Once again I'm sitting in the computer lab at Denise's school. What a gracious friend. Her graciousness is almost as wonderful as her friendship, humor, and kindness. As I have struggled through the weekend and continue to muddle through this week post volcano-explosion (as Eric put it: Dr. Harris must be so excited, this is the first time Iceland's been in the news in forever!) she has been there for me every step of the way, making sure I eat, talk, fuss, and occasionally sigh in frustration.
Frankly, being here hasn't been too bad overall. But let's back up. Originally I was going to take a daytrip on Friday last week. My plans changed slightly and I decided to go on Thursday instead, since Denise was free most of Friday (noon onward!) and I wanted to spend my *last* night with her, not in Eisenstadt. So Thursday morning, off I went to Eisenstadt, the town the Esterhazy family lived in. Terribly cool, I got to see Haydn's house. But the second I walked into her apartment that evening, full of crazy stories, Denise says "look at RyanAir. A volcano errupted, and flights are shutting down."
Sure enough, Friday evening I was notified my flight had been canceled. What followed from there was a frantic rush to get myself back in time for Monday lectures.
Or my Wednesday meeting.
Or just ever.
I first booked a Eurostar train for Monday evening, since that was the next available time I could go. I then Saturday went and stood in line, twice, trying to get a train out of Vienna and over to Paris. That was a no-go, since that was what everyone wanted to do. I spent a total of 4 hours and 30 minutes at Westbahnhof waiting in line. On Saturday. After a little conferencing with my family that night, I went back to Westbahnhof on Sunday and spent almost 3 hours trying to sort my life. Again. And then... here's the kicker, I couldn't get a train until Wednesday. So I booked it, thinking I could get ahold of Eurostar and change my booking with them.
I couldn't. So then I was going to be stuck in Paris, unable to get a hostel, unable to get a train. I panicked. I called my sister and she and I spent almost three hours on Sunday total trying to sort my life. Eventually we found a flight that was going to leave on Tuesday. I was so excited!
And then Monday night they canceled it.
I moved to this coming Monday.
I'll have missed an entire week, but hey, at least I'll get back, right?
Maybe wrong. The volcano errupted again yesterday, I may just have to move into Denise's apartment permanently.
On the plus side, I met her landlady today, she's absolutely a precious person, and is refusing to let me pay the extra rent to stay there since it's "such a pity! you being stuck here!". She gets flowers. And maybe chocolate.
Plus, Denise's roommates are SO cool. So wonderfully chill, and just absolutely lovely about the fact that they have an extra person in the house taking up space, shower time... etc. They've all been really sympathetic, and just incredibly gracious and kind. Such a relief to at least be stuck/stranded/marooned with friends. I've discovered so many new happy things about being glutenfree too! More on that at some point (and just how I managed to survive... although barely... I lost 5 pounds and about two inches on my waist in the last three weeks).
Life continues to be an adventure. In so many ways ...
Showing posts with label Oxford. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oxford. Show all posts
24 February 2010
King Lear, All-nighters, Brighton, and more...
Well, another week has rolled around, and considering I'm at a moment of lull between my two projects (due back to back) I thought I would write a quick post on life in Oxford.
Due to the fact that I had friends here right before 4th week, and my minor tutor having to move our 4th week meeting to 5th week, and keeping Charles and Erin's boys for three days... I got behind. Majorly behind in ways that are never good.
Normally around here we have something we call "5th week blues" or "the 5th week slump". That would have been last week. Unfortunately, I had no time to have a slump, as I have had so much to do so close together.
However, I'm on the cusp of being finished with everything, minus one composition project due tomorrow afternoon, that I should finish at some point.
So backing up a little,
Last week, I had a paper due on Wednesday, and a Composition project due on Thursday. I screwed up my own life by not starting my paper fast enough since I lost two days of research being in London, and ended up pulling an all-nighter that Tuesday night to finish in time. When I was visiting Penelope later on Wednesday morning (as opposed to 7 am, when I finally finished my paper and decided bed wasn't worth my time...) she invited me to go to St. Michael's with them for an Ash Wednesday service. The service was really interesting, considering all I had ever heard about Anglicans was that they were like Roman Catholics minus the pope. Similarities could be drawn for sure, but they are vastly different from what I could tell. Obviously I have been to Evensong services, but that's sort of different from going to a full blown service like that one.
On Thursday I had one of the worst days of the term, but only for all the little inconsequential things. Like being splashed by a car, and then a bus while I was walking to my tutorial. Being harassed by immature boys on the back of the bus, having had far too little sleep the night previous, and none the night before that. And on top of all of this, Tesco called that morning and informed me they couldn't deliver my order since my credit card had failed to validate.
You think Mastercard would realize I live in England now.
You would think.
After a terrible morning/afternoon (but a decent tutorial) I came home to realize I had so much homework, I wasn't sure when I was going to shower and sleep in the next week.
In retrospect, it wasn't as bad as I feared, but on Thursday it looked bleak. So I had to skip Bible study, which some know is the only reason I stay sane from week to week. Sad day.
Friday was spent studying, traversing to tutorial, and then my Friday night consisted of a hot date.
With my kitchen.
I scrubbed that thing from top to bottom. It was very pretty when I finished.
Although our fridge still smells like something crawled in there and died, and no one can figure out what in the world it could be. Ugh.
Saturday I studied. And felt like a loser since I didn't venture out of the house once. In fact, I only left my bedroom to reheat some leftovers and grab the salsa out of the fridge.
Sunday the Warners had a tea party at their house in the afternoon, which is always great great fun. Penelope always goes out of her way to make sure I can eat things, and she made her homemade fairy cakes gluten-free, and meringue cake with berries again. So great. During the tea it came up that some folks are doing a little traveling over the next couple of weeks. My housemate Chrissy, and I both caught the travel bug, and promptly sat down and planned a trip.
We're going to Brighton next week for three nights.
Because we can.
Monday night we journeyed to Stratford to see King Lear, a production put on by the RSC, Royal Shakespeare Company. Not anywhere near as gory as I feared, and an incredibly powerful production. Although, the set distracted me a little. As did their indecisiveness in costuming:
"Were we in WWI or pre-Medieval Britain? Did anyone actually know?!"
-Jacquie Rawles, the tutor who accompanied our trip.
Otherwise, a great production.
The last two days were spent in a flurry of paper writing and compositional exercises. After tutorial tomorrow afternoon, I'm catching a train to London to meet a group of friends so we can all see Love Never Dies, the "sequel" to Phantom of the Opera.
We plan to laugh voraciously at the ridiculousness it has to be.
That's my week.
I'm busy. Way busy.
Can spring break be here yet?
Due to the fact that I had friends here right before 4th week, and my minor tutor having to move our 4th week meeting to 5th week, and keeping Charles and Erin's boys for three days... I got behind. Majorly behind in ways that are never good.
Normally around here we have something we call "5th week blues" or "the 5th week slump". That would have been last week. Unfortunately, I had no time to have a slump, as I have had so much to do so close together.
However, I'm on the cusp of being finished with everything, minus one composition project due tomorrow afternoon, that I should finish at some point.
So backing up a little,
Last week, I had a paper due on Wednesday, and a Composition project due on Thursday. I screwed up my own life by not starting my paper fast enough since I lost two days of research being in London, and ended up pulling an all-nighter that Tuesday night to finish in time. When I was visiting Penelope later on Wednesday morning (as opposed to 7 am, when I finally finished my paper and decided bed wasn't worth my time...) she invited me to go to St. Michael's with them for an Ash Wednesday service. The service was really interesting, considering all I had ever heard about Anglicans was that they were like Roman Catholics minus the pope. Similarities could be drawn for sure, but they are vastly different from what I could tell. Obviously I have been to Evensong services, but that's sort of different from going to a full blown service like that one.
On Thursday I had one of the worst days of the term, but only for all the little inconsequential things. Like being splashed by a car, and then a bus while I was walking to my tutorial. Being harassed by immature boys on the back of the bus, having had far too little sleep the night previous, and none the night before that. And on top of all of this, Tesco called that morning and informed me they couldn't deliver my order since my credit card had failed to validate.
You think Mastercard would realize I live in England now.
You would think.
After a terrible morning/afternoon (but a decent tutorial) I came home to realize I had so much homework, I wasn't sure when I was going to shower and sleep in the next week.
In retrospect, it wasn't as bad as I feared, but on Thursday it looked bleak. So I had to skip Bible study, which some know is the only reason I stay sane from week to week. Sad day.
Friday was spent studying, traversing to tutorial, and then my Friday night consisted of a hot date.
With my kitchen.
I scrubbed that thing from top to bottom. It was very pretty when I finished.
Although our fridge still smells like something crawled in there and died, and no one can figure out what in the world it could be. Ugh.
Saturday I studied. And felt like a loser since I didn't venture out of the house once. In fact, I only left my bedroom to reheat some leftovers and grab the salsa out of the fridge.
Sunday the Warners had a tea party at their house in the afternoon, which is always great great fun. Penelope always goes out of her way to make sure I can eat things, and she made her homemade fairy cakes gluten-free, and meringue cake with berries again. So great. During the tea it came up that some folks are doing a little traveling over the next couple of weeks. My housemate Chrissy, and I both caught the travel bug, and promptly sat down and planned a trip.
We're going to Brighton next week for three nights.
Because we can.
Monday night we journeyed to Stratford to see King Lear, a production put on by the RSC, Royal Shakespeare Company. Not anywhere near as gory as I feared, and an incredibly powerful production. Although, the set distracted me a little. As did their indecisiveness in costuming:
"Were we in WWI or pre-Medieval Britain? Did anyone actually know?!"
-Jacquie Rawles, the tutor who accompanied our trip.
Otherwise, a great production.
The last two days were spent in a flurry of paper writing and compositional exercises. After tutorial tomorrow afternoon, I'm catching a train to London to meet a group of friends so we can all see Love Never Dies, the "sequel" to Phantom of the Opera.
We plan to laugh voraciously at the ridiculousness it has to be.
That's my week.
I'm busy. Way busy.
Can spring break be here yet?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
