The Ashmolean and The Eagle and The Child

First of all, take a look at our little nephews... aren't they adorable!!?? I wish I could go play with them in the leaves right now :)

Here's a picture of Sam:



and a picture of Sawyer:



After adoring their sweet little faces on the computer screen for a while, Rich and I went to the oldest museum in Britain, the Ashmolean. They were having an exhibit on Leonardo Davinci that ends next weekend, so we thought we'd check it out before it was too late. The exhibit was alright, though there weren't as many Davinci drawings/paintings as I thought there'd be. It was called "Imagining Davinci", so I guess we were just supposed to imagine what his artwork would be like... ha ha. Most of the artwork was done by people who were inspired by him and his style.

Here's a picture of the museum in 1740, when the word "museum" was a novelty and it was described as "a neat building in the city of Oxford."



We did, however get to see some oracle bones, which I found fascinating. The oracle bones are pieces of bone or turtle shell that date back to the Shang Dynasty (11th-13th century BC). They were found in China in the late 19th century and the writing that is found on them are known to be the earliest form of Chinese writing. The oracle bones were used to foretell the future.

Here's a picture of a full set (we only saw a few little pieces):



Apparently, they would drill pits partway through the bone and then they would divine upon a topic in a ceremony. Then they would take a heated rod and insert into one of the pits until the bone cracked at that point. The shapes looked like卜, which in Chinese means 'to divine'. They would make more than one crack in a ceremony and then at the end of the ceremony, the person in charge (sometimes the king) would read the cracks that would present the answers they were looking for.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_bones)

They also had the cloak of Powhatan (Pocahontas' father) on display. Wasn't that nice of Britain to take that back with them? :)



After our visit to the museum, we stopped in at the Eagle and the Child, which is a small pub on St. Giles street that dates back to 1650 and is well-known as the place that "The Inklings"- C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia), J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings), and Charles Williams (Poet and Writer) (and some other University students or writers) would meet on Tuesday mornings to discuss their writing.



Here's a picture of the inside- Rich and I sat at the little table on the right, in case you wanted to know.

You have 0 fans and 0 friends

I got an email today from webshots to let me know how many people have viewed the pictures that we've got posted.

This is what it said:

"You have a total of 0 fans and 0 friends for your account carolinchina."

Geez. Thanks.

You'd think that in this day and age, when more and more people are becoming isolated (no doubt because of the increasing dependence on computers), sending messages like the one above would not be encouraged.

Anyway, I don't need a computer to tell me that I have friends...

If you'd like to view our old photos (or become our first fan or friend), feel free to visit it at: http://community.webshots.com/user/carolinchina

It's got photos of Beijing, Ko Chang (Thailand), Charlie, Mike and Mandy's wedding, etc.

Rich and an addition to his website

I just noticed that Rich added a new song to his website. I think you'll like it. Go to http://www.myspace.com/bandan to listen. It's the third song.

If you can tell me what all the chinese words mean, I'll give you 50 p.

The Tate Modern and My First Paper

Twelve hours, three cups of tea, lunch, dinner, and a few snacks later, I've finally completed my first assignment for my MA course- a paper on the arguments for and against TBL (Task-based Learning). If you have any questions, it's all very clear in my head right now, so ask away.

On to the weekend...

Rich and I found out that you don't have to pay to get into central London on the weekends, so we decided to drive in instead of taking the bus. We packed a picnic lunch which ended up being eaten in our car- in the rain- instead of on a bench near the River Thames- in the sunshine. You can't have everything.

We took a tour of a school Rich is looking at for next year. The tour included introductions to all the recording equipment in the studios and if I had an ounce of talent in that area, I think I would be tempted to apply, as well. Very cool.

After the tour, we went to the Tate. There's currently a collection of giant slides, called the Unilever Series, by Carsten Holler (with an umlaut over the o). Let me see if I can find a picture...



The slides are not made to just look at, they're there for you to slide down as well- and you can do it for free! According to the Tate, what interests Höller, is "both the visual spectacle of watching people sliding and the ‘inner spectacle’ experienced by the sliders themselves, the state of simultaneous delight and anxiety that you enter as you descend." Cool, huh? Unfortunately, you have to be there before 10am to get a ticket. We might go back in a few weeks- at which point we'll get our tickets, run other errands, and then go down the slide. Yippeee!!

It's supposed to be there until April 9th, by the way. Just so you know. In case you want to visit, or whatever...

As you might know, I love Salvador Dali paintings, as well as the interpretation of dreams, which is quite apt considering that "For the poets and artists of the Surrealist movement, dreams stood for all aspects of the world repressed by rationalism and convention." I wasn't aware of that before I looked it up. Here's a picture of one of Dali's paintings, called Metamorphosis of Narcissus (1937):



Here's another one I liked. It's called "Women and Bird in Moonlight," by Joan Miro (1949).



Here's "The three dancers" by Pablo Picasso (1925).



Here's Rich's favorite- Night Vision, by Fiona Rae (1998).



If you want to see what else is on display, you can go to http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/CollectionDisplays?venueid=2

Unfortunately, we missed the opening of the Scientology church in London on Sunday. If only we had known... just kidding. It's aparently only steps away from the Tate- that might explain the lack of parking. In case you're wondering, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes did not attend. Here's the story about the opening:

http://www.scientologytoday.org/press/610222259261_scn-int.html

No, I still don't understand what scientologists actually believe in... but yes, I do now know that London is the home of Scientology.

OK, I'm off to bed.

Still no TV and our 6 month anniversary

Rich just reminded me that it's our 6 month wedding anniversary today. Married life sure goes by quickly! To celebrate, we've made a Bakewell tart. Ok, you got me, we were planning on baking my new favorite dessert last weekend. Anyhow, it's got about 5 minutes left in the oven, so this will have to be short.

We've now been in Oxford for a little over a month and we're still pretty happy without a TV. We listen to a lot of Radio 4 (BBC), and I now refer to listening to the shows as 'watching' them, so I guess subconsciously, I think the radio is a TV. We went out last night with my CELTA trainer who happens to be doing a Masters here as well. He and his wife told us about some of the crazy reality shows that are on here and I have to say, I don't really feel like I'm missing out!

More later...

Swans and Traffic Jams

I feel the need to put my books down for a minute to tell you that there was a swan on the M40 this evening that caused a traffic jam. But don't worry, by 7:00pm, police had arrived on the scene to try to get the swan to move.

I haven't heard whether the police were successful or not. If I find out, I'll let you know.

Life is oh so exciting in Oxford this evening, eh?

Oxford- the City of Spires

As you might know, Oxford is known as the City of Spires. After living in Beijing, it seems like a pretty small city, but it is beautiful and easy to get around and we are enjoying it immensely.

(I'm still not very good with getting the pictures on this blog to stay where I want them to, but let's have a go...)

First, a look at some of the spires!




Here are two famous landmarks in Oxford. The first is the Bodleian Library, which was founded in 1598. It receives a copy of every single book that's published in Britain and now has more than 5 million volumes. That's a lot of books. We still haven't been inside, but I think that has more to do with the fact that it's hard to drag me out of a tiny little bookshop, let alone a libary with millions of books, than to do with the fact that there's an admission fee, though the fact that you have to pay to get into just about everything around here... ah, that's another story.

The second picture is the Bridge of Sighs. It's a copy of the famous Venetian bridge and was built in 1913-1914 to link the north and south quadrangles of Hertford College.




Next, we've got a few pictures of the Oxford Castle, which was just recently made public by the Queen in May of this year. It was originally built for William the Conqueror in 1071, but was, in recent years, used as a prison. Since being made public, it is now surrounded with restaurants and cafes, including Crispy Creme (which for me sits right up there with the Starbucks at the Forbidden City). Just a few weeks ago, Prince William was spotted eating a pizza at the Pizza Express there with his friends. Apparently, he spent 6.95 on the Florentine pizza. That news took up a whole page spread in the Oxford Times on Friday. We're all much better people for knowing that, I'm sure.





Here is a picture of the gate outside of the Botanic Gardens. If you look closely, it says "Honor Carol". I'm quite pleased with that. Apparently, it's Britain's oldest, having been founded in 1621 by Henry Danvers, Earl of Danby, to grow plants for scientific study.




Below is a picture of some people "punting" on the River Cherwell by the Magdelen Bridge. Punting is a typical sport in Oxford, that involves using a long pole to propel your way down the river in a long shallow boat. We haven't tried it yet, but from watching people trying to maneuver the boats, it doesn't seem the like easiest thing to do. It is entertaining to watch, though!



Here are a few pics of our walks in the University Parks.




Here's a picture of me on my walk to my university from our apartment, and one on the corner of my uni.




And finally, this is a pic for my dad. I know how he loves pictures of vehicles! Thanks, Geoff and Sylvia for passing down MOOP to us! He usually gets to nap most of the week, with just a trip to Tesco's once a week for shopping and longer drives out to the countryside when the weather is nice.



OK, I'm going to have to call it quits for now. Hope you enjoyed your introduction to this fine little city that we're living in now. Back to the books... (that was a great little procrastination session, wasn't it??)

Bourton on the Water in the Cotswolds

My calendar says that its mid-October, but it sure doesn't feel like it. Though we've had a fair share of rain, we've also had plenty of sunny days as well. According to an article in the Guardian this weekend, this summer has been the longest and hottest summer EVER. Apparently, scientists have found that autumn is staying 10 days later than normal, spring appears 10 days earlier, and that the period for both seasons is lengthening all the time. On a whole, Britain is experiencing temperatures that are about 2 degrees (give or take half a degree, depending on where you are) celcius above average. Hello, global warming. A few weeks ago, we watched a very informative movie about global warming called "An Inconvenient Truth". It follows Al Gore across the globe, giving speeches about how effects of global warming have already been recorded, like ice-cap melting, droughts, and rising sea levels. If you have a chance to see the film, do it. If you don't, go to his website: www.climatecrisis.net for more information.

OK, so on to Bourton on the Water. This village is known as one of the prettiest villages in all of England. The houses and cottages are all made from yellow cotswold stone and date back 300-400 years. The River Windrush runs through the town, under arched stone bridges, and eventually joins us with the River Thames in London.

One of the main attractions in the town is a model village, which as you can see from the pictures above, makes Rich and I both look like giants. (If you hadn't noticed, there are two pictures of me on a bridge- the small one is the model of the large one).

By the way, on our little Sunday afternoon drive to the village, we headed west towards Gloucestershire, north of Cirencester. This is another great little joke that Brits like to play on foreigners. Gloucestershire is pronounced 'gloss-ter-sure', while Cirencester is prounounced 'Si-ren-cess-ter'. Does anyone else find this a bit bizarre? To pronounce 'cester' or not, that is the question.

A word from Rich

I'm still looking for work. I'm giving in and going to some agencies next week. Onwards to a life of corporate drudgery. How exiting! My days are spent searching the internet for jobs and washing up and cooking. Occaisionally I get around to doing some music, too. Have a look at my Myspace site for a couple of electronic things (see links). Some acoustic stuff will be coming soon.

Carol seems to be coping with life in a new country pretty well. She moans every now and then (as you have read) but that's americans for you (just kidding!). She's coping well with the anti-american articles in the papers and the jokes on the radio and she retaliates quite well with jibes about my people. After her initial joy at the weather it has rained every day for the last week. I did tell her...