KK’s Blog

I was sort of lazy again this morning. It’s very bad when I don’t have pressing deadlines because then I end up doing nothing in order to procrastinate on my a little ways off deadlines. I didn’t go to lunch today because it was like a charity lunch or something where they just had soup so it wouldn’t have been a lot of food and I have food in my room that I needed to get rid of. I finished off my big thing of crunchy peanut butter that Kim and Lee gave me before I left. But don’t worry, I have creamy from my mom so I’m not out yet. I worked some on my paper, almost ordered a pair of cheap but good tennis shoes but then they went out of stock (really good sale, but I just missed it, oh well), crocheted, called my mom to verify some dates, called Kyle to tell him about the dates, and then headed out around 1:30.

I went to volunteer my last day at Keston, addressing envelopes for the last time. I didn’t get much out of this experience but hopefully I at least helped them. And it took my mind off things sometimes so that’s good. Then I walked over to the library and found that I didn’t have my card, which you can’t get into any of the libraries without your card here. So I walked back to Stanley Road and found it in the back pocket of the jeans I wore yesterday. I wrote some e-mails and pretty much finished my paper. I still have to read over it a couple times. I’m not sure how good it is, but right now I sort of don’t care. It’s already above and beyond what I was supposed to do for this tutorial and I’ve got some other things on my mind at the moment, so I’ll turn it in after a couple revisions and that’ll just have to be good enough. I’ll probably write him an e-mail to let him know what I wrote on because the question was just sort of loosely created by us, so I did it a little differently but I think that will be okay.

Ruth called me while I was doing this to see if I wanted to go to this Carols service after dinner tonight, so I said sure. I talked to Amanda on instant messenger for a bit too. Then Dr. Hadaway e-mailed me a crash course in philosophy with powerpoints of his notes from his classes to help me prepare a bit for my interview and the test. Haven’t look through those yet, haven’t decided if I’m going to, probably will.

Then I walked in the rain back to Regent’s. But I had my big waterproof white coat so I didn’t get wet and was warm. I didn’t feel like bringing an umbrella and it wasn’t raining that hard, almost more like a mist, a strong mist. But I bought this coat (for $20 and it’s Lands End, not bad) for the English weather that I expected. I haven’t had much of that weather, which is great, but today it sort of was and my coat was great for it, so yay!

Dinner was actually pretty good. It was called a vegetable parcel or something and tasted like a big egg roll and I love egg rolls. I didn’t have dessert. I think I’ve finally gotten rid of my sweet tooth, not craving sweets anymore. Then a bunch of us from Regents walked over to the Carols service. It was really nice. Almost all the songs had different words from our Christmas Carols and some even had different tunes. So I had to look at all the words to sing and not sing too loudly in case I sang the wrong stuff. The guy who talked gave a really good talk, so I enjoyed the service and it took my mind off things a bit. It was also cool because there were a bunch of Regent’s kids there, not just Ruth and me, so it was neat to spend time with them too.

After that I walked back to Stanley Road so I got my exercise again. I might take a shower tonight and then go to Mass early tomorrow morning before my interviews so I can get my mind off things a bit. But then I would have to get up really early. I’ll try though. I have those two interviews, then a meeting with the tutor who is sort of the correspondent with G-town, then lunch, then meeting with Regent’s principal, then my tutorial, and finally a meeting with the guy who arranged the Christianity and Culture lectures. Then I will come back here and collapse, but I will have gotten through the worst of the application process and finished up with all the things I have to take care of for my term here. Then I can relax for the rest of my time here, except for taking that test, but I’m not thinking about that right now. So now I’m going to try to get some sleep before my big day.

I’m actually writing this the day of, I’ve been sort of lazy lately. I got up this morning intending to finish my essay for my tutorial before lunch, but that didn’t happen. Instead I did some research for my G-town paper. And I downloaded documents onto my desktop for my tutorial research so I could use those later when I didn’t have an internet connection. I crocheted a bit too. And I must have done some other stuff but I can’t think of what it was now. Then I walked to lunch.

I had signed up for pizza, which was quite good. Sort of like a deep dish pizza with lots of cheese, some random vegetables and two pepperonis on top. And they served it with chips (french fries, not real chips) and salad so I had some of that too. Then dessert was banana bread, or banana cake as they say. So I had that too.

After lunch, Ruth and I walked to Stanley Road because she had been wanting to see it. She said she might end up having to live there next year because she’s at the bottom of the room ballot so she gets one of the last choices. She didn’t realize how far it was. But she decided it would be bearable, though she would prefer to live at Regents. I loaded up my computer, wrapping it in my hoodie to protect it in my backpack, which is what I do. Ruth thought it was cool how I wrapped it up, all the sleeves and hood and stuff tucked around the computer. I guess it’s almost become a bit of an art. Then we walked back to Regent’s, so I got my exercise today.

I went up to the library and worked on my essay until 5. I didn’t get it quite finished, but I’m not worried about it since it isn’t technically due until Thursday afternoon. I think I’ll get it done tomorrow morning though. At 5 I went to the last Christianity and Culture Lecture, which I was the only G-town student besides Kyle again. I definitely don’t think the other 2 have been to 3 lectures and 3 discussions, but oh well. Afterward, Kyle asked if I wanted to have a discussion. I said I didn’t care, so we didn’t. I think the speaker had made him a bit mad, so he didn’t feel like talking, which was fine with me. I usually don’t have much to say. I went up to the library instead and checked and replied to e-mails until the dinner bell rang.

I wasn’t that hungry at dinner and it wasn’t that good so I don’t think I really ate much. I hung out in the JCR a bit before going back to Stanley Road. When I got in, I called Jane to tell her that I would have to leave Wales Sunday night instead of Monday morning. We talked about what we would do. I think we’re going to stay in Chester Saturday and have sort of a girls’ day (Sara, her daughter who I used to play with will be there too) with some shopping and seeing some of the history there. Then Sunday, Sarah is going back to school so Jane and Dave (her husband) will take me around to some of the castles there, she said the ones that my mom didn’t get to see when she was here. So that should be fun, lots of picture-taking opportunities. I feel like I haven’t really taken that many pictures because I haven’t really been sightseeing that much, since I’m really just living here and only doing the tourist things every now and then. But oh well, my mom brought back lots of pictures.

So then I called my mom and she’s going to call me back when she gets back to school so we can talk on skype. Now I’m going to stretch to make sure I’m not sore in the morning, haven’t done the walking 8 miles in one day in a while. Then I will go to bed early so I can get up early to finish my essay and be one day closer to my interview and to getting home!

Yesterday morning I spent looking up, reading, and bookmarking websites on Ghana. Then I tried to take some pictures of myself that my mom wants me to take for our Christmas card - we’re doing it digitally since our family is never in one place all at the same time these days. I think the pictures looked pretty bad so I haven’t sent them yet. I’m wondering if I’m taking them wrong. I’m supposed to be looking a certain way, but oh well. I’ll figure something out.

Then I walked to Regent’s a little early, intending to talk to David Harper, but then he wasn’t in his office. So I waited a bit and then Jonnie came in so we talked until we decided it was time to go in for lunch. I got the salad bar again but then signed up for pizza today, branching out a bit. A lot of people got the salad bar. I’m glad I was early because it seemed like it took forever for people to get through after that. Dessert was some sort of ice cream thing that looked really good so I got it. I shouldn’t be eating this much dessert, but I guess I’ll stop once I get back so I might as well take advantage of it, especially while I’m walking this much.

After lunch I walked over to the social sciences library and spent the afternoon on the computer. I read more on Ghana and then started my paper, hope to finish it today so I can get started on rewriting this paper I want to do for G-town. I got some e-mails from people concerning next semester and maybe getting a job of some sort. Dinner was at 6:30 instead of 7 last night so I headed over to Regent’s around 6. As I was walking it started to snow!! Which was exciting. It was just melting when it hit the ground, but it was really pretty as it came down. I think I just walked with a smile on my face, staring at the snow, probably looking like a bit of an idiot, but that’s okay. It put me in a good mood. I was glad I had on my big coat, though, since it was cold and I could put up my hood so I didn’t get too wet. So yeah, the first snow here and I was able to be out in it and see it. Exciting!

When I got to Regents, I changed into my nice shoes - the dinner was sort of fancy. Then I went up towards Ruth’s room, hoping to run into her to see if I could put my stuff in there because there didn’t look like there was a good place for it in the dining hall. I did run into her, so that was good.

Then we went to dinner and met up with Jonnie. At first there seemed like there wasn’t going to be anybody there, but eventually people showed up. There was a rowing dinner that night too and dinner was at a different time, so both those things contributed to this. The dining hall was all nice and we got crackers with little toys in them and fun jokes. My joke was, “What do you call a fairy who doesn’t take baths?” And the answer was, “Stinkerbell.” Haha!! Cute. We had gateaux for dessert again, except this time I knew what it was.

After dinner I went up to the JCR with Ruth and I got a letter from Regent’s, asking me for interview this Thursday starting at 9:30. Then I have to take a Philosophy test next Monday, which means I’ll be coming back from Wales a little earlier, but that’s okay. So I have to go through another interview and I have to take a test, two things I don’t want to do, but I guess the outcome could be worth it. We’ll just wait and see. Ruth was really excited. So then we talked for a while, mostly about childhood games that we used to play, comparing English and American. Usually I had some sort of equivalent but they almost always had different names. So that was fun.

Then I walked back to Stanley Road and got there in time to talk to Kyle before he went to his Bible study. Then I talked to Kim and Lee and finally my mom. I e-mailed people to tell them about the interview. Then I actually got to bed before midnight so I got a little more sleep last night. Yay!

I slept in again yesterday and tried to not take my medicines to see if I’m getting better. I got sort of achey and stuff so I took an advil and called my mom. I guess it’s still trying to get me, which means I need to get more sleep but I’m having trouble doing that lately it seems. I had breakfast of tea and my last thing of oatmeal, and then later a banana because I thought maybe I wasn’t feeling well because my bloodsugar was a bit low. It does that sometimes.

Throughout the day I read this world bank article on Ghana. It was quite long, but it was really interesting to me. Reading about just aid in general and how effective it is interesting, but I get really intrigued when I get to read up on individual countries. I told my mom that I decided I was a dork because economic history for me is like reading a novel. I want to find out what happens in the end, though none of these stories are finished I guess. My mom agreed that I was a dork but she said it was okay, maybe I found my specialty or something.

So during reading that I took breaks to finish Ruth’s stocking! It’s sort of small but I was afraid that I wouldn’t have enough of the same kind of yarn. I’m sure she’ll still like it. It also means I don’t have to find as much stuff to stuff it with. I also looked at some movie trailers online and crocheted some other stuff. Then at 4, I called Kyle and his plans got all messed up so we didn’t get to talk long. Then I called my mom who was grading papers down at the farm and we talked for a bit. Then I went to church.

After church, I went to Regent’s library and read the Blind Assassin until 9. Then I went to meet Ruth and we went to Kat’s birthday party. She’s 20. It seems like almost everyone here is younger than me, even those who are third years. We sat around and talked for a while and then decided to leave around 9:45. It was fun, but crowded. It seems like everyone is having birthdays lately, so facebook tells me at least.

Oh and in my e-mails, I got an Avent e-card from my grandma and mom. They’re obsessed with those things. I also got e-mails back from Dr. May and Dr. Apple, which was nice. Dr. Apple said it was Mansfield’s loss and hopefully Regent’s will have enough sense to accept me. He’s always had so much confidence in me, and I’m not completely sure why, but it makes me feel good that he thinks I can do it, even if I don’t. I guess he’s one person that I made a good first impression on. I don’t seem to do that with most people.

When I got back, I probably should have gone to bed, but I didn’t feel like it so I messaged Rita and Lindsey, who were both online. Neither were there for a bit, but then Rita came back, so we talked for a while until she had to go eat and then work out. Good girl, keeping in shape. Of course, I guess she has to since she does track and stuff. Then Kyle came on and he called and we talked for a bit until I started to fall asleep and he was going to take a nap before he went into work. Lindsey messaged me while I was talking to him, so after taking a 10 minute power nap after I talked to Kyle, I messaged her again. We talked for a while, which was good. I can’t wait to see people. Then I finally went to bed at 1. I’m bad. Tonight I’ll try to get to bed a bit early. We’ll see.

Yesterday was another relaxing Saturday where I didn’t do much but read. I slept in until 9 and then I wrote e-mails to Dr. Apple, Dr. May, and Dr. Hadaway to tell them about Mansfield and thank them for all their help. I also e-mailed Pamela and told her, though she probably already knew. Then I took a shower and put on sweats, comfy clothes are great. And I didn’t have to wear tights under my pants since I wouldn’t be going out. Then I wrote my blog, after which I went downstairs to get stuff out of the fridge for lunch and Alec was down there. He asked me if I was applying for PPE and I said yes. He’s apparently going to be proctoring, I think, my admissions exam he said. He’s a doctorate student so I guess they do that stuff. I told him about Mansfield and he said, oh you know Regent’s will give you a spot. I told him I didn’t know, keeping my hopes down. Then he said, as long as I don’t screw up my admissions exam, jokingly. So I guess it looks like I might have to take that test anyway, unless Oxford just put me on the list automatically. I’m still hoping I don’t have to but I guess I can’t avoid it if they want me to.

So yeah, maybe I still have a chance of getting in. After this I called my mom and we talked for a while as she was driving to Kelley Ridge from the farm. She had service the whole time we talked, pretty crazy. She told me my grandma had started her blog. That’s pretty crazy too. My grandma is definitely pretty cool. Kyle always said she was cool after he found out she plays Hitman and Grand Theft Auto on her computer. And now she has a blog, well I think it’s more of a writing down memories thing than a typical journal and she may only write in it when my mom goes over there and tells her she should. That’s how this happened. Her blog has been set up for a while, but she just never got around to writing in it so my mom made her. If you want to look at it, it’s at www.xorph.com/mombo. Apparently my family had a connection with Charles Schulz.

So then I read articles all afternoon, taking a few breaks to stretch ad crochet. Learning about how much aid actually affects economic growth, specifically in Africa. Today I’ll focus more narrowly on Ghana. Then I had dinner, looking at MBA and journalism programs online and then calling Kyle afterward to find out what time I should really call him. He was decorating with his family for Christmas! Happy times!! I can’t wait to decorate for Christmas. Oh and their Christmas tree used to be our’s. Last year they were going to buy a new one, but we had this huge one and didn’t really have a place in either house for it and it had just been in storage for a while, so my mom offered to give them our’s so they wouldn’t have to buy one since we wouldn’t be using our’s anymore anyway and it’s a nice tree. My cousin got it for us for cheap when she worked at this big department store. Anyway, the reason to tell all this is because Kyle had a corny line that made me laugh that he told me about later. After they had put up the tree, they said it was a pretty good looking tree. And Kyle said, “That’s not the only thing from that family that is good looking.” Or something like that. Haha. Makes me laugh. (He was talking about me, just in case you didn’t catch that. I’m sort of surprised that I got it that quickly, quite often that would be one of those times where I would totally not catch it. But I did. Yay!)

Okay, so then I read some of this book, “The Blind Assassin,” that Brendand got me before I left. It’s sort of depressing and a bit weird so far, but it intrigues me, so we’ll see what I think when I finish it. Then I washed my dishes, washed my face, brushed my teeth, and called Kyle while I crocheted. (I told you, it’s an addiction, crocheting, not Kyle, well maybe Kyle too. Haha!) Then I went to bed at almost 1:00, too late for me, so I slept in again this morning.

I’ll go ahead and explain my title first, even though it happened at the end of the day. I got a letter in the mail after dinner, along with my postcard from Kyle’s grandma, which was very nice to get. Everybody thinks it’s so sweet that my boyfriend’s grandma and family send me stuff. I just tell them that they’re great people. And I’m glad Kyle’s grandma told me about the postcard because it was sort of buried under other people’s mail (I share my box with the other two G-town people), so I went through it all just in case it had come. And so I got it and this letter. The letter was from Oxford admissions and told me that my application had been fully considered by Mansfield, my first choice, and they were not going to offer me a place, so now my application would be considered by second choice, Regent’s. So now I might have another interview with Regent’s. I don’t know. But I’m sort of relieved because I didn’t really want to go to Mansfield anymore. I think I would rather go to Regent’s if I did come to Oxford just because I wouldn’t have to go through the whole being “new” thing again. And also I felt like I didn’t really get on well with the economics guy at Mansfield, which I know that’s just first impressions, but that would be really my main focus, maybe moreso than Politics, just because I feel like I’m sort of good at it. So anyway, no more waiting on that, now I just get to wait on Regent’s. We’ll see. I think I’ll be happy with either outcome. I’ve been thinking about it and I really can’t decide which thing I would prefer so whatever happens is what is meant to happen and I’m okay with that and actually not just okay with it, but happy with it.

So now back to the beginning of my day. I got up and didn’t get anything productive concerning my tutorial done in the morning. I always have trouble doing work Friday mornings. I looked at Master’s programs at colleges and things about MBAs and owning your own business and differen’t stuff that I think is fun to do, looking at all my possible options for the future. Then I only had like an hour before lunch so I decided I couldn’t get anything done anyway so I opened the program that I will be designing my senior thesis magazine on and played with that a bit. Then I got ready to go and faced the cold. It was in the 20s today so quite cold, but I have my big coat so it’s all good.

I ran into Ruth when I came into college so we went into lunch a bit early. There were like 7 of us in there early, but we can’t start dinner until someone prays before the meal. So we were all discussing if we should say prayer yet. We decided there weren’t enough people in there yet so we waited until the bell rang and then immediately Jonnie prayed. The salad bar actually looked really good, had mini spring rolls and sausage rolls on it, so Ruth and I were disappointed that we didn’t get it, but then Jonnie said we should just get some of those things anyway since nobody was in there yet. So I got us each one of each thing and we hid it under a napkin so we wouldn’t be found out. They were good. Then I had fish and chips. I had seconds of fish, there were two different kinds so I got some of each. Then we were sitting across from Alex (a girl) and Helen (she’s one of the quirky ones that I went with to get the goodie bag that one time, very nice, sweet girl) and they were debating about getting desserts. I hadn’t signed up but I sort of wanted some too. Alex had had two and Helen was debating getting a second but we didn’t want to take away anyone else’s. Then Jim, the guy sort of in charge of meals and stuff, came over and said we should take as much as we want because they’ll just be thrown away if we didn’t. So I got this apricot cake thing with custard on top. Quite good and I was very full at the end.

Then I went up to Regent’s library and read my textbook until dinner. I got all the reading I’ll do from it done, I think. But it was making me really tired. I could barely keep my eyes open, but I managed to stay awake by drinking water. I haven’t fallen asleep while reading yet and this was the first time since I’ve been here, but maybe that’s because I don’t read at night. I read at night at G-town and quite often, Melissa will come in and find me asleep. I’m trying to be better with that. So anyway, I crocheted a bit too and then went and changed for formal hall.

I met up with Ruth before we went in and then we all went in and sat. We sat near Helen and Becky and Esther, Amy, and Sarah, and talked to them. I was asking Ruth when the Advent choir things were and then we were talking about dresses because all I have is my skirt and nice sweater and I said I might feel underdressed. Ruth said she didn’t have anything but then she asked Esther if I might fit into anything of her’s. And she said yes and then she asked Amy too and she said she had a red dress and then Esther asked Sarah because Sarah is more my size (in the chest at least) and she had this pink one that they said would probably fit me best. Becky offered her’s too but she said it would probably be too big. They all bring extra dresses I guess even if they aren’t going to be wearing them. So we decided I would go try them on after dinner. Then Ruth said she felt bad because she knew it wasn’t her place to ask that for me. But I just laughed and said it was fine. Always fun to try on dresses. She kept apologizing, which I thought was funny. I think she thought I was embarrassed, but it was fine.

Dinner was pate for the starter but I wish there had been more bread, and I got the “vegetable tower” which wasn’t nearly as impressive as it sounded. It was okay, just some cooked vegetables stacked on top of each other and drenched in sweet and sour sauce. There were potatoes, cauliflower, and zucchini (or coourgette) also. So I got filled up. Then dessert was this pastry thing with whipped cream, caramel (which I pronounce wrong, by the way, as well as bananas), and almonds. I ate some, but it was too sweet to eat much. Then Ruth ate one of my almonds and then said sorry, was I going to eat that? And I said, yes, absolutely, I was very mad, etc. And she said I was good at that sarcasm thing. I said my friends were all pretty sarcastic quite often. She said she had this one teacher one time who was very, very sarcastic, which apparently got on her nerves so it must have been pretty bad. But anyway, she said she told him that sarcasm was the lowest form of humor and he replied, yes, but it was the highest form of wit. Which I found that funny.

So after dinner, I went up to the library with Ruth to get my stuff and then we went to her room. Esther wasn’t there yet so we went to the JCR to wait. I checked my mail and got the letter and postcard. I told Ruth and showed her the letter so she knows. Then I tried on Sarah’s dress first. And they all said it looked really good and looked like it was made for me. It was a little tight around the ribs but not bad, so we decided I should just wear that one. Then Esther went to get some silver shoes that she said would look nice with it and we wear about the same shoe size. It’s hard because all their sizes are different then our’s. I think their size 6 in clothes is our size 2 and their size 5 in shoes is about our size 7. Confusing. So while we waited, Ruth, Amy, and I waited in Ruth’s room and talked. It was sort of neat, because I felt like I actually fit in and it was like a night I would have with my friends back home. I’m finally starting to feel like I fit in here and now I’m getting ready to go home. I guess it just takes me time. Which maybe I’ll be back, and if I’m not I’ve told people they need to come visit Georgetown and I’ll show them all the excitement that is Georgetown, or take them somewhere else. No, I love Georgetown, just not the most exciting place.

So the shoes fit and then they were going to watch Lord of the Rings, the extended version, I think the third one, so I went on back to Stanley Road. That would have been a bit too late of a night for me. When I got there, I tried to call Christi because she had left a message for me on my cell phone that I had gotten that morning, but she didn’t answer so I just left her a message. Then I called Kyle and told him about Mansfield. I really am not disappointed, which is kind of weird. I guess I prepared myself right for this or something because it used to be, even if I didn’t want something, I would be disappointed that I didn’t get it because I felt like I failed. But I guess I still have a chance, but I also feel like all the experiences were worth it even if I don’t get a spot. So I’m in a good satisfied place right now.

I checked my e-mail and had one from the college secretary that told me that I had mail and she advised me to check it this weekend, so I guess Regent’s already knows about it. I also looked up train times to Bath for next Friday. I was going to go today but then I found out there is this Christmas market that doesn’t open until December 1 there and that Friday will be after my tutorial so I won’t have anything to do. So I figured I would get about the same amount of time there and could still get back in time for the Advent concert thing. So I’m waiting. And today I’m going to try to get a lot of work done so I can spend a little more time with people in my last week here. So then I called my mom and talked to her and Ian and told her about Mansfield. She was driving though so we didn’t talk long. Then I went to bed, at midnight, past my normal bedtime since I’ve been here. And then I slept in all the way until 9 this morning. Wow!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! I guess it’s a day late, but oh well. Yesterday was a much better day, even if it was cold and a bit gloomy. The weather didn’t match my mood. I got up early, went to the social sciences library, printed out my paper, and took it over to Harris Manchester. Then I went back to the library and wrote my blog and read some articles in the Economist. I didn’t really have much to review for my tutorial since there were no questions, just the essay. So then I walked back to Harris Manchester a little before 11 and got there early. I looked in Mark’s window and it looked like he was still reading my paper, so I walked around the college grounds a bit. I never have before that. It’s quite pretty.

Then I went back to Mark’s office and he let me in. He said he was still trying to look for something for a topic for next week but we could discuss that at the end. So he gave me an A on my paper!! He said he thought it was very good, but had a few suggestions for clarification and stuff. I think next week I’m going to ask him if he’s been grading me on an Oxford scale or a visiting student scale and ask if he thinks I could make it over here, just to get his honest opinion so if I do get accepted, I can have that to help me with my decision. So we discussed India and I told him what I had found, since he didn’t really have a lot of information on the topic, since he hasn’t really studied it much. Then we talked a bit about the differences between quotas and tariffs and put up a diagram for it. And then he asked me if I had any ideas for a topic for next week. So I told him I was sort of interested in Ghana because I had seen references to it in both the Sachs book and the William Easterly book that I read on growth. But I didn’t know how much would be written on it. So he said the only problem with that is, again, he doesn’t know much about it, but that’s okay. And also he would want to tie it in somehow with economic theory and stuff. So we looked up a bit of stuff and he found some readings on development economics and I’m going to read about that first and get a background on development economics and then pick one portion of it that ties into Ghana and try to write an essay on Ghana and one aspect of development economics. So I got myself into another essay, but that’s okay. I think I’m not going to worry about it quite as much, or at least try not to, since I’ve already done the portion required. I started out bragging that I only had to write 4 papers instead of 8 and I’m going to come out writing 7 instead of 8 with only one week where I didn’t write something. But since I want to write for my career, I think that’s a good thing.

So after that I went to the library and found a textbook on development economics for my background. Then I checked my e-mail and stuff. I got e-cards from my mom and my grandma for Thanksgiving, which was sweet! Then I went over to Regent’s and read one of my fun books until lunch. I had vegetarian lasagna, which isn’t like our vegetarian lasagna but still good. Then I talked to Dr. Curry after lunch, asked her if she knew anything about a good taxi service and she said she’d send me something. She also asked about my interview and if I had heard anything. I told her the situation and she said she’d try to poke around a bit to see if she could find anything out for me about an interview with Regent’s. She also said the Regent’s principal had been asking her too about why Regent’s wasn’t my or Christa’s first choice. Of course, she’s not really involved in that so she had no idea. So I told her my reasons and why we didn’t and how we didn’t want to take advantage of our contract with Regent’s and stuff. She said she thinks he might be worried that we’re not having a good time here or something and I said that wasn’t it at all and now that I’m familiar with it, I wish I had put it as my first choice. So she asked if she could tell him what I said and I said that’s fine. I hope that’s okay, but I’m just being honest so I don’t think anything bad can come of it. It’s all a learning process for G-town and now we’ll know that it’s okay to put Regent’s as our first choice. So Dr. Curry is going to try to smooth things over a bit and find out what she can for me, which is good.

After that I went to Keston and addressed envelopes, hearing Dr. Peterlin talk in another language on the phone to someone, which was interesting. Then I walked over to Borders and looked through books and magazines for like 2 hours or something. I haven’t been there in a while and I didn’t feel like doing much of anything so I rewarded myself with that. Then I went to dinner, which had some interesting conversations. The vegetarian option was some sort of egg thing, like an omelette and a quiche combined, which it was pretty good. It looked strange though so we were all a little hesitant about it. I said I thought it tasted like it had brie in it. And then Esther said she thought her’s tasted like it had white wine in it. I almost said, oh maybe, then I looked up and saw she had the meat option. So Kat, the girl who came over to G-town earlier this fall before Oxford started, said maybe it was brie. And I said that I thought the veg. lasagna had brie in it earlier too. Then Esther looks up and she realized that we were eating two different things too so she had been thinking the same thing as me, except she said it out loud. She said she was wondering why I kept talking about brie when she thought it was white wine. So then they said that Regent’s didn’t used to have this much brie, because it seems like we have it usually more than once a week. So we decided either the school has a contract with a brie company or the chef just really likes brie.

Then we got onto the subject of books in the libraries. Now in our libraries, if you check out a book, you act like it’s someone else’s, but here that’s not so. They underline and write in it, like we would textbooks that we buy. Which I guess it’s sort of like our used book system, but it’s still sort of strange. So then people write things and then another person who checks it out next will respond to the first person’s writing, even though that person may never see it. And we were talking about how we would read an underlined thing to try to sort out it’s importance, even though it may have nothing to do with what we’re reading the thing for. But anyway, Esther said, sarcastically, then she loves it when people write swear words in it. So we were like yeah and Ruth has this puzzled look on her face and says, “Square words?” And we just sort of look at her and she says, “What are square words?” And people were a bit confused what she was asking and then I said, “Swear words, Ruth, not square words.” And then she says, “Oh!” And she got real embarrassed and said she was imagining words written in a square and was really confused. It reminded me of something I would do. We all laughed, but maybe you had to be there because reading that over it doesn’t sound quite as funny as I thought it was earlier.

So then after dinner, Ruth, Jonnie, Ali, and I went to G&D’s. I got a big brownie and Jonnie got a big hot chocolate. The brownie even had big chocolate chips and they warmed it up for me. It was very good and I was surprised that I ate it all, but I did. YUM!! Not turkey, but still good. So that was my Thanksgiving special food, a Thanksgiving brownie. They asked questions about Thanksgiving and what we did and I said pretty much we just ate. I told them they were big meals and that at my grandma’s they were having 26 people and at Kyle’s, they were having 33 people. And they were amazed and trying to figure out how so many people could fit at one table or in one place. Then they talked about their Greek homework and dreading it. They’re all theology students. I seem to get along best with the Theology students, of course, the majority of students at Regent’s are in Theology so maybe that’s just it.

Then I walked back to Stanley Road and called the farm and talked to everyone there. Rita told me about all the food, one our greatest similarities is our love of food and disappointment when we get too full to eat everything in sight. Of course, we are also best friends for other reasons. Alyx said she and Jerusha and Rita decided they would make me a Thanksgiving meal when I got home as long as I didn’t mind that it was them cooking it so she said it might not be very good. I said I was sure I would like it. I also might stop by Bellarmine when I get back since I’ll be flying into Louisville and see my cousins there. I talked briefly with my relatives as they passed the phone around and then talked to my mom and my brothers. I told Brendan about my computer problems, which I had a new one yesterday morning. The computer wouldn’t shut down without me saying it could run a program to search for errors so I just didn’t shut it down. Brendan said he didn’t trust it so I tried to quit it and it worked this time, but I couldn’t try to shut it down again because I was talking to him through it. So we’ll see what happens today. Ian said his job is a job but it’s not bad and he’s having fun in California.

So then my mom had given me my Uncle Dennis’ number because my other grandparents had gone there for Thanksgiving. Of course, they don’t stay anywhere long so they were already gone when I called but I talked to my aunt and uncle and I think my uncle was really excited that I had called. I’m his only niece so I think he sometimes plays favorites with me. So then I tried to call my grandparents at their house and got a hold of them so I talked to them for a bit. They weren’t sure if I was home yet, but I said I would call and come visit over Christmas break since I wouldn’t have a job.

Then I called Kyle and got a “Happy Thanksgiving!” from 33 people all at once. Pretty impressive. I talked to Kyle for a while and then Andy and then Kyle again. Then his grandma came on to ask if I had gotten a postcard she had sent me. I haven’t yet but it’s something to look forward to now. Kyle told me about his invention of Pumpkin Pot Pie, which now I think he should have to make it for me, as long as it doesn’t taste like chicken pot pie, the one food I don’t like because I got sick on it once. I let him go and promptly fell asleep.

Then I woke up at 5:30 and realized I had fallen asleep. So I called Kyle because I thought maybe he wouldn’t be around people then but he was still playing skip-bo with his family, so I only talked to him for a couple minutes, and then he kept upsetting his mom, but I won’t talk about that in case she wouldn’t want me to. I told him to stop doing that and he said he would try. So then I fell asleep again after changing into my pajamas. I think I’m winning against this sickness, by the way. I started coughing some today but my nose isn’t nearly as bad. So I’m going to keep taking medicine, vitamins, and sleep, but I think I got over the hump without getting completely sick, so that’s happy. Oh and I’m thankful for all my great family and friends and this experience over here and can’t wait to get home so I can be thankful for a break and being able to see everyone I miss!! Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Yesterday wasn’t a very good day, but it ended on an okay note. I tried to get up early but didn’t get out of bed until after 7. Then I sat down and tried to write my paper. I added some more references to the works cited page and got one more paragraph I think. I ate an apple and then had some hot chocolate. Then I had a stomach ache and felt sort of achey plus I was blowing my nose every five minutes and my ears felt weird. Kyle got on aim at some point, which he said he had just gotten in from being with his friends in Richmond. And I’m not supposed to write this because his mom reads it and says he shouldn’t stay up that late, which he shouldn’t, but it was nice to talk to him.

I tried to go back to my paper but didn’t really get anything accomplished before lunch. I stretched, crocheted, got teary-eyed on my bed when I tried to lie down for a bit. I agree with my mom that you get more homesick when you’re sick. I wanted to be home in my own bed, wherever that may be, in my dorm, at Kelley Ridge, or at the apartment, but still. Be in a familiar place and not have a paper looming over my head. And it sort of makes things worse because I know everyone is getting together with family and having breaks and I wish I could be there and be having a break. Oh well, soon!

So I eventually walked over to Regent’s with my laptop and went to lunch and ate the salad bar. Ruth wasn’t there so I sat and talked with some other people, I don’t remember who. I wasn’t very hungry but I made myself eat because I know I need to even if I don’t feel well. Then I went up to the library and started typing. I got about 1500 words down in about 2 1/2 hours or so. And it was terrible, none of the paragraphs went together and each one led to three different subtopics and I felt like there was no way to fit in all the information. I knew it all pretty well, just couldn’t figure out how to organize it and write it. So I went and wrote Mark an e-mail and asked for suggestions, even implying maybe we could put the paper off a week, which I didn’t really want to do because it’ll be nice to not have to write anything next week, but this paper was turning out awful.

I was getting a stomach ache again, which I wasn’t sure if it was nerves or actually being sick, but I didn’t like it. So I went back to my computer and was reading through an article for like the 6th time and came across a sentence that gave me an idea. It sort of got in my head how I could organize the paper, starting from a different point. So I started all over, opening a new blank document, and wrote and used only one paragraph from the previous paper. I got a little over 2000 words in about an hour and a half. I think that’s the fastest I’ve written a paper since I’ve been here, but it was much better than the first one. I’m still not sure if it’s great but it’s at least decent. I went and checked my e-mail and Mark had written me back, somewhat in an apologetic tone saying how it makes things harder when we deviate from the set Oxford reading list and questions. I never really realized how the reading lists somewhat point you in the right direction for the essay question. So he gave me some points I should cover and said if I just wrote one or two paragraphs on each, that would be fine. He said to remember I’m doing a week’s worth of work, not writing a book. So I added a paragraph and a couple sentences, but I mainly had what he had said I think. He said to focus on the big picture, which I think I did. So hopefully it’s okay.

After that, I crocheted some. I had brought my yarn with me, expecting to get done sooner. Then I e-mailed Kyle just to sort of vent about my frustrations. Along with the paper being bad, my Word program randomly told me that my proofing tools were not installed so it wasn’t capable of doing spell check or anything. Which I’m normally pretty good at proofing but I was going to be revising less this time since the paper took me so long and sometimes you just miss things. So this morning I used the spell check on the computer I printed from, which was good because there were a few words where I just had typos but that wouldn’t have looked good. My computer is going crazy and I don’t think I did anything to deserve it but I don’t know.

So then I read through my paper once and then went down to dinner. I wasn’t hungry again. When I told Ruth this, she said, wow you really are sick. I’ve already gotten the reputation here for always being hungry and eating a lot. She asked me how my day was and I told her not so good. Then I asked how her’s was and she said sort of non-stop so not the best. Then she asked Jonnie how his day was and he said not great. So apparently everyone was having a down day. Dinner was actually pretty good, though dessert was a little weird. The starter was spring rolls which are always good, but I just wish my stomach had been a little less achey so I could have enjoyed the food more. Oh well I still ate it.

I walked home after that, intending to go to bed early again. I talked to Kyle and figured out how to download aim, for some reason it worked this time. I also got windows media player which hadn’t worked before but I haven’t been able to see anything on it. I tried to play some things and it said either it wasn’t compatible with Macs yet or there was a failed path or something. Then I called my mom and talked to her for a bit. And then I almost fell asleep and Amanda messaged me on aim so I talked to her until she left G-town to head home. Then I washed my face, brushed my teeth, and went to bed, without reading over my paper again. I figured I would just do it in the morning. Mark knows that I don’t think it’s the best paper and I don’t think I can change it around with one more reading through. So revising was somewhat lost on this paper, unless you count the first one as a first revision. Anyway, I set my alarm, took my medicines and vitamins to help out my immune system in its battle against whatever this is that is trying to make me sick, and fell asleep.

First off, I feel bad about what I wrote yesterday about the other G-town students. They seem to be doing fine in their tutorials, so maybe I am just working too much. Or maybe they just don’t get as much sleep as I do. I’m sure they value academics and this experience and maybe they’re doing it the right way. I don’t know. To each their own. I’m good with how I’m doing my thing, so yeah, just wanted to say that because I think about stuff way too much.

Onto my day yesterday. I got up and in the morning tried to do research for this paper. Which I found a bunch of stuff I guess, but I’m still having a lot of trouble actually writing the paper. So I read through stuff and narrowed my things down to a few articles and web pages and sent those links to myself in an e-mail. Then I heard someone vacuuming outside and I thought it was perhaps the cleaning people, especially when I went out of my room and it smelled like cleaners. So I straightened my room real quick and made sure to hide all my food. I don’t think they ever came into my room, if it was even them, but it never hurts to straighten the room.

I walked to Regent’s and had my usual lunch. I sat next to Ruth and we talked about what we had done for the day. We might go out to G&D’s Thursday after dinner so I can celebrate Thanksgiving with ice cream. She doesn’t know if she’s going to this church thing or not so we’ll see. After lunch I walked over to the social sciences library and tried to do some more research and reading more thoroughly through the articles I already had. I tried to start the paper and got the introduction and part of the works cited page done. But then I noticed I was sort of focusing on the wrong thing, which makes it harder but maybe I can just still sort of focus on the first thing.

I felt like I couldn’t write anything more then so I checked my e-mail and got an e-mail from Melissa, who said my pictures on flickr made her laugh, so I’m glad people can actually see them. I wrote her back, checked out a book that I thought might help me draw in some theory to my paper so it’s not just empirical evidence, and then decided to walk over to Regent’s to look through the book and try to put together at least an outline of the paper. The book did not turn out to be as helpful as I thought it would be so that didn’t take long. I got some notes down for my paper, and then walked over to the JCR and watched people play table football until dinner.

Jonnie was there and he asked me about my second undergrad. I told him I didn’t think I had much chance and then Ruth came up and mentioned the econ guy saying not many second undergrads being accepted. Jonnie said he thought it was more of a case by case basis and the statistics shouldn’t mean much, not that he’s really an expert on Oxford admissions, but it made me feel better. He asked me why I hadn’t put Regent’s for my first choice and I said I wish I had now, but too late. Dinner was weird. It was like a pastry with brie and cranberry. Having cheese with jam and having it all warm is just weird (unless it’s cream cheese with pepper jelly, but then I still like it cold). So I took the cheese out and ate it on my potatoes and had the pastry with the jam-like stuff separate. So it filled me up but wasn’t very good, and there wasn’t any good dessert. Ruth and I talked about how we’re getting tired of potatoes. I never thought it would happend but it has. I’ll still eat them to fill me up but when I get home, I’ll be asking for other things. Except maybe mashed potatoes because we haven’t really had those.

I walked home after dinner and talked to Kyle while he ate before he left to go home to Richmond for his break. Then I crocheted some. I’m glad I have my crochet stuff but at the same time it’s sort of bad because I get sort of addicted and don’t want to stop. I like to finish things and you can’t really do that in one sitting so I have to stop myself. After I stopped crocheting, I fell asleep. My mom called later and woke me up so I talked to her for a bit, then fell asleep again. I woke up at 1:30 and realized I hadn’t brushed my teeth or washed my face so I did that, called Kyle for a few minutes just because, and then went back to sleep. So I got quite a bit of sleep, hoping to make my sickness go away faster. Hasn’t worked yet but we’ll see.

Well yesterday, my day started out wonderful because I got a hot shower as I already wrote. Then I read until around 11:30 at which time I started over to Regent’s so I could talk to David Harper and turn in my worksheets for vacation stay so I can stay at Regent’s the night before my flight home. It was quite cold but I wore my big white coat - very bright white but that’s okay because it keeps me warm, even my hands because the sleeves are long enough to cover them. I saw Pamela when I came in and she asked how my interview went and if I had heard from Mansfield. I haven’t, and I assume Regent’s hasn’t either because Pamela is the dean and also involved with PPE because she’s philosophy, so I would assume she would be one of the first to know. I got things settled with David and then read until lunch.

I saw Ruth in the library and she said she was able to sign me in for lunch which was great, so I got my jacket potato and salad bar. I think I’m finally getting tired of the salad bar. They change it up a bit but it’s pretty much the same thing every day. I might actually get the meal for lunch a couple times this week. Well I definitely will Friday because it’s fish and chips, but then it’s lasagna one day so I might get that too. Break out of my pattern and get a little variety in my food. We’ll see. There’s always safety with the salad bar and I know it will fill me up but I guess I can bring a pack of crackers just in case the lasagna doesn’t fill me up if I get that one day.

After lunch I walked over to the social sciences library and finished my reading of the books Mark had given me. He e-mailed be a link to one more article, but the rest of the research I have to do on my own, so hopefully that will go well. I was going to try and read the last article but it was long so I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to finish it before dinner, so I checked my e-mail instead. I got a reply from Dr. Hadaway because I had asked him about a requirement on these lectures that I’m supposed to go to and the discussions. He said I’m supposed to go to three discussions too so I e-mailed him back and told him how I tried to and then Kyle didn’t show up for the discussion even though he said he would be there. I finally talked to Kyle and he said he was sick so that’s why he didn’t show, though I saw him in the library after the lecture, but maybe he just didn’t feel like he could lead something. I don’t know, but anyway, Dr. Hadaway e-mailed me back again later and said since it wasn’t really my fault that I’m okay. I still might try to make it to the lecture the last week depending on how my week is going. If not, at least I have my requirement filled.

Dr. Hadaway also told me some stuff about making sure I told Regent’s how appreciative I am of them helping me and shaping me as a student since I didn’t put them as my first choice on my second BA application. Apparently they were disappointed that neither Christa nor I put them first. However, we didn’t want to take advantage of our contract and also the second choice can only be a permanent private hall, which Regent’s is one of about five or something, so it made sense to have them as second choice. Also, for me it made sense to apply somewhere else because Regent’s main focuses are Theology and Philosophy and they don’t even have a permanent economics tutor, which would be one of my focuses. Oh well, it’ll be sort of hard to tell them how they are helping shape me as a student because I’m not even really there for my tutorial and am not really associated with any of the tutors there, except Pamela sort of I guess.

The good thing is he said that all the staff are impressed with me and respect my work ethic I guess, so he thanked me for being a good ambassador. Nonetheless, this e-mail frustrated me a bit just because I feel like I’m supposed to be doing so much more than just be a visiting student. I’m supposed to be gathering info for the guinea pig project of these second undergrad applications as well as be an ambassador and I’m sort of paving the way for economics tutorials as well so I have to gather info on that. Plus the extra requirements of doing stuff that really isn’t my thing. I mean the Christianity and Culture lectures are interesting but sometimes I feel like I could be doing something more productive with my time. Which they’re sort of supported by G-town or something so I understand that Georgetown students should show up to at least some of them. But I don’t know, it’s also frustrating because I feel like I’m the only student from G-town who is putting academics first, which I know you’re supposed to be having fun and getting along with the students. But I feel like I’m the only one who really even tries to talk to the staff too. The students aren’t the ones who decide how this program goes. And I’m at Oxford, so I want to take advantage of the academic aspects of it. I mean I guess pubs are different than bars, but you can drink anywhere, you can’t do research with these awesome libraries and talk to these great scholars anywhere. I mean I love out professors and they have great minds too, but I don’t know, it’s different. Maybe I’m just weird. Okay I wrote way too long on that aspect of my day. I got over the frustration pretty quick, so it’s all okay. I like to think that I can represent G-town well and hopefully it will pay off somehow.

I got an e-mail from Kyle (my boyfriend Kyle, not the one here) and he was talking about going home for Thanksgiving and preparing for the end of the semester. I want to be home for Thanksgiving. Sad. Oh well, post-Thanksgiving celebration will have to do. I haven’t really bonded with the Americans here so I think I’ll just be spending my time with English people on Thanksgiving. Maybe Ruth and I will do something or something. So then I went to dinner at Regent’s. Ruth had signed me in for veg and the pudding, so yay! We talked about sweets because there’s a lot she doesn’t like, which is sort of funny because it’s more the texture that she has a problem with, not the taste. And she doesn’t like chocolate so that rules out a lot. I was really trying to figure out what I could put in her stocking. It might take a little creativity or it might just not be real full.

I walked back to Stanley Road after dinner, intending to try to do a little more reading. All the shops that I passed on the walk home had Christmas decorations in their window displays. Fun! There are also some Christmas things hanging over the streets and some lights on a few things. It makes me happy to see them. And I listened to Christmas music on my iPod that Kyle had sent me over skype. So the walk was enjoyable when I wasn’t nervous about slipping and falling from the slick sidewalks. I didn’t fall . . .yet!

Reading didn’t happen. I talked to Kim and Lee for quite a while, told them when I would be home and stuff. Kim thought I was going to be home for Thanksgiving. Again, sadly no. But that’s okay. Then I decided to crochet a mini stocking to figure out if what I was thinking would work would. I had looked up a few patterns on google but then I decided I didn’t really know how to read crochet instructions so I thought I would just experiment. That’s what I usually do and it usually turns out okay, maybe not perfect, but it works. So my mini stocking worked. Looks a little weird on the heel but maybe I can fix that on a bigger one. So now hopefully I can finish a big one and if it doesn work, then I’ll just give Ruth the small one, though it’s pink, not really Christmas colors. Oh well, the other yarn isn’t really either.

I called my mom and talked to her for a few minutes. She was with Deb because it was Deb’s birthday. I had sent her an e-card earlier. Then I went to bed and Kyle called later and woke me up, but then he was really tired so we only talked for like 20 minutes and I fell asleep again.