Hey Everyone!

Well after a FUN holiday in many different countries...I am here at Oxford for 4 weeks. Liz and I got into town in the early afternoon on Sunday. We had to walk a few blocks to get to Jesus College. I did ok on the walk with my rolling suitcase and large backpack. Liz on the other hand.... she struggled a bit carrying her 2 roller bags and even had a sidewalk sign fall on her toe. After our short walk, we found Jesus College. The location is awesome..right in the heart of town and about a block away from all the shopping! When we got there, we went to the office where we met one of our professors, Dr. Holmes, and a few of the girls that are our student assistants. They helped us find our rooms and even helped with our bags. The college is set up in two quads and is really beautiful. It was founded in 1571 by Queen Elizabeth I...so you can imagine how old and pretty it is. Anyways, so I got into my room. It was renovated pretty recently, so it's pretty nice. It is a lot bigger than I expected and I only have to share the bathroom with 1 other girl. After I dropped my stuff off, I went back downstairs and found Liz and a girl she met, Megan. We all decided to go get something to eat because we didn't have time to eat breakfast. We found a nice place and I had a delicious wrap. Everyone always says that English food isn't good, but I haven't found anything I haven't liked yet. But, if you know me...I'm not picky and will eat just about anything. After lunch, we decided to walk around and go into some of the shops. Oxford is actually really touristy, something I wasn't expecting. The streets were crowded with people! We went into a few stores that were having some sales. I didn't buy anything...basically because 1 pound is about 2 dollars. Things can get pretty expensive that way. I was really excited to see that they have a Primark here. Primark is basically like a Forever 21 in the states....cute and cheap clothes! After walking around for a while, we went back to Jesus College for our orientation. At the orientation, they gave us a bunch of information and afterwards we all went to dinner. The dining hall looks a lot like the one on Harry Potter, but smaller. Harry Potter was filmed at Oxford at Christ Church...so I think I will have to check that out. Anyways, our dinner is always served to us...so we sat down on the benches at the long tables and ate. That night we had salmon..which was just ok. The other stuff that we had wasn't too bad. After dinner, I hung out a little bit and unpacked. At around 8pm, we all went down to the pub...in Jesus College. I guess all the colleges here have pubs in them...maybe UNL needs to start taking notes. If Oxford students can do it...I think UNL students should be able to too. Pretty much all the Nebraska students in the program were there...and even our 2 professors came down for a few beers! It was fun to meet some new people and talk to the people I already knew about our trips around Europe. The pub closed at 11pm...most do around here...so I went back to my room to get some sleep.

Monday came quickly and early. I got up, met the girls in their room, and we all went to breakfast. Breakfast is served buffet style and they have bacon, eggs, toast, sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms, cereal, and a few other things to choose from. After breakfast, we all headed to our first class. The classroom is right next to my "staircase" (they recognize the different wings by staircases). My first class is Political Economy of Great Britain with Dr. Holmes. It is more like a history class than economics because everyone on the program (even the non-business majors) take that class. Dr. Holmes is really funny and always bashes the other professor, Dr. Horsewood. The class lasts an hour and a half and I have it everyday at 9am. It goes a lot faster than the hour and fifteen minute classes at Nebraska. After class, we had a short break where we could go to the office to pick up our lunch cards and sign up for things during the week. They have so many different things for us to do! I will explain what all I signed up for when I blog about those days.

The next class I had was International Economics (only for business students) with Dr. Horsewood. As soon as he walked in he goes, "there are 3 people who did not pick up their lunch cards." Right away, I knew I was one of the 3 people. haha oops! This class is definitely more like business and not quite as interesting as the other one. Dr. Horsewood is pretty funny too and bashed on Dr. Holmes a lot. He also likes to pick on people in class...calling one kid...the kid with the pieces of metal in his ears (earrings). He keeps you awake with his jokes, so that is fun. After class, we eat lunch and have our afternoons free to do what ever we want. There are always afternoon and nightly activities that we can sign up for. They are all pre-paid in our base price, so it's no extra charge. On Monday, we decided to play Rounders. A bunch of us walked over to the Oxford playing fields and played the game that is similar to baseball. It is different because the bat is really tiny, there are 4 bases, and you get a half point for getting to the 2nd base and 1 point for getting to the 4th base. It is a pretty easy game, but when your used to baseball...it's kind of hard to get used to. It was fun to be outside, play the game, and meet more people. On our way back to Jesus College, we stopped into a store to look at a poster. The poster is just black and white and has all of the pubs drawn on it. The point is to color in all of the pubs as you go to them. I really wanted to get it...but it was 6.99 pounds. I didn't get it and am still debating on whether it is worth it or not. We stopped at an ATM on the way back and while I was waiting for Megan, this man came up and said, "nice sweatshirt." I was wearing my Nebraska one and was confused on why he thought it was so nice. I said thank you and he and his wife told us that they were graduates of the University of Nebraska! They had since moved to Illinois and were visiting in Oxford with some friends. They asked us where we were from and when Megan said Norfolk, he told her he graduated from Pierce High School...which is actually where she was from and where she graduated from! She just says Norfolk because people usually don't know where Pierce is. How much of a small world is that? I feel like I run into these types of situations a lot, and I love it! :)

When we got back to Jesus College, we all went back to our rooms to shower and get ready for the night. Dinner was ok, but the dessert was really good! Right after dinner, a bunch of us went to A Midsummer Night's Dream at a local park. The play was actually a promenade play in the park. Each set was in a different part of the park and they had huge tree logs for us to sit on. The play was really good and funny and it was really cool to be outside and walking around during the whole thing. At intermission I got a Pimm's and Lemonade (a British favorite!) and a crepe filled with peanut butter and chocolate. It was AMAZING! It was a little hard to eat, especially when the play started back up and I had to walk around with it....but it was SO worth it. After the play, we all wanted to go out...so, we went to a bar called the Black Horse. It was already after 10 when we got there, so we couldn't stay too long. I had a Strongbow beer, which is cider beer. It basically tasted like a mix between champagne, beer, and cider. It was really good. After a couple of beers, they were closing down so we decided to go somewhere else.

We ended up at the Purple Turtle, which was right by Jesus College. The place seemed really small, but actually ended up being pretty big as we walked around. The crowd there was really mixed...between hippy and college students. It smelled like B.O. in places, which was wonderful to take in. We did our best to go to the areas where it didn't smell bad. After a few beers, I was tired and knew I had class the next day...so a few of us all went back. I came back and got on facebook and then went to bed.

Love and miss you all!

Sarah