A stroll through Iffley

Just a short cycle ride east of the city of Oxford is the small (what us Americans would call quaint village of Iffley. Finding ourselves with a bit of free time on a sunny afternoon, Laura, Alan, and I decided to escape the city for a while and headed on an expedition to Iffley.
A cottage with a thatched roof in the village center:

A boat goes through Iffley Lock. A lock is set up where the water level of the river changes dramatically. Before the boat goes through the lock is filled with water. Then the boat is allowed through and the water is drained from the lock so the boat can safely pass to the part of the river with a lower water level.

An ornately carved bridge along the River Thames:

Laura and I with half-pints of cider at the Isis, a pub along the river where we stopped for a drink before turning back to see the rest of Iffley.


Back in Iffley we stopped at a lovely church with much of its original Norman design preserved. Here Laura and Alan walk into the church yard:

The remarkable carved zigzag pattern on the south side of the church get's this church in England's 1000 Best Churches and is probably the best preserved Norman carving in England.

A view of the east side of the church from the cemetary surrounding it:

Me in front of the west side of the church (thank you, Alan, for taking this picture):


We even passed a thatched Montessori school on our walk back to the hustle and bustle of Oxford.

Contra Mundum

Drawn together initially by our mutual love of Evelyn's Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, the Oxford novel, a fabulous group of eight friends was formed. We started gathering to watch the amazing TV mini series adaptation of the novel starring Jeremy Irons, and the friendships grew from there. Our fine society was christened the Contra Mundum Society, the phrase taken from Brideshead, at a trip to the Trout (a lovely pub overlooking the Godstow River roughly an hour's walk from the city center) over the Easter vacation. At our last gathering of the year before we went our separate ways (Chris and Rob both left Oxford for good this year) I surprised the group with t-shirts that Glenn and I designed using Glenn's very handy photo-shop skills.

Here the t-shirts are unveiled:

The front: our own version of the Oxford University crest. It normally says "DOMINUS ILLUMINATIO MEA" inside the book, which we changed to "CONTRA MUNDUM" and added the year in Roman numerals at the bottom.
The back: a quote from Brideshead and all of our names and 'titles' taken from a Facebook group that we created.


And here is the whole motley crew. All Classicists except Chris who studies Modern Theology. Standing: me, Glenn, Sam, Laura, Evert, and Alan. Kneeling: Chris and Rob (the two leavers - oh, how sad it was to see them go).

We are confident that there will be many reuinions, even with two of our members now based in the States.

Roma

To celebrate the end of exams, a few of us headed to Rome for 6 days. The nice thing about living on this side of the Atlantic is that everything in Europe is really close and easy to get to. Rome, for example, is just a 2 hour, cheap flight away. Of course it takes more than 2 hours to get there when you have to wait for hours in the Luton airport (there is only one bus from Oxford to Luton, which leaves at 1:30am, so we had to hang around in the airport from around 3am to 7am when our flight left). Between the five of us we took loads of pictures, but here are a few highlights. We were staying in the Hostel Downtown Alessandro, which was actually quite nice. Almost as soon as we arrived in the eternal city we headed to the Forum. I took a great picture of the Arch of Titus with blue sky in the background, and Glenn got a close-up of me squinting at the Temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina, which I also got a nice picture of.
And here is a nice one of most of the group (from left to right: Sam, me, Rob, and Evert) taking in the Forum with the temple of Saturn behind us. Glenn was taking the picture. We had to sit down for a bit due to the heat, and chose a nice rock in front of the Curia. This is Rob and I with Glenn and Evert in the background:

The next day we took a trip to St. Paul's Outside the Walls. Here we are on our way to the Metro stop with the Imperial Fora in the background (Sam is concentrating hard on his book, while Evert, Rob, and I smile at the camera). And here is St. Paul's Outside the Walls.

The highlight of the next day was definitely dinner at the Trattoria da Luigi to celebrate Evert and my birthdays. I got a haircut during the afternoon and got to put on a dress even though it meant rushing back to the hostel from the Galleria Borghese, where we spent most of the afternoon. Here I am at the restaurant with Glenn and Rob.

The next day we headed to the Vatican. Evert took a nice picture of Glenn and I with the Castel Sant'Angelo in the background. After the Vatican we headed to some more churches. Here I am inside St. John the Lateran. I'm reading a book I bought in Italian on the four major basilicas of Rome (St. Peter's, St. Paul's Outside the Walls, St. Maria Maggiore, and St. John the Lateran).
From St. John the Lateran we headed to the tiny and ancient Basilica of San Clemente, which is a true treasure. Check out the gorgeous mosaic decorating the apse: And here we are in the courtyard outside the church.

We went back to the Vatican the next day. Here is the group (minus Rob who had to head back to Oxford early) atop the Castel Sant'Angelo (the pope's fortress - there are secret tunnels leading here from the Vatican). There's a nice view of St. Peter's square in the background.
And here are Chris (who was in Rome staying at the Jesuit compound for a few days) and I in Bernini's piazza with an obelisk and St. Peter's in the background:

Everyone was waiting to see the new Pope Benedict give the Angelus at noon. I caught a photo of the pope giving the blessing from his bedroom window overlooking St. Peter's square. He sounds much friendlier than he looks in all the pictures!


Our last day in Rome started at the catacombs of Saint Sebastian. Here are the boys (with poppies in their hair, picked on the walk along the Appian Way) in front of the church of St. Sebastian. Inside the church is a gorgeous Bernini statue of the saint pierced by arrows.
The day also included a trip to my favorite church in Rome, the basilica of Santa Sabina. Here is a view of the church from the orange grove out back:
Hot and exhausted from all the walking, I took a short nap on one of the benches in the orange grove:
And Evert took a close up of me while I was sleeping!

And finally me in front of the church of Santa Maria Maddalena (St. Mary Magdalen, who is the patron saint of my church in Oxford), one of the last churches we visited.

Punting and Croquet

It's been a very Oxford summer so far, full of Pims, punting, and croquet. In the spirit of the season I thought it only fitting to post some pictures of one of our punting extravaganzas.


Wolfson College, in the north of Oxford and home to two very dear friends, Alan and Hans, provides a perfect spot for punting. Here is Alan maneuvering his punt out of the harbor.

It is important (and difficult) not to crash into the bushes. The punt pole is used both to propel the punt forward (by pushing off on the river bottom) and also as a huge rudder to steer the punt as it glides along.

I wave to other punt, which, with Alan at the helm, is about to leave us in the dust. Hans (in control of our punt) is not so bad himself. Ducks are also common companions when punting. Especially if you have strawberries to throw to them!

Look at those waves!

Alan in perfect punting form.

Hans and I sitting back and relaxing. This is the best way to enjoy punting, in my opinion.

It is also nice to play croquet after punting. Wolfson College provides an ideal location for this as well, with a ready set up croquet field.


You can see I have been working on my form.

Don't we look like an official team (we were not, unfortunately, victorious, but we get points for style).

Thank you to my dear friend Laura for taking many of these pictures. She's a photographer extraordinaire!