What a brilliantly splendid day! It's days like today that make me SO glad that I get to come to Oxford and experience this program.
Now first of all, I must say that the day started off with a bit of an anticlimactic thud. We heard a professor give a VERY confusing lecture on whether or not we exist. He decided that that's the wrong question to ask. But I never did figure out what the right question actually was....and neither did most of the students from what I gathered. But other that that, the rest of the day was perfect. :0)
Our second lecture was given by the most adorable, 70-something year old British man I think I may have ever seen in my life -- Colin Dexter (that's him in the picture). And he happens to be one of the most famous British crime fiction writers ever. If you've ever watched the BBC channel (or even PBS), you may have seen a series called Inspector Morse, about a grumpy, brilliant detective from Oxford who loves Wagner (think classical music), women, and alcohol (and he's also a cruciverbalist -- see earlier blog). He also has a fun sidekick named Lewis. How poetic. Anyway, Colin Dexter is the creator of the Inspector Morse books (there are 13), and thus, the TV series. We watched one the other night, which I enjoyed, and I bought and read one of his books while I was here (and he autographed it). Anyhow, Dexter shared numerous stories and anecdotes about his life, his books, and his "disappointments," as he called them. He was altogether funny, charming, endearing, and extremely modest, not at all like his main character (though he swears it's partly autobiographical). Although he did say that his best ideas came after he'd had a bottle of single-malt Scotch whisky. Oh my.
Then, tonight, some of the teachers had and I had our last dinner with one of the professors, Dr. Peter Mitchell, a professor of anthropology and archaeology, with a specialty in Southern African archaeology. I thoroughly enjoyed our discussions about rock art, archaeology, being an Oxford disciplinarian (he is the dean of discipline at St. Hughs), traveling around the world with his wife and daughter, writing books, choosing the tiny country of Lesotho (pronounced "le-su-tu") to focus the majority of his life's work on, and so on. As an avid fan of Indiana Jones and as a child who once thought archaeology sounded somewhat glamorous as a career, I was awestruck by the fact that I was talking with a real, live bone-and-artifact-digger-upper. He was very interesting, and again, very modest about being an Oxford professor.
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The variety of conversations I have had with such interesting people has been one of my favorite parts of this trip. No matter where you go in the world, there are interesting people. And they are interesting for all kinds of different reasons. Their professions, their beliefs, their culture, their lifestyle, their background, their upbringing -- too many places in the world to visit, too many people to meet, too many things to learn, and too little time :0)
On a very exciting, nerdish side note -- yesterday, I visited THE Oxford library, the Bodleian. It has been around since, I believe the 1400s (although Oxford has been around since the 1100s) -- absolutely stunning. Most of you know that I love books dearly, so I was so completely wrapped up in the visit. And so many books! OLD books, I might add. My highlight for yesterday was that I got to leaf through a book donated to the library in 1566 (it was written inside the cover). It was beautiful, all in Latin, block-printed with a rich, deep red, animal-skin/leather book cover. I found myself holding my breath as I touched the pages. I got to touch an almost 500-year old book. Gulp.
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