London and Tutorials

Its been a few days since my last update, and so I will curtail my Walpoling activities (yes I do have Walpole sitting by my desk at the moment) for a little while and give you chappos an update. I will try to be more regular - perhaps look for these thingees on Teusdays and Fridays, although I may include some randomness to keep things interesting.

We'll start out with London, which consumed my entire Saturday. The trip started with us running to reach the bus stop in time to get on the same bus as Johnathon and the people from the Crick Road house (the other house where SCIO students are lodged). Safely aboard, we went to marble arch, where Simon and Johnathon lead a brisk walk through the American embassy, past Grove Park and the aristocratic part of town, down to Buckingham Palace, St. James, and through the government areas - where such sights as Whitehall Palace, Westminster Abby, Westminster Cathedral Parliament, Downing St., the Foriegn Office, and the Exchange where all pointed out.

Finally, we reached Trafalgar Square, where we spent about an hour and a half (far too little time) touring the National Art Gallery. From there, we grabbed the tube and took a tour of Old London (the medieval part of the city), starting at the monument to the Great Fire and ending at St. Paul's Cathedral (with a side trip to see the White Tower [London Tower] and the Tower Bridge; London Bridge of course is in Arizona), where we participated in the Evensong service (and got to hear their world-famous choir). After service, we went and ate at a nice inn in Chinatown, before returning to Oxford (getting back around midnight). That was London.


The other thing that happened (the one that kept me securely fastened to books on the Revolution of 1688 and thus not updating here for a few days) wass meeting my tutors and getting aroundd to my first essay

My primary tutorial is in British History from 1685-1830; the tutor, Dr. Matthew Kilburn, is an extremely knowledgable fellow; I met him on Friday, where he assigned me an essay on the Glorious Revolution, which managed to consume my weekend until it was due Monday. I like the course, and while it will be far more reading and writing than any other course I've done (perhaps equal in reading load to my entire from last semester, and with twice as many long essays, although none of those killer exams).

My secondary tutorial is in Introductory Logic; the tutor, Dr. Jordan Bell, not only is an expert in philosophy, but he is an extremely personable and friendly man. We met in his office, and were able to have tea as we worked on validity, consistency, formal logic jargon, and truth tables. This course won't have much reading, but I have a list of logic exercises as thick as a book to keep me busy. We've decided to ignore the 1 hr. set time for tutorial meetings, and we may schedule an extra meeting; this course is especially reminiscent of homeschooling, because we have no set curricula - its basically going to go as far as we can take it.

That pretty much covers whats gone on the last few days; I shall leave you all now, I've an appointment with a Cornish Pasty coming up, and would hate to miss it.