Football

(By "football," of course, I mean soccer.)

Yesterday several of the religious student groups held an interfaith football tournament. I played for the Catholic Society; the Jewish Society, Intercollegiate Christian Union, and Secular Society also attended, and the Hindu and Sikh Societies fielded a combined team.

The whole event was rather rushed and informal, more like a quick series of pick-up games than an organized tournament. There were two fields, reserved for a total of an hour and a half, so we played 30-minute matches and ran out of time before every pair of teams could compete. As far as I know, there wasn't even a final ranking; perhaps this was a good thing, since it meant that nobody could claim the results as support for their own faith. Anyway, here are the results from the Catholic Society matches:

Lost to the Jewish Society, 1 - 0
Won against the Christian Union, 1 - 0
Lost to the Secular Society (at almost the last minute), 2 - 1

There wasn't actually much religion-related banter or heckling. I did hear one priceless bit of sideline talk during the game against the (mostly Protestant) Christian Union: "I don't mind losing to the Jews -- they were here before us -- but we have at least fifteen hundred years on these guys."

Somehow, the very concept of an interfaith sports tournament seems a little too politically incorrect for the U.S. This is unfortunate, because it was good fun for all involved, and makes a hilarious conversation topic. I could imagine something similar happening at IU only if it were turned into an event to foster religious cooperation (perhaps putting a representative of each faith on every team).

Americana

Lately I've become more and more impressed by how much American culture the UK has imported. As you'd expect, there's a McDonald's in the center of town doing great business, and Starbucks has a strong presence -- though a few other coffeeshop chains are giving them a run for their money. Beyond that, every student seems to watch South Park, CSI, or 24 (really, it's a lot like IU).

I would just credit this to globalization, but the entertainment trade is imbalanced. For example, a film called The Queen opened here recently. It's about the royal family's (delayed) reaction to Princess Diana's death, and by all accounts it's quite good -- unfortunately I haven't seen it yet. It's playing in the US, but only in the major cities (as far as I can tell from a little Googling). Now, I was in a small town called Leamington Spa about two weeks ago, and their cinema was showing Adam Sandler's latest comedy.

So I'm wondering, are France and Spain like this at all? Is it maybe just easier for the British to take in American films and TV because they don't have a language barrier?

Cheers,
Joe

Tutorials

Classes began today (finally... I've been champing at the bit since the IU semester started back in August). I thought this would be a good time to say a little about the Oxford tutorial system.

When we all started college, I remember being advised that we would spend less time in the classroom, but more time doing independent work. The tutorial system basically takes this one step further. Lecturers rarely or never assign reading directly; they provide lists or suggested reading, with the understanding that students will work through the books as the class proceeds. The only specific assignments are essays or problem sets, depending on the subject (lab or practical work is handled somewhat differently). Each course has a corresponding series of tutorials -- individual meetings with a professor to go over the past week's assignment in depth.

In general, education here has more depth and less breadth than the American system. Everyone starts to specialize before starting university, and once they arrive they typically get more individual attention from the faculty; this means that professors spend all their time on students from their own departments. Hence, multiple majors and electives aren't really available. I'm going to miss all of IU's language options, but I'm looking forward to the tutorials.

Like the Aix folks, I've found that there's no formal registration for courses, and that you just show up. There was some organization (I had to be assigned to a tutor for each class), but at one point I did panic a little since I hadn't actually signed up for any lectures. I asked one of my tutors about this, and she said it "sounded like some American thing."

Cheers,
Joe

Arrival

Well, yesterday I finally moved into my room at Oxford. The study abroad program actually started nine days ago, but we were all kept in London for most of last week, sightseeing and hearing orientation lectures. Classes officially begin next Monday, but meetings with departments and individual professors begin over the next few days.

Space is in high demand around this city; the streets are narrow and the buildings are closely packed. St. Edmund Hall (my college) has enough room on its main grounds for only the first-year students. The rest rent housing around Oxford or live in a group of dorms about five minutes' walk away. The visiting students are all staying somewhere in this group; like most of the newer structures here, they're tucked between older buildings (actually, one is an older building, a converted hotel).

There's no campus as such; the colleges and departmental buildings are embedded in the city. This feels a little odd after spending two years at IU, with all its open space and fields. It's a beautiful city, though, with medieval and Renaissance architecture on every street.

I still have a lot of exploring to do, so that's about all I have for now.

Cheers,

Joe

P.S. "Cheers" is a versatile word. So far I've heard people use it to mean "Goodbye (and see you soon)," "Thank you," "You're welcome," "Have a nice day," and "Good luck."