Oxford, Day 11

Okay, so yesterday I went to Salisbury and Stonehenge. Both were amazing. I woke up early, as in 6:30, to leave the house by 7:15, and be at the train station by 7:50. Our train left at 8. So after a few connecting trains, we got to Salisbury. We had to wait a while for our overpriced bus to Stonehenge, but we waited and paid anyways. We got to ride in a cool double decker bus through the rolling countryside, however, the bus was moving pretty fast...and parts of the ride seemed like an adventure.

Anyways, we got to Stonehenge, and it was really cool as well! Well, I mean, a lot cooler than the bus ride there was.


There's a lot of little details that I don't remember about the history, and sometime I'll have to look them up, but mostly I was in awe of these stone that were so huge and so old. A large part of the stones are underground, so you don't even see all of it. Plus, no one really knows why they were put there...adding to the mystery and mystique of the site. Chris Shim, a friend on the trip, is convinced that it was wizards. We are in England, the home of Harry Potter, after all.

After taking the bus back to town, we meandered to Salisbury Cathedral, home to the oldest working clock in England, and the tallest spire in England.


Now, if I could give my weekend any theme, I think that it would be: "Sorry, can we ask you to move out of the way of the camera?" While we were at the Cathedral, there was a wedding going on, and they only took up a small part of the church, but as the bride walked down the aisle, (we got to watch), we had to move out of the way of the videographers. It was really cool though.


The Cathedral itself was beautiful, and huge. After we left the Cathedral, we went in to the chapter house, where we got to see one of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta. No pictures though. It was so strange to be looking right at it though. Everything here is so much older and has so much more history than stuff in America.

So after we left, we wondered around for a while, window shopped, and eventually went to a large very nice un-publike pub. At least, I think it was a pub, but I'm not really sure. But there I had my first English Fish and Chips. Mmmm. So good. I don't understand why that hasn't been my favorite meal all my life. Or maybe the English just do a better job at making English Fish and Chips.

So techno music is really big in Salisbury. The kids with the fancy cars who rev their engines all blast it, and most of the trendy stores play it.

So after dinner we went back to the train station and headed home. The trains were really crowded, and I had to stand on one of them. Then after a very fast paced walk home (I'm still not sure why we were walking so fast) we got back to the houses.

Alright - Today.

This morning I got up and went to the Anglican Cathedral for the Oxford Diocese, Christ Church Cathedral. It's connected to Christ Church College, one of the largest and richest college in the university. We went in, sat down in the gorgeous church, enjoyed some absolutely wonderful choral music from the boy's choir, and by Church of Christ friends saw some real Anglican tradition. A very sweet English lady sat down next to me, and when the service didn't start until five minutes after time, she explained why. Before time zones came into use, Oxford was five minutes behind London time, and for tradition's sake, the church still holds to "Oxford" time, which is five minutes later.

The sermon was by the college chaplain, and he preached about unity within the church. After the service, I asked him if we could walk around, and he started to show us a little of the church when one of the men in the church who knew a lot about the history walked up and asked if we would like a little tour. We never learned his name. He showed us the memorial to St. Frideswide, the patron saint of Oxford. She is buried somewhere in the Cathedral, although no one is sure exactly where. They also think that she began a church on the site of Christ Church around 710. That makes for one really old church site. Check out her story...it's very interesting. We also got into a very interesting discussion about American vs. British politics.

[Trivia: Can you find what is not quite right in this picture?]

Then I came back to the house and had lunch.

So I just heard that one of my professors saw Emma Watson in town yesterday. I'm so jealous! Apparently she lives and goes to school here in Oxford!

[Edit] The rest of the day:

The rest of the day was somewhat uneventful, until I realized that I could not find my passport. I stressed out. But then I found it and it was much better. Then I went to 9 at 9, our Sunday chapel for school, and it was wonderful. When you but 36 people in a small room and worship, it sounds so amazing. I was kinda in awe a little.

Then after 9 at 9, I went to talk to some of the professors about a book I needed to read for one of my classes that I couldn't find. For this project, everyone had a different book. We each have to read a book set in Oxford, and write a paper about it. Well, all in all, it worked out great, because now I get to read the Golden Compass series for my project! I'm super excited. Well, my paper's only on the second one, but I'll end up reading them all. I've heard lots of different things about the books, and I'm so excited to get to read them! It was by the grace of God and the grace of my teacher that he let me do this...he wasn't going to let anyone. Yay!

So that was today. Now on to tomorrow.