Already hard at work

Er...I just found a draft for this post. It's all the way back from week 1. I don't know how I missed it :)

So, we've already got homework to do although classes haven't really started yet. We've been put into groups (my group's name is "Rush", I kinda like "Devil Bones" better though) and we had to go visit bookstores and check out what they're doing to sell their books, how they organize the store etc. We each went to visit one store (it seems like we're the only ones who thought of splitting up). I took the Oxford University Press bookshop on High Street.

I find it fairly interesting since it sells books by just one publisher. I went there on thursday since it was the only weekday I had free and spent a good while just roaming. Funny how much you notice when you actually start looking.

They have their dictionary series right at the entrance of the store along with with ELT books. Everyone knows the Oxford English Dictionary after all. The shorter version (because the full one is many volumes long) was set on a pedestal, heheh. Then you have textbooks and sexy subjects like physics and other sciences. It was a little harder to find the English and Linguistic sections in a more crampes, low-ceilinged lower floor for some reason.

Most of their sales are to tourists, professors and Oxford University students and they have books on every subject imaginable it seems so no wonder they do alright for themselves. They don't really have an online store though which I found strange.

I have a loooong list of things I noticed at the shop. I wonder what sort of things I've missed and will come out in class on wednesday.

This past wednesday and friday we had computer workshops. Excel was boring but informative. I know how to use it basically but it was good to have a refresher course on it. The more interesting one was the workshop on InDesign. We made a very simple brochure for some books which took us through the basic functions and then we converted it into a pdf.

Friday evening we had a pub golf tour with the Oxford SYP (Society of Young Publishers). It was a lot of fun but I think next time I will drink less. I was acting very silly towards the end but my team won! Woooo! We were 2 Americans, 1 Canadian and little French ol' me so winning a booze contest was a matter of honor.