Goodbye Oxford...Hello Thessaloniki!

Before sunrise on Monday morning I left Oxford by bus and flew from Heathrow to Thessaloniki, Greece to visit Heather, my friend from Stonehill. I was very sad to leave Oxford, and I was surprised by the realization that I will not be returning to Oxford anytime soon. My last week in Oxford was a really good one though! I got in the Christmas spirit with Christmas dinner in the dining hall – complete with little toys and paper crowns in our “crackers,” a roaring fire, carols sung by the coed choir, pigs in a blanket, and mince pies! Yum! My last two tutorials went well (although I had a couple really long days and really late nights in order to get all my work done.) We also had Provost’s Collections, which was when each student met with the Provost, the head tutor, and the director for visiting students at Worcester, who happened to be one of my tutors. A statement by each of our tutors about what we did well and what we need to improve on, ending with our British grades converted into American grades, was read aloud to us. All of the visiting students did really well! The week ended with a couple nights out with friends to clubs, and a couple quiet dinner and a movie nights in with American friends after the British students left on Saturday. I got to hang out with my friend Tom one night. Here’s a picture of the two of us:

Tom had just had the Worcester rugby team dinner, and they all had to wear shirts of bad rugby teams, so Tom was sporting a Wales rugby shirt (and then dressed it up…and I think maybe tried to cover it up?!)

I especially enjoyed the final bop put on by the Entz (entertainment) team at Worcester. The theme was cartoons, so everyone went all out for costumes; there were the Incredibles, Smirfs, 101 Dalmations, and more! I was Cinderella, courtesy of a frilly dress from Primark (a store like Target that’s really cheap). Here is a picture of my friend Tom and me in the college bar during the bop:

It was really sad to leave all my new friends…and Oxford. But I am confident I am going to stay in touch with these new friends – and maybe see some of my new American friends back in the States!

So that brings me to where I am now! Heather is studying at the American College of Thessaloniki, and invited me to come and stay with her. I traveled all by myself from London to Thessaloniki (scary…but I’m so proud of myself for being able to do it without any problems!) yesterday, which took all day. Last night we stayed in, we caught up, I met Heather’s friends here, and we watched a movie. I was happy to stay in, but there is another reason that we decided to stay in last night. As you may or may not have seen in the news, there are riots going on, mainly in Athens, but also in Thessaloniki. The Greek college students are rioting against the police, in an attempt to rebel against the government. From my understanding, the rioting has all been instigated by the death of a fifteen year old boy who was shot (after instigation) by a police officer, but many Greeks aren’t happy with the government and thus the rioting has been carried on. There have been lots of tear gas bombs, rioters throwing things at the police from roofs, and today there was a peaceful march that went by while we were in a grocery store. I am separate and safe from the riots where I am staying, but the neighborhood that I am in is down the street from the University where the riots are taking place. The rioters are staying on the university campus because the police legally cannot enter their campus. So we just need to stay away from that area. But sadly, it is interfering somewhat with my ability to sightsee and enjoy Thessaloniki! Today is the funeral for the young boy in Athens, so we are hoping that things will calm down by the end of the week, and so far, they seem to have already quieted down.

On Saturday morning, Heather and I are traveling to Italy to meet a couple of her friends and do a week of sightseeing in Italy! Our plans are to start in Venice, then go to Florence, and finish in Rome. But, in Venice, there have been really terrible floods…so once again my travel plans may be thrown off! How long we will spend in Venice depends on how the city is by the end of the week.

With all my travels coming up, I won’t be able to be in touch for the next week and a half, but I will be flying home next Friday, December 19^th, and I will update on my Greece and Italy trips then – with lots and lots of pictures!

400 Pages in 48 Hours

I did it! I had to get 400 pages read in two days in order to get it done before my final Jane Austen tutorial, and I got it read! I’m very proud I finished, with enough time to spare that I could shower and even eat lunch! I read Jane Eyre for my final primary tute, to finish off the term after reading all of Austen’s completed novels. Charlotte Bronte criticized Austen for her writing not including enough passion and emotion, so this final week was a nice comparison to what I have read all term. I don’t know how I did it, but I got through it, and with a comprehension enough to have a pretty good tute too! With today’s tute out of the way, all I have left is my final secondary tute on Shakespeare. I have to finish reading Much Ado About Nothing and write a paper on it…in a little over 24 hours! Eeek!

So why do I have so little time to finish out my last week in Oxford? I’m blaming it on boat club and the Christ Church Regatta! The regatta ran from last Wednesday through Saturday. I knew that my crew would be racing on Wednesday, and I figured since we weren’t very good and haven’t had many outings rowing on the Isis, that we would row once on Thursday and that would be it. But we had some very lucky and strange circumstances that brought us all the way through to the final day on Saturday! Here are pictures of our boat house (Worcester College Boat Club "rows sexy") and from the top of the boat house:

On Wednesday, my whole crew and I were really nervous and really anxious waiting for our race time and watching all the other crews race. Which also means we were watching all the other crews crash, catch crabs (which means your oar gets stuck in the river and you have to lean back and bring it over you to get it our of the water, or you are going to be in the water!), switch lanes, or completely fall into the river! There actually was one boy from a St. Edmund’s Hall crew when they crashed into a boat that was at a dock who fell completely into the water!!!! We did not want that to happen to us! So we got out into our boat and paddled down the river to the starting point, with just a little bit of difficulty, to find out that the crew we were racing against dropped out because their rudder was broken! That means we won automatically!!! We still had to row down the course, and we did ok. It was a good practice. It was a little scary though, because we were going so fast and stroking with as much strength as we could that I felt like I might fall out of the boat or rocket off my seat! I didn’t though!

This was very exciting because of our draw we had a second round bye! So we rowed again on Friday, but once again not against a crew! It was basically another practice. During this race, we were going even faster and I got so exhausted, but we were improving! So we, and one other Worcester crew, the top men’s novice crew, made it through to Saturday. We were again nervous, but really ready to row in an actual race on Saturday morning. The marshal yelled “Attention! GO!!!” and we set off rowed three short strokes and then seven long strokes bringing the pressure and rating up. It was a great start. But suddenly, the next thing I knew, I couldn’t keep rowing because we were too close to the other boat! Then we were about to hit them! We escaped a crash, but somehow both us and our opponent (University College) switched lanes! Sadly, the marshals said it was our fault, and we lost the race, and even though we appealed the ruling, they stuck with it. It’s ok though because Saturday was a lot of fun at the boat house because we had lots of food and drink (which we couldn’t have until after we raced) and music and friends were there to support rowers! Our coaches were proud of us, and that night we got to celebrate at boat club dinner. Boat club dinner is almost THE reason to row, it is a huge party! First we had a black tie dinner in the hall, with the fire going and also port with dessert! Dinner, however, turns into a party, which progresses to the Purple Turtle, the Oxford Union bar. It was a really fun night with all the friends, American and British, that I have made while rowing.

Here is our cox, Azi, helping us get our coach, CJ, excited for our race with pink Worcester war paint!

Above is our boat paddling over to the starting line for Saturday morning's race, and our other coach, Lauren, cheering us on! And below is a close up of Rachel, me, and Charis!

Here's the crew! Still smiling even though we lost :(

Here is we are eating during boat club dinner in the hall!

I’m also blaming my procrastination this weekend on Thanksgiving. The American studying abroad students were invited to the Provost’s Lodgings for dinner. It was black tie, and much more formal than boat club dinner! This dinner was my “turn” to sit next to the provost, who both complimented me and teased me throughout the night! It was a lovely dinner, they did a great job cooking a traditional dinner for us, and we even got seconds, which has never happened here before! We had butternut squash soup to begin (the least traditional item, but they always do soup or salad!), then of course turkey, gravy, potatoes, sweet potatoes, broccoli, corn, carrots, and my new favorite thing – British “pigs in a blanket,” which unlike ours which are often hot dogs wrapped in crust, the Brits wrapped little sausages in bacon! So yummy! Then we had apple pie and port for dessert! Oh yes, in addition to the port, we had a cocktail hour before, were served a white wine during the soup, and then this delicious red wine during dinner. Of course, the provost kindly reminded the wait staff to continue to “top up” our glasses during the meal. The Provost then ended the meal with a speech about how America was a “mistake” going all the way back to Amerigo Vespucci, and right up to how the first Thanksgiving is basically a myth, BUT, he did say that even though we beat them in 1776, we are still welcome! The Brits like to tease us whenever they can!

Here are almost all of the JYAs (American Junior Year Abroad students) after Thanksgiving dinner. The landscape behind us is Worcester's most expensive item that the College owns. Supposedly it cost millions of pounds!

This picture of me and my friend Tiina is one of my favorites!

So, you are going to think that all I do here is eat, but I have now had one Christmas dinner and have another one tonight! On Sunday, a couple students who live in my staircase made us all Christmas dinner, everything from soup to two roast chickens, potatoes, veggies, more pigs in blankets, and even dessert! I was very impressed with the culinary skill! It was also nice to relax with friends in a sort of progressive dinner. We went to one kitchen for soup, another for the meal, and a third for dessert. My other Christmas dinner is tonight in formal hall. Soon I am going to Provost’s Collections, when we each meet with the Provost individually, he tells us and asks us how we did over the term, and then I will be able to go celebrate with another Christmas dinner!

Time to go enjoy the rest of my time in Worcester Winter Wonderland! We actually often sing the famous Christmas carol, just changing the word “winter” for “Worcester!” Go Worcester!

Three Weekends, Four Cities, Zero Time

Over the past three weekends I have done a lot of traveling and sightseeing. I went to Bath, my parents visited me here in Oxford and we toured the city together, and this past weekend, for my 21^st birthday, I went to Switzerland! These few weekends have been a great time, but since I’ve been doing as much sightseeing as possible on the weekends, during the week I have been working like mad, which means less time for blogging, unfortunately! But I have decided that this has gone on long enough and must change…therefore I am not doing my reading right now so I can write to all my faithful readers! (P.S. Don’t tell my tutors!)

Bath was a lovely city. I was very concerned it was going to rain the whole day, but for this day at least I lucked out and it was a beautiful day! We spent a full day exploring the quaint and pretty town, but our major stops were the Roman Baths, the Pump Room, and the Jane Austen Center. I loved going to the Roman Baths. I studied Latin in high school, so it was great to see what I studied. Plus, I have seen so many pictures that I always wanted to get there and see what it was actually like, and it’s even prettier than I thought it would be! Here are a couple pictures from the Roman Baths:

I explored Bath with other American friends: Prianca, Rebecca, and Margaret, who is a fellow Stonehiller. They all go to different colleges at Oxford.

Right next to the baths is the Pump Room, which is now a restaurant, but was also mentioned in a few of Jane Austen’s novels. It was kind of a social watering hole during the Regency period. The most famous part of the Pump Room, however, is the fountain from which you can still drink the water from the spring! I drank the water…it was warm! So strange! Here I am drinking the water:

Finally, we went to the Jane Austen Center. Austen lived in Bath for five years, and also set two of her novels in Bath. The center was a bit disappointing because it focused mostly on her time in Bath, a city which Austen did not like very much, and on clothing used in film productions. But I was very excited to be in a city that was home to the author I am studying this term.

The next weekend my parents came to visit! I was so excited to see them, and while I made them do some things on their own so I could do some reading, I got to see them each day at least for dinner (which means it was an inexpensive weekend for me!), and got to see more of the city that I hadn’t yet. I showed them around, took them down to see the Isis where I row, went on a bus tour of the city, ate fish and chips, visited the Oxford Castle (which used to be a fort and then a prison until 1996!), and had afternoon tea. I was very excited to show my parents around my most recent home. One of the places we visited on our walking tour of Oxford was Christ Church College, famous because scenes from the Harry Potter films were shot there. And I get in anytime I want since I am a student there!

Above is the Quad at beautiful Christ Church, and below is the hall at Christ Church, the Harry Potter Great Hall!

Finally, this past weekend may have been the most exciting yet! It was the first time I took a trip out of England, and it was the perfect way to make my 21^st birthday memorable! I traveled with my friend, Christine, who is from Stonehill and studying at St. Catz in Oxford, to Geneva. Our trains to the airport were delayed and I got stuck in security (the security guy decided to choose me to pat down and to search my backpack by literally unpacking my backpack), so by the time we made it through the separate shoe check in security, we saw that our gate was closing, and literally ran through the entire airport, without our shoes on, to our gate, which I swear was the furthest one away! We made it just in time! It was stressful at the time, but now we have looked back on it and laughed.

We made it to Geneva to stay with our Stonehill friend Ben, who is doing an internship at the UN. It was so nice to just relax, go to dinner, and walk around Old Town in Geneva with friends from home. The next day we toured Geneva, but it was raining! So we saw as much as we could, but our main stop was a tour of the UN. Here's a picture of the member flags outside the Palace of Nations and one of the front of the building:

That afternoon we traveled by train (a three hour ride!) to Interlaken, the capital of extreme sports. Our reason for going to Interlaken was to go skydiving, but it SNOWED! Because of the weather, we weren’t able to go skydiving. L It was disappointing, because we have been planning this since last spring, and for me, it was exciting that I would be skydiving for my birthday. But it just wasn’t in the cards for us, and it must have been for some reason that we couldn’t go. I think we may have been even too close to making our flight home if we had gone! So despite the disappointment, Interlaken was beautiful! We also met our friends Brooke and Angela from Stonehill, and I was just so happy to be with all these friends to celebrate my birthday! Even though it was different than it would have probably been at home, since the drinking age is 18 here, it was nonetheless a very memorable one! Here are some pictures of the picturesque Swiss Alps and countryside:

This is the view from our hostel balcony when we woke up on Saturday morning. Can you see the mountain? I swear it's there! (Clearly not the best weather for jumping out of a plane!)

See...I told you there was a mountain there!

The Alps basically surround the entire town of Interlaken! Above is a picture of Brooke and Ang and below are Christine and Ben.

Here is the whole Stonehill gang!

On our train ride back to Geneva, we were in awe of the scenery. Here are some of my favorite pictures:

After a trip out of the country, it was so nice to return back to the UK and Oxford. It felt like home! Especially because here they speak English and not French or German! Now I only have two weeks left at Oxford, and it’s going to be another busy two weeks! This week I am looking forward to Christ Church Regatta, Thanksgiving dinner (black tie at the Provost’s Lodgings), and the Boat Club dinner. I’ll update at the end of the week!

The Worcester Trifecta and London Excursion

Boy, have I got loads to catch you all up on!

Well, first we have got to talk about academics…hey, it’s Oxford after all, right? So in my opinion there are definitely benefits as well as difficulties with the tutorial system. I am really enjoying having only two areas at the most to focus on at one time. It is possible to go more in depth with the novels and plays that I am reading than I have been able to before. It is also really rewarding to focus so much on you topics because you get to see how everything works together. For me, I am seeing Jane Austen’s progression in her writing style and sophistication from her first novel to her last. I am also seeing why Shakespeare’s thoughts behind his plays because I can see similarities in characters, plot, and theme. The toughest part in my opinion is the quick turn around in between papers. This week I had two papers due and my two tutorials both on Tuesday! So as soon as I finished one essay, I had to try to finish the reading for my second tutorial, then I had to finish the other essay, and now that I have finished both essays I began right away on my reading for my paper for Tuesday. It’s just non-stop! I am enjoying meeting with my tutors one-on-one. I don’t often think of tutorials as work because I get to sit around with my tutors, sipping tea or coffee, and discussing literature! Yay! Sometimes though I don’t like the tutorial system, because when your tutor asks you a question and you don’t know the answer, you can’t just wait for someone else to raise their hand, because there is no one else! I have had many times when I have been confused, and gotten tongue tied, thought originally I had a good idea I was trying to communicate, and then mid-sentence I would forget what my good point was! My tutors are really nice though and they don’t get mean or anything. The tutorials are meant to be an exchange of ideas, and the tutors like you to propose thoughts and challenge them just as much as they ask you questions.

Right, so after all that work, I need to work off the stress somehow right? Well, I row! Unfortunately, I haven’t been on the river in two weeks! L We were short a cox one morning and couldn’t go, and this week the river warning has been too high because we had too much rain and the river was too high! But this week instead of rowing on the Isis, I have gotten to work on my skills on the Erg machine, which I found to be much more helpful! My coach was right there explaining to me what she wanted to me to do, rather than yelling at me from the side of the river bank when she is trying to watch all eight of us at once. I felt like I did much better after her instruction, so hopefully we can get our act together as a team, because our first race is in 10 days!

I have to admit that I think I know why I may be finding the work to be non-stop. The past two weekends I have been off campus! Two weekends ago I went on the home stay in Worcester. (Hence why I now have the “Worcester Trifecta.” I am from outside of Worcester, Massachusetts, I am at Worcester College, and now I have been to Worcestershire, England too!) It was relaxing to be able to relax in a home for the weekend. It wasn’t too much of an exciting time, but it was a nice little break. I stayed with Avril, a woman in her sixties originally from Wales who has been living in Worcester for twenty years now, with another student from another college at Oxford. Avril fed us lots of food and gave us even more hot drinks (tea, coffee, chocolate). I think she asked me at least six or seven times each day I was there if I would like a hot drink! Each night we were there we just relaxed and watched a movie, and then I slept in! That was the only time I have slept in the whole time I have been here! The one thing that the program did have planned for us was a tour of the city of Worcester. They have a few claims to fame, like Worcestershire sauce, Worcester Porcelain (it’s really expensive!), John Wesley founded the first Methodist church there, and supposedly Shakespeare had to go there to get his marriage license! I enjoyed walking around the city, and getting to see the place where the name for my hometown comes from. My favorite was the cathedral though! It was beautiful! Here are some pictures from the weekend:

This is an assembly hall in the Worcester Town Hall (a Georgian style building...cerca Jane Austen's time!)

A cute traditional "black and white" style house.

Inside the cathedral...so pretty!

This past weekend I was in London for the London Excursion Weekend put on by my study abroad provider (IFSA-Butler). I had a fabulous time in London! I got to do a lot more sightseeing and actually spend some time at the sights we saw. But my favorite part of the weekend was getting to see friends from Stonehill! There were eight Stonehillers in London for the weekend! Some I have seen at Oxford, but others I hadn’t seen since the end of the spring semester! Friday night I went on the London Eye with a couple of those Stonehill girls and some of their friends from St. Catz (the Oxford college they are at). Here are some pictures from the Eye:

Here are the Stonehill girls on the London Eye!

On Saturday we went to Westminster Abbey (which was my favorite! I loved seeing Poet’s Corner), the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, the Churchill Museum and the War Cabinet Rooms, and finally the Globe Theater! By the end of the day it was pouring rain! And we had to hurry back to the hotel to change into our Halloween costumes for our Halloween party boat cruise on the Thames! Then on Sunday morning we had a nice big brunch, and I zipped back up to Oxford on the train!

We had to do all the tourist-y things! So here I am at the Harry Potter tourist trap!

Who goes to London without seeing how many people they can fit in a phone booth? Us: 6!

The single Londoner we met at the changing of the guards felt bad that I was short and couldn't see...so he let me sit on this shoulders. Too bad I didn't even get his name!

Here I am with Christine, fellow Stonehill English major, in the Globe! Yay!

On the boat cruise, I got to see Kathleen and Kaitlyn, Stonehill friends studying at the University of Kent.

I also got to see my fellow witch friend (Rebecca from St. Edmund's at Oxford), Sarah Palin (Maria), an angel (Erica), and Joe the Plummer (Tiina) - all Worcesterites with me!

It has been interesting being here in England during the election, and so Maria and Tiina's costumes were quite a hit!

This Saturday I am taking a day trip with a couple friends from other Oxford colleges to Bath. Now that I have seen the Globe, I will get to see the setting for a couple of Austen’s novels! It’s really neat to be where the people I am studying were a couple hundred years ago. So much history in Oxford…and England!

Rowing on the Isis and Other Traditional Oxford Things

Wow! The time is still just flying by here, and I feel like I am filling every possible second with something! There is so much I want to do, but with the busy eight week term that Oxford has, I am quickly realizing that I will just need to start saving up money for another trip to Europe!

This week, as the second week of tutorials is proving to be my first real challenge. Earlier today I submitted my first paper (it was on Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility) for my primary tutorial to my tutor. I spent Wednesday through Saturday reading the book, and then Saturday through today writing the paper. It felt good to get the first one under my belt!

The bad news is, paper number two, which is on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, is due (technically) tomorrow night! I didn’t get a chance to start the reading for this tute until yesterday and today, as it wasn’t assigned to me until Saturday afternoon! Needless to say, I have not yet started this paper, and I am a little anxious about getting it done! Although, my tutors are both very reasonable and so my tutor understood that the assignment was late in coming and I may need the extra night!

Outside the front of the Bodleian.

I did get to do some work this past week in the Bodleian, Oxford University’s library which basically has every book ever published. I had to call up a book from the stacks for reading, which means that someone went down into the tunnels full of books below the streets of Oxford to fetch the book for me! It was definitely an experience just finding my way around the Bod (short for Bodleian) and learning how the system works! It was suggested to me by a Stonehill friend to do work in the Radcliffe Camera, so I sat there to read the book I called up. It’s frustrating to get the books I want sometimes because so many other students are taking out the same books I want from my college library and the English Faculty Library, and then the Bod isn’t a lending library. Here are two pictures of the Bod, I am hoping to get a chance to take some better ones soon!

Besides doing work I obviously want to soak up everything else that Oxford has to offer! So I decided to try my hand at rowing. It’s really challenging! Last weekend we had a meeting about the basics of rowing at the Worcester Boat House and also grilled up some hamburgers. It was a beautiful day, and it was so lovely to be along the Isis (which is what the part of the Thames that runs through Oxford is called). This week we had a “tank session,” which means we went to the university gym and learned the technique while sitting in a concrete “boat” in the middle of the pool and rowing with oars with holes in them. This weekend was our first outing on the river, and it was pretty stressful! While they have been teaching us the things we need to know step by step, I didn’t yet know all the terminology that the cox called out! So I was so confused about when I was supposed to row! Then my technique in mastering the legs, body, arms, then arms, body, legs movement with each row is not very good…so I was finding it difficult to keep the rhythm with the rest of my boat. Anyway, besides the fact that I need some practice, it was really fun to row and be on the River! Here are a couple pictures from the roof of Worcester’s Boat House:

Some of the more experienced Worcester boys getting ready for an outing.

This weekend was also Matriculation, which is the ceremony that all the first year students who are here for their whole time (sadly it doesn’t include us visiting students) go through to enter into University. From what my friends were telling me, the ceremony is pretty short, they say some things in Latin, and then you are officially a student at Oxford! I didn’t get a chance to get any pictures, so I am going to steal one from some friends to show you. They all have to dress in “subfusc,” which is the black bottoms, white top, black ribbon for girls, white bow tie for boys, and their academic gowns. These gowns are what I also have to wear when I go to formal hall for dinner. There are larger and fancier gowns that you get once you become a scholar, if you do really well in your studies. So if you aren’t thinking Harry Potter yet, start thinking it! Also, they have to carry their mortar boards with them, but not wear them, because if they wear them before graduating they will be fined!

Well, that was a long study break for me, and now I should get back to reading Shakespeare!

Cheers!