Backgammon Night

So, when I comes around to Wednesday or Thursday night and I have written 1.5 to 2 papers for the week, and look forward to beginning a few more, I try to get out of my room. Jenny and I go to the Royal Oak, basically in our backyard, have a beer, and play backgammon. As you can see I am learning the skills. We started out with checkers but everyone knows that is childs play. And everyone knows backgammon is the grown up way to move pieces around a board, especially if you are holding a beer. Or in my case a latte. But it is a pub, so technically I should have a beer and usually do. I won my first game tonight! Yes. But all in all I lost the two out of three... should have just stuck with my winning and ran! This is my wonderful friend Jenny. She lives downstairs and is doing research in Genetics.... she will be done with a DPhil in a year and a half and then will go on to Med School... genius. And a heck of a good backgammon player.

Listen

http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/

One of my favorite sites... while working last year I listened to many of these programs. Have a listen to one that sparks your interest. This is really nice if you are cleaning, or cooking.


Interfaith dialogue is of the utmost importance to me. To listen to those believers (or practitioners) whom you do not believe, to understand their fundemental humanness... isn't this the quest to know our fellow human beings through compassion, understanding, empathy? We must continually ask but why, but why, but why, but why, until we are able to look through the lens of our fellow spiritually bent brothers and sisters. This is what I believe.

Prayer, Ice Cream, and Gargoyles

Jenny and I hosted a "No date on Valentine's day? No problem" night in our MCR. Including: a surround sound hi-def showing of 'ONCE', homemade cookies and lots of ice cream. It was a hit there were 10-12 other people there... This was the set up. We are crafty.
My Mom sent me a care package with all the goods! Oh let me tell you I have never found Kraft Macaroni and Cheese to be so divine. And fruit roll ups! And Princess pencils! It was exactly what I needed.
That is right this care package came fully stocked with freeze dried mountain man food. Freeze dried ice cream, for those days when cold ice cream is just too much to handle. This is like in fourth grade when my teacher set up a 'space ship' in the back room of our classroom and groups of us got to stay in there for a whole day and eat freeze dried food and perform our special 'astronaut' tasks.

Thus begins my virtual tour of the insides of Trinity college. Gargoyle fountain...
Hallway between the two quads
Entering the quad
The quad
And to your right you have the chapel. Please, go in a pray.

I have a tutorial in Trinity College and I always feel like I should have a hoop skirt on and some beautiful heels, and be hearing the horse and carriage pulling up to the courtyard. Perhaps you might wonder if I live in a dream world. I say nay! I live in Oxford.

I've heard about this fog

Well, I did steal this picture from Jenny. BUT, this is a picture of the fog this morning here in Oxford at the University Parks. Beautiful. A few hours later we have a completely clear sky.

This picture that I stole is dedicated to Eric, because the heavy fog is one of his favorite things about England.

snack snack snack.

I can't live without my Babybel cheese rounds. They are my 'I'm hungry and studying, but I'm too hungry to have the energy to make pasta or rice to go with real food, so I have to eat something to be able to make myself food' food. They are good with coffee too. I ran out tonight and am distraught.

Sunny day today

It is very sunny today! Its been being sunny about every other day here. And a pretty steady 45-50 degress, so that is awesome. Beautiful weather. I had a lot of walking to do with a few meetings and looking for books in three libraries, so I brought along my camera.

Pitt Rivers Museum of Natural History
Inside New College. Well inside the quad of New College. Each college has at least one quad. I hear New College is one of the richest at Oxford.
Ashmolean Museam
I found this gate today, with a path so I followed it.
It led to a graveyard. And funny enough I walked to the end of it, and turned around to take a picture and stumbled up Max Mueller's gravestone. Ha! Apparently there are a lot of famous people buried here, my supervisor said there was a sign somewhere. But it was pretty funny, I was just studying him in class.

This is me looking at the graveyard. Interesting.

Look at this! I had coffee with Peggy today, my supervisor, and she said she knew where there were blooming flowers. So, she took me to Balliol college, and there were 4 different kinds of flowers blooming. You can't really see but there was yellow, white, purple... a spring wonderland.
I turned in my essay titles! Yae! Well, I had better get back to it. I am reading this right now for an essay... pretty interesting.

Study Study STudy....

Good things

• I got locked out of my room for the third time today. No. I know what you are thinking, wasn't me losing keys, it was the lock losing it marbles. Ha! Today I demanded my lock be changed and it was done in less than 30 minutes. Good job Keble College.
• More buds and flowers on the trees outside. Keep it up nature.
• I love WORD. I definately am still a WordPerfect girl, but, I gotta say, that footnote feature is so easy, and really really fun. Hey if you are studying most of your days, its the little things that really help you out. You know?
• I am writing about the Essenes, a Jewish sect in the time of Jesus. So, I do need a lot of footnotes with these classical sources. and boy is it fun. I am not joking.
• Tea instead of coffee today. I switch about every two weeks, it's always a trade off between bad coffee and good tea. I like them about the same.
• Essay titles - 3 for Judaism (5,000 word essays due in June) and 1 for Christianity (15,000 word dissertation due in Sept.). These have stressed me out more than you could possibly imagine and in ways that you don't want me to explain. They are in the final draft phase, all I need is 3 signatures from various supervisors, and to pass the 'faculty review board' or something, and then... well then I start working on them. But, the thing is! They are due on Friday, and they are almost done. The horrible gnawing in my stomach from the past 2 months is starting to subside!!!!!
• So, in all, still working hard...but I see a light... and i'm in a tunnel...it is distant... but it is there..!

thankGodness

I walked outside today and swore that I smelled flowers. Odd. I look back, and get this. Flowers. Spring is coming. The camera came out and documented these first buds, oh how wonderful.