First bit of news: I'll be living in the Spencer House, along with some CSU and Regent's Park peeps! SO looking forward to this! Yet again, God made a way when there seemed to be no way (as described in an earlier post). It's a great place to live, affordable, in a safe area, and, most importantly, I don't have to pay for laundry facilities.
Housing was the first of the three big question marks this summer. The second was which college I would be a member of, and this had implications for a lot of other things, like my visa.
A mini-lesson... Oxford University is made up of about 40 colleges, which are self-governing "schools", if you will, within the university. Each college has its own traditions, culture, and members - faculty and students. When I was studying abroad at Oxford, I was at Regent's Park College (Regent's Warriors!) When you are accepted to Oxford at the university level, your application file is then passed around to the colleges until one chooses you. Every student is member of a college, and because each one is unique, the college you end up at can really have an impact on your experience.
I also would need to know my college in order to apply for a visa, finalize housing decisions, and make travel/arrival plans.
I found out a few weeks ago (on a 6am phone call to my department) that I will be a member of Kellogg College (yes, like the cereal). It's Oxford's newest college, at only 1 year younger than me. It's also Oxford's most international college, with members from over 70 countries. It's a grads-only college that promotes a lifelong learning ethos. It specializes in creative writing, film, education, and history, from what I can glean from the website. The director of the Creative Writing program is a professor there, as well as the chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. English geek WIN!
And yes, it is named after the W.K. Kellogg of cereal fame, due to hefty support from the Kellogg Foundation during the 80s and 90s. It's crest (each college has a unique crest) - get this - has a book on one side and a stylized wheat grain on the other. (See below.) Does wheat come in 'grains'? I don't know...
Once I knew my college and once Oxford finalized all their paperwork, I immediately applied for my visa. Usually you should allow about 2-3 months for the application process so you get the visa back in time, but because this final paperwork didn't come until August 12th, this wasn't really possible! This is why I had been so freaked out before about not having heard from a college. So I sent off the visa app a couple of days ago, and I'm trusting that it will get back in plenty of time.
The point of all this is that I had been so worried about all three of these things - housing, college, visa - and was in the dark for so long about each one. There was nothing I could do to make the process go any faster. I think God was really using this to test my faith, to show me that everything, indeed, will work out in due time, and work out for the absolute best.
And I'm totally excited that I get to go to the Special K college! What's that you say, cereal for dinner? Yes please!
 |
| The crest for Kellogg College. |
 |
| Fun with photo editing. |
