While our AP Oxford community had a wonderful experience around the huge, toffee-covered table in the Rose Garden Room, we also enjoyed Oxford outside of class hours.
During most lunch hours, I discovered an easy walk to a coffee shop for a flaky ham and cheese croissant for lunch, or, alternatively, cream tea with a scone. Many of us found each other in the iconic Blackwell’s Bookstore, especially after we discovered how many of the books we were discussing had been edited by David Bradshaw, our Oxford don. (Heaven must include a series of Hampton Court and Worcester College gardens … and a Blackwell’s.) Dinner at various pubs throughout the week, including The Eagle and Child.
On Monday evening, James led us in a walking tour of Oxford on which I took so many pictures of so many incredible limestone college buildings that I can no longer identify them all. Of the 38 separate colleges, we passed Trinity, Braenose, St. John’s, Magdalen (pronounced “maudlin,” from which rose the connection between that word and a penitent Mary Magdalene), Christ Church (site of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Great Hall), Oriel, and Merton Colleges, as well as the Rhodes Scholar Center and J.R.R. Tolkien’s last home, 21 Merton Street (hearing, as we passed, the stories of how James and his fellow young Oxford students used to stalk J.R.R. when they saw him in the streets).
It was important to James that we arrive in Magpie Lane (site of his first student lodgings in Oxford) by 9:05 PM. He told us that every night at 9:05, the Great Tom, the loudest bell in Oxford, hanging in the Tom Tower of Christ Church, rings 101 times, signifying the 100 original scholars of the college plus one (added in 1663). Apparently the original signal was intended to indicate that all 101 had arrived back within the gates in time for their curfew! It was also said to be a signal to all of the Oxford colleges to lock their gates; the Latin inscription on the bell is “Great Thomas the door closer of Oxford….” Great Tom rings at 21:05 rather than at 21:00 UK time from back in the days when “Oxford time” was calculated at five minutes later than Greenwich time.
So of course, we waited with anticipation. But the bell never rang. We never found out why, and considering the fact that the 101 bells have rung for centuries and in a completely unbroken sequence since WWII, we were disappointed. Still haven’t found out what happened. Meanwhile, we ended the evening at the oldest pub in Oxford, The Bear (1242). Ironically, in the pub garden, a banner hung on the wall which read, “Living the Questions.” It was an ad for a church community, but let’s just say it resonated with me for obvious reasons. Perhaps a sign from God that I was meant to be imbibing and engaging in with excellent conversation in the pub garden before returning to Worcester!
Tuesday evening, we had a pub talk at The Duke’s Cut (a much more modern pub), followed by a performance of Macbeth in Trinity College Garden. They sold blankets because it was so cold! The performances were not as strong as we had hoped, and the use of the nine (?) witches in other parts of the play was, dare I say, “wyrd.” We were a bit put off by the use of bright blue body paint (Fleance looked like a cross between a Loyola guy at Turkey Bowl and a member of the Blue Man Group (the drummers) who had forgotten to finish his paint). I discovered later, in Jane Austen’s garden, of all places, that the blue dye of the woad plant (our ML seventh graders will recognize this from Gathering Blue) was actually used as war paint by the early Britons, so, I’m sending silent thought-wave apologies to the Oxford Theater Guild!. But it was lovely to hear the words again and to discover that I still have this play inside, probably from seven years of teaching it five times a day at St. Dom’s and three years of teaching it at St. Mark. It may still be my favorite, strangely enough!
Wednesday afternoon and evening were free; after Blackwell’s shopping, just read in the dorm room and nursed the cold that had hit 3 days earlier, probably a result of the flight and the sudden temperature change (58-75 degrees F the whole time we were there). Thursday evening, we had a private dinner at the High Table in the Worcester Great Hall – felt very like the Harry Potter faculty! Avocado, tomato, and roasted pepper salad, guinea fowl with gratin potatoes and summer vegetables, a tart with clotted cream, good wine, and wonderful conversation. Sat with James and discussed our links to Salesian spirituality and education, his wife’s struggle with cancer, etc. A good final community evening.
We have all decided to stay in touch and share ideas; Mike Carson from Canada has, during this past week, created a Facebook page for us! Nice!
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