Guilty Post

Hello everyone! I've been feeling mega-guilty lately for my serious lack of posting, and lack of entertainment when I do. I've been feeling pretty envious lately of a lot of my friends who are abroad and meeting tons of people. The one thing they DIDN'T use to intimidate us on our way to Oxford is that it's a pretty solitary experience. Unlike school, I don't have real classes, so I don't have that vehicle to meet people, and unlike school, I'm making my own meals for breakfast and lunch, so that socializing opportunity goes out the window too. So pretty much I don't see anyone until dinnertime, and then only for an hour, and then back to the grindstone.

Speaking of the grindstone... at the risk of kicking myself later for many an varied reasons, I have to say...Oxford just isn't that hard for visiting students. God knows I'll be milking this experience for all it's worth when it's on my resume, but after I got my grades on my first set of papers, I knew that I wouldn't be killing myself working here, like I did when I took a summer neuroscience class at Brown. To be fair, I haven't been given assignments as long as some of my friends here, and because I can't do real research, most of my papers are literature reviews on whatever topic. It is, of course, a different story for the real students here, who have lectures and exams to deal with as well. Of course, this leaves them with even LESS time for socialization and consequently, leaves the visiting students much to themselves.

I found out yesterday that (hopefully) next term I will be taking "Modernity's Effects on Psychology" with topics like advertising, body image, etc, and "Contemporary Interpretations of Greek Myth" in literature and film. Anyway, the coordinators for our tutes are arguably somewhat incompetent, so we'll see if that works out.

In other, better news, I finally have my laptop ("Li'l Cutie" for those of us on speaking terms) back in my lovin' arms, and through some professional grade finagling, my dad convinced Apple to fix it for free. They ended up replacing the hard drive, the motherboard, and RAM, so I basically have a new computer. Additionally, it was astonishingly easy to restore files from Time Machine files on my backup HD, so I got all my music, bookmarks, and docs back. Also, my debit card issue was FINALLY resolved (knock on wood, I'll be eternally suspicious now), so this weekend I went around and finally bought all my train tickets and reserved hostel beds for Spain.

Speaking of break, I'll certainly be posting from abroad. My schedule is this, for those who'd like to follow along:
- March 12-18: Paris
- March 18-27: Lyon
- March 17-30: Madrid
- March 31-April 5: Barcelona (on my own)
- April 5-12: Barcelona (with my family)

But for now, let's take a trip down memory lane, now that all of my pictures are loaded on this computer...

HOMESTAY WEEKEND IN WORCESTER:


Anna (Oxford buddy) and homestay daughter Hannah


Comics follow me wherever I go...


Worcester Cathedral's original wall



Cloister wall



One of many many ornate doors



The faces were scratched off during some religious dispute (it's been a month, okay?)



Huge huge huge pipe organ



There were a LOT of tilty houses in Worcester



More photos later today, including London weekendstraviganza.