Lenawee Smiles: Making plans to go medieval at Oxford

The Department of Continuing Education, University of Oxford, sent me more information about their short courses. I was eager to see what else might emerge from these hallowed halls of learning across the Atlantic. Or, were they still miffed about losing the Revolutionary War and determined to continue to taunt me?

Agnes told me I could take online courses or take the same courses in person. Now we were getting somewhere. However, as I read through the list of these courses, I realized that these short courses were exactly that.

Previously: Lenawee Smiles: Running down a dream of Oxford studies

When I had read “10 meetings” I interpreted that to mean a two-week course of five classes. No, no, no. In Oxfordian language, “10 meetings” means a class convenes once a week for 10 weeks: roughly two and a half months. Or, perhaps, it meets for two months on Tuesdays with the odd Saturday tossed in.

My plans did not include being in Oxford for two months. I could not see myself taking a “Short Course” for some eight weeks. What would I do with myself for the other six days of the week and the remaining 21 hours of every Tuesday or whatever day the class met?

I am too old to take a job and wouldn’t be allowed to anyway: I am not a citizen of the United Kingdom, after all. Furthermore, I am too scared to attempt to flaunt the laws set forth by those sturdy Brits who wear curly white wigs and say, “I say!” at appropriate intervals … even in their sleep I imagine.

Digging deeper into the links Agnes appended, I further discovered that what I was interested in, medieval history and Archeology (English), didn’t seem to be available within

reasonable time frames. Let me rephrase this. There is a two-day, weekend course called “Reading the Past: An Introduction to Medieval Records.” This class is held in a residential hall which works very well: no hotel or worries about where to eat.

However, there is no Archeology (English) class within a week or so before or after this class, which is held in mid-January. I really didn’t want to go at that time of year. I must say, however, that winters in England are, generally, far milder than ours.

There is a one-day class entitled “A Love Supreme: The History and Appreciation of Jazz” held some 40 miles southwest of Oxford at an art center the week prior to Medieval Records. It happens that I have a friend who could probably out-teach this person in jazz, walking backwards through a sandstorm in the Gobi Desert. I suspect this British fellow thinks Armstrong was the father of jazz. Un uh. Anyway, to organize this, I’d have to take a train to Maidenhead (stop snickering), find a hotel, take a taxi to the art center for the day, taxi back to the hotel for the night, take a train back to London and continue my stay.

It is not worth it when I can poke the brains of my jazz expert friend over a nice lunch somewhere.

I searched forward through the list of short courses: This did not take long because the list is short.

“Reading Medieval Record Scripts” popped up. That certainly caught my eye. Once

more, this was a weekend course held at the same residential hall at Oxford University. You could bundle the program fee, lodging, breakfast, lunch and dinner all into one payment. This was easy.

However, what made no sense to me was that this course was held in June 2024: five months after the first course which was an introduction to Medieval Records. That is a long time to retain information which is supposed to lead into actually reading these ancient writings.

I mulled this over for a few minutes then had to pull myself together and face the fact that I am not as young as most of the people that might take these classes. Their memory banks are probably sleek, built with a lot of glass and teak while mine has terrazzo floors with wooden bars at the teller cages.

After some consideration, I figured out what to do. I can take that January class, online, much as I dislike doing so then head to England in June for the second one.

It appears I will not have an opportunity to enjoy a class in Archeology (English).

Should I go out behind the warehouse (formerly known as the garage) with a shovel? No. We happen to have a tombstone laying on its back in front of the porch. Surely, there is no one under it … Archeology I (Adrian).

Susan Keezer lives in Adrian. Send your good news to her at lenaweesmiles@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Susan Keezer: Making plans to go medieval at Oxford