I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember

Here I am!!! (I'm a terrible blogger, but bear with me.)

“I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember, the place is so beautiful. One almost expects the people to sing instead of speaking. It is all…like an opera.” - William Butler Yeats

So, I arrived in Oxford on July 1st after a horrifying 20 hours of travel, long wait in the customs line, and long lines waiting for an Oxford coach. Happily, I was met at the bus station by my lovely friend, Sarah Chapple, which made coming to Oxford so much less intimidating. Although intimidating is still the word. The University buildings are mostly between 500 to 800 years old, and the University itself is made up of 39 "colleges and halls." According to the quaint and fabulous The Dodo Guide to Oxford:

Oxford University is a confederation of all its colleges, each of which is self governing, a small world unto itself where its students eat, sleep, and meet their tutors. The University is the overall authoritative and administrative body, organising curricula, the libraries, laboratories, examinations, managing finances and property, and conferring degrees. Its parliament is called Congregation, while legislation is proposed by the Council
of the University (which recently replaced the grandly named Hebdomadal--that is
Latin for weekly--Council)(17).

I'm at Lincoln College. For some excellent info on this pretty awesome, and incredibly and centrally located college, here's some good stuff on - ahem - wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_College_Oxford

I'm enrolled in a class led by Professor Miriam Gilbert called "Shakespeare: Page and Stage," and believe me, it's exactly that! Professor Gilbert is fabulous and dynamic and is an expert on the translation of Shakespeare from the text on the page to the stage. During the time we're in class, from July 3rd to August 8th, we are seeing 10 performances and reading 9 plays (one performance is the same play twice - A Midsummer Night's Dream). We're reading: The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, The Merry Wives of Windsor, King Lear, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, and (my favorite) Hamlet. We're also seeing and reading one non-Shakespeare: The Revenger's Tragedy, which is a fascinating Jacobean drama that is disturbing, gross, and interesting.

When I first arrived, I was given a room in Grove Quad (the college is made up of rooms and stairways which surround three open "quads") at the top of a little, windy, narrow staircase in Stairway 12. It would have been manageable, except that it was literally 4 feet wide by 6 feet long. It accomodated a bed and a very small desk/ledge and small, triangular corner closet. (The closet reminded me of that scene in the BBC's Pride and Prejudice when Mr. Collins proudly shows Elizabeth the closet in her room that has been fitted with shelves and she says, "Shelves in the closet, happy thought." Which is what went through my head every time I glanced over to see my two suitcases and duffle bag spilling out of where I had to stack them to store my clothes. Fortunately for me and also, sadly, one of the students here had to withdraw and I was given her room, which is at least twice the size with ample closet and dresser space. I can now shower my entire body at one time and don't accidently open the door when I wash my hair. I am in Stairway 13 on the ground floor as well. Happy for me. The number 13 is my lucky number once again.

There's this awesome room reached through a door in the wall in the middle of one of the archways to the quads that is a reception area/conference room, a pub called "Deep Hall," which is literally below the rooms in one of the walls and has all these amazing low beams and half-timbered ceiling, and our classroom is in a room on the way to the college library which is in the original Lincoln chapel. If you can't tell from all these descriptions, I am beside myself with how amazing this whole experience is!