Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Kevin L. - Oxford, England - Spring 2009

Warning! Do not come to oxford expecting a walk in the park. I mean, there are parks to walk in, but metaphorically speaking, it’s not a walk in the park- you know. Luckily, I expected that coming in to this experience. Nonetheless, the workload is shockingly intense; though, in an odd way, I am enjoying it. I think I wrote in my personal statement that I wanted to be “overwhelmed by knowledge”. That is very much the experience I am having here. I sometimes wish I had more time to travel and do other things, but I just cannot find the time to skip off to Paris or Prague for the weekend. Oh well. I’ve made arrangements to travel once the semester is over.
Time management is HUGE here. You can sleep in everyday and go out on the weekends, if you choose, just so long as you can manage to still get all of your work done. The first part of the semester is especially busy, because you have to write two essays every week. You get used to this pretty quick. Essays aside, the tutorial system at Oxford is great. You learn so much every week. You learn so much here. Period. Never before have I felt physically exhausted from just sitting around thinking all day (yesterday I prepared two presentations for my seminar, wrote a 2,000 word essay on Dun Scotus’ theory of knowledge AND read Rousseau’ The Social Contract in its entirety- boy did my brain hurt!). Tutors are really cool about everything though. They understand what student life is like- if you have a cold, or if your roommate’s snoring kept you up all night, they won’t scold you for turning an essay in late or coming up a little short on the word count.
The faculty here has been amazing. Dr. Crowe, senior tutor and academic librarian for the CMRS, is an academic god. His first lecture was a little overwhelming, but once you get used to his British accent and his intensely academic vocabulary, you can learn so much from him. I feel very lucky to have him for my philosophy tutor. The integral lectures are cool too. Picking your classes is very important. There are times when I wish I had some more overlap in my classes. My philosophy tutorials are very useful for participating in colloquium discussions, but topics from my Shakespeare seminar do not come up very often. I am not trying to dissuade anyone from taking the Shakespeare course. It’s great! But keep in mind that the program is designed to give you a holistic view of a specific time period. You’ll get more out of all of your classes if you can tie them all together somehow.
The culture shock is not a huge deal in England, especially at the CMRS. We are very much in an American bubble. The most shocking thing about Oxford is how much studying there is to do. The English do do some things differently though. For instance, they drive on the opposite side of the road, and, quite often, they put bacon on top of chicken. Also, beware! English bacon is not like American bacon. It’s more like what we would call ham or Canadian bacon. Other things that I have found shocking are that many fast food restaurants have two floors! This took some getting used to. English McDonalds’s also do not sell a double quarter pounder. Strange, I know, but never fear, it is not difficult to adjust to these cultural differences.
The people in the CMRS program are all amazing. Everyone has a lot in common, and it is easy to get lost in deep conversations that go on late into the evenings. The community here is one of the best parts about the experience so far. Everyone is saddled with the same amount of work, so everyone understands how easy it is to be cranky, which makes it hard to be cranky in the first place, knowing that you always have the support of 30+ other students who know exactly how it feels to be “overwhelmed by knowledge”.
So, that’s it. I should probably start writing my essay for this week…

Cheers!
-Kevin Lepore

Samantha L. - Ireland - Spring 2009




“When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.”~Susan Heller

Hello everyone!
I have been studying at the National University of Ireland, Galway for about two months now. However looking back, it does not seem like it has been that long!
The first place the program sent us to was Limerick for the program orientation. It was a crazy but awesome three day, hanging out with new people and figuring out what was in store for the next five months. The hardest part of the trip, so far, was the week after the program orientation. Mainly because the wall-heaters in the apartments took forever to warm up the freezing rooms and we had a lot of downtime to get home sick. The one good thing that came out of that bad situation was my close friends! Since we all felt the same way, we talked, hung out, and did pretty much everything together!
Now that I have become comfortable with my surroundings, I am beginning to notice that Ireland is very ‘Americanized’. They have McDonald’s, Papa John’s, and Subway everywhere! And they even get MTV and other American television shows! However, their culture is still shown through all the ‘American-ness’. For example, they have a few pubs only play traditional music and even a TV channel that is strictly in Gaelic!
The classes, on the other hand, are completely different from Elmhurst College courses. Instead of 4 classes, I am taking 6, to be considered full-time. However, most of the classes only meet for 2 hours a week. Another thing to get use to is the class sizes. At Elmhurst, most classes have maybe 25 people, but here they have about 100. When studying abroad, there is a lot to look into, so that you won’t be surprised.
But overall, I think that I have adjusted well and I’m really enjoying the whole experience!

Friday, February 06, 2009

Aimee - Oxford, England - Spring 2009



Life in Oxford is indeed marvelous; however, I find myself buried in books, papers and uhhh did I mention books?
Travel: On the topic of traveling, my flight to London was quick but partly sad. It took for the check-in lady at the airport to hand me my ticket for the idea that I will be away from home for 3 months to sink in my mind. It went emotionally downhill from there until I stepped foot in Heathrow. But, all is well now and I am enjoying Oxford. We had our first college field trip to the Tower of London and it was fascinating. Perfect timing too because I just finished my England to the Stuart Age class with Dr. Butler last semester. It was awesome. I couldn't believe everything. I was standing where Anne Boleyn was imprisoned, where Richard III supposedly killed the two princes. It was marvelous. A tragic spot in history but unbelievable. I am going to Rome on March 19th for a weekend break. I am going to see the Vatican, the Spanish steps, the Trevi, ---- I can't believe all of this.
Experience: The classes are difficult. Challenging were more like it. I just finished writing a paper on Mansfield Park-- addressing the preoccupations Austen had in the novel and how significant the setting was to her concerns. I am also enjoying my 18th century poetry and drama tutorial. I just finished discussing and writing about the perception of women in the works of Alexander Pope. It was fascinating. :) I especially loved reading "An Epistle to a Lady" and "Eloisa to Abelard." The learning responsibilities here are significantly greater than back home. It really is a good way for me to top-off my college career.
Faculty: I am very pleased with the administration here. Dr. Crowe teaches my Humanism class and we had marvelous discussions about More and Utopia, and Erasmus on Praise of Folly. I loved it. Dr. Philpott, our Senior Tutor, is such a helping man. I approached him about my problems in writing with my Jane Austen class and he has been helping me so far. I did get disheartened for a week or two about one of my tutorials. It came to a point where I questioned whether I should be here. All is well now that Dr. Philpott after seeing my work convinced me that reminded me that there is reason why I am here, and I deserve to be here. As for school for work, I write a 6-8page essay every week for each novel we read for Jane Austen and another essay of the same length every week for another tutorial--- on top of everything else that I need to do for all my other classes. It is quite the task but with God's help and time management I am surviving -- so far.
And speaking of faculty, I met with Dr. Lerud while he was here for their class trip. It was so nice to see people from home and we all sat down for a cup of coffee and hot cocoa. :)