Day 40: The Chaplaincy and a Glorious Sunny Day

Suzanna and I decided to go to mass at the chaplaincy that day. This is their first mass for the year so we decided to check it out. The chaplaincy is basically the student-oriented Catholic Church here in Oxford.

Guess who we saw there? Jeffrey of course. So we all went to mass together and was able to partake at the lunch that they had out for the attendants afterwards. It was a sung mass and has become a favorite for us three. Picture above is the lunch being refilled as Jeffrey, Suzanna and I were in line. We met a couple of people as Fr. Simon, in his terms, “bombarded” us with Americans.

Suzanna had to write a paper and Jeffrey was taking a day off. He and I ended up sweatshirt hopping and “sneaking” into colleges that are closed for visitors. WE aren’t visitors anyways. We’re Oxford students. And we had burgers that night. Not quite an American burger but a burger, nonetheless.

Very relaxed Sunday.

Day 39: Jackie

Pictured above is the neighborhood cat, Jackie (we decided that the cat’s a she), who seems to have the affinity of jumping into our backyard when I’m in the kitchen or the living room.

Her first appearance, a couple of days ago, was when I was washing the dishes. Our sink was facing a window so imagine my surprise when I see two green eyes suddenly staring at me as I look up from scrubbing the plate? This appearance, her second or third appearance, happened at night with me looking out the window in the living room and her jumping out of nowhere. And yes, I jumped and it was complete entertainment for Joanne, Debra and Suzanna.

Debra and Suzanna both went outside and petted her. That’s how we found out she’s a “friendly” cat b/c none of them have gotten bitten or scratched yet. Nonetheless, I am fairly certain she’s out to get me. I don’t mind cats. I just don’t like them scaring me and not having a barrier between them and me.

That’s basically the most exciting part of the day, besides my lovely reading and sleeping day in the house.

Day 38: Last C. S. Lewis Tutorial and Idle Time

None of my tutors have emailed me yet so I was not worrying much about anything which was how I had time to get those two books pictured above. I had nothing to do so I decided to hang around Central Library and figure out what to read while waiting for the go.

I then had a tutorial, my final C.S. Lewis tutorial, at St. Peter’s at 3:00 that afternoon. It was a fairly good tutorial. I still loved the 2^nd one more. But this was my 2^nd favorite out of all my C. S. Lewis tutorials, hands down.

Afterwards, I just went home and made dinner. Pretty light and quiet day. It doesn’t help that I was starting to feel under the weather.

Day 37: Fresher's Fair

Fresher’s Fair: n. Oxford’s massive Club fair.

Today was the day I decided to go to Fresher’s Fair. Deepak has already warned us about how massive and daunting the whole affair was but you always take things like those with a grain of salt. If you’re anything like me, I always like to see it before I believe it.

And I did.

Fresher’s fair was absolutely crazy. It took the whole Examination School to host all the clubs that are in Oxford. The event was in 2 floors, dispersed by type and classification of the club. People who are manning the tables were handing out flyers, organization merchandise, pens from their sponsors, etc while calling out to you and asking you to sign up for their club. There was also a huge tent in the end for the sponsors of the whole event. There they give out a lot of free things, from shopping bags to coffee to pens to pizza. They pretty much bombard you with information and offer you a lot of discounts because you’re a fresher.

Absolutely mad but it was a good time.

Afterwards, I ventured out in the city for a bit and then headed home before we headed out for £4 pizzas. That was basically it for the day.

Day 36: Libraries and Formal Dinners

How more Oxford and British can you get?

Today was the day that we were to be given our Bodleian (Bod for short) library cards. The Bod is basically a reference only library which boasts of numerous collections of books from the beginning of time (maybe not, but it’s close enough). It has an extensive collection on every single subject. Most of the life here in Oxford is to be spent in libraries (I’m writing this about 3 weeks later so I can attest to that) so the Bod card is a great representation of the Oxford life. After swearing to not burn the library and deface the books (they unfortunately took the goat out of the pledge), Suzanna and I (because we both packed our lunches) headed to the University Parks again for lunch.

We then split up after because we get a tour of our colleges from the JCR president and a tour of our library from our librarians. New College looked way better from a student’s perspective. We met our JCR President and he brought the OPUS students around the grounds with interesting little tidbits about the locations he showed. He handed us over to the library and there we got to learn how to work SOLO and how the library system works.

I headed home afterwards and relaxed before getting ready for my OPUS dinner. Deepak basically hosts a dinner for the OPUS students. New College and St. Catz associate students get to have their dinner at St. Catz and the attire is smart. The picture above was taken at the end of the night wherein I took the menu card and positioned it with my heels.

The dinner was pretty amazing. It started with a cocktail reception and then we headed over to the hall for a formal dinner at the high table. We got a 3 course meal with a cheese plate in the end and was served by the wonderful waitresses at St. Catz. There was a “toast game” in the end which was an awkward, social, ice breaker where in everyone got to speak. Some people headed out afterwards but I called it a night.

Overall a wonderful evening.

Day 35: Postcard mailing, Parks and the Union Tour

Not really much of the day today. I began by mailing off the postcards I wrote on the day before, which is basically the picture that represents today. I think it’s the most exciting thing I have done. Hahaha.

We went to pick up tickets for the Fresher’s fair later in the week. Suzanna and I then headed over to the University Parks because I packed my lunch that day. We sat there for a bit reading. It was slightly freezing so we headed over back into town and waited around the Union for the tour.

The Union Society tour was interesting. We basically got a feel for the place and what exactly our advantages are as a member. You would think that that would make it into this blog, but I decided against it. I didn’t get a compelling picture anyways.

When we got home, I made dinner and bought myself the cappuccino shortbread that Joanne was raving about from Eggs Etcetera. It was really worth it.

That’s it for the day!

Day 34: Of 1st and 2nds

The day “officially” began with heading down to the OPUS office to give our names and course of study for the Bodleian. Afterwards, there was really nothing to do (unless your tutor has contacted you already which is not the case for me). Nonetheless, I had my 2^nd tutorial for the C.S. Lewis class that afternoon at 5:00.

It was a nice day so I decided it was a “smoothie day”. It also doesn’t help that people walking around Bonn Square were all carrying a Moo-moo’s cup. Thus, Suzanna and I headed to the Covered Market and I got myself my first Moo-moo’s w/c is a Kinder Bueno milkshake. Not quite the smoothie I thought of getting, but wonderful nonetheless [hence, my switch in the end]. Kinder Bueno is a chocolate that is ferrero rocher-ish. It is a wafer filled with hazelnut spread and covered in chocolate. Reminds you a lot of a ferrero. While there, we smelled Ben’s Cookies so we decided to get one as well. Suzanna and I split it. We got whatever was hot which, if I remember correctly, was double chocolate chunk.

Suzanna and I headed to Bonn Square and sat on the books, which was the pedestal for the goodies in that picture. Afterwards, we separated b/c Suzanna has her dinner that night and she needed to get ready. I, on the other hand, need to wait for my 2^nd C.S. Lewis tutorial at St. Peter’s. I decided to get a couple of postcards so I did and then I headed to the Westgate Center to sit down and write. I headed over to St. Peter’s then.

This 2^nd tutorial was my favorite out of the two I had so far. I was completely engaged in the conversation and in the topic. I loved every single moment of it and it made me realize how tutorials are really suppose to be. This is why there is this system and it still ceases to exist to this day. Definitely a tutorial I’ll never forget.