First Week

So- turns out we have a lot of homework and not a lot of extra time to do things like blog and post pictures! I'm taking 2 classes: a large class with 18 of us and an SMU professor (comparative contracts: UK vs. US) and then a small one-on-one class with an Oxford professor (English legal system) where we meet once a week. The large class is about 30 pages of reading a night and the smaller class has an amazing amount of reading from a thick textbook and various articles I have to locate along with an 8 page essay due each week. On top of this, we have various events each night that are actually pretty fun. On Wednesday, we were formally inducted into the Bodleian Library. For this 16th century historic library, its an honor to be admitted and you have to recite an oath. The oath was pretty long and contained some weird provisions in it like saying we would smoke in the library or bring fire inside- apparently that has been a problem in the past with such old buildings. This library is where Harry Potter was filmed- the infirmary and the library of Hogwarts- and the librarian said that everyone was freaking out because the crew members would smoke in the stairwells in between takes. After the induction, Drew, Jason, Jen and I checked out the "infirmary" and Duke Humphrey's library. The library was amazing- no books newer than 1600 and of course you aren't allowed to touch anything. We also visited an exhibition on John Aubrey that was really interesting. He studied at Oxford and studied everything from algebra to blood transfusions to botany. I'm hoping that- as Professor Winship says- the wisdom will come to me through osmosis. He literally has us rub our textbooks.

The welcoming dinner at Freud's on Thursday was pretty interesting. On the walk over, being my clumsy self I had what Brent likes to call a "shoe bomb" or "sniper" and broke my sandal. Of course the converted church restaurant is a 20 minute walk away that I had to do half barefoot and all of the shops close at 5 so I had to just rock one shoe at dinner. We had English "barbeque" which was basically just lots of sausage. Seems like most of the meals here consist of either fried fish, sausage, or potatoes or a combo of those. After lots and lots of wine at dinner, Kevin, an American who works at an English firm Slaughter & May, took us out to one of the fun bars in Oxford called Raolo's (I made a quick roundtrip to the dorm in a cab to grab new shoes!). We played paper/scissors/rock all night for drinks and the Budweisers taste like Newcastle. The bar was too much fun and Friday morning classes (which of course this was the only week where we will have Friday classes) were pretty painful. Didn't make the pub crawl on Friday and plans were underway for Saturday's trip to London!