Oxford Academics = original metal flogging

This past week has been one of the most academically intense ones I have had in a long time. In actuality it has been the most intense since the first week at Oxford. The first week was actually fairly easy going compared to the rest of the semester, for every week after the first had more work. My usual workload consisted of 3 research papers every 2 weeks. I do not use the term 'research paper' lightly here. These are not the typical 4 page projects that are meant to synthesize a book or a couple of articles. These are the kind of papers that you spend all all week in the library, from opening time to closing time, trying your best to read through the 800 pages of obscure scholarly journals, historical backgrounds, commentaries and of course the primary texts per paper. A lot of it is extremely slow and thick reading, the kind that I will read a couple of pages of and suddenly realize that I have no idea what the author is talking about (curse you Terry Eagleton!!). Of course I don't pretend that it is all horror and consternation. It is actually really really fun sometimes, maybe not so much fun as exciting because it is rewarding when all your research starts to come together and you being to form an opinion of your own.

That is the main difference between Oxford and other places I have studied in is to what extent you are expected to come up with your own opinions. They actually want you to develop your own interpretation of something. However, if you cannot back it up they will not let you get away with it. When you take your weekly essay (or biweekly sometimes) to your tutor, they ask you to read it to them and then they grill you on it. As long as you can back it up, then you are good to go. Its funny, there are comments written in the margins of the books with comments like "this guy has no idea what he is talking about" or long criticisms of an author's argument (which in turn another person will refute later on in a space below). I found that to be a fairly different mindset here. In the US you are not generally expected to question an "authority" in a particular field until you are "somebody."

But anyway, back to this past week. Because of things that had happened beyond my control this semester, I had a tutorial or two accumulated. Because of this, I had 4 of these research papers due in the space of 5 days. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the time I handed in my last one on Sunday evening (yep, weekend... *gag*) I was pretty wiped. So the past couple of days have "crash and burn" types. It feels very good to be done with work though. Now its winter break, and for one of the few times in my life I feel like I deserve a rest. There is nothing better than getting something good that you feel that you have earned.

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