Oxford 2011 Freshers Chat Thread

You don't have to read trashy 'holiday' books on holiday you know, they don't confiscate the rest at security. I managed to smuggle some Forster and Lawrence out the country with me I want to read more philosophy but never get round to it, I suppose I don't know where to start.

You don't have to read trashy 'holiday' books on holiday you know, they don't confiscate the rest at security. I managed to smuggle some Forster and Lawrence out the country with me I want to read more philosophy but never get round to it, I suppose I don't know where to start.

The course features the Glorious Revolution, Whigs and Tories, Walpole, Pitt, the emerging of the industrial revolution... all sorts, including Jacobitism.

This is why Kindles are awesome. Not only do you not have to carry the bloody things, you can get a lot of them for free.

And I'm taking this opportunity to shamelessly plug the list of philosophy books I made out of a thread somewhere.

We do, my dad is awful for them. His whole shelf is crap chain novels where the protagonists save the world on a daily basis I like Stoicism; Epictetus' Discourses and Enchiridion are easy to read and fairly cheap

Ah, sounds interesting. History was my second love at school (Formerly first, but then I had an affair with Law)

Haha well, I'm afraid I'm odd and spent a good proportion of my time scouring charity and antique shops for incredibly cheap books, so it's generally okay. Admittedly I did add 5kg to my suitcase just in books...

And thanks for the link, I'll try to check some of those out...

Haha well my boyfriend will only read books featuring apaches, so I can imagine!

History was the obvious option for me, particularly after a horrendous week at an archaeological dig fully ruled out that option.

I'm afraid Law is something I know truly nothing about.

The Native Americans or the helicopters?

What happened at the dig like?

The helicopters, sadly. I thought he meant the former at first, as I think that's the most common useage of the word, but apparently not...

Well, it was just not what I'd expected I suppose. A lot more pure physical labour, I spent 90% of the week just shovelling dirt. I found a lot, sure, but after 50 pieces of broken pottery you don't get too excited anymore. Even when you found a 'small find' (i.e. not a bone, or pot) that was mostly just irritating, as you have to catalogue the bloody thing with incredible precision.

In conclusion, it basically had the bits of science I hate, plus the bits of history I hate. Though I'm still proud of the Roman brooch I found...

So it was ****ter than Time Team?

We did a pretend dig at the local Roman fort in year six. It was basically a sandpit with skulls in it

Where I did my dig (Silchester, if you're interested) there was a little kiddy sandpit right next to the real excavations. It was actually filled with real finds though. Basically, if someone doesn't label something properly, which exactly where it came from, what depth etc. the find is basically worthless, no matter how cool it is So the kids got some pretty good stuff.

4 days. I'm sorry. But now the number of days can be counted on the fingers of one hand (excluding thumb).

On another note, in the earlier sentence I was very very tempted to write the word "discluding" instead of "excluding". Has anyone else noticed that since you have said to family/friends that you have an offer from Oxford that they pull you up on grammar and pronunciation all the time?? For me it's doubly bad, as an English student, but is this the same for everyone? Is anything stupid that you say, even if there are extenuating circumstances, ruthlessly mocked and quoted back at you when you try and say something intelligent again to redeem yourself??

Btw, this has sort of been discussed, but mainly among English students: for history reading this summer, what sort of notes are people planning to take? And what volume?

Feel free to answer if you're a similar subject btw, I just think note taking is different in English, so thought I'd ask.

Just think, Oxford got our results today and has decided whether not we've got in

I thought it was Monday?

Apparently all unis recieve our results today and then have until thursday to decide whether or not to accept us

Well that isn't going to make me sleep any easier. Pleasepleaseplease can they email me a congratulatory acceptance now.