Tutorials are going along better and better every week. I really enjoy both of them thus far, and this week I start my third, so I'm very much looking forward to that as well. I have to figure out how to get to it, though; it's held in a different college, one which I'm not acquainted with, so I'll have to do some exploring before Wednesday. Both Helena and Jennie seem to be liking my essays more and more, though, so I'm very pleased about that.
I did manage to have an adventure on Wednesday night. One of the ways to and from college involves going through the Christ Church meadows, and I like it very much because it's prettier than the main street. However, on Tuesday I was running a bit later than usual, and I only had about 10 minutes until the gates are supposed to be locked. Taking the risk, I walked briskly all the way to the exit near the Graduate Centre, behind Warnock house. On arriving, however, I found that the groundskeepers had been rather prompt, and with three minutes to spare the gate was already locked. I'm sure that there is another way out of Christ Church, and another way to get to where I needed to be, but suffice it to say that I knew neither.
This is how the gate is structured: a short iron fence skirts the river, and the gate, which is at least doubly as tall, blocks the bridge over the river. There's enough room on the wrong side of the fence to skirt along and get to bridge, except for another problem: there is a large spiked iron semi-circle that protrudes over the river, to keep people from doing exactly that. However, Justine, when finding herself locked out and on the wrong side of the river, will not be discouraged! To make an already too-long story shorter, I hopped the fence and made it to the protrusion. Bracing my feet on the bank, I managed to swing myself over the river and around so as to be able to reach the bridge. Particularly since I was wearing dress shoes and a heavy backpack, I felt victorious.
TJ arrived for his visit on Thursday. Everything there went very smoothly; I made it to Heathrow to pick him up in plenty of time, his flight was only half an hour late, and we made it back with no complications. He's only now getting over his jetlag, so we haven't gone exploring too much, but we have plans to go out to London and also check out the Botanical Gardens and Oxford Castle, at the least. I'm glad he's here.
Yesterday I had an unfortunate mishap. Cooking dinner for us late in the evening, the butter in my pan started to smoke. Mind you, it did not even smoke a tremendous amount; it wasn't burned, nothing was on fire, etc. However, the smoke alarm promptly went off. Beyond even this, the smoke alarms here happen to be linked, so not only did it go off in the first floor kitchen, but in every single room in the entire Graduate Centre. Fully abashed, I had to call the college lodge to track down our caretaker to turn it off; I think the alarms were on for a good 15 or 20 minutes. Pretty embarrassing at the time, but at least I can say I wasn't cooking something stupid like popcorn, and worse things have certainly happened: I could have actually set the kitchen on fire, and then would I feel worse!
Honestly, that's about all that's happened. Life here has settled down into more of a regular routine, and I like it very much. As much as people complain and warned me about the work load, I'm not overwhelmed. It's more work than home, but with a little dedication and time management, you can have great heaping helpings of free time as well.
To conclude, Things I've Noticed:
- There's generally much less traffic both in the city and on the highways.
- The days are MUCH longer here than at home: it doesn't get fully dark until almost 10, and the sun rises by 4ish.
- They don't have frozen foods to the extent that we do; I could only find either fresh corn or canned, for instance.
- British smoke detectors are sensitive.
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