Europe (Part III): Oxford

21 July 2014

Today, for the most part, was very relaxing. It began with the usual breakfast of two pieces of white toast and a croissant, one cup of coffee and two glasses of apple juice. Then there were classes. MMM discussed The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, emphasizing the duality of the nature of Man. I argued that “Jekyll and Hyde” is the extremist's perfection: a complete split between your decency and your darkest desire. After MMM and lunch, Inklings discussed The Great Divorce and Mere Christianity Book III. I am very inspired by Lewis' writings, both the apologetics and the fiction. He was a phenomenally gifted academic. The Great Divorce is one of my favourite works of fiction by Lewis that we read for class. Class is always challenging me to think about things differently. In case you might think that I have just been having fun in London, you're quite mistaken. Time is slowly balancing out between homework, studies, and London. I had my time to explore and forget my classwork; but that time is gone and now I must buckle down and crank out some thinking (for the most part).

After class, I relaxed and went to dinner. In between classes and after dinner, I spent time standing around the set of the new Mr. Holmes movie production. I ended up making friends with two interns there, and I fit right in. I even had a few of the crewmembers approach me with questions. The girls I befriended helped me talk to the set manager, who in turn spoke with Sir Ian McKellen’s assistant about my meeting him. Unfortunately, although I spent quite some time on set, I never did get the chance to sit down and have a conversation with the man. I really was looking forward to hearing what it was like to be Gandalf.

Luckily though, I did stand in a circle with him; so basically, I stood five feet from McKellen as he smoked a cigarette and quickly drank a hot chocolate. He was entirely in character (Sherlock) and did not look anyone in the eye. He slumped over and grunted like a 90 year old man. He hobbled and brooded the entire time, even when the camera wasn’t on him.

After I finished fanboying about Gandalf/Holmes, I went out with friends to the grocer and picked up some stuff before departing to Hampstead Heath, a huge wooded, grassy area where a children’s park, flower garden, stream, and ice cream hut allow the people of Hampstead to escape the business of London and step into a peaceful escape. The group of us played card games and laughed, told stories and talked about life. We stayed in the Heath for a few hours before heading home at dusk. At that point, most of the group went back to campus, and a handful went out to town and walked around. We stayed out until around midnight before going back home to sleep. Tomorrow will be a very busy day!

22 July 2014

We left campus today sharply at 0800 for Paddington station. The train ride from Paddington to Oxford took about an hour, on which I read the paper and played Sudoku. I have never been to Oxford, and have wanted to visit since I was just a wee chap. However, Oxford is not at all what I was expecting. We walked to the main streets of the town, and then made our way towards Christ Church. Unfortunately, the line to enter the church was too long and we had to skip it. By the end of the day, this wasn’t too terrible a loss, for we walked hours upon hours up and down the streets of Oxford, visiting colleges and gardens.

Our first stop was Merton College, where Tolkien held a seat. We climbed to the top of University Church of St. Mary the Virgin, an amazingly beautiful view from the top of the dome. We walked around the Bodleian Library and the Radcliffe Camera. We also walked past University College, where C.S. Lewis earned his degree. After some more walking around the university, we met Colin Duriez at the Lamb & Flag. Here, we had jacket potatoes and listened to Duriez talk about Lewis and Tolkien. Duriez is an Inklings expert, and he had insightful responses for all of our questions and curiosities.

After finishing up our lunch, Duriez led us on a long, long tour of Oxford. He took us to past Merton, over to St. Mary Magdalen’s—where C.S. Lewis gave his The Weight of Glory sermon—, down to a few of Tolkien’s brief residences, and the graveyard where Hugo Dyson and Charles Williams are buried (Inklings). He took us past the Hertford Bridge, which is more popularly known as the Bridge of Sighs.

The two best places he took us were Magdalen College and Exeter College. Magdalen is the college where Lewis taught and contains Addison’s Walk, where he would walk daily after lunch and enjoy his pipe and rich conversation. Addison’s Walk is a mile path along a creek that loops around, perfect for a midday stroll. The walking path is shaded with trees and quieted by the thickness and vastness of the wood. Magdalen College was founded in 1458 and represents the ancient gothic style. It is extremely beautiful and prestigious. I enjoyed walking around the quad for a bit before taking a quick nap on the grass between the new and old buildings.

The other best place Duriez took us was Exeter College: the college where Tolkien earned his undergraduate degree. The walls that line the quad of Exeter are covered in vines. This college is in the gothic style, too. The chapel of Exeter College is very beautiful and even houses a bust of Tolkien himself! This is where our tour ended and we had Duriez sign our books and say goodbye.

The tour was exhaustive, but rewarding. I’m glad that I got to see all of Oxford under the guidance of a professional. We had the freedom to go about on our own from here, so a few of us went to Blackwell’s Bookshop. This is an independent book shoppe that sells such a huge variety of books that there is not enough time in a day to look at everything. After finding some things, we headed back to the station to depart for home.

Once we returned to London (we, at this point, is Sarah, Eric, and me) we got Chicken Cottage, consequently upset stomachs, and made it back to campus. The rest of the night was spent relaxing and watching Zoolander with some friends. I practically fell asleep as soon as the movie started, so I sleepwalked back to my room and slept like a rock that night!

23 July 2014

Another day of classes, where I learn a great deal about myself, my beliefs, and my newfound passion for literature. MMM discussed The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie and The Real Inspector by Tom Stoppard. Christie is the mother of detective writing; Tom Stoppard is the eccentric Looney that has written a bit about everything - even a novel about “a penniless, dandified Malquist with a liveried coach; Malquist's Boswellian biographer, Moon, who frantically scribbles as a bomb ticks in his pocket; a couple of cowboys, one being named Jasper Jones; a lion who's banned from the Ritz; an Irishman on a donkey claiming to be the Risen Christ; and three irresistible women.” Then, in Inklings class, we discussed Mere Christianity Book IV and A Grief Observed. A Grief Observed hit me especially personally. Having just gone through the end of a relationship that took me through some very pivotal years, I can taste just the beginning of what Lewis must be feeling to have lost a loved one. We both have had someone leave. I do not think that my relationship's finality can relate to the death of someone, but Lewis and I respond to loss in very similar motions.

Our first response is remorse. We feel pain. We ask "why?" and "could I have done something to help this?" We both feel a pain like the wrenching of our heart. And this pain turns into anger. Why?! Why did I have to fall in love and why did she have to leave. We become angry with God. We want answers. We don't want the good memories to fade. We don't want to forget. And then we ask whether our memories are going to mean anything to anyone? Are we selfish in this response? If God is the ruler of all things, than we cannot blame Him for death or finalities. We must accept, no matter how hard it is. And then we wonder how our love for another can transform itself into thankfulness to God. We feel like this woman was the first person we loved like we were supposed to, according to God. But now she is gone and we must move forward into the world without her. I feel the pain of C.S. Lewis and it would have been mutually beneficial for us to sit in his garden, wear tweed suits, smoke pipes, and discuss love, pain, and God.

Back into reality... after class, there was a Stonehenge meeting. That lasted about ten minutes. Then a group of us went to Moment Espresso Bar for coffee and homework. We stayed at Moment for about two hours, until dinner. After dinner, the group decided to have a formal night. We dressed up (guys in ties and jackets, girls in dresses) and headed into Hampstead. We sat outside at the Black Lion for a two hours and imagined that we were classy and dapper. I got a cider and felt somewhat like a posh Englishman with my blue and cream shirt, cream tie, green sport coat complete with elbow patches, maroon chinos, and wingtip boots. Can you say class!

After our formal night out, four of us - Amanda, Sara, and Parker with me - went back to campus and just talked into the night.

24 July 2014

It was a lot smaller than I had imagined: a narrow hole-in-the-wall hidden under a canopy, surrounded by other nameless shoppes and sweating Londoners. I walked in and had to order something over £6 in order to use my card. No problem. I'll have an affogato and a piece of toasted banana bread. Oh, and to top it off, go ahead and charge me for an iced coffee with milk; I'll come and ask for that after my affogato has been drunk. Okay, that's it. Thanks.

Kaffiene, according to CoffeeMakers Magazine, is the best coffee shoppe in the world. Ranked number one for its coffee, atmosphere, pastries, and friendly baristas, Kaffiene was more than just an experience of ordering and drinking coffee. The bohemian environment was complete with tattoos and beards, lots of leather and skinny jeans, a brick wall, multipurpose wood boxes, sunflowers, chalk boards, Buono coffee gear, and homemade jams. I would rank Kaffiene as the best coffee shoppe I have visited, ever. The espresso was rich with hints of a raging fire, mahogany wood, an old rural barn, a sad song played on a violin, and old laughter. The iced coffee is smooth like an early, crisp morning in the mountains. The affogato is sweet like warm cookies and daisies. The baristas are all beautiful, even the men.

I did some homework here before walking about three blocks north to Gower Street. This is the location of the filming of Sherlock BBC. Although it is only a door and a small café (Speedy's), it was great to see the crooked doorknob that Sherlock leaves crooked to know whether or not his orderly brother Mycroft has visited. I took a picture of this and then went down to Gringotts Bank. Unfortunately, since the overthrowing of the Ministry of Magic and the darkening of Diagon Alley, Gringotts was sold to Australia for their London-based embassy. I am not Australian, nor did I have an account at the bank before it was sold, so I could not enter any vaults or visit the dragon or goblins.

Then I visited the King's College bookstore (never owned by a wizarding franchise). I was going to get a shirt, but they did not have many choices for the summer months. I wandered down the Strand until I came across Covent Gardens, walked around these wonderfully little shoppes, and found for myself some scarves and flags. After some shopping, I kept down the Strand until I ran into Trafalgar Square and meandered through the Portrait Gallery. There are quite a few portraits in this gallery.

Okay, to get to Harrod's, go ahead and take the tube at Charing Cross Underground, Bakerloo line, to Piccadilly Circus; switch here for the Piccadilly line to Knightsbridge. There you go. I walked around Harrod's for about an hour or two. The place is a megastore: six floors of extremely expensive goods. You could literally purchase anything at Harrod's. You need a Mont Blanc fountain pen for £5,000? We got one. Need an elephant? We have a selection for you to choose from. Need a brownie that has been dipped in liquid gold? Yeah, that will be in the bakery. Now, during my visit, I did not need a Mont Blanc pen nor an elephant. I settled with the gold brownie. For a couple pounds, I consumed a double dark chocolate brownie with gold flakes mixed into the batter. Later that night, I pooped gold. Have you ever pooped gold?

At this point on my indubitably whimsical meandering through the Queen's city, I headed back up to Hampstead where I had dinner, met my MMM class and went back into town to St. Martin's Theatre for The Mousetrap production. Our seats were in the dress circle, so we had a good view. It was an entirely different experience to watch this play having previously read the script than to read it without the killer in mind. I knew the killer the whole time and found little hints throughout that I had missed during my first date with the play. I won't reveal the murderer, but The Mousetraphas plenty of red herrings. The acting was superb and the set was very period. I enjoyed this play along with everyone else from class. The interpretation of the director was different from mine in regards to some of the characters' traits, but I personally preferred the director's characters to mine. Overall, I give this play - the longest running play in history at over 25,000 performances - a solid B+.

After the play, a few of us sat out on the quad, listened to music - some had a glass of wine - and watched the stars. Call me hyper spiritualistic, but I saw a shooting star and consider it a sign from God. In order to interact with the divine, one must loosen the walls of reality and allow coincidence and mysticism to penetrate our rationality. It might just be etherealization, but I consider this shooting star a message of awareness and remembrance of the fact that my life is in His hands and who I am is solely defined in Jesus Christ, and no one else. I say this because as soon as this shooting star crossed the sky, I felt the overwhelming desire to figuratively abandon the people around me and disregard what they think of me and fully embrace who I really am.

After an hour of quiet contemplation on the quadrangle, I peacefully went to sleep. Such a long and venturous day had I completed.