Hilary term started off with the same kind of intensity as Michaelmas, and before you know what’s hit you, it’s the end of week three! I do recognize some distinct differences in the general environment around here, though. People seem to be a little bit more at ease, especially after the exam marks were posted [...]

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 [...]

I love my college Harris Manchester. I think the right word for it is “quirky”— it’s filled with smart and kind characters and it’s a great fit for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve spent only a tiny fraction of time there compared with hours upon hours spent at the Business School, but whenever I [...]

When I told people that I was moving to the UK the first thing they always said was, “Oh, the weather there is awful!” Having spent several years in the Willamette Valley of Oregon (it’s between San Francisco and Seattle and gets plenty of rain), awful weather to me meant torrential downpours and no sunshine [...]

 
The last month has been a busy one. The novelty of moving to a new country has been replaced by the realities of Oxford academia, although I’m still struck by the quintessentially British quirks confronting me when I do manage to leave the library:
Oxford “freshers” (students attending “uni” for the first time), stumble drunk down [...]