Of Tutorials, Balls and Choir, oh my!

It's again been a busy few days since I updated!  I'll try to address things in order, then explain a bit more about how Oxford works, and give a few more "Things I've Noticed."

I had my first tutorial on Thursday afternoon.  It went pretty well, but I know there's substantial room for improvement.  I just felt like my tutor and I weren't entirely on the same page, as though she were trying to guide me to some greater point in the conversation and I just wasn't following her.  It didn't help that she was analyzing a favorite book of mine in ways that had never even occurred to me, and operating as though I had a working knowledge of British Victorian-era law.  Suffice it to say that I don't, and so her repeated references of the Divorce Act lead to much internal brain-scrambling and contextualizing on my part while still trying to sound at least moderately literate.  I wasn't discouraged, though, and know I'll get better at it; as Josephine has told us more than once, "If you were already good at this, you wouldn't need to be here!"

After, I went shopping to lift my spirits from the degree or so they'd fallen, and got these wonderful vintage-style posters.  I won't go into too much detail, but the main one is from a poster campaign Britain released during World War II, with the most wonderful being the pictured one here.  It was only to be released should the Germans invade Britain, and since that never happened, they were never put out.  A few years ago someone found one shoved in an old book, and some more were discovered in a warehouse, and they're just so intensely British that they sort of went viral.  I bought this one, as well as a blue one that says "Dig for Victory," (encouraging victory gardens,) and a yellow parody one where the crown is upside down that says "Now Panic and Freak Out."  I like them, and plan on having them framed and put in my living room when I get home.

Anyway, the next important thing was my first Choir rehearsal.  It's held in the Chapel, and mandatory rehearsals are Friday evenings and Sundays, with Sunday also having choral evensong.  I liked it very much.  I'm a decent sight-reader, so I don't think I did too dreadfully, and having a more experienced singer on my right was very helpful.  I should have anticipated this, but didn't; singing in Latin is particularly hard.  Only one of the songs we sang Sunday was, but since I've never had to do it, it threw me off.  I'll get used to it, though.  Exposure will make me better!  The choir had pizza and wine after, and I really enjoyed their company.  Grace, the organ scholar, is particularly nice, and I made several other acquaintances with whom I hope to form more lasting friendships.

Perhaps most exciting was the ball last night.  Unfortunately for you, I didn't take many pictures, because I was having too much fun enjoying myself without a camera glued to my face!  I did take a few, however, as did other people, so they should find their way onto facebook relatively soon where I can steal them for my own nefarious purposes.  As a reminder, all my Oxford pictures thus far can be found HERE, and that link will be updated to a maximum selection of 200 photos.  After that, I'll have to start another, and will inform you all accordingly.

Anyway, the ball.  The theme was "Gala of the Gods," which seemed to have no influence on the proceedings other than to provide a pretty cool name.  It was a relatively formal affair; "black tie" with slightly loosened requirements; knee-length cocktail dresses were permitted, and many girls pushed that envelope so far that it ceased to be an envelope at all, and became simply a piece of paper.  More on that later, actually, in the Things I've Noticed.  I wore a dress given to me by Nana, actually.  If my purse hadn't sprung open mid-photo, this would be a pretty good picture as well.  Anyway, there was a champagne reception with strawberries (really good strawberries!) in OB Quad, pictured above, and then we all moved as a group to the Oxford Union for the ball proper.  Then ensued a good deal of madness.

Apparently the event planners hadn't realized that by around 9:00, after standing around drinking champagne and eating nothing but strawberries for an hour and a half, most of the guests would be hungry.  The "queue" for the food table was ridiculous, in that those of us who had the mingled fortune and misfortune to be nearest the front were instantly crushed half to death by a swelling throng of eager and mildly inebriated college students.  This is where I met one of my new friends for the evening, in that I was jammed up against his back for the better part of half an hour.  As he remarked, "We're British, damnit!  We should know how to queue!"  I actually didn't mind too much, other than having my feet stepped on, and eventually food was had.

There was dancing, and rather a lot of drinking, and everyone seemed to have a very good time.  I met someone who wore a waistcoat complete with pocket watch, and I had ouzo for the first time; I found it really good!  The music ranged from 50's-60's era American rock and roll to techno later on, and the cover band was quite good, despite the oddity of hearing "Great Balls of Fire" from a singer with a British accent.  My feet were hurting pretty intensely by about 12:30, so I ended up leaving before the silent disco, (apparently they shut off all the music and give everyone wireless headsets that play the music that way; I'm not sure entirely what the appeal would be there, maybe someone can explain the novelty to me?)  I walked back to the Grad Centre with two other visiting students from Princeton, and hung around while they got "chips and cheese" from a kabob van.  (Chips and cheese does not equal cheesefries back home; it's french fries with shredded cheese and ketchup on top.)  All in all, it was a very good evening, and a great introduction to a very "Oxbridge" kind of tradition.

A note on Oxford, from Wikipedia:
As a collegiate university, Oxford's structure can be confusing to those unfamiliar with it. The university is a federation: it comprises over forty self-governing colleges and halls, along with a central administration headed by the Vice-Chancellor. The academic departments are located centrally within this structure; they are not affiliated with any particular college. Departments provide facilities for teaching and research, determine the syllabi and guidelines for the teaching of students, perform research, and deliver lectures and seminars. Colleges arrange the tutorial teaching for their undergraduates. The members of an academic department are spread around many colleges; though certain colleges do have subject alignments (e.g. Nuffield College as a centre for the social sciences), these are exceptions, and most colleges will have a broad mix of academics and students from a diverse range of subjects. Facilities such as libraries are provided on all these levels: by the central university (the Bodleian), by the departments (individual departmental libraries, such as the English Faculty Library), and by colleges (each of which maintains a multi-discipline library for the use of its members).

For those of you with the "tl;dr" mentality, here are the ever-popular Things I've Noticed:

• Dresses here can be way, way, way shorter than at home.  Oh, you'll still get the judging eye of your peers cast upon you, but people are much more willing to wear the shortest of short skirts I think I've ever seen.
• A lot of fathers wear those silly baby-strapped-to-your-chest thing.  I see it on moms at home, but it seems to be more of a dad thing here.  Not really sure why.
• People don't really keep their dogs on leashes, except the tiniest dogs. The bigger and more exuberant the dog, the more likely it is to be running loose a good 50 feet ahead of its owner.
• British people, the choir particularly, love to dissect accents.  My pronunciation of the word "Chilean" (chill-AY-an,) just about started a revolution.  (Apparently, it's CHILLY-en here.)

Last, for your edification, a video I took of my normal walk to Oxford; it's precisely 10 minutes long and has really terrible editing because I had to cut it down; youtube didn't like my 13 minute long video.  The part where it goes black is where I'm sneaking into the Radcliffe Camera.



And yes, as TJ spoiled, a scout is a cleaning woman.  I'll update again soon!

Of A Busy Day!

My, but today's been busy!  My life promptly went from rather boring and solitary to pretty exciting, comparatively speaking.  I suppose details are in order, and I assure you, sagacious reader, they shall not be lacking!  (Sorry about that; "sagacious reader" is sort of an in-joke with just me, relating to a course I took freshman year on Tom Jones and other works by Henry Fielding.  Just bear with me, I won't do that sort of thing too unbearably often.)

First, I had a nice lunch this afternoon with Josephine (aka Dr. Reynell, the woman in charge of us Visiting Students,) and the JCR representatives for Welfare, (which is the term they use for general wellbeing,) in the Ferrar room above the college hall, up the stairs pictured.  It was the best I've eaten since I arrived, and I was informed that it will keep that rank for the rest of my stay.  It was nice to have fresh fruit; that reminds me, there is a plum, a kiwi and a pear in my backpack that I should probably retrieve before I go to bed.  I would have taken the raspberries, but I didn't think they'd hold up too well in the back pocket of my bag.

After, I spent the afternoon reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë in the lower camera of the Radcliffe Camera.  The Rad Cam is just about the most stunning building I've ever seen in my life.  Unfortunately, pictures aren't allowed on the inside, but I'll try to take a few sneaky ones when I can.  The upper camera is very grand; high, arched ceilings, big windows, a lot of light and air but total silence.  The lower camera is more to my liking.  The ceilings are lower, though still stone and vaulted, and there are dozens of dark wood bookshelves all around.  Each desk is lit with its own reading lamp, and has both an electrical outlet and an internet network port, which catches me off guard in such an old building.  Incredibly convenient, though, as I've found all the books for my first tutorial online as e-books.  It's kind of charming, to mix the old with the new in such a way.


It was during the afternoon that I actually contacted the college chaplain, Leanne Roberts, and joined the Hertford Chapel Choir, (the Chapel itself is pictured).  It only meets twice a week, on Fridays and Sundays, but Sunday nights is choral evensong, and it just seems like it'll be a really nice thing to do.  Apparently they feed us for free twice a week because of it as well, and who am I to turn down free food?  I just hope I'm good enough; I was more confident before, but it's hard to be quite so daring as usual when you're still settling into an entirely new country, particularly one that's been uninterruptedly independent for 4 times as long as your own has even existed.  I really do love to sing, though, and music has always been a soothing part of my life.  Plus, it'll be an excellent way to make friends.  Speaking of which...

Until this point, the other William and Mary kids and I have somewhat moved as a pack; separate most of the time, but meeting up often before doing anything social or important.  Today, I went to dinner by myself, and actually managed to make some friends.  I feel a bit as though I'm in kindergarten with how proud I am of that, but it's true!  One in particular, a guy named Nike, was particularly interested in talking to me, and we had a good deal of fun discussing women's issues and their repercussions.  He also informed me that Phillip Pullman will be giving a talk in early May, and directed me to the site where I could sign up to attend.  I'm very much looking forward to that; the His Dark Materials trilogy is excellent, and he's prominent in the fantasy genre in which I have so much interest.  There were three others as well; David, Clare/Clair, and one who's name I've forgotten.  I'll have to ask Nike.  David was able to name the make of each of the cars my family has owned once I gave him the company and year; it was rather astonishing.  I don't think I've ever had as comprehensive a knowledge in any subject in my whole life as he has about cars.

Tomorrow afternoon, I have my first tutorial.  This is my "Victorian Detective Novels and Sensation Fiction" module, and my first essay was to read and discuss Jane Eyre in terms of the Gothic themes presented throughout.  Luckily for me, as I think I may have mentioned, Jane Eyre is my favorite non-Tolkien-authored book.  I contacted Professor Wheatley back at home, who is not only the head of the Honors committee but also my professor for "Gothic Literature" back in the Spring of freshman year.  I've had other classes with her as well, (well, class singular, actually: The English Romantic Period,) so I felt free to ask her to send some of the material from The Gothic on to me to help me brainstorm, which it did.  The essay's been sent off to Helena, my tutor, and we'll see tomorrow how well I've grasped this concept of the Oxford Tutorial.

Oh, for those that asked, this is my mailing address; and no, there is no street number, I didn't just mistype:

Justine di Giovanni
Care of William and Mary
Hertford College Lodge
Catte Street, Oxford OX1 3BW
United Kingdom 


Also, for anyone who wants to contact me by phone, I can be reached at 703 879 7125.  It's the same price for you as calling any other number with a (703) area code, because I purchased the use of an online American phone number while I'm away.  Just keep the time difference in mind!  I'm five hours ahead of you lot, and calling me at 9 PM your time will make for a very unhappy Justine.

In conclusion, here's another list of Things I've Noticed:

• There are no telephone poles or electrical wires.  I'm not sure if everything's buried, or if they're artfully strung from roof to roof; I've seen none.

• There are more people with canes and crutches; lots more.

• Oxford has the second largest homeless population in England, after London.

• Personal space bubbles are a little bit smaller.  I'm used to people dodging each other on the street pretty widely; here, it seems fine to brush against people as you pass even if there's a great portion of sidewalk left over.  That, or everyone can just tell I'm American and is accordingly rude

• Swans are really big.  Like, really big.  I'd never seen one as close-up as I have now that they take their morning swims right outside my window.

• It's still farkin' cold.  Colder, in fact; today had a high of 52 degrees Fahrenheit.  In fact, my heater only goes to a maximum of 21 Celsius, or 69.8 degrees Fahrenheit.  That, my friends, is pretty durn cold for a maximum possible temperature.  The weather, however, has been beautifully sunny, and I'm convinced that it most certainly won't last much longer.

Also, happy birthday, Aunt Carrot!  I hope your Nana-made cake surpassed your wildest expectations.

That's enough for tonight; I've taken to getting up and out by around 9:30 each morning, so as to avoid my Scout.  What a Scout is can wait for the next post; it's something I'm certainly not accustomed to from living in an American dorm!

PS:  See some folk dancers from Saturday: