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!