Choral evensong, guilty pleasures, food highlights and latenight Oxford

My 2010 Oxford Handbook's entry on Christ Church College begins simply: "Christ Church is not a college. It's a lifestyle," and then goes on to point out that despite "Wikipedia quite hilariously point[ing] out [that it] is 'named after Jesus Christ,' [it remains] the impressive survivor of the throes of the English Reformation...and has now emerged as both a college and the cathedral of the diocese of Oxford." Now, due to this status, Christ Church's cathedral services are perhaps the ones to go to at Oxford, and note I say the ones because almost every college at Oxford has a chapel (granted Christ Church's is a cathedral—see post #2) at which evening-time services run throughout the week, culminating with more complete services on Sundays. Hence, last week, Erin and I went to one of Christ Church's choral evensongs in the cathedral, and, despite having trouble finding the main entrance—we were led into the worship through the chorus's practice room by a nice chap in the chorus itself—we nevertheless made it in time for the evensong to a sparsely populated cathedral. The service for the night consisted of three hymns, three Psalms sung by the choir in Gregorian style, three Bible readings, and a prayer in which we reflected on those "caught up in bureacracy" as well as the victims of the northern India avalanches. For being the cathedral of the diocese of Oxford, the service certainly didn't stand out as Catholic, although kneeling to pray during church was something I'd never done before. Still, I imagine Christ Church has its moments, so to speak, where its status comes through, and yet interestingly a student here told me that some of the colleges are considering turning their chapels completely non-denominational (as opposed to offering Christian services) or even—dare we suggest it—converting them into libraries. Somewhere, Richard Dawkins is applauding. What a symbolic gesture for the gradual learned secularization of a place like Oxford.

St. Catherine's College Entz #2 was on Friday—themed as "Guilty Pleasures"—and yet considering I had a tutorial that very afternoon my costume was, I will admit, a last-second improv. Still, Billy and I went as obsessive sports fans (although I wouldn't say it necessarily reflects on an empirical "guilty pleasure" for both of us, Billy's arguably being Entourage and mine being any song by No Doubt) and with our good friend Rachel (also a Colby student, studying at Hertford) joining the Entzing, the night was good fun. And, I should add, being the same night as the opening of the winter olympics, it was also quite long. Indeed, after the JCR closed at 1 a.m., my friend Mark here (from Cambridge, studying music and playing the tuba, huge rugby fan), strolled into town discussing the differences between the U.K. and the U.S. (the Brits, one could say, have a realism to the point of self-deprication while Americans have an idealism to the point of irrationalism) on our way to Hassan's, a late-night ritual for students craving a kebab (french fries and spicy chicken, served out of a foodtruck). As part of our discussion, the issue of religion came up, and Mark pointed out that—in line with the at-times harsh British apathy—Jedi is in fact the fourth-largest religion in the country according to the national census. In New Zealand, Jedi is the second. Use the force, Sir Edmund. Below are pictures of Billy, Rachel and I as well as a picture of Hassan's, taken between 2 and 3 a.m.

Staying with food, I've been eating lunch in town everyday, and with so many great places to go it's hard to get bored or not eat well. I've spoken already of the Alternative Tuck Shop (ATS, for texting's sake—see post #2), yet the turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce on a spinach ciabatta (my ATS fav) is only the beginning of the myriad options for the Oxford lunch. Indeed, my other favorite spots include Alpha Bar and The Oxford Sandwich Co. in the Covered Market, as well as Harvey's on High Street. Alpha Bar serves organic salads (rice, couscous, lentils) with fresh meat or a vegetarian option (the braised beef is money) and the thai chicken with hot chili sauce at OxSCo. is likewise delic. Below is a brief phototour of the Oxford lunch, going from the ATS to dead carcasses in the Covered Market to Alpha Bar (note the sweet wooden utensils) to OXSCo. to Harvey's. I'm getting hungry as I write this.

As a final note, last night was "Halfway Hall" for the second years (halfway to their degree, being the beginning of 5th week of Hilary Term) and after a fancy dinner and some stand-up in the JCR, much of the college went out to a club reserved exclusively for St. Catz. Again, the night was great fun—the DJs were from Catz and were spot-on the whole time—and the ritual of Hassan's came in on the walk back across town. Below are me mates James and Harry showing off their kebabs circa 3 a.m.

Cheers all,

Nick