One of my friends at Teddy Hall interviewed me for a podcast she produced about how the Icelandic volcano affected the Oxford University community. You can listen to me and others talk about how the volcano affected spring break travel plans, and what that means about technology and our world.
Trinity is the name for Oxford's third and final term of their academic year. Matriculating Oxford students often don't have tutorials during Trinity Term. Theoretically, they should be spending the rest of the time studying for the exams, called "collections," that come in the second half of the term. (But we all know how creative students are at procrastinating studying... even Oxford students!)
Since I'm a visiting student, I don't sit for exams. I take two tutorial subjects, just like last term. The subjects I'm studying are:
18th Century British History - This tutorial is the perfect history course to take while studying in the UK, because the 18th century was the period when the modern British state took shape. It also saw the emergence of the modern form of Parliamentary government, the rise of the British Empire, and the "American War." (That's what scholars of British history call the American Revolution!) Strangely enough, my tutor for this subject is an American. He got his doctorate here a year or two ago and now is a tutor here. In my time at Oxford, I was taught British history my an American and American history by Brits... go figure!
Atlantic World History - This tutorial takes a trans-atlantic perspective to studying the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Instead of just looking at the history of one country, when I study Puritanism, the slave trade, and revolutions from this period, I'll be studying how these phenomena affected the Americas, Europe, and Africa. This tutorial only meets bi-weekly, but I'm really excited about it. I'm working with one of my tutors from last term again in this subject.
This term, my goal is to spend a little bit less time in libraries and a little more time sight-seeing! I've only got about six and a half weeks left at Oxford, so I'm making sure to take advantage of the rest of my time here. My friends and I are planning several day-trips for the upcoming weekends and really trying to see all that we can in what time we have left. It may not have all the excitement of D.C., but I'm going to miss Oxford!
Happy May Day! May Day is a very important holiday here in Oxford, and the town has its own unique ways to celebrate it.
Festivities begin at 6am on May 1, when the choristers from Magdalen College sing "Hymnus Eucharisticus" and "Now is the Month of Maying." Lots of students and Oxfordians come to High Street, just below Magdalen Tower, to listen.
The crowd on High Street, approx. 5:50am BST
A portion of "Hymnus Eucharisticus":
Where the choristers sang.
The past few years, however, some Oxfordians have adopted the peculiar habit of jumping off Magdalen Bridge into the River Isis to celebrate May Day. As an attempt to stop this, the police closed off the bridge from 4:30-7:30am to pedestrians, but judging by the number of people that I saw who were soaking wet their efforts were in vain.
High Street closed for the festivities.
Because most of my friends and I live on the opposite side of Magdalen Bridge, we had to cross the bridge before it closed if we wanted to see the events. Unless you take a very long detour, crossing the bridge is the only way to get into the city center from where we live. So, our May Day started very early -- at about 4 am! (That's 11pm EST, East Coast readers!)
A pub open at 7am.
After the singing had ended, we walked around some of the streets of Oxford to watch the different groups of Morris Dancers. Morris Dancing is a form of English folk dancing. You can see some pictures and videos below:
An Irish band.
Some friends of mine joined in the dancing.
Morris Dancers.
Another group of Morris Dancers.
A third group - all of these groups of dancers were very near to each other. All we had to do was simply turn a street corner and another group was performing.
Then after watching the dancing, we headed over to Wesley Memorial Methodist Church because they were serving a traditional English Breakfast (eggs, baked beans, bacon, tomatoes, tea) for free! It was good to know that even across the pond Methodists still like to feed people -- just like the Methodists I know in the states!
