My God, Amazing that We Got This Far, It's Like We're Chasing All Those Stars

Hi everyone! This week is the end of my third week of Michaelmas Term here. (Whoo! Quarter of the way done; almost halfway done!) It's amazing how quickly time is flying by, and I've only just realized how intense the tutorial system is. I've basically completed roughly three months of fall semester in three weeks. Well, my math might be a little off, but it certainly feels like I've crammed three months of work into three weeks! Anyway, I hope those of you back home made it out of midterms alive and well!

In other news, yesterday Oxford University students held a demonstration protesting the Browne Review. The Browne Review is summed up nicely in the following bullet points that I received in an email the other day:

• Browne Review recommends:
- Lifting the cap on tuition fees.
- Higher Education teaching funding slashed by 80%.
- Marketisation of Higher Education imitating US Model.
- Removal of state funding from all subjects except ‘strategically valuable’ subjects, that is Science, Engineering, Medicine and ‘some’ foreign languages.

Now, I'm no expert on this at all, but from what I could gather from other students, all (or most) UK universities, including Oxford, charge around the same price for tuition, which is a little over £3,000, and they can charge less than that but not more. The Browne Review would make it similar to the US, where different schools can charge what they like for tuition (with the exception of the state schools). If anyone wants to read more about it, here's a link. I really wanted to participate in the protest, since 1. I think the US education system favors the rich, and I would hate for it to happen in the UK too and 2. I would like to return to Oxford for grad school and the Browne Review would probably make that financially impossible, but I couldn't since I had to run to the library to return books that were due that day. I did, however, take pictures as I passed through it though.

I really hope that the protest helped and that the Browne Review won't be passed, but I have a feeling that it will be, especially since the US model has been "working" for years. But then again, I'm a silly student so what do I know? =P

Anyway, I've added more pictures to my flickr account. I even back tracked and took more pictures of the places I had explored with Maggie earlier. Enjoy!

Halloween's coming up this weekend, and celebrating it in Oxford should be pretty interesting. =)

Well, Happy Halloween and Cheers!
Nutmeg

Turn the Lights on My Nights, This is Life and We Only Get One Chance

Hi Everyone! So I've had my first couple rounds of the tutorial system this week, and I really, really enjoy it. For those of you who don't know, the tutorial system is the way "classes" are held at Oxford and Cambridge. Basically, your tutorials (classes) are 1 hour one-on-one meetings with your tutors (usually professors, sometimes grad students). Every week your tutor issues you a reading list pertaining to the subject of your tutorial, and you read at the very least five of those books IN DEPTH for homework. Usually, tutors assign, along with the readings, an 8 page paper that you submit at your next tutorial, or you come in very prepared to discuss what you've read. It's a little scary being all by yourself with the tutor, because you can't hide behind loud talkative smart people. On the other hand, it's great being by yourself with the tutor, because you don't get overshadowed by loud talkative smart people. As I said before, I really enjoy the tutorial system even though the work is really intense. (I fell behind a little bit my first week.) I do miss the discussions you get from classmates though, but I suppose that's what Friday night pub runs are for. =)

Anyway, in addition to tutorials and lectures (lectures are exactly what they sound like; you sit in a class and listen to a professor lecture), I've joined the St. Benet's Rowing Team (in America it's called Crew)/Boat Club and Oxford University's Anime Vision (anime club ^_^). I'm still wavering between two forms of martial arts: Sul Ki Do and Kendo. Right now, Sul Ki Do is winning. So far, I've spent the most time with rowing:

And that's probably because the captain really wants to get a blade (a ceremonial award given to rowing teams when they've managed to move up in rank four days in a row or something like that) this year, so he's bugging us about practices. And because I'm a tiny girl, I've been drafted into the position of cox (I'm not the cox in these first pictures; he's the one with the lifejacket). Yes, I know it's a terrible name, but I didn't come up with it! So a cox is the person who sits at the stern of the boat and gives commands to the rest of the team and steers the boat. I know it sounds really boring, but I'm enjoying it so far. We had one of our water sessions today, and the weather was really nice for rowing. But it was windy, so the wind kept pushing our boat in different directions, and I had to make up for it to keep the boat from crashing into the bank. In short, it was challenging, but a lot of fun. =)

In Nutmeg-as-a-Consumer News, I bought a pair of earmuffs (which I will post pictures of later because they are awesome) and a hat to wear for coxing since it gets SUPER COLD on the river. I think people who know me will really appreciate these purchases. =3

Anyway, I'm going to go try and purchase a bike this minute (because I'm sick of walking everywhere). So wish me luck!

Cheers!
Nutmeg

Before I Totally Forget...

Here are some pictures of my room on St. John St.

The garden and entrance to our house.

The view of St. John Street from our window.

My armoire and dresser.

My bed/desk area. Look, Nutmeg's moved out of the nursery and fourth grader's room and into a poor teenager's room! I'm sure I'm bound to regress as the year goes on. =D

The room as a whole.

Yup, so that's what living on St. John's street kind of looks like. =)

"Megan, We've Entered into Harry Potterland!"

Sorry everyone for falling so behind on this thing. Orientation week proved to be A LOT busier than I thought it would. In addition to being busy, it was oodles of fun. =) And filled with many, many adventures. So many that I don't know where to begin...

Well, I guess first off, I went to my first HOUSE PARTY EVER! And it was ok. A little awkward, because everyone was first starting to meet each other, but I met a lot of really cool people. One of them is a British guy who tells lots of great "gags" (jokes) and uses the phrase "rock 'n roll" to describe things. For instance, "Hey are you two planning to come to Evensong tonight? It should be pretty rock 'n roll." =3

Next, Maggie, another Blackfriars Visiting Student, and I went exploring through a cemetery after a really boring library induction session. And after going through that, we stumbled upon New College and decided to take a detour through it.

And that's when we found Hogwarts. I know these pictures are pretty poor, but I was so excited that I couldn't really take good pictures. I promise to do better next time! And sorry for stealing your flickr idea, Ana! Anyway, our adventure through New College was amazing, and I wish I could've seen more of the inside of the buildings.

Throughout the week, we had dinner at various restaurants with different friars acting as "supervisors." And these dinners were probably the highlights of my stay so far. Especially the last dinner at the Mitre. I was in stitches and tears by the end of the night. Oh and speaking of dinners, I finished my first drink at a pub called the Cricketers' Arms (Don't pubs have the greatest names?) last night! =) It was this really sweet peach drink with peach schnapps and "lemonade" (I guess lemonade is sometimes used to refer to sprite). The British guy with the "gags" had a name for it that I can't remember. It was really, really good, but the same guy warned me not to get drunk off of them, because it's a miserable experience.

Anyway, I need to get back to the books, since this is my first week of tutorials. xP So cheers, everyone!

P.S. I bought my first hat here. And it kind of looks like my favorite detective's hat. =)

OMG I MADE IT!!! (A Journal Entry from Before I Had Interwebs)

03/10/2010 8:13am

Actually, I made it yesterday, but I was so tired and jet-lagged that I went to sleep almost as soon as I got to the house and didn't wake up until about 15 hours later.

No adventures really. The plane ride was a plane ride with lots of movies, but all the airline attendants were British and the one who worked my aisle called all the girls "sweet" and "love." And this is probably really stupid, but I had to ask him for a landing card at one point, and he said, after dropping the bag of rubbish he had, "'Course you can, sweets. As soon as I've finished throwing things about here, you can have anything you like!" And that really made my plane ride. =)

Just for reference sake, I watched Get Him to the Greek, Shutter Island, It's Complicated, and for kicks and giggles, the first half of Twilight: Eclipse. Get Him to the Greek wasn't nearly as funny as I thought it would be. Shutter Island was FANTASTIC. It's Complicated was sweet, but I think if you're older you'd appreciate it more. And I don't care what anyone says; Twilight: Eclipse didn't seem any better than the first movie.

After spending hours just walking through LHR and trying to find the Central Bus Station (the route there from my terminal was SO LONG), I finally caught the bus to Oxford.

And Oxford, OMG.

It is incredibly cute and pretty and IT'S RAINING AND CLOUDY AND I LOVE IT! Although yesterday I was so tired and miserable that all I wanted to do was go back to my old apartment in SF and sleep and hang out with the kitty Bigs.

Everyone I've met so far has been really sweet. The Junior Dean (kind of like an RA back home) is really nice. He wouldn't let me carry my 56.5lb bag up several flights of stairs. Bess, who seems like the Blackfriars equivalent of Barbara St. Marie, was soooo nice. She gave me a hug and then helped me with my "snow white" linens.

Anyway, I'm living at 16A St. John Street and rooming with Maggie, not a stranger, which is such a relief. AND WE HAVE A ROOM THAT FACES THE STREET AND NOT THE BACKYARD! =) I promise I will have pictures as soon as it gets brighter.

So other than my airplane, airport and bus ride experience, I haven't had any other adventures yet, and I totally missed an adventure opportunity last night when everyone went to about 3 pubs, got really drunk and started talking about philosophy. Yes, I failed a little bit here, but I was tired and now my body clock is all synced up. =D

More to come soon, hopefully. (The day's only beginning!)

And I am wearing pants. =3

<3 Nutmeg

Could We Pretend That Airplanes in the Night Sky Are Like Shooting Stars?

Hi Everyone! For those who don't know me, my name is Megan, also known as Nutmeg amongst many friends (hence the blog title), and I'm studying abroad for my junior year of college. This blog is where I'm planning on sharing my adventures abroad with friends, family and in all probability, strangers back home. So yay for the first post even though I haven't had an adventure yet!!

Well, in less than 24 hours, I will be on a plane to England, and I'm still waiting to wake up from this dream. I can honestly say that this is probably the first time in my life where I've ever felt like I can't predict what's going to happen next. I could picture college in San Francisco, imagine my first trip to Japan, but studying in England, in Oxford of all places... It's just too unreal for me.

I'm a little worried that I made the wrong decision in choosing to study in England. I feel like I should be studying in Japan, where a majority of my wonderful friends are currently studying, or graduating early, a very practical and financially smart decision. But I'm not. I'm going to England virtually all by myself to study literature and philosophy and theology, subjects which have almost nothing to do with my major of Asian Studies and Japanese. Hm, the more I think about it, the more worried I get.

I guess the only thing I can really do is (as Mel Brooks wisely put it) hope for the best and expect the worst. So first off, I'm hoping I make it to LHR in one piece, but I'm expecting to lose my luggage with my precious shoes and owl jewelry collection and to get horribly lost in the airport. I'm hoping to learn a lot while I'm over there, but I'm expecting my GPA to take a hit and possibly return with fewer credits than I planned, thus delaying my graduation. I'm hoping to have a great time, but I'm expecting to encounter many possibly painful bumps along the way. (I know it doesn't sound like I'm expecting the absolute worst in each situation, but in my head I really am.)

So to all the people I'm leaving behind, I miss you already, hope you have a great year and love you! And if anyone thinks they see my plane in tomorrow night's sky, feel free to make a wish on it. ^_-