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Night falls earlier now.
The days move faster in the new term. I keep pace, but at what expense? The term has just started here in Oxford - my first lecture was today. And yet, I find myself slowing down rather than speeding up. Perhaps it's because I have a cold.
Having a cold is a very interesting experience. I am unable to sleep, but I am not necessarily tired. I move slowly, which doesn't happen very often. I've found time to write a few letters, send a few emails, and now, whilst enjoying a cup of green tea and listening to my favourite classical music station, I sit down to compose a journal entry by candlelight.
This year, I am officially a fully matriculated student at Oxford. This means that, in addition to everything I could do last year, I can now also get a degree! Before I began my trek through the first term - Michaelmas - I spent a month in England sorting out the little things that go by the wayside when term begins. Things like finances, organising speakers for my Strategic Studies Group, and sorting out living in a fabulous house with four other housemates.
If that makes Saturday night my last night of Summer Holiday, I certainly saw it through with a bang! The festivities began around three, when I began making dinner for my supervisor and his wife. In my usual cooking garb, I proceeded to stuff a butterflied fillet mignon with spinach, cheese, garlic, bread, and a few other 'secret ingredients'. Roasted, if I may be so bold, to perfection, it was served with twice mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. It was preceded by a cut of old Gouda I picked up from a cheese shop on Jermyn street in London and a spot of single malt whiskey, and followed by an apple crisp that turned out surprisingly well. A lovely evening that I hope will occur at somewhat regular intervals.
And as the candles died out and the company parted ways, it would have been easy to have had a quiet night of reading and sleep. But then, we have Fresher's week to think about. Everyone just beginning a degree course at Oxford is called a Fresher, and the week preceding the start of their first term is called Fresher's Week. There are an incredible amount of opportunities to meet people and make friends, either over music, food, or most likely, drink. And the end of Fresher's Week brings with it the first New College Bop. Every College has bops, but New is somewhat renowned because its bops are in the basement of a 14th century stone building, where 300 students are in a space that comfortably seats fifty. Every bop must have a theme, and ours was Cartoon Characters.
Waving goodnight to Steve and Heather, I quietly closed the door, took a long breath, and said, 'Right.' Up to my room I flew, donning all black, I stuffed an orange rugby sock with the day's Financial times, banded it with black athletic tape, and secured it to the back of my belt. I was halfway to my transformation into Tigger the tiger (aka the tiger in Winnie the Pooh).
Picture a night-time street in Oxford. The sodium lamps cast a yellow glow on the street. As the fall leaves rustle in the cool night breeze, the random person is slowly making her way back from the library. A couple bundles close together as they make their way to hear Mozart's Requiem in the Sheldonian. And then. WHOOSH, Amid the flurry of leaves, one barely makes out a figure in a black trench coat on a bike, orange striped tail bobbing happily out of the coat behind him.
What shall we call the night? A wild success, or a feat not to be matched in time or space for a while to come? I'd say a little of both. Somewhere among my exploits, I picked up this bugger of a cold, and let's say that Sunday morning came slowly and while I may have sounded worse than I felt, it wasn't by much.
It is good to be back. I feel properly part of the University now. This term, though, makes me feel like I am back at a US university. To plug in all of the material we need, the Business School has structured our degree around a series of taught courses, rather than the more traditional one-on-one tutorials that characterise the Oxford system. This term I'm taking Advances in Organisation Analysis, Statistics, Economics of Organisations, and Qualitative Research Methods. Fun stuff, eh? I found it funny that , in order to understand my Stats class today, I had to first translate it into the language of Quantum Mechanics :-) For those of you who don't know, Quantum Mechanics is built upon an understanding of probability distributions, which is exactly what Statistics is concerned about. Some ask why statisticians make understanding statistics so hard. I counter by saying, if statistics should be easy to understand, how come quantum mechanics seems so hard??
Hopefully, I will have time to send these on a more regular basis, now that life is settling into some kind of schedule. Now, though, my tea has grown cold and my bed more inviting. Goodnight to you all. May your dreams be sweet.
~Sam
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