Sunday
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| St. John's secret garden... |
Sunday started strong, with me meeting a couple of friends from Trek Soc - best close-knit group of people I've met in this town so far - so we could explore colleges. First I took them around Jesus, showing the highlights of my pretty little college, and sharing a few tidbits of its History, as well as my favourite spots. Then we went to St. John's, home of Trek Soc's first officer. John's is an impressive College. Grandiose, and maze-like sometimes, with multiple quads, a private croquet lawn and a secret garden. My favourite little thing about it though was a tree - known as the O2 tree, I am told - with a wooden bench around it, like Captain Picard's tree at the Academy.
I had had a tour of John's before, but it was nice visiting again, especially with my friends from Trek Soc. I think of them as friends, at least, and I have a good time when we're together. They went to Hilda's next - our first officer wasn't around when we went last week - but I couldn't join them because I had to get ready for choir. We all had lunch at Najar though. Najar is an institution at Oxford, a falafel stand right in front of John's to which I'll definitely be returning in the future. I had never had it before (I had a wrap with falafel and chiken tikka), the price is fantastic. Great experience.
The highlight of this week, no doubt, has been singing Christmas Carols with the choir. It started on Sunday, 27th of November, the last Sunday of term. Because most students go home after week 8, it is tradition, at Oxford, to celebrate Christmas with the college one month in advance. Oxmas, it's called, and Oxmas is upon us. This week's evensong was then, replaced by Christmas Carols.
Link to the Christmas Service on facebook: https://fb.watch/hgThx7f7zH/?
The service was unusual in another way also: because it is so popular - and our chapel is so small - we agreed to perform twice, so more people would have a chance to attend. This meant a different schedule:
14:00 Rehearsal
15:15 Break
15:45 Carol Service #1
16:45 Choir Tea
17:30 Carol Service #2
Followed by formal as usual
The schedule wasn't the only thing that was different. There were two types of carols for us to sing. Choir hymns, which are for the choir alone, and congregation carols, which everybody in the church is invited to sing along. The thing is, last Thursday we practiced none of the congregation carols, and there were so many of them that we barely had time to get through them all before the performance. It wasn't supposed to matter, because most people in the choir have been listening to these since they were children, but all I had to go on were a few recordings I'd listen to in preparation for service. I did my best to catch up though. And it was a plus that we got to sing a second service. For me it was a chance to do even better the second time around. Both services were by candlelight, as is tradition at Christmas, and the choir had little lamps for our sheet music folders, that made me feel like part of an orchestra.
The music was a lot of fun. It was hard, surprisingly hard, especially because they had higher notes than anything we'd tried the entire term. Notes I can reach, but that are hard to reach especially in the middle of a song. I'm still pretty novice at this. Of the congregation carols, my favourite was one named "The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came". I had never heard it before, but the rhythm of this one was really lovely. Constantly moving, difficult to explain but easy to listen to. I hope we do it again next year.
Monday
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| Christmas Tree in front of St. John's... It's a real pine tree, and my view every Monday evening, before Trek soc starts :) |
On Monday, at the last in person meeting of Trek Soc, I was chosen as new Science Officer of the society, which is exactly what I wish I could be on the Enterprise :P My duties shall involve taking the computer to meetings to show episodes, managing the website and - I think - looking after the cups. It was movie night for us and we ended up watching "The Search for Spock", which was a lot of fun. I always have a good time watching trek, and it's always doubly special if it involves Spock.
Prior to our meeting, I stopped by Jesus Chapel for an hour to watch the Christmas Carols in Welsh, by the Welsh society. It was cool. Jesus was originally founded to educate Welsh clergymen at Oxford, and to this day, the college maintains a strong link to Wales. The Welsh Draig is all over our walls, next to our boating victories. Now that I am a part of Jesus, I want to learn more about Welsh also. Seems like too good an opportunity to miss. The carols were an interesting experience. The service was much more packed than evensong ordinarily is. I had a leaflet to follow along - so many consonants!! It was fun. And there was a harp presentation, so a nice musical evening.
Tuesday
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| Jesus by candlelight... Photo from @jesuschapeloxford instagram |
I worked intensely since the beginning of the week, focusing on my lab projects and revising the material for an important exam on Thursday morning. By Tuesday evening, I welcomed the chance to stop by Chapel for an hour or so, to have a break, and write a little. The Chaplain lit up candles all over the chapel, creating a nice, intimate atmosphere. It's amazing how big a part the chapel has come to play in this beginning of my new life at Oxford, especially considered how non-religious I am, and what an insignificant part church has played in it so far. Be that as it may, I am glad of it... The chapel certainly looked cool tonight.
Wednesday
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| An evening stroll around London... |
Sunday service was not the last chance for carols this week! On Wednesday night we had a special alumni service in London, for alumni and donnors. A coach would take us from the Randolph to St. George's Hanover Square, leaving at 13:30h. The trip took forever. It took us over an hour just to get to the church, AFTER we had entered London. But I didn't mind. I was doing revision for a big test the next day most of the trip, but I also listened to music, and even joined a few of the others in a quiz game in which we tried to guess movie names based on tips from the other players. And after we arrived, I took a stroll to the Christmas Market in Leicester square. The market was no bog deal, but a walk in the city at night... I always enjoy that. Not to mention, well, as they say, there is no place like London.
Singing at the church however was great. The church was bigger than our chapel, with a much larger organ. There was a Christmas tree inside, a large tree, taller than I. and we had four lines of chairs for the choir, instead of three, but there were less of us this time so the sound was very different. I worried about reaching the high notes, about actually contributing to the sound, but I enjoyed everything about the process. The first rehearsal after the walk to the Christmas market. The break for a packed dinner, when I had a delicious sandwich of chicken and stuffing with chips and water. The actual performance to a much larger audience than what we're used to, accompanied by a much bigger organ. I was happy and grateful to be a part of it. I didn't sign up for the MCR Christmas dinner because it would coincide with the alumni service and the choir has played a bigger part in my life than the MCR so far, so it was an easy choice.
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| St George Hanover Square, London |
After the performance there was a reception. That was a challenge. There were too many people there, loads of strangers, and I barely know even the other members of choirs, at least well enough to maintain a proper conversation. That meant the reception was a challenge. By the end of it I was exhausted and I actually retreated to the silent church for a few minutes before meeting the others at the bus. Then back to Oxford, and I was home by midnight.
Thursday
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| The guy at the pizza place had no idea who we were, but somehow he gave us the perfect spot _\\// |
This Thursday was the JCR Christmas dinner, which traditionally has 20 spots for the choir. Sadly I couldn't get one of the spots, but there would be a rehearsal before the dinner, and the maestro asked as many of us who could come to do so, to support the choir, because a movie crew would be filming the us for a documentary. I went. It just seemed like fun, a last chance to do some singing before term was over, and the maestro even let all of us to participate at the rehearsal - not just the filming part - which turned out to be cooler than I expected, with all of us gathering around the piano to sing stuff like "Ding Dong Merrily on High". Loads of fun.
After that, Trek Soc had a social at a place called Atomic Burger. That was a fiasco. By the time we got there, the place was closed - despite confirming our reservation through email (since then we learned it actually closed for good). So, we had to walk to a different venue - a pizza place with a nice Star trek poster on a wall, but it was not close to the burger place and we walked VERY fast. At the pizza place, there were only about six of us, and we were all a bit tired from a busy week. But the pizza was nice.
In addition to all this singing (which, I have to say, has taken a toll on my voice), the week was busy. I had a lot to do with regards to my projects, an important meeting on Friday and a big test on Thursday (I passed, by the way). On Saturday, I even found time to cook a nice little dinner: chicken and vegetables. I am practicing my cello again and I finished the first draft of the first five chapters of my novel. All things considered, a strong start to my first year.
The days are definitely getting colder now. I might have to go out soon to buy proper winter things like gloves and a wooly hat, things I never really had much need for until now. I wonder what the winter break will be like...
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