Trinity

[raven]

The last two days have been... strange. Things are better. Not that anything has actually changed. I still have the ridiculous workload and terrifying immediate future. But what can you do, as I seem to say endlessly these days, what can you do but live through this. It somehow takes more energy to be crushingly depressed than it does to be just generally equable. So that is what I am doing. And the weather seems to have approved of the decision, because it's rather wonderful. It's not warm yet, but it seems to want to be, and the college is collectively sunning itself on the garden quad. I am trying to keep my head above water and it's helping.

So are my lovely friends, of course. I got two parcels yesterday. One was from hathy_col, which had apparently taken less than a day to make the journey from Fife to Oxford, and it was full of treasure. I have a bunch of new music for me and a bunch of music for girl_doctor - she says thank you, and so do I of course. Thank you! I opened the package in the Social Science Library and had to contain my squee. I did squee, only quietly. And the other package I didn't open until later, and didn't look at it properly otherwise I would have noticed the remarkable battered-ness of it. Okay, so it came from further than Fife. It is my birthday package from gamesiplay, and it has been in the post for FOUR MONTHS. My mind is thoroughly boggled. But it's in one piece. Thank you, Leigh! Thank you so very, very much. I love it. I plan to devour it the moment I have nothing academic to read.

Talking of having nothing non-academic to read, I stopped in Borders on my way to Sainsbury's and read the first chapter or so of Brideshead Revisited. (I have no friend to lend it to me and neither do I have £8.99, so what can you do.) I was going happily along and going "glee!" at the various bits about Oxford, and then I got to this gem, taken from advice given to a first year:

"You're reading history? A perfectly respectable school. The very worst is English literature and the next worst is Modern Greats."

Aha. Ahahaha. Knew I was going wrong somewhere. S'only funny 'cause it's true. (I actually wish PPE was still called Modern Greats. It sounds so much more interesting.)

Anyway, where was I? Going to the SSL with my packages, yes. I met a worse-for-wear withiel on my way there, who informed me solemnly that he was going to his estate agent with his "unreliable" friend. At that moment, said friend came out of the Alternative Tuck Shop, looked at Alex, looked at me, looked down at his hands, and asked, plaintively: "Where the fuck is my sandwich?"

I tried very hard not to laugh, and did not succeed. I went off to the library before the sandwich reappeared. I only found out what had happened to it after going to Queerglish at the Union bar with other components of ou3fs. Queerglish is wonderful in that you do not have to be either queer or English-reading, but the name has stuck regardless. I seem to remember eating dougnuts, thanking foulds for leaving me flowers in his will (he is not dead), and spending a very very long time arguing with Alex about whether or not the Doctor is half-human and why the Time Lords might be far-future alternate-shifted-timeline humans.

In the evening, Maria made me rice pudding, with vanilla sugar and cardamon. I was touched.

But yes, work calls. This week so far I have managed to do Descartes reading and essy, Macro reading, and Keynes, and essay, and a few hours of maths revision. It's going all right, in that I am still alive and have interacted with other humans in that time. Tonight I realised that there is no way out for me - I have to revise, twenty minutes here and there, on top of my regular workload, because otherwise I will fail my prelims. Not that you would have thought so, off the evidence of tonight. I was sort of on a natural high post-macro - I hate Forder, oh, yes, I do - and went to G&D's and ate too much ice-cream, and came back to college and sat on the lawn. It was beautiful, so beautiful - dusky, and a little warm, with so many flowers. I sat out there with Claire, and ended up playing PPE Ultimate Frisbee (!!11) very badly, dodging wine glasses in the twilight on the grass.

I took some pictures, which didn't come out brilliantly, but they look atospheric, quite pretty:

Claire and the magnolia tree and the garden quad in the background:



The college library, with the PPE frisbee players invisible in the foreground:



Sky revising for his collections:



The rest were even darker. I should take more pictures, actually; Oxford in Trinity is lovely, just lovely. I don't know how people put it into words, because it is so perfect - the flowers and the colours and the way it just feels fresh, different and still honey-stone old - and I still love it. I didn't want to come inside, so I got my books from the attic and went across to Starbucks, and sat nursing a cup of coffee for two hours while I revised maths. It was quite nice, actually; better sitting around people than holed up on my own, and I met another PPEist doing the same thing, sat at a table next to me.

And now I guess I go to bed. Busy day as always, tomorrow. Am I the only person who's now excited about May Day morning? I've read about it, and I guess I didn't realise that it actually happens. Not that I was planning to jump in the river or anything. But I'm looking forward to it. And I suppose that's what all of this is about; having small things to look forward to do, each day, each week, and I will live through this.

Comments

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

1. EEEEEE. I cannot believe it arrived. I'd totally given up on it. So packages do actually get through to you; this is useful information. :)

2. Guh, such gorgeous pictures.

3. Re: the Brideshead Revisited quote:
a. You should read it, as it's fabulous. I would send/lend you my copy, only the wait for it might be kind of... interminable.
b. Every time I look at that book on my shelf, I think of you. This is true of any Oxford-related book or movie in my room, of which there are surprisingly many.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

1. Four months! Four months! But it did get here. Thank you again. I haven't dared touch it yet for fear I may read it all in one sitting and hate myself forever more.

2. Thank you. *g* I plan to take some better ones in daylight at some point this week.

3a) The Union library had it! I appear to have read 73 pages without noticing. Note to self - do some work.
b) Heee! What do you have? The only other Oxford-related book I have is Gaudy Night, which I plan to re-read one of these days.

[rosariotijeras.livejournal.com]

Oh shit, Ultimate Frisbee is a trans-Atlantic fad? This is bad. The first fifteen minutes of English class are always spent arranging Ultimate Frisbee games.

Unless, of course, you were simply throwing wine glasses around and decided to call it Ulitmate Frisbee. In which case open mouth, insert foot.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Well, I think it was supposed to be Ultimate Frisbee, but we consider ourselves above rules. *g* It was mostly throwing the frisbee about and hoping to hit a PPEist (hence, PPE frisbee!).

(But I know the university as a whole does have a team. So yes, transatlanic fad. Sorry!)

[tau_sigma]

Yep, we have college ultimate frisbee too. It's universal. *g*

(I will go and eat now, as I almost called it 'intimate frisbee', which I think is something I do not wish to know about!)

[eternalwings.livejournal.com]

Good to hear you're not so stressed, I've just discovered I have 11 days left in school and not only that but school is closed today.
Thats right,
CLOSED.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Miranda just posted the link! I was shocked.

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

Ach, I didn't bring my copy of Brideshead from home, but the Union library must have it. Because christ, BRIDESHEAD.

Also, Magdalen!Amy (vampire_kitten) suggested staying up all night at hers and hearing the choir in the morning, so you could always email her to ask if you could come along too. :)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

They did indeed have it. I am about a hundred pages in and getting more and more gleeful.

Is she the Amy I met at sebastienne's birthday? Because that does sound like fun.

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

Probably - with long hair dyed red/purple? There are too many Amys in Oxford...

[foreverdirt.livejournal.com]

I the only person who's now excited about May Day morning?

Definitely not. This'll be my third in Oxford, and I'm still bouncing happily at the thought - I shall be one of the mad, folk dancing loonies in Radcliffe Square, and I've been looking forward to it all week. *grins*

(Also, I'm glad things are going better for you now.)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Heee! I'm glad. And I shall come to see you dance if at all possible.

(Thank you very much. I hope your revision is going all right...)

[deepbluemermaid.livejournal.com]

Oxford in spring really is lovely, isn't it. I just got back a week ago from a month in Rome, where I was doing my fieldwork. Initially the English weather was being its usual sulky self: grey, cold, and damp. But the last few days, with the cloud cover evaporating by evening to reveal a blue sky and a lovely sunset, have been beautiful. My mood has lifted accordingly.

I did May Day last year for the first time. I imagine it's more fun if the night before is spent carousing. They've closed the bridge this year, so nobody will be jumping - unless incredibly motivated to do so!

I'd say that it's worth doing at least once. And although I'm normally not a morning person (10am sounds like a good time to start the day to me), the sky was amazing at 6am. And we had walked through Christ Church Meadow beforehand, and that was quite spooky with the lingering mist.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Mine, too. It's been absolutely beautiful. I need to roam around taking pictures. One interesting side-effect of the bridge closure is the way the residents of Cowley are literally stranded! I can't believe there's no other way over the river!

Hey, it's not getting up early if you never go to bed!

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

See, you jump into the river. We have a longer and more complicatd tradition. WITH EXTRA ADDED HYPTOTHERMIA.

Okay, the story is as thus:

In front of St Mary's Chapel/St Salvator's Quad (where the main lecture buildings are; mst uni events take place there) there are two initials in the brickwork, PH, for Peter Hamilton who was burned by the Catholic bishops as a heretic. He became a martyr for the Scottish Reformation and a guardian of the university. (If you look at the brickwork in the tower above it, there's a smoky face! It's quite creepy.) If you stand on his initials, you are cursed, and can never graduate from university!

However, dear reader, there is a cure! That's right, on MayDay, you fling yourself into the sea stark naked at dawn (the North Sea. In Scotland. At dawn) and then you're okay!

I plan on watching, because there will be alcohol, and there will be fires on the beach, and it'll be lovely.

I'm glad the package got there okay; if you're ever down again, just listen to William Shatner's Common People, because that, right now, is the only thing that makes me smile and dance about my bedroom.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

OH GOD. People actually do this? I think I'd rather not graduate. Wish I couls see it. Take pictures!

Oh, it's wonderful! I put it on iTunes share and the entire college has been revelling in it.

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. People do actually do this, although I understand not many remember it due to the drinking beginning as it starts to get dark.

It is very, very unlucky to stand on the initials. I've seen people crawling home on a Friday night and still managing to crawl around the initials!

[tau_sigma]

I think I am entirely missing something. What is special about May Day?

Also, re: photos; Picasa (off Google) is free and quite good for editing very dark photos to make things more visible. These are beautiful regardless. :)

Glad you're managing. *hugs*

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

May Day morning is the event in the calendar. It begins at six am with Magdalen college choir singing the Hymnus Eucharisticus from the top of the tower, with everyone gathered on the bridge below to listen, and then there's dancing and music and carousing and general revelry all day. It shall be wonderful.

Thank you. *hugs*

[thecapitalc.livejournal.com]

It's not the Magdalen college choir- it's the choirboys from Magdalen College School who sing like angels but who are, by all accounts, absolute brats (my friends live near their bus stop, so they are able to observe them in their natural environment). this does not mean that throwing pasta at them is bad, oh no...

[tau_sigma]

Oh, wow. Six am sounds a little too hardcore for me *g* but wow. We shall be in lectures, sob.

[easleyweasley.livejournal.com]

The first chapter of Brideshead is the bright, joyful one; it goes downhill after that. Not that it isn't a wonderful book - it is - but the first chapter's best read in the quad in the sunshine. But then summer turns to autumn and to winter ...