Around and about Oxford

I have come to the conclusion that there really is nothing quite like studying English in the home of English.  Oxford is a university town.  Everything here revolves around education.  It is also home to the Oxford University Press and the Oxford English Dictionary - the complete chronicle of the English Language.  The list of famous people who have been educated here is incredibly long - and covers several centuries.  It is basically living history.

Our sessions here have been outstanding.  Jim Cross and David Bradshaw are amazing.  For the first time since about March, I feel ready and excited to return to the classroom.  I also understand that it will take me months to process everything I've done and seen this week.  I've made several new teacher friends that I will keep in touch with - and they are literally all over the world.  

Yesterday was our short day in class.  So, Liz and I went to Christ Church College to see the sights.  Outstanding.  It was the basis for Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland stories - and Alice and her other characters are immortalized in a stained glass window in the dining commons - which also happens to be part of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies.   There is a Thomas Beckett window - destroyed by Henry VIII during his reformation, but recently corrected.  The famous painting of Henry VIII hangs in the dining commons as well - and they have the most famous painting of his daughter, Elizabeth I, on loan and hanging next to him.  

After we finished at Christ Church, we headed to a Tapas Bar for an early dinner with Jim, Laura, and Louann.  Then five of us hiked up to Headington Hill Park to see an outdoor, promenade performance of A Mid-Summer Night's Dream.  The best way to describe the production is "magical."  

Tonight we have a final evening discussion with David Bradshaw at The Fox and Lamb pub.  He's really a hoot.  His specialty is the Moderns, which happens to be my M.A. specialty, so I find him truly fascinating to listen to (I don't always agree with him, but that's all part of the experience, isn't it?).  

Tomorrow we leave here to start heading back to our homes.  Liz, Lori, and I are going to a midnight showing of King Lear at the Globe Theatre in London.  We'll be groundlings.  Liz and I both have morning flights out and have to be at Heathrow early (between 6 & 7 am), so we are planning this all-night gig so we can hopefully sleep on the planes.  We'll see how that goes.  Since we're groundling, we have to stand up - and that should be interesting at midnight after walking around London for most of the afternoon.

It has been a most interesting and uplifting week.  I really do feel energized for the classroom again.  I am looking forward to being home and seeing everyone, though I am NOT looking forward to the 15 hours of travel time.  It was worth it.

Hope everyone is well.  See you all very soon.

ds