The very large majority of this week was consumed with
writing a paper on castration and economics in The Merchant of Venice. *cringe. I know. It wasn’t what I’d
initially planned to write about….it just kind of happened. Anyways, the paper
is titled “The Empty Sac: Socioeconomic Infertility in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice,” and I’m pretty proud of it!
By the way, did you know that the sun rises in Oxford at
4:30 AM, welcomed by a chorus of what can only be described as croaking from
the deer?
Yeah, I didn’t know that either.
As you might imagine, I was up pretty late (early?) working
on the paper this morning, not because I had to, but because I wanted to. It
literally felt like I was having a sleepover (an all-night-over?) with those
same generations of scholars before me, including Keving Niehaus (Duckenfield
2010), who saw his fair share of Oxford sunrises.
Yet while I was a little sleepy this morning (I managed to get exactly 1 REM cycle of sleep, which was perfect! I woke up on my own & felt refreshed, vs. other all-nighters when you feel like death!), I was really glad to have stayed up so late. I watched the sunrise over the spires of Oxford and see the sun’s first rays through the willows in Deer Park. Watching this historic town wake up through my window was an entirely mystical experience and one I will never forget.
Tutorials followed this afternoon. I was really nervous, but once I started to read my paper aloud, my nerves melted away. Professor Johnson seemed pleased with the paper & pointed out what he really liked and what he thought I could improve for next time (he disagreed with my final conclusion that Shakespeare used MoV to argue for a more mercantile-based rather than barter-based system of trade), but I think he was pleased with the paper itself.
I was relieved to find that tutorials were much more laid-back than I was anticipating. (He ate an orange while I read my paper and apparently ate a sandwich in a later tutorial!) While I understand that the informality might be to ease our nerves at attending OXFORD TUTORIALS, I think it is making me even more nervous because it’s so far removed from my expectations of something akin to grueling office hour sessions.
Tonight we’re going to a graduate student party(?) at the MCR (Masters Common Room) Bar to celebrate a successful first round of tutorials. Apparently it’s a student-run bar with £1.50 pints! I can’t wait to meet some ‘real’ Oxford/Magdalen College students! Who knows?! Maybe they’ll have some advice about applying here for graduate school! ;)
Yet while I was a little sleepy this morning (I managed to get exactly 1 REM cycle of sleep, which was perfect! I woke up on my own & felt refreshed, vs. other all-nighters when you feel like death!), I was really glad to have stayed up so late. I watched the sunrise over the spires of Oxford and see the sun’s first rays through the willows in Deer Park. Watching this historic town wake up through my window was an entirely mystical experience and one I will never forget.
Tutorials followed this afternoon. I was really nervous, but once I started to read my paper aloud, my nerves melted away. Professor Johnson seemed pleased with the paper & pointed out what he really liked and what he thought I could improve for next time (he disagreed with my final conclusion that Shakespeare used MoV to argue for a more mercantile-based rather than barter-based system of trade), but I think he was pleased with the paper itself.
I was relieved to find that tutorials were much more laid-back than I was anticipating. (He ate an orange while I read my paper and apparently ate a sandwich in a later tutorial!) While I understand that the informality might be to ease our nerves at attending OXFORD TUTORIALS, I think it is making me even more nervous because it’s so far removed from my expectations of something akin to grueling office hour sessions.
Tonight we’re going to a graduate student party(?) at the MCR (Masters Common Room) Bar to celebrate a successful first round of tutorials. Apparently it’s a student-run bar with £1.50 pints! I can’t wait to meet some ‘real’ Oxford/Magdalen College students! Who knows?! Maybe they’ll have some advice about applying here for graduate school! ;)
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| Dreaming Spires of Oxford from my bedroom window! |
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