Week 4 - Guy Fawkes, Two Tutorials, and Cardiff

Week 4 was largely a repeat of the last couple of weeks: research, reading, writing.

 

Sunday afternoon I had a rebound of my freshers flu from last week, only this time I lost my voice.  Completely.  The day before the Christ Church College Choir (hopefully with me included) were scheduled to go to Gloucester Cathedral to sing at their Evensong service.  Instead of joyfully preparing to sing in such a beautiful and historic place, I spent Sunday and Monday alternately drinking tea, taking naps, and reading for both of my essays due this week.

 

Tuesday was my third social policy tutorial, and my voice was half-way back -- thank goodness.  This essay covered the challenges and opportunities presented to welfare states in recent years. Here's a link to my page on Academia.edu, if you enjoy reading sociology and political critique: http://gescolumbusstateedu.academia.edu/RebekahDowd It's hard to believe I only have one more tutorial to go with this tutor.  Time is flying by this term! Technically Tuesday was also Guy Fawkes Day.  This is a British commemorative holiday based on an event that took place in 1605, when Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up Parliament because of religious dissent between the Catholics and the Protestants.  Since the holiday fell during the week, local celebrations were observed on Saturday.  More about that later.

 

Wednesday my voice was back to normal.  My basic research was complete, and armed with my pages of notes on the reading assignments, I spent the day writing my political sociology essay on social movements.  Wednesday night I was able to return to choir practice at Christ Church College.

 

Thursday I finished up my essay and turned it in.  Since I had now spent the last four days inside between being sick and reading/writing, Kelsey (another CSU student) and I got out of the house and ate dinner at Mission Burrito, a restaurant off Cornmarket Street.  The servings were massive, but tasty.  Not quite as authentic as Mexican food from the U.S., but still quite good.

 

Friday morning I decided to go into town and do a bit more investigating of the local sights.  I ended up climbing Carfax Tower, and got some good photos of the bird's eye view of town, right before a storm headed in.  The steps going to the top of the tower are rather steep, and it's a one person at a time pathway; not suitable for the claustrophobic person.  But the view is quite good.

Friday afternoon was my tutorial with Dr. Finlay and another visiting student, Mina, from Georgetown University.  Dr. Finlay came bearing a large chocolate bar - which he proceeded to share with both of us.  I wasn't sure if that was a good sign, or a bad sign about his assessment of our essays, but I wasn't about to turn down good chocolate :)   Thankfully, he liked both of our essays, and we had a very productive hour of discussion about state formation, tax farming (thanks, Mina), and social movements based upon successful leadership.  Friday night was formal dinner again at Regent's Park, and I could actually relax by having both tutorials behind me for the week!

 

Saturday I rewarded myself with a day trip to Cardiff, Wales. Note: buy the tickets ahead of time to save hassle.  Also, you can apply for a student rail card, and save 20%.  If you plan on doing a bit of travel while here, it's worth the time to fill out the form and have your college admin sign it. Anyhow, I left the Oxford Rail Station at 7:25 am, and was in Cardiff by 9:50 (did have to change trains part of the way through.)

 

Cardiff is a neat town.  It has an eclectic mix of high end and regular shops, a LOT of sports venues (the Welsh rugby team was playing and drew in 70,000 fans), historic Cardiff Castle, and the Cardiff Bay area which has restaurants, shops, and the Doctor Who Experience.  Here are some of the sites I was able to fit in for the day.

 

Right: Cardiff Castle, the Norman Keep and the East Wall, portions of which date to Roman occupation. 

 

Below: Armor belonging to the Marquesse of Bute, who owned the castle.  

I also toured the National Museum of Cardiff.  It has a great collection of everything from traditional art collections, to natural history (dinosaurs), to science interest items.  I spent about and hour-and-a-half looking at their "top ten" items listed in the tourist brochure.  My favorite items were from the Welsh origins section, including pottery, bronze weapons, and jewelry dating from 500-1000 AD. 

Gold and Metal Hammered Welsh Necklaces

The Goddess Immortality

 

In order to please my kids, I made a trip to Cardiff Bay and did the "Doctor Who Experience" tour.  It reminded of the themed tours I've done at Disney World back home; somewhat cheesy, but if you are a die-hard Doctor Who fan, there are some interesting pieces of memorabilia, including costumes and props used on the various TV series.

If only I had a REAL Tardis to speed me through the next few essays I have to do!

 A room full of Daleks....

Below is the Wales Millenium Center - a very unusual piece of architecture. 

 

In order to beat the 70,000 rugby fans to the rail station, I left Cardiff about 5:30, and arrived back in Oxford at 7:15 pm, just in time for the Guy Fawkes fireworks display being held at South Park.  This is a big event, and it culminates in a bonfire.  The fireworks were fun, but I was tired, so I took the bus back to the Spencer House and called it a week.