Decisions, Decisions

At the very end of last week, I got the official English MSt course details booklet for 2013-14. That means, once again, it's time to pick my classes. Here's a quick overview of the structure of the MSt program:

Oxford has three terms: Michaelmas (fall), Hilary (winter), and Trinity (spring). Yes, I still get those names mixed up, and catch myself saying fall quarter, winter quarter, spring quarter. What the heck. Each term is eight weeks long, followed by a six-week break. (However, the reading for the courses is so extensive that it's virtually a must to keep reading, if at a lighter pace, during the "holidays." I'm visualizing myself reading on the beach in Spain somewhere!) Summer runs from late June through mid-October.

For the English MSt, Michaelmas and Hilary terms consist of taking classes, most of which are related to your period "strand." Trinity is entirely dedicated toward writing an 11,000 word dissertation. The courses include: the A course (the core course on literature, backgrounds, critical approaches for each period strand), the B course (research skills; optional but highly recommended for those continuing to a DPhil or advanced study), and the C course (special options and specific topics within English lit; can select from a lengthy list). My strand focuses on the period from 1900-present, but others break up literary history into different temporal segments: pre-1550, 1550-1700, 1700-1830, 1830-1914, etc.

I'm currently debating whether or not to take the B course on research methods -- the post-1800 section of that course does look juicy, with class sessions on illustrated editions and textual bibliography and the history of the book... but I'm still not definite about plans to continue to a DPhil or not, and the C course options look pretty juicy too. Current course options range from Philip Roth and Joseph Conrad and Henry James, to life writing and contemporary fiction and modernist poetry. And, since for the C course I'm allowed to stray from my period strand, I could even take courses on "The Anglo-Saxon Riddle Tradition" or "Religious Satire" or "Ancient Rome and Shakespearean Drama" if I wanted. The list goes on... it truly is like wandering through a candy store and being told I can only pick one of the chocolates.

One last thing: I keep seeing names of former Stanford professors arising in the secondary reading/critical background lists. Shout-out to Stanford English!

"Your UK visa has been issued..."

This email, beginning with this subject line, exactly a week after I sent off my visa application. Total processing time: about half a week. It'll probably get back to me less than two weeks after I mailed it.

Whoohooooo! One more hurdle down. I guess they will let me into their country now? Let the games begin.

Visa: Submitted!

This past Friday, I felt probably the greatest amount of relief I have since I finished and turned in my last paper of my Stanford education two months ago: I completed and submitted my UK visa application! This was a necessary logistical and bureaucratic hoop to jump through, but I felt particularly gratified to have sifted through the mountainous and mind-numbing requirements on the UKBA (UK Border Agency) website without missing any details or fudging any paperwork, or so I hope. Besides, judging from some of the close-call experiences of friends and even members of my family who have studied or traveled abroad, the visa application package wasn't something I wanted to mess up. Even if a mumbling, indecipherable U.S. Post Office employee made the last stage before submission a difficult one (why are USPS employees always impossible to lipread?), I'm once again that much closer to commencing my time in the UK! And am looking forward to meeting my fellow "Rhodies" and Oxford people very much indeed... this is almost like the summer before freshman year all over again. Luckily, the key word being "almost."

In Celebration of English Horticulture

"Do spend some time in Oxford and the UK over the summer. Then you'll see why people actually live there." That's what another Rhodes scholar told me earlier this summer. An email from the registrar of Rhodes House lauded the gloriousness of the gardens this time of year. A good friend of mine currently studying in the UK wrote to me of the various flowers and plants in bloom. Curious, I disembarked from my flight in Heathrow last week, wondering -- what is with this English summer?

The last time I'd been in the UK, three years ago, my travels culminated with cold, fog, and ice. We had a few rare sunny days, but jackets and umbrellas were more of the norm. In celebration of the unusually warm, sunshine-filled summer the UK is having this year, I present a few photos of perhaps my favorite  element of this milder time of year, the incredible flowers from the English gardens:

Oxford, You Sure Are Lovely in the Summer

St. John's College, home for the next two years

What a whirlwind trip! I left for Oxford at the beginning of last week and just returned this past Tuesday -- quick enough of a turnaround, I think, that my body gave up trying to figure out what time it was and consented to sleep whenever I told it to. The days in the UK filled up with wandering the streets of Oxford once again, with some sightseeing in London and at Blenheim and Greenwich, but most importantly with meeting with some of the people and contacts who will help shape my life for the next two years. As I have mentioned, the purpose of my trip to Oxford was to complete a mandatory "needs assessment" with the university's Disability Advisory Service in order to get sign language interpreters and other disability accommodations in order before the fall. I was thankful for the opportunity to finish the assessment and meet with my disability office advisor before the whirlwind of Welcome Week in October, especially since it helped me wrap my mind around the strange and complex world of Oxford (or begin to, at least) and also allowed me to meet other Rhodes people along the way.

Detail of St. John's Canterbury Quad

ASL vs. BSL: this was one of the main issues at hand. I intend to learn some British Sign Language while in England, if only for fun and also since I've already gotten to meet or be in touch with a few deaf people who know BSL. But the fact is that ASL is the sign language that I understand, that I have used throughout my education and life, and that is by far the best option for my studies in the UK. After studying at Oxford through a Stanford overseas program three years ago, I know that it is possible to find and use ASL interpreters in the UK, and having that information was incredibly valuable in meetings during the last week. We also discussed other backup accommodation options such as captioning, and I was able to get in touch with the disability contact in both my department and my college. (Tricky Oxford fact: I will be shifting between and communicating with several different entities during my time abroad: the English department, St. John's College, the Rhodes Trust, and the DAS and any other overall university offices. Not at all like Stanford or other American universities, where various offices are much more unified and tightly knit!)

More John's under blue skies

We stayed at St. John's throughout the visit and I quickly got a feel for the college, thanks to a few administrators and current students/current Rhodes scholars who were kind enough to show me around and tell me all about the place and its culture. Meeting people was by far the best part of the trip: from the six or seven "Rhodies" who took the time to greet me and share their insights about Oxford and the Rhodes, to the wonderful administrators and porters and other staff at Rhodes House who sat down and chatted and answered my questions and fetched me from the airport, to the various other people across Oxford who were similarly friendly and generous, everyone I met made me incredibly excited for this fall. I accomplished everything I set out to do: got the ball rolling on disability support, learned a ton about the ins and outs of Oxford life, and made some new friends and connections I hope to get to know as the next few years unfold. Plus the weather was gorgeous to boot, and taking my mom around to some of my favorite sightseeing places from my last time abroad added another dose of fun. To be sure, I'll have my share of challenges ahead (as will everyone adjusting to life at Oxford), but lots of excitement awaits, too.

A typical Oxford view: the Radcliffe Camera brooding over Radcliffe Square

Now for those last two months basking in the sun in the American Southwest before I head off again in October!

In the beautiful gardens of Rhodes House!

The Journey Begins! (at least preliminarily)

I officially started my visa application today. I had been waiting until I got an academic enrollment confirmation from Oxford, which arrived a week or so into July, and then needed to do some further research about the UK visa process before filling out the first part of the application online. (As well as paying the steep application fee, which was almost $500. Major ouch.) Now I need to do a little more waiting until I send the entire thing in, because...

I'm going to Oxford this week! (And I need to send my passport in to the British consulate with the rest of my visa application materials, which can wait until after I return.) The Rhodes Trust is being kind enough to bring me out to undergo the Oxford Disability Advisory Service's needs assessment process - in other words, to start setting up sign language interpreters and other accommodations for this fall. Far better to get these accommodations details worked out in advance of my arrival with the other students in October, especially when the DAS has a mandatory in-person assessment that can't well wait until orientation and the start of term. I'll be sitting down for that meeting and a few others later this week, and will also be taking advantage of the opportunity to meet some other Rhodes scholars currently at Oxford, tour around Rhodes House (which I've only seen from the outside at this point), see St. John's and other future haunts around Oxford, and probably stop by Stanford House to boot. The last time I walked the streets of Oxford, in the chilly December of 2010, I remember having a feeling that I would be back to the City of Dreaming Spires. I just can't believe it's come already. I'm beyond eager to see some of the people and places that will compose the texture of my life over the next two years.

This week's travels will be a real whirlwind, and I'll be back in the U.S. by the beginning of August, but here we go! Determined to catch some British tea and Ben's cookies while I'm at it, too.

Endings and Beginnings

I graduated from Stanford earlier this month, and have now moved away from the Bay Area and started my summer routine, which means that the next step, in just a few months, is... Oxford.

Leaving Stanford was hard, especially since packing up my belongings and preparing to head out made me realize (as if I hadn't realized before) what a special place the Farm has been for me over the last five years. I've met terrific friends, learned from brilliant professors (and friends and dormmates and advisors and coaches and mentors and other people), and had many tremendous experiences. I won't try to put it all in words here, but suffice it to say I found myself getting very nostalgic during the past month. I'm glad the summer will give me time to process everything as I also shift my focus to the adventure ahead. As difficult as Stanford was to leave, over the past year I also itched to go new places and experience new things, even while I tried to take advantage of the present moment. Living deliberately with purpose, it seems, can be a balance between novelty and familiarity.

Oxford looms ahead, and thank goodness it possesses its own mix of the novel and the familiar. It's not as familiar as Stanford's sandstone arches, but I do smile whenever I think of returning to those "dreaming spires" once again. And its share of newness seems like that of sheer opportunity. I'm choosing to think of the people I've not yet met and the places I've not yet seen, and to embrace the thrill of those things. The next two years will push my limits in an entirely new way, and I know it. Right now I'm catching my breath, reading a couple of good books, reminding myself to enjoy the sun in the Southwest before it disappears into London fog, and preparing myself for the roads ahead.

Those roads will continue with my visa application, which I will prepare and submit once I receive some official paperwork from St. John's in the next few weeks. Here we go!