The Work Week

This week was the week of work. After basically goofing around the whole first week we were here it was finally time to get to work on our papers for the class we have been taking. I decided to write mine on the development of heroism in The Lord of the Rings and the types of heroes portrayed. Not the most difficult topic on the academic scale but good enough for me while I am here. After working studiously for about three days I had my paper and we were free to have fun. We took a walking tour of Tolkien in Oxford on Thursday for our class and then has high table that night. High table is the formal dinner at Merton during which your professors and the director join you for pre-dinner wine and sherry and then a three course meal on a raised platform. We all dressed up and it was very formal yet a ton of fun. That night we all went out as a big group with Natalie and Chris, a couple of natives, to the Purple Turtle for a night of dancing. It was a great end to the week of work just to go out and dance with all the people in our group. Friday morning was a little more grueling since we had been out until 4:30 that morning. That night was quiz night at the college bar, which our team successfully got second to last place in. For our defence it was four very tired and zoned out people trying to remember facts I am pretty sure we never knew to begin with. It was still fun though, even if we got stuck next to the evil version of the Golden Girls. More to come later!