Being in graduate school wasn't all fun and play for Jane. It also meant long hard hours of study. Sometimes she couldn't see Don for days on end.She had to study for four really tough exams. They were going to be on English literature. Another exam would test Jane's knowledge of 19th century French literature. She would also have to pass three foreign language exams. Jane chose Latin, French and Bengali. She hadn't spoken Bengali in many years. So she had to spend many hours in the university's library getting re-acquainted with this language she'd spoken as a child.
Once all these exams were out of the way, she'd have to write a thesis on John Donne, the 17th century poet.
So Jane buckled down to work really hard.
She got together often with Professor Bowen, who nearly always turned up for their conference wearing his black academic gown. Jane had to take many English and French literature courses. Plus there were also seminars on poetry and novels.
"I'm really working hard," Jane wrote to her mother. "I've met many young people here, including a new boyfriend. But we're nearly always studying."
For the next two years Jane slogged away. She tried to ignore the arrogance of some British professors. "You're basically a colonial," one professor told her, "who's come to the mother country to learn about the best of our British culture." Jane let that insult remain unanswered. This professor, she knew, or any of the professors wouldn't like to be answered back. Then she met young men and older ones who wondered out loud if Jane or any women could get an advanced degree or be worthy of earning one. "It's a tough slog getting a degree," she told Don once, "especially if you're a woman.
Then she had to get used to the lack of central heating in her room in the wintertime. Often she shivered at nighttime. And her use of the heater in her room pushed her heating bills way up. Still, as she told her classmates in wintertime, "I don't miss the snow back home."
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