Day Four (belatedly and with my apologies) and Day Five (the beginning, anyway)

Day Four:

I woke up to the lovely sounds of someone throwing what sounded like a bag of glass around in the alleyway next to my window. After staying up wandering around Oxford, watching West Wing and talking to you guys, I really wanted to sleep in but it wasn't in the cards. My bad room karma got me again! After being woken up, I got up, lolly-gagged around for a bit and then went off to class. I've started not going to breakfast since it's only open from the ungodly hour of 7:30 to the not-late-enough hour of 9:00. I don't want to wake up at 8:30 just to get breakfast and then be exhausted the rest of the day. Additionally, I'm never hungry then so I only get a little down before feeling completely stuffed (and then starved later in the day). I might as well get some rest and get the starved feeling anyway. Fortunately, I have my stores of food (now a whole thing of grapes and a gigantic bottle of water added) to see me through!

Anyway, I had class yesterday morning (Brit. Perspectives on the Am. Rev.). It was a strange, winding lecture that Bill Speck just sort of launched into. He didn't have any notes or anything so it was hard to tell where he was coming from or going to. He weaved in and out of subjects, all seeming tangents, but sort of stayed on one, main track about the PMs of Britain from about 1760-1773. It was a weird class. The lecture was okay but I didn't have anything to add. Occasionally, he would ask questions. Sometimes they would just be a rhetorial device and he would answer them but others he wanted us to jump in. (As he so helpfully reminded us, 20% of our grade is discussion! 20%!) At one point he was pondering the wording in the Declaration of Independence and abruptly asked us why we though the Founding Fathers took such a severe tack with the language. Why mention the king's "tyranny" when he wasn't a tyrant? Why mention "slavery" when they were not slaves? And why even bring up slavery if they weren't going to address the actual enslavement of Africans right under their noses? A few people proposed some things of varying cynicism but, while Bill Speck was good to point out all the good bits of each suggestion, he was looking for something else. At about this point, I had thought of something to say and my heart started pounding. I started to put my hand up but the guy behind me was faster (and probably more desirious of his 20%). He sort of said what I was going to say and, as Bill Speck, elaborated on the point, I found him saying almost exactly what I had been thinking. Yes, indeed, I have had those horrible "Drat I knew the answer and should have spoken up" moments at Oxford now. They're really quite wretched and I know I should just speak up but I'm too slow, I guess.

So after a highly unsatisfying class, I wandered over to Blackwell's (the local bookstore) to pick up a copy of Paine's Common Sense as instructed by Bill Speck. It took me forever wandering up and down that shop to find it, but eventually I came to a little corner marked "North American History" and found it at the bottom. It's a lovely copy, probably not worth the ?4.99 I had to spend on it, but quite pretty nevertheless.

It's finally started raining here in Oxford. As promised by Jiliane (my law tutor), the heat did not last. Now the weather seems content with remaining rather muggy and raining sporadically. There was a terrific downpour during class yesterday and I had to hightail it back to my room since I rather foolishly wore a white shirt. So this is a typical British summer, I hear, and it's not bad. You have to either perpetually carry an umbrella or just sort of shuffle-dash from place to place. I find that whenever I don't bring my umbrella, it rains but, if I do, it just stays sort of cloudy. I guess I have bad umbrella karma, too. :)

Anyway, Mike came to get me for tea and after sitting with some girls who were not very inclined towards conversation (two from my law class), I left. After some further confusion (including a phone call to the perpetually befuddled Courtney and another visit from Mike who was confused as to why I left without him), we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon until dinner in Courtney's room trying to figure out how to get to Paris. It's a nightmare! I thought people did this sort of thing all the time. London to Paris sounds pretty normal to me but it was just impossible. We tried everything until I finally came up with a magical bus that takes us straight from London to Paris overnight with no stops. That way we don't have to worry about a place to stay Thursday night and we get into Paris bright and early on Bastille Day. In time for the parade even! Thinking we had everything figured out and that we just had to find Yuan, who had somehow wandered off into town in search of a pool sometime after 1:30 and hadn't been seen since, confirm everything with him and book our plans.

This didn't go as planned (shock!). By 9:30 we were all back in Courtney's room, much to the chagrin of her roommate (self-proclaimed "incredibly judgemental"). So we packed up shop and went to my room where Lauren had disappeared off with her buddy and perpetual companion, Amanda. Things just kept going wrong and we relocated to the computer lab at about midnight. We were able to book our magical bus, but then the hostel we had found told us that they were full since this afternoon! This sent us on a wild attempt to find a hotel/hostel that still had room for the next week. Yuan found one but then lost it and I found one but then forgot as Yuan tried to rediscover his. Finally, at 1:45, we just booked the one I had found (The Hotel Tamaris) since, at that point, we were in no mood to price shop or finagle. We got a quad for two nights that's located quite near a metro stop that takes you directly into the center of Paris. So we're going to Paris. None of us could muster anything more than the quietest of enthusiasm at that late hour so we all trudged off to our rooms (Courtney and Mike to homework, Yuan and myself to bed) and decided to figure out our transportation from Oxford to London in the morning.

Day Five:

Today began with annoyance regarding Lauren. After kicking the four of us out last night since she said Courtney's low giggles were keeping her awake and then staying awake herself until about two, she had, at some point, tossed her alarm clock out into the common room since, like Courtney's laughter, the ticking was bothering her. In true Lauren fashion, she hadn't bothered to turn the alarm function off. At 10am, the stupid thing starts beeping and, since it's in the common room, I can hear it loud and clear. After quite some time, it finally stopped beeping. I tried to go back to sleep but couldn't and finally just got up and went out into the common room.

Come to find Lauren, chomping away on her French bread, topping it off with my jam and my cheese and speading it all on the bread with my knife. My lovely little knife that I was so happy to buy only one of. And my wonderful cheese that's so delicious. I was silently infuriated. She might have bought the bread and beneficently informed me that I could feel free to have some, but I made no such offers when I brought my food stuffs into the room. Nor did she inquire if it was all right for her to have them or use my things to eat them with. I was fuming. Add to that a sore throat, my period and mild cramps, and I was not a happy camper. Rather grumpily, I informed her that I was going back to bed. She was still talking when I closed my bedroom door and fell back into bed rather glumly.

Just as I was able to distract my mind from the stolen silverware and food, I was jerked awake by what sounded like a vacuum cleaner. It was literally one of those jerk awake moments just like in the movies. I physically jerked and almost fell head-first off the bed. I shook my head and tried to figure out what it could possibly be. It took me a moment but then I realized it was Lauren in the bathroom taking a shower. When she came out and I came out of my room again, she started to apologize and then, giggling, said, "God! We're always apologizing to each other!" as if it were the funniest thing in the world. In my head I replied, "Well, just goes to show how well matched we are, roomie o' mine!"

So she sprinted off to class, late as usual, and I haven't had the heart to inspect my knife yet to see if she actually cleaned it or just dumped it back on my plate. My days never begin well. I almost always wake up feeling mildly depressed with the state of things but, happily, something always happens in the course of the day to lift my spirits. So I sit here in my room debating going into town versus showering (which to do first?) and writing to you. I'm going to do work today, I've decided. I have oodles of reading to do and got nothing (other than Paris) accomplished yesterday. So I'll hit the books but that will come after town and after my shower.

I love you both ever-so-much and I hope you're each enjoying life in your little corners of the world.

Love,

Corey