The Oxford Occasion (+London Loops pt 2)

'ello luvs ! As I mentioned last week, this past week was break for me and for the second part of the week I went to Oxford in England to see the one and only Claire P*** (in truth I believe there are many other Claire P***s....).

I took the Eurostar again in the morning. Again, I litchrally never learn and was running late. I worried I'd wouldn't be able to through the ticket scan area but thankfully I did. Surprisingly, I also was there before people could board. Once in London, I took what they call the Oxford Tube to Oxford. It's misleading because this was in fact a bus, which takes 1-2 hours.

Once I reunited with Claire, we had lunch at this really cute vegan spot. Oh yeah, Claire's being vegan for 3 weeks I think. I kinda had a mini moment there because I got news that I didn't get into that sleep lab I was really interested in, but Claire was supportive as always. Afterwards, we did a bit of work and I was motivated to send more internship related emails. We had dinner in her college's dining hall. I thought the food was pretty good, and it was cool because I got introduced to a bunch of her friends there (I think they're all also international students?). Afterwards was what they called dessert night. There were some good little cakes but it was funny because we were in a conference room with a table and chairs obviously. But we weren't allowed to sit because we were to "mingle". Overall I thought it wasn't bad! Following that, Claire, 3 of her friends, and I (completely unrelated, but I can shamelessly use the Oxford comma here!) went to her room to chillax.

The next day consisted of seeing more of the city, eating really good food (!!), drinking boba, and working a bit. For a bit, I was at the boba shop with Claire's friend while she was at a tutorial. We also spent some time in bookshops. Both had great selections, and it made me want to read more. Here, it's tough of course because most book stores and libraries carry French books. I've realized for pleasure reading I just want to do so in English.... So side story, but I went to the American Library of Paris a couple days ago. Much to my annoyance, it's a private library and the membership, even for students, is 65euro for 4 months?! Ripoff >:(

The day before I left was our London day where we met up with Kristiana. Claire and I went took the tube in the morning and we convened at Kristiana's dorm. Originally, we planned to do this because there was a Smith event tea thing going on that day (might've been seven sisters?). But they didn't have any vegan options, so we decided to do our own thing. Mostly we caught up and had food and bubble waffle ice cream! The weather, like Paris, wasn't the most forgiving. Quite cold and windy and sometimes rainy. But we managed.

The next day I left super early. Since being back, I've been a bit sick, but I swear it's just a cold. The weather has been horrid in terms of getting better, and traveling always seems to do it for me. It's wild how this coronavirus thing is progressing though. With the Italy outbreak, now I think French people are starting to take it seriously... The French government released recommendations, and 3 of the people in the Smith program are in self-quarantine since they went to that part of Italy during break. One of my friends in it said she can't go to classes for the next two weeks at least but it's not like she can't leave the house. Another girl had to even leave her host family and is staying in an Airbnb...

On a more positive note, I have 2 bits of good news!

1) I got into a Friedman with Claire [redacted], Claire [redacted], and Kristiana [redacted]!! I'm hyped to live in one and have friends over and bake and everything!!

2) I found an internship! It's a lab that studies language acquisition across cultures and basically my work will be annotating voice recordings that have already been collected. I find the question involved pretty interesting and I'm optimistic that I'll like the work. We'll see though!