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Samal, Philippines via SweetCaroline♥
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Per Request: Oxford University’s Duke Humfrey’s Library-Interior. Oxford, England, United Kingdom.
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There is nothing more empowering than the freshness of a new year. Just a few reminders for 2012 and of course, for the rest of my life! :-)
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Oxford- Winter Wonderland
(by ZedBee | Zoë Power)
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I DIE FAST IN THIS CITY, OUTSIDE I DIE SLOW ~
Snowy Oxford 2012! At Radcliffe Square.
The Entry of the Crusaders in Constantinople by Delacroix (At the Louvre Museum, Paris)
1204: The Fourth Crusade — what was once a joint venture between the Byzantines and the Latins turned into the sack of the Byzantine Capital and the disbursement of numerous artefacts and relics into the European West, most of which ended up in Sainte Chapelle, Paris.
The Latin Empire at Constantinople existed until 1261, when the Byzantines captured their city and established themselves once again as a formidable power in the Mediterranean, until their defeat to the Ottomans in 1453.
For a vivid and maybe not entirely true account of the events leading to the Fourth Crusade and its immediate aftermath, read Niketas Choniates’ “O City of Byzantium”. It’s an interesting picture of how Byzantines saw the Latins as the ‘forerunners of the anti-Christ’. For the Western account of the sack of Constanintople, Villehardouin’s “The Chronicle of the Crusades” should be an interesting one to read.
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I am definitely enjoying my degree here at Oxford! Byzantine history is too interesting to miss out on. I am terribly dreading the end of Hilary Term as it means the end of my Byzantine History module, the end of having the great professors sit in and argue with the students and amongst themselves.
2012. It seems lots of my friends plan on some serious life changes — goals are being set, dreams being realised, responsibility being acknowledged. I guess it really is time to grow up. Here’s to hoping we all change for the better, discover ourselves, and find whatever it is we’re all looking for.
A year in review. 2011 - This was the year that:
I traveled (a lot), met people from all over the world, realised that I cannot do a PhD, lived and somehow survived in Oxford, England.
2011 was when I had the most random adventures - from spontaneous road trips to sword-fighting in Hong Kong, from hang-over trips in Carthage to weng-wengs on a cruise with new acquaintances, from carrying household goods across Oxford to 8 hours of caving in Somerset, from eating pizza in Pampanga to sharing special bibingkas in Boracay.
More adventures await. Looking forward to sharing them with friends (the old and the new) and family!
Happy Christmas from Boracay, Philippines! xxx
Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence:
The bliss of growth
The glory of action
The splendor of beauty
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow only a vision
But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore to this day!
Such is the salutation to the dawn.
- Kalidasa, Indian Poet
spent the day in London.
At about 6pm, I realised how much I missed Oxford. I kept referring to it as ‘home’.
Bonfire Night 2011, South Parks, Oxford.
So it’s almost a month since I’ve moved to Oxford and it’s been an interesting unexpected experience.
This has probably been the busiest month of my life (and yet here I am typing away instead of sticking my nose in a book, as I am meant to do). But it’s a Sunday morning and the sun is out despite the grayness that has become ‘a good day’ in terms of the weather…
Just to update the world on my present state: I live in a four bedroom house with 3 other girls, we share a kitchen and bathroom, we each have bicycles but endlessly come up with excuses so as not to bike to the city centre (which is about a 15 minute cycle)… I’ve never bought so much cleaning products in my life, and I’m constantly wanting to clean (I find it very therapeutic as I dwell upon my lack of time management skills). I’ve been to the library tons of times but never end up sitting there for more than 10 minutes. I end up ‘studying’ in my room where distractions come and go.
In short, Oxford is amazing! It’s the university I remember joking about in high school, and yet here I am joining in the 12th century nonsense! Lots of things don’t make sense here… there’s a very weird system Oxford lives by and I guess that’s why I belong here! Things happen the way they do and we just go with it.
I’ve come to accept the responsibilities of being a student and an independent person all at once. I study, I go to the grocery, I attend class, and I pay the bills. These are things I don’t get to mix up when I’m home and I think these help me become a stronger individual.
I often find myself questioning if this was really the right thing to do. There’s a whole different level of intellectual activity here and I am still unsure of what my brain is capable of understanding. Then I realize that everyone else is unsure of their ideas as well and I begin to tell myself that “Yes, everyone here is actually human and their brains work just as hard as mine does. They aren’t robots.”
It’s amazing how there’s so much to do here. The university has tons of clubs and societies to join, that one can actually experience life at its fullest via extra-curricular activities. I wanted to sign up for almost everything but due to my limited amount of free time, I’ve chosen to join the Caving society and explore the underground world in winter. My first trip is next weekend where I enter the caves through a hole in the ground and emerge back through a gap in a tree trunk. Oxford is where my randomness goes beyond me!
9 months is way too short. I try to appreciate every little moment as much as I can. I often dork out when walking through hallways and remember the different people who’ve walked the same paths hundreds of years ago. I attend seminars in order to hear leaders in my field of interests speak about their ideas and enjoy watching them get challenged by other colleagues. These seminars serve as my dorky-fan-girl moments where I am just amazed at being in the presence of the authors of all my academic reading. Being around them is very inspiring.
That’s what Oxford is, inspiring.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
When the bottom drops out
that’s when I begin to lose it
….
I’ve been waiting for you,
I’ve been waiting for you, boy.
I feel like a proper Oxonian now — i went cycling through the city, using main roads. I, however, realised how unfit I am because of all the times I wanted to stop. I didn’t tho! I cycled on alongside cabs and buses and made it home in one piece. So, we’re four girls to one lovely house and so far this is our kitchen/garage. Damn you cycle thieves! I wish these sunny days would never end.
