St. Peter's College

The entrance to St. Peter's College

Oxford University has many different colleges spread all throughout the town. The college I am studying at is St. Peter's College, also where Francis is a professor.

Yesterday was our first look inside the college and our first lecture. We had lunch in the dining hall and then Penelope treated us to lattes down the street. After that we had our first lecture over the Hampton Court Palace to prepare us for our excursion there tomorrow.

Today we started the morning with lectures back at the college (first over the life of Shakespeare and then Victorian politics). Near the end of the first lecture, someone came in to set up a table for tea. In between the lectures we had tea, or coffee, and biscuits (cookies). I definitely think this is something that America is missing out on.

Enjoying tea and biscuits in class

Before lunch, Penelope took us around the town pointing out some important sites and places we might find useful (like Boots, Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury, and then the Covered Market). Before our final lecture we grabbed some sandwiches from the Covered Market.

Our final lecture for the day took place in the living room of the Warner's house. It was a history lesson over Elizabethan music (also, the origin of music in the church, plain song, Madrigals, Canzonets...)

Cameron and Francis walking inside the college

I wish I could fully describe how cool Francis is. At his house today he began our session by saying, "I just wanted to add a note to our discussion from this morning. There are only two original portraits of Christopher Marlowe in the world. One of them is in this room. Would you like to see?" He then showed us the portrait in the corner of his living room. If this wasn't enough, he pulled from the shelf some original works of Marlowe and Shakespeare both. Yesterday he told us a story that involved a side note of how Sir Ian McKellen was one of his first students. I've also heard rumors of him partying with Mick Jagger...