Alysha Gagnon

Alikigo

Alysha Gagnon




Europe » United Kingdom » England » Oxfordshire » Oxford June 13th 2016

Today is the start of 8th week, which is typically the last week of the term. Most tutorials are finishing this week, though some continue through next week, like me. This is also exams time for the final year Oxford students. It's a very stressful time for them, their entire 'GPA' equivalent depends on the outcome of like, 12 tests they take over the course of about 2 weeks. It's a crazy set-up to me, but some students I've talked to say they'd rather this than have finals and midterms each semester like we do. To each their own I guess. Some of my housemates and neighbors have finished their programs and gone home already, it's a little strange with less people in this house. Jace left this past Friday, we had a midnight brunch of ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Oxfordshire » Oxford June 6th 2016

Wow, time really has flown by. It's been an eventful week (and a couple days). The Cambridge trip was a lot of fun! Before we got to the City, we stopped by a Memorial site that is maintained by the US for US soldiers who died in service while overseas, primarily in WWII. We arrived as bells were ringing a patriotic song that I recognized but couldn't name. It was similar to Arlington with crosses and stars of David in perfect rows. There was a wall for the lost soldiers whose remains either weren't found or who were otherwise unaccounted for. There was a museum on the premise which was powerful. This trip was well timed for Memorial Day weekend. We had lunch there and then moved on to Cambridge. Cambridge feels more like a town ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Oxfordshire » Oxford May 27th 2016

Today I had my 2nd tutorial of 6. I can't believe that I'm already one third of the way done with my program! This second paper was a little less fun, but still manageable. I'm looking forward to this week's topic, the Knightly Orders (the Templars and the Hospitallers). It probably won't be quite as interesting as a Dan Brown novel, but the historical facts should be cool. Also coming up is a trip to Cambridge tomorrow and some "punting." From what I gather, punting is a style of boating. We'll see how that goes and we'll hope that no one falls in! This past week has had some eventful days. Some of Sunday was spent putting the finishing touches on my first paper, but it was mostly spent relaxing. In the evening, the house next ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Oxfordshire » Oxford May 22nd 2016

I've now developed a rhythm of sorts for my days/weeks it feels. That doesn't make things any less exciting though! This past Thursday was a day of reading and the debate. This week's topic was whether the two state solution is unattainable. It was a difficult discussion with good point made on both sides. The proposition made the point that Palestine, as it is, with Israel's most generous offers, would not have true state sovereignty. The opposition suggested that there are no other viable solutions because other states that have implemented a one state solution have been unsuccessful. They said that the two state solution would be hard, but nothing else could work. Both sides brought up the amount of research that has been put into the two state solution, the proposition was saying that we ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Oxfordshire » Oxford May 18th 2016

It's Wednesday evening here and it's been a week since I started this journey! It definitely doesn't feel like that long ago. I left off last time after the return from Cardiff, a great trip. Sunday morning I attended Mass at this church called Holy Rood. There was a lot more singing than I anticipated, the priest even had us sing a few notes during his homily to prove a point. That requires a bit more explanation. He had us match a pitch with him, with a certain hand gesture. He raised his hands and raised the pitch, and repeated that a third time. He went back and forth with these levels a couple times before going to a higher hand position than he had sung with and we sang a higher pitch. The point he ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » Wales » Cardiff May 16th 2016

OPUS has a number of trips organized throughout the term, and the first one I was here for was on Saturday to Cardiff. We met the bus in front of Hertford College across town at 9:30am. The first stop we made was about 2 hours later at St. Fagan's National History Museum to see the exhibits on Welsh history. I had fallen asleep on the bus so I didn't see us pass the border between England and Wales, but on the way back it just looked like an ez pass toll booth (unless I missed the border again and what I think is the border was just an ez pass booth... I'm going to call it the border!) We ate prepacked sandwiches and fruit before going to explore. The museum was mostly outdoors, it reminded me ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Oxfordshire » Oxford May 14th 2016

When I started writing this, it had been almost 48 hours since I arrived in the UK. I've already packed a lot into my time. The plane landed at 10:40am local time on Thursday (5:40am EST). LHR is a huge airport, but it's very easy to navigate, their signs are clear and everywhere. I didn't realize there was a bus internal to the airport that you could take from place to place so I just walked, with my rolling suitcase and shoulder bag. I got to the bus station around 11:45 and took a 12:20 bus to Oxford. I arrived at the city center around 1:30, took a cab to the OPUS office, and got my house key. Continuing by cab, I got to my house for the next six weeks on Abingdon. I immediately met ... read more




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