Check the bling, yo.

Check the bling, yo.
Originally uploaded by Kait W..

Behold the rare and beautiful Primark Diamond. Everybody say "oooooh."

This was part of my attire for Sha's "What do you want to be when you grow up" birthday party. Of course, I went as a princess.

More photos on my Flickr. Enjoy!

Gorgeous, yes; beautiful, no.

Words that go well together:

"Gorgeous Sale"

Seen on signs at the Coast shop on The High, as well in the Coast section of Debenhams on the corner of George and Magdalen Streets.

Words that do not go well together:

"Beautiful Theories"

Seen on a book in the Literary Theory section of the English Faculty Library.

technorati tags:gorgeous, beautiful, signs, sales, theories, shops, coast, debenhams, oxford

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How do people get work done in this place?

Because I'm far too busy having fun right now...

technorati tags:oxford, catz, uk, mcr, parties, cocktails

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She's baaaaaaack...

Mr. Hans Christian Tønnesen, age 26, of Denmark, writes:

More importantly, does your blog have updating powers?

Alas, it does not, but I do. So now that I am settled down for a few minutes, I'll give you an update of how things have been going on since I arrived back in the UK last Thursday.

The flight was long, and bumpy, due to a thunderstorm. It was also late. When I arrived in the UK, I was interrogated nice and heavily by customs - the usual, "Why are you doing a doctorate in Spanish in England?" When I went to collect my luggage, I was delighted to see that my friend Sarah, also in the Spanish program, had just arrived. We collected our luggage together, and took the bus into Oxford.

When I got into Catz, very conveniently, there was no Girovend card, no Bod (library) card, and no email account for me. It turns out that the faculty secretary neglected to send my contract to my house - she sent it to my college address instead. So everything was delayed for a week. My phone number expired too, so I was without a means of communication for several days!

That night that I got there (and Anna, the other social secretary, had just gotten there as well), we dove right into Fresher's Week events. We led a group of about 20 or so Freshers into town for dinner at a nice Lebanese restaurant. It was a bit pricey, and I was very jetlagged, but we had a nice time.

The next night, we had a fancy dinner for the new graduate students in the Hall. (I got to attend because I am a member of the executive committee.) We had a huge after party after that, and yet another cocktail party the next night, this time with live jazz. My friend Chrissie and I discovered that the best way to meet new people (and there are quite a few new people this year) is to work the bar at these events: it's hard to break into people's conversations, but people are always coming up to the bar and willing to chat. And then they remember you as the person who served them at the bar, so it helps. Even though I suck at making drinks, I'm going to try it more often. (And no, Hanzi, I promise we won't concoct any more Hanzi Specials.)

On Sunday, we hosted a waffle brunch in the MCR. By that point, having gone nonstop since Thursday and having lived on a diet of alcohol and not much else, we were all pretty exhausted. So this week, the social events have been a bit lighter. My schedule has been pretty easy this week - one lecture, hanging out with Chrissie and Chung (who live on my floor), hot chocolate with Elizabeth and drinks with the new language graduate students.

Last night was our weekly guest dinner (the first one is always black tie), and today was matriculation. I can't believe that at this time last year, I was just starting out as well. Now I'm a big ol' veteran at it all...I was leading the way instead of being led. It was an interesting feeling.

This afternoon, I met up with my lovely Mark and a number of our friends for coffee at Wadham, to celebrate the fact that Mark is in town this weekend. (He was in town last weekend as well, and Elizabeth and I got to see him then.) It's always fun when Mark comes to town - he makes sure we are all staying sane and not locking ourselves up in our rooms and being hermits, and we all have a good time when we hang out together. After coffee, Elizabeth came back to Catz and we helped Anna make an elaborate dinner of chicken and rice, salad, and waffles for dessert. It was fun.

But alas, not all has been well. Yesterday (coincidentally, Friday the 13th), I took a bad fall outside of the Porter's Lodge and banged my knee pretty badly. It's very swollen, bruised and painful right now, and a bit tough to walk on - which is definitely a big problem in a walking city like this! Right now, I'm icing it up and taking lots of Advil. I hope to recover very soon, as I've got a big week ahead of me - movie, poker and clubbing nights in the MCR, Galician lessons, a meeting with my supervisor, another guest dinner, and a housewarming party for Eleanor.

So yeah, as you can tell, I've been busy. And I've been taking photos - check 'em out on Flickr.

I hope my future blog posts are not so sporadic. Stay tuned for more adventures of Kait at Catz!

Much love,
Me
xxx

P.S. to Hanzi: I hope that was sufficient for you. ;)

My dog has telepathic powers

When I was a senior in high school (I think), I went with my mom, my sister and some friends of ours to a taping of the now-defunct Gayle King Show.  The theme of the day was "Amazing Pets," and it featured a whole bunch of weird people who claimed that their pets did things like save 37 dogs and two horses from drowning with no witnesses around.

I thought the whole thing was a crock, but in the past year or so I realized that my dog, Roxy, would have been perfect for the show.  Why?  Because she has telepathic powers.

OK, now I know y'all are giving me that same look that you give me when I tell you my mother had a mutant cat when she was growing up.  But this is true.  Hear me out.

Whenever anyone is sick in my family, and is laying down, the dog will come over without being called and lay down on the part of the person that is sick.  I'm serious!  Last year, I mysteriously twisted my ankle and had to cancel my classes that day.  I was stuck on the couch all day, and couldn't move.  The dog came and laid across my feet all day.  She also did the same when my mother had a backache one night, and again last night when I was up all night with a stomachache.

How does she know to do that?  Can she sense it?  I don't think she's intelligent enough to make the connection that I had been throwing up and therefore my stomach must have hurt, and I don't think she was around when I twisted my ankle.

Has anyone else ever had anything happen like this?

Random change of subject:  I am without Oxford email for the next few days, so please be sure to contact me on my gmail if you are looking for me.

Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, I've been delayed for a few days in arriving to Oxford.  My visa was delayed, so there was no legal way to get into the country!  It's all squared away now, and I will be back on Thursday.

technorati tags:dogs, pets, telepathy

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