Lovely English weather

Ok, so this day wasn't exactly the most spectacular second day. First of all, I woke up with a runny nose at 7:45am, so going to breakfast was totally out of the question. I initially blamed it on the windows which I left open all night to combat the lack of A.C., but now I think it's probably because I'm in a totally different country with different weather and different allergens. My throat isn't hurting, I'm not coughing or sneezing, but my nose has been like a faucet all day.

We watched a bit of Much Ado About Nothing in Shakespeare class today, the Kenneth Branagh version, which I LOVE! And everyone giggled about Keanu Reeves playing Don John, and all the random "miscellaneous body parts" that are in the big communal bath scene. Why naked butts of people are so funny I don't know, but the entire class laughed. I kept snickering because I was expecting Keanu to say "Whoa!". Medieval History was much of the same, we learned about Boudicca's little vindictive torching of Londinium and just how good it was using Roman roads and indoor plumbing for the unwashed Celts.

Dinner at Worcester is quite an event in itself because it's a three course sit down deal in this dining hall with loooong tables and benches. Which means absolutely NO skirts at dinner, or the people next to you get an indecent peek while you're swinging your legs over the side. Soups and salads seem to be the starters of choice, and then whatever creativeness they come up for chicken and vegetables. Tonight we had salad, chicken with zucchini and pasta, and for desert this chocolate basket filled with pudding and strawberries. I just go to dinner for the deserts... yesterday it was three layer chocolate cake, day before it was berry cheesecake. Who needs all those vegetables and chicken when you can get your weekly sugar intake in one sitting? Check out the hall:



Instead of doing homework as good kids should we ventured out into the town to find Sarah's boyfriend a birthday present, and wound up spending about an hour at Borders. It was all well and good until the sky opened up and people started darting into the store, dripping from head to toe. You'd think the English would be used to this and carry their umbrellas, but once we were on our way back (with our umbrellas) we didn't see anyone on the streets. Lots of people were inside buildings waiting it out, which made no sense to me. The rain was cold and formed lots of puddles on the old and uneven streets in town, so everyone's pants got pretty wet pretty quickly. On top of this the air temperature dropped a few degrees so the part so of me that got wet also got cold very quickly. Some jerks honked at us while we were crossing the street and hopping over puddles, and it made me think about how people regard one another here.

Everyone seems to be in their own little world, with their headphones and their worries and their thoughts. Oxford is a small town so I expected more of the smiling and opening doors, but I've seen very little of it so far. People at Worcester are super nice to us which is great, but once you venture out no one cares and people just keep walking and pushing past you on sidewalks and in store aisles. Thankfully the cashiers are friendly and patient while I take the time to figure out the new coinage and all the colorful Monopoly money they use here.

The torrential downpour and the soaking of jeans combined with my runny nose and medicine-induced drowsiness kind of made this a low day, but my spirits remain high because I've got 40 days left here to wander around and meet people as friendly as the bartender and the drunk locals at the White Horse were last night. And with this I turn in for the night :)