First Week of Class

I am very happy with my decision of coming to Oxford. We are 63 students in the entire Bread Loaf program, 20 graduating, 20 first year students and the rest of us in between. Although I know three people from the previous years, I’ve already made two new friends, Chelsey and Nichole. Chelsey (on my right) spent last summer doing an English course in Exeter College and knows the ins and outs of Oxford. (Dora) Nichole (on my left) lived in Hawaii but is moving to London after the summer to do a master’s in dance choreography.

This week has been a bit cold, especially during the evenings. On Tuesday I went with Chelsey to the nearest GAP to purchase a pair of sweatpants and a sweater to use as pajamas. That night we had a formal meeting, cocktail and dinner (called High Table) followed by more drinks at Deep Hall, the pub located inside the college. Jetlag made both students and faculty susceptible to liquor and some of us ended up at a local club (the Purple Turtle) listening to 90’s rap music and wishing we were asleep. Chelsey, Nichole and I broke away from the group and wondered the streets of Oxford until we located a kebab truck where we got French fries with hummus!

On Wednesday I went to my first class and met my professor (Peter McCullough) and my two colleagues (Renee and Stacy). In contrast to the strict structure of the classes at the other campuses, Oxford encourages lots of reading, open discussions and independent research which I found to be liberating and exciting. Part of our class curriculum includes visiting places in Oxford and London that can be tied directly to our readings. In the evening the entire school packed into a pair of vans and headed to the Watermill Theater to watch “the Taming of the Shrewd” by William Shakespeare. The play was very interesting because it was done by an all-male cast, keeping the violent physical abuse scenes light and humorous (most of the time!)

Although we were sworn in on Tuesday, I did the orientation of the Bodleian Library on Thursday. We learned how to order and reserve our books along with the rules and regulations of the establishment. The Bodleian was built in the early 1600’s. Today it is one of the three biggest libraries in the World, and the biggest one in Britain. It is a reference only library, meaning that the books cannot be checked out and it contains all the books published by British authors. Currently the library has approximately 8 million volumes which they keep in storage stacks underground and can take up to a week to be found and brought to the reading rooms (for the public to use). After the orientation I went to the manuscript room, which contains books and manuscripts prior to the 18th century. I got to look over first editions of poems written by Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison and James Thomson, all influential authors of the restoration period. I was deeply touched and inspired by the experience of reading the original texts first hand.