Arrivals and Survivals

Hello everyone!

I am happy to announce that I have survived my first week of real Oxford. Yes, I have been in Oxford and writing papers for the past month and a half, but REAL Oxford did not start until this past week. I have had my first meeting with both of my tutors and have started attending lectures.

First off, there have been many changes in the city. All of the students who do not already live here have arrived. It has been exciting to see a rush of new faces around the city. This also means that the quite dorm building I have lived in has suddenly become much more noisy. The common room is no longer a place of refuge for quiet study. Fortunately, it does not seem that the number of people sharing our kitchen has grown. This has now become the place of SCIO student gatherings. The grocery store is also always crowded making it difficult to navigate your little wheeled basket behind you. The libraries are no longer quiet and peaceful places. Even the upper level of the Rad Cam, which is probably the quietest place on campus, is now full of the sounds of studying. It has definitely been a weird week watching the campus spring into life.

Tutorials are amazing. Oxford uses a very different system of teaching than most other universities. During the eight week term students do not really have classes. There are lectures that are highly recommended, but not required. No body takes attendance and you are free to attend any lectures you would like to. The tutorial itself is a one on one meeting between you and your professor. Each week you prepare an essay and either bring it to your tutor, or send it in early. The tutorial then becomes a conversation about your essay and the topic you have been assigned for that week. This past week I looked at the function and effects of various forms of musical analysis and the chronology of thirteenth century motets. While writing papers this week I learned that it is not necessary to stay up until the next morning writing papers, and then promptly disposed of that discovery as I worked on my second paper of the week. Analysis was not too bad this week, but as we progress through the term, each week will be spent analyzing and talking about different pieces. This week I am focusing on Beethoven's Tempest Sonata.  Learning about motets was like learning another language, and therefore quite difficult. I am thankful that I have another week to grapple with them before we move onto madrigals.

One perk to the suddenly congested campus is the beginning of extra-curricular activities. I am very pleased to have gotten a spot in the university's philharmonic orchestra. Our first rehearsal was last Wednesday. We are playing Sibelius No. 2, Hanson No. 2, and the Karelia Suite. The people are all very friendly and it is fun to be a part of such an advanced ensemble. This term I will also be performing in the ensemble of Pirates of Penzance with the Gilbert and Sullivan Society. This is my first G&S show, so I am excited about that as well. Additionally, all of the student groups who rehearsed last term are putting on shows this term. Last night we saw Anything Goes. It was very well done. Some of the American accents were a bit off, which made my friends and I laugh even more.

I am looking forwards to another week of studying, writing, growing, and late night ice cream runs to finish papers :)

~ Brynn

Before Real Oxford

Hello Everyone!

These past two weeks have been absolutely psychotic, hence the lack of blog posts. Life here is still amazing, but I am starting to understand why everyone warned me about all of the work. The official Oxford term starts on Monday, and I am quite excited to dive into my tutorials. Before those begin, here is an update on all of my adventures. (Unfortunately pictures are still not cooperating...but they will get here eventually.)

Imperial War Museum

On Monday (9/26) we took our final British Culture field trip to the Imperial War Museum in London. Housed in what used to be Bedlam, the museum was full of artifacts from Britain's various war experiences. Due to our limited time at the museum I was only able to visit the World War One and the Holocaust exhibit. The WWI exhibit contained various artifacts from military and civilian life as well as quotes and letters from soldiers. There were interactive displays which allowed visitors to pretend to do things such as winding bandages for soldiers. The most compelling piece was a fifteen-ish foot replica of a trench that visitors had to pass through to get out of the exhibit. Though I have always heard about trenches and seen them on TV, it is hard to gain perspective on how miserable they must have been. I can't say that I experienced anything close to what the soldiers would have experienced, but this helped me to realize that these experiences are real and to gain a small bit of understanding as to what their living conditions must have been like. 

The other exhibit I visited was the Holocaust exhibit. Since I was in middle school I have always been fascinated by the Holocaust. This exhibit did an excellent job of telling the stories of the individuals. This made it far easier to see the victims as people, and not just some nameless beings to whom terrible things happened. I was not able to spend half of the time that I needed to read everything, but the stories I did read were truly heart breaking. The most tragic part of the exhibit was a case of the victims' shoes. There were pairs of shoes in those cases that were not unlike some of the shoes that I own, which just reminded me of how these unspeakable acts happened to people just like me. It was a sobering experience but very informative. 

The End of British Culture

I turned in my final two British Culture essays on Wednesday (9/28). For these essays I wrote about the women of Shakespeare's time and about film adaptations of Jane Austen's Emma. The Shakespeare paper was fun to research, and even more to compare with the women in Much Ado About Nothing, my favorite Shakespearean play. The Emma paper was also quite fun to research as I focused on modernized adaptations. However, I read the entirety of Emma and watched Clueless and Emma Approved all in about 5 days. Needless to say, I have had my fix of Emma Woodhouse and her shenanigans for quite a while. 

Mid-Term Break

After my papers were turned in I officially began my midterm break. My first act of break was to take a nap. (Or maybe to go to bed...things get complicated when you turn in a paper after staying up until 8 in the morning.) The first couple days of break were spent composing (more to follow) and exploring Oxford. I finally had time to do some much needed shopping for things like food. On Thursday (9/29), a group of SCIO students and I went to see Cats at the local theatre. All of the actors were incredible, especially in their movements. It took me a while to get into the show, but by the end I really enjoyed the characters and the music. Grizabella was my favorite because she was one of the few characters who were actually a part of the show's limited plot. Also the actress playing her had an incredible belt. 

Composing

As some of you may know I am currently in the process of trying to write my own musical. Theatre, and musicals in specific have always been a crucial piece of my existence and I think I am ready to start contributing to this community. I am also a deadline driven person and was motivated to start actually writing and composing by a composition workshop application. I hope to hear back soon, but even if I was not accepted this was the kick in the butt I needed to actually start this project :) 

Visiting Family

I was so blessed to have my mom and my grandmother come visit me during my break. These women have been with me through everything and to be so far away from them has been difficult. Fortunately I have the internet which makes them feel much closer. (Thanks to my mom, my grandmother now can send me messages on her computer!) For the four days they were here I got to share my new home with them as well as be a tourist again. (After living here for over a month I don't feel like I can be a tourist anymore...but I got to pretend with them!)

Oxford Tourists

For the first couple of days that they were here we spent a lot of time exploring Oxford. With my Oxford ID/Bodleian Card I am able to visit the various colleges in Oxford. This prompted a return to various Harry Potter filming locations around the city. We took a tour of the Divinity School and Duke Humphrey's Library in the Old Bodleian Library, which was quite informative. We also visited my favorite place in Oxford, Port Meadow :) As a finale to our days of Oxford exploration the three of us and my roommate cooked dinner for the other SCIO students who stayed in Oxford over break. 

London

On Monday we took a trip to London, another one of my favorite places. Our first stop of the day was Harrod's. I don't know what I was expecting, but the door man, light up escalators, and department after department of designer clothes were definitely more extravagant than I had imagined. It was fun to walk through and to see all of the extremely expensive clothing and to imagine how people would walk in shoes that high or dresses that tight. There was also a large number of cello appropriate dresses, which I greatly appreciated. 

After our run through of Harrod's we continued on past Buckingham Palace to the British Museum. We say the Rosetta Stone, sculptures from the Parthenon, and an Aztec turquoise dragon. My favorite exhibit was a man that had either died in or been tossed into a swamp and his body was preserved for over a thousand years. It was amazing to think about how we can find people from thousands of years ago and know nothing about them, but we still think they are quite important. It really makes you think about what happens when you die and how random it is that we put dead people on display. Between the mummies, skeletons, and swamp man I would love to know how many dead bodies are in that museum. 

Our final stop of the day was a performance of The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie. The killer was !#@#!$!##@#!. As the curtain closed the audience was reminded that the secret of the killer has been kept for 64 years and therefore we should not be the ones to go and spoil it for future audiences. The cast was superb and the plot had me sitting on the edge of my chair the entire show. I can see why this is the longest running play ever. 

Blenheim Palace

For my family's last day here we took a trip up to Blenheim Palace, the home of the Duke of Marlborough. First off, I cannot imagine people actually living here, but they do. We toured the state rooms and I imagined what it would be like to live there. I imagine it would be quite similar to What a Girl Wants or Downton Abbey. All in all, I would much rather live my adventures, albeit not as comfortable, life than to be kept on display for the world at all times. For lunch we had a traditional afternoon tea with sandwiches, scones, coffee, and of course tea!!! We then spent some time exploring the palace grounds and getting lost in hedge mazes. For our final dinner together we went to a pub and enjoyed watching all of the Oxford students that were arriving for the coming term. 

The Calm(-ish) Before the Storm

So here we are, ready to start our time at real Oxford. No more British Culture essays, no more research seminars. It is just us, our tutors, and what feels like half the Bodleian of books in our back packs. Today was the Freshers' Fair and I signed up for information about many different clubs and organizations. I am so excited to dive into my tutorials and to see where this semester takes me!!!

Congratulations on making it to the end!!!

~ Brynn

Oxford Oddities

Since I have come to Oxford there have been quite a few differences between life at home and life here. I now present you with a running list of some of those differences that will be updated as I discover them.

• Toilet paper comes in individual sheets
• Paper towels are blue 
• Bandaids are called Plasters
• Q-Tips are called Cotton Tips 
• Some faucets are reversed with Hot and Cold on the opposite sides
• Shops close before 7 pm
• Military time is very common
• People drive on the opposite side of the road
• Term is only 8 weeks long
• There are 3 terms per year
• People carry their books in cloth bags
• There are sheep in most fields
• The playgrounds are much more dangerous
• There are many more public parks
• Elementary School is called Primary School
• Most pre-college age students wear uniforms
• People bike everywhere 
• Packets of soup are called sachets
• Different pronunciations (and my bad attempts to explain how they sound)
• Renaissance = Re-NAY-sance
• Controversy = Con-trov-esy 
• Baroque = Barock
• Pants are NOT trousers
• Cheers is a universal phrase