Hilary Term has begun

The second term in the school year at Oxford University is called Hilary Term and starts in January and ends mid March. Each term is 8 weeks. Week 0 which is often referred to is the week before the term starts, where they have registrations and other events.

It's still pretty cold and grey most days, last week we had temperatures below zero. Some places in the UK even got snow, sadly we didn't :( if it gets that cold, it might as well snow. I've never experienced snow in the UK before but loved it when it snowed in Boston. Seems the sun is now setting later at 4:40.

So we've been here in Oxford for 4 months now. We haven't really had the chance to explore Oxford, with the weather being so cold. I so hope Spring comes soon, it will be fun to go around taking photos. Oxford is far less quieter than London - no comparison. While London never sleeps and there are tons of things to see and do, Oxford is rather small and the main attractions is Oxford University and its 30+ colleges.

 Trinity College

Linacre College

Wadham College

 

Hertford College - Athol's college

 



Athol has seminars on Wednesdays and Fridays. He is getting slowly used to Oxford's strange way of teaching where there are only seminars and no lectures.

Athol was invited by a friend to attend a function at Rhodes House. Yes there is a huge grand building with large lawns in Oxford called Rhodes House. So while there has been so much controversy about the little Rhodes statue outside Oriel College on High Street, nobody is upset about Rhodes House nearby. Today the College Governing Body decided that despite the protests, the statue will not be taken down.

Oriel College

To be honest, we walked past this statue many times without realising that it was a statue of Rhodes. It's quite small and high up.

 Rhodes House

 

Rhodes House

On a lighter note.... We've been watching a lot of sitcoms via Amazon and Netflix - 30 Rock, 3rd Rock from the Sun and now How I met your Mother.

We also do a lot of crosswords. In 2011, we had bought a book of 200 crosswords, which we took around with us when we travelled. Without Nintendo Wii (our favourite past-time in SA) we do crosswords every day here :) We finally completed all the puzzles, correctly completing a crossword (100% correct) 1 in every 3. Not too bad hey! It helps keep the mind sharp :) Athol and I make a great team, there's some answers that he knows and some that I know. We track our stats and try to set the record of most 100% completed crosswords in a row, as well as in a day, also the quickest completed crossword. We are nerds, I know :) It's also a bit of a travelling diary (it's been to all the cities we've travelled to - Boston, Washington, NY, LA, JHB, London, Dover, etc. ) as we both leave a witty comment on every crossword we do, depending on the circumstances - making up excuses or using cool sayings that we like from the sitcoms/movies. We have now started a new crossword book.

Crossword book bought in 2011 from Waterstones V&A, CT

 



We are busy planning to go back to SA for a couple of weeks in April. Will be great to see family, check up on things and everyone at READ to RISE! Then we are likely to be back again for a month or so in August.

Climbing St. Mary's Tower

On Friday, we had a rare sunny day in Oxford with blue skies even though it was very cold.

I walked around Oxford and went into St Mary's Church which was built over 1000 years ago. It's a beautiful church with grand arches and lovely stained glass windows. Entrance is free so you are welcome to wander around the church. A great, warm place (especially on a cold day) to just sit in a quiet church.

The church is opposite the Radcliffe Camera and the public climb up St.Mary's Tower to get the best views of Oxford. It costs 4 pounds to go up the tower. I decided to climb the 124 stairs up to the top, passing a stunning window on the way up, you could see the Radcliffe Camera through it.

 

When you reach the top, there are beautiful views of the Radcliffe Camera and beyond. The narrow, steep staircase led up to a narrow ledge around the tower - where only two people can pass each other (so make sure you don't have big, bulky bags with you!).

Well worth the climb up to the top of St Mary's Tower!

Beauty is everywhere

My new hobby is photography so I have been experimenting with my new DSLR camera. I've also joined the world of Instagram. It's a whole new world to me. I'm familiar with facebook and twitter but never tried instagram.

Facebook is more generic where you can post photos, share how you feel, share what you 'like', say where you are in the world, where you are eating, see whose birthday it is, etc. It's great to connect with people living afar. I have got in touch with friends from primary school, even my Grade 1 teacher! It's also a great way to spy secretly on what others are doing :) by viewing their photos and seeing their daily status updates. You can however control your privacy but not making everything you post public.

Twitter is the world of tweeting, retweeting and hashtags ##. It's more for sharing good articles that you come across. It's good for on-the-go updating of your status. You get to see hundreds of news but luckily all summarised in a small number of characters hence the use of hashtags.

Instagram is all about sharing and admiring beautiful pictures. There are so many kinds of photos out there and you can see the different styles captured by different photographers. I have a new found respect for photographers as some photos are really amazing and so creative. Photographers are artists of light and it's all about composition, lighting, symmetry, colour, shadows, etc. It's a whole new world and being a newbie I am still figuring it all out. I must say that I am enjoying seeing the photos and am inspired. Think I have officially crossed over to the Instagram side and become a Instagrammer :) amazing to see that some photographers have so many followers that they are actually world influencers. I hope to capture beauty on my adventures.

Here is one of my favourite photos to date:

Find the silver lining. Even when it's four degrees Celsius outside, find the hidden beauty! Beauty is everywhere.

Follow me https://www.instagram.com/tarynlock/