September re-cap

The days are getting colder, and Oxford streets are more and more lined with leaves. Fall does not come as boldly in Oxford as it does in East Tennessee, and I do find myself missing the brilliant colours and just how many trees change before they lose their leaves.

I attended my first official Oxford lecture today. The term here is broken up into two parts for us study abroad students. The Oxford term lasts just 8 weeks, and there are three terms per year, Hilary, Michaelmas, and Trinity. As our American semesters usually last quite a bit longer, the study abroad program includes classes in British history which precede Oxford term time during the Michaelmas season. We attend lectures on various aspects of British history and basically sweep chronologically through British history from early history and Alfred the great right up to women's rights and Winston Churchill. We take field trips to complement the studies including Salisbury Cathedral and Portsmouth harbor where Nelson's Victory is docked. (Pictures to come on Facebook) We also submitted 3 dreaded case studies, essays which were to prepare us for the Oxford tutorial system we are now beginning. Needless to say, the essays were fairly rigorous, though perhaps low on the scale for Oxford standard, and I found myself scrambling to complete research, which was made more difficult by the short pre-term hours of the libraries. I find more and more what a treasured commodity sleep is. Nothing like a lacking to make you appreciate the presence of something!

It was an interesting segment of time, as we settled into England, Oxford, living with a bunch of other students from all over the US and Canada (by the way, Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!), and generally making our way around this gloriously academic city. We study abroad students rather had the rule of the roost in pre-term time, but now that the students are back I, at least, am learning how busy the city can be.

We just completed noth week, or 0th week, the pre-term week before the 8 weeks of term begin. Oxford fills up, and all of a sudden the streets are more crowded, the libraries more occupied, and the shop lines longer. Its been really neat to see the city wake up. Last week I attended the "Fresher's Fair", which is basically Rush Day expanded times a hundred. Tonight I took some time away from much-needed studying (foolish? I hope not...) to attend a free beginners ballroom class. I'm tempted to go tomorrow's come-try-out-fencing invitation, but I may forgo it to concentrate on my study of Victorian social change. bah!

Oxford is definitely an interesting place. Among the clubs available to students in Fresher's Fair were all manner of political groups, including a lovely red table for all marxist students. About twenty choir members stand ready to pounce as you near the music section. I believe they purposely make their aisle narrower so as to have more chance to catch you. The neat thing is the serious value of a lot of the groups. Apparently Oxford holds claim to the best guys acapella group in the country. There's always the Oxford Bell Ringers (steeple bells, not hand bells, which I didn't understand at the time) or the Oxford Aetheist Society, or if you're really down on your luck, the Failed Novelists Society. And of course their are the necessary Tolkien and Lewis societies as well.

Life at the Vines (my house/dorm) is quite lovely. I can't remember if I've mentioned it much before, there are about forty of us who live here, twenty at another house closer into town. We are a good bit out of Oxford, and most people either buy a bus pass, or in some manner aquire a bike. I personally would have loved to bike around Oxford, but seeing as the last real time I rode a bike was probably around eleven years ago, and that in a rural situation, I thought it a wise investment to keep my limbs in their current positions and buy a bus pass. So, most of my mornings include walking out to the street to wait for one of three busses that will take me down into the city of Oxford, either to grocery shop, check my mail, or use a library.

All of us students are required to make our own food, and many band together to create food groups, where people take turns cooking for the whole group every night. I am a part of a fairly large group, in all, 13 people, which is quite unusual. It makes for lovely fellowship at mealtimes, and trickier situations during cooking ones. We arranged the food group into nightly teams so people with less cooking experience will hopefully be working with someone more experienced. I captain the Monday team, which had been quite a challenge. Though appointed a more-experienced-cooker, I really have very little solid cooking under my belt, so making sure 13 people eat is quite an interesting experience. I remember the first night praying through most of the cooking "God, please don't make me the reason 13 people go hungry!". My one assistant is a Chem major, and the scientific brain comes in handy at the grocery store when deciding which bag of carrots is cheaper. The other is a Philosophy major. There probably are not two people in the Vines you are more likely to get into a philosophical discussion with, so you can imagine when the two of them are together. The observation of an easier way to chop vegetables easily leads to a discussion of reality, and I find myself wondering if we wouldn't get the meal on the table faster if I just sat back and asked them to prove to me that our supper existed. : )

I have now met with both my tutors for the Oxford term. I am taking Victorian Intellect and Culture for my primary tutorial, and the philosophy of Aesthetics (which I'm really excited about!) for my secondary. The primary tutorial requires an essay a week (c. 2000 words) and the secondary, one about the same every two weeks. We are also working on a long essay for the term, and I considering researching the influence of Indian on architecture in England during the Victorian period, but we shall see...

I have been consistenly attending a church in Oxford called St. Ebbes. The community there is great. After every service a simple meal is offered and people basically stay around and chat and eat together. This last Sunday I had a wonderful talk with a woman whose family were missionaries in Nepal until last year. It was my first solid missionary contact in a long while and it was so good to talk about life and living between worlds and dealing with the cultural challenges that brings. I don't realize how much I miss that part of my life until I get to experience a little bit of it again.

I apologize this post has been so late in coming. The program picked up so quickly I had a bit of a hard time finding my feet. Please pray that a good pattern will start up in these next eight weeks where I can work effectively and even ahead of schedule. I have been so blessed by this experience already, and already am very streched by it. Please pray that I the stretching to come will be beneficial and not simply exhausting. I continue to marvel that I am in this place, walking in the footsteps of so many greater minds and interesting lives. The beauty of Oxford, as a city, is only a beginning to its value, and yet sometimes even that is difficult to soak in. My new friends here have been so wonderful, while I incredibly miss people both at home and at my home school, it has begun to feel like home in its own way.

I only wish I could share it more.