Art and becoming a family
The update! Well, part of the reason I waited a few days to update was because there hasn’t been a whole lot going on ‘round here. In the past few days, we’ve heard 5 hours of lectures on British history from the same Don. The older gentleman amazes me with his ability to lecture for hours without a single note and to reference numerous anecdotal stories as well as historical facts throughout each hour’s presentation. Though his style was more, how shall I put this delicately…monotone (think Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), I still was very impressed with his wealth of knowledge.Another highlight of the past few days has a trip to the Ashmolean, Oxford’s oldest public museum. The collection at this facility was breathtaking. Some of the highlights were works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Rodin, and three Stradivarius violins. We also visited during a time when their primary exhibit features icons from various faiths, such as ancient biblical manuscripts and a collection of beautiful paintings of the Holy Land by an artist named Edward Lear. Overall, the experience just left me feeling so blessed. These are the kinds of names I hear about in school, and yet now I’m able to take in this art in person.
Like Chris said in a past entry, this is still “nought week”, or 0 week, and as everyone’s been moving back in and getting readjusted to classes, all of us study abroad kids have been contacting our tutors to start the ball rolling. I personally met with my primary tutor this morning, as did Chris, and we both left with a length reading list (most of which was only in the non-lending library- aka you have to sit there and read it, no checking it out) and an 2,500 word essay due Monday on a topic that “jumps out to us” from the reading. Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore. We have a primary tutor that each of us meets with once a week, as well as a secondary tutor that we meet with every other week, a small seminar class that meets weekly, and a faith and learning colloquium through APU, which is mostly a group discussion with short reading excerpts. After the 9 weeks of the term are over, we will them take a class in british history and culture as a collective body. I think what will be most difficult is the self-discipline aspect to the course of study here in Oxford. Only about 5 hours a week will actually be instruction, the rest is ample reading and writing on our own time. But the combination of limited library times and selective collections will make the week a bit of a puzzle. But all that studying is still a few days away.
To occupy ourselves, we’ve been trying our best to see the town and visit the huge shops, like Blackwell’s, a four level bookshop boasting over 3 million books and 126 years of experience. We also ate the informal dinner at our college’s dining hall and we’re all rapidly learning about the clubs and sports we can join to really become members of our college. A group of us have also successfully watched all of the second season of West Wing, a collection left in one of the local flats (score!) and tomorrow night we’re having a group potluck dinner. We’re really kind of becoming a family. I sincerely love it here. Cheers!
posted by Jen and Chris at Oxford @ 4:55 AM
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