Ashmolean Tutorial: February 6th

This morning I went to meet Nick, my Shakespeare/playwriting professor, for my make up tutorial. Wednesdays are my days off, since Jessica made our philosophy class into office hours, but I was kind of excited to share my attempt at a monologue with him. He came into the lobby, said "We're getting out of the classroom today and looking at art for you to write about", and turned back toward the door. I hurried after him to his car, excited that we wouldn't be sitting in a stuffy room upstairs while the day was so beautiful.

We drove to the Ashmolean Museum, which is in Oxford's City Centre. He wanted me to find a piece of art and write about it, either from the perspective of a portrait or about the details around them. But first, we went downstairs to the cafe and had a cup of coffee. Nick is also a gender studies teacher at Oxford (imagine my excitement about this!!) so we had a very interesting conversation about gender related issues, specifically the gender expectations in different cultures. After telling me places to visit when we're in France, he took me upstairs to the paintings to pick one out. Our tutorial period is only an hour, so we had coffee for about 45 minutes of that hour. I picked out a picture and jotted down some notes so that I would remember. He took a picture with his camera phone-- even though he wasn't supposed to-- and is sending it to me.

He dropped me off at my house after that and gave me a book to focus on short story writing. With the art piece, I also can write in any way I feel like. I am so excited about this! And talk about a spin on the normal American professor/student relationship. Every student here has gone out to either coffee or to a pub with their teacher, and I think it's fabulous. Not only do you get to know your teacher on a personal level, but it also helps open you up to their advice and guidance when it comes to your school work. And as an English major, it is very conducive to my learning experience.

I am love love loving this. Can I take this school home, mix it with USD, and live in Oregon?