April showers bring May...and more showers

I guess it's time for an update. I can't believe it's mid May already. The weather here (since my last post) has been absolutely horrid. After a couple of lovely weeks in late March it has just gone downhill. Here I was thinking Britain isn't nearly as rainy as the impressions tell us, but it decided to prove the impressions right. Although, many people do assure me that this isn't actually normal for this time of year. The BBC has described it as the rainiest April in over 100 years (or since records began). And May hasn't been much better, though we had a bit of relief on the weekend. The locals seem to think it's summer already and some are dressing as such but I'm still pretty much in my winter gear. Maximum temperatures are anything between 12°C and (occasionally) 17°, though 13-14° is probably about average.

As anticipated, this term has been a lot busier than the previous two. I've started having proper Oxford tutorials, rather than just attending lectures. For those who don't know about the tutorial system here, it's based on one-on-one (or one-on-a-few, but in my case one) meetings with a tutor in the fields you are focussing on. These are in preparation for the final exams I will have next year. So far I've had three tutorials on The History of Greek (one of my options). I had an essay set on a different topic each week (these were on Greek phonology and morphology and their derivation from reconstructed Indo-European forms). Then in the tutorial my tutor would discuss the essays with me. I'm having a bit of a break from that now and will continue with them next term (along with tutorials on Historical Linguistics in general). For the rest of this term I will be having meetings with my Syntax tutor. Syntax is my third choice but because I don't have an exam for it, the meetings take on a different form, meeting to discuss the topic for the final essay I will be writing for the Syntax module. I had a topic idea from last term but decided it was going to involve too much work and would be better as a thesis so now I need a new essay topic. I will also be finding information for and narrowing down my thesis topic throughout the rest of the term (which for anyone who's interested will be on Word Order in Ancient Greek).

Apart from the work, I've also started attending the CS Lewis Society meetings here. I signed up for the society when I first arrived, but wasn't originally getting their emails and then was too busy to go. So far this term we've had a walking Inklings tour of Oxford, a talk on the influence of Medieval Bestiaries on the Chronicles of Narnia and a talk on Tolkien's use of (pagan) mythology in Middle Earth. (It's more of an Inklings society than limited to Lewis stuff). This week will be hearing readings of some recently discovered poems written by Joy Davidman (Lewis' wife) and next week we have a special treat with Lewis' stepson, Douglas Gresham coming to talk. It's been fun meeting other Lewis and Tolkien fanatics.

I've also been doing a lot of organising of trips the last couple of weeks. It started with me trying to get my flight back home in July. I came over on a return ticket but the latest date they could get was 15 May and term only ends 15 June. So I had to book knowing I'd have to apply for a change of date (which was actually kind of nice because I had an excuse to take time to decide on when I wanted to go). Apparently waiting till the end of April was a bad idea. When my mum tried to book the change of date, flights for the end of June/beginning of July were already really full. I had decided to wait until after 9 July since the Olympic torch is coming through Oxford that day. It looked like they could get me a flight for 10 July but when they tried to book it, it wouldn't let them. I had to decide whether I wanted to go on the 9th (which would mean missing the torch the day it came) or earlier, on the 1st, or to wait until the 18th. I decided I'd miss the torch and go back a bit earlier - on the 1st. 

After this, I had a look to see if any neighbouring towns were having the torch before I left. It will be around here in early July and in Scotland and Northern England before I leave. But then I saw that it would be in Cardiff on 25 May. This is a Friday and I won't have a Friday lecture that week. I've been wanting to visit Wales, so I've decided to take a little trip to Wales to see the torch and the city. I've also bought tickets for The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe stage show which is showing in London throughout the summer. I'm going to watch with Bethany the weekend after term ends. The tickets arrived in the post today, which was quite exciting.

So, that's what I've been up to the last couple weeks. Thanks again for reading and for your prayers (and comments are also always welcome).