CHEERS from Oxford!!

I MADE IT!!

I am currently lying on my bed in my gorgeously old room in Oxford. Check it out!!

I landed in the UK at 7:10AM yesterday morning (although it still felt like 2:10AM to me), went through customs (which took nearly an hour UGH), and finally got to my ride that was taking me from the airport to Oxford about an hour away. Other than the long wait at customs, my flights went smoothly and I got to Oxford in all four pieces (me, my big suitcase, and 2 carry-ons)! My experience with customs was, however, brightened by the fact that a little girl in line, maybe 6 or 7 years old, was wearing a Richmond Spiders sweatshirt. It definitely made me smile. #spidersaroundtheworld

Once I arrived, I was first led to the BADA office, where I was given an info packet, and then led to my room. I am still not sure what the section of Magdalen College I am living in is called but we all have come up with a variety of guesses based on how we have heard our British instructors pronounce it. Those pronunciations include "Sir Swiggles," "St. Smithies," and "Smith Swiggins" among others. Thus, GOAL #1 at Oxford: learn the real name of my dorm haha!

After unpacking and a little shopping on High Street, we all had drinks on the Cloisters Lawn seen below and then ate in the Great Hall (pics to come). I met a TON of people last night and even more this morning!

This morning I had my placement audition. I again did my Joan of Arc monologue and thought it went really well. Tomorrow, the groups and plays each group will be working on will be posted. I am super anxious and excited. After the audition, I teamed up with six other students who had auditioned around the same time as me (only one of which I had met preciously) and we spent most of the day together!! We went to the parks around Christ Church, to the Thames River, to The Bear (a pub from year 1242) for lunch where I had great fish and chips, to Bodleian Library, to a pub in a back ally way for dinner call The Turf, and finally, we took a walk around Addison's Walk on our campus and found a beautiful pond around which we sat and talked.

Christ Church

Bodleian Library

Turf Tavern

Pond on Addison's Walk

  ***Interesting side note: we were talking about ethnicities at dinner and I had my friends guess mine and their guesses were, without much/any hesitation, Spanish, Latino, and something Mediterranean. I found that pretty cool! Haha :P

Today has been great and has really settled the good deal of nerves I had yesterday. I'm starting to know my way around and have met a lot of great people. I only hope some of them are in my group. Tomorrow will tell! Fingers crossed!!