Settling in at Oxford!

Today marks one week since my arrival here in Oxford. I have been assigned to St. Anne's college - one of Oxford's 38 colleges - which includes two libraries, a dining hall, a gym, a rooftop garden, and even its very own bar. This week is filled with orientation events, introductory course lectures, and a few too many calls with the IT department.

Overall, settling in is going well, but, at times, things can be difficult. Coming from college where you live a mere minutes walk from your best friends, to a foreign country 5-8 times zones away from friends and family, can be daunting. As a graduate student, the work week structure is fairly malleable; you choose when to wake up, when to study, when to write, and when to socialize. The lack of structure can be both freeing and overwhelming. Yet slowly I feel as though I am getting my footing. I have signed up for the Gliding Club (which entails flying gliders above the English countryside), the Wine Tasting Society, and the Rugby team (we will see how that one goes). I'm not sure I will have time to do all three, but all seem worth trying out.

Academically, I have selected four courses for this term (there are three terms at Oxford). I will be taking 1. Prisons 2. Youth Justice 3. Criminological Theories 4. Research Design and Data Collection. I have also applied to volunteer at a immigration law clinic helping currently incarcerated foreign nationals apply for asylum following their release.

Stay tuned for where this all goes - and please feel free to shoot me an email if you're curious about anything I'm up to or just want to chat: izak.epstein@st-annes.ox.ac.uk