Preparing for Halloween

Today was mostly a work day. Also the first time I had dinner in the Hall at New College. When I came back, we carved a jack-o-lantern. SoHee, who had never carved one, did most of the work and the design, and Frank finished it. I broke out some candy I had bought. Halloween is pretty minor here, but it was fun to do this, especially after last night's party.

Blenheim and Birthday

Yesterday I took the bus to beautiful Blenheim Palace, home of the Spencer-Churchills, birthplace of Winston Churchill, and current home of the Duke of Marlborough. The palace was very nice, I took a short guided tour of the state rooms, then spent most of the rest of my time wandering the grounds. I was there for over 5 hours, trying to see everything I could on the immense grounds, from the Water Terrace where I had lunch, to the Rose gardens, by the lake to the Cacades, then to the Secret Garden, across the bridge to the Column of Victory, and back to the Pleasure Gardens for the Marlborough Maze (2nd largest hedge maze in the world). I walked through Woodstock, a quaint town, afterwards. When I got back, I dressed in a "costume" (a piece of paper and some fake glasses that Brie loaned me) as an essay crisis (the impending horror of a paper due...). I then went to a costumed surprise birthday party for Brendan, one of my friends who is also studying abroad. The party was fun.

Such a Beautiful Place to be with Friends

Yes the quote is from Dobby, but it is strangely appropriate, as Oxford is a great and beautiful place to be with friends.


This morning, my entire house went punting for just over an hour. It was a beautiful fall day, sunny, and fairly warm. Punting was a lot of fun, although the one person in our group who was by far the worst at it was me. We each punted for a while, going around Christ Church meadows. Then we all went to a very fancy lunch at the restaurant Jamie's. It is a gourmet Italian restaurant owned by chef Jamie Oliver. The meal was delicious, though overpriced.

In the evening I went out again with SoHee and Brie, we went to a Korean event at the Union that SoHee organized. Had Korean food, saw some performances and wrote my name in Korean. The best part of the day, is knowing I have a family here in Oxford. Note: I added four pics of ChristChurch chapel from yesterday to the end of the slideshow.

Drama

One of the main reasons I came to Oxford was because I love theatre, and plan to make my career as a theatre teacher. Oxford is a wonderful place for theatre, an hour away from the birthplace of Shakespeare in one direction, and London's West End in the other. It is the school where many noted actors got their starts. Yet, what appealed to me, was the simple fact that drama is University-wide. All 38 Oxford colleges, along with Brookes University, and a large number of non-college community members both amateur and professional, all form the rather oversized Oxford Univeristy Dramatics Society.

On Sunday, I had a read-through for Noughts and Crosses, a play based on a YA novel. It is sort of like Romeo and Juliet, only set in a world where whites (Noughts) are a minority and blacks (Crosses) are the majority, and the time is similar to the 60s, especially to the events surrounding the Little Rock Nine (only in reverse). I play Ryan, the father. It is a meaty, challenging role, which I will enjoy, and is a stretch for me- as I am essentially in the white equivalent of the Black Panthers. I also like the role becuase it is not too huge, so I should have time to do another play.

On Monday I auditioned for A Man for All Seasons. It was one of the most challenging auditions I've ever had. It was me, the director, and the Assistant Director alone in the Oscar Wilde Room (a very odd place- pink lights and giant pictures of Wilde) of Magdalen College. I was there for over 40 minutes. I had to present a monologue, then the director, Griff, broke it down by beat and intention, stripping away everything I had prepared and leaving me with just the words. Very intense. I have not heard back yet.

Earlier on Monday, I had my first Play Reading and Creative Writing Tutorial. This was the tutorial I was looking forward to the most, a topic I essentially made up, but they agreed to let me do. My tutor was 20 minutes late, but our session lasted a full two hours- twice as long as we had been assigned, which was great. In the class, I read plays (that session was actually on Wilde, very ironic), analyze them intellectually in a paper and discussion, and then come up with a creative piece based on what we're doing. For the first class, I had written a ten minute scene about the Genesis story but set in a pub, in a very Wilde-like style. It was fun, and I like being able to think about theatre so in depth, going into ideas I hadn't really thought of before, in this case setting the show in an actual pub, to bring a better audience experience.

My Parents Come to Oxford

On Thursday, my parents came to Oxford. Using all of the information I had learned on my two walking tours, as well other information picked up here and there, I gave them a walking tour of the city centre. I brought them to the Treasures of the Bodleian exhibit, then we walked through Radcliffe Square to Christ Church Meadows. I had my tutorial while they had tea, then we all had a nice dinner in Eagle and Child.

On Friday, I showed them around New College, taking the pictures above. We walked around the city a lot, climbing St Mary's, visiting the University Parks, shopping at the Covered Market, and sharing a Sticky Toffee pudding at Turf Tavern. They visited my house here, then we met some friends from my brother's wedding Rachel and her mom, as well as my sister-in-law's mother Cathy and her husband Neil. We talked at a pub for a while, then had a nice dinner at 4500 Miles From Delhi, an Indian place. We parted from the group, and my parents and I stayed up chatting at a cozy cafe near their hotel.

On Saturday, my parents and I met at the train station and went to London. We went to the hotel, then went to Olympia. It took much longer to get there than we had planned, so we ended up grabbing a couple cookies and skipping lunch. Then we went to Doctor Who: The Experience! It was tons of fun. We walked in a group through an interactive moving multimedia thing, where we flew the TARDIS, got captured by Daleks, and eventually freed the Doctor from Pandorica II. If you don't know Dr Who, it is a sci-fi show that's been around since the 60s, and is TONS of fun! The walk-through was great, very well done. Then you go through a cool museum featuring all the monsters, all the doctors, several TARDISes and so on. We left the Experience and took a bus, which was taking too long so we hopped on the tube to Southbank for dinner. After some good Mexican food, we went to Wicked! I have been wanting to see the musical for a very long time, and I was not disappointed! The show was outstanding, wonderfully written, staged, and performed. It was amazing. We all spent the night at a hotel, only to have a fire alarm wake us up at 5:45 am. After an English Breakfast, we went to the airport where we parted. it was good to see them, a bit of home in the middle (and this is about the halfway point) of my time away, and some great experiences as well!

Grades

My Shakespeare tutorial ended in September. Today I got my grade and saw my report. Jenny, my tutor, had only positive comments, and the grade was a 68. I thought that was bad but Deepak said it translates to an A minus in US terms, and that is the grade I will get back home. He also said that's very good for a tutorial. Well, one down two to go!

And in completely unrelated news- I have started a new novel! I've written two YA novels already, neither published, and both ok, not great. I feel like this one (totally unrelated to those two) has a much better plot and protagonist. I'm also excited to be writing creatively again!

Tolkien's Oxford

Today I had an audition for the play Naughts and Crosses, which I later found out I made. After lunch, I joined the Tolkien Society on a 2 hour walking tour of Tolkien's Oxford. The tour was good, went to his schools Merton, Pembroke and Exeter, saw some of the houses he lived in, and heard some stories about Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Philip Pullman. It is remarkable to think that I am in the city that inspired such great authors.