Day Twenty-One

A day of incredible weather greeted the students on Sunday. It was an early start for some students, who played 3-a-side half-court basketball games with one of the Programme Deans, Cole. This was a very successful repeat of last week's basketball game, with the students very much enjoying the weather and the physical activity.

Mid-morning saw a number of activities. One of these was a tour of Oxford's famous Bodleian Library (link here): students were able to absorb the atmosphere of this venerable library were Oxford students study every day, and were also able to see where various Harry Potter segments were filmed! (One of the Bodleian rooms is the Hogwarts Infirmary).

One of our faculty led a watercolour painting session in the Christchurch Meadows; students were instructed in how to mix paint from tubes, the best way to hold a brush, various exercises to improve brush control, and were then able to take inspiration from the Meadows and nearby Isis River for their artworks.

This was the final week for a series of very successful and popular Coffee Concerts. Held in the historical Holywell Music Rooms, students were this week treated to Viv Mclean on piano and Kate Gould on cello, playing Beethoven Cello Sonata in A op. 69 and Shostakovich Cello Sonata in D. Kate Gould is a member of Olivier and London Bridge Ensembles, and Guest princiapal cello with both the Scottish and English Chamber Orchestras, and is a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. What a lovely way to start a Sunday morning!

At lunchtime, the programme founder, Dr. Jim Basker, gave a talk on "How Poetry Helped to End Slavery" - a subject upon which Dr. Basker is a world authority. All students who attended this fascinating talk left with a deeper understanding of the impact of American slave poetry both during that period and its reaches into the current period.

In the evening, we held a movie double-billing. After a request from the students, we started with a 'Chick Flick' - The Notebook resulted in many weepy eyes and bins full of tissue paper! The second movie was hosted by the Paris Connection faculty contacts, Liliana Worth and Enricco Cocchi. Amelie is an Oscar-nominated film about an ingénue in Paris who discovers love by helping the people around her - and the beautiful story and picturesque Paris neighbourhoods inspired not only the students going on to the Paris Connection.