First Day of Classes

Before going into my first day of class, I figured I'd talk briefly about last night. Yesterday was the last day of the Bath Fringe Festival, and Jon and I ventured to go see the Complete William Shakespear Abridged, as performed by theatre students from Bath University. The show was at the Bath Works Museum which is just a short walk down the street from our house. The show was pretty good, and a fun way to end my first here.
This morning I had my first class, The Triumph of Georgian Bath. My "tutor" is not exactly what you would expect in a British professor. She's a younger woman, probably in her mid-30s, and is the curator of two museums here in Bath. The class is a very interesting one. Instead of focusing strictly on history, we're focusing on how the architecture and the buildings in the city shaped the history of the city. Since it focuses on the Georgian period, today was our day of covering Roman Period through the Medieval Period. After only about 10 minutes in the classroom, we took a walking tour of the city, walking around where the Medieval wall had once been. Our tutor is one of those people that just sort of knows everything and can't quite finish a topic because they just have so much to say. Tomorrow is a lecture, but our schedule has us doing a walking tour at least twice a week.
I just got back from my course on Alfred Hitchcock, and I'm even more convinced now that the course was designed specifically for me. We get to watch almost all of my favorite Hitchcock films, including Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds, and my all time favorite, North by Northwest (if only we were watching Notorious, but that was made before the time period we're studying). Dr. Davis, a professor from Denison, is probably the best person to be teaching the class. He's truely excited about he material and easily gets sidetracked with other interesting facts. We're going to focus a lot on Hitchcock's films and how they function not only as films (i.e. narrative, editing, etc.) but in how they reflect cultural and industrial context of their period. I have a presentation already on Thursday, but it shouldn't be too bad.
Tonight there's a reception for all of the students and professors at an art gallery here so that should be good. There's also a trip to Stonehenge (I hope it's as tiny as it is in Spinal Tap) and Glastonbury on Wednesday and another trip to Cornwall this weekend which will no doubt produce some pictures. Tomorrow in between classes I'll try posting a video tour of the house.