Final Bus Ride

Yesterday was our final field study of the year, a cultural studies trip to Oxford. I had a literary walking tour of Oxford, where we looked at many of the sites where Lewis Carroll, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis all wrote and lived. Carroll wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Tolkien wrote The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Lewis wrote the Narnia series. We also saw various landmarks in the city...

OXFORD

Maggie and Robin in front of ... well, I don't know, but I dubbed it the "Big Good Luck Charm of Oxford"

A street in Oxford

A mummified baby in the Ashmolean Museum.

Merton College, part of Oxford University. This college's claim to fame is that it educated C.S. Lewis, writer of the Narnia series.

Our lecture between Christchurch and Merton.

Our lecture in front of Christchurch.

I'm an Egyptian hieroglyphic in the Ashmolean Museum.

Caroline and I in front of the house where Tolkien finished the Lord of the Rings.

Dinosaur "footprints" at the Museum of Natural History in Oxford.

Look familiar? J.K. Rowling based the dining hall in Harry Potter on the dining hall in Christchurch.

Where the Rhodes scholars live.

The steeple of the church at Christchurch. Oxford University is actually 39 affiliated, but separate, colleges. One of Christchurch's claim to fame is Lewis Carroll, a don (prof) there. Lewis Carroll wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Christchurch's courtyard

Oxford was home to Lewis Carroll, author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The character Alice was based on Alice Liddell, daughter of the dean of one of Oxford's colleges, Christchurch.

The Eagle and Child. This is the pub where Tolkien and Lewis would debate their manuscripts as they wrote The Hobbit and The Narnia Series. Their nickname for the pub was "The Bird and the Baby"

An intense debate has started.

More intense debates.

Debating the Hobbit in the Bird and the Baby with Maggie.

My Trip to Wales (March 18 to 20)

I went on a crazy trip to Wales this past week-end. Because it's about 7 or so hours by car, we incorporated mini-visits on Friday on the way there, first to Windsor and then to Chester. We arrived Friday evening in Wales.

Saturday morning, after having a good breakfast, we had our briefing and got our hiking equipment: we were given "4-season" hiking boots and waterproof pants and tops in case it hailed or rained. We carried them in our backpacks with lots of water, snacks, and more layers of sweaters, hats / toques, mitts and gloves, more socks, band-aids, lunch, etc. Last year, it was -25C so we were ready!

We were prepared for rain, hail, snow, windchills and every imaginable winter condition. So what did the weather do? You'll have to scroll down to see. Needless to say, it still managed to shock us.

Sunday was a mini-hike (only half an hour, but it felt like it was up an 80 degree incline), to the site for mountain climbing and repelling. That was good fun. I managed not to panic.

We left Sunday afternoon for our long drive home. We didn't stop for as long on the way back, because we just wanted to get home.

It was a great week-end. Wales is a beautiful region, as you can see from the pictures. It was absolutely gorgeous. I could live there.

Windsor, a quaint town known for a few landmarks, including ...

Windsor Castle

Here comes the band to announce ...

the changing of the guard!

The band playing!

Getting ready to change. Aside from standard marching tunes, the band played Bette Midler's "From a distance". Odd.

There goes the old guard!

In this church lies the Queen Mum, her husband good ol' what's his name (I never remember) and Princess Margaret's ashes (she wanted to be near her father). There's also Henry the VIII: his vault is in the ground, and I almost walked over the placard by accident because it's not very obvious. "I'm Henry the Eighth I am ..."

My last shot of Windsor - they are already selling commemorative paraphernalia of the Royal Wedding.

Welcome to Chester, our last stop before Wales! The only city with its medieval wall still completely intact around the town and ...

... the only "two-tiered" outdoor / covered shopping in the world!

Here's me, hugging a Roman pillar, in front of a medieval wall, blocking the Georgian house. That's a lot of architecture.

Good-Bye Chester! Milly and I salute you from the medieval wall.

Getting ready in the hostel before the hike: my roommates (sort of blurry) but here's Mary Pam on the bunk bed, Lindsay standing, Kristen doing the braiding, and Alex having her hair braided.

Katie (L) and Jenn (R), both "Nova Scotia girls" (what I call my friends from NS) chillaxing in the hostel.

The view from our hostel. This is what I woke up to for 2 mornings!

Our hostel. This chair is big enough for the Friendly Giant. In fact, it's called the Giant's Chair. I think the Friend Giant may have stayed here in his youth.

Our morning briefing before we went up!

At the base of the mountain just before we went up!

Getting ready for the hike. We started out in sweaters, with jackets and toques in our backpacks, but before we even set out, we were taking layers off.

Are we there yet? 7 hours of hiking and I found the first hour to be the hardest.

Caleigh and I are near the top!

Random water from melting snow.

We're almost near the top....

View from the Top!

Me on the Summit of Mount Snowdown, tallest mountain in Wales and England.

After the hike. No one can move.

Sunburns from Wales. Average temperature at this time of year: below zero. Temperature for this trip the exact same week-end last year: -25C with snow and hail. Temperature this year: +25C. I had a toque, several layers of sweaters and pants, and gloves galore. What did I hike in? A tank top.

"You take a block from the bottom and you put it on top" says Simon.

My Charades Team: Kristen, Lindsay, Mary Pam and Alex.

Charades: I don't remember the word Dolly had, but I'm sure it was good.