Bells

I realize I never posted any updates about bells. It has been amazing and I am really sad to leave it. This is a really cool activity that I wish we had in the states rather than having everything automated. I looked it up the other day and there are only about fifty towers in the states and sadly none of them are near me. I got to ring at the main practice a few times. I think they let me because they knew I would never have the opportunity to do that. I did really well for the first time. I got to try three times during the practice. The first was pretty terrible but then I got better and better. The third time I hardly got out the whole time. I was awesome. I’m really glad I stuck with this even though it seemed weird in the beginning because I had a really good time with it. 

Only Two Weeks Left!!!

December 4th

It’s crazy how fast the term went. Almost everyone is done now (or finishing tomorrow) and we are all parting ways. A couple people are actually going home tomorrow. Everyone else is going out and traveling Europe. I am going to Poland on Saturday and the straight to Germany on Tuesday.

Tonight there was a going away/Christmas party at St. Giles. It was just as fun as all the others. It is nice to get together with everyone like that but really every party has been the same thing. Say hi to everyone and get drunk and go home. I actually did drink at this one though so I guess it was different for me. After the party we went to a club for a while before going home. It was all right but I think I have said before I don’t really like cubs at all. I had fun though.

I can’t believe I am going home so soon. I am so excited to go home and see my family and friends but I am so sad to leave.

Catching Up

Okay so I realize I have been really really really bad about keeping up with this blog so I am going to do some catching up. Here is what I have missed telling everyone in the last three weeks or so.

I have gone to three pub quizzes. This is a fairly popular activity here in the UK and it’s pretty fun. The first one I went too was at the Waterman’s Arms. This is a pub down the street from my flat (probably the closest thing to civilization around here). My team consisted of Rebecca, John (someone who has become a very good friend of Rebecca’s), Mike and Hadrian (friend’s of John’s from the pub) and myself. We did all right considering there were three Americans who knew nothing about Britain. We got sixth out of twelve. I also went to another one at the New College pub. For this one my team was Gareth, Maria, Julian, Bill, and myself. We did horrible. We did not come in last, and that is about all I can say about it. I did really well on the science portion of the quiz but other than that we were basically SOL. The last one I went to was again at the Waterman’s Arms. This time we had Bill on our team as well as another of John’s friends to replace Hadrian who wasn’t there. We got fourth out of six this time. All in all these pub quizzes are a ton of fun even though we usually to terrible.

I have also been to a few college dinners. I went to New College formal dinner with Bill, Erin, and Jamie. It was really nice and I wish I had gone earlier in the term and gone more often. I did go to a few Trinity College dinners as well. Trinity College has much better food than New College. I went to one of their regular nightly dinners and I went to two of their guest night dinners. These dinners are formal occasions where guys have to wear suits and I wore a cocktail dress. It was a wonderful experience. It was like experiencing the upper class you read about and watch on TV but you always know it’s for kings and queens and people of a higher class. It was really nice. They serve a four-course meal and the whole occasion takes about two to three hours. It was really a lot of fun.

I finished up my physical chemistry tutorials on a very good note and I think I did really well. He said he was impressed with my work and my improvements over the course of the term. He also said if I ever have any questions at all to e-mail him because he is always a teacher and will always help a former student out. He said he would be willing to write recommendations for me and anything else I need. I think I may ask him to read my thesis when I am finished with it.

I also ended my Shakespeare tutorials with a bang. He loved my last essay and said that I would be a very good Shakespeare critic. I think I may continue my studies in Shakespeare in the future. Just taking on class at a time that would give me the opportunity to study his works further. I really loved this course. He also gave me a list of plays in the order he would typically assign them if I were to continue studying with him. I may just continue his course slowly on my own and see where it gets me.

            I think that is about it that is worth writing about but since I have been doing so badly I may have some little updates later on things I missed.

Thanksgiving

Today was thanksgiving and I was really sad not to be at home. I love thanksgiving for some reason. It is defiantly my favorite holiday. This obviously is not a British holiday and therefore we were all on our own mostly for celebration. OSAP had a wonderful lunch for us. We had turkey sandwiches and pumpkin pie. The pie was really bad though. They don’t eat pumpkin pie here, in fact most of them have never heard of it. It was very nice of them to have that lunch for us though and I really appreciated it.

After the OSAP lunch we went grocery shopping to prepare our own Thanksgiving dinner. It was quite modified but still wonderful. We got a whole chicken because it was cheaper and we could not find anything to make pumpkin pie of our own so we had chocolate cake. We also made stuffing, corn, green beans, and mashed potatoes with gravy. It was a wonderful dinner. There were tons of people here eating and we made a horrible mess but it was fun. We had Rebecca, Andrea, Katrina (a friend of Andrea’s who is studying in Seville), Bill, Lee (a friend of Bill’s from Liverpool), Maria, Jullian, Zoya, Anya (Zoya’s sister), and myself.

After dinner we played charades and everyone got pretty drunk. They made a mess of the apartment that was a pain to clean up but it was worth it.

Paris

Rebecca and I left on Thursday the 20^th from Luton airport (in London) to Charles de Gaulle, an hour long flight, which was half the time it took to get to the airport. When we landed Rebecca’s three friends, Jerry, Kate and Amanda were waiting for us just outside the gate. We got on the train into the city and they took us to our hostel - the Young and Happy - in the Latin Quarter so we could check in and drop off our bags. The hostel was nice and seemed clean, safe, and comfortable. Our room had four beds one of which was occupied and the other which was taken on our second night there. The hostel also provided a breakfast in the morning of a croissant, a roll, juice, coffee, and tea.

Then Rebecca’s friends took us to a small Italian restaurant that was delicious. I had lasagna and we got some wine for the table. I actually liked the rose we got, and I usually hate wine. After dinner we went to the Eiffel Tower. It was so cool to get off the metro and see the bright blue lights of the Eiffel tower shining over everything. Currently the tower is blue because France is the president of the European Union and it is decorated like the EU flag. It has the stars in a circle and everything. Jerry went with Rebecca and I to the top. It was an amazing view of the city but it was freezing and windy. I was scared to death but it was worth it. While we were up there Jerry did his best tried to point out all of the landmarks to us. Afterwards we met up with the a lot of students that Rebecca’s friends have met since studying in France and headed to the bars. Rebecca and her friends stayed out really late club hopping but I only went to one of the clubs and then Jerry walked me back to the hostel for the night.

The next day we woke up and had breakfast at the hostel and then Amanda picked up Rebecca and I and we headed off to Notre Dame. The first thing we did there was step on the center of Paris (indicated by a round stone in the pavement with a star in the middle. They say if you step there you will return to Paris someday. We met Kate and Jerry there and toured inside. It was beautiful. After Notre Dame we went to the courtyard of a local teaching hospital. There is a statue of the hospital's founder in the courtyard and every year the seniors paint the statue. This year they painted it as Heath Ledger's Joker from The Dark Night. They did an amazing job, and it was really cool. Next, we got crepes at a ittle stand on the street. I had banana and nutella, which was absolutely amazing. Then we headed across the street to Shakespeare & Co., a famous bookstore that used to be frequented by such authors as Hemingway.

After the bookshop, we walked down along the Seine to the Musee d'Orsay. We looked at a lot of impressionist work because that is precisely the topic which Rebecca is studying in one of her tutorials. We also went through a mask exhibit that is currently there. After Musee d'Orsay, we got baguettes for lunch and then walked through the Tuleries. This was highly unimpressive due to the winter weather however it’s obvious that this is a beautiful place most of the year. Then we waked to the Place de Concorde where you can see the Obelisk Napoleon, the Eiffel Tower, and down the Champs Elysee to L'Arch de Triomphe. We did not take the walk down the Champs Elysee because we wanted to head to the Opera. We walked down passed Madaleine, the cathedral where you get married in France if you're famous, and then on to the opera house. We only admired the outside and the lobby of the opera, because you had to pay to go inside any further than that. We then took about a two-hour break at Jerry house so Rebecca could nap and everyone could have a rest before our planned trip to the Louvre. We had to wait until later (past six) to go because on Friday’s students at the schools in Paris can bring in a friend for free so Jerry and Kate took Rebecca and I in for free. It was amazing. I’m not much of an art person but you can’t look at all of the wonderful artwork and not be impressed. We walked through all of the renaissance work because that is Rebecca’s favorite artwork. I don’t mean to sound like all of our museum trips were to mae Rebecca happy because I thoroughly enjoyed them, however as an art history minor she was the best qualified to narrow our explorations of these huge museums. It would take an entire day to even attempt to see everything in the Louvre. I loved seeing the Mona Lisa in person. I have always been fascinated by it regardless of the criticisms people have for it. After the Louvre we had dinner and went back to the Latin Quarter. I walked back to the hostel with Rebecca and Vikki so Rebecca could change and while I went to bed they went out to the student bars.

The next day, Saturday, was our last in Paris. We woke up early and caught the metro to the famous cemetery, the Pere Lachaise. We saw the graves of Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, Gertrude Stein, and Oscar Wilde. After the cemetery, Jerry and Rebecca went back to the Louvre so she could get a book on Mantegna while I went with the girls to get lunch. We bought baguettes and cheese then sat behind Notre Dame and had lunch. Then we walked through some tourist shops and I got one last nutella crepe in Paris. Then we got onto the train to head back to the airport.

The weekend was short and very busy but it was amazing. I love Paris and I cannot wait to go back sometime!

Twenty Nine Days Left

November 19

I AM GOING TO PARIS IN THE MORNING!!!!!!!!!

That is all... again

Thirty-one days left

November 17

I AM GOING TO PARIS IN THREE DAYS!!!!!!!!!! 

That’s all

Thirty-three days left

November 15

Today we had an OSAP trip to Stonehenge and Bath. A lot of people thought Stonehenge was dumb because it’s “just a bunch of rocks.” I thought it was amazing. It’s so cool to think about how the druids got the stones there and how they assembled them into the structure. It’s also cool because we can sit and stare at it amazedly but we will probably never know what it was really built there for. No matter what anyone says that’s pretty cool to me.

Bath was very nice as well. The city of Bath is a very cute city. There are a ot of pedestrian streets and lots of market places. We toured to Roman Baths first which were also pretty cool. It’s amazing how they are all naturally heated and how the Romans used to use them as a therapy for their warriors and royals.

After the tour we had time to wander the city. We went to the Jane Austen center and then to the Royal Crescent. It’s really a very nice old city. I can’t really describe it, I just liked it there. Some of us are planning to go back in December to visit the Christmas markets. That should be really fun I think.

When we got back into Oxford Rebecca, Andrea, and I went straight to the theater. We had tickets to see Carmen. It was pretty cool. I enjoyed the story and the singing was amazing (even though I don’t particularly enjoy the style of opera music). I didn’t think the talent was particularly wonderful. It was a traveling group and they were only in Oxford for one day but I think this fact showed. I have been far more impressed by performances I’ve seen in the states but overall it was enjoyable.

When we left the opera all three of us were starving and we practically ran to the kabob stand near out place. I think that was about the best food I have eaten here so far but it probably had something to do with the fact that I was so hungry.

Thirty-six days left

November 12

So I had my chemistry tutorial today and my Shakespeare one yesterday. After six days of nothing but working I think I did pretty well. Ed Clark loved my essay on the Lady Macbeth and Cleopatra and Robert Jacobs said that my work this week was the best so far. As a reward to myself I am doing no work tomorrow!

I also had bells tonight. This is going very well and I will defiantly be sad to leave it. I was invited to come to the main practice (rather than the beginners practice) next week to try out some real ringing! I am really excited but also nervous because I don’t know how well I will be able to keep up with the people there who have been doing this for so much longer than me.

            After bells I went to Vanessa’s place and we planned out trip to Poland! I am so excited. We are going to spend three days in Krakow! I have been there before. I went to Poland for a month in high school and I loved Krakow so I was very excited to hear that someone was planning to go there and wanted a travel buddy. It will definitely be a different experience. SO far everything I have done has been new to me but this won’t be. I have been there and it will be cool to experience the city again with the knowledge I already have about it. 

Forty Days Left!!

November 8

So I haven’t written in a while and I’m right at the halfway point of my journey so I decided to write something. This week was uneventful. I had two tutorials that both went very well and I have a stressful weekend ahead of me. I met for both my primary and my secondary this week and I am also meeting for both of them next week. This is unusual because I usually have two weeks to work on the work I have for my secondary tutorial. I will defiantly be holed up in my room all weekend doing my work.

            It’s strange to know that my time here is half over. I can’t believe how fast it is moving for me. I miss everyone from home so much but I also feel like I’m at home when I return here to Venneit Close. I am definitely going to miss this place and al the people I have met here. This experience has been amazing and it’s shaping up to end no less than amazing. Can’t wait to see what the next forty days bring!

Day thirty-four

November 2

I can’t believe that it’s November already. I’m almost to the point where I’m counting the days down rather than up. I’m having a ton of fun here but I’m also glad that I am only here for one term. I love it here but I miss home and friends at home and Otterbein in general.

So today we had our second OSAP trip. We went to Warwick Castle. 

The town of Warwickshire was founded in pre-Saxon times and developed under the protection of the castle.

In the late 11^th century the town had a population of about 1800. Most of the town was destroyed by fire in 1684, but many of the stone medieval building remained. These include Lord Leycester Hospital, Collegiate Church of St. Mary, and Warwick Castle. This is though to be the finest medieval castle in England, possibly even Europe. The castle is built on a steep cliff in the town right on the river Avon. The first defenses were built in 916 for protection against the Danes. In 1066 William of Normandy built a fortress to subdue the Midlands. This included a man made mound topped with a wooden tower. Stone buildings began to replace the wooden ones in the 12^th century.

The castle has been home to the Earl of Warwick since 1088. These influential men have played major roles in many wars in England including the War of Roses, The Hundred Years War, and The Civil War. King Edward was held prisoner there during the War of Roses. During the Civil War parliament was moved to Warwick Caste for protection. Many nearby castles were demolished at this time but Warwick Castle stood strong.

When entering the castle you must walk on a drawbridge over a dry moat and through a gatehouse. Murder holes and arrow slots on either side protect this gatehouse. When you enter you are standing between two large towers. Guys tower is on the right, named after the same Guy of Warwick mentioned in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and Caesar’s tower is on the left. Both of these towers have very irregular shapes in order to allow archers varied and overlapping points at which to aim.

The first thing we did was walk through these towers. It’s over 500 steps up and back down and then up into the second and back down again. The stairs are all very steep and tightly spiraled in a clockwise direction going up. This is also a defense mechanism. Since most armies are right handed this caused the attacking army to have their sword closest to the center of the spiral with little room for moving their arm. The defending army coming down the stairs had their right arm nearer the outside of the spiral therefore giving them more swinging room for attack. Apparently the German’s had an entirely left handed army just for attacking on the way up staircases like these!

After going through the towers we headed up to the mound built by William of Normandy (more commonly know as William the conqueror). 

 the tower built there was wooden it no longer remains but the mound serves as a wonderful vantage point from which to see the whole castle at once. We also went into the dungeons. This was very creepy. Simply the fact of knowing that people actually suffered and died down there was very creepy. They also had some plaques describing different torture methods used. It’s very disturbing to see what they used to do to people. The last tour inside we took was into the main part of the castle. The inside is beautiful. There were wax figures everywhere depicting what would have been going on inside during a party for a prince. It was pretty cool to see what would have actually been going on in the castle 200 years ago. We also went through an exhibit called the kingmaker. This had a series of wax figures as well. In this exhibit they were depicting what it would take to keep the castle running. It included tailors, blacksmiths, horse trainers, soldiers, seamstresses, etc. There is also a huge trebuche in the back. Wikipedia says it's the biggest in the world (not sure how reliablle that is) it's 60 feet tall! They actually use it every day as well. We left before they did it though :-(

I thought that the day was pretty cool. I liked seeing a castle, especially one that was over 1000 years old. I was highly impressed. 

 people thought the area was too touristy and childish. Many people thought it was more catered toward children than adults. I though it was interesting none the less. There were also several scenes acted out on the lawn during the day. I stopped to watch a bit of a falcon-training exhibition as well as two men sword fighting. At the end they told us to take the pumpkins still littering the lawn from Halloween. Rebecca and I both took one and we’re planning on looking up recipes for cooking them.

After getting home Bill, Zoya, Andrea, and I went to The Red Lion for dinner. That is my favorite pub in Oxford by far. We all also decided to return in the morning for a traditional English breakfast. None of us has tried this yet and it’s only two pounds at The Red Lion. Overall it was a really great day and I would definitely recommend going at least one for anyone touring in England.

Day thirty-two

October 31

So today was Halloween and it was pretty fun. In England as far as I can tell Halloween is more a time for college students to party than a time for children. Some of the people living in bigger neighborhoods said they had three or four kids come trick-or-treating but not many. This could be because I’m living in a college city but I’m not sure.

Around seven everyone in our flat began getting ready for Halloween. We were ultimately planning on going to the New College bop, which was themed “Your Worst Nightmare” so we were dressing accordingly. Andrea went as a cat, Rebecca wet covered in spider-webs and spiders, and I went as your bad conscious (dressed in all black with hot pink devil horns). Maria, Zoya, and Julian were joining us as well, Maria went as a pregnant woman, Julian went as a girl, and Zoya went with a knife to her throat with blood all over her neck.

First we headed to St. Giles for the OSAP party. We only stayed there for about an hour and then we headed to New College. When we got there we found out that the bop this time was for New College students only. Since Julian and Maria weren’t from New College we left. Outside we ran into Gareth and a few of his friends along with Bill and Sam (from OSAP). All of us headed to Wadam College where there was a party going on in the pub. We stayed there for a while and then Andrea and I decided to go back home. It was almost one in the morning. The two of us left with Sam and Bill. We were headed home while Sam and Bill were headed to a club.

I had a good time seeing everyone and hanging out in the pub of Wadam but overall the party hardy and drink until you puke scene isn’t for me. I was very relieved that Andrea was ready to go home as well. I guess a lot of people from OSAP ended up at the club that Sam and Bill went too. I assume it was fun for people who like drinking and dancing but again I’m glad I wasn’t there. 

Day Twenty Eight

October 27

This weekend I went to Wales with Zoya and Vanessa. It was a ton of fun! We left super early on Saturday morning for a five-hour bus ride to Cardiff Wales. We walked around Cardiff City Center for a while. Saw Cardiff castle, which is pretty much amazing. The city center was mostly pubs and clubs and shopping, not a lot of sightseeing opportunities. After we got our fill of the city center we walked about two miles to Cardiff Bay. This is the major tourist attraction of Cardiff.

The bay was beautiful. We could see hills off in the distance across the bay, which was full of sailboats. The atmosphere of the area was wonderful, it was a very laid back sort of feel. We walked all around the bay. The area around the bay is full interesting buildings and artwork depicting events from and scenes of the bay. We stopped at a small market and tried just about everything they had to offer there. We had home made Welsh cakes, home made goat cheese, and homemade fudge. The fudge was also made with goat cheese. We wound up getting a small package of chocolate fudge to share. It was absolutely delicious.

Sometime late in the afternoon we noticed a tugboat pulling a ship into a small inland area used for docking larger ships. It turned out that the tugboat was pulling a navy ship into port. It was really cool. We stayed and watched the ship coming in for about an hour. After that we went in search of dinner. Everything was really expensive so we decided to go to the supermarket. We all bought a baguette and we got some cold pasta and chicken salads to put on the bread. We also got a package of Welsh cakes. The dinner turned out to be very good.

After eating we walked back into the city center and checked bus times. Gareth, who lives across the hall from me, lives very near Cardiff with his brother. He offered his house to us for the weekend and gave us a key. He said his brother should be there and that he would warn his brother we were coming. We decided to take the last train out at 9:15. We called Gareth and he let his friends know when to pick us up from the train station in Pontyclun (where he lives). We bought our train tickets and then wondered around in the nightlife of Cardiff.

There were tons of people out going to the club for the night. We say one large group of people who were apparently going to a Halloween party. All of them were dressed in crazy costumes. We say a Fred Flintstone, Shaggy, Scooby, and a guy dressed in a slutty nurse outfit. We had about an hour until our train so we just walked around the city and took pictures.

We got on the train at 9:15 and it was only a 20 min train ride to Pontyclun. At the train station two of his friends picked us up and drove us to Gareth’s house. His brother was home so we talked with him a lot about our day and he told us a lot about Wales. The village the live in is really small and everyone pretty much knows everyone else. He said he would show us around the village in the morning. We stayed up really late talking about Wales. Vanessa had a lot of questions. We mostly wound up talking about politics It really is a very popular subject here.

On Sunday we got up at nine and left the house around ten to tour Pontyclun. He took us to the local rugby club. This is the main hang out spot in Pontyclun. He said normally on a Sunday morning there would have been two rugby games going on outside and there would be a lot of people there watching. It was pouring rain outside so the place was pretty much abandoned. It was still really cool. There is a lot of rugby history on those walls. They had a picture from the late 1800’s of a famous rugby player.

After the rugby club we went to the local shopping center. We wandered around Borders and a couple clothes shops. I bought the complete works of Shakespeare. It was only six pounds! I couldn’t pass it up. Then he took us back to the train station so we could get back to Cardiff to catch our bus.

We had some time in Cardiff so we went souvenir shopping I bought some postcards. I love postcards and I get them everywhere. We stopped at a pub for lunch and then got on the bus back home. I had a really good time all weekend. It wasn’t a major tourist area and the atmosphere was very laid back and relaxing. It was a nice get away from all the school work in Oxford.

A Little History of New College

All of my information is from the New College website and can be found at http://www.new.ox.ac.uk/index.php

Officially titled “the New College of St. Mary,” New College was founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham. William of Wykeham (ca 1320-1404) was Bishop of Winchester and served as Chancellor of England. Basically he was the prime minister of the time. He felt that the young men of the day could not represent the church and state as he had and he built New College to educate humble and talented young men for this purpose. At the time this was highly necessary as the recent black plague had struck the area hard and was particularly hard on the clergy. He chose the site as a way of ridding the city of the prostitute service that had given the area a bad reputation. With the idea and a site to begin it on Richard II gave him a guarantee that this college could be built without problems.

New College, like most Oxford colleges, was a religious foundation. The Chapel remains a focal point in the lives of many of its members, both spiritually and musically. The chapel choir has an international reputation. During term there is a full Choral service every night except Wednesday and the weekend services attract many outside visitors. The tradition of this choir goes back to the founding of the college and today the choir is internationally recognized. The Choir became a crucial part of the BBC’s religious programming during the Second War. They did regular broadcasts from the College Chapel and became a symbol for excellence within the domain of sacred music, a role it has continued to play within the nation’s life.

When founded, the College was new in several ways. It was the first college for undergraduates. It was the first college in which the senior members had tutorial responsibility for undergraduates. And it was the first college to be designed around the now familiar quadrangle plan. The front quadrangle, dining hall, chapel and cloisters were built within a few years of the College's foundation. 

Over time some reconstruction and much new building has taken place. In the 19th century there was an expansion of rooms for undergraduate students, and in the 1960s a new building for graduate students was added to the main site. More recently, the original Morris Garages, which are within the College's perimeter, have been converted to provide attractive undergraduate accommodation. In 1995 a new residential building for graduates was opened on the Sports Ground site, five minutes walk from the main College.

For the first century, it lived up to its founder's hopes, producing excellent scholars, and several bishops and archbishops. The college survived the Reformation, but with the intellectual heart taken out of it, and until the middle of the 19th century produced not much more than a long succession of comfortable country parsons. In 1850, there were barely twenty undergraduates in residence. Quickly however, the college reacted to the reforms of the 1850s by expanding in size, raising intellectual standards, and matching reform-minded Balliol for willingness to imagine a different world. By 1873, there were 275 undergraduates on the books. By the First World War, New College was one of the top three or four colleges academically. In the First World War, this reputation took its toll as New College lost more members killed in action than any college but Christ Church.

Like all Oxford colleges New College is an autonomous, self-governing institution. The governing body consists of the Warden (the head of the College) and Fellows as well as representative undergraduate and graduate students represented. Most Fellows of the College are both College Tutors and University Lecturers in the subjects that are taught here.

There are currently 400 undergraduate and 200 graduate students studying at New College. There is a great sense of community within the College walls, with students making friends across subjects and year groups. Unlike many colleges in Oxford most students at New College actually live within the college walls. 

Because of this college life becomes a big part of their University experience. Most students in New College live, work, eat, and socialize inside the college. All undergraduates are members of the Junior Common Room (JCR), and graduates members of the Middle Common Room (MCR). Committees elected each year by their students run the JCR and MCR. These committees are responsible for looking after the JCR facilities, organizing social events, and communicating the views and needs of the students to the governing body of the College. The JCR is also the route by which the students keep in touch with the University Students Union and the National Union of Students. Regular JCR meetings give all undergraduates the opportunity to express their views and concerns on life in the College.

New College is fortunate also has its own sports ground and pavilion five minutes’ walk away from the main College site There are fields for rugby, football (soccer), hockey, netball (similar to basketball) and basketball. In the summer there is a cricket field and grass and hard courts for tennis. The sports pavilion is home to two squash courts, changing room facilities and bar. The College also owns a boathouse on the banks of the Thames, along with a number of College punts, which are available for student use in the summer term. During warmer weather there are also magnificent gardens to relax and study in.

Tutorials

If you want to know what classes are like in Oxford first you have to forget about classes completely. You can’t even call it school (literally). When someone say’s they are going to school, it means they attend elementary through high school. When someone is doing undergraduate or graduate work it’s called University.There are few classes in Oxford. There are lectures throughout the week… that are completely optional for most people. For chemistry majors here lectures are a must.  I attend three lectures a week (soon to be five). These are held in the science building for me, which is about a 45-minute walk from home but in almost the opposite direction of Magdalen College. There are required lectures in each subject for each year of study. For most other majors lectures are completely optional and so far I don’t know very many OSAP students who have been told to go to any lectures at all. All lectures on campus are open to everyone in the college. There are lecture schedules in every library and I frequently look up lectures in various subjects for the week in case I’m interested in anything outside of chemistry. There are going to be a few lectures on Shakespeare that I may attend later in the term.

Instead of classes, students learn through tutorials. A tutorial is a one-on-one hour-long meeting between a student and their don. There are both primary and secondary tutorials. A primary tutorial meets once a week for all eight weeks of the term. A secondary meets four out of the eight weeks of the term, typically every other week. Most of the OSAP students are taking one primary and one secondary but some are taking three secondaries. My primary is physical chemistry and my secondary is Literature: Shakespeare.

For most tutorials (including my Shakespeare one) a student writes an essay for each meeting. For mine I write an eight to ten page paper every two weeks. My essays are comparative essays between the plays he has me read. I have already done this for Romeo and Juliet compared to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Not I am working on comparing As You Like It with Twelfth Night. When I go to my tutorial I take two copies of my essay. I read my essay out loud to Dr. Ed Clark and he will stop me at any point that he would like to discuss along the way. At then end we discuss the overall paper and other points I could have made in the essay.

For chemistry and other more math-based subjects the tutorial is a bit different. The “essays” I write are actually more like notes for myself. Dr. Jacobs gives me an outline with specific points I need to know and equations I need to derive. Then I read the chapters of the books and I basically type my note on the things he asked about. I turn in my paper one day before my tutorial so he can read over it and pan what we are going to talk about. He marks all over it with his red marker and we talk about what I don’t understand or what could be much stronger. Some weeks rather that this essay type assignment I have problems to work on. He gives me eight problems to do and then we discuss them in the next tutorial. In this case I do not have to turn them in a day early. He typically gives me four problems I can do just fine and four that he thinks are particularly challenging. So far I have had two assignments like this and I’ve been eight for eight on the “easy” problems and about one for eight on the hard ones. He says that’s about how he expects it. He assigns very difficult problems to help to expand my knowledge and so we have something to talk about during the tutorial.

All in all the tutorials are quite informal. Some people meet with their dons in cafes over tea or even in pubs over a pint. Many times the direction of more art-based tutorials (such as Shakespeare) are designed by the student (with some help and guidance from the don). Dr. Clark asked me in my last tutorial if I would like to study the histories for a week or do two weeks studying tragedies. He also asked me what I had already read and if I would like to read them again and study them differently or study new plays altogether. For my physical chemistry tutorial the path is also somewhat directed by me. I told Dr. Jacobs what I need to know in order to stay on course in my classes at Otterbein and he has designed the course to move in that direction. I also told him that I am particularly interested in photochemistry, due to my research, and he said we could spend a week or two studying that as well.

All in all I enjoy this new system of learning very much. It’s a completely different experience from learning in the states and I like it that way.

Oxford Campus

In the states a person would typically ask for a tour of campus, in my case a tour of Oxford’s campus. Well that would be a complicated feat. There are 44 colleges within the University of Oxford (my college is New College). Each college is a college in it’s own right and could stand on it’s own as a college. It has it's own place in town with a wall around it's land, and each college has it's own library, pub, dining hall, dorms, faculty and staff. The colleges are very exclusive. At the door to every college is a porter whose job is to keep the "public" out. Only staff and students associated with that particular college have full access to the grounds. It’s not really too difficult to get into a building where you don’t belong, just walk in like you know what your doing and you won’t get stopped most of the time. They do try though. Each college is walled in with only one or two entrances that are always looked after.

Members are very proud of their colleges. New College was used in the filming of Harry Potter, one thing I am proud of for sure. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, there is a scene where the fake Mad-Eye Moody turns Malfoy into a ferret. The cloisters of New College were used for that very scene. 

Cloisters are a square of buildings usually with big open windows with no glass and a big grassy sort of courtyard in the center. The plan for New College actually did not include cloisters originally. The architect however decided that is everyone else was going to have them he wanted them too. He added them in right in front of the chapel blocking the main door. You can no longer go into the chapel through the original from door because of the cloisters!

While each college does have it’s own dorms few people actually live within their college walls. The majority of people live outside of the center of Oxford and commute into the city. I live about a 20-minute walk from the center of the city and about 30 minutes from New College, but this is actually a typical walk for anyone in Oxford. Not only that, there are over 100 libraries in the city that any student may need to go to and the tutors (dons) do not necessarily hold their tutorials inside the college. One of my dons works at Magdalen College and we have our tutorials there. Magdalen is on the other side of Oxford and is about a 45-minute walk from my flat. They have a deer park at Magdalen and sometime I like to go early to watch the deer. 

It’s really amazing. My other has his tutorials at him home very near my flat. I don’t actually know what college he is faculty for.

Day twenty-four

October 23

First of all I can’t believe I have only been here for 24 days. The time has flown by but also feel like I’ve been here much longer than that. It almost feels like home already, although I also can’t wait to come home. I miss my family and friends a lot, as well as Otterbein.

Today Rebecca, Andrea and I ate at the New College dinning hall for the first time. The food was actually pretty good. It also wasn’t too expensive. Were probably going to be eating there much more often now, especially for lunch. It’s so convenient and it’s cheap!