I have a busy weekend coming up - I'm going to London tomorrow all day, staying the night, and potentially going to Stonehenge on Saturday. I need to be back at the house Saturday night to work on my paper because I have a presentation for my class next week, and I want to have time for both. I'm also going to Paris the weekend after, so I'll need to start the paper for that class and the following tutorial paper. Hopefully I can post about what exciting things happen in London when I come back.

I am Now Officially 21 Everywhere!

Yay for being twenty-one! But I shall begin with Sunday night... My birthday twin (another girl was born on April 30 and turned 21 with me) brought me a drink at midnight so that we could celebrate together. My roommate also brought me pink champagne, decorated the door to our room, and made sure that everyone knew it was my birthday. I was very happy that I was able to skype my mom and brother on my birthday! But after all of that, I stayed up very late to finish my reading. I actually witnessed my first English sunrise, although I did not pull a full all-nighter that night.

On Monday we went to Stratford, which was such a small and quaint town. It's famous for Shakespeare, who was born, raised, and died there. I actually got to see his house (where he was born) and his grave, which was pretty amazing. After we walked around Stratford, a group of my friends wanted to eat for my actual birthday dinner, so we went to this pub called "The Black Swan" which apparently has award-winning fish n chips. I still hadn't had fish n chips in the UK, so I ordered those, along with rose' and lemonade. It was a delicious dinner. Then one of my friends ordered three scoops of ice cream for my dessert. Twelfth Night was very interesting, but I'm glad I was able to watch a Shakespeare play in the town he came from. I'll post pictures in a little.

When we got back to Oxford, it was pouring rain, but my friend hadn't eaten dinner, so I went with her to find food. We ran through a really big rain storm, which was funny because we at least had a good amount of clothing on, unlike all of the "ladies" who were ready to party for May Day and had to run around in the rain in their mini skirts and pumps. When we got back to the house, we had a study party since the three of us had to work on our papers, and really couldn't be out all night partying. I actually ended up pulling an all nighter to finish my paper, WHICH I JUST FINISHED, so I can go print that and wait to attend my tutorial. I've been avoiding going on Facebook because of all of the posts, but I want everyone to know that I appreciate their birthday wishes!

After my tutorial this afternoon, I plan on sleeping, sleeping, and sleeping. Cheerio, from the new twenty-one-year-old!

Continuing Celebrations

I have made such great friends here - they all want to make my birthday a memorable one! But I should start with Friday. On Friday I went to the library to read for my next tutorial paper, which I've been doing a large amount of reading for. In the evening, we had an Un-Special Dinner in the study room: we had pasties with either steak, chicken, pork, or vegetables, someone made a salad, and they bought cheap drinks (there were also EANABs which are equally attractive non-alcoholic drinks) to make this an un-classy event. It was really fun to hang out with everyone again, and my steak pasty was actually quite tasty. I would've liked to have an empanada, though. After we ate, some of us played the British version of Taboo, and then there was a dance party planned but our Junior Dean came back earlier than everyone expected and sort of ruined those plans. It was still a fun night though.

Today (Saturday) I woke up to work on the reading for my paper more. Then some of my friends took me out to a nice place for my birthday dinner. It was nice to go out to eat, and I was excited for their boba, but it wasn't all that great, so they all suggested I try my first "drink". I went up to the bar to order it (I'm not going to post the name, but the drink was very girly and hardly had any alcohol in it) and my friend Zander bought it for me. Apparently tomorrow, in Stratford, people are planning to take me to dinner before we see Twelfth Night, and my drink will be payed for as well. After dinner, we walked back to the house and my friend Thuy had made a special birthday dessert for me. Everyone sang, and they even lit a candle for me, but I was nervous that it would make the super sensitive smoke alarm go off so I blew it out straight away. It was really nice of everyone to care about my 21st birthday (especially since we're in a country that doesn't see 21st birthdays as a big deal) and I can't wait for tomorrow and Tuesday (May DAY) celebrations!

Thursday: Pride and the Beginning of Celebrations

I had such an eventful day yesterday, I can't even believe it. In the morning, I woke up super early (7am) so that I could allow myself time to get lost on the way to my first tutorial to turn in my first paper. That was smart, because I rode the bus past where I was supposed to go, and needed to ask for help finding the place. I met this really nice British old man who is affiliated with St. Clare's College but is currently teaching at a high school in the area. He led me to the right place while engaging in conversation and also gave me his email - see, there are nice people here!

When I found my tutor, we walked to a Starbucks and she bought me a frappuccino for our session. We talked about me so that she could get to know me better, and then we went through my paper. I was so happy to hear her positive feedback and encouraging comments. I had been really nervous because this is the first time I've ever been cautiously looked at in terms of my writing, but she explained the English grading system to me, and gave me a high mark! I'm very proud of my first paper (and I'll definitely keep it for grad school samples) but I'm hoping that I'm able to keep up the good streak and improve my writing while I'm here.

After my tutorial, I wanted to go to the Radcliffe Science Library, so I took the bus back to the Oxford Centre and tried to walk, but I got lost (again) and ended up just going back to town and grocery shopping at Tesco. (I plan on going to the RSL today after lunch.) The weather had been rather nice until I left Tesco - it started pouring as soon as I finished paying for my things, so I had an interesting walk back home.

I put away all of my groceries and went to eat lunch with some friends at Corpus. It wasn't very good, but I knew I had exciting dinner plans, so it didn't matter much. I was able to meet some of my friends' "parents" and friends of their parents, and they all seemed interested in me and my morning story. I guess I'd say that I'm widening my social sphere and adding British people into it.

Then I had my gender class, in which we learned about the history of the family, statistics about marriage, divorce, child-bearning, laws in these areas, etc (all in Britain). It was very interesting to learn about all of these in the UK, and we had some very intriguing discussions throughout the lecture. Then, one of my friends presented statistics about domestic violence, and pointed out a ridiculous case that happened last month that none of us could believe. I'm really going to enjoy that class.

I knew we only had 20 minutes to get ready for our dinner plans, so I rushed to get pretty after class. There were about 8 of us, all dressed to go to the theater, walking down High Street (yes, I did it in heels) to eat at Atomic Burger. That place is amazing! I had a burger called the "Frito Bandito" that had nachos, salsa, guacamole, sour cream, and cheese. It was delicious, and I'm glad I got to hang out with that group of girls.

Afterward, we walked over to the theater to see the London cast preform Avenue Q. It was hilarious!!! I was either laughing or smiling to keep myself from laughing the whole time! It was a little mature for some of the people we saw in the audience (especially the high school boys) but I'm really glad I was able to go. I still have most of the songs stuck in my head, but they aren't exactly appropriate to sing out loud, so I'll just have to hum the tunes! When it was over, we went to Tesco to buy some snacks, and came back to the house to plan our...

TRIP TO GREECE!!! We're flying into Athens on May 25, going to an island for the the next two days, then flying out of Athens on the 28! There are 5 of us girls flying in and leaving together, and another girl is going to leave a bit early since she has class on Monday. We're really excited about it, and I was singing songs from Mamma Mia during our planning process. The plane tickets came out to be a good price, and we've found really cheap hotels (we're planning to get one room and share to make it even cheaper) but we're going to decide which island we want to visit later on today.

Like I said, what an eventful day. And in other news, I can't believe I'm turning 21 on Monday! I'll need to post about my celebratory events, although I think they started yesterday!

Attention: I Have Completed My First Tutorial Paper!!!

What fun has this been to write a ten page paper on the classification of abnormal psychology and the problems with these methods...but I am finally done!! Phew, that took a lot of time, reading, researching, writing, organizing, structuring and restructuring, and formatting, but I am proud to say that I completed the paper the night before it's due. I will meet with my tutor tomorrow morning - hopefully our tutorial goes well.

I've basically been working on my paper and forming bonds with the people in the house these past few days, but today something special happened. I met my Oxford Parents! So I have a "mum" and a "dad" in Corpus Christi College, and I had tea with them this afternoon. My mum's name is Livvy: she's a second-year Ancient History major from the Oxford area and is the captain of the Women's Rowing Team. My dad's name is Anthony (pronounced "Antony"): he's a second-year Classics major from London and I don't think he plays any sports, but he went to San Diego when he was 7. It's a little funny that they're both younger than me, but they are really nice, and they've both expressed that they'd like to spend more time with me and invite me to events and such. Apparently I have a "little brother" as well, but he couldn't make it to our tea this afternoon because he has exams, so I'll meet him another time. I'm glad my "parents" are so nice - I was worried that they wouldn't be as welcoming as Stanford students are, but they're just as good! It'll take some time getting used to this "family" structure, especially since Stanford has "big sibs" rather than parents and whatnot, but I'm sure I'll become very close to them.

I also had dinner at Corpus tonight, and I posted a picture (taken on my janky little cell phone) on Facebook for all to marvel. Unfortunately I can't post it to this blog because the file won't transfer to the correct kind, but it was a very "Ari" dinner: spaghetti and meatballs, peas, strawberries with whipped cream, a Chelsea roll (kind of like a Cinnabon but without the cinnamon and glaze) and apple juice. I was shocked, but happy, and ate every last bit!

Tomorrow shall be exciting: After my tutorial, I'm going to check out the Radcliffe Science Library and see if I can find the books I'll need for my next tutorial paper. Then I plan on doing some reading and making it back to Corpus for lunch. I'll have my Gender and Social Change class tomorrow, which I'm excited about because one of my friends will be presenting about Domestic Violence in Britain. Then, a group of us girls are going to get all prettied-up, go out to dinner together, and go down the street to see the London Cast preform Avenue Q! I've never seen this musical, but I've heard wonderful things about it, and I can't wait! After we come back to the house, we'll plan our trip to Greece! Well it's off to beddy-bye for me, but I hope I'm able to come back tomorrow night and post about tomorrow. Cheerio!

Manic Monday

How shall I write about what I did today? Well, it involved a ton of reading, some reading, a little bit of reading, loads of reading, and still more reading. It's a wonder that I'm interested in a field with so much reading... Anyway, I gave myself some slack and slept in a little this morning, especially since I was exhausted from this past weekend. After my shower I made some breakfast and set up my little reading station in my room. The dining halls are now open, so I went to my first meal at Corpus Christi for lunch today. It was quite confusing, very different from Stanford, and nothing like what we're used to. The food wasn't too bad (apparently we have the best dining hall out of the colleges Stanfordians are affiliated with, so that's nice) but we realized that the amount of money placed on our Bod Cards isn't enough to last us the rest of the term. It's interesting because the food stipend we get isn't enough either... Anyway, the students weren't very open to talking with us during lunch, so we decided we'd be more sociable at dinner. After lunch I ran errands with one of my friends and sent postcards, which was exciting. It was pouring outside, and we were pretty soaked when we got back to the house, but we managed to stop by a cafe and grab some warm, yummy tea for our reading/paper writing. My afternoon was filled with more reading, and then dinner was a little better on the social (and meal) side. We met some nice students who pretty much only wanted to ask us about the Stanford students they knew from SoCo and the American education system (4 years of university as opposed to 3, and not being able to major in law, medicine, edication, etc). Tonight was open beer cellar night at my college, but I decided to stay in and finish my reading, which made me feel pretty productive. I rewarded myself by catching up on my TV shows, and I'm now off to bed so that I can dedicate tomorrow to writing my paper. Hopefully I can be productive tomorrow!

Chester and North Wales!

I'm back! Sorry I wasn't able to post this weekend; I had limited wifi and figured that my Facebook pictures would suffice until I was able to post about the whole trip. On Friday we saw Kenilworth Castle which was very old, and got to explore around the ruins and climb up on the ancient castle. Then we drove to Chester to drop off our luggage in our hotel rooms and took a walking tour of the town, which wasn't too exciting. Saturday we went to Conwy Castle, which was mush prettier than the previous one, and Llandudno, in which we took a tram up to see a lighthouse but we didn't have time to hike to it, so we just took pictures and tried to stay out of the pouring rain at the top of the hill. Afterward, we had a grilled dinner in the hotel restaurant. On Sunday, we went to Snowdonia (Mount Snowdon) which was really pretty, and the hike was not too rough, although it seems to always start raining whenever we leave the bus. Thank goodness it didn't snow! Then we drove to the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct where we walked across the bridge and saw beautiful scenery. Afterward, we took a rest stop for a small dinner and made our way back to the Stanford House. Blimey, what a busy weekend it was! Now I need to work on my paper, which the due date was thankfully moved back to Thursday by request of my tutor (and I'm not complaining, although now I have to travel an hour to meet with her at 9am that day)!