Today officially starts Noughth Week and the programming for Freshers Week. Tonight will be an informal dinner followed by second desserts and the rest of the week has a variety of events from scavenger hunts around Oxford and tea parties to sample lectures of the required courses as well as the optional courses. I will have the chance to meet my research advisor from Global Governance and Diplomacy, the program director, and my advisor from St. Hilda's.

This past week saw the completion of my revisions to the Phi Beta Delta paper and I re-submitted it to the editorial board. Fingers crossed for a good review!

Also, on Thursday and Friday of last week was an international students induction which was designed to introduce students not from Britain to the academic expectations of Oxford and to ease us into a comfortable social life. My favorite quote was by the Vice-Chancellor of the university who said Oxford was incomprehensible but "it made sense in 1200." He termed it the unofficial motto of the university.

Regarding the presentation on social life in Oxford I did manage to learn that "Christmas is the best holiday in the UK" and that "Skype has been a great invention!" The poor guy doing the talking was so nervous and there were many more statements that were just as off-the-wall. I was also able to attend a Cream Tea on Friday, which is the posh version of afternoon tea. It was hosted by a Rhodes Scholar and the theme was Achieving Academic Success at Oxford. The speaker was Andrew Briggs who has published over 550 scholarly articles in his academic career. I was listening very intently!!

Unfortunately I cannot think of any great cultural experiences to write about. A group of students went out on Friday night to an Irish pub and the main events were riddles and mind games. A true Oxford night out! I can proudly claim to have solved two riddles immediately but struggled with the rest. Perhaps my low point was giving the table a riddle and realizing that I did not remember all the information :P Ooops!

Here is one of the riddles: Three wizards are standing in a row. The wizard at the back can see the two wizards in front of him and the wizard in the middle can see the wizard in front of him. However, the front wizard cannot see anyone and no wizard can see themselves. There are 5 hats in a sack three of which are black two of which are white. Magically three of the hats appear on the three wizards heads. When a wizard knows what color his hat is they say "I know what color hat I am wearing." The back two wizards do not say anything and after a few seconds the front wizard says "I know what color hat I am wearing." What color hat does he have?

With that I will sign off. I miss everyone a great deal. Feel free to message me or whatever. Talk to you next weekend :)

I have now been in Oxford for just over a week. It has rained four times and has been cloudy every day. I have been told to get used to it! I apologize for not completing a post last weekend! I was a little swept up in the newness.

Over the past few days I have had the chance to meet with some people to discuss different organizations and activities that are available from the university. They have been so wonderful to me and very informative. There is an organization called the Oxford Hub which is engaged in promoting student activism. They have committees that put on different conferences, two of which are related to international development. The same thing as my department! So, I have joined the committee to help organize the conferences which are in November (most of the logistics here have already been accomplished) and February (the planning for which has not started).

The other organization in which I have a particular interest is the Oxford Union, famous for the debating society. This is where students interested in being leaders of countries come to be with other students interested in being leaders of countries :) They bring in some outstanding speakers and have very formal debates (sometimes even accompanied by votes). I have been told that being in a leadership role within the Union is a great accomplishment, but is also accompanied by a great deal of politics...And to be the president of the Union, a student has to take the year off from school!

There is one week left before what is called "freshers" week. It is also called nought week or week zero and it is when students are able to do some serious orientating. So, while they have had a few orientations up until now, they have not put us into groups. So this week is about getting to know your common room (graduates are in the Middle Common Room and undergraduates are in the Junior Common Room) as well as your department and fellow classmates within your program.

With the week left, I plan to finish writing the revisions for my civic education and social movements paper to re-submit for review! It has taken me long enough to complete, but I think progress is being made. I will also continue to read the book list from the Global Governance Foundations Course. It is extensive! But all of the books are available within the library system, so I sit in a little reading room and feel studious.

It has been a wonderful, if rather cold experience so far! I am trembling with excitement and trepidation to begin. Everyone says the course load is particularly difficult, and I gather my program has a reputation for being challenging. I have been told not to expect to receive a degree with honors, but I do not think that this a piece of advice I will be taking. lol I am going to give it my all and dance and dazzle. Lets begin!!