My UK Trip - Day 3 Thur, March 1
The day started out with a walk with Laura in the countryside to check out the centuries' old White Horse, a chalk drawing on a hillside outside of Ferringdon overlooking the famed flat on which St. George fought the dragon to save the castle and the countryside. The highly stylized horse was believed to have been a creation of the Celts.
From the White Horse we met up with Steven, a youth worker from Northern Ireland working with a youth program in a Ferringdon area church to talk about hub night. He also referred me to talk with his sister and her fiancee', on the ground near Bristol University in northern Ireland as a possible location. He spoke about their upcoming work with the Alpha program and then we parted ways for me to catch the 66 bus to Oxford.
When I arrived in the home of the prestigious Oxford University, snow was blowing cross-ways down the street. A rendezvous with our tour guide, Joe, and we headed out to see the sights. As it turns out the tour was to be shortlived for myself and 3 others who were caught staring at a photograph the guide had pointed to when we looked up to a street remiss of our entire group of 20 people! We looked all around us and could not find the group so we doubled back to get a refund. The town of Oxford is home to over 18,000 students and 8,500 faculty, an amazing ration of students to faculty of almost 1 faculty member for every two students! 39 private colleges and universities fill the town touting the #3 college in the world. All buildings, though most centuries old, are in active use. Coffee houses are on every corner and Air 1 Radio is the Top 40 US equivalent. On my own, I darted in to check out the Ashmolean Musuem, then hit the street to enter St. Mary's Cathedral and check out the tower view up a long, winding staircase. The church was home to the likes of John Wesley and John Knox.
I snapped a few pictures and re-entered a cobblestone street to see bricklayers laying pebbles in the road. A local pointed out that pebbles in the road were used so women's dresses could stay clean and water would not puddle up in the roadway.
The evening coming on, I met two strangers, David (Frenchman) and Petra (Germany) in town for a two-week course on English. We chose King's Pub for the evening and down a couple Stella while we sat and talked politics and cultural differences between our three homelands. On the way out, I spoke with Ali, a manager, about a possible hub location and sat at The Swan pub reading more Ravi while I waited on my ride back to Rob and Laura's place.
From the White Horse we met up with Steven, a youth worker from Northern Ireland working with a youth program in a Ferringdon area church to talk about hub night. He also referred me to talk with his sister and her fiancee', on the ground near Bristol University in northern Ireland as a possible location. He spoke about their upcoming work with the Alpha program and then we parted ways for me to catch the 66 bus to Oxford.
When I arrived in the home of the prestigious Oxford University, snow was blowing cross-ways down the street. A rendezvous with our tour guide, Joe, and we headed out to see the sights. As it turns out the tour was to be shortlived for myself and 3 others who were caught staring at a photograph the guide had pointed to when we looked up to a street remiss of our entire group of 20 people! We looked all around us and could not find the group so we doubled back to get a refund. The town of Oxford is home to over 18,000 students and 8,500 faculty, an amazing ration of students to faculty of almost 1 faculty member for every two students! 39 private colleges and universities fill the town touting the #3 college in the world. All buildings, though most centuries old, are in active use. Coffee houses are on every corner and Air 1 Radio is the Top 40 US equivalent. On my own, I darted in to check out the Ashmolean Musuem, then hit the street to enter St. Mary's Cathedral and check out the tower view up a long, winding staircase. The church was home to the likes of John Wesley and John Knox.
I snapped a few pictures and re-entered a cobblestone street to see bricklayers laying pebbles in the road. A local pointed out that pebbles in the road were used so women's dresses could stay clean and water would not puddle up in the roadway.
The evening coming on, I met two strangers, David (Frenchman) and Petra (Germany) in town for a two-week course on English. We chose King's Pub for the evening and down a couple Stella while we sat and talked politics and cultural differences between our three homelands. On the way out, I spoke with Ali, a manager, about a possible hub location and sat at The Swan pub reading more Ravi while I waited on my ride back to Rob and Laura's place.
posted by Joel Aaron at 4:57 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home