Arriving in Oxford

     When I was in Junior High, I had a big map of the world on my wall, and on that map I'd circled Oxford University with one of my beloved sharpies and declared that that was where I was going to college.
    At thirteen when they tell you in school to research colleges you don't look for the one you think you can get into, you look for the best school you can find. And I had decided Oxford was the best. And with the blind optimism of a thirteen year old who has never seen an SAT score, I decided that was where I was headed.

And eight years later here I am!!

New Hair

Pros: 

1.) Easy to style 

2.) very few bad hair days 

3.) makes me look tough when i'm actually a wimp who has trouble opening heavy doors

cons: 

1.) Some very grouchy senior citizens have looked at me like i'm going to spit in their eye 

My Great Perhaps

      One of my favorite books is Looking For Alaska by John Green, and in this book when Miles is about to go off to boarding school in Alabama he quotes the poet Francois Rabelais' last words "I go to seek a Great Perhaps" and that explains my trip to Oxford perfectly. I'm going to seek my own Great Perhaps.

      While most of the perhaps' in my head are worst case scenarios involving death or humiliation, some of them are nice though, like museums, libraries, and London.

      However, if i'm still comparing myself to Miles in Looking For Alaska, his 'Great Perhaps' turned out to be (Spoiler alert!) the tragic death of the friend he had a massive crush on. So that isn't helping with the worst case scenarios i've got going. Watching the Hobbit trilogy wasn't all that helpful either since I identify with Bilbo, as a person who usually stays at home going on a crazy adventure, and his story ends with death and a lonely trip home.

Literary discouragement aside, I'm really looking forward to this trip! I'm excited to go to a country I have admired since childhood and getting to take some new classes and see lots of two of my favorite things

1.museums

2. libraries

However this trip will also involve two of my least favorite things

1. social situations where i'm under pressure to appear friendly and likable

2. navigating places i've never been before

However, I think I will be able to overcome these grave difficulties to have a really good time. And if someone does die in the fashion of literary best sellers, at least I will be able to write about it.

Instagram

I've also made an intagram account: 

December.wednesday

To keep a photo log of my trip so follow that as well for photo updates.

Setting sights for Oxford!

From now on i'm going to be using this blog to keep a record of my trip to study English Literature  at Oxford Brookes university in the Spring 2015 semester. 

So keep an eye on this blog for updates on my getting ready for my trip and for stories of my adventures once I get to Oxford.

Toast

Our toaster makes a really annoying beeping noise when the toast is done. Not even a cute polite R2-D2 *beep* but a really annoying alarm sounding beep that sounds like "HEY STUPID YOUR TOAST IS READY!"

This is 2013 why can we not customize the beep on our toaster? I want it to be the Les Mis soundtrack so whenever my toast is ready it can play "RED the blood of angry MEN!!!!!"

(I found this picture on "real Les Mis captions" on Tumblr which you should check out if you feel like laughing) 

Under the Influence…

I've had a cold for the past week and have therefore been living in a constant state of cold medicine induced crazy.

This has caused a few alterations to my personality…

1.) I have been finding the weirdest most random everyday things completely hilarious. I laughed so hard at a mispronounced word that my Mother felt the need to apologize for my behavior. I also found a ball made of twigs in Homegoods for five dollars

and laughed so hard I ended up on the floor in an aisle alternately laughing and coughing up a lung…

2.) I have absolutely no filter. I have been spewing whatever happens to be on my mind whether it be singing along badly to 80's songs or talking to anyone who is listening about my hatred of birds…. People  at first thought this was amusing but now I think they just find it obnoxious.

3.) I lost all motivation to do anything besides breath, watch DVDs and internet…. even the simplest of tasks seems gargantuan and I just can't be bothered to do it. But the really scary thing is that not only am I not doing anything….I don't care that i'm not doing anything….Like i'm totally fine with doing nothing and no matter the consequences my brain just does. not. care.

4.) That leads to into the other weird thing, which is that I have lost all self preservation and foreword planning. Like my brain will usually think…

                                        "You know, you probably shouldn't say that" 

but right now it's just going
                                               "whoa! let's see what happens" 

So that's how I ended up buying a….

Darth Vader lightsaber!!!!!

Which is a lovely thing I am proud to own…but which I bought under the influence of cold medicine…..