Thursday night I attended formal hall with my advisor and her other advisees. It was Thanksgiving (shockingly, the British don't celebrate Thanksgiving) , so it was a little strange not to be with my family and not to have turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie that day; instead, I ate an interesting chicken and pudding meal (good, but not quite the same as Mom Sisti's fixin's). I learned more about English cuisine as I tried the pudding, expecting a dessert-ish dish. Oh my no. Pudding apparently means anything that is steamed. So, that meat was less than sweet, to put it mildly. I did throughly enjoy the cheese tray and dessert though (of course) and discovered a new vegetable that I absolutely love: parsnip. I pretty much (discreetly, hopefully) devoured the whole veggie tray when I learned it had parsnips.
So, all in all, it was a nice evening... I think the first Thanksgiving away was inevitably going to feel a little weird -- it is almost as if the holiday never happened. At least Mom Snyder sent an absolutely fabulous care package that week, so I felt like I was connected to home in some regard.
On Friday night, Linacre had a pantomime performance of Puss In Boots. It was basically a play put on by students in the college, where (interestingly) most of the guys played girl roles (very Shakespearean I suppose). I find it amazing that the guys here are so completely comfortable with dressing in dresses -- this phenomena happens at least once a week, whether its a panto or a bop. There is always an excuse to dress in drag. Oxford boys are quite comfortable with their manliness. I still think there will be giggles when, 10 years from now, these people are running countries, and the pictures of them stylin' in stiletto's surface...
After an another amazing Thai dinner, we stumbled on to a cool Christmas parade through town. Hundreds of kids with paper mache lanterns flooded the streets, and they lit Chrismas lights all throughout town and lit up the big Christmas tree on Broad Street. They even had a light show on Bailiol College's ancient walls. It was beautiful. The classical music they played was charming and haunting and suited the mood (they even played one lovely song that I remember from my mom's musical jewelry box -- it made me think of home). This came to a screeching halt, however, when somehow, into the music play list, slipped Eye of the Tiger. Oh yeah, also strange, Will swears he saw Bob Saget.
On Saturday night, we attended yet another bop, this time at Green Templeton College, a newer graduate college. The theme was vampires, so the costumes were interesting. I wish I had known to bring my whole Halloween costume stash with me to Oxford!
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