Today was my big day! I had both of my tutorials. My first tutor was sweet and very excited
about our topic. She was rather chatty, which was wonderful except that I had
less than a half hour to get down to Christ Church… I was only about five
minutes late… ok maybe closer to ten. My second tutor was equally as excited. I can tell that this
term is going to be a challenge, but I’m totally pumped for it. I can't wait to get up and go to the library tomorrow, I just have to figure out which one... oh Bodleian!
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Sunday was an adventure. I slept in which was delicious.
Then Eliza, my flatmate (my NoVa twin) and I made scrambled eggs and English
Bacon. English bacon is different than American Bacon. If anything the closest
approximation I can make is that it is kind of a cross between Canadian bacon
and American Bacon. Once we cleaned up – we had so many dishes to wash—I headed
to town.
I trekked up to Lady Margaret Hall in North Oxford to figure out how much time I need to allow to get there for my tutorial this week. North Oxford is lovely. It’s a residential area with gorgeous homes. I walked past the Ashmolean, which I will somday go explore, as well as the Lamb and Flag Pub.
I made my way back to the City Centre in search of a hot drink and hopefully Internet and landed at Starbucks on High Street where I met a lovely American from Atlanta that is also here for the semester. We had a lovely chat about Oxford, home, and transferring colleges.
Then I made my way to Jesus for the Welfare Tea hosted by the JCR (Junior Common Room) Welfare Reps Eva and Niall. There were about twenty or so students in the JCR so it was nearly full. I didn’t really know if I was in the right place then I recognized Niall from the email of all the reps and got in line for tea. While I was trying to figure out exactly where the cue was the Chaplain, Megan, introduced herself.
“Oh Becca LeyLand! I just emailed you.” Then she said something I totally missed about worship. She was perfectly lovely and introduced me to several students. Once I got my tea, I made my way back to the pool table – I’ve got to get better so I’m ready to challenge Rachel when I get back. I played a boy named Leo, I think…(I couldn’t quite make out what he said) He reminded me of James, which made me happy. I managed to beat him out of pure luck – I set him up perfectly several times to sink the black ball and he missed it.
I just waited in the JCR until worship in the Chapel. I enjoyed Evensong. It was mostly music and I liked that the sermon was very college oriented. Though I did feel bad when there would be a response or a prayer to recite because I was surrounded by British accents and I tried so hard to keep my American accent, but I wasn’t entirely successful…
I trekked up to Lady Margaret Hall in North Oxford to figure out how much time I need to allow to get there for my tutorial this week. North Oxford is lovely. It’s a residential area with gorgeous homes. I walked past the Ashmolean, which I will somday go explore, as well as the Lamb and Flag Pub.
I made my way back to the City Centre in search of a hot drink and hopefully Internet and landed at Starbucks on High Street where I met a lovely American from Atlanta that is also here for the semester. We had a lovely chat about Oxford, home, and transferring colleges.
Then I made my way to Jesus for the Welfare Tea hosted by the JCR (Junior Common Room) Welfare Reps Eva and Niall. There were about twenty or so students in the JCR so it was nearly full. I didn’t really know if I was in the right place then I recognized Niall from the email of all the reps and got in line for tea. While I was trying to figure out exactly where the cue was the Chaplain, Megan, introduced herself.
“Oh Becca LeyLand! I just emailed you.” Then she said something I totally missed about worship. She was perfectly lovely and introduced me to several students. Once I got my tea, I made my way back to the pool table – I’ve got to get better so I’m ready to challenge Rachel when I get back. I played a boy named Leo, I think…(I couldn’t quite make out what he said) He reminded me of James, which made me happy. I managed to beat him out of pure luck – I set him up perfectly several times to sink the black ball and he missed it.
I just waited in the JCR until worship in the Chapel. I enjoyed Evensong. It was mostly music and I liked that the sermon was very college oriented. Though I did feel bad when there would be a response or a prayer to recite because I was surrounded by British accents and I tried so hard to keep my American accent, but I wasn’t entirely successful…
Monday was my last day of complete freedom. I just relaxed,
but I did go into town for a few things and to find where I had to go at Christ
Church.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Incase the last post wasn't enough here is another to describe the happenings of the rest of naught week.
Luckily, Wednesday was a relaxing day. We had no obligations with our Program - the day was ours! I wandered into town to see the market near Gloucester Green, where the produce stands were swamped with people, I managed to find my way into one area and bought some brussels sprouts, which I will be eating for the next month, good thing I like them! I walked up to the woman to pay.
"A pound fifty"
"I think I've got it"
"Yes you do. Do you need a bag?"
"No ma'am"
"I do like being called ma'am."
"I'm so sorry. I'm an American it just slipped out!" and the kind woman said she knew and continued to tease me about calling her ma'am for several minutes until another customer came up to pay. I was terribly embarrassed, but now it's rather funny.
After my very American slip, I wandered to the grocery store for a few items, now i don't remember what, but they were important at the time!
That night I had my first pub experience. It was quite interesting to people watch. We were relegated to outside for a while until one girl found a table inside. Since we were all popsicles by then, we were more than glad to head inside. Not too much later the group called it quits and headed home. The fog was incredible by then, but we made it home, with the help of a bus - again it was rather cold.
Thursday flew by! We had our introductions to our college libraries followed by a tour by the Junior Common Room President - it's kind of like a student body president of the college. Our tour was rescheduled for today because our poor JCR president was stuck in a meeting for an hour and a half. Ah Thursday was a major grocery shopping adventure because I made dinner last night. My great-aunts' oven fried chicken and brussels sprouts. I was practically jumping up and down when the dinner came out alright! My flatmates even said it was good! Yippee!
Today I spent the middle chunk of my day at the library reading my text for my British women's history of the twentieth century tutorial. I swear I read that thing twice and I'm still not entirely sure what I read so I'll be back there tomorrow because I do not have borrowing rights at that library.
Have a lovely weekend and I will be sure to post about what ever adventures arise!
Luckily, Wednesday was a relaxing day. We had no obligations with our Program - the day was ours! I wandered into town to see the market near Gloucester Green, where the produce stands were swamped with people, I managed to find my way into one area and bought some brussels sprouts, which I will be eating for the next month, good thing I like them! I walked up to the woman to pay.
"A pound fifty"
"I think I've got it"
"Yes you do. Do you need a bag?"
"No ma'am"
"I do like being called ma'am."
"I'm so sorry. I'm an American it just slipped out!" and the kind woman said she knew and continued to tease me about calling her ma'am for several minutes until another customer came up to pay. I was terribly embarrassed, but now it's rather funny.
After my very American slip, I wandered to the grocery store for a few items, now i don't remember what, but they were important at the time!
That night I had my first pub experience. It was quite interesting to people watch. We were relegated to outside for a while until one girl found a table inside. Since we were all popsicles by then, we were more than glad to head inside. Not too much later the group called it quits and headed home. The fog was incredible by then, but we made it home, with the help of a bus - again it was rather cold.
Thursday flew by! We had our introductions to our college libraries followed by a tour by the Junior Common Room President - it's kind of like a student body president of the college. Our tour was rescheduled for today because our poor JCR president was stuck in a meeting for an hour and a half. Ah Thursday was a major grocery shopping adventure because I made dinner last night. My great-aunts' oven fried chicken and brussels sprouts. I was practically jumping up and down when the dinner came out alright! My flatmates even said it was good! Yippee!
Today I spent the middle chunk of my day at the library reading my text for my British women's history of the twentieth century tutorial. I swear I read that thing twice and I'm still not entirely sure what I read so I'll be back there tomorrow because I do not have borrowing rights at that library.
Have a lovely weekend and I will be sure to post about what ever adventures arise!
Happy Friday!
It is only midday back home, but the day is winding down into evening here. I have been remiss in blogging this week. I apologize, especially with so much going on!
First, was our induction into the Bodleian library, which I always want to type Bodelian, but Mr. Bodley would not appreciate that. I won't waste your time with the full story of the Bodleian, but it is a rather interesting tale, if you are so inclined to look it up.
We waited outside until precisely 2:30 when we were led through a small court looking room with beautiful dark wood into a parliament style room with equally beautiful dark panelling. The rooms were designed as a court and a parliament when King Charles made Oxford the capital.
We were seated on the benches of Parliament and told the history of the library along with other pertinent information such as which libraries we do have borrowing rights at.
From our induction we raced off to the Oxford Union in the centre of town. It's a lovely gated area with a debating chamber and a main building. The main building houses the library, where we do have lending rights, a bar, and lovely gathering rooms. We get our Union cards next week. Hopefully, there are some interesting speakers this term.
After our tour, we raced home to get ready for the black tie dinner. I actually wore make up and got my hair curled thanks to my very kind and generous flatmates. Sadly no pictures because we were running late and naturally it was raining on our way there so our looks didn't hold.
The formal dinner was at my college - Jesus College. We managed to follow the program director up to the dining area. We hung our coats and passed through a smaller room where we were offered sherry or orange juice (Orange juice please!) on to the balcony where we waited for the dinner to begin. We were called to attention and informed that dinner was served. We filed back into the smaller room. I should mention that the balcony looked out over the dining hall, a large room, but smaller than the Great Hall in Harry Potter.
Once we found our seats, they were assigned, we were served a very fancy salmon patty with a small salad. There were also rolls that were delicious. Our second course was a chicken breast with mashed potatoes, wilted spinach in a dark sauce. Following dinner was a sherry trifle. The night ended with an hour or so of toasts during which there were biscuits and cheese served with port. I failed to mention that there was white wine with the salmon and red with the chicken. After three long hours of small talk this introvert was exhausted.
Hope this entry wasn't too long, but Tuesday was action packed!
It is only midday back home, but the day is winding down into evening here. I have been remiss in blogging this week. I apologize, especially with so much going on!
First, was our induction into the Bodleian library, which I always want to type Bodelian, but Mr. Bodley would not appreciate that. I won't waste your time with the full story of the Bodleian, but it is a rather interesting tale, if you are so inclined to look it up.
We waited outside until precisely 2:30 when we were led through a small court looking room with beautiful dark wood into a parliament style room with equally beautiful dark panelling. The rooms were designed as a court and a parliament when King Charles made Oxford the capital.
We were seated on the benches of Parliament and told the history of the library along with other pertinent information such as which libraries we do have borrowing rights at.
From our induction we raced off to the Oxford Union in the centre of town. It's a lovely gated area with a debating chamber and a main building. The main building houses the library, where we do have lending rights, a bar, and lovely gathering rooms. We get our Union cards next week. Hopefully, there are some interesting speakers this term.
After our tour, we raced home to get ready for the black tie dinner. I actually wore make up and got my hair curled thanks to my very kind and generous flatmates. Sadly no pictures because we were running late and naturally it was raining on our way there so our looks didn't hold.
The formal dinner was at my college - Jesus College. We managed to follow the program director up to the dining area. We hung our coats and passed through a smaller room where we were offered sherry or orange juice (Orange juice please!) on to the balcony where we waited for the dinner to begin. We were called to attention and informed that dinner was served. We filed back into the smaller room. I should mention that the balcony looked out over the dining hall, a large room, but smaller than the Great Hall in Harry Potter.
Once we found our seats, they were assigned, we were served a very fancy salmon patty with a small salad. There were also rolls that were delicious. Our second course was a chicken breast with mashed potatoes, wilted spinach in a dark sauce. Following dinner was a sherry trifle. The night ended with an hour or so of toasts during which there were biscuits and cheese served with port. I failed to mention that there was white wine with the salmon and red with the chicken. After three long hours of small talk this introvert was exhausted.
Hope this entry wasn't too long, but Tuesday was action packed!
Monday, January 7, 2013
Why hello there!
Today's been a busy day as was yesterday. I spent Sunday afternoon wandering around the city centre looking for where all of my meetings for today were supposed to be and I found Jesus College!
I had my second grocery store experience well it's more of a Walmart than a Giant or Safeway, just not as gigantic. The place was packed, it was Sunday afternoon, so it was my own fault that I went in, but alas I went inside and wove my way through the crowd.
Today, I met up with another Mason student after her academic advisor meeting because I didn't want to sit in my house all day. She was with two other girls from the program. We went into Blackwell's looking for proper Oxford Diaries. The first Blackwell's did not carry them and the second was out of stock. We wandered down Broad street and the people leading the group realized they didn't know where they were going so I took charge and led us over to the Westgate Centre to find the program office and Primark, which is kind of like Target, a non-grocery Target. I ventured into Primark, just going along for entertainment. We found some rather cute clothes and tights then headed up to find shoes. We have a formal welcome dinner tomorrow night and my friends needed shoes. I looked at the crazy heels then looked for slippers. I just needed some warm and soft houseshoes. After some far too frilly and fluffy ones I found some loafer type slippers that met my needs. I held on to them, not sure if I would get them or not while I walked around with my companions who needed a few other items. I hemmed and hawed about the slippers because they were 4 BPS (can't seem to make the BPS symbol work), which is roughly $6, not bad, but I wasn't sure about them. As my friends went to check out they said, "just get them!" I thought about how I'd been using my ankle socks as slippers and that was rather annoying so slippers would be a good investment. I get to the register thinking that it will be 4 BPS and the cashier says "two pounds" I didn't think I'd heard her right, "two pounds?" she replied "yes" so I happily forked over the two pounds and headed on my way, feeling like I'd just gotten quite the deal and glad that I'd listened to my friend. Once we were through Primark our little group split up and I headed off to my college appointment to see if anyone I knew was waiting there. There were two other students so I talked with them until they went back for their meetings. I was an hour early so I just hung out. After my academic advisor met with the other students he went out for a lunch break since he'd been in meetings sine 9:45. He saw me waiting and suggested I go out for coffee. I figured, why not i'd just be sitting there listening to the poor woman who was struggling as the Porter on Duty.
I ventured off for hot chocolate then came back to wait for a minute until he returned from lunch.
He was a lovely chap, very welcoming and wanting things to go well this term. I'm taking my top two choices for tutorials - British Women's History of the Twentieth Century and feminist theory.
After our quick meeting, I remembered that I had to "top off" my phone - put more minutes on it or put more money on it. Fun little phrase, isn't it? I had no clue where to go since the director said we could go anywhere, but didn't clarify what anywhere meant. I figured the best plan of action would be to hit the Virgin Media store since I have a Virgin Mobile even though I called it Verizon to the Virgin media guy, it is actually a Virgin Mobile. The store's internet was down so I was sent "across the way" to another store to buy a card to top off my mobile. I get into the store where there are massive magazine racks left and right. The convenience store continues back until I pass some self service check-outs, I think well that's lovely, but I need another human to figure this thing out. At last I happen upon the cashier check outs. There appears to be a woman in line looking at the items on the shelves near the checkout. After a few minutes she snaps "I'm not in line!" As if I was just supposed to know. I step up to the cashier and ask the cashier about the cards to top off a phone. "We don't have those. All I can do is a voucher." I said that was just fine and headed back to the virgin media store because the guy said he would help me "top off." The guy that had said he would help was busy, but the other guy, a very tall fellow offered to help as I must have looked totally perplexed trying to figure it out myself. It worked and I headed home giving up on trying to work out things at Jesus College - I'll save that for tomorrow.
As I was walking down to Botley and I hear my name. I was shocked - who would be calling for me? I know maybe 20 people in all of Oxford so far. It was one of my flatmates, she was trying to find St. Peter's College which is a bit tucked away. She also happens to be a flatmate that I hadn't had the easiest time with so far, adding to my surprise when she asked me for help. I gladly pointed her in the right direction and headed back home.
Tonight's been relaxing and tomorrow night we have a formal welcome dinner with the program director.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Hello all!
Doing well here in Oxford. I was incredibly homesick, but now that we have Internet, things are much better.
Yesterday, we had an all day orientation. It was very informative, but 8 1/2 hours of information was a bit much though we did get tea and lunch breaks.
Today was a lazy day here we all slept in then had a flatmate meeting and dashed off for groceries. We will probably eat some frozen pizza and watch Downton Abbey. My flatmates are lovely people and our flat is cute.
Grocery shopping here is very different from the States. First off - much smaller and tiny portions, which is good. They have things at a grocery store I hadn't thought would be there. Nothing bad, I just didn't expect hiking boots at a grocery store.
Tomorrow i'm going to adventure into the city centre to find where my college and my Monday meeting are.
I haven't taken any pictures yet, but we took a flat picture as we headed of to the grocery store.
I'm going to check with the Porter at the college to see what they say about mail then I can give my address.
Hope all is well back in the States!
Becca
Doing well here in Oxford. I was incredibly homesick, but now that we have Internet, things are much better.
Yesterday, we had an all day orientation. It was very informative, but 8 1/2 hours of information was a bit much though we did get tea and lunch breaks.
Today was a lazy day here we all slept in then had a flatmate meeting and dashed off for groceries. We will probably eat some frozen pizza and watch Downton Abbey. My flatmates are lovely people and our flat is cute.
Grocery shopping here is very different from the States. First off - much smaller and tiny portions, which is good. They have things at a grocery store I hadn't thought would be there. Nothing bad, I just didn't expect hiking boots at a grocery store.
Tomorrow i'm going to adventure into the city centre to find where my college and my Monday meeting are.
I haven't taken any pictures yet, but we took a flat picture as we headed of to the grocery store.
I'm going to check with the Porter at the college to see what they say about mail then I can give my address.
Hope all is well back in the States!
Becca
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