A Very Unsturdy Shelf

I've been in Oxford for one week now. It's already been an amazing experience. I have to stop and remember that sometimes though because the summer school has kept us pretty busy. I have classes to attend Monday-Thursday and lectures Monday-Friday. Ironically, the friends I've become closest with so far are Australian, not British. So I'm learning about more cultures than I expected. But all in all, I've met a lot of people from all over the world in the little courtyard of Exeter College. It's a microcosm in these historic walls.

I haven't had time to take as many photos as I did in London, but I've done a couple tours, and there's two weeks left to see the things I want to see here. I have however had time to go to all the lectures, see the Magical Books exhibit at the Bodleian, write a few new poems and a beginning for a young adult novel, get locked in the Oxford parks with my Australian friends (we were reading there and lost track of time, completely on accident!), visit a couple pubs (the historic Turf Tavern), get lost in a couple quiet cobblestoned alleys (which have inspired some great photographs), and climb the spire of St. Mary's Church.

Oxford feels like a genuine story-book English town, as opposed to the metropolis of London. It's quaint, it's full of little shops that sell leather goods and flowers and maps (the shopping is my worst temptation here, especially the bookstores!). There's street markets, beautiful parks and gardens with plants unlike anything in the U.S., ivy blanketing every corner of the buildings, and it seems like there are church bells ringing all the time. I adore it. Today I climbed the spire of St. Mary's church and could see the whole city and the hills rolling all around it's borders (I'll post pics of that below).

And to be among literary history everywhere you go is an experience in itself. For example, I've walked through the courtyard that Pullman depicts in The Golden Compass and sat in the places where J.R.R. Tolkien studied.

The best part so far has been my professors though. They're so supportive and down-to-earth. At first I was really intimidated, but things loosened up pretty quickly. And all the other writers are just as supportive, it's been a great environment to work and learn in so far, which is how I think it should be. As writers we need to grow from each other, bounce ideas off each other, help each other out to keep this craft a living and breathing art. I'm hoping to read some of my stuff at the next open-mic night.

It's nice to be alone and have all this time to really focus on working and revising a few of my pieces, especially my prose writing. At home it seems I only write poetry, but my young adult fiction class has inspired a lot of ideas for me and given me some great ways to structure my prose, which is one of the things that has always intimidated me about writing long works. Getting lost in all the details rather than getting a momentum going and moving along. Where do I start? Where do I take it? In my poetry class we have been working on longer poems, which is a new thing for me. I've often found myself being a minimalist and trying to develop ideas as quickly and concisely as possible, but Jenny Lewis (the poetry tutor) has spent a lot of time having us study longer epic poems. We had to write an epic poem about our lives so far, which was more fun than I expected it to be once I got into it. Next week we are doing sonnets and more form-based poems, which I'm excited about because I've been really getting into rhyming lately, even simple metered poems. I have a feeling by the time the summer school is over, three weeks isn't going to feel like nearly long enough to learn everything I want to learn from these people, tutors and peers alike.

Oxford has also reintroduced me to my love of photography, something I haven't really had time to enjoy since studying music took over my life in high school. I think I'm gonna do a project called The Doors of Oxford because I've seen so many beautifully colored old doors in this city. More of that will come later though.

Radcliffe Camera

Brasenose College

All Soul's College

High Street/Queen Street

Bed n Breakfast

Bath Place 17th Century Hotel

So here I am, packing again for my next part of this adventure. Tomorrow I will head to Oxford, where the main event, my summer classes, will begin. I am so excited! But I will reflect on my last few days in London (I have gotten to know it so well in my short time). The art museums have by far been the most moving experience for me here. Seeing original works by artists that I've admired since I was old enough to walk to the my local library and look at art books was a powerful experience for me. I saw Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne (one of my all-time favorite paintings), original works by Meredith Frampton, Matisse, Cezanne, Degas, Van Gogh, Monet, William Eggleston, Picasso, Manet, da Vinci (the list could go on forever).

Then I went to some more obscure neighborhoods just to see the real London and get away from tourists. I always try to do that when I visit a new city. It gave me some peace of mind to see normal Londoners just going about their days, sitting on benches and smoking, walking their dogs, chatting on the corners, and a lot less crying children. I made my way to Southwark market (where I ate the best Arabian food I've ever had) and also to Covent Garden today, where I saw lots of street performers and the hustle and bustle of the shopping district.

When everyone was telling me my time here would be life-changing, I thought that was a little dramatic, but now I see they were right. If you can come to London and really take full advantage of what it has to offer, see the people, the streets, the architecture, the museums, and do it all on your own, it really gives you a feeling that you are a person of the world, and that is something I have never felt until now. I can't be grateful enough to the people who made this possible.