I'd rather be reading Cracked.

It took me a long time to find the "create new post" button. How long have I been using this site? (Long enough that I must be drunk or sleep-deprived, I can tell you that much.*) My last update was hardly an update at all, but it did coincide nicely with Thanksgiving (which made me miss my family, but was a blast here in Oxford, as well--I made a pumpkin pie with Hannah!) and so I'm counting it. It's Tuesday night now (technically Wednesday morning, although barely), and I'm hanging out with Ginger, Sarah, and a sleeping Victoria in their room, hard at, ahem, work. I've decided I can give myself a *tiny* little break, since I wore myself out today sleeping until 2, writing an entire essay, and skyping Karson. ;) But seriously, I just felt the need to write something I might ever actually like to share with another person, or possibly even go back and reread myself somewhere down the road. That's not to say this is any kind of work of genius, because it's clearly not, but at least it doesn't feel like a chore. :)

That said, I have my last secondary tutorial in the morning (the real morning), for which I submitted my last essay a few hours ago (hopefully before my tutor went to bed...). I have my second-to-last primary essay/tutorial at the end of this week, my very last primary essay and tutorial Monday of next week (thank goodness; it was going to also be this week!), and then only the dreaded "long essay" before I can officially turn up my nose at school work until January! (The "long essay" is really just the length of two regular essays, and maybe not so bad as all that since I got to choose the topic and I've been "working" on it all term.)

On my plate for this week (I'll pretend like it's Sunday night and give the whole week's activities, because it's rather more exciting that way):
Monday: get to the Taylorian (library) at 9am with Tara, Ashley, and Jonathan and claim the best study desks. Meet Ginger for lunch at The Eagle and Child (pub) down the street at 2pm. Go back to the library with Tara and Ashley to work until 6pm (and actually accomplish rather a lot!). Meet Ginger and Sarah M at Pret (cafe) for a quick snack and hot chocolate before heading to the Sheldonian (theatre) for a Christmas carol service at 7pm. Bike home in the light rain at 8pm. Procrastinate/work until 2am.
Tuesday: sleep until 2, write secondary essay, order kebabs with Ginger and Jonathan, eat said kebabs while watching Community, finish essay at barely 10, skype Karson until a little after midnight, meet up with Ginger and Sarah to work in their room until ???
Wednesday: 10:30 tutorial, followed immediately by coffee. Followed less immediately by a trip to the library to get books/do work until "SkolVo" (mandatory SCIO lecture) at 2:30, which is followed by a full British afternoon tea. Probably go back to the library, or possibly home, depending on the weather.
Thursday: I dunno. Possibly a tutorial. Possibly a visit to Richard Dawkins's house. (No, I'm not joking.)
Friday: Maybe a tutorial. But definitely Christmas shopping (slash souvenir shopping, since they're mostly the same thing this year :P). Followed by the Oxford Christmas Light Night (light turning-on and parade and what not) from 5 to 10! There will be NO schoolwork! :)
I need to stop, I'm gonna go crazy just thinking about everything that needs to happen/get done in the next less-than-two weeks!!

On that note, I'll include a brief bit on how weird it is that I only have 12 days left in Oxford. (Spoiler alert: it's very weird.) I'm obviously very sad to be leaving this wonderful place and these lovely people (I almost typed "living" instead of "leaving", if that tells you anything), but at the same time I'm almost inordinately excited to be getting home and seeing my family and friends and, of course, boyfriend. :) The semester's gone by pretty fast, but it is definitely feeling long as we near the end, although simultaneously I haven't nearly enough time to do everything I want to in Oxford before my short time here is up!


That said, I just looked up Chicago weather on weather.com, and they still don't have anything even remotely definitive for after Dec 8, but I'll be checking back in a few days to make sure there's no chance of our flights getting delayed, because I would be immensely unhappy (this is me being a realist, not a pessimist. Really). But anyway, I'll miss Oxford more than I can even say (although Ginger rather can, read her post here: purveyorofdreams.blogspot.com), but I'm very ready to be not only back in the United States/Arkansas, but to see everyone I haven't seen in over three months! (Especially--well, you know who you are. ;))

P.S.- I've basically been alternating between Christmas music and Cage the Elephant. That's the sort of weird mood I'm in. :D



*No, Mum, I'm not durnk. Prosime/

the Taylor Institution Library (Taylorian)