Happy Thanksgiving!

So once in every year we throng

Upon a day apart,

To praise the Lord with feast and song

In thankfulness of heart.

~Arthur Guiterman, The First Thanksgiving

I never realized that Thanksgiving wasn't a worldwide observed holiday. I guess if I had thought about it I would have come to the conclusion, but it is such a great holiday that I assumed everyone would want to partake in the overeating of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and my beloved cranberry sauce!

Today is not Thanksgiving, at least, not for me. I'm not bitter or saddened, because Thanksgiving Day does not exist in England. It's almost  as if I don't know what I'm missing. Yet, I do!

I thought I'd take this opportunity (which has dual purpose as paper-writing procrastination) to say a few things I'm thankful for:

• That I have lived in countries (I like saying that!) where I can practice my faith freely and be a strong, independent woman (or at least, try to be).
• My family. I won't list everyone here, but know that I am thankful for all of my family, those who I parted with a few months ago, and those who I haven't seen in years.
• My friends. I couldn't survive away from home (or sometimes, even at home) without them. The line between family and friends is a blurred one, and I'm thankful for that.
• That even though it's frowned upon, a preposition is something I can end my sentence with.
• The blessings I have. I only hope I can use them in the way God wills.
• Everyone who reads my blogs. It makes my words important and gives what I say meaning.
• Jane Austen. She makes me laugh constantly and her writing is a true blessing.
• The internet, because I can keep in contact with everyone and access information as the slightest of ease.
• Opinions (even wrong ones ;) )
• Music. Every human emotion can be triggered or satiated with it.
• Thanksgiving. Because when else can you watch the GREATEST parade on earth, avoid helping to prepare food, overeat to the point of sickness, watch men attack each other for fun (American football), and then fall asleep by 6pm? If this isn't the American Dream, I don't know what is!

So, thank you for reading my blog and keeping up with my happenings in Oxford. I am thankful for my readers and subscribers and that I am cared about enough to take a few minutes out of your day to read of my rants/adventures/crazy thoughts.

I'll be home in 16 days, and while I 'should' be sad about leaving glorious England, I'm more than excited to be home and see everyone and for what is surely to be an amazing Spring semester.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Oh, the Queen was in Oxford today and I saw her motorcade =)

My visit is complete!

A Pre-Advent Epiphany...

     I hope the following doesn't sound to saintly. I wrote it while I was in Starbucks today on a whim. Before today I would see people milling about the street with their opinions and cynicism and all I saw was disconnect. And disconnect begets despair, and even worse, complacency. Everyone with their selfishness and judgements and no hope. Sinful. Forever. 

     But then I realized, we are all connected- by God and by our humanity. Not one of us is unloved. We all have hope and somewhere, deep inside, we have faith.

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     There isn't too much better in the world than the approach of the winter holidays. Something about Christmas carols coming on the radio at Starbucks while I sip on my mocha and work on reading Northanger Abbey produces the most relaxing and comforting of feelings.

     There isn't snow and there won't be a Thanksgiving like it should be, but Oxford is in preparation for Christmas is outstandingly special. I've seen better decorations and more festive storefronts, but I was never part of a city's holiday festivity, only an observer. I have no vested interest in the lights in Washington Park, or the Schenectady Christmas parade, or Proctor's annual production of the Nutcracker; Rotterdam does little to prepare, mostly because the cows and barn cats don't care much for the blinking lights.

     Yet this year, for a few weeks, I'm part of the festival. My inner excitement regarding the celebrations of family, friends, the birth of Christ and the chance for new opportunities seem like it's playing itself out on the streets of Oxford- a brass choir playing carols on Cornmarket Street, seeming miles of Christmas displays at Marks & Spencers, advent calendars bracing the walls at Blackwells, and holiday themed beverages at the cafes. 

     All this to say that for the first time in longer than I can remember I truly feel that there is hope for our world. I've always believed it, but I never remember really feeling it. People are good at heart and it is our duty, not just as Christians, but as humanity to love one another and help to bring out the love, compassion, and hope in all that we meet.

We are not a lost people. We have hope.

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Upcoming: Posts on my birthday and my weekend in Rome and the Vatican City!

Update/Transportation

I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I'm gonna put ins into all the locations that I've traveled to. But first, I'm gonna  have to travel to the top two corners of the map so it won't fall down.

--Mitch Hedberg

Since today is Halloween (and more importantly Chrissy's birthday) I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to update you all on life in Oxford. To set the scene, I'm currently writing this from inside a Borders Starbucks. I just finished my tutorial meeting with Emma, my tutor, for Jane Austen (we discussed 'Mansfield Park'). I feel like I've just experienced the epitome of Oxford-- a meeting with a professor over coffee. To add to this description, I will let you know that I just saw a guy with a green painted face walk by. Halloween is interesting in England…to say the least.

 

Tutorials have been going well, although I'd be lying if I said it was easy. There is a lot of work and research to be done and it certainly keeps me on my toes. I have another tutorial in a few hours (Nobility and Gentry) and hopefully it will run smoothly. I feel like I have a good handle on the subject, which is more than I can say for the past two weeks. There is so much to know!!

 

Tonight my house is having a Halloween Party for all of the SCIO students. SCIO stands for 'Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford' and is the program I'm studying here with. I will be dressing up as Jane Austen, and I'm hoping to quip up with random quotes, although they will most likely be about 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Mansfield Park' which, I am sad to say, are so far the only books I've read in their entirety. I was going to be a mime, and had been practicing my miming skills (which are decent at best), but decided that I would wear the gorgeous dress that my mom had made. Plus, this is probably the best audience for subtle Austen allusions. Let's hope I can pull it off! I'll be sure to post pictures at a later date.

 

For those that are interested (which  I hope is all of you!), I'll explain a bit about transportation here in Oxford. Recently, Oxford was listed among the top cities for the longest commute. I believe it cited the Oxford commute as being around an average of 51 minutes, second to London and Birmingham (and maybe Liverpool?). Every day (or at least, almost every day) I take a short walk down the lane my house, The Vines, is on. It takes no more than five minutes on most days and the bus stop is close by. I've had very good luck with the bus system in Oxford. I ride with a company called Stagecoach and I bought a 13-week pass for a decent price, and with riding an average of twice a day, it costs little over 50p (pence) a ride. Usually the buses arrive every seven to eight minutes, however sometimes I'll have to wait up to 15 minutes. In rare cases I wait longer, but that is very rare indeed. To walk into the city center takes a good half hour, whereas the bus takes less than ten minutes to drive there (usually less, but it depends on traffic). It's been fairly easy getting busses back and forth, and they all have a ticker on the outside that says where they are going and via what roads. Since there is another University right near my house (Oxford Brookes, but this is not part of the Oxford University), there are also a lot of 'Uni' busses which I can ride with my Stagecoach bus pass. Very convenient.

To be honest, I didn't expect to like the bus system. Coming from a suburban area in New York and a very rural area in PA, I was a bit nervous. I'm not sure that I had ever ridden a public bus before. However, it's very safe and usually very clean; the bus stops are usually in very convenient places. I'm not sure how I will manage without the buses!

Yet, the state of public transportation in England says a lot more about feelings towards transportation in general. I speak on my feelings upon living here for a few months, and not with any inkling of how true Brits feel, but I imagine my thoughts are similar to those of many locals. Using public transportation is a great way to cut down on exhaust emissions from cars. Carpooling, or should I say, buspooling is very convenient, cuts down on traffic congestions (making the city center of Oxford very nice for pedestrians), and limits pollution. If I lived in Oxford full time, I more likely than not, just use public transportation rather than buy a car. There's no need! Having experienced the many benefits of using the buses and trains (another wonder, very reasonable costs as well) it makes me wonder if the U.S. will ever catch this craze? I certainly hope so! Think of the land that can be kept open, at least in part, if we just had reasonable trains instead of highways! I recently looked up an Amtrak fare from Schenectady to Harrisburg and it was very expensive, in fact, it was at least double what a similar distance would be in England (relative to the value of the currency for a native). Not to mention the fact that going to Harrisburg I would have to transfer in New York City or Philly, which I imagine are far less conducive to stress-less travel than the stations I've experienced here in England.

 

Well, I feel that I've gone on long enough about matters which probably don't matter. I must be back to our SCIO headquarters so I can prepare for my next tutorial in about two hours.

 

Feel free to post your responses to my public transportation rambling! I'm looking forward to hearing other's responses (*cough Elizabeth, Quinn, Dabney cough*).

 

Cheers <3

Pre-Oxford

"'I'm something of a cheese connoisseur. I do enjoy a stinky cheese. A pungent, ghastly, stinky piece of cheese!' Of course, anything sounds brilliant when said in such a remarkable British accent - but I digress."
~The Travelocity Traveling Gnome

Before I leave, I thought I would give a little background into my semester abroad. This is as much for your information as it is for my packing procrastination. (Pack three and a half months worth of clothes and other necessities into two suitcases? Yeah, right!)

I've always wanted to study at Oxford, ever since I was very young. I didn't know much else of what I wanted to do when I grew up but I knew that Oxford was the best University in the world and that I wanted to be there. Fast forward to last fall when I was getting ready to study in Cheltenham and suddenly realized that they didn't have any classes I wanted to take. After I couldn't physically produce more tears I realized that it was certainly a blessing in disguise.

I quickly decided that I would apply for Oxford and I was certain that if I didn't get accepted my life would be ruined, or at least very boring. The program I'll be traveling with is through Best Semester and runs from Sept 4-Dec 13.

I'll be taking two general courses: a British Landscape course, a history seminar; and then two tutorials: Nobility & Gentry in England 1550-1660, and Special Authors: Jane Austen. The latter two don't start until October, which is really good since I haven't finished all my pre-term readings. Yet, despite the mountains of reading, I'm more than excited for my two tutorials which will hopefully be the jumpstart to my Senior Thesis.

I'm completely ready for this new experience and prepared for what God has in store for me this semester. I know that it's a lot.

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I leave September 4th for my first flight by myself. I'll be flying from Albany to Philly (1 hr) and then from Philly out to Heathrow (8 hrs). I have a decent layover in Philly and I arrive at 11:00am (BST) so *hopefully* it will just be like sleeping in really late. Since I'm not too keen on planes to begin with, I'd appreciate any prayers :) 

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In a last attempt to make this first blog post interesting, I should probably explain my "Wandering Gnome" idea.

As some of you may know, this past Halloween I dressed up as David the Gnome which officially marked the beginning of my gnome craze. I now have a collection of garden and house gnomes.

Of course, the madness doesn't stop there. I wanted to chronicle my travels in a unique way by taking a small memento from home and photographing it everywhere I went. Since one of my best friends Dad's had already taken the "Traveling Rubber Chicken" idea, I felt that the only item truly representative of myself would be the gnome.

 Meet Jeffrey (kudos to my nephew Adam for the name)...

((PICTURE COMING SOON))


Seeing as the "Traveling Gnome" is taken by Travelocity, and my gnome won't necessarily go on travels, so much as he will wander throughout Oxford, the countryside and future travels (which include Cyprus, yay!), I settled on being "The Wandering Gnome."

So now, explore my blog, click on links or just go and re-read the quote at the top of the blog. You'll laugh, I promise ;)

Cheers,

Courtney

P.S.-- For those of you who are interested in contacting me (Skype, AIM, e-mail, snail mail) comment on this post or email me and I will give you more information. =)

Also, you can subscribe to my blog and receive and email every time I update. This is suggested for the truly devoted and, of course, my mom and dad.