I haven't written in awhile because there really hasn't been much to report. My days have been spent in the pretty typical routine of getting up at 8:45, shower, breakfast, 15 minute bike ride, 1 hour lecture on British History (huzzah!), tea, 1 hour lecture on British Literature (ok), lunch, then to the libraries studying British reaction to the American Revolution until 5:00, then home, dinner, and then read more books until around 9:00 and turn my attention to trying to relax, and talk to people. I'm discovering that I need to work quite a bit harder than everyone else in the program because I have a harder time reading and absorbing the information, while everyone else seems to fly through it. Oh well.

Today however, there is much to report. First, I got my Robin Hood paper back and the results were jubilant on one hand and devastatingly embarrassing on the other. I like bad news first so I'll lead with the critical stuff... "Sloppy writing spoils the effect." Was one of the headlines on my paper. It seems quite clear that my grammatical knowledge is desperately lacking... my writing needs vast improvement. Throughout the entire paper there are scratch marks and circles, and suggestions... however it seems that my largest mistakes aren't that bad... I consistently spelled words incorrectly... however I spelled their American equivalents, for example I was marked off for words like; honor or fiber, instead of honour or fibre. Which even now my spell check is alerting me about. I also use "British" and "English" as interchangeable and in fact they refer to different things so that was a mistake as well.

But on to the good news. All of the marks were grammatical, nothing but praise was given for my ideas, arguments, and positions. So it helped that the headline starts by saying, "You make some very intelligent points, Sloppy writing spoils the effect." So I would argue that there was at least an effect to be spoiled. Also, I suppose I'd rather be a person of intelligent ideas and arguments that can't explain them well, than a moron who is perfectly understood. Sadly, nobody marks for good ideas, so this paragraph will be substantially smaller, but none-the-less, I'm embarrassed for the grammatical mistakes, but deeply proud of the good ideas and that someone at Oxford recognized them.

Also, I'm having a horrible time writing the next two papers which are due in a week. The reading is going slowly and I just don't know how to glean two papers out of it in seven days, but we'll find a way, maybe I just won't be able to sleep much these next few days.

On a different note, two other housemates and I worked at the Gatehouse, a homeless shelter and soup kitchen tonight for the first time. We're going to try to make this a regular thing. We're trying to make connections and friends here in Oxford, and in England the rules for homeless people are quite different. England regulates the streets a lot more strictly so you don't see many homeless in a normal day, but its amazing how many showed up tonight. It was a joy working and I felt right with the world for the three hours we were there. I recognize it may not have been the best use of my time with these papers looming, but on the other hand I may argue that it absolutely was...

Tomorrow we travel to Bath, which ought to be incredible. So I'll have some pictures and stories to add when that goes down. But until then, here's the next installment of the house tour. This is from the same place in the house as before, but now down the stairs to the kitchen in the house. Bryce, my roommate, and Matt a fellow history student are there. Bon Apatite.