What a crazy week. I have barely had time to breathe, let alone blog. Rowing has been a major theme in the mornings, as well as in the afternoons, but I really don't want to get into that. I mean, I feel like every session last week did not end with me improving my form or technique. Nope. Instead, I think I got worse and worse. Literally, the rowing coach (Felicity is her name, but she goes by "Flick" because it sounds more hard-core) told me I looked like the hunchback of Notre Dame in the boat. Only, she doesn't address you by name; Flick calls you out by your position in the boat. So, with me, she yells things like, "Bow, you're rowing in a box." Or, "Bow, do you even know what 'backstops' mean?" She's, well, um, intimidating, but she is a really great coach. Every time I learn a body problem of which I have to be hyper-cognizant. For a sport all about repetition--you repeat the movement of the man in front of you, and you repeat the last stroke that you performed--there is a lot of brain strain involved in keeping myself properly functioning.

Now, I feel like I haven't blogged about my academics in forever--it's been a lot of rowing news. Since I am here for higher learning, maybe I should do a little sharing on that front. Actually, I've been terrified to report on the tumultuous relationship between myself and my Medieval tutor. See, she does this thing where no matter what I write, she refuses to truly validate my ideas. The closest she comes to telling me, "Good job," is this really sneaky rhetorical move; she writes and says to me, "Point taken, however..." and follows through with phrases like "you fail to consider" and "making your point extremely limited." Now, let's break this feedback down, shall we? She spends two words to show that she "takes" my idea, and then with one word begins a string of criticism to undercut the previous two word validation. This is hardly an "atta boy." He feedback at the end of my papers are similarly problematic. My first essay (a 66 in Oxford marks, which translates roughly to an B+/A-), she called "well considered," yet "incomplete" as she feels that I did not answer all of her question. It is not a bad grade, yet I was still a little frustrated about it. Anyway, this past essay which she gave back today, she makes use of the same "point taken, however.." move, and used the phrase "competently handled and sufficiently illustrated." But competent and sufficient are some of those ambiguous compliments that aren't really compliments, you know? However, she did score this essay one point higher than the last one, so color me "improved" by her standards. (I'm sorry if the bitter came out in that last sentence; I am trying to keep it in!)

On the happier academic note, I had my second tutorial with John, my Wilde tutor. I'm not sure if I told you this, but he rather emphatically insists that I call him John. He's really young and an American-gone-Brit from California, so he understands where I'm coming from academically. His tutorials are always rather bizarre, and last Thursday was no different. I read my essay looking at the relationship between Wilde's short story, "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime," and Wilde's critical essay, "The Soul of Man Under Socialism," looking specifically at his emphasis on individualism and the artist's role in society. John liked it; he thought it was intriguing, although he kept bringing up The Picture of Dorian Gray, and asking how my argument could be applied to that. In my head, I kept thinking, "But I'm not writing on Dorian Gray, now am I?" Anyway, we discussed Dorian Gray and he said he liked my reading of it. At the end of our tute, I asked him how I was doing (since I am now half way done with it as it is a half tutorial). He said, "Definitely A level work. Don't worry." This week, in stead of the questions he suggested I write on, I talked with him about me researching the intersection of Wilde's drama, American Lit, and his perception and portrayal of Americans. He was OK with this idea, so I'm happy.

Besides rowing, I'm really looking forward to doing some drama and creative writing in Oxford. There's the Oxford University Poetry Society, which I'm planning on getting involved in. As for the theatre, there is the university competition called "Cuppers" that I'm going to perform in. It's only open to freshers (but I think I'm eligible since technically I'm like a Regent's Fresher). Basically, Cuppers is like a One-Act Play competition where different colleges can submit 30 minute plays which are then judged in different categories. One of the clever freshers has written a 30 ensemble based comedy show about the history of theatre. I have a part and we are going into competition rehearsal mode ASAP. I cannot wait!