Today was wonderful. I woke up and shuffled down to the Great Hall for breakfast and ate with Marilynn and her husband. I had cereal and tea. I skipped the eggs and black pudding and bacon part (the bacon is like slabs of ham, I haven't quite gotten used to the lack of grease, and I still don't want to know what's in black pudding.)
I then went to the Master's garden and reskimmed everything for religion and started studying for the midterm which I thought was tomorrow, but that's on Monday. It was still a lovely morning in the Master's garden. I could watch the sun rise through the clouds over Merton College from my little bench. I relocated near the Jabberwocky tree, and then I ventured into a little alcove where colorful weeds escaped from every crack in the stone. I felt like I was in my own personal paradise, created especially to let little girls know that they were home. I got a bit distracted and took pictures of all the flowers.
I then headed to class, and took notes on my laptop. She took notes on her laptop when she had a guest professor come in, so I assume that's all right. I had never done such a thing before, but my handwriting is horrible, and it's much easier to search through notes with ctrl f than hurting my eyes trying to look for a word amongst my scribbles. Also, the click of the keys is quite satisfying. This blogging has been an utter joy to see white space fill up with the click clack by my fingertips. And there are actually a few people reading this, unlike my illegible diaries and notes that I don't even read. I'll have to see if I can get a scratch-n-sniff sticker on my laptop that smells like old book. Then it would just be perfect, even if Mom would be allergic to the scent. I mean that as a joke. No scratch-n-sniff stickers for me. That's just for blondes at the bottom of a pool to make them drown. Blondes, that's a joke, too. It's just the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of scratch-n-sniff.
Right. Then, I printed off some music for our little concert in the afternoon.
And I got a fresh waffle off the street next to the ice cream shop. The guy selling waffles apparently used to coach football. It took me just a second longer than it should have for me to realize he wasn't talking about American football.
Then, lunch in my window sill with nutella waffle, milk, and tea. Perfect lunch. Nutella comes in glass jars here!
I read Dorothy Sayers for Oxford Christians as I drank my tea and looked out the window. I drew the curtain around me so I felt like I was in my own bird's nest up in the corner overlooking the quad and the tourists walking around below. Thunder cracked. Tourists screamed. Rain poured. Tourists hid. I bundled up with a blanket and watched the proceedings with great interest, safely in my own window seat with a blanket and a cup of tea. I like watching rain. I felt like I was Jane Eyre, hiding in between the window and the deep maroon curtains, watching the gray rain pour against the glass, enthralled in a book. Okay, so mine was a play, and hers was a picture book about birds, but I still felt one with the great literary character.
I then went to Oxford Christians. We read some portions of the Man Born to Be King out loud. I played the whiny Ephraim and had a little too much fun with it.
Next, I practiced a bit. I met Marilynn and her friends, Tony and Karen by the music room. It was locked, so we talked about great topics like war, death, and sexism for about 10 minutes until one of us realized that there was no one in the room. We got Peter to open it up for us. They have a Steinway and a harpsichord in there! It was great fun. I played Bach Partita III Rondo, a bit more of Lalo before I forgot it again, and the rest of Ashokan Farewell. They were very gracious. I really just like playing with or for people or just by myself.
Apparently everyone in the quad could hear me practicing today... Oops. I was wondering why Andrew was waving at me. They were all just sitting there on the steps watching. I had just put my music in one of the panes of the window and played looking out, and they can see and hear me, too....
Oh well.
Dinner was delicious. I got to eat with Dr. and Mrs. Hanks, Christine, Brooke, and Chelsea.
It was lovely.
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