Just wanted to let you know how my first two seminars went and give you a little tour of some of the UGA house and Keble College.
Yesterday (Monday) I had my first seminar: Tales of Unrest in 19th Century Literature. The professor, Dr. Bradshaw, is the director of all English faculty at Oxford, and his wife, Barbara, is our house administrator. She takes care of scheduling maintenance and stuff. Dr. Bradshaw is pretty intimidating--he gives you an oral grade after you read your papers out loud. The novel we were discussing was King Solomon's Mines by H.R. Haggard. We didn't get to discuss much because we were going through introductory type things--paper topics, lengths, etc. For our next session (next Monday) we are reading another Haggard novel, and two short stories by Robert Louis Stevenson. I think that overall the class will be interesting, but right now he's a little scary. He started the discussion by quizzing us on dates that none of us knew or remembered.
Today I had my second seminar with Dr. Ian Archer. The seminar is titled Tudor/Stuart History, but before you get excited--it's not all about Henry VIII and his women troubles. No. Actually all of our readings so far have had to do with population change and social polarization and class structures. And Thursday we're discussing family structures. I think eventually we'll get to the royal family and the interesting stuff, but for the first few weeks it'll be a lot of statistics and economics. Yuck.
Next I thought I'd give you a very brief, quite incomplete tour of the UGA house and Keble. I haven't had time to take pictures of everything yet, but here's what I do have!
This is the UGA@Oxford Center. Note the bright red door. Doors here are typically painted Oxford blue, so the door of our house really sticks out. It's about a 0.8 mile walk from here to Keble College, and I would guess about one mile from "City Centre." Since today I've walked back and forth twice, I'd say I'm getting my exercise in!
When you walk in the house this is the view you get. The stairs, dining room, kitchen, and office are on your left. The open doorway leads back to the gardens, the shut door on the right is the library, and the TV room is not pictured, but it's also on the right.
I don't have any pictures of the library because there's usually someone studying in there, but I'll get some!
This is the TV room. It has, you guessed it, a TV! There are also movies and games.
More on the ground floor coming later, but this is a view of the stairs as you walk up to the second floor landing. There are three floors, and the house can hold 40 people at once.
This is the second floor landing, complete with little sitting area. The door in the middle leads to a hall with more rooms, more bathrooms, a mini kitchen, and a back stairway. My room is the farthest door on the left (next to the couch.) Room 6, which is, in my opinion, the best in the house.
Room 6! There are three other girls in the room besides me, and the windows look out over the back garden. If that isn't enough for you, we also have a walk in closet and a bathroom right inside our room. Perfect!
Like I said, I don't have pictures of everything yet, but this is one of the views out of our window.
Now for Keble, our second home while we're here. Keble is where we eat and take classes, and they also have a cafe and a bar inside their gates. Oxford students are required to live "In College," so this is their home, too.
This is the view to your right as you come in through the gatehouse--that's the Chapel.
This is another view of the quad area. The chapel is still to your right, and on the left is the library and dining hall. The Hall is actually one of my favorite parts--where we eat our meals each day. Here it is in all it's splendor!
So, as you can see, the living and dining arrangements are quite nice over here. I don't think everyone in Europe lives as spaciously as we do, but I have to admit it's much nicer than my Auburn dorm!
More to come!
Love,
Sarah
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