St. Catherine's College, at Oxford

Here are a few pictures of the college I was staying in at Oxford. It was built in the 60's, and wasn't quite as cool as some places, but it was still nice.

The main quad.

My room.

The joke was that St. Catherine's wasn't even on the Oxford map. Then we looked at the tourist maps and sure enough, it was true :(

This is the Oxford grazing common. Each student is entitled to graze one animal on the field while enrolled. Few take advantage of this perk, but I really thought about going and buying a chicken at the start of the week.

This is the high table in the dining halls. I don't know if it's because we were teachers, but we got to sit here most meals. The meal service is like a fine restaurant.

HarmonyLand

Here are a few highlights of our trip to HarmonyLand, the Hello Kitty theme park on Kyushu.



Maybe the funniest picture ever taken.

Their version of the teacups

One needs to stop and think seriously when riding in a blue and pink car.

Bumper Kitty

Strange ride, not much doing on it.

My sentiments, exactly.

Our trip through Hello Kitty's version of "It's a Small World". I actually think that HarmonyLand's is much more fun than Disneyland's version. Still, I've never done drugs, but I'll bet this was a pretty good approximation of LSD.

I'm riding a roller-coaster that looks like a rollerskate. Reminds me of the Dodge Omni.

I tried to get the ferris wheel to make Shimmon look like either a peacock or a halo, with mixed results.

Creative Pictures

Here's me, trying to be artistic. I guess since dad was nice enough to land me a fancy camera, I felt like I had to honor his efforts, and try my hand at his craft. I quite like the one with the ducks. I just gave these titles, rather than captions.

Hooray For the Little Guy!

Ducks Drawing Mountains

Flag

Lavendar

Nap

In Rainbows

A Japanese Graveyard

People

Shimmon gets a little lost in the flower fields on Hokkaido.

I bought a frisbee this group of guys I seemed to get along with well played Ultimate in the afternoons to get the blood going after a day's lectures. It's the only photo I have of them, regretably.

Professor Richard Carwardine. He's got the white jacket. The guy on the left was in the class, otherwise everyone else in this picture is just part of the riff-raff you find in a pub in Oxford.

I'm not doing anything here, but I did paddle and formally hold the big stick when we went punting.

Shimmon was very startled by this monkey that was cooling off in his shadow.

I love the food market in Kyoto. Barrels of odd, but tantalizing items, and very friendly people.

Naoshima's famous pumpkin sculpture. Afterward two incredibly attractive Japanese women came up to get their photos with the pumpkin and while I cowered in shyness, SS happily had them posing every which way.

OK, this isn't a person. But after studying Lincoln forever on this trip, when I saw a monument to him in Edinburgh (also in London) I couldn't help but include this photo, because it starts to feel like you know him like a person.

"We have a piper down..."

This was the oddest fellow I chatted with at any point on my trip.

Punting, again. This is the other boat-load of peers in the program.

We were given a homework assignment to read Lincoln's first inaugural address. We took it to the pub and took turns reciting it. Pretty soon, all the Englishmen at the pub joined us.

The Eagle and Child is the pub that Tolkein and CS Lewis frequented, so it's a requisite stop in Oxford. This is me and Ali. I suppose she was a bit sweet on me, and while I don't know about that, she was fun to hang out with.

Stopping to smell the roses, on our last day in Japan.

Guy with a giant beer backpack. I know I'm not the only one who's had that dream.

Overwhelmed by the scope and quirkiness of the Kyoto train station.

Buildings, Past and Present

St. Andrews, Scotland. "The Old Course". The little bridge in the center is kind of famous. I wanted a better picture, but it had stopped raining 30 seconds earlier, and would start raining again 30 seconds later, so I did what I could.

As a Comparative Government nerd, I felt honor-bound to visit the Scottish (and Welsh, though not pictured) Parliament buildings.

This is the ruined chapel next to Holyrood, which is the Queen's summer palace in Edinburgh. I asked the Queen to tea, but she was unavailable.

Edinburgh, from Monument Hill (Edinburgh is called the Athens of Northern Europe, and I think you get a good sense of why here.)

Here is the ubiquitous Oxford skyline shot.

This is a busy intersection in Oxford. I like the perspective of the town from the tower I'm at the top of: it was the only time I felt like was looking down on Oxonians, and not the other way around.

This might appear unremarkable, but within the reddish buildings are elevators that take you very far down into a Welsh coal mine. In the background is the town of Blaenavon, Wales. It's a sad place, although it's also a UNESCO world heritage site, since it's arguably the center of the British industrial revolution.

Bridge over the River Tywi, in Llandiello, Wales. I love the old houses in a row up the hill.

This is Carreg Cennen: the ruined castle fortress built on a 300 foot high cliff in central Wales. If I were building a castle, I'd build it here: it was invincible. Except for the wind and rain.

The restored Castle Caerphilly. They had an exhibit on siege weapons that was pretty cool. Afterward I had some Caerphilly cheese.

This is the reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, in London. I went to a matinee performance of "As You Like It". Critics think it's one of Shakespeare's weaker plays. That's probably because it's one of the funnier ones, it's easy to follow, has a strong female lead character, and is genuinely enjoyable for most people. My favorite character is Jacques, who is defined by his melancholy ("All the world's a stage, and all the people...")

I didn't get to go into this Parliament building, but that was because I was in London on the weekend.