Radiohead String Quartet etc. etc. etc.

So I just went to a performance sponsored by the Keble Music Society. It was the one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

Radiohead's KID A perforemed by the "stellar string quartet" and piano, kaoss pad played by Stephen Polydorou. All arrangements by Stephen Polydorou.

40 or so people were seated in a small room with a long oriental rug and two lamps in front of a grand piano fashioned with cables running to a kaoss pad on top of it. The string quartet sat to the right of the piano man. They all looked very english, but who knows.

At one point, the piano player and two of the string quartet people were all playing on the piano at once. After the end of that song, the piano player's fingers had actually bled all over the piano, so much that he had to take a minute to clean the piano. At another point, while the string section was playing, the piano player put 4 or 5 things inside of the piano to change the sound of certain keys. I guess I have never sat so close to that kind of music. I have never seen someone play piano that quickly. Oh it was just amazing. The sound in that room was incredible (it was a recital room).

Wine was served afterwards. Which seems to be very common here at Oxford. I am told that each college has its own special wine. I have a lecture series (documentaries are played on various religious traditions) on monday nights in which we are served elderflower or our choice of red or white wine. Let me tell you after you have walked in the dark and cold to a seminar, it is very nice to be offered a glass of red wine.

I am always recieving emails about different events going on. It seems at Oxford, the battle is not just getting your work done, but balancing your work with all of the opportunities that come your way. A few weeks ago I went to a BBC taping of a show called "Big Questions". It was right down the street from me. The few days before the taping I kept getting phone calls from "Jamie" at the BBC asking me if I had any specific religion, if I held any public offices, or if I had any questions for the singer who would be appearing on the show. After I stated that I was protestant/ no/ and I didn't know of the singer, "Jamie" proceeded to ask me I was enclined to ask the singer a question anyways. I politely declined.

Yesterday was quite a highlight, as I went to a "briefing" (what they call a one time lecture sometimes. I was definately the youngest one there, probably by 40 years). The briefing was ono the possibility of peace in the holy land. Professor Shai Feldman spoke, who is on the UN Secretary General's Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters.

Ya, that says UN. Man it was like being on NPR, or CNN. Except is was in a quaint wood panelled room of Harris Manchester College with tea and sandwiches welcoming us. The 10 or so of us sat in a circle in wooden chairs. Believe me I did not ask any questions. I just ate my cute little sandwich, drank my tea and listened.

I also attend a "Ladies Tea" night in the MCR (the middle common room, a common room for graduate students, which is straight out of the Dead Poets Society). Usually there are about 10 of us graduate girls who get together on Thursday nights sit in the brown leather couches to drink tea with milk and eat chocolates. Now I am not the biggest fan of chocolate, but, I mean come on, in this context you have to love it.

In case you are interested...WHat I do: I have about 4 or 5 lectures / seminars I go to per week, 1 tutorial every week on the nature of religion, and one tutorial I go to every other week for Christianity. Lectures are one hour, the professor talks and hands you a paper with quotes, comments, and a bibliography. There are no assignments or tests for lectures. Tutorials are about an hour long where you and maybe a couple students present and discuss your papers. You write 2000 word papers for each one every week or every other week, depending.

My Christianity professor is brilliant, disheveled, and somewhat unnerving at first. The first day we met in his office to discuss when we would meet. He was kind of like when can you meet? and then he was like, "right, well, if we are studying Christianity, I guess we had better start with Jesus. Is there anyone here (there are 3 of us) who would like to do that?" I said I would. He then said ok, well how about the question "What should we know or can we know about the figure of Jesus?" I nodded and scribbled. He then said well you should probably read, Bultmann ... and there is a good book by... He proceeded to list four or five books I was to read and 'get back to them' the following week. I quickly wrote the books down. That was basically our first meeting. My other tutorial is more structured.

We kept being told the first week that Oxford is convoluted and fragmented. So ask questions.