Oooohhhh! So THIS is Oxford....

1st week in Oxford: I'm studying at the school of my dreams. Life is unrealistically perfect. I want to see everything and do everything and explore forever!

3rd week in Oxford: Man, it feels like I've been exploring forever. Gosh I miss my Gordon friends. I'd really like to make some friends here...and I miss my momma.

5th week in Oxford: When is real school going to start already? I kinda like these people that I'm stuck here with, but I'm still going to travel alone during break and go to Ireland.

7th week in Oxford: This Oxford thing is a piece of cake! I love my tutorials. I love my tutors! I don't mind writing a 7 page paper every week and writing a creative writing piece every other week. I could spend all day in the libraries they're so wonderful! And I'm in love with my new friends here. I want to know them better!

9th week in Oxford: Wow, I'm working pretty hard here. It's tricky to balance a cappella group stuff with social activities (I adore these friends and want to do nothing but spend every minute with them) with all the papers I'm writing. I'm feeling a little tired, but the prof giving the Wordsworth lecture wears cool socks, so I'm gonna be ok...

11th week in Oxford: OH MY GOSH!!!! I'M GOING TO DIE! I HAVEN'T SLEPT IN TWO DAYS BECAUSE I HAD FOUR PAPERS DUE ON THE SAME DAY!! I BARELY HAVE TIME TO EAT ANYMORE! HOW ON EARTH AM I GOING TO DO THIS FOR THREE MORE WEEKS?!?!?!

So THIS is Oxford....

Ok, I exaggerate a little, but only on the "I'm going to die" part. Everything else is pretty accurate. Oxford is Oxford for a reason—now I understand that reason. Writing 7 pages every week might not seem like that much, it didn't to me at first, but when it never ends... as soon as you finish one paper... *BAM* the next one's in your face. A new novel needs reading, 12 more long, often tedious secondary sources to skim through. Come up with another brilliant argument for a topic you've only just been introduced to 2 days prior. Oh, and on top of that, go to lectures, come to tea, rehearse for the gigs, plan for the party, cook for the family, foster relationships, and don't forget to sleep. When does it end?

The answer is December 7th. That's when the program ends and then everybody goes back home (except for the select few of us who will be here for the last half of the year, too). I should be excited for that date. I'll get a lovely 3 week break to use however I choose. No essays. No lectures. No tutorials. No cooking for anybody but myself. I think it's called a vacation, but somehow, that just doesn't sound like a very good reward for surviving this. I'm caught between a rock and a hard place here.

This work is hard. It's draining, and I'm looking forward to not having so many deadlines CONSTANTLY hanging over my head, but at the same time... when this ends, my friends leave me, and realistically, it will be a very long time before I see them again, if ever. How can I celebrate the end of something so Beautiful? even if it does coincide with not having to write essays. I'd write an essay a week for the rest of my life if it meant I could be with these people. (Crazy huh? You'd understand if you met them).

I can't wait for this to be done so I can sleep and eat and live normally—and read for fun!!!!!—while at the same time, I never want this to end. Ah, but no matter how I feel about it, the date is approaching, and I intend to make the most of the little time we have left.  Tomorrow night Felicia and I are making a blanket fort with the 3 ft high stack of blankets that's been growing in my closet :) (Explanation? Well, they bring us clean sheets every friday. We're supposed to change our sheets and leave the dirty ones out in the hall to be collected on Monday. However... I don't change my sheets every week! So I've been staking all the clean ones in my closet...but the stack has grown to be ridiculously huge. Felicia's solution? Blanket fort. I adore this girl.)

Well, I don't really have any other updates. And really all this update says is "Oxford is hard." Real insightful, Maria. Sorry, I guess I've used up all my brain power in writing essays. I know my family will be glad to hear that I'm working so hard. School work is important. It's hard, but it's important, and I enjoy it even though it's been a bit overwhelming. I'm thinking about taking an adventure this weekend as a reward for the hard week. Perhaps another journey down the Thames, although it's much too cold now to take a swim at the end of the journey. I'll just have to find something else ridiculous to do...