Playing "Catch Up" on the Blogging

I haven't had a chance to post in a few days as I've been rather busy. To make up for lost time, first I'll talk about Saturday. Early in the morning, the Freshers had their matriculation, which I mentioned in a prior entry. And as promised, all the international students had the opportunity to dress up in our newly acquired subfusc and take pictures with the other Oxford students, even though we didn't actually get to matriculate. It was a lot of fun. I was so giddy and excited to feel like a real Oxford student as I rode down the streets with my black robe flapping in the wind. It was great! Here are some pictures:

Brandon and me outside the Spencer House

A Family Portrait:
Brandon, Phil, and me (all Spencer House inhabitants)

This completely candid shot is my favorite.
Isn't my expression great!?
Brandon was pulling me backwards by the sash of my gown,
and I thought I was going to fall over.

On Saturday I also got to meet Sally's friends, and I had a wonderful time with them. They invited me over to their house, where they had prepared a lovely English tea for me, complete with scones with jam and clotted cream, crumpets, fruit, and these supposedly "American" doughnuts. Everything was so yummy. (I was quite happy also finally to learn what a crumpet is anyway, especially seeing as how I like to say "Oh, crumpets!" from time to time as an expression of frustration. Why? I'm not really sure why. But it's fun.) But anyway, afterward the English tea and lots of chatting, we all went to the pub to hang out for a while. I had a lovely time with Sally's friends, who are nerdy like me, so it was great to be around people that I actually felt like I could get along with. They invited me to hang out with them tonight, so I'm going to leave the house in about thirty minutes to go watch a movie with them. Yay for new Oxonian friends!

Rachel, Mikey, and Becky

Mark, Alice, and me

More photos here and here.