My winter coat and Christmas decorations
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.