Since July 28th (really just July 28th itself)

Note from Corey of August 2, 2007: I've left out two e-mails because...well, I can't come up with a reason. I just did. I guess I'm still nervous about them. One of them is the "Oh my god, Mom, Mike just kissed me!" e-mail. Maybe later.

I am so infuriated with myself for not e-mailing regularly. I'm angry since I now have no records of every little thing I've done, which I wanted to have and I'm angry since you actually thought I was sick because you hadn't heard from me in days. I don't know why I've stopped but I feel like I never have time. I need to make time. This is important.

So, in an effort to re-create the tradition, here, for your edification, is a narrative detailing in not as much detail as I would like what has happened since Friday, July 28th.

Friday was the seminar trip to Cambridge. Miraculously, Mike, Courtney, Yuan and myself all gained spots on the trip. The UMass Summer Seminar is one of the most disorganized programs in the history of study abroad programs and, as such, commonly only has about 15 seats available for group trips. So people e-mail like mad, hoping to get into the trips and, somehow, we made the cut. So we woke up early, actually went to breakfast, and all crowded onto this old bus. It was a public bus that was probably last renovated in the 1980s. The air-conditioning barely blew out coldish air and it was sweltering outside. I unfortunately chose the sunny side of the bus which just made it hotter as the windows did not open. What none of us knew was that the bus to Cambridge was a not a short hour-long affair. No, no. It takes upwards of three hours to get to Cambridge. Hell was about to ensue and none of us had a clue.

In recent weeks, whenever "the crew" (Yuan, Mike, Courtney and yours truly) watches movies at night, I somehow always end up in Mike's arms. There's been lots of cuddling (Mike is a truly excellent cuddler) but this bus ride was the first time we took our cuddling show on the road and out in public. There is not much to do on a four-hour bus ride (which is what it would eventually become) so I settled on sleeping. Mike had taken up the seat next to me (another new switch since Courtney is customarily my seat buddy) and about an hour in, I was leaning on him, his arm was around me and we were both dozing in the heat.

Over four hours after getting on the bus at the Oxford bus station, we all piled out into the comparatively cool air of Cambridge. Cambridge, sad to say, was not worth the four-plus-hour bus ride. It's a lot smaller than Oxford with the result that there are really only three things to do in Cambridge: 1. go punting; 2. see the colleges; 3. go to one of many pubs. My some strange twist of fate, our crew grew to include Lauren, Amy, Christina and Eugene. We were expecting the first two but the latter two were a surprise. Eight people doesn't sound like a lot to coordinate, but it really is. It's impossible for everyone to continue on in a sane manner with eight people to accommodate. Within minutes, Lauren was stressed out and manically eating while searching for a map, Yuan had wandered off, Eugene was making arbitrary decisions for the group and Mike was being slowly driven insane by the chaos. At first I was also on the verge of angry breakdown, but then it all just hit me and I started laughing. Everyone had such different personalities, it was too funny to watch. Everyone is such a character here. We had every possible comic stereotype in our group and, while it was infuriating to be in the middle of it, I just had to laugh.

The hilarity of the situation soon wore off and was replaced with simmering displeasure. I kept my happy face firmly in place but I was very unhappy on the inside. Eugene kept making decisions that I disagreed with but not enough to do anything. After a stand-off that pitted Mike, myself, Courtney, Lauren and Amy against Christina, Eugene and Yuan, each group split off to find their own punting. The former group wanted to hire a punter because it's hard to punt your own boat and we just wanted to be able to enjoy the pretty colleges around us without having to worry about hitting a duck, other punter or both simultaneously. The latter group wanted to hire their own. Eugene had some bizarre male desire to punt his own boat, thank you very much. So they went off to get their own boat and we all huddled into a hired boat with three other Americans from William and Mary.

The forty-five minutes on the boat were by far the nicest we spent in Cambridge. "The Backs," as the backs of all the colleges are called, are just as picturesque as every guidebook and person promised. Add to that a knowledgeable tour-guide who knew all kinds of random historical trivia and I was pleased as punch with the whole situation. I liked the company, it was cool on the water and there was architectural beauty all around. It was a good forty-five minutes. Sadly, it was also an extremely fast forty-five minutes. Soon we found ourselves deposited back on the shore and having to wait for the rest of our group to return from punting their own boat. So we wasted some time on the banks (Lauren hitching up her pants and climbing into the river itself) until Eugene, Christina and Yuan returned.

Almost immediately after the threesome returned, things turned sour once more. Eight is simply too many people. Six I could probably do, five is wonderful and four is ideal, but eight is too many. So the spirits of Lauren and myself dipped and we finally were able to commiserate while being ignored by the other six over dinner at a pub. Neither of us were hungry so we sat at the end of the table, wedged against a wall, not eating and talking to each other quietly. It was nice to be able to speak frankly about the situation with someone who was feeling basically the same way. So Lauren and I had more bonding time, which was nice. Eventually we got out of the pub and I finally asserted myself and informed everyone that were going somewhere where I could buy some food for the bus ride back. I'm fairly certain Eugene definitely and Christina possibly thought this was an imposition on their time, but by that point I was getting at least one thing that I wanted that day. We found a Marks and Spencer which was blissfully open and I happily paroozed the shelves for a good dinner. I found an interesting sandwich that was pork, stuffing and apple sauce all on a white roll. Sufficiently intrigued to purchase said sandwich, I grabbed some Belgian chocolate milk and green grapes and proceeded to the check out.

By this point we only had about forty-five minutes until we had to catch the same hellish bus back. The day had gone by incredibly quickly and we hadn't even seen any colleges. Mike, Courtney, Lauren and I finally broke from the group and hung out in one of many communal parks located in Cambridge while waiting for the bus. Lauren rattled on giving post-trip analysis even though it wasn't really over yet. We all basically agreed on her repetitive points but that didn't stop her from continuing on about what went wrong. It felt good to hear it coming from someone else, though, so the whole diatribe wasn't as depressing as it sounds.

We all piled back onto the bus. Happily, the sun was starting to set so it wasn't so hot anymore. Where there had been a rather pervasive silence between Mike and myself on the ride up, there was a constant flow of conversation this way. It was extremely pleasant since I'm normally so bad at striking up conversation. It just flowed without much effort on either of our parts so we talked for most of the trip. Lauren sat behind us chatting to some other girls about us (they all decided we were very cute) and then informed us of their decision. It wasn't awkward, surprisingly. Neither Mike nor I made eye contact with the other and I couldn't really look at him to gage his reaction, but it wasn't awkward. (I know it sounds like it was, but neither of us was weirded out.) So we dozed in and out, me leaning against the window with my legs stretched out across Mike's.

Another four hours later, we were finally back in Oxford. Somehow I was persuaded to go over to Courtney's to watch some episodes of The West Wing (I say "somehow" but you basically need only mention the title to me and I'm in). I ended up falling asleep during the second episode (with my head on a recumbent Mike) but when Courtney's roommate returned and all of us, save Yuan, were half-asleep anyway, Mike, Yuan and myself all left for our respective beds.

To be continued...