Pilgrimage

First off, I should start with an apology, seeing as I promised an Amsterdam post quite some time ago and never delivered on that. There are pictures on my Facebook page though, and if you're curious, you can certainly ask me about the trip in person some day soon. Again, my apologies for not following through on that, as well as taking so long between posts (again).
With that said, I've had an idea for a more thematic, less travelogue-ish post in my head for a while. Traveling is still a large cause for this post, as the title "Pilgrimage" implies, but I plan to bore you all less with details and more with my reflections upon some recent experiences.


A huge part of my personal Oxford experience has centered around History, whether as an academic discipline or as a visible, tangible experience. And as enlightening, helpful, and interesting as studying History has been here, really experiencing History through centuries-old buildings and monuments has been a new and unique experience for me. Sure, I went to Philadelphia in 7th grade to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall and such and I've been to numerous museums back in the States (for which I owe my parents many thanks), but never in my life have I had the opportunity to experience such old, rich historical sites first-hand. Just above is a picture of St Paul's Cathedral in London, which was founded in 604 and the current building dates to the 17th century. In just my second week here, I was able to attend an evening service (Anglican Evensong) in that amazing church; and even though I am not Anglican and quite frankly know very little of Anglican tradition itself, it was still a wonderful and special experience to worship God in a place with such deep roots. Certainly, the mosaic, iconic depictions of Christ behind the altar and on the ceilings and walls helped me feel more at home as an Orthodox Christian, but that seems to be only one aspect of the depth felt in such a place. There is something about worshiping in the same location that Christians worshiped in over a millennium ago that makes itself felt, and I truly believe it is more than heightened emotions or an individual feeling.


[De Krijtberg Catholic Church in Amstterdam]

As I think more about that sense of depth that comes in such places, there seem to be two layers to the experience. For one, there is the connection between the experiences of modern pilgrims and pilgrims of earlier times. As sources like the Canterbury Tales indicate, pilgrimage was once a fairly prominent activity in the lives of many. People would travel huge distances to visit special religious sites, often times in hopes of healing or some other type of miracle. And while many people today would look at such an activity and chalk it up to superstition or backwards-mindedness, I think there is something to be commended and even imitated in such actions. Also, I should note that my "pilgrimages" here in England have been far more convenient than those of the medievals or earlier people, so I cannot claim the fullness of their experience. And the second layer is the same one that those (sincere) pilgrims sought in ages past, to share in some way with the Saints who have gone before us. Just like pilgrims from all time periods, we still share in the same Christian foundation that they did, a church founded on Christ, the Apostles, and the martyrs.



This picture is of the shrine of one of those martyrs just mentioned, St Alban, the proto-martyr (first martyr) of Great Britain. My visit to this shrine was a little different than visits in medieval England (I didn't exactly have to shove my way through throngs of excited pilgrims), but brought a sense of connection with the past nonetheless. Despite being in a country thousands of miles from my home, being so near the relics of St Alban brought a sense of being home, or at least being somewhere I belong. And yet, the shrine is also a reminder of the fact that this is not where I, nor any Christians, belong. Persecution is obviously not a present threat here in the UK or back in the States, but as Christians we always live with the knowledge that our citizenship lies elsewhere. We can look back and celebrate the death of St Alban because we know that Christ has defeated death and we (all of us saints) worship alongside Alban and all the Saints now and forever.


And finally, I just want to add a note about how modern pilgrimages to Anglican sites as an Orthodox Christian stand out, both for good and bad. To start with the bad, there are the numerous instances where Reformation iconoclasm is still visible in churches. Walls are filled with empty coves where states of Saints once stood (see the image above), now lost and in most cases reduced to only dust and debris. So it is sad to see that these sites of pilgrimage, places where Saints are celebrated, were once victim to the zeal of iconoclastic reformers. At the same time though, it brings my heart such great joy to see this process being reversed. In nearly every Cathedral, Abbey, and major church that I have visited here, I have been surprised to find at least one icon and sometimes whole walls of them (Winchester Cathedral). And this makes me so glad not just because I use icons in my own worship, but because of the trend of unity it represents. I know that Christianity is far, far away from seeing a unified Church (I don't believe that the Protestant notion of an "invisible Church" holds true weight), but ecumenical dialogues and inter-church relations seem to be heading in a good direction, at least as far as I can see. Not many things bring me more joy than seeing true bonds of love and fellowship between Christians from different backgrounds, and to see such visual representations of that love is a truly beautiful thing. So in these "pilgrimages" I feel that I have been drawn closer to the Saints of the early Church, the pilgrims who made their journeys before me, and all Christians who share in our rich history that traces its way back through the saints, martyrs, and apostles all the way to Christ Himself.

Done!

Tutorials are over! Finally a chance to relax for more than a brief moment. Being a tourist in Oxford tomorrow. Amsterdam Sunday through Wednesday. Life is good. I definitely miss Bailey. And everyone else. But fortunately, I've got all kinds of amazing distractions to keep me from dwelling on that. Over half way done. Which is nice, but also sad. Anyways, I'll have some pictures on here and many more on Facebook in the near future. And of course I'll have an update on Amsterdam in about a week. Until then, cheers.

So Close!

One week from today I will be done with my tutorials, which are the hard part of the program. Also, if anyone hasn't seen my facebook pictures as of late, my face just underwent some serious hair removal processes. That's about all that's new for now, but In about a week and a half I'll be back with pictures from spring break, which should include a day of really exploring the city here and will definitely include 3 days in Amsterdam! Just have to write two more essays and a long essay proposal before the adventures begin.

Time Flies

Just realized that I hadn't posted anything on here in over two weeks now. My apologies to anyone who has been eagerly awaiting my next update, though I'm guessing that list of people consists of about 2 or 3 people, especially now that I've posted all about reading and studying and how little free time I have to do anything exciting. Anyways, now that I've made sure that nobody actually wants to read this, I suppose I'll continue with an actual update of life in Oxford.
The work hasn't gotten any easier, but I've become a little more used to it, so it doesn't seem too bad anymore. In addition to my tutorials, I'm about to begin work on my long essay, which will be on the Iconoclasm around the 8th century, so I'm looking forward to that; especially because it means getting to read St. John of Damascus' On the Divine Images. But I think that's enough of academics for now.
I've discovered that Oxford is bigger than my initial experience and a majority of maps had led me to believe. There's the central part of town where most of the colleges and stores and such are, and that is what most of the maps I've seen include. But, there are also sections of Oxford surrounding that central area in all directions, some parts of which I had the chance to explore this weekend. I apologize for not taking my camera on any of these excursions, but for anybody interested, you should be able to find pictures of the exciting things online.
Friday afternoon I took a walk over to Christ Church College, which is historically one of the richest and oldest colleges of Oxford. Had I gone inside, I could have seen the great hall from the Harry Potter movies, but I'll have to do that some other time hopefully. Nonetheless, the college buildings were stunning from the outside, and they even have a large piece of land with cows and, I think, horses as well. So that was adventure number one on Friday afternoon. And friday night wasn't too adventurous, but did include "Yes, Prime Minister," a rather funny British comedy from the 80s.
Saturday's adventure included the Mitre Beefeater, a pub, with Phil and Sherrod. In that cozy establishment we learned that cider is probably tastier than beer, the wait staff in England is often not too English, and bottomless fries means waiting 20 minutes and asking multiple waiters. Also, we introduced Sherrod to the delights of Kebab stands, which do not involve sticks, but do involve deliciousness.
And that brings us to Sunday, which started off nicely when I saw Jason, who I had met in lecture on Wednesday, at church in the morning and talked to him and his wife afterwards. And then later Sunday night, once I was all covered up in bed and just starting to continue where I had left off in Pulp Fiction, Phil came into my room and convinced me to go adventuring with him. So, he, Jess, Katherine, and I went out in search of an alleged meadow with alleged horses that Jess knew of but we never ended up finding. Then we came across Pepper's Burgers, where they seemed taken aback at Phil's order of just fries, before serving him a huge portion of fries and then serving him a second large portion because they were convinced that the first heap wasn't enough. I also enjoyed a delicious 1/2 lb (two 1/4 pound patties stacked) burger as my final meat before Pascha and my return home.
So there's a glimpse into what sort of gems Oxford has to offer on spontaneous evening outings. I know it's not the most exciting thing to read about, but it really is an enjoyable place, especially when surrounded by enjoyable people. Also, all of these adventures were taken on foot, which is one of the most enjoyable parts of the city, the closeness and convenience of it all.

Libraries

I spend a great deal of time here surrounded by thousands of books. Oxford has about 80 different libraries of varying subjects and sizes, and in those libraries (as well as some vast underground storage stacks) there are over 12 million books. Unfortunately, the books I need right now are in the Gladstone Link, which is the basement of the main Bodleian Library and is just about the most modern, boring building I've been in here. Fortunately, I get to spend more time in buildings like the Radcliffe Camera and the Sackler, which are much cozier and old-looking than this place. Also fortunately, I'm down here reading about St. Basil the Great and St. Augustine the Blessed, so this essay is kind of an Orthodox History/Philosophy major's dream come true. Perhaps not entirely, but it's still a great essay to get to work on. And I will definitely miss having so many books available to me when I go back to Malone's quaint little library. Anyways, I really ought to get back to work. Cheers, friends.


The Radcliffe Camera (I'd take a picture inside, but it's strictly prohibited.)

Free Time

Free time is somewhat hard to come by here at Oxford. The 3rd week of term is about to start and so far I've already written and turned in over 20 pages of work. It's definitely a lot more intensive than the typical semester back home. Fortunately, the material has all been really interesting to me so far, especially my current essay which is about Julian failing to revive Roman paganism in the 4th century basically because Christianity had taken too strong of a hold after Constantine. However, even when something is interesting reading 8 different books on it and writing an essay all in one week is a bit exhausting. But in the free time that I have had, I've discovered that Oxford is a fantastic place to be. Most of the buildings actually look like castles, and there is a real castle within walking distance, and really everything is within walking distance. It will be weird to go back home and start driving again; after a few weeks here I'm already used to walking everywhere all the time. Also, it's fairly cold here, but no snow at all and surprisingly hardly any rain, the second of which is quite strange from what I hear. Strange or not, it's been really nice.

I feel like I should have more exciting things to post about, but I really don't. It's hard to explain England, because it seems to mostly be different in a lot of little ways more so than any huge differences. Turf Tavern's Winter Ale is delicious, so is the chicken at Nando's. Almost everybody here dresses really well. The night life is radically different on the weekend than it is on week days. My fears of the other American students here being nerds were completely unfounded, and in fact just about everybody here is really cool. Especially the people here at Wycliffe. I'll try to make more exciting things happen to post about, but it might be difficult when most of my days are spent in libraries or the study room.

In case you didn't know

I am currently in Oxford, England studying at the University for this semester. And while I intend to spend a great deal of time writing essays, attending lectures, meeting with professors, exploring the city, making friends, and generally soaking up the Oxford experience, I also intend to keep those I've left behind at least somewhat up to date on my goings on and whatnot. So if you're interested in the things I'll be doing here across the pond, this blog is the place to come for pictures, posts, and any other bits about my time abroad. I promise a bi-weekly update at the minimum and I hope to give you all more than that. However, I do have about 12 pages to write weekly, so I may get just a little bogged down every now and again. With that being said, I promise to have a more substantial post before too long, but I'm off to London in the morning so I must be getting to bed now. Cheers.

My Top 11 Albums of 2011

11. Mirrors by U.S. Royalty



With their blues and classic-rock tinged sound, U.S. Royalty actually got me to start feeling proud to be an American, which is a pretty big deal if you know me. "Hollywood Hollows," the album's first real song, is one of the first blues-rock songs I've ever enjoyed, and between the insanely catchy "Equestrian" and "Vacation Vacation," the middle of Mirrors is about as good as it gets. Thanks to my RD Rhett for hooking me onto this relatively new band from D.C.

10. The Long Surrender by Over the Rhine



After experiencing Over the Rhine live for the first time in April, I realized just how good of musicians they really are. The emotion in Karin Bergquist's is rarely matched in the musical world, and the story-telling/bantering of her and Linford Detweiler on stage is captured through the band's folk ballads and long-practiced harmonies. The Long Surrender is just another gem in OTR's continually growing catalogue of folk masterpieces.

9. Kiss Each other Clean by Iron & Wine



This album surprised me in a couple of ways. For one, I never expected Beam to use so much electric guitar and bass on an album, given his typical acoustic songs and nearly whispering vocals. And secondly, I never expected a complete album of his to be so good. Even though a few tracks really stand out ("Walking Far From Home" and "Monkeys Uptown" in particular), there really isn't a sub-par song on this album. Even though I loved the more hushed sounds of his earlier work, there's nothing to be sad about with this new direction of KEOC.

8. Torches by Foster the People



Despite getting over-played on radio stations and television commercials, it's still pretty easy to say that "Pumped Up Kicks" was the feel-good song of the year, or the summer at the very least. And in my humble opinion, Torches was the feel-good album of the year. Nearly every track hooks you within the first 30 seconds and keeps your head bobbing until the end. I did more in-car dancing than I'd like to admit thanks to this album, and if you ask my girlfriend I did more than enough dancing to this album in general, but this album made it pretty difficult not to.

7. Codes and Keys by Death Cab for Cutie



In all honesty, Codes and Keys wasn't quite as good as I was expecting from Death Cab after their last few albums. But then again, not many bands have ever topped Plans or Transatlanticism in my book, so expectations were rather high for this release. Despite being only an average album for the band though, Codes and Keys still showed that Death Cab are one of the best bands around, and "You Are A Tourist" included what may be the catchiest guitar riff I've ever heard. Ben Gibbard and his fellow bandmates continue to tighten their sound and make high-quality music that's hard not to love.

6. The King is Dead by The Decemberists



After the extremely concept-driven Hazards of Love, I really didn't know what to expect next from Colin Meloy and the rest of The Decemberists; The King is Dead answered that question with brilliant folk songs and simple, catchy melodies. Not quite as epic as other Decemberists ventures, The King is Dead is a simpler album, and lets listeners feel connected through its everyday life imagery, rather than over-arching, universal themes, and even the intense "This Is Why We Fight," conjures images of Civil War soldiers, rather than foreign men from long ago times fighting for a king.

5. The People's Key by Bright Eyes



Somehow Conor Oberst managed to change a whole lot without changing at all. Musically, the single "Shell Games" sounds nothing like most past Bright Eyes tracks (think "First Day of My Life" or "Bowl of Oranges"), yet The People's Key still remains true to what Bright Eyes has always been. The album is weird, skeptical, musing, basically Oberst-esque, even if it sounds more like pop-rock than just about anything else he's done before. For those who already loved Bright Eyes, this was an interesting new stylistic direction, and for newcomers to the band, I think The People's Key is an accessible beginning point to start enjoying one of this generation's most interesting musicians.

4. They Reappear by Jeremy Larson



In many ways, this album is what a complete album should be. Not only does Larson capture the classical sound through layers of strings, but he understands the concept of movement in music and uses transitional tracks to create one continuous motion throughout the 48 minutes that are They Reappear. If it's possible to pick out one track that does stick out, it would have to be "Empire," which is right in the middle of this classically-inspired musical journey. Definitely a set of songs that are very much meant to be listened to from start to finish, and when you do just that, They Reappear is a real treat.

3. Circuital by My Morning Jacket



If it weren't for Jim James' involvement with Monsters of Folk and the intriguing green eye on Circuital's cover, I probably never would have stumbled across what has now become one of my favorite bands. Simply put, My Morning Jacket just make good music. The guitar work is good, the songwriting is good, the vocals are good, and the general atmosphere of the songs is good. Really good. These songs take me places, whether it's the mountain-range sunset of "Victory Dance," the packed arena of "Holdin' on to Black Metal," or the emptying bar of "Slow Slow Tune," they take me places in a uniquely enjoyable way. Not to mention, Circuital opened my eye(s) to the rest of My Morning Jacket's fantastic collection of music.

2. Bon Iver by Bon Iver



Unbelievable atmosphere for a band that is basically just one man. Justin Vernon creates beautiful songs that are designed to represent places, as the titles indicate, and really do move you as a listener. More ambient than Bon Iver's first release, this self-titled effort is some of the year's best music from start to finish. There are no weak links here.

1. Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes



Fleet Foxes' self-titled debut brought high expectations for their next release, and Helplessness Blues absolutely delivered on those expectations. This album is pure heart meets perfect harmony meets brilliant song-crafting. Plenty of beautiful layers of acoustic guitar, simple yet effective drums, and all kinds of heart in the singing. I'm more than a little jealous that my girlfriend got to see them live this year, and only hope I get to in the future. If this album and the one before are any indication, Fleet Foxes are on track to keep making what might possibly be the best folk-rock ever.

Special Mention - The Color Spectrum by The Dear Hunter



If these 36 songs could be considered an "album" and not something altogether beyond that, they would have definitely made the top 5 of the list. Basically, these are nine 4-song collections which each capture a different color (ROYGBIV plus B/W) through music. Given the magnitude of this project, the quality of these songs are mind-blowing, to say the least. This concept collection is one of the most interesting musical experiences I've had in a long time, and was probably the most ambitious musical endeavor of 2011.