Week 5, Michaelmas Term: Vaporized!

I'm slowly beginning to realize that, although I am looking forward to seeing family, friends, and home again, my time in Oxford is limited, and each time the tower bells ring out against the gloomy city sky, another hour in Oxford fades away with the last echoing chime.

I feel I've been here for a lifetime, yet I haven't seen or done a thing! With so much to do, and so little time, I manage to make the most of my walks through the city, or days in the library, or an occasional stop in a pub, but I guess that's what it means to live somewhere, and not visit. I've been living here, working here, studying here, and so I know the backways to get to places; I know the shop hours, and that Sainsbury's is better than Tesco (some will argue, but I am convinced); and that if you want to cross the street in front of a bus, just be sure there are no bikers on the other side! I'm not a tourist, but a temporary native, so to speak, and I smile to myself when I hear Americans on the street, or watch the Koreans with their cameras stand outside the colleges, or when I can flash my badge and walk right into the Rad-Cam as groups of tourists and visitors flock outside the fence in the blustery drip-drip-drip of Oxford rain, and gape and pretend to listen to the tour guide, but really wish they were me ... and so I guess, that although I haven't climbed Carfax Tower, or seen the Oxford Castle, or taken an open-top guided tour on a big red bus, I have gotten to know the city, the university, that real, authentic Britishness of Oxford, which you can't get from buying a ticket. And, looking at it like that, I don't think I've missed a thing.

11/11 is Rememberance Day here, same as Veteran's Day in the States, and so I bought a poppy. It's not an American poppy, but I think the sentiment is the same, and when I wear it, I think of all those who have fought and died - not just Americans, not just Britons, but all the countless, nameless dead who served their countries in the name of freedom and justice. Today, St. Giles was blocked off for a memorial ceremony by the war memorial; as I type, the bells have been ringing for the past thirty minutes in honor of the fallen, I expect. Dona eis requiem.

I'm writing on Persuasion this week, and as it is Jane Austen's final, finished novel, there is a certain "autumnal" feel to it, as they say; Anne Elliot is no longer in the prime of her life, and neither is Jane. It's a bittersweet novel, though happily ended; a good read, though not my favorite. It's about the navy, after all. ;)

On a happier note! our Bach Oratorio is coming along splendidly; we are actually starting to begin to almost sound like the recording!!! It's such an exuberant feeling!

Yes. Did I say I have papers I should be writing??? Well .... !

Hope you all have a wonderful day, and week, and if you don't hear from me again until next week ... be good, have fun (but not too much!), study hard, work hard, play hard, read lots, improve your minds, meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.