Thursday, July 18

Yesterday after class in the morning we took the 11:00 train to Paddington in London. From there we got on the #11 double-decker bus, which passes many of London’s most famous and historic sites like Parliament Square, Trafalgar Square, and Big Ben. We got off the bus and after eating at a cafe called the Earl of Sandwich headed over to St. Paul’s Cathedral. The size of the cathedral and the impeccably detailed paintings on the ceiling were astounding.  We climbed up to the Whispering Gallery, 30 metres above the Cathedral floor for a better interior view.  The most incredible part was seeing the London skyline from the top of the Cathedral’s outer Stone Gallery.  From the Cathedral floor, it required a total of 528 steps up to reach the top most Golden Gallery. We then  jumped on the tube and made our way over to Harrods and saw among numerous other interesting things Princess Diana’s Memorial, Versace iPhones, gold-plated iPads, jet skis, one of Jimi Hendrix’s shirts and a guitar played by SRV. We walked to Covent Garden, watched impressively skilled street performers, and had dinner. We then went to the theater to see Matilda the Musical to wrap up our day in London.

Submitted by Sterling Street

Waiting across from Victoria Station for bus 11.

Eddie and Bennett enjoy the sights of London from choice seats.

Lunch at the Earl of Sandwich cafe.

 Views from the top of St. Paul's Cathedral. 

 

Globe Theatre along the Thames River.

Doing more looking than buying.

Viewing the street performers in Covent Garden

Wednesday, July 17

Today began early with a trip about one hour east to Bletchley Park. Bletchley Park, now a museum, once was a code breaking facility for the Government Code and Cipher School during the Second World War.  While the site appears to consist of only a rather ugly mansion and long lines of small shacks, it was one of the most important tools that the Allies used to defeat Nazi tyranny. We saw several Enigma machines, which were used by the Germans to encipher and decipher their own code. Understanding the internal mechanism of the Enigma machines helped the Allies to break the German codes.  These machines were extremely complicated, and the German codes often were nearly impossible to break.  To deal with this issue, British officials recruited top scholars and assistants to figure out how to decipher Nazi messages. While at Bletchley we saw the environment that eventually grew to a staff of 10,000 involved in this task to help win the war.

After dinner Mr. Kendall persuaded his cousin, Emily, to speak to us about what she does here at Oxford.  Emily teaches at St. Peters College, and was able to share with us her knowledge on Copyright, which is a branch of Intellectual Property (IP).  Emily was able to explain very well why Copyright laws are so important for musicians and bands.  Without Copyright, it would be impossible for us to distinguish between who created certain songs, videos etc.   

Submitted by Bennett Setzer and Will Harris

Our dorm, Staircase #11.

View of St. Mary's Tower from Staircase #11 window.

Bletchley Park original mansion house (not much to look at, and several times nearly demolished by developers.)

 An example of one of the code breaking huts.

The "bombe", designed by Alan Turing and his colleagues to decode the daily encrypted Enigma traffic.

Tuesday, July 16

After our usual breakfast in the dining hall, we met in the classroom at 9:00 to work on some code breaking.  While we had previously learned about the history of the subject, it was our first real time actually deciphering messages.  All of the letters in the alphabet were switched around, and then used in writing.  It took some time, but eventually we were able to translated thirteen lines of text into something legible and interesting.

            At the conclusion of our class time, we headed over to Bodleian Library to observe an exhibit on “Magic Books.”  Dozens of famous fantasy books were on display, and there were history exhibits on both old and new stories.  Among the books shown were The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the Chronicles of Narnia, the stories of King Arthur, Harry Potter, and many more.  The display was incredibly interesting, especially considering we had visited the entrances to both Wonderland and Narnia.

         So this afternoon the group split off into their scavenger hunt groups to search the museums for interesting artifacts and treasures. Tommy, Peter and I walked over to the Pitt Rivers Exhibit. It was an archaeological museum, and we saw many old artifacts throughout the three story exhibit. We saw old clothes from Eskimos and Native Americans. We saw sporting equipment from long ago. We also saw weapons from the days of a rock club to the era of firearms. I came across a particularly interesting exhibit of the samurais and their weapons and armor. The Pitt Rivers museum had lots to offer us and I think that each one of us came out of that museum with the knowledge and interest of new things. In the afternoon, we set out with our driver, Paul, and his friend to a soccer game. We went to the County Ground to watch a pre-season game between Tottenham and Swindon. It was a close game the whole way. Swindon was down most of the game, but came back in the second half with a deflected goal to earn a 1-1 tie. It's hard to believe that this trip is almost over. Time goes by so fast when we are having fun, I guess. 

Submitted by Tommy Legg & Henry Earp

Morning class working on code breaking.

Taking a break at Ben's Cookies in the Covered Market.

 Preseason "Friendly" between Swindon Town and Tottenham Hotspurs.

Monday, July 15

Yesterday we had a good breakfast to start off the morning by climbing the 127 steps to the viewing level of St. Mary’s Church Tower.  We were blessed with another clear day, and had a fine view of Oxford’s wonderful skyline.  Back in our classroom Mr. Kendall taught us the basics of the Caesar Shift code, and after a little bit of practice we were exchanging encrypted messages amongst ourselves.  We also worked on a very English crossword puzzle to test our abilities as code breakers.  It was a team effort, but it was easy to tell that Sterling was our MVP when it came to finding the words quickly.  When testing potential code breakers during World War Two, GC&CS (Government Code and Cipher School) required code breakers to accurately finish the Daily Telegraph crossword in twelve minutes.  It took our entire class of eleven about twenty minutes to finish the crossword puzzle.  After lunch we went punting at Magdalen Bridge.  It must have been a good day to go punting, because it was pretty crowded.  After a relaxing bit of time on the river we cleaned up for dinner which was then followed by a Ghost Tour.  The Ghost Tour was a very interesting walk around Oxford with our guide pointing out where certain ghosts of the city were located.  We were told stories of executions by Queen Mary, the ghost of Thomas Bodley, and many more interesting tales.  Unfortunately we didn’t see any supernatural activity going on.  After the ghost tour we called it an end to our last Monday in Oxford.

Submitted by Cutchin Anderson

Hiking-up the St. Mary's Tower staircase.

 Brasenose College, where we are staying.

 

Our rooms are on staircase number 11.

 
The Radcliffe Camera, just across from Brasenose.

Will and Mr. Kendall viewing All Souls College

Gargoyle doing double service as down spout.

Morning traffic on High Street.

Christian, Sterling and Tommy Explore the tower.

 Punting at Magdalen Bridge.

 The river was fairly crowded on this rather warm day.

 

Finish the day with an evening "Ghosts of Oxford" walking tour.