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.