My brain is broked.

Though I am still having a fabulous time here, I'm starting to wonder if I will survive. I'm aware that it is Fresher's Week and that after this week things will calm down (as in socialization activities) but I'm not quite sure I have the stamina to keep up with this place.

Terrifying thought number 1: I have a 7-10 page essay due Monday evening. I spent 5 hours sitting on the same chair in the library, under a flickering light, reading the main text for this essay. I'm reading the English "Mystery Plays" which is basically a Biblical pageant the guilds of pre-Shakespearean England would put on for Corpus Christie day. While I thoroughly enjoy most of the stories, and the play about the crucifixion gave me chills, I do not enjoy reading them in middle English. Which is what they are written in. Middle English has the most bizarre spellings of things and if Emma reads them aloud to me (which she can because she knows how) I can understand. Not so much when I'm reading them to myself. I emailed my tutor and told him that I'd never done middle English so he gave me a translation of sorts--basically the only difference is that the words are spelled with modern spellings. Otherwise, I still had to look up a ton of words. The next project is to gather 3-6 secondary sources and write the essay. The big libraries are closed tomorrow.


Terrifying thought number 2: I have a 2,000-2,500 word essay due Tuesday morning on World War I. I much prefer this essay and have done plenty of work for it, but I would really like to get some more sources. Again, the big libraries are closed tomorrow. Yep. Not good.

I've come to the realization that this programme is super self-selecting. You only choose to come to Oxford through Sarah Lawrence if you want your butt handed to you on a platter. No sane person would do this. Your average Oxford student takes 1 1/2 tutorials. Sarah Lawrence Programme does 2. This may not make any sense to you, but to me it means What did I get myself into?!?!?!

Moving away from the pseudo-complaints...I've been having a blast with my flat-mates. We are all almost insane and it should be pretty hilarious by the end of the term. We all congregate in the kitchen at various random times and cook. Its the most fun when we come back from whatever we were doing for the evening and all decide we are hungry. At 11 o'clock at night. Its a half hour walk from the college to our flat, so its no surprise we are always hungry. The other night, Katie was sitting on the counter, Emma and I were sitting on the floor and Rachele was reclining on the other counter. I'm talking laying, on her back, on the counter. It was hilarious. This picture is from another night when Emma (in black) and Katie (in white) discovered they both have, and love, their onesies.


This morning, Amy and I went to the Music Faculty and tried out for the University Orchestra. I'm not sure how I did; I think my solo went well enough but the sight reading may or may not have been a huge catastrophe. Afterwards, before we both went to live in the various libraries, we went exploring around Christ Church College. This is, I think, the most famous of the Oxford colleges as it was used for filming the Great Hall and Grand Staircase scenes in Harry Potter. It was fabulously beautiful. That would be the center quad of Christ Church College; forget Wadham, I wish I went there!