Courses and Rhodes House!

I've had a lot of work to do the past few days, which means not as much going out and taking pictures. So, classes I'm taking... First I'm taking a class on the Beatles and their influence on postwar Britain. Really interesting stuff so far and due to a loophole, I get a music minor credit out of it. Whoops! Anyway, I didn't know that much about the Beatles apart from hearing their songs coming into the class but we've had to listen to some interviews, songs and analyze them in context of the 1960's and 1970's.

Secondly I'm taking a course on British anti-slavery. This has been surprisingly interesting. My favorite part was when we toured the Rhodes house today in Oxford and got to sit down with the researcher of one of our books, John Pinfold. He showed us some pretty ancient documents on the British slave trade including diaries from sea captains and plans of slave forts in Africa (which we got to hold and look through ourselves!) All this in the Rhodes house where Clinton, Mandela, and others have been. Pretty neat.

Have been meeting some of the guys who work here at the University and discovered the University pub which is on campus. It's like an underground bar with neat places to sit and cool colored lights everywhere. Plus, they play music that I actually listen to (You know I have random UK bands all over my ipod...) Hopefully can get some pictures to show you when I have more time.

That's all for now. Have to catch up on Z's before my 9:00 class tomorrow. We had a formal dinner tonight complete with a four-course dinner of roast duck and this amazing orange desert but I'd say the highlight of this week has been the Rhodes house so far.