Fresher's Week

Hello again,

Sorry for the brief delay. It was a busy week moving in, settling in, and sleeping in, but now that I've done all three of those things I am ready and excited to give you an update!

I flew in with my dad from Boston to London on September 28th, and due to the +5 hour time difference we arrived at 6:30am on September 29th. The bus from the airport took us very close to our hotel in the city center, and the first step of the journey was complete. From there we continued our diligent search for an apartment, which ended on Thursday, and we made sure to do some shopping and eating. We perused some nice bookshops, department stores, gift shops, and some nice pubs. I had the best Guinness I've ever had at The Eagle and Child - famous for hosting J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and the rest of 'The Inklings' for their weekly writing meetings - and the fish and chips were pretty good, too.

The week I am in the midst of now is called Fresher's Week. Many introductory things happen such as meeting some of the faculty of your college, meeting your tutor (adviser), meeting other students in your program, learning about the college library system, and so on. Today I went to my first Formal Hall - a dinner where everyone from the college dresses up and wears their academic gown. For this dinner we were not required to wear sub fusc, but that will come soon enough.

What I am now looking forward to is the Fresher's Fair where all of the clubs, groups, and societies of the university set up a booth and aim to obtain new members. I've checked the list, and I have found many interesting options. However, what I really want to join is a good chamber choir. As many of you know, I sing quite a bit. What you may not know is that my favorite type of music is polyphonic choral music - here's a sample:

With that in mind, I am planning to audition for Commotio and Schola Cantorum, and maybe the Arcadian Singers. Hopefully I will get into one of them - wish me luck!

In other news, I have found out that there are nearly twenty students in my program throughout the university. There will be four at my college including me, and the other three are part-time and all at least fifty years old it seems. Needless to say, I am the youngest by far. The program is oriented towards ministry, so many ministers and pastors apply for the program to become better at recognizing the theology that is enacted in their ministry. Therefore, it makes sense, and it is to my advantage!

Well, I'll be in touch again soon. I'll let you know which group I'm a part of, hopefully one of the three I mentioned, but there are many others. My classes don't even start until next Friday, so I most likely won't have any academic updates for you. Enjoy the rest of the week!

Truly,

Tim