For 10 Pounds you Can Have the Whole Jolly Lot!

It has been a fabulous ten days in Oxford so far! I have been doing so much reading for my classes.  We moved into our rooms at the Jowett Walk Annex.  The rooms are nice singles each with their own bathroom.  

Oxford is magical.  I don't think I have ever seen such green grass everywhere, and it's natural.  Probably because it rains all the time.  I have started carrying my umbrella with me everywhere because the clouds just come flying in and it pours.  I had my first tutorial on Thursday with Dr. Butt (he asked us to call him Dan).  My tutorial is on Rectifying International Injustice.  The topic is quite hefty, but we got into some really interesting discussion.  

British people really struggle with the pronunciation of my name.  The first day of my tutorial my professor kept saying "KUHHH-sten" shouting the first part, it's absolutely hilarious.  He said nobody in England has a name like mine and the way he remembers how to pronounce it is curtain.  So that is my new nickname.  

Balliol

Oxford as a University is made up of 38 individual colleges.  Each college has its very own separate identity.  Balliol's colors are red and blue with two tailed lion on the crest.  We eat "in college" for breakfast and dinner everyday.  The dining hall looks exactly like the great hall in Harry Potter.  J.K. Rowling based Hogworts on Oxford.  12 of us sit at a long table surrounded by life-size portraits of each Headmaster the college has had.  We look funny surrounded by the long tables and the 25 ft. organ. 

The colleges are not open to visitors, which is really cool.  We get to walk up to the gigantic wooden door of Balliol and ring for the porter.  A little door opens inside of the gigantic door and we climb through.  The buildings are covered with vines and ivy and secret gardens.  I've been looking for a secret passageway!  Each college has its own library full of books pertinent to the main subjects of focus at that specific college.   From the street you would never be able to grasp how large each college is, the only thing you can see is the stone wall and the big wooden door.  I'll write a post sometime this week about the Swearing In ceremony we had at the Bodlein Library.  We were sworn in as 'readers' and had to recite an official pledge, to the head of enrollment who was wearing her full robes.  I feel like the only thing missing is my magic wand!

Cheers!

Curtain