The Beginning of Many Adventures

I’ve been living in England for a week now, so I thought it would be a good time to catch you all up on what exactly is going on over here! There are 12 students, 6 from RUC and 6 from ABU- only two guys, not that they mind - studying Shakespeare and Drama.

Just before our tour of Charlbury. L-R, front: Heather, Rebecca, (RUC) Gabrielle, Megan, (ABU) middle: Laura (RUC), Alisha, Bethany (ABU) Sharon (RUC) back: me, Mark, (ABU) Tim, (RUC) Bethany (ABU)

We all live with various host or host families in a little town called Charlbury. On Mondays and Fridays we have classes here in town and have co-op lunches. The rest of the week we take the train into Oxford where we have classes at Regent’s Park College (RPC) and lunch there as well, which is awesome because every day I meet and talk with different RPC students! We are “tutored” by Oxford school graduates – one just received his doctorate!! As for our weekends, some of them have planned outings and others are free for whatever we want to do like school work (or not!). This first week has been insane, but from now on it should be much calmer- normal school related busyness notwithstanding!

Ok, what have I been up to since Monday. . .Tuesday was classes, Wednesday, classes and dinner at our chaplin, Claudette’s, Thursday, class in which we got into groups and re-enacted a scene from a Greek with our own interpretation- hilarious!! That night some of us went out for supper at a fancy restaurant called The Bell, basically because we were to lazy to go shopping and make our own food!

At The Bell, Bethany, Bethany, Sharon, Mark, Alisha, Heather (me behind the camera)

Friday, class, obviously, but that night 7 of us were out at choir and formal at RPC, and the other 5 of us got together to drink wine and play Buccaneers (on the recommendation of Mad, our co-ordinator) it was a brutally boring game (or maybe we weren't playing it right?), but I think we managed to have fun anyways!

This is a totally posed shot, can you tell? L-R: Heather, Me, Mark, Laura (Sharon's behind the camera)

When the others came home, we attempted to watch a movie, but some of us (including me) were to hyper to watch a serious movie so it was shut off ‘cause we just annoyed the rest of them (hehe, oops!) Today was a free day, so a bunch of us decided to take the (double decker!!!) bus into Woodstock to see Blenheim Palace. The bus ride was crazy and we were stoked!

On the double decker at a calmer moment before we actually drove off! Me, Bethany/Sharon, Alisha/ Tim, Rebecca (Laura behind the camera)

Same group as before + Bethany and Mark at the gate to Blenheim Palace

The palace itself was closed today for a wedding, but it was super sunny and a local told how to get into the park for free through a side gate – anything free makes me happy!!! It was so beautiful!! Now, Laura, Sharon and I are at Rebecca’s stealing her wireless (because we don’t have any) and watching John Tucker Must Die! Well, that's all for now, cheers!