OXFORD

And so the adventures begin again - I have officially arrived at Oxford! I landed at Heathrow at 6:30 Sunday morning, a little shell-shocked, I have to say. I did sleep on the plane, but not as long as I would have liked (especially since they woke us up at 4:30 local time to serve us coffee and breakfast). My luggage was easy to find, and I didn't have any trouble finding the bus station at the airport, once I realized I needed to get to the "Central Bus Station," which happens to be quite a walk from the terminal at which I arrived. I met some other visiting students as soon as I got to the bus, though they weren't headed to Pembroke, and I even saw another Penn student, my friend Karla, on the bus! The ride to Oxford wasn't long (about an hour, I think). I couldn't believe how much the countryside between London and Oxford looked like home - rolling hills, grass just starting to turn brown, similar trees at about the same state of changing. It was kind of nice to feel familiar with the territory right away.

I arrived at Pembroke at about 9:30, and I was greeted right away by very, very nice people. You enter the college at the "Porter's Lodge" (really just a kind of foyer) to meet the Porter, a man who is in charge of all the keys and things. I got my keys and was escorted by some members of the JCR, a committee of second year students who help everyone get moved in and adjusted, as well as planning events and entertainment. We went with my luggage to my room, in the Macmillan building, commonly called "the Mac." It really reminds me of English House, for all you Penn folks, and for the uninitiated, of my dorm freshman year. The Mac is a building built in the late 1960's, I would think; it's a rather low, brick building. My single room is a good size. It's kind of a square, with the fourth wall being a wide window. The wall opposite the window is a closet and a sink. Otherwise, I have a bed, a desk, and two chairs, as well as a spinny computer chair. (Pictures to come). There are 14 girls on the hall and we share a bathroom (and on that note, I don't ever want to here another person at Penn complain about facilities - we have two showers for the hall, one of which doesn't work, and both of which are in closets with wooden doors that prevent ventilation).

Since I arrived, things have been kind of a blur. There are so many new things every day! First of all, people. In addition to all the English students, there are about 40 visiting students at Pembroke this term - 12 of them from Tufts, 3 from Cornell, 3 from Georgetown, and on down the line. I'm the only Penn student at Pembroke this term, though there are 7 of us at Oxford. I was adopted right away by the Tufts folks, who took me to their introductory meeting and on their "accomodations" shopping trip. There's a Target-like store right around the corner from Pembroke called Primark that sells duvets for 7 pounds and that sort of thing. Oh, before I get too far, a word about another new thing - the university system here. Oxford is the university and the name of the town, but the schooling at Oxford actually happens in 30 or so colleges, Pembroke being one of them. Pembroke, for example, only has about 350 students, but it has its own facilities and administration. The University is the umbrella organization above the college, and it has research, library, office, etc. facilities for students and administrators. There are many students groups and clubs at the college level, but also at the university level, and there are strong rivalries between the colleges.

Another new thing - words. I thought that the main differences between American and British English were matters of slang, but I've found that this is not exactly the case. There are a lot of everyday things that go by different names in England than they do in the States. For example, I call a knit article of clothing that you wear on your top half a "sweater." Here, unless it's a cardigan, it's called a "jumper." The kind of dress that I would call a jumper is called a pinafore here. A particular source of amusement among the girls on my corridor is my use of the word "dish soap." They call it "washing up liquid," and can't get over my term for soapy stuff you use to clean dishes. We've also had many a good laugh about accents - Sam, the girl who lives a few doors down, keeps trying to say "awesome" the way I do (it sounds cool apparently). Of course all the American students are obsessed with English accents, so I think it goes both ways.

This week has been taking up with a blinding number of information and introduction sessions, plus all the usual social activities that go along with new student orientations. The visiting students got in a day before the rest of the freshers, so the JCR took us to a posh cocktail bar. The first night everyone got in we had our first "bop," or social event. It was a "Pembroke pride" bop: our college colors are navy and bright pink, so everyone dressed up in their brightest blue and pink and craziest outfirts and we had a silent disco. At a silent disco, they bring in headphones that are attached to some sort of wireless network and play music into the headphones; there are two different stations of music, that way everyone gets to listen to music they like, and those who want to talk can hear each other perfectly. Last night we had a "name bop," where everyone dressed up to represent their name (I went as Elle Woods from Legally Blonde). The other thing we did last night was have our first formal dinner with our subject tutors. We all got dressed up and put on our "commoners gowns" (academic robes) then met our professors over champagne. When dinner was served, we went to the hall, where we have all our dinners. We had a three course meal including wine and guinea fowl for the entree. I sat near our two head tutors for English, who were discussing who was meaner. They agreed that one was worse on paper and the other in person, and the one who was worse on paper told this anecdote: one paper was so bad that she couldn't keep reading and wrote in the margin, "trump, trump, trump, this is me trudging up the stairs to throw myself out the window," then with a little line down to the bottom of the page, "thud, I've landed." I'm a little scared for classes now...

I meet my tutor for the first time this afternoon. It's a gorgeous day fall day to day - cool and beautifully sunny. Yesterday was a more typical dreary and rainy day, so I'm sure I'll be getting used to the English weather soon enough. More stories and pictures to come!