Pimms and Punting

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Life continues to be fun and fancy free.  That could have something to do with the fact that classes haven't started yet, but I'm not going to examine it too closely.  I continue to meet lots of fabulous people from all over the world.  Yesterday I discovered that St Cross is home to a healthy population of Germans.  I approve of this thoroughly.  I chatted a bit today with a political theory major who did not slow down his speed-of-light German a bit for me, which was very gratifying, if exhausting.

The days so far have been comfortably full without inhibiting my quest to sleep 9-10 hours every night, thereby conquering jet lag as quickly as possible and storing up excess sleep hours in preparation for the undoubtedly sleep-deprived days ahead.  We've been given a schedule of events for Freshers' Week that advertises "Croquet, Pimms, and Nibbles" most days at 1:30.  Intrigued and bemused, I ventured onto the quad yesterday to investigate.  I had no idea what Pimms and nibbles were, and only a vague understanding of croquet, but I figured if nothing else I could at least maybe nibble the Pimms.  It turns out that no one really cared about the croquet, there was nothing to nibble, and Pimms are a fruity cocktail popular at posh garden parties.  Ah well.

Today we went punting.  What's punting?  So glad you asked.  Think gondolas: low, long, flat boat with someone standing in the back pushing a boat with a stick.

Let me just tell you, it's harder than it looks.  Morgan, who seemed to be somewhat in charge, informed us that he had never heard of anyone falling out of a punting boat.  We formed teams of five, went to our assigned boat, and almost fell out of it while climbing in.

My team comprised a Ukranian-turned-Englishwoman, a Canadian, a German, and a Frenchman.  We each took a turn punting the thing, which is really quite difficult and gets you all wet, but is a fantastic upper-body workout.

Most of us steered into the bank or another boat at least once.  I think I was the only one to go directly through a tree growing just over the surface of the water.  Our German teammate quickly emerged as the most proficient punter on the river, thanks to previous canoeing experience.  I wish I'd taken video of the adventure.  It was particularly funny at the beginning as we were all spinning in circles and going sideways and generally creating chaos on the river.

Despite our mad punting skills, our team had the most epic failures in the group.  Our pole got stuck in the mud at one point and the boat continued to float peacefully away, leaving the pole poking up out of the water.  We floated helplessly for a bit until another boat retrieved it for us.  Our biggest misadventure was when our boat was driven onto a giant root hidden just below the surface of the water.  We nearly capsized a few times, and it took another boat and someone on the bank pushing and shoving to dislodge us.  So that was good.  But we made it back in one piece and headed straight for a pub to recover.

All in all it was an excellent day.  I am now going downstairs to meet some people for dinner.  See Facebook for the complete photo album from today.

Hello from Hogwarts!

I'm writing from my new desk in my new dorm in one of the super-new colleges at Oxford (and by new I mean the buildings were generally built between 1911-1926).  Photos will come when I've unpacked.

The journey was an involved one.  I landed at Heathrow with a splitting headache and no tylenol at 9:45 local time this morning.  I met a Greek and a Romanian, both new Oxford students, and together we found a bus that deposited us unceremoniously into an obscure parking lot somewhere in Oxford about an hour later.  From there we parted into taxis.  My taxi ride totaled £3.45...oops, sorry, taxi driver.  The driver left me outside a foreboding wooden door with no indication as to how to open it, but as I was puzzling over the problem, a cheery old man burst through the door and invited me in to join "lots and lots of other young people."  From that point until 4:00ish in the afternoon I've been filling out forms, following people up and down twisty corridors and stone staircases, and meeting zillions of people--no two of which were from the same country or had the same major.  Seriously.  Even the four "English" (I thought) students turned out to be from London, Dublin, Wales, and LA (raised in UK at least).  Also I'm surrounded by geniuses.  I've met a girl who's going to cure leukemia, another who applied here on a whim and got in, and one math student who peppers his conversation with really big math words.

After I untangled myself from the paperwork I FINALLY got to go to my room.  It's very modest but I have everything I need.  I'm pretty jazzed about the sink, even though the cold faucet has a tendency to spontaneously explode in my face.  Perhaps the biggest mystery of the day was the question of how to turn on the light in the bathroom.  There is a cord hanging from the ceiling in the corner, but it looks remarkably like medical equipment and I thought it might be some kind of "help me I'm dying in the bathroom" alarm. However, finding no other device resembling a light onturner, I gave the string a tentative tug, promptly decided that I'd probably just called the fire department, and ran back to my room to hide.  In the absence of alarm bells and herds of military, I crept back to the bathroom to observe.  The light was on.  Victory.

The highlight of today was easily going to a coffee shop with five other native English speakers, no two from the same country.

I shall now fall into bed and slip silently into a coma of exhaustion.  Shower schmower.

PS it turns out they do have spiders in England.  Curses be upon them.

Packing Update

Seven days until D-Day, so I felt it was time to start packing.  I put a pair of shoes and a bath towel into the giant purple suitcase.  After some consideration, I took out the shoes.  That's as far as I got.

Oh dear.

Visa visa visa!

(To be sung to the tune of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries")

	Wagner - Ride of the Valkyries .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

My visa is HEEEeeere
My visa is HEEEEeeere
My visa is HEEEEEeeere
O frabjous day

My visa is HEEEeeere
My visa is HEEEEeeere
Now nothing's beTWEEN me
and the UK

(ho-yo-to-ho, ho-yo-to-ho)


Farewell to Walmart
Farewell to huge cars
Farewell to free REEEfills
and rhotic R's!

(ho-yo-to-ho, ho-yo-to-ho)


19 days, folks.  Huzzah!