Now, if you're still with me after that paragraph, I'm assuming English was most likely your first language. I didn't intend for that paragraph to get all proper and stuff, but it did. And once it's writ, it's writ, according to the reflexive property. Now, then. I'll tackle the title a word at a time. Just like in Dictionary Rugby.
"Scottish"? Yup. Last night I participated in Ceilidh at St. Aldate's Church. For those of you whom have not yet climbed themselves out of the un-know, Ceilidh [KAY-lee] describes a number of traditional Scottish folk dances. It's a lot like Scottish square dancing. I quickly learned that pretty much every different variant involves: holding hands, rotating a hand-holding circle left, rotating it back right, unholding hands, dosey-do-ing, and walking somewhere else. I got the distinct impression that the Scottish didn't have many moves in their repertoire.
That building was PACKED. There were hundreds of students packed in there, which made the partner dancing very awkward when we had to Polka. For those of you who have never done the Polka before, the Polka requires your own sweet room. We have maybe a tenth of the room required. Our final attempts in such close proximity probably ended up looking quite silly.
But it was alright! It was lots of good fun. The last time I enjoyed myself so much was when I attended a ball with some friends and we danced all night. It was fantastic.
"Beard"?
I've been growing out the beard lately, since before I'm in a committed relationship I want to have the beard experience, and I've gotten a lot of compliments (mostly from the cleaning lady, but a few from fellow students). Plus, it's freezing all the time, and it keeps my chin warm.
"Exercises"? Recently, I've been going to the Oriel gym. Oriel is one of the few colleges at Oxford to have its own gym, and it's open at all times of the day. Ever since I started, I've felt fantastic. Exercise is extremely good for both physical and mental health, and it's helped me cope with large amounts of work/stress. I've also been feeling less guilty.
Not only have I been getting in better shape mentally and physically, but I've also been able to fall asleep at 12:00 at last, which is amazing. I'm definitely staying with it!
"Narnia"? Did you know that back in the day, when C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were professors at Oxford together, they used to meet with a couple of other writers at a local pub and discuss their literature? They called themselves the Inklings. That pub was where they discussed ideas for their unfinished books! That pub was called the Eagle and Child, and I've walked past it every single day on the way to the new Maths Institute from Oriel. I finally went there with friends, and it is GLORIOUS.
The food costs more than most pubs, but that's because it serves almost "gourmet" pub food. It was fantastic, although I definitely can't afford to go there every night!!
There's a bookcase I noticed in the (no longer private) Rabbit Room (the then-private room in which the Inklings used to meet) at the back of the pub. I checked, and there weren't any books on the shelf written by either of the two writers. However, I was able to find this little treasure:
...Appropriate, somehow, for C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien's favorite pub, which was also the favorite of Colin Dexter, who wrote the Inspector Morse novels. I thought my contribution was the finest art I've ever committed.
Just my contribution to the wonderful world of literature!
By the way, if anyone's ever wondered where J.R.R. Tolkien got his idea of save Bilbo and the dwarves from a pack of orcs by means of rescue by giant eagles in his classic novel The Hobbit, I think I've figured it out:
...Remind you of anything? :D
Stay safe,
John Khouri, Once and Always a King of Narnia
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