BCL from the University of Oxford in 1998

I first came to Oxford in the summer of 1998, complete with camera and map in hand, and remember thinking to myself that Oxford must be a magnificent place in which to study. The city was filled with amazingly old buildings, hidden courtyards, and an atmosphere that can only be described as "learned".

The year has been both everything I was hoping for, and quite a few surprises as well. The BCL program (a taught masters in law) was very intense - I have at turns felt overwhelmed, challenged, and excited to study areas of law which I have always been curious about. It may not have been the easiest approach having to catch up to colleagues who were already familiar with the subject in the same courses, but in some ways, I feel that when I leave Oxford, I will be taking away a lot more than many of my fellow students.

Academically speaking, Oxford is rather unique in that in addition to seminars and lectures, "tutorials" are a part of the teaching tradition. Tutorials are very intimate, with as few as one to three students meeting with a professor or fellow to discuss a paper that you have prepared, or a subject of law that you've read for beforehand. It is not unusual to be assigned a tutor who had authored one of your textbooks. Tutorial discussions flowed subject to the whim of your Tutor, and it must be said some tutors were a touch eccentric.

My studies were balanced against a year of trying to fit in as many of the "other things" that Oxford had to offer as well - from coping with early morning rowing practices, to trying to get to sleep after very, very late night practices at the ice rink with the Oxford University Women's Hockey Team. It's been a busy year sportswise. Highlights included racing the in Christ Church Regatta, participating in an international ice-hockey tournament in France, and winning the all-important Oxford/Cambridge varsity match by a 13-3 margin, the highest goal differential in the varsity match's history.

Oxford offers a unique window to a lifestyle that seems to belong to a bygone era. Even the vocabulary is different: the school year is divided up into Michaelmas, Hilary, and Trinity Terms; you are asked to write "collections" before writing your real exams (which are not called exams but are called "papers"). Incidentally, students must write exams in "subfusc", that is, full academic dress which for men, consists of a white shirt, white bow tie, black suit, shoes, socks, academic gown & mortarboard. Women's subfusc is similar, except for a possible substitution of a skirt for pants, soft cap for the mortarboard, and a black ribbon in lieu of bow tie. I was relieved to hear that we only had to arrive with our mortarboards, but were not required to wear them throughout the exams. We also gown for formal hall (ie. dinner). Oxford might be one of the few places where a full length dress for a woman might possibly be characterized as a school necessity, as both black tie and white tie events are fairly common.

These little quirks were just another part of the whole living and learning experience, and I sincerely hope I am not putting you off from trying out the experience yourself. I think I have worked harder and played harder this year than in any other year of my life and have absolutely no regrets in having chosen to come to Oxford. I am extremely grateful to the British Council for having made this past year possible for me. There have been some lifetime memories and some lifetime friendships made this past year... and any year where I can say that must have been a good one.