Thursday, January 08, 2009

Let's start with some fun facts:

1) Hot and cold water are on separate taps. I almost burned myself yesterday getting into the shower. The hot water comes out scalding only.
2) I already caught myself saying 'Good morning' in a British accent to a lovely old man walking his dog. It only gets worse from here.
3) I forgot my camera...I know, it's such a bummer. I bought a disposable one, but don't expect great pictures.
4) I climbed billions of high spiral staircases in flats and dress pants this morning to the top of St. Mary's Tower overlooking Oxford...scary!
5) I have not gotten lost yet!
6) Their juice is all concentrated, so you just pour a tiny bit and fill the rest with water. My roommate didn't realize that at first and almost took a drink of her apple juice.
7) I get a hot water bottle for my feet at night! I'm pretty sure my host family doesn't believe in normal heat.

Since I did not relay any of yesterday's events, let me try and give you the rundown. I got a good night's rest and woke up feeling like I was in the right time zone. The dizziness of the plane finally wore off. I woke up to a lovely frost and walked about three hours in it altogether yesterday. They are saying it's some of the coldest temperatures southern England has had in a decade.
Every morning we meet at St. Aldate's Parish where we have a room reserved. We spend about a half hour there and then go on some small tour and break off from there. Yesterday was our induction into the Bodelian library. It's kind of like a ceremony. We had to read a paragraph in front of the admissions counselor and sign a paper agreeing to the rules. I toured Radcliffe Camera, a domelike library housing psychology and other social science books. I spent the morning and afternoon at the Education Library, with a break for lunch. However, it takes twenty minutes to walk back into town so lunch took almost two hours. The entire group met for lunch and the cafe gave us complimentary hot chocolate. We ate in what's called the Covered Market, so it's outside, but kinda like a tunnel with shops everywhere, but it was definitely cold.

I really only spent about two hours studying, but am really enjoying the material I've been asked to read. My assignments seem relatively simple and compared to some of the other student's tutorials, mine should be low key, although still very beneficial in helping me gain practical experience and insight into the math education theories currently held. My library is in the Education Department, so it's like a normal library, not somber and formal like the other ones. I was a bit disappointed. It's relatively small and I'm sure the library staff will become familiar faces within a week.
I spent the evening with the host family and read for pleasure for a few hours. The girl I am rooming with fell asleep at nine...lame.

So apparently I'm not good at summarizing. If you actually read all this you're impressive.

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