First and Foremost...

Happy Graduation Pete!

My darling lil bro has graduated from high school today. Not just any high school, one that's retardedly rigorous and academic. I commend him for swimming against the stream and making friends of everyone every step of the way. I'm so proud of you, Guffy.



In other news, tonight I smoked my first Cuban cigar (first cigar period). Dara and I were originally going to have a 'scotch and cigars' night, but that turned into a night of Beruit (aka Beer Pong) that lasted a good few hours and five of us lighting up (no cigar cutter or matches, but we made do) and taking a stroll around Oxford. It was unbelievably pleasant, and even though my mouth tastes pretty gritty now, it was an awesome night on the whole. Now I'm making a 2AM grilled cheese and I'm going to settle into some Doctor Who before passing out.

Not having any work to do is pretty great. Even if I do have a LITTLE work left to do.

Lastly, tonight convinced me that I shouldn't spend another night here alone in my room. Even if it's with people I'm not best friends with, I need to make the most of my last week here.

Brodinsky

Was amazing last night. And amazingly loud. My ears are still ringing, but I think (almost) everyone had an awesome time. I also saw a promenade-production of The Tempest, in which the audience walked around the gardens of Worcester college for the different scenes. It was pretty sweet as well.

I finished my last paper of Oxford today! (I still have a poem to write for next Thursday). Tonight will probably be filled with mellowness after last night, and in anticipation for Monday night in London.

I found out that my mom IS coming to England next weekend. Hooray! She can help me take home my stuff and avoid freaking out too hard about making my flight on time. And avoid overweight baggage charges. Did I mention that?

Aside from all of this, today has been tinged with a bit of melancholy. I am gonna miss these people, and it will be a bummer to not see many of them again. But as I (drunkenly) warned Sam last night, I'm eerily good at staying in touch with people. Take that, Atlantic Ocean / Rest of America! Ha!


Here's this:

Sun's out.

Finally. And with it, a marked improvement in mood. It sucks a little bit that I feel I'm finally finding my place here and I'm about to leave, but that makes complete sense and I'm sure I'm far from the first person to experience abroad-ness like that. In less general news:

Plans are now in place to go to The End, a London superclub with (allegedly) one of the best soundsystems in the world. Not loudest, but best. Which is awesome. So next Monday I'll be taking my last field trip into London with a few friends to dance my pants off.

I'm on the verge of beginning my outline for my Joyce paper (I've decided to write about the Cyclops chapter as a model for how Joyce writes an inside-out novel full of modernized allusions to Homer's Odyssey; real original, I know), which is obviously why I'm writing this. We *might* go punting later today (boating) if the weather holds.

There's also this, which is unbelievably good if you haven't heard it. As Sam says, "a perfect pop song."

aaah!

my posts are waning! i'll do a more in-depth update tomorrow, but tonight was successful as i solidly recruited three kids to clone high fandom. hope all is well out there in the internet.

hooray

So we had our party, and while it wasn't as successful as the first one, it ended up in a great freshman-year style sleepover (but less cramped). The party, in true American College Spirit, was broken up as some people were still studying for finals (we really didn't know). But it (mostly) turned out all right.

Carmen is here today and it's great to see her. She's off to Uganda in a week or so, so I'm glad we get a chance to hang out before she heads off.

Meanwhile, some of my friends went to a ludicrously large party last night.