My Canterbury Tales

I toured Canterbury today!  It's in the southeast of England, and famous because of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales."  Here's a map:

This was one of the excursions arranged by the summer school.  We had a three hour bus ride each way to get there, and we were in Canterbury for about five hours.  Apparently we're in the midst of an English heat wave -- it was HOT, and most restaurants and buildings don't have air conditioning... and neither did the bus!  

When the bus dropped us off, we all walked to the Canterbury Cathedral together.  It was grand and gorgeous!  Here are a few photos:

Even though I don't consider myself a very religious person, it was quite humbling to experience such an old, sacred place of worship. (Melissa - I thought of you.  You would have loved it!)  After visiting the Cathedral, we were on our own to explore the town.  Our next stop was lunch.  After some sandwiches in a cafe, we went in search of a river boat tour company called "Canterbury Punting Co."  We got lost a few times finding it, but we made it and went on the punting boat tour.  It lasted about 40 minutes.  Here are a few pics:

The river was beautiful, but I was a bit disappointed because we didn't get to see much on the tour.  I was hoping to get a more comprehensive tour of the city, and this tour really didn't provide that.  After the boat tour, we visited the Canterbury Castle, which is the ruins of a Normal castle that was erected in 1066 as one of three royal castles of Kent.  It was built along the route of William the Conqueror.  Here are a few pics:

After poking around the ruins, we made our final stop at St. Augustine's Abbey.  Unfortunately, we didn't have time to tour the Abbey, but I was able to snap a photo or two:

Then it was back to the bus and back to Oxford!  All-in-all, a great trip to Canterbury!

Walking Tour of Oxford

This afternoon, I took a guided walking tour of Oxford.  Much of the tour included sites that I have already stumbled upon around Exeter, but I was also able to see a lot of new sites.  Here are a few pictures that I took along the tour:

Oldest building in Oxford,

approx. 1,000 years old

Jesus College of Oxford, 

which is beside Exeter

St. Mary the Virgin Cathedral

Inside the walls of the Bodleian Library,

one of the largest libraries in the world

Science Museum

At the end of the tour, Amanda, Brad, and I stopped for a Ben's Cookie!  I wish I could bring a stack of these home to share with everyone, but I doubt they'd survive a trip through London and Paris.  Feel free to live vicariously through me instead. Mmmmm....

And tonight we have dinner, then another pub crawl.  These Brits love their pubs!  Cheers!

Oh, Right.... I'm Here to Study....

Yesterday, my fourth day at Oxford, was the first I realized my true reason for being here - to study!  All of the scenery and experiences are so new and exciting that I have been forgetting that I am ultimately here for the school work. For each course we take here, we are required to submit one 1500-2000 word paper on a topic of our choice.  I have selected the following topics:  For "The Changing Face of Britain" course, my paper topic will be "Why are women's crimes and punishments different from men's?"  For the "Human Rights in Perspective" course, my paper topic will be "Can social rights be human rights?"  Since our grades will be solely based on our paper grades, I feel a lot of pressure to do well.  I currently have a straight-A streak in grad school and would really love to continue it through graduation.  The grading scale is harsher here, though.  One of my tutors explained in class yesterday that a B+ at Oxford is somewhat equivalent to a A- in the states.  Which essentially means I need to earn an A+ on each paper to maintain my straight As.  Yikes!  Not likely.

To get started on my papers, I made my first trek to the library in Oxford yesterday.  While we have access to the Bodleian Library (the second largest library in the world), no one is allowed to borrow books from there, so in order to do most of my research, I am using the Continuing Education Library of Oxford University.  It is small, but surprisingly had all the books that I needed.

Today, I've been reading outside around Exeter and inside the JCR (Junior Common Room - a lounge of sorts for students).  Here are a few pics that I took today while I was outside studying around the Fellows Garden:

View of Exeter Library from Fellows Garden

Fellows Garden of Exeter College

View of St. John's College and Radcliffe Camera 

from the Fellows Garden

Now do you see why it's so hard to study around here?  Too many beautiful distractions!

Sociology Nerd & A Walk in the Park

It's been busy since I last posted (and that was just yesterday!).  Here's what I've been up to:  

Classes:

Yesterday, I had my first official class.  I have class Monday through Thursday 4:15 to 6:15 pm.  On Mondays and Wednesdays, I am taking "The Changing Face of Britain", and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm taking "Human Rights in Perspective."  The first one is a Sociology-based course looking at changes in life in the UK since the last World War.  Yesterday, we discussed changes in families (such as divorce, marriage, fertility rates, etc.).  I think I will love this class, because I'm such a Sociology nerd.  The Human Rights class that I had for the first time today was also interesting.  We tried defining human rights (which is very difficult!) and discussed whether or not they are universal, and we started to touch on how they differ across cultures.

Lecture:

Our lecture this morning was about the financial crisis in the eurozone.  I know relatively little about the European Union and the euro as a currency and how/why it was started, so I found the lecture really helpful.

Pub Crawl:
Last night was a school-sponsored pub crawl.  The group was too big for any one bar to accommodate us, so we split into small groups.  I was in a group of 6 or 7 people (including Amanda and Brad, my newly found friends here).  It wasn't a "crawl" per say because we only visited two pubs.  Here's one of them:

The Head of the River

Excursions:

Today was the first day we could sign up for our excursions!  I signed up for three (all with Amanda and Brad):

- This Friday = Walking Tour of Oxford

- This Saturday = Trip to Canterbury

- Next Sunday = Trip to Bath

Ben's Cookies:

Everyone has told me, "You gotta get a cookie from Ben's Cookies!"... so I did!  And it was fabulous.  Large, moist, delicious!  haha

Food:

It's official -- the food here is bad.  It was pretty good (but not great) the first night, and it's just gone downhill.  I couldn't stomach the weird meat they served us tonight so I left and grabbed food off-campus.  It's all just very bland and the meat always looks questionable.  I was worried about gaining weight on this trip, but it looks like that will NOT be a problem!  LOL

Tour of the Park:

Tonight, the school led us in a tour of the University Park, which is owned by Oxford.  It was beautiful, not far from campus, so I think I've found a place to go running!  Here's a pic of the park:

And here are a few pics I took on the way to/from the park:

Sheldonian Theatre

Our tour guide, Andy, and Amanda and Brad

OK, it's almost midnight here, so I need to get some shut-eye.  Farewell!

Settling In and Exploring the Area

It's day 2 of my adventure at Oxford!  I woke up early this morning for breakfast and to get my electronics approved.  We have to get all electronics cleared by the school before plugging them in because of currency/voltage differences between UK and US plugs.

Next I had my first plenary lecture. We have these once per day every weekday.  Today's lecure was "British Politics Today."  It was pretty interesting -- we talked a lot about the recent British elections.

After lunch, I roamed around town with a couple people I have met here - Amanda and Brad.  Amanda is a PhD student in Political Science at the University of Florida, and Brad goes to GMU.  We intended to just go to a few gift shops but ended up stumbling upon some beautiful attractions!  Here are a few places that we saw:

Christ Church

Streets of Oxford

Christ Church Hall (where Harry Potter was filmed!)

 Lincoln College (another college of Oxford)

And here are a few more shots of Exeter College, where I am staying and studying:

My dorm room - 3rd floor with the windows open

Here's a view of the Exeter main courtyard

(door to left is Hall and door on right is main entrance)

OK, time for my first class now!  Yay!

Day 1 at Oxford

I arrived at Oxford yesterday around noon, got checked in and unpacked.  Here are a few photos of my room.  (I took a video tour of my dorm, but blogger won't let me upload it right now.  I'll try to post later!)

View from my dorm room of a courtyard and chapel

My dorm room (desk, bookshelf, closet... please

also take note of the tea maker and teacup - love it!)

My room is simple and a bit rustic.  I have a desk, bookshelf, dresser, closet, bed, and sink.  

After getting settled in, we had a brief Orientation with everyone from the summer school.  There are about 100 or so students here with the International Summer School.  This includes two programs:  English Literature and History, Politics, and Society (my program).  There are, I believe, 16 students from GMU.

After Orientation, we had some time to change into our dress clothes, then convened in the Fellows Garden for group photos.  After the photos, they served us champagne in the garden and this was my first real chance to mix and mingle.  There are people here from all over the world!  I met students from Spain, Croatia, Australia, Venezuela, England, Canada, and of course the US.  What an amazing experience -- how often in life are you able to study with people from across the world?

After our champagne in the garden, we went to the dining hall (which they call "Hall") for dinner.  It was just as I had imagined!  Very Hogwarts-y.  They served us a five course meal -- salad, sorbet, chicken and vegetables, rhubarb dessert, and coffee and chocolate.  It was very good, although I'm told that the first and last meals here are always good, and they get a little worse in the middle of the program.  We'll see!  Here is a picture of Hall:

Not sure if you can tell from this photo, but there is a head table at the far wall where all the tutors (what we we call professors) sit.  They all wear black robes and we are required to stand when they enter the room.  It's very formal and respectful.

OK, time to get ready for my first plenary session and lecture!

Touch down in London town!

I'm in London!  I'm currently on a bus from from London Heathrow airport to Oxford.  My flights were pretty easy, but I only got about 4 hours of solid sleep on the plane.  This is likely to be a very long day running on low fuel, but I am so excited to be here!  More updates coming soon!  :)

Here is a photo I took on the plane of our flight route: