Cambridge Adventures: Day Two - Monday, Monday

Monday morning in Cambridge was pretty standard:

Reluctant wake-up
Breakfast
Walk to the church (we followed random group of conferees on a "short"-cut! The walk is now 14 minutes, as opposed to 15...)
Meditation
First plenary address

The address was pretty interesting - the speaker was Wilfred McClay, yet another professor/author/scholar dude, who spoke on our society's confused notion of happiness and self-gratification. He quoted John Stuart Mill ("Ask yourself if you are happy, and you will cease to be so.") and yeah. I can't remember much.
But the Q&A period after dealt with what we can do to deal with/change a society like this.

After the first address I left to shop, if memory serves me correctly. I don't think I bought anything, though I do remember finding a store called Topshop which was most appealing to my preferred style of dress. I may return there in due time when I'm in a more shopping frame of mind.

Soon enough, it was time for my first poetry class! My elective for this week is a Poetry Workshop led by the British poet, Malcolm Guite. He is... a FANTASTIC man. His energy and enthusiasm are so incredibly gripping and contagious. He's a priest, a poet, and a rock musician. He sports a full beard and a tangled mop of unkempt hair. A true artist.
Everyone in the class was transfixed - he's like a child in a man's body, bouncing around, eyes full of wonder and light, hands waving madly as he talks.
And his poems are fantastic. (example to come.)
We talked about what a poem is, why we write them, what purpose they serve. We also discussed a few things about technique and form and talked about the villainelle.

At 5:30, everyone piled on coaches to go to Chilford Hall, deep in the countryside of Cambridge. It was about a half an hour drive, during which I marvelled at the scenery and sang to myself (not knowing the length of the drive, I didn't bother to take my book or iPod) while my mother chattered with some lovely people sitting by us.
Chilford Hall is a country-ish uhm... place I guess. It was interesting. There were a few different buildings, but we were in the main hall. Outside on the big lawn there were random areas in which Grecian statues were set up. It didn't seem to fit the whole theme of "English countryside" we all agreed. But anyways. When everyone arrived we all walked around and mingled - I met up with a dear girl, Elizabeth, who was in my film class in Oxford. We explored and chatted with each other and got to know each other better which was delightful. She's here with both of her parents, and I'm here with my mom - in each other, we found solace: an escape from the clutches of parental company. (Drama queen, I know.)
So dinner started. We ate.
AND THEN... the partayyyy began. The Mellstock Band is a group of musicians who specialize in old English country music - they were featured on the new Pride and Prejudice. They were there to play for us and teach us English dances very much like those you see in Pride and Prejudice! So there we were (about 50 of us, at least) on the dance floor, learning old English dancing. And it was by far as fun as it looks in the movies. Elizabeth and I partnered (she was Lizzie, I was Mr. Darcy) and good times were had by all. It was an awesome way to meet everyone, and I'm pretty sure none of us stopped laughing the entire time we were on the floor - which was a couple hours. We took the last bus home at some late hour, with all the other spirited inividuals who stuck it out 'til the end. (Needless to say, both of our parents had left much earlier.)

Back at Robinson, Elizabeth and I made plans to sleep in the next morning and go out for breakfast together.

I slept very well that night.

-CH

Cambridge Adventures: Day One - An English Sabbath

It was an interesting Sunday. One that I am not at all accustomed to. In saying this, I don't mean that it was unenjoyable at all. Here's what happened:

In the morning, I skipped breakfast and slept in. Oh, the delight! So, I didn't get up until after ten. Then I went to the market and got myself something to eat and walked/shopped around for a bit. It was a nice relaxing morning.

A little after one, coaches left from Robinson to go to Ely Cathedral for the afternoon and for our worship service. I read the whole way there - I bought the next book in my series... I just couldn't wait til I got home!

Ely Cathedral is the most breath-taking building I've seen yet, and that's saying something, considering the buildings that are in Oxford and Cambridge! Here are some shots:

"Wot's this? I'm in Narnia?!"

I just couldn't keep my eyes off that Cathedral!

Two hallways like this ran down the sides of the main worship area.

The main hall - I'm standing in the middle of it, so this goes about the same distance behind me, too. :O

This was the catachism area - there's built-in desks on both sides that are hard to see.

The dome above where the priests stand and the choir and stuff.

So those pictures don't really show a fraction of the cathedral... there were so many staggering details. If you ever to England, make SURE you take a day trip to go see the Ely Cathedral.

To [unintentionally] enhance the whole experience, there happened to be a chamber choir recording a CD there that day, and they were in some obscure wing, away from the tourist-infested areas, but while we were walking around outside, we could hear it through the walls... it sounded like LOTR music. It was SO beautiful! We went in to the huge room they were recording in and watched for a while.

The worship service was very interesting. I believe a congregation regularly meets there, and so our huge group joined them. It's an Anglican church, so there were lots of ceremonies and formal practices - they were pretty cool though. A boys and mens choir was leading the service - most of which they sang - all these prayers and texts - in beautiful harmony, of course. It was amazing. And we kneeled to pray! That was pretty cool. It was a bit hard to concentrate on the act of worshipping... I was so in awe at everything! But I guess marvelling at beauty is worshipping, in a way.

Anyways, we went back to Cambridge right after the service and had an opening reception (there were lots of new people joining us for the Cambridge week) but I was pretty tired, so I didn't stay too long. I just read and rested until our evening session at the St. Mary's (the University church at Cambridge) which was really cool. Paul Barnes played some more Phillip Glass pieces (this time from his Orphee symphonies) and Kate Butler sang some finally unopera songs! They were just humourous musical-esque pieces that she acted/sang - the first was about a woman who was far too in love with her iPod, and the second was about a couple who's marriage was destroyed because of an unhealthy addiction to Sunday morning crosswords. They were pretty funny.

After the performances, American artist Bruce Herman (http://bruceherman.com/index.htm) gave an informal talk on how our culture views beauty - has lost sight of it, actually - and how art affects/is affected by that. It was a question/answer style lecture, so that was pretty sweet.

An Oxbridge tradition is the Bag-end Cafe. I can't remember if I've mentioned it before, but yeah, it was started a few years ago by a regular conferee, Andrew Lazzo, a really funny and energetic guy who teaches mythology at a University in the States somewheres. Anyways, the Bag-end Cafe is just this: everyone is invited to the college bar and we mingle and drink, then every night there's a special guest who answers questions or leads a discussion (always related to the Arts) and it's a really informal and comfortable atmosphere. Also, people can share poetry and prose, and yeah. Basically it's just a gathering of Art lovers who come together to drink and talk. I went for the first time at night and enjoyed it SO thoroughly! Bruce Herman was the guest there, so I was able to ask him all the questions I was too scared to ask at the big lecture. Then some people read some of their poetry and the actor dude, Tony Lawton, sang a song - I think he had consumed a couple pints by this time. It was a beautiful folk song though, and he sung very well.
It was just so much fun; I wish I had started going last week.

By the time I got back to my room, it was almost 12, so I just crashed - hence I am a day behind in blogging, and will probably remain so for the rest of the week. So I'll have to tell you about today, tomorrow, and so on and so forth.

Anyways. Until tomorrow then - I have many exciting events to tell you about!

-CH

Cambridge Adventures! Day .75

Yes. Today was not a full Cambridge day. Hence the decimal seven-fiveness.

In the morning after breakfast everyone brought their luggage down and waited by the porter's lodge to get on a coach. It was sad to leave Keble... stepping through that giant Medieval wooden door one last time... Oxford is an amazing city, and I will do everything in my power to return there someday. There's still so many things to see! And pictures to take! And good times to be had! Indeed. Oxford has not seen the last of me...

On the coach, I read a tad but mostly listened to music, slept and watch the beautiful scenery whip by the windows. Cambridge is much more in the country, so for most of the drive I was serenaded by images of rolling hills, lush fields, and far too many sheep. The sleep was sketch - it threatened to be the "demented spine" scenario all over again, but Mother-bird came to the rescue with one of her magic massages [I credit all my skills to her].

Three hours later, it was CAMBRIDGE TIME. Hurrah! We're staying at Robinson College, which was built in the 80's, so the surroundings are quite different from those at Keble. But the building boasts some spectacularly wacked out artistic details - I have yet to photograph them, but will soon.

So, my mama and I got settled into our [seperate] rooms [right next door to each other] which are quite nice. We both have a balcony which we share with our respective neighbours - mine, a young poet named George; Mom's; a young lady who's name I do not yet know.

After settlation and restation, we headed to town. The layout of Cambridge is drastically different than that of Oxford. Cambridge is much more in the country, so things are further apart. The walk from Robinson to the town is about 15 minutes, and is mostly along a very picturesque walkway, followed on both sides by a creek and many willows. Then you cross a busy street and the walk continues on the otherside, goes over an acient stone bridge and on the other side is the Medieval town of Cambridge! The buildings are as spectacular as in Oxford, but there's something much more charming and rural about Cambridge, even though there are tons of people walking the streets and just as many [actually, more!] nice stores than in Oxford. It's a very different place - I'm sure you'll see by the pictures I'll eventually take/post.

Anyways, once in town, we found a restaurant - the Cambridge Chophouse. Sounds highly uncivilized, but it was a beautiful bistro-esque place, very classy in all respects. The food was also spectacular - I had a steak with quite possibly the best mushroom sauce in all of Christendom. Oh, and my mom and I shared a bottle of delicious Shiraz! Though, I can assure you, that has nothing to do with the crookedness of this shot:

This was one section in the back of the restaraunt. This tunnel led to a room with one big table in it for larger parties.

Funkay. N'est pas?

A close up of the artwork on the back wall. I loved it!

After lunch, it was time for the market. Yes, in Cambridge's town square, there is an open-air market place! We all know how Catherine loves such things, so I was in my glory. There was even a retro clothing stall.... :D. I only bought a couple things today, but I will be hitting it up again.

Mom went back to the college - markets are not her thing. No form of shopping is, really. Not even groceries. Anyways, Mom went back the the college, and so I spent the next few hours shopping in various boutiques and such. There are sooo many little streets and stuff here, I think one could shop for a week solid and still not have seen them all! Hence I bought no clothes today - I want to scout it all out first.

This evening, we had the option of watching a movie in the Robinson College Theatre entitled C.S. Lewis: Dreamer of Narnia. It was a really cool documentary-type film about what inspired Lewis for each of the Narnia books. It was excellently put together and was very interesting. I learned a lot about the less-known details of Lewis' life.

After the movie, Mom and I decided to walk back into town to have a drink and some dessert. We went to a small cafe and sat outside, eating apple pie and drinking delightful cafe concoctions, and chatting about deep things! Mostly the future. As it turns out, Mom's are pretty good at that stuff.

Anyways, I am muchly looking forward to my delightful bed. Off to sleep I go!

-CH

Oxford Adventures: Day Five. [Last Full Oxfordian Day :'( ]

Sigh. Yes. 'Twas my last full day in the wonderful world of Oxford.

It was as splendid as the rest, and began quite the same - waking up, breakfasting, then down to St. Aldates.
An Anglican-Orthodox bishop named Kallistos Ware gave the address. Sounds like a wizard, yes? He looked like one too, with his big white beard and black robes. He was super cool though. When he first started, I thought he would be very lofty and proper, like most bishops (since I know so many of them), but then soon into his schpeel he cracked a joke - a funny one! - much to everyone's shock. He turned out to have a brilliant sense of humour which he employed throughout his talk on the image of God. He explained the three parts entailed in our being made in God's image and yeah. It was beautiful. I didn't agree with all of his theology though. At the end he was telling us a story about how a man came up to him on the train, fixed him the old beady eye and asked that pointed question: "Are you saved?" Well, Bishop Kallistos didn't know how to answer - on the one hand, he's wearing these black bishop robes... it may have been odd to answer no. Maybe is an unsubstantial answer. And yes? Well... that's not entirely true. He answered the man with "I trust in God that I am being saved." I dunno. It says in one of Paul's books I believe [yikes... I hate not knowing the text] that those who believe that Christ died for us and rose three days later, conquering death will be saved.
I think we have a lot more hope than Bishop Kallistos believes.
But yeah. He's a brilliant man and his meditation was beautiful.
[fun fact: he was in a Socratean club at college with C.S. Lewis! They weren't nerds at all!]

Our first session was led by an American lawyer, Patrick Brennan. He wore Atticus Finch glasses! It was awesome. He presented his talk (on "The Human Person in the Eyes of the Law") very much like a court case - super organized. It was interesting-ish but... I'm not very captivated by the law and all the boring procedures that go with it. But I will say, he was very nice to listen to. He used elevated language and his speech flowed very nicely.

Ok, the icing on the cake! This is the first morning that I've stayed for the entire morning session, simply because I've been anticipating this talk all week: "Art and the Search for Meaning" led by the poet man, Dana Gioia! It was by far the most beautiful, inspiring, and illuminating talk I've heard. Ever. I got goosebumps from a speech!
His whole talk was based around how the academics of our age have become trapped in a world of methodology - they've lost the beauty, usefulness and honesty of art.

Some comments he made were just fantastic - "You do not choose to be an artist - it calls you. It is an awakening which can't be ignored." SO true! Have you ever seen someone who tries to be "artistic"? You can spot such people from a mile away. Being artistic is something that just sort of blossoms - it's a part of your nature.

He explained his past - he grew up in Hawthorne, Cali. which is apparently not a very nice city. His parents were poor - his mom was an uneducated Mexican immigrant an she read poetry to him all the time. Then he talked about how when he was in university studying English, he realized one day that his classes weren't going to help him to become a poet. They were teaching him to write and speak of literature in a theoretical way, which is not universal! As he described it "in a way that the very people I came from would not be able to understand."
So true. Stupid academics. We live in a bankrupt culture.

I could go on and on with details... [I'm definetly buying the recording of his session] but his conclusion was that we need to reconnect ourselves with the idea of beauty and understanding the nature of the world (achieved through the study and appreciation of art). Art refines our intellect, our emotions, our imagination... that's why it's key to upbringing and education! It gives the opportunity for transformation. So. We need to bring it to our education systems, our churches, the media, etc.

After the sessions, we had a free afternoon, but not before all the conference members met at Christ Church College to take a group photo, not important but what IS fascinating is that Christ Church College... is Hogwarts!!! Yes. Much of the HP films are shot in Christ Church.

Next, my mother and I went to the Eagle and Child pub for some lunch - Lewis and Tolkien hung out there lots, so we decided we had to eat there.

In the afternoon I did all our laundry and nearly finished my book [New Moon] while I waited - hurrah! Though I think I'm going to need to by the next book in the series at a bookstore here cause I'm very nuch into it now.

After laundry, I went for a walk and stopped at Unicorn to do some British vintage shopping! I eagerly swung open the door and... uhm. Well. First of all, almost tripped on a few random shoes and piles of clothes, but when I managed to get in, I was met with something most unexpected! A tiny. TINY. Space. Utterly surrounded by mounds of clothes and suitcases and clothes racks and an old dresser and some coatracks and random unpaired shoes almost up to the ceiling. It was mayhem! And in the midst of it, a tiny lady sorting piles of things into other piles of things. So. In the 4 square feet of space in which we had to stand, I did my best to start picking through piles, digging through dressers, rifling through racks... Now, I did find some ver beautiful things - a snap clutch from the 1940's, a beaded flapper dress from the 20's, an embroidered purse from the 70's, etc. But this batty old woman seemed like she didn't want to sell anything... it was so weird! When I asked about an awesome leather jacket in the window, she said "No, it's a 38 men's. The shoulders'll be too big for you." Excuse me lady. I've been eyeing that jacket for a few days now... I've examined it at great length, in fact. I do believe it would fit me quite right actually. (It was so boss... and definetly not a 38 men's. I think it was actually a women's cut.)
Anyways, seeing as it would require me to climb over an immense (not to mention, precarious) mountain of clothes twice my height to get to the window display, I decided to let it go.
After a while of digging, another customer came in and started digging. Then another. Then another! It was RIDICULOUS. We literally could hardly move. And everytime someone asked about something, she either dismissed their request with "that wouldn't fit you" or by naming some ridiculous price for it. She was crazy. I suppose all those things piled up there are her treasures and she doesn't want to part with them. Not a very lucrative way to run a business, but uhm. Yeah. Different strokes.

We went to dinner when I came back, and I ended up beside another student (third year, American) named Rachel. We had a very animated discussion over our salmon (ick) and broccoli
about all sorts of things, mostly ending up in American politics. She explained lots of things to me about what's going on with the election and it was very interesting. She gave me her email address and next week in Cambridge we're planning to meet up to continue talking!

After dinner we had our Oxford closing ceremony at the University church - it was a worship service led by an Anglican priest - he talked about how Lewis was a prophet because he predicted that there would be an age of relativism - well taa-daa! It's here.
Singing in that cathedral is just breath-taking. We sang Holy, Holy, Holy and tons of people harmonized and it just rang through the church so majestically (the acoustics are incredible!)

There was a reception afterwards so people could say goodbye to those who aren't going to Cambridge. My mom and I talked with this couple and their daughter (the dad and the daughter - named Elizabeth - were in my film class) and they're all really nice. Elizabeth is in highschool and she's quite cool. We discussed hanging out next week so we can together escape our parents for a while. Apparently she hasn't taken to walking the streets alone, as I have, to keep her sanity. But indeed! It will be fun. I'm looking forward to a) having company and b) getting to know her better.

Well, I'm quite tired. It's almost 1.

Til tomorrow!

-CH