Day 7

The last three days have been incredible, and very, very busy!

On Sunday we had registration and orientation - basically signing into our respective colleges and letting the ISS (International Summer School) staff know that we are present and ready to learn! Monday was the first day of classes plus several introductory/welcome/instructional talks, and today (Tuesday) was the first day of just classes.

I have met so many people from so many places in the last three days. We've been told that there are representatives from 34 countries here, and so far I have met:

A young woman from Holland

An older gentleman from the Hague, also in Holland

A woman from India

Three people from Michigan

One woman from Texas

One woman from California

One man from Florida

One woman from New York

One man from Warsaw, Poland

One woman from Serbia

One woman from Brazil

One woman from Argentina

One woman from Guyana, who now lives in Florida

Several people from Australia: Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra

One man from Canada who studies in Zurich

One woman from Finland

One woman from the Netherlands

Several people from the UK

One woman from Cape Town, South Africa

One man from Tokyo, Japan who studies in America

One man from Italy (named Luigi!)

And I'm sure I will meet many more :-)

The classes have been fascinating, but also quite challenging. They are very academic, highly intellectual, there are a lot of very complicated philosophical and psychological concepts explored in every class, in every piece of work we study. The special subject course classes go for and hour and a half, and although we discuss so much in that time, it often feels like we haven't covered a quarter of what we could if we had the time. The plenary lectures so far have also been very interesting, although sometimes they are so full of complex ideas I have trouble following what's being said - it would have helped if I had studied some kind of philosophy. Most of the people I've met have done at least philosophy classes, even just in high school, and they find the lectures a little easier to penetrate.

Other than that, we stay in a few separate colleges, although most of the science and literature ISS students are staying at St Catharine's college. We eat breakfast together and we eat dinner together, but are responsible for getting our own lunch. The last two nights we have gone to the pub closest to St Catharine's called The Eagle, which has been in business since the 15th century. It's amazing to go to a pub that is that old! Having said that, St Catharine's is about six hundred years old, and the university is older still. I love how old everything is here :-)

The next week and a half are going to be very amazing!

~ Jemimah