First Day of School

On Friday, I had two lectures and met with both of my tutors. The way education works in Oxford is much different that Azusa, or most other American universities. Most students meet with their professors in a 1 to 1, weekly meeting focusing on a specific subject. Depending on the major, students have between two and five of these a semester. My education here includes two of these, a weekly seminar (similar to a small discussion class) on the writings of C.S. Lewis, a weekly discussion on faith with all 19 of the APU kids, and a series of required lectures and exams on British culture and society. Overall it makes for a pretty round semester. Though the difficult part is that I'm only in "class" for about 5 hours a week (max.) and the other time I must be diligently reading and writing essays of 2,000-3,000 words for each of my tutorials.

Friday felt like the first day of school for me in a lot of ways. I don't really know if I've had that sense since freshman year of college. It was new and exciting, and I was very nervous to meet my tutors. I came back from my meetings with a flutter of anxiety, a touch of worry that this term will be a lot of work, but mostly a feeling of resolute excitement, looking forward to the amazing learning experience in front of me with determination.

I'm starting to get finally get comfortable with the layout of Oxford. With it's small institutions (libraries, colleges, bookstores, parks) spread out over the entire city, it has beeen a challange to figure out where everything is. Yet I think, after two weeks of wandering around and often asking for directions, I am getting my bearings.



I am even making time to go out into the open spaces. I took this picture a few days after I got here, but I think it will soon be one of favorite spots to watch the trees dance and listen to the wind speak. Though this has been one of the few sunny days we've been blessed here in Oxford, I've taken some interesting shots of my surroundings and hope to post them soon. Until then, I hope everyone who reads this has a better idea of what I'm up to.