A day of rest.

Today, I am finally just sitting down and taking most of the day off. Instead of running around Oxford like the crazy American that I am, I'm just taking it easy in my room, organizing and listening to music. Actually, everything is put away... I'm just making sure that I know where everything is and using Febreze on everything (the traveler's best friend). Today, I'll probably try to figure out how to use the washer and dryer (we have two dryers because it takes 1-2 hours to dry things here). It's actually nice to have the time to just dance around my room to "This City" (not the best song, but I do wish that I could stay here for the rest of my life).

Speaking of staying here for life, I'm actually surprised how quickly I moved through the emotional stages of studying abroad. Maybe it's because I just generally don't do grief and it'll all just hit me later, but I've acclimated rather well during the past few days. There are generally four stages of cultural adjustment when studying abroad (copied from this study abroad guide, but these are widely accepted):

Stage 1: The Honeymoon Stage

Everything you see is interesting and exciting. Sure, you are having trouble navigating the transportation system, but you are generally happy and enjoying your new adventure.

Stage 2: The "Everything is Difficult" Stage

Going to the post office, the bank, the grocery store, everything seems hard! People stand to close to you in line, no one is ever on time, you are sick of taking the bus an hour to class. Daily life is a challenge because everything is new and your cultural comforts may be clashing with your host culture's. As a result of these frustrations and challenges you may feel homesick, angry, bored, or depressed.

Stage 3: the "Hey! I am Figuring this Out" Stage

Cultural adjustment is fun! You are learning and using local slang in everyday conversation, you are making friends with the host-country nationals and last week you made a joke that they understood! At this stage you are becoming more confident in the culture and you are excited to learn more.

Stage 4: The "It Feels Like Home" Stage

You are finally feeling adapted. Your accent is sounding less and less foreign everyday, you are craving the local food and you hardly ever trip getting on the bus anymore.

So I've been going through these stages very quickly, or at least, more quickly than I had thought that I would. The first day, I went through the first stage. Just looking out of the window of the bus was so exciting, and I couldn't believe that I was finally in England! But then, that night, when my entire house was quiet and I was sitting in my room by myself in the dark, it hit me that I can't go home for four months. I'm stuck here. If I'm in trouble or miss my family, I can't just run home. I can't hug my friends or play with my puppy. And falling asleep at 6am didn't help with my personal emotional roller coaster.

That stage lasted for about a day or two. After exploring with Sarah, Chris, Steve, and Elyse for a few days, I'm feeling much better about being here. I generally know where everything is, which is an advantage that I'll have over people who are just arriving today, and I've had time to adjust to the time change. Sure, it's not quite like home, but if I have any problems, I know where to go and how to work things out. At first, trying to listen to the Brits was a little hard because some of them have really thick accents, but I'm generally very good at understanding people, and my brain is already starting to adapt to some of the thicker accents. I'm also starting to be able to distinguish the different areas that an accent is from. British isn't just British; a girl from Liverpool has a very different accent than someone from the West End of London. Yes, you can tell if someone has a British accent, but even within British accents, as with American accents, vowels and the length of certain words vary, and my love of linguistics is definitely kicking in!

Anyway, I've pretty much moved on to the last stage. Like I said, it's likely that in a few weeks, I'll be back to square one, but right now, I'm enjoying the fact that I'm here, I'm oriented, and in a few days, I'll be formally inducted into my college. More than that, I absolutely cannot wait for tutorials to start! Now that I know that a "satisfactory" transfers in as an "A", I'm not so worried about killing myself academically. That's not to say that I'm not going to work hard, but after looking at Oxford's grading system, I was ready to give up a few days ago. I can see the danger for students who travel here... Not showing up to tutorials is even more prevalent than not showing up to class in the States. Because tutorials aren't as often as a regular class in the States, students can get caught up in the history, mystique, and low drinking age that Oxford provides. But I'm ready to begin. I have my notebooks and school supplies in order, and I'm so ready to just begin. Thank goodness that orientation begins tonight with drinks! I just need this process to begin!

Just a quick shout-out to my mom, as it's her birthday. I love you, Mom!

And I hope that everyone else back home is doing well too. Off to work out my budget for the semester and write out some letters. Counting down the hours and minutes until I get to go start my orientation activities!