Greetings, friends & family!
I realize this is a rather unexpected post, after my last, promising that I would remain buried under a stack of books - but alas! I have surfaced! Today is a day of joy & celebration, as I have finished my first paper at Oxford!! 10 glorious pages (A4, mind you! Bigger than your standard American sheet!), dedicated to Jane Austen & Mary Wollstonecraft. I realized - after I started researching - that I am not at all passionate about the feminist movement. I do enjoy some of the benefits that have been reaped by women as a result, but overall... not my scene, I guess. Anyway, I decided to celebrate by updating everyone on my existence. That and indulging in a much-needed ice cream sundae this evening. We'll see how long the celebration lasts after the paper is returned to me in all it's red-marked horror...

Well, since I last updated, a LOT has happened. Actually, not really. We've still been watching the Simon Schama "History of Britain" video series, and Simon has yet to let us down with his creative & humorous genius. Last weekend, Megan & I took on London again - and we were more than victorious. We navigated the streets as though we'd spent our whole lives there. We visited: Westminster Abbey, The Cabinet War Rooms, The National Gallery, Shakespeare's Globe, and the Imperial War Museum - all on foot. We didn't succumb to the Underground even once! Here are some photo momentos for your enjoyment... (as a sidenote, in case anyone hasn't figured it out yet, you can click on the pictures & they will be enlarged!)


Westminster


In the Cabinet War Rooms, I found true love! My advances were sadly spurned.
(Just kidding, Doug! He's made of wax ... and creepy.)


Propaganda a la Allies


Some sepia-toned London loving

This past Thursday, the 21st, we went to Bath, where they have (surprise) Roman baths! It was pretty awesome AND it was Megan's 21st birthday! 21 on the 21st - a golden birthday!
Here are some pictures from Bath:


Bath Cathedral, and the entrance to the Roman Baths (enlarge to view)


A Roman bath - still bubbling!


No dipping of feet or goofy smiles! (Enlarge for full effect!)


Messages for peace.


Well, tomorrow I will be jumping right in to my second paper, so probably the next time I update it will be with an Italian accent & pictures of the Pope! We leave in 5 days! Now THAT's amoooooore.......

My love to all,
Rachel

Yesterday we went on another field trip - this time to the city of Winchester. This was, by far, my favorite tour of a cathedral, as we were able to take a "Roof Tour!" Yes indeed, we slowly wound our way upward on what is truly the "narrow path" - not only were the stairs inexplicably slender, but the walls were close & the ceiling low. However, the trek was well worth it for the vast panorama awaiting as we emerged, blinking onto the roof of the Winchester Cathedral:





Here is a picture of Megan & me outside the cathedral:



And another little random picture, one of my favorites so far:



Another fascinating feature of Winchester is (Mom, you'll love this!) the last home of THE Jane Austen. I wasn't able to get a very good angle of her house, but nevertheless, here it is:



Also, Jane is buried in Winchester Cathedral, but I figured I'd rather post a picture of her home than her tomb.

Speaking of burials & death...

As Haydn had his Farewell Symphony, so I too have my Farewell Blog Post.
I regret to inform you that I will not be posting any more updates, at least for almost 2 weeks. You see, up until Wednesday, we had not received our Oxford University student ID cards, and once we had received them, we still had not been given the letter instructing us as to how we might register. Without these keys to the kingdom, if you will, we were unable to penetrate the depths of the heralded Bodleian Library - nor any other library of the Oxford colleges. Well, as one might imagine, having no access to libraries quite limited our abilities to write essays. Long story short - today was the first day we were able to venture into the libraries, and we have two 9-12 pg. essays due in a week and a half.

All that to say, I bid you adieu until these papers are successfully conquered!

Love to all,
Rachel

Oh my word!
I realized after re-reading my last post that I completely forgot the best part about the Queen Victoria story!! If you haven't read that yet then STOP READING NOW AND READ THE PREVIOUS POST. Seriously, you're only ruining things for yourself.

~

Anyway, to those of you who read the post before this... in continuing the Queen Victoria & St. Paul story... AFTER St. Paul was remodeled & beautified & what not, Queen Victoria was scheduled to come back to St. Paul for a second visit. They were obviously pretty pumped, since they knew she would love the new, gorgeous, sparkling interior. So Queen Victoria arrives at the Cathedral, takes a look at the stairs to the front entry and announces that she is too tired to enter the cathedral & thus, the service is held outside. Ah, the power of the monarch...

Today we went to Christ Church for a tour. For those of you who don't know, Christ Church is the location where a bulk of the Harry Potter series have been filmed. I myself am not really a follower of Harry Potter, but I guess that's cool. Anyway, better than that, today while we were there, apparently Nicole Kidman was also there, shooting an upcoming movie. We saw the location where they were recording, and even had to wait in one area, while we watched [fake] smoke pour out an open window, then a woman ran out and said, "Cut! They can walk through again!" Much to our chagrin, Nicole was no where to be seen the whole afternoon. If her little movie crew was going to hold up our tour, they could have at least had the decency to let us watch the filming! But I digress...

OKAY - so I have some good news & some bad news!!!!

The GOOD news.......

Over fall break (Sept. 28 - Oct. 3), this lovely sextet:


Leilani, Laura, Laruen, myself, Jill & Megan

are all going here:

... Italy.

YES! We are flying from London to Venice, where we will spend two days. Then we are going down to Florence for a day, and then we are going down to Rome for 2 days and flying back to London from there! We are all very excited & looking forward to great adventures. And yes, we will be careful. Thank you for your concern, prayers & shared excitement!!

And for the BAD news..... actually, I guess I lied, because I really just don't have any bad news!

Hope all is well on the home front! It is sunny & beautiful in Oxford, UK! :)

Love to all,
Rachel

Yesterday morning our group of 57 American students embarked on the journey of a lifetime! Well, in all actuality, we spent the day trekking around London. In the course of 10 hours, we managed to see many of the usual tourist attractions.


Buckingham Palace


Big Ben


The Tower of London

Led by the fearless duo of Simon & Jonathan (SCIO staff members), we navigated the London Underground, wove through several alleys (don't worry, Mom, cute alleys, not scary ones - think: cobblestone), and ascended the 311 swirling steps of "The Monument," with as much gumption as we could muster.

The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly the Evensong service at St. Paul's Cathedral. The story goes that Queen Victoria attended St. Paul's back in the day, and when asked how she enjoyed the service, replied that she found it "rather drab." Well, long story short, they decided to compensate for the lack in decor. And by compensate, I mean...



What a gorgeous cathedral. AND the men/boys' choir with the organ - divine! Probably one of the top 10 events that I have attended in my life. Not entirely able to put the whole experience into words...

After the Evensong, we walked to London's very own Chinatown for a much needed meal of delectable Chinese cuisine. The walk on the way there was delightful:


My best pal here, Megan & me



All in all, the day was a blast, albeit exhausting.


Today was a wonderful Sabbath day - very relaxing to follow up such a busy, packed day of walking. This evening we (my friends Megan, Nealson & I) attended a charismatic Anglican service (I didn't really know such a thing existed, but alas, it did!) at St. Aldates, which we followed up by homemade ice cream at a little shop. It was the perfect way to end an evening, as Nealson said, with "spiritual AND sugary nourishment."
I couldn't agree more.

Goodnight & love to all,
Rachel

Swing dancing last night was so much fun and also allowed several of us American ladies to dance with some of the UK's sweatiest residents! Apparently when attending dance lessons, you're supposed to bring your partner with you. Our group consisted of 5 or 6 guys... and about 25 girls. So, they arranged for us to "rotate" partners every few minutes, so all the girls would be able to have a partner at one point or another. All in all, it was a productive session - pretty sure I'll be ready to try out for that "So You Think You Can Dance?" show when I get back. Unfortunately, there was so much swinging & dancing that no one had time to take pictures!

Today we went on our first field trip, to St. Albans. It's named after St. Alban (surprise!), who was the first Christian martyr in Britain. In St. Albans we visited a huge cathedral, a museum, remains of a Roman theatre, and several mosaics.







Also, I found cute flowers & some sheep.





Whoops, I guess you can't see the sheep very well. That picture was mostly for Mom.

My friend Megan & I figured out that we walk probably an average of 6 miles per day. Maybe I'll run a marathon when I get back to the States, but probably not.

Well, not much else to add except - just when you thought I forgot........



Difficult to read, but the overall message is clearly seen.

OH! Before I forget - a few of you have been asking for my mailing address, so here it is:

Rachel Bannister
2 Frewin Court
Oxford, OX13HZ
United Kingdom

That being said, I expect lots of mail. :)

Love to all,
Rachel

Orientation is over! We have started our "British Landscape Programme", which is essentially an overview in British history, society, etc. Pretty interesting so far, aside from the Simon Shama videos which, I am afraid to admit, have me slightly less than captivated. I am trying not to be freaked out by the oncoming workload, but today I caved in a drew a cartoon which involved: me, drowning in the perilous waves of Oxford, a shark labeled "long essay," about to devour me, whilst the USS SCIO (Scholarship & Christianity In Oxford - the name of our program) sails on by... I'm really hoping to find a scanner so I can put that picture in the blog.

Last night a group of friends and I went gallivanting around downtown Oxford:





We had many glorious adventures, involving getting locked inside a gated campus! Thankfully, we put our brilliant minds together and found the way out... incidentally, the same way we had entered.

Tomorrow night I am going to take swing dance lessons! £4 for an hour & a half lesson, plus a free voucher for the 2nd lesson! What a deal!

About the link to the pictures I was posting online... let's talk again about the ridiculous internet here. I simply am not patient enough to wait for everything to upload, so you will all need to be pacified with what I put on the blog for now. My sincerest apologies.

I am absolutely loving the experience so far (yes, all 4 days of it!), and despite my worries about the academic demands, I am very excited about the next 3 months! It still seems surreal, every time I walk to Wycliffe Hall through the parks & down the narrow streets, marveling at the colossal stone structures towering above...




I am so blessed to be here!

Love to all,
Rachel

I am here!




Thanks for all your prayers - I arrived safely yesterday, around noon.
The flight wasn't too bad, although I had difficulty falling asleep. And by difficult, I mean that the most I slept was probably five minutes. But overall, not a bad flight.
Yesterday's activities consisted of a dinner at 4pm and a brief meeting. We don't begin real orientation until Monday - I think the purpose for that is to allow everyone to get over the jet lag.

My favorite comfort from home is a wonderful gift that my darling fiance made for me - a journal with a little verse, memory, picture or other form of encouragement for every day I will be in England!

The other American students I have met are great. This afternoon we had a BBQ here, and the students living over at Crick House (about 45 min. walk away) came, so I got to meet even more people. Settings like this always amuse me, because you end up telling so many people your abbreviated life story so many times! Nevertheless, it's been great meeting so many new, friendly faces.

A fun story: Tonight a group of us (10 girls & 1 guy!) went to a pub for dinner, only to discover that it was karaoke night! AND an elderly gentleman (introduced as "Smooth Joe") sang Elvis's "Only Fools Rush In," and he dedicated it "to all the girls at the corner table." Precious!

More pictures to come - I will probably put them in an online album for everyone to enjoy!

Love to all,
Rachel