Summer - Week 1

When I returned from Italy, the Oxford student population had declined. Undergrads were gone, and the summer season had commenced.

I went to my classmate Graham's flat when I got back to London on Monday night/Tuesday morning. He had a full house with me, his girlfriend and her dog, and my classmate Ryan all staying over. We made pancakes for brunch the next day and took the dog for a walk. I went to my first hot yoga class with Graham's girlfriend. The floor of the yoga place was really cool; it was some sort of soft plastic. Hot yoga was interesting - I wouldn't do it often, and 90 minutes of it was way too much. 

I had a rowing outing on Thursday and went to the Rickety Press later in the evening for goodbye drinks for my classmate Dan who was headed home up north.

On Friday evening, I went to the Turf Tavern with Liz's friends who were visiting from Canada. While we were talking while waiting at the bar, some girl (who was clearly a summer student) turns around and asks Liz if she's American, said how excited she gets when she hears American accents here, and welcomed Liz to Oxford. No real Oxford student would be surprised to hear a (North) American accent in Oxford; we're everywhere. 

The Balliol Garden Party was held on Saturday at Holywell Manor, the main building of the Balliol graduate complex. The theme was Casablanca, and Liz was in charge of decorations. Rami, one of the OII DPhil students, was in charge of the bars. The party was like a mini ball. There was a dinner before, but I did not attend. The party itself had a small dance floor, a hookah tent, a food tent with a midnight snack of meats and ice cream, and bars scattered throughout. Though I got caught in the rain while walking over, the weather cleared up shortly thereafter. 

That's the blazer for the Wolfson College Boat Club

Unlike the GTC ball, which was full of food, those of us who didn't eat sausages left the party hungry, so we ended our evening (early morning?) with a trip to a kebab van.