Oxford: Part III

May 16, 2010

Today was our final day in Oxford. :( We’ve really enjoyed our 3 consecutive day trips there. The only bad part has been the hour and a half bus rides to and from every day. Buses just aren’t very comfortable. Wait, is he complaining about the bus again? Yep, I am. I think I can sleep better in any other location. Oh well. The unfortunate thing was that we had to be ready at the bus by 8:15 this morning to make it in time to go to church at the Oxford ward. Despite going to bed at 1:30, I was up and at it at 5:40. Go figure. It gave me plenty of time to have another leisurely morning though. :) The nap I took on the bus this morning gave me a kink in my neck that is still rendering me nearly incapable of turning my head without turning my entire torso. Ok, I’m done complaining. We had a really great time visiting Oxford ward. You could just tell they were a very strong, tight-knit ward with big open arms. We felt so welcome there. There was a big line of people shaking our hands as we walked into the church. I was so impressed. Priesthood and Sunday school were hard for me to stay awake in. (I guess my 4 hours of sleep caught up with me.) I still got a few important points from the lesson though. Sacrament meeting was really great. They were focusing on the restoration of the priesthood. They had 4 deacons speak and the Young Men’s President who was a really great, young, energetic 28 year-old. It was such a great meeting. We sang two numbers in between the talks. After the block of meetings, we were invited to Much-n-Mingle. We each brought a little something to contribute, but the ward brought a lot of something to contribute. It was yummy and really fun to talk to so many neat people. The best part for me was discovering this 3-4 year old boy who was hiding on the stair-well, his shirt un-tucked and hair sticking up, cupping both of his hands filled with chips and eating them right out of his hand. If it weren’t for the circumstances, he would have looked like something straight out of Lord of the Flies. Instead, it was really cute to see him devouring his chips so ravenously. After stuffing ourselves, we had some time to rehearse a bit more in the church building before taking a bus to our respective colleges for the final rehearsal and Evensong performance. I really enjoyed the experience. The rehearsal went much better with the organist present (he couldn’t make our Friday evening rehearsal). It’s just so interesting how the demands made of these choirs shape their musicianship. Their ability to follow the crazy format they have for hymn singing and psalm singing is remarkable as is their sight reading ability. Other issues, like intonation don’t seem quite as important. I don’t know how the other colleges were, but ours was an interesting mix of casual and formality. Most of the choir members were wearing jeans while some were wearing their robes. The director chose to omit the procession (which was too bad because I was looking forward to that, especially in choir robes which were also not included). We didn’t have a very big turnout. There were about twelve people in the congregation. The clergy was composed of all women. It was really interesting; very different from my other Evensong experiences. I felt really good about our performance though. We BYU kids definitely held our own. After the service, we were offered drinks to socialize. Luckily they got the memo that we don’t drink and they had some orange juice to offer us. We were also invited to dine with them in their dining hall. We felt pretty cool. The dining hall totally reminded us of Hogwarts; same setup. I ended up sitting next to the music director and got to pick her brain. She is actually an organist. The tradition in England is for organists to run the choirs and their assistants to accompany on the organ. It’s somewhat counterintuitive, but that’s how things have always been done. Since she is American, it gave me an interesting view into the differences between the British approach and the American. She seemed convinced that the British system is superior. There are some definite advantages that are readily recognizable. Dinner was nice. The conversation was stimulating, but we had to hurry back to the coach to come back to London. I was happy to see Michelle again. We’ve been separated by our distinct groups a lot lately, so it was nice to see her for a bit, even if she just slept of my arm again on the way home.