Countdown to Oxford: Misconceptions

One more week stateside, so I thought I'd collect the best, or rather the worst misconceptions about Oxford, England, and Europe in general I've heard over the last few months.
Now, I have plenty of really intelligent culturally aware friends, but sometimes they say things that are ridiculous or not properly thought through. They sometimes realize it shortly after they've said it. A few of these comments were made in earnest, by some less culturally aware friends and acquaintances, which does make me question American education.

"Will you have the internet in England?"

"It's not like England's in Europe."

"You're going to be so close to everything, you'll have to take a day to go to the Swiss Alps."

"Oxford, London, what's the difference?"

"I've been telling everyone about your trip to London."

"You do know that everyone in England hates Americans, right? It's a good thing you're not going to France, they really hate us all."

"You'll have to go to Paris on the weekends, it'll be like, an hour away."

"It'll be all chicks at Oxford, right? I mean it's a girls school."

"Are you going to go to the palace? Can you have tea with the Queen there?"

I'm always afraid of sounding snotty when I correct people. I've given up on trying to persuade everyone that I'm not spending a month in London as they all seem to think. It's true that on the whole, the countries in Europe are much smaller than the US. England is only about the size of my home state, Pennsylvania. It still takes eight or nine hours to get from one corner of the state to the other, so I don't know why history and geography classes haven't given us a more clear understanding of spacial relationship between the countries.
As I've said before, I consider all the people who made these statements to be sufficiently intelligent, so I blame it on the weird US-centric bubble around our education that leads to these "ugly American" misconceptions.

Rock Me Like a Hurricane

I've survived pretty well this weekend. Probably because of all my preparation which included bringing all the potted herbs in and making sure I had a stack of books. My father's preparations included securing pizza and beer. We have our priorities. Many friends had hurricane parties yesterday and a local cafe made their evening cocktail special "Hurricane Hooch."
Actually, where I live fared far better than the town above us. Even though we're lower, we have so much farmland and preserved open space around us, that much of the overflow from the stream was absorbed. My friend Amy who only lives a few miles away called me this morning to say that a boat went by their house. Though we are fortunate, we are also stuck. Many of the major roads are flooded or have downed trees and power lines to contend with. The rain has stopped, but the wind is whipping up, so though we have power now, that may change.
Of course, tomorrow morning I have my first class of the semester which may be a problem. Currently all routes to campus are impassable.
I have discovered that minor natural disaster bring out my nesting instinct. I picked apples on Friday and made apple sauce. It's pretty fantastic. Then I made peach and pear preserves which we had on toast this morning.
I hope everyone is staying safe and having fantastic hurricane parties.

A Scene From the Newsroom

We had new editorships for next semester announced tonight, not many surprises, I'll be the Arts editor-- I do get an assistant however (trying not to feel too drunk on the power). After our meeting we found ice cream in the lounge freezer with a note saying it was leftover from an event and we should help ourselves.
After some furtive glances, we were all elbow deep in ice cream, serving and eating it with plastic forks. The sugar boost was the last thing we needed. Soon the group dissolved into stomach cramping laughter as stories of tipsy karaoke were exchanged and bizarre eccentricities rose to the top of our behavior.
Our editor in chief firmly believes that the ice cream was spiked. I know that it is just our way of making the most of our remaining time together. Some of them aren't going to be with us next semester and they will be sorely missed and they'll miss us as well I believe.
I know I should write up my reviews for The Crack in the Lens and Wild Target, but I don't have much time tonight and I just felt like sharing a little of the chaos. It's very special.
I also got to crash a party celebrating one of the professor's new publications tonight. We almost forgot about it, but Meghan (photographer extraordinaire) and I ran over to get a quick interview and snap a few pictures much to the bemusement of the Humanities faculty.

My new writing home

My brother lives about ten minutes away from this fantastic coffee bar. It serves mainly organic and fair trade blends as well as local dairy and baked goods. Attached to the back is whole foods store. The whole place is full of old furniture, black and white photographs, cosy corners. I'm basically in love.
Today I took my friend Amy, also a writer. She's actually published the first book of her series of pirate stories and is working on putting the rest out now. We sat by the windows and tried several varieties of their coffee (Highlander Grogg is my favorite, she is partial to Rain Forest Crunch), talked about ideas, looked at the beautiful skies; it was perfect.
We've decided to make it a weekly thing to go sit and write. We're swapping manuscripts next week as well.
Even better, it's tucked away on a small country road, so the ride there is beautiful and it's not noisy or over-crowded like a Starbucks.
As we were leaving, I saw that they had ginger beer. I brought a bottle home, as well as a bag of Highlander Grogg.
Some of the greatest artistic minds have been meeting in coffee houses for hundreds of years. Atmosphere is so important, but I think Amy and I have finally found our spot. We both agreed that we felt utterly content afterwards and it was as if our mental mechanism had been lubricated for creativity.
I will, no doubt, drag my computer there during Script Frenzy.

The Day After NaNo

I believe NaNoWriMo could be called crack for writers.
It effects your relationships, makes your brain go a little crazy and after you stop, you suffer from withdrawal. This happened last year as well- once you get into the habit of writing everyday, you feel like you still should. Not a bad habit for someone hoping to be a professional writer, actually.
Last night I wrote a new scene with my characters that will appear in an eventual sequel. I think I feel it even more acutely this year because I adore my characters and plan on spending more time with them- as I said, sequels.
My friend and I did a novel swap, I'm currently reading hers. Tonight I experienced that awkward moment when you realize you're a side character in your friend's novel. That was new. Not terribly unpleasant.

Check In

It has been an incredibly busy week, but along the way I've had time to think about my priorities, get to know a fantastic couple from Massachusetts and have some amazing ice cream. The couple are friends of friends I've met briefly before, but spending the better part of several days with them has really helped me know them and vice versa.
Because of my incredibly head wrecking childhood compounded by years at art school I fear my social skills are not up to par. It often causes anxiety and excessive analysis on my part and sometimes causes feelings of awkwardness in others. However, I really got along well with the couple. They are a bit older than me and the man reminds me of my older brother, I remind him of his little sister, so we had a fun sibling-like repartee from the beginning. His wife is a lovely woman who is tender, sincere and funny. Best of all, he tells great stories. Their adventures buying cars, travelling abroad, growing up with large numbers of siblings were all shared. I love people that can tell good stories and are open to experiences that make good stories- it's the writer and reader in me I suppose. They entertained me for hours and I feel I did a decent job entertaining them. And yeah, we went out for ice cream twice this weekend and I don't feel bad.
I hope to visit them this winter, I told them I've always wanted to see Boston and they live fairly close to the city. They invited me to come for a few days- it would be a long, multi-hour drive for me, but I think it would be worth it. I really want to get some travel under my belt while I'm young and single- hopefully some international travel soon, but definitely to places in the country that I've always wanted to visit.