Champagne and Chocolates with Salter. And other extremely important stuff too...

This past weekend Salter was here and it was quite enjoyable. However, before I get started there is some incredibly IMPORTANT NEWS! Last week I officially signed up for the C.S. Lewis Society (the first meeting is Tuesday at 8:15) and the J.R.R. Tolkien Society. Also, I went to the first DARTS get together, bought mine own set of darts (necessary), and we have our first practice on Thursday (the first match is Thursday 20 October, there is a match every Thursday night in a college pub). Most of all, last Thursday I signed up for ROWING! I hope all of you, especially mom and dad, are super excited. I am actually very excited myself. I will be rowing in the same boat with some of my new best buds, who I really, really like- Justin, Hillel, and Jeff (they are all in the pic at the top. Jeff is on the far left and is from Santa Clara; super funny guy and just fun to hang with. Justin is the crazy person in the middle looking down. He is a smarty pants from UPenn, who shares my obsession with C.S. Lewis. Hilel is just to the left of me, looking super serious, which is fitting because while he is super chillaxed most of the time, he loves his political debates). They are all awesome guys and none of us have ever rowed before. It will really be a good time. We have practice three times a week (Mon, Thurs, and Sat. with the first being tomorrow morning) which will be not that hardcore, and then we have the Christ Church Regatta in Seventh week (when Dani's here, so she will need to be a sweet cheerleader). As you can probably tell, I am genuinely excited. So, lets recap before we move on to this past weekend. I am in the C.S Lewis and Tolkien societies, and I will be on the Mansfield College DARTS and ROWING teams. There are other things I will be doing as well, including Walking Club and Croquet club, but that's not official yet (some of it's not until the Spring)....Anways back to this weeked and Salter. Nick got in Friday night and as soon as he got off the bus we went to college with Chris, Chuck, Justin, Jeff, Hillel, and various other people (I initially was hanging out with mainly Chris and Chuck all the time but I have started hanging out a lot with Jeff, Justin, and Hilel and they are really, really awesome guys!). Friday night was the second formal dinner (see previos blog about the first), which was black tie. It was supposed to be awesome, but some of us, including myself, didn't go because we thought that you had to have a tuxedo. Most English people do, but as it turns out, many people, just wear a suit and the gown over for the black-tie formals, or as their called "Formal Formal." Anyways, now I know and I will be sure to attend the one towards the end of the term....After Formal Formal, there was another separate event, that I did sign up for along with everyone previously listed, "Champagne and Chocolates." It was basically like a party at college. You pay 3 pounds (of your parents money- thanks mom and dad) and then get to have as much champagne and chocolates, or port and cigars, as you like. I, of course, will never smoke anything for as long as I live, so I had some champagne and chocolates. Afterwards, everyone went downstairs for the rest of the night to the college pub. That seems to be the general thing that will happen every Friday night (Formal Dinner followed by college pub). The pub is particularly popular on Friday nights because it can stay open until 1am and all the other pubs have to close at 11pm (below is a pic in the Mansfield Pub of Jeff (one of my new buds) and Salter getting into a political battle, which there were quite a few of that night between everyone- oh the intellectual atmosphere!)...It was a fun night, followed by a good day yesterday giving Salter a brief taste of Oxford and making him wish he came here instead of LSE. We went to college for lunch, toured some pubs and the main strip in the city, and then had a pretty calm night (he went to bed early and I watched "Shadowlands" for one of my tutorials)....This morning he left and I went to the second round of tennis tryouts. It was very competitive but quite enjoyable. Everyone there was of exceptional level, and I played very well myself (I have not hit the ball that hard in a long time). Regardless of what happens (realistically I probably won't make the team, and that is fine with me), I feel great about it. I got a fair chance, had a good time, and got to play some quality tennis with some good guys this afternoon...Anyways, all here is good, just missing all the fam and friends like crazy. Love you and miss you all! Peace my babies. -J