Day 8

I haven’t said too much about the people I have met here. When I enter the dining area, I look down the tables to see if I can find some friendly faces. Often there are people from other programs or just doing bed-and-breakfast. I just found a site and it looks like it costs about $86 a night including breakfast. (but no A/C). Breakfast and lunch are cafeteria style, dinner is served.

In any case, I have met Stephanie from Shropshire, her husband is in Berlin and she decided why should she stay home alone. Also, a mother daughter couple, Linda and Laura. Linda lives in Wales and Laura moved to Versailles when she met her husband while living in France.

Then there’s Colleen from New York City whose daughter is starting at Penn State on Thursday.

There are also members of my class, any one of them I would be happy to spend time with. People are from all over. In my class there is a woman from Finland who lives in Norway, a Latvian woman who lives in Sydney, a mother daughter couple from DC, a woman from the Napa Valley, who has told us several times about her winery, and that she writes cookbooks, a man from Cheltenham, who is a native of Bangladesh, a couple from Vancouver, a very nice woman from Denton, Texas, who has been on the program many times and a woman from New York City, who has been on the program seven or eight times.

I think most classes are in Peckwater, which, luckily, is right next door to Canterbury, the quad where I am living. It is absolutely beautiful.

Julia, our tutor, brought in various herbs that she grows in her garden. All were used in ancient times, including leaf celery, which used to be called smallage. That meant “small ache” which the leaves were supposed to cure. Nowadays the seeds from that plant are used for celery salt and celery seed.

She spoke about lots of other ancient plants and the implements used to make and store them. There is a pot called a zeer which nowadays would be called a wine refrigerator.

She went on to talk about the Minoans. They found residue in pots from very elegant sounding dishes, including herbs, and wine and olive oil.

She’s really the best when she tells a little history with stories. The word parasite comes from the Greek. Para meaning “along side” and situs meaning “food.” They were uninvited guests, party crashers, (freeloaders) who would sit under the table to catch fallen food. And that’s your lesson for today.

I skipped coffee hour, I ate too many biscuits yesterday. The second half of class was tough. And I wasn’t the only one falling asleep. The woman next to me was unwrapping candies (trying to minimize the crinkling). She later told me she was desperate to get the sugar to keep from falling asleep.

The hot line at lunch was moussaka, and the cold one had duck breast, shrimps, a tray of salami and mortadella, quiche and a few other trays, of what, I can’t remember! Also salad. There’s always a big platter of cheeses and fresh fruit so I had some salad and then fresh fruit,  focaccia and cheese.

After lunch, I walked out through a side gate and over to Christ Church Meadows. And it really is a meadow, the land was donated to them. There’s a thatched roof visitors center/gift shop there. Lots of Alice In Wonderland memorabilia, and even shelves full of coronation stuff. And it wasn’t even marked down!

Then I walked a little bit out of the college through the memorial gardens that are beautiful. There is a long, low hedge of lavender which a gardener was cutting. The smell wafting in the air was delicious.

I went out of the Christ Church gate and walked around a bit, then returned to my lovely room to put up my feet until the next activity.

I signed up for a program given in the library at 4:30. A string quartet performing in the most beautiful venue imaginable. They played traditional music, including Haydn, Britten and Elgar and even a Jerome Kern show tune. 

I looked out the window to the glorious views of these ancient colleges, and couldn’t believe that I am here.

We had a lot of fun at dinner with some new friends, including Judit who is a PhD candidate at St. John’s College here, but teaching anthropology this week at Christ Church. She’s Hungarian, has been around the world, many times, and is so funny! They were also two young women joining in our conversation. We were all talking about Internet dating and asking the girls if that’s how they met boys. They both made faces and said it’s a horrible way to meet someone. I told him that since I was never going to see them again could I ask them a crazy question. Of course they wanted to know what it was and I asked, “So what’s the thing with dick pics.” They absolutely collapsed with laughter. We had a very interesting discussion.

There is a pub that Pat wanted to visit that turns out to be on a small lane right by the wall of the college. It’s called The Bear and has been around for a long long time. It’s famous for the cut off tails of ties that line the space, all under glass in frames. Of course we had to go.

Now that I have become a big drinker, I ordered a half of cider. It really tasted like Motts apple juice, so I understand how people can get quite toasted on cider. But not me!

The big gate was closed for the night, but there’s a small wicket door in it that opened with our fobs. At 9 o’clock, the bell started ringing 101 times, a tradition that let the undergrads know they had to be inside before the last chime. Of course, it’s no longer in effect, but the bell still tolls. The sun was almost set and the lights were on around the quad and in the tower. It’s such a beautiful sight.

Home again. Tomorrow we are going on a field trip!

Love,
Lynn