Today Paul and I watched a movie we got from the Bloomington Public Library called Miracle at Oxford. The review on the back said it was "the best rowing movie ever made". I'm not about to doubt that claim, but it was pretty good. Since both Paul and I have rowed (and Paul at Oxford), we were probably a little more interested than most other people would be in the film. But it was still really neat to say "ooh, I know that street!" or "Hey, isn't that the butcher shop we liked?" It also had some interesting commentary on how Americans are perceived in the UK.
What was a really bizarre coincidence is that one of the main actors, Dominic West, also starred in Mona Lisa Smile, which was filmed at Wellesley College while I was a student there.
So now I'm thinking it might be a good time to watch Breaking Away again - that's the movie about bike racing in the Little 500 in Bloomington, Indiana. It's always fun to watch a movie about a place you've lived, and now that I've been in Bloomington for over half a year I should be able to recognize some places!
Showing posts with label oxford. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oxford. Show all posts
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Paul's an official graduate!
We had meant to reschedule Paul's August 1 graduation ceremony date at Oxford so that we could actually attend, but between rushing the dog back and forth to the hospital and the whole house hunt and then closing, that didn't happen. So Paul received a notice that since he wasn't there in person, they read his name anyway and he's an official graduate.
It is kind of a strange system compared to American universities where everyone graduates the same day.
Anyway, I'm sure we'll find another reason to go back to England.
It is kind of a strange system compared to American universities where everyone graduates the same day.
Anyway, I'm sure we'll find another reason to go back to England.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
The Last Hurrah in Oxford
It's taken me a while to post since we left Oxford! The most notable thing about moving out was the huge amount of waste. Our apartment trash building was literally overflowing - probably three or four dumpsters worth of perfectly good, usable household goods and clothes thrown out because people couldn't take them overseas or wherever they were going, and didn't know where to go to donate them. Luckily our friends Mikki and Brian were staying in England, and they were able to use a bunch of our household goods and appliances, so that worked out great. They were nice enough to host us for two days between when we got kicked out of student housing and when our cruise left. I'll put up a separate post about the cruise, so for this one, I'll focus on our last few days in Oxford.
We moved out on Monday 15 Sept, and I worked until Friday 12 Sept, when there was a big end-of-year formal dinner at the Oxford Spires Hotel just outside the city center.
Here's Paul with 3/4 of his team from their summer project in Munich.
And here's nearly all of my girl group - I miss them so much!
And I love this couple picture! We've got Tetsuya and Kaori (from Japan), Adrian and Alina (from Romania), Brian and Mikki (USA) and us!
The next day there was a closing ceremony for the students at Templeton College. Their actual graduation doesn't happen until a later date because there is limited space at each graduation ceremony and the whole class can't go at once. It's kind of a strange system, but it keeps with the tradition of having graduation in the Sheldonian Theater. Paul scheduled his for next August.
So, here we are on the way to the party, standing by the Said Business School's ox (get it? OX-ford). I saw this thing every day on my way back from work.
And here's Paul with some classmates all dressed up in their subfusc (and perhaps a future Oxford student in the mix)
During the ceremony, they had some speeches and then called each student's name and had some hand-shaking. The speech theme seemed to be poetry, and the "taking the road less traveled" one was emphasized in more than one, if I recall correctly. I suppose you can't argue with that since not all that many people go to Oxford. Overall, it was pretty much the same as any graduation ceremony I've been to, only this one was nice and short (any of my Wellesley classmates may remember that our ceremony went over schedule by 4 hours in a hot tent). Here's Paul's hand-shaking in action:
And here's Paul afterwards with an objet d'art in the Templeton garden
And here we both are outside - it was an unusually nice day!
After the ceremony, we realized we'd have to start and finish packing and cleaning out our apartment in the next day and a half, but we made time for one last dinner out with some friends.
We moved out on Monday 15 Sept, and I worked until Friday 12 Sept, when there was a big end-of-year formal dinner at the Oxford Spires Hotel just outside the city center.
 |
| From ClosingCeremony - Sept 2008 |
Here's Paul with 3/4 of his team from their summer project in Munich.
 |
| From ClosingCeremony - Sept 2008 |
And here's nearly all of my girl group - I miss them so much!
 |
| From ClosingCeremony - Sept 2008 |
And I love this couple picture! We've got Tetsuya and Kaori (from Japan), Adrian and Alina (from Romania), Brian and Mikki (USA) and us!
 |
| From ClosingCeremony - Sept 2008 |
The next day there was a closing ceremony for the students at Templeton College. Their actual graduation doesn't happen until a later date because there is limited space at each graduation ceremony and the whole class can't go at once. It's kind of a strange system, but it keeps with the tradition of having graduation in the Sheldonian Theater. Paul scheduled his for next August.
So, here we are on the way to the party, standing by the Said Business School's ox (get it? OX-ford). I saw this thing every day on my way back from work.
 |
| From ClosingCeremony - Sept 2008 |
And here's Paul with some classmates all dressed up in their subfusc (and perhaps a future Oxford student in the mix)
 |
| From ClosingCeremony - Sept 2008 |
During the ceremony, they had some speeches and then called each student's name and had some hand-shaking. The speech theme seemed to be poetry, and the "taking the road less traveled" one was emphasized in more than one, if I recall correctly. I suppose you can't argue with that since not all that many people go to Oxford. Overall, it was pretty much the same as any graduation ceremony I've been to, only this one was nice and short (any of my Wellesley classmates may remember that our ceremony went over schedule by 4 hours in a hot tent). Here's Paul's hand-shaking in action:
 |
| From ClosingCeremony - Sept 2008 |
And here's Paul afterwards with an objet d'art in the Templeton garden
 |
| From ClosingCeremony - Sept 2008 |
And here we both are outside - it was an unusually nice day!
 |
| From ClosingCeremony - Sept 2008 |
After the ceremony, we realized we'd have to start and finish packing and cleaning out our apartment in the next day and a half, but we made time for one last dinner out with some friends.
 |
| From ClosingCeremony - Sept 2008 |
Saturday, July 19, 2008
July Happenings
July is a tough month for us. Paul left on the 6th for an 8 week internship in Munich. It's a great opportunity and Munich is a beautiful city. Of course we miss each other, but at least I am going to visit for a week around our anniversary. Since Paul can't take any vacation time, we're just doing 2 nights in Mittenwald near the Austrian border - it's just an hour from Munich by train!
Before Paul left, we went punting with our friends Karen and Richard. Richard is Paul's roommate in Munich during the internship.
I didn't get pictures in the boat for fear of dropping the camera, but I did get a snap of Paul in his punting hat at Magdalen College:
And here's me and Karen with our cool punting hats as well:
You may think that the 4th of July is not celebrated in England. Well, you're right, except that it's also our friend Mikki's birthday and the local pub owner in South Hinksey threw her a party - fireworks and all!
We brought some birthday balloons to the party - had one casualty on the way, but 2 of the balloons made it! Paul looked so funny biking around with balloons that I just had to take a picture! As we were biking through town, I noticed a lot of people looking at the balloons and smiling. Guess balloons just put people in a good mood!
Here's Mikki with John, the owner of the pub in the background:
Before Paul left, we went punting with our friends Karen and Richard. Richard is Paul's roommate in Munich during the internship.
I didn't get pictures in the boat for fear of dropping the camera, but I did get a snap of Paul in his punting hat at Magdalen College:
And here's me and Karen with our cool punting hats as well:
You may think that the 4th of July is not celebrated in England. Well, you're right, except that it's also our friend Mikki's birthday and the local pub owner in South Hinksey threw her a party - fireworks and all!
We brought some birthday balloons to the party - had one casualty on the way, but 2 of the balloons made it! Paul looked so funny biking around with balloons that I just had to take a picture! As we were biking through town, I noticed a lot of people looking at the balloons and smiling. Guess balloons just put people in a good mood!
Here's Mikki with John, the owner of the pub in the background:
Saturday, June 21, 2008
The Enchanted Forest at St Cross College
This Thursday night we went to a ball at St Cross College. I don't know much about the college itself, but I do know that they throw a great party! Our friends Mikki and Brian went as well, and we all had a blast with dinner dancing and entertainment.
The thing with Oxford colleges is that they don't look like much from the outside, but on the inside they all (for the most part) have a gorgeous courtyard which is just perfect for parties, especially as the weather is getting warmer.
Here we are at the start of the party. They put these neat fairytale mushrooms all over the place. There's something I just love about little red mushrooms with white spots - in fact, I bought a little pottery one in a small village in France called Maury on our honeymoon.. you'll learn the connection later in this story...
After the cocktail reception in the courtyard, we went inside for dinner. The dining hall was actually pretty modern for Oxford, but nice and bright. Here's me and Mikki at the table:
Here's Paul with some of his Oxford school mates
The dinner consisted of a pureed vegetable soup for the starter, bacon-wrapped chicken with lentils and wild mushrooms for the main, and some kind of chocolate trifle for dessert. BUT - the highlight brings us back to France to that little village called Maury. Paul and I thought we'd never be able to find their sweet nectar outside of France, but much to our delight, it was served as a digestif after the meal! We had brought a bottle of it from our honeymoon to Mikki & Brian's murder mystery party last week, so it was really funny that they served it there! Anywhere, here's me with the wine after dinner (we may have had seconds and thirds of it!)
Us with some of the creatures roaming about...
And the night wouldn't be complete without another cute mushroom picture!
And for real bizarre-ness, a picture with the fantasy tree/vine/foliage people:
The thing with Oxford colleges is that they don't look like much from the outside, but on the inside they all (for the most part) have a gorgeous courtyard which is just perfect for parties, especially as the weather is getting warmer.
Here we are at the start of the party. They put these neat fairytale mushrooms all over the place. There's something I just love about little red mushrooms with white spots - in fact, I bought a little pottery one in a small village in France called Maury on our honeymoon.. you'll learn the connection later in this story...
After the cocktail reception in the courtyard, we went inside for dinner. The dining hall was actually pretty modern for Oxford, but nice and bright. Here's me and Mikki at the table:
Here's Paul with some of his Oxford school mates
The dinner consisted of a pureed vegetable soup for the starter, bacon-wrapped chicken with lentils and wild mushrooms for the main, and some kind of chocolate trifle for dessert. BUT - the highlight brings us back to France to that little village called Maury. Paul and I thought we'd never be able to find their sweet nectar outside of France, but much to our delight, it was served as a digestif after the meal! We had brought a bottle of it from our honeymoon to Mikki & Brian's murder mystery party last week, so it was really funny that they served it there! Anywhere, here's me with the wine after dinner (we may have had seconds and thirds of it!)
Us with some of the creatures roaming about...
And the night wouldn't be complete without another cute mushroom picture!
And for real bizarre-ness, a picture with the fantasy tree/vine/foliage people:
Sunday, June 15, 2008
The last Templeton Ball - Bon Voyage
A couple weeks ago, we went to the last Templeton ball, not just our last, but the last ever. Templeton is merging with Green College, so Templeton Collegeas we know it will no longer exist after this year. The theme was 'bon voyage'
Here's me with Danalisa at the champagne reception, though she didn't have any champagne since she's expecting! I don't get to see my 'mommy' friends nearly enough since I'm on a work schedule and they're on kid schedule, but we're hoping to plan a girls night/afternoon before Danalisa and Jodi go back to the US in July!
Here's me and Paul at the dinner table. We got a table in the outside patio under the tent, which was really nice! We've had so little nice weather here it's great to take advantage whenever we can!
And here's everyone at the table in the tent - from left to right, Kaori & Tetsuya, Vinita & Varun, Alina & Adrian, and I'm actually not sure who the other two are, but they're studying computer science and were very nice.
After the dinner they had dancing and cotton candy (here it's called candy floss). The cotton candy was really tempting, so Paul and I both had some, but it wasn't the best idea to eat that and then go dancing!
But we had fun nonetheless!
Here's me with Danalisa at the champagne reception, though she didn't have any champagne since she's expecting! I don't get to see my 'mommy' friends nearly enough since I'm on a work schedule and they're on kid schedule, but we're hoping to plan a girls night/afternoon before Danalisa and Jodi go back to the US in July!
Here's me and Paul at the dinner table. We got a table in the outside patio under the tent, which was really nice! We've had so little nice weather here it's great to take advantage whenever we can!
And here's everyone at the table in the tent - from left to right, Kaori & Tetsuya, Vinita & Varun, Alina & Adrian, and I'm actually not sure who the other two are, but they're studying computer science and were very nice.
After the dinner they had dancing and cotton candy (here it's called candy floss). The cotton candy was really tempting, so Paul and I both had some, but it wasn't the best idea to eat that and then go dancing!
But we had fun nonetheless!
More Simaceks in Oxford
No, there's not another little Simacek on the way. I'm talking about Paul's family coming to visit us a couple weeks ago! We spent most of the time touring around the Cotswolds seeing all the touristy things. We even rented a car, and Paul did great driving on the other side of the road!
I had to work the first two days of their visit, so they all went around to the Oxford colleges. That was fine with me, since we all got a chance to get out of Oxford on the weekend. Paul and I don't get out of town much (even to go one town over), so we really haven't had much of a chance to see England together. So it was great to have guests and an excuse for Paul to take a break from studying to see the sights!
On Saturday we did Warwick Castle and Stratford-Upon-Avon. We had some National Heritage passes left over from when my family visited over Christmas, so we wound up saving a ton of money on entrance fees - well over $500 when all was said and done!
Here we all are at Warwick Castle
Shakespeare's birthplace:
On Sunday, we saw Blenheim Palace and Broughton Castle. Blenheim is the birthplace and was the home of Winston Churchill. Not a bad start!
Here's Paul in Blenheim's back yard
At Blenheim, you can walk right into the sheep pasture, and there were adorable little lambs all over!
here I am striking a pose in front of the "Column of Victory" at Blenheim:
We also just happened to see this wedding procession! Can you imagine how much a wedding at Blenheim Palace would have cost?? I have no idea, but I'm sure you need a title like "Lord and Lady" to afford it!
Here are the Simacek ladies at Broughton Castle. The owners, Lord and Lady Saye and Sele (yes, they have an 'and' in the last name), still actually live there, but open it to the public two days per week during the summer. They filmed Shakespeare in Love here!
This is the back yard at Broughton - and the moat!
Yolanta & Anne in the garden
Paul and me on the roof..
I had to work the first two days of their visit, so they all went around to the Oxford colleges. That was fine with me, since we all got a chance to get out of Oxford on the weekend. Paul and I don't get out of town much (even to go one town over), so we really haven't had much of a chance to see England together. So it was great to have guests and an excuse for Paul to take a break from studying to see the sights!
On Saturday we did Warwick Castle and Stratford-Upon-Avon. We had some National Heritage passes left over from when my family visited over Christmas, so we wound up saving a ton of money on entrance fees - well over $500 when all was said and done!
Here we all are at Warwick Castle
Shakespeare's birthplace:
On Sunday, we saw Blenheim Palace and Broughton Castle. Blenheim is the birthplace and was the home of Winston Churchill. Not a bad start!
Here's Paul in Blenheim's back yard
At Blenheim, you can walk right into the sheep pasture, and there were adorable little lambs all over!
here I am striking a pose in front of the "Column of Victory" at Blenheim:
We also just happened to see this wedding procession! Can you imagine how much a wedding at Blenheim Palace would have cost?? I have no idea, but I'm sure you need a title like "Lord and Lady" to afford it!
Here are the Simacek ladies at Broughton Castle. The owners, Lord and Lady Saye and Sele (yes, they have an 'and' in the last name), still actually live there, but open it to the public two days per week during the summer. They filmed Shakespeare in Love here!
This is the back yard at Broughton - and the moat!
Yolanta & Anne in the garden
Paul and me on the roof..
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
May Day in Oxford
Tomorrow is May Day in Oxford. It's one of those celebrations of spring that goes back ages. Currently, the city gets up at 6AM to hear a boys' choir performing at Brasenose College, followed by Morris dancers (looks like men in leiderhosen waving hankies and banging sticks together). I read a story about the Morris dancers a couple of weeks ago, and I guess membership is dwindling, so they're now bring women into it.
After much debate, Paul and I decided we'd rather have a good night's sleep than participate in this, especially since I've got a lot going on at work right now and I don't want to be wiped out by lunchtime. However, I found a great video on YouTube of the May Day festivities from last year:
Also, we did see some Morris dancers the other week. Here's some pictures of them...
Dancing with Sticks (also note the woman to the right of the dancers, in the black coat. You may notice she's about to step on what looks like a pothole in the pavement. It's actually there on purpose to mark the spot where Protestant Martyrs were burned alive back in the day. You can read more about that here.)
...and Dancing with Hankies
PS. We're going to Brussels on the train this weekend! Going through the chunnel, and arriving in just over 2 hours from London!
After much debate, Paul and I decided we'd rather have a good night's sleep than participate in this, especially since I've got a lot going on at work right now and I don't want to be wiped out by lunchtime. However, I found a great video on YouTube of the May Day festivities from last year:
Also, we did see some Morris dancers the other week. Here's some pictures of them...
Dancing with Sticks (also note the woman to the right of the dancers, in the black coat. You may notice she's about to step on what looks like a pothole in the pavement. It's actually there on purpose to mark the spot where Protestant Martyrs were burned alive back in the day. You can read more about that here.)
...and Dancing with Hankies
PS. We're going to Brussels on the train this weekend! Going through the chunnel, and arriving in just over 2 hours from London!
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Mardi Gras at Templeton
Mardi Gras isn't exactly celebrated in England (though they do have "Pancake Day" on the same day), so Paul's college held a Mardi Gras theme guest dinner this weekend. We got masks for the event, which featured a champagne reception followed by a dinner of jambalaya, catfish and American cheesecake, with dancing afterwards.
Here's us with our friends Vinita and Varun - can you guess who's who with the masks? haha! (Thanks for the blinking beads, Mom!)
And here's Paul with some of his classmates at the afterparty. You can't quite see it, but there was a big chocolate fountain in the back!
We enjoyed being out at the Templeton campus, as it's far enough from the city center that you really feel like you're outside of the city. Oxford is small enough that we can still see the stars at night (unlike Chicago!), but it's still very urban feeling.
On Saturday night we went to visit our friends Brian and Mikki, who live in a 400 year old cottage about a 20 minute bike ride from our flat. I can see why the like the place, it's really cool to be there. They've got a thatched roof, and all of the doorways are about 5'8", so the guys have to remember to duck when they walk between rooms! The village is called South Hinksey, and the cottage used to be the village bakery. Brian and Mikki told us that if they have something delivered, they can either give their address, or say "the old bake house in South Hinksey". Pretty cool, huh? Though, I do not envy their commute into town - you have to carry your bike up about 50 steps to get over the railroad tracks! It's good exercise, though!
This week my boss comes back from paternity leave (men get 2 weeks here!), so that will be another adjustment at work. We were talking to some friends from Saudi Arabia at the Mardi Gras dinner, and learned that there, you get one paid day off for paternity leave. In the States, you legally get zero paid days off. I won't get started on what people get in Scandinavian countries, but in the UK anyway, it's pretty darn good compared to what you get in other parts of the world.
Paul is going to some sort of business fair tomorrow, so we'll see if he finds anything interesting. It's hard to think about a job when you're doing school work for something like 80 hours per week!
Here's us with our friends Vinita and Varun - can you guess who's who with the masks? haha! (Thanks for the blinking beads, Mom!)
And here's Paul with some of his classmates at the afterparty. You can't quite see it, but there was a big chocolate fountain in the back!
We enjoyed being out at the Templeton campus, as it's far enough from the city center that you really feel like you're outside of the city. Oxford is small enough that we can still see the stars at night (unlike Chicago!), but it's still very urban feeling.
On Saturday night we went to visit our friends Brian and Mikki, who live in a 400 year old cottage about a 20 minute bike ride from our flat. I can see why the like the place, it's really cool to be there. They've got a thatched roof, and all of the doorways are about 5'8", so the guys have to remember to duck when they walk between rooms! The village is called South Hinksey, and the cottage used to be the village bakery. Brian and Mikki told us that if they have something delivered, they can either give their address, or say "the old bake house in South Hinksey". Pretty cool, huh? Though, I do not envy their commute into town - you have to carry your bike up about 50 steps to get over the railroad tracks! It's good exercise, though!
This week my boss comes back from paternity leave (men get 2 weeks here!), so that will be another adjustment at work. We were talking to some friends from Saudi Arabia at the Mardi Gras dinner, and learned that there, you get one paid day off for paternity leave. In the States, you legally get zero paid days off. I won't get started on what people get in Scandinavian countries, but in the UK anyway, it's pretty darn good compared to what you get in other parts of the world.
Paul is going to some sort of business fair tomorrow, so we'll see if he finds anything interesting. It's hard to think about a job when you're doing school work for something like 80 hours per week!
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Why MBA students are not professional athletes
You might recognize someone (wearing red) in the Hertford M4 boat. Pictures here:
http://www.bigblade-photos.com/rowing/events/2008/ot08/rowingon/Hertford%20M4.html
http://www.bigblade-photos.com/rowing/events/2008/ot08/rowingon/Hertford%20M4.html
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Biking the Isis
There is a river that runs through Oxford. Before it enters Oxford, it is called the Thames. When it leaves Oxford, it is called the Thames. But in Oxford, it's called the Isis. Why that is, I'm not sure, beyond some sort of snobbery. Either way, it's a nice place to take a bike ride.
We decided to try biking down the river path a couple weekends ago, soon after flooding had become a problem around Oxfordshire. It was the first glimpse of sunshine we'd had in a whle, so we felt we had to take advantage. However, we only got about as far as Iffley because the field we were supposed to go through was flooded with about a foot of water!
Here's Paul on his bike, with typical English winter weather in the background. We have a partly sunny day about once per week, and this was one of them.
This picture gives you an idea of what the bike path looks like as you head south from Oxford. You pass by a lot of cute villages and a few pubs!
At certain points along the river, there are lots of swans and ducks. Normally swans are territorial, but when children are regularly brought along to throw bread at them, they congregate and pay more attention to the good eats than they do to each other. Here we saw a family of swans (you can see the gray teenage ones).
And here's a neat house with a thatched roof that we saw in Iffley.
Also in Iffley is an old Norman church, built in 1170, called St Mary's. Neither of us had ever seen a Norman church before, and we had no idea it was anything all that special until we went home and googled it!
So that's kind of what it's like living around here. The more you wander around, the more random old things you find.
We decided to try biking down the river path a couple weekends ago, soon after flooding had become a problem around Oxfordshire. It was the first glimpse of sunshine we'd had in a whle, so we felt we had to take advantage. However, we only got about as far as Iffley because the field we were supposed to go through was flooded with about a foot of water!
Here's Paul on his bike, with typical English winter weather in the background. We have a partly sunny day about once per week, and this was one of them.
This picture gives you an idea of what the bike path looks like as you head south from Oxford. You pass by a lot of cute villages and a few pubs!
At certain points along the river, there are lots of swans and ducks. Normally swans are territorial, but when children are regularly brought along to throw bread at them, they congregate and pay more attention to the good eats than they do to each other. Here we saw a family of swans (you can see the gray teenage ones).
And here's a neat house with a thatched roof that we saw in Iffley.
Also in Iffley is an old Norman church, built in 1170, called St Mary's. Neither of us had ever seen a Norman church before, and we had no idea it was anything all that special until we went home and googled it!
So that's kind of what it's like living around here. The more you wander around, the more random old things you find.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Ashmolean Adventure
So something pretty neat happened today that I totally didn't expect, and it could only happen in Oxford. Last night I received an e-mail from Amanda inviting me along to see the special prints collection at the Ashmolean Museum. I wasn't really sure what was involved, but figured a bit of culture wouldn't hurt. Apparently she and her mom (who's visiting from the States) went there a couple days ago and found out that if you book an appointment, they'll let you in to see these special collections for free.
I met up with Amanda and her mom at the museum, but on the way there I ran into some colleagues from work. The two of them are from central Russia and are working on our company database for a few months before they go back to Russia. I spotted them examining a map, and stopped to see if I could help them find where they wanted to go. Turns out they had just planned to walk around Oxford, so I invited them along to the museum in the off chance they'd let some extra people into the print room. I'm so glad I did, because 15 minutes later we were all in the print room looking at original sketches from Michaelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael and (no not Donatello), Rembrandt. Pretty crazy! It was so cool to see their little doodles and sketches. I think the most impressive was Rembrandt's portrait of his father. It was just a sketch with a little color, but the detail was so lifelike! The woman running the place had to use special gloves to take each of the sketches out, and didn't want all of us looking at one picture at the same time since just breathing on them could damage them!
We could have stayed longer and looked through pretty much whatever we wanted to in the rest of the collections, but I think we all were ready to move on. I'm so glad Amanda invited me along because it's not the kind of thing I'd go looking for on my own, but it's really cool to see.
I met up with Amanda and her mom at the museum, but on the way there I ran into some colleagues from work. The two of them are from central Russia and are working on our company database for a few months before they go back to Russia. I spotted them examining a map, and stopped to see if I could help them find where they wanted to go. Turns out they had just planned to walk around Oxford, so I invited them along to the museum in the off chance they'd let some extra people into the print room. I'm so glad I did, because 15 minutes later we were all in the print room looking at original sketches from Michaelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael and (no not Donatello), Rembrandt. Pretty crazy! It was so cool to see their little doodles and sketches. I think the most impressive was Rembrandt's portrait of his father. It was just a sketch with a little color, but the detail was so lifelike! The woman running the place had to use special gloves to take each of the sketches out, and didn't want all of us looking at one picture at the same time since just breathing on them could damage them!
We could have stayed longer and looked through pretty much whatever we wanted to in the rest of the collections, but I think we all were ready to move on. I'm so glad Amanda invited me along because it's not the kind of thing I'd go looking for on my own, but it's really cool to see.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Winter Light: White Night Oxford
Last night I went out with a group of friends to check out the Winter Light: White Night event in Oxford. It's an annual event where some stores stay open late (7pm!) and museums and art galleries open their doors for free.
I met up with Janick, Karen and Kaori at Gloucester Green, where some artists were setting up for an art sale. We went to the Ashmolean Museum first to check out some harpsichord music. Here we are in front of the museum.
Later we met up with Nina and Vinita for dinner by Oxford Castle. There were some neat ice carvings out, and we even saw one ice carver in action!
Here are some of the finished ice sculptures:
Then we went and checked out the Broad Street area where they had some kind of giant light-up inflatable cones on display. There was weird music/sounds playing from underneath each of the cones, and they changed color from red to green, yellow and blue. We weren't really sure what to think of them, but I suppose it was something to see!
We ended our night at the Museum of Natural History, with a glass of "hot squash", which we found out is half juice and half hot water. It's not bad, especially if you've been walking around the the cold for a while! The museum had some really great stuff on display, so I'd like to go back when it's not so crowded!
This is going to be a tough week for everyone, as it is exam time! All of the students are pretty stressed out, especially since most of them have been away from school for a while and aren't used to taking exams. Everyone I have talked to has said their husband or boyfriend has started growing a beard because they are spending so much time studying!
I met up with Janick, Karen and Kaori at Gloucester Green, where some artists were setting up for an art sale. We went to the Ashmolean Museum first to check out some harpsichord music. Here we are in front of the museum.
Later we met up with Nina and Vinita for dinner by Oxford Castle. There were some neat ice carvings out, and we even saw one ice carver in action!
Here are some of the finished ice sculptures:
Then we went and checked out the Broad Street area where they had some kind of giant light-up inflatable cones on display. There was weird music/sounds playing from underneath each of the cones, and they changed color from red to green, yellow and blue. We weren't really sure what to think of them, but I suppose it was something to see!
We ended our night at the Museum of Natural History, with a glass of "hot squash", which we found out is half juice and half hot water. It's not bad, especially if you've been walking around the the cold for a while! The museum had some really great stuff on display, so I'd like to go back when it's not so crowded!
This is going to be a tough week for everyone, as it is exam time! All of the students are pretty stressed out, especially since most of them have been away from school for a while and aren't used to taking exams. Everyone I have talked to has said their husband or boyfriend has started growing a beard because they are spending so much time studying!