England Journal

Yesterday was pretty normal, though a little depressing. I woke up and turned on my lights, which didn’t come on but flashed off. I figured the bulb burned out, so I went downstairs and found the light bulbs. I changed it and it still didn’t turn on, although the first one was broken on the inside. So now I figured it was a fuse. I read with the lights off and my window shade open for a while but it was cloudy outside so that didn’t help much. I was trying to wait and see if one of the guys could tell me how to work the fuse box. None of them were up by noon, so I found the fuse box and looked up. One switch didn’t say on so I flipped it up and then went upstairs and tried the light. It worked. So I felt proud of myself. Then I explored some and found that the door next to me is unlocked. So I went into the room. Nobody is staying there, but the bed is made and everything so I guess Marshelle could have slept there. It is bigger than my room, with a bunch of shelves, a bigger closet, a dresser, and more windows. I’m apparently the only person who didn’t get a dresser. I keep my clothes on a bookshelf. Definitely got the worst room.

I finished all my tutorial reading so now I just have to take notes on the questions and then find a book on anti-globalization to recommend to my tutor. I don’t know if I’ll be able to finish it in two days, but I’ll try. If I don’t, I think he’ll understand since we’re meeting a day earlier than normal, although I’ve thought about asking him if we could normally meet on Wednesdays instead so then I could have two good days of reading before the weekend when I will be travelling, so then I won’t have to think about it as much then. I finished Hitch Hiker today too. After a lunch of cheese and crackers and peanut butter and crackers, I read it to take a break. It was very good, although the last book seemed almost like it didn’t fit in with the other three, but it was still good. I’m glad I got to read those books. I might try to read some more Douglas Adams too.

After I finished my reading from my textbooks, I tried to figure out routes for getting to Bath with my Britrail pass. I think that’s where I’m going to try to go this weekend. I also tried to figure out how I would get to the airport on time Tuesday morning without having to stay over night at a hotel. We’ll see if that works out. Places to stay are very expensive here but I might just have to use the last of my money on that. There’s one way I can do it overnight, but I won’t get any sleep, but I guess maybe I would be able to sleep on the plane ride home then. We’ll see. After this I started reading my last article, but I didn’t finish it because I left early for Evensong, so that I could stop by the library.

That would have been great because I would have returned Hitch Hiker and gotten a new book to read last night before I went to bed. Only thing was, the library was closed, as was everything else. Even Borders closed at 5:30. I think there was one cafe that I saw that was open and the fast food restaurants. I considered stopping in KFC just to wait for Evensong. Then I decided I would just head to the church. I got there a little after 5:30 and the guy at the entrance, motioned to me and asked me what I was doing. I said I came for Evensong and he said that he couldn’t let anyone in until 5:45, even though there was a sign facing outwards that he was standing next to that said, “Church now open for worship. Evensong 6:00.” He said go get a cup of coffee and come back. I wanted to tell him 1)I don’t drink coffee and 2)Nothing is open. Instead, I left and walked very slowly around Oxford, where it was already dark of course and looked in windows of shops where the lights were still on to show their displays but nothing was open. I walked slowly for 15 minutes and wanted to cry but told myself I couldn’t because then I would look silly with red eyes going into the church. I finally I headed back to the church.

There was a new guy standing there. I said I was there for Evensong and he pointed me to the church. I walked in and was greeted with a sign that said, “Church open for worship 5:30. Evensong 6:00.” Which just made me more mad at the guy. I sat down in a row with one other guy sort of sitting in the middle. I sat sort of in the middle, though not next to him, but not on the end. After a couple minutes, the guy scooted all the way down to the other end of the row. I guess he didn’t want to sit next to me, which just made me feel all that much better. Then a lady came and sat between us and then he scooted down again so he wasn’t on the very end. He definitely didn’t want to sit next to me. I don’t know why, but it added to my mood. Later some other people came and sat on my other side so I didn’t feel quite so bad about myself. The service was really nice and cheered me up a bit. Quite different from my no music Catholic services. I think if I’m in town, I’ll start going to Evensong as well as Mass.

At the end, I walked out and saw that my iPod was in the red on the battery so I figured it would die on the way home. Surprisingly enough, it didn’t. I went by Tesco’s because I was hoping to get a frozen pizza for dinner, though I was doubting that it would be open, but I had thought on the internet it had said it was open fairly late, even on Sundays. It was closed, closed at 4. So I came back and ate Ramen noodles. Although I had to find a clean dish first. There were none, so I had to wash a nasty one. Even one of the dishes that was in the clean dishes thing was not clean. The guys here are sort of nasty, which I guess maybe all guys are when they live together. Two sinks are full of dirty dishes, plus dirty dishes on the counters beside the sinks. I just wash my own dishes because I’m not about to wash their’s since they eat there every night so they have dirty dishes every night, whereas I only eat there on the weekends. However, I can’t even wash my own dishes in the sinks because they are so full. I washed them in the bathroom sink. But anyway, there were no clean bowls and you sort of need a bowl to cook Ramen noodles, so I scrubbed one, which took a while to get clean and then made my noodles, thinking that guys are disgusting. Not the best substitute for pizza, but it was all I had. I did call down to our farm and talked to a bunch of my relatives, which was really nice to hear their voices. I wished I could be there with them but I’m glad I got to talk to everyone. It cheered me up a little. My mom said she would send me another book so I could read the book that I was saving for the plane ride home. So that gave me something to do at least.

After I talked to everyone, I walked downstairs to wash my face and smelled hamburger. It smelled really good and made my stomach feel sorry for itself again. Beef Ramen noodles don’t compare to hamburgers. Oh well. I e-mailed Kyle and asked him to call me when he got in so he could make me feel better. I guess there wasn’t that much to put me in a sad mood, just a lot of little things put on top of each other. Anyway, I read and went to bed at 11. In Britain, nothing opens before 9:00 a.m. I’ve found, sometimes not until 10. And almost everything closes, except the American companies, by around 5:30 at the latest, on Sunday even earlier. And then Borders closed too, although I don’t know if that was normal or not. I guess it’s a difference between our cultures, but when you’re working until 6:00 at night on studying things, it makes it quite inconvenient to not have any way to buy food, except by going to a kabob van, Burger King, or KFC. And I guess Starbucks stayed open until 6 or 6:30 but was closed before 7. I just don’t know if I can get used to that.

Yesterday, I tried to sleep in but woke up early. So I couldn’t think of anything to do so I took a shower and then played on the computer for a bit. I tried to eat an orange for breakfast but the peel had looked weird and it tasted weird, so I don’t know if oranges go bad but I decided not to eat it and instead had some oatmeal that Mrs. Miller had sent me and some tea. I looked at the website for the movie “Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.” I think it looks like it will be very good, and I want to see it when it comes out. I will be home by then, December 9. So that’s something to look forward to.

After this, I decided I needed to do work, so I read on my second book, took a break to eat lunch of tuna while I read Hitch Hiker, and then read my tutorial book some more. Then I took a break by going up to ask Marshelle if she had wanted to go to church with me that evening because she had said she might earlier in the week (her boyfriend is Catholic so she has been to Mass before). And then something very bad happened. Her lock had broken Thursday so she couldn’t leave her door unlocked so she had to take her key whenever she left her room. I always had taken my key with me because I thought my lock didn’t work either, but it turns out I can unlock it. It’s almost like a deadbolt lock at the top. So anyway, she had been taking a nap so she came out to talk to me. And by the way, her room has a sink in it. I think I got screwed when it comes to the rooms - I didn’t get a sink, nor did I get a dresser, and I don’t have a bathroom or kitchen on my floor, which everyone else seems to have this if not both. But anyway, she let her door shut and then realized she didn’t have her key with her. She had been in the habit of leaving her door unlocked. So she was locked out of her room, and there is no one in college on duty during the weekends, so it’s not like she can just get her door unlocked. So we started calling people, but no one was answering their phones. She left messages, hoping that someone would call back. She was in her pajamas, glasses, didn’t have any of her money, didn’t have shoes, didn’t have any of her books, so she couldn’t do much of anything. She ended up going to Regent’s wearing my flip-flops and one of my hoodies and taking one of my books that I let her borrow and taking her shower stuff, which she did have. She was going to try to get a hold of Dr. Curry, a G-town professor who is staying in the faculty flat, so that she could stay there and at least have a bed to sleep in. Pam Anderson said she would probably have to wait until Monday to get in. I feel really bad for her. I hope that doesn’t happen to me, I’ve been paranoid it would.

After she left, I read the last chapter that I had to read in my tutorial book, so now I have just a couple more things to read, so hopefully I’ll finish that today. I walked to church and they had a nice service, and announced that Tuesday is All Saints Day, a holy day of obligation, so I have to fit Mass in on Tuesday into my schedule. I had forgotten about that. On the way back to Stanley I stopped at a kabob van and got some chips, which were very good, not so much addictive, but good. I also saw that they have onion rings so next time I go to Mass on the weekend, I might get some of those and try them. I came back and had some vegetable soup with my fries.

And I called my mom and talked to Grammo and Darby as well. They were all working on the upstairs at the farm. I’m going to call again today when a bunch of people are going to be down there. Then I read Hitch Hiker and fell asleep around 9 because I was bored and a bit tired because reading always makes my eyes tired. I woke up a couple times, getting up around 2:30 to brush my teeth and read some more because I felt like I was getting too much sleep. The clocks were set back early this morning, so I woke up around 8, although it would have been 9, so I got a lot of sleep last night but I slept it so I guess I needed it.

Yesterday morning, I woke up around 8 so that I could go shopping a bit before I started reading for next week’s tutorial. It wasn’t very pretty outside and I thought about just going later, but I told myself that I needed to go because I said I would. There is this little tea shop that has an “early bird” special with certain things marked 20% off but only when it first opens. I’m not sure how long it lasts but I wanted to try to get to it. So I got there and they had a sample thing with hot chocolate to try, except it was white hot chocolate. It was very good. I ended up getting none of the things that were 20% off but got things that were in a sale basket that is always on sale. I thought about getting some of the hot chocolate but decided that England isn’t really well-known for its hot chocolate, so I didn’t get any. I did get all my shopping done, though. I have no one to buy for for Christmas or for souvenirs now. Though some people I shopped for before I got to England, when I had my Hallmark discount, but now I am completely finished so I don’t have to worry about spending more money when I’m here, except on trips nor do I have to worry about it when I get home. Yay!!

So after I probably took too much time to shop, I went to Regent’s and read until lunch. Ruth came in after a while so we talked a bit and then both read. I had the salad bar for lunch and I was really glad for that because neither of the other options looked too appetizing. After lunch I headed back to Stanley Rd. Ruth had to go to Sainsbury’s so she walked with me until then. When I got back, I talked to Kyle for a while because he was getting ready to leave for this retreat like thing so he’ll be gone all weekend and we won’t get to talk. Maybe it will be good for us not to be talking every day. And soon I’ll be gone at least parts of the weekends so we’ll have to get used to it for the last part of me being over here.

After we talked I didn’t feel like doing any work so I didn’t for a bit. I looked up what classes are being offered at G-town and tried to figure out a schedule, though it’s sort of hard because it depends on if I graduate this year or not. I think I might not, but we’ll see. But then I decided I had to do something so I read the last of the chapters that I had to read in one of my tutorial books so that today I could start on the second book. Then I wrote my blog quickly, got ready for formal hall and headed back to Regent’s. I sat next to Ruth and two other people to whom I haven’t really talked much, Adam and Ellie, I think. I talked to Ellie a bit because she was asking me how things were going. Dinner was actually really good. The starter was ravioli and garlic bread, although the ravioli was on top of the garlic bread which was a little weird. Then the vegetarian was spinach roulade, which was really nice, plus potatoes, broccoli, and cauliflower and some gravy, which was good. I think the vegetarian options always turn out better than the meat option for formal hall. I’m glad I always opt to get that. Anyway I ate it all. The dessert was a bit too sweet for me, some sort of pastry with whipped cream, almonds, and caramel. I ate the top with the almonds but the caramel was too much.

So I was very full when a few of us went to this ice cream place, G&D’s, for Ruth’s birthday. Five of us went and some people said they would come later, after the pub quiz in the JCR, but we ended up leaving before they got there. It was Jonny (spelled that wrong before I found out), Esther, a girl named Ali, Ruth, and me. We stayed until about 9:45 or so. I didn’t get anything because I wasn’t hungry but Esther said I had to at least try something so she made me get a spoon and try her sorbet. It was good and they also have bagel pizzas there, which smelled really good, so I might go back sometime when I’m hungry and get something. We talked and I ended up getting everyone’s MSN name so we could talk online since I don’t have a mobile. They all text message all the time, barely use their phones for actual calling, so MSN was the best we could do. But that’s good that I have some contact info for them now. Ruth took pictures and she’s going to e-mail them to me at some point so I can put those up so you all can see my friends! I had meant to bring my camera too but I forgot.

There are two different ways to get back to Regent’s from G&D’s and Jonny said his way was quicker and Esther said her way was quicker, so we raced back. Esther won, but barely. On the way back we were walking on the street and then a car came so Ruth said we should get on the pavement, and then she said, “Or the sidewalk, as you call it” trying to do an American accent. It was quite funny and we all laughed, but maybe you had to be there. That was fun though. I feel like I fit in somewhat with that group. When we got back to Regent’s I said bye and headed back to Stanley Rd.

When I got there, I called my mom and she had just had a slight wreck, she’s fine and the car is fine. But she hadn’t been having a good day so that didn’t help. When she got back to school she called me on skype and we talked for a while. I felt like I hadn’t talked to her in forever because she’s been busy this week. It was good to talk to her, had some good news and some bad news. Ona, this very nice lady who lives down the street on 4th Street has had cancer for a while, but they put her in the hospital and gave her a week, and two of my mom’s friends with breast cancer stuff, so pray for cancer patients. But my cousin Bruce who has been in the hospital since April, I think, with kidney problems among other things, got to go home, so that is very good. He still needs prayers too though. It was after midnight when I got off the phone, but I wasn’t that tired so I read Hitch Hiker and finished the third book, and then made myself go to bed. I’ve been staying up later but getting up earlier lately it seems, which it’s good that I’ve gotten back into the habit of waking up early, but I think I need to start going to bed earlier too. We’ll see if I can work that out.

Okay, yesterday was an okay day. I got up early, at 7, so I could get ready and print out my paper to put in my tutor’s pigeon hole. Kyle was still awake so I talked to him for a bit and then went to Regent’s. When I got there, there was a sign that they had increased prices per sheet of paper to print, so now it’s the same price as printing from the social sciences library so I’ll probably print from there from now on because it is closer to my tutor’s college, Harris Manchester. I printed out my paper and walked it over. Then I went to the library to review and take more notes for the actual tutorial. I actually felt like I knew the stuff pretty well, but I was really tired, I think because I didn’t get my full eight hours of sleep.

So I walked over to Harris Manchester at 11 and when I got there Mark was still meeting with the students before me, who happened to be the three Regent’s first-year PPE students. I’m not in the same tutorial with them because a)I’m doing macro while they are doing micro and b)I’m doing second year stuff rather than first year. So apparently all three guys had gotten there late for various reasons according to Mark (later I heard one of the guys at lunch say they had all forgotten about the meeting and each arrived about 15-20 minutes late), so Mark asked if I could come back in 15 minutes. I said sure, walked over to Blackwell’s book store because I hadn’t been in there yet, looked around for a bit, and then walked back. They were just getting finished.

When I got into Mark’s office, I gave him the globalization book back and he said there was going to be another slight change of plans. There was a scheduled fire drill for 11:30 (it was now 11:15) where everyone would have to leave so rather than be interrupted, he said we could go to this university cafe and get some tea. We walked over there and it is technically only for professors and graduate students so I wasn’t supposed to be there. But Mark got regular tea and I had peppermint tea, which gave me something to drink so I wasn’t yawning the whole time. I was still tired.

We talked over things and I seemed to get it all right. I asked two questions at the beginning about some things I wasn’t really sure about and he said that was what we were scheduled to do next week so I hadn’t really had much reading on it. So that was good that my questions were looking ahead, I think. He also asked how the talk went and I told him about it. He said he didn’t have a book for me this week, that he hadn’t found a good one on the opposite side of Martin Wolf that argued against globalization, so my assignment this week is to try to find a good book on that and give him a suggestion for a good one to read. I’m not sure about that, but I’ll try.

When we left he said he had to go to London next Thursday so we are going to have the tutorial next Wednesday instead at 11. Since I don’t have a paper next week, this won’t be a big deal. It will actually be good because then the next week I’ll have an extra day to do stuff for when I do have a paper. I headed over to the library again and got my books for this week. Then I walked over to Regent’s for lunch. It was fish and chips again so I actually didn’t get the salad bar or the vegetarian option. It was very good. I had seconds of fish, chips, and peas so I ate a lot. I like those meals a lot. And this time they had tartar sauce but I actually ate most of it just plain with lemon juice squeezed on it.

After lunch I started walking over to the Keston Institute. I stopped in Boots on the way to waste a little time because I had gotten done with lunch more quickly than I thought I would. I got to Keston and they made me a cup of tea with milk to drink while I worked. Then Davorin had me go to a website with links for all the seminaries/theological schools in North America and find the right people to address envelopes to. They are sending their journal to them, hoping they will subscribe. So I addressed envelopes, which they said they were so sorry it was boring work. But actually it was sort of nice because it was mindless work and I didn’t have to think about anything, which can be relaxing every now and then. So I stayed there until 4, talking to another guy there about Kentucky and their “greatest drink” and what famous people were from there.

Then I walked back to Stanley Rd. because I was tired before so I had planned on lying down. However, I think this second cup of tea had caffeine in it so I didn’t really get tired again until it was almost time to go back to Regent’s for dinner. Before that I read some and looked through a catalog that I had picked up at Boots. Then I walked back.

At dinner, I sat next to Dan who I hadn’t talked to in a while. I also sat across from Kat, the girl who had been at Georgetown this fall, who I hadn’t really met yet but she knew who I was and I knew who she was, so I talked to both of them. Interesting conversations. I had some sort of pasta dish and mushroom soup and then some sort of lemon cake for dessert. None of it tasted wonderful but it filled me up. I walked back to Stanley Rd., opting not to go to the pub because I was tired and also because it seemed like more a time to to go drink to relax more than just to go talk and it was sort of a regular group so I think I would have felt out of place. But mainly I was just tired. I got back and tried to write my blog and then my computer froze. So I talked to Kyle and got mad when my computer froze. Then he had to go so I called my mom to ask her a question, and then went to bed. Somewhat eventful day but I was tired the whole time, so I was very happy to fall asleep.

I’m not posting my real entry tonight because I started to and then my computer froze and now I’m in a bad mood because I lost it all so I’ll write an entry on my day today sometime tomorrow. Computers make me so mad sometimes.

I woke up around 7:30 this morning without my alarm so I just decided to stay up, though I didn’ turn on my lights until after 9 or so, after my shower. Kyle happened to still be up so we talked for a bit. Then, after my morning routine, I started on finishing my paper. I got it done by around 10:40 so I read the globalization book. My tutor had said I didn’t need to read the whole thing because I would probably get the idea after the first few chapters, but I was going to try to read it anyway. I got through chapter 6. This was not as exciting as the poverty book. He seemed to just keep saying the same things over and over again. I read through my paper once and talked to my mom briefly before I started out to Regent’s for lunch.

I sat with Marshelle and Johnnie. The guy in charge of the meals came and asked me if I had signed up for my jacket potato. I said yes. Later, another guy, Alex, came and sat down and he said he didn’t get his potato so I guess they were short one and were making sure everyone who had one had signed up. Ruth came in to tell me she hadn’t signed up for lunch but we agreed to meet at 1:30 to go to the box office. We went and she got a seat not next to mine but in the same row for Sleeping Beauty. The lady said we could probably get people to move down so we could still sit next to each other. So that will be fun since someone is going with me. Ruth and I are both very excited about the ballet.

After this I read Hitch Hiker for a bit until I decided to go to the Museum of the History of Science. On the way I stopped at Sainsbury’s and got some snickers bars because I wanted one. After 2 bites, I decided I didn’t really want one, but I ate the rest of it anyway, slowly but surely. The museum mainly had a bunch of historical measuring things, like clocks, compasses, beakers, astrolabes, and lots of stuff like that. There was one case with lots of old photography cameras and then another with moving film things, which were neat. There was also a chalkboard that had been saved with writings of Albert Einstein that he had used when he came to Oxford to give a lecture. So it was a pretty cool museum, though not my favorite kind of stuff. It was fairly small, though, so it didn’t take long to go through.

I still had a little while before the economist talk so I went to the social sciences library and read over my paper again. This time I noticed that I had spelled “hire” (as in workers) as “higher” (wrong word), which somehow I had already passed it once and the only reason I noticed it this time was because it told me there was a grammatical mistake for something else in the same sentence. Really glad I noticed though, or else I would have felt quite stupid when my tutor would have pointed it out to me. Then I read Hitch Hiker again. I found the place where the talk was to be given and went up there a little before. It was quite crowded. It was actually very interesting. I had been afraid that it wasn’t going to be considering I hadn’t really gotten into his book. It was about “Debt, Deficit, and the Dollar” and talked all about the current savings and investment of almost all the countries in the world being in surplus while the U.S. is carrying pretty much all of the deficit with huge debt. I was glad I went.

I walked back to Regent’s and read Hitch Hiker until dinner. I didn’t eat much of my dinner. The starter was a spring roll and small salad which was very good but the main course was some kind of noodles with vegetables which turned out to taste somewhat like Ramen seasoning except very spicy. I like spicy but the table ran out of water and it was just a bit too spicy for me. Dessert was ice cream with a wafer cookie, though, which was very good.

Marshelle and I walked back together. When I got in, I talked to my mom for a few minutes before she had to go to a dentist appointment. Then I talked to Kyle while I ate some cheese and crackers and some peanut butter and crackers. Then I drank some tea while I read Hitch Hiker again. I read a lot today but many times it was for short periods of time so, though I am a slow reader, I’m not extremely slow, like this may make me sound, considering it is taking quite a while to read Hitch Hiker. Of course, it’s also 4 books in 1, so that makes it really long too. After reading some, I remembered that I hadn’t written my blog yet, so I’m doing that and then going to bed to get up early tomorrow for my tutorial. it was nice to have things finished today so I could be relaxed the day before my tutorial rather than trying to finish everything up hurriedly. Not having stress is a very good thing.

I meant to get up early this morning and I woke up at 7 when Kyle messaged me because he was going to bed but he didn’t think he would wake me up if I was asleep. I woke up but then I fell back to sleep. Then my alarm went off at 8 so I turned it off and rolled back over, which I usually do, but usually I wake up again around 8:15 or 8:30. I didn’t wake up again until 9:10! Which I know that isn’t that late for some people but it’s sleeping in for me. But nothing disastrous came of it so it was okay. In the morning, I got an introduction paragraph and my works cited page done for my paper. Then I read the globalization book until time to go to lunch. Marshelle and I walked over together and it was extremely windy. I think it almost knocked me over a couple times. But it actually wasn’t too cold, in the 50s, which apparently it is colder over there in Kentucky. Crazy how this weather works. I thought I was supposed to be freezing all the time over here, but I’m sure it will get cold here too eventually. I forgot to see where my seat was for Sleeping Beauty so Ruth and I are going to postpone going to the box office to get her ticket until tomorrow.

Lunch was good, the salad bar and jacket potato. And then they had extra dessert so I had apple crumble with custard for dessert, which was pretty good. After lunch I went up to Regent’s library and started on my paper. I was using four sources as I went and I got through two sources, then took a break by reading the globalization book. Ruth came up to read also so we were both sitting there reading and we could hear the wind outside. It was crazy. Then I got through another source before I had to go to the Christianity and Culture lecture. So tomorrow, I have one more source to get through and then a conclusion. Then I’ll just have to revise.

Before the lecture, I ran up to check my mail and I had a package so I went to go get it before the office closed. It was from Kyle’s mom, which was very nice. Yesterday, I got a letter from Kyle’s grandmother, which I think I forgot to mention. It had gotten somewhat lost in my pigeon hole (I share it with the other G-town students) but Marshelle had seen it last week so she brought it down to me because she thought I might not have seen it. It was a very nice letter and really sweet. Good to get things in the mail, which by the way, Regent’s is probably the best address to send things to rather than Stanley Rd. I think. I didn’t get to open my package until I got back to the house because I had to get to the lecture.

The lecture was really good. It was on visual art and Christianity and it was given by the Bishop of Oxford of the Church of England, who actually had just announced his retirement earlier that day or yesterday. He was quite interesting. His slides of the art he was showing must have gotten mixed up somehow because they were not in the order that he had thought they were. At one point, he had just changed slides, and he said, “Now this is extraordinary,” (I’m expecting him to say something abour this amazing art work), “how we got to this slide at this point.” But he made the order work so it was still a good lecture. Dr. Rob Ellis, who was the guy who came over to Georgetown to interview students before they could be accepted to study at Regent’s for a term, sat next to me and we talked a bit before the lecture.

Afterwards, Kyle Potter led a discussion on the lecture for students. It turned out the only students who really came to the lecture were Marshelle, Luke, Rhys, and me so we were the only ones at the discussion too. I didn’t really talk, but then I never really do in that kind of setting, so we just discussed things about art and religion and then went down to dinner. I think dinner might have had tofu in it. It was a cooked zucchini cut in half with a layer of something on top, which I think was scrambled tofu and chickpeas. There were also potatos, carrots, and cauliflower with some sort of sauce on it. I ate pretty much all of it, plus the starter of hard boiled eggs and some bread. Then dessert was lemon meringue pie. I guess all their meringue things are hard and crispy on top, which I don’t think I like that much. My grandma’s lemon merignue pie has soft meringue and more sugar I think because it’s not as sour. Of course, I guess I shouldn’t be comparing my grandmother’s food with cafeteria food. I ate about half of my dessert and then Marshelle and I walked back to Stanley Rd.

The walk definitely goes quicker with someone to talk to. When I got back I opened my package. It had a nice little book and tea and lots of food, including Halloween stuff like candy corn and little jack-o-lantern napkins. Yay! It was really nice and made my day. Very exciting to get a package and now I have extra snack food for those of you worried about my weight. I will reiterate though, that I think I have stopped losing weight and have stabilized and I may even gain some weight back before I return.

So anyway, I talked to Kyle for a bit and then my mom and then Kim and Lee. Got an e-mail from Christi and Brendan. And now I guess I might read for a bit and maybe make a mug of tea before I go to bed. I’ve been drinking tea a lot since I’ve gotten it, and I’ve even been doing it the British way with milk and sometimes sugar (normally I drink it just plain). Well today was just another ordinary day, well not ordinary because I had extra things to do, but nothing too exciting besides my package, which was exciting. Okay I’m going to stop writing now.

Last night, after I wrote my blog, I went downstairs to wash my dishes around 12:30. Matt came in and said that he had been out all day with a group of other economic students working on a macroeconomic problem and they didn’t really get anywhere. They, as in more than one person, had been working on it until midnight and they still weren’t close to being finished. He said it was frustrating. I can’t imagine. I don’t think I’ll ever get that deep into econ. He’s doing pre-doctoral or doctoral stuff with all kinds of complicated math and calculus, if I hadn’t said that before. Crazy smart guy. Just wanted to mention that.

I woke up this morning at 8:15, planning on working on my internship paper for G-town in the morning and then pumping out a rough draft for my tutorial paper in the afternoon. I took a little while but did get my G-town paper pretty much done in the morning. My mom called for a quick chat because she wasn’t going to be able to talk tonight so that was good, although skype was acting weird. I then went to lunch at Regent’s and sat near Marshelle who had been much more productive than me. She got to her library by 10 that morning. She said I would be proud. Haha. I guess she thinks I’m better at keeping on track then her. She was trying to get stuff done because she was going to a play in Stratford this evening.

After lunch I walked with her to the mall, of sorts, so she could buy some hair things to pull back her hair at Claire’s. She had gone to a few other stores earlier and none had hair things so she had to resort to Claire’s. Weird. Then she went to her library and I went back to Stanley Rd. to work. I didn’t get much done. I read through my G-town paper one last time and then sent it off to Dr. Cairo. I read some of Hitch Hiker, which I shouldn’t have done, and then Kyle happened to be back at his apartment so I talked to him some. As soon as I got done talking to him Amanda messaged me so I talked to her on AIM for a bit. Then I finally made myself buckle down. I didn’t write but I got notes down for two of my discussion questions and a sort of outline with pages where stuff is for my paper. The last question, I sort of know but I just have to write stuff down and look through some of the articles again, which usually I don’t take notes on the questions until the morning of the tutorial so I’m ahead there.

I was thinking of going to a lecture tomorrow morning, but now I think I’ll wait since I’m already going to a talk for my tutorial this week. Next week I’ll try going to a lecture when I don’t have my other stuff to do too.

Then the excitement came on my walk to dinner. It was already sort of dark, so I was just walking in my baggy jeans and hoodie so I couldn’t have looked too attractive if they could even really see me. I think I just got their attention because I have blond hair. Anyway, there were these guys across the street sort of jumping up and down and they had been running. They were sort of yelling but not anything that I could understand so I glanced over but kept walking because I thought they were just yelling at each other, like guys do, to pump each other up or something. Then they started to run across the street when the traffic had cleared, and they were yelling, “Hey! Hey!” at me (there was no one else really around). For some reason I was thinking they were asking me for the time. Now I am extremely dense when it comes to guys so this isn’t really that surprising that this is what I thought. If you would like other stories about how I have been dense in the past, you can e-mail me, but my entries are already too long so I won’t tell them here. Anyway, I’m glad I didn’t tell them the time but waited to make sure that was what they were asking. They weren’t, obviously. I had turned, so one guy yells, “I fancy you.” I just sort of laughed and started to turn back around. Then the other guys yells, “Can I have your phone number?” I sort of shrugged and yelled back that I didn’t know it, which I don’t because I never use my actual phone. He sort of said, “Aw!” or something to that effect of disappointment but they went on their way. I don’t know what they would have done if I had said yes because there is only one of me and there were two of them, both of them hitting on me in a way. But anyway, I just laughed and went on my way. Quite an amusing experience.

I came into dinner and I told Ruth about it. She laughed and said I should have said I was taken. Didn’t think about that response, just answered with the first thing that came to my head. Dinner was good and actually filling, some sort of vegetable pie-like thing. Dessert was a trifle, which I don’t think I’ve ever had before. It was pretty good, although there was cake in the jello (or jelly as they say) part of it, which is what it is supposed to be but I didn’t really like that. After dinner, Ruth and I went up to the JCR and some other people did as well. We talked about travel abroad and some other things. She said her parents are now thinking they will come up Saturday instead of Sunday so I don’t guess we’ll do anything that day, but maybe before then, for her birthday.

I think tomorrow after lunch we’re going to walk over to the box office of the theatre where the ballet is so she can get a ticket. I told her I was probably going to a “coffee concert” on Sunday but she said she would be at church at that time so she can’t go. Marshelle is probably going with me though, so I won’t have to go alone. After a while, I decided to head back here, which I’m glad I did when I did because it started raining while I was walking and rained progressively harder as I went, but of course, I didn’t have my umbrella. I put my hood of my sweatshirt up so it was okay but my pants and shoes were soaked as well as my sweatshirt.

When I got in, I talked to Kyle again and when I told him about the guys, he said awesome, not really the response I was expecting but okay. I then read some of the globalization book until it made me tired. Then I talked to Melissa online for a while. And now I am going to go to bed so I can try to get up early and write my paper. Just a normal day with a bit of excitement.

I slept in some this morning, and after my morning routine, I read Hitch Hiker for a while until it was time for lunch. I ate my tuna while reading things on the internet. Then I e-mailed some people and decided that I should read my last article for my tutorial, the only productive thing I did all day. It was an inflationary report issued by the Bank of England for last November. I know everybody is so jealous of me right now. As I was reading this, some random person messaged me on skype. I have no idea who he was so it was weird, so I answered his questions vaguely and finally told him I was going to the grocery and had to go.

So after this, when I had finished reading, I got ready and headed out to Tesco. I was in a really weird mood, just really relaxed, maybe from not doing anything all day. I got to the store and was sort of amazed. Sainsbury’s is pretty small and doesn’t have much stuff. This store was quite big and there were tons of people. They had a fresh bread section and freezer sections, where there were frozen pizzas!! I didn’t get one this time, but I think I will next weekend maybe because they have personal size ones for only 30 pence. I ended up getting some herbal teas, buy one get one free, so I got peppermint (my favorite kind of tea for cold days) and vanilla. I also got some milk, for my tea and other things, and some cheese spread (also buy one get one free). Then I got some cheap chocolate chip cookies, which I might have to get some more of those. And last I got a sandwich size baguette. I almost got a bag of a baker’s dozen of rolls, the kind with the hard outside, sort of like a small baguette, but I was afraid I wouldn’t finish them before they go too hard. And I got all this food for a little over 5 pounds and then with my discounts, a little under 4 pounds. Pretty good deal. So that was very exciting and made me very happy. Now I can have cheese and crackers as well as peanut butter and crackers. Yay!! I’m also just glad to have the store fairly close.

After I got back, I was going to work on my internship paper for G-town because I had almost forgotten about it. However, I was putting stuff up and Marshelle heard me (because you can hear whenever my door opens because it squeaks really loud). She came out and asked if I would want to go to a movie, as long as it wasn’t too expensive. I said sure. So hopefully I’ll finish that paper tomorrow and get started on my tutorial paper too. So after a little while, after I drank some of my peppermint tea, we left and walked over to the movie theatre, which is near Regent’s. We decided they were too expensive and we had just missed one showing so we opted to just walk around town, although most of the shops were already closing. We ran by Regent’s so Marshelle could sign up for her meals and then went by the Eagle and Child because she was really thirsty so she could get a drink. We stopped in Borders and then wandered around the streets of Oxford. We walked home a long way, walking down the street where my tutor’s college, Harris Manchester, is. Then we walked down past Tesco and down that road so I could show her the shorter way to get there because she had been going a different way. It was a good walk and good to talk. We covered a range of subjects, including GSP, which she also went to, at Northern.

When we got back, I made some soup and ate that with my baguette and cheese spread and a cookie for dessert. I was very full, I think the most full I have been since I got here, maybe too full, but it was good. I talked to Kyle while I ate and for a while after I was done. Then I read Hitch Hiker for a while. Now I am going to call my mom and then go to bed. So even though I wasn’t productive in one sense, I still did a lot, after I got out of my room for a little while, so still a good day I think.

Okay, so the most exciting part of my day yesterday came on my walk home from church but you’ll just have to read about the beginning of my day first, which was pretty boring, but that’s okay.

I got up and had a granola bar for breakfast. Then I read two speeches on the state of England’s economy that were given at the Bank of England a while ago. They were long but had some graphs thrown in there so it didn’t take too long and they gave me some starting points for my paper, which is good. Then I had tuna for lunch, the guys downstairs were playing video games and then later when I went down to make my supper they were playing again. Just like most American boys.

Kyle called me around 1 and we talked until he had to go to get ready for Andy to pick him up to go see Central’s band somewhere. I had thought about going to a museum at this point, and then decided I wouldn’t have enough time there, so then I was going to try to get out to go to a couple shops, but then realized that they would probably all close around 5 and I would have to spend an hour and a half in Borders, so I read two more articles for my tutorial after e-mailing some people.

Then I headed out for church, stopping by Regent’s to sign up for meals on the way. I had on clothes that were already a littl baggy on me before I left so now they look too big and my hair was being really thin-looking, so I looked pretty bad and I had to laugh at myself. I don’t know what other people thought, but I think I looked like my clothes were about to swallow me. I have to remember to not wear a baggy top with baggy bottoms at the same time. Church was nice, but no music this time so I guess it was just because of the 40 hours thing last week.

After church I stopped in Borders, just because I do that lately. It’s pretty much the only shop that is open past 5 or 5:30. I think in every unfamiliar place I go to, when I’m feeling out of place I find a familiar store there. In New York, it was K-Mart with Amanda Allen because everyone left us when we went to the bathroom. In Athens, it was Starbucks with Melissa because they had food and drinks that were familiar and comforting. And here, it’s Borders because I can wander in there and sit and feel like I’m shopping back home, though it seems a little more crowded all the time, it’s still comforting. So anyway, they were giving out free chocolate so I got a free chocolate bar!! (Exciting thing number 1). I ate part of it on the way home and the rest after I had dinner. Usually I don’t eat chocolate that fast but I haven’t really had any chocolate sort of sweet since I’ve been here.

After I left Borders, I went into Sainsbury’s to see if they had frozen pizzas. I’ve been craving a frozen pizza. They didn’t have any. Sad, but eggs weren’t too expensive so I might start getting some eggs to make myself for breakfasts. Tomorrow, I’m going to go to the apparently cheaper grocery, which is also closer to us than Sainsbury’s (only 0.7 miles away rather than 2), Tesco’s. So maybe they will have frozen pizza or even cheaper eggs.

Then I was walking down the streets, getting ready to go onto Cornmarket, the walking street, and there was a “Moo”ing van!! (Exciting thing number 2). It was painted with spots like a cow and I think it was advertising yogurt, but it definitely was making “moo” sounds like that was its horn instead of a regular horn. It was quite amusing and everyone was looking at it like it was, so it must not have been just a regular English thing. I’m glad I got to see it though. It put a smile on my face for the walk home.

I got an e-mail from Dr. Hadaway that Christa, the other girl applying for senior status at Oxford from G-town, got asked for an interview, so Yay for her!! She’ll go to New York for it and he asked if I had heard anything. I haven’t, though I think she had to have her application in earlier than I did, so hopefully that’s why. I never really considered that I wouldn’t even be asked for an interview, not get accepted, yes, but not even get interviewed, no. But oh well, if I don’t, it just means it wasn’t meant to be and then I won’t have to deal with the stress of going to an interview (I’m not very good at interviews). But we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

I made some Ramen noodles for dinner and ate the whole pack. Lately, back home I have only been able to eat half a pack of Ramen at a time, but I was really hungry so I ate it all. Then I called my mom, who was looking at pictures and getting ready to scrapbook her England trip with Mrs. Calhoun. I talked to Mrs. C. too. Then I read Hitch Hiker until I got tired, around 11, and then I fell asleep and got up at 2:30 to wash my face and brush my teeth but not write my blog, so here it is now, the next morning.