Tea for Tuesday

My Tuesday was very relaxing, other than the fact that I was reading most of the day for my paper assignment. I was able to sleep in, finish one of the readings, and eat lunch in time for tea. Apparently Corpus Christi has tea every week in the JCR (junior common room), and they invited us to their first meeting so that we could meet the students, and perhaps our "parents" as well (if you're familiar with siblings in clubs, ethnic groups, fraternities and sororities, it's quite like those except foreign to us since we don't go 'round calling friends "mum and dad"). I didn't get an email from my "parents" until after the tea; I think the leader of the JCR sent them an angry email about how they shouldn't have neglected to contact me :P But my "dad" was the one who emailed me, his name is Anthony, and he's going to meet me at the Welcome Lunch we have on Thursday. He told me that my "mum's" name is Livvy, but I haven't heard from her yet. The students seem really nice, at least the ones we met, and I hope I get to spend lots of time with them. After tea, my friend (who made me steak the other night to pay me back for a purchase) made chicken pasta for four of us girls. That was quite an interesting dinner since the four of us were really getting to know each other by telling "partial life stories" and things in that manner. It was quite tasty, and afterward we hung out for a little before I left to plan out the rest of my week. We got more information about the Bing Trip this weekend, but I'll let you all know where we're going as soon as I find out the specifics. Hopefully there will be internet access so that I can continue posting to my blog!

Relaxing Sunday to Busy Monday

Sunday was quite relaxing, but I also walked all over Oxford shopping. I didn't think it was exciting enough to write a blog, so I decided to wait another day. So anyway, I had my first meeting with my tutors today. They both seem very nice, and we set the schedule for this term's tutorial meetings. They also said that I don't have to read my papers aloud at each tutorial, which is how some traditional tutors hold their meetings, but I'm glad I won't have to do it. I will have an assignment due next Tuesday, which is a bit of a downer since our Bing Weekend Trip is this whole weekend. Hopefully they will email me the paper prompt and readings soon so that I can get a head start on it! Afterward, I had my affiliate college library registration, so I was able to see the Corpus Christi Library and learn about how it works. It's open 24 hours and I have a lot of friends in Corpus, so hopefully we can have study "parties" there, or more like late-night/early morning cram sessions. [Can I just say that I found out something very peculiar today - students have exams at the beginning of each term to see what they remember from the previous term...I would not be very appreciative if Stanford made us do this!] The librarian seemed very nice, and I met our liaison who will show us around after the lunch and tour on Thursday. After the college library registrations, I went out to tea with some friends but ended up getting Italian ice cream! I ordered the pistachio and the Irish creme, and both were delectable. I went grocery shopping afterward, and I'm about to eat a microwaved lasagna meal. Cheerio!

Hampton Court Palace and Kew Gardens

From Oxford, past London, to these amazing places and back, there was a ton of traveling done on this Saturday. The Hampton Court Palace was so beautiful, with the royal chambers, royal gardens, royal kitchens, everything was royal and either remained from hundreds of years ago or had been redone to model what it looked like hundreds of years ago. Then we went to Kew Gardens, which very very nice but it was super cold, so we would run to the greenhouses for warmth. When we got back to the house, a group of us went to a Thai restaurant, mainly because I've never had Thai food before. Although it was delicious, the service was terrible, so we'll find another Thai restaurant to eat at next time. Later in the night we had a house progressive (where each cluster of rooms chooses a theme, dresses up, and serves something). The overall theme was British Authors, so my "pod" chose Oscar Wilde, dressed up as dandies, and served mimosas. The progressive was so much fun, and I hope we get to have another one soon. I went to my first club afterwards, and it was a very interesting experience, mainly because the music was a lot different than what we usually hear in the states...but maybe other clubs will have better music. Time for a relaxing Sunday with errands and reading before the academia starts!

Punting is meant to be leisurely? FALSE

Wow, today sure was a doozy! We had to wake up very early to register at the Bodleian Library in order to be able to access books from every library at Oxford. On the way back to the house a group of us stopped at The Missing Bean which is a really good coffee shop, and I was excited to learn that their chai tea lattes taste very much like those from Coupa Cafe (on Stanford's campus). We then were informed about how we can check out books from the Stanford House Library, and I took two books out for my tutorial. After eating lunch and watching the latest Glee episode online, we all went "punting", in which my group had quite a difficult time, perhaps because the boat house worker didn't explain to us how exactly one "punts". We took turns trying to steer the boat with the long metal pole, but we ended up backwards many times, and we constantly ran into the sides of the river. It was quite a relief to be finished, and we decided to treat ourselves to Jamie's Italian restaurant, which was very tasty. Tomorrow we are all taking a coach to the Hampton Court Palace and the Kew Gardens, so I'm very excited for that! I'm also exhausted from today, so I'll need to get my sleep for tomorrow's travels. Ironically we did not go out to a pub today, of all days, the first Friday, but I think people were planning night outings for when we come back from the trip tomorrow. Cheers!

First Class and Welcome Dinner

I am posting about yesterday since I got back very late and went right to bed. Yesterday I had my first class, The History and Architecture of Oxford, at 2pm. It was very interesting, and I'm sure it will be a great class, but I'm not sure if it will be possible to do this class in addition to my tutorial and the other course I'm taking here. Later in the evening, the Welcome Dinner was hosted in Corpus Christi College (which is my affiliated college) and it was very nice. They started us off with bread and soup, and then served us duck with vegetables, and finally gave us sorbet and coffee for dessert. I got to know more students during this dinner, which was very nice. Afterwards, a group of us (different than the previous night) went to a pub called Cape of Good Hope, which was a lot bigger than the Turf Tavern, and I tried a strawberry beer...it didn't taste as gross as normal beer, but I really got to know more students here, and we all had a great time! I should be able to post today's happenings later tonight - cheerio!

The University Tour

Today was very busy! First we had orientation meetings in the morning to inform us about the academic and cultural aspects of the trip, house policies, and emergency situations. In the afternoon I went to get a cell phone and visited Moo Moo's, a place famous for their milkshakes. I had a nutella-flavored milkshake that was amazing! We had the university tour for two hours, and I was able to see so much history and beauty. After that, we had a house meeting and they brought us Pizza Hut, and a group of people tried to get Trivial Pursuit going until we realized that it was the British version! We all failed at that game. Another group of people wanted to go out to a pub, so my roommate and I went along with them. It was very different that clubs back home, which I was glad about because I really enjoyed having Pimm's and socializing with other students in the programme. When we got back to the house, a group of girls were watching Pride and Prejudice so we joined them. I can't wait to see what the next days will bring!

And the Adventure Begins!

It is now my second day at Oxford! I arrived yesterday afternoon and was picked up from the airport by my roommate and her father. We drove to the Stanford House and the countryside was beautiful. When we got to the house we were told that our room was on the top floor - it says floor three but it's more like the fifth floor with all of the stairs we have to climb to get up there. We have a really nice view so hopefully I can post pictures soon. Yesterday we had an introductory orientation, a small tour of the main street (High Street), and a meet and greet with tea and scones. My roommate, Julianne, my friend Pats, and I went down the street to buy my a cell phone but the stores were closed so I'm going to get one today during a lunch break. We also went to buy our groceries for today and came back to eat dinner in the house. My roommate and I unpacked and were exhausted so we went to be relatively early. Today we have to set up our laptops on the Oxford network, attend multiple orientations, go on a university tour, and learn the rules of the house. More to come!