a blustery day...

looking outside my window to the wee garden and old buildings beyond, it seems like a scene out of a.a. milne's imagination, like winnie the pooh and rabbit and kanga might pop out at any moment as the wind gusts through the trees and such. you can totally tell it's winter: the trees are dead, and not a single leaf grows upon them. well, the trees outside my window, that is. but i've at last downloaded the pas de deux from tchiakovsky's nutcracker and it is absolutely gorgeous and magnificent, full of the passion and storminess that i've come to expect from those wonderful romantics. i am, perhaps, in a romantic frame of mind, or at least a gothic one, for i am in the process of writing my first paper on austen's northanger abbey, a satire of the gothic form of novel. amusingly enough, the off-hand jokes and comments she makes remind me a great deal of my gothic favourites: jane eyre, wuthering heights, rebecca. however, in typical austen fashion, she puts them all in their place and reminds you why one should never cling to their foolish illusions.

today, however, is a quiet one, for there are no lectures, no tutorials, no seminars, no colloquiums, and that's a lovely thing. i've finally got my schedule down for classes and such. it goes something like this:

monday (every other): colloquium, 4:30
tuesday (every other): lecture, 4:30
wednesday: seminar, 3:30
thursday: free
friday: tutorial (narrative) 10:00; tutorial (austen) 2:00

it's not a bad way to live one's life, actually. thursdays will be nice, for i can use them to catch up on any last minute writing for my friday tutorials. the tutorials are fairly straightforward. the austen course will look at my beloved authoress's work in chronological order, meaning that there is a book a week and a paper a week (2000 words) due at every meeting. my narrative tutor, frith, has broken down my assignments into three parts: 1) reading some work of fiction and writing a 1 page summation of style and such; 2) a writing exercise in the same tone and vein of the sample work; 3) writing my own anything. ah, such freedom. 'twill be enjoyable. the colloqium only requires one piece of reading (though the reading shall be dense, or so i've been told), so that will be okay, which means that most of my life can be devoted to properly understanding the works of st. thomas. lovely.

perhaps, then, since i am at my leisure, i shall paint a picture of life here at st. michael's hall, living in the renowned and truly ancient city of oxford. i will try to give at least a cursory image of the sort of place this is, and the manner of people who inhabit it. expect a more thorough portrayal, however, after i have been here for a bit longer. this is based solely upon what knowledge i have acquired after 1 week's (!) stay.

the centre for medieval and renaissance studies is housed in st michael's hall on shoe lane (http://www.cmrs.org.uk/oxford_stmichael.asp). it truly is in the heart of the city; to our right lies the clarendon centre, a shopping area with a cafe and a number of stores and boutiques. to our left lies the westgate centre, another shopping area with a grocery store, etc. and, all around us are boutiques and shops and stores and pretty much everything and anything that one could ever need. we are concerned at the moment, however, with the hall itself. one enters through a great wooden door and proceeds up a set of narrow stairs to the landing, where there are a set of mailboxes (or pigeonholes, as philpott would say) for all the students. a hall with administration offices lie to the right; the library and principal's office are to the left. next, one would proceed up another set of stairs to the first landing. to the right is the lecture hall (and beyond the lecture hall is a series of corridors that lead one to more bedrooms, a seminar room, and eventually the computer room); to the left is a small hallway with two bathrooms, one with a shower, and, past another door, three bedrooms, one of which i am currently housed in. 'tis not a floor, per se, but a cluster of bedrooms where we live. it's a quiet one; there are only 6 girls in total here. but the solitude is lovely (though, as the walls are thin, loud exclamations and whooping laughter can be immediately heard), particularly when one is trying to study. however, though my floor-mates are quiet ones, the same cannot be said for the rest of the house.

there is another set of stairs that leads up to the following floor, which is (you've guessed it!) long, narrow, and lined with bedrooms/bathrooms. from this point, one can continue up another set of stairs to the fourth floor of rooms, or turn the corner and proceed up a different set of stairs. this leads to another wing of the house, and if one walks far enough down the narrow corridor, one will find oneself at the laundry, kitchen, dining room and common room areas. whew! it is a twisty sort of place that seems overwhelmingly complicated at first; photos, i think, of this maze of rooms and corridors and halls and stairs will soon have to follow.

the administrator is fiona, a wonderful woman who more or less makes sure that this place is running. then there is mark philpott, who is the senior tutor and in charge of all academic matters. ah, what to say about philpott... he is a sarcastic man with dry, witty english humour. from what the lads tell me, he is constantly making snide remarks about their choice of garment or literary material (though i have had no such contact with him. he likes my earrings, apparently, and that's good enough for me). philpott's lectures are always enjoyable, as he is always sprinkling them with little stories and humorous asides, though he hates tardiness. one boy walked in late yesterday and offered a very quick, 'sorry,' and philpott scowls and mutters, 'you will be.' whoa.... moral of the tale: always arrive to any philpott lecture five minutes early, as he starts right on the dot.

in addition to this cast of characters we have dr. crowe, who is nothing short of completely brilliant. he offered a one hour lecture on the renaissance on tuesday, and by the end i was absolutely convinced of his own intellectual superiority over most of humankind and my own humble thoughts. my notebook is absolutely filled with his words of wisdom, and the thing about it is that he made it look so flipping easy. sigh. these people. crowe is my colloquim leader, which will be quite exciting, for i'll get to sit and discuss with him. wow...

as for my tutors, i haven't had enough interaction with them to pass on my full-scale comments, but there is frith, who i believe i have mentioned, a nice old man with a sense of humour (yay!) who told me to watch 'south american telenovelas' and 'ugly betty' to get ideas for my writing. 'don't be afraid of the corny things,' said he. 'sometimes they offer the best ideas.' val dodd is my tutor for austen, and i've heard some amazing things about her from every USF student who's taken her course, so i'm not too frightened. then we have cross, who wears suspenders and a bow tie and cufflinks, and has got the biggest blue eyes i've seen in my life. he's also just shy of brilliant and speaks in this rapid quick english voice -- not good when i'm trying to wrap my brain around aquinas. but he's absolutely hilarious, so that should make philosophy a little less horrifying and frightening.

i get up in the morning around 8 so that i can be at breakfast when it starts, at 8:30. we'll see how long this routine lasts. from there, i come back to the room and putter about. we've had 9:30 lectures for the past week, but now that those are all over, we'll have to see what becomes of my schedule. val is off in the library studying, and i know that i shall have to find a wee spot of my own. for now, though, the room is a nice, cozy place, particularly while the weather is stormy and a bit unforgiving. a nap, however, i think is on the horizon, as is more writing and studying. i think i will take lunch out, today, perhaps find a quiet cafe where i can get some tea and a sandwich and try my hand at some writing or reading. maybe later i'll iron some of my clothes so that i have things to wear tomorrow and on the weekend. i'd love to do some shopping, but i'm trying to cap the spending so i do not become an impecunious pauper. today, though, will probably be an inside-day, full of more reading and studying and writing and listening to music and relaxing... relaxing is a very good thing. and then, perhaps, i'll go out one of these nights. or something like that.

for now, then, that is all. hopefully photos will make it up sometime soon. oh, and that 'tower of london' bit. indeed. well, i am off to turn in my dirty linen and to (finally) get sheets. yay! off i go...