The Dwindling Days...

Welp. As the title says, the days are dwindling down. DAT'S HIPPIE TAWLK. DAT'S CRAZY. I can't handle it. Actually, I can. With the help of Frank Sinatra, who I listen to quite often. And my pal Lou. And Billie. And Ella. They are good people. 

CHRISTMAS IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER PEOPLE!

So...onward...

Monday was a normal class day, we had Core and Ethics from 11:00am-3:00pm. And then the real fun began:) Since everyone was gone on multiple different trips over Thanksgiving, we had a Thanksgiving meal together that evening! Everyone made a dish (I made my marble cheesecake brownies), brought it to house ten, and then we ate buffet style (which also happens to be Wilkins style, so needless to say, I was a pro). The food was SO good. Lyndi made this grape thing that was delicious, Laynie made her famous potatoes and carrots, and Brady helped the 9@9 crew (Laynie, Chris, me, MaryLynn, and Jonathan) set up and decorate! Brady actually just put these random stuffed birds everywhere around the house. 

Nice. Anyways, everyone contributed somehow. The food was soooooooo good. We just sat around, ate the fantastic food, and talked! Yes, we did talk about what we were thankful for, Gramps. I did NOT made a toast or a speech though. 

SO GOOD.

That's a whole lotta carbs...

Anyways, after our wonderful better-late-than-never Thanksgiving meal, we were forced to watch Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving by TarTar (Mama Cracken, our BFF) because my friend Shelby and I hadn't seen it before. After that we pretty much called our abroad Thanksgiving experience a success and called it a day!

Tuesday we had a normal school day EXCEPT that we didn't have English in the morning like we usually do AND in INTS we had someone from the Quaker church come and talk to us about Quakership (?). About being a Quaker. It was pretty interesting. Their services (they call them meetings) consist of everyone just sitting around meditating and waiting on God and if someone feels called/compelled to speak, they will stand and speak. The lady said that doesn't happen often though. Anyways, there were a few heated questions towards her because some of the things she said did not match up to their beliefs sometimes and that got Brady asking questions out the wazoo. She did have a few interesting things to say that made me think. She said that Quakers don't have like one book that they base their religion off of (even though their religion seems more like a social stand). They like to believe that God is bigger than the Bible, that it can't contain him. I thought that was very interesting. I think the Bible isn't the only thing one can do to be connected and interact with God, but I do think it is a very important one. I think reading the Bible and meditating and discussing your beliefs with other people go hand in hand. Above all, I feel like you have to live your life as a disciple everyday. Beliefs shouldn't just be beliefs. They should be a way of life. Your only way of life. They become all of you to where you can't find where beliefs stop and "your life" starts. They are one and the same. 
For English class instead of regular class, we were instructed to go to this lecture by a poet we had read in class (which is very strange because most of them are kinda...well, dead). His name is Geffory Hill. He looks like Father Time and sounds like the Minster of Magic in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I'm not sure what he was talking about for most of his lecture because I was just mesmerized by the sound of his voice. But, that was really cool. Afterwards, Laynie and went to get fish and chips but food was not being served yet so we defaulted to getting Ali's kebabs which are just as good :) It was fun getting to hang and just talk with just the two of us. Love that girl!

Wednesday Lyndi and Shelbs bailed on Laynie and I so we went to the market by ourselves and got our regular haul of veggies and weekly pasty from Matt the bread boy. We won't see him anymore because he's going to a new market next week. So that was awkward when we were like, "We won't see you in two weeks!" And he was like, "I won't be here next week..." And we were like, "Oh, well then...bye!" #sorrymylifeisawkward. Then we had regular class, after class I got caught up on a few tv shows a.k.a. avoiding a super long paper I had to write, and then chilled with Laynie talking about the most random things ever, and then we decided to go and get kebabs again haha Ali was happy to see us. That old man is fantastic. We may not know exactly (ever) what he's saying, but he smiles a whole lot and gives us discounts. Seems nice :) After kebabs Laynie and I chilled with Sarah, Brady, and Brantly and they showed me the Les Mis movie trailer. It looks SO GOOD. I'm so excited to see it. Maybe Bre and Kaity will go see it with me one day while we're away. I'm SUPER excited to give everyone their gifts!! I hope I pegged everyone right. I'm so excited to give Cash and Clara their cute little presents :) :) 

Thursday morning Laynie and I got up and went to the antique market! Apparently it's in the exact same place as the farmer's market we got to every Wednesday AND it's there every Thursday. We were excited to find out about it and go to it, but kind of upset that we found out about it when we only have two Thursdays left...BUT at least we discovered it! Went to that and found a few cool little trinkets and found some really cool old stamps! The old man selling them to me threw in some random flower ones because he's nice. Completely useless, but pretty. SCORE. Laynie and I both bought some flannel shirts that are oldish, but super cute! I like mine, it's nice and warm and cuddly:) 

After the market we grabbed some Costa coffee on the way to class. After class we went to the Covered Market with Lyndi so that Laynie and she could buy some tote bags that caught their eye the other day they went shopping. I bought a scarf haha Then we shopped around in there for a little while, I bought some more gifts, and then we went to the Oxford shop! Up until this day I had bought maybe four or five things for myself, so I got an Oxford tshirt and an Oxford sweatshirt. Then Lyndi had to split to go visit our pal Mary. Laynie and I didn't go because Lyndi was interviewing her as a source for her paper she was writing. So, Laynie and I continued on our shopping extravaganza trip! We hit up Primark after we parted with Lindy and let's just say we were ashamed after left there. BUT I got some super cute colored pants, a cute blazer, and two super pretty shirts :) Nana, you'd be proud. After Primark, we headed back home and made supper with the Bradster and then watched the most awful movie ever made. We watched Man in the Moon. It has Reese Witherspoon when she is like twelve. The whole time we were expecting this chick flick of love and romance and then all of a sudden there's people getting hurt, the hot guy dying, and everyone being sad and reminiscing about talking to the man in the moon when things in life get bad. It was absolutely awful and put us both in a surly mood. To break that mood, we started watching To Catch a Thief with Grace Kelley! I love him. And that movie. BUT Laynie and I started falling asleep so we called it a night. I actually went up to my room and began my 10-12 page paper that was due the next day. I made myself a whole pot of Moka (espresso) and combined it with lots of sugar and half a cup of milk. I was up till about three working on my paper and reading sources and then my brain stopped working and I went to bed in my shirt I wore that day and my jeans. I'm not ashamed. I was tired. Maybe I'm a little ashamed.

Friday was a little different because we had a makeup English class AND it was at the house, not the Quaker church! It was a bittersweet day because it was our last English class with Winn, but we didn't have to walk all the way to the Quaker church. It was very fun. We will miss Dr. Winn, he was one of the best English teachers I have ever had. I enjoyed his method of teaching very much. After English, Ldawg and I went to On the Hoof and then I locked myself in my room for the rest of the afternoon and worked on my paper. I got about 3/4 of the way finished when Laynie called me to come eat some French food! The French class were presenting their presentations that night and had made a ton of French food and Laynie invited me so I got a break AND free food. What else could I ask for. After that nice break and DELICIOUS food, I went back into my dungeon and finished that bad boy up by 11:45PM and turned it in THREE minutes before it was due. LIKE A BOSS. I don't know why, but I always wait till last minute to write my papers and somehow, by some MIRACLE, they get finished. I haven't figured out how yet. They just do. We'll see how well I did on it when I get it back. My Ethics paper was really good I thought. So, we'll see how Core goes! Turning that in was a huge load off my back because that was my last assignment ever while I'm in Oxford! Now we just have a week of classes and finals and we're done! AND THEN WE COME HOME. It's going to be so strange getting on that bus to the airport. I'm pretty ready. I will miss Oxford like crazy and one day I will definitely be back, but I'm ready to see all of you people and be back in my routine and drive my car and listen to my record player and hug my favorite children ever and finish my Sophomore year in college! Man, I'm old. That's weird.

Saturday Laynie, Lyndi, and Kalyn went to this vintage market that Jacquie emailed us about. It opened at eleven and had a pound entry fee and then you stuffed clothes that you found into a bag and then it was fifteen pounds per kilo. It was, in the words from Superstar, UTTER INSANITY. INSANITY. People were running all over the place, throwing clothes all around the bins, pushing people. It was a bit much. I lasted about thirty minutes, came out with three scarfs, a nice vinatagey shirt, a blazer, a tacky Christmas sweater, and a comfy giant baseball shirt that I was wearing when I took this picture. All for the grand total of 15 pounds. SCORE.

 I'm really getting into the blazer and colored pants fashion. I recently have discovered...CLOTHES. It's kind of a love/hate relationship now. Now I just need to learn how to curl my own hair...hopefully I'm getting a wand for Christmas so things could be looking up in that department haha Anyways, after shopping we headed back home, but on the way we stopped to get a pastry. All for the love of Christmas.

Photo credit to Laynie

Photo credit to Strawb

After our cupcakes, I blogged a bit, Laynie and I made supper (sweet/baked potatoes, mushrooms mixed with tomatoes, and chicken cooked with Tony's. YUM:) ), then we watched Easy A with the few people left in our house (everyone else went to Paris for the weekend)! We were going to go ice skating, but we decided to do that next week on Sunday as our group's last Oxford hurrah before returning to the states. So, that's something to look forward to :) All we have left are finals and we come home!! I am all about my studies right now...Finals are the most important thing to me...

Paying attention in English...

PA. Dat's hippie tawlk. Dat's crazy. :)

That's all for the past couple of days!! I'll keep blogging up until the day I leave to come HOME! Miss you all and super excited to see all of you :) Love you all!

Cheers from across the pond,
Mallory Jean