My Room With A View

My Room With A View

I remember thinking at the beginning of August that I was ready for classes to start again, that my brain had sufficiently emptied and was ready for new information. This week, my brain is screaming for a break. :) Saturday I wrote a paper analzying the historical context of Marlowe's Edward II and Shakespeare's Richard II. Today I wrote a paper reinstating Pride and Prejudice in a feminist canon. I am quite ready to leave my room. I've found that regardless of how much fun it is to study in the library or walk down to Blackwell's and study in the cafe, my best work is done when I'm isolated with headphones in my room. Boring, but the truth. And that is why the pictures for this post consist of my room (and the bathroom). Aren't you excited?
Now that these two papers are out of the way, though, I feel excited about the rest of the week. I think at some point we might take a trip to Cambridge and there's talk about going to Edinburgh, Scotland this upcoming weekend. We've moved on to Milton in my history class, which I'll admit intimidates me. And, were I not blogging, I would be reading Wuthering Heights. It's very strange to realize that I'm halfway through my seminars. With four out of eight classes down, time is passing extremely quickly. I wonder what the tutorial schedule will be like. I desperately want to travel and I hope having just the one meeting per week will mean I have more control over my schedule.
The weather is becoming more and more typically English. Yesterday it rained pretty much all day. People have warned me that my fascination with rain will slack when I encounter rain on a daily basis, but so far I still love the rain.
One of the downsides to living on Banbury Road is that everything is at least a ten-minute walk. Not a problem, but an obstacle especially on days when moving ten feet from your books and paper-in-progress brings a sense of panic deep down. As a result, we eat at very odd hours when we don't go to Keble. For example, last night at around 2, three of us walked down to Oxford to get kebabs at a late-night kebab stand. We then returned home and watched Office Space. Needless to say, my sleeping schedule is a bit screwy as well :)
One of my goals for this week is to go to the Bodleian Library. I had meant to do that for these previous papers, but since you have to request a book and it can take up to 24 hours to retrieve it, it wasn't to be. I have used the Keble library, though. For my Marlowe/Shakespeare class, I checked out a book comparing Shakespeare to his primary source, Holinshed's Chronicle. When citing it for my bibliography, I realized that the book was published in 1907 and I had been using a book that dated one hundred years. For books, that's quite old. And for me, that's quite fabulous.
The house is slowly wrapping up construction. I believe the work on the gardens is complete and they're looking wonderful. In what is looking to be a trend in Oxford, we are not allowed to walk on the grass yet because they want to give it time to grow. (Shhh! Two nights ago I ran on the grass, because honestly, if you are on illegal grass, you have to run. But I checked, and there do not appear to be dead spots in the shape of my feet, so no worries!)
My brother turned 18 last week. I was very sad to have missed it, but I hope he had a very good day! Most of the time, I don't think about my age. But on the occasion that I realize I've just a few months left of teenagerness, it's quite a surprise. Time flies.
Apologies if this post is not up to par or full of mundane details. I have been quite swamped with work and while I could write a couple of pages describing how Shakespeare might have referenced Queen Elizabeth I in his plays, I don't think you'd care. :) All my love to the people back home. I hope homecoming went well for those still in high school! Thank you for commenting! I'm always excited to find a new comment :)