From my room in Peckwater, I can't say I had the best view available. I had a room all the way at the top and since Peckwater 1 is in the middle, to the front I saw the back of the arch on top of the building and out the back I saw the street. So I can't say I was thrilled with that. However, the room itself was quite spacious. I had a couch, a desk, chairs, a table, bookshelves, a closet, a sink and a bed. The bathroom was right outside the door, the shower was downstairs at the lowest level. All in all, that isn't too bad. Some people didn't have a shower in their hall, nor a bathroom near their room. Indoor plumbing is a new invention in the traditional universities, you see.

Christ Church owns all the land south of it to the Thames River. On that land, they have what they term the Meadow. It's a really big cow pasture with a walkway around it. It's a beautiful walk, don't get me wrong, though after a rain, it smells like cow. They breed English Longhorn or some rare breed of cow and are part of a charter for that area. This shot is taken from just returning from a walk in the Meadow. I walked around the Meadow once, though the cows were all on the far side of the Meadow. I walked around it in heeled sandals to boot. Owie. See, that's why I hate putting on heels. Because sure as sunrise, the day I choose to wear anything with a heel, is the day that I go and take a 2 mile walk. It's one of those laws of the universe.

I think the day this picture was taken was one of the last
days that we were at the University, the final dinner. So of course I got all dressy.

It seems I have more pictures of me in a dress online then I do of me in normal clothing! But getting me into a dress is a momentous occasion, so it's expected.

I think I was in a dress there approximately four times. Once for the gala dinner at the beginning of the trip. Once I bought and hence, wore, a skirt. Very nice skirt too, lavender with darker purple flowers. The third time I wore a cream colored dress with gold designs on it. And this photo is of the last time.

Four out of 20 days, the percentage of time I was in a dress is staggering! It's usually four days out of a year!

The fountain in the Great Quad is of Hermes, also known as Mercury, complete with winged helmet and boots. The funniest thing of the fountain was when it was on, it would pee. I know, it's a crass type of funny, but a spurt of water would come out from the nebulousness that was his crotch every five seconds. The fountain had a pond in it, of course. Now, this pond was a source of great entertainment to me during my stay there. During the first few days, I would feed the goldfish type fish that were in there. I also discovered what I first called the 'Goldfish of Knowledge.'

It wasn't a real goldfish, I learned later it was a koy carp. It's a type of Japanese carp. 12 of them were donated to Christ Church when the Emperor of Japan's heirs were attending the school. There were other smaller fish in there, about the size of my hand. (for reference, the size of my hand is about 4"). The 'Goldfish of Knowledge' was about the size of my forearm. However, one day I got roundly scolded by someone for feeding the fish. I believe the quote was, "These are not goldfish. You can feed them if you want to pay the bill if they die. There are several thousand pounds worth of fish in there (pounds meaning money). They get fed and they don't get fed that."

Now, considering when I was told by this woman I can't feed the fish, I immediately stopped, apologized and said I didn't know, wouldn't do it again, for her to say that after my apology was rather rude. The woman I had been talking to at the time agreed that it was rude.

I would go to the fountain and sit there and watch the fish all day. I even had names for several of them.

The fountain keeping was very strict. If a student is caught throwing something into the fountain, they get 'sent down', which means expelled. One time, a student got caught throwing someone's trunk into the fountain. He had some dukes on his family tree however, and they wrote in a letter that read to the effect of, "It was a boyish prank anyone would have done. Why, in my day, we were throwing the servants into the fountain!"

Map of Christ Church with Legend

© 1997 kithan@hotmail.com

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