i miss you all; please write comments. love, the management.

The other night i went to see Match Point. So ODD that that's Woody Allen. Also, just so odd in general. Oh, you brooding attractive adulterous Brits....go back to Closer.
I did get to see the movie for a pittance (just under 3 pounds), because of this very silly but useful "ORANGE WEDNESDAY" when people with Orange cellphones can *text* Orange a special code *Film 241* and then Orange will *text* THEM a special code, and then they give the special code to the guy selling the tickets at the theatre, and they get 2 tickets for the price of one. Thankfully, i don't have Orange, but i have friends who do, so i can take advantage of this bizarre ritual.
Another bizarre ritual is texting in general. I had never done it before in my life---i had also never received a text before, although i know some of you have sent me some in the past. Yeah those went into the oblivion. Anyway, here i have to text because it's just the cheapest way to go, and of course everybody does it here.
My parents are in oxford this weekend, which is very very nice. We are going to london tonight, but before that we're going to Marks & Spencers (yay!).
The highlight of my week, however, will be Thursday night, when Elizabeth the Goddess/Visiting Students Director is having us over for American sitcom-watching and pizza-eating. For those who haven't heard about Elizabeth, i must just describe her. Young--probably just 30, and small and pretty, with dyed black hair and long fake pearl earrings. When she turned up in London during Awful Butler Orientation to meet us, i almost cried. She's sort of your perfect Oxford person: gentle and sweet and a little bit traditional, but also young and fun and laidback. She's a medieval literature scholar. I mean, come on. She's married to a guy named Alistair who works for a humanitarian organization in London and when there's an earthquake in South America, he flies over for a few weeks to do relief work. And they live in the wall of the college (the tiny alice-in-wonderland house came with the job of taking care of us JYAs; in case one of us has a fit in the night, she has to be close by). Basically, everyone has a crush on her and if you don't have a crush on her, there's something wrong with you. Actually, the party at her house is also very compelling because of the pizza...is it weird that i kind of miss that? I'm not sure why; it's not like I had a ton at home. It's not like they don't HAVE pizza in England, of course they do, it's just that I can't afford to eat out. I am in the process of finding a job though, so hopefully that will resolve itself.
Oh, the other day I went to this lecture with a friend, and it felt so nice and very much like home! It was at Brasenose in a pretty green room and it was on the motif of the Fallen Woman in early 20th century british suffragette plays...it's part of a series of theatre-related lectures. Anyway, it was cosy and fun, and the lecturer was awesome, and the whole thing felt very familiar. It was a moment of feeling at home at a university, you know? Like that's the kind of thing you can just do when you know the school, you can turn up for an awesome lecture and coffee and decadent chocolate cookies (not as good as the Lewis-Sebring ones though). Of course, i would never have gone if my JYA friend who's already been here a term hadn't taken me: navigating these colleges is a little scary sometimes. I turned up at my Linguistics lecture yesterday, and it had been moved to some mysterious other building (like i was just supposed to KNOW that!), and since i didn't know where that was and by the time i found out would have been terribly late, i just went home. Which is sad, because it was a very cool and strange class for me to take.
I will miss it next friday as well, because i'm going to Scotland, for home-cooked meals, reading in coffee shops, and lesbian clubbing.
But first: back to Jane Eyre and the Holy Sonnets.

more on ducks

for almost three days (comprising the whole weekend), the Worcester internet was down. mind, this is at a university where libraries are closed on sundays (and certainly never open late anyway) and i could not have found free wireless in town to save my life. this caused huge problems for some people, like my friend Ben who had to email a paper to his tutor, or Elizabeth the Goddess/Visiting Students Director, who's an Adult and had Work to do. i was mostly concerned that i couldn't get on facebook. at any rate, i think all the JYAs had very american moments, as we thought to ourselves, "this would have been fixed in twenty minutes at home..."
seriously, it was a very strange weekend; i was ALL out of money on my phone, due to an accidental nine pound phone call to Scotland (by accidental, we mean, priyanka's an idiot who can't calculate 15 x 60 = too much money), and i'd get back to my room at night, look sadly at Sophie (the Dell), lament the lack of television or dvds handy, and realize: i had nothing to do but my work.
of course, i did do my work, unlike now when i am writing this but not, importantly, a paper on courtship novels.

sorry, i don't want to belabour the whole *fowl* theme, but seriously: the ducks! okay, and i am NOT a bird person, as many can attest; usually, i pretty much despise them (dirty, squawking, mean, etc.). but these ducks! there are two families, the white ones and the brown-black ones. the white ones are the best. they are hilarious. i can come home in the foulest of moods, and if see them i just start laughing.
it's not just the Worcester ducks either; this morning i was by the canal, and there were all these cuties lined up on the bank, taking turns diving in and climbing out and purring (in a duck way).
i mean...i do still hate birds though. goddamn pigeon flew past my head this morning. they're the worst.

hm. i feel i have somehow missed the logical and comprehensive update on Life at Oxford. perhaps i should start with the basics.
Bed and Board: i have a quite roomy single in Staircase 19, as it's called, with plentiful shelf space, a sink, and a fridge. i have since acquired (from a discount store and Elizabeth's JYA closet) a toaster, a kettle, and a coffee-maker, though i don't really know how to use the last one.
Academics: i'm taking two tutorials, one on 19th c. novels, the other on John Donne. i also attend a couple lectures, but that's just extra. basically i have all this unscheduled time combined with 20pg reading lists to chip through each week. so i've been going to the English Faculty Library a lot to get books, and the Worcester Lower Library to study (very small, but has the advantage of looking like a French palace). my next move will be the Bodleian Lower Camera Reading Room. after that, Frost will pretty much be hell.
Social: i mostly hang out with select JYAs (old and new) and a sort of random collection of brits who are sometimes nice to us. my next-door neighbor is very sweet, but i think she's too much of a babe to want to be my friend (damn redheads). i have identified a few kindred spirits whom i now intend to cultivate--they are the low-key, liberal arts college-types. i think they like to sit around and talk about books. i tried (i tried!) to do the other thing last week: we had people over, we drank a lot of wine, we went to the college bar and then on to Park End, one of a number of clubs round the corner. and i was drunk enough to be into it for a while...and then i kind of looked around, realized what i was doing, and booked it out of there. it's just, well, clubs are kind of gross, aren't they? yeah. i think i came home that night and started to write a drunken blog post (of the same title), but got interrupted by the phone. sorry; no doubt one of those will turn up sooner or later.

i suppose that pretty much sums it up. meanwhile i haven't written a word of my paper, and instead of doing that, i'll probably go to the library in search of more "books" i "need" to write it.

oh yes, number one best thing about being back in england: gingersnaps.

derbyshire is cold

especially when you're living in a refurbished old farmhouse in the hills. i thought, mistakenly, that the next several months would be a relief from snowy-ass new england. it is, to the extent that it's different, and there isn't really snow. but oh, it's a DAMP cold here. it gets in your lungs. and at my family stay, it was the kind of thing you imagine Cathy died from on the moors (that, and a goddamn broken heart). i wore two pairs of socks.
so i was at Peep-O-Day Farm (not really a proper farm) in Chinley, Derbyshire, with a family of four plus a dog. it was great fun, actually: warm, comfortable people, lots of wine, and a little friendly sightseeing in and around the area. our first full day there, all the families got together with lots of kids and as many dogs, and we went on a walk through Lyme Park. the weather was awful, but this was amply made up for by the fact that we were walking around PEMBERLEY. yes, from the bbc version. yes, i have pictures.
was there a lake, you ask? there may have been one or two. the dogs got very muddy after the walk, so they had to bathe in the lake pictured here. i will let you imagine, or recall, who else might have gone for a swim in this particular lake.


enough about the family visit. i am, actually, at oxford, and have been for just about 48 hours. it was a gorgeous day when we arrived and there might have been tears in my eyes when i walked through the gates of my college. the next time the sun is out, i will trek around with my camera everyone can get a sense for Worcester. let me just say now that there are two families of ducks, who quack outside my window in the morning and putter around the Pump Quad.