Cotswolds!

Today we took a day trip around the Cotswolds, a region near Oxford. This is where Mom and Dad went when they were here.. really picturesque, with ancient houses, lots of thatched roofs, rolling hills of barley and wheat.. beautiful place. This day trip was on Medieval houses, so we visited an old castle, Broughton Castle, which is still inhabited by a noble family... in fact, Lady Saye and Sele, the lady of the house, came and talked to us as a group! Apparently she knows Dr. Addison. When we were leaving the house, her nephews were playing cricket on the lawn.. incredible that these people are living in a house made in the 1300s!

These pictures are a bit out of order, so I'll get back to Broughton Castle in a minute. This is Minster Lovell Hall. Historically, the Lords of Lovell have played important roles in British gvt. One was even referenced in Shakespeare. Unfortunately, their manor is in ruins today, but it was still neat to imagine what it would have been like.

Here it is, Minster Lovell Hall! This is about 30 min from Oxford.

More of the ruins.. this is part of an old staircase..

Hahaha, thought this guy was HILARIOUS. Mustache. I'm going to say this guy came over fresh from Normandy.


Ok, back to Broughton Castle. This is the Great Hall, and the oldest part of the castle. This is where the Lady met us and told us a bit about the castle's history. Since her husband is a lord, he is in the House of Lords, though he's pretty old, so he stays here mostly. Today we saw him out in the garden sipping tea while working on a book he's writing. Life's hard.

View from the gardens.

This felt very Jane Austen-esque... you can just imagine rich ladies sitting here reading books alllll day and drinking tea. There was a harp in the corner and tons of old books.

We were able to climb up to the roof of the castle...and THIS was the view!! Beautiful gardens!

Well, tonight around 9 I head to London and then I'm over-night busing it to Glasgow! I'm going to be exhausted tomorrow FOR SURE, but I think I'll get an adrenaline boost from being in Scotland! I'll try and limit the pictures I take, but I'm sure there will be some good ones to post!

I'll be back Monday, so expect a post then!

Love,
Emily

Procrastination... in blog form.

Tonight is going to be a loonnng night of essaying, but I thought a little pre-essay blogging would help to kick start my writing...

This is the last and most exciting essay... Essay IV (dun dun dunnnn). This is the essay where we finally get to address the geopolitical and economic aspects of global climate change. Since we're all business/econ/polysci folk back home we have been drooling over this essay since week one. The problem is that its such a broad topic that we all feel a bit overwhelmed. I've been looking at policy recommendations by the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change), as my specific topic is about the gap between the severity of the global climate change problem and what's being done.

On that note, one of the VP's of BP (British Petroleum, Beyond Petroleum, or as Dr. A says, Beyond Prayer) came to talk to us today about the company's innovation strategies. If any of you have seen 'Thank You for Smoking,' that's how this guy was. I swear that guy could sell ANYTHING. He was uber-charming, and somehow avoided answering all of the controversial questions we threw at him while making everyone laugh. A true politician. It was a VERY interesting presentation, especially because I was able to witness a smaller scale of a FUNDAMENTAL debate which needs to take place globally: green left-wing intellectual vs. oil exec. Perfect. To be fair, BP is doing a bit to invest in green energies, but this guy was saying it's just not cost effective for them to do so until oil prices hit around $120 a barrel. Makes you think...higher oil prices might be just what we need to make people STOP consuming at such high levels and to kick these giant companies in the butt to get them to start investing in greener energy sources. Something I didn't realize was that the 'big six' oil companies (Exxon, Shell, BP, etc..) only make up 13% of the global oil industry. Pretty much everything else comes from OPEC... The BP guy was saying how the new economic stimulus package which Bush so kindly gave to the American public has ended up in the hands of the Saudis (we spend money on their fuel)... that's 1.2 TRILLION (with a T, TRILLION) dollars.. Something is wrong here. Dr. Addison pointed out that we are brilliantly letting HUGE reserves in Canada sit, so that if and when things get politically heated up, we can access resources on our doorstep. With the cornbelt moving into Canada and Canada's access to the North West passage (soon to open b/c of melting ice), Ol' Canada may be the next super power.. anything is possible, huh?

So another overwhelming day... the more we dig into global climate issues, the more we realize how interdependent everything is.. and how its impossible to fix. As Dr. A says, its no longer a question of IF global climate change is happening, its a question of WHEN, WHERE, and by HOW MUCH. Hopefully the political lag wont be so long that it costs millions of lives and billions of dollars...

On that happy note, I'm off to write.

Love,
Emily

HELLO PRINCE!

Haha, OK, ok, I said no more posts, but I have to mention last night's dinner. On Monday nights we have formal in-hall dinner. Normally we see some sort of presentation before dinner (we've had Hautbois musicians, an old prof who studied wildlife in Africa, Shakespeare in film prof, etc...). LAST NIGHT we had two of the Shakespeare tutors for the summer school put on a little play about life as an acting troupe back in Shakespeare's time. They had a guest actor who specialized in stage fighting. GUESS WHO THAT ACTOR WAS!? Ok, this probably won't be a big deal for most of you...sigh... but for the Burchfield family, the magnificent films he acted in are fundamental parts of our lives.. in fact, I couldn't imagine my childhood without them. HE WAS THE ORIGINAL PRICE CASPIAN in the old BBC Narnia series. Ok, for me that was big. When they announced who he was, 98% of the people were like, OK, get on with it... but myself and one other girl started flipping out. Hahaha, just had to share that! OK, essay time.

Essays galore...

Well. looks like I will be writing essays until Wednesday, which is when I'll head to Glasgow. I hope to make a post next Wed...

Love,
E

More Excursion Pics...

Pictures from the excursion have been flooding in on Facebook, and there were some pretty good ones I thought I'd share. It's a nice break from studying... on that note, if anyone knows where I can find information on storm surges in the Outer Banks, LET ME KNOW!! :)



Here I am coming out of the Bronze Age Copper Mines... I'm not claustrophobic but I had a few moments down here. We were a line of 20 people marching through narrow, low tunnels carved by BONES and ROCKS 4,000 years ago.. so the minimum amount of space possible was carved out here. The tunnels are literally where the veins of malachite used to run. My mind was blown... first, how the heck did they dig these tunnels (some were so small, clearly 4-5 year olds had to dig them), and second, how the heck did they figure out that they could grind up the malachite they found and burn it using charcoal to make copper. !?!


On a lighter, more SPACIOUS note... this is the Great Hall of Caerffili Castle! My friend tagged this on facebook as Emilia Regina...ER, like Elizabeth I... CLEVER. I'll take it.


Here's a group shot so you can see some of the faces I've been talking about. Most of these students are from Michigan (hear that gpa?? :) ) The two next to me (Kevin in blue, Curtis in green) are Environmental students. It's really a great group.


Group shot! 23 (maybe?) of us went on the excursion, but I think like 32 are in the program.


Typical me and Dr. Addision interaction.. he definitely uses the Socratic method to painfully pull information out of us. He always says we know a hell of a lot more than we admit too.. much of what we are studying involves a bit of background knowledge and then lots of logic and common sense... sigh... unfortunately, we all still leave class feeling like we need to read another 20 books before next class. This site was really interesting.. we are standing in a valley filled with these big boulders. Surrounding the valley are rolling hills with no boulders. How did the boulders get there? There's no river or water source present to move the boulders...

Turns out melting permafrost slid the boulders into their present location... that in combo with farmers attempting to roll them out of their pastures. Anyway, that gives you an idea of the type of sites we were looking at and the approach we were taking...

Ok, that about sums up the excursion. This week I have to finish two essays, because I am heading to Glasgow for 5 days over the weekend (ok, I am stretching out the weekend a bit). Next week is our last week... which is pretty darn sad. I'll think about that all later..

Love,
E

Wales!

Hey all!

Just got back from a 5-day field excursion in Wales. We were studying the development of British landscapes. VERY interesting... we saw and learned a lot. I figure the best way to share it all is pictures, so:So these are a bit out of order (historically and in terms of the trip), BUT this is the first IRON bridge built in the world (1779). It's become the symbol of the start of the Industrial Rev. Interestingly enough, we also visited (and went waaayyy underground) a BRONZE AGE copper mine where ancient people carved elaborate tunnels (miles) with animal bones (!!) to mine and smelt iron. With increasing evidence of mines like this one, historians are beginning to re-think human innovation and its impact on the environment. The charcoal required to smelt iron/copper comes from forests... millions of trees. Human impact may be far more extensive than post-Industrial Revolution after all...


This is the famous Caernarfon Castle!!! It was built by Edward I around 1283. Since around that time the Prince of Wales (today, it's Charles) has been crowned in this castle.

Hah, ok two things here. First, the Welsh flag. The people of Wales are very proud.. they speak a different language, have a distinct history, and a successful Rugby team (apparently this keeps anti-English hostility alive). Second, we stayed in an inn called the 'Black Boy Inn.' Ok, as a southerner, I am taught that this isn't done... BUT apparently, this 'black boy' was the first African to make it to Wales back in the 1400s.


Might as well put the best first... we spent 2-3 hours climbing a mountain in Snowdonia. This valley was carved by glaciers... It was covered in giant boulders dropped by the sliding ice, and the remnants of the ice can still be seen (lake!). Darwin came here before and after his Beagle voyage. Before he studied the flora and fauna, noted the boulders and some strange lines in the mountain-side, but made nothing of it. After the Beagle voyage, after he had seen glaciers and glacial valleys, he came back and pieced together the history of this valley.

This is part of a dune system on the coast of Wales (near Barmouth). The dunes are fairly new. Part of our assignment was to date the dunes... We actually used this ancient church which had gravestones partially covered by the dunes to guess their arrival (c. 1350) Geologically, the dunes are fairly new and are absolutely essential to the new tourist industry which has developed in this part of Wales. Ironically, this tourist industry is slowly eroding the dunes... Dr. A estimates that soon, between the anthropogenic erosion and rising sea levels, this area will be underwater.

View of Barmoth Harbor, which opens into the Irish Sea!

One of many Edward I castles we saw in Wales. To control rebels in the mountains of Snowdonia and to access grain supplies, Edward I built 9 (maybe more?) castles around the coast of Wales. This is Caerffili Castle. The name of the castle, Caerffili, give you a taste of how bizarre Welsh is. It's a Celtic language... and actually is related to Catalan in Spain.



Avesbury Stones. A bit like Stonehenge, only a MILE in circumference. The landscape is chalk (you can see the white color on the path). Just like Stonehenge, the purpose of these stones is unknown. A town is actually INSIDE of this henge.

This was taken INSIDE (!?!?) of a Bronze Age burial mound. It's on the top of a hill in the middle of farmland... there's a small entrance behind a boulder and a few chambers where bodies used to be.


This is still in the area near Avesbury and the burial mound. This is actually a GIANT mound which is the largest Neolithic structure in Europe. Because this landscape is chalk, when the mound was originally made, it was bright white, and could be seen for 600 km in all directions. Dr. A was saying it was a bit like an ancient version of a neon sign.


This is Tintern Abbey, founded by Cistercian monks in the 1200s. The Cistercian monks (google these guys) owned absurd amounts of land before Henry VIII destroyed them all. This abbey is in ruins, but honestly, that made it incredibly dramatic. It is in a valley with a huge river flowing through. I was telling Dr. A how it looked a bit like the Appalachian mountains back home and he told me that this part of Wales used to be attached to the Appalachian mtns (a few billion years ago) so the rocks, landscapes, and even plants are very similar!

Sorry these pics are a bit out of order, but that BRIEFLY sums up the field excursion. Seeing how human-impact has fundamentally changed this landscape was eye-opening. Unlike back home, the hills and mountains (as you may have noticed in the pics) are not covered in trees. This is NOT natural. This is because of centuries (millenia?) of deforestation and grazing (3/1 sheep human ratio here). It's definitely making me think.......

I've got two essays to work on this weekend, so I wont be posting much/at all... The essays are getting pretty exciting.. we are dealing with international mitigation to ATTEMPT to lessen the impacts of climate change. It's a bit terrifying... it's going to be a huge problem for my generation.. but older politicians are still ignoring it. Political rants aside, I am so glad I chose to study this. It's making me re-think economics and development, and honestly, my high-impact lifestyle.

Whew, sorry about these loopy rants.. It's been a long and incredible 5 days.. but I've got to attempt to sleep tonight for a Bodleian-filled tomorrow.

LOVE,
E

The other place ain't that bad.

Ok. OOOOK. Cambridge was gorgeous. The students from the US there are staying in Kings College, which is like the BIG DEAL college there...like Christs Church at Oxford. BEAUTIFUL!!! But, mwahaha, they don't have Bodleian library cards.. So I think the Oxbridge competition is silly-- both places are absurdly gorgeous, fulllll of history, and dripping with intelligence. We had an amazing time there.. we stayed in the room of an American student in Paris for the weekend. A lot of the students there are living IN Kings College (WOW) in ancient rooms.. IN FACT (emotional, all of you Econ people will love this) we had a party under the room where KEYNES lived while he was at Kings. I had a moment. I went and touched the door...thought about fiscal policy. WOW...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Other famous Cambridge grads are Isaac Newton (the descendant of the original apple tree is said to still be in Trinity), Francis Bacon, NINE prime ministers, and THIRTY ONE Nobel Prize winners. Crazy.


This is a Trinity College, founded by the infamous Henry VIII (the statue above the door)! He is supposed to have a scepter in his hand, but students replaced it with a table leg in the early 1900s and no one changed it back.



This, THIS, is Kings College...this cathedral was phenomenal inside (see pic below)...the Americans live to the other side of the cathedral.


This is the front of Kings College, where you enter the quad. Since we were staying with people inside, we could walk past the tourists and hang out INSIDE the college. At night, we went to the Kings College bar, with all these well-dressed Kings College-ians sipping Pimms and fine wine.

WOOO!! Since Chris (in black) was studying at Kings for the summer, we were able to sit on our own private river bank and watch the punters go by. Probably one of the best-spent afternoons of my life.

Bachelorette punt. Why not?


Hahahaha, this was the best part...watching all of the tourists crash into one another... the later in the afternoon/evening it got, the drunker all of the punters got... so by 7/8 we saw some great collisions.

Yes, watching punting was goood fun. :) This guy was a pro.

The Round Church, built by the Knights Templars in the 1200s..ooooh


Wow, this is the inside of the Kings College Cathedral. GASP. At night when we were walking through the quad we heard angelic (not an exaggeration) music floating out of the cathedral. The Cambridge Orchestra was performing Brahms. We sat for an hour or so just listening to this incredibly beautiful music drift out of this ancient building with a view of the Kings College Quad. Again, one of the best moments of my life.

Well, Cambridge was good to us, but it's good to be back. Tonight we have a BBQ on our quad, and then I've gotta start on the essay I've been avoiding. This one is about coastal sea level rise and its impacts on Bangladesh, San Fran, the Thames, and the Outerbanks of the Carolinas (interesting since we go to the beach near there every year).

I'll let you know what I discover!
Love,
Emily

Mummies and Rivalries

Today I spent the morning exploring Jericho. The afternoon was kinda' gloomy, so I went to the Ashmolean Museum which has TONS of Greek,Egyptian, Medieval, etc.. artifacts. Took some pics for you guys:


Hahaha, Mom and Dad told me this was the thing I HAD to see when I went to the Ashmo. The Alfred Jewel...made by...KING ALFRED! It was beautiful, very old, dating from the 9th century. I don't really understand why it's such a big deal... hmm... Wikipedia didn't give me any hints, so if anyone knows about its significant (Mom? Dad? You told me to see the thing) let me know!

Hahaha, I died laughing when I saw this guy. Look at his face. Hilarious.

Hieroglyphs! Tons and TONS and TONS of Egyptian artifacts... I've got to go back and look at it all again.

This is SO cool, Powhatan's cape. Just sitting there.. Crazy.

This is an Egyptian carving of a head. I just thought it looked creepy.

Tomorrow I'm going to Cambridge (Uh oh, the competing school) with Katie, Kate, and Matt, other students in the program. We're staying with Katie's friend who is doing a similar summer program, so that will be cool. My Lonely Planet guide book introduced the city and followed it with this controversial comment:

'While you'll find all these qualities (mentioned in the intro) and more in 'the other place' (as rival Oxford is referred to here), Cambridge is the more concentrated of England's two great university cities, and in our humble opinion, far the prettier.'

We'll see about that. I'm going to attempt to be an objective observer, and I KNOW Cambridge is supposed to be gorgeous, but COME ON. Ok, I am not even a legit student here and I can feel this intense rivalry... Nothing can really compare to the Clemson-USC rivalry (haha), but I think, maybe, just maybe, this ancient rivalry comes close.

The best thing about Cambridge is that Stephen Hawking is there. As my friend Helene says, we're gonna be 'Stalkin' Hawkin''... hahahaha...

So after the weekend I'll have lots of beautiful *but not AS beautiful* pictures of 'the other place' (which for me is CAMBRIDGE!).

Love,
Emily

Salisbury, the encore...

Today about 20 of us went to see (again!) Salisbury, Stonehenge, and Old Sarum. Beautiful place...and I happened to run into John and his wife, Val, on a path to the Old Mill Pub/Restaurant. Really great day, best shown through pictures!

Old moat and bridge to Old Sarum

Foundation of Old Sarum cathedral (Norman cathedral)

Inside Salisbury Cathedral! Choir from Kansas City (random)

Salisbury Cathedral! Tallest spire in England!


Classic tourist picture with those crazy old stones.

12th Century mill turned pub

Hahahaha, at Old Sarum, a pile of armor was laying on a table... so...

Salisbury Plain.. beautiful!

Now I'm off to finish this essay...

Love,
Emily

Jericho

Today, I FINALLY got some amazing Indian food. A group of us went to a buffet at a ritzy Indian restaurant...on Sundays the place has an all-you-can-eat for ten pounds deal (really expensive in dollars...I can't think about it, b/c having good Indian food was one of my top-ten things to do here!). We sat by the Thames and watched people punt by as we literally stuffed our faces with amazing food. I still haven't eaten and it's 8 at night!

Post-lunch I definitely needed to walk some of the naan off, so I walked up to Jericho, a 'borough' of Oxford full of both thrift stores and expensive houses.

Katherine (Canadian in the program) and I wandered up a river path to try and get to Jericho and ran into a neighborhood of houseboats. Some pretty good pictures followed...


The path starts by Rosie O'Grady's...the token Irish pub that every town in the world has. (Honestly, I think I even saw an Irish pub in India)

Dramatic willow tree


Too bad for this guy....

AH! And this, THIS, is my future home... It's kind of hard to see in this picture, but the window looks like a sun... A nice touch. I think it might need a BIT of work, but WOW, can you imagine? Living on an old houseboat in Oxford? C'est la vie!

Katherine and I ran into this old graveyard in Jericho..


We heard Big Band music playing on an old radio and started freaking out...some ghost listening to good music or something. Turns out, some of the many homeless people in Oxford have pitched tents in the graveyard.

New building, oooolllldddd graveyard


Oxford University Press building!

It was a really great day... the sun was actually out for the entire day, at times it felt HOT, which was nice. Tomorrow I'm back to work, reading about how serious climate change actually is.

E