Day 25: Saturday, July 25

I can't believe we only have one more day left in England. I'm really used to being here and I don't want to leave. I wish we had a few more days here, but unfortunately we don't.

My class had their exam in the morning today. It was a pretty easy exam and I'm happy with how I think I did. Today was also our final class, we have finally finished Grade 11 English! It feels really good to finish. Looking back at all the work we did over the past week or so, I can't believe we got everything done. One of my favourite feelings of all-time is walking out of the final exam at the end of the year - I got that feeling again today, it was amazing.

I went into Oxford with Chris and Vince in the afternoon, it was nice. There was so many people in there and it was so hot outside, but it was still something to do.

At night Chris, Vince, Lauren, Briana, and I went into Oxford for the final time. It was pretty fun, but kind of weird to think that it was our last night out here.

When we got back to the dorm I believe I ended up breaking my two left knuckles on my right hand, or at least spraining them. It's really painful right now. I'm going to go to sleep and see how they feel in the morning, hopefully a lot better than they do now.

1 MORE DAY

Day 23: Thursday, July 23

We had our second last class today. It feels really good to know I'm basically one class away from completing grade 11 English. Only one more class to go!

After class today, I set out around Summertown to search for advertisements to use for my 'Messages are Everywhere' assignment, in which we had to analyze British advertisements. I have to say I was pretty surprised at the lack of advertisements around Summertown - I was expecting to see a lot more billboards and large advertisements than the one I saw on a small side street.

I was really tired today as well. I don't know why, but ever since I got here I have been napping like never before. Maybe it's because there's nothing better to do, I don't know, but I took a two hour nap this afternoon.

After my nap Chris and I decided we should finally play tennis on the grass courts across from our dorm. Being a tennis player, playing on grass is a really special experience. Those who play tennis in Canada know how rare it is to have the chance to play on grass. I have played on grass before, as recently as last year, and I really enjoy and cherish the opportunity. We rented some rackets from the student cafe, which are terrible rackets, and headed over to the courts. We paid about 3 pounds to use the courts, which weren't busy and were in surprisingly good condition, as the courts are public and public courts can sometimes be pretty rundown. Chris and I played tennis for about 40 minutes, before we decided we couldn't handle the brutal tennis rackets and balls any longer. Besides the equipment, we had a great time. I never thought I would get the chance to play on grass again, as I thought last year would be my last ever coming to England.

After tennis we had some dinner and went to the ABC disco. The disco wasn't that great. Last week there was a lot more people in it and the atmosphere was much better. We were expecting the same this week but it wasn't the same so we left early.

LAST DAY OF CLASS TOMORROW

Day 22: Wednesday, July 22

Pretty typical English day this morning. I woke up to rainfall, as it seems I have everyday this week, and headed to class.

Once class was over, I went back to the room to nap before the scavenger hunt in the afternoon.

The scavenger hunt was quite the experience. My group, Lauren, Briana, and I started off in the "main drag" of Oxford. We were given a sheet of paper with clues and 37 questions to answer along with a map. The three of us didn't even know where to start - the first clue was probably the hardest one; it read: "which way does the wind blow on this street" (I forget the name of the street, but it was the main pedestrian shopping area of Oxford where no cars are allowed.) The answer ended up being 'Lloyds TSB,' as this is the first building on the street. After this, we got into a nice rhythm and solved the remaining clues with less trouble. Some of the clues were difficult and we had to skip a few of them and then 'backtrack' after we had solved the proceeding clues. Luckily, we met a knowledgeable Englishmen named Frank who was able to point us in the right direction, and help us out with a few answer, when we got slightly off track. The hunt took us throughout most of the city of Oxford - the Bodleian Library, university, a Lord of the Rings related building, etc, and concluded at Oxford Castle. Our team answered all the clues in about 1 hr 40 minutes, which was surprisingly fast in my opinion, seeing as we were stuck on the first clue. Anyways, we were the first team to arrive at Oxford Castle with all the right answers. It was a pretty good feeling that we came in first and it was a great experience. We were able to see key landmarks of Oxford and we has a good time doing so. It kind of reminded me of the Amazing Race, where teams race around the world doing the same kind of thing we did today.

When I got back to the room, I was really tired from our exciting day so I took another nap and finished up my work later in the afternoon.

Overall, today was a great day. I'm looking forward to finishing up our last few classes!

Day 20: Monday, July 20

Pretty usual day today... nothing exciting happened.
I had a good sleep and went to class. After class it rained for almost the entire day, meaning that I couldn't really go outside to go into Summertown or play basketball.
Basically, I spent most of the day working on my Verbal Visual Essay and on my Macbeth work. The VVE was tough to do with the limited resources here, but I think I pulled it together okay. I wish I had done it before I left Canada, because that way I could've made it more colourful and artistic.
At least we didn't have a spider problem like yesterday. (thank god)
Anyways, pretty miserable day today. It's probably going to be a long week of school work before we finally have a free weekend.

Day 19: Sunday, July 19

I finally woke up this morning feeling a lot better. I slept in until pretty late today, waking up around 11.
Today was a day of finishing up all of my outstanding work. As soon as I woke up, I started to complete my compartative essay, which took me about two hours. Because of this, I missed lunch so I went into Summertown to get a sandwhich to eat. When I got back to the dorms, I ended up taking a really long nap; I think I slept for two or three hours.
At around 4, when I woke up, I felt like playing basketball so Chris and I played ball with some Europeans who were playing on the court. The weather was also pretty bad today, but luckily we were able to play before the rain came.
After dinner, I started to write my written component for the VVE. This took me a really long time, but I got some good work done.
At bedtime, our room realized we had been having a spider problem. There are huge spiders all over the room. We spent about two hours checking the room for spiders and exterminating them. It was actually quite entertaining, but pretty disgusting to realize that there have been spiders all over our stuff.
Anyways, I'm looking forward to completing our final week of work and then taking it easy on the weekend.

Day 18: Saturday, July 18

Once again I woke up in the morning feeling terrible. I probably had one of my worst sleeps of all time last night - I just couldn't seem to say asleep for more than 2 hours at a time. When I woke up, I was really dizzy and nauseous again. I couldn't get out of bed. Finally when I got enough strength to climb out of bed I took a quick shower and ended up falling asleep again until about 1. I took a few tylenols after that and felt a little bit better.
Throughout the rest of the day I tried to rest and relax as much as possible. I finished up some of my homework that was due over the next few days (there is quite a lot of work to do), but I just didn't have the strength to sit up and work for the entire day.
I went back to sleep sometime in the afternoon and woke up around 7. Not feeling like sitting in the room and groaning for the rest of the night, Chris, Vince and I decided to go out into Oxford for a few hours. When we got back around 10, we 'mingled' with some of the international kids who were all standing on the field outside the dining hall. We met some Germans and a couple Italians. Meeting international people is really cool and quite the experience. It's kind of a cool feeling to know that you know people from all areas of the world.
When we finally got back to the dorm around 10:30, we went into the common room and everyone watched 'Meet the Parents,' which happens to be one of my favourite movies of all time.
Around 12, I headed back to my room and feel asleep really quickly.
Looking forward to working all day tomorrow...

Day 17: Friday, July 17

Today I woke up in the morning feeling absolutely terrible. I didn't know if I would be able to go to class, let alone get out of bed, because I was feeling so dizzy. I ended up going to class until 11:30, at which point I came back to the dorm and slept for a good hour before lunch.
After lunch I worked on my comparative essay and took some Tylenol and a 3 hour nap. I woke up feeling much better and headed to dinner.
After dinner Chris and I went out into Oxford with Lauren, Briana, and Montana and met up with some of their friends from school who happened to be in Oxford at the same time. It was overall a good night, however when we got back the medication started to wear off and I didn't feel too well, so I fell asleep shortly after coming back.