An Oxford Introduction

Oxford.

Where do I start? (Here, it might be a good idea to follow Julie Andrew’s advice to start at the beginning. It is, after all, the very best place to start…)

First of all, this is not the first time I have been to Oxford. I was here for a brief three days in 2007 while on a choir tour. (We performed at the Sheldonian Theatre!) As it turns out, I didn’t remember as much of Oxford as I thought I did. What I remembered as High Street is actually Broad Street, and I have virtually no recollection at all of High Street. In fairness, the Sheldonian is on Broad, so I would’ve seen more of that part of the city, anyways.

Over the course of the summer, I’ve had some time to reflect on the upcoming five weeks. To some extent, I feel as if I know exactly what to expect while here (after having questioned former Duckenfielders to near death), yet in another sense, I feel quite the opposite. I feel sure of the academic work yet not the academic structure. I know what it is like to visit Oxford, but not what it is like living there. I know I will have life-changing experiences and self-growth opportunities while here, yet I have no idea what form these changes will take.

One thing is for sure. I will walk away from Oxford a more confident and inspired young woman, but almost more importantly, I will be a more academically confident and inspired young woman. While I experienced major personal changes last summer, I feel as if this summer will fine-tune my academic sense of self and move towards a new, more professional me. (I also hope to gain a sense of direction for post-undergraduate careers while here…) After studying for five weeks with a tutor (Benjamin John Morgan) in one of the oldest and richest academic centers in the world, I expect that I will approach my work with an enhanced appreciation and understanding of A) literature—the work itself—and B) of academic life. After living here for 5 days, it already feels as if I am partaking in a great lineage of tutors, fellows, and students, with our succession linked to this very place and all of the great work and individuals who have passed through Oxford. C.S. Lewis once lived in New Building (my dorm, if you can call it that with a fireplace and deer for neighbors), and I eat my meals surrounded by portraits of Queen Elizabeth and important fellows in Magdalen College’s history. It is as if the air is charged with inspiration and the buildings haunted with former students and tutors rooting for my success.

In fact, I think the Oxford traditions are at source of its magic. After our first champagne reception in the cloisters, followed by a concert and a formal High Table dinner,—otherwise known as Formal Fun-day Mondays—I felt like I finally understood (at least to some extent) the traditions at the heart of the university and, more specifically, Magdalen itself. When Dr. Addison, the program director, said grace in Latin at High Table, I felt as if I was being inducted into the line of Magdalen scholars before me, partaking in the unique Magdalen ritual that make both Magdalen College and Oxford University unique.

It doesn’t hurt, of course, that the walls of the dining hall are lined with larger-than-life portraits of past tutors, bishops, and Queen Elizabeth herself. I mean, who gets to eat 3 meals a day with one of the most fascinating monarchs in global history?

This gal!

As a member of the Harry Potter generation, I find myself surprised that the portraits don’t move, that they remain stationary, frozen in time. (For those of you who haven’t seen pictures, imagine Magdalen as a smaller-scale, more quaint Hogwarts graced with gardens instead of forbidding, mountainous terrain. You won’t be far off.)

I finally had the time on Friday to walk around the college and take pictures. After promising to myself that I would catch up on blogging Friday afternoon, the pattering rain on my windows soon persuaded me to take a nap. It literally rained for 12 hours on Friday (6am-6pm. Trust me, it did; I was up reading the Merchant of Venice), but the sun broke through Friday evening and cast a warm glow over campus.

Naturally, as a (some would say born) and bred photographer, I grabbed my camera and spent my evening wandering campus instead of watching a movie with the rest of the group. (Again, I invite you to think of a quaint Hogwarts.) I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful evening to roam Magdalen and the neighboring Addison’s Walk, a beautiful nature trail on the edge of campus. It was as if the photography gods (Nikon via Nike?) pushed the “perfect weather/lighting” button, a nice reprieve after so much rain.

For me, photography is a sort of celebration of people and places. I like to think that through my lens, I can appreciate the fine details of a particular setting or capture a moment in someone’s life. Either way, I feel as if I can stop time for an instant and preserve exactly what I saw when I took the photograph. It is as if pictures, then, become a sort of pensive (again, for the non-Harry Potter fans, a pensive is a liquid in which you can store memories) into which you can look years later and re-visit your memories as if they happened yesterday.

Although I enjoy writing, I find that it is sometimes easier to tell a story with a picture, to paint visual lines rather than horizontal lines of text. Rather than an Intro, Body, and Conclusion, photos have a Foreground, Middleground, and Background, all three of which are required—as in an essay—for success.

As such, please forgive me if I tend to do a lot of my story-telling via pictures. (I had 600 pictures from Wednesday alone…) Yet for all of my photographic enjoyment, sometimes there are things better expressed in words (or perhaps the visual and the verbal are interdependent, enhancing the others’ aspects that fall short of the mark) and so this blog will remain a journal of my internal musings and academic endeavors of life at Oxford.

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See pictures from my arrival and 2nd Day at Oxford. (Went to a pub with Dorothy to watch the Spain vs. Italy Euro Cup 2012 final!)


See pictures from Magdalen College (the ones with awesome lighting) here.


See pictures from our Wednesday excursion to Wells Cathedral, Glastonbury Abbey, and Glastonbury Tour (Tower).