It's Official: Now They Can't Get Rid of Me!

I've posted the slideshow below so everyone can see what I've been up to. It's been a busy week here in Oxford. It was the first week of term and everyone was rushing around in stressful craziness, running into the tourists in their path. The libraries are already full of students, and the books are going off the shelves as fast as the librarians can put them back on. I began a four week session in Paleography and Diplomatic, courses in which I learn how to read medieval manuscripts. It's very interesting and extremely difficult. Unfortunately, the other Americans and I feel we are at a disadvantage because the British students have all seen manuscripts before and this is our first time exposed to them. I was frustrated early because I just couldn't get it. I would look at the 12th, 13th, and 15th century script and see absolutely nothing. Not a thing. Not one familiar letter. It was easier for me to read the medieval French than the English or Latin. As per usual for Oxford profs, Professor Sharpe refused to tell us what any of the letters were. As much as I appreciated the sentiment that we should be figuring it out on our own I had no way of knowing what the suspension and contraction symbols were without him telling me. It wasn't until Friday when he finally gave in for the class and explained that a 'p' with a line through the stem meant that an 'er' or 're' had been left out, and various other keys to this medieval manuscript map. It was an epiphany for me. I could finally see what he and so many of the British students had already been seeing. Yeah!!! Watch out British system, this American is coming to conquer you!

On the social front, Thursday marked our graduate fresher's dinner at Oriel in which all the Freshers and fellows had dinner with the provost in celebration of our membership in the college. This event was an interesting one for me, as it fully demonstrated the British love of socializing and well, for lack of a better word, alcohol. At 6:30 I met with the other history grad students and our college tutor for drinks in his office. At 7:00 we proceeded to the senior common room to have drinks with the other grad students and Fellows. At 7:30 dinner began, with wine already at our seats when we arrived. Throughout the evening as I turned to chat with the Emeritus professor or Romanian doctoral student sitting next to me my glass would be magically refilled as if Dumbledore has set to plan some spell in which we would never be thirsty. After dinner (as you can probably guess) there were more drinks. Wow. It was a quite enjoyable evening even though I sat in assigned seating away from my friends who are ALL scientists. The historians are a fun bunch. Our tutor had us bet on how long the Provost would speak to the hall. With a bet of 9 minutes, I won. That's right. I won the bet. My prize? Wine, of course.

Saturday was matriculation. This is the traditional ceremony in which the Vice-Chancellor inducts us as official members of the University. We were required to wear our sub-fusc (white shirt, black trousers, black shoes, black ribbon-tie, hat, and robe) and come early for a college photograph. Well actually, let me restate a part of that. We were required to carry our hats because although we had to purchase them, we aren't allowed to wear them until graduation. As you can see from a few of the photos I cheated there a bit. :) The ceremony was short and partly in Latin. And to top it off, once the Vice-Chancellor left the Sheldonian Theatre (in which Matriculation is always held), a fire drill came on immediately stating "Danger! Please exit the building as soon as possible!" This certainly put a humorous spin on things, but I was a bit disappointed because it really dampened the sentiment of the ceremony for me. Oh well. I got the impression that a large part of the ceremony is the 20 minutes before hand when we have to stand outside and wait to get into the Sheldonian. I say this because lined up all along Broad Street were hundreds of tourists snapping pictures of us as if we were an attraction. I guess we are, but it just struck me as strange that these people would develop these pictures of me on my Matriculation day and put them in their photo album. Oxford really is another world!

After Matriculation we went to the Turf Tavern, the traditional tavern of post-matriculation, post-examination, and post-graduation Oxonian students. It was crowded obviously. But really exciting to do something that so many have done for so many years. The Turf has been open since the 16th century, so this is certainly a well-established tradition. We wandered Oxford afterwards visiting Exeter, Lincoln, Jesus, and Brasenose colleges. Exeter chapel was extremely impressive, but the 1960s buildings next to it ruined the feel for me. The others had beautiful quads, but I was struck with how much I like Oriel everytime I stepped into a different college. Oriel is small, not very ornate or glamorous, but it's charming, welcoming, and full of character. I'm glad I made the choice to be here.

Three week inventory:
-I'm so blessed to be here!
-It's warmer here than at home :)~
-I've eaten pheasant twice this week. I now know what people mean when they say something tastes 'gamey'. It's eh.
-Pate (don't have accents sorry: so duck liver) tastes just like Vienna Sausages.
-Thanks to Mom and Dad for my first package, it's so great to have something in my pigeonhole. -I stayed up until 2:30 am watching the ticker change on Espn.com for the UL/Cincy game last night. I really miss ESPN and I have to remind myself that I'm not crazy for wanting to know what's happening with my team or nearly having a panic attack at the computer as we nearly lost the game! Seriously Cards, what's going on? Are you playing poorly because I'm no longer in the country?
-Medieval scribes were lazy: they abbreviate nearly every word in manuscripts, no wonder I had trouble initially.
-Loving the reading for my tutor, hating the reading for my core seminar. I don't care about Braudel and the geographical history of the Mediterranean. I'm sorry, I just don't.
P.S. Uncle Steve, I was assigned to read Duffy's "Stripping of the Altars", ha!
-I look cute in silly Oxonian caps. And I LOVE my college scarf. Everyone is jealous of it.
-The more I'm here, the more I love it, but also the more I love Kentucky. I'm proud of where I come from.
- I still love Jeffrey!

Thanks for reading! Miss you all! Can't wait till everyone visits! Cheers!