Apologies

I'm really sorry I have not been updating quite as frequently as I was when I was backpacking, but there is just quite a bit to do here.

Here, my weeks kind of look like this:
M                    T                    W                                 Th                   F                      S                    Sun       
weekend   tutorial   tutorial/weekend          weekend  weekend   weekend   weekend

Now, however, that you've all moaned and groaned and cursed my name for jealousy, let me redefine a weekend here, at Teddy Hall.

Weekend     
9 am, rugby
10, shower
10:30, brunch at Teddy Hall
11 to 11pm, LIBRARY
11:30, party.

Yes, at 9 am, there is rugby. I joined the uni team, which means I play touch rugby (which is quite like flag football back in the States) for Teddy Hall, and then I play (real, contact) rugby for the University of Oxford. I'm only on the seconds team, called the Panthers, but they say if I play every game and come to all the practices, I'll probably be ready for a real Uni game by the time the year is over! Hooray for broken bones!

Here are some of the "I am definitely in the right place" moments I've been having:
1. At the Buttery Tuesday night, calming Talie down about her future tutorial with Dr. King. We sit down, I buy her a pint, and we start discussing Utilitarianism. Fez, who was playing darts sits down, and pretty soon we're in a full out debate concerning Utilitarians, Utilitarianism, J. S. Mill, Jim the Botanist, and Divine Command Theory. We also invented our own term concerning morality, called "Circumstantial Absolutist," which, if you know anything about ethics is, rather hysterial.
2. At breakfast one morning, Fez asked me what I studied, and I told him "Philosophy" and he goes "Oh, God, you're rather close minded then, aren't you? Here's physics brain teaser:" and from now on, we eat breakfast or drink a pint and discuss physics. The science is quite growing on me!
3. In my last tutorial with Dr. King, he said that "this [my paper], definitely wasn't a bad thing, we're headed in the right direction." And, now, to the American student, this might sound like bad news. "Oh no, poor Rachel, she's probably crying all night." HECK NO. THIS IS PRAISE. This does not happen often, at Teddy Hall, nor from Dr. King.
4. Playing rugby and actually passing, and frantically running, and cutting steps short, and the sound of hands clapping around the ball, and hitting the mats, and already feeling the sense of a "team".
5. Going to the Buttery for study breaks, and needing a pint to understand your new "mates".
6. Cooking dinner and staying in with the Americans :)