Even though term time is officially over, the essay-writing drags on. My final one was due this week, so I was looking forward to turning that one in. (Turning in graded work is a big deal here too, fyi. You have to bike yourself down to the examination schools to hand it to a designated lady who gives you a receipt -- literally -- for your work, and it all has to be packaged in a very Oxfordy way, with special envelopes and signatures and numbers and blood. Ok, not blood, but it might as well have been with the amount of hoops I jumped through to get it to the right person, in the right envelope, on the right extra-long British paper, in the right building, on time. Talk about stress? There's nothing like having a week's worth of essay in your backpack and biking through the bus and car-loaded oxford streets, in the rain, with an hour left to get your masterpiece, dry and in-tact, to the proctor lady. I've already had one rain/food-in-backpack-related disaster this term -- involving my banana smashing and exploding on my schoolwork like a water balloon (and iphone sadly, which btw, can cause permanent water stains; even after shooting my hairdrier at it for 24 hours to dry it out, I still see banana in my now fruity-smelling iphone) and then rain seeping in, causing the ink to run on my essay and the paper to get crunchy -- so I was aware of the danger that biking with essay and breakfast in backpack, in the rain, can pose. Despite all these obstacles, and my propensity to sleep-in like a rebellious teenager, my essay made it to the proctor lady that morning, dry, uncrunchy, unfruity, and on-time. Success!)
Almost forgot, the night before it was due, of course, I was frantically editing and running back and forth from my dorm-room to the building next door which houses our college library and computers. I must have printed that sucker seven times before I was sure there were no typo's. So picture me, in the dark of the mid-night hours, in pj's, slippers, and huge winter jacket thrown over me, running in the freeeeeezing cold back and forth from dorm to printers, repeatedly; it was like my own personal relay-race. The reason I mention this -- or even remember this painful procedure -- is because, on oh, the third or so time I made my journey, I ran out of the dorm, and had to stop because I couldn't see anything. There was a weird haze. I blinked a few times, thinking I got something in my eye. That didn't help. Then I thought maybe a group of students had come out for a smoke, or that the building was just emanating fumes from the pipes, or, even, for a brief second, I thought the building was on fire, and thus causing the smokiness (we did have a false fire alarm earlier that week, so it wasn't that far-fetched -- and btw, that was fun running out of the dorm in my long-underwear half-asleep into the freezing cold in the middle of the night, for the false alarm. anyways...) After a few minutes of stumbling around in the smoke to get to the printers, I realized what I was dealing with: fog! I've never seen such thick fog in my life, aside from when I'd been in a plane and coasting through a group of ridiculously thick clouds. It was so cool! When I realized it was fog, I actually ran around in it for a bit (away from the obstacles like tress and bike racks that I knew were nearby, because let's face it, my clumsiness would have ensured I ended up plastered on a bike rack, stuck in the spokes of some other student's peuogot) since I've always wanted to know what it would be like to fall through the clouds. It was cold, damp, and harder to breathe, but I loved it.
Let's see...also this week, on Tuesday, Will turned 30!!!!! Oh my gosh, he's soooo old! (Just kidding, of course, since I too suffered this fate approximately 3 months ago.) We celebrated, as the birthday boy requested, by having a fabulous dinner at Jamie's Italian, seeing a cool boy-movie (Law Abiding Citizen), and hitting the pub (Turf Tavern) with his buddies. Oh, and then of course, opening presents (fuzzy slippers - sorry to out you Will, but it is what you wanted!) and blowing out candles on cookie cake.
On Wednesday, we had a great dinner with Jola and Lars to say Merry Christmas and catch-up before they left for the holidays. (Seriously, we are like the last people left in Oxford right now! The town is empty!) They got us an amazing tray for afternoon tea!! It has three tiers, just like the one at the Randolph had (I can fill it with 1) sandwiches, 2) scones, and 3) desserts!) so I'll think of Jola and our afternoon at the Randolph every time we use it. It is just the most beautiful, and appropriate, gift! As I have no scones or desserts to put on it right now, it has a bunch of bananas and apples and nuts all over it. Totally not British, but I just couldn't resist trying it out!
On Thursday, I had a meeting with my supervisor David about my dissertation. Right now, I'm thinking about doing something on legal education, specifically related to studying the impact of practical work-experience on a student's readiness for practice. As I got ready to tell him (and my other 2 classmates who were there for our meeting) about my progress on this, he got out a tuperware full of mince pies that his wife had baked. OMG. Does he not know my love of desserts? With a mouth full of delicious mince pie (because, of course, I wasted no time in nabbing one of those little pies of fruity goodness), there was no way I could concentrate on dissertation stuff. I think he saw this, and was like, "why don't you guys tell me how your essays are going so that we give Vanessa a second to chew." Ah, David, you're the best.
Aside from the great guidance and help I got from my supervisor and classmates during this meeting (and cool discussion we had about how people mythologize the Oxford experience), the BEST part was that, as I was mince pie munching and gazing out of David's office window, I noticed: it started to SNOW!!!! They said it might not happen this year, but since it has been freaking freezing in the last week or two, I thought it might be likely, and I thought I deserved it for dealing with frozen fingers and a numb face. It was SO beautiful. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't run out of the meeting to play in it, and it stopped by the time our meeting was over, so I didn't get to be outside when it was falling. I think it had melted upon impact with the ground, so there wasn't even any white stuff left to look at when I finally made it outside, but I'm hoping that I'll get to run around in it at least once this winter.
On Friday, I went slightly insane. I shopped. Oh yes, I shopped. I can fairly confidently say that I single-handedly boosted the share price for all Jack Will's stockholders. I adore that store! Now, I can officially say I have some British clothes (they even have tags in them that say "Fabulously British" -- it doesn't get more Brit than that!) The girl in the shop kept bringing me cute dresses and shorts and showed me how to wear them with colorful tights and layers of bright shirts and cardigans. As soon as I complete the outfits (still need some shoes; she drew me a map to the store that she recommended, no joke), I will take pics and post. You will totally die. I have fully assimilated. If I wore this stuff on Lincoln Road (in Miami), they'd totally think I was a foreigner. I can't wait to do just that.
Also on Friday, we had dinner at Will's friend Kevin's house in Jericho. Kevin made an amazing thai curry dish and we spent the evening eating, drinking wine, and laughing with his roommates. We hit the Duke of Cambridge pub later that night with all of Will's buddies, which I looooved. Maybe because it reminded me a little bit of home -- it was a little like a Miami bar, with pretty lights, loungey music, young professionals, and no funky beer-soaked floor smell. We sipped on white russians, mojitos, and margaritas, and just had a blast with all of our new British friends. Then, after bottles (plural) of wine, and the aforementioned drinks, we attempted to bike home. I'll leave it at that. It was the most interesting bike-ride I've had, and I'm about to go check that Henry is (1) somewhere downstairs, (2) locked to something, and (3) in one piece. Love this biking town.
If you can't read the writing under the first warning, it says: "Of course, if you fired it from a rocket launcher..." Bloody brilliant.
If you can't read the writing under the first warning, it says: "Of course, if you fired it from a rocket launcher..." Bloody brilliant.
