Um ... what to write, what to write? Let's have a mini vent session first, and then I'll continue to the rest of it.
It's rather disconcerting to be in a foreign country with absolutely no one I know. I feel uprooted. No, perhaps that's not the right word. Adrift, perhaps? For some strange reason, my introverted tendencies are coming out, and I'm not in the mood to socialize. Why now, of all times??? I can't wait to get a schedule set up, and start making friends within my college. There's a bop (a themed dance) Saturday night - may the socializing begin! On another note, they fixed our heater and our shower, so now four girls don't have to share the same shower, and we won't awaken to a random lack of heat. However, I still don't have my student card, which grants me access to the libraries. The associate students (who take one primary and one secondary tutorial, and have access only to the Bodleian and their college libraries) got their cards yesterday, and have full use of the libraries. Paul and I, visiting students (who take two primary tutorials and have access to the Bod, our college library, and the faculty libraries, as well as having all the privileges of actual students), have not yet received our cards due to a delay from the snow. Arg. Thank goodness I have good ol' David Copperfield to keep me company in the meantime. Great book, but it has taken me a ridiculously long time to read.
Moving on from the complaining.
Oxford University is rather unique, if you haven't noticed. It is broken up into over 30 colleges, which do not specialize in subjects. I have not yet figured out how they place students into colleges. I suppose it's the atmosphere or something like that. Magdalen College (my college) has had the most famous alumni from what I can tell. Other than that, I'm not sure how they're different. To draw a parallel, it is similar to how the United States of America is divided into 50 distinctive states all hailing under the same title. Each student participates in a tutorial. These tutorials involve one or two students conversing with a tutor (quite different from the American idea of a tutor - this is like a professor), reading/skimming numerous books, and writing extensively about their subject.
When I say extensive, I mean extensive. As in, a 10-12 page paper every week. Per tutorial. Not to mention the books which I as a literature student am encouraged to read twice. I had a mini hyperventilating session when I realized this. I knew there would be reading and essays, but I had no conception of exactly how much. I keep telling myself that they wouldn't have sent me here if they didn't think I could handle the workload and excel. Plus, classes are all I'll have to worry about besides my service and any clubs I choose to join. And they're only one hour per week each. So I have lots of time. I wish I had read more before actually getting here. Ah, how I hate the clarity of hindsight.
Their theory of learning is rather fascinating. I very much approve. Bob, the director of OSAP, gave a long lecture about it. They encourage students to gather information from an extremely wide variety of sources, to think deeply on a given question, and write an essay (an exploration, as he called it, not an argument) with discussion points. The tutors put the learning directly into the hands of the students. None of this spoon-feeding, getting lost in the crowd nonsense so typical of American universities. Students study that which excites their intellect, and learn to think for themselves. Yes, my home university encourages this as well, but not to the same extent. Here, you are not penalized for disagreeing with your tutor. You are encouraged to do so. And it's not a surface encouragement; as in, "I tell you to disagree, but if you do, I will look down upon your stupidity for daring to disagree with my own ideas, and twist your argument so that it seems to hold absolutely no validity whatsoever, when in reality I'm too afraid to consider another point of view." I am so excited for this intellectual stimulation.
I suppose I will be that one annoying person to comment on every post...
ReplyDeleteI just thought it was funny how you said, "Plus,classes are all I'll have to worry about besides my service and any clubs I choose to join." Umm...duh? Isn't that the same here? Good optimism though :)