are you alright?

birthday girl quickly breaking the rules!

either british people are very concerned, or "Are you alright" means can i help you in oxford slang... just a thought of the day. anyway! sunday & our first day of classes....

the main quad of oxford university
college, home for the next 5 weeks!
please excuse the visitor.

my friend stacey and i at our reception after convocation

sunday (my birthday, just as a reminder) was a laid back day. at 1:30 we had a tour of oxford & walked around for about two hours hitting the major points. our guide was a scottish lady, i informed her of my love for her country. we had our convocation ceremony in the chapel which is so gorgeous. they have painted windows, not stained, painted. it might be prettier than stained glass... after that we had dinner... and the dinner the night before was a cold meal, so i was crossing my fingers for some warm sustenance... the 1st course of gazpacho was not inspiring. but our food was served warm! however it was lamb... so i had some potatoes. we sit in a harry potter esque dining hall which i love. in fact the dining hall where they filmed harry potter is just down the street!

I live in a tower which only has 3 rooms as i said. my room is quite nice so stacey has moved her mattress into my room and we're roommates :) after dinner she had a paper to write, but i being the ever prepared in advance type had already finished. so i watched a movie and went to bed. (after i forced an engineering student to help me with my internet). the sun rises at 4:30ish here so sleeping with curtains open is a big mistake, one i wont make again soon... at 5:00 there was some sort of car wreck out front and then before i knew it my alarm went off for class!

our welcome banquet. very formal...with cold soup

day one of classes: breakfast isn't the best meal here but we ate and headed to class! we lecture from 8:45 to 10:15 (my first class is class and gender in ancient society) then we have a tea break and head back for more of class # 1. my teacher in this class is a lady from SMU. her child is here which i think would be beyond boring for a 9 year old or lead you down the path of being a freak forever. after class we have lunch. the only meal which will keep me alive at this rate. normal food at normal temperatures.

after lunch we have a break and then meet with our tutorial teachers. mine is named michael nicholson. he's the dean... casual i know. he is also what i presume is a functioning alcoholic. not only have i heard rumors. but  the evidence is everywhere. he actually has trays of cups and shot glasses... and bags of multiple bottles of wine/booze. but i can tell he's awesome because he mutters things under his breath all the time. after our hour with him stacey and i ran some errands. i now have a european phone if anyone wants to call or text that i think you dial +44 then 07741621969 i have no idea why their phone numbers are so long. its a pain.

this afternoon before dinner i had my first small group tutorial. me and my tutor and two other students will meet with him to discuss papers. since mike (my blog name for my prof) has already mortified me infront of my whole class by pointing out that i am the only nerd who turned in the paper early he announces he's already read mine and i don't have to read. SCORE! anyway the poor girl who ended up voluntarily reading hers is a moron. literally couldn't pronounce horace walpole (our author) or manfred/hippolita (character names) or the title of the book she said ontranto with a yankee a the whole essay.. its otranto with a short a. awful. and her paper was literally a summary. i felt so bad for her. thankfully we didn't end up discussing it...possibly because it was so bad? anyway after that was dinner which wasn't as bad as the cold meal.

now its time for me to decline pub invites and go read homer's odyssey... so fun.