Oh hey Chicago!

I never made it to Syracuse yesterday.  I'm still in Chicago's O'Hare Airport!

My flight to Syracuse last night was overbooked, so they needed a volunteer to be bumped.  Since I wasn't getting in until almost 10pm, I knew it wasn't a big deal to fly out the next morning instead.  Basically, all I lost was a few extra hours in town and a night in my own bed.  Now I'll be getting into Syracuse late morning today.  It's all good.

American Airlines treated me well for volunteering to be bumped, too!  They put me up in a Hyatt Regency hotel near the airport and gave me an executive-suite room.  How often does a poor college student get to stay in an executive room in a Hyatt and sleep in a King-size bed?? AA also gave me $250 in flight vouchers and credited an additional 1200 miles to my frequent flyer account. Not a bad deal at all!

Some pictures of the hotel from their website:

The 30-Hour Day

Hello from Chicago O'Hare International Airport!

As most of you know already, I'm spending the next leg of my spring vacation in the U.S. visiting friends and family.  I arrived at O'Hare around 12:30 CST, and am now just sitting in the airport killing time before my flight to Syracuse, NY.  Since that flight doesn't board till 6:30 CST, I thought I'd take this opportunity to blog.

Since I last blogged, I went to Madrid, Spain and Lisbon, Portugal.  After a long, jam-packed, nine day sight-seeing trip, this weary traveler returned to Oxford late on Wednesday night.  But - I saw lots of great sights and got some new stamps in my passport, so it was a success!

Here's some pictures from the trip:

Gaudi's Sagrada Familia,  a gorgeous, but unusual cathedral in Barcelona that's still under construction.

The facade of the entrance to the cathedral depicts the Passion of Jesus.  A rather timely sight to visit, given that this week is Holy Week for Christians.

Some other views of Sagrada Familia:

The wild, wacky, and wonderful Park Gueil, another of Gaudi's architectural masterpieces.

Gaudi also designed several Barcelona houses, including this one.

After a three days in Barcelona, we moved on to Madrid.  I decided that Madrid compares to Barcelona much like Washington, D.C. compares to New York City.  There was still plenty to see and do in Madrid, but it wasn't the lively, artsy city that Barcelona was!

Puerta del Sol, the center of Madrid where all the main streets converge.  In the middle of this lively public square is this statue:

Supposedly the bear and the tree is Madrid's symbol, though I never could figure out the significance behind it.

Perhaps the most exciting thing we did when visiting Madrid was see a bull fight at Placa de Toros.

Here's one picture from the bull fights.  I have a lot of decent pictures, but the wifi here at O'Hare isn't great and I don't have the patience to upload more.

None of us realized, however, that bull fights are fights to the death.  One of my friends with whom I was watching the bull fight was so disturbed that they left and another refused to look.  I watched for the duration, and after the first fight (there were six) you become desensitized to it and look at it more as a sport.  Still, it raises issues about animal rights and humane treatment.  But as an outside observer from another culture, I don't think it's my place to judge.

After Madrid, we spent a few days in Lisbon, Portugal! Though the pictures speak for themselves, Lisbon  is a beautiful city with a quaint, old feel to it.

The streets of Lisbon, or Lisboa, as the Portugese call it.

Lisboa is a very hilly city, so locals and tourists alike still use these old-style trams to get around town.  Tram 28 is the one all the guidebooks recommend - it gives you one of the most scenic tours of the city! 

And I'll leave you with one of my favorite pictures from the trip!

"Hola!" from Barcelona!

I'm writing this blog in the lobby of my hostel in Barcelona.  Some friends from Oxford and I just finished our third day on our trip to Spain and Portugal, concluding our time in Barcelona.  Tomorrow morning we'll fly to Madrid, the capital of Spain.

Our visit to Barcelona has been great! In the short two and a half days here, we've really seen a lot.  We spent some time on La Rambla, a pedestrian street full of street performers, vendors, and artists.  It's quite popular with tourists. (And pickpockets, too!) 

We also visited all of the sites designed by the architect Antoni Gaudi.  His buildings are wild and wacky, but I loved them!  His most famous structure is the Sagrada Familia, a rather unorthodox cathedral that is still under construction.  Below is a picture of it I found online.  When I upload the pictures I've taken, I'll be sure to post them.  It's really an impressive structure, even if it is incomplete.

I think what I love about Barcelona is that it has a little bit of everything.  It's got the hustle and bustle of a city and it's got the serenity of nature with the beach and mountains nearby.  It's both classic and modern, both traditional and bohemian.  Barcelona is definitely a place worth visiting... and worth returning to again and again!

Of Robes, Methodism, and Such...

A few weeks ago, during the seventh week of term, I went to an event called "formal hall."  This is a formal dinner at your college where everyone wears academic robes and is served a nicer meal than the usual dining hall food.  I hate to say it, but the best analogy I can give is a scene in the Great Hall from a Harry Potter film.  Formal hall dinners at Oxford look a lot like that, except for the floating candles, the magical ceiling, and all the other non-muggle happenings at a Hogwarts dinner!

Academic robes, by the way, are not worn every day.  You don't wear them to class or tutorials, although full-time Oxford University students do need to wear them when they sit for exams! Also, each level of student wears a different type of robe.  Below I'm wearing the typical undergraduate robe.  You can see that it's short and doesn't cover much. Robes tell a lot about a person at Oxford - robes associated with higher degrees are progressively longer and cover more of the person.  Here's a picture of me wearing a standard undergrad robe for formal hall dinner:

Last week I went back to London for a bit and this time, I nourished the religious historian and nerdy Methodist side of me by visiting some of the John Wesley/Methodist sites in the city!  Across the street from Westminster Abbey is a place called Methodist Central Hall.  In their lobby they have a life-size statue of John Wesley, so I had to pose with him for a picture!

Look at that: I'm a little bit taller than John Wesley was.  Just shows that short people can do good things!

Then, I headed over to Wesley Memorial Chapel for a visit to a church that both John and Charles Wesley preached at. The marble columns lining the sides of the church were donated by several different sects of Methodism from across the world, including the American denominations of the Methodist Episcopal Church and Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

In the back of the churchyard, they have John Wesley's grave. Joe Eldridge, my boss at the Kay Center at AU, told me I needed to see his grave while I was in London.  Joe, these pictures are for you!

A view from the front of the church... I wish I had gotten a picture of myself in front with the statue! (I guess that means I'll have to go back!)

I didn't just see Methodist sites on my second visit to London, but I'll post more later.  Right now I need to get some sleep because tomorrow some friends and I are taking our first major trip of spring break: we're going to Barcelona, Madrid, and Lisbon!  Nine days on the warm Iberian Peninsula... a nice break from cold and rainy England!

School's Out!

After 8 weeks, 12 essays, 120 plus pages and thousands of words I completed my first term at Oxford University!

Terms here run for only 8 weeks (three terms per year) and visiting students take two tutorials per term.  This term I took, or "read" as one in Oxford would say, early American history and Twentieth Century American history.  Though it might seem counter-intuitive to study U.S. history abroad, it's actually been quite fascinating.  And, with the faculty, research facilities, and tutorial system that Oxford has to offer, Oxford is actually one of the greatest places to study U.S. history!

These past eight weeks I've worked the hardest I probably ever have and have really grown as a scholar.  The tutorials are rigorous and challenging, and the tutors are extremely critical of students' works, but I'm a stronger scholar because of it.  My analytical skills are sharper and my writing of historical prose has matured a lot.  As they say here, I'm learning to think about history as a science but write it like an art!  It's been a great test to see if I can handle life in academia, and I'm finding that I love it!

Next term, I'll be reading 18th century British history (and get a chance to look at British abolitionism!) and 20th century Soviet history, focusing on the interwar period, 1920-1937.  It will be good to try something other than U.S. history and will satisfy some requirements needed for my degree at AU.  But I've got 6 weeks of vacation before the next term starts, so I will soon be jetting off to the Continent for a Euro-trip!