(A note: I am including more pictures of the Lake District for your viewing pleasure; they do not necessarily coordinate with the narrative)Where would we be without Shakespeare? According to the lecturer this morning, we’d have a Royal Jonson Company or a National Marlowe Theatre, or we'd visit Webster's home in... whatever hell-hole he was from (my professors words). =) I knew Shakespeare’s contemporaries were great playwrights, but I’d never considered just how overshadowed they became not even that long after Shakespeare’s death. The professor who spoke this morning is conducting the Shakespeare courses for the programme – and I almost wish I had signed up for one of them! I love the courses I’m taking, so I wouldn't trade them. But I am seriously wishing I could have taken three courses since this professor is so dynamic. He currently teaches in America at the University of Maryland… there’s a reason to become a Terrapin! =) In my Austen course, we covered the Gothic novel genre and Austen’s use of parody in Northanger Abbey. I had never read NA before… it’s not my favourite Austen novel. The only line I was really amused by was “Oxford! There is no drinking at Oxford now, I assure you. Nobody drinks there. You would hardly meet with a man who goes beyond his four pints at the utmost.” =)
I spent the afternoon at the Bodleian Library reading Eliot’s Middlemarch in preparation for class tomorrow (there’s nothing like procrastination to remind me of college days!). This novel is one of the wordiest I’ve ever read (837 pages in paperback) and though it started out making me think it was actually a Russian novel in disguise (think War & Peace), I actually enjoyed most of it. =) This picture is of Erin and Erica and me on our way into the library.
I stayed in Oxford for the evening and listened to a lecture on the history of Oxford. Though it appears from aerial view that the city grew around the University, it is not true. Both are centuries old, of course. What is fascinating to me is the combination of old and new here. Ancient buildings have been given newer facades; old buildings are used for new purposes. A great example is the cell phone store inside the old Tudor-style building. A building that is centuries old has meshed with ultra-modern technology. Quite a dichotomy!Funny story for the day: On the way home tonight, I almost walked into a pole. I had just arrived at the station in Bicester and I was checking the time on the phone Jason has given me to use here. I was NOT paying attention to where I was walking and it was dark out, so the phone tapping the pole was the only warning I had that I was about to encounter a large immovable object in my path! During the split second between the sound of the phone hitting the pole and the imminent impact of the pole and my face, I managed to stop short and NOT end up with a tragic tale to tell. I didn’t even look around to see if anyone had noticed; I just burst out laughing at my stupidity. Those folks probably shook their heads at the crazy American who almost ate a pole and then laughed about it for a good long while. =)
Date: 9 July 2007
Location: Oxford
Highlights of the day:
- Getting ice cream with friends – I had the Bailey’s flavour (yum)
- Chatting with a handsome Brit in the computer lab. I learned a bit about British pop culture, and he wanted to know if all American high schools were like the one on The O.C. I’m not sure he really believed me when I told him no. =)
- Avoiding the pole
Thought of the Day (courtesy of my Austen professor): “Books can reflect life, but books are NOT life.” Think on THAT one for a while, ye English majors.
Thought of the Day (courtesy of my Austen professor): “Books can reflect life, but books are NOT life.” Think on THAT one for a while, ye English majors.
