Day Two before it's fully over

I woke up this morning to the dulcet tones of Lauren. Somehow, upon arriving back at the room last night post-pub-going, she had managed to lock us both out of our bathroom. This, I believe, should serve to illustrate Lauren's way of life. Somehow she dug up our Scout (aka: our maid) who, in turn, managed to dig up our resident handyman who pressed a magic button located above our door and the bathroom fixed itself. Lauren remains clueless as to how the whole thing occured and not very apologetic.

I also awoke this morning in a renewed sense of gloom. Lauren's perpetual talking ceasing to comfort in addition to the bathroom incident, my lack of enthusiasm about my law class and Lauren's lack of knowledge about iTunes/computers in general made for a dreary morning. Breakfast (with Lauren) did not lighten my spirits. I felt like no one had anything to say to me and I didn't have anything to say to them. Even the unstoppable Lauren seemed to have run out of things to say to me and awkward silence prevailed through most of breakfast. Predictably, when she went to go refill her tea cup, she went over and said "hi" to other people. She wasn't gone long but I still felt pretty crummy.

She went out to go shopping this morning and I was about to give over to sobbing (not a bright way to spend my mornings) when Lauren abruptly returned (only three tears shed), saying she forgot something. As she stood in the doorway preparing to depart again, a girl appeared and asked if she could use our fridge since her's smelled strange and she had milk to store. Lauren knew her apparently but ducked out since she was in a rush to get into town. The girl proceeded to introduce herself (Anna) and store her milk. Then she stayed and talked to me. It was very pleasant and made me feel a lot better. Her roommate (Jessica) then showed up since their Scout had come into the room and made her feel awkward. Jessica looked at me like I was some kind of bug which did not endear her to me, but Anna was quite nice and, while I probably didn't make a long-term friend, the whole thing made me feel better and I still have her hostage milk to fall back on if I get really desperate for a social experience.

Thus brightened, I headed out to class which was a delight. I had British Perspectives on the American Revolution this morning and a girl from my Doug Patey class was in it! We both got the questions about Samuel Johnson dead-on. There were us two Smithies, a boy from UVA and three UMass boys who remained unsurprisingly silent as Felicia, myself and UVA-boy dominated. The professor was adorable, from Leeds and knew Howard Nenner! I've got the first introductory presentation thing to do on Monday and he was quite happy to help and clarify the assignment to me.

This whole experience served to remind me how much I love learning and taking classes of any kind. As I sat in class, happily listening to him exclaim over his favorite bits of the Declaration of Independence, I realized I could probably be perfectly happy in this program with absolutely no friends as long as I had a life full of school-work. I love class. I hope it doesn't get too crazy. There's only one paper and he's already given us the assignment so I can work on it whenever. All three questions (pick one) are about interpreting certain phrases in the Declaration so that's fun.

After class there was an informational meeting which was fine. I sat with Felicia and had awkward, Smithie conversation with her. It was kind of funny, all us Smithies just ended up sitting together. Not at all by design and not all talking to each other, but there was this little cluster of us which was very familiar and comforting. Post-meeting I decided to head into down, grab a sandwich and then finish up my law readings. (I collapsed last night before being able to finish.) Courtney hurried off to class so she couldn't go with me and I turned around to find Mike in conversation with a Mt. Holyoke Ada-type woman walking towards town. I joined them and, to my surprise, the Mt. Holyoke woman left us for class at the gate and Mike and I went into town by ourselves.

At this point in the day, I was reminded of the old "Girls don't go to Smith because they hate boys, they go to Smith because they hate girls" adage that's oft-repeated around Smith. It's so true. Of all the people I've met here (or knew from before), I like Mike the best by far. The thing I really miss out on by going to Smith is having boys as friends. I always like them best, anyway. They're generally funny and laid-back and easy to talk to. Mike definately is and has the additional commendation of having been in Oxford since Friday so he knows where everything is already. He showed me this gorgeous park outside of Christ's Church and we had a little picnic there before we both hunkered down and did some reading. He had some Shakespeare to finish up and I have the never-ending trail of law readings.

So today picked up a lot. So much! I have another class to go to know but I didn't know if I'd have time to email later (what with the stupid law readings and two presentations tomorrow) so I thought I would now. And I'm in a happy state of mental health so I thought you'd like one of those to see your investment hasn't been a complete wash (so far). Hopefully I'll stay happy like this and be able to stay upbeat using some combination of loads of homework and little, friendly exchanges.

Love you and miss you so much,

Corey