Oxford Experience

2009-03-10T13:47:00.000-07:00

2007-12-01T08:46:00.001-08:00

I Figured these two pictures would be interesting to place beside each other. The one on the left is my (famous?) picture of elation at being in the Bodliean Library in my first week here. The picture on the right is an attempt at a recreation which I took only minutes ago. It was a fun waste of time, but I particularly wanted to point out how my hair has noticeably grown, and although it might not be obvious I think I've lost some weight since coming... and if you pay close attention you may see the loss of life and joy in my eyes from three months of endless reading, researching, and writing... just kidding, but I thought my attempt at recreating true joy fell short.

Anyway, the normal sleep pattern has continued. I was in bed by midnight, and up by 8am, its been great. Today I even accomplished some work on my last paper. I'm about 1/3 finished. Although its the easiest third since its all philosophy of history, with no evidence or citations, just observations, ect... in fact, its pretty poor stuff, and after some editing it'll probably cut down to only 25% of the total, but still its a dent.

Today was the first time I've experienced Kansas-like weather. In the morning it was beautiful and warm, by noon it was raining terribly, then it cleared and was beautifully sunny, then a thick fog rolled in, which was washed away by another deep rain. Here are some of the pictures... both weren't taken today, but I think it still communicates what the outlook was like.

For some reason I'm a fan of the comparison photos today. Hope you've enjoyed them as much as I have.

2007-11-30T01:17:00.000-08:00

Sadly, I've been having trouble with uploading my videos. I'll keep trying but in order to give this blog some more substance let me tell you about the last couple of days. The past two days I've totally shifted in my sleeping schedule. I've gone to bed by midnight, and gotten up by 6am. Its been really awesome. I know why I haven't done it before, but I must admit, its better in a lot of ways from my past system. I've had a couple of hours each morning to study the bible and pray. Its been great... lots of insights. This morning I was taking a shower and I had an epiphany about my philosophy of teaching history... so I hope you enjoy:

Teaching history, as any other discipline, is both a subject and a method. The confusion of this truth is often the cause for the apathy many students show towards history.

As a subject history is often encompassed by the ‘Who’, ‘What’, ‘When’, and ‘Where’ questions. Who did what, when, and where did it occur? It seems to me that many teachers employ, or at least many students encounter this pedagogical approach to teaching history. The problem with this approach seems to be centered on the issue of interaction between student and subject.

Extremely few students will connect with the ‘Who’ subjects of history because it is certainly not themselves and its most likely not someone they know personally. It is difficult to overcome this introspective. Many pupils simply do not care about long dead individuals. Unless they happen to have a family connection, or a personal relational knowledge of the individual many students find it difficult to connect on biographical history alone. They desire more.

Few will connect with the ‘Where’ because the vast majority of students will live in areas of relatively little historical impact. In the grand scheme of history, American cities pale in comparison to the historical juggernaughts of London, Paris, or especially Rome. Geographical history is therefore confined to the few major events, and a compilation of minor historical events of a student’s immediate area.

Due to their age, many students have only interacted with around twenty years of history, and even that’s the history that we are just beginning to discover. Eventually history moves back in time beyond any personal connection to the particular time period. At these points history has become an abstract. It no longer has any connection points for students and becomes a ‘boring’ subject because of it.

The only topic which may yet grasp their attention is the ‘What’ of history. Events and occurrences are not limited by identity, location, or temporal placement. Students may be able to connect with any persecuted person of anytime from anywhere not due to the connection with that individual, time, or place, but due to the event taking place. The ‘What’ is the only interaction to which they can relate.

Sadly, many students experience only this side of history. Quizzes, essays, and tests are frequently based mainly or even solely on these criteria. A question may go as the following:

Fill in the blank

(Who) (What) (Where) (When)

Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 4^th, 1776.

It is uninteresting because it could just as easily be:

Max ran in the park yesterday.

These questions seem to be asked because they are easy to ask, easy to learn and study, easy to recall, and easy to relate… and above all easy to grade. In all ways these types of questions are the easiest historical questions with which to interact. Students gain little but percentage points and grades from these questions. Little knowledge is actually taught, merely trivia. Both this trivial knowledge and the percentage points will be worthless later in life.

However, the method and the interest in history both shine when different questions are posed. It is precisely the ‘What’, ‘How’, and ‘Why’ questions of history that make history interesting and relevant. I could ask, any student could study and regurgitate that Jefferson wrote in Philadelphia on the 4^th of July 1776, but without out know what he wrote, why he wrote it, and how he and his countrymen had reached that point it contains no deep meaning. Students will never find themselves historically being someone else in the same time and place, but they may often discover that they are in a similar historical event, and understanding why they are in the situation and how to handle are invaluable lessons.

Students connect with the “hows and whys” of historical events (whats). These questions are more challenging to ask, to study, to conceptualize, and to answer. In fact, many of the answer to how or why something occurred are subjective and vary. There is rarely a single right answer. Learning this lesson and how to interact with history in this manner is life changing. They are far more difficult and time consuming to interact with or grade, but the value of the lessons far exceeds the sacrifice of time or thought.

While walking beside a class of students, trying to develop the answers to ‘how’ questions and ‘why’ questions the door is opened to explore deeper philosophical ideas about life. Little in the way of life lessons can be taught by history through ‘who,’ ‘what,’ ‘where,’ or ‘when,’ but loads can be explored through ‘whys’ and ‘hows.’

My goal then is to be the type of teacher who will put in the extra work and thought to explore the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of history beside my classes. Certainly there will inevitably be those who always find historical investigation boring or useless, but hopefully this approach to teaching will limit that number.

2007-11-29T03:04:00.000-08:00

It has been a very full week. Last Thursday Shelby came to town. It was a great fun time. She's so good at interacting with people that she fit right in. Everyone in the program commented about her, she made a great impression. She stayed in Oxford about a 45 minute walk which got tiresome for us both, but it was well worth it.

A wonderful addition to the week was that Shelby and I were able to meet and eat lunch with future Tabor science professor Timothy Richmond and his family. We ate pizza and just talked for hours. I think it was tough on his little girl Mia, but we all had a blast. His wife is a former Kansan and they are both amazing people... they'll be great fits for Tabor, and I'm excited to see how they impact our community. I'm also hoping to see them again after the semester is over, because Tim is doing a post-Doctorate program in Belgium, and I'm hoping to see them as I go through on my European tour. I'm hoping to get a picture soon, but Shelby's camera is where it resides for now... so its coming soon.

Shelby and I also got the great chance to spend a day in London. It was beautiful. Saw the sites, and enjoyed London life... riding the tube, evensong at St. Pauls, meetinWe saw all theg up with our friends Nick and his girlfriend Christin. Big Ben, Parliment, the National Art Gallery, Trafalgur Square, the Canadian Embassey... it was all a blessing. We even got the chance to debate a little. At Shelby's hostel that night in London, we got into a discussion with a Cambridge (ha) Math professor.

He asked us where we were from, we said the colonies, and he asked whether we were comfortable being hated by the British and Europeans. I replied that our government and the Bush administration have enacted a lot of policies that have pushed us in that direction and that I don't care much for what our American reputation means in the world. He responded by praising the policies of the Bush administration... so of course you can see how it began. By the end he had said, "I think America is the strongest best country in the world, and they shouldn't be slowed down by people disagreeing with them." I responded by saying, "And that's why the British and Europeans, our allies, dislike us... that attitude is completely incompatible with international diplomacy, and we have ignored that."

Then the discussion turned to Christianity, because this Cambridge Professor was an atheist. So we argued whether it was reasonable for an educated person to believe in a man walking on water. I argued that "natural laws" are predictive not explanatory, that any evidence is based on testimony and that any natural law in regard to buoyancy is at best 99.9% predictive, which cannot account for the .01% of historical accounts of people walking on water. I've got to say, thanks to my philosophical theology class and Tabor experience, it was a great conversation. Go OXFORD!!! It was a ton of fun, but sadly the guy was was pretty inebriated so I don't think anything stuck. However we did make some great friends in Chris and Eli, a Canadian and Australian who had joined the conversation. It was a fun night.

I left the hostel at 3am, got on a 4am bus back to Oxford, and was in bed by 5am. The next day I pushed the envelope to finish a paper in two days. Thankfully it was probably the easiest paper of the entire term. Whether it is accurate or useful to label Thomas Macaulay a Whig historian... the answer is YES and YES... so all I needed to do was say that in 2,000+ words. It went fine and I finished my last primary tutorial of the term. I only have one paper left to go.

This week also contained our program's Thanksgiving feast. On Saturday we hosted around 80 American students, SCIO workers, and famililes at our house. I was in charge of carving the seven turkeys with Adam Grahm and organizing the Football game (American style). Both went amazingly well. We had a great time. The football game was a lot of fun, and I remembered how to tap the speed, so I was able to kick it into high gear a few times. It felt great. I decided to wear blue for Tabor and Oxford, so it was my Oxford Soccer uniform + some blue tights. It ended with a double overtime field goal kick, by Clint (our RD) who is also a soccer player. It was also an opportunity to start Christmas. What fun. Here's a video of the common room.

I got the chance to interact with Ethan Rosenburg, our director's seven year old son. We played a Star Wars card game, and discussed American Football. He explained that the Denver Broncos was his favorite squad. I said that I liked the Kansas City Chiefs and he responded that they were the Broncos rival and he often rooted against them. It was all very British and proper... I loved it. Then we proceeded to talk Star Wars, could it get any better?

I'm certain that there is more I should cover, and sadly I've just given a very rough overview of the week. There was so much more contained in each one of these events. There's simply not enough time or space to explain each. However, I hope all these photos and videos have in some ways given you a view into the experience.

One more paper to go. My parents are almost ready to come over. It should be a great last week. I'm planning an end of term European tour. Edinburgh, Scotland; Luxembourg; Brussels,Belgium; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Budapest, Hungary; Bratislava, Slovakia; Vienna, Austria; Prague, Czech Rep; and Frankfurt, Germany. I'm hoping it all comes together.

I'm also sleeping a lot better. The week exhausted me and allowed me to jumpstart a new sleeping schedule. Last night I was out by 11pm, and up at 6am... pretty normal. Tonight seems like I might be able to do the same thing, which was wonderful because it allowed me to have a time for prayer and bible study. Its been a great week.

2007-11-22T02:38:00.000-08:00

Today has been amazing, and its just beginning. Because it is Thanksgiving I just had to share this short thought:

Some of you have been asking me what the biggest lesson or most important thing I've learned from my time here at Oxford. And I think I must give the same answer Karl Barth once gave.

You see, Karl Barth was arguably the most influential and prominent theologian of the 20th century. His writings and research have influenced countless Christians. Once, he was giving a speech at the University of Chicago, and afterwards people crowded around him to shake his hand, and hopefully ask him a question. One such student asked, "Dr. Barth, in all of your studies on the Bible and all your lifetime of work on theology, what is the greatest lesson or deepest thought you've become aware of?"

Dr. Barth without hesitation or a moment's thought replied; "Jesus loves me."

I am thankful that I have learned this too. This morning God spoke joy and peace into my life. It's been a wonderful morning so far. There are eternal things to be thankful for.

2007-11-21T23:17:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! While you are all settling down to a nice, filling, American-style meal, my fellow ex-patriots and I shall be attending lectures, researching and writing papers, and meeting with our professors. Not to worry though, our Thanksgiving has just been moved to Saturday instead. I'll let you know how it all turns out. I'm in charge of getting the turkeys carved on Friday night, and, for some unknown reason, they've decided to put me in charge of an afternoon football game. I tried to explain what "football" meant to me, but nonetheless I will attempt to organize the 'american-style,' as they put it, as best I can. By the way, the picture is my attempt at photographic-art... its the Bodliean Library at Night (5pm)...

There's not much to report, as usual. I just worked on papers all week. One on the historian Thomas Babington Macaulay (what a cool British middle name), and the other on the doctrine of the atonement. They were both great fun, and the Macaulay paper I presented last night. My tutor was impressed and I think it was actually one of my best papers so far. The question for that essay, and the one he just assigned me, also on Macaulay, were dreadfully easy. They have turned out to be simple "YES or NO" questions... well goodness, how do you say "yes" in 2,000 words?... I'm training myself to be efficient with my words.

The atonement paper was loads of fun. Its not as well written on paper, but the truths of it have be written on my heart. Mostly it seems that theological philosophers tend to abandon most elements that make God or Christ recognizable, and they tend to latch on to a single truth and then explain it to death as the "only reasonable understanding." This seems to have happened with the doctrine of the atonement. There are gobs of theories, each one focusing on one aspect of the idea, and for that reason incomplete... which spurs some other philosopher to develop a newer theory which deals with the problems but falls into the same illness.

For example, there is a theory that the atonement is all about Jesus defeating the evil powers and principalities of this world through his perfect life and innocent death under their hands. Another, suggests that Jesus is the sacrificial lamb which satisfies God's desires for justice. Another theory is that Christ's death pays off a debt we owe God. Yet another stands on the atonement as God opening the door for us to be reconciled with him. The problem is that all of these theories compete against one another, and I think they all have truth in them. It doesn't make sense to me why we would put God into our box of atonement and say, "it means this 100%." It seems perfectly reasonable to me that God used Christ's death to accomplish many things... conquering evil, paying off our debt and releasing us from punishment by claiming Christ as our perfect sacrifice, all for the purpose of becoming reconciled with God, because of His love and grace. So it was a fun paper.

Today, my lady-friend Shelby is flying into Britain. Her father work for United Airlines, and she's wanted to come to England for a long time, and what better time than when you know someone here, right? She'll celebrate Thanksgiving here with us, and then we'll spend a day in London. It ought to be a lot of fun, and I think she'll really like the people here... I sure do.

On that note, let me tell a quick story about my friend Adam's birthday. Adam turned 22 a few days ago, and at midnight, we decided to throw a big jamboree... We all had work to do, but how often do you really get to hang out with brilliant great friends? We decided to cook-up all the meat we had, and feast ourselves upon a manly meal. The result was a sausage, bacon, hamburger birthday cake, with potatoes, and fried vegetables. We completed this endeavor by 2am, and proceeded to watch the Shawshank redemption. It seemed like the guy thing to do. It was a ton of fun. A bunch of college guys, hanging out. It was a blast, and made me miss my friends, but happy to have added these guys to that list. Here's the video.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-13T20:58:00.000-08:00

Finally had a night where I didn't have to stay up writing or researching... couldn't sleep anyway. My sleeping cycle is destroyed. Thankfully I saw something amazing in my insomnia. I live at the top of Headington Hill just outside Oxford city. Tonight, there was not a cloud in the sky until a thick fog rolled into town, but it enveloped Oxford first before rising up the hill. In those brief moments before it engulfed the house the fog actually smothered the ambient light from the city. For the first time in England, I saw the stars. They were just how I'd left them back in Kansas.

I know it may sound really cheesy and poetic, but it was a nice little moment for me. Goodnight. No pictures or video updates for tonight... go to bed! Although I hope you do enjoy the new Tabor inspired color (colour) scheme.

2007-11-12T10:19:00.001-08:00

Alright team, round two... if you don't know what I'm talking about, read the blog below, I've split today's entry into academic (below) and social news. So here's been my social life the past week. Due to the fact that I finally feel comfortable with my work load (which will only last this and next week due to my long essay's immanent demand on my time) I've been able to branch out a little more with my social life.

Last week, Elaine, Johanna, Katie, and I made it to a salsa dance class that goes on in Oxford every Thursday night. I'm really bad at dancing and salsa dancing especially but I had a blast. Its sort of like swing dancing but different in a lot of respects. I'm sure if I could tell you what those differences were then I would have made a better salsa dancer, but sadly, I cannot. Whatever the case, we all had a blast and decided to continue our dance fever, but we're hoping to find a swing dance going on in Oxford, because we all felt that would be more our style. Don't fret Tabor, this dance was far off campus... and the next one I attend probably will be too.

Last Wednesday I attended an Oxford Men's Volleyball game and also an Oxford Men's Water polo match. My friend Scott plays Vollyball for Oxford, while Nick who went to Ireland with me, plays Water Polo for the Blues as well. The Blues (Oxford) won both! In fact, our water polo team is quite good. We stomped (and splashed) them good. In Volleyball we played Nottingham University, they were green, which I thought was appropraite. But I can't remember who our Water polo opponent was, and I wasn't allowed to take pictures so sadly I have none of the water polo match, but this is Alyssa, Matt, Joe, and I watching Volleyball.

Those were great fun, and since this has been my off week with papers, I've been able to sit in on discussions, and even catch a few movie nights with people. Its been a lot of fun. This picture is from Salsa night... Katie tried to teach me how to dance, and I tried to teach her how to take an intense picture... one of us was successful.

Like I said in the previous post (which is below this one) I recently wrote a paper on the Incarnation, which really put me in the Christmas mood. England doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, which means there's no buffer holiday between Halloween and Christmas. Many decorations are going up and songs are beginning to surface. I too, feel the yule-tide spirit. As a result I've been listening to Christmas music. There are four songs that encompass Christmas to me:
1.) Stille Nacht (Silent Night)
2.)Shchedryk (Carol of the Bells)
3.) Oh Come Emmanuel
----and----
4.) O Holy Night

Well, I've found possibly my favorite version of O Holy Night, as performed by Seven Day Jesus. Their version seems to perfectly encompass what the message of the song is by taking a different approach to the line "fall on your knees, O hear the angels singing." Instead of building up, as voices typically tend to do in this section, the music cuts and we are left with an accappella approach which seems to fit perfectly. I love it. If your computer has Flash player 9, check out this song:

http://scottsmall.vox.com/library/audio/6a00ccff9823396ea500cdf3a6a499cb8f.html

Life is going great. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers and for reading along. Praise the Lord, go Bluejays, go out and serve.

This video is a continuation from the video below. It too is riding through the same park on the ride home, but I take a quick right to head towards my house... be ready.

2007-11-12T09:51:00.000-08:00

I guess its been about a week since I last posted. Its amazing how fast life goes. Oxford is really becoming normal to me... 10 page papers, two a week... lectures, and tutorials are normal to me now. I'm no longer nervous to meet or discuss my thoughts. In fact, I really enjoy it. Its sad for me that I've only got another 3 weeks to go... that's no time at all. Although I do miss home and family a lot, I already foresee how difficult the transition will be back to the colonies.

This past week went amazingly well! I met with my primary tutor in Historiography. We discussed the life and history of Edward Gibbon. Gibbon was an English historian in the 18th century who was the first real modern historian. He valued truth, impartiality, and accuracy above all else. Which is exactly the attitude needed for the study of history. If that weren't enough he added style, making history a narrative instead of just a list of dates. He observed the reason why Rome fell, in fact his famous seven volume work is called The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Its an amazing piece of history and personally quickly making Gibbon one of my favorite historians.

Gibbon faced a lot of criticism for his work however because he pointed out that the decline and fall of the Roman Empire was partly the fault of Christianity. Many people, maybe even yourselves, argue this position, but I, for one, absolutely see where he's coming from. Gibbon was writing history, not a commentary on our faith, even though many take this as a direct attack on Christianity. Mostly, I view it as a compliment to our religion. Christianity is an empire toppling set of beliefs. When properly applied to any system of government it will inevitably eat away at that structure. Gibbon pointed out, and I agree, that Christianity placed in the hearts and minds of its true followers a belief that there was something more important than empire, and beyond the scope of territory and personal honor. He's absolutely right, and after 1000 years of that, the empire simply didn't have to survive for Christians. As a result, when the barbarians finally invaded there was not the same sort of dire feeling to maintain the glory and grandure of Rome... by this time people were more concerned about their individual city or nation-states... which coincidently is still where we are today.

In any event, it was a great study, I really enjoyed, and I like Gibbon. My tutor greatly complimented my thoughts up to this point as well. Here at Oxford, grades are levied in the same way that music scores are awarded in the states... not in A,B,C,D, or Fs but in I,II,III,IV. Students take exams at their schools and undergraduates typically receive no higher than IIs. However, my tutor seems to believe that my work is of I quality. This was a real boost to my ego (which I suppose as a fifth year Tabor student it ought to be of that quality). Needless to say, Tabor College does a great job preparing you for the world and even for higher education.

I also had an amazing time in my secondary tutorial. I've actually dreaded it since my first meeting when I really got stomped, but the second meeting had gone better. Well, I have continued that upward climb. This past week I wrote a paper on the Incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ... it was amazingly fun and it really put me in the mood for Christmas. While my past papers have been based mainly on philosophers, this was the first time I could really bat around scripture, and Gospel scripture at that. Many thoughts on the incarnation come from th Gospel of John and thanks to Del Gray, Lynn Jost, Dad, Caleb Stanton and Sam Flaming I feel like I have a good grasp of the gospels.

It was great, I actually could argue and refute some of my tutors arguments. I was much more prepared and confident. She levied an argument and I was able to refute, "It doesn't seem like John, in any part of his gospel, suggests that line of thinking. It is much more likely he is intending this..." It was awesome. Basically here's the point; the gospels are full of hints that Jesus and God are the same, you just need to look for them. Like when Jesus refers to himself as "I AM"... over 30 times in John alone. Its amazing, but our English translations don't always make the transition. For example, Jesus walking on water scares the disciples and the ask, "Who is that walking on the water?" Jesus replies, "It is I" (English) but the Greek actually says, "I AM"

Anyway, this is becoming a very long entry, and I have much more to tell, so I'll split it up into two sections.

Today's video is from my bike ride home a few days ago. This is the route through a park I take to get to my house... this is only at the bottom of the hill however, and about a half mile from my house.

2007-11-04T09:30:00.000-08:00

The past week has been a blur. I've been quickly readjusting to England life and times. Sadly with the latitude at which we live, combined with daylight savings time, it begins to get dark at about 5pm and by the end of term that will be closer to 4pm... its kinda crazy. The first day I was back, I finally made it to the house at 8am, and fell asleep, I woke up at 3:30pm, and saw the sunset. It was a gloomy feeling that I had only been in about 2 hours of sunlight that first day. But, I'm adjusting.

Its finally fall here, and by that I mean that quickly the trees have turned and begun to lose their leaves. I think that due to the near constant moisture in England, trees retain their leaves until the last possible moment, then they quickly turn and drop. The parks that I ride my bike through are beautiful during this time, and that is what the picture for this post is all about. This picture was taken as I was riding my bike home.

We threw a Fancy Dress and Talent Show/Open Mic night at the house for the entire program. There were about 50 people who showed up and around 15 acts that performed. It was a great time, there were original acts of poetry, short stories, comedy acts, dance routines, and many songs both original and covers. It was a great night. Adam Graham and I were the Emcees (MCs) for the night, and since it was so close to Halloween I decided to dress up a Dwight K. Schrute, a character from the widely popular American tv show, The Office.

For those of you who didn't know, I'm a member of my college's Student Senate, called the Junior Common Room (JCR). During the election we were all allowed the chance to give a two minute speech, and I chose to copy a speech given by Dwight Schrute in an Office episode, people loved it, and although I shouldn't have been elected as a result of it, apparently they elect people to control here in England on about the same amount of credibility as we do in the states. Oh well. But I thought it would be fitting for me to dress up as the character that got me elected.

Along with that, the JCR served crepes (Russian Pancakes) to the assembly. We provided about 100 crepes (2 a person) along with a wide array of toppings, such as peaches and brown sugar, nutella, cranberry and chocolate, pineapple and lemon butter, ect... it was glorious. But as a result they needed someone to make the crepes (Russian Pancakes) and thanks to Grandma Lil, there was a Voth who knew how. So for two hours before the program I cooked 100 crepes, 75 normal, but also 25 chocolate crepes. It was a lot of work, but worth it. Thanks Grandma, we made a lot of people happy and full.

I'm writing two papers this weekend. The first is on the first true modern historian, Edward Gibbon, who wrote in the 18th century about the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. He is the primary reason why historians tend to focus more on distant events than recent events, as well as adding a narrative feel to history. Which is kinda interesting... and he's a fun historian. He's entertaining.

But for the first time, the paper that I'm really enjoying is my philosophy paper. Its about the incarnation of God in the Christ Jesus. I've had a lot of fun reading the philosophy of the incarnation, and for once reading the philosophy has actually brought me closer to Christ. Its also turned my attention towards Christmas, which here in England starts after Halloween because there is no Thanksgiving to buffer it. So I started listening to Christmas music today along with most of the house. I feel this is appropriate due to the fact that I will miss out on much of the Christmas spirit that I've become so accustom to in the colonies. Therefore, since I can't have the quality Christmas I'm used to, I will at least start early and get quantity.

Tomorrow is 407th anniversary of Guy Fawkes treason...
This is the history as recalled by Johnathan Kirkpatrick, Oxford tutor extraordinar:

We are celebrating one of the great non-events of English history, the failure of Guy Fawkes to blow up king and parliament in 1605. He was apprehended on the night of 4th November as he watched over nearly a ton of gunpowder stashed in subterranean Westminster, and now we English regularly and ritually rejoice to burn the man in effigy, year in, year out. Most passionate in this respect is the staid town of Lewes in southern England; here torch-lit processions escort the effigies of not only Guy Fawkes but also Pope Paul V to a fiery doom, along with optional extra effigies of anybody the good townspeople of Lewes feel is particularly deserving that year.

Remember Remember the 5th of November
The Gun Powder Treason and Plot.
I know of no reason,
Why the Gunpowder treason,
Should ever be forgot.

Pretty interesting huh? As a result, for the past five days fireworks have been going off every night all over England and Oxford... even as late as 3am. Tomorrow should be an interesting day.

The video for today is a street musician I saw walking down Cornmarket Street. He had an amazing device which he peddled that played the guitar, while he fiddled. The contraption was so elaborate, playing different strum patterns, and chords that it attracted the attention of almost every passer-by. I am standing among a crowd of about 30 people circled around, paying more attention to the device than the music, nonetheless, paying the musician for his ingenious machine. Enjoy... try to figure out what's going on.

2007-10-31T17:18:00.001-07:00

It has been a hectic past two weeks. I've had the normal routine of papers, but I also had the pedal fall off my bike, which severely limited my transportation. And I actually flew back to the United States to take part in my grandfather Denys' funeral. It was a beautiful funeral and I was so blessed to be able to make it back, see family, connect with friends and great-aunts and great-uncles, and say goodbye to Grandpa. Thanks especially to you for your prayers and encouragement for me and my family through this time. I also want to deeply thank Robert Miller, Shelby's dad, who arranged for me to fly home and back on such short notice affordebly. Thank you.

I also got to see the entire Voth family, for a short moment. They gave up their saturday morning to come to the funeral and that meant so much to me and I felt so loved and blessed to have such an amazing family. I'm sorry guys I didn't get more time with you. I was also blessed to make it to Tabor and connect with tabor friends. It was a valuable weekend in every way.

Since then, however, I've really been scrambling. I had a paper due, the day after I returned. But thankfully I got it done. I've since, fixed my bike, restocked my gorcieries, returned checked out books, and begun my next papers. However, I'm still trying to retrieve a bag that was delayed by the airport. There is so much to report, and the week feels like such a dream.

I don't know what else to say, I'm just trying to collect my thoughts and get back into the swing of life at Oxford. Tonight I'll catch up on sleep, and then I should be back in the groove. I've got a soccer game tomorrow, and I'm Emceeing a Halloween/ Fall Festival party on Friday, so it all should be a fun weekend.

Oh yeah, I also got an email from Dr. Jules Glanzer, Tabor College's next president. He seems like an incredible guy. It was so nice that he would take the time to talk to me, so that was an encouraging interchange.

I have also had contact with Dr. Timothy Richmond. Tabor College's next science professor. He is spending a year working in Belgium through a fellowship. He and his family will be coming through Oxford to visit a friend over Thanksgiving. So I'll be seeing Tabor people sooner than I thought. I'm really looking forward to it. I also hope to visit him in Belgium as I pass through on my post-Oxford Europe trip. You can see his experience at

http://oneyearinleuven.blogspot.com/

The picture is from the British War Museum and is a peice of the Berlin Wall. I thought it was especially poignant to be outside the entrance to the museum. In fact, I think the British intended this message.

2007-10-20T18:24:00.001-07:00

Today was some what adventurous. I reffed an Oxford women's soccer game between Queens College and some other team... thankfully, these teams were in a lower league within the University so we didn't take it too seriously. I let a lot of things go, and I can think of at least five calls that I just missed... but otherwise I think I called a fair game. I hope my parents would be proud. So I was happy with how it turned out. I've actually got some things done today as well. Also an interesting aspect of life that happened today was the finals of the Rugby World Cup in which England participated. So all over town tonight, its been a crazy frenzy of English patriotism and celebration. I don't know quite how the game turned out, I was planning on going to watch it with the Englishmen, but we were dissuaded by the fact that the game would only be played in pubs, and in the event that England lost, it could get pretty crazy... I was a little disappointed, but I trust the advice of those who've done this all before. I'll let you know what happened tomorrow.

But let me tell you about my incredible day on Thursday. (This is another exerp from an email home)

I actually woke up at a reasonable time, I didn't feel rushed, we had a group lecture (for the whole program) today that was one of the strongest most Christ-like messages I've heard in a long time. He was one of the foremost economists in the world in fact, this guy David Hays has such an impressive resume that he was the Assistant-Chancellor of Oxford University... needless to say this guy is a big deal. He came in to speak about Christian Economics and how can a Christian interact with economics... are they opposed to one another... it was incredible. He looked at Old Testament theology on wealth, poverty, and accumulation... and he hit a home run. It was the academic equivilent of seeing Babe Ruth point out where he was going to hit the game winning home run. He answered every question right dead on with God's message... we have to find "enough" not pursue all we can get... Christianity is incompatible with unrestricted capitalism, ect... we have a responsibility to see the poor provided for.. ect it was awesome!!!

One guy asked this economist a series of questions trying to cut himself some breathing room. "What if God just blesses you with the ability to make money? Is that wrong?" he asked. "No absolutely not," Dr, Hays replied, "This is about Stewardship... its not a matter that you may be blessed with the ability to generate wealth. This is a matter of how you spend that wealth, is it only on yourself, do you invest in companies that pollute, or oppress workers and so on, or do you spend your wealth in bringing up the weak and poor and like minded companies?" To which the kid said, "Well then how can you become a savvy investor if you are limited in the companies you invest it? How can you get rich otherwise?" Which we were all shocked at his shortsightedness and wanted to say, "THAT'S NOT THE GOAL!!!" but then he went on to ask, "Can't you enjoy the nice things in life if you have the resources? Can't I own my Royals Royce and have three houses if God's blessed me with the funds to do it?" And then Dr, Hays gave the purest response I've ever heard, "No." It was so straightforward, from one of the leading economists in the world! It was glorious. Anyway, his entire message rekindled the fire in me... which I needed.

Then I went from there and joined up with the Queens College/Wycliffe Soccer team. We have a game tomorrow, I should see the second half. Then I was discussing my soccer experience and it was overheard by an athletic director here at the University. She hired me to assistant referee a Queen's College Girls Soccer Match on Saturday. So that felt good to the old ego.

Then to finish out the day I went to my primary tutorial... which last week I got through okay but only because I bunted a lot of his questions, well not today. Today I swung and hit some real homeruns and zingers. I was prepared and organized and educated... I did real well. Last time I felt 35% prepared and lucked out 40% more so I felt about 75% successful... today I knew 75% and lucked out on maybe 15% I felt really well. It was a great day!

As you can see some of those events has since transpired, but it was an amazing day. It really reinvigorated me. In fact, one of my three assignments for this next week just got completed. However, I've been thinking a lot of my family lately. My Grandfather Denys, who I know has been following these blogs, has been a pillar for my family, and I know it has been difficult for us all as his time with us has been running out. If you're still listening to these words grandpa, I want to tell you that:

"Thank you for always supporting me... and I always wanted to make you proud when I ran hurdles. Thanks for always seeing me through to the finish line. Thanks for all the magic... thanks for the smiles... thanks for the tears, those were always special to me... I love you very much. This is what Jesus told his disciples: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going." John 14:1-4

2007-10-18T10:21:00.001-07:00

I'll have to write about my amazing and awesome day that I had yesterday some other time because it would just take too long. But for those of you interested in my soccer experiences. I did make it on to the Wycliffe Hall Soccer Team. Wycliffe Hall is the school I'm connected to, and it is partnered with Queens College which is one of the major college's at Oxford University. So I made the team, and we had our first game today. This is an email I wrote my parents about the experience:

Well had my first Oxford Soccer game (Football Match) today. I'll tell you the bad news first. I am incredibly rusty... I'm horribly out of shape... my brain was mush, and for 3/4 of the game I was rubbish (garbage)... I played like a donkey and couldn't hardly control anything. "Thankfully" my team apparently isn't that good, so I kinda fit in. It was painful, and I felt old... it was like I had forgotten how to run. The first time I tried to turn on the speed, it just wasn't there. I really should have been working out and running or something. About the last 20 minutes, I could finally remember how to play, but it was embarressing. But the worst part, by far, was that I was incredibly timid. I wouldn't challenge for balls, I couldn't get any air, I didn't challenge, I was kind... it was horrible. Next game I first need to body up, and play like I care... I certainly wasn't myself out there today. We lost 6-2.

---BUT---

Knowing that I would be rusty, when I was asked where I'd be valuable I said, well I'm not very skilled, but I am quick... I'd do the least damage to us up front. At least I wouldn't give up goals. (Later I figured out I'd be much more valuable to the team in the back). And I really didn't accomplish much, although it is evident that plays do develop around me. When I developed something we got chances. So that felt good. I think it was a combination of athletics and American Fool-hardiness. After we were down 4-0 I said, hey let's not pass it back from this kick, let's just take it at them... so they tapped me the ball and once again everyone cleared out to guard for the pass, which never came... I just charged ahead, and got a shot off... it reinvigorated the team. So that feels good. In fact, of our dismal 6 shots on goal, 3 of them were mine. Which may just mean I'm being selfish. But all that being said the highlight for me was that one of our two points came from the speed of a certain Kansas AYSO Bluejay... that's right, my score streak continues.

In the last ten minutes, our team brought the ball down the sideline and crossed it in, the keeper went up for it and got his hand on it but it slipped through... it skipped across the goal mouth, and thanks to a burst of speed and some sliding maneuvers I got there in time to nick it in... it felt really nice. So Queen's College 1- Mansfield College 6- Tabor College 1-... a good day.

I'm still learning everyone's names, but it was a lot of fun, and I think I can make quite a few friends on the team, especially once I remember how to play this sport and get a little more competitive.

Something I didn't have in the email was that I did get two sets of grass stains... which always means something to the Voth men playing soccer. At least it means we were in the game. So two grass stains there dad. It was a very good day, but not half as good as yesterday. I'll tell you about that soon... which I suppose if you're reading this after I've posted it then it may be that you just read about it in the post above, in which case... what a cool day huh?

p.s. sorry about the shirtlessness in these pictures... it was really exhausting and the uniforms are long sleeves (English style).

2007-10-15T17:25:00.001-07:00

I'm finally into the swing of things. That isn't to say that my weeks have developed the sort of regularity that will come in the next few weeks, but I've made it through the first gauntlet of Oxford, and although I lost some feathers along the way, I'm still flying high. Alright maybe that was too cheesy. The point is, I've experienced what Oxford has in store for me, and I'm excited for the rest of the experiences. I'm still trying to get connected to my college's soccer team, which should happen this week. That will be a nice diversion from constant reading and writing... which by the way is all that you are missing. The past few days have not been full of English life as you might expect, sadly they've just been like most of my time here. Another paper, another 10 books, another set of late nights, and yet another 2,500 word essay. Although this most recent one came together quite well... either I'm getting more fluid with this writing thing, or it was an easier assignment. I hope it is the first one.

The picture is from Ireland. This is Nick and I looking at the Atlantic on the Beara Peninsula.

However, I have had some great experiences the past few days. Last night was an especially valuable time. About 20 of us got together and had a night of worship. We just took an hour out of our studies and gathered together with a couple of guitars and sang for an hour and a half. It was wonderful. I enjoyed the chance to worship but it was also nice just to be able to sing. So that was the highlight of my week so far.

Another highlight of my week was editing a fellow student's paper on the Messianic Secret in the Gospel of Mark. Ever since meeting Dr. Tim Geddert from the MB Seminary I've been falling more and more in love with Mark, and I've been studying it quite a bit. I really enjoy it and I had a blast discussing the ideas with the student. I found a lot of self worth in that discussion, much more than I found in the philosophical theology discussion you can read about in the last post. Maybe its because I felt prepared and strong in my position... but I'd like to think that its because I see so much value and worth in studying the bible and grasping truth in God's word... instead of trying to find it in the conceptualization of philosophy that eventually makes God unrecognizable to us. But its probably just because I didn't get stomped. We'll see.

The paper I just finished, which freed me up to write another blog entry, is on St. Augustine again. But this time its attempting to answer the question: "Was St. Augustine a progression or a regression from Classical models of history?" It was a lot of fun to write, because it was one of the few times I've been able to really paint a picture or tell a story with my writing, which is really why I enjoy history. If you want a copy of any of my papers, (although I can't imagine why) I'll begin posting some so you can see what I've been up to, and hopefully the progression of my writing.

The paper that I started today for Philosophical Theology is on Miracles and Petitionary Prayer... I'll let you know how it develops.

Sadly, I can't think of much more to report. I'll let you know if something comes up. But I really want to acknowledge a few people who I'm told just starting reading the blog. Greg Claassen and Noelle Dickenson... glad you found the blog... tell your friends. Maybe we could start some sort of raffle for the person who introduces the most people to the blog, I'll bring you back something nice. I don't know, we'll work on that later.

For your viewing pleasure, here is another video from my time at Oxford. This video is of the River Avon as it runs through the city of Bath in South East England. In the background you can see a bridge with shops on it, this is the only remaining bridge in Europe that still has shops on it. Its not the same river Avon that runs through Shakespeare's home of Stratford... because there are many rivers named Avon in England. "Avon" is either Gaelic or Anglo-Saxon for "River." But none-the-less, this was an interesting river because the city of Bath has designed an artistic waterfall. I thought it was cool.

Also want to give my love to my family back home. Grandma Lil and Grandpa Charlie; Grandma Marj and Grandpa Denys, and of course all my Aunts and Uncles and Cousins that I love and miss very much. Praying for you all and thinking of ya.

2007-10-11T18:26:00.000-07:00

Real quick: This is me driving in Ireland. Please notice how everything is opposite of what we're used to... the stick shift, the steering wheel... oh and that road may appear to be narrow, but that's actually one of the wider roads we traversed... it even had two lanes.

I've completed my first week of the "real" Oxford. For anyone I haven't told, Oxford operates on a tutorial system, which means that I never go to a class that meets regularly. Instead I meet with a tutor (professor) once a week for a primary tutorial. In these meetings I prepare a 2,000-2,500 word essay. We meet, we discuss the essay and then I receive a reading list and a new assignment for next week. My primary tutorial is on Wednesdays and is called Historiography- which is the philosophy of history... but basically its just the histories of historians. or History squared. The other aspect to Oxford is that there are constantly lectures taking place every hour of every day, even Saturdays... and my tutor suggests which lectures I should attend, so that is another aspect of the process.

I also have a secondary tutorial which meets every two weeks or (fortnight), for me this started this week. The same set up takes place, but I get two weeks to research an write a paper. So every two weeks is extremely busy and intellectually taxing. My secondary tutorial occurs every other Thursday, and is called Philosophical Theology.

So I've completed my first round of tutorials at Oxford. Met my tutors, presented my arguments and received feedback. My primary tutor I think was impressed by my answers, although I don't know what he'll think of my paper. It was on the topic of Augustine, and our meeting was basically discussing Augustine's influences, thoughts, and approaches. Truth be told, I came out better than I think I should have. I've compared the experience to winner a drawing to meet the best pitcher in the world... as part of the award you get to try to bat off the famous pitcher... but just before you grab your bat, you are blindfolded. What do you do? Swing at every thing you think is a pitch? Wait until you hear the 98 mile/hr fastball coming at you? No, you bunt. I pretty much bunted every thought and question he pitched at me. I had enough knowledge of the subject to get a few hits, and I even perhaps impressed him with a thought or two, but mostly I could guess what he thought the answer to a question was in the method he asked me, so I basically bunted through the meeting. I thought it went allright... but now I'm more nervous for the next one, where I was hoping to be more at ease. This will be very challenging.

I was hoping that the philosophical theology tutorial that I had today might be different. I was right, but in the worst possible way. If I came to Oxford to be humbled that was accomplished today. My secondary tutor let me have it. We discussed the existence of God and whether there was a rational justification for belief in God. I entered the discussion thinking- No, that "faith" is the act of making a belief even in the absence of evidence... that there is not sufficient evidence to believe in God or not to believe in God, and that we must have faith in order to believe.

She destroyed every one of my arguments. In fact, I've never been so completely and utterly refuted in every essence of an argument. Frankly, despite the embarrassment, I was really impressed. I think I've grown from it... but the strange thing is, despite the fact that she eradicated my arguments, it still doesn't make sense for there to be enough proof or evidence to prove God's existence. I have been thinking about the interaction all day and although I no longer have a defense for my position (which is really difficult for me, because I like defended positions) I still do think that all you need to reach God is a superb brain... there has to be an aspect to God's system that allows anyone at any level of intellect to have just as much access and reward to God... it can't be based on intelligence and access to information. I think I just need to come up with better arguments, not change my overall perspective.

Oh well. It was a good experience. Along with my tutorials which I will have for the next seven weeks and write ten more essays for, I also have an overall essay called the Big Essay (how original) that I will turn in at the end of the term. It can be on any historical topic of my choosing. So since I really enjoy Naval history and sailing, I plan to write on the either Napoleonic Naval History, the Naval battles of the War of 1812, Privateering, or the tension between Political history of naval battles vs. Naval history of political battles. Should be fun.

I'm trying to get connected with my college's soccer team. Apparently there is a game Saturday, so I'll try to join up. I'm really out of shape, but hopefully I'll be foolhardy and American athletic enough to make an impact. The soccer here is much more intermural in essence since no one comes to Oxford for athletics, we only play teams from the 28 other colleges. I'm really looking forward to it though.

As a result of the papers and assignments this first week, I didn't do much outside of the libraries and in front of the computer typing. I don't know if it will be much different for the next seven weeks, but there will be some highlights. I got voted to be on a seven member council for my program. Its basically student senate, and we plan events and fun nights, ect. Tomorrow is our first, just a movie night for the end of the first week. But we'll throw an amazing Dress up party over Halloween, and the highlight of the year is the Thanksgiving Party. Apparently we are the largest visiting student program at Oxford (close to 50 Americans, 1 Canadian) and we have a reputation for throwing an amazing Thanksgiving party, which Britain doesn't celebrate... so we've been asked by several Oxford locals about it. Our last event will be a Christmas Caroling/ice skating party. It'll be great, my parents should be here during that time, so I'll get to sing with my mom which is always special for me.

This is a picture of a road sign from Ireland. Reminding us not to drive our rental car off the pier into the Atlantic Ocean. I put this picture here to be funny and also to represent what my secondary tutorial experience was like today.

Well, I'll let you all go. For those of you who have stuck it out until the end of the message, here is the next addition to the house tour. Today you'll see the amazing features of the Vines' entry way, common room and dining room. Enjoy.

2007-10-10T16:36:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, I'm still writing papers. Sorry for the lack of updates... I'll be done by tomorrow so I'll write more then. Love God and Love Others.

-Trent

2007-10-05T17:39:00.001-07:00

Well, the vacation is defiantly over. I got back from Ireland and the next day we had meetings all day. I got the names of my tutors and contacted them about meeting times and reading lists... by the end of the day I had two assignments due in a week. I meet with one tutor every Wednesday for the next eight weeks. We'll talk and study historiography which is basically the philosophy of doing history. How, and why we study history. I'll have a 2,500 word paper due every week, but thankfully he had mercy on me and only assigned me a 1,500 word essay for this first meeting. Its on an interesting topic- St. Augustine. The question is: To what extent does Augustine allow for human action in his account of history. The answer that I'm working on is vague and waffling, so its perfect for a college philosophy class.

I believe that by our post-modern standards, Augustine doesn't put much in the hands of men, and instead depicts history as the on going work of God. Augustine allows that man may be at least a contributor to the process, and would certainly hold that man has free will in the matter, but Augustine would also contend that God directs the paths of men and empires to His desired ends. Kinda like making a labyrinth in which everyone is free to move as they wish, but the end is always under control and always predictable.

However, in Augustine's day this position of free will and man sharing some role with God in the making of history was monumental. To Augustine and his contemporaries, his approach to history may indeed put a lot of weight on man... at least much more than previously placed. In that age, "fate" and "astrology" were believed to direct man's life... to take that power away from "fate" and place it in the free will of a single God and his creation mankind, was a huge shift in thinking.

Anyway, its a lot of fun to write. My other tutor is for the class philosophical theology, and I will meet with her every other week... so only 4 times, but one of those times is Thursday. While it is stressful to schedule our first meeting so soon, it will alleviate pressure in the final week of my term. The paper she assigned is on the topic of faith.

The questions are: "Is faith rational?" and "Is faith opposed to reason?" These are controversial topics and I hope I don't offend anyone with my positions on them, but none-the-less here we go. In order to answer these questions it is imperative to define what "rational" and "reason" actually mean. While these are lengthy topics for papers in themselves I will just contend that to rationally hold a position it must be justifiably defensible. There must be ample support in order to hold it.

With this definition I contend that faith must, at some core level, be irrational and opposed to reason. My favorite philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, is famous for claiming that in religious belief one must make a "leap of faith." Which is to say that, in order to believe in God, one must accept that a justified reason is unavailable and always will be... there will never be PROOF of God's existence, therefore God values our willingness to suspend and abandon justification and make the "leap of faith" that He does exist, even and especially in the absence of concrete evidence.

I think Kierkegaard is right. The value of Faith is that it depends on a lack of justification, that it has no dependence on human intellect or reason and depends completely on an unprovable truth revealing itself AFTER the point of no return. That's good stuff right there.

Needless to say, this will be an intense semester, but it ought to be a lot of fun.

I want to quickly tell my family that I miss you and love you all, and to Grandpa Freddy: "I love you very much and I am so proud of you, and thank you so much for your support, prayers and love through my life."

2007-10-03T16:10:00.000-07:00

So Ireland was an incredible vacation. We left from London after a field trip to the British War Museum on Thursday. We walked to the nearest tube station and purchased Oyster cards, the most effective way to travel London, and set out for the town. Our plane was going to leave London's Stansted Airport around 6:30am the next morning and our plan was to board a bus to the airport around midnight and sleep at the terminal until check in at 4am. So we had a lot of time to kill.

Our vacation started at a tiny Chinese buffet in China town near Piccadilly. Five pounds bought us an all you can eat dinner, the perfect start. Then we decided to see Les Miserables, one of the most famous musicals in the world. It was stupendous! Afterwards we hopped around London on the underground and eventually learned the late night bus schedules. We made it to Victoria bus station and after about an hour of probing, discovered where and how to get to Stansted. We arrived a little after 1am, not too bad.

We tried to sleep in the airport which looked like a refugee camp of weary travelers. However, apparently every time we attempted to sleep somewhere, that was just where the airport was just about to open some new gate. So our sleep was constantly interrupted. Arrrggg. It was around 3am that I discovered I had a pocket knife and over 5ooml of shampoo, which would both be confiscated at security, so I spent time trying to think of how to keep them. Eventually, I found myself in the airport chapel and proceeded to stash the contraband in a broken cabinet that faced a wall. I prayed they'd be there when I returned five days later.

We boarded the flight, and we asleep before take-off. Landed in Dublin, already exhausted, and went to get our rental car. Upon reaching the counter, we discovered that the website we had gone through didn't reflect the policies of this particular rental company who did not rent to anyone under 24... after an hour of negotiating with the home office, it was acceptable for me (23) to rent the car because I was American and we get our licenses usually around 16 instead of 18 like it is in Europe. U-S-A, U-S-A!!!

Thus began one of the most stressful weeks of driving in my life. The car was a stick, but of course it and the steering wheel were both on the wrong sides. We drove on the wrong side, so now left turns were wonderful, but right turns were horrible. But by far the worst part was that Irish roads are so narrow. Highways were just like the colonies, but country roads, where we spent most of the trip, were barely a single car width, and we would often meet cars nose to nose.

We drove through Dublin, which was horrible, I hate European traffic and drivers, to get south to a beautiful place called Glendalough (Glen-Del-Lock). It is famous for being truly Irish. Its the greenest, cleanest, most pristine place I've ever been. There is an ancient monastic village there with a round tall tower that is in most Irish post-cards... you can see a picture of it above. Glendalough also has two lakes that are simply gorgeous. It is everything you'd think of being Ireland.

We left Glendalough about midday, and drove through the Irish country side for about three hours, eventually coming to a highway that led us to Limerick, the biggest city on the western coast. We got there around 11pm our first night. Now I hadn't slept real well since the night before, although we took a 2 hour nap at Glendalough, however my friends, Bryce and Nick hadn't slept in two days since they had put off their final papers until the night before, so they were in desperate need of beds. However, the whole week leading up to our trip I had wanted to plan it out, while they didn't want to take the time... I didn't like that until I found out we had a car, at which point I thought I'd sleep in the car the whole trip... not too comfortable on the back, but sure is nice on the wallet, and requires no planning. Well a total lack of planning results in no beds in Limerick at midnight... so it turned into all of us sleeping in the car that night. However, I wasn't tired yet, and decided to drive on south to Tra Lee.

We woke up in Tra Lee and went to a pub for coffee around 10am. We had actually slept pretty well, but the guys wanted beds the rest of the time so we were going to book hostels for the rest of the nights. In the pub the owner came up to us with our coffee and noticed we were trying to plan a time in Ireland. He asked us how much time we had in Ireland, about 4 more days, and then he proceeded to grab our map and explain exactly what we should do and see to get the best Irish experience and see what the tourists never get to on their buses. Patrick, which is what we named him since we never got his name and he turned out to be such a saint to our trip, turned the whole week around.

Going off Patrick's advice we drove the Dingle peninsula, the South Western most tip of Ireland. To get there you drive up a mountain pass, with Ireland on one side and the Atlantic and the Dingle Peninsula on the other. The Dingle peninsula is very cliffy. The views were breathtaking, and the video below shows the scene. Dingle is as close as you can get to the states. It took a whole day, and much more stories than you can take.

That night we drove to Killarney, a tiny Irish town in south Ireland. I had booked the guys a hostel and when I went to check them in the clerk noticed that I hadn't checked myself in. He asked what my plans were and I told him I'd sleep in the car to save money, he offered me a free bed, so how could I refuse. Killarney was a wonderful tiny Irish town. Then the next day we went to church the next morning in Killarney Cathedral. And walked in Killarney national forest.

We left Killarney by driving through the massive national forest, by this time I felt pretty secure on the roads, which was good, because every road in Ireland is a twisty-turny experience... I now understand the massive appeal of driving porches through roads like that. We proceeded to the Beara peninsula, which is the south-eastern most peninsula or Ireland. Ireland has three main peninsulas Beara, Kerry, and Dingle. Everyone goes to Kerry cause its the largest and most easily navigable by bus, but Beara and Dingle have very narrow, hair-pin curved roads, so most tourists never get there. We stopped every few miles to take in the scene. It too was gorgeous. We even drove down a farmer's access road to get to the edge of one outcropping.

After a long day on the Beara penninsula we drove into Cork, another major southern city on the south east coast. Our hostel that night was above a pub and we spent the evening listening to a local Irish band (my favorite type of music) and watching Rugby... it was crazy cause Ireland was playing Argentina in the Rugby world cup. It was intense, especially when they lost, but most people handled it well.

The next day saw the most variety of sites. We drove from Cork down to Cobh which is famous for being the last port of call for the Titanic, so the last land the ship saw was the cathedral at the port of Cobh. I got a great picture of where the ship was docked. Then drove to Blarney to see the castle and kiss the stone. From there drove up to Cashel the location of a famous castle called the ROCK of Cashel... it too was breathtaking and a fun time. Then finally we ended up in Dublin, and enjoyed the city. The next day we woke up, drove to the airport said goodbye to Molly, that's what we named the car, and eventually boarded our flight. Arrived at Stansted, recovered my stashed knife and shampoo, and made our way back to Oxford.

Believe it or not but this was just a short overview of the vacation. I can't hardly put it into words. It was stressful driving and at times God really protected us, because we were close to being in several wrecks. It was also way more expensive than I had been planning but in the long run I'm glad I did it and it was worth it all. I have incredible pictures, but sadly can't post them all. Ask me about it.

When I got to Oxford, I really experienced "homesickness" for the first time. I greatly missed my friends, Shelby, and my family. I think it was a result of actually returning from a vacation, which is what this whole experience has felt like, and realizing that I'm still not home. I went through a debriefing of sorts, like after every long vacation but still wasn't home with the people I love... so that was a difficult time for me. While waiting for the plane, we watched the tv show The Office, which is a tradition I had with my best friends at Tabor, and all I wanted was to be back with them watching the Office again. But such is life.

Ireland was incredible, the people were so nice... nicer than the British I am willing to say. We watched soccer in a Dublin pub and were immediately included in the family. It is truly as green, pure, and wonderful an island as you've heard. I understand why lucky charms are so charming. St. Patrick's day will take on a whole new meaning for me.

2007-10-02T14:56:00.000-07:00

Wow, sorry I haven't written in awhile. I've been spending the last five days in IRELAND!!! It was amazing. Two friends and I left for Ireland Thursday, and rented a car and drove the south coast and country side. It blew my mind and took my breath away. I have more pictures than I know what to do with. I'll write more later with the itinerary and what all took place, but I just got home and need to accomplish a few things for tomorrow.

If you look at a map of Ireland, we basically traveled everything between Dublin and Limerick, and South. I never saw any other color but green. I'll write more soon. Check out this amazing video taken from the southern most tip of the island... this is as close as I can get to the United States.

2007-09-25T17:03:00.001-07:00

Finally, I have a little time to write, which is amusing because that is exactly what has been occupying my time. As a result I really don't have too many stories to tell since my time has been occupied by reading and writing. Since I'm planning on a trip to Ireland in a few days I knew that I had to finish my papers before they were due on Friday. As a result I decided to spend the weekend working myself to the bone. But before that we had gone to Bath near the west coast.

Bath was an incredible experience. Bath is named after the Roman Bath house and temple that once occupied town. The Baths were built above a hot water spring that releases thousands of gallons of 100 degree water a day. The spring was thought to be the dwelling place of a goddess to both the Celts and the Romans. The Romans built an impressive structure to harness the spring's heat and runoff to fill a massive bath complex. They utilized lead pipes and drainage systems, some of which are still being used to fill the bath, and carry away excess water. The design was incredibly elaborate. But aside from the Bath house, Bath's only other attraction is 19th century architecture.

The picture above is me standing on the edge of a complex called the King's Circus, in Bath. It is a Circle of homes, and the picture contains 1/3 of the complex. It had the same area as Solomon's Temple, and has 3 stories, 3 roads, and 3 sections... a representation of the trinity. Although you can't make it out well in this picture each vertical column has a different Roman style, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian... pretty sweet. Other than that Bath had an amazing waterfall in the river, and the countryside that it sat in, just south of Wales, is georgeous. Some of the pictures to the left are documenting that.

But after Bath I set to work on my papers. Friday night I stayed up until 6:30am writing about the Darwinian Controversies. The question I was trying to answer was: Would Victorian era Naturalist Clergymen find it odd to have an incompatibility between religion and science. The answer is YES! The fact that they were Victorian, Naturalist, and Anglican all meant that they held to a type of Natural theology, which depended on a close relationship between science and faith. They believed that scientific discoveries merely attempted to explain the mechanisms of God. Many were caught off guard by Darwin, but even more just adopted evolution into their faith and continued on their way. Whatever the case, the issue of evolution was not nearly the divisive issue during Darwin's day as it is today. It is a result of both scientists and Christians blowing the issues out of proportion and making their respective positions attempt to explain more than they can or should. I finsihed the paper saturday, and revised it Monday, all done.

The next paper I started Sunday and it was much more fun than I had first expected. I was writing on the British Reaction to the American Revolution, and whether social class or religion had a bigger impact on whether a Briton would support or oppose the Americans. After hours in the library I suddenly cracked the code, and figured out the puzzle. I was amazed and felt like a real historian. It was a amazing to see.

Here's how it goes: We have massive amounts of evidence saying that the merchant and trading classes in Britain supported the American cause, and the trading cities like London, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, ect all sent huge petitions to Parliament to pursue peace with the colonies. So I knew that social class was a huge factor in supporting America, but I couldn't figure out why until I started putting the pieces together.

Of course the obvious reason is that the trade merchants and cities wanted peace to trade with the colonies, but its so much more intricate than that. 1.) Because America was a British Colony, the British had a trade monopoly with the Americans... the colonies traded with Britain ONLY. 2.) Parliament passed the Stamp Act, putting a tax on official document paper... 3.) the Americans reacted by stopping shipments of paper and destroying it, or the presses used to make it, intimidating stamp officials and eliminating all stamped paper... 4.) Because there was no stamp paper, no official documents could be legitimated. 5.) Court decisions were useless because they weren't on official stamped paper. 6.) Courts shut down 7.) No one could sue to recover any debts. 8.) Who were the only people who had debts in America? British Merchants and Creditors. 9.) The British Merchant class was in serious financial trouble because they couldn't recover their debts. 10.) Merchant cities were drowning from the lack of debt recovery.
11.) the Merchant class and big trading cities all wanted the Americans happy, because if it went to war... like it did, the debts would all be burned and never repaid. Crazy huh? I felt like a real historian after putting all those peices together.

I also discovered some amazing quotes from British people in support of America. Aside from economic interest, the intellectuals in Britain also understood that the issue was about more than taxation... it was about freedom and liberty. What the Americans started off was so pure and truly American... it makes me sick to think about what we've become since then.

Read this speech given by William Pitt. Pitt was the "Prime Minister" during the Seven Years War with France, and had made the colonies what they were. Pitt had engineered the Empire, he had bled for it, and is the person who had the most invested in it... even Pitt understood that the Americans were persuing something noble and truly British. On the eve of declaration of war with the colonies, Pitt rose in-front of Parliament to persuade them to persue peace with America, saying,

“I rejoice that America has resisted. I would argue that even under former arbitrary reigns, parliaments were ashamed of taxing a people without their consent. The gentleman asks, ‘When were the colonies emancipated?’ But I desire to know, when were they made slaves?”

Then looking to the members of Parliament bent on squashing the American resistance, certain the group of backwards farmers would soon cower to superior British Imperial Majesty, Pitt gave a clear picture of what would face the Red Coats across the ocean:

“Did their lordships not understand that in fighting the Americans, they were fighting their own ghosts, the ghosts of English liberty past? What, though you march from town to town, and province to province, though you shall be able to enforce a temporary submission, how shall you be able to secure the obedience of the country you leave behind to grasp the dominion of 1,800 miles of continent, populace in numbers, possessing valour, liberty, and resistance? The spirit which resists your taxation is the same spirit which called England on its legs and, by the bill of rights, vindicated the English constitution. This glorious spirit animates three millions in America who prefer poverty with liberty to gilded chains and sordid affluence, and who will die in defense of their rights as free men.”

I've got to admit, that makes me proud to wear the title of "American." And it makes me sick to think that we no longer deserve that title. Clearly we no longer care about liberty, and certainly have fallen prey to the sordid affluence Pitt was describing. The idea that we would support a document like the Patriot Act, which sacrifices the liberties that even our enemies understood us to cherish, tarnishes what it is to be American.

Benjamin Franklin said, "Those who would sacrifice liberty, for a little security, deserve neither liberty nor security." It saddens me to think how ashamed of our country its forefathers would be. They would have tossed our brand of tea into the harbor long ago... and our response would have been to call them unpatriotic, and aiding the terrorists... that they weaken the resolve of our allies.

I have come to the fervent belief that it is up to Historians to send this message, that at the very least we have surrendered our convictions for security, in the face of what everyone in the 18th century understood to be "American."

The fact that I'm done with my papers is a sweet gift. I've had time to enjoy life again. Reading for pleasure, and taking my time between places. I visited museums today, the Natural History museum in Oxford is breathtaking. Tomorrow I'll go to the Ashmolean. Should be fun.

Oh I also found out that I successfully played a joke on Tabor. Every year the Tabor community plays a game called, "Gotcha." In "Gotcha" (Gotch-ya) each person that signs up is given the name of someone else... the goal is to get that person wet with water balloons, water gun, or even cups of water by the end of the week. Once you "get" the person who is your target, they are out of the game and give you the name of their "target" which becomes your new "target" The person at the end of the week with the most names wins. You can only get the person who is your target, so as a result people need only fear one person, but its all secret, so you only know you're own target, not who has you. Well, I thought it would be funny, so I signed up, and apparently so I'm told, they didn't catch it that I'm off campus, so they put me in the game... Apparently a freshman who didn't know me pulled my name and asked, "So where do I find Trent Voth?" Those around him busted up laughing... saying, "This is going to be a boring game." Anyway, it all got figured out, but I thought it was pretty funny.

Well I must be off, the video below is yet another installment in the house tour. Today you'll be going from the kitchen to the dining room, and then into the living room. Enjoy.

2007-09-23T13:53:00.000-07:00

This is the reason I haven't been blogging much. These are two seperate stacks of books for two different 2,500 word essays. One on Religion and Science, the other on the British Perspective on the American Revolution. Oh yeah, and these are only 1/3 of the reading lists. As a result. I've been pretty busy just writing papers. I finished one last night after staying up late, and I've just cracked the code on the other. Interestingly I think I've discovered why so many British Merchants supported the Americans in the Revolution. Its an amazing web to track. In any event, I just wanted to let you all know I will be writing more, but it might be a few days. Also I'm planning a trip to Ireland, so next weekend I won't be available at all, although I'll have some awesome stories when I get back.

Anyway, I thought you might want to know what I've been up to, so just play the video underneath on repeat for a week and you'll have my experience for the past few days.

2007-09-19T14:58:00.000-07:00

I haven't written in awhile because there really hasn't been much to report. My days have been spent in the pretty typical routine of getting up at 8:45, shower, breakfast, 15 minute bike ride, 1 hour lecture on British History (huzzah!), tea, 1 hour lecture on British Literature (ok), lunch, then to the libraries studying British reaction to the American Revolution until 5:00, then home, dinner, and then read more books until around 9:00 and turn my attention to trying to relax, and talk to people. I'm discovering that I need to work quite a bit harder than everyone else in the program because I have a harder time reading and absorbing the information, while everyone else seems to fly through it. Oh well.

Today however, there is much to report. First, I got my Robin Hood paper back and the results were jubilant on one hand and devastatingly embarrassing on the other. I like bad news first so I'll lead with the critical stuff... "Sloppy writing spoils the effect." Was one of the headlines on my paper. It seems quite clear that my grammatical knowledge is desperately lacking... my writing needs vast improvement. Throughout the entire paper there are scratch marks and circles, and suggestions... however it seems that my largest mistakes aren't that bad... I consistently spelled words incorrectly... however I spelled their American equivalents, for example I was marked off for words like; honor or fiber, instead of honour or fibre. Which even now my spell check is alerting me about. I also use "British" and "English" as interchangeable and in fact they refer to different things so that was a mistake as well.

But on to the good news. All of the marks were grammatical, nothing but praise was given for my ideas, arguments, and positions. So it helped that the headline starts by saying, "You make some very intelligent points, Sloppy writing spoils the effect." So I would argue that there was at least an effect to be spoiled. Also, I suppose I'd rather be a person of intelligent ideas and arguments that can't explain them well, than a moron who is perfectly understood. Sadly, nobody marks for good ideas, so this paragraph will be substantially smaller, but none-the-less, I'm embarrassed for the grammatical mistakes, but deeply proud of the good ideas and that someone at Oxford recognized them.

Also, I'm having a horrible time writing the next two papers which are due in a week. The reading is going slowly and I just don't know how to glean two papers out of it in seven days, but we'll find a way, maybe I just won't be able to sleep much these next few days.

On a different note, two other housemates and I worked at the Gatehouse, a homeless shelter and soup kitchen tonight for the first time. We're going to try to make this a regular thing. We're trying to make connections and friends here in Oxford, and in England the rules for homeless people are quite different. England regulates the streets a lot more strictly so you don't see many homeless in a normal day, but its amazing how many showed up tonight. It was a joy working and I felt right with the world for the three hours we were there. I recognize it may not have been the best use of my time with these papers looming, but on the other hand I may argue that it absolutely was...

Tomorrow we travel to Bath, which ought to be incredible. So I'll have some pictures and stories to add when that goes down. But until then, here's the next installment of the house tour. This is from the same place in the house as before, but now down the stairs to the kitchen in the house. Bryce, my roommate, and Matt a fellow history student are there. Bon Apatite.

2007-09-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

Today was a nice relaxing time. I've been amazed how many people in the program have put off their papers until today. There were only a handful of us that could do anything but write and research today because everyone else was working. Its been surprising to me, and I discussed it with my parents on the phone yesterday. Perhaps its due to me being older than most of my classmates, maybe its because even though I might not be the in the upper echelon of intelligence here at the program, I do have more experience. It helps having the education I do, I've written a lot of papers in book reports, history reports, philosophical essays, and finally the literary master piece, the FORRMAL. Due to all these experiences writing a 2,500 word essay doesn't give me much to tremble about. But I really am surprised that so many other people just procrastinated. One of my roommates started his first paper at Oxford University tonight, another one of my roommates will undoubtedly be up until 4 or 5 am (10 or 11pm for most of you) writing. Its crazy.

I had to throw out my milk today though. It was only a day after expiration which leads me to assume that Britain doesn't use the same preservatives in their products.

Well with my free time today I watched some television over the Internet, and wouldn't you know it I've become addicted to a new show. Guess what it is? Its Robin Hood, on the BBC, a new interpretation on the hero we all know and love... this particular Robin speaks loads to me because in this version he returns from the Crusades a pacifist. He uses his archery and wit to trick and disarm, and at most intimidate, but never to kill... rarely to maim. Its an interesting take on the legend.

I also had fun playing some ultimate frisbee. I realized how out of shape I am since not doing a sport for the first time in the last 10 years. I gotta start running. Tonight I ate spaghetti and started trying to learn basic French... its going slowly, but I'm enjoying it. Also a girl in the program Alyssa knows that I make Russian Pancakes (Bilini) and she's had me make some for her before since she spent a semester in Russia and fell in love with them. Well she realized that she could make some money by having me make Russian Pancakes and her filling them with different confections like cream, strawberries, bananas, or chocolate. She marketed it and I made the pancakes, we made about 4 pounds by charging 50p a cake. So I made around $4 American tonight because of it. But that 2 pounds can buy four loaves of bread. This may turn into a regular Sunday event.

Another thing I did today was start a video tour for you. This first installment is just showing you the way to my room on the third floor. You'll get introduced to our two WCs, Loos or bathrooms , and through to my bedroom. Should be fun so click on the video below.

2007-09-15T16:54:00.000-07:00

Hey All, I just finished writing the first of many papers for Oxford. This particular one was over the literary history of the Noble Robber, Social Activist, and Re-distributor of wealth, known as Robin Hood... the first Comic Book Hero. It was a blast studying Robin Hood and his history. There are over a dozen men that Robin Hood may be based on, however there isn't sufficient evidence to link him directly to any of them, or even a particular place in England. Due to these factors, Robin is a pliable character and can be adapted to fit any era, to become the type of hero they need him to be. Thusly Robin has gone through the centuries from 1377 when he is first mentioned in a ballad, all the way to the twenty-first century when he is depicted in a BBC television program. Robin has certainly gone through revisions in that time too. At first he was a ruthless forester who killed bloodily and with zest. He robbed from whomever he wished and gave little away except to the church. Since then Robin has been adapted to become a dispossessed noble man fighting the good fight against oppression and tyranny. He has become the heroic Noble-outlaw who robs from the rich and gives to the poor. Fun eh? So my paper was set up to track when and why Robin has changed so much in the past 700 years. Answer: because he represents what it means to be British in each era he is in, and is continually reinvented to represent the new idea of Britishness.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun writing the paper. We'll soon find out if it is nearly as much fun to have it dissected and analyzed by the foremost opinions on academic papers. uggg. I've discovered a new musician I really like... Joshua Radin if anyone has free time, look him up. It should be a good time. I had a great break in the paper writing today though when I got the chance to finally talk to my parents on the phone. I had emailed with them a few times, but it was really nice to catch-up on the phone. However, since most of the day was spent writing on the computer or talking on the phone with the rents back in the colonies, I don't have very many neat pictures to add from today.

I did however finish the day by joining my first membership in Great Britain... Blockbuster. A group of us who were writing on Robin Hood decided to reward ourselves with a viewing of some of his movies so we made a trip to the blockbuster 15 minute bike ride away in Headington. It was a great trip only to get there and find out that Blockbuster in Headington has no copies of any Robin Hood movies. How can you be a British Movie Store and have no Robin Hoods? Its a travesty, that's the type of stuff that gets your colonies to break away from you. But it was a fun trip none-the-less.

I also started planning my fall break (28 Sep- 02 Oct). It looks like two friends, Bryce and Nick, and I are going to go to Dublin and backpack around Ireland for the week. It ought to be incredible. I'm really excited about it, and the guys are really cool... we all seem to get along well and line up theologically on a lot of issues which is rare. So I'll be eating a lot of lucky charms cereal in preparation. Well, we'll see what tomorrow brings. Have a great day.

The movie is of the inside of the Upper Radcliffe Camera part of the Bodilean Library where I did most of my library work this week.

2007-09-14T17:05:00.000-07:00

Hey all, not much to report from today. Went to class, went to the Library, studied, studied, studied, started a paper on Robin Hood, and bought and later consumed some food. Pretty basic day for any Oxford Student. Doing well.

I started a doing a couple of things today that I want to keep up. First, I bought groceries today, and they give us 35 pounds a week for food... so far I think I've spent about 10pounds a week for food. I've found if you're willing to suspend eating out, or buying name brand, you can actually survive on about 2pounds a day in food costs. And if you're willing to eat bread only, even cheaper. Well bakery bread that is sold at the end of the day, when the libraries close, is about 50p ($1) so today I started buying my $1 bread (which is like a subway footlong, but two feet worth) and giving it to the homeless. I'm going to keep this up.

Secondly, on my fifteen minute bike ride back to the house I ride through a beautiful park that has a river run up one side and circle around it and then down the other side where many people feed ducks and go row-boating... its a gorgeous place. Everyday at lunch I pick up an orange and everyday I've been stopping in the park half-way home to eat the orange under a tree and think about anything but education... its peaceful and rewarding. There's a great waterfall there too.

I've also been finding a lot of time to be with God. I suppose that is a benefit of living apart from everyone that I had relationships to invest in, and around people who are busy working. Its been nice too. Anyway, I'll have more to report once the paper is finished. Have a great one.

2007-09-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

First off… Happy Birthday to my favorite set of twins and closest of friends, Kyle and Kevin Larson. Secondly, I just realized that due to Britain’s moist climate, bread molds much quicker. The loaf I bought last week is now a fresh specimen of penicillin… oh well.

Finally, what an amazing day. We took a field trip to Winchester in the South of England. Winchester, just like St. Albans has a lengthy, rich history, starting off as a Roman settlement but going through its paces eventually ending up in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Wessex, the most powerful realm in England and later the capital of all England for several generations.

Like last week Winchester has a Cathedral at the center of its town and the reason Winchester became such a powerful city is because the Bishop of Winchester, for generations was the guardian of the Royal Treasure Chests. Winchester was the Fort Knox of medieval England. Several Kings had their coronations at Winchester Cathedral which is the longest Medieval Building in the World (although the world’s longest nave is in St Alban’s). In fact, legend has it that King Arthur and Camelot existed in the region, and in the great hall of Winchester, hoisted on a wall is the fabled Round Table of King Arthur.

The Round Table is enormous, probably close to thirty feet in diameter, and although we can tell that its not actually from any time period close to Arthur, but it does date back to around the 12^th century which is still pretty impressive. In the 16^th Century Henry VIII had it repainted to impress the visiting Holy Roman Emperor Charles I. He painted a large two colored Rose in the middle representing the two Houses of the Tudor dynasty that fought to war of the Roses over control of the Crown, and he had his own face painted onto Arthur’s body. However, its still an impressive sight.

The Cathedral which would’ve taken up a whole quarter of the town , has some amazing facets to it as well. For example, several of its Bishops started Colleges at Oxford, including Corpus Christi, New College, and Magdalen College. Cardinal Beaufort, who presided over Joan of Arch’s “trial” and execution, is buried at the Cathedral. And Thomas Wolsey who was chief Minister under Henry VIII started Christ Church at Oxford.

The Cathedral is also home to a unique set of six boxes containing the bones of the early Anglo-Saxon Kings. While most Kings after Edward the Confessor were buried in the Abbey he had constructed in Westminster in London, before Edward, many of the ancient Anglo-Saxon Kings (before 1066) have the bones at Winchester Cathedral. In some pictures you may see a large stained glass window that has no discernable pattern. This is because during the Civil War, Oliver Cromwell’s troops smashed the window. A dedicated church member painstakingly collected all the bits of glass and hid them away, then after it had passed remade the windows, but it was impossible to recompile the images, so the glass is the original glass from the 12^th century.

In the basement of the Cathedral is a Crypt, and the Normans who built the Cathedral were so anxious to get it up that they did little work surveying the land, thus they built it over a bog and river bed. As a result for the past 900 years the Crypt fills with water during the winter thaw, this was a continuous cycle until modern technology allowed pumps to be installed to keep it dry. As a result, no one has ever been buried in the Crypt. Although this has persevered it in its original design, and in the middle of the crypt stands a statue that was designed to be in water up to its knees, looking at his own reflection… pretty sweet. This had another effect on the structure, in the far south east corner of the Cathedral the bog and marsh has led to a sinking of the foundation, just like what has occurred to the leaning tower of Pisa. As a result the SE corner is leaning, in fact, to a greater degree than the tower of Pisa. The problem took a man five years in pitch black bog water, without any light, taking out rotten wooden support beams and replacing them with bags of concrete, in Scuba gear. He now has a statue in that corner, praising him as the protector of the Cathedral.

Winchester was such an important sight that Norman the Conqueror built a Castle here after his successful invasion of England to become King in 1066. Making Winchester his town. Its also where Jane Austen died and is buried in the Cathedral.

Due to all these many facets of English life going on in Winchester, and that it has been a place of historic Kings, including Arthur and Norman the Conqueror. Winchester became one of two towns that Hitler gave specific orders not to bomb during WWII. The other, interestingly enough was Oxford. Hitler planned on leveling London and as a result, was going to require some capital cities to help regulate life in England. One would be Oxford, in the center of England, and the Winchester would be the other, in the south near the cost. The other reason Hitler didn’t want Winchester bombed was because it was the town of the last successful man to invade Britain, William the Conqueror.

Due to the writing of papers, this has been a more lonely week. I spent a lot of my time in quiet libraries and in my room writing. I’ve been keeping busy with work, which I suppose is better than just sitting around. But its been tough being away from friends, both back in the colonies and even here in England. I had a frustrating day yesterday with class. In my history seminar we spent 2 hours discussing the philosophy of History, and I tried to explain my position on issues over and over again, and I’ve always felt like a competent communicator, but I just couldn’t get my ideas across to my professor, but at the end of it, he repeated my philosophy to the class. It was frustrating because I wanted to say, “That’s exactly what I was saying!” So it was comforting to feel vindicated in my thoughts, but I felt foolish for not being able to communicate it, and to his and everyone else’s eyes, I didn’t.

So today was a special time. Nice to get away from all the work and see some sights and refresh friendships, get some good pictures. Relax, in the middle of the day I just sat under a tree, read Mark, ate lunch, and took a nap… cheers.

Day 13: 11 Sep 2007

2007-09-12T11:01:00.000-07:00

Well the wave of work that up until this point had been safely out to sea has over the past two days come crashing down furiously upon all us fun loving beached students. I’ve been frantically reading articles in preparation for the History seminar I’m a part of tomorrow, while at the same time searching through dusty pages of 15^th century ballads of Robin Hood, trying to ascertain whether anyone cares that he’s a criminal… no. It’s a lot of fun, but its looking like my time to write the blog will be shortened from now one. Sorry. Now I see what Doc Kyle (my history professor and mentor back at Tabor) had been working so hard to prepare me for.

The past couple of days have just been full of studying and reading. Not much to report although I’m still floored every time I walk past a security check-point that is turning away visitors, but letting in students like me. We did go on a field trip today, but only through the streets of Oxford learning about the Oxford Martyrs. Three Protestant Bishops from the Church of England that were burned at the stake by Queen Mary (Bloody Mary) in 1555-6 here in Oxford. A Monument stands to their memory in the center of town. It probably helps their legacy that Mary didn’t reign long and Elizabeth quickly reestablished the Church of England, thus making them Martyrs instead of heretics.

We also learned about John Wyclif, whom Wycliffe Hall (where I’m attending these early classes) is named after. I had prior knowledge of him due to my History of the Reformation, and History of Christianity classes, thanks Doc. But I was reminded that I really would have gotten along with this guy. He disagreed with the church about transubstantiation, aural confessions, priestly power, papal authority, Only using Latin, and church wealth and property all on the basis of scripture… what a guy! He also did all this in the 1360s, a 100 or so years before Luther.

I don’t think many people know this but my family is going through a very difficult time back in the colonies. My Grandfather Denys is quite ill and slowly slipping away. This is really hard for me being so far from everyone and its especially painful for my grandmother, mom and her sisters. So I want to leave off with an incredible story that I'm hoping can be an encouragement to us. It goes like this:

Off in the late 1300s, 1364 to be exact, there was an old woman living a secluded life in an abbot in the shire of Norwich. She was known to those around her as Julian of Norwich and had suffered greatly losing her whole family in the Black Death that had struck England first in the 1340s and then had taken her second family in the second wave in the 1360s.

Julian of Norwich had dedicated her life to prayer and reflection on God and as she was coming to the end of her life she began to see visions of Jesus being crucified and the torment and anguish he experienced. In her visions (which she relates to a scribe beside her bed) she explains what Jesus says to her.

"Then our good Lord Jesus Christ said, 'Are you well satisfied with my suffering for you?' 'Yes, thank you, good Lord,' I replied. 'Yes good Lord, bless you.; And the kind Lord Jesus said, "If you are satisfied, I am satisfied (paid= totally fulfilled) too. It gives me great happiness and joy and, indeed, eternal delight ever to have suffered for you. If I could possibly have suffered more, I would have done so."

I really like this reflection about Christ. Julian of Norwich is expressing an aspect of Christ's love for us that is starkly different than what was going on in the world at that time. With the plague and so much death, war, and famine around them, everyone saw God as a vengeful, wrathful, unmerciful deity that was done with mankind’s unholiness. The thought may have been that this was just a second flood, but Julian kept an eye on the love of God. Jesus' love will see us and especially Grandpa through this... and I don't think that needs to mean that we'll all live through it. We can make God's Kingdom reach new hearts through this and if we further the kingdom then we'll have accomplished something that can not be taken away or diminished.

Day 12: 10 Sep 2007

2007-09-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

Since being sick Friday life has really spring boarded back to business. The weekend was a great time of rest and reflection. Saturday most of the group went to London, sadly I felt like I should make sure not to miss any more classes so I stayed home and caught up on work and grocery shopping. I’m finding out that since I’m not that picky about what brand I buy in the super market that I’m making my dollar (pound) go a lot further. That’s been nice to know. Sunday most of us go to an evening Church service at St. Andrews which is on the far North side of town with one of our professors, Jonathan Kirkpatrick. It’s an Anglican (Church of England, Episcopal) Church which, at times, is only one step (papal submission) away from being Catholic, but St. Andrew’s runs a night service that is very popular with students and youth. It is much like any Evangelical church back in the colonies (U.S.A.) with a contemporary worship band and livily preaching, there was a little bit of liturgy in there, but little of the theology that I struggle with was present. They even did some hymns which were great!

I’ve found more and more people being curious about Mennonites and as such I’ve spent many walks and nights trying to explain Mennonite Theology to the group. At times people are shocked, other times bewildered, but it seems like people want to know more. This has been a lot of fun for me to live out and explain. Interestingly, many people here (90%) would call themselves pacifists, but I seem to be uniquely suited in having a solid theological reasoning for it. That has been the subject of a little debate with the other 10% who disagree, although I’m trying to adopt a position of sitting back and letting other people talk (hard for me to do) since there are so many educated people here who are willing to take up the discussion.

Today (Monday 10 Sep 2007) has been an incredibly busy day so far and it isn’t nearly over yet. We had class as usual which went well. We watched a movie for our British Landscapes class, had tea, and listen to a lecture over the rise of Women in literature and Christianity that came to pass after the Black Death swept through England in the 1340s. It was fascinating to hear the stories and lessons of the English people who went through the plague and the new social order that arose out of such desolation.

Afterwards we ate lunch and set off to the libraries of Oxford in search of materials for our respective papers which are due in a week. My first paper at Oxford is over the British hero Robin Hood, whose legend grew in the Greenwood forests, just a few 100 kilometers north of Oxford near York and Nottinghamshire. I will be making the point that in British History it has at times been advantageous to have a hero who is also a criminal and to explore how this has affected real and fictional characters since the 13^th century when the first reports of Robin Hood appear… characters like Guy Fawks, or Han Solo… exciting eh? Most of the day was busy deep in libraries exploring these aspects of history and literature.

I also spent time in our main building at Frewin Court catching up on a program I missed due to the illness on Friday and on the way back home acquired a bike helmet (rest assured mom and dad) and exploring an used book store with some fellow students. The discussion fell on my personal theologies again which took up the whole 20 minute ride back home. What a blast!

I made some quick soup and gobbled it down, and have returned to the studying. But there was one thing I wanted to relate before I go. As I understand it, this blog is now on the Tabor College website and I want to thank Vance Frick and Will Enger for doing the work to put this up.

My first message to any Tabor students or prospective students who might be reading along is that (and I know this will sound forced but) you are actually getting a great education at Tabor. I know that you might not think so, since it’s a laid back, small environment, that’s exactly what I thought. I wholly expected to be blown away by Oxford University and all the intelligent people I’d encounter, but I’ve found that, while I might not possess the vocabulary these intellectuals do, I often have the knowledge and ideas that are respected by the group for their insight. My point is, at Tabor I wasn’t sure that I was getting a great education or just great connections, but the fact is what I learned at Tabor is going the distance here at Oxford… so far so good.

Day 9: 7 Sep 07

2007-09-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

Its been a very busy couple of days, and I’m sorry if any of you (mom) wanted regular updates over that time. Today, has been especially rotten due to the fact that I must’ve eaten something that made me sick, which has had two consequences. On the one hand I’ve been in bed all day and really haven’t left my cell, but on the other hand, I’ve finally found a little time to update the page.

Part of the decrease in writing has been the result of starting classes, so I’ve had a lot of reading and a few things on the plate to deal with and sadly the blog must take a back-seat to such things. Also yesterday the whole group went on an all day field trip to St. Alban. The St. Alban trip is probably the most interesting news of the past three days.

St. Alban is a city located a few miles North of London and while it may seem small by today’s standards, back in the first century St. Alban was the Roman city of Verilium and was the third largest city in Roman Britain. So part of the field trip was set up to see the Roman Ruins which are probably boring for most, but I found it all fascinating. For example they have preserved a Roman Theatre and Mosaic Floor in quite stunning standards.

However, St. Albans is also home to some other major historical occurances. It is named after the first Christian Martyr killed in Britain. Alban was a citizen living in Roman Verilium and late one night a Christian Missionary arrived on his door step, being pursued by Roman Soldiers (this is in the 3^rd Century AD when Rome was fiercely persecuting Christians. Alban took the Christian into his home, and through conversation, converted to Christianity himself. When soldiers finally arrived asking for the Christian’s surrender, Alban walked out instead, dressed in the missionary’s clothes. Alban was led outside the city, up a hill and was killed at the top. However, on the trek up the hill Alban converted one of the soldiers with Christ’s message. As a result the Roman Soldier was also put to death at the same place, after Alban. The Missionary didn’t escape either, and in fact within a day, England had its first three Christian Martyrs.

The place where Alban died then became a place of worship and not long after Christianity became “safe” a small shrine was built. In fact, a town began to grow around the hill away from the Roman Ruins, in the 11^th century an enormous Church was built over the site of Albans death, by this time a Saint. The church was built out of the very stones and bricks used to make Verilium. The tower is one of the few Norman structures still standing in England, and the Nave of the Cathedral is the longest in Europe. It’s a gorgeous Cathedral. Not long into the 14^th century an Abbey of Monks grew around the abbey, and as a result the City of St. Albans is also home to England’s Oldest pub, the Fighting Cocks. Interesting how everything falls together isn’t it?

The trip was a lot of fun and full of interesting finds, and great conversations. What else is new? I bought grocieries for the first time and may actually be able to survive here… although right now I feel terrible. I also found that while everything else in England may be extremely expensive, clothing is not. I found a store selling Jeans for $16 that would go for $80-$100 in the states. I cooked Russian Pancakes the other day which was a huge hit with the other students, and about 12 men including myself have started a weekly prayer group. This all should be helpful in getting through the difficulties that lie ahead. By the way, if you have questions or want to know more my email address is trentvoth@yahoo.com, and I would be happy to talk if you don’t mind some delay for work and time difference. Thanks for reading.

I’ve also got skype to work, even with video and have talking with Sam Flaming and Shelby. Its been great. Hope everything is going well in the colonies.

Day 5: 3 Sep 2007

2007-09-04T10:23:00.000-07:00

I’m beginning to realize that I won’t be able to keep this blog updated everyday, its just going to be too much work. But on the bright side for those of you who don’t like the historical outline of each day that I have been putting up. I will try to write more about my most amazing experiences and less about every facet of everyday. I’ll try to put it into a one paragraph message.

Today I woke up at 7:30am. Went to orientation which lasted all day but was pleasantly interrupted by tea every couple of hours. Then we proceeded to spread throughout the city for a scavenger hunt, which was doubly joyful due to a carnival that Oxford has been putting on for two days. As part of the Scavenger we visited several different sites, but often got distracted by the fact that, as University Students we gain access to places that no one else can get into. So we explored the Bodleian Library and Christ Church, while amazing in their own rights, you may also recognize them from the Harry Potter movies. Joe and I then went out searching for bikes and air pumps. The day drew to a close at The Turf Tavern, a pub, located in a dark alley near the Bod. The Tavern is also the local of the infamous incident in which Former President Clinton was reported to have smoked but not inhaled an “illegal substance.” The night ended by watching Spinal Tap with the group

… but here’s some of my insights…

This has been such an amazing experience. I can't begin to explain all the intricacies and multitude of experiences I'm having. So far, I've never had more fun just living some place. My mind is blown almost every second and I know that I must be the most annoying person in Oxford right now because I constantly walk around with a look of awe and of a total tourist... but then it hits me that I actually live here. I'm a local, in the seat of wisdom and learning for the western world.

These people are incredible and they are all geniuses and I feel honored to be counted among them, but at the same time at home with them. Like yesterday, I walked into a room full of sorrow faces and asked, "What's wrong team?" They replied, "We're just mourning the loss of the Library of Alexandria." And I was taken back by the outright nerdiness of such a comment but also a peace that I too could join in the mourning and be okay in their eyes.

Today I made the mistake of correctly answering a question, and revealing that while I may be the bottom of the pecking order, I do actually know something, my fear is that this will translate into me being viewed as a threat, when actually I just guessed... as always.

Yesterday, we were walking around the old city, and by old I mean 1000 old, more than 5 times older than most U.S. cities. And we came upon the Bodleian Library, the oldest, largest, and most prestigious University Library in all the world. The Bodleian, or Bod, contains the original handwritten works of Shakespeare, Aristotle, any western philosopher, or artist, or scientist... the notebooks of both Sir Isaac Newton, or Yeats, Bede, or C.S. Lewis... ect. Quite simply the most amazing collection of knowledge that mankind could assemble. The very stuff that separates us from the animals and the thing that distinguishes humanity for whatever shortness of time as a legitimate collection of cells and souls...

The Bod's spires scratching the clouds and inspiring, dreaming of new ideas and old pages... tour groups of all nations and languages walking through the cavernous court yard snapping photos and being reminded of the Kings, Presidents, and Prime Ministers, the Authors and Poets, that had been educated right here... and amidst all the jumble of humanity and history, in I strode. Walking up to the security check point trained to refuse access to all but the 13,000 University faculty, staff, and students that are the only people in the world allowed into the halls and rooms of the Bodleian... and yesterday, I was one of them, humming skyline drive.

Something that has become pleasantly obvious is that I would never be in the position to do these things or grasp these opportunities if not for you and all my other loved ones back home, encouraging me.

Day 4: 2 Sep 2007

2007-09-03T16:03:00.000-07:00

So I slept in again. I got up, showered, and started searching for bicycle parts. I need a light, a helmet, and mud flaps for riding in the rain. Around 3:30pm we left for Crick Road, the other house in the program for afternoon tea. The walk to Crick Road is about 30 minutes but stretches through many of the same parks that we go through to get into town. On the walk I got in a conversation
Walked through the Parks to Crick Road.

On the way I got into a conversation with a fellow history student about political ideologies which, of course, led to a discussion about Iraq. He began discussing the reasons for going to war and the legitimacy of WMDs in Iraq. Come on you all know me, I couldn’t let it go. About 20 minutes later the conversation drew to a close. It was a lot of fun, and interesting. For perhaps the first time on this trip I felt like I had a place in academic discourse… of course it helped that some young kid stumbled into a subject that I’ve payed close attention to for some time.

The best part was that after the conversation we had a great time moving on to other conversations. It is so nice to be around people who engage in debate but don’t have to take it personally. As the conversation took a different turn, I discovered that I was talking to a real life Dwight Shrute, a character from NBC’s The Office. We got on the topic of bears, discussed pirates, and finally man’s most feared enemy… the Hippo. All fun conversations. We did this while having tea at Crick, which brought the whole group together again for about an hour.

The we all went back home, about a 30 minute walk. I worked on my bike, which had a flat tire for most of the night. That work progressed until about 10:30 when a few of the guys, Bryce, Nick, and Scott sat on a back porch playing guitar. I just sat and listened and enjoyed the college life for awhile. The night ended by joining a group watching movies in the living room. A great end to another great day.

Day 3: 1 Sep 2007

2007-09-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

I kept pushing this morning back. My alarm went off at 9:30am, but with nothing to really get to I just turned it off. It was a nice feeling and probably the last time I’ll feel that for 6 months. In the end that was a mistake, because today was both the most packed and longest day so far. As a result I have a ton to cover in this entry and not a lot of time to pull it off. So I finally woke up around 11:00am.

The first thing I did was check my email. There I found an email from a local man named Bob. I had been emailing him about a bike that he had on dailyinfo.com, an Oxford based website for selling bikes. After a few replies I found out that he was located on the outskirts of Oxfordshire. By outskirts, I truly mean way out there. In fact Bob lives in Sandhill, which is the village, that is beside the suburb, that sits beside Oxford. However it was a pretty straight shot and an easy home to get to. So I started walking… 5 miles and 50 minutes later I darkened Bob’s door. I gave Bob 40pounds for a bike and a lock.

Then began the trek back… I had about 20 minutes to get back for a BBQ at the house. Unfortunately, even though its almost a straight shot down Headington Road/M40, except for a single round about half way. I had to navigate an extremely difficult set of pedestrian crossings, and well, I ended up going down the wrong direction for about a quarter mile. I realized the mistake when nothing looked familiar, but it didn’t take much to get back on track. After some hard riding I made it back just in time.

We were joined at the house by the other students from Crick Road for a BBQ. We were scrambling to learn names and put this with faces. I met two other history guys, Josh and Matthew, both from JBU. We had a great time talking about Frank Hubert III (my old youth pastor) and Brian Bollinger (an old school friend from Halstead at JBU). We also set hard at work to plan history trips to different museums and around England.

We had a lot of fun talking and decided to sit down with Dr. Rosenberg and Jonathan Kilpatrick, the director and history professors of the program. We talked at length about the difference between British and Americans, Oxford, and Wycliffe Hall. It was great. But afterwards everyone decided to play some ultimate Frisbee in the backyard. The students were divided into about 5 teams. One of my roommates Bryce, who has turned out to be a pretty laid back and witty guy, and I along with Matt from JBU, a 6’ 4” guy, a couple of gals and Clint, our RD at the house, became the dominant team around. Unlike other teams, we decided on playing a zone defense for ultimate Frisbee instead of the typical manned defense. Bryce and I are both runners and fairly athletic guys so we just ran around and dominated the other teams. We played each game to 5 points and not only went undefeated, but were not scored on the entire tournament. Pretty sweet… it probably helped that we were playing against teams of a bunch of brains.

After awhile we all began to talk about heading into town. So about 10 of us did just that. We took a new path into town, taking a path through a bunch of gardens and along a canal. We crossed several bridges and everything was green and beautiful, just what you’d see in any English postcard. I can see now why Tolkien thought up the shire. Into the center of town we went, and walked around, shopped, and generally tried to fit in as locals.

As a few others went into a shop to buy groceries, Michael and I were leaning against St. Mary Magdelen’s Church in the middle of town. It’s a gorgeous 500 year old High Anglican Church that sits in the center of Oxford, in fact the street splits around it, making a cat-eye piece of land that contains two graveyards bracketing the church. Michael and I heard singing coming through the ancient stain glassed windows and around the stone walls. We made our way around the front of the church and slinked into the sanctuary. A choir was practicing for the Latin, High Church mass that would be tomorrow morning. We sat in the pews and listened to the glorious harmonies for an hour. There something deeply moving and truly reflective about ancient cathedrals. It was a time of deep reflection and it was a very spiritual moment for me. I don’t think that I’m much for high church theology, but the feeling of reverence is undeniable.

Afterwards, those of us who had remained the whole time in the cathedral decided to go to Frewin Court, the program’s headquarters in the center of downtown Oxford. This is also where our mail goes, so you can mail me at:

2 Frewin Court
Oxford
OX1 3HZ
UNITED KINGDOM

Since both houses are on the outskirts of Oxford, Frewin Court is our home away from home. In between classes and lectures many of us will go to Frewin Court to hang out instead of trying to make it home. As such, our keys open our homes, our rooms, and Frewin Court. We sat around and discussed all sort of things like traveling and nerdy things like Elvish, Klingon and Star Wars. We also ate leftovers we had around since the BBQ that we had brought with us. Finally we walked home.

Once home, I ran an internet cable out my window and around to an internet jack in the hallway. After working that out I wrote some emails. Clint came up to the room and asked if I wanted to play Mafia. Of course since no one here knew me or could tell if I were lying I thought there is no better time to play than now.

This turned into a huge mistake. There were 20 of us playing. And since we are all intelligent people who analyze, think through, and try to make all decisions with logic, it took us 4 hours to finish the game. It was ridiculous, but tons of fun. It turns out that I was a townsperson and even though there were intense moments, I came across as a very trustful person. I suppose that will be helpful throughout the semester. But that meant I didn’t get to bed until 3am. A great day.

Day 2: 31 Aug 2007

2007-08-31T15:58:00.000-07:00

31/8/07

Turns out I slept. I finally got into my room around 3 and fell asleep until midnight, but then I knew I’d be screwed if I didn’t sleep on through so I took three Benadryl and slept until 8:00am (2am). I got up, ate a large breakfast at the hostel, grabbed my luggage and made my way 100 feet to the train station. That’s right, the train station was right behind my Hostel, so you can imagine what it was like with trains coming through every half hour, all through the night. Also, we had someone in our room that snored with amazing clarity and strength. He really annoyed the 5 of us that were also in the room. Myself and another American, One Chinaman, One German, and One Brit. A fun time. We never got the nationality of our snorer.

Anyway, after the walk to the train station, I hopped in a cab which drove me out of the city to my home for the next three months, The Vines on Pullens Lane. It’s a beautiful house, with an amazing property. It is really glorious to be a part of. My room is in the farthest corner of the house and is a little niche, appropriately called, “The closet.” Its about 10 feet by 10 feet with an 8 foot ceiling for half of it while the other half begin the slope of the roof. It’s perfect! There is also a single window that might be about 1ft wide and 2ft long. I’ll show pictures later. One fear is that it may get quite cold in the winter. The nice thing is, my room attaches to another room which is quite a bit larger and has three people living in it. I have the ability to open it up and connect with people or close the door and have a room to myself. The house is very much a dorm style, but it could be described as a frat house with big kitchens and living areas, but also dorm style rooms. It should be a lot of fun.

Everyone has been showing up throughout the day and I’ve been having fun meeting people. They are all extremely intelligent, and quick witted. However, some are trying to prove themselves so much that I’ve found a nice place for myself just being laidback without much to prove. It turns out that around 40 of us are living here and then others are in another residence on the other side of town. There are some really great people, that I’m sure I’ll enjoy, and then there are a few that I might be thankful that I have a room to myself in order to escape to. Since I’ve begun settling in I haven’t had much time to think about being lonely, which is nice. I’m sure it will hit later, and the annoying thing is certainly the time difference. Oh well. It’s only about 2:00pm (8am) and there is a lot more to the day to be had, so I’ll have more later.

Around 4:30pm (10am) the whole group of us, 41 in all) met for our first meal together. We have all been working hard to learn names and faces, schools and majors. Its been a daunting task and is far from over. I’m living in the closet attached to the room of three guys on the top floor. Bryce, Jeff, and Andrew, all seem to be fairly cool guys in their own ways, however I feel bad that I’ll consistently be going through their room for anything and everything. All these people are incredible and so intelligent however what I lack in brains I think I make up for in age and maturity. Its been nice just sitting and listening to people talk about theology and feel comfortable in my position but not have to prove anything.

We sat and ate and talked until about 5 when we got our first instance of orientation mostly to just living together in the house. Afterwards a large group of us decided to take our first walk into the city. Downtown in Oxford about a 30 minute walk is a small pub down an alley where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien used to sit and talk with fellow writers. The were originally 14 or 15 of us that set out and while we all eventually arrived at the Eagle and Child, at the end there were only seven of us remaining. We seven discussed all sorts of topics like early church history, scripture, and the emergent church movement as well as the issue of being a Christian that drinks. There is one gal from a very conservative position, Ashley. I personally avoided the topic like I personally avoid drinking but can’t defend my position from a scriptural perspective. None-the-less it was amusing watching the issue debated while one side sipped on Guinness. In the end, I thought that both sides were poorly argued, although in the end they at least agreed that drunkenness was too far. Interesting.

About two hours later after much laughing and discussion we left the pub and tried to take a new path home experiencing more of the thousand year old city as we went. Although we got lost a few times we did eventually make it home. A wonderful time, a superb memory and great new friends, Joe, Michael, Ashley, Sarah, Kait, and Elaine.

Everyone here is pretty jet lagged save me and another guy who has been in country for a week. So as I’m writing this it is only 11:00pm (5pm). And we have nothing until 2:00pm tomorrow, but everyone in the house is getting ready if not already in bed. It should be a good first night in my upstairs apartment.

cheers.

Day 1: 30 Aug 2007

2007-08-31T15:33:00.000-07:00

I’ve finally arrived in Oxford. I flew out of Wichita yesterday at 2:20pm Central time. Amazingly, the flight to Chicago goes North and turns North East right over Hillsboro, so it was a very poetic moment for me since we dipped the wing just in time to look down and see Tabor from God’s Eye View. Really sweet. Landed in Chicago around 4:05pm, and then sat uncomfortably in O’Hare while everyone boarded United Flight 928 to London, Heathrow. Finally they started calling those people who were flying standby such as myself. I was really nervous as they called several names, not hearing my own. I thought I might not make the flight, but finally they got around to the “Vs”. I flew business class for 6:56:09 to finally land in London this morning at 7:45am Greenwich time… which translates to 1:45am back home. Then I took an hour to get through customs and grab my luggage which actually made it to London, I was a little worried about the whole thing. Then I walked around for quite awhile but actually found the bus station with ease and just as I walked out the airport the Oxford bus pulled into the station. So I didn’t have to wait at all. An hour and ten minutes later I was in downtown Oxford. All I had to do from there was find St George street and follow that to Hythe Bridge Street, under the railway and then find the next youth hostel on my right to be at my home for the night. However, this is the point where my seamless perfect luck in travel fell through. I found a map of the area, but instead of being based on north being towards the top of the map it was based on orientation, so I walked south instead of north. I walked about a mile looking for the streets I needed only to find another map that told me the true layout of Oxford. So by the time I got to my Hostel at 11:45am (5:45am central) I was pretty exhausted having covered about 3 miles. Oh and once I got into the hostel I realized that my suitcase had been dragging for quite awhile, rubbing one wheel to the rim. I wonder how long it had been doing that. Then I was not allowed in my room until 2:30pm and to make things worse finally once I could lay down, the hostel had a fire-drill. So I had to get up and leave again. However, all that aside, it will be easy to sleep tonight, and tomorrow I move into my new home for the next 4 months. I’ve also made a new friend here at the hostel, a young German named Nickolaus who runs the 200 and 400, we’ve spent part of the day watching track on BBC 2. We’ll see what else happens today, as of yet I haven’t eaten or slept, but I’m not too hungry.

I’m not too lonely yet. But I miss mom, dad, Shelby, Tabor, the guys, ect. I imagine this will get worse before it gets better. But it has defiantly gotten easier since I’m finally here and can sit down. I’m also nervous about the program. We’ll see.