A Very Happy Halloween!

I'm going to begin this blog post with a photographic tour of the route that I walk/bike to get from my dorm to college.

Walking out of Dale:

Right turn onto Dawson Street, shown below: 

 Left turn onto St. Clements Street:

 St. Clements again:

 It's hard to tel from this photo, but the house/building in the background has the most beautiful red ivy covering it's whole right side. 

 Magadalen (strangely pronounced "Maudlin") Bridge:

And we arrive at Mansfield! The photos after this point are all part of my college.

I'm still amazed that I get to be surrounded my so much beautiful, historic architecture all of the time here. 

On Saturday I had rowing practice out on the river again. I think that our boat is starting to get a lot more coordinated as a team, and it's still fun and low key! It's also been a good way for me to make friends with the British freshers. Here are a few photos of other boats rowing on the river that I took after our practice ended. 

I spent most of Sunday in my room studying for my tutorials. However, around dusk, Patrick came over and we walked to Mansfield and then to a coffee shop to do some more studying. Also, Sunday was daylight savings time, so now the sun sets before 5:30pm., which makes it seem a lot later than it really is at night. But Oxford is still so cozy, the earlier darkness is not really a bother. In fact, it's quite nice, because now when I leave my dorm at 6:20a.m. for rowing on Friday mornings it might be light outside. 

Here are a few photos from Oxford at dusk:

Yesterday, of course, was Halloween! And it turns out, that Halloween is (sort of) celebrated in England. It has seemed to be a lot less vibrant than Halloween in the States, but I was excited to see it being recognized at all. Of course, everyone always tells me not to think of Oxford as representative of England or the UK as a whole, so I really have no idea if Halloween is celebrated in the majority of households. In Oxford, it seems that people love anything that is an excuse to dress in costume, and there where actually quite a few people out in Halloween costumes this weekend. 

My Halloween was extra special because I received a wonderful Halloween care-package from my fun and thoughtful friend, Lucas! The package was practically as big as me! 

I received my exciting Halloween surprise from the mailroom right before I went to Japanese class, which I had from 6pm-8pm last night. All of the other students couldn't get over how cute the package was with it's Halloween stickers, and the German woman who sits next to me was fascinated by the Candy Corn stickers. Evidently, Candy Corn does not exist in the UK or in Germany!

When I opened the package after I got back to my room, I discovered there was real Candy Corn inside! I'm going to bring it to Japanese class with me tomorrow to share with everyone.

 My room is officially decked out in Halloween style! And I was able to share the Halloween treats with the other American and British students in my dorm, who all also thought they were fantastic. I used the Halloween goodies to help create a costume, and I went out with some of the other Americans in true Halloween style and met up with a few British students. 

 Anuj wore the devil-horn hair clips included in Lucas's care-package! :-)

This morning, I woke up early to clean my room and to do laundry. I'm going to a lecture on Shakespeare at 2:00pm, and then a rowing work-out session at 4:30pm, and then I'm going to holdup in my room and prepare for my Japanese lit. tutorial tomorrow afternoon. 

The last several days have been both fun and productive! And I'm feeling so loved, as I've received TWO care-packages in the past week!The one from Lucas yesterday, and, earlier in the week, another wonderful care-package from my grandparents, full of delicious treats. 

I am so thankful for my friends and family who continually send their love and well-wishes while I'm abroad, trying to make the most out of this incredible opportunity.