Hello everyone everywhere,
I’m taking a break from paper writing, so apologies if this letter is bizarre.
Sorry that it’s taken me so long to write. As I think I mentioned in a blog post a week or so ago, they keep us pretty busy here. “Busy hands make idle hearts” or something, right?
Week one was perhaps the busiest due to the various orientations they had scheduled for us. We listened to people talk and walked around a lot. Week one here was also probably the weirdest week one I’ve had in a while. First week at college I was the guy bouncing off the walls saying hello to everyone that I recognized from Facebook. First week sophomore year at college I was the guy bouncing off the walls saying hello to everyone that I recognized from Facebook and their mom (whom I typically did not recognize from Facebook) because I was dorm president. It was my role but I was genuinely excited to meet everyone and love on everyone.
I was very excited to get here, but I was a bit more exhausted by all of the activities than I normally am in week ones. The other people in the program are great, but the transition away from college was a bit rough. At college I feel known and good about it. Being put in a completely new place with completely new people was an adjustment. I’m all settled in now, though!
OH—I’m studying abroad at Oxford, not sure if that was clear! I just realized that up to this point, I haven’t mentioned any specifics in this letter. If you don’t know where I am and what I’m doing, this letter could just as easily pass for an update from an optimistic person beginning their sentence in Siberia—that is not the case. I am indeed lucky enough to be studying abroad in Oxford, at Wycliffe Hall. “Hall” pretty much “college with religious affiliation.”
Anyhow, week two was the first week of our regular schedule (pronounced “shed” + “djool,” by the way). We have a lecture or two in the morning along with an education film now and then. Thursdays are for field trips.
I’ve found a nice coffee place called The Missing Bean. It is filled with beautiful hipsters and pretty good espresso. It reminds me of Seattle. It’s odd though: no one has aeropress or Chem X here. Instant coffee is pretty big, as is tea. They’re all about tea here. Who knew?
We’ve visited many cool places in a short amount of time. Please enjoy the pictures I’ve included with my card:
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- They have goat pubs here.
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- Early Republicans. They were found in the ruins of the ancient city Verulamium.
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- Part of the ancient city of Verulamium—a theater. And no, we didn’t 😉
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- Someone famous did something here.
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- We didn’t go here.
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- The resting place of St. Alban, in the abbey named after him.
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- The abbey named after him.
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- Me in London, waiting for my food at the Golden Arches. It never came 😦
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- Big Ben and Old Ben.
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- A big monument we climbed up in London. It commemorates the big fire.
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- Oxford, I swear. They have fun here sometimes, too.
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- Goat spotting.
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- This guy, Gormley, underneath Winchester Cathedral.
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- I can’t see the thumbnail of this one very well so I’ll assume it’s a cathedral. Probably Winchester.
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- Our instructors do this a lot.
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- How they bath in Bath.
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- The water at the baths on the way out.
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- Pardon me, taking a call.
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- The gorgeous abbey of Bath.
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- The Bath ceiling.
Much love to the family and to the pets. I hope the project you were working on turned out well.
Also, please send money when you can. All of the decadent meals out are surprisingly starting to drain my funds.
Peace and love,
you know who
samuel ernest 