hey there!

   Today is Saturday. The day is really beautiful, without any rain, snow or hail outside. Pam and i are sitting in the library trying to get our papers for Leiden and Oxford done before the deadlines. Fuh,...5.000 words, 10.000 words, 12.000 words: how many more words we have to write to finish what we started a long time ago?..I gave up counting, for as it is said "..it should not be about quantity but rather quality"! I sign under it too.

   I am getting more used to the 'Oxford system' (I call it a 'system' as the life here at its different levels differs greatly from what has already been known to me), and sometimes I even think that I am gonna miss this place a lot when I am not here any more. But who knows, may be there will come another wonderful chance to repeat such an experience once again and be able to visit the city and its University once more, but then, perhaps, in a differnet line.     

   Recently I have started reading a very interesting piece of work as a result of me being inspired by the lectures of one of the University professors - mr.E. Rogan who teaches the course of the modern history of the Middle East in the Oriental Insitute in Oxford. "A history: the Arabs" is a fascinating historical narration which on its 450 pages goed in its deep, but at the same time not therminologically overloaded, analysis about the events from the sixteenth century of the Ottoman rule until the modern situation in the region. The book also reminds me of the brilliant lectures which I always found as one of the most exciting part of my studies.

   I am also looking forward to attend quite a unique lecture which is going to take place in the Sheldonian theatre of Oxford (in which basement, by the way, there was once a medical room for dismemberment of dead bodies which were examined by medical students of Oxford) next week. I will keep it a secret for now, but trust me, if I go it will be 'quite an afternoon', as Robbie Williams sings in his song.

cheers