Hilary Term Comes to an End

As of this past Friday, Hilary term is over, and the gray English winter months seem to have given way to spring! Oxford has been wonderfully glorious these last few days; the skies today are as clear and crisp and blue as they ever were in California, the sun is radiant (and has made me pull out my sunglasses!), and the temperatures are up in the sixties. The flowers are blooming in eye-popping hues, and the grass is emerald green just in time for St. Patrick's Day. On days like this, the place seems as fresh and wondrous as anything I've ever encountered, even when walking amidst such old stone walls. I've been reading Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" as bedtime reading this week (I somehow had not gotten around to reading it yet), and the last few days resonate so well with one passage early in the essay:

"The spirit of peace descended like a cloud from heaven, for if the spirit of peace dwells anywhere, it is in the courts and quadrangles of Oxbridge [Woolf's not-so-fictionalized pseudonym for Oxford-slash-Cambridge] on a fine October morning. Strolling through those colleges past those ancient halls the roughness of the present seemed smoothed away; the body seemed contained in a miraculous glass cabinet through which no sound could penetrate, and the mind, freed from any contact with facts (unless one trespassed on the turf again), was at liberty to settle down upon whatever meditation was in harmony with the moment."

Substitute this fine March day for "October," and I'm feeling very rejuvenated and reflective indeed. I finished both of my 7,000-word essays this morning and will be handing them into the Oxford Examination Schools tomorrow; they made for quite a lot of writing this past week (probably at least 12,000 of those words and 40-some double-spaced pages came from the past seven to nine days alone), but I found the work very satisfying. Both essays were on fascinating topics that I found myself raising again and again during dinnertime conversations with Oxford friends, and I really could have written more -- even if, yes, I'm happy to be done. This has been a strange and in many ways very challenging term, but has also been a valuable time for reflecting on the things that are most important, not just in school but in the broader sphere of life. I've seen the very best in people here and deepened the friendships that matter. I've learned, once more, not to take anything for granted, to take this rapid whirlwind of life as an astonishing gift. And I've had many opportunities for immersion, contemplation, and engagement with a wide range of different conversations and ideas -- not only about literature, but about topics ranging from politics to science to human interactions. I'm happy to be moving on into Trinity term, but there are some things about this Hilary of 2014 that will stay with me for a while.

So, on to the break. After I turn in my papers tomorrow, a good friend and I are boarding a bus and then a plane to fly off to Istanbul. We're staying in the old part of the city, near the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia, and will roam around there for around five days before moving on to Albania for around a week. A very different part of the world awaits, and I couldn't be more excited to get out of Oxford with good company and go explore! I likely won't be blogging until I return at the end of March, so look forward to more updates from me then!