The Oxford Adventure - Week One

     Hey there, loyal followers! It's been a while! I apologize for not being better about getting on here and putting up some life updates, but life has been busy. I've been in England for a week and a day now, and it's been amazing!! The schoolwork is beginning to build up and take control of my nerves, but I've got to remember to breathe. But besides the work, things have been amazing! I'm going to try to do my best to give a weekly recap of what my adventures have consisted of, but I'm not making any promises. Anything that seems blog worthy will appear eventually. I promise. :) But here's a play-by-play of Week One!

     We left Newark Airport around 6:30 p.m. Thursday night and arrived in London around 7 Friday morning. The flight was long and tiring, but trying to navigate the Heathrow Airport was worse! I think it took us about an hour and a half, directions from six or seven different people and a few wrong turns to finally get from our terminal to the bus station. We then hopped an hour train to get to Oxford and walked about 20 minutes before finding the gate to Trinity College. It was a trek for sure, but it was worth it. Here's a view from the first day:

     We took a train into London on Saturday and went and saw a show on the West End. I went and saw Blood Brothers, and it ended up being much better than I expected it would be. It's the modern day version of The Prince and the Pauper but everyone dies at the end instead of living happily ever after. We spent the rest of the day just wandering around London. Another great day!

     The beginning of the week wasn't full of any great highlights. Classes are good but definitely demanding. I already have papers due next week and readings due everyday. The educational system is very different in England, though. You have class with your tutor (professor) every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and meet without your tutor on Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday and Thursday are called Learning Communities, and we do things such as debate/discuss with our classmates the next topic for class or do a group project. It depends on what the tutor assigns, but I really like doing group work and sitting down and having a peer-to-peer discussion without worrying about a tutor commenting on your opinion.
     So classes and schoolwork pretty much consume all of our time. I'm taking three classes, and I am literally running around doing things from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. We've been going to the park every night to get a run in just as some form of exercise, but it's hard sometimes after a full day of classes and homework. Everyone is really great about helping each other out with homework and getting stuff done which is extremely nice - it feels like a big family. :)
    I turned 20 on Thursday!! I'm now two decades old! Or 1/5 century old as someone else put it. :) It was weird having my birthday in a foreign country without my family but my Bona family did a great job of taking care of me. We had our first High Table dinner which is just a fancy, three-course meal put on by the university for us on Thursday night so I ate like the Queen on my birthday. :) We went out dancing and just had a great time. It was definitely a night to remember!

     And that's about it for the first week! Lots of sunny weather and great adventures! I'm so happy to be here and loving every second of it! The work is definitely not going to be easy, but if I keep breathing and reminding myself that no one is perfect I think I'll make it! Cheers from Oxford!