Academics

Well, that is what I am here for, really ...

So, of course, the British school system is different from the American school system, just as the American school system is different from the French school system, and so on and so forth. In England, "college" refers more to the high school years, while "university" refers to college or university as we know it. It only lasts three years, though, and not four. The lucky ducks only have two exams ever: mods and prelims, which come at the end of the first and second years ... if I am corret. Not sure on that one. But they do have other papers and such inbetween, so it's not like they spend all their time out at pubs or anything ...

The academic year is split among three trimesters, not two semesters as we have it; the first is Michaelmas, the second Hilary, and the third Trinity, originally named for holidays falling within those three time periods (roughly: fall, winter, spring respectively). A "full term" consists of eight numbered weeks, starting with Sunday as the first day of the week. My "1st Week" begins 10 October, and "8th Week" ends 3 December. The week before 1st Week is known as "Nougth Week" (is that how you spell it? maybe "Naugth"? "Noughth"?), where "freshers" come up to the uni, get settled in, etc. The week after 8th Week is known as "Ninth Week," where things wind down, students leave the uni, last-minute papers are frantically written and handed in, etc. Unfortunately for sanity, neither Nougth nor Ninth are officially part of full term. Are you still with me???

- For me, these four weeks before Nougth are an "Integral" course for international students [read: Americans] and part of the exchangey program I'm in. It's not really an exchange program, because no one at home is having to deal with a British equivalent of me (can you imagine??? just too bizarre. Would she try to imitate the American accent? would she get excited over Poe and Twain? Would she yearn for french fries and shakes? Weirdo ...) but that's beside the point. During these four weeks, we have lectures, little seminars, and field trips and such to work on assimilating ourselves into (does one assimilate to or into?) the environment and getting accustomed to the teaching style and also introduce ourselves to the Middle Ages. Hello, sweetie. Haven't we met before ... ?

Anyway, so you've been seeing the amazing places we've been visiting on field trips (and by ourselves!) and Wed we have something else coming up - Wells and Glastonbury, so that ought to be a treat. Our head prof has been giving us lots of good advice regarding how to deal with stress and depression ("there's always a box of tissues in my office ... and a cup of sympathy") and how to balance study and leisure time and how to take notes ("I've seen grown men cry" because they forget to write down page numbers) and how to keep track of appointments (advice to Henry Higgins: "buy a diary") and how to define Oxford University ("a non-ontological state of being") and such things as that. He did remind us that "Alice was the brainchild of an Oxford don, and ... couldn't have been invented anywhere else" - so that's a very insightful point on the character of Oxford, in my opinion. But don't think about it too long, or you'll start seeing white rabbits.

There are 30 undergrad/grad colleges, with 6 grad-only, and two very special colleges: All Souls', which you can't even apply for, they pick you to join the club; and Kellogg (aka Cornflake College - ouch) which ... is very confusing. Like, I think it's a bunch of profs or something ... not sure. They're not big on concise definitions over here.

St. Peter's College, with which my program is affiliated, is a rather new college, founded in 1928, with 458 students, just under the average size. "Gown" (i.e. academics) vs. "Town" has been a point of discord for quite some years, and in 1209 "the weaker bretheren fled to the East ... and founded some sort of a nursery school" ... what did they call it? Coolidge? College? Cambell? Oh, Cambridge. Yeah, that sounds vaguely familiar ... "Oxbridge" is known as THE rivalry of the milennium; can you imagine an American football game between Army and Navy? Times infinity. Huge.

And when I say huge, I don't mean big, I mean downright GINORMOUS.

Oh, and the word "quite:" when used as "quite heavy" it means "very;" when used as "quite good" it means "almost." Or "sort of, but not ... quite."



"Just think, Eat Me, Drink Me, magic mushrooms ..." ... says the prof. "I did tell you this was the land of Alice."