It’s starting to occur to me that if you live somewhere for four months, there has to be a point where your extended vacation turns into…life. And that point occured during my Mexico study abroad trip somewhere around two weeks ago. I still hang out on ocean beaches on the weekends and climb things whenever I find them, but there are also 12-page midterm papers. I’m still meeting new people, but I also have a family that I come home to everyday. And while the ice cream still insistently calls to me from every street corner, it’s probably best that I cut down on my cone-a-day habit.

Not to say that life-life can’t be an adventure. For instance, the 12 page paper I had to write for the study abroad Mexico program was a whirlwind, considering the longest paper I had ever written in Spanish before it was two pages long…almost.

The 12-page monstrosity was for my “The role of Caves and Cenotes in Indigenous Religion” class. I had signed up for this class for essentially three reasons: #1 Why not? Northwestern University most definitely does not offer this class in the United States. #2 Caves just can’t be that hard. And, #3 there are FIELDTRIPS!

#1 and #3 had been panning out nicely. Two months ago I think the prospect of using a headlamp during class might have shocked me a little more than it did by the time we took our first fieldtrip. We drove to what seemed like a random field, found what seemed like a random little hole, and called the local police to bring a ladder. Then we climbed down said ladder into said little hole, and found ourselves inside a gigantic cave. Inside the cave were ruins of a mini-pyramid and pathways to two cenotes. My professor explained that ancient human remains had been found in the water. Naturally, we all jumped in with our clothes on. I think the paper was revenge for having too much fun on the fieldtrip.

Research was hard, not because of the Spanish, but because of a library system that was, well, foreign. One day I spent four consecutive hours in the library searching for a book, any book, that might vaguely relate to my topic. I had zero success. I was on the brink of ripping all of the books from their shelves and rearranging them in a computer-cataloged Dewy Decimal system when a Mexican friend from class found me and asked if I need help—a question that didn’t require an answer, considering my distressed appearance and the handfuls of hair I had already metaphorically ripped from my head. He led me to the other end of the library and pulled out three years’ issues of Archeology Today (or something like that) magazines from a shelf. He flipped through each one, and after five minutes he had provided all of the sources for my paper. What? You mean we have these magazines? And they aren’t in the electronic catalog? And the articles aren’t all listed on the computer by topic and author’s last name? Oh.

Then came the Spanish. After I had sharpened every pencil in the house and made four cups of tea, I somehow just made myself write it. And, although I may have been intentionally excessive on the footnotes and counted the bibliography as a page, I somehow produced 12 pages of what I hope is literate Spanish. And I’ve never been so proud of a mediocre paper in my life.

Phew.

Now come finals…

And so another week has passed during my time studying in England at Oxford, that has yet to rain on my parade more than one day in a row.

The weather wasn’t the only thing that went well this week. The tutorials were also fantastic. On Monday, I met with Alistair, my modern British drama tutor. It went really well, aside from the smell of the cleaner that the scouts had used on his toilet. It smelled sneakily like rotten eggs. His office was at top of Emden tower and had an excellent view of the peons walking in the rear-quad below. The shelves overflowed with books and records.

More importantly, the conversation that we had about Samuel Beckett plays was really stimulating. While Lizzie prefers to pick out quotes from my Shakespeare papers, Alistair prefers to hear me read the entire thing out-loud, and he interrupts and challenges when he hears weak arguments or descriptions in the essay. For his essay I wrote about two plays: the infamous Waiting for Godot and the obscure Ohio Impromptu. While I thoroughly enjoyed Ohio Impromptu, I felt ambivalent about Godot, which I think is appropriate, if you know the content.

Reading Ohio Impromptu was ironic because I am here on the other side of the globe, reading British drama, and here is a play that was written and performed initially for a Beckett seminar at Ohio State University. The play has two people on stage. Reader reads passages from the last chapter of a book. Listener hears him and knocks on the table apparently controlling or emotionally responding to Reader’s book. And then when reader gets to the end, there is nothing left to tell. It is a really beautiful play, and it is really short, which makes it interesting to study. At several points during the tutorial, Alistair and I found ourselves kind of spinning in a logic that went like: Beckett’s plays don’t mean anything, but in that they don’t mean anything, they actually mean something, but you can’t really know what they mean, so they must mean nothing. Quite frustratingly circular. Kind of like the theory I established for seeing the meaning: the concept of zero, which is nothing, but represents nothing and therefore is something.

Shakespeare was challenging, because as soon as I finished working on the Beckett essay, I had to begin preparing for Shakespeare. A lot of leg work in the library, but when I finished my tutorial on Thursday, I felt like I had done not only a lot of work, but some very good work. While I am not anywhere close to being a Shakespeare scholar, I feel like I am beginning to see what this really looks like and what sort of thinking is shaping this vast ocean of thought today. It is really exciting. (wow… I didn’t ever plan to say that about Shakespeare…)

Thursday evening I also got to do some more rowing. I think my technique is starting too improve. Rowing is largely meant to be done with the legs, and last night I felt the burn in the leg muscles and not in my back and arms (which is where its not supposed to be). This was really encouraging. Afterwards, I learned (the hard way) that the gates to the university parks (where the boathouses are) close promptly at 6 pm and that there is only one that comes close to being scalable. I tried the three most direct fences first. What a humiliating walk home in the rain. 15 feet of cast iron is still intimidating, even in the post-modern age.

This weekend, I have a homestay with a British family. As long as you promise not to tell them, I will tell you what I made as a house-warming gift. I was really struggling with what to do for this. I had to really think about what happens in Ohio at this time of year. After much deliberation, I decided that peanut butter buckeyes would best represent autumnal Columbus, Ohio. So this afternoon, I have been making buckeyes. I’ve never done this before, but I’m quite proud of my work in my little kitchen. They are surprisingly easy to make. Hopefully my host-family doesn’t have anyone who is allergic to peanuts, because then I will end up with a stomach ache from eating them all myself.

Oh! Almost forgot. Thursday night I had my first experience with the Oxford Union debate society. They staged a debate on the following proposition: This house would vote for change over experience. Both the opposition and the proposition sides had 3 university debaters as well as an American representative. It was really interesting to see the Oxford Union hall packed with mostly British students who apparently have motivated interest in American politics. Many of the initial arguments were grounded in establishing how American politics inevitably affect the politics of the rest of the world. I never really thought of this till I left the country, but I think it must be true. The German Obama rally that fetched over 200,000 people last summer was my first clue. The Obama posters all over Paris were my next clue. The packed hall of Oxford Union full of students from all over the world to see a debate on American politics was the clincher. Unfortunately, the Union officer responsible for securing external representation on both sides of the debate did a mediocre to poor job of finding someone who could defend the opposition. The gentleman they did find spoke ineffectively and digressively about terrorist activity in Afghanistan and Iran. I was a little disappointed, but I nonetheless learned a lot, and I can’t wait to see another debate there.

And that about does it for this update from Oxford and the IfSA-Butler study in England program. Tune in next week for news from the home-stay and Shakespeare’s history plays.

I very much expected for the few weeks we have left here at Uni to be filled with frantic studying and.. well… not much else.  I was very wrong.  In fact, the University seemed to be more alive than ever.  Sure there was studying going on, but as temperatures rose and the end of the semester approaches, it seems as if everyone is either travelling, partying, or spending free time at the pool or beach.  The International students who study abroad in Australia realize they don’t have much time left to travel and experience Australia – spending every last penny.  And the Australians, given the week off before finals begin, plan big parties and trips to the beach or Nearby Island destinations.  As for me… Well, I’m going to be here for another 8 whole months, so I am in no hurry to go anywhere, and my classes are pretty difficult, so I find myself torn.  I have spent my fair share of free time at the college pool, playing Frisbee, and have attended a couple parties, but I really need to get down to business now.  Unsure of future college plans when I return to the United States, I just need to get the best marks I can.
Today we had a decent thunder storm come through.  As usual, before dinner time, I was out playing frisbee with one of my college friends, when it all came down on us.  There were also other groups of out on the cricket field, playing casual soccer or rugby.  When the rain came we all paused… looked around, and decided to just keep playing.  As the rain came down harder, and lightning came closer, we had even more fun.  Covering the middle of the cricket field was a massive tarp, and after it had collected rain, some students started sliding on it.  The trend grew and eventually we were all sliding  (easily 10-15 meters each) on this tarp, having a blast!  We started getting creative by diving for frisbee passes, playing several rounds of human bowling, and colliding in the middle as two people slid from each end.  This reminded me of home, and we all got to know each other really well.
It has been a very fun day, but I must get working now and keep on a schedule.  However, I am very relieved that we have so long to study in Australia before final exams.  The atmosphere here on campus, I reiterate, is very different than it would be in the states.
I strongly feel:
Encouraged – I believe I have found the practical help and resources I will need to pass each of my courses!
At Home – Going to the Butler Study Abroad Farewell Dinner, I (being the only student of the group staying for next semester) felt as if Australia was my own, like these friends I had made were just visiting.  I was proud of my new country and new home, and looked anxiously forward to having it become a greater part of who I am!  I didn’t need to worry about the culture shock of the return or if I will be able to handle the snow and cold – I’m Staying!

Week One

Well, I’m 1/8 of the way done with my time here in studying in England. I participated in my first Oxford tutorial this week, and though it was challenging, the hour flew by far too quickly. We barely had time to address the portion of my paper about Brutus. The conversation between my tutor, Lizzie, and I was fantastic. We talked about criticism and lectures and ways for me to inform myself about current research on William. After this, Lizzie drew out the weak points in the 9 page paper that I composed during freshers week. It was a little embarrassing to have her tease out everything in my paper that was ill-concieved or non-specific. She challenged me on vague constructions and labels, and there were a few times when I had to stop and seriously think about what I wrote. I think my inability to focus was due partially to an existential crisis attributable to living my dream of going to Oxford. Fortunately, she offered me a cup of coffee at the beginning of the session, and that got the juices flowing like oil out of a pump.

Aside from the coursework, I have also participated in a few freshers/novice rowing sessions. On Thursday evening we had an ERG session on the rowing machines in the boathouse by the Thames. The focus was on technique and rhythm. This was good for me, because I am almost clueless about what the proper technique should look like. To my dismay, I found that my technique was far below what I had hoped it might be: my arms are still sore on Saturday.

One of the things that I really enjoy about collegiate level sports here at Oxford is their casual nature. The point of the sport isn’t so much to be the best in the world, but mostly just to have a good time and take a break from studying. Well that’s not entirely true. I think they do aspire to be good, but they have a more realistic perception of sport: it cannot be the sole occupier of a student’s consciousness. There must be time for studying and social things too. Walking-on, which seems kind of impossible with most collegiate level sport in America, is derigor. All of this is perfect for me, a fellow who hasn’t really done any sport regularly save swimming in high school, indoor pick-up soccer through the last two summers, and jogging when he thinks of it.

This week I also began preparing for my modern British drama tutorial, which is now fast approaching on Monday afternoon. This week will focus largely on Samuel Beckett. After the intense focus of Thursday’s tutorial, I ended up spending most of the afternoon trying to “relax” by reading primary texts and watching performances of Samuel Beckett’s minimalist and absurdist drama. It wasn’t exactly relaxing. In fact, I felt quite on edge at the end of Endgame, Not I, and  Play. Waiting for Godot wasn’t really much of a walk in the park either. Beckett throws around some serious imagery. The mother and father figures in Endgame deliver all of their lines from inside rubbish cans inside a barren room. Not I is just a mouth on an otherwise dimly lit stage speaking in phrases about a girl adrift in a meaningless, unanchored life. Play featured two women and a man standing in body sized urns for the entire script, delivering their lines, which are all about the man having an affair and the women finding out, in triple time. Like I said, not exactly relaxing, but a definite break from the Shakespeare.

The weather during the study abroad England program has been shockingly un-English. Friday was so beautiful that I actually took the long way home from the post-office and took pictures the whole way. The fruit of that labor will be online at some point in the near future.

Thanks for reading.

So far I’ve written a lot about my everyday life participating in the IFSA-Butler study in Mexico program, but it’s also worth mentioning that I’m having a lot of crazy, pack-extra-water adventures. In other words, I’ve been climbing a lot of things.

Last weekend, for instance, I climbed both 17^th century pirate walls and third century Mayan ruins.

The former took place in Campeche. Campeche was once the major port town of the Yucatan, and, consequently, was attacked by pirates quite often. That is, until the king of Spain installed pirate-proof baluartes (walls) complete with cannons. This is important to us today because a) you can climb them and b) at night, there’s a reenactment of a pirate attack that includes both a light show and paper boats. Yes!

From Campeche we hired a “tourguide” to drive us four hours into the jungle to visit Calakmul, which is near Guatemala. At one point we had to stop the car for a herd of cows to pass.

We arrived at an empty parking lot, where our “guide” showed us to the corner of the jungle that featured a dark winding path. After about 15 minutes of walking, we realized that the cows, the potholes and 5 a.m. wakeup call had all been worth it.

It’s one experience to visit Chichén Itzá, where tour buses from Cancun unload hundreds of bikini-clad tourists every hour and merchants heckle you from the sidelines of every path. But it’s a completely different experience to wander through the jungle and come across giant, ripe-for-climbing pyramids that are completely yours to explore. According to my guidebook there are 7,200 Mayan “remnants” in the Colakmul jungle. I have to admit I only counted 7,190.

From Campeche we also visited Edzná, the second ancient climbing complex of the weekend. Instead of the tour-guide transportation we hired for Colakmul, we traveled to Edzná by little blue van. To find said little blue van, we asked 10 different people in the market where the little blue vans left from. We received 10 different answers that, when averaged, eventually did lead us to a little blue van. Unfortunately, it was full. Fortunately, they let us in anyway. As well as five more people and a cake.

Once safely at Edzná, we climbed. Yes!

You might think I’d had my fill of pyramids during my time studying in Mexico, but this weekend I found myself atop yet another. This one was also reached via little van, but, unlike Colakmul and Edzná, it was located in a city and not the main attraction. I’m not sure I could make up a city like Izamal if I tried. All of the buildings are painted yellow to match the huge, imposing, bright-yellow convent at its center. The convent was built with stones from the Mayan pyramids that preceded it, and, considering the size of the convent, it’s a wonder that 3 of the 12 original pyramids still exist. In addition to the quirky quaintness of the entire city being yellow and three forgotten pyramids being scattered around town, horse and buggy taxis provide the major transportation.

Let’s recap this picture: city, surrounded by pyramids, painted entirely yellow, horse and buggies trotting everywhere.

Yes!

Not much has been happening this week, other than a lot of studying and essay writing (although perhaps not as much of that as would be ideal).  It´s midterm-time, which is pretty hard to believe, because it means the study abroad Peru program is halfway over!  I thought that maybe I should stop and think about what I will miss about Perú when I leave in two months (and what I won´t).

Will miss:

1. Dogs in coats.  There are virtually no dogs here that do not wear some article of clothing.  It was one of my first impressions of Lima–I thought it was hilarious then and I haven´t gotten sick of it at all.

2. Speaking Spanish.  It adds a challenge to everyday life that just doesn´t exist when you wake up in the morning sure that you can say everything you will need to say that day.  Even the frequent embarrassments aren´t that bad, and surprising successes more than make up for them.

3. $2 lunches.  Peruvian restaurants have a menú, which is different than the carta, which is what the US calls a menu.  Usually the menú is a really good deal: an appetizer, entrée and drink for 6-9 soles, which right now is 2-3 dollars.  And some places have really good food.  Yesterday I had a fruit salad and chicken with rice that was delicious.

4. Public transportation.  I still haven´t decided whether I love or hate the combi system here, but it´s amazingly convenient.  I walk out my door and over 4 blocks and can hop on a combi almost instantly, since the ones I need go by every couple minutes.  No planning required.  Cheap.  Nice.

Things I probably won´t miss (but who knows)

1. Grey skies.  This might change soon, but we´re going through a grey period, and I miss the sun!

2. Having to do schoolwork.  I can´t wait to actually graduate!

3. Public transportation.  It´s crowded and sometimes requires an argument about how much you have to pay, and apparently some combis have fleas (I haven´t been bitten, but other people have).  And driving is just so fun.  If only gas were as cheap as a ride on the combi.

So those are my thoughts right now.  They´ll probably be different by the end of the program in a couple months (!), and on this list I didn´t include any of the people here, because I obviously will miss them.

I have two essays due tomorrow, and exams on Tuesday and Wednesday, which isn´t a great way to start the week.  However, on Monday I also am going to get a massage at the office to de-stress and then go paragliding off the cliffs by the ocean (to re-stress).  I´ll hopefully post some pictures after I go!

Freshers week at Oxford may be one of the most exciting things that happens on the face of this planet. The city buzzes with humanity. Between shopping for the things that I wasn’t able to bring with me, meeting my tutors, and figuring out how to live in a completely new environment, I hardly found time to sleep. I found my heart racing from the moment the sun peaked through my skylight window till I fell asleep catching up on my reading for my tutorial.

Oxford is unlike any American university experience. After one week of experience within this new system, I would say that the keyword to describe the difference is organic. If the American university system seems to be institution breeds students, the Oxford tutorial and college system seems to be students breed an institution. If the American system is pragmatic, the Oxford system is organic. If the American system is rigid, the Oxford system is fluid. I don’t mean this in a negative way, even though it sort of comes off like that.

I learned the most about the differences between the two systems at Wednesday evening’s induction dinner. It has a very Harry Potter feel to it. All 120 or so freshers and visiting students at the college were wearing commoners gowns and full sub-fusc, for a formal dinner elbow-to-elbow in Wolfson Hall. The commoners gown is kind of a silly looking robe that extends just below the waist and has little black strips of cloth that hang off around the shoulder. Sub-fusc is dark dressy clothes. The dinner is very elegant; the tables are replete with wine bottles bearing the Teddy Hall crest, silver candelabras, and all the accouterments necessary for consuming a formal dinner. The seating is separated by department and conversation flourishes accordingly.

At the end of the dinner, the Principal stands up and tells us about how the hall has been around as an educational body since the 12th century, but how it wasn’t a formal college until the 1950′s. He talks about how scholars would come together to support tutors and tutors would come together to share an administration and eventually this became a college that is part of the university. The details are exceptionally murky. After he narrated this nuanced history, he asked us to raise our hands and he swore us in as members of St. Edmund Hall, aka Teddy Hall.

Teddy Hall seems to be a very small place. There are approximately 400 undergraduates and 200 graduate students. The campus seems to have 3 main areas: the library and cemetery, the front quad, and the back quad or dining hall. Combined, the 3 main areas take up about as much space as an American football field or two. The college is tucked neatly between Magdalen and Queens colleges, and hidden from High Street by a row of shops.

My walk from my room in Dawson Street across the Magdalen bridge along High Street to Queens Lane takes about 7 minutes. I still have not quite gotten used to having the cars on the wrong side of the road. This has been fairly unsettling, and I am worried that I am going to get hit. I’ve had a few close shaves. Fortunately, I’ve discovered that the zebra crossings give pedestrians the right of way, and the only big street that I have to cross has one right on my way.

This week I also met my tutors: Alastair and Lizzy. Alastair will be working with me on Modern British Drama and Lizzie will be my Shakespeare tutor. Alastair seems to be quite jovial. He has a big red beard and has completed a masters thesis on Samuel Beckett’s play Breath. Lizzie has given me one of the most intense collections of Shakespeare criticism I have ever seen. She seems to be very intelligent, and I am a little nervous but also excited about having her read my own ideas about Shakespeare.

Thursday afternoon was the university Freshers fair. While the different colleges are all very independent (technically, I am not supposed to enter other colleges unaccompanied, let alone borrow books from their libraries), they share an administration and the Bodleian library, and this seems to open the door for students to form organizations across the entire university. This year’s fresher’s fair featured 350+ organizations filling most of the University Exam Schools building as well as some temporary tents erected outside. It was a little overwhelming at times, especially when I got roped into signing up for 3 martial arts orgs simply because traffic past the tables was a little congested and I clearly wasn’t going anywhere. Highlights included Octopush (something like underwater hockey), the Oxford Union (debate society), and Bacchus (the wine tasting society). I am looking forward to events put on by the Magdalen Film Society, the C.S. Lewis Society, The Oxford Drama Society, and the Oxford Forum (a university wide magazine).

One of the sports that I am most excited about at Teddy Hall is rowing. It seems to be a fair amount of work, but also a good way to exercise something other than my mind. I have attended a few events with the rowing team now, and I think I will enjoy it quite a bit. The walk to the boathouse is possibly one of the most beautiful in Oxford.

And so I’ve made it through the end of 0th or Freshers week of Michaelmas Term ’08. Tomorrow I will attend a few lectures in between some nice stretches at the Library.

Arrival in London was a little stressful: I actually missed my original train from Paris to London. I learned when I arrived at the station that check-in for the international trains to the UK requires about 30 minutes. Arriving at Gare de Nord 15 minutes before my departure was too late. Fortunately, trains on a Thursday afternoon are not overbooked (like some flights) and I was simply bumped to the next train.

Once in London, I found the orientation hotel without very much trouble. I only had to walk around the block the wrong way twice. It was amazing to begin meeting students. I found three Teddy Hall students sitting at my dinner table: Rory, Will, and Sarah. It was incredible to learn about the different backgrounds that we are bringing to Oxford. Will is a fifth year engineering student who is putting off grad school for a year in order to study physics at Oxford. Rory is from South Africa and will be studying Romantic literature (not too far from my own concentration). Sarah has worked for a summer program with students learning English, just like I have, except that her program was in the US.

Friday was the primary day for orientation. We had sessions on acclimating ourselves in English culture led by the London IFSA-Butler staff. These were very entertaining. Then we talked about academic details and the things that we could expect at Oxford in our different tutorials.

The highlight of the day was the third presentation by Lord Taverne of the House of Lords, who came to speak about English politics and how they differ from the US system. At the end of his talk, he allowed us to ask questions about his work for nearly 20 minutes. It was amazing to see Lord Taverne demonstrate what a Lord is supposed to do: offer advice on revision and moderation of legislation and resolutions. Is it possible that this was actually far more exciting in person than it looks in writing? Yes.

On Friday evening we went to a play called “Creditors” being performed in a small theater in Covent Garden. It was very interesting to see a very modern play performed after having so totally immersed myself in Shakespearean plays and history for the past month. I kept thinking about the differences and similarities like how Shakespeare seemed to average a cast of 12 significant characters, each representing different but necessary stereotypes to produce the drama. This play only had three performers and I kept seeing pieces of 12 Shakespearean stereotypes amalgamated into these characters. I think it was the writer’s ability to harness roles like the tragic hero and the jester into a single character that led to such an enjoyable and interesting play.

After a brief Saturday morning Q & A about life at Teddy Hall and a very nice lunch at a Greek restaurant, we have been set free on London to tour-ize and pick up last minute items before we leave for Oxford on Monday morning. A cell phone is at the top of my list.

~Country Life Weekend

Planned and organized by the Butler Australia Study Abroad Programs, Country Life weekend exceeded all my expectations and brought me face to face with the Australian country.  On Friday the 19th of September, the Butler Students split ways and were taken into either Lamington National Park or Rosalie Plains, near Towoomba.  The 4000 acre Cattle Farm we stayed at in Rosalie Plains was beautiful and all but boring.  Each had their own warm quilted bed inside the vast farmhouse which was run by a lively couple, the Reynolds.  They cooked delicious country-sized meals for us, even Steak from the farm – I was in heaven!  Our first day there, we arrived later in the day, and after dinner, lied under the stars with the dogs Scruffy and Kingy.  The night sky was astounding; there were even more stars out than I had seen in the mountains of Colorado or the plains of Arizona.  You could see a galaxy mass covering a quarter of the sky, and shooting stars showed up regularly.  The next day, we went on a truck ride around the property.  We were riding in the truck bed while kangaroos sprinted alongside us – incredible ( I think we all used the words “like Jurassic Park!”).  Later we watched how they made cattle feed, and climbed giant stacks of hay bales with the dogs.  We also had plenty of free time to play tennis (they had a court – random) and relax.  On the final day, we visited the house that won the #1 Country Garden award which was quite amazing.  Australians have some pretty amazing potential for home gardens including pineapples, oranges, lemons, avocados!  We got to know the Reynolds well over that short time, and I hope to visit again before I go home.

~Cairns

This past week during my study abroad in Australia was our Spring Break equivalent here at UQ.  This is the trip I had been waiting for: SCUBA diving in on of the Great Barrier Reef!  Just a short flight North of Brisbane, we found ourselves in the  surprisingly small city of Cairns.  Everything in the city had to do with tourism, diving, sky-diving, or the rain forest – an epicenter of adventure.  Our first day we went diving. We had absolutely perfect weather, and the clarity was amazing.  There was definitely something amazing and new about the great barrier reef.  There is simply more biodiversity there than I had ever seen.  Everywhere I turned I could find a new species that I had not yet seen.  We did two dives on that trip and our second was unforgettable.  We anchored near a tiny sand island – nothing but pure, clean sand.  Around this min-island were reef patches, some only a meter below the sea level.  The shallowness of these reefs really allowed you to see the intense colors of the creatures beneath without the color spectrum loss of deeper waters.  There was so much awe inspiring life under the water that it made the beautiful view above, seem borrish!  It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

Tropical Rain Forest and Etty Bay

We also went on a private tour through the tropical rain forest near Cairns.  Our guide, Dave, was a genuine Croc-Hunter type of guy.  It is his life goal to film endangered species around the world.  He is also currently on the hunt for the worlds largest snake!  The rain forest was amazing, so many plants and insects that you don’t see at first glance.  Dave told us all about the trees and organisms that lived there and shared personal experiences with the organisms around us.  He pointed out to us the stinger tree, which stings with an extremely intense and lon-lasting pain, “like an electric shock,” he said.  We also went on a crocodile search on the river.  We couldn’t find any, however got close up with some Tawny Frogmouths, which are like strange owls, and a tree snake.  The hills around us were also picturesque to say the least.  We later took a swim in a safe rain forest stream and fed flies to a giant spider.  It was quite a day, and we had the perfect weather for it.

Next, we headed south, out of Cairns, toward Mission Beach were we stayed in a house by the beach.  This was just an ordinary beach to the Aussies, but was absolutely beautiful to us.  Aside from our time on the beach, pool, and playing with the owners dog, we went on yet another memorable day trip.  Etty Bay was recommended to us by Dave, our guide, and so we took a day trip their a couple of days later.  It was, once again, a beautiful spot, and there weren’t very many people there.  Expecting to have a normal day on the beach, we found ourselves face to face with an endangered Cassowary and its young.  Cassowaries are prehistoric-looking birds that can be around six feet tall.  They are beautifully colored, have a horn on their heads, and lay green eggs.  And if that isn’t wierd enough, they have a massive raptor-like claw on each foot.  Dave had told us about these birds, but finally watching one stroll the beach — we didn’t know what to do.  Our day at the beach was all but boring!

Our vacation ended shortly after, with a drive back up to Cairns and a flight back to Brisbane.  I have one much needed day before classes start.  Its hard to simply go on as usual after such an amazing trip, but its time to get back to work.

I will leave with the feelings of:

Dizziness – all is so busy… extremely fun, and always new, but I’ve got to keep studying

Refreshed! – As much as the next month will be extremely demanding, I think I’m ready

I have read a lot of C.S. Lewis. Not all, but quite a bit. It started when I was in second grade. I remember reading the Chronicles of Narnia as a child (and even having them read to me), and loving the magic of his stories. In “adolescence,” I fell for The Space Trilogy.  Just when I thought this had been a passing phase, I discovered his “adult” fiction and non-fiction like Till We Have Faces, The Great Divorce, and The Screwtape Letters. These books and a relaxed class on novels that allowed me to again read the Chronicles kept the flame burning. And then I started college.

I’ve thought that maybe my fascination would die or fade as I read other books and went on other adventures and misadventures. But after 3 years of university and a lot of different world experiences and travels, I am even more curious about his allegory, imagery, and characterization. I want to see the environment that produced these stories. I want to know the original context of the stories. I want to experience the history that Lewis drew upon when writing. I am interested in the craft of the stories, and how I might go about writing something like what he wrote. I still admire and respect him, his work, and his ideas.

It is something of a dream come true then to be able to participate in something that he was a part of nearly 50 years ago. It is incredibly invigorating to know that I’m going to be going to the same pubs that he visited and learning in the same system that he worked within. I think in this sense, going to Oxford was almost something of a pilgrimage, but I want it to be much more than that.

I want to engage this place. I do not want to simply be a visitor. Oxford seems to mean a lot of things to a lot of people, but I think for me, Oxford is like a grindstone or a knife sharpener. It seems like an incredible place take on challenges learn from your successes and failures. To simply visit a grindstone (unless it is the insert-uber-superlative-here grindstone) would be worthless. My biggest fear about this study abroad program is that my 9 short weeks here will go by so quickly that my stay will be more of a visit and less of an engagement.

That and missing my train to London. Thanks for reading. Next stop: Orientation.