Well, time seems to pass at an extraordinary rate. As I read over my last Blog post I notice how much has happened since (and also the number of misplaced apostrophes, and I as someone who likes to point them out on signs find this disgusting).
Everyone is remarkably tired at the moment. The mechaical movement of spoon-to-mouth at breakfast is becoming slower, eyelids drooping and at least one student falling asleep on the Common Room sofas (and did I see someone nod off briefly in a lecture too?)
Good job half term weekend is on its way. If you can call it that. College closes down from 4pm Thursday to 4pm Monday. No meals or services, free reign to go offsite and visit loved ones. EXCEPT if you happen to have Oxford lectures over that time, as the University don't have a half term, and us poor MThs have a seminar on Friday morning. Woe is us.
Still, we'll have the chance to hop over to the Westcountry at least for a few days. All being well, we're going for dinner with Tristan and Andrew on Friday, brunch with Lizzie, Tom and Sazzle on Saturday morning, Emma, Emily and Tabitha on Saturday afternoon, my family on Sunday and Paul's on Monday. By happy coincidence my Mum's birthday falls on Saturday so it's all worked out rather well.
I went to Cutteslowe on Thursday night and genuinely enjoyed myself. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but what I got was a group of vibrant, chatty, interesting young teenagers. We spent the evening playing with clay, hence the title of this post, making our favourite football teams, pop stars etc. and trying to guess what others had made. Yes, the artist N Dubz did come up and, yes, they wowed at my lack of knowledge of popular culture, but as it transpired that they knew not of N Sync I considered it stale mate. Touché, children!
In other news (because, looking back at my previous Blog posts, I simply have to start a paragraph in this way) I've decided to stand for Common Room President. Yes, I know, I know, it's not exactly the role you'd see me in. But I realised that, actually, I quite like organising things. And I'd really like to be instrumental in the way the college is run. And I've spent so much of my life watching other people do these things. So, why not?
Still, the three others going for it are all rather super gentlemen, I'd put some fairly long odds on me winning. Voting is today, by the way. And I'll find out the results tonight. I'd be genuinely astonished if I won, but I'm actually proud of myself for going for it, if that doesn't sound too cheesy.
*Finish, Hannah, finish the post before it really does sound too cheesy!*
I've learnt a new phrase. "Up the candle." A jovial way of asking what your churchmanship is, "how far up the candle are you?"
It strikes me that people at Cuddesdon sit all over the candle. If 1 is flags and 10 is birettas, there's a big clump of ordinands around 5 to 7 (middle church, liturgical, liberal) and another around the 8 and 9 (high church, modern catholic) but still a respectable number sub 5. With the numbers not in any way reflecting any sort of hierarchy, of course.
If you were to map the church's I've attended regularly for a significant amount of time (6 months plus) I think it would look something like this; 4-3-2-7-6. And since moving to Oxford I've attended, and enjoyed, St Mary Magdalen (a solid 9). So I've had experience with most types of church, even if some experiences aren't particularly recent.
I'd tentatively assess St Andrews, from my experience this morning, at around 3. Although, saying that, they have 4 services a day. 8am BCP, 9.30am family worship (the one we went to), 11.15am Eucharist (more liturgical, I'm told) and an evening service which is on the lively end. Is this, I am asking myself, a church which sets out to appeal to people of all kinds of churchmanships? We shall see!
I enjoyed this morning. Very different to the Cuddesdon services I've become accustomed to over these last 3 weeks, but I think I'll grow to appreciate the contrast. Certainly, the people were very friendly, and that bodes well for a positive 2 terms of learning and growing.
Yesterday, I matriculated! Yup, sounds like being put through a mangle, but it was actually quite nice. Dress up in silly clothes, stand in a queue outside the Sheldonian for half an hour, enter the Sheldonian for 15 minutes, hear some Latin and some English, go to the pub. Bish, bash, bosh, I'm a fully matriculated Oxford postgrad. Who'd have thought? Of course, I don't have my student card yet, because my application hasn't been fully processed, but hey ho...!
The MTh is somewhat fulfilling it's reputation as the lazy person's course. While the BA's and BTh's are writing 2,000 words a week, our first essay is due in Easter. And it's only 7,000 words. Now you'd have thought that would mean I've got lots of time on my hands, but somehow the formational side of training seems to be taking rather a lot of time and effort. Mission and Ministry, Pastoral Studies, Spirituality, Theological Reflection, Listening, Liturgy, Introduction to Worship... All separate modules, all requiring pre-reading.
Talking of, I've some reading to do for Mission and Ministry tomorrow. So long!
In a week in which I've spent 8-and-a-half hours in church, rung a bell while wearing a cassock, parted with £40 of my hard-earned cash to purchase a bizarre outfit known as subfusc and eaten a kipper for breakfast for the first time ever, it's hard to know where to start...
Placement. Yes. I'll start with that.
I'm feeling both delighted and terrified, as I've got exactly what I asked for. You may remember me musing back in May that a large evangelical church on a Sunday and some form of Youth Group mid-week would provide me with a lot of learning opportunities. And so I have been instructed, for the next two terms, to attend St Andrews Church, North Oxford - http://www.standrewsoxford.org/ - which, from its website at least, looks pretty vibrant. For the mid-week element I'll be involved in its outreach to Youth in the neighbouring parish of Cuttislowe - the video on their website says a bit more about what they are doing in this area of the city, and is worth a watch.
I think the Cuttislowe project will be an immense learning curve, but I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in. Certainly, looking at the video, these young people's lives would seem to be a world away from my life here at college, living in a nice flat, eating free food and going to Oxford University. I'm getting comfortable in the friendly larkiness of Holy Hogwarts, and I have a funny feeling this is just the placement I need. These people have a lot to teach me.
In other news, I somehow found myself drawn to attend INTENSIVE GREEK on Thursday. Yes, it deserved capitals. The BA students have to do it, they are examined on it, but as an MTh I have no requirement to do Greek at all. However, as I managed to skillfully duck it in my first degree I thought it would be useful to sit in on the lectures, just to get some basic knowledge of the language in which the New Testament is written. I've only been to one session, but I really enjoyed it. It's a nice change from normal lectures, gets my brain thinking in a different way. And I actually shrieked in delight tonight at the kitchen table when I managed to write out the whole Greek alphabet correctly from memory.
It's been an incredibly intense week. It's taken all my energy to work out where I'm supposed to be and when! I've been into Oxford three times for different MTh inductions and it's been pretty tiring. Lots of information, new people. But it was nice to meet the people I'll be studying alongside in the MTh group - a healthy mix of Anglicans, Catholics and Baptists. I'm looking forward to some good discussions.
But thank goodness it's the weekend. Today we drove up to Leamington to have lunch with Ellie, which was lovely, and then came back here to do not-very-much all evening. From now on, Saturday is going to be my only completely free day. Hurrah for Saturday.
I went to Cutteslowe on Thursday night and genuinely enjoyed myself. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but what I got was a group of vibrant, chatty, interesting young teenagers. We spent the evening playing with clay, hence the title of this post, making our favourite football teams, pop stars etc. and trying to guess what others had made. Yes, the artist N Dubz did come up and, yes, they wowed at my lack of knowledge of popular culture, but as it transpired that they knew not of N Sync I considered it stale mate. Touché, children! 
