Historic First Post

Hello friends,

First of all: I apologize for A) the lame title and B) the lame layout. The first one is because I'm not creative and the second because I accidentally clicked through the "make your blog pretty" section, so I got stuck with a really boring template. Bummer dude.

Now, more exciting stuff! Hey, guess what, I'm in Oxford! This city is beautiful, which you can't really tell from my rainy pictures:

This is the most adorable pub in the world:

This is one of the beautiful libraries where I get to study ALL THE TIME:

I live in a nice little house on Crick Road, about a mile from downtown Oxford. About 20 of the Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford (SCIO) students live here. My roomies are Annie, Monica, and Elane, who are pretty cool cats. This house is clearly awesome, as evidenced by the picture from the kitchen below:

 Although it was a little disappointing to find out we don't have house elves, not gonna lie.

My Best English Find So Far: Man-Size Kleenex. I am not even kidding, these were actually labeled "man-size" and the obvious question is WHY DO WE NOT HAVE THESE IN AMERICA?

My Favorite English Expressions Thus Far:
 First of all, my British Junior Dean (pretty much my R.A. for my building), told me that no one says "Tally Ho," or "Pip Pip Cheerio," 'except ironically." That was pretty much devastating to hear. Luckily for me, British people say lots of other funny things.
1. Starting everything with "do." Like "Do sit down" or "Do read it through." These British are very affirmative.
2. I completely forgot the other thing I was going to say. I blame jet-leg. Don't worry, though, they do say funny stuff, and I will document it whenever I actually remember it.

So in this crazy British educational system, we have primary and secondary tutorials. My secondary tutorial is "C. S. Lewis in Context," which should be pretty cool, especially since I'm IN Oxford and walk past the Eagle and Child everyday. My first tutorial was supposed to be "Theology of Martin Luther," but the professor who was supposed to do it is apparently on sabbatical. After Jake's tutor got deported (seriously), we were wondering what Oxford had against Trinity students. But good news! Jake has a new tutor, and I'm either supposed to get one for Luther by tomorrow or I'll switch to a Bonhoeffer tutorial. So, Joy, bonus, I already have lots of nicknames lined up for him.

We've been doing orientation all week and I think I'm thoroughly orientated now. This is what I have learned:

• Your tutors won't like your first essay. They may not like any of your essays. If they do, they probably won't tell you.
• Even though they tell you there is absolutely NO WAY you can switch your tutorial because they were set up in November, you may not have a primary tutor yet.
• English people walk fast. And their children are adorable.
• English food is gross. 

These are all worthwhile lessons, but I'm ready to move on to next week, which is the first week of term! (Gasp.)
Saturday we're all going to London, so I know you'll be eagerly anticipating my next post with London updates!