Besides my inability to keep up with this blog in general, the internet in our flat has been downright non-existent, so I apologize for anyone checking this to find that it looks just the same as they last saw it. Let me try to think of what I can tell you about...
This past Sunday the program took us on a bus trip into London for the day which consisted of a little bus tour around the city followed by a walking tour to see places like Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and a few other major sights. We also went to the War Rooms and Churchill Museum which was absolutely fascinating. What an amazing time warp into history, the museum did an incredible job both preserving what was left of the shelter and recreating what wasn't. You couldn't help but feel all of the history in that place. Not to mention Churchill is a fascinating man. I really enjoyed that trip.
Tuesday my first Oxford essay was due, a paper on perception, deception, and disguise in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Tuesday was also the day of my first Oxford 'A'! Haha it's a very interesting system here. Besides the whole one on one tutorial, basically an independent study method, when you meet with your tutor the session basically consists of them reading your paper aloud to you and commenting on it as they go. So you hear the professor struggling with sentences that never managed to come together quite right, you see him approving of some ideas and flinching at others, it's a very intimidating process. But I'm one of the biggest proponents of reading your paper aloud as an editing technique, so after I got over the initial shock of the method I fell right into place, bringing up points that I liked in the research, things that struck me that maybe I didn't use, etc.
I am now preparing an essay due tomorrow on Seamus Heaney's poem "Personal Helicon" in which I'm talking about binarism. I know this is all very exciting to you, but trust me these are the highlights of my days.
Also, yesterday I emailed the Bodleian's "Ask a Librarian" service to see if I could possibly meet someone to talk about their system, maybe even go on a little tour, and I got a response from someone asking how long I would be here so they could match me up with someone to speak with, so I'll let you know if anything comes into fruition from that! My Shakespeare tutor suggested I try to get in touch with someone here when I told him my interest, and hearing him say that after I had been thinking and debating about it definitely set me into motion.
This weekend there are no travel plans, but that's okay because I'll have lots of work to do anyway. I also want to check out a few bookshops around here and hopefully take some more pictures. (Oh yea, sorry about pictures. I haven't been taking my camera out. And when I do I have been using my film camera mostly. I'll try to bring myself to take the digital camera out this weekend)
Cheers!
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