Nathan in Oxford

Rowing pics

2007-05-29T19:25:00.000+01:00

Summer Eights rowing regatta...where the point is to crash into the boat in front of you before the boat behind you gets you! Lots of fun... 4 days of racing on the Isis (the Thames) in Oxford, about 150 crews altogether...

More pictures of Cambridge

2007-03-03T19:13:00.000Z

Cambridge

2007-02-28T08:33:00.000Z

Car Hire! and Norwich, the Norfolk Broads, and the North Sea

2007-02-28T08:02:00.000Z

Hired a car this weekend...which was upgraded to a brand new Vauxhall Astra free of charge - very nice to drive! and drove down to Norwich for the weekend. We (Oliver and myself) stayed with Samson at UEA in Norwich - very nice accommodation - and explored the city a bit - big castle, big cathedral, and then headed down to the Broads the following day. The Broads are a network of navigable rivers and lakes, with lots of little villages, beautiful countryside, lots of windmills and boats and bridges. They are also the subject of Arthur Ransome's books, Coot Club and The Big Six - must-read classics! We tested the North Sea waters at Yarmouth...and decided we preferred the South African beaches. Then it was back to Oxford via the 'other place' - Cambridge - which was pleasant enough - very magnificent - but of course, it's not Oxford :-)

'voluptuous panic upon an otherwise lucid mind' ?

2007-02-11T15:26:00.000Z

Had a great day in London yesterday with Charmaine and Callie and their friend Bruce - went to the Holocaust exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, which is an incredible exhibition detailing the events of Hitler's rise to power and the subsequent horror of the Final Solution. The exhibition is very detailed and well-thought out - many interviews with survivors, many pictures, models of concentration camps, artefacts, remains, and so on. It is a harrowing experience to walk through the exhibition, as one realises how terrible the crimes of the Nazi government was. The exhibition (which takes at least 2 h to walk through) ends with a sobering quotation on the wall: 'All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing' - Edmund Burke, 1729-97.

After that, we spent some time wandering around the South Bank, Westminster, etc., before heading to St Paul's for Evensong. Then we went to the Tate Modern, where we had the unique experience of participating in a piece of art. Carsten Hoeller was commissioned by the Tate to design an artwork for the vast Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern; his installation consists of 5 slides of various lengths and heights. The longest is 5 storeys high! Great fun to go down...and we did our bit for modern art at the same time, participating in this artwork...Hoeller describes the effect of sliding as producing an effect of 'voluptuous panic upon an otherwise lucid mind' (Roger Caillois) - well, it was fun, if not particularly deep and meaningful, and from there it was back to Oxford for me after a rather busy day.

''Softly, at first, as if it hardly meant it, the snow began to fall,'' - Arthur Ransome, Winter Holiday

2007-02-08T19:27:00.000Z

Winter Wonderland

2007-01-24T17:44:00.000Z

It snowed last night! For the first time this winter, we had snow in Oxford...about 4-5 cm thick in places. It didn't last that long, as the sun came up and melted it, but it was beautiful while it lasted! It might snow again tonight though...

Travels Part 3...Germany (Fatherland?!)

2007-01-08T18:21:00.000Z

Finally, having left Paris exhausted (!) I flew into Cologne...spent a few hours looking at the city and the massive cathedral, before heading to Muenster, a small town with a huge university (60000 students!) and a beautiful 'old town' that's not old because the British destroyed it all in the war... still, a nice place and really great to meet all the family there. Then it was off to Hamburg for a few days, which is a much larger city with a huge harbour and lots to see and do...so it was great to finally get to Germany, practise my German (I survived!) and meet the family. Now I'm finally back in Oxford, and I should be hard at work again soon!

Museum of Inventions... and a sad picture of modern France

2007-01-08T18:13:00.000Z

This museum (Musee des Arts et Metiers) was amazing - followed the progress of technology and invention over the last 2000 years with excellent exhibitions, models, artefacts, etc. But what interested me was an exhibition in what was once a church...the church was deconsecrated and filled with exhibitions of scientific progress, as well as a replica of the Statue of Liberty. This seems to be a picture of the path France has taken over the last 250 years... replacing faith in God with atheist/humanist notions of 'Liberty' and using 'Science' to bolster and justify these views... sad, but an interesting exhibition nonetheless. I wonder if the curators saw the symbolism?

Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Elysees and the Louvre

2007-01-08T18:09:00.000Z

Sainte-Chapelle and Conciergerie

2007-01-08T18:07:00.000Z

Eiffel Tower Pictures

2007-01-08T18:04:00.000Z

Travels: Part 2 (Paris!)

2007-01-08T17:53:00.000Z

From England I flew to Paris, and spent 3 nights there, exploring the 'City of Lights' (or should that be the City of Darkness?) - can't say I was particularly impressed by Charles de Gaulle Airport - generally confusing and not that well organised (and not just because all the signs were in French!), though other than that my impressions of Paris were good. It's a huge city - takes forever to walk anywhere - though the Metro is well-organised and extensive. Not as easy to use as the London Underground though! The stations are quite well hidden, though once inside they are much nicer than the London stations. Paris as a city is extremely picturesque - just about all the buildings are beautiful (with the notable exception of the SA embassy!), and there are famous sights everywhere. We visited the Eiffel Tower at night, climbing to the second level, climbed the Arc de Triomphe twice (once at night, and once in the daylight) for a great view down the Champs-Elysees to the Louvre...we visited the Louvre, but got so exhausted walking around it we couldn't appreciate it as much as we should have (and I really can't see what all the fuss is about with the Mona Lisa!)...also got into the George Pompidou Centre (any architecture fundis will know why that's special!), the Hotel des Invalides (which is where Napoleon, among others, is buried), walked around La Defense, the new Paris business district (with very impressive modern buildings and modern counterpart to the Arc de Triomphe), Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Sainte-Chapelle, the Conciergerie (where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned before execution)...the list goes on, simply because there is SO much to see and do in Paris. It was impressive, beautiful, interesting, exhausting and COLD - the coldest I've been since leaving SA. Definitely worth another visit in summer... And of course we had French bread and cheese and a meal at a bistrot; we also dined with the rich and famous (well, sort of) at Cafe Angelina, sampling their world-famous hot chocolate (and it was amazing)...the list goes on, and in the end, I was quite content to get on a plane and go to Germany for a bit of a break after the frantic sightseeing that was Paris.

Travels... part 1

2007-01-08T17:43:00.000Z

Stop 1: Exeter... I spent a week here with the De Maine family - had a really great time exploring Exeter and the surrounding Devon countryside (even got to the beach, though the water was about 12 deg C and the air temperature somewhere just above freezing...and there was no sand!) - spent a really good Christmas there, went hiking on Dartmoor, cycled around the area a bit, did my Christmas shopping - all in all, it was a really good week. Exeter's a middle-sized town, quite badly damaged in WW2, but with a beautiful cathedral and still quite a few old buildings. Francis Drake used to frequent a tavern in Exeter when on shore leave... I hope these pics give some idea of the place!

London

2006-11-15T19:17:00.000Z

Had a great weekend in London - met up with some Grahamstown people (stayed with Shirley Hobson and Heather Walker) and went to church at Every Nation London on Sunday morning, where I also saw Pam Morris, who I had lunch with later. Attempted some Christmas shopping, saw the Palace and Westminster, and went to Hillsong in the evening, with James' sister Mary, which was also great. Then dinner in Soho and walking around the busy city centre at night - really great time! The following day I had a Commonwealth Scholars Welcome Day in Westminster Central Hall - meeting the Commission and other scholars was good, and we had a fantastic evening reception at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Locarno Suite - which is the room where the famous (and useless) Locarno Treaty was signed in 1925, pledging peace among European countries. Then it was back to Oxford on Tuesday morning, for what will be a very busy 2 weeks ahead - got a race on Sunday and two races (at least) in the Christ Church Regatta next week - so I'll be rowing pretty much every day till then! Somewhere along the line I'm trying to do some work too!

Canterbury Tales

2006-11-05T15:48:00.000Z

Yesterday I went to Canterbury and to Rochester with the Merton Chapel trip - we visited Rochester Cathedral (founded in the 7th century!) and Rochester Castle (very impressive!) and then went on to Canterbury, which is still a walled town, with lots of narrow streets, overhanging buildings and shops, and a vast, beautiful cathedral in the middle of it all. The subject of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and the seat of the head of the Anglican Church, it is a very impressive edifice - the nave is huge, with soaring columns, the crypt is beautiful - a great place for prayer and meditation - and the towers and the choir and the stained glass are very beautiful. Enjoy the pictures...I certainly enjoyed the trip. What made it even better was attending a service in Canterbury Cathedral with a massed choir singing lots of the Psalms...it was really great.

Postcard shots

2006-10-31T18:06:00.000Z

Some great buildings in the centre of Oxford...the Church of St Mary the Virgin, the Radcliffe Camera, and All Souls College.

A month already!

2006-10-30T07:26:00.000Z

Can't believe I've been here a month already! I left SA on 27 Sept, and it's now 29 Oct. We've just set our clocks back an hour, so bear in mind (if smsing or skype-ing from SA) that the UK is now 2 hours behind... This week has been good - I'm getting into my work a bit more now (and understanding a bit more of the Biochemistry!), though I haven't started in the lab yet. Hopefully I'll be able to do that tomorrow. I've also started rowing - had my first tank practice yesterday, and a swimming test (to fulfil Health and Safety regulations), and we should hopefully be able to go out on the river on Wednesday. There's been so much rain here that the river is flowing too fast for them to allow novice boats out on the water. I went to a Merton Orchestra practice yesterday too, which was good fun! The Chapel, where we practise, has glorious acoustics, which makes for a really good musical experience. We're playing a Beethoven Symphony and a Mozart Overture, both of which are really nice pieces. Today is a beautiful sunny, warm day - I've just been for a walk along the river with a South Korean friend from church - everything is still green here, so it's really picturesque. The tourists are out in force today- Oxford, alas, is full of them! But it's a beautiful day and the sunshine, which is becoming rarer, is very welcome! I saw Charmaine on Wednesday this week too, which was really great! We had lunch together in College, then took a tour of the city and climbed the tower of St Mary's Church, which gives great views of the city. We also walked in Christ Church Meadow and along the banks of the Thames - it was also a sunny day, so really pleasant! It was great to see a friend from SA - the invitation's open to anyone else who wants to visit ;)

More sightseeing

2006-10-22T14:32:00.000+01:00

Another Saturday, another trip through the surrounding areas by bike... Starting in Oxford, we travelled west, following the Thames for a few miles before cutting across to the picturesque village of Wytham. Lots of locks on the Thames...always interesting to watch the canal barges navigating these. And we cycled past (and into) the ruins of an ancient nunnery, Godstow Nunnery, which was built in 1133 AD and destroyed by Henry VIII in 1541... all that's left is the wall and a part of the Abbess' chapel. Quite weird to think that this was destroyed a hundred years before the Dutch even arrived in South Africa! From the Thames we cut across country to Wytham, a village founded in 948 AD (!), and then returned to the Thames path, riding across very muddy fields and dodging oxen and sheep (including a flock of sheep being directed by a sheepdog) before rejoining the road near Eynsham. Lunch at a pub in Witney followed by a ride northeast through some more lovely villages to Woodstock, the birthplace of Winston Churchill, rounded off the day, after which we returned to Oxford. The weather was sunny for most of the day, though we got caught in a few showers!

Other than that, I'm settling in and starting to work more seriously. Hopefully I'll be able to get started in the lab this week (if the supplies arrive). I'm also really enjoying my new church (St Aldates) and getting to know a lot of people, both there and in college. It's starting to get a bit cooler now though, as winter approaches...

Cycling through the countryside

2006-10-15T14:52:00.000+01:00

Went for a beautiful 30 mile cycle from Oxford to Didcot and back again yesterday - it's a really beautiful area. We cycled along the Thames for most of the time, and there was lots to see - barges, locks, weirs, fishermen, swans and ducks and geese everywhere, even some horses in our path that refused to move out of the way for us! Didcot itself was a bit disappointing - it's an industrial town with a big power station (a bit like Standerton or Witbank!) but the other villages on the way were picturesque.

Stone and Leaf

2006-10-14T12:10:00.000+01:00

Hertford College - 'Bridge of Sighs'

2006-10-11T20:52:00.000+01:00

Pretty much the central part of the University, this bridge (across a street) connects two bits of Hertford College...

Rainy days

2006-10-11T16:52:00.000+01:00

It knows how to rain here! I got completely soaked as I rode from Merton back to my accommodation today - had intended to go to my department and do some work, but was so soaked that I had to go home instead and change! It's been quite wet this week so far - apparently it's supposed to be sunny on the weekend though! I've also been sick most of the week, which hasn't been much fun! Spent most of the weekend in bed and this week trying to recover (not too successfully yet though!). So that's my news for the moment! Nothing very exciting, I'm afraid...

Day of my life

2006-10-09T22:48:00.000+01:00

Today was good - spent most of it in the lab (probably to the relief of my supervisor!) reading and searching the literature...have about 200+ pages of reading to do now, in a language I don't fully understand, called 'Biochemistry' - it's another subject entirely, and I, never having done it before, have somehow landed up doing a DPhil which entails a lot of it! But it's good - at least it won't be boring! And tonight I went to the equivalent of Bible School here - the first of 15 lectures on eschatology - very enjoyable, with lots of reference to great authors like Lewis and Tolkien and Nietzsche (!)

Seeing as so many people are enjoying the pictures on this blog, here's another one, of the river Cherwell, as seen in Christ Church Meadow - a beautiful green area with walks along the river bank and great views of Oxford's 'dreaming spires.' Keep the comments on this blog (and the emails) coming - it's great to hear from everyone!

Beautiful weather we seem to be having!

2006-10-07T18:01:00.000+01:00

Oxford's weather is, if anything, even more unpredictable than Grahamstown's. I still haven't figured out which direction the rain comes from, but I do know that it rains an awful lot and is also sunny quite a lot at the moment. This picture is of the centre of the University, Radcliffe Square. The big round building is the Radcliffe Camera, a reading room for the Bodleian Library, and the church at the back is the University Church of St Mary the Virgin. The University is very beautiful - most of the buildings are built of this golden-brown stone, which is lovely when the sun shines and dreary and depressing when it rains!

Life here is going to be very busy - there is just so much going on all the time that it's going to be difficult to choose what to leave out! So much live music, exhibitions, places to visit, courses to attend, etc. that life here will be very full.

2006-10-06T20:21:00.000+01:00

Well, today was fun...had to fetch excess baggage from Heathrow - ended up taking six hours there and back (it's only 90 km away), got stopped by a policeman because I "looked suspicious" walking around the cargo area trying to find the way in, and finally found my bag and lugged it back to the bus, so I could get back to Oxford! Otherwise it's been a great week - we had a fantastic champagne reception in the Merton Chapel on Wed, with the whole chapel beautifully lit up inside, and then a great "matriculation dinner" last night in the Hall - the food here is just on another level! Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit more restful, because Sunday I'm church-hunting again (probably going to end up going to St Aldates, a really great charismatic Anglican church in the centre of Oxford) and then Monday I should really start working! Please do email me at rose.nathan@gmail.com - I'd love to hear from you.

Merton College Gateway and Chapel

2006-10-05T13:46:00.000+01:00

Manor Place

2006-10-05T13:38:00.000+01:00

Merton looks after its graduate students pretty well. I'm staying in one of the houses (not on the main college site - about 3 min away by bike, which everyone in Oxford uses!) which the college owns - it's a bit like digs, except I don't know the people well yet. The rooms and kitchen are great though, and I still eat in college for most meals. It's also really close to the CRL (Chemistry Research Laboratory) and near the University Parks and the river. Not a bad place to live at all!

Merton College

2006-10-05T13:25:00.000+01:00

Merton College, of which I'm now a member, was founded in 1264 (!) by Walter de Merton. It claims to be the oldest of the Oxford colleges, and has buildings dating back to the 13th century. The library is famous as the oldest library in Britain, dating to the late 14th century. The college itself has about 500 students, of which about 200 are graduates, so it's a great community to live in! The relationship between the colleges and the University is a bit tricky to explain, but it's a bit similar to a federal system, where the colleges are self-governing institutions which prepare students for the University exams. So you live and eat in college, and, if you're an undergrad, you're also taught in college. The college is big - it has a chapel which is enormous (check out www.mertonchapel.org.uk), a few libraries, a large Hall with amazing food and lots of beautiful gardens and sports facilities, etc. So it's a fairly self-contained community. The picture alongside is a view of the chapel tower - there are lots of really beautiful places to sit if you're a silence-and-solitude type!

Oxford

2006-10-05T13:16:00.000+01:00

Hi! This newly-established blog is to keep my friends and family up to date on my life! I've just moved from Grahamstown, South Africa, to Oxford, UK, to begin reading for a DPhil (Oxford-speak for PhD) in Organic Chemistry. Having spent the past ~4.8 years in Grahamstown, the move was necessarily sad and a bit difficult, but I'm also very excited to be here, studying at the oldest university in Britain and one of the best institutions in the world - it's really a privilege to be here! I'm a member of Merton College (more about this later), and am really enjoying Oxford life so far. It's not that far removed from university life in South Africa - some things are very different, but students are students, and so some things are much the same.