I can't wait to...

...take a hot shower WHENEVER I WANT.
...plug in my laptop without an adaptor.
...have all of my shoes.
...drive my car to Wal-Mart in the middle of the night for juice or bacon or ice cream.
...make my purchasing decisions based on quality and money, not weight.
...say "pants" without fear.
...find my one winter hat!!
...feel 100% awesome about using American punctuation and spelling.
...listen to Arcade Fire on Spotify.
...text again!
...have a real mocha.
...always have the dishes I need.
...have my own pillow.
...wear ALL the scarves.
...regain access to Hulu & Netflix (and no longer resort to...other methods of watching American TV).
...follow recipes exactly rather than figuring out how to convert butter from grams to sticks.



(a brief listing of the smaller luxuries awaiting me at home :) )

(not that I won't miss Oxford and England and my lovely SCIO friends so so much!)

[RadCam Update]

Time: 6:12pm. Location: Radcliffe Camera. Should be: taking notes on Eisenstein's use of history out of a really helpful book. Up since: 9:30am. Have slept: 4(ish) hours. Yay!

This is me procrastinating, but ALSO we went to the Kilns today, which is where CS Lewis lived for 30 years! Jonathan Kirkpatrick, who's involved in SCIO, is the Scholar in Residence there (yeah, he lives there!), and he gave a group of us and free, fun, and educational tour, complete with tea and cakes afterward in "Jack"'s common room (sitting room). We biked out, about 20-30 minutes away, spent about 3 hours touring the house, walking through the woods out to Holy Trinity Church and back, and then stuck around for tea and story time. :) Sarah and I then biked home, had a quick (3pm) lunch, and hopped on the bus to get into town and spend a few hours at the library before it closes at 7. So that's what we're up to now, and there's so many other SCIO people here, frantically trying to finish researching for their long essays! Mine is going pretty well, actually, but I can't shake the feeling that I'll nearly run out of time, especially since I'm still very much in the note-taking stage. Goal is to finish enough reading/researching/noting tonight that I can construct at least a basic outline, so I'm not totally starting from scratch when I start writing this darn thing! (It's due on Thursday at noon, by the way. So 36 hours from now. Yikes! I'd better get back to work!) ~It is now 6:17pm, and I'm going to post this and get to it. Much love!

Before the Final Battle...

the wonderful marvellous lovely talented genius Sarah M ("Sarahgorn") posted this gem at 5am Monday night/Tuesday morning:

"I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of SCIO students fails, when we forsake our essays and break all bonds of academia, but it is not this day. An hour of failing grades and disapproving looks from Dr Baigent, when the Age of Oxford comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we write!! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Students of the Vines and North Wing!!!!!!!"


I'm going to miss her quite a bit, but darn! that's good motivation for writing this long essay! =)