A basque in Oxford

Xabier Ezeizabarrena, Basque Visiting Fellow, St. Antony’s
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Trinity term, week 21

"May Day morning"

Magdalen tower & bridge, every 1st May at 6 in the morning.
The choir of Magdalen College sings from the tower the "Hymnus Eucharisticus":

"Te Deum Patrem colimus,
Te Laudibus prosequimus,
qui corpus cibo reficis,
coelesti mentem gratia.

Te adoramus, O Jesu,
Te, Fili unigenite,
Te, qui non dedignatus es
subire clautra Virginis.

Actus in crucem, factus est
irato Deo victima
per te, Salvator unice
vitae spes nobis rediit.

Tibi, aeterne Spiritus
cuius afflatu peperit
infantem Deum Maria,
aeternum benedicimus.

Triune Deus, hominum
salutis auctor optime,
immensum hoc mysterium
orante lingua canimus".

Trinity Term, week 22

Fellow & climber

Magdalen college.

Within Oxford Law Faculty there are some fellows who look more like a climber rather than a Law "don", and even less, in the case of the one I´m just thinking about. This day, the mentioned "don" is a young very tall man close to the 2 meters of height, very thin indeed, but ruling the affair with striking oratory; he wears cottage "bags", woodcutter canadian shirt, trekking boots full of mud and a rain & mountain coat that he left, obviously, beside the "Bar" of the speakers. It looks like he is just coming back from a trekk around Oxford hills. But nothing to argue about that, because the young master stood up at the Bar of the tiny hall for public hearings just with a few written notes on his hand to begin his analysis combined with questions and inquiries to the audience. Moreover, the students stood up either with remarkable answers, quoting in legal wheras clauses, recalling to the jurisprudence and law-suits, not forgetting a single Act, and even the bibliographical notes thereon. Once the whole exchange was finished, once the sandwiches, the fruit and the coffee were eaten as well, the whole meeting split off, while the next week venue was announced within the same circumstances in order to receive this time a EU Commissioner.

Trinity Term, week 23

Edward Thomas

According to the local chronicles, the literary essence on Oxford comes through a well known fellow called Edward Thomas. His finest work is actually "Oxford" (1902), where the author describes the rural spots sorrounding the city to discover some very remarkable and ever dreamed places which are still alive nowadays. They do say as well that Edward Thomas was a supreme walker and his long walks described a whole series or circles around the town until reaching that unexpected place to satisfy his never ending curiosity.

University of Oxford.

Trinity Term, last week

Back home


	Xabier, Sofia and Tomas on the trailer at St. Anthony´s.

Coming back from Oxford is the end of one of my dreams overcoming any of my expectations. However, this week I cannot avoid some sort of nostalgia when I´m back to the office and home to collect everything for hours and drive towards the same ferry who took me over from Bilbao to Portsmouth and then to this amazing town called Oxford. Back there I see all I dreamt about; from my office in the old victorian house at Woodstock road to the monastery in which St. Antony´s people live while the bicycles sleep together with the bibliographic treasures of history, political science or Law. Back there, there are as well all those who will remain in Oxford to be recall during that amusing lecture beside the fireplace in the Old Library of "All Souls", while the quad floods with that pleasent rain look.Øoking like the one in our land. Back there I remember my suffering during the morning in an "eight" with a tiny cox sailing through Isis, far away from being able to manage to row together
with my seven colleagues. Back there I see the unforgettable Inns, and my friends from Wales, the Oriel linkage, Bavaria, Tokyo, Hong Kong or the Baikal lake. In front of me, it is the moment for real time now, that time we are already leaving like mad, sometimes, and that suddenly in Oxford expires for everybody just as History wanted to happen in this unique and single place in the world. See you all soon.