer and it takes a couple of minutes to get used to his thick accent. i have heard once that all english people have different dialectrs to their accent depending on their profession and that Dr. Chapman has a professors accent. And due to his accent, one should beward the front row as the usage of the accent causes spitting.
the room that we are in for orientation is smaller than i imagined. it looks somewhat like a very small sanctuary but it's not. a lot of very dark wood adorns this room - high wayne's coating on the sides and a raised ceiling all done in this dark wood. there are thick cemented plastered white painted walls. also a stone chimney that doesn't look to be in use. we have many chars set-upin rows - those metal chairs with blue fabric cushions and carpeted floors. also a podium, a white board ad a projector. i was surprised by the white board and projector (which is mounted up on the wallup on the wall with the screen mounted opposite). i assumed Chapman would just be talking away but seems to rely heavily on the white board. Ha - me alarmed by the use of modern technologies!
after orientation, chapman offered 2 walking tours of oxford, you chose which one to attend. i was going to attend the first on with jill but we fell asleep on our beds and slept straight thrgouh. she miraculously woke up and then me just in time for the 2nd tour. if it wasn't for that nap though, there would be no way my jet-lagged self would have made it through the rest of the night!
our tour met with Dr. Chapman outside of the hall. after he stopped for tea,m which is what he runs on, we were off. before going on, i should explain dr. chpaman to you. he's an older man, womewhat short and slightly round. he always wears a suit and usually with a funky colored bowtime in plaid. he has white hair that is thinning in the front and is slicked back. he also has what i like to call a very english looking face. i have no other way to describe it, alli know is that if i saw him on the stree, i would look at him and say, "he must be english." so dr. chapman and our group take off. he trotts a little to get ahead of the group which is amazing for an older man. he needs to get in front of us before crossing the road as he needs to remind us to look RIGHT not LEFT as we are used to - otherwise, we may have causualties. after a small lecture we are off walking agian. soon he points out the Ashmolean museum, which is a presennt collection of art and antiques from the early 17th centure. the collection of rarities colleced by John Tradescant while traveling was given to Elias Ashmole who donated it to the university of oxford. the museum is this grand building with amazing ston and cement architecture complete with statues sitting high above on the ceiling. you can also tell the age of the building due to the weathering of it. a very worn building, but still grand and beautiful.
as we continue walking he also points out a pub called The Eagle and Child, which was, as he told us, the regular meeting place of the 'inkilings,' a group of academic and literaryt men, including c.s. lewis, author of 'the chronicles of narnia,' and j.r.r. tolkien, who wrote 'the hobbit,' and 'the lord of the rings.'
next he pointed out a large monument. he explained that in 1554, queen mary I imprisoned the influential protestant leaders, archbishop cranmer and bishops ridley and latimer, in oxford's bocardo prison. ridley and latimer were eventually burned at the stake in the town ditch, which is now Broad street on oct. 16, 1555 and cranmer was forced to watch from a near-by tower. cranmer was eventually also burned on march 21, 1556, first having his right hand thrust into the fire, with which he signed the recantations of his faith. so now there is a memorial for the three. dr. chapman next took us down broad street and showed us the bricks made into a cross in the road that marks the spot where they were burned.
next he took us down more streets and alley ways in which we thought was an effort to get us good and lost. he eventually brought us to the heart of the city - hwere the university pretty much started. he pointed out the bodleian library - a library where you cannot rent books, but can view pretty much every book pulished and copyrighted in the UK. he also showed us the radcliffe camera - which is called a camera as the definition of camera is an enclosed object, which was really built to be a library but is now a reading room for the bodleian. as we walked on he showed us some more amazing buildings where we can climb to get more amazing view: university church of st. mary the virgin, the sheldonian theater, which was built to model the ancient roman theatre of marcellus. it used to be used for degree ceremonies and is now still used for theater purposes. the ceiling of the round, monsterous building was painted to give illusion of an open sky. next he pointed out christ college, which is another place to get an amazing view, but this church and college is special for a couple of reasons besides the fact that it has an amazing boys choir. first off, charles dodgson, or better known as lewis carrol, was an undergraduate and mathematician at christ church. apparently he was a marvelous storyteller and delighted in the company of children and there at christ church he befriended the dean's daughter, alice liddell. he wrote fanciful stories around her real life in and around oxford and recorded them in his books, 'alice's adventures in wonderland,' and 'through the looking glass.' we got a glimpse of the garden and amazing tree where alice used to play and he, write. the other reason this college is special? the collge hall, with a grand staircase usder a splendid 1640 fan vault and medieval design, was used as the dining hall in the 'harry potter' films. i can't wait to go there! j.k. rowling is a graduate of exeter college here at oxford university.
as we came back around to the main road to head back for dinner, you couldn't help but notice the large number of people. the stree we were heading onto was amazing: it had many banks, expenisive clothing stores, a kfc, mcdonald's, burger kind and gap, just to name a few. this city that i thought was going to be so small, really is not. it's home to 120,000 people!
i gotta stop here, as i need to make it back for class...i hope to type a lot more later today, but we'll see. tomorrow i leave for easter break and susanna and the reinecke family! have a wonderful easter and i hope the easter bunny all leaves you something extra special and full of chocolate, as i hope get!
bye!
after dropping our things off we were rushed into orientation. Dr. Allen Chapman is our main lecturer and it takes a couple of minutes to get used to his thick accent. i have heard once that all english people have different dialectrs to their accent depending on their profession and that Dr. Chapman has a professors accent. And due to his accent, one should beward the front row as the usage of the accent causes spitting.
the room that we are in for orientation is smaller than i imagined. it looks somewhat like a very small sanctuary but it's not. a lot of very dark wood adorns this room - high wayne's coating on the sides and a raised ceiling all done in this dark wood. there are thick cemented plastered white painted walls. also a stone chimney that doesn't look to be in use. we have many chars set-upin rows - those metal chairs with blue fabric cushions and carpeted floors. also a podium, a white board ad a projector. i was surprised by the white board and projector (which is mounted up on the wallup on the wall with the screen mounted opposite). i assumed Chapman would just be talking away but seems to rely heavily on the white board. Ha - me alarmed by the use of modern technologies!
after orientation, chapman offered 2 walking tours of oxford, you chose which one to attend. i was going to attend the first on with jill but we fell asleep on our beds and slept straight thrgouh. she miraculously woke up and then me just in time for the 2nd tour. if it wasn't for that nap though, there would be no way my jet-lagged self would have made it through the rest of the night!
our tour met with Dr. Chapman outside of the hall. after he stopped for tea,m which is what he runs on, we were off. before going on, i should explain dr. chpaman to you. he's an older man, womewhat short and slightly round. he always wears a suit and usually with a funky colored bowtime in plaid. he has white hair that is thinning in the front and is slicked back. he also has what i like to call a very english looking face. i have no other way to describe it, alli know is that if i saw him on the stree, i would look at him and say, "he must be english." so dr. chapman and our group take off. he trotts a little to get ahead of the group which is amazing for an older man. he needs to get in front of us before crossing the road as he needs to remind us to look RIGHT not LEFT as we are used to - otherwise, we may have causualties. after a small lecture we are off walking agian. soon he points out the Ashmolean museum, which is a presennt collection of art and antiques from the early 17th centure. the collection of rarities colleced by John Tradescant while traveling was given to Elias Ashmole who donated it to the university of oxford. the museum is this grand building with amazing ston and cement architecture complete with statues sitting high above on the ceiling. you can also tell the age of the building due to the weathering of it. a very worn building, but still grand and beautiful.
as we continue walking he also points out a pub called The Eagle and Child, which was, as he told us, the regular meeting place of the 'inkilings,' a group of academic and literaryt men, including c.s. lewis, author of 'the chronicles of narnia,' and j.r.r. tolkien, who wrote 'the hobbit,' and 'the lord of the rings.'
next he pointed out a large monument. he explained that in 1554, queen mary I imprisoned the influential protestant leaders, archbishop cranmer and bishops ridley and latimer, in oxford's bocardo prison. ridley and latimer were eventually burned at the stake in the town ditch, which is now Broad street on oct. 16, 1555 and cranmer was forced to watch from a near-by tower. cranmer was eventually also burned on march 21, 1556, first having his right hand thrust into the fire, with which he signed the recantations of his faith. so now there is a memorial for the three. dr. chapman next took us down broad street and showed us the bricks made into a cross in the road that marks the spot where they were burned.
next he took us down more streets and alley ways in which we thought was an effort to get us good and lost. he eventually brought us to the heart of the city - hwere the university pretty much started. he pointed out the bodleian library - a library where you cannot rent books, but can view pretty much every book pulished and copyrighted in the UK. he also showed us the radcliffe camera - which is called a camera as the definition of camera is an enclosed object, which was really built to be a library but is now a reading room for the bodleian. as we walked on he showed us some more amazing buildings where we can climb to get more amazing view: university church of st. mary the virgin, the sheldonian theater, which was built to model the ancient roman theatre of marcellus. it used to be used for degree ceremonies and is now still used for theater purposes. the ceiling of the round, monsterous building was painted to give illusion of an open sky. next he pointed out christ college, which is another place to get an amazing view, but this church and college is special for a couple of reasons besides the fact that it has an amazing boys choir. first off, charles dodgson, or better known as lewis carrol, was an undergraduate and mathematician at christ church. apparently he was a marvelous storyteller and delighted in the company of children and there at christ church he befriended the dean's daughter, alice liddell. he wrote fanciful stories around her real life in and around oxford and recorded them in his books, 'alice's adventures in wonderland,' and 'through the looking glass.' we got a glimpse of the garden and amazing tree where alice used to play and he, write. the other reason this college is special? the collge hall, with a grand staircase usder a splendid 1640 fan vault and medieval design, was used as the dining hall in the 'harry potter' films. i can't wait to go there! j.k. rowling is a graduate of exeter college here at oxford university.
as we came back around to the main road to head back for dinner, you couldn't help but notice the large number of people. the stree we were heading onto was amazing: it had many banks, expenisive clothing stores, a kfc, mcdonald's, burger kind and gap, just to name a few. this city that i thought was going to be so small, really is not. it's home to 120,000 people!
i gotta stop here, as i need to make it back for class...i hope to type a lot more later today, but we'll see. tomorrow i leave for easter break and susanna and the reinecke family! have a wonderful easter and i hope the easter bunny all leaves you something extra special and full of chocolate, as i hope get!
bye!
posted by andi at 2:40 AM
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