Timed Efforts (+Photos)

Note: Photos I mentioned last time are here and here, the first being particularly pertinent to Oxford/the SLC Programme, and the second just photos I’ve taken, here or elsewhere with my old Nikon. When I put up new photos, I’ll try to make a note of it in a post here to let you know.

I’ve finally completed the paper I’ve been working on for the last week, which gives me some free time to … write the paper that’s due to-morrow. It’s been a busy week, with my birthday passing on Monday. It was mostly uneventful, I got a lot of reading done and a few friends bought me drinks in celebration. There are plans with my flatmates to celebrate a bit this weekend, once our papers are completed for the week, but I expect it will all be pretty low-key.

I went to my first non-required class-y thing-y this week. We’re allowed (encouraged!) to go to all the seminars and lectures that are open to us, which is, you know, all of them. The lists are intimidating and a bit confusing so I kept missing ones I intended to check out. Yesterday, however, I made it to a seminar on African slavery in 17th century New England, taught by a sweet American woman turning in her PhD at Yale and working on a book. It was very interesting and there was quite a lot I didn’t know, which makes sense seeing how this woman is writing the definitive book on the subject. I hope to do more of that sort of dropping-in-on-smart-people lectures in the coming weeks.

Because my time is almost entirely mine with only two or three things a week I have to attend, (my two tutorials and the core class with the SLC Programme, the first of which is this afternoon), it’s been difficult organizing my time. I mean, there’s just so much of it, so it becomes easy to push off writing and reading and the important things. That’s one of the reasons I want to make a habit of going to more lectures – it’ll give me things around which to schedule my work.

I’ve been using the Chabad for that as well – going to all the little classes and talks, etc. It makes me feel involved a bit and its nice to spend that time in a frum environment. Plus, I’m learning things all the time – just this week, there was a “Lunch and Learn” session on the ethics of lying in Judaism, a lecture by a soldier of the 6 Day War in Israel, a weekly parsha class, and the leading expert on Yiddish literature spoke about the shtetl. To-night, there’s a Challah baking thing at the Chabad house, and after the Friday night dinner there will be a speaker on Jewish genetics. It’s like this every week; they've always got something going on and the Rabbi and his wife are wonderful.

I’ve spent a lot of time being anxious about the workload, and with good reason, but to be honest it feels good to have a schedule and things to do and people helping me improve. Despite a very difficult, draining week and a half, things are a little better to-day.