Week Four: I (Technically) Went to Oxford University

Hello Internet!
As previously mentioned, I spent last week studying at Oxford University. Well, technically I studied at University College, which is the oldest college in the University, but... you know what? I'm not going to get into it. In any case, studying at Oxford must have put me in the mood for debating, because I encountered ideas that I disagreed with in each of my classes. As a result, my class summaries this week are going to consist of me presenting the idea as it came up in class and then countering it. The original idea will be in bold, with my argument in regular font.

Gender Identities in Medieval Literature: The hazing rituals that 13th century Oxford students held were performed solely to help and educate incoming freshmen. Some of you might be surprised to learn that frat culture goes all the way back to the 13th century. In those days, incoming freshmen were taunted, shaved, accused of false crimes, and sometimes even doused in goat urine. Now, some people might argue that the upperclassmen performed these rituals out of a genuine desire to help the freshmen become more manly and scholarly--after all, these rituals were highly symbolic. I don't buy that argument at all. For one thing, the upperclassmen had to be legally banned from throwing feces at incoming freshmen, so they clearly weren't acting out of the goodness of their hearts. And for another, the drinking songs from that culture suggest the upperclassmen didn't have any goodness in their hearts. But that's a story for a different time.

Fantasies of Youth: The narrator of a story that takes place in an alternate world has to be reliable.  For this class, we read the Hobbit and were asked to determine if the narrator is reliable or not. He is, but that's beside the point. The point is that someone tried to argue that narrators of fantasy stories must be reliable because if they're not, readers won't be immersed in the world. Not only is this an overgeneralization, but it's also clearly wrong. For evidence, I point to A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. That series is incredibly popular, takes place in a fantasy world, and has the most unreliable narrator I've ever encountered.

Writing for Children: Violence is rare in books for kids that are 9-12 years old. Personally, my favorite books when I was 9-12 all had instances of distilled violence. Wings of Fire by Tui Sutherland starts with a character falling off a cliff, and Warriors by Erin Hunter features a character death in the first few chapters. Even the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan involves a kid slaying monsters. It probably says a lot about me that all my favorite books were a little gory. But since these books are all hugely popular, this also says something about the children's literary market; namely, that violence and action have a place in books for kids ages 9-12.

Advanced Creative Writing Tutorial: I didn't actually have a tutorial this week, so I didn't have anything to disagree with. I did, however, have time to finish my novel timeline. Check out my 11 pages of madness:

I don't have a caption that can do this justice...

Now, because Oxford is, well, Oxford, you might be assuming that my week there was all work and no fun. This could not be further from the truth. I spent a good portion of my trip to Oxford exploring the city, seeing the sights, and having a blast.

On Monday, I visited the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology. This place was huge, stunning, and stuffed to the brim with cool artifacts. Unfortunately, I arrived an hour before closing time, so I didn't get to see much. That being said, I spotted decorated Greek pots, a Viking hoard, and weapons from a variety of eras and locations. Which was awesome. After my brief jaunt around the museum, I stopped at the four-story-tall Waterstones bookstore. I resisted the urge to buy anything, but just barely.

Entrance to the Ashmolean

I didn't have any classes on Tuesday, so naturally, I spent the day exploring. First, I returned to the Ashmolean museum to take a look at what I'd missed the day before. This was probably the best choice I've made so far during my time in the UK. I saw Sumerian ax blades, English longbows, tons of ancient Greek and Chinese statues, and so much more. My favorite find was a rubbing of a brass that depicted a 13th century knight. The knight had armor very similar to the kit I fence in, and I plan to use the rubbing as a basis for making my own kit more historically accurate.

My Dream Armor

After my trip to the Ashmolean, I checked out the Oxford Museum of Natural History and its neighbor, the Pitt Rivers Museum. The Museum of Natural History was gorgeous and filled with standard museum fare: dinosaur skeletons, an exhibit about prehistoric animals, and lots and lots of bugs. The Pitt Rivers Museum, on the other hand, was...strange. To illustrate, here's a list of the bizarre things that I saw there:
Traditional clothing of Northern Alaskan natives
Canoes
Old pipes from various cultures
Indian saddles
Bagpipes
Ancient Pens
Shrunken Heads
Sounds a bit like "We Didn't Start the Fire," doesn't it? Needless to say, Pitt Rivers Museum was a highlight of my trip to Oxford.

Inside of the Museum of Natural History

My Tuesday didn't end there. After a quick lunch, I went on a tour of Christ Church College. It was led by a Christ Church alumn who teaches with my study abroad program, so we got to have a behind the scenes look at the college. We snuck into the Masters' Garden, said hello to the fish in a central fountain, and climbed the staircase where the first meeting between Harry Potter and McGonagall was filmed. We were even allowed access to the library archive, where we saw the first edition of Sir Isaac Newton's book Principia mathematica. After the tour, my peers and I went out for some delicious Indian food and gelato.

Christ Church College Masters' Garden

Where Potter Meets McGonagall

Library Archives

On Wednesday, I decided to do a bit of souvenir shopping. I peeked into several of the Harry Potter-themed shops that lined the Oxford streets, then headed to the Blackwells bookstore. Now, I've been in a fair few bookstores; this one put them all to shame. Though it appeared rather small on the outside, it was massive on the inside, spanning four giant floors. It extended so far back that I'm convinced the second half of the store exists on an alternate plane. Basically, it was heaven for a bookworm like me. I spent well over an hour browsing the shelves and left with two books about the Crusades.

Thursday was, as a whole, rather uneventful. The only exciting bit was the formal dinner hosted to celebrate our week in Oxford. And the only reason that was exciting was because, when they broke out the desserts, everyone else got cheesecake...and I got a plate of fruit. My friends assured me that my face was priceless. Now, don't get me wrong, I wasn't mad. I gathered that someone had told the staff I'm diabetic, and the staff had decided to be "helpful" without really understanding the nuances of my diabetes. I was just stunned; it was completely out of the blue. Thankfully, somebody had left before dessert, so I got some cheesecake in the end. All's well that ends well.

And that sums up my adventures as an Oxford student. I won't bore you with the details of my weekend, because I spent most of it studying. This upcoming week promises to be crazy busy though, so stay tuned for more of my adventures.

Thanks for reading!

Abby

Artsy Picture of the Day: The Museum of Natural History

Week Three: I Drank the Bath Water and Somebody Stole a Toilet

Hello Internet!
You're probably all curious about the title of this post. But I'm not going to explain it until after my compulsory summary of what I did in my courses last week. So, here we go:

Gender Identities in Medieval Literature: For this course, we read three classic tales of medieval masculinity: Gawain and the Green Knight, Equitan, and Beowulf. Masculine ideals are portrayed differently in each of these pieces, but loyalty and intelligence are two overarching constants. Interestingly enough, Beowulf is the only work that lauds physical strength, and it shows that this strength can be fallible. Therefore, muscled knights were not necessarily seen as the ideal of medieval masculinity. That being said, all of the works portrayed women as temptresses, so some of our stereotypes about medieval times are likely still true.

Fantasies of Youth: It turns out that people have really strong opinions about The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. We read it for class last week, and while I enjoyed it, some of my classmates blatantly hated it. Before I explain why, I'll provide a brief summary of the novel: The Secret Garden tells the story of Mary Lennox, an orphaned girl who goes to live on her reclusive uncle's estate. There, she finds her way into the secret garden, which was closed up after her aunt died there years ago. She also meets her hypochondriac cousin Colin, shows him the garden, and helps him to get over his imagined illness. Now, some of my classmates hated the story because it ends with a focus on Colin, not on Mary, who was supposedly the protagonist of the story. They claimed that the ending is pointless at best and, at worst, shows that a male narrative is more important than a female one. I disagree; I believe the ending shows that even the most damaged people can heal themselves and others. Mary began the story as a lonely, selfish little girl, but by the end, she has improved both herself and Colin. Furthermore, Colin goes on to heal his anxious, insecure father. Overall, I'm inclined to believe that Frances Hodgson Burnett knew what she was doing, and that it was not reaffirming a toxic patriarchy.

Writing for Children: This class introduced me to Horrid Henry, the misbehaving British equivalent of Junie B. Jones. It also taught me that since I was an advanced reader at a young age, I have no idea what appropriate reading material is for kids ages 5-8. My tutor and classmates assured me that it includes books like The Magic Tree House, but I read Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke in first grade and Warriors by Erin Hunter in second grade, so who knows?

Advanced Creative Writing Tutorial: Once again, I spent an hour and fifty minutes ranting about my novel. And I loved every minute of it. I did so much worldbuilding that it quite literally exhausted my brain, and then my tutor showed me a method for drafting a coherent novel timeline. So, expect a picture of a ridiculously complicated novel outline in my next post. Seriously though, I cannot get over how much I love this course.

Anybody still with me? I hope so, because now it's time for me to explain the ludicrous post title. First up: the bathwater. No, I did not participate in the whole Bella Delphine ridiculousness. In fact, I technically didn't drink bathwater at all. In actuality, I took a tour of the ancient Roman Baths in Bath and drank the spring water that feeds into the facility (I just couldn't help myself with the blog title, since it's technically accurate and also two puns in one).

Jokes aside, the tour of the baths was insanely cool. They were built in 76 CE and were essentially the reason that Bath transformed from a rural area into a booming city. Thanks to the marvels of Roman engineering and modern preservation, they're still functioning and drawing water from the nearby hot spring today. That being said, visitors are not allowed to swim in the baths because the water is the nastiest green color I have ever seen. Also, back in the day, it gave someone meningitis. The springwater itself is healthy though, even if it does taste a bit strange.

Like I said, nasty green water.

Now for an explanation of the second half of the title: somebody legitimately stole a toilet. More accurately, somebody stole a solid gold toilet worth 2 million dollars from Blenheim Palace, which I was supposed to visit on Saturday. To make matters worse, the toilet was plumbed into the palace, so in addition to trying to find the culprit, the police were busy trying to stop the palace from flooding. The real kicker, though? The toilet was an art piece titled "America." Which I find apt.  Of course, this meant that when I showed up with the rest of my program, we were notified that we couldn't enter the palace itself because of an ongoing police investigation. At first, we were terrified, but after finding out the nature of the crime, we couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of it. While I do feel sorry for the police who had to deal with the situation, it still makes me giggle. The most ridiculous sort of history happened that day, and I was right there to witness it.

Police Presence at Blenheim Palace

After having a good laugh, my roommate and I spent a few hours exploring the grounds outside the palace. We also got massively lost in a topiary maze, rode a train, and, evidently, walked past Neil Gaiman (whom I, unfortunately, did not notice). Overall, it was a pretty insane day.

The Maze of Doom

Front of the Palace

I wish I could say that the rest of the week was less insane, but that would be a lie. On Thursday, I went to my first practice with the Wessex School of Arms. They're a HEMA, or Historical European Martial Arts, group that focuses on the backsword and quarterstaff. I've primarily done fencing with the German longsword, so I spent most of the class fighting my own habits. That being said, I had a wonderful time. It was fascinating to both learn about an English type of fencing and see how HEMA works in England compared to the U.S. The biggest difference I noticed: American HEMA clubs tend to appreciate the ancient masters whose techniques they study, while English HEMA clubs refer to the masters like the temperamental jerks they were. I never thought I would hear someone call Edward Silver, master of the backsword, a jerk, but on Thursday, I did. In short, the Wessex School of Arms in Bath is awesome and I can't wait to go back. I've missed swinging a sword. 

Backsword and Gear

Then, on Saturday (after the Blenheim Palace shenanigans), I arrived at University College in Oxford with the rest of my program. That's right, I'm going to college in Oxford. For an entire week. As you can imagine, I was pretty jazzed about the whole thing. After arriving in Oxford, however, I became notably less jazzed about it. For one thing, upon my arrival, I found out that Oxford University does not exist in the way that Americans understand it. Instead of one University, there are approximately 38 colleges in Oxford that claim to be part of the University--I say "approximately" because no one really knows how many colleges are a part of the system. For another thing, when I arrived in Oxford, the city was absolutely packed with tourists because of Oxford Open Doors. Oxford Open Doors is a sort of weekend-long open house for the colleges and attractions in Oxford, and while it's extremely neat, it attracts tourists like rotting meat attracts flies. As a socially-anxious introvert, I did not appreciate this.

That being said, Oxford is far from a total bust, University College is beautiful, and I quickly got over my gripes. After dinner and a tour of the city, I went to a party in the College Bar. Me being me, I danced my heart out and had a fabulous time. After the insanity of the day, a round of the Cha Cha Slide and a good night's sleep were just what I needed to relax and reset.

Main Quad of University College

The next morning, I woke up rejuvenated and ready to take full advantage of Oxford Open Doors. First, I went and took a free tour of the Oxford Castle and Prison. The tour covered a tower built in 1009, a crypt built in 1074, and a "modern" prison built in the 1700s. Unfortunately, we couldn't tour the tower that was also built in 1074...because it was destroyed during the 17th century English Civil War. Which I will be disappointed about for a long time. But I did get to climb the man-made mound that the tower once rested on, so that was pretty cool.

Castle and Prison

The Mound

After touring the tower, I went punting on the River Cherwell with others in my program. The boats were cramped, so it wasn't quite as relaxing as I'd hoped it would be, but it was still an enjoyable experience. And nobody fell in, which was a miracle. I spent the rest of the afternoon doing a whirlwind tour of All Souls College, Magdalen College, the Bodleian Library, and the Divinity School, where the dancing lesson in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was filmed. Finally, I ended the day with fish and chips at the Eagle and Child, the pub where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis discuss their writing. It was a long, busy day, but it was an excellent one stuffed with amazing sights.

Punting took us far too close to some swans

Bodleian Library

The Divinity School--Look familiar, anyone?

Classic Fish and Chips, Courtesy of the Eagle and Child

Next week, I'll be talking more about all the wonderful things Oxford has to offer. This may or may not include shrunken heads. Cheers!

Thanks for reading!

Abby

Artsy Picture of the Day: Roman Baths in the Evening

Week Two: The Real Fun Begins

Hello Internet!
As previously hinted, last week I began my classes for the semester. Trust me when I say that this is the most excited I have ever been about college courses, and that includes my first semester as a freshman. All of my courses are relevant to my passions, which is why I'm going to rant about them for a bit before getting on to the social stuff. (Fair warning, this is probably going to be a weekly occurrence-this is an academics-based blog, after all).

My first class of the week was Gender Identities in Medieval Literature. Quite honestly, I was little uneasy about this course at first. While I adore reenacting, I am not terribly familiar with medieval literature itself. That being said, I plain and simply love this class. My classmates, the tutor and I spent the first session discussing how absolutely bonkers Galen was. Long story short, he, like many Greek philosophers, was extremely nutty. I won't get into all the gory details, but Galen believed that men are superior to women because they "run hotter." Yeah, I don't get it either, but this was a belief that shaped hundreds of years' worth of misogyny in Europe. And it was surprisingly fun to rant about; so much fun, in fact, that class ran long by 5 minutes because we were all too invested in the topic to stop talking.

My next course was Fantasies of Youth: The Child in Twentieth-Century Children's and Young Adult Literature. Despite the mouthful of a name, the course's topic is fairly straightforward: critically analyzing children's literature. In our first lesson, we discussed how some literary theorists believe that it's problematic to mention actual children when discussing children's literature. More specifically, some researchers think that discussing actual children leads to defining childhood, which can create harmful self-fulfilling prophecies about how kids behave. Meanwhile, other researchers believe that children play no role in children's literature because adults are the ones who write, produce, and distribute books. The first theory does have some roots in psychological research, so I'm willing to let it slide, though I am extremely skeptical about the truth of it. The second theory, however, strikes me as utterly ridiculous. Of course children have a role in children's literature; they are the market for the genre! When kids buy books for themselves--and this happens, not all books are provided by parents--they show authors what they are interested in and willing to read. If authors want to sell books to kids, they have to write what kids like. Therefore, children play a huge role in children's literature.

So, after a debate on the place of children in children's literature, we spent the rest of class analyzing picture books. Then, in my Writing for Children class, we analyzed more picture books, which was surprisingly interesting. It turns out that there is a lot to unpack in what is likely the simplest form of literature, including instances of irony and suspense. Which is why my homework assignment for the class, writing a picture book of my own, turned out to be a lot more difficult than one would think. But by golly, I did it.

And then I went to my last course, my Advanced Creative Writing Tutorial. Which was quite possibly the coolest thing ever. I spent an hour and 50 minutes ranting about my novels in a one-on-one session with a professor, which was amazing. Enough said.

So, now that I've weeded out the casual readers with five paragraphs' worth of academic nonesense, it's time to talk about the cool social things I did last week. First up: crocheting club on Tuesday. I know that for most people that doesn't count as a cool social thing, but as someone who's been crocheting for thirteen years, I had an excellent time. I went and crocheted with a bunch of like-minded ladies for two hours, met a super cool dog, and greatly enjoyed myself.

Working on a Pair of Fingerless Gloves

Then, on Wednesday, I went on the Bath Skyline Walk with a group of other people in my study abroad program. It only took about five minutes to hike from the city center to the hills surrounding Bath, and from there, the views became increasingly stunning as we went further into the countryside. Words don't really give justice to the beauty of it, which is why I've included a few pictures of the Bath skyline below. For me, the best part of the walk was seeing a pasture with a low stone border. I know that sounds strange, but it gave me vivid flashbacks to some of my favorite books from my childhood: the Animal Ark series. It also viscerally reminded me that I am in England, a place that I have only read about before. Which, needless to say, was pretty awesome. 

Views from the Skyline Walk

Sham Castle, on the Hills Near Bath

Speaking of pretty awesome, I had a lovely time exploring Bath over the weekend. On Saturday, I went to the Bath Farmer's Market and tried a scotch egg. It consisted of a hardboiled egg wrapped in sausage and breading, and it was a bit strange but very tasty. Then, on Sunday, I went to the Annual Bath Dragon Boat Races. The event was small, so it was right up my alley, and the races themselves were very entertaining. The boats were gorgeous, and to top it all off, the event benefitted a local nonprofit charity. After watching the races, I took a stroll through Victoria Park and enjoyed ice cream from an authentic Mr. Whippy truck.

An Astonishingly Tasty Scotch Egg

A Dragon Boat Under Victoria Bridge

Victoria Park

In short, my first week of classes went swimmingly. I've already done some really cool things this week that I can't wait to talk about in my next post, so stay tuned!

Thanks for reading!

Abby 

Artsy Picture of the Day: The Bath Skyline (Of Course!)

Week One: Seeing the Sights

Hello Internet!
Last week was a whirlwind of prepping for upcoming classes, taking long walks around Bath, and touring some of the coolest places I have ever seen. As mentioned in my last post, I spent most of last Monday and Tuesday getting settled in Bath. On Wednesday, I finally got the books for my courses. I mention this for two reasons: first of all, it was the biggest pile of books I have ever gotten at one time, and that is saying a lot. Secondly, nearly all of them were children's or middle grade books. As a humongous fan of middle grade literature, this was terribly exciting for me (I had to take a walk so I would stop bouncing off of the walls). During this walk, I got to view the lovely riverside path that follows the River Avon through Bath.

My Rather Ridiculous Stack of Required Reading Material

The River Avon (My flat is in the building right next to the bridge)

Thursday was fairly uneventful, though I did take the time to visit Mr. B's Emporium Bookstore. It's a lovely little shop that's stuffed absolutely full of books, and I couldn't resist purchasing a few new novels. Then, on Friday, I toured the formidable and gorgeous Bath Abbey. Our group was extremely lucky; we got to see the Abbey's clock from the inside and visit the bell chamber just as the bells chimed. We also went right to the top of the Abbey to experience terrific views of the entirety of Bath. After the tour of the Abbey, I wandered to Henrietta Park, which was beautiful in its own right. The day ended with a whole-program reception at the Victoria Art Museum. There, I got to meet with my professors and classmates to discuss our upcoming classes.

The Front of Bath Abbey

Bath City Center

Bath Abbey Clock-From the Inside

Henrietta Park

Although these escapades were exciting, the real adventure came on Sunday. This day started with a program trip to Stonehenge, which was, quite honestly, unlike anything I have ever experienced. Stonehenge, despite the hordes of tourists that cluster around it, drips with majesty and mystery. Its sizeable, solemn presence calls to mind ancient warriors and old, old magic. Many mystery and fantasy stories have been written about Stonehenge, and as I stood in front of the monument, it felt like any one of them could have been true.

Stonehenge!!!

Stonehenge Feat. Yours Truly! (Photo credits to my wonderful roommate)

In my opinion, I had to leave Stonehenge far too soon. That being said, the next destination was nothing to scoff at. The Salisbury cathedral, approximately 9 miles from Stonehenge in the city of Salisbury, boasts a 123m tall tower, loads of gorgeous stained glass, and a copy of the Magna Carta. It was also built in the 13th century, which means it was right up my alley. My classmates and I enjoyed an excellent tour of the inside, where we saw monuments to John Cheyne, a 7-foot-tall warrior; Bishop Robert Wyliffe, who nearly took Sherborne Castle back through trial by combat; and two different ladies who had lost favor with Elizabeth the 1st for their illegal marriages. The highlight of the tour was viewing one of four remaining copies of the Magna Carta. As a history nerd with a love of the 13th century, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Salisbury Cathedral (Isn't it pretty?)

The day ended with a trip through the medieval village of Lacock. I toured the inside and grounds of the (13th century) Lacock Abbey, forded a creek, and enjoyed a traditional English lamb roast with sticky toffee pudding. I also got to see some of the highlights from the first Harry Potter movie, including Quirrell's classroom and Lily and James's house. All in all, it was a great end to an excellent day and a memorable week.

Lacock Abbey

Quirrell's Classroom

Part of the Creek I Crossed (No fear, I didn't go down the steps!)

My classes have started this week, but as I have only had one so far, I will have to rant about them in the next post. I don't have any terribly concrete plans for the rest of the week, but I look forward to seeing what the next few days will hold.

Thanks for reading!

Abby

Artsy Picture of the Day: The Royal Crescent in Bath