Reflections

Did Oxford really happen? These last few days, it's almost felt like a dream. I have nothing here that anchors me to the faraway, cold-and-misty world of the UK, nothing except my photographs and souvenirs and memories. Already it's been far too easy to slip back into old routines and old pastimes. But yet, one can't experience such an experience-packed three months as I did without emerging with some reflections. "Real" life continues (if this is indeed real), and I have nothing more to report on the abroad experience, so I'd like to wrap up this blog with a few thoughts about what I got out of Oxford.

Did the experience live up to my expectations?

Yes, more than. I admit, the decision to go abroad was a somewhat complicated one, so I tried to go in with few or no expectations. It was so unlike anything I'd ever done before, and so the stepping-out-of-my-comfort-zone part of the quarter made for many experiences that knocked me over with their novelty and beauty. I learned and discovered so much (as I'll discuss later in this post), and that in itself was what I had hoped would happen. Looking back, it was really what I needed at the time. I had fallen into something of a funk at Stanford and needed to get away, needed to change my routine, needed a fresh dose of perspective. These past six months - not just Oxford, but the summer that preceded my quarter abroad - have accomplished all of those things. I doubt I've ever experienced so many new things within a comparable timeframe, and I'm hoping that my sense of optimism, bravery, and proper proportion stays with me even as I return to the Stanford grind.

Are there things I regret, areas where living abroad fell short? Anything I would change?

My biggest regret is something that I can't change: I wish I could have understood the British accents better. I wish communication hadn't been so frustrating at times. Yet this is an issue I face in my everyday life, even when I'm not in the UK, so it's hard to single it out here. If anything, I guess it keeps reinforcing the importance of resilience and a good sense of humor. Anyway, it's not like I didn't expect this obstacle, and it really wasn't any more overwhelming than I had anticipated.

A few other small regrets: I wish I'd been able to see horses more often (and hadn't abandoned my own horse for three months), I wish I hadn't missed out on those weeks in my friends' lives. The whole overseas experience, though, was more than worth it. And, as I'm finding out now that I'm home, horses and true friends are always there, even if you slip offstage for a little while. No big deal - and a bonus is that we now have more to talk about with each other!

As for England itself: totally amazing, despite the weather and sometimes questionable food. I already miss its aura of discovery.

What are the biggest things I learned?

In a word, independence. The world opened up to me, and I found myself suddenly experiencing it, rather than only reading about it (though I did do a lot of reading!). Every event, every concept in the history of the world has arisen in a specific place, time, and context, and I felt like this truth kept hitting me head-on as I traveled England and other parts of Europe. I placed myself out of my familiar context and liberated myself to go and discover different things. History and art and culture, among other aspects of the human condition, became more real to me - and, what's more, I became more real to myself. I learned that I can be and do more things than I might have expected. I am more flexible and more capable than I could have imagined, and I am up to the challenge in a range of unfamiliar situations.

I learned to have an open mind. The sheer size of the world kept impressing me, as well as the number of people in it. If one option or situation doesn't work out, there's always another. Likewise, there are always ideas and beliefs and possibilities out there that I haven't considered. Life should be a continuous learning experience. This vastness of knowledge, possibility, and experience can be intimidating (and sometimes was for me!), but at the same time people are less dissimilar than we sometimes think - which is in itself reassuring.

When there was something that I wanted to see or experience, I learned how to go for it. My time abroad was so short, what else was there to do? From the start, I realized I might never have those opportunities again, and I feel like I succeeded in making the most of the time I had. I wanted to see Stonehenge; I made it work; I saw Stonehenge. How empowering. Now, what would happen if I applied the same mindset not only to my travels, but to my "normal" life as well? Not in a selfish way, of course, but grasping the reality that the only time we have to realize our goals and dreams is now.

In that vein, I also learned about my own personal characteristics. I understood my own abilities better, and learned to come to better terms with (while still not stagnating in) my own limitations. Situations that work for other people might not work for me, and I learned how to be more okay with that, seeking the friends and opportunities that set me (and others) up for success. I learned about the types of people I best like and communicate with, while discovering that this set might not be as limited as I might once have thought. All in all, I learned how to be a better friend to myself, something that I think helps us to be better friends to other people. I learned to better appreciate and utilize my daily "alone time" with myself. In testing myself in a range of different situations, and trying on different possibilities to see how they fit, I came to a more cohesive and more contented idea of my own identity.

What are my fondest memories?

Getting off the bus and seeing Oxford for the first time. Feeling like I was whirling around and around and still not taking it all in. Ditto for Paris, especially the moment when I turned around on a street and - wham - saw the Eiffel Tower looming right there.

Ditto (again) for the first time I saw Stonehenge, Canterbury, the cliffs of Dover, and other such places. Realizing that the photographs could never, never do them justice.

The first time I played polo, out on a huge grassy field surrounded by hills and fall colors, feeling the level strides of the horse under me, even while steaming in the pouring rain.

Blenheim Palace, Castle Howard, Bath, the Soane Museum. Ah, architecture.

Visiting Cambridge on a sun-dappled day, snapping pictures and hardly believing that England could be so colorful and gorgeous.

Touring through London's royal parks and people-watching. Becoming an expert on the workings of the London underground. Also, becoming a museum junkie.

Visiting Notting Hill and other quirky London streets.

Berlin.

Attending formal hall at Corpus with some friends, buying wine as we walked in, then sitting around the lamplit table talking about books and complaining about British food.

Afternoon tea. Every day. With milk and scones. Especially fruit scones. Yum.

That sweet moment each week when my tutorial paper was actually done.

Impromptu conversations in the kitchen at the Stanford house, in which I realized just how fascinating and smart my peers are.

Getting lost in the Stanford house. Or climbing too many stairs, or walking so much that I was sore the next day.

Arriving at the library before anyone else on a Saturday morning, breathing in the wood-and-old-books smell and feeling relieved that no passersby were around to make the ancient floorboards creak.

Walking through the fog (or rain, or snow, or just plain cold) at Oxford, shivering but also hardly daring to believe that I was lucky enough to spend so much time in this place.

There are really too many to list.

What's next?

I come back from Oxford with a renewed sense of possibility, which I hope I do not lose as I return to Stanford. In being suffused with British-isms for so long, so many American-isms now seem a bit foreign or strange, and I feel like I'm looking at things more objectively, with more of a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor. I hope this objectivity stays with me as well, and reminds me (once again) that the world is much larger than this tiny little cube in which I subsist.

Now I'd like to travel more, of course, but I also better appreciate the value of home and of settling into an environment that suits me well. In the end, what I hope Oxford has given me is the worldview and the courage to go out and keep experimenting with all those possibilities, places, and forms of knowledge, so that I can truly justify that I am leading a life that suits me, but also allows me to add as much value to the surrounding world as possible.

It's hard to sum up three months in so few words, but fortunately the journey does continue. And so I wrap up this blog - here's to what life holds down the road!

Oxford, How Can I Leave Thee?

Today - dare I say it? - is my last full day in Oxford. Although I'm not leaving to go back to the U.S. until next Friday, I have several trips and sightseeing days planned for the next week, and there's no real reason for me to stay in the Stanford House now that the quarter is over. I spent the day wandering the city at a slower pace than I have in recent weeks, finishing my Christmas shopping, and visiting one final set of buildings with my architecture class. Later in the day, there was a mulled wine and mince pies event for all the program students, administrators, and professors - very classy, very British. Finally, I turned in some final paperwork and even started to pack a bit (but - wasn't it only yesterday that I arrived with my suitcases, fresh out of Paris?). Among other matters of housekeeping, that paperwork involved writing a thank-you letter to the Bings, the benefactors of Stanford's overseas program, for which I was almost at a loss. How to express the full extent of my experience, my sense of wonder at discovering and visiting new places, and my gratitude for the opportunity that I've had over the last ten weeks? I am truly fortunate to have had this time in England, during which my only responsibilities have been to see, learn, and experience as much as I can.

And now I'm getting a bit sad to leave, even though another part of me is writhing in excitement to be home and back at Stanford. To reminisce a bit before my upcoming week of travel, here are some of the things I will miss about Oxford:

- The smell of the library, and the look of old leather-bound book spines against the shelves

- Formal halls, and how well the students dress

- Eccentric professor types on bicycles, tousle-haired and dodging towering double-decker buses

- The tutorial system, allowing me to learn and interact as I do best: one-on-one

- Gothic architecture, spires, and towers, each one striving to outshine the others

- Street musicians, performers, and vendors, bringing the city to life and always making my head turn

- Unprecedented shops and quaint pubs, winding back streets and quiet nooks

- The covered market and how I always seem to stumble on something new every time I go

- The way I indeed stumble on something new every day, some subtle and beautiful detail in plants or people or architecture that I never noticed before

- Birds and wildlife beside the river, paths and benches and plants, boats going past, and always some people-watching besides

- The way each individual college is like its own world, secluded in quadrangles unbeknownst to the tourists on the streets

- The ancient sense of the place, as if I'm breathing in the intellectual energy of all the people who have thought, invented, read, written, taught, learned, or just passed through here

As close as my heart is to Stanford, Oxford certainly is special, even incomparable.

An Oxford Term, Completed!

Eight weeks, five hefty novels, thirteen Shakespearean and Renaissance-era plays, ten full- and double-length papers, and about four thousand pages of reading later - finally, after the most study-intensive academic quarter in my life, I am done!

And so my time in Oxford comes to an end. I have mixed feelings about this, and I'll do a series of reflection posts later, but for the meantime (if you'll pardon me) I'd like to indulge in a bit of self-congratulation before I go off to relax and unwind. One of my anxieties before coming abroad was that I would find Oxford's notoriously rigorous academics overwhelming, especially at the same time as I got accustomed to a different country and place, met new people, dealt with communication and interpreters, and traveled and experienced new things. But, as of attending my last tutorial on Middlemarch today, I did it!

Goodbye for now, library!

An Apology

Dear British stranger, dear Oxford student: You speak, and what is it I see in your face? Not words, certainly. A shadow, fleeting and unfamiliar. Clipped vowels, an "o" seemingly changing to an "a," making me yearn to change my interpretation's dull light. I search your eyes, and there find the way things might be - intelligence, a penetrating gaze. But the world lurches beneath my feet, and I am uncertain, floundering, undone.

Christmas Spreads to Oxford

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that the Brits really get into Christmas. I mean, this is the country that produced A Christmas Carol, after all. London is aglow, as are other towns I've visited in recent weeks, such as Winchester and Canterbury. Signs have been up on restaurant and pub windows for ages, at least since I first arrived here in September, advertising that patrons should "book early for Christmas dinner." I guess that's a big thing here? Shop windows have had Christmas displays for several weeks, and last night the cheer spread to Oxford, as a range of Christmas lights and nighttime holiday markets opened for the weekend.

The smell of mince pies and mulled wine was in the air, and there was a stand selling hot chocolate brandy that I was tempted to try (but didn't, alas). There were kiddie Christmas trains and rides, and merchants were selling Christmas-themed goodies and trinkets. A machine even sat in the corner, puffing out fake snow. With the cold nipping in the air, I'm starting to get into the holiday spirit!

A British Thanksgiving

I admit it. Today, Thanksgiving Day, has been one of my most homesick since I arrived in Oxford. It's the first Thanksgiving I've ever spent away from my family - and I'm thousands of miles away from home in a country that doesn't even celebrate the holiday, at that. Today has made me remember all of the small things I miss about New Mexico, and it's been easy to keep wishing that I were back there, if only for one day.

That said, the Stanford-in-Oxford program has many amazing students, and our house Thanksgiving dinner (even if not quite the same as home) ended up being a great success, as well as one I think I'll always remember. Each person brought one dish, no small feat given the cramped nature of the house (bad for so much cooking going on at once!) and its many nook-and-cranny kitchens. I spent most of the late afternoon and evening racing around the house baking cookies and whipping up mashed potatoes, probably making up for the calories with all the stairs I climbed. The air outside was very chill, one of the coldest days in Oxford so far, but the house soon came to feel like a furnace, boiling and swirling with food smells and activity. Finally, once the turkey finished around 8pm and we'd crammed all our hot bodies and steamy dishes into the downstairs kitchen, it all snapped into place.

I was impressed by how good the food ended up being, and toss in a bit of wine and some interesting conversation... ahhhh. It wasn't my usual Thanksgiving, but did achieve the contentment and comforting air that I've always associated with the holiday. Oxford has given me so much to be thankful for, indeed.

A Horsey Post

I miss this. Who wouldn't?

But the good news is I made it out to play polo again today. The weather actually warmed up a bit, and I felt more confident with whacking balls than I have before - which, believe me, still doesn't mean I'm good! We got to play a bit, three-on-three, and the action of sweeping across an arena surrounded by other pounding horses and riders, eyes fixed on the small orange ball, did get quite thrilling. This was only my third time playing polo, or indeed getting on a horse, since arriving in the UK - something that I find a bit disappointing, but that doesn't seem all that unusual for student life here. I've found that sports and hobbies aren't as all-consuming in the UK as they are in America, even at the university (varsity) level. Athletic clubs and teams aren't nearly as well-organized, and I haven't found them that physically grueling, even rowing. Other Stanford students here have echoed similar sentiments. For Oxford students, "sport" isn't as central to life (you won't find anyone here cheering "Beat Cambridge!" like Stanford students do "Beat Cal!"). For one thing, there's too much schoolwork to worry about. And in general, these students seem to have different goals and a different work-life balance. I've enjoyed striking this new balance through travel, and with some upcoming day trips and time running short, I likely won't be able to make it out to play polo again. Still, I'm glad to have had the opportunity.

That said, in two weeks I will be done with schoolwork and the Oxford term - then in three weeks I'll be on my way home! Yikes, time to start cramming in some last-minute adventures!

Hey There, Winter

Fall is over. The leaves are almost gone from the trees, plastered to the sidewalk in slick black layers. Wearing layers and scarves is a must; I've been going around with leggings on underneath my jeans. A cold fog has descended over Oxford these past two days, and many parts of the Stanford house are absolutely freezing. The sun is infrequent and weak, and since England is so far north it keeps setting earlier and earlier in the day. Afternoon starts to wane at around 2:30pm. More local people here say this isn't bona fide winter yet, that it'll get even colder and drearier, but I can see the change of season starting to show its face. And I know this much: I will never, never complain about California weather again! (Well, maybe when the February rain makes me feel like a drowned rat. I reserve that right.) Brrrrr. I miss that spectacular, blue and clear and seemingly infinite New Mexico sky, too. At least this is good sit-inside-and-read-a-book weather. When I'm not piling on the layers, that is.

Random photo of the day: fun lights at a frozen yogurt place in London this weekend, just to break up the gray clouds with a bit of color. Yay froyo exists in England! (Maybe not as good as in Cali, but still not bad.) And yes, I see the irony in writing about froyo right after complaining about the cold.

Study Overload

Okay, let me take a moment to confess how insanely intense the Oxford academic system is. Stanford is a challenging place academically, but not like this! I've spent virtually all day, the last three days, studying in my room or in the library. Every night I feel like I surface for a brief respite of air (i.e., sleep) before diving back into it again. I've never been expected to read or write so much, or so sophisticatedly, in my life. My brain feels like a bloated sponge.

Admittedly this week will probably be one of my worst: I've got three full-length papers due in the space of four days, and a ton of reading to finish besides. But still, prodigious amounts of work seem to be the norm for everyone. As one of my friends put it last night, "Every week here feels like finals week!" For sure.

Just to give a bit of perspective, here at Oxford I am "only" taking three classes (including my tutorial), whereas at Stanford I've always taken four, plus many hours of extracurriculars. Here at Oxford, I am "only" taking 15 units - fewer than my usual load at Stanford. And I still feel like I'm drowning in work. By the end of this quarter, I'll be either really burned out or really good at cranking out those scholarly papers. (Probably both.)

But alas, there's still time for fun, and I've had plenty of that here as well. Photo of the day: I love fall. (And can it really be November?!)

Doors Galore

One of my newly discovered obsessions in the UK: doors. No, seriously. Some buildings, flats, and gateways in Oxford have the cutest doors. How'd you like to come home to one of these every day?:

Not to mention the entrance gates to the colleges (many of which have doors within doors) - they're teeny, people were so much shorter back in the medieval days!

Harry Potter Tour!

Just in case you aren't sick of my Harry Potter posts yet...

This afternoon our junior dean (i.e., R.A.) took a group of us out on a Harry Potter tour around Oxford, checking out many of the places used as sets in the movies - complete with Harry Potter trivia and plenty of chatter about the upcoming movie! How nerdy... and too fun!

Here's a sampling of "Harry-Potter-in-real-life" photos. (And, as a side note, I did not make it to Corpus's Harry Potter-themed formal hall on Friday; it ended up oversubscribed. So sad.)

Courtyard, New College - where Mad-Eye Moody turns Malfoy into a ferret in film #4

The Divinity Schools - aka Hogwarts infirmary

Corridors, Christ Church College - or, the hallways where Harry and his friends prowl

Great staircase, Christ Church - or one of the Hogwarts staircases (notably where Hermione descends for the Yule Ball in film #4)

The same staircase, looking down in a different direction - so Hogwarts!

Christ Church College Hall - aka the Great Hall

Chapel, New College - with the kinds of cloisters used for some classroom scenes

Halloween, Stanford-in-Oxford Style!

Some festive pumpkin carving and cookie and pie baking/munching certainly breaks up the tedium of studying.

And check out that jack o'lantern with the Stanford "S"! (Mine is the one on the left, inspired by Oxford towers.)

Week One

The Oxford term officially started this week. Which means that, after two weeks of traipsing around the city streets and going fun places and snapping photos like a tourist, I'm finally settling down into some real work. (Oh yeah, coming to Oxford isn't exactly a vacation...)

My Stanford classes are in full gear with papers due already, as well as some pretty heavy reading. I had my first tutorial yesterday, in which we sat down and mapped out my readings for the remaining seven weeks. I'm lucky in this regard - lots of other students are already drowning in their tutorial work, with lengthy papers being assigned ahead of time. (With strange, seemingly inexhaustible general philosophical prompts like "Do human rights exist?" and "What is creativity?")

Still, my readings for my tutorial, on the 19th-century British novel, have involved lots of secondary sources, which results in me hunkering down in the library surrounded by stacks of books. Even though these books are only "recommended," I feel like I need the broader perspective they offer - and find them interesting besides!

Starting the Oxford term has brought about work of a different sort: that is, deciding which Oxford activities to get involved in. Last week was orientation week for the Oxford freshmen ("freshers"), and the Stanford students took advantage of the activities fair ("freshers' fair") that took place Wednesday through Friday. This was like the Stanford activities fair on steroids. It was almost too much for me: crowded booths, visual overstimulation, enthusiastic (slash aggressive) Oxford students jumping out with sales pitches for their clubs. Interesting but random activities aside (archery, outdoors club, wine tasting club, range shooting) I've narrowed my interest down to three candidates: rowing, riding, and polo. Or maybe even some combination of the above. It'll be nice to get out and get physical again. Not to mention see a horse, hopefully!

My slightly alarming busy-ness aside, here's the random photo of the day, from Oxford's University Parks - England can be stunning when it's sunny!

The City of Dreaming Spires

If there's one thing I've learned since coming to Britain, it's that you have to take advantage of the good weather while it lasts! The last three days have brought in some warmer temperatures and gorgeous sun (for the most part), so this afternoon a few friends and I walked out to Carfax Tower, at the far end of Oxford's High Street, to enjoy some very panoramic sights of the city. After climbing up a succession of tightly spiralling, claustrophobia-inducing staircases, we emerged to see this:



Spectacular. As many pictures as we took, none of them come close to capturing that view. There's a reason Oxford is called "the city of dreaming spires."

An Afternoon in the Library

How surreal, sitting in the Bodelian library's reading rooms, reading from an architecture book that discusses the design and style of the Radcliffe Camera - and then looking through the window to see that very spectacular building towering outside. (Even if the library's policies are strict and its hours limited. Hey, with a copy of every book published in the UK, it has a right to be stingy.)


Many other buildings in Oxford are classic and oft-cited examples of British architecture. I realize how lucky I am to see them every day.


That said, some of the architectural details around here make me laugh. Besides quirky gargoyles, the library has carvings of literary characters. The architects of old must have had a sense of humor - or, at least, a flair for whimsy.

Starstruck

X-Men 4 is filming in Oxford! Or was, a few days ago. No lie. Film crew people were swarming the streets, we saw a few extras walking past, a temporary camp had taken over Christchurch meadow, and while out on my morning walk I had a close encounter with a truck and trailer with "Director" on its door. I've long known that Oxford is a popular destination for film shoots (most famously, Harry Potter - I keep feeling like I've fallen into Hogwarts!), but brushing shoulders with such a high-profile film nevertheless left me, and everyone else, a bit starstruck. On our way to the pub the other night, we inadvertently stumbled across a night shoot in progress, which forced us to backtrack and take an alternative route. James McAvoy was supposed to be on set at one point, but alas, I did not see him.

Mapping My Coordinates

Today's my third day of orientation and of living in the Stanford House. It's been a nice time to meet people, get settled, and explore Oxford without the pressures of schoolwork, and the general air in the house is that of meeting an exciting adventure. The pressure cooker will turn on soon, of course (I saw my course syllabi today - yikes!), but thus far our days have been filled with staff talks, group activities, and general logistics. Yesterday a number of Oxford historian-professor types guided us around some of the colleges; the woman with my group had a wonderfully kind British air, not to mention a smooth cadenced accent that I found enthralling. The history of this place keeps blowing my mind. Last night was also our welcome dinner, on long lamplit tables in Corpus Christi's dining hall. We had sherry and wine (the wine was good; the sherry not so much, especially since the sugary variety reminded me of concentrated cough syrup), and I kept wondering how many generations of students had sat there before us, and what kinds of things they had discussed.

Other than the formal orientation activities, I've been wandering around Oxford, getting settled and figuring out details like where to buy books and groceries, as well as getting to know my fellow students in the Stanford House. Living in the house has been an adventure in itself. Imagine the most convoluted maze, labyrinth, rabbit warren, with in-between floors, corner-nook rooms and kitchens, and staircases that lead up and down and twist in coils, so that when asked "Where's your room?" all 48 residents can only shrug and point, "Over there somewhere" - imagine that, if you can, and you've visualized where I'll be living this quarter. The house itself is a series of interconnected living spaces that have been smashed together to accommodate as many students as possible. There seems to be little logic behind the architectural organization, but I find it refreshingly eccentric, besides worrying about what would happen to me if I got lost during a fire alarm.

My room is easier to access than some, up a flight of stairs (just one!) and facing the back garden near the fire escape. (Fire alarm problem solved!) Since the view is beautiful, and since it doesn't involve getting lost, I find it one of the best rooms in the house. Some other rooms have huge old (albeit blocked-up) Victorian fireplaces and spectacular glimpses of the Oxford streets, but I like sitting out on my set of steps, breathing in the damp cool air, and gazing down into the garden and the walls of the city beyond.

Oxford!

I am in Oxford! After so much planning and anticipation (trepidation?), it’s great to finally be here.

 

Now, where do I start? The entire city has a unique mix of energy and centuries-old tradition that I find very hard to describe. In any case, it’s at once invigorating and humbling, and I feel like I’m (maybe) absorbing some of the intellectual vibes that race throughout this place. Names such as Henry VIII, Albert Einstein, Robert Boyle, Alexander Fleming, T.E. Lawrence, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien keep being dropped into casual conversation about the history of Oxford, making me want to wander around with my jaw dropping in awe. Virtually every spot and every building is in some way historic. Seemingly everywhere I look, a stone spire shoots into the sky or a plaque marks the location of some monumental event or academic discovery. Some of the colleges, with their quiet stateliness, make me feel like I’ve stepped back in time, released to be and to learn anything. I keep realizing, with a small start, how blessed I am to be here.

Yet, even though history and tradition are clearly very important in Oxford (more about this later), I haven’t found this air overbearing. There’s a brisk energy on the streets, and conversation is engaging and intelligent. Many cute (and sometimes eccentric) shops flaunt interesting and colorful displays, and narrow winding roads give an adventurous air to the place. I’ve already discovered some of the more wonderful parts of living here – namely, the Covered Market and Ben’s Cookies, the quirky specialty shops, Christchurch Meadow and the gorgeous Thames (slash Isis) river. It’s clear that this city is not some dead monument, but a place that is still alive and relevant.

Here are some of my first views of the place where I’ll spend the next ten weeks of my life (it was sunny that day – not so anymore!).

All Souls College

The Bodelian Library

Magdalen Bridge

Corpus Christi garden

The High Street

Bon Voyage!

Hello friends! I've started this blog to be, literally, an internet log of my travels overseas during the coming three months. Seeing as I will be in Europe in less than three days, it's safe to say that I'm diving right in!

So who am I, and where am I going? I am an junior at Stanford, majoring in English and human biology, who is about to spend ten weeks at Oxford University as part of Stanford's Bing Overseas Studies Program. Going to Oxford has been a goal of mine since my senior year of high school, before I even applied to Stanford. As such, I am beyond eager for the opportunity to study at such a prominent and historic university, to see parts of the world I've never seen before, and to gain fresh perspectives along the way - perspectives that I hope will stay with me far beyond my return to Stanford. I've heard a lot about Oxford from a collection of friends and friends-of-friends (and other interesting connections), and I'm excited to be an inhabitant there for a while, visiting such places as High Street and the covered market, the Bodelian library and the various colleges. Finally, like any true English-lit nerd, I'm a bit giddy to be studying the written works I admire right in the heart of England!

At this point, it's also worthwhile to mention my apprehensions about going overseas, if only briefly. I am nervous about: 1) how I will handle living in a foreign country (and traveling abroad) for the first time; 2) the intensity of the Oxford classes, especially the tutorial, and my ability to balance schoolwork with sightseeing; 3) meeting unfamiliar people; and 4) understanding British accents! Since I am deaf, the latter is probably my biggest concern, as is the entire dilemma of communication. Fortunately, the Stanford overseas program was able to arrange for an American Sign Language interpreter in Oxford, though many friends will remember what a nightmare that process was! (I won't go into it here.) Overall, though, I'm much more excited than nervous, and I've realized that many of my fears are fears I will need to face anyway. For instance, communication is probably not much easier at Stanford than it will be at Oxford. I'm determined not to let fear of the unknown hold me back - especially when the entire experience will be so worth it!

My belongings are accumulating, my room is a mess as I pack (I'm going to try to jam three months' worth of stuff into one suitcase), and I keep darting off to finish last-minute errands before departing in two days. And then - bon voyage! I know that's not British, but still appropriate seeing as our first travel stop is Paris!

Until then!