I haven't said much about Oxford or our experiences, so I'll give a quick update at this point. We have now been in Oxford for nearly three weeks; we spent this past weekend in London and will head to Yorkshire (north of us) as a group tomorrow. Our three ACU professors, the Morgans and Dr. Roper, are teaching most of our classes and some of us are supplementing that with guided study work. We've all found various things to get involved in, such as volunteering at a local elementary school, singing with the Oxford University Gilbert & Sullivan Society, or cooking for a Bible study run by St. Aldate's, a local Anglican church.

The architecture in this city is amazing...I've climbed an Anglo-Saxon church tower, snapped pictures of adorable brick row houses, attended service at a Gothic cathedral-like Anglican church, and gazed out over velvet green meadows (green even though it's winter). This is the England Tolkien knew and loved; the Eagle and Child pub, where he and C.S. Lewis and their fellow Inklings met, is literally a ten-minute walk down the street from us. A weekly open market in the downtown square, evensong at Christ Church, rain and sunshine on any given day...this is where he lived, where he wrote and where he drew his inspiration for Middle-earth.