The History of Art with a British Accent

The Obligatory Last Post...

2009-07-07T01:05:00.002+01:00

So here I sit in the Dallas Fort Worth airport waiting for my flight to Louisville. It keeps getting delayed, hopefully it will leave sometime soon. My flight from Madrid to Dallas was decent. I had never flown 10.5 hours in day light, it seems much, much longer than the night flights. The food and such was as good as a flight (in 'tourist' class at least) could be. Now I have at least and hour or so (depending on when my flight actually leaves) to kill - seems like a good time to wrap up the blog.

I guess I'll start with what I'll miss about Europe. At Oxford I'll miss having any resource I could ever want at my fingertips. I'll also miss going out in Oxford and being 1.5 hours or so from London - a great city. I'll miss Europe's diversity and liberal mindset. I'll miss the open attitudes of the people at Regents. And, of course, I'll miss the many people I met while abroad.

I won't miss living on the British Pound or the Euro, it will be nice to live on the dollar again. It will be nice to drive places again, to know where I'm going. It'll also be nice to get things together for senior year and to work a bit so I can save money (rather, so I can pay my bills from Europe) for the coming semester. It'll also be nice to know all of the people around me again.

I'm not exactly sure what else to say. I suppose if you have questions you should probably ask me in person.

Adios.

A quick jaunt around Europe

2009-07-02T21:52:00.002+01:00

So I haven’t updated my blog in a while as I’ve been traveling with my mom and her friend - Rominey. We started out in Oxford then headed to London, Paris and Barcelona. They left Barcelona today (Thursday) and I headed onto Madrid. I’ll be home on Monday (July 6) around 11pm or so. I’ll go ahead and post a bit about each place, however, I don’t have good internet at my hotel so I won’t be able to load any pictures - I guess you’ll just have to ask to see them when I get back :) … plus I’ve taken about 1,300 pictures and that doesn’t count Madrid!

Oxford
As a whole, Oxford is a great little town. It’s quiet, pretty and there’s quite a bit to do. However, it’s expensive (more so than London really) and everything closes early. Overall, it’s a great place to study but I’d rather live in London and take the 1.5 hour bus ride into Oxford every now and then. As far as my mom and Rominey’s trip goes, I took them around Oxford - we saw some colleges, went to the Pitt Rivers Museum (where we saw real shrunken heads), and walked Christ Church Meadow. We ate at the Eagle and Child (a must in Oxford), fish and chips in fact, and had sandwiches from Taylor’s for lunch - the sandwich is pretty much lunch on a daily basis for lots of people in Oxford. I’m quite sure I wore them out but the day was good.

London
London was lots of fun. We saw all of the sights (Buckingham, Big Ben, London Eye, etc) and went to the Tate Modern (great museum btw) and the British Museum (good, but a bit overrated in my opinion). It was easy to get around on the buses and the Metro and, of course, everyone spoke English which made things quite easy. All in all, I think London was both my mom and Rominey’s favorite city.

Paris
Paris wasn’t what I expected it to be in all honesty. For one, it’s must more similar to the cities I’m used to (big, Spanish-speaking, South American) than I thought it would be, it’s also not the cleanest place ever (that’s taking the fact that it’s a very large city into account). However, the food is good and all of sights (Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, etc) are great. Now, being an art history major I have to say that I love Parisian museums. The Louvre is amazing. The building (which was the royal palace before Versailles, just fyi) is a sign all in itself, yet it holds a seemingly endless amount of art work. It was great to walk around and see many of the pieces I’ve been studying in textbooks. The Museé d’Orsay was also great. It houses more recent works (the stars of its collection are mostly Impressionist) which I tend to like more. It was also great to see many of the works I had just learned about in Dr. Decker’s End of Impressionism class. (A picture of me with Le déjeuner sur l’herbe-famous painting- will be up when I can upload pictures.) Overall, Paris was a good place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there. I’d also prefer to explore Paris with someone familiar with the area - it’s huge, to see the “real” Paris you’d need someone who knows what they’re doing; rather, where they are going. In other news, my trip to Paris has caused me to decide that I’m going to learn French. I’m not used to not being able to communicate (I’ve had only traveled to English or Spanish speaking countries up until this point) and I don’t like the feeling.

Barcelona
Barcelona is a great city. We left Orly airport in Paris (not such a great airport really) and flew into Barcelona. It was quite a bit hotter as Barcelona is on the Mediterranean. THe city is amazing. The people are great and, and this is a plus for me, it’s a Spanish-speaking city. Well to be honest, it’s a Catalan-speaking city, but since no one else outside of Cataluña really speaks Catalan everyone there spoke Spanish as well. Beyond the language it was great to be back in culture I’m at least somewhat familiar with. The city really doesn’t have the “must see” sights like Paris or London, however, it boasts amazing “modernista” architecture. Park Güell, designed by Antonio Gaudí, was by far my favorite. And, of course, the Mediterranean was nice as well. I could easily see myself living in Barcelona - although I’d need lots of sunscreen.

Madrid
I took the Ave (a high-speed train) from Barcelona to Madrid. The Ave is amazing - you have more room to move around than on the Eurostar and there’s a movie. It’s also just a nicer train overall. It does go rather fast (it tells you the speed, we were going anywhere from 175-200 mph at any given time) but it’s an extremely smooth ride. I’d travel by Ave all of the time if I could. I have seen very little of Madrid thus far, however, it seems to be a nice city. The Metro is the best way to get around (although it’s not as good as London’s or Barcelona’s) and seems to be efficient, however, I’m learning that many of the museums and such aren’t really very close to a Metro stop - that’s not fun. The biggest difference is the heat. In Madrid it is/will be about 97 degrees each day. The heat index will be 100+ - it’s hot in Madrid. In the shade it’s not too bad, but in the sun it’s really quite unbearable. That’s about it for now, if I have a decent internet connection I’ll update more; if nothing else I’ll be home Monday.

80 = 44 and a fire alarm

2009-06-18T15:46:00.002+01:00

I started off the day with lunch in college (lasagna - it was quite good). After that I headed to the post office to ship some books home so that I wouldn't have to carry them all around Europe or pay for the extra weight on a flight (it wasn't cheap though). Next I headed to a bank to change some cash I brought with me. As of today, with no commission or anything at this bank, 100 USD buys you a little over £44 - yea, the exchange rates sucks like no other at the moment. After that depressing moment I headed to the Ashmolean. The Ashmolean is an amazing museum that boasts an impressive collection of everything and enything from all over the world. Unfortunately it's closed until November for remodeling. However, the print room is still open to art and art history students. I was there for a couple of hours looking at a portrait of Isabella d'Este and some works by Raphael. I was also looking through their portrait collection of Elizabeth I and Charles I. During this time the fire alarm went off (never a good sign in a museum, especially in the print room) which meant I actually got to walk through a good part of the museum itself to exit. It turned out to be just people working on the fire system, but b/c of their mistake I got to see a lot more of the museum than I would have. All in all it was great. Tonight I'm going to dinner with my college moms then going out for one last night in Oxford. Tomorrow I move into Regents, have formal hall that night and then the last college bop after that. Saturday is Valediction. Sunday I'll write my last essay the my mom gets here on Monday.

Heli Ride

2009-06-13T16:32:00.004+01:00

Today I went for a ride around Oxford in my housemate's helicopter. It was amazing. Here are some pictures.

City Centre (where all of the colleges and such are)

Phil - he's a ministerial student at Regents, he also live in Spencer House

Tony - this is his helicopter

'Touristing' it up in Oxford

2009-06-11T16:51:00.007+01:00

So today it was actually warm and rain free...and I had absolutely nothing academic to do. I decided to explore Oxford a bit since I really hadn't had the chance to since I've been here. First I headed to Christ Church Picture Gallery. It was quite amazing, especially since the collection is quite interesting, and valuable, yet it's owned by a college. Although from the standpoint of working in the Georgetown galleries (after you work in any gallery you start to pay attention to certain aspects of shows/galleries/museums) I was quick to notice that most of the works on painted on wood and it was very humid - quite a bit of the wood was rather warped. Nevertheless, it was great. After that I headed to the Oxford Museum of Natural History which was interesting. However, the Pitt Rivers Museum (an anthropology museum attached to the Natural History Museum) was exponentially better. It was extremely interesting and I had never been to a museum quite like it. Next I headed to a few of the colleges, mainly Trinity, Jesus, Balliol, Brasenose and Exeter. I also climbed the tower which is located near the RadCam which made for some amazing pictures. It was a good day and I saw much of what this city has to offer. I also realized that Oxford isn't near as big as it seems at first.

Week 7

2009-06-10T00:32:00.003+01:00

The Tute
This week I'm writing about how the Tudors used the royal image and what that said about their view(s) of the public. More or less I need to comment on why the Tudors didn't have much of a public presence and what that says about their dynasty. So far it's going well. Since my essay last week was the best grade I've received thus far, even though I thought it was the worst, I'm trying to model this week's after it. I'd post images but there really aren't any for this essay.

Formal Hall
This week's formal hall is a bit different. The former principal (most similar to the president or perhaps dean of an American college/university) of Regents' portrait will be unveiled. There will be speeches and lots of people I've never seen before but it should be fun and, at the very least, a rare Regents Park Experience.

Final Fling
The end of year ball (final fling) is this Saturday. This year's theme is "Arabesque" so it should have an Arabian Nights kind of feel to it. Basically it starts out with dinner then drinks and entertainment - the "survivor's breakfast" starts at 4am. It should be fun (I hope it will be fun since it costs £50 - about $80).

Helicopter Ride - another try
Before final fling on Saturday we are going to attempt the helicopter ride again, hopefully all will go as planned and it will work out.

The Rest of My Time Here
After this week there is only one more week in term. That week will be filled with an essay, a visiting students goodbye dinner, final formal hall, a bop and valediction - lots of things. Oh, and I'm also determined to go punting once more, this time sans the torrential downpour. My time has gone by super fast, more on that later I suppose.

Finances
England is really expensive. On top of that, Oxford is one of the most (if not the most) expensive cities in England - yes, on many things it's more expensive than London. Beyond that, many Oxford students tend to have, let's just say, "deep pockets" or at the very least some frivolous spending habits (just to qualify, I don't want to imply that all Oxford students are well off, that's not even remotely true). In other words, it can be hard to still have fun, esp with the Brits, and live on a budget here - my bank account is certainly reflecting this right now. It's going to take some serious budgeting, and perhaps less in take of certain fermented substances, if I'm to survive and have fun on my mini-trip around Europe after Oxford.

Rain

2009-06-06T11:19:00.001+01:00

So it was quite sunny and warm here last week. This week it has been a bit cooler but still sunny, until yesterday at least. Yesterday I was supposed to go punting, it had rained that morning but had cleared out, that is until we left the college to walk down to the docks. It ended up raining rather hard - we still went punting, we just stayed under a bridge and drank Pimm's for an hour and a half or so. After that I went to formal hall, which was fun. Today, I was supposed to go up in a helicopter over Oxford, however, it's still raining so that won't happen. Two very good plans, both ruined by the wet, unpredictable English weather. Oh well.

Change of Plans

2009-06-04T16:13:00.002+01:00

Originally I was going to Stonehenge this Saturday, however, my plans have changed. Tony, one of my housemates (he played a large role in inventing the program all ink jet printers use) while his house is being remodeled in Oxford, owns a helicopter. He's bringing it down from London this weekend and is flying us around Oxford on Saturday afternoon. Basically I can go to Stonehenge anytime but I rarely get the opportunity to fly around Oxford, especially for free. Pictures will surely be taken.

Tomorrow I'm going punting (a punt is a small boat) - that should be interesting.

Week 6, more like "666" really

2009-06-03T20:13:00.003+01:00

So week 6 has been extremely rough thus far. First and foremost, Ashley (my tutorial partner from Yale) is going home for a wedding this week so she won't be in tutorial. Second, this week's topic is Asian art which I know next to nothing about. I'm writing on "the European elements in the Kangxi emperor's patronage activities." I completed all of the required reading on Monday yet still had no clue what to write about. I then attempted to locate other sources, as usual, which I completely failed at. Then I emailed Yu Ping asking for advice which, a day later, she gladly gave me. Now I'm on the right track but still have no real clue what I'm writing about. Normally this wouldn't be an issue as I'd still have a day or two to figure things out (the "no clue" feeling is common on Monday's) but it's Wednesday around 8pm and I have to start writing my 2,000 word essay as it is due in about 13 hours, yet I don't really know what I'm writing about. Needless to say, this essay will be interesting to say the least. This is by far my hardest academic week here. At least normally I wouldn't be clueless alone (Ashley would be as well) but this week it's all on me. Yay.

Summer VIII's

2009-05-30T15:52:00.003+01:00

Today was Summer Eights, the biggest rowing race after Oxford v. Cambridge. It's a bump race which means it's not about coming in first place but bumping the boat in front of you - yes literally bumping them. Basically the banks of the Isis are full of people and all of the boat houses are selling hamburgers and Pimms, which by the way is amazing. Pictures are below.

Regents Women's Rowing

The boathouses

Regents Men's Rowing

The Regents Blade

Regents women heading down the Isis to start their race

Regents men coming in to dock

Ashley (my tutorial mate from Yale) and I - she rows for Lincoln College

Five Down Three To Go

2009-05-27T23:44:00.004+01:00

So I just finished and submitted my fifth essay (which, if you're interested can be found on my MobileMe public page - directions can be found in a blog post or two back entitled "Essays"). This time I had to write about how the Stuart court masque (a type of theatrical performance more or less) used visual arts, poetry and music to depict the political aspirations of the dynasty. I ended up writing about three specific masques. I also discussed Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones, two very important masque authors. Yet before I could do that I had to define the political aspirations of the Stuart court (I focused on Charles I) and define a masque. I only used one image this week, a van Dyck portrait I saw when I went to Tate Britain. Unfortunately the only image of it online is rather crappy, the painting itself is great, the image below does not do it justice. Next week I'll be studying "collecting at the global court."

The Blog

2009-05-27T15:17:00.002+01:00

So as you may have noticed, the look of my blog has changed yet again. I think I'm finally content with this one. Although the actual layout of my posts is weird and it won't let me change it. Oh well....this was my five minute break from essay writing. Back to writing about Stuart England I go.

The 5th Week Blues

2009-05-25T14:21:00.003+01:00

So my time in Oxford is more than half over - it's 5th week, only this week plus three more to go. It's gone by quite fast. Fifth week always brings along fifth week blues, at least so I'm told. Right around this time everyone starts to get tired of working and not too much is going on as people are sitting for collections (which in the US would mean taking tests - but they only take a couple very important tests). However, in Trinity Term the Wed-Sat of fifth week is very, very important - it's when the Summer Eights occur! Summer Eights is the biggest rowing race, well after the Oxford/Cambridge race, and the banks of the Isis are packed on the last day of racing (Sat). I will be going to the races as much as I can but if nothing else I'll surely be there on Saturday.

In other news, Dr. Juilee Decker (my art history prof at Gtown) will be in Oxford starting this Saturday. She will be here for about a week as she is the McCandless lecturer this year (each year Regents and Gtown switch lecturers). It will be nice to see a familiar face, especially the one that played the biggest role in preparing me for my time at Oxford.

The tutorial is going rather well although this week is a bit challenging. After my tutorial last week, Yu Ping and I talked about my progress thus far and about how I can improve what I've been working on, etc etc (it was more or less the 'progress report' for the term). As a result I'm working quite hard to take all of her advice into consideration and produce the best work I can - we'll see what happens.

The rest of this term should go by extremely fast. This weekend is Summer Eights. Dr. Decker will be here for 6th week, the Regents play is also during 6th week. The Saturday of 7th week is Final Fling (the end of year ball more or less, the ticket wasn't cheap -about $80- but it includes dinner, drinks, breakfast and it's basically the big event of the year). Then it will be 8th week, my last week here which ends with the Valediction ceremony. Then it will be time to travel Europe for a bit then head back across the pond and start the internship search and study for the GRE.

The Essays

2009-05-21T15:54:00.002+01:00

So I've decided to go ahead and put my essays online. You can read/skim them if you'd like. Just click here to go to my MobileMe account. Once you click you'll need to type in "public" for the username and "rothko" for the password. To download/view any file you'll need to click the arrow on the far right of each file name. Just a heads up, essay 3 isn't the best thing in the world.

The Rainbow

2009-05-20T23:53:00.002+01:00

So while leaving Regents the other day Ashley (the Yale student that's also in my tutorial) and I saw a rainbow. It was quite neat as it was very pronounced - plus it's an English rainbow which automatically makes it at least ten times cooler than any American rainbow.

The 'tute' thus far

2009-05-19T13:55:00.003+01:00

So my tutorial (tute) has gone pretty well so far. My first essay was decent (although I don't really know how decent as Yu Ping didn't know she was supposed to give us a grade on it - typically the tutor only grades you once, at the end for your final grade) as it didn't have anything too terrible marked on it. My second wasn't so great but was far from terrible. Last weeks was pretty darn good (a 62 - an A/B in Gtown) and I hope that I can break into the 65+ range this week. The topic this week is finally something different than the previous three - which have all dealt with the artist/patron or artist/court relationship. We can pick between two topics, I'm choosing "How was portraiture used to legitamize Queen Elizabeth I's rule as a female monarch?" It should be interesting as I've never studied anything about Queen Elizabeth. I'm off to read quite a bit, more to come later.

Pictures

2009-05-17T18:13:00.002+01:00

While I put some pictures on my blog it takes forever to upload them. I also have some pictures on Picasa. To see them just click here.

Christ Church Meadow and The River Isis

2009-05-17T17:45:00.004+01:00

Today was rather rainy but then it was quite sunny in between the rain. I decided to go for a walk around Oxford and ended up walking in Christ Church meadow. There's basically one path that takes you through the meadow then down along the Isis River. The Isis is where all of the college's row and practice rowing - at the end of the path is where all of their boathouses are. All in all it was a great walk with good weather. I also got to see all three major Oxford pastime in one trip - rowing, punting and cricket.

Punting

Cricket

More punting

Christ Church Meadow w/ Christ Church College in the background

The path

Bridge between the walking path and the college boathouses

Rowing on the Isis

The college boathouses

London

2009-05-16T22:58:00.005+01:00

So on Friday I went to London for my tutorial. I got up quite early and walked to the bus station in the rain. About 90 minutes or so late we arrived in London, where it was partly sunny and not raining at all. First we headed to the Tate to see the van Dyck exhibition - it was great. Ashely (the Yale student in my tutorial) and I walked around with Yu Ping and had an amazing tutorial. It was great to see the pieces first hand. You get a true feeling for their size and you realize things you just can't realize from an image. After this we headed to the cafe at the Tate and had our actual tutorial. Next Ashley and I headed to Whitehall (Yu Ping had a meeting back in Oxford) where we saw the ceiling Rubens painted. After that we saw the London Eye, Big Ben, the House of Parliament, Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace. It was pretty great in all honesty to just walk around London and see all of the sites - which are all rather close to one another. After that we got some lunch and headed back to the bus station. When I got back to Oxford it was still raining. I went home and changed clothes for formal. Formal hall was good, with rather amazing food, then in the JCR we had champagne and chocolates night. After that I went out to a pub and then home. Today (Saturday) I went to the fete (like a small carnival) at Regents where they had face painting, a three legged race, etc etc. It was rather enjoyable. Next we headed to lunch at Noodle Nation (as close as I'll get to Yang Kee Noodle while here, although YKN is better) and went to see Angels and Demons at the theatre. All in all that's about it over the past few days. It's been quite fun.

Big Ben

Protest across from Parliament

House of Parliament

the London Eye and the Thames River

The Burghers of Calais (a sculpture by Rodin)

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace...again

Trafalgar Square

Guard outside of some cavalry museum (I don't remember the exact name); I was impressed the the horses remained to still when tons of people were around them taking pictures and such

Whitehall Banqueting House Ceiling - by Rubens

The Oxford Union

2009-05-14T23:40:00.006+01:00

So tonight I pretty much had the best night I've had while in Oxford - I went to the Oxford Union. The Oxford Union is basically the debate club, however, it's huge. Each week they host a formal debate in which famous speakers are invited to argue the proposition and the opposition. Before each debate there are drinks in the quad and after there are President's Drinks. This week's topic was 'This House should legalise assisted suicide.' We, as in an audience of about two hundred, heard arguments from UN doctors, national Parliamentary figures, and family members associated with assisted suicide cases. As each presents their argument many students stand up and challenge the facts and points made. Basically it's what Americans think of when they think of Oxford - students coming up with eloquent, well-defended arguments on the spot about pertinent issues while surrounded by very well-known people/scholars. The whole thing is very much so like The House of Commons (which you can catch on late night C-SPAN) - people shouting and such; even the layout of the room is the same. Typically you have to be a member to come to these events (Oxford students are eligible but must pay quite a bit), however, one of my college moms is an officer for the Union and she was able to get me a guest pass - to both the debate and President's Drinks (which few people get invited to this open bar event). It was a great night, even though I got soaked while heading back home in a, recently dry-cleaned, suit. Just a bit more about the Union, they also host numerous famous speakers - Martin Sheen was just here about a week and a half ago.

There's a video about the Oxford Union here. The main debating chamber is where I was but it gives you an idea about the Union as a whole. Although I have to argue about their claim to having the cheapest bar in Oxford - I've been there, Regent's bar is cheaper.

My position on the topic (since I've been asked) -
Based on the debate alone I'm in full support of assisted suicide. The opposition did not clearly present their facts, only one member managed to successfully do this. They also used Oregon as an example yet cited much incorrect information. Somehow Texas and the death penalty got thrown in there as well. Furthermore, one member said that assisted suicide was like divorce and abortion - it's controversial at first, then it gets legalized and everyone is ok with it (meaning at some point we'll just kill people for the hell of it). The proposition had both and emotional and factual argument (and didn't cite incorrect facts from the US).
Personally I believe that it's an autonomous right. If you want to kill yourself you have the right to do so as a member of a Western, democratic government. When you are unable to do so because you are incapacitated then it is your right to seek assistance to carry out your wishes. In denying your right to assisted suicide you're more or less saying that some one doesn't deserve their rights or that they are somehow "less-deserving" than a healthy person. However, strict rules and safeguards must be in place.

Essay 3 (aka the downside of a non-lending library)

2009-05-14T01:51:00.003+01:00

So I'm pretty much finished with my third essay. It's about 2,800 words (800 over my "limit") but that's not really an issue. I ended up discussing the status of the artist at court using Anthony van Dyck and Gianlorenzo Bernini as examples. I'm actually quite proud of the essay - it's extremely art historical in its style and everything. However, I ended up taking portions of my essay in a different (hopefully better) direction than I had anticipated. So I remember reading portions of my assigned readings and such that defend my argument perfectly but I didn't write them down. This means I will have to get up at 8am so I can be at the Sackler Library by 9am. As there are very few copies of the book I need in the Oxford System (there are 3) and someone, well my tutor, has already requested it, I'll have to beg the librarians at the front desk to let me use the reserved book - which they are supposed to do but some librarians are nicer about it than others. Then I'll add the few bits to my essay and send it off in the morning. Unfortunately tomorrow is also the day that Spencer House (where I live) is having a group professional picture. So I'll have to run back home, shower and dress up for that. Long story short, I'm not a huge fan of non-lending libraries at the moment....although I am, unlike last week, proud of my essay this week.

Technology and Rain

2009-05-13T16:42:00.001+01:00

So in sitting at a few different libraries by now I've noticed something quite different from Georgetown - about 8 out of every 10 students you see has a Mac. Oxford is dominated by Macs and ITS has no problems with them at all - at Georgetown you're lucky to get limited support for a Mac. Speaking of ITS they are much more helpful in Oxford and the internet isn't the least bit slow.

On a different subject the forecast for the next 7 days is rain - fun.

London

2009-05-13T01:34:00.003+01:00

So this week in my tutorial I'm writing about Anthony van Dyck - basically a pretty important guy in English painting, well painting in general really. Since there's an exhibition all about him at Tate Britain we're going to London for tutorial this Friday. We're leaving Oxford at 8am (this will officially be the earliest I've been up in Oxford) and heading to London. We're going to the Tate and to the Banqueting House of Whitehall. There we'll see the ceiling of the banquet hall painted by Rubens - another very important artist. The Palace of Whitehall was where all of the English monarchs lived for quite a while until most of it burned down, the Banquet House is the only part still around. In other words I'm going to London for class and it's pretty flippin' awesome. It will be nice to have class where things happened and in front of actual paintings rather than just looking at images. Plus it's always fun to go to a museum with someone who know's a lot about what's in it - perhaps like my tutor, Yu Ping. It should be a good day with lots of pictures. Although it's supposed to rain, hopefully it won't. I've also found a tour for Stonehenge, I'll be headed there on June 6th.

"The Oxford Way"

2009-05-07T14:28:00.002+01:00

So in a sense I just wrote my first "Oxford style" essay. Oxford students, while they read and study a ton, don't seem to write their actual essays until the last minute. You might assume they start a day or two in advance and go through multiple drafts, but no. Most, yes I mean that literally, start the night before if not the day of. Now yes, they have certainly done their reading and such but that only accounts for so much of any essay. I just wrote my essay for this week in about 3 hours - that was the actual writing part only. Nevertheless, I'm starting to understand the lifestyle of an Oxford student. A week seems like a lot of time to write one paper but it's really not. You have to find your books for your readings, read those and take notes, tackle the essay topic, do research for your essay, find those resources, read them, outline an essay (or at least a thought process), write the essay then prepare to discuss/defend your ideas - long story short, it's not as easy as it may seem. So yes, while everyone stateside constantly reminds you to never wait until the last minute to start writing, that is indeed "the Oxford way." Oh, I've also learned that 2,000 words isn't all that much.

A Cocktail Party and a Chinese Buffet

2009-05-06T23:35:00.003+01:00

So tonight Spencer House hosted a cocktail party for the hierarchy of Regents so that they could see the house and such. Basically there was wine (which we had a "family" dinner and wine tasting for on Sunday to pick the wines out) and appetizers and such. I was able to meet some of the "higher-ups" of the college, all of whom were quite great. Afterwards we all pitched in to clean up then Jack and Hazel (they are both retired Americans that take care of Spencer House, which Columbia State University owns) took us all out for Chinese food. The Chinese place ended up being a buffet, which is a bit different here. For one, the food was actually decent and fresh. Second, they at least attempt to cut back on food waste (there were signs that said intentional, excessive waste of food will be charged £5 extra per person). Buffets are rather rare here so it was interesting to see. All in all it was quite a good night.

Now I sit here posting this while I should be writing my essay (it's nearly midnight now) as it's due in exactly 14 hours - I probably won't sleep much, if at all, tonight. The prompt is the following: Discuss the formation of the Spanish royal painting collection in relation to Philip IV's demands as a patron. So first off I'm very happy that this week deals with Spanish art. Second, I'm finding it hard to narrow down the topic. Thus far I think I'm going to first talk about the overall artist/patron relationship of this time frame. Then I'll define Philip IV as a patron. Next I'll discuss Rubens and Velázquez along with some of their works made for Philip IV's court. Lastly I'll talk about how their paintings were commissioned and used to decorate both the Buen Retiro and the Alcazar. I still don't have images so you'll just have to imagine some for now.

Other upcoming plans include going to the Globe Theatre to see a play as a rather large group and a family dinner with all of the new students for this term and their college parents.

An Update for Update's Sake

2009-05-06T02:29:00.002+01:00

So apparently when you start a blog and update daily (sometimes a few times a day) people start to expect regular updates - as I've been a bit busy over the past few days I haven't really thought much about blogging and some people aren't too happy about that. Thus, I thought it might be a good idea to go ahead and post something.

This week has been full of work for the most part. My tutorial this week deals with the courts as patrons of the arts. My essay will be on the patronage of King Philip IV of Spain - finally some Spanish art! (now if it were only modern and political I'd be set!). I'm still working on my readings and research so I don't quite have images to share.

Other than that I've yet to do much around Oxford. School work tends to dominate your life in one way or another here. If I'm not busy with my own tutorial then everyone else is working on there's. The American students here surely work quite hard, but the Brits seem to study 24/7 and read much more than us - perhaps it's b/c they only take one test at the end of their 3 years that determines everything for them, that's right, just one test, that's it. Nevertheless, there's parties and such with the Regents students on the weekends but during the week I'm either working (which involves searching for books, library hopping -in the states we have bar hops but never library hops - here a library hop is common for most essays- reading, note taking, outlining, drafting and, finally, writing....but then I have to make sure I can discuss all of that for my actual tutorial). So yes, Oxford is a lot of work but at the same time I rather enjoy it. It's nice to study one thing, one subject and devote all of your time to it. It's also quite nice to find my inner academic and to have resources I've never had before. And at times the dinner conversations about philosophy, religion, politics, etc are fun too (although there's also a fair share between the Americans and the Brits about Beyonce, Rhianna/Chris Brown, "the college cup" (red Solo cups) and anything else related to American pop culture).

I'm determined to see the sights around Oxford before I leave. Other Georgetowners have told me that this can be hard to do during the term but I'm determined to work it in my time here. I figure I should at least see the other colleges, especially since I can and it's free while I have my Oxford student ID (many colleges aren't open to visitors, and if they are visitors usually have to pay). I figure I should also see the museums and such Oxford has to offer. I also plan on making it to London at least once, preferably twice (with a trip to the theatre at lease once), and to Stonehenge. That, along with my tutorial and college activities, should keep me plenty busy. Ideally I'd also visit Cambridge (all the Regents students see no real reason for this unless it's to make fun of that "lesser" instituion there) and Bath but I'm not so sure there's time for all of that.

So that's about it at the moment. I'll do my best to get back to regular blog posting, although it's semi-based on me doing different things so I probably won't post again until I actually do something interesting. Oh and just so you know, England is expensive...

One down...seven to go

2009-04-30T02:16:00.001+01:00

I just emailed my first Oxford essay to my tutor - all 2,293 words of it. Hopefully she'll think it's at least decent. I guess I'll find out on Friday...

Essay One

2009-04-29T14:07:00.003+01:00

So my first essay assignment is designed to introduce me to court culture. I have to explore the relationship between art and the court then pick two images which represent court painting. Next I have to define why these paintings are representative of court painting and explain their importance by explaining the works. Lastly I'm to comment on who these paintings would've been important to and for what reason. I've yet to start writing it but it will be finished today. This is just an FYI as to what I actually work on while I'm here. The two images I'm utilizing are below:

Anthony van Dyck
Charles I in the Hunting Field
1636
[Image from artstor.org]

Diego Velázquez
Las Meninas [The Maids of Honour]
1656
[Image from artstor.org]

Some Pictures

2009-04-28T22:08:00.004+01:00

The Bodleian - this is around the part where I study daily but this isn't quite it, hopefully I have pics of that up soon.

The Bod...again

...and again

...yet again, although the building on the right is the Sheldonian Theatre

Helwys Hall - the dining hall at Regents. It was just remodeled after break so all of the decorations and portraits aren't on the walls (the scaffolding usually isn't there either...).

All Right?

2009-04-27T22:52:00.003+01:00

So this is a quick post - there is one part of British culture/English I can't adapt to. Rather than saying "What's up?" or "Hello" the Brits often say "All right?" (and yes, they say it as if it were a question). What's the correct response to this? Any American would say "Yea, I'm just fine" or something long those lines, but the correct response is "All right?" - yes, you answer a 'question' with another 'question.' It's quite confusing and I never answer it correctly. I've managed to start to hold my fork in my left hand with my knife in my right but I can't answer a 'question' correctly.

More info here. (Scroll down to "All right?" - continue to read around if you wish.)

A Cold, Rainy Today

2009-04-27T22:30:00.003+01:00

Today was the first real day of the term. I started off by walking to Regents for lunch. Afterwards I headed to the Bodleian Library, well more specifically the Radcliffe Camera (RadCam) to start working on my tutorial. After walking in and heading up to the Upper Reading Room, which first required that I allow the guard to search my bag for drinks, food and/or pens, and collecting my books from the front desk I got to work. I finished my senior thesis proposals for the Art Department back at Georgetown. I also finished half of my final assignment for my End of Impressionism class at Georgetown. After that I was able to read one of the books for my tutorial. Since it was cold and rainy I didn't really feel the need to walk around town which meant I was in the mood to get things done. I did realize that I rather enjoy a non-lending library. The Bodleian (Bod) doesn't check out books. Instead you have to go online, find the book you want, request that it be sent to a reading room and pick it up - you can't leave with the book (the guard also checks your bags on the way out), you must use it while there. I thought I'd hate this system at first, but really it makes things quite easy - the librarians do all of the work, you just go to the front desk. The Bod does have some books on open shelves, but they are very easy to locate. I also enjoy studying in such a pretty place, you can see a picture of the RadCam itself with the link above -it says RadCam- I hope to take some inside shots tomorrow morning when I go. Libraries are different here in that they are extremely quiet - no one talks to people or on cell phones. After that I headed to dinner at Regents then on home to Spencer House. I had some tea (Earl Grey with milk of course) with some Digestives (delicious cookies) then headed on up to my room for blogging, Facebooking and a bit of reading. Tomorrow I plan on being at the Bod by no later than 10:30, taking some pictures and getting some work done. I have to turn in my first essay by Thursday at 10am, that gives me time to have some fun Thursday and Friday. I hoping to go to London soon, perhaps this weekend, to go to the Tate Modern and Tate Britain (they have Van Dyck, William Blake and Turner exhibitions right now!!). Hopefully I'll go to London another time soon to go to The National Gallery (they have two Picasso exhibits right now) and The British Museum - I'll save The Eye, Buckingham Palace and such for when my mom crosses the pond in June.

Two Moms and a Bop

2009-04-26T14:59:00.003+01:00

Last night was quite fun, it was Regents first bop (dance more or less). The theme was "Room 101" (from the novel 1984) so people dressed up as their worst fears. Needless to say there wasn't anything too scary there, mainly a group of bees (well they called themselves wasps), some clowns, a shark, a pregnant girl (costume of course) etc etc. It was a bit different from a Georgetown party in that there were fewer people (Regents is much smaller) and the music was a bit different - there was quite a bit more techno and a few random other songs. Perhaps the largest difference is the bar. Side note - the Regents bar is the cheapest in the Oxford system.

As an incoming student you are assigned a college mom and dad - upperclassmen who answer your questions and help you get settled in. Not many students come in for just Trinity Term, so I ended up with two moms - Amanda and Sarah. Both are quite wonderful and have introduced me to quite a few people here. Both are also Theologians but insisted we took a round of family shots last night - photo below.

HOA...and I don't mean Home Owner's Association

2009-04-24T15:08:00.002+01:00

One of the first things I learned in Oxford is that my subject area, art history in the U.S. is known as the history of art (HOA) here - if you say "art history" they surely understand what you mean but it takes them a minute to realize it. So I'm starting to use "history of art," well really "HOA," instead.

Today I had my first meeting with my tutor, Yu Ping. Yu Ping is a graduate student in the HOA Department. As an undergrad she studied Western art history but her research focus now is imperial patronage of art in early modern China. My tutorial topic is early modern court culture which means I'll be studying the art and history of the [royal] courts of Europe from about 1500-1750 or so. It should be quite interesting. Basically we meet once a week for 8 weeks - we meet on Fridays at 11am in the History of Art Faculty. Each week I am to produce an essay based on assigned readings. The best part is that Yu Ping isn't like most Oxford tutors with her reading lists. Most give students a list of 15 or so books each week, some you have to read others are "recommended," and a very general topic. Yu Ping only requires about 100 pages of reading per week which she has carefully selected. She also recommends essay topics each week but we are free to write about anything relevant to the reading. Basically when I told this to the other Americans here in Oxford they weren't too happy with me, they all have much, much more reading to do each week. My first essay is rather easy. I read a few general readings about court culture, pick two images then write a paper on them (introduction, formal analysis, contextual analysis, compare/contrast, conclude). The goal of this paper is for Yu Ping to see how familiar we are with art history and to see how we write. Yes, I did say "we," there is one other person in my tutorial. Her name is Ashley and she is a history student from Yale. It will be interesting to have an art history tutorial with a history student as she will surely bring different material to the discussion.

The Food

2009-04-23T15:31:00.002+01:00

All meals are eaten in college at Regents Park. Lunch is at 1pm Monday-Friday and dinner is at 7pm - Friday dinner is formal hall. Lunch consists of the main course and desert (or a baked potato and salad if you aren't a fan of what's being served) while dinner is the same plus a starter. It's quite a change to have a 2 course lunch and 3 course dinner everyday. Overall the food is quite good. Something quite different from Georgetown is that all meals are served "Harry Potter" style in that everyone sits at long tables and you are waited on. There's also quite a bit of tradition that goes into these meals. You walk in and stand behind your chair and wait for the graduate students to enter. They then say a very, very short prayer and everyone is seated. You don't get up until the grad students do. During formal halls people bring wine and there are candles and such. Everyone is dressed up and in their Oxford gowns - hopefully I'll have a picture of those after this Friday.

Overlseeping and a cell phone

2009-04-23T15:25:00.004+01:00

Today didn't start out so great. I've been using my iPod touch as my alarm clock since I've been here, last night it apparently turned itself off somehow (it was fully charged). So I ended up waking up at 12:21 this afternoon when I was supposed to have been at Regents for library orientation at 11:30 - oops. On top of that I had to shower and such and still make it to Regents by 1pm for lunch, needless to say I ended up taking the bus today. I did indeed make it but have felt rather rushed ever since. Good news is that it was no big deal that I missed the orientation and that I talked to Dr. Robson, if I have any questions about the library system we'll take care of them (I'd already figured most of the library system out before today). After all of that, and a great lunch at Regents, I met the last two visiting students to arrive - they are from Carson-Newman college in TN. We showed them around a bit then I headed to Cornmarket Street to buy a cell phone. Skype, while a great thing, hasn't worked the best for me, and other people here, lately. I found a cell phone that costs 9.95 pounds (about 15USD) and that only charges 6 pence per minute (about 0.09USD) to call the USA. That's extremely cheap so I went ahead and bought one. It also gives me a way to keep up with people here, although calling/texting within the UK is quite a bit more expensive. Now I sit here planning out my weekend, unfortunately it's filled with work rather than fun as it's now time to start focusing on the academic side of things. Tonight I'll head to dinner at Regents then most of the American students are going out to a pub afterwards.

My cell number: 07805 118 643 (inside the UK)
011 44 07805 118 643 (from the US - although that would be terribly expensive)

Oxford Libraries

2009-04-20T23:39:00.003+01:00

First and foremost, there are tons of libraries here. Each college has its own then each faculty (subject) has its own. Then there's the Bodleian. The Bodleian is very old and houses many, many, many books - combined the Oxford libraries house 11 million books. Most are not on the open shelf meaning you must request them ahead of time and they are sent to the library of your choice. There are numerous manuscripts and old books you won't find anywhere else in the world. Furthermore, the Oxford Libraries receive, by law, a copy of every book published in the UK - this began in 1842. In short this means that the library system is rather complicated. I've yet to fully experience it as I won't be in the library system until Thursday. Nevertheless, I felt the libraries deserved a blog post.

You can see a map of all of the libraries, which shows you just how many there are, here.

A Slow Day

2009-04-20T18:10:00.002+01:00

Today has been a much slower day compared to the action-packed days I've had thus far. First I went with Tyler into town so he could send some presents back home. All I learned from this experience is that shipping things to the U.S. is quite expensive and they really don't take much that weighs over 2kg (about 4 lbs). I also learned that the post office is a madhouse and very crowded with all kinds of people - from Brits mailing things to people changing money and many senior citizens (or pensioners as they are called here) sorting out various issues with paperwork. Next we headed to Boots which was a rather interesting store. Imagine taking the make-up counters from Macy's, the health and beauty section from a Walgreens, the pharmacy from a Walgreens and the baby clothing section from Target and mixing it all into one store - this is Boots. It was rather interesting to take in. It's where you buy most of your shampoo and such thought so it's rather important that I know where it is. Afterwards we headed to a sandwhich shop, which was extremely good and only 2.60 pounds (about 3.75USD). I had the thai chicken with cilantro sandwhich on a baguette with butter (yes they butter the warm baguette for a sandwhich) , mayo, salt, pepper, lemon juice and other toppings. It was quite good and very cheap. That pretty much sums up my day. I've got some work done to finish my classes at Georgetown and I've done some laundry - yes, I already have laundry. The loads of laundry here are super small (about 1/4 of what they are back home) and my Listerine bascially exploded on some of my clothes in my suitcase when I was flying here. Tomorrow is my first day of meals at Regent's which should be very interesting.

The British Accent

2009-04-20T02:51:00.002+01:00

So I've come across one problem I have with English culture - the accent. From studying Spanish for a decent while (now that I think about it 7 years!) I naturally listen to what is being spoken around me and do my best to replicate it - in a sense I easily absorb accents. In Mexico, Chile and Argentina that was a great thing as it's always appreciated when someone learning a foreign language tries to learn the accents as well; however, when you start to do the same with your own language it becomes a problem. I find myself naturally letting words slip with a British accent. I'm doing my best to stop it but my inner "language learner" is making it quite difficult. Hopefully I can put a stop to this before I meet all of the Regent's students this coming week.

On a side note, I'm told that Brits speaking in an American accent is rather interesting and that they have a hard time doing it - they tend to just insert "like" quite a bit. I really want to hear this firsthand.

Christ Church and English Ale

2009-04-19T19:37:00.005+01:00

Today Tyler and I went to Christ Church, the largest of the Oxford colleges. It also happens to be the college where a decent portion of Harry Potter was filmed or at least based on - the dining hall and staircase are nearly exact (well minus the magic and such). It's quite pretty to walk around and see the gorgeous college and I took quite a bit of pictures, some of which are below. After that we did a bit of a "pub crawl" and I tried my first real English ale (served at room temperature and non-carbonated of course) which, to be honest, was quite terrible. Tyler tells me I'll learn to like it but I beg to differ - it was rather bad. We then headed to a second pub, the Lamb and Flag, and I tried my first cider, I rather enjoy cider. So in a nutshell I tried the two main English "beers" today and enjoyed one while I hated the other.

Before heading to Christ Church and such we did head to Summertown which is about a 5 minute walk from Spencer House. In Summertown you'll find many shops and restaurants - we headed to a couple of grocery stores and the Wine Rack. The grocery stores are quite interesting in that they feature many prepared items that you merely finish at home. Yes, we have many of these types of items in the U.S. but they take up a few aisles here. There's also quite a bit more of what would be considered ethnic food in the states in the normal grocery store here. Wine isn't necessarily cheaper here but you do indeed get a bit more "bang for your buck" as you tend to get higher quality wine for cheap. After my first few grocery store experiences we rode the bus into town to head to Christ Church - the bus isn't exactly cheap here. A one way ride into town is 1.80 British Pounds which is about 2.70USD, and that was about a 5 minute ride - needless to say, I'll be walking most of the time.

You can view photos from Christ Church here as well as a few below.

Skype

2009-04-19T04:33:00.004+01:00

So I've come to the realization that a lot of people reading my blog don't know what Skype is - in a nut shell, it's pretty much the best thing ever. You can make international calls using your computer for free (if to another computer) or for extremely cheap prices. For example, I talked for about an hour today and spent under $1 - that includes the connection fees I had to pay. You can also call cell-phones and it doesn't change the price. On top of that, you can send SMS messages for $0.01 per message. I write this because Skype is indeed the only way to get in touch with me if you actually want to talk.

You can download it by clicking here.
My username - Jsnider88

On a sidenote, I've become slightly addicted to blogging since the term hasn't actually started yet (it starts a week from this Monday). I have to admit, I thoroughly enjoy when people write comments about my posts :)

Tomorrow is Christ Church College and Oxford Castle - those should provide some excellent pictures.

Books, Books and more Books

2009-04-18T18:43:00.001+01:00

So these are all of the books I've bought thus far. The Very Short Introductions came from the Oxford University Press Bookstore while the other's came from Blackwell's - a huge bookstore with different branches. These books came from the Art & Poster Store but their main branch is gigantic. In the basement there are around 3 miles of bookshelves! Needless to say I need to stop buying books, they aren't exactly cheap (although these are all cheap for art books) and I need to start thinking of how I'm going to get them home.

Spencer House and Other Photos

2009-04-18T18:23:00.005+01:00

My room.

TV room

(Free) Laundry

Kitchen

Kitchen again.

Courtyard just off the kitchen in my house.

Inside the gate of my house.

Outside of my house.

Random church I pass on the walk to my house.

This is the courtyard at Regent's. This was taken at night so it's not too colorful.

Day One

2009-04-17T19:01:00.003+01:00

So I arrived in Oxford at Gloucester Green where I met up with Tyler. We then walked to Regent's where I talked with Dr. Robson, whom I had met in Georgetown, then Bob, he's in charge of maintainance, gave Tyler and me a ride to our house. Originally I was going to have lunch at Regent's but I ended up arriving too late for that to happen. I quickly threw my things in my room and Tyler and I headed out. We walked around Oxford a bit and stopped at a sandwich shop for lunch. But before that we went to the Oxford University Press Bookshop - basically my inner-academic died and went to heaven. I ended up buying three "Very Short Introductions" (if you don't know what those are, you should Google them - they're great). I bought one about Dada & Surrealism, Contemporary Art and Globalization. After that we went to Stanley Road House (the other house where Georgetowners live) to grab Tyler's things so we could move him back to Spencer House (our house). In a nut shell, Spencer House is much, much nicer than Stanley. There's free laundry, free printing, an extremely nice kitchen (fully stocked kitchen) and free wireless. I also ended up with my own room, which was very unexpected. It's a rather gloomy day today (I'm told this is a bit odd for this time of year) but I did take a few pictures while walking around. They are below. Just FYI, I haven't been here long enough to actually tell you what anything in the pictures is.

Time

2009-04-17T13:17:00.002+01:00

So I'm oddly energetic even though I've only slept about 20 minutes or so and won't sleep again for another 9 hours - that's about 30 hours or so when all is said and done. Just FYI Oxford/London is 5 hours ahead of Kentucky - meaning that it's 1:15pm here right now but 8:15am in KY. While I'm talking about conversions of sorts, changing money is depressing here. My 100USD bought me 57 British pounds at the airport :(

Goals

2009-04-17T12:58:00.004+01:00

They, and to be honest I have no clue as to who “they” truly are, say that in order to get the most out of a trip you should set goals. Since I’m sitting on a plane just about an hour into my flight I figure that this is as good a time as any to set some goals. Here they are:

Grow academically - I’m studying at what is perhaps the most prestigious university in the world. I think I should really focus on growing as an academic and take advantage of learning from a different professor - don’t get me wrong, I love me some Dr. Juilee Decker but there comes a point where another view point is good. I’ll also have access to nearly any resource I could ever want, so I should probably take advantage of that.

Grow personally - I’ve done the whole “living on my own in a forgein country” thing once before but this time it’s a bit different. My last trip taught me quite a bit about myself and how I behave all on my own, but for this trip I’d like to truly take a swing at “real life.” In other words, I’ll be out of school in about a year and I’ll have to live on a budget and all that stuff. This seems like a great opportunity to live on a budget - to decide what I really want to do and to spend my money wisely. Now I’m not going to be a shut-in and never spend money but I am going to spend wisely.

Learn about a new culture - I have a slight obsession with other cultures. With any hispanic/latin culture I have what some might call an infatuation but I think I’ll fancy the British culture as well. They tend to be a tad bit more pessimistic, sarcastic and cynical - all qualities I possess and exude daily. I’m also looking forward to not being “the raging liberal” and to be surrounded by people that actually care about human rights and social welfare. Side note - I’m extremely glad I get to go to Oxford after Obama’s win, instead of attempting to explain poor decisions made by my government I can actually be proud of its actions.

Have fun - This semester has been extremely stressful. It’s been weird as I’ve only been taking two classes due to how Oxford works. As a result, I’ve been in much more of a work mood rather than an academic mood which has made class somewhat difficult. Add saving up for this trip and other stressors in my life and you have one extremely stressed out college kid. So it’s my goal to wrap up everything stateside before term starts (which is 4/26) so that I can focus on my tutorial and having some fun. Having fun also includes slowing down a bit. I have that "super fast American walk" and it was extremely obvious in Heathrow. Which, sidenote, Heathrow is huge and requires you to walk a ton. I quite literally walked about 2 miles to get everything done I needed to get done.

The start of the journey

2009-04-17T12:58:00.001+01:00

Now onto the actual blogging. The trip started off to a bit of a rocky start as my flight from Louisville to Chicago was rather late. The flight was supposed to last about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes, but the pilot made up for lost time and we made it to Chicago in about 35-40 minutes. I had half an hour to make it to my flight to London, as did my baggage, and I ran like crazy to make sure I’d make my flight. Yet when I got to the gate I found out that it had also been delayed. Long story short, everything seems to have worked out just fine. However, I’m writing this on the plane so I’m not sure if my bags will make it or not. Update - the bags made it!

I was nervous about flying American Airlines and my first flight didn’t quite help calm that worry. The plane, which was a small commuter jet, didn’t exactly give off a safe vibe - it looked rather old and made noises that I’ve never heard a plane make before. Everyone was as nice as could be so I guess that made up for the crappy plane. The 777 is rather nice and dinner (chicken and rice) was decent. Thus far all is good. I think I still prefer Delta but American isn’t half bad.

The obligatory first post

2009-04-17T12:56:00.000+01:00

So first I feel like I should explain the title and the web address of my blog. The title is rather simple - I’ll be studying art history (rather, the history of art as far as Oxford is concerned) in England so it’s art history with a British accent. However, my tutor, Yu-Ping, is Chinese so there’s a bit of Chinese as well. While I’m on the topic, my technical tutorial title is “Early Modern Court Culture” which means that I’ll be studying the art and general history of the courts of Europe. This is a topic that I’m largely unfamiliar with but it does interest me - in other words, I have a lot of reading to do before my tutorial actually starts. Back to the point of this post, explaining my title and such. The web address (ojinoxford.blogspot.com) comes from a nickname of sorts I’ve acquired among certain people. “OJ” stands for “Other Jason” as there’s already a Jason around and I was the second to come along.

This is also a good time to get all of my contact info on my blog. The easiest way to get a hold of me is by email. The one I check most often is Jason_Snider@georgetowncollege.edu but, if you must, you can also send emails to Jsnider88@gmail.com. My mailing address is the following:

Jason Snider
Regent’s Park College
Pusey Street, Oxford OX1 2LB
England

Keep in mind that mail takes a bit to get overseas but also keep in mind that I like getting mail :)
If you want to actually talk to me it’s best to use Skype - I’m Jsnider88 on Skype.