Happy Birthday, America!

I think tonight might be something of a slower night for me. We'll see. For now, I have a few moments to write! Every day in Oxford gets better and better, but every day I spend out on the town means more work is piling up back at BNC. Tonight I'll have to crank out two papers, finish reading Macbeth, read Love's Labours Lost, and then start on a paper about that as well. Being a slacker is not safe when you have a whole semester's worth of work to do in a few weeks!

So. Yesterday was America Day! Hooray! We celebrated by running around the quad with sparklers, being extremely loud, and playing flip cup and beer pong. Good stuff! Even better - me and Angie won! Wooot!!!

After that, we all headed into the BNC pub. That's right, folks. The pub is about a 30 second walk from the door of my room. I love it. Jessica and I sat with about a dozen of the British BNC kids and tried to follow along with their really bizzare drinking games. It was absolutely hilarious. Plus, they go and play every night, so Jessica and I will probably go back for a few hours tonight. (Don't worry. Plenty of time for homework.) The two main people we met were AK and Tim - who challenged us Americans to a cricket match! Mwahahahahaha. I'm so stoked. Tonight, I think we're teaching them Thumper or beer pong. Or both. Should be fun.

After that, the Oakland gang all wandered around, looking for a pub or bar that was open past 11pm and had people our age in it. No luck. We ended up at a wine bar, where we were definitely the loudest people (that's usually the case). There was a bar that was supposed to be an America, down-home southern food sort of place... but it sucked. I left early with a few of the other girls and was asleep by midnight.

I got the cutest shoes today!!! I know, you're all thrilled, right? They're awesome. I took pictures. If I can figure it out, I'll start posting pics from all the things I've been doing. (I know I've been saying that for days, but I really mean it!) Everything here is ridiculously expensive. If it doesn't warm up soon, I'll break down and buy some sort of fleece pull-over. I see loads of locals bundled up in coats and scarves, whereas I'm just in a sweatshirt.

Speaking of which - hoodies. Apparently, they're the ultimate tourist indication. Only Americans and tourists wear hoodies here. And backpacks, but that's more understandable. So, I'm trying to stay away from my hoodies as much as possible. Thank goodness I brought a sweater! Plus, every girl here wears cut canvas flats (like my Rocket Dogs, if ya know what I mean). They're in every store, and not too expensive!

It's raining again, but I think it's hilarious. British weather makes me laugh. Plus, I don't mind the rain, so it's all good. Even better, now that I've waterproofed all of my shoes and I'll do my bags as well.

Great. Now I feel guilty for writing in this instead of working on my paper(s). I'll do another update once I'm more caught up.