Dark Blue, Dark Blue, Have You Ever Been Alone in a Crowded Room?

Wow. I am here. I did it.

As I sit in my room on Dawson Street, even though I've been here three days, the fact that I am here, at Oxford, still manages to throw me into awe.

The title of the post has a lot of significance. Firstly, Dark Blue can refer to the Oxford Blue, our school colour. Secondly, orientation (known as Freshers Week, here) is so intimidating. We had a lecture yesterday and this is what was declared:

"Oxford is only for the best."

... excluding myself. I hope I have the intellect to keep up with these people... Thirdly, someone reminded me that I love Jack's Mannequin :)

Anyway. I belong to St Edmund Hall within the University of Oxford. St Edmund is also amicably known as Teddy's or Teddy Hall. Everyone here is friendly and has everyone's interest in mind, and even our Freshers t-shirts manifest this.

Teddy Hall itself is off of Queen's Street, close to the City Centre.




Must go to formal dinner, I will update more later!

---------------------------------------Four Hours Later---------------------------------

Holy Shit. (Pardon my French.)

I met my tutor (professor) for drinks tonight and he unloaded an eight pager essay on me concerning Descartes' First Centainty.
OMG.
More later, out to the Buttery (Teddy Hall's pub) for Freshers' Night!

---------------------------------------Four Hours Later---------------------------------

So, earlier tonight, I was invited to drinks with the PPE faculty (which, in the States, would be known as the Philosophy, Politics and Economics department), upon which I sipped champagne with my philosophy tutor Peter King. Our introductory comments went a little something like this:

"Nice to finally meet you, Rachel. Have you checked your pigeon hole?" (our mail boxes are called that here)
"Oh, yes, I have, about an hour ago"
"Well, check again, I've just put a 2,000 word assignment in there about a half hour ago. Have you read Descartes before?"
"Oh... no, I haven't yet, sir."
"Better get going, then!"

Oh, wow. I'm screwed. It's the "0th week" here (orientation week), and I'm already stressed. Eeek!

Anyway, after drinks, we made our way down to the dinning hall for a formal dinner and it was fantastic. The food was AMAZING! And, we get a class of nice wine with every course. All the tutors were wearing their Harry Potter-esque robes, and again, as we took the Teddy Oath with the principle, we were reminded that we were the "best." Gosh, I'm sure to be Teddy's biggest mistake!

I know there is a lot more I want to update about, but right now I'm quite overwhelmed with the TEN books I ought read by next Wednesday and the essay I have to write. Also,  I just came back from The Cellar, which is a club Teddy Hall students frequent quite a lot. Green Pants Harry, Tom and Pete were there, the blokes we met the first night in their third year of the master programs. Sweet, sweet, brits :)

Anyway, I'm off to bed for more Freshers' activities tomorrow! I'll leave you with some beautiful photos of All Souls College (a philosophy and theology masters college which I will most definitely apply to post-Wooster), and the Radcliffe camera, where Zach and Lizzie and I had lunch the other day.

It is so lovely here. I don't think I'd ever like to go back.