Final Days

It's been a blast to have been here, and to enjoy the experience of a lifetime, but now it's time to think about going home.  I've been so busy I really haven't been able to put updates on here - but when I get home and settled I still have another couple of videos to share with everyone and I'll be setting up an Index page for the blog to make it more navigable for those who are looking for specific bits.

I really can't express how much of a relief it was to be finished and have the final paper turned in - but it was also an indicator that the end was just about upon me and my time in Oxford would be coming to a close.  I do have the trip to London with my sweetie to look forward to (picking him up at the airport tomorrow, yes I will share video if we go anywhere awesome).  Sadly, I pushed myself pretty hard to get that last thing in and almost missed the little party we had to see some of the books that the Book Binding Class had done (which were completely amazing), but I made myself get up for it - then skipped the 'after party' which turned out to be a good thing if I judge by the hang-overs everyone else had the next day!

So now I'm all packed up!  Space Bags are super helpful - and yes, CMRS has two vacuums so you can use them coming and going just as easily.  Of course, they do nothing to reduce the weight of what you're taking in your luggage, but they are still great to save space in the luggage and make it easier to rearrange things as you're packing.  You have to clean and vacuum your room before you go anyway, might as well make it all part of the same process.

Anyway!  Just wanted to toss something up here, let everyone know I made it through and am alive and well and going to be in London for a few days - don't worry I will avoid the riots and the protests (students here are in an uproar about the removal of the tuition cap) and I'll be flying back in with my sweetie on the 16th of December - cookie making, visits, holiday cheer, and reconnection with the world at home to follow!

Oxford Dusting

Well half of CMRS is having fits of joy this morning; it snowed.  Not what WE would call snow in the midwest - actual accumulation of annoying white barrier between home, work, and school that is going to turn black in a day or two and make you remember how much you hate ice - no, this is more of a bit of fluffy rain clinging to the walkways and building tops for decoration.  Seriously, it has to be less than 1/8th of an inch here.

Now, where were we?  Oh yes, climbing the last hill of papers to sight the final days coming up fast from the distance.  As some of you know, my Classical Mythology tutor was advised to take the rest of the term off for health reasons, so I am meeting his replacement today.  Since class was so sporadic and disjointed in terms of when we met and what was assigned, I may have to do two papers more for this rather than the one.  This is a considerable difference given that I have my Seminar paper due this Friday and my Integral paper due on the 8th - so getting 1 more paper in there would be not so bad, putting 2 in might be straining the capacity just a bit.  We shall see though.  Meanwhile, I just turned in my last Viking Literature paper today at tutorial, huzzah!  I also donated all of my books for that class with the primary material to the Feneley Library here at CMRS, so anyone who is taking that class after me - the books are available and you will not have to buy them.  ^.^  Really, I couldn't take them all back with me anyway - luggage space is going to be at a premium - and I think they are much better off here being used and taken care of than being put away in my basement for some distant possible future reference.  When I'm a big, growed-up teacher person I'll treat myself to a handsome leather bound set or something perhaps.

Everyone is getting down to their last batch of papers around here and for the first time this place really is like a hive of academics all buzzing busily away trying to get everything done before the final week so they can party or explore or just relax for the last few days here in Oxford.  I am, of course, extending my trip for a few days to be with my love in London for five days and looking forward to seeing him is the carrot right now at the end of my "get it done" stick.  It seems like I just got into the rhythm here and have a good flow going between working and more working and now it is coming to an end.  Ah, such is life I guess.  I am very much looking forward to coming home as well and making cookies and doing the Christmas thing with family and friends, showing off my England swag and making people watch my 'home movies.'  Wow, that sort of makes me feel a little old right there... Hmph.

I think the fact that I am coming home to the holiday season makes leaving here a little easier.  It would, I think, be harder to want to come home (I've pondered a second term here about a billion times, but I just couldn't do that to my sweetie or my family or my bosses who've all been awesomely generous letting me go on this trip as it is) if it wasn't such a deep desire in my heart to be home for Christmas.  Hm... maybe this tiny bit of fluffy rain that people keep calling snow really is making me a tiny bit homesick - scratch that, not homesick just excited about seeing home again.

Awwww ^.^

Then, just before I started my paper and went for tea in the kitchen - a few of my little duckies and some of the outer flock had little encouraging notes for me!  Claire has this awesome pad of "Pep Talk" notes and each of them filled one out for "Crypt Keeper"

I am touched.  Thanks all!  <3

Tick Tock

I haven't written in awhile... mostly because there just are no words.

Brief summary: My Classical Mythology class - which I do the most work for probably every week - has gone from "challenging" to "yeah, no."  My tutor had a bit of a moment, and now I am getting a new one.  Whatever the first one's issue is, his doctor has advised him to take some time off.  In the aftermath of this, I am rather despondent.  I was doing fine, but now I have a paper due tomorrow at 9 am, or at least I think I do - I really haven't gotten a confirmation on that yet, things are in progress - which is normal, but all my energy to make such a thing happen seems sapped by the drama of it all.  This is unhappy.  On top of that, I am going to meet someone entirely new, so it is "First Paper" time all over again just when I was getting the hang of what the first guy wanted.  This is three weeks from the final day if anyone is counting.  I'll have one assignment from the new instructor for sure, which will hopefully be alright - and possibly a second one which I've asked NOT to have, because it would be due the day before I go to the airport.  That, for me, is not really OK.  I wasn't the one who dropped the ball; I am not the one who should be made to make up the slack.

Meanwhile, I continue to have papers for the other class which is tooling along to its last meeting on Tuesday (thank goodness that stayed on track!) which will lead into the paper for 2nd teacher at the end of the week.  In between that, I need to pull the Seminar paper out of the research I managed to do last weekend for Arthurian Legend (3 or 4 thousand words worth) due the 3rd and get some type of jump on the Integral paper that is due on the 8th.  So if I have yet another 2nd teacher paper due on the 10th, I may have to find an active volcano to start sacrificing virgins to in order to gain the favour of the gods that I may not sleep for these next few weeks to get all of this done.  Huzzah.

This brings me to why I am actually writing this post - because there is no point in attempting to vent the stress and the general exhaustion I am suffering at present, as I said before, there just aren't words that make any of this all better.  Not that I haven't heard a lot of words on the matter - most of them go along the lines of "Well, you wanted a challenge right?" and that is what you, my fellow future comers, will probably hear when this (or something like it) happens during your term here.  The people not here just aren't capable of understanding exactly what you're going to be up against and their words of encouragement, however well meaning, are going to come across as "Well you asked for it" instead of what they are really trying to say which is "I don't understand, but I want to help."  So, be prepared for that if you can be, and understand that no one back home who you reach out to is going to be goading you or brushing you off - they just won't know what you're dealing with exactly enough to make a difference.  Your best bet is to talk to some of the people at CMRS who - even if they are not having their own crisis moment that second - will have some idea of what you are up against.  The downfall there is that these aren't people who will know you intimately well, and so that itself is a limited option.

Basically - it is about just making it through to the next day and the next at the end of the tutorial/seminar cycle.  The Spring comers are the ones I am envying right now, because you guys get to finish with the Integral - so not only will you NOT have that 1 extra paper due in your final tutorial/seminar rotation, but you'll have a month of 'cool down' time to bounce back, treat yourself to some of England, and so on.  Then again, you get thrown right into the tutorial/seminar cycle without a warm up, so maybe it is damned if you do and damned if you don't on one end or the other?  I don't know - you'll have to meet up with me when you get back and tell me how it went (I'll be recovered by then!) ^.~

Oh yeah, it is also Thanksgiving... so happy that to everyone.

The JCR committee is doing something on Saturday that is supposed to resemble a dinner for all of us.  I think it is an ill-concieved notion, but I hope it goes well.  I might go and I might not go - it depends on how much work I have and how much I want to avoid drama (because drama tends to crop up at such things).

Keep it Light

Friday evening me and a bunch of the CMRS crew decided to hit our new favourite watering hole, Que Pasa, for a few 2 for 1 cocktails after a long week.  This was all well and fine and everyone was having a good time until a joke got perceived as something serious by another person who hadn't slept the night before and took it into a serious conversation about a seriously divisive issue.  Things were said, the flow of chatter became a current of argument, and in the end hasty wording combined with too many voices to the detriment of what had been a fine outing.  What was said and the abrupt departure of those it was said to could have arisen out of any such topic, and today it is a new day - wondering if there will be a sharing of drinks again, or the common room for that matter, in the happy camaraderie we had.  I am sure things will work out, but we've only got a few weeks left and it would be a shame if some people find themselves not enjoying that time for something that just happened that way.

The conversation can turn from jovial to serious in a hot minute here when everyone is under a great deal of pressure to perform and to think about things seriously and scholarly - and yet a bar is not a classroom and people don't mind how they say what they say as well as they might without that atmosphere to guide them.  My advice is: keep it light.  There are 30 some students here who have 30 backgrounds, 30 points of view, 30 ways of thinking, 30 reasons to believe what they believe - and to imagine for a second that they will always agree and will always be what everyone can decide together is perfectly right is just plain impossible.  My fiance's father once told me: when people live together, no matter how well they mean or how much they care about each other, sometimes they are going to fight.  It as true here as it is at home - but here you don't know the people around you well enough to make assumptions about why they think what they think or know when you are going to fall into a minefield during happy-hour.

So what I'll say is: try to keep it light and when you can't, when the fight that is inevitable comes up, have grace and remember that it is very unlikely that anyone intended to cause it or hurt you in it - quite the opposite in fact, no one wants these sort of disagreements to become barriers to getting along in close quarters - so apologise or accept an apology or find it in yourself to let it go if you possibly can.  Life is too short - and this program so much shorter - to let a slip of the conversation put a cloud over your stay here.

In other news:  I had another good tutorial and I might be taking a trip to Cambridge in the first week of December with my tutor and another of his student's from here.   I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my sweetheart and the completion of this program, and yes, I know I signed up for the work but coming into 7th week it has been a sprinter's marathon and I am not the spring chicken who can pull double all nighters that I used to be ^.~ !  Now, with the end in sight, however distant it may seem at times, I am aware of how much being over here and doing this has broadened the way I think of the world and the people in it, but also shown me that no matter where I go and who I meet patterns emerge that are familiar and that gives a degree of comfort to the idea of the world being so much bigger than it was this time last year.

The Plan (Flexibility is a must)

We all plan.  I planned to be asleep by 11 pm last night… when in reality it was more like 1:30 am then I finally dozed off.  On that good nights rest I got (hey, 6+ hours is good around these parts!) I planned to 1) go to breakfast, 2) read in my room from 9-10:30, 3) exchange my bed linen, 4) read in Sackler Library from 10:45-12:00, 5) Lunch, 6) read in English Faculty Library from 1:15-5:30 or 7:00 depending on if I felt like I could work though dinner productively, 7) dinner (either at the hall or a can of food at the dorms), 8) write paper, 9) get some sleep tonight, at least 4 hours hopefully.

That was the plan, still is a working model of the plan, but I’ve had to adjust.  Y’see, instead of reading from 9-10:30 (see step 2) I got dizzy and had to lay down for awhile, so at 10:30 I was staggering back up out of bed to pull off my sheets and run downstairs with them.  I could still go to the Sackler Library… but it is already 11:00 and lunch is at 12:00 – by the time I settle in I’ll be wanting to leave to go eat… not really productive to do that, which means it gets bumped to do the reading here I missed this morning… but I can’t go to the Sackler after lunch or I won’t get around to the English Faculty library, which is a pretty long walk out and has bad hours – so step 4 just got replaced with step 2 and bumped past step 7 into where 8 was which leaves 9 in a highly questionable position of maybe not happening at all. 

OR… I could discard that reasonable assessment completely, stubbornly go to the Sackler Library anyway only to be told that my books won’t be in until mid-late afternoon (because no one works on a weekend apparently) and thus, not wanting to have wasted the time entirely, walk all the way to the English Faculty Library, arriving at 11:40, making Lunch a complete miss and take until 12:15 to actually find the books I need in the tiny room in the basement where they all are (hey, at least I get privacy I suppose) because half the titles in the room are German and Icelandic and I had to rack my brain for my library card number as it was taken to vouchsafe my return from this room of treasured books by the desk clerk.  Oh yes, flexibility… right into a pretzel shape.  I’ll have to get out of here by 5:00/5:30 because I still need to put minutes on my phone and all the shops close at 6… and the EFL closes at 7pm anyway… /sigh.  Did I mention that today is just another day?  One of THOSE days certainly, but every day seems like one of those days when you are trying to work with layered systems of inconvenience. 

Then… just when you are bracing for the storm… you find 80% of your reading list is completely readable and though there were a few manic panic moments of “where the hell is this thing?!” escape from the library by 5pm seemed possible – and happened!  Miraculously.  I will even get to eat dinner – if it is any good – and start my paper after, because I have written off the one title in the Sackler library I needed, since I somehow ended up actually buying the other one I have waiting there and so don’t need to go after dinner.  Huzzah!  Sleep might even happen.  It is too early to tell yet, but there’s a ray of light at the end of today’s tunnel.  Even put minutes on my phone on the walk back, damn I am good.  … or lucky.  I’ll take either about now.

Rice and broccoli… does that count as dinner?  I am really not sure at this point.  It seemed like food at the time; I have reserves of KitKats and Jaffa Cakes in the room.  Time to get writing, wish me luck ^.~

Sunday Sunday Sunday

It has been a bit of a rough week over here, I am not sure where to even begin; the days have completely blended together by lack of sleep, so perhaps a quick run through of happenings:

Had a power outage in the building (brief, but disrupting) on Wednesday.  This caused me not to be informed of Seminar class not meeting because our instructor was ill, so I got up early for it (almost didn’t make it out of bed really almost forgetting it) to find out it wasn’t happening.  Tragically, I’d devoted the entirety of Tuesday to the reading for this seminar… that was very long.  Couple things around the building with people – just various things here and there that needed attention or time or whatever.  Thursday was given to reading Virgil and then Friday I hit the library and started researching – there are a lot of books on the subject, so I was doing that till almost 8pm which meant I was up way into the next day writing my paper (just pulled the all nighter) and then in the morning, my tutor was too busy to meet me – so I met him today instead, but at the time it was a little crazy. 

I am minimizing that last bit… what really happened was I went to meet him all strung out from finishing my paper just an hour or so before with only a quick breakfast of tea and a croissant in between, he was late, Fiona wasn’t in the office to have gotten his message that I was to meet him out of the building at another college, I didn’t know where the other college was, and I ran out of here without a coat to get to him late only to find him on the phone, waited for him, then was told “tomorrow instead.”  I was not pleased at the time… but it wasn’t really that bad, and it is hard to stay mad at someone who says nice things about my papers. 

Besides, I am told I tend to let things go fairly quickly – no point staying stuck on one thing when a bunch of other things are going to keep happening.  Busy busy.

That’s just a sampling really, to write it all out would mean I have time and that just isn’t the case.  Also, like I said, I don’t like to dwell.

So Saturday I took more or less for myself after my tutorial and went to look at some shops, bought myself my official “me” item (a charm bracelet and three charms for it) with the money Mommy and Da gave me for buying something for just me.  I also picked up another family Christmas present – but I can’t say what or for who because they might be/probably are reading these posts.  I hadn’t really planned on doing my holiday shopping here, but it is sort of turning out that way as I see things I know people back home will like or want – I wonder how I am going to get all my stuff with the stuff I picked up here, with the books I bought, and all this stuff into my suitcases! 

In the evening I hung out in the Common Room with peoples, watching movies and just generally milling around but I was rather on the cranky side so I moved around more than usual and tended to drift between groups of people until I finally got tired of doing that and camped out in what I have dubbed “Crypt Keeper’s Harpy Nest” … which is a sideboard near the TV / couch area that I like to sit up on.  I was up watching various movies until 1am or so, maybe 2 not really sure because I wasn’t keeping track of the time, but apparently I went to bed before the real party started – or so I heard this morning. 

This morning I got up and instead of going to brunch like I usually do, I went to the Remembrance Day ceremonies in St. Gile’s Square.  I took some video, but not of the official parts that involved prayer because that would have been, in my opinion, highly disrespectful – not that I didn’t see people doing it anyway.  I felt the parade was fair game though so I took shots of that.  It was actually very moving and the drizzle didn’t bother anyone.  On the way back home I picked up some breakfast and made some tea to go with it before coming back to my room and starting up laundry and meeting up with my sweetie for video chat.

I have some reading to do today, primary stuff from the books I bought at Blackwells.  Today I read the main text, tomorrow I will spend at the library researching, and then the evening is given to writing.  If I didn’t have the text, the time it takes to read it would need to be subtracted from one of those two things tomorrow, which bumps the whole program closer into becoming another all-nighter – and believe me there are too many of those here as it stands.  I don’t have a Classical Mythology assignment this week, because we seem to have gotten out of synch with the other students and so on, but I will probably use the time I’d usually be using on his work to do my Seminar paper, which I really need to get put away or at least half done before it comes due in just three short weeks – yes indeed, today marks the first day of 6^th week and that means only 3 more to go!  Where did the time go?!  Yet, I also feel like I’ve been here forever.  It is very strange.

As for Remembrance Day, please feel free to watch the short parade that I have left more or less unedited (took out some shaky camera bits here and there), and below that I have also included the e-mail that Dr. Philpott sent out informing all the CMRS students of this days importance in this country.  I am very glad to have been able to honor it.

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high,

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow.

 

These lines from the Canadian poet John McCrae's famous work In Flanders Fields help to explain why lots of people around you have suddenly started wearing paper poppies in their buttonholes. At around this time of year we commemorate the sacrifice of those who died fighting for our freedom in the two world wars and all the other struggles of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. On Sunday the Queen will lead the Remembrance at the Cenotaph in Whitehall in London, taking part in a short service and laying a wreath on the symbolic empty tomb, accompanied by members of her family, Commonwealth, government, parliament,  armed forces and civilian services, along with thousands of veterans and civilians.

 

All over the United Kingdom city-by-city, town-by-town and village-by-village, similar services will be taking place. Oxford’s will be around the War Memorial in front of St Giles Church, led by the Lord Mayor and the Vice Chancellors.  On the stroke of 11 a.m. (commemorating the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month -when the Armistice brought the First World War to an end) all over the country guns will thunder and sirens be let off, inaugurating two minutes of silence for remembrance, reflection and rededication. This is - or should be - a most solemn moment in the nation's year; please can I urge you to respect it?

 

Some will also ask you to respect two minutes of silence at 11 am on Thursday – the actual 11th day of the 11th month.

 

Why poppies? Well, it's partly because of the extra-ordinary crop of poppies that grew on the battlefields of Flanders in the disrupted soil of 1915, providing a striking image for poets like McCrae:

 

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

 

Thus the poppy comes to be also a striking symbol for our remembrance of the sacrifice and our determination to hold high the torch thrown to us at so high a price.

 

In addition - perhaps even more importantly - we wear our red poppies, because they are made and sold by the Royal British Legion for the benefit of ex-servicemen and women, and their loved ones. The labourers are few, but the work great and still growing. Alas there are now very few surviving veterans of the First World War, but those of the Second are well into their seventies and eighties now, and there are plenty from subsequent conflicts who need help.  ‘The Legion’ recently calculated that it tackles about 300,000 urgent calls for help each year; and - shockingly - that something like 100 ex-service people sleep rough every night in London alone with a further 500 in homeless hostels.

 

Thus, the poppy is both a symbol of remembrance and determination, and a concrete help to surviving heroes and loved ones. So, if you can spare a contribution, it will be well used in a very good cause....

 

Traditionally, a few lines of Laurence Binyon's For the Fallen are read at Remembrance Ceremonies, so they seem an apt way to end this note

 

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

 

MP

Guy Fawkes Weekend

Oh yes, England has holidays we don't have: Guy Fawkes day was this Friday.  Made famous by V for Vendetta, which is an awesome movie that was not in the common room to watch because someone swiped it for their own personal viewing at some point before me and my crew got there - much to our annoyance.

For the actual history I defer to Dr. Philpott who sent us all an information e-mail:

Remember, remember the Fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason, and plot

We know no reason 

Why Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot. 

Well, like lots of other things in this country you have to go back a long way to answer that question -  to 5 November 1605, to be precise.

On that day a plot by a small group of Roman Catholic terrorists to blow up the King, James I, and both Houses of Parliament at the State Opening of Parliament was foiled by the arrest of their explosives expert, Guy (or Guido) Fawkes in the cellars of the Palace of Westminster. (If you visit the Ashmolean,  you can see the lamp that Guy had with him.) The aim of the plotters appears to have been to destroy the whole Protestant establishment in England at one fell swoop leaving the way open to a Roman Catholic coup. However, one of the plotters seems to have sent a message to a relation who was a member of the House of Lords to miss the State Opening and the plot was discovered. Guy was arrested as he arrived to light the fuse. A service in celebration of this deliverance (the so-called ‘Gunpowder Service’) was added to the Book of Common Prayer and observed according to Royal Proclamation until 1859.

The sense of 5 November being a special date in England's history was further reinforced in 1688, when a group of grandees alienated by the high-handed and inept government of the Roman Catholic King James II and fearing his religion and close alliance with France foreshadowed an attempt to impose Roman Catholicism and ‘arbitrary government’ on England, invited his Protestant nephew and son-in-law, Prince William of Orange, to come to the rescue. Sped by what later eulogists called ‘the Protestant Wind’, William landed in England on 5 November. James fled, in a futile and childish gesture towards disrupting the government dropping the Great Seal in the river Thames as he went. After a certain amount of disruption and disorder (including some of the local agents of James' government being besieged in the Mitre Inn on the High Street),  the Crown was given to William and his wife, Mary, jointly, and the succession reserved to Protestant claimants, concluding what English (but not Scottish or Irish) historians  traditionally call(ed) ‘The Glorious Revolution’.

Almost everywhere in England the traditions of  ‘Bonfire Night’ as it is known have long since lost the anti-Catholic element which was a marked feature of celebrations in earlier years. In Oxford in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Bonfire Night was also often a time of serious town-gown troubles and even outright rioting. A rather sad (and late) reflection of this can be seen in Brasenose College Chapel in the  memorial to a late nineteenth-century undergraduate killed in a 5 November riot.

Most English people, although they might know the rhyme above, would have little or no knowledge of the history of what is regarded as a fun, autumn festival especially for children and the young-at-heart. Traditions revolve around the building of  a great bonfire either by individual families in their back gardens or by communities on village greens. ‘Guys’ are made by stuffing old clothes with newspapers and putting a mask for the face - usually symbolizing Guy Fawkes himself, although sometimes others. Small children used quite often to be seen in the streets with a guy (usually in a battered old pram) and a badly painted sign saying ‘Penny for the Guy', but this is now pretty rare, although I did see a particularly impressive Frankenstein's monster guy with matching Frankenstein's monster children a few years back. The money is then usually used to buy extras for the Bonfire Party. Once the bonfire is good and alight, fireworks will be set off - rockets and bangers, Catherine wheels and screamers, and (my personal favourite) sparklers which you hold in your hand and trace pretty patterns of sparks in the dark night.  The guy is then thrown or put into the centre of the bonfire and burnt. Some people hide fireworks in the guy but this can be extremely dangerous and is best avoided. Meanwhile, all sorts of things can be baked, roasted or toasted in and around the bonfire - potatoes, chestnuts, fingers, marshmallows...

And all this on a crisp November night, all wrapped up against the cold in winter coats, big mufflers, woolly hats and gloves.... Thus a time of fear and hatred transforms itself into a festival about family and fun, sharing and warmth...

Please to remember the Fifth of November

Pretty interesting yes?  I thought so, but had no plans to commemorate it... more about that later.

Anyway, Lady Katherine had a friend visiting from Norway who was really curious to meet me who I had promised to go out with after dinner on Friday.  I kept my promise, we went to Que Pasa which is a great place to go before 9pm because they have two for one cocktails every night until that hour.  Some guy at the bar overheard and apparently really enjoyed my giving advice on boys and such to the group of cute giggling girls all dressed up for the occasion and bought our whole table a round of drinks.  This was very awkward (largely because he must have been 30 something and there was one of him and five of us) but we have gotten to know the staff at this place and the bartender delivered them personally so I deemed them safe to consume (they were too).  This had the added effect of putting 4 long island iced teas in yours truly instead of the 2 she intended to consume.  Two for one drinks, five of us, guess who was drinking both of hers while everyone else split?  Crypt Keeper, of course.

Then we left, because it was strange and because we were more than happy with our consumption for the time being.  We waved as politely as possible... not sure if that's the protocol, but we weren't going to go talk to him either I mean, come on.  Who does that?  And what do they possibly think will come of it?  Moving on.

Lady Katherine's friend turned out not to have proper cash money for her bus ticket home - poor planning there, always travel with enough local currency to cover local transportation if you go anywhere.  Since we had to remedy this and it was inconvenient for her to use an ATM (called Cash Points here) due to not knowing her pin (another travel Don't) we agreed to pay her cash for purchase of some bottles of Bacardi at the local Tesco, which we proceeded to drink in the common room while watching movies... though NOT, as I mentioned, V for Vendetta.  We substituted History of the World Part I and something else I don't remember because we were drinking Bacardi.

All this lovely revelry led to the hang-over that dominated Saturday in its entirety for me up until 6 pm - with much agony and all the usual hang-over activities.  When I finally did emerge from my room in the pursuit of food, having missed both brunch and dinner, to get my Ramen Noodle on... I was seized by Claire and company to go see something burned in effigy for Saturday night's Oxford Guy Fawkes festival.  I thought perhaps this might be in the town centre or possibly at the large bus station clearing - both of which were near our dwelling and so agreed.

This turned out to have been a stupid assumption.  Once we had walked for some 10 minutes I started to wonder exactly where the hell we were going... only to discover it was basically the other side of town.  Having come too far to turn back myself, I had little choice but to press on with the group grumbling about being old and ill and generally miserable.  We saw some fireworks and a burning wicker man.  It wasn't so bad once we got there; it was even better when we turned for home.  Huzzah.  Tally up one more English experience!  All ended well, with my Ramen and some tea, and since I had slept the vast majority of the day anyway we stayed up watching Planet Earth dvds from my personal collection which was quite soothing.

So, with all that having consumed Friday evening, Saturday day and night (which was intended to be library time for Viking Literature paper due Tuesday), today I got up for brunch and read both Dante's Inferno for colloquium tomorrow and the Volsung Saga for my Viking Literature paper which I will be researching tomorrow morning and then writing the paper for tomorrow afternoon / evening.  Huzzah.

Tomorrow is Monday already isn't it?  /sigh.

Two Months!

As of yesterday I have been in Oxford for two months - can you believe it? Well that called for something special to me, so I took some time away from my books and my laptop (not the whole day, mind you, just the bit between lunch and dinnertime) and went to a museum here, the Ashmolean Cast Gallery, looked at some ancient Greek items and also took the time to peek into the gift shop.  After reading Oedipus Rex it was pretty creepy to see the ancient dress pins probably just like the ones he scratched his eyes out with (gruesome right?) on display there.  Also, there was a very nice statue of Pallas Athena as well to gaze upon and reflect.

After that I went to the covered market, which I have been meaning to do when it wasn't 5 minutes to closing time for weeks now.  I was looking for something to get for myself, which I am under explicit orders to do, that isn't "needed" but will be something to remember my time here.  I am thinking about a charm-bracelet / charm ... or just the charm (it's hard to spend $ on things I don't need if they are more than a few quid).  I am not sure yet - but I was there to look.  I found loads of things that I'd love to get people for Christmas presents if I could trundle them all back with me in my luggage!  I also discovered the best place for shakes in the world: Moo Moo's right in the covered market!

I ordered a chocolate shake... they told me that had 6 kinds of chocolate shake!  And they have loads more flavors and non-dariy options (which they call no-moo) which all look amazing.  Actual hunks of chocolate and ice cream went into the blender magic machine and poof: amazing deliciousness for a very reasonable 2-3 pounds.  A must stop in for all future comers if you ask me.

So that was my "holistic" day of CMRS this week.  They do encourage us to take time away from study to enjoy actually being here, and it is a very good thing when you can do so.  Granted, this is a small thing compared to some of the major travel others are doing and planning, but it was my small thing.

Still Kicking!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am alive and getting over my sinus infection (yay). I've been keeping up with the homework pretty well too - one of my papers had me a bit worried because I got through one part of three and realized I was going to be way too long... but then I had to sort of go with it... Turns out my tutor was quite pleased with it overall, though we only got through the first seven pages - now I am worried he won't like the other 11 pages!

Right now I'm chilling in the Common Room with some of the CMRS people. It is Halloween weekend so there are tons of dress up parties and drinking and general carousing going on around here. Needless to say, I am keeping a low profile just coming off being sick but I have been social around the common room since I'd been locked away in my room or a library most of the week

Meanwhile, to reward everyone for their patience these past few days without any updates I have the second half of the Iffley video!

Sinus Infection, called it.

Yup. Had my first (and hopefully last) experience with the British doctors today as I went in for an appointment to get a prescription for what I suspected to be my sinus infection. Since I've been sick all week and barely claiming an ounce of productivity - hence the lack of posting - I figured it was time to see the pro's. Well I called it, sinus infection all the way. I'm on some anti-biotics that, among other things, might turn me yellow and make me barf for 7 days to clear it up. Hopefully none of the particularly nasty side-effects come on, cause that would be bad. Then again, they're always bad, who am I kidding?

Basically I paid a guy ₤30.00 to let me diagnose myself in front of him and scribble on his prescription pad after pushing on my face to see if I had painful swelling in my sinuses and take my pulse with his fingers on my wrist. Same as home really, maybe a little less high-tech. Then I got to hoof it to Boots, the local "chemist" - a Walgreens essentially - and get my script filled. I've been keeping up on homework as best I can, though some of the reading that isn't related to immediate papers has been bumped out of the routine in favour of much needed napping.

I figured out that if I put my computer, with cooling pad under it, on my desk chair it sits just right to be viewed from my bottom bunk bed, so I was really glad I brought some DVDs with me to watch on it. Planet Earth series is great to go to sleep to. A steady diet of Ramen when the hall food isn't appealing has kept me fed (Thanks babe for sending the box of provisions!) and I've been sticking mostly to my room and the libraries between meals so as not to spread my illness and also because I am not particularly social when I am coughing and sneezing and blowing my nose every 3 minutes; incidentally, I've been through three boxes of tissue.

Of course, I am not the only one who is sick. Half of the building has a cold or a flu or something - the locals call it Fresher's Flu, which is basically when all the students share germs and get each other sick, their professors too usually. I just happened to luck into the bonus round of sinus infection since I am prone to them.

Anyway, just thought I'd let you all know I am still alive and will hopefully be getting better and having more to say as the week wears on.

Dinky Disasters

I’ve been rather ill with some kind of ick-cold from hell; it started Monday, which was particularly unfortunate because that was my “push” day for library time and an essay due Tuesday.  I got much worse Tuesday, so much so that I basically stayed in my room for the duration of the day, only emerging to make Ramen for myself and use the bathroom.  The internet was down as well, which was sad because I’d been entertaining myself with little movie clips between naps – having no ability to read or comprehend anything anyway. 

Today I am feeling marginally better, and I haven’t coughed out any more bits of myself so all to the good.  That said, it isn’t like I could start doing back-flips – still rather achy and my head feels like it is stuffed with wool, but that’s a big improvement and – apparently – I am not “as pale as death” today either.  Huzzah.  I would put myself at about 75-80% about.  Not great, not on death’s door, over all a “Meh.”

Also, apparently, today the water pipes here at CMRS decided to start flooding the store beneath us in the same building and I guess (I was asleep because I did not wake for breakfast this morning) some students were a little flippant to the workers in that store and didn’t alert the proper authorities to the problem.  So said authorities might not think much of us at the moment, as indicated by a lovely e-mail we got from Dr. Philpott this evening which more or less said: start acting like you aren’t a bunch of selfish brats in the smooth English perfection that makes it sound like he said nothing of the sort.  Some of the bathrooms and showers were out for various portions of the day while they tried to locate the leak and turned off water and so on – half the building, or maybe it is down to a quarter now I don’t know is still without water.  They’ll keep trying to sort it out tomorrow I am sure.

I won’t be here for that, because I will be at the library, once again, for the duration of the day trying to complete the research for a paper due the following day because I lost so much time this week to being ill.  Even though it was only a total of two days (last half of Monday, all of Tuesday, and half of today) when you only have 1 week to read and write – and 2 classes to read and write for – and a seminar to be reading for, and a colloquium to be reading for – 2 days is a HUGE chunk of your usable time.

Before all this calamity came in, I had used some “spare” time to make a little video of one of my mini-trips last month when we visited Iffley church, enjoy.

Friday!

Let’s see… met with my Classical Mythology tutor today, he continues to be awesome and we discussed the Iliad at much greater length than the Odyssey, which is good because I didn’t really have the time to read both.  Thankfully I’d read both before so it was more a matter of at least finding time to review what I couldn’t read fully than not having read it at all.  I am glad I gave my full attention to a real annotated read of the Iliad though, because we discussed that in some detail.  I arrived in an apologetic panic, however, because I was late!  Fiona had to ring my room and ask me if I had forgotten my tutorial at 10 past 9 – I had it written down as 9:30… /cry!  He was very understanding though as I was furiously apologizing and explaining the misunderstanding which will not happen again!

After my tutorial I was going to head to the bookstore – as I have decided to purchase the actual works he assigns and borrow the critical material on them or read those in the library – but I stopped by Alix and Claire’s room first because I saw on Facebook that Alix hadn’t left for London yet.  We were all supposed to go to London today for a day trip to the museums, but Lauren is sick and Lady Katherine has a trip to Norway next week so she’s got double papers to handle in a short span and I was trying to cram in a bunch of reading with what I think is a cold I am fighting off too.  So we all backed out on the trip last night but she was going to go anyway – super independent awesomeness that she is.  Turns out, she made a call to get extra sleep instead (it is gray and rainy out today, I don’t blame her). 

Claire asked me to return some books for her though and stop by Dr. Philpott’s office on my way out to let him know she was sick and would be missing her tutorial this afternoon as well.  This is the second time she’s been sick and missed class, so he asked me to tell her that if she stays sick he’d like her to see the doctor.  There is a doctor that is affiliated with CMRS whose contact information you get during the orientation period and he comes in for a chat as well (those are what the medical forms you fill out are for).  He is not on-site, but house calls still exist in this country so it is possible for him to come to you (more expensive though).  I am not sure how the insurance thing works, I think you pay and then are reimbursed, because they have the national health care system here.  At least that’s what has happened so far – we have a girl who thought she broke a bone in her foot, but wasn’t sure and went for non-emergency X-rays that came to about £40.  Another one of our number cut himself on a glass, if you recall from an earlier episode, and had to get stitches; the ER trip cost him nothing I think, but the removal of the stitches by the local doctor was about £25.

For EC students: I recommend a £100 allowance for ‘medical expenses’ if you should get a serious flu or what-have – just in case.   

** Later

I did go out for drinks and had a nice time, then went to the Tolkien Society meeting – which was fun but really more of a mixer than a meeting since it was the introduction for the year.  After that we (Lisa Rose, Blue, and I) came home and joined the other girls for some movie time with Monty Python and the Holy Grail – a DVD since the VCR they have here is for some reason only playing things in black and white.

For EC Students:  CMRS has a Universal DVD player, along with a VCR, and many movies that students buy here on the cheap and donate to the Common Room – if you wish to bring some favorite DVDs to share with your fellow students, be aware they will play – but video tapes will not (we don’t think, no one brought any to test) being coded to the countries they are sold in. 

Laura and I both broke out our personal DVD collections, but being things we’d brought just for ourselves maybe to play on our laptops (not knowing they had these facilities) we settled on Monty Python because the whole group could get behind it.

Now for bed!  It has been a long day – and I just found out that the library I need to go to for my Viking Literature books has ridiculous hours on Saturday, 10-1, so I’ll be doing something else tomorrow than I planned – different reading and working on a different paper – because brunch falls right between those hours and a girl’s gotta eat.

Must Read Faster... again?

My blog is playing tricks on me, and that's not nice!  First I thought my last post vanished, then it reappeared.  I took a nap today... weird.  Anyway!  I decided not to go to the little Sci-Fi "my book is better than your book" meeting and read the Iliad instead which I really should get back to, but I took a break to walk around with Claire for a minute who is having trouble communicating with her financial institution back home and this is causing her some distress.  It would cause me distress too, that's just the last thing you want to have happen when you are across an ocean.  We walked down to Tesco (it's a grocery store like Sainsbury, in fact one is right next to a Sainsbury near Broad Street which seems like it would be too fierce a competition but I guess that sort of thing is allowed here) and I got a Fanta - Fanta is delicious over here where it is considered second rate by most people who like soda (or pop if you like) in the States.  KitKats are also way better over here, the chocolate is superior in some way I can't explain and I have become slightly addicted to them, but I figure that's ok for now.

I need to pick an activity before they all get going without me, but it is a pain to have to actually go to them when you are trying to get your studying done and maybe - just maybe - relax a little bit afterwards.  Ah well, I can always fall back on the Tolkien Society (though after I saw their list of events, I am fairly dubious... Mock trial for Sauron for environmental crimes - REALLY?! Oy!)

Must Read Faster!

Cracking down hard to get things read and so forth hasn’t left me a lot of time to get these little entries in.  Similarly, there hasn’t been all that much to report when I am in a book.  I read two of the Arthurian Romances by Chrétien De Troyes – The Knight in the Cart or Lancelot and The Knight with the Lion or Yvain depending on what titles you want to go with.  Still finishing up with the Illiad before I head into the Odyssey tomorrow and in between that I’ve been reading some Norse Mythology overviews about Odin and Loki and how all of that got recorded so far after the telling of the tales and the practice of the religion and what that has done to the stories in terms of what we can learn from them.  Good times.

Incidentally, if anyone wanted to listen along to Lancelot, there is a lovely lady who read this and recorded it as a book on tape on the internet - I really hate Guinevere because of things like the crap she pulls in this story, but I am not going to write a report on that here, hate her for yourself by listening.  Summaries of what's going on in each section are under the link to that section - have fun while getting some high culture of the Romantic courts of France!

Meanwhile my duckies still won’t all swim together, but it is getting a little better.  Lady Katherine was very cute the other night – she’s been trying to join everything that she signed the sheet for on Fresher’s Fair day, or at least give it a try – when she couldn’t decide which dance thing to do and I ended up walking her to the Scottish dancing meeting down the road and dropping her off – very kindergarten / mom moment but it was all good and she really liked that club too, so bonus.  I am trying to figure out which one I should go to, since it is required that I attend one.  I think this requirement should be re-thought though; I am plenty busy enough with classes, reading, papers, and general living to be worried about making weekly meetings and writing my observations on another culture from them.  My guess is that, like so many components of the EC study abroad program, this is a one-size-fits-all measure that might vary in effectiveness from international travel program to international study program.

Anyway – I could go to a “talk about the 10 sci-fi books you would want with you on a desert island” meeting they are having in the Sci-Fi book club tonight at 8pm – if nothing else it would let me get a peek inside Queen’s College.  I had a long late night last night though finishing up the Arthur reading (more assigned today, huzzah) and my nap today just made me want another nap – it was needed though, functionality had dropped to unacceptable levels after the two hour seminar class I had this morning – so I am not sure if I am up for a meeting of the minds on Sci-Fi books… we’ll see.  

BOP part 2 and some Monday Woes

Well there was a spot of trouble – potential trouble more accurately – and I did get a call at about 1:30 am from a disconcerted Lady Katherine and Laruen who weren’t totally sure what to do about Clair and Alix being so friendly with the dancers in the club, or if they were sober, tipsy, drunk, or completely ‘faced.  It was an adventure to go find them and persuade them to come home, but they were never in any real danger I don’t think.  We also ran into Christian, who is a guy here at CMRS, who was also having some trouble wavering between going full on drinking and being sensible, but try as I might I could not talk him out of giving up the plan of ruin – mostly because Alix chose that moment to break away and run into the nearest club to avoid coming back with us (which prompted me to attempt to retrieve her again).  So that’s two more clubs I’ve been to in Oxford (yay?) and honestly, not impressed with the scene still.

The Purple Turtle, which is one of the more popular clubs among the CMRS crew because of its cheapness, is – I would say – the 10^th circle of hell where Satan’s toilets seem to empty.  It is underground and the building would be pretty interesting, if not for the fact that it was crowded on every inch of space with people sweating and spilling their drinks in an effort to get it on with anything that wanders past them.  It is probably fine if you are drunk enough not to notice your surroundings anymore, which seems to be the case for most of the patrons. 

There was some drama after we got back, which I cannot go into in detail without breeching the confidentiality barrier existent amongst friends.  Suffice to say that, if people of mixed tendencies go out together and those general ideas clash it does produce some animosity and fallout if things become intense at any point and people who don’t anticipate those things tend to react strongly when they occur.  Happily, things seem to already be on the mend and I don’t think any lasting damage to the peace and tranquility of the group will have resulted. 

I was up until about 4am myself trying to be a good friend to everyone involved and bring the evening in to as soft a landing as I could contrive; thus, I slept in the next morning, but it was fine since the libraries are closed on Sunday anyway.  That’s an important note for anyone coming here: do not plan to get your reading done on Sunday without checking opening hours of the library you are going to!  Many of them are closed on Sunday - except St. Peter’s, which is all access all the time, though not staffed access during off hours. 

Today is Monday and I am finding myself in a bit of a library crunch myself.  I had forgotten that I have Colloquium today, which will fall right in the prime hours of library time between lunch and dinner at 4pm (/sigh) and as an added bonus I managed to order all my books to what might be the most inconvenient location in the Bodleian system: the special collections room at the Radcliffe Science Library.  Not only is this building about 4 blocks removed from the main facilities, but they have special rules about bags and storage that required a £1 coin to operate the storage lockers, which of course I didn’t know to bring and didn’t have.  So.  Going back there after dinner I suppose and hopefully I can crunch what I estimated to be 6 hours of reading into about 3… huzzah.  

BOP

I know I've been talking about all my girlfriends here at CMRS - here is a photo of them just before leaving for the BOP at St. Peters.  From left to right: Lisa Rose, Lauren, Lady Katherine, Claire, Blue, and Alix all looking fabulous!

They went to the 'fancy dress' party of the BOP at St. Peters tonight - by the way for all future students: Fancy Dress means Costume - not dressing up fancy like for a wedding/dinner out.  Apparently they are big in this area, so if you are the type to want to attend such things you may want to either bring something you can adapt - they have Themes for these (tonight's was S, P, or C - anything that started with those letters, loosely speaking) - or budget to buy costume here, and there are plenty of shops to cater to this general tendency here.  

I gave all the girls my cell number in case they got into a fix or needed a friendly face or decided not to come home tonight - so I wouldn't be up worrying about them being out and about unaccounted for.  I know, very mother hen of me, but I didn't want to go myself and I still want to look out for my friends.  They are all very level-headed girls (when they aren't being silly on purpose to raise my blood pressure because it is amusing to them) and I'm sure they are having a good time meeting the students from St. Peters and making new friends at their JCR and bar area.  Yes, a lot of the colleges here (all of them I think actually) have an on campus bar and students of CMRS are generally welcome to go and visit St. Peter's JCR and bar area even when there is not a BOP going on (as well as their library and some other facilities).  

Hanging In

We all survived the exam (huzzah!) – really it wasn’t that bad, but the questions were pretty… ugh.  Just ugh.  Vague and not really all that easy to cope with based on the lecture and the reading because some of them were so tangential to the actual material covered that they might as well have been random.  Anyway – it was all right in the end.  I had to fudge the last one something fierce with a bunch of fluff but the other three were solid enough, if difficult to answer satisfactorily in 1,000 words.  I mean to knock the 2,000 word essay out this weekend, since I don’t plan on attending the BOP (Big Open Party) that they are having at St. Peters for the kick-off of the term.  It is a costume party and while I might have fun, it occurs to me that I might be just a tad bit too old (read: mature) for playing dress up with a bunch of strangers 8-10 years my junior with a bunch of booze to lubricate them.  Most of the girls are going, as well they should, and I hope they have fun, but I think that will just be a fine time for me to talk to Bruno online – I haven’t been able to get lined up to chat with him these past few days with all that’s been going on by me – and get some work done besides.  I am really feeling the distance between myself and my sweetie tonight, but I don't want to dwell on it here.

I am starting to use the Bodleian Library system and looking into my reading lists for my tutorials and seminar.  I am not entirely 100% sure what I am supposed to be looking at for my Viking Literature class because my instructor speaks very quickly with a heavy accent and I am not sure we even got around to nailing down an exact requirement for reading for our next meeting anyway.  I figure it will be best if I hit the general overview items on the list and have some background built up since that was at least a goal we discussed for our meeting and hope for the best there.  I am super psyched about my Classical Mythology class and re-reading the Iliad and the Odyssey – which, yes, I decided to purchase rather than check out of the library even though I own both at home, so I could mark them up.  That’s the one tragic thing about studying abroad: you can’t bring your library with you.  So sad panda about that, because I have a ton of books I would love to be referencing at my fingertips and I know just where they’d be at home, which is just a little out of arm’s reach at the moment.

I went to my first (and likely last) club on Thursday after the exam because I was corrupting the youth a bit earlier in the night by encouraging the straight-lacers to loosen up just a bit with a few drinks and so I took it upon myself to chaperone them around until they were safely home again.  It wasn’t bad, but I am not really a big club person and I don’t think I care to become one.  Tonight we ‘went out’ again as well, at least three of us, because Lady Katherine wasn’t able to join us Thursday night and no one wanted her to feel left out.  We hit a quiet pub just near the building and when we didn’t really care for it we went to another one even more nearby just in time for two-for-one drinks, which was unexpected but convenient.  Sadly, Lady Katherine found out she does not like strawberry daiquiris and had two of them to drink, so I took them off her hands and replaced them with a sex-on-the-beach which she was much happier with.  That, of course, left me with four drinks, but being the pro of the group I just made the best of it and we came back and watched movies in the common room until bed time.

Knew that would happen...

It is a clear and lovely day despite the earlier (much much earlier) rain that dampened (haha, puns) my plans to watch the sun rise.  Pity that, because lacking anything productive to be doing for an hour + before breakfast I decided it would be a good idea to lay down for a brief snooze.  This, it turns out, was a mistake and my eyes popped back open (with occasional interruptions of the alarm I snoozed and turned off not withstanding) at 10:00.  So for a net gain of 1 hour of sleep I managed to be late to my first seminar meeting – super good.  /rolleyes 

Happily, my instructor had gotten a late start on anyway and I only missed maybe 15 minutes in reality of her speaking about the general idea of the seminar as a class and so on – and she was really understanding, probably because I was SO apologetic and probably looked exactly as tired as I felt.  At least I hadn’t changed into PJs before laying down so I was able to roll right out of bed and out my room to class, which saves loads of time but leaves you with bed-head.

Ah well, after that I felt obligated to volunteer to give a presentation of the reading for next meeting – which in reality is just summarizing the reading we’re all supposed to have done by then and get the conversation going, so nothing too strenuous.  Then I went to lunch were the girls and I conspired to pitch in for a birthday gift for Alix (her birthday is tomorrow, unfortunate that it shares exam day) and we then proceeded to execute our plan to buy and stash her gift while she ate lunch just after us – operation successful by the way.  I added to that a little box of fruit shaped marzipan because Alix has been an awesome friend to me while I have been here and I really appreciate all the time we’ve spent together wandering Oxford and taking walks and going to the museums and such with a friend is always so much better than doing any of those things just yourself. 

After that we went to the Fresher’s Fair, which is basically a big ‘join our club’ and ‘sign up to win free junk’ and ‘give us your e-mail so we can send you spam for a free bobble’ event that we at CMRS get to take part in thanks to the affiliation with St. Peter’s College that we enjoy (they are also the ones feeding us regularly).  I think this only happens in the Fall Semester (or Michaelmas Term here) and is basically like the start of the school year fairs and such we have back at home, only bigger and louder and with more advertizing attached since they have so many colleges here and the event is actually run by the University with different groups going to different days over the course of the week I think. 

I am also pretty sure I signed up for information from about a dozen interesting looking clubs, most of which I’ll have no time to participate in, but the information is no obligation.  Some of them are having first meetings this weekend to ‘try it on for size’ so I might be busy with some of those between reading for my Viking Literature Tutorial and my Arthurian Legend Seminar; I don’t think I am going to worry about Classical Mythology Tutorial until I am into the next week coming up here since we don’t meet until Friday and I am revisiting the Iliad and the Odyssey, both of which I’ve read multiple times before.

I am thinking about going and buying some Frebreeze, or whatever they have equivilent here after being rubbed up on by the unwashed masses so much (as, lets face it, most college students can be considered) during the Fresher’s Fair – it was ridiculously crowded and very cramped quarters even though it was held in the fairly massive Examination Facility that the University uses to administer degree and program testing here (and yes, it was cool to go inside there, but it was too crowded to consider any photography). 

Tonight I go to bed early, and tomorrow we have exam all day more or less until dinner, but after dinner we are going out and celebrating both the birthday of our friend and being out of Integral Course (more or less, I mean that longer essay is still due in December)!  

Morning to Morning

Busy continues as I enjoy my first “all-nighter” at Oxford in preparation for the upcoming exam.  Competition for books remains high and many of the students have adopted a barter system amongst themselves for the books that are needed in the short time before the exam, completely bypassing the queue of the library’s waiting lists and procedures.  There are pro’s and con’s to this – the pro obviously being that the books get around a great deal faster and several people in a room might get to at least spend some time with the book they need in group clusters in the common room rather than 1 more person ‘getting’ it and the other 3 or whatever not at all seeing it; the con is that those who are waiting in the queue and not getting in on the group book swapping will not see the book that should be rightfully theirs for having waited their turn patiently.  So it is really both a cooperative effort of a community working together to mutually succeed and survival of the fittest by virtue of being in the right place at the right time and screw the people who adhere to the system. 

Today is, well yesterday was anyway, my 9 year anniversary – which I was glad I didn’t have too much time to think about while I was meeting tutors and making schedules and reading books today because I am sad not to be with my love on our special day.  We did talk and reaffirmed our promise to make it up to each other in London later on, so there is that.  If it had occurred to me that I could have been having shrimp and sake and going home to cuddle it would have made me sad while I was attending the “Stop Screwing Up Already!” meeting we had in the JCR tonight at 7pm (basically a standard reiteration of the rules and a few notes about recent events covered previously here). 

Both my tutorials seem very cool (Viking Literature and Classical Mythology & Legend in case you forgot / didn’t know) and I have my seminar tomorrow (Arthurian Legend)… well today actually, in 3 hours from the time of this typing at 9am.  Neither of my professors gave me an essay prompt for this week, preferring to start that in 1^st week rather than 0^th week – so I just have some background/foundation reading to do with notes for a discussion next time we meet.  In a way it is good, it will give me time to finish studying (they call it ‘revising’ here, by the way) for the test and probably knock out the Integral Essay as well, which is due on the 8^th of December at the end of the program. 

I am pretty sure everyone reading this is probably going ‘tsk tsk, there she is up all night!”  Well I had to offer moral support to my compatriots who are freaking out and give comfort to those who got their feelings bruised when the meeting they called to tell people what time it is on the rules got scolded by the person 1 rung up for getting emotional about it, and other things of that nature so I figured – what the heck? – I might as well see the sun rise over Oxford at least once right? 

Of course... it's raining.  Oh well, I am sure there will be other chances like tonight/today.

Books book and more books!

Today we (finally yay – woot – and huzzah) got our Bodleian Library cards!  This is the awesome 11 million volume, it is a big deal.  I even had to take an oath when I was made a reader:

"I hereby undertake not to remove from the Library, or to mark, deface, or injure in any way, any volume, document, or other object belonging to it or in its custody; not to bring into the Library or kindle therein any fire or flame, and not to smoke in the Library; and I promise to obey all rules of the Library." (Taken from the Oxford University Library Conduct webpage)

So the library here (several buildings in fact – I am including a link to the map of them) is not a ‘lending’ library like we have at home.  You go to the books, and the books are brought to you at the reading rooms if they are not on site via an ordering system that makes the card catalog seem like child’s play, but the books do not go anywhere with you – not even within the building.  Once you order a book to a reading room, that reading room is where it stays until the staff return it to its general resting place. 

Now I just have to find my perfect reading room, which is where the books are sent to for you to (obviously) read them.  Of course, I want to match up the area of study where ‘open shelf’ books will be handy to the ‘closed stack’ book requested to be delivered to that room since the library cannot house its massive collection in its useable facilities.  If I had time to take the tour this week I would, but it is Fresher’s Week already, there’s an exam on Thursday, and I have a full plate.  Ah well, I will just have to wander around a bit since I have access now with my magic reader card of happiness and joy (soon to be misery and being overworked – but today it is happiness and joy) that lets me enjoy a facility that is considered to be one of THE places in the world to do research. 

…Also, I suppose it is worth mentioning that the Bodleian Library has been used in scenes from the Harry Potter movies (the Infirmary scenes took place just outside the room we were sworn in at and the Duke Humphrey’s library area is featured as many sections of the Hogwarts Library, particularly the “Restricted Books Section” I believe).  That isn’t why it is so ridiculously awesome, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt.  Some other places I have been (Gloucester Cathedral, Christ’s Church’s Great Hall, and I think some bits of other places as well) have all been noted by our guides or professors –in passing – as locations used in Harry Potter movies as well.  So I guess if you are really into the movies you’ll go “ooooh!” and “ahhhh!” just like half the class usually does every time it is brought up while the other half roll their eyes or pretend they are with another passing group of strangers for a moment. 

After dinner tonight I need to buckle down and get two books noted and sorted so I can return them to the library for others who may need them for the upcoming exam.  Tomorrow I meet both my tutorial professors and then Wednesday I have my first seminar class as well – busy, busy, busy this week as the official semester gets underway. 

(We’re in 0^th week, or naught week, which is basically the same as the first week of the semester in a US college – meet your teachers, check out the school, get your stuff in order – but instead of having a short week like we usually do with Labor Day in there they just acknowledge it as its own week and begin officially after with 1^st week being the following week)

Can't forget the tea can we?

In all the hub-bub I forgot to tell you about the tea!

Well there wasn’t any major blow up, so I’ll disappoint the more bloodthirsty readers up front there.  We got to The Rose for tea and it was quite busy so we had to wait almost 25 minutes for a table, which we did outside.  Quick note here: most establishments in England, at least around Oxford are small compared to places at home (minus clubs etc. made for big crowds obviously) and it is wise to go out in small groups rather than descend on any one establishment with a half dozen people and expect to be accommodated right away.  Six people ended up coming to tea: Lisa Rose, Clair, Alix, Lady Katherine, Blue (another C/Katherine/yne), and myself of course.  They had one table large enough to seat us and it was occupied, so we waited. 

Once we were seated we all ordered tea, but because we’d had to wait we missed their window of “lunch” serving so anyone who wanted to order a meal other than tea (usually a pastry or crumble or what-have-you with tea) was out of luck; Claire had skipped lunch in favor of eating at tea and wasn’t totally thrilled with this development.  Also, they refused to split our checks – again, because we were such a “large” group – so when it came time to pay it was a bit of challenge that Claire solved by paying for all and letting everyone tally up to her later (she was pretty indignant that they had refused our request at the start to split our bills so I think she just wanted to be out of there as soon as possible).  The tea was good and the scones were good, but the service was quite poor – we had 1 little bowl of sugar that was half empty when we sat down – 6 of us mind you – and when we asked them to refill it they complied with only the most huffing response, so we didn’t even bother to ask for a second tiny pot of cream. 

Meanwhile, we’re all dressed up for this obviously very casual establishment full of normal adult people who wear normal walking around clothes just in for a spot of tea and a bite.  Overdressed is not a feeling I am used to experiencing, but we certainly were – not that we looked bad, quite the contrary, especially Alix who had on some major heels and managed the whole day walking all around to hit thrift stores afterwards for ‘BOP’ shopping (some dance thing we’ve been invited to as part of Fresher’s week with a theme: S, P, or C ‘dress up as’) that we didn’t know we were doing until it was sprung on us during tea. 

I had a few moments that made me need nicotine or want to snap at people here and there through the shopping, but I tried to keep it tacked down and I succeeded for the most part.  Then we went home all complaining and sore from all the walking and puffing about and general length of the day.  We all pitched in at a game store to buy a game of Cluedo which we played twice when we got back to the common room - well I only played once because I did really poorly and it isn't a game that really grabs and holds my attention to be honest, but it was the group's pick so meh.

My blisters have blisters and everything is wet all the time here… but I did find a Christmas gift for Mommy and something for myself at one of the thrift shops that I am very pleased with, so it was worth it. 

Did someone yell "Fire!" (?)

…. I am so pissed off right now.

I have spent the last HOUR in the RAIN outside CMRS trying to get hold of the people who are SUPPOSED to be in charge here to turn off the fire alarm that went off when someone was cooking eggs. 

Angry mob of students, me with no real authority, a bunch of people talking and being upset and what do I get?  Not even a thank you.

Lisa Rose finally got back from church about 3 minutes ahead of Dr. Philpott arriving and… well I just don’t know.  Not so much as a thank you from either of them.  I am not being paid for this, it is not my job, and the next time something happens they can all just deal with it themselves – I will just go get some fucking coffee.  When I told Dr. Philpott I’d been trying to call him for some 40 minutes the response I got was “Well it is Sunday.” … I almost – ALMOST – came right back with “Oh, it was Sunday for me too before I got kicked out of bed by the fire alarm and stood in the rain in my pajamas for all the world to see for 45 minutes!”  Not to mention the apologies I had to make to the shop owners who share our building while I explained that I didn’t have the power or the knowledge of how to turn the fire alarm that was driving off their customers and threatening to close their shop for the morning off. At least they were pissed at the alarm and not us poor schmucks out in the street trying every phone number we could think of and pacing in the rain.

Apparently, there really is no one on duty for the daytime hours of Saturday and Sunday as Dean, Junior Dean, or Assistant Junior Dean.  Nor do we usually expect the staff to be in.  Seems to me – especially in the first month when they don’t feed us on the weekends – that would be prime time for one of these kitchen smoke alarm incidents to happen, but I guess hindsight is always 20/20.  Still. 

Very frustrating, but I think I am over it now.  Mostly over it.  Had some extra cigarettes today but I feel justified in them because it was that or find someone to scream at – maybe not even words just generally screaming at the top of my lungs for a few minutes probably would have been fine.  Since I think that would land me in the loony bin and probably hurt someone’s feelings in the process in all likelihood I thought maybe a little more soot on my lungs would be an ok solution for now. 

Well I did get thanked – huzzah – by Lisa Rose and Bianca, and I made sure to thank all the helpers I had in the great chaos of it, as well as everyone via note on my door for being patient and calm as they were during the whole incident.  Today was definitely a two cups of tea day, maybe a third is in order, we shall see – but I am much calmer now and have accepted the fact that this is just what it is and it is better that I had been there than not and I don’t have to take charge of things when they happen that way, I choose to because I want to see it done so I have to accept what comes with that if I choose that. 

Just when I was feeling alright about things again though, then we find out (and by we I mean  I found out via Lisa Rose who told Dr. Philpott) that someone left a burner on in the kitchen.  ON THE SAME DAY WE WERE JUST OUT IN THE RAIN FOR AN HOUR + SOMEONE LEFT THE FRICKEN BURNER ON IN THE DAMN KITCHEN!  I mean… REALLY?!  Fuck me sideways people that is just plain stupid.  Pardon my language but I just… words fail to describe the experience of hearing about that – its incredulous, its outrageous, its frustrating and humorous all at the same time as it makes me think that I must be taking crazy pills because the world cannot possibly be that insane – yet evidently it is. 

My day, by the by, is completely shot.  It is 5pm here and I haven’t gotten a damn thing done other than stand out in the rain, drink tea, talk myself down from a shouting fest, and had a quick bite to eat.  I will just have to study tonight or tomorrow or something because it is clear that today the stars are against productivity (or intelligence apparently) of any sort.

One Month

I am stressed I think, it is hard to tell anymore when I am and when I am not because I have had so much stress over the years that it seems almost like a natural state of being sometimes.  Unless it is a major spike I don’t really notice it anymore – but I am definitely going to say I am stressed because I can sense it as an undercurrent to my interactions with other people, my restless energy, and some other key hints that have popped up enough to tell me “Hey you, you’re having stress, pay attention!”

Really there is a lot about this week to think about.  First, today is my official one month day here, having arrived last month on the 2^nd and so there are just two more 2^nd’s to go before I am going to be thinking about packing my bags (ugh, why did I ever unpack?! /shudder) for home.  This week is also my 9 year anniversary with Bruno, which for the first time ever I will be missing; we plan to make it up in London in December of course, but still it is a little sad not to be together on that day of all days.  This week is also Alix’s birthday, and everyone wants to do something with her for it – of course it is also the same day as the exam for the Integral course, naturally it would be, and we’ll have 7.5 hours (from 9:30 to 5) to write four 1,000 word essay answers to the questions picked from a selection we haven’t seen yet – but of course are supposed to be already studying for. 

By the by, that’s the only part of the CMRS program so far that I have to consider flawed in some way – the study for and test of the Integral Program.  The program itself is inspired and informative and gives students a chance to ease into classes and get to know the general curriculum that we have missed having been schooled in another country, for example there isn’t anyone in England who doesn’t know what happened in the year 1066 (the Normans) but in the US we’re a little oblivious.  Great, fine, and good – until we get to the matter of testing, everyone has to have a grade after all at some point.  The reading list, as I have mentioned in previous posts, is a packet of no less than 9 pages.  Our primary source of books is the Feneley Library here in the centre, because we are not permitted to obtain our official University Library Cards until the actual term begins next week; this makes competition for the books on the list, you can’t always get the book you think you might need, but you are not really even sure that you need it because you don’t know what you’re being tested on since the questions aren’t published until the exam – which would make sense if there was a really solid reading list rather than a nebulous one of “pick some things from here that interest you” … yes, in a perfect world we all want to do that here at Oxford where we came to do things we are interested in, but we also came here to get good grades and do well at these classes. 

They don’t have a GPA over here – they have a much looser way of quantifying accomplishment through actual talking and phrasing and putting some thought into trying to paint an accurate picture of the whole student (or so I’m told) rather than a hard mathematical fact attached to your resume which signifies your calculated value on a 4 point scale.  Maybe that is why they wouldn’t think this system would be so stressful a method to test with.  Common phrases around here the last week and a half have been: “Do you think I am reading enough?” “I can’t get the book I need” “Do you still have that book?” “What do you think will be the question on this unit?” “How much have you been reading?” “Can you read too much?” “I have 70 pages of notes, how will I find anything in there?”  and so on.  My guess is that most of the students will have read enough, some will have done far too much in preparation and suffer indecision on ‘what question’ because of it, and some will have to close their eyes and wing it on a prayer because they were too discouraged by the size of the list to have read much if anything at all.  I’m trying to put myself in the middle there, but I’m uncertain; for some units I am definitely prepared if the question is right, for others I could do more before the test to become prepared, but again, not knowing the question means I could be going in completely the wrong direction with my note taking (if not my reading, because that is all from the list) and not find out until it is really too late to fix – which will dump me right into that wing and a prayer group, huzzah!

Oh yeah, and the tea party is today.  Expect a follow up post on that I suppose, since I am – after the snipping going on last night in the common room – anticipating a bit of a fiasco.