Wednesday, October 26
Zdrasvoitchye! Kak dela? Sorry about the absence of posting...I have had no time ever! (Except when I'm bumming around listening to music and avoiding work...:p)
Anyway. It's another beautiful day at Jesus, made even more so by the fact that I only had one lecture today (at 10) :D. However I am very tired, and in fact I don't think I've ever been to bed before midnight since arriving :s. Last night, for example, I was just heading back to my room at 1 in the morning (my intended 'early night') when a load of people poured out of my staircase and I was swept along to another party till half 2. Zzz
Going back to the beginning, freshers' week was a laugh and a half. I was introduced to my 'family' on the first day, none of whom I've ever really seen again...they seem to hate me...*sniff* My mum is really cool, my dad sounds like a bit of a lameo (well he IS a physical Natsci), and my brother is very untalkative, although he revealed hidden depths by performing in the concert last night (more on that later). Throughout the week there were 3 'bops' - the first night was the Welcome bop, then a Karaoke/Pop star-themed bop three days later, then the Old skool bop on the final friday. They were all good fun, except the karaoke which sucked majorly cos the machine didn't really work.. In between all that, we went to Life ("one of Cambridge's 'greatest' clubs"), where I bumped into Nigel, Jamal and two people who I'd done the Instrumental Award with from Catz and New Hall, which was very nice; also a pub crawl which was also very cool - in one pub, four of us introduced ourselves to each other, then the first thing one girl said to one guy was "Are you gay?". That certainly made for a more interesting conversation than "Who are you, what are you studying, where are you staying etc", and twas more graphic than perhaps it should have been. Wetherspoons, incidentally, is a very cool place. It's just MASSIVE, very reminiscent of a casino (I think someone may have said something about it having been one in the past, anyone know anything about that?). Then there was Matric Dinner, which was our first Formal Hall, which was really impressive - someone who sat on the table on the balcony overlooking the hall remarked on how much like Harry Potter it felt! But it really is: one particular time I noticed that was when walking through Cloister Court; especially when people are in gowns, they all turn off at different exits, and because it's all so old it could totally be Hogwarts, all going off to their common rooms. Very cool.
On that note, I'm so glad I picked Jesus. It's SUCH a beautiful place, I love it. I have an amazing view from my room (see below), especially in the evening, and, walking back late at night when the dew has settled and there's often a thick mist hanging over Chapel Court, it's just breathtaking. And I'm also really glad Sam's here. Initially I was a bit worried about it, like we'd overlap too much, but we really don't, and it's always really cool to have him round and just chill in my room; as he said, with no expectations, and you don't have to make any effort whatsoever, you can just relax and be yourself. Ironically though, I appear to be better friends with the medics than he is! Mainly because he's always hanging around with a certain someone, who will for now remain nameless...
The people in my staircase are variable; Guen, on the ground floor, was here before term, like me, so we met early on, and she's so cool. Whenever I walk past her room outside the building, she pokes her head out of her window and we have a gossiping session - perhaps not the smartest thing to do, as it usually concerns the other inhabitants of our staircase... Idil next door to her is absolutely mad, but also very cool - she has infinite stories of her escapades involving animals: apparently there was a cat in her room back home or somewhere, and she cornered it onto the balcony, whence it flung itself off into the air! Then later on she went out and saw it, and thought it had died and that she was having an attack of conscience and seeing its ghost...but instead it turned out it had broken its leg. She's mental I say. Then there's Ben on the middle floor who has 100 pairs of shoes... And of course, Liz, my stalker opposite my room. The other guy opposite, James the medic, tells me that whenever I open my door, he hears her open hers a split-second after. She just comes and knocks on my door the whole time and bores me with her 'Dimensional Analysis' (she's an engineer) or else tries to get me to go to Caff with her, or ballroom dancing (4 times! Four!). Though I laughed when I had Sam,Guy,Tom and James (the MCS crew, that is) round and we were looking at Flickr, and she wandered in and said hello, and we all just turned back to the computer and talked amongst ourselves. Eventually she announced she was leaving. I cried. James also tells me that he lent her his ironing board to get rid of her, and when she left to take it to her room next door, he locked his door behind her :p.
The days are completely flying by, and everything's blurring into one - possibly because the amount of sleep I get negates the boundary between days... Every other day I have 3 lectures, starting at 9, while on the other days I have 1 starting at 10 (like today). Then there's 2 practicals a week which are anything up to five hours long *shudder*. Then 4 supervisions a week, and a maths examples class. But it's kinda weird in that work seems to be taking a back seat to everything else. Apparently the Lawyers are advised to get 8 hours of sleep a day, 8 hours of play and 8 hours of work. If I did that I wouldn't do any work outside of lectures as we often have 8-hour days. My evenings are generally spent with the medic crew - Kat, Alice, Ewan, Nicola, James, Mark - who are all really cool, and quite a lot like all you guys: we've done human pyramids, squashing people into beds, belly-button poking (damn you zeebee), the whole lot. I usually go to Formal about once a week, too - it's a really nice occasion, especially going with all your friends. Pennying is a laugh as well: put a penny in someone's glass and they have to down it, but you can't do it if they're holding hteir glass, but then you're not allowed to hold your glass unnecessarily. Then, if you down it with your right hand, you have to down another one after that, and once you've downed two you have to down a third... It's not surprising people get kicked out of Hall for doing it... After Formal it's usually back to the bar, or the pool room above, or the snooker hall (which has a piano in :D), then back to someone's room for music, drink and/or fondue.
Anyway I think that's quite enough for now, sorry about all that. Hopefully it'll be slightly more regular in the future. Give yourself a pat on the back if you got this far! See you Cambridge ppl around, Hal in Nov, Edinburgh ppl in early Dec, and EVERYONE at mine when you're back in Oxford!
Have a good week all.
P.S. O-J can you call/email me? I tried to text you on both your numbers as I forgot which it is, but you replied to neither...
Anyway. It's another beautiful day at Jesus, made even more so by the fact that I only had one lecture today (at 10) :D. However I am very tired, and in fact I don't think I've ever been to bed before midnight since arriving :s. Last night, for example, I was just heading back to my room at 1 in the morning (my intended 'early night') when a load of people poured out of my staircase and I was swept along to another party till half 2. Zzz
Going back to the beginning, freshers' week was a laugh and a half. I was introduced to my 'family' on the first day, none of whom I've ever really seen again...they seem to hate me...*sniff* My mum is really cool, my dad sounds like a bit of a lameo (well he IS a physical Natsci), and my brother is very untalkative, although he revealed hidden depths by performing in the concert last night (more on that later). Throughout the week there were 3 'bops' - the first night was the Welcome bop, then a Karaoke/Pop star-themed bop three days later, then the Old skool bop on the final friday. They were all good fun, except the karaoke which sucked majorly cos the machine didn't really work.. In between all that, we went to Life ("one of Cambridge's 'greatest' clubs"), where I bumped into Nigel, Jamal and two people who I'd done the Instrumental Award with from Catz and New Hall, which was very nice; also a pub crawl which was also very cool - in one pub, four of us introduced ourselves to each other, then the first thing one girl said to one guy was "Are you gay?". That certainly made for a more interesting conversation than "Who are you, what are you studying, where are you staying etc", and twas more graphic than perhaps it should have been. Wetherspoons, incidentally, is a very cool place. It's just MASSIVE, very reminiscent of a casino (I think someone may have said something about it having been one in the past, anyone know anything about that?). Then there was Matric Dinner, which was our first Formal Hall, which was really impressive - someone who sat on the table on the balcony overlooking the hall remarked on how much like Harry Potter it felt! But it really is: one particular time I noticed that was when walking through Cloister Court; especially when people are in gowns, they all turn off at different exits, and because it's all so old it could totally be Hogwarts, all going off to their common rooms. Very cool.
On that note, I'm so glad I picked Jesus. It's SUCH a beautiful place, I love it. I have an amazing view from my room (see below), especially in the evening, and, walking back late at night when the dew has settled and there's often a thick mist hanging over Chapel Court, it's just breathtaking. And I'm also really glad Sam's here. Initially I was a bit worried about it, like we'd overlap too much, but we really don't, and it's always really cool to have him round and just chill in my room; as he said, with no expectations, and you don't have to make any effort whatsoever, you can just relax and be yourself. Ironically though, I appear to be better friends with the medics than he is! Mainly because he's always hanging around with a certain someone, who will for now remain nameless...
The people in my staircase are variable; Guen, on the ground floor, was here before term, like me, so we met early on, and she's so cool. Whenever I walk past her room outside the building, she pokes her head out of her window and we have a gossiping session - perhaps not the smartest thing to do, as it usually concerns the other inhabitants of our staircase... Idil next door to her is absolutely mad, but also very cool - she has infinite stories of her escapades involving animals: apparently there was a cat in her room back home or somewhere, and she cornered it onto the balcony, whence it flung itself off into the air! Then later on she went out and saw it, and thought it had died and that she was having an attack of conscience and seeing its ghost...but instead it turned out it had broken its leg. She's mental I say. Then there's Ben on the middle floor who has 100 pairs of shoes... And of course, Liz, my stalker opposite my room. The other guy opposite, James the medic, tells me that whenever I open my door, he hears her open hers a split-second after. She just comes and knocks on my door the whole time and bores me with her 'Dimensional Analysis' (she's an engineer) or else tries to get me to go to Caff with her, or ballroom dancing (4 times! Four!). Though I laughed when I had Sam,Guy,Tom and James (the MCS crew, that is) round and we were looking at Flickr, and she wandered in and said hello, and we all just turned back to the computer and talked amongst ourselves. Eventually she announced she was leaving. I cried. James also tells me that he lent her his ironing board to get rid of her, and when she left to take it to her room next door, he locked his door behind her :p.
The days are completely flying by, and everything's blurring into one - possibly because the amount of sleep I get negates the boundary between days... Every other day I have 3 lectures, starting at 9, while on the other days I have 1 starting at 10 (like today). Then there's 2 practicals a week which are anything up to five hours long *shudder*. Then 4 supervisions a week, and a maths examples class. But it's kinda weird in that work seems to be taking a back seat to everything else. Apparently the Lawyers are advised to get 8 hours of sleep a day, 8 hours of play and 8 hours of work. If I did that I wouldn't do any work outside of lectures as we often have 8-hour days. My evenings are generally spent with the medic crew - Kat, Alice, Ewan, Nicola, James, Mark - who are all really cool, and quite a lot like all you guys: we've done human pyramids, squashing people into beds, belly-button poking (damn you zeebee), the whole lot. I usually go to Formal about once a week, too - it's a really nice occasion, especially going with all your friends. Pennying is a laugh as well: put a penny in someone's glass and they have to down it, but you can't do it if they're holding hteir glass, but then you're not allowed to hold your glass unnecessarily. Then, if you down it with your right hand, you have to down another one after that, and once you've downed two you have to down a third... It's not surprising people get kicked out of Hall for doing it... After Formal it's usually back to the bar, or the pool room above, or the snooker hall (which has a piano in :D), then back to someone's room for music, drink and/or fondue.
Anyway I think that's quite enough for now, sorry about all that. Hopefully it'll be slightly more regular in the future. Give yourself a pat on the back if you got this far! See you Cambridge ppl around, Hal in Nov, Edinburgh ppl in early Dec, and EVERYONE at mine when you're back in Oxford!
Have a good week all.
P.S. O-J can you call/email me? I tried to text you on both your numbers as I forgot which it is, but you replied to neither...
Wednesday, October 5
Hello from the College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist, and the Glorious Virgin Saint Radegund! (That's 'Jesus' to you and me.) How is everyone?! It's been a crazy, crazy week - as Elton John once did sing, "There's far too much to take in here; more to do than can ever be done". He en't lying.
I've only been here a week, but I'm quite settled already. On Wednesday last, I moved in in time to go to my rehearsal for the instrumental award, the audition for which was on Thursday evening, and didn't go very well. But never mind!
I've only been here a week, but I'm quite settled already. On Wednesday last, I moved in in time to go to my rehearsal for the instrumental award, the audition for which was on Thursday evening, and didn't go very well. But never mind!
The view from my window.
On Friday morning I was up at 7 to catch an early bus back home in order to partake in one final Camareros de la Noche extravaganza that evening (and also to pack a load more stuff to bring which I'd forgotten!) Despite a misunderstanding/retardedness on Tom's part which led to me being the one selected for demotion, much fun was to be had afterwards: on our walk back through the fields, in our puffing of cigars in the garden, and the relaxed conversation with drinks. I thought it was an incredible night to end our days in Oxford, and I can't think of a better way to have spent it.
Tis now very late and I have my first actual lecture in the morning at 9!! :o God the timetable's a nightmare...
Anyway. Check out Flickr, I've now put up all the photos of France, a few of Jess's party and also a couple of random ones of Cambridge and other stuff, with more to come :). I'll report back on Freshers' week when it's officially come to an end on Friday evening!
