05 January 2008

Erin is IN Oxford!

Well, here I am! It has been quite a while since I have been on home soil. My travels went well. Pretty unremarkable, actually, except that when I checked in for my flight from Seattle to London, I got bumped up to Business Class! I had a bull out bed, they brought champagne before the plane even took off, and I had the pleasure of having an Aussie named Nick as my seatmate. We both had gotten bumped up, so we were both kind of excited. He kept saying things like "Well that's alright!" and "Hot towels? That's just wicked!" He's on a whirlwind snowboarding tour, going from his home in Perth to Whistler in Canada to Austria, Germany, and Switzerland (with a stop in my beloved Lausanne!) and back again before he starts University in the fall. The flight was mostly unremarkable, except that we got to eat off of real plates and with real silverware. I got all of my things, and finally made it to Oxford lats-ish in the evening.

In order to stave off jet lag and keep ourselves occupied, some of us went on a short walking tour, led by a young man named Michael who introduced himself to me as Thomas, the highlight of which was the Eagle and Child pub, where the Inklings used to meet. He showed us the SCIO offices, Wycliffe Hall, the so-called martyrs memorial (Cranmer? Latimer? Martyrs? I think not!), finally taking us to some swanky bar at Hotel Malmaison, at which we did not stay. We came back.

Today, many of us living at Crick Road went over to the Vines for chili and to hang out, which was nice. I am glad that I am living on Crick Road. The Vines feels very much like a dormitory, and it is much farther away from the town than Crick Road. I am a very short walk from Wycliffe Hall, from St. Giles' Church where the Russian Orthodox parish meets, and from the city centre. Then I went to Vigil at St. Nicholas, which meets at St. Giles' Anglican Church.

Tomorrow, Liturgy is at 11 AM, and maybe I will go and do some food shopping after church and before tea at 3:30.

Much love to all!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

you know what's funny Erin, I kind of keep thinking your at Hogwarts. :)

chris