Oxford

My supervisor suggested that since I have a thesis plan and am part way through my second chapter I should go down to Oxford and speak with SP who is for lack of a better word, Mr. Roman Religion. He wrote his PhD dissertation on emperor worship in 1984 and revolutionized the way we think about ruler cult. I am also working on emperor worship but looking at it from a different angle. Still I was pretty excited about getting to go down and talk with him. At the same time, I was really nervous. After all, I'm just a lowly grad student and well, he's written a ton of books. So, off I went. F's mom lives down in Stratford-Upon-Avon and offered to give me a place to stay and take me into Oxford for my meeting.
After the 7 hour train ride, I arrived in Stratford, met F's mom and we drove to a friend of her's house in Oxfordshire, because apparently the traffic into Oxford can be terrible. The house was amazing. A converted barn with staircases everywhere. I think I may have only seen about half the house during my time there. As soon as we arrived, the two ladies set to work making dinner and would not let me help in any way. S asked me what I would like to drink and I said that some red wine would be nice. She said "excellent." pulled out two bottles of wine from the wine rack and made some comment about drinking through her ex-husbands assets. I only found out later that these bottles of wine were worth about 300 pounds (or probably about $700) each. We just sat around all night chatting and just having a great time. I was definitely well looked after.
We went into Oxford early the next morning and I spent the hour before my meeting just walking around the university gardens and tried to sort out what I was going to say. I headed to his college and found his room. The meeting itself was interesting. He is a very nice man and his office is exactly how I pictured it would be. However, he did not seem at all interested in what I was doing. I left the meeting feeling kind of like I didn't know what I was doing, or where I was going, or even if I should continue on the same line. (I have since spoken with a number of students who have all told me this is fairly common and that I shouldn't really worry about it)
After my meeting, I intended on heading to the library to do some reading and see if I could track down some books that I couldn't get at my university library. I had a letter from my supervisor stating who I was and that I should be granted access. However, the woman who runs admissions to the library was reluctant to give me a reader card and sent me through numberous hoops. After about half an hour, I convinced her that I was responsible, and vowed that I wouldn't bring fire into the library (there's an actual oath that you have to swear), and she finally caved and gave me a card. The classics reading room in the library is insane. It's massive and they have their own coding system so it is very difficult to find your way around or find what you are looking for. After about an hour, I was ready to get out of Oxford and head somewhere more friendly.
F's mom and I headed to Stratford for the rest of the evening. Her boyfriend grew up there so they took me on a little Shakespeare tour and showed me the town. It's a great little town with a neat mix of the old Shakespeare buildings (like his house, his grammar school, etc.) along with the old victorian buildings you find elsewhere in Britain, as well as some modern stuff thrown in. It's quite a nice mix. I ended up being a really nice change from the arrogance and snobbiness of Oxford.
All in all, it ended up being a good trip. I realized how glad I am that I am a part of a department that is very sweet and friendly and helpful (we're like a little family) and even though our library is not the greatest, at least it is usable.

I think that's all for now. I've been far to busy lately to update on a regular basis but I'm hoping that I will be able to update more frequently in the coming months, but no promises. (My laptop is broken, so I couldn't add in pictures, but I will try and add some in later)