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From Oxford With Love

Yes, it's here! After deliberating for a good few weeks, the time has come for me to start my own Freshers' Blog on TSR.

I'm Chiara and will be studying Modern Languages at Magdalen College, University of Oxford from October. Yes, I have the terrible misfortune of being in the same city as medbh and KingMessi (whose respective blogs you can check out here and here). Pity is welcomed.

I blog at WordPress, but will be posting snippets of updates here which you can then follow to my main blog. I considered making a video blog for the TSR feature, but I tried it and...I sucked. I talk too much.

Anyway, my blog will be dealing with moving out (albeit only for two months at a time, hmph), studying in the land of the dreaming spires, stalking various Germans, time management, The Muppets (particularly Kermit, my hero), being a non-drinker, and maintaining a not-particularly-long-distance relationship.

Here's an extract of today's update:

Right. I already mentioned that I'd been feeling fairly calm, even neutral, about startng university. Sure, for the two weeks after results I had developed into a nervous wreck, the feeling of euphoria at having managed my offer slowly evolving into "OMG NO ONE WILL LIKE ME", but I like to think that I'm level-headed and sensible. Or maybe I've just picked that up from GB, who of course corresponds to his national stereotype of being perfectly rational. Either way, I reassured myself constantly with the mantra "you will have friends, people will like you" at every opportunity. I told myself firmly and confidently that it wouldn't matter a bit that I don't drink, that I would meet a lot of like-minded people and BE ABSOLUTELY FINE. This was a lovely, complacent state of being.

Today, however, GB forwarded me his PDF timetable of International Orientation Week (which basically consists of three days before Freshers' Week where all international students are invited to settle in and be looked after by a team of volunteers, since seemingly trivial things like setting up a bank account can pose a real worry for internationals) from Warwick University. I read the entire brightly coloured document, full of perky suggestions for events such as karaoke nights and bus trips to Coventry, and started to feel sick. Why? It certainly wasn't my timetable. I won't even be there. Obviously there was that bolt of fear to my irrational mind that said "oh gosh he's going to make so many friends that he won't want to see me on Saturday" (it is his first week after all. Apparently neither of us seems to care very much about supposed rules of integration and socialising :tongue:

) but then there was also general, unspecific fear. Strong emotions rarely bother shaping themselves into words, but if they did, this one would be "ARGH NEW PEOPLE, ARRGHHH". I have no idea why, but the busy red timetable advertising speed-meeting events and subject drinks made me feel physically sick.

My Freshers' timetable isn't nearly as threatening. But then again, it all arrived during the period of intense excitement, and somehow a Depression Awareness Talk isn't quite as scary as an open mic night. Maybe it's due to the lack of interaction with other human beings. I'm starting to get really quite nervous now.