Second week--delving into classes

It has been a most wonderful week. Naturally. There is very little to complain of. Even my bad ankle turned out not to be a problem. Monday was good because I had both a seminar and a lecture by Dr. Kerry for my class on the birth of the modern. His class remains fascinating, even though it requires on average 5 hours of reading a day. I would really like to get caught up (I'm behind because I joined the class late) but it will be hard now that my supervision has begun. So today, I'm going to do just the readings to today, then I'm going to work on my supervision for the rest of the day. We had our first proper FHE which consisted of sitting up in a high, small room in kings, called the Munby room, singing, and having a lesson from one of the Mormon professors here on the subject of his book. Dr. Kerry also spoke, trying to encourage us to feel that though we're outside of our accustomed surroundings with people who know and understand Mormonism, we still have a community here we can rely on.

Tuesday was also class, naturally, I have class every day with Dr. Kerry which suits me just fine. I went with Amelia and Cherry to Antony and Cleopatra which was being performed at a sort of nearby college. It was not the best production of Shakespeare I have ever seen, but like all shakespeare plays, after a little while it was easy to see beyond the old language and the strange dialogue and into the play itself. It was cold evening, and the play was in the college gardens next to a lovely stream and under the shade of magnificent elms. We had not thought ahead to bring anything for the rain or cold, so we were simply lucky that it did not rain. But it was cold the whole time, and intermission was mostly an attempt to warm up.

The play had no set, and only 6 or so actors, so several actors played several parts. Perhaps the best bit was Cleopatra--she was well played. I had never seen this play before. It lasted for three hours, after which we all ran back to kings to keep warm. We considered going to buy hot chocolate, but every place we tried either had just closed their hot chocolate stand, or did not have any to offer. Consequently, we just went back to our rooms and fell asleep

Wednesday I had a good deal of reading which I like to do at the Pembroke Library. Pembroke is the college just down the street which we are affilitated with. it is not nearly as grand and epic as king with its tall stone buildings and striped green lawns. Instead, it is more quaint and comfortable, like a tea cozy. It has beautiful roses and lavender beds strewn throughout the brick college, and tall circular stone staircases, and a beautiful baroque chapel.

I go to that library to read because they have the book I need but I am not allowed to check out. Also, while King's library has a better view, Pembroke library is more beautiful and less inhabited. King's library seems almost like an afterthought, placed where it is over an arch overhang and with its long, rambling rooms stretching out toward the back. Pembroke on the other hand, was designed specifically for the library duty and therefore has abundant places to sit and tall, cherry book cases on each floor. The upper story has the most fantastically arched roof, pink and white walls, rows and rows of book cases that lead to a great old globe at the end and a bubbly glass bay window. That is where I sit, typically next to the bust of Prime Minister Pitt who was a graduate of Pembroke and the youngest prime minister in history. The windows are all opaque with stain glass and oldness, as they were made so long ago, the glass was not clear enough to see through. The library is also the bell tower, so every hour and half hour, there is a resounding, thunderous thud followed by the heavy ding of a gigantic bell. it is a good way to mark how many hours I have been sitting there trying to plow through the readings.

Wednesday evening, we had a lecture by Dr. Dearlove who is the ex-Mi6 president. He discussed what modern security threats there are in the world. We all sat, all 400 of us, in the great Union Hall Debating chamber which is, as you recall, designed to look like parliament. I sat in the balcony because I had been reading for a while and unfortunately lost track of time, thinking it was 6 instead of 7, and therefore arrived several minutes late. At the end they asked for questions, and said that we should say what school we attend and our names when we speak. Just for that reason, I knew I had to ask a question. I had to represent BYU of course. The first person to speak was a BYU student, but that was before he was told to say what school he attended so people didn't know he was BYU. The next was also BYU. Then there was one Berkeley student, then me. I stood at the balcony bar and sort of had to shout for them to hear my question. I asked if he thought it was possible for the idea of modern extremist islam to be replaced by a different dogma, and eventually, to become passe. This was prompted by some of the things he had said earlier that evening. It was quite frightening, speaking in front of that whole audience and the former leader of Mi6, but not too bad. He said he didn't know. Later, I ran into a group of BYU students who said they had been talking about me. I was wearing my purple jerusalem skirt, so they all said I looked like Juliet at the balcony and they had half expected me to start with "Romeo Romeo" they also said I looked superbly self confident. That just tells you how well you can fool people if you try.

The next two students to speak were from Berkeley, and one of them was super inflammatory in his remarks, to the point that it was ridiculous. He asked something like, "well, what about all the terrorism the US and the UK have been doing to the world for the past 200 years? How do we answer for that behavior?" Dr. Dearlove, naturally, didn't really know how to respond. He pretty much said that he didn't even agree with the premise of the question. So, of the 6 students who spoke, 3 were from BYU and 3 from Berkeley. I wonder if that means anything. Yale, which has the biggest population on the programme, was entirely silent.

On Thursday, I unfortunately missed a seminar given by Dr. Kerry because I didn't realize we were having another lecture that day. I instead went wandering around the gardens of Clare College. They are truly the most spectacularly beautiful gardens. It was a perfect, sunny, muggy day for a british summer, and the garden smelled heavenly. It was created in the romantic style, windy, slightly overgrown, and designed to have each corner reveal another delight.

There was a section of entirely white flowers, a section where the flowers graduated from dark red to bright yellow, sections of tropical plants of deep purple and green, fountains, patches of warm green grass, and all of this along the edge of the cam river where dozens of punters floated by. It was truly remarkable. I have to go back to draw something for my class, but I intentionally did not do it the first time just so I could have a reason to return. At one point, there was a fountain surrounding by tall bushes and roses, and sitting on a bench was a man reading a kindle, then across the fountain/pond lay a woman playing with her giggling 3 month old baby. It was the picture of peace.

That night was the last harry potter. We all went to the midnight showing at a local theater, having bought out tickets the previous week. I won't say much about it, other than that is was epic and it was really a striking thing for all of us, all of us who are children of the harry potter generation. There was a lot of proclaiming it the end of an era, a lot of people who cried through the whole of the second half of the film. I even felt surprised at my own shock and sadness for the end of this all... most people considered it the official conclusion of our childhoods. But it was good when it was over, because now we can start afresh with a new sort of magical adventure, if you can forgive the cheesiness of such a statement. I was glad to call Dad when he was available. It was sort of fortuitous that we were up so late afterall.

I was, unsurprisingly, upset when I realized I had missed the seminar the previous day. I attended the next lecture given by Dr. Kerry, then went to a cafe to do my readings. While up there, I realized that I was probably mistaken about the time that the Architecture class was going to the Cathedral in Ely, a place I really wanted to go.

I pulled out my schedule and realized they should be leaving any moment, then saw that Amelia had already called me twice. I called her back--they were already 10 minutes out on their way to the train station. I started to run to get to the train station on time. I thought I should have caught up with them, but did not see anyone after about 15 minutes. So I called Amelia and found out I had been running the absolute wrong direction. While we had both bothered to clarify what street the station was on, neither of us had thought to mention the direction to go and both had assumed the opposite way from the other.

I was too late to get to the train they were leaving on now, so I had to get my own. I was also now several miles from the station, so I needed to take a bus. The busses, unfortunately, cost more money than I had with me, so it took a good deal of time and the buying of some candy at what is the world's most extraordinary candy shop (two stories, floor to ceiling candy) to get to the station. I was superbly frustrated, but I refused to simply give up. When I finally arrived, I got a ticket for the train which left in only 10 minutes, then boarded. No one really knew if this was the train going to Ely, but there wasn't really time to find out so I just had to hope. I was phenomenally relieved when we finally arrived in Ely, just as I had hoped. The cathedral spires stand high above the city, so finding it wasn't a problem. It was not long before I had found amelia in the beautiful building and joined the tour. The cathedral was built over a period of 6 hundred years, as much of it had to be built and rebuilt and rebuilt time and again for various reasons. Therefore, it is a remarkable example of the changes in architectural styles through the ages. It is also the 5th largest cathedral in Europe, and looks like it. Your neck quickly hurts from looking up. The whole ceiling is decorated in medieval paintings of the life of Christ (or at least, they're supposed to look medieval, they're probably redone) and much of the building is still c. the 11th century. It goes on and on, and has a stunning lady chapel on the north side. I could spend forever simply describing the Cathedral of Ely, but it is the sort of thing you have to see for yourself.

After the tour, Amelia and I bought a picnic assortment and sat in front of the cathedral to eat. The rest of the group left on an earlier train. I did much of my reading while Amelia took pictures of the cathedral. We finally left around 7. Ely is a fabulously family friendly city. It is beautiful, picturesque with little meadows filled with ponies and horses, people walking their dogs, and families playing in the park. It seems like the perfect sort of place to raise a family. I think I saw more little children in Ely than anywhere else on this trip combined.

I forgot, before I went to Ely, I had my first supervision. My supervisor is a 3rd year PhD student from Canada studying criminology. She sort of wants me to do whatever I want and let her know. AKA, no direction whatsoever, which is sort of terrifying.

After Ely, we got home and I spent a while reading at the library. I left at about 10, then was utterly exhausted and wanted to sleep. Amelia called me to let me know she and Cherry were at the pub and that I should come so we could plan our next trips. I reluctantly made my way over, and ran into Dr. Kerry who was walking by. he said he had sent me an email that afternoon that he was redoing the lecture I had missed for several people who were interested in the subject, and that he wanted me to go. I was ecstatic because this lecture, on Mozart's Magic Flute, was perhaps the most incredible thing he had spoken of thusfar, according to the people who had attended. He has written an article on the subject, and is a well known scholar of the opera. I went to that with the two people who had wanted to hear the lecture, people who were interested but not in the course, and was enthralled the whole time. On the way, I twisted my ankle. We went through the entire opera with Dr. Kerry explaining. It was Mozart's last major work, other than the unfinished Requiem mass, and it was laden with masonic symbolism. One person there was a mason himself, so he and Dr. Kerry spent and long time discussing the masonic references in the play. But then toward the end of the second half, it becomes something more. Mozart adds a woman to what is all an allegory for the initiation of the masons, and the man and women enter a temple. They go through fire and water, they show particular symbols and signs with their hands, and they are at the end sealed by the god of the sun in a room that is symbolic of the sun. It was completely revolutionary at the time, and it is still unexplained today because there is no precedent for what Mozart wrote. No one can really explain it. It is totally worth seeing and reading Dr. Kerry's article about.

I didn't get to bed until really late again, and the next day we were going to london. Unfortuntaly, I couldn't go because of my ankle, so the trip Amelia and Cherry had planned was off. We went to a city named Norwich in East Anglia instead because has a beautiful cathedral and it involves a lot less walking. The cathedral was much like the one in Ely, though longer it seemed. They were having a performance of Romeo and Juliet in the cloister, but we did not attend because it was too expensive. I would have loved to have gone though. We ate lunch at a pub next to their little river, then took the train home. Unfortunately, I lost my ticket when I paid for the food, so I had to repurchase everyone's train ticket back because we had gotten a group rate. That was really lame. The sunset on the ride home was spectacular though, and that helped a lot.

Yesterday was church, for the first time in 3 weeks. I was really, really glad to go and recharge after all the craziness. I don't like being away from church for so long. We filled up the congregation, and the choir afterward. The sunday school teacher was fantastic, wonderfully funny, and quite educated. The relief society women were simply adorable and smilely. They were all, in particular the choir director, happy to have us for the next few weeks. I'll be serving in primary.

After church, I slept for 3 hours, then went to dinner then to FHE (which I know, is not normally on sunday. We just have to fit it in wherever it works). FHE was again sort of a discussion of adapting to this environment and so forth. I shared how we had been planning on going to Bath on saturday instead of London, but how the group we were going to go with didn't want us to come because we were mormon. We ended up not going because there was no accomodation, however. That was my first experience with people not accepting me because of my religion. And they didn't even know who I was.

I went to bed shortly after FHE, and am now ready to start all my readings for today. Things have been, as you can tell, interesting, challenging, and wonderful.