Oxford Adventures: Day Three [Written on Day Four...]

Sorry this entry is a day late - I've been quite busy with things.

And now I shall do my best to remember the important details of yesterday.

Wednesday morning went as usual - I awoke begrudgingly, but perked up by breakfast, at which I sat beside another conference-goer and chatted [this time it was a young law student from Texas] then we went to St. Aldate's for the morning sessions.

A man named John Lennox led this morning's meditation - he was the epitome of a stereotypical old Northern Irish man [he was adorable!] He had met C.S. Lewis when he was a boy - his dad was a great admirer of Lewis' and they some how knew each other. He told a brilliant story about how his dad found Mere Christianity so helpful that he kept copies of it for "intelligent hitchhikers, not to use as their guide to the galaxy, but rather their guide to the significance of the galaxy." I found this quite clever.

I'll quote him again - when speaking about his relation to Lewis, he said "I owe him a huge debt for sparking my imagination; for teaching me there is a door to another world..." He went on to explain [in such eloquent words that I dare not paraphrase] that the other world was Heaven. John Lennox is a math professor, but he explained that Lewis' writing taught him to believe in things that can't be proven, and that seem illogical to our little minds.

His meditation was beautiful. I won't go into massive detail, but at one point, he was tying his talk into the conference's theme and he was saying how so often we ask ourselves "Why am I?" And he said "The answer is simple: I exist because God wanted me to be." It was amazing - I don't think I was the only person in the church with tears in their eyes.

After the meditaion, a highly acclaimed writer and professor, Diana Pavlac Gluyer, gave a talk on C.S. Lewis and the Algebra of Friendship. She was so delightful to watch! She was so sincere and so genuine. She explained what Lewis wrote about friendship, and here's the quote that her talk was based around [I believe it's from The Four Loves]: "Charles Lamb tells us of three friends - A, B & C. If A should die then B not only loses A but also part of C... The alphabet sickens by subtraction." So true, n'est pas? She elaborated on how different relationships bring out different facets in a person... I thought of many of my friends throughout the talk and started missing them more accutely.

Another interesting thing she mentioned was how Lewis is often misinterpretted/misrepresented as some stiff, static, lonely introvert (ex. Hopkins portrayal in Shadowlands! gasp!) Lewis was rich with relationships and valued them very highly - he was a good friend.

Anyways, after her talk was the conference break, and I decided to skip the next talk entitled "The Language of God: A Scientist-Believer Looks at the Human Genome" [as soon as I heard the words 'scientist' and 'genome' I decided it wasn't for me] and go shopping instead!
How delightful that was. I ended up buying a couple things - no shoes, shockingly enough. I was sickeningly close... but then I somehow managed to throw myself out of the store. What a personal victory!

In the afternoon, I went to my film class [which has definetly been the highlight of my past few days] and we discussed the Classical Hollywood film and how/why writers and directors achieve that. Basically every movie you've seen fits into the Classical Hollywood film category - it is centered around a hero [with clearly defined traits, motivations, goals] and focuses on self-reliance and achieving their goal. There is ALWAYS resolution in a Classical Hollywood film... aaaaalways. And usually along the way, the hero discovers that he "had it in him all along" and he just needed to "believe in himself"! Oh, brother. Yes, it sounds pathetic in theory, but when you start thinking about it, a staggering amount of films fit in this category. Depressing. But hey, that's what America wants: resolution, not matter how unrealistic it is.

Anyways, we discussed this and the cultural landscape around it and also camera techniques - how to achieve certain emotional effects, etc. I love this class :)

At dinner, I was surrounded by old people. It was awesome! There was this man diagonalish from me and he was from Virginia, so he had a great accent. And I talked mostly with the woman across from me - she was from New Mexico, and was a retired College teacher who taught Latin and Russian and another language I can't remember, but yeah. She was soooo cool! We talked about Latin for quite a while and how it should be learned in grade school. Then of course we ended up talking about her kids and where they all were around the world - I love how every conversation you have with an elderly woman always leads to her kids :]

At night there was a concert at the University Church. The City of Oxford Orchestra played some Handel, Mozart, Gluck... I had perma-goosebumps the entire performance. And then! They were joined by Paul Barnes, who I forgot to tell you about -on Monday night, my mom and I met him. We had no idea who he was, but as it turned out, he's an extremely accomplished pianist who is a Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music who performs all over the places, teaches in Vienna during the summertime and is friends with Phillip Glass! And the man was just showing us pictures of his wife and kids... average joe-like. It was incredible. Phillip Glass is one of my favourite soundtrack composers. And they're friends. But yeah, he's a really nice, hilarious man and an excellent conversationalist.
Anyways, the concert - Paul Barnes joined the orchestra to play Mozart's three-part Piano Concerto No. 17 in G which was BREATHTAKING. Barnes looks like he's have the time of his life when he's performing.

Throughout the day, I made various observations which I shall share with you to conclude this post:

1. The rumours about British teeth are true.
2. I dream in anime when I fall asleep listening to BT.
3. I didn't think it was possible, but organic peppermint tea is even better over here.
4. The Brits are all anarchists: signs that say "NO PARKING BICYCLES AT THIS PREMISES" are always, without fail, surrounded by bicycles.
5. The plantlife here grows vertically as opposed to horizontally - just like the housing.
6. The Brits' favoured seasoning: salt. They use it liberally. Especially on meat.


Bonne nuit!

-CH