Exams
Whoa, that was a lot of exams—6 in 4 days will really take it out of a person. I felt pretty good going into the first exam on Monday morning, but then a killer Financial Reporting exam in the afternoon hit pretty hard, and it was a slippery downward slope right through to Thursday morning, when Finance just about did me in…It’s been funny thinking back on my undergrad experience—somehow, I don’t ever remember exams being that big of a deal. And it wasn’t that I didn’t take difficult classes, or lots of them. I guess I must have had projects and/or final papers in lieu of written exams for many of my undergrad courses. Needless to say, I have never packed so much information into my brain as I did in weeks 9 and 10 of this term, and while it was stressful, exhausting, and detrimental to any semblance of healthy eating or sleeping habits, it was actually fun to feel like I had really learned the material. We’ll see what the examiners have to say in a few weeks…

Winter Break
It is so cool to live in a place where you can hop on a plane for less than £100 and in a few short hours you can be skiing in Switzerland, cruising the streets of Barcelona, or roaming around on the African continent! Ok, ok, so I didn’t manage to do all of those things over the winter holiday, but I came pretty close! The ski trip was thwarted by a combination of poor snow conditions, and waiting too long to purchase tickets and reserve accommodations. My husband and I did, however, manage to meet up with my family in sunny Barcelona. We had a lovely Christmas spent with long lost relatives outside of Madrid, and then made our way south to Granada before taking the ferry from Tarifa to Tangier. We spent a phenomenal ten days travelling between Tangier and Marrakesh, soaking up the beautiful, vibrant, and ever-entertaining Moroccan culture. We walked the beautiful and winding streets of Chefchouen, got hopelessly lost in the crowded market in Rabat, and spent an entire afternoon watching from a balcony restaurant as the huge plaza Jemaa l-Fna in Marrakesh came to life with food vendors, snake charmers, acrobats, and fortune tellers. It was a tough decision to stay abroad for the holidays, but I must say that this winter break will not be soon forgotten.

Back in Oxford
We arrived last night by bus from the London Gatwick Airport. It’s a bit surreal to have spent the last several weeks traveling, then return “home” to Oxford, which still feels a bit like a travel destination of its own. Coming in on the A-40, the bus drove through so many interesting parts of the city that I haven’t even found on a map yet—places like Headington, Cowley, and St. Clements all have great shopping, beautiful old buildings, and fantastic restaurants just waiting to be sampled. This term, I’ve made a resolution to get out more, experience more of the incredibly rich history and culture that Oxford has to offer.

It felt good to be back, and nice to see familiar faces again at the Business School. We walked down the canal path to the grocery store last night in the dark, got caught in a horrendous downpour on the way back, and thought to ourselves “Ah, home sweet home!”