Off with their heads!

 Can you imagine her here?

     A pleasant surprise about Oxford is that it not only had "the Inklings" (Tolkein, C.S.Lewis) teaching the ways of the world and the ways of "otherworlds" there, also the dean's little girls lived there. One of them was named Alice. While you may only know she ended up passing through a mirror and falling down a rabbit hole, did you know that Wonderland was below Oxford? Her father's office overlooked this beautiful grassy yard and tree....look familiar?

 

So tiny, she's at the bottom of the upper left pane

    


















Lewis Carroll must have had a lot of free time on his hands because he became friends with the girls and created the stories of Alice in Wonderland. Oxford is so proud of those stories because in one of the stained glass windows in the Great hall, there are images of Alice and all the characters bright as day in that dark hall of kings.

Move over Harry, Alice is in the house!

I think the Queen of Hearts is my favorite villain (sorry Voldemort! She's got the powa'!)

She had the mind of Henry VIII "Off with their HEEEEEADS!!"

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For the Rowling fans....

 

Hogwarts?

"The tube"

   I can't go to Oxford, England and not connect with one of their finest author's, J. K. Rowling. I have to be honest, although I'm not a fan of books where children become witches and wizards, I do love her writing style. She creates her own vocabulary with words like "quidditch" and villian names like "Voldemort" (which is French for Flight of Death). Her writing is so descriptive that when Voldemort finally revealed himself I was really creeped out! 

Platform 9 3/4 is REAL - this is at King's Cross station
You can get your picture wearing the scarf and pushing it!

 Her life story is equally inspiring - full of struggles that turned to success. She describes riding the train in England when she thought up the character Harry Potter and started his story. I am waiting for her next release and wondering what worlds she's creating at this moment.

Hogwart's (Oxford)  Stairs 

    

The Great Dining Hall

Oxford students really eat here among portraits of kings. I half expected an owl to swoop down on me!

Anyone want to go to Narnia?

Beautiful Oxford England!

 

   C. S. Lewis's home at "the Kilns" is not a museum, but a place where you can sit on the furniture, walk around the back pond, and stand in the little attic room where he would look over his flower garden and write. Students come there to study for months at a time and live in the rooms.
      At the time of his writing, Lewis was not well loved in England. He retreated into a world all his own. He loved to sit and smoke, drink tea, and have healthy discussions with his brother, Warnie, and his writing friends, "the Inklings"(Tolkien, Hugo Dyson and other philosophical types). They would work up "a good fog" of smoke and he would dump the ashes into the carpet  yuck! He let his house go to the point that restorers had to remove anything fabric!  It was Tolkien who convinced him to turn from Atheism and embrace Christianity during their long smoke-hazed, tea guzzling chats. I loved learning that Warnie also converted to Christianity at the same time, but he was out of the country exploring Buddhism. Both wrote each other a letter announcing their decisions, but the letters crossed in the mail!

Looking for the wardrobe...

     When he was young, he and his brother began making up stories about other worlds full of talking animals like "the world of Boxen" and the future world of Narnia was born. He had a home with pass-thru closets and built outside stairwell access to the upper room. Walking through his back garden, I expected an armor-clad rat to jump out and poke me with a little sword!  For C. S. Lewis, there was little else but world-making, playing scrabble with family in multiple languages, and meeting at the pub.  For some, there is no other life but the one you create.

Narnia....?

"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me." - C. S. Lewis

Tolkien and Lewis's pub

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Visiting Roald Dahl's BFG

The BFG? What's a BFG? If you have a fourth-grader around, you probably know the story of the Big

Johnny Depp's costume

Friendly Giant by Roald Dahl. Or maybe James and the Giant Peach? How about the Gremlins?  Okay then, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!
Visiting the Roald Dahl museum  in Great Missenden, England opened my eyes to just how whimsical he was. He wrote everything by hand sitting in a yellow chair with a lap desk out in his little writing hut. They even have the hut: 

Chocolate door anyone?

The replica

The hut

The real deal

    What is impressive about Roald Dahl is that before he was a children's author, he was a war pilot who had been shot down and injured. His character, the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) speaks to children about humanity. The BFG explains to Sophie that she has to have faith to accept that some things do exist even they cannot be seen. He shows Sophie the secret world of the giants who have been stealing and eating children. Even though the BFG speaks with mixed-up words, he explains to Sophie that animals don't kill their own kind and points out that humans are the only creatures on earth killing each other. The story, full of creative names like "wizzpopper" and ideas like "dream-catching" ends with the simple Giant and little Sophie convincing the Queen of England to help them trap the giants.

The giftshop cafe has a BFG menu: Wizpopper hot cocoa 

And across the street is the Araminta Fizzackerly chocolate shop which originally was the Willy Wonka candy store.

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Bonjour! I have returned from England and France....

....from France where the culture is as rich as the food and England where history is living and breathing in the Buckingham and Windsor palaces. Blending literature, art and presence gave me a new perspective on how to really understand life. Peeking into C. S Lewis's dark, shadowy attic that appears in the Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, then eating Turkish Delights or standing in the Tower of London at the exact place where Anne Boleyn was beheaded and buried are just some examples of the possible collisions of art, literature, and being there.
      I think my biggest connection was through Skyping with Jennifer Donnely about her book Revolution, going to the Palace of Versailles, and viewing Monet's debut impressionist painting "Impression Sunrise" which I will post my thoughts on being a revolutionary soon.
       That said, reading is still the easiest way to transport your mind.....Join me as I share some connections between literature and art from the land of the Brits and French.

Vive la littérature et de l'art !

(Long live literature and art!)

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Day two free from captivity:

   

 It's over - whew!  I think I have some form of Post-Semester-Stress-Confusion because I can't seem to find my bearings! At least now I can say last semester now. Last semester was a combination of abstract math and literacy instruction overload. At least I can say based on my math and statistics grades I was challenged (anything less than an A- I consider challenging).

     I don't even remember signing up for Language of Math - I thought I took the fun math course that involves math puzzles. After all, these are extra courses for my minor - not core classes. I have a feeling my adviser put me up to it. Halfway through the course I told her I didn't want to take Language of Math II and she replied, "There is no follow up course - you're in it!" So now I can say I'm bilingual - I speak English and Math. I'll be the life of all the parties talking about negations and contrapositives. Not even Blogspot's spell-check knows what that last word is.
     As for my literacy course, I  learned some great writing tips and even broke some writing rules and got away with it. Still, what I'm most proud of accomplishing is being qualified to teach kids to read. Now that I treasure - even though the workload was enough to choke a hippopotamus from top to bottom-us! Anyone up for Dr. Seuss?

    So, now I am getting ready for the British Literature and Arts trip, and still feel like I have no idea what to do with my day. Which one of my personalities do I follow - Mary or Martha? Clean the house or live it up? Where's my syllabus for summer break?

     Missing: bearings. Last seen bouncing around following course outlines and completing crazy numberless math problems and research papers. Please post if found!

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