It's 9th week of Michaelmas term and pretty much all I'm thinking about is Christmas time!
Here's a quick post owing to the fact that I'm going to a housewarming party for one of my lab partners tonight and I only have 10 minutes to bust out the highlights of the week!
1. Christmas time is definitely here in Oxford. In fact, hints of Christmas started back in November because they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here. Now I understand why people in the US occasionally "peak early." We just want to throw an extra holiday in there. Anyway, last Friday, Oxford officially kicked off the season with a Christmas market and festival! There was lots of food, including sausage rolls (think pigs in a blanket), mulled cider, European foods (German, French, Spanish), and sweets. There were also rides, handicraft stands, a stage, and festive lighting. In fact, Roger Bannister was in attendance to officially light the city's decorations! That was quite nice.
5 minutes to go...
2. UK news. If you haven't been following European news, now might be a good time to do so. Economic tensions are high, and they're spilling into the political landscape. Prime Minister David Cameron just went to a summit of Eurozone leaders and - with pressure from all sides in England- blocked EU-wide economic reforms in hopes of gaining financial protection for the city of London. Naturally, the rest of the EU wouldn't stand for London to get a security blanket, so now they are more or less teaming up against Britain.The next coming months will be crucial not just for the Euro, but for the political unity of the EU as a whole. Time will tell...
2 minutes to go...
3. Activities! With the undergraduates gone (term ended last weekend), things have really settled down. That means that as an MCR, we've had lots of free time. So what do most English people do in the evenings? Hit up a pub! There's nothing like a glass of hot mulled wine and some pistachios in the Eagle and Child on a chilly December evening. Admittedly, the weather has only dipped below freezing twice this term (tonight will be the third), but the wind has been rather brutal. I can't imagine what it's going to be like when the sunshine goes away next month in favor of rain. Blech.
Finally, we did actually go ice skating on Tuesday. I had a really good time... until I skated too fast, tripped on the teeth of my right figure skate (no hockey skates... booo) and went horizontal. Bobby Orr would have been proud, except at least he had pads! Now, three days later, I'm still wondering if I need to go get medical attention for my elbow and knee. Sigh... guess I'll see what happens to them this weekend.
Negative 4 minutes... oops! I'm off to eat chocolate mousse and tartiflette (the host is French :-D )!!
No comments:
Post a Comment