First Post in Oxford

It's 1:00am here, and I can't sleep. I finally gave in and took half a sleeping pill but figured I might as well get my blog going while it's kicking in. Jet lag is wearing off slowly; it helps that everything here is absolutely fascinating. I find myself reading food labels quite a bit. Thankfully, whenever I get confused by something British, I can always ask Sam. Sam is the junior dean of Crick House--what we would call a resident director. He's a grad student, and the 23 of us under his charge like him immensely. He's English, and he had no clear idea what we knew or didn't know about living here. For instance, the girls on my floor didn't know how to operate the locks on our doors. I finally figured it out, and Sam laughed because those locks are very standard. Also and more amusing is that most of us didn't know what "squash" meant. There have been bottles of Apple and Blackcurrant Squash sitting out for breakfast every morning, and it's always been pretty funny to watch the next poor person pour a glass of it and try to drink it---squash means concentrated, so without water mixed in it gives you quite a zing. And speaking of zing, I am running out; I think the sleeping pill is finally starting to help.