I've got a Golden Ticket!

This, my friends, is the most powerful tool I may ever wield. It doubles as both my Oxford Student ID and Bodleian Library card, giving me access to over 7 million physical books in the city of Oxford as well as many, many more electronic resources. I spent a little time late in the afternoon today walking around the Bodleian main builing as well as "Redcliffe Camera", were I will be spending the majority of my time over the next semester.

It seemed cruel that on the first day would could actually see a blue hue in the sky, they would keep us penned up inside with more orientation, but so it goes. We spent the majority of the morning in more academic orientation, and after lunch we were "treated" to a good 2 and a half hours of library orientation before they'd give us our cards. They are very serious about books here. I guess that's what happens when you've had a library since 1602 and, by law, since1610 a copy of every book that has been published in the UK is sent to their Bodleian. Despite this fact, watching a librarian spend hours showing the different ways to find a book on the system is about as stimulating as watching the grass grow. But it all paid off with the golden ticket into one of the most famous libraries ever. It is just now sinking in that I am going to be studying here for the next three months, and by the looks of my two tutorials, oh what a three months of study it will be!