Recent photos...journal will come soon!!!
http://warner.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001447&id=186300065&l=4c83a
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Busy-ness is not fun business!
After a long absence, I have returned to report to my loving readers that I am still alive! I apologize for the lack of writing and I appreciate your patience on the matter. The past week has included two all-nighters and moments of freakish misery!!! Also followed by moments of insanity and pacing. Not to worry, I am still somewhat my sane self. Although, the level of that sanity is up for debate. My friends have found it comforting to know that I am ALWAYS this crazy and that I do not have a split personality. Relief abounds. Please do not anxiously ask the screen about what I am referring to because I will elaborate in some detail on the matter, later on in the post.
I suppose I should start at the very beginning because that's a very good place to start. Hehehe. Well, I will begin by explaining a little about what kind of semester I am up against. This term is called the Michaelmas term and it starts the first week of October. For schools in the States, semesters normally begin the third or fourth week of August. The SSO (Scholar's Semester at Oxford) began the first week of September, in order to balance out our regular semester. This past month we had the British Landscapes course. In the beginning, my fellow students and I would meet every day at Wycliffe Hall for this course. There are colleges and halls that are a part of Oxford University, Wycliffe being one. Wycliffe is a school of theology, and somewhat like a seminary except for the fact that you do not have to go into priest-hood. So, until the students started arriving, we met in the Lower Common Room (LCR) and watched the BBC History of Britain by Simon Schama. Each day we looked forward to humming along with the theme song and anticipated what animals Schama would use to depict a story. We are all amazed at his ability to put emphasis on anything by simply moving his head and shoulders. Wow! I must admit, we love you Schama! We will miss you. You brought delight to each of our days.
After we had our Schama fix, we would go into the dining room and have a spot o' tea! My favorite is the Earl Grey or the Cranberry. A little bit of cream and some sugar is how to do it! Next, we would all return to our seats in the LCR and hear a lecture given by one of the SCIO staff or a guest speaker. It varied on different days. We would then have lunch in the dining hall and most often, it was followed by another lecture. Some days we would have a field trip with Dr. Baigent to locations within Oxford. Those trips were made to Oxford Castle and cathedral, Broad Street, St. Michael in the Northgate, Martyrs' Memorial, St. Mary Magdalen, Pitt Rivers Museum, and The University of Oxford Museum of Natural History. On Thursdays we went on field trips with Simon Lancaster, Jonathan Kirkpatrick, and sometimes Dr. Baigent. These field trips were outside of Oxford. We went to St. Albans, Winchester, Bath, and the Imperial War Museum. On two Saturdays we had the option to go with Simon and Jonathan on field trips. They went to London (I did not go) and Dorchester. You can see photos from almost all of these trips on the links to my facebook albums, from previos posts.
Normally for the British Landscape course we would write three, 6-8 page Case Studies. But, since there was a delay on obtaining our University Library cards, we were instructed to write two, 9-12 page papers. We were given a little over a week to familiarize ourselves with the topic we chose to study and gather up all the information we would need to write the paper. The only drawback is that many other students were doing the same case study and although Oxford has over 8 million books, there may be only one or a couple of copies of each book. The other drawback is that Oxford's library system is split into several private Libraries. Some of these Libraries can only be used by certain halls or colleges within the university. Also, only two libraries, the English Faculty Library (EFL) and the History Library allow you to check out books. The others like the Old Bodleian, the New Bodleian, and the Radcliff Camera did not allow books to be checked out. If there was a book that I needed to read, I would have to go onto the online library and request it from the stacks. Books requested from stacks are put on a conveyor belt and sent to a reading room of your choice. I would have that book under my name for a week. Some books were easily pulled from the shelf but, it's first-come first-serve. So, that freakish misery that I spoke of earlier was my newfound experience with the library system. Thankfully, many of my books were at the EFL and I was able to check them out. For some, I had to go to Blackwell's or Borders and buy them. Searching for the right information while trying to educate yourself on the subject is no easy task. For me, writing the papers was so difficult. I tend to be a slow writer because I am so critical. After days of reading and research, I took three days to write my first paper. The paper was on Shakespeare and was due September 25th (Monday). I almost pulled an all-nighter. I had about 2 hours of sleep. I went through a stage of narcolepsy later that afternoon after I finally ate something. My stomach was so messed up from not eating and staying up so late. I had to begin right away on my next case study because it was due Friday morning. I wrote my second paper on Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn. I really enjoyed what I learned. I pulled an all-nighter on the second paper. That was not fun! I finished it about 5:15 am and then the printer wasn't working. First it wasn't printing at all and then we found out that the ink was really low. My paper was a little faded in the middle, but it was still legible. I was of course panicking because I had to be ready to leave with my group to go to Scotland at 5:45. I hadn't showered or packed and we had to be down at the bus stop at 6:00. Jennifer, one of my friends that was also going with us, was experiencing the same problem. We were frantic!!! Hahaha. Our group ended up waiting on another person to be ready because they had slept in, but we still made it to the bus stop in time to make the Oxford Tube. It was a CRAZY day!
I felt better about the second paper than I did about my first one. We all got our papers back yesterday and the comments look good. We don't find out what our marks are until next week. We had the orientation for the actual term yesterday. I found out who my two tutors are: Jonathan Kirkpatrick for my Primary Tutorial on Classical Literature and Emma Plaskitt for my Secondary Tutorial on English Literature from 1740-1832. I have to meet with them to arrange when I will be meeting with them for the term. I meet with my primary tutor once a week and my secondary tutor once every-other week. I will be getting advice from them on what lectures to choose. I have to attend a lecture per week for each tutorial and two lectures a week for the Integrative Seminar. So, about 4 lectures a week and 32 total for the term. That's a lot! I have an essay assignment each time I meet with my tutors. The essay will be based on a question that the tutor will ask me and I must research, compare concepts, and write a decisive answer. Sometimes tutors will assign a number of pages to write and some want you to answer the question in however many pages it takes. One semester, a student from SCIO that was studying History was made to write 20 pages a week!!!! Outrageous! I must meet with my Seminar Leader, Dr. Santha Battacharji next week and present a proposal for my long essay. The long essay must be written over the course of the term and turned in near the end. It must be 3,000 words or more and I must come up with my own question or idea to address. I will be deliberating over that today and this weekend. The last week of the term is reading week, when I will be writing an essay for the final. The final will be a question that I will pick and write on. It has to be 1,300 words in length. Needless to say, I will be doing quite a bit of writing. But, as you all can see, I have no problem writing to great lengths. Yet, it is obviously different writing a journal than to write scholarly works.
I hope to write soon about my experience in Scotland. It was absolutely beautiful! But, until then, please enjoy some of the photos that I have put up on facebook:
http://warner.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001375&id=186300065&l=2673d
If I could ask anything, I ask that you would continue to pray for me. There are so many things I have to remember and so much work laid upon me. I know I will make it out of this alive but I need the prayers of my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to continue to uphold me! Also, I want to hear from all of you. I would love to get mail! I may not be able to reply as quickly as I would like, because of how busy I am, but I will always take the time to read letters! Look below for my mailing address. I continue to pray for my family members, for my dear friends in Ohio, and for my friends in Florida. I love you all so dearly! Choose to see God's blessings! :)
~Rachel
My mailing address:
My name
SCIO
2 Frewin Court
Oxford
OXI 3HZ
United Kingdom
I suppose I should start at the very beginning because that's a very good place to start. Hehehe. Well, I will begin by explaining a little about what kind of semester I am up against. This term is called the Michaelmas term and it starts the first week of October. For schools in the States, semesters normally begin the third or fourth week of August. The SSO (Scholar's Semester at Oxford) began the first week of September, in order to balance out our regular semester. This past month we had the British Landscapes course. In the beginning, my fellow students and I would meet every day at Wycliffe Hall for this course. There are colleges and halls that are a part of Oxford University, Wycliffe being one. Wycliffe is a school of theology, and somewhat like a seminary except for the fact that you do not have to go into priest-hood. So, until the students started arriving, we met in the Lower Common Room (LCR) and watched the BBC History of Britain by Simon Schama. Each day we looked forward to humming along with the theme song and anticipated what animals Schama would use to depict a story. We are all amazed at his ability to put emphasis on anything by simply moving his head and shoulders. Wow! I must admit, we love you Schama! We will miss you. You brought delight to each of our days.
After we had our Schama fix, we would go into the dining room and have a spot o' tea! My favorite is the Earl Grey or the Cranberry. A little bit of cream and some sugar is how to do it! Next, we would all return to our seats in the LCR and hear a lecture given by one of the SCIO staff or a guest speaker. It varied on different days. We would then have lunch in the dining hall and most often, it was followed by another lecture. Some days we would have a field trip with Dr. Baigent to locations within Oxford. Those trips were made to Oxford Castle and cathedral, Broad Street, St. Michael in the Northgate, Martyrs' Memorial, St. Mary Magdalen, Pitt Rivers Museum, and The University of Oxford Museum of Natural History. On Thursdays we went on field trips with Simon Lancaster, Jonathan Kirkpatrick, and sometimes Dr. Baigent. These field trips were outside of Oxford. We went to St. Albans, Winchester, Bath, and the Imperial War Museum. On two Saturdays we had the option to go with Simon and Jonathan on field trips. They went to London (I did not go) and Dorchester. You can see photos from almost all of these trips on the links to my facebook albums, from previos posts.
Normally for the British Landscape course we would write three, 6-8 page Case Studies. But, since there was a delay on obtaining our University Library cards, we were instructed to write two, 9-12 page papers. We were given a little over a week to familiarize ourselves with the topic we chose to study and gather up all the information we would need to write the paper. The only drawback is that many other students were doing the same case study and although Oxford has over 8 million books, there may be only one or a couple of copies of each book. The other drawback is that Oxford's library system is split into several private Libraries. Some of these Libraries can only be used by certain halls or colleges within the university. Also, only two libraries, the English Faculty Library (EFL) and the History Library allow you to check out books. The others like the Old Bodleian, the New Bodleian, and the Radcliff Camera did not allow books to be checked out. If there was a book that I needed to read, I would have to go onto the online library and request it from the stacks. Books requested from stacks are put on a conveyor belt and sent to a reading room of your choice. I would have that book under my name for a week. Some books were easily pulled from the shelf but, it's first-come first-serve. So, that freakish misery that I spoke of earlier was my newfound experience with the library system. Thankfully, many of my books were at the EFL and I was able to check them out. For some, I had to go to Blackwell's or Borders and buy them. Searching for the right information while trying to educate yourself on the subject is no easy task. For me, writing the papers was so difficult. I tend to be a slow writer because I am so critical. After days of reading and research, I took three days to write my first paper. The paper was on Shakespeare and was due September 25th (Monday). I almost pulled an all-nighter. I had about 2 hours of sleep. I went through a stage of narcolepsy later that afternoon after I finally ate something. My stomach was so messed up from not eating and staying up so late. I had to begin right away on my next case study because it was due Friday morning. I wrote my second paper on Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn. I really enjoyed what I learned. I pulled an all-nighter on the second paper. That was not fun! I finished it about 5:15 am and then the printer wasn't working. First it wasn't printing at all and then we found out that the ink was really low. My paper was a little faded in the middle, but it was still legible. I was of course panicking because I had to be ready to leave with my group to go to Scotland at 5:45. I hadn't showered or packed and we had to be down at the bus stop at 6:00. Jennifer, one of my friends that was also going with us, was experiencing the same problem. We were frantic!!! Hahaha. Our group ended up waiting on another person to be ready because they had slept in, but we still made it to the bus stop in time to make the Oxford Tube. It was a CRAZY day!
I felt better about the second paper than I did about my first one. We all got our papers back yesterday and the comments look good. We don't find out what our marks are until next week. We had the orientation for the actual term yesterday. I found out who my two tutors are: Jonathan Kirkpatrick for my Primary Tutorial on Classical Literature and Emma Plaskitt for my Secondary Tutorial on English Literature from 1740-1832. I have to meet with them to arrange when I will be meeting with them for the term. I meet with my primary tutor once a week and my secondary tutor once every-other week. I will be getting advice from them on what lectures to choose. I have to attend a lecture per week for each tutorial and two lectures a week for the Integrative Seminar. So, about 4 lectures a week and 32 total for the term. That's a lot! I have an essay assignment each time I meet with my tutors. The essay will be based on a question that the tutor will ask me and I must research, compare concepts, and write a decisive answer. Sometimes tutors will assign a number of pages to write and some want you to answer the question in however many pages it takes. One semester, a student from SCIO that was studying History was made to write 20 pages a week!!!! Outrageous! I must meet with my Seminar Leader, Dr. Santha Battacharji next week and present a proposal for my long essay. The long essay must be written over the course of the term and turned in near the end. It must be 3,000 words or more and I must come up with my own question or idea to address. I will be deliberating over that today and this weekend. The last week of the term is reading week, when I will be writing an essay for the final. The final will be a question that I will pick and write on. It has to be 1,300 words in length. Needless to say, I will be doing quite a bit of writing. But, as you all can see, I have no problem writing to great lengths. Yet, it is obviously different writing a journal than to write scholarly works.
I hope to write soon about my experience in Scotland. It was absolutely beautiful! But, until then, please enjoy some of the photos that I have put up on facebook:
http://warner.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001375&id=186300065&l=2673d
If I could ask anything, I ask that you would continue to pray for me. There are so many things I have to remember and so much work laid upon me. I know I will make it out of this alive but I need the prayers of my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to continue to uphold me! Also, I want to hear from all of you. I would love to get mail! I may not be able to reply as quickly as I would like, because of how busy I am, but I will always take the time to read letters! Look below for my mailing address. I continue to pray for my family members, for my dear friends in Ohio, and for my friends in Florida. I love you all so dearly! Choose to see God's blessings! :)
~Rachel
My mailing address:
My name
SCIO
2 Frewin Court
Oxford
OXI 3HZ
United Kingdom
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