Saturday 8th July
Now that I’ve filled you all in on the most important thing,
the food of course, I will now fill you all in on Oxford. I arrived at Heathrow
Airport at the ungodly hour of 5am, Saturday morning. The only good thing about
being at an airport such as Heathrow at this time is there are minimal people.
It was very easy to get through immigration (the guy didn’t really care about
me needing a student visa and just pushed me through, clearly I got off lighter
than others!), walked through customs (the ‘Items to declare’ point wasn’t even
manned so I just walked straight through) and caught the bus to Terminal 5. I
must stress here the enormity of Heathrow Airport. I arrived at Terminal 3, and
it took a good 20 minutes on the bus doing a reasonable speed to get to
Terminal 5. From there I got a coach to Oxford, return trip for £27,
about $50 for an hour and half ride there and back in reasonable comfort.
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| Enjoying a refreshing beverage with fellow AIM Overseas participants |
After a really pretty, scenic, country drive which I slept
through most of, I finally arrived at Oxford. Unfortunately by this time it was
only 7.30 am Sunday morning. I walked around for an hour, but you can imagine
the luggage I was carrying: my full hiking pack, backpack and laptop bag. Not a
light load. I parked myself on a bench overlooking the grounds of Trinity
College and read my book for some time. At 10am I tried my luck at the College,
and by some great luck my room was ready 2 hours early and so I moved in to
Exeter College.
The College itself, like the other 38 that make up the
University of Oxford, is based around a courtyard style. There are four main
buildings in a square that essentially make up the walls, with one main gate,
and a grassed courtyard in the middle. Only the Fellows are allowed to walk
across the grass, all lowly others must walk around. The four ‘walls’ are supposed
to be made up of all the essentials of the college: Chapel, Hall (Dining),
Porter’s Lodge and accommodation. Exeter College is built like this, bus has
another adjoining courtyard surrounded by additional accommodation. The College
was founded in the 1300’s, but the current buildings are dated 1800s. The
chapel is based upon San Chappelle in Paris, with beautiful stained glass windows.
William Morris, the artist, was a scholar and patron of the College, and so
there are two large tapestries by him hanging in place of pride near the altar.
The layout of the chapel is interesting, as all of the seating faces inwards,
rather than to the alter. Check out my Facebook, where I will upload some
pictures.
The Dining Hall is designed in the standard Oxford way: the
walls are lined with dark wood panelling, dotted with paintings of benefactors,
patrons and scholars all hundreds of years old. The room is arranged with three
long tables for the students, and a high table, elevated by a couple of steps.
In a doorway set into the wall behind the high table is the Senior Common Room,
with access restricted to Fellows of the College. It was also used in the
filming of the Golden Compass, as Mrs Coulter’s study where Lyra hides in the
cupboard.
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| the Dining Hall at Oxford |
On to the actual study side of things. Everyone in the Oxford History Politics and Society Summer School, about 50 of us, goes to a Plenary Lecture each weekday at 11am. Different every day, these lectures cover topics from each subject in the summer school. So far lectures have covered British politics over the past few years, the changing nature of international development, Capitalism and Liberalism and the use of torture, drones and other surveillance in Iraq and Afghanistan. All lecturers presenting these lectures are all experts in their field, with Doctorates, many years of experience and often multiple Master’s degrees as well. The lecturers go for 1 hour and then half hour of question time afterwards.
In addition to these plenary lectures, each student studies two specific topics. I myself am studying International Development in a Changing Climate, and Contemporary Middle East. My Development lecturer works for DFID, part of the British Government, and has spent many years working around the world in for-profit, non-for-profit and government sectors and so has a well-rounded view of development.
My Middle East lecturer is originally from Iran, having fled
on the last plane out before the 1979 revolution closed all traffic in and out
of the country. He has interpreted for everyone from the Shah of Iran to prominent
American Politicians and past presidents. His experience covers over 100 countries
and he is as expert as you can get on the relationships between all of the
Islamic and Middle eastern countries, plus America, Britain, France etc. He is
also an Islamic Scholar. As the history of the middle east and Islam are so
intertwined, his knowledge of the Qur’an and Islamic history is invaluable.
As you can tell from just the two paragraphs above, the quality of the teaching staff is pretty hard to beat. I feel like I am not qualified or deserving enough to be here really. What’s also unbelievable is the level of assessment accompanying the course, or lack of it rather. A large portion of our mark will be based upon class participation and discussion, and attendance at the plenary lectures, of which all are compulsory. The assessment for each of the two subjects is an essay of 2000-3000 words, on whatever topic we choose as long as it is relevant to the subject of study. Certainly less than I thought, which means more time to work on the quality.
On a last note, walking to dinner two nights ago I was passed by the local Falconer, exercising one of his birds. With bells attached to its legs, he let it go and the falcon flew around the courtyard a while. He would whistle to it and the bird flew back, only to be sent off again. I spoke to the Falconer, who said that he trains 18 birds, one of which became Hedwig from Harry Potter.
I think that’s about all I can write for now! Stay tuned for
the next episode, where I will tell you all about my day trip to Bath, home of
Jane Austen, and … you guessed it… Roman baths!
Gemma xo
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