Today, bright and (very) early, we began our pilgrimage to Canterbury. On the train over, we had our first Brit Lit meeting, where we discussed (what else?) "The Canterbury Tales" by Chaucer. Because I'm like a total nerd, it was really fun! All 8 of us in the class sat in the first class section of the train and listened to Dr. Hanks give a mini-lecture and discussed the prologue. It's so funny how much more I appreciate these things when I read them now than I did in high school. For example with the Canterbury Tales, in high school all I could recognize was the surface-level social commentary on hypocrisy, whereas during this discussion, the whole time I was thinking "Ooo, this is all totally being and becoming!!!" and getting all excited. I'm enjoying this first part immensely, but I know I'm going to be very happy when we finally get to Oxford and are just studying this stuff there.
Tonight we are staying at the Canterbury Cathedral Lodge, which is within the Cathedral gates. It's so spectacular, I can hardly believe we are actually staying here. We get these special pass things that let us bypass all the people waiting in line to get in, or to get in after the gates are closed for the evening. Oh, and did I mention that, sitting on my window seat in my lovely single room, I can look out right onto the Cathedral? This afternoon, I could even hear the boys choir practicing for Evensong. Magical.
Before our private tour of the Cathedral, we visited the Church of Saint Martin, which is the oldest continuously active site of Christian worship in the whole of England. After that, however, we visited the ruins of Saint Augustine's Abbey. No, not that Augustine. This one lived about 200 years after him and is only famous for founding this abbey, thereby restoring Christianity to the English (after the Romans abandon Britain in 410 AD) and becoming the first Archbishop of Canterbury. The ruins were very ruinous (meaning there wasn't a whole lot left to see), but I absolutely loved it! As I was wandering around by myself and listening to the audio guide, it struck me (wait for it... and don't judge until you here me out!!!) how similar the monastic life is to the collegiate life. I mean, obviously we don't have any sorts of vows of poverty or celibacy or silence or such, but a lot of the elements of purposeful, communal living really resonated with me. When I was standing in the middle of what was the dining hall, I tried to picture them all sitting at the long tables, sharing meals, and the picture very much resembled Sunday Night Dinner. In the same way, the chapter house where they gathered to discuss things (sort of the closest they got to just "hanging out") and read from the Rule of Saint Benedict reminded me slightly of the office/JCR, with the Covenant there reminding us why we do what we do. I don't know, I just thought it was an interesting resemblance.
Our tour of the Cathedral was brilliant. It was led by this elderly gentleman who knew so0o0o much about everything, making the tour rather long, but super amazing. It was all so fabulously restored, that you felt as if you were really transported through time -- maybe not so much in the cathedral proper, but in the cloisters and the crypt especially. Tomorrow, I'm going to go to the Sung Eucharist at the Cathedral, and I'm very excited, a) because it starts at 11 :00. Yay, sleep!, and b) because it's going to be so, so beautiful.
Speaking of meals (because I sort of was earlier with the Great Hall bit/ through some very elaborate Eucharist-communion-meal train of argumentation. Plus, I needed some type of segway, lol.), today was a day of adventurous food choices. For lunch, I got beans on toast, because I felt that was very British and I needed to try it. It wasn't bad at all. Kind of random, but definitely not bad. Then this evening, we decided to do the traditional pub food thing, so my London roommate and I split a steak and ale pie. That was amazing! For dessert, we wandered around Canterbury until we found this little pastry place we had seen during one of our day's many sojourns. Then back to the Cathedral to be locked in for the night. We wandered around for a while taking pictures of everything all lit up and chatting about things. All in all, it was a pretty spectacular evening.
This bed is too soft for words. I am quickly falling asleep... Night!
Ruinous ruins, lol. I dig the wordplay.
ReplyDeleteExperiencing a worship service at a place like that must be sweet!
I have never experienced ale pie, though, but it sounds pretty good... maybe because it's almost dinner time in my present time zone.