Oxford 07: Tutorials and stuff

And how am I doing now?

On the academic side of things: Yesterday and today I had my first meetings for my tutorials. Yesterday I met with Dr. Harriet Harris of Wadham college for my primary tutorial on "Integrating Philosophy and Theology." Oxford tutorials consist in a series of hour-long one-on-one meetings with a tutor who has training in the field of study. I will have eight meetings with Dr. Harris (one for each week of term). Each meeting centers around a paper that the student has written over the course of that week. My first paper was on Plato's natural theology. My first tutorial went well, for the most part, and I'm very much liking the direction that the course is taking.

Today I had my first meeting with Dr. Kurt Ballstadt of Lincoln college for my secondary tutorial (only four meetings over eight weeks) on "Leibnizian Philosophy." I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed that session; Dr. Ballstadt is positively charming and conducted the session splendidly. Tomorrow is the first meeting of the C.S. Lewis seminar (several APU students are taking that together); we'll see how that goes.

In addition to the tutorial and seminar, there are many, many philosophy lectures going on. Oxford students take these lecture courses as part of their program at the university. There are so many lecture series going on, it's incredible. I could listen to philosophy lectures continuously each day from dawn to dusk, if I wanted to (but then I would never get my research and papers done). But I think I'm going to go through the series on Locke and Berkeley, probably take a series on logic, and maybe one on Nietzsche. So many choices.


Other miscellaneous and fun, random points: Since I lost my big umbrella in Italy, I've had to purchase a new one. I can now say that I am the proud owner of an authentic, British umbrella--so I'm very happy about that.

I find that I'm drinking more and more tea. Electric water kettles are marvelous devices--so much faster than boiling water on the stove; I'm going to have to get one when I return to the states. At any rate, tea is wonderful--sweet nectar.

I've spent some more time around New College--the college with which I am affiliated during my stay here. It's quite a lovely place.

I've been attending services at Christ Church College these past several weeks. I've very much enjoyed my experience, thus far, with the Anglican church. The evensong services are incredible and the chapel choir is amazing. I'm falling more and more in love with sacred music.

I've joined one of the college choirs for the term--the Wykeham Singers of New College (after William of Wykeham who founded New College). Rehearsals will be about an hour long, once a week, for the next eight weeks (and at this point, we don't have our own copies of the music with which to practice) with our concert on 01 December. It's going to be a lot of fun.

I found at that the room where my secondary tutorial meets is the same room that John Wesley used during his time as a fellow at Lincoln College. How cool is that? I'll get pictures at my next meeting.

I'm not terribly impressed with BBC Radio. Usually when I get back from the library in the evenings, BBC Five Live (693 MW) is broadcasting sports commentary (when it's the news I'm interested in), and last time I turned to BBC Intelligent Talk (93.9 FM) they were doing this really long segment on the toothbrush. They talked about the history of the toothbrush, the composition of the first toothbrushes, of what and how modern toothbrushes are made, whether standard or electric toothbrushes are more effective, what the state of dental hygiene is in Britain today, the current state of the toothbrush industry, whether sale of toothbrushes is rising or falling, new innovations in toothbrush design, developing campaigns for teaching people how to brush effectively... on and on and on. So I'm not terribly impressed with BBC Radio. (Ha ha!)

Doing laundry continues to be an interesting experience. I'm glad that the OSAP has furnished our flat with a working washer and drier (so I don't have to use a laundromat), but the wash cycle takes over an hour. And the drying cycle takes over four. That's right--over four hours--that's two 130-minute cycles (and the clothes are still a little damp). And rarely, if ever, is anyone home for four continuous hours, except when sleeping (and nobody's going to get up at midnight to start the second drying cycle). I'm sure I'll laugh about it someday. Actually, I laugh about it now.

Alright, that's enough miscellaneous points for now. Things are altogether going very well. Do, please, continue to uphold me in your prayers. And to all friends and family who read this, feel free to write an e-mail or post a comment. I would love to hear from you.

Cheers!