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  • Writer's pictureJourney Joslin

Settling In

Another long day filled with Zoom meetings and socially distanced conversations out in the garden is drawing to a close, and I can only think how grateful I am to be here. This really isn't how any of us imagined this semester going: those orientation sessions should have been in lecture rooms, our photo scavenger hunt should have been completed around the city of Oxford instead of just the back garden, and our evenings should have been spent watching movies and playing games downstairs.


Despite all that, however, I'm not disappointed. Would I like to have experienced the Oxford Semester of Pre-COVID days? Sure. But with the hard work of the SCIO (Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford) staff and the great attitudes of my fellow Oxford scholars, this is turning out to be a great semester.


I woke up this morning feeling a little down. It was largely because of the lingering effects of jetlag and the foolish decision to snooze my alarm three times... but there you have it. After a slow breakfast in my quiet room, though, I put on my coat and went outside to meet the rest of my housemates. Since I was a bit early, I wandered the back garden and just took a few minutes to be quiet. It was exactly what I needed. We had a light snowfall last night - definitely not a Michigan snow! - that left everything looking like something out of a fairytale. I ended up with a ridiculous amount of photos, but I couldn't help myself!


By the time the rest of my housemates joined me outside, I was feeling a lot better. Our latest Zoom-conducted social event is a photo scavenger hunt that we decided to complete as a house. We had to take pictures in response to prompts like "Frozen", "Dreaming Spires", or "Hurdle". We haven't even shared the photos with the other houses, and I already know House 3 has won the "Frozen" prompt! There is a rectangular planting bed/water feature in the garden that currently holds dead lilies and about two feet of water. House 3 decided they were going to all get in the water for their picture... in 30 degree weather! The results were absolutely hilarious and well worth their frozen toes.


My house and members from a couple others all lingered around the water feature talking for the better part of an hour. It is amazing, especially now looking back on it, how such different people can get along so easily. Sure, we are bound to have disagreements and difficulties as the semester goes on and we all get stressed or tired. But right now, we aren't a bunch of near-strangers. We're all Oxford students. We're scholars facing a slightly daunting, even more exciting term at one of the world's greatest universities. We're housemates dealing with the restrictions of COVID together. I don't know how long these relationships will last beyond this semester, but I am so grateful for the people I have met and am getting to know now.



This afternoon we had a meeting with Dr. Liz Baigent, the senior tutor for SCIO, all about the seminar portion of our semester. A proper Oxford term lasts a strict 8 weeks. Clearly, this is not equal to the typical US 15 week semester! In order to make up the difference as well as provide the cross cultural requirement many schools have, SCIO adds in both an undergraduate research seminar and a British Culture Course. Right now, we are in the pre-term period, before our formal Oxford tutorials start. The meeting we had with Dr. Baigent covered information she started providing yesterday: During the course of the pre-term and post-term periods, we will be completing original research and a research paper that, by the end of the semester, will be ready to submit to undergraduate research journals or conferences. It's an intimidating thought, but really exciting, too!

I have already finished my senior thesis and am considering submitting that. The undergraduate research seminar I am taking, English - of course! - will help me dig further into my thesis topic, do some better research, and polish my paper before I submit it. We will get guidance from our instructors and advice from other scholars. It's a priceless opportunity, and I plan to take full advantage of it.


The rest of the day has been spent ordering books for my tutorials, answering emails, and chatting online with my housemates. Now, just before another Zoom meeting and our evening get together, it's nice to sit for a few minutes and do something unrelated to my Oxford studies or life at The Vines. It's a time to just be quiet, to let it all sink in and appreciate what I have experienced today.



When we get really busy and don't take the time to just reflect, we lose so much of what we have experienced. It all becomes blurred together. Maybe we'll remember at a later date, but I think it mostly all becomes a jumbled mess that we can only pick small details from. Tonight, writing this post and looking back through the pictures I took, I have the chance to remember the cool, snowy air on my cheeks as I wandered the garden. I can hear the crunch of the gravel path under my boots, louder where the stones are thick and loose. It comes back clearer than if I just let it all pass me by without a second thought. So, if nothing else, you guys are helping me remember my time here by giving me an excuse to sit and scribble about it all! Who knows how coherent it is at the end, but it is well worth it.

Thinking back to how I started this semester on Tuesday, the difference is pretty incredible. I'm still a little intimidated by the term to come, but it all feels much more manageable. Another silver lining to our COVID-cloud: I have had the time to adjust and settle into life her at The Vines and in Oxford that I don't think I would have had under normal circumstances. As someone who needs long moments to just take it all in and process, these first ten days of quarantine are priceless. I think I'll be a lot braver and a lot stronger when I come out of it and head into the full swing of an Oxford term.


In the meantime, please pray that we will all stay healthy and our COVID tests will come back negative. We are so close to being released from isolation, and all of us are more than eager to explore our new home! Thank you for all your support as I have taken this huge step towards my undergraduate degree and my future career.


Until next time, with all my love,


Journey Joslin

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