Getting Settled

I did a TON of work today: I figure I deserve a break, and I might as well spend it productively by writing a blog post.

So I survived the rest of Freshers Week! I can't say enough that it was totally weird going through all the orientation/get-to-know-you stuff again. One of our last official Fresher's Week events involved a pub quiz. Pembrokians have a "local," i.e. a local pub, in addition to the college bar. The local, called The Blenheim (pronounced Blenhm, for those of you who would otherwise by likely to use a more proper German pronunciation), is just around the corner from college. They have a full menu, so the night of the pub quiz, some of us went there before hand to eat (I had really tasty chili). When everyone else who was participating in the quiz showed up, we split into teams. It turns out that pub quizzes are exactly like what Philadelphians would call Quizzo: a team game of random trivia with several rounds. Ian, the guy that runs the pub, read out the questions and we answered as a team. Quizzo has three non-standard rounds - each team has to pick a round to count for double points, a pictorial round, and also a round in which all the answers connect in some way. At the Blenheim, there's still a connection round and a pictorial round, but there's also a round in which teams have to identify songs or other quotes (in this case, the quotes were snippets from Looney Tunes). My team fared very well, and though we didn't win, everyone got a bag full of free stuff including playing cards and beer t-shirts.

Freshers week is for getting to know the other students at your college and orientation events, but it's also for university-wide recruitment for sports teams and other clubs. There was a huge university-wide Freshers Fair late in the week, which was open to all Oxford students. We all went to the examination schools, big open halls sort of in the center of town, to peruse the hundreds of booths. It was sort of overwhelming - the halls were hot and packed, and the sheer amount of information available was mind-boggling. There were political clubs, musical groups and societies, language clubs, wine-tasting societies, sports teams on any number of levels, environmental groups, volunteering opportunities - really, anything you could think of. I put my name on so many email lists, I don't even remember all I signed up for. The fair was on Thursday; on Friday, my friend Anna from Tufts said that she had talked to the people at the basketball table and was going to tryouts on Saturday. I thought she meant basketball tryouts for Pembroke and agreed to go. When we met on Saturday morning, I discovered that she meant University basketball tryouts, but I was all dressed and ready to go, so we just headed for the courts. Now you have to realize that I haven't played competitive basketball since middle school. I played intermural ball all through high school, but as Maggie pointed out to me, my attendance record at Penn's gym is less than stellar. So I was sort of panting my way through drills and scrimmages, but somehow I managed to make the final cut! We're divided into two teams, the Blues, or varsity team, and twos, a junior varsity equivalent. I'm on the twos, but still, it's not bad for not having played in awhile. I have a lot of shaping up to do, but it should be good fun, as we get to travel to other universities for games. Our first "match," as they call it, is Wednesday in Birmingham, three hours away. We've only had one practice, so we'll see how it goes, but it should be a fun trip, and I'll get to see places in England I probably wouldn't have gone otherwise.

After basketball tryouts, Anna, who ended up making the Blues, and I went down to Pembroke's boathouse for an open day. The rowers were grilling out and giving people who had never rowed before an opportunity to try it out. I was pretty exhausted by the time we got there, but I had a hamburger and then gave it a go anyway. The took us into the boathouse and put us on rowing machines to teach us the basic motions, then put us straight in a boat and took us out on the river. I was fine on the rowing machine, but I ended up between two men who knew what they were doing in the actual boat, so I didn't exactly pull my weight. Actually, I got yelled at a lot by the cox. I think, therefore, my place is as a proud and enthusiastic spectator. But that's ok - I can now say that I've tried it, plus it was a lovely day on the river. The river is bordered on both sides by a park, so there were lots of people out having picnics in the brilliant sunshine. It's actually been sunny a fair number of the days I've been here, which I think is probably giving me false hope about the climate.

In addition to playing basketball, my other main activity here will be singing in Pembroke's chapel choir. Pembroke is one of many colleges at Oxford that has its own chapel. Ours is quite small, but very beautiful, with intertwining vines on the ceiling, exquisite stained glass, a marble altar and a big, old organ. The choir is run by our two organ scholars, who are here to study and write music as well as studying organ performance. The choir, about 30 members, rehearses from 3:30 to 5:30 every Sunday, with a short break for tea and cake mid-way, then sings the evensong service in the chapel. It's a very traditional Anglican service with sung responses, hymns, readings and a short message by the chaplain. After the service and a glass of sherry, the choir goes to formal hall with all the other first years, except everyone who participates in the service sits together in a small side room. The evensong service stood in stark contrast to the church I went to Sunday morning - St. Aldate's, right outside of college. It's an old church, but they've reoriented the sanctuary to be more conducive to a very modern style of worship. A very professional worship team led us in a series of praise and worship songs, then a guest speaker gave a talk about why Christianity makes philosophical sense (as opposed to other theories, like those produced by Kant, for example). It was a fun service, though VERY different from what I'm used to at home. There's another church really close by that apparently does things a little more liturgically, so I'll have to check that out next week. The contrast between the morning and evening services really struck me - I enjoyed them both, in different ways obviously. There's a part of me that loves that half-hour long, emotional worship set, but also a part that cherishes the quiet, intimate evensong service.

My actual academics began today - funny how they feel almost like a sidenote to everything else that's gone on in the past week. I had a great time in my first Shakespeare tutorial today - an hour with a professor and another student, hashing out the personality of Hamlet. Good stuff! Next up - Othello. But I do have a Milton essay due on Thursday, so I'll have to get down to work on that tomorrow. All in all, my first day of actual school at Oxford went well and I'm looking forward to getting adjusted to this whole tutorial thing.