Mom & Auburn cross the pond- Oxford, Bath, and Stonehenge

The week after his birthday, Brandon left to help with a mission at a university up north in Sheffield.  Months ago when we were planning dates our families might visit, I suggested this week as a good time for my mom and sister to come. I wouldn't spend a week by myself, we'd get some girl time, and they would still get to see Brandon - just at the end of the trip. And so, that's what we did. He left on Sunday, and they arrived on Wednesday.
On Thursday, we went to museums, around colleges, up tall towers, and for a yummy cream tea. (Umm, actually, I think we had cream teas almost every day. A-mazing.)
Here are all the touristy shots:

Museum of Natural History

On Cornmarket Street

In the tower of St. Mary's - High Street is in the background

Climbing the tower- and then battling the wind on top!- was a highlight 

In front of the Radcliffe Camera

Tea at the Rose

In case you can't see it: "Bicycles attached to these rails will be removed."

And of course we had to visit Stonehenge, my mom's request ever since Brandon and I told her we were moving to Oxford. Since it's not easy to get directly to Stonehenge from Oxford (without a car anyway), I planned that we would take the train to Bath and from there take a bus tour to Stonehenge. I had not been to Bath yet, but anyone who had raved about it. Now I know why. The town sits in a valley and is surrounded by seven large hills. Looking up from within, you see great green hills scattered with trees and houses. The city itself features honey-colored Georgian architecture that makes it look so, well, clean. 

See what I mean?

Since we had a few hours until our tour left for Stonehenge, we ventured through the streets and into Bath Abbey. This was the last great medieval church raised in England, sometime between 1499 and 1616. It's big- and beautiful.

Bath Abbey from the outside...

...and inside

Mom was very impressed. 

About 1 p.m., we walked around to the back of the Abbey to find the purple bus owned by Scarper tours, our tour guide for Stonehenge. On the way there our funny and informative driver pointed out unique things like Celtic burial mounds, the Westbury White Horse, and areas where UFO sightings had supposedly occurred (crop circles are common around Stonehenge and nearby farms). The drive went by quickly and we found ourselves standing in front of this site: 

The great "hanging stones"

Stonehenge is definitely not as large as you might think, and a rope fence keeps you from getting too close. The closest we could get to the stones was probably still about 10 yards away (where the above photo was taken), and some areas (like in the picture below) were probably more like 40. (Honestly I have no idea if those measurements are close to accurate. Hopefully it gives you an idea.) I'm not saying it's not worth the trip- only that it gets a lot of hype.

We took the long loop around, listening to our audioguides and trying to stay warm. Mom had brought a big down jacket that she wore for most of the trip that I considered a little excessive - except on this day. I was pretty chilly standing on that windy plain, and quite jealous of her warm coat. 

Family pic by random stranger- didn't she do a good job! 

(Auburn and I started calling her "the nun" because of her all-black garb.) 

The Nun 

So after an hour (which was plenty of time) we got back on the purple bus to return to Bath. Overall the whole thing- getting there, hanging out, coming back- was about 3 hours. Just the right amount of time.
Here's a view of Bath on the way back:

We had time for a delicious cream tea at Minerva chocolates (as well as some samples...yummm) and then took a quick tour of the Roman baths for which the city is named.
Bath has natural hot springs that were taken advantage of by the Romans around A.D. 44. They built thermal baths and called it Aquae Sulis. And here they are today:

The Abbey is in the background

Inside we could see where the great steaming baths flowed:

And hear the "life stories"of those who lived in the city long ago, like this woman:

Check out that hair

We didn't get as much time in the museum as we'd hoped but we got a taste of what the baths must have been like. After we left there, we walked around a little bit more before getting dinner at a nice local Indian restaurant. 

Bath at dusk

And one last shot for the night before getting a train back to Oxford...

Next post: Blenheim Palace and London

The big 2-5

Somebody had a birthday on Wednesday.
And it was this guy.

Brandon's not huge on celebrating birthdays, especially when it coincides with the busiest school week ever.  (That may be a slight exaggeration...but it was definitely full.)

Anyway, since my guy is huge on eating, I tried to make some of his favorite things, like oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, steak sandwiches, and strawberry cake. 

And here are some OCCA (Ellis and his wife, Rachel on the left) and NOOC friends singing Happy Birthday:

And for the grand finale we headed over to Wycliffe to celebrate by doing a run-through of a presentation Brandon and Ellis had to give the next day. (Hey, it's his day. If he wants to practice a presentation, who am I to turn him down?)

I especially love the shirt he's wearing to mark being a quarter of a century old. In case you can't see it, it's got a little guy standing at the bottom deciding between two directions: down one path, there are arrows pointing towards money, big success, fame, fortune, and glory. On the other side there's a single arrow pointing towards really cool waterslides. 

Happy birthday babe. I love you.

Feb 28- and it's not a leap year

Umm...how is it the last day of February already?? I know it's the shortest month on our calendar, but this is ridiculous.


Anyway, here are some things that we did this month.


Celebrated the Chinese New Year at NOOC:

I helped make the dumplings. These are not my handiwork- they are way prettier than mine! 

Petted a lemur. (Some background is helpful: Wycliffe Hall hosted a big party and a friend of one of the ordinands works with lemurs. Easy enough. Still pretty wild when you walk into a building and see one of these guys, though):

Took a 4-week photography course:

Held our breath as the land started revealing signs of spring:

Visited St. Andrews Church in Leyland (in Lancashire) for some prep before the official OCCA/Wycliffe mission week in April:

Parts of it are 800 years-old!

Received some really beautiful Valentine's Day flowers:

Hosted an "American breakfast" at NOOC featuring pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, and...grits!

And enjoyed an amazing evening of home-made Norwegian food and time with the OCCA group thanks to this awesome girl:

Ingvild 

Goodbye, February. You were short but sweet.

Hi, I'm a tourist (but I actually live here, too)

The last two weeks have been full of touring for me! On February 8th I joined the Newcomers' Club for a tour of the Bodleian Library and Divinity School, and on the 17th took a tour around the city.  Both tours were led by the knowledgeable (and hilarious) Marie Ruiz, who is chairperson of the Newcomers' Club this year, and both days were sunny and dry. Here are some photos from those two days:

 University Church of St. Mary the Virgin (aka St. Mary's)

 Bodleian Library

 Friends Leah, Kahli, and Madeleine in front of St. Mary's

 Inside St. Mary's

 All-Souls College (Brandon likes to study here)

  Divinity School

Duke Humfrey's Library

Did the photo of the Divinity School look familiar? If you've seen the Harry Potter films, this was the location of the dance lesson from the 4th movie (Goblet of Fire), and the hospital scene from the 6th movie (Half-Blood Prince).

Here are some more familiar-looking places (if you're a student or HP fan, at least) that we visited on the 17th:

The HP dining hall was modeled after the one in Christ Church college

Stairwell to the Great Hall in The Philosopher's Stone

Instead of boring you with names, dates, and events you don't really care about and I  don't really remember, let me share something from both tours that I found amusing. The architects and artists who were commissioned to complete these amazing buildings, stained glass windows, and paintings were not only great at what they did, but had a cheeky sense of humor. 

For instance, within Christ Church Cathedral is a beautiful stained glass window depicting the legend of the patroness of Oxfordshire, Frideswide, who was both a princess and nun. As the story goes, Frideswide was a beautiful, wealthy young woman who was only inclined toward spiritual things. When the prince Aelfgar heard of her beauty and fame, he sent messengers to ask for her hand in marriage. She refused him, having taken a vow of chastity. In his anger he sought to take her by force. The glass panes show how Frideswide hid in a forest and a pig-sty to avoid being found, but Aelfgar kept searching for her. At last her hiding place was revealed when he threatened to burn down the city of Oxford. Only moments before he would reach the princess, God struck the prince blind with a lightning bolt. (Remember, this is a legend.) The prince immediately repented of his actions and sought her forgiveness, promising Frideswide he would leave her alone if she would pray for his sight to be restored. She did, and he was healed. She remained a nun for the rest of her life, performing many other miracles and eventually being proclaimed a saint.

The last panel, shown below, depicts Frideswide on her deathbed surrounded by mourners. Notice the rich colors of the scene, the maidens' delicate faces, and... the toilet in the back right corner?? 

Yep, that pinkish-purple looking piece half-hidden by a door is a toilet.  Considering this legend is set in the 7th century (but done in the 19th), I'd say that's definitely considered as artistic license. 

There are more examples of this, probably in every building. But I thought that one was pretty unique. 

And to finish off, here are some more (mostly from Christ Church):

Christ Church

Christ Church Cathedral

Christ Church from inside the quadrangle

Stained class in one of the college chapels depicting the story of Jonah

By the end of the second tour my mind was swimming with bits of history (with very little cohesion overall!), but I'm glad to have finally taken an official tour. The best thing of all? I got to walk back to my little home here in Oxford and resume life as a local.

Coming in one month...

The Hudgins' women!

Yeah, we're related.

My mom and sister are visiting in March and I'm already counting the days. 

And making lists of what they have to see, do, and eat. Yay! Included are

• visiting Stonehenge (get excited, Mutti) and Bath
• trying authentic fish & chips (just for you, Auburn) and dessert at Ben's cookies!
• having a cream tea 
• going all over Oxford

There's lots of other things on the list too.

And, about a month after that in April, Brandon's mom and dad are coming to visit too! Their trip will be a little different because we're dividing up the week between Oxford and London. (Looks like Brandon and I are going to get another shot at the Changing of the Guard...maybe.) Now taking suggestions on your favorite things in London...how should we spend four days in the great city?

Hilary Term

Last year I said several times that Brandon would blog about his course and the things he was doing.
I wasn't intending to lie; it just...didn't happen. He was too busy and I didn't feel I could write on his studies as well as he could. But it's going to have to be written from my perspective, because Hilary term is even fuller than Michaelmas was.

As a quick reminder, Brandon is now in the second of three terms of a program named The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics, fondly known as OCCA (and said like this: Ocka. Not O-C-C-A. If you want to know more about the program, click on the link to the right of this post.) He's studying alongside 18 other guys and girls from 9 countries.
Here's a picture of the whole group, taken last term:

OCCA 2010-11 with Wycliffe Hall in background

 He spends a lot of time with these folks. Here's a screen shot of a typical week of his life, aka google calendar:

Isn't he organized?

This was his calendar from about 2 weeks ago. It's a bit different each week, but here are some pretty common themes:

•  In general, he has lectures Monday - Thursday, at differing times each week and with various tutors/guest lecturers. If you can read some of the titles above, you'll see classes like "Missiology", "Apologetics Workshop", and "The Rationality of the Christian Faith". Friday is generally a free day for study and writing (although this particular week didn't pan out that way).  
• Every other week, they write an academic essay that requires a good bit of research outside of class.  For example, the one he turned in this week was titled, "Why did Mark write his gospel the way he did?" All the students were, of course, to read Mark's gospel, but they also had to cite several academic sources in their papers. 
•  Friday nights he helps with an Alpha group at St. Edwards, a prestigious co-ed boarding and day school in Oxford. Alpha is a program originally developed by a church in central London in the late 1970s to present a basic outline of the Christian faith to new believers. It was adapted for non-Christians in the 90s and is now used in 163 countries. It involves meeting weekly for a meal followed by listening to a speaker on subjects including how God guides us and why Jesus died. Brandon's part is to help with table discussion after the talk. 
• Also on Friday evenings, Brandon and I help with an informal Bible study here at NOOC. 

This spring he'll also have 2 missions with OCCA: one at Sheffield University in March, and another in Leyland the first week of April. Both of these places are located in England and will last about a week. (I'm actually going to Leyland, too!)

It's not all work and no play, though. He's participating in a ping pong tournament here at NOOC on March 1st.  

But for now, Brandon's spending a lot of time right here:

As always, prayers are appreciated.