Oxford Day 27

Regretfully, I awoke today at around 11 am in my Oxford bed with no plans for the day. I suppose it wasn’t the end of the world. It was great to sleep in. It’s also nice to have a bit of money left in my pocket at the end of the trip. It would have cost a fortune to go anywhere. Unfortunately, the only way to know whether it would have been worth it was to go. Ah well, I got a good rest.

Last night some of us threw in for a bunch of meat and stuff and had a wonderful barbeque. I had some amazing chicken and one of the best meat and stuff and had a wonderful barbeque. I had some amazing chicken and one of the best steaks I’ve had in months. It was quite ideal, sitting outside in the perfect weather eating amazing food, playing guitar, and chilling.

Today consisted of nothing but eating, writing a paper, playing guitar, and board games and movies with friends. People were trickling in throughout the day from their wonderful excursions throughout Europe and making me jealous. Tomorrow is our last real day of classish stuff. We will go to watch two of our groups present their findings to Oxford Analytica. Then I think the schedule is open until our final celebration on Wednesday night. Then we’ll be getting up early Thursday to go to London to fly home. Yay!

Ok, I think this may be my last mandatory journal, so I guess I should include some sort of observation about the culture. Let me see… Ok, I have gotten the impression during my stay that the English are much more friendly and accepting than Americans. All of the conversations I have had with the locals have been extremely warm and open. I feel that if I was to go door to door just looking for conversation that I would get invited in for tea about half the time. I love it. Oddly enough though, service in restaurants and stores seems to be the exact opposite. People are very short with you and not very helpful at all. Employees are likely to let you know about it if you inconvenience them in any way. I think it is odd how large the gap is between their social and work lives. I think it’s really great though. When they’re off work, they’re really off and don’t give it a thought. They lose their intense schedule drive and are relaxed and friendly. Great people.

I have really been here a long time. Earlier today some people were talking about their memories from earlier on the trip. They really seemed like a very long time ago to me. It’s amazing that we only have a few days left. I remember thinking how incredibly long I still had left a few weeks ago. Wow, time flies like crazy. Too bad I only get 4 days at home before I have to head to Abilene. Hopefully I’ll get to see everyone during that time.