Well, It is officially 4th week here at Oxford, meaning I am halfway through the Hilary Term. I can't believe how fast a month has flown by! I seems I have merely blinked an eye and already February is here to great me. However, I am happy to be very well settled in. I have learned how to stretch my stipend (I can make it a week on approximately 20 pounds (that doesn't include going out or buying rather huge editions of Victor Hugo's Poetry).
Anyways, on a more academic level, I have also gleaned an appreciation for the novel, which I might never have had without Barry's tutelage. Since I have arrived, I have read more books then I normally would in a month at school; however, I was afforded the time to do them justice. I have very little to do during the day, except for meandering around the ashmolean and hanging out with friends, so my studies are getting the intensity they deserve. Accordingly, It has been very difficult to write 5-6 pages required of me for every weekly tutorial. Where 5 pages use to be a burdensome problem, I now find myself continually cut out paragraphs and quelling lines of thought and analysis in order to distill my papers into very cogent pieces. I love it here and image that this is the form of study I will be encouraged and able to perform in graduate school. So far my list of read books include the following: John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress," Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe," Swift's "Gulliver's Travels," Fielding's "The History of Tom Jones a Foundling," Richardson's "Clarissa," (which I wasn't forced to finish thanks Barry!!! (hated it)) Pat Roger's "Henry Fielding: a Bibliography," Michael Irwin's "The Tenative Realist" (an excerpt) Voltaire's "Candide" (in Fench during my leisure time), and I am currently working on Fanny Burney's "Evelina," which thus far i am enjoying very much - It is like a much more distilled "Pride and Predjudice" (but honestly, I am liking it much more than Austen) :)
Otherwise, I have spent my time in the Union. It has the glorious library that you are able to see in my pictures as well as the Union Bar, where there are always a humdrum of people. The other day I met a scholar and professor named Dr.Franklin Smith, who studies the movement of Christian through the African American community. He was very cordial; however he is a bit full of himself. Once he discovered I was studying English and French Literature, He began to test my wits. He first quoted a famous line from Hamlet to see if I knew from where it originated-Which I did. He then moved on to quote a bit more obscure, yet a quite recognizable excerpt from Milton's "Paradise Lost." Once, again I was able to answer the question successful. He then persisted to one final quote of which I was completely at a loss...When I admitted that I didn't recognize the piece. He told me that it was from a great Author...Himself. Yes, He had quoted a piece from his own book! C'est la vie. Let's just say I had to take a leave in order to get some reading done.
As far as more recent events are concerned. The shower which was "mysteriously" broken during 1st week has finally been repaired, and I no longer have to walk to another house in order to take a shower. Also, after 3 weeks, a feud with customs, and me having to pay a hold of 45 pounds (approx. $80), I have finally received my wonderful Ipod touch. It is amazing especially considering my other ipod refused to play through the right head phone, a situation which is not very conducive for running! But now I can have skype (and facebook) with me when I travel abroad in a month and 3 days! I am very excited. I will be flying to Madrid on the 13 of March, then to Valencia for the Festival of Las Fallas, followed by visits to Rome and Venice, up to Amsterdam, then back down to Paris, at which point, Alvin and I will then set off on a 2 week tour of France: From Paris to Strasbourg to Aix-en-Provence to Tours to Normandie (Mont-Saint-Michel). I am absolutely floored and more than excited that I get this opportunity to see Europe. I have dreamed for so long of experience the world outside of my little Southern Bubble. Expensive -> Yes. Worth it -> ABSOLUTELY!
I am really in a good place at the moment. Very content and happy to be blessed enough to be here. This experience is in every way irreplaceable. I have put so many hours into study and here are the results laid before me, not to mention all of the support and help I have received from family, friends, faculty, and people who have influenced my life and aided me in ways I may never know. Thank you all for making my dreams possible. Love you and miss you all.
