The 5th Week Blues

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

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

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

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

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

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

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