to the four corners of the earth

this picture was taken somewhere on the road from london to oxford, last friday. now i am on my fourth day here in oxfordshire, the region in england where oxford is located. matthew arnold, a poet from the 19th century, beautifully described oxford in his poem thyrsis as a sweet city of dreaming spires, one that needs not june for its beauty's heightening.

i spent my first days wandering around the old town and trying to provide myself a proper basic knowledge for survival.

i am grateful and humbled to be here, especially that it is autumn. you can walk the road and feel that crispness in the air and the smell of fall. also, i always find the falling leaves scattered around my window pane each time i return to my room. that is a true sign of nature's cycle of course.

the place where i reside now is a victorian house. i occupy half of its lower ground. so low that when you sit on the chair looking at the window, you could see only the legs of the passerby. not their faces. it's more as a sanctuary, especially because phone signal can hardly touch me down here. hohoo...

but i am content. you see this house now. well, it's not exactly the one where i live. but i like it. it has a red dress to fit the season's fashion. in autumn, it is quite fashionable for houses to "wear" that maroon gown. soon, it will turn yellow, before the fresh of green come again together with spring.

i name this picture "call me autumn".

as of the place where i live, it is a hall provided by my college st. cross. i have already had some ideas to explore about this college. but first, let me share with you that i feel at home here. the college has a motto that goes like this "ad quattour cardines mundi", which means "to the four corners of the earth". sounds adventurous to me. hoho...