Oxford is NOT London!

Okay, so since people here get really pissy about the typical American idea of what exactly Oxford is, I shall attempt to explain. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, Oxford is NOT London, nor is it IN London. The University of Oxford is actually located in a town called, surprise!, Oxford, which is about an hour away from London. Another big misconception is that Oxford is, like typical American universities, a single academic entity. In reality, it is a federation of over forty different colleges and halls, some of the more famous being Christ Church College and Pembroke College. I am studying at Magdalen (pronounced maud-lin) College, which is actually one of the older ones. The colleges each have their own internal structure, libraries, dining halls, and residence facilities, but they do share some things like the Bodleian Library.
The Bodleian Library is extremely awesome so I'm going to go into a little more detail about it. It is one of the oldest and biggest libraries in England, and it has the right to a copy of any book published in Britain and Ireland. It has four copies of the Magna Carta, one of the very few remaining Gutenburg bibles, Shakespeare's First Folio, and yesterday I saw a first edition of Principia Mathmatica. In order to get access to the library, you basically have to have a background check, be an Oxford student, and participate in a swearing-in ceremony in which you make the following pledge: "I hereby undertake not to remove from the Library, nor to mark, deface, or injure in any way, any volume, document or other object belonging to it or in its custody; not to bring into the Library, or kindle therein, any fire or flame, and not to smoke in the Library; and I promise to obey all rules of the Library." One of the coolest things about the Bodleian Library is that its Duke Humfrey's Library was the library in the Harry Potter movies, and the Divinity School was the infirmary.
As for academic structure at Oxford, it depends some on the class but most follow a basic common structure. In England, there are far fewer hours spent in class with instructors and far more hours spent individually on research and writing. My class meets twice a week. On Tuesdays, we have lecture from 2-4, and on Thursday I have a tutorial from 3-4. There is a 2500-word essay due for each tutorial. There are five people in my lecture, and the group is split into 2 and 3 for tutorials. There is no real textbook, but there is an extensive reading list (all of Shakespeare and a multi-page list of critical works about Shakespeare) from which we are expected to select sources and extra reading for our essays. I have had one class and have already had to spend 35 pounds on more books.
Outside of classes and tutorials, we are pretty much free to do whatever we want to. The program director stressed that we should try not to focus on grades and should instead try to get as much as possible from the program. They suggest attempting to travel as much as our schedule will permit. This weekend, some of us are hoping to go on a day trip to Canterbury, Dover, and Hastings. Later in the program we hope to visit Edinburgh, and we might try either Ireland or Paris. Our classes are held here at Magdalen College, and we also live on the Magdalen grounds. My room is in the top floor of the "New Building" (new, that is, in 1733). I'll try to get some more pictures of the College and the town of Oxford up in the next few days. For now, I'd better go read some Shakespeare!

Cheers!
Annalisa