KK’s Blog

Two things I forgot to mention in my entry yesterday that are very important.

1) Before lunch I got my Britrail pass in the mail so now I can start going on my trips in November, just have to figure out what trains to get where I need to be. But that will be fun!

2) I had fish and chips for lunch yesterday and this was the first time I have had fish and chips since I’ve been here. It was quite good, so I’m glad I got that instead of the salad bar. And I had seconds of the fish. I was really hungry:)

That’s all!

I am going to start out with something that happened yesterday that I forgot to write about in the previous entry. I must be at least looking like I know where I am going or looking like I fit in here because yesterday I got asked for help twice. First, I was walking and a man in a truck had his window down. He asked me where High Street was. It was one street over, but the way I come is down a walking street that cars can’t go down. So I told him it was on the other side of Cornmarket but I didn’t know how to drive there. He acted like this helped him, so that was good. Then I was walking later and a woman was at a pay phone. She said she had forgotten her glasses and asked if I would read off a number from her address book for her, so I did. But then she said it hadn’t been working and if there was something else she was supposed to do. I said I didn’t know and I hadn’t used a pay phone since I was there and apologized. She thanked me anyway. So I wasn’t much help to the people but they seemed to think I would be.

Anyway, this morning I managed to drag myself out of bed by 8:45. I am having so much trouble getting up early. I did my morning routine, ate a banana, and then read some of the globalization book. Then I stretched because I hadn’t last night. I got all my stuff put into my backpack, including my change of clothes for formal hall this evening, and then I walked to Regent’s for lunch. I sat across from this girl named Esther, whom I had spoken to before but not much. She is the nicest girl ever. She asked what I was wearing tonight and I said one of my two skirts though the outfit wasn’t very fancy, and she said that was fine and if I ever wanted to borrow anything from her, I was more than welcome. She had offered this to Ruth too, but Ruth had said politely that Esther was a little more well-endowed than her, but Esther said the stuff would still fit, I’m not sure how. But anyway I thought the same thing for me.

After lunch I went up to the Regent’s library and read for the whole afternoon. I took one break and read some of Hitch Hiker, but then I was tired after reading so much. I went down to change for dinner and on the way ran into Rhys and his twin brother. He had told us about him at lunch and that he would be coming tonight to formal hall (because tonight was Guest Night and people brought guests), although I think all of us thought he was joking at first that he had a twin. They are apparently identical but they did look a bit different, though it might have just been that Rhys was a bit thinner.

I went down for dinner and everyone was dressed up and looked all pretty. Ruth had said she didn’t really have anything fancy either so she just had on a plain black dress so we were both a little under-dressed but that’s okay. We sat together and next to Esther again and I met another girl named Amy who is very nice. Ruth and I talked a lot during dinner. She also has two older brothers and hangs out with her mom. Her 21st birthday is next Saturday and her parents are coming up Sunday but she hadn’t really told anyone about her birthday because she doesn’t want people to make a big deal out of it. So we might do something small next Saturday since her parents won’t be here yet, she doesn’t think. We also are going to go for ice cream next week if we have time. Neither of us have been to the main ice cream place so that will be good. Also, both of us don’t drink and for the same reasons so there’s something else (referring to the title that we’re the same person).

After dinner, there was port and cheese in the JCR. I had left my ring in the bathroom when I had washed my hands before dinner so I ran up there and luckily it was still there. This is my class ring which I found in one of my bags and it fits on one of my fingers, though not the one I got it fitted for. But anyway then I went up to the JCR. I sat with Ruth, Esther, and Esther’s guest. Amy and a girl named Sarah were there part of the time too. Ruth and I talked about how we both wished we knew how to ballroom dance. She asked me if there were really drive-in movie theatres in the states, which I thought was funny. I told her there were, though they are not as common. She had seen them in Grease. She is also going to probably get a ticket for the Sleeping Beauty Ballet so we can go together. She has never seen a ballet. Johnnie came over and talked to us some. We talked about Rhys and his twin. Johnnie said one was enough and then he said, “Well if you ever doubted God, then that would be the thing to prove that there isn’t a God.” Then he said, “No I like Rhys and I do believe in God.” He’s a theology major. But it was quite funny. Rhys is a very outgoing person and can be quite loud and his brother was exactly like him, so I do think one is enough for here at least most of the time.

Another guy came up, named Tom, with a girl who had brought him as her guest. The girl knew Ruth so they talked and I talked to Tom. He was everything stereotypical about a British person: bad teeth, smoking, drinking, wearing funny clothes that were supposed to be very nice clothes, and asking lots of questions about Kentucky like if there was fried chicken everywhere. He was quite funny, but when he started smoking again, Ruth and I decided to get up. It was around 9:45 and people were getting ready to go to a club, so I decided to head back to Stanley Rd. I think Ruth and Johnnie were going to do something since Ruth didn’t want to go to the club either, but I decided I didn’t want to stay out much later since I still had to walk home.

I got here and the maid had come. My food was still hidden so it looks as if she didn’t eat anything. She did fold my pajamas that had been under my pillow, maybe I should have put them in my laundry basket, but I didn’t expect her to come today, so oh well. I talked to my mom, stretched, and then wrote this. I woke up this morning sort of homesick for some reason so I wore my dad’s old sweater that I brought with me for comfort, but the day turned out to be pretty good, so the homesickness subsided a bit. Now I’m going to go to bed and sleep in tomorrow.

Yesterday, I woke up at 7 to go to Regent’s and print out my paper on the book. I wasn’t sure if he wanted me to give him that early or anything, but I thought I would be safe. After dropping that off, I went to the library and finished taking notes on the discussion questions until it was time for the tutorial.

When I got there, he said he read the paper, but there wasn’t much he could mark or anything since it was mainly a summary. He did say I wrote very well, which I took as a very good compliment. Then we went through the questions. The third one, I was a littl confused about so we spent some time on that. I did make one big mistake. At one point I was having trouble explaining something, so he told me to put my notes down and use the graph, so I did. Only he had drawn the picture backwards from what I normally see, so I was thinking employment was on the horizontal axis when it was actually unemployment. So everything I was saying was completely opposite of what I was supposed to be saying. After I finally got it, I did explain to him what I had done, so hopefully he doesn’t think I’m a complete idiot. But then the meeting ended on a good note. We finished up the last question, which I had done a lot of reading on, so I was fairly knowledgeable about it.

Then he asked me if I wanted another book to read and I said sure. He said he didn’t really want to give me a book arguing for globalization, but he let me borrow a book of his, “Why Globalization Works,” but he said I could probably read like the first 5 chapters and get the idea of it. However, the reason he gave it to me is that it was written by an economic journalist and he is going to be speaking at Oxford next week so he wants me to go to that. He can’t go so I’ll tell him how it was next tutorial. So I think that will be good. Next week will be busy though, so I’m going to have to organize my time well.

After the meeting, I went to the library and got my books for next week so I would have all that done and could just start reading easily. Then I went over to Regent’s, eating crackers for lunch on the way, so that I could listen to the guy speaking on “Alternative Religiosity in Postcommunist Russia” and don’t ask me what that means. The guy got his undergrad degree from St. Petersburg, his Master’s from Harvard, and now is working on his Ph.D. from a university in Germany. I didn’t really understand much of what he was saying, but it didn’t seem like he made that much of an argument, but I guess he’s really smart so maybe it was just over my head.

After this I walked with him and Dr. Peterlin to the Keston Institute. Dr. Peterlin showed me around and asked me if I was still interested. I’m not sure if I should have taken this on, but I couldn’t say I didn’t want to do it now and I’m sure I’ll learn a lot, so I’m going to be volunteering every Thursday after my tutorial and lunch, starting next week.

I walked back to Stanley Rd. and finished reading the first book in Hitch Hiker, and then read the preface to the globalization book. Then I downloaded all my articles and marked places in my books so I could start reading today. I walked back to Regent’s for dinner, which was fine but it didn’t really fill me up. It had a tomato and feta salad for the starter, which was good, but then just more salad for the side and I got vegetable kabobs. Then the dessert was pretty much all sugar, peaches on top of whipped cream, on top of hardened meringue, with some honey in there too. Very sweet but I ate it all because I was hungry.

I stopped by Borders on the way home because yesterday was the last day of a student discount. When I got home, I talked to Kyle and realized I haven’t stretched the past couple days. I forgot again last night, so I really need to do that. Then I talked to my mom, and fell asleep, early. I think I sleep more here and I feel tired quite a bit of the time. I don’t know why. It’s really hard for me to get up early, when I usually get up quite easily. Hopefully when I get back I’ll get back to normal. So six more tutorials to go!!! And that was my day.

I’m writing this a little early, but I don’t think much else is going to happen tonight. I’m going to be taking notes on my discussion questions for my tutorial tomorrow and maybe writing a short essay and proofreading my paper on the poverty book. I’m eating dinner in my room right now because I got back to Stanley Road after the play and it was already 6 so I didn’t feel like walking back to Regents. I got up this morning like usual and was not productive at all. I wrote an e-mail to Kyle to procrastinate. I took my time getting ready and then I felt like I couldn’t accomplish much on a paper before lunch so I didn’t start. I did clean and organize my room. A bunch of papers on my desk had gotten a bit out of control so I sorted them and did some other straightening.

Then Marshelle and I walked to Regent’s. She hadn’t planned on going in but her boyfriend had sent her flowers and they called to tell her they were there so she should come pick them up. It was absolutely dreary and miserable out. It was raining, cold, dark, so today was more typical of English weather than yesterday was. But that’s okay. We got to lunch and I was picking up my banana at the end of the salad bar when I heard a man say he was supposed to be meeting someone. I turned around and it was Dr. Davorin Peterlin (nice name), the guy from the Keston Institute who I was going to meet to talk about volunteering. I introduced myself and we sat together. I told him why I wanted to volunteer there and told him about Kyle going over to Russia with CRU and he knew what CRU was, which was cool. He gave me some ideas of what I could maybe do and asked if I thought those sounded interesting. I said I was willing to do pretty much anything. So tomorrow, a German man is coming to Regent’s to talk about research he has done on Russia so I am going to go to that and if Dr. Peterlin doesn’t have any meetings afterwards, I will walk with him over to the Keston Institute to see it and stuff. So that will be good I think, just volunteering once a week.

After lunch I went up to the Regent’s library and checked e-mail and stuff to kill time before the play. Then I wandered over to the theatre in the rain. I looked for the right entrance for the balcony where my cheap 4.50 ticket put me. I had made sure to bring my glasses so I could see everything okay. I walked up to an usher and said I was in the balcony. He took my ticket and pulled out a small stack of other tickets and said, “Okay, you’ll be in Row B, Seat 33, down there” (pointing) and handed me another ticket, which was 17.50. I sat in the second row of the main theatre, which was awesome! I couldn’t believe it. I sat next to this cute old couple and watched the play with my glasses on anyway. I smiled the whole time. The play was amazing and I absolutely loved it. I didn’t really know much about the play other than what you can get from the title, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. It had a happy ending and was a good play, but the actors were really good too and had great singing voices and the songs were fun. And there was lots of dancing, which I love dancing so that was great. I can’t really describe it but I loved it and it put a smile on my face and has put me in a great mood. I could see the orchestra pit too, and they had put bubble wrap on the overhang of the stage so that the orchestra people wouldn’t hit their heads on it. I thought this was funny so I took a picture of it before the play started.

I came out of the theatre and it had stopped raining and the sun was somewhat out, which made me happy too. It was still chilly but I wouldn’t have to worry about carrying my umbrella. I went and got some clinique stuff and the bonus. Then I bought some tea, lots of tea because it had a sale, buy 10 pounds (the money, not the weight) of tea and get a free thing of more tea so I did this. And I got a student discount. On my way back to Stanley Road I didn’t listen to my iPod because I had the songs from the play still in my head and for once it was good to have songs stuck in my head. I probably looked like a doofus walking home because I was smiling the whole way. At one point the sun was shining on this building at a perfect angle so I stopped and took a picture. I’m glad I had my camera with me.

I got back to Stanley Road and checked my e-mail again. Then I decided I would eat dinner, so I went downstairs and heated up some vegetable soup. Then I came back up and got out my crackers. Now last Thursday (Thursday is when the maid comes), when I sat down on my bed that night, there were cracker crumbs on my bed, which I knew I hadn’t eaten my crackers since the weekend before, so I didn’t know how they had gotten there, especially because my sheets had been changed. I finally figured that I had either gotten them there somehow or maybe the maid had knocked the open pack of the shelf over my bed where my food is. The other packs looked fine. At first I thought maybe she had eaten my crackers, but then I thought that was just silly. So I finished that pack last weekend and I hadn’t opened any other packs of crackers (these are saltine sleeves of crackers by the way). I reached into my box and pulled out a sleeve and they were open on the other end and half the crackers were gone! I couldn’t believe it! I’m the only one with a key to my room, besides the maid, and I remembered the cracker crumbs from last week. She must have eaten them. There is no other explanation. I was just astounded, so I went up to Marshelle’s room because I felt like I had to tell someone.

I also told her I had gone to the play and had gotten a ticket for Sleeping Beauty and she might try to get a ticket for the same day as me so we can go together. So I’ve just eaten the crackers. Luckily they’re not stale, but I don’t think there is anything I can do about it. The maid comes back tomorrow, so I don’t know what I am going to do because I don’t want half my crackers gone again. There isn’t really a place to lock them up or anything. I guess I’ll try to hide all the food that doesn’t have to be cooked in my drawers or something. I just can’t believe that. And it’s not like she even ate the already open sleeve, but opened a whole new one. I keep track of my food, which maybe she thought I wouldn’t notice but I did. Just had to vent a little there. I’m just amazed that it happened. I don’t know if she ate my peanut butter too, I can’t tell that, but she might have. Oh well.

I am still in a good mood because I liked the play so much. Now I have to make myself take notes for my tutorial, and I’ll probably make some phone calls too. Oh and Marshelle’s lights didn’t burn out it turns out, but it was a fuse and she found light bulbs downstairs so if they do go out, we don’t have to buy them, which is good news. So that was my day, lots of disbelief and crazy things.

I considered getting up to get breakfast again today, but I don’t know if that will ever happen. My mom called me late last night because she got skype!! Yay, so now I can talk to her for free when she is at school, which makes me happy. Anyway, I decided since I had been woken up and hadn’t gone to bed until around midnight, that I needed more sleep and didn’t get up at 6:45. I woke up around 8:30 again and read some journal articles while I ate an orange for breakfast. Later, I found that my orange, which was very juicy, had gotten juice on my computer screen so I had to clean that off. I guess I shouldn’t eat oranges around my computer, or at least not juicy ones.

After my breakfast, I took a shower, read some more until 12, and then walked to Regent’s. Today is the first day that I think it has actually looked like a “typical” English day since I’ve been here. The skies were gray, it was quite cool, and it looked like rain. Later it misted, but never really came down. But it still seemed cheery in a way, maybe because it’s what I’ve expected all along and this is the first day I’ve gotten it. I don’t know. I’m sure it will get dreary once the days get like this more often and it gets colder, but then I’ll just have to wear my big sweaters and tights under my pants to keep warm.

Oh and on my walk, I saw this crazy car! It was shaped like a normal car, small like normal English cars, and had two wheels in back like a normal car but in front it only had one wheel centered underneath. At first glance, I thought it was somehow balancing on the back two wheels because I didn’t see the front wheel. But it was sort of like a tricycle but a car and all the wheels were the same size and the car didn’t get narrower at the front or anything. So I just thought I would share that with you. It made me smile, especially the fact that I thought it could only be on two wheels at first. That shows you how my mind works, but it would be awesome if a car actually could do that, don’t you think?

I’ve been leaving a little early lately so I can stop in some of the stores along the way just to look. Today, I stopped in a book/poster store called Blackwells. They had some really neat calendars, some that were really big so each page you could save as a poster. I would get one of these if there was an easy way to bring it home, but I don’t think there is. I sat next to Ruth at lunch and had the salad bar, which was really good today. It had humus and chicken salad, along with the other usual stuff. I think I am eating more lately, so along with walking less maybe I am gaining my weight back or at least stabilizing it. So that’s good, now my mom doesn’t have to worry.

After lunch I walked to the library. I finished the poverty book, which was really good and people should read it, but at the same time it sort of made me mad because I feel like we should be doing more. And then he gives you the statistics. And I remember numbers easily so they keep going through my head. One is that in 2002, if you look at the U.S. foreign aid and distribute it individually, we gave $3 per sub-Saharan African and then if you take out all the other costs, like debt repayment and paying for experts to help Africans, it ended up that we gave $0.06 per sub-Saharan African for the whole year. We give a total of 0.15 per cent of annual GNP to developing countries in foreign aid and we, along with other U.N. member nations, have pledged for the past 35 years, signing at least 5 documents, that we would make concrete efforts to increase our aid to 0.7 per cent of GNP, which is not very much anyway. 5 countries, I think, on the list have reached this goal and the U.S. is the farthest away from it and is the richest nation. I think in the first two weeks of the Iraq war, we spent more on military than we do for the whole year on foreign aid. Bill Gates does a lot though so it made me like him a little better. Okay, I need to stop lecturing. It’s just crazy because it seems we are capable of at least eradicating extreme poverty (where people can’t afford the basic means of survival), but it just depends on if we want to. And now you know what I am learning and writing papers on. Which by the way, after taking a break from reading by looking at scholarships and internships on fastweb, I wrote a short paper on the book to share with my tutor.

Then I went back to Regent’s for dinner. I sat next to Dan and near Rhys and talked to them. I had fried brie and fried mushroom with vegetables, plus dessert of some sort. It sort of looked like lemon meringue pie but without the meringue and bakes apples on top instead, so almost like apple pie too, but more of a pastry crust, softer and flakier than normal pie crust. Sort of neon, but it tasted fine and it came with ice cream so I ate it all. And I was very full after dinner. As I was getting ready to leave, Marshelle came out and said to wait because she wanted to walk with me, which was actually good because my iPod was low on battery.

We stopped in Sainsbury’s on the way because we ran out of toilet paper and apparently we have to buy it ourselves, which Marshelle and I are the only girls in the house, so… Anyway, Marshelle’s lights also burned out, so we looked for light bulbs but they didn’t have any so she’s going to try to get some tomorrow because she apparently has to buy those on her own too. When we got back she was going to go downstairs because you can’t really do much in a dark room. We talked on the way back about boyfriends, missing home, the food here, and walking and how we probably would walk more when we got home. It was nice to have company on the walk back and it made it go by fast.

Then I got back here, called Kyle and my mom on skype, and I’m going to get my mom some clinique so I can get the bonus.:) If anyone else needs anything, let me know, or I will just buy the second thing for myself I guess. I think I might buy that and some tea tomorrow after I go see my play, which I am really excited about and will talk all about tomorrow. I can’t decide what to wear but I’ll figure it out, and it will be wonderful.

I woke up this morning to my alarm at 6:45 and thought about whether or not I wanted breakfast. I had gotten enough sleep since I fell asleep so early and I wasn’t really that tired, but I decided I would still rather sleep. So I rolled back over and slept until 8:30, at which point I did get up. Then I talked to Kyle because he couldn’t sleep again. His sleeping patterns since I left are getting to be psycho. Of course mine aren’t that much better I guess. After this I read journal articles online for my tutorial until I left to walk to Regent’s for lunch.

I stopped in a store, Boswell’s, on the way to see if they had any good things to bring back for people because they were having a sale. They did have a sale thing for tea so I think I’ll go back tomorrow and get some tea for myself. At lunch I had the salad bar, but they also brought out onion rings for the regular lunches, so I ate some of them too. I love onion rings, so this made me very happy. They weren’t the best, but they were still good.

After lunch I went by Boswell’s again because I had considered getting something that was on sale that I thought there was only one left of. I found out there were many different kinds of that thing so I’m going to wait on that. I then went to the library, read a journal article online, and then read my poverty book until time to leave for dinner. I only have 65 pages left, so I’ll finish that and my three journal articles that I have left tomorrow. Yay! Then I’ll type up a few things either tomorrow or Wednesday before I go to see my play.

I walked back to Regent’s and went to dinner. I sat next to Ruth, across from Marshelle, and near a bunch of guys whom I’ve talked to quite a bit but usually just small talk. I have no idea what I ate for dinner. The regular meal was chicken lasagna, which looked sort of good. Mine was sort of like a, yeah I don’t know what it was like. It tasted all right, but there wasn’t much to it. No vegetable sides or anything, just some salad. And the only dressing they have is mayo, so I now just eat my salads with salt and pepper because, as Marshelle said during dinner, “Mayonnaise is for sandwiches, not salads.” I did get dessert this time, which I’m glad because I wouldn’t have been filled up. I have no idea what this was either. It tasted sort of like a granola bar and had raisins in it. So dinner was interesting to say the least.

Tonight was apparently the night for the girls’ drinking society, the Rabbits, to go out and drink, so there were, I think, five girls at dinner. I actually think I might have joined the Rabbits, but I didn’t know about this thing so maybe I didn’t really. They just asked me, said I didn’t really have to drink, so I said sure, but I didn’t write anything down or anything. Anyway, the guys were talking about going to a pub after dinner. They asked me what I was doing, and I said I didn’t know. Rhys (pronounced Rees/Reez) said, “Oh you’re not going straight back to Stanley Rd. are you?” And I said I didn’t know. I asked Ruth what she was doing and she said she didn’t know. So we considered going to the pub. She doesn’t drink either. So I said, “Well let’s just go for a little bit. You should come so I won’t be the only one not drinking.” So she said okay. They said they weren’t going to get drunk, just talk and stuff.

So after dinner, we met in the JCR. I checked my mail and I got my paper back from Mark, my tutor, and it was marked. I got an A-!! Which I think is pretty good, though I don’t know if he graded me on the Oxford scale or on a visiting students scale. Jon (or Johnnie as he is called to distinguish him from the other Jon) said it would probably be too much trouble to have 2 different grading scales so surely it was on the Oxford scale, so that made me feel good. He didn’t have too many comments, mostly checks and “good” so I feel pretty good about it. Yay! Gives me a little more confidence for next time.

While we were waiting to leave, Rhys said that we should have a Halloween party for the Americans and then Thanksgiving too. Although he had no idea when Thanksgiving was. So then he said we should do independence day too. I told him that had already past. But anyway, hopefully we’ll do something, which will be fun, and then if we do Thanksgiving I can either have 2 or go to one with people I actually know, rather than going to the American-Anglican thing where I’ll know Dan but nobody else. So yay again!

Then we walked to the Eagle and Child (the E&C, as the cool kids call it), which is the pub where C.S. Lewis hung out. We got a room near the door so it wasn’t very loud or smoky or anything. I had my water bottle so I just drank that. Ruth had cranberry juice. Marshelle might have had coke, I couldn’t tell. The rest had beers. It’s crazy because I think I was older than all the English people. Ruth was the oldest of them, I think. She’s 20. But I guess they’re used to drinking, and they drank slowly.

We talked for a while. The others talked about other nights when they had all apparently gotten drunk, which Ruth and I weren’t there so we didn’t know what they were talking about so we talked. At one point they were talking about a club and Ruth asked me if I danced. I said no, sometimes if I’m feeling really crazy at a friend’s house. She said yeah, definitely if she did it was in privacy (except she said privacy with a short “i” so it was British). Then when Ruth was done with her drink, she and this other guy (whose name I’ve forgotten) who is her tutorial partner and I decided to leave. As we were leaving she asked me if I would want to go get tea or coffee some evening. I said sure, that would be fun. So I guess we’ll do that at some point. So I think I’ve made a friend. She said she has called her parents every day too. We’ve got a lot in common.

Anyway, I walked quickly home and called Kyle to tell him that I went to a pub and made a friend. Then I went downstairs to wash my face and there were guys there. I just glanced and assumed they were the guys from the house so I waved and then I actually sort of looked and I’m not sure if I know the guy I waved to, but he had a hat on so I couldn’t tell. But oh well, I may have waved to someone I don’t know. They weren’t there when I came out of the bathroom. So that was my day, ending on a very good note. One more yay!

Today consisted mostly of me reading and going to a museum. I slept in until almost 9 without waking up (usually I wake up and just lie there for while)! When I got up this morning and finished reading what I had from a book for my tutorial. I still have articles from journals to read, which I hope to finish tomorrow, and then my other book. I finished this just in time for lunch around noon. I read “Hitch Hiker” while I ate. I got a message from Emily Glotzbach on facebook and Alyssa, her sister, had her baby - a little boy. Yay!

Anyway, I got changed out of my sweats and then headed out to the Ashmolean, which is sort of like an art museum but it really has some of everything. There were two exhibits that ended today that I wanted to see, one on Japanese painting and the other on Chinese painting, so that’s why I wanted to go today. The exhibits were really neat. Something about Asian painting really interests me, something about how the brushstrokes are or something. The Chinese exhibit was 20th century and had landscapes and was called the Mystery of Empty Space, which the Asian artists saw as bringing life to the painting because the empty space represented chi. The Japanese exhibit was called the Beauties of the Four Seasons and was paintings of women. The women in the paintings showed the styles and fashions of the time, especially with respect to the time of year.

There were European paintings and a silver collection and glass, porcelain, and jewelry collections as well as Greek and Roman sculptures (I didn’t really look at this part that much since I saw a bunch already this summer and I was trying to get through the whole museum before it closed) and also an exhibit on Egypt, which I really liked. There were lots of little scarabs. I love Egyptian history. There were also things on Indian art and religion. I wasn’t that impressed with the gift shop. Any kind of photography was prohibited so I couldn’t take any pictures, but they didn’t really have postcards of the exhibit stuff like I thought they would, so I didn’t get anything.

After this I went to the social sciences library and read the poverty book until 6 when the library closed. At 5:45, they rang a bell to let people know it was getting close to closing time, like a real bell, like a cow bell or something. It was sort of crazy, not an announcement or anything. I’m getting through the book but I’ve still got about half to go. I think I’m just past the halfway point. Maybe I’ll finish that tomorrow too. Probably not, but maybe.

I walked back to Stanley Rd. and I think the sky was deciding if it wanted to rain or not. It was supposed to rain all day but it was a beautiful day again, a littl cool, but sunny and clear skies until my walk back home. I think a few drops hit me but it didn’t really start until after I got in, if it started at all. I didn’t really notice. I’m starting to doubt weather.com, though. It’s predictions have often been wrong, in a good way because it mostly hasn’t rained, but I never know what to expect. The weather has been really unusual for here I think, but it’s pretty so I’m okay with it. I think it’s supposed to rain a lot this week, though, so we’ll see.

I picked up some fall leaves to keep for souvenirs when I was almost home. I got back here and ate tomato soup and peanut butter crackers and talked to Kyle. Then I read “Hitch Hiker” and fell asleep at 9:00, waking up periodically but not actually getting up. I probably should have been productive but I didn’t feel like it. I finally got up at 12:30, called my mom, washed my face and brushed my teeth, and wrote this. And now I’ll go back to bed, maybe get up early enough to get some breakfast at Regent’s tomorrow, but I would have to leave here at 7:30 so we’ll see about that. Today was a very relaxing today. I was productive, I think, most of the day, but I also had fun at the museum so it was another good day.

Here’s a picture of me at the Botanic Gardens. Not the best but it’ll do. Hard to take pictures of myself.

This entry will be pretty long. Today I did a lot, most of which didn’t have anything to do with studying; however, I did read some. I woke up this morning and did my usual routine. Then I looked through some Oxford brochures and at my requirements for “cultural and religious experiences” for G-town. I was trying to plan out what all I will do while I am here and make sure I fit it into my 5 categories of religious life, visual arts, drama, music, and historic sites and places near Oxford. I’ve been going to the Catholic church here in Oxford and I’m going to try to make it to at least one evensong too so I’ve got the religious life requirement covered. But I was trying to figure out how to do the other stuff very cheaply.

There is a museum and a modern art gallery that are free so I am going to go to those probably for visual arts. And for drama, I am really excited. I am going to the New Theatre in Oxford, which isn’t one of the listed theatres for the drama requirement, but I think it will count. I am going to see “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” on this Wednesday at a matinee and then November 10 I am going to a matinee of “Sleeping Beauty” the ballet by the English ballet company. I am really excited about that. And I got both of them for a total of 14.50 pounds. For music, I am going to go to a “Coffee Concert” which is every Sunday so I am going on October 30 because one of the instruments is a piano, and hopefully I’ll be able to get tea instead of coffee because you get free coffee with your ticket. Then for the historic sites, I went to the Botanic Gardens today and I am going to go to Blenheim Palace in November for this thing called “Living Crafts” and they sell Christmas crafts and stuff and I’ll see the palace all decorated for Christmas. I also hope to go to Bath. So that was exciting to plan out.

I ate a lunch of green beans and peanut butter crackers. While I was making my green beans, Matt came in and talked to me. He’s the one in the house doing econ. He said he’s doing pre-doctoral stuff. Crazy. But he asked me how things were going and said to keep letting him know. So I’m sure if I have questions I can ask him. He seems really nice. Then I talked to my mom and headed out to the Botanic Gardens. I got down the road and realized I didn’t have either of my cameras, which was not good, so I went back to Stanley Rd and felt like a dork because I had just seen the guys there. But then I tried this door on the side of the house that is on the same level as my room and the same side of the house as my room. When I moved in, they said my key didn’t work in it. Turns out it does. So I’ve been going in the opposite side of the house, down stairs, across the bottom, up stairs, and to my room. Which now I don’t have to, but I felt like a dork again for it taking me that long to even try it.

Anyway, I got my cameras and headed out. When I got to the gardens, I thought I would get a season pass so I could go in all the time, even though it closed soon. It was 5 pounds and a day pass was 2.60 pounds, so not a big difference. The girl said that I probably shouldn’t because it is free in November, which I thought it closed for the winter season. Turns out not. So I said I’d have a day pass. Then she asked me if I was a student and I showed her my Bod card and she said students get in free, so yay, I can go any time I want without the season pass, though I sort of felt like an idiot after we had gone through every pricing possibility and it was all free the whole time. I walked around and it was beautiful. I set up my camera a few times so I could try to take pictures of myself with the timer and remote and stuff. And I took video and pictures of all the flowers and trees.

The day was beautiful so when I had walked around, I decided to stay in there and read some, so I read my econ until around 4:45 or so. Then I headed to Regent’s to see if I could sign up for Monday’s meals. The sheets were out this time, so I did and I signed up for dessert. I’m going to start trying to eat dessert so I get more food. Then I went to look for the New Theatre to see if they had a box office so I wouldn’t have to get my tickets through ticket master and pay a service charge. They had one and it was open so I went in and got my tickets. Yay!

Then I went into some sort of store, sort of like a mall but like one big department store. I’m not sure. But they had clinique and it is their clinique bonus time. However, I don’t really need anything clinique right now. So if someone else does, I’ll buy it for you and then I can keep the gift. Or maybe I’ll try to find something I need. It’s a pretty good bonus but I have to buy 2 items and clinique is not cheap so we’ll see. It goes on for another 2 weeks or until the gifts run out. Then I went into Borders and looked around some and sat in a chair and read some until it was time for church. While I was there, I remembered that after the Botanic gardens I had meant to brush off my butt because I had been sitting on the ground. I had forgotten to so I did it now and sure enough there were two green sticky (as in somewhat like cactus sticky sort of) things on my butt that had been there since I left the gardens. I had my backpack on but it doesn’t really cover my rear but maybe no one noticed. Anyway, third time I felt like a dork and a little embarrassed for the day.

I walked to my church. I wore my tennis shoes this time because I was in my khakis. This time there was music so it was really nice. And they turned the lights on slowly at the beginning of mass and turned them down at the end. It was during their 40 hours of exposition of the Blessed Sacrament so I think it was a little fancier than normal.

After church I went back to Regent’s to wait and see if this birthday thing that Marshelle told me about was really going to happen. I went up to the library until 8 and then I went to the JCR to see if anyone was there. Luke was and some other people. He told me the “party” was supposed to start at 8 he thought and I should stay. So I did. People started drifting in eventually and there was food. I stayed until 9:30, which I think is pretty good for me. I talked with Dan and then Kyle and Ruth and then just Ruth. Marshelle wasn’t there. We just sort of had small talk and stuff but it was still interesting conversation. Then I excused myself and started back to Stanley Rd.

When I got to Stanley Rd. I used the door that I now know I can use. Then I made myself some ravioli and said hi to Alec. He said he and Matt are going to try to every now and then send out e-mails so the house can do things together. I said that would be good. Then I came up here, ate my ravioli, and wrote my blog, tired after a full, but good and fun, day.

I keep forgetting to say this in my blog, but during formal dinners I have been trying to eat continental style, figuring out how to eat with my fork in my left hand and using my knife almost as another eating utensil rather than just for cutting. I think I’m getting better. This week I didn’t have to rearrange my fork quite so much as last week. So I’m proud of myself. Just thought I’d brag about myself for a bit