5/25/13
Good morning! Yesterday was wet, windy, and generally nasty outside. I wore two coats, with my rain jacket tucked inside my wool jacket. I don't know if it is the contrast of warm to cold weather, but since in England I've become increasingly sensitive and angered by cold weather, even by those 40 degree days I wouldn't even notice in the States. Friday was a generally good day. I started it off by going out to breakfast with some of the Oxford track girls, who mostly discussed their recent "match" against Cambridge. (It was apparently a slaughter, and not in Oxford's favor. Also many of the girls got suck in Cambridge because the bus left without them, and they had to take a taxi. To Oxford from Cambridge. Apparently the Athletic club is paying that bill.) I felt a little awkward during the conversation but I think I managed not to seem too weird during it. At least they were discussing a topic I understood, despite heavy British accents. After that I worked on my paper, ventured out into the rain, and went to my tutorial. My tutorial went well, I suppose. I wasn't sure what to expect but I felt mostly prepared. Dr. Neill asked me to explain my argument to him, and then we discussed the pros and cons of the counter arguments. The paper, if you are interested, pondered the question of how the balance of power in Europe did or did not contribute to the outbreak of the first world war. Afterwards, I went home and ate a pizza. (It was a small pizza, but I did eat the whole thing by myself.) After chilling about with my housemates for a while, I went to hangout with Amanda, a girl I had just met the day before and seemed exceptionally nice. She lives just down the street and is also part of the OSAP program. After talking to her and her housemate Anne, I felt a familiar sort of vibe in the room. And I knew. I found myself interrupting the conversation suddenly. "Sorry for this interruption, but I just have to ask, if you don't mind. Are you two home-schooled?" They looked a little surprised and then smirked. "Yeah, we were." I'm starting to think now that my family attracts homeschoolers to our presence. If you think about it, only 3% of people are home-schooled. But my sister and I count at least four homeschoolers among our close friends, a group hardly more than 35 people. That's four times the national average. So I talked to Amanda for two hours, and then went back to my house to find a bit of a mess. You see, my roommates got roaring drunk for Vince's birthday. To their credit though they are respectful drunks, and were safely (and quietly) in bed by 1:30. As long as they stay quiet past a certain hour, I'm totally fine with it. I don't particularly want to join them ( I believe in a more moderate approach to drinking for myself, specially amongst people I just met), and sort of hope it isn't a regular occurrence. Anyhow, today I got up and did a workout with the club. I talked to the coach as well, and we decided I should only do one or two workouts a week of low intensity as I build my base. It seems smart to me. Tomorrow is a long run, and hopefully I won't get lost if the group leaves me behind. I'm kinda regretting not running more before I came to Oxford. After that, I took a shower at the boys house next door (our shower doesn't work yet (they are trying to fix it) and I was getting tired of taking baths) and then walked over with my housemates to see the rowing event on the Thames. It was super crowded but cool to see. Anyways, the rest of the day I've been doing reading and the like, and I am about to go to bed. Night y'all.
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