When I went to San Francisco over the break not only did I get to hang out with Chrissie, but also with Adam and Christian, two other fellow Catz postgrads (one former, one current). I couldn't help but think about how cool it was that we were meeting up for a mini-reunion over 5000 miles from the place where we all went to grad school together. Most of the time, when you go to grad school, your classmates are pretty local. Here in Oxford it's very international, meaning you can get together to meet up almost anywhere.

Not long after I got back I heard about another long-distance meetup: Dan, Gwen, Mélody and Patricio got to meet up in Chile, over 7000 miles from Oxford. Mélody was visiting Patricio, and Dan and Gwen were trekking through South America, so it only made sense that they met up. :)

Even though I'm more likely to end up with my high school and college colleagues as neighbors once I'm done with this place, I think it's awesome that I can go pretty much anywhere in the world and be able to meet up with people from Oxford.

*Photo swiped from Gwen, with thanks. :)

This post isn't about the movie 300, which I haven't seen nor do I intend to see. (I'm not into that kind of thing.) This happens to be post number 300, the most I have ever posted at any of my blogs.

I know my posts have been tapering off a bit as the years go on. I imagine part of it has to do with the fact that I've gotten used to Oxford, so the things I once found crazy or unusual (like seeing a fleet of Santas walking down the street) are now part of the everyday scene. Another thing is the nature of what I'm doing this year. As a Junior Dean I am one of the people responsible for the welfare and discipline of students, so I can't go around blabbing about stuff that people do or I'd probably lose my job. Having this job has made me buckle down on my research, though, and although that's a good thing, I figure you don't want to be bored with my accounts of truth and verisimilitude in the Novelas ejemplares!

Some good things have happened lately, though. A scholarship I got this year has been renewed for next year, and not only did they renew it, they doubled it from $3000 to $6000. That's a very good thing! And since I do not owe tuition or fees next year (you don't pay them after the third year) and the Junior Dean thing keeps me housed and fed, I may not have to take any loans next year. I also have some other promising opportunities that I can't discuss at the moment, but I'll keep y'all posted.

Travel plans for the summer are looking exciting. I'm booking a trip to Spain for the end of July - I'll go to Madrid for a few days and then join up with my friends Justin and Enrique in Vigo (just over the border from Portugal). I don't know if I'll do any other short trips, but that's the big thing right now.

What else? Hmmm.....not much going on. I haven't been going to lots of crazy dinners this year (although I did go to a very nice guest dinner at Queen's), but I don't mind having things low key for a change. Most of the time we just hang out in college and have tea and watch The Sopranos, which I like.

I've really gotten into Twitter lately, and I've found it to be the easiest way to keep everyone updated on what I'm doing. So if you drop by here and find nothing but radio silence, you may want to mosey on over to my Twitter to see what I've been up to.

Back to work now. Have a lovely day, everyone!

Kaitlin x

The courtyard of the SCR (the posh place where all the fellows hang out) at Catz is home to some ducks, who have just given birth to about 18 adorable ducklings in the past few days. They have been the center of attention for the past few days, with graduate scholars (who often have SCR rights), college officers and senior dons alike stopping at the courtyard door to watch the ducks in action.

It turns out that the duckies have their own webcam, so you can follow their hijinks all day long. You may see me out there after dinner hours (between about 8-9 pm GMT) with friends hanging out with the ducks. They're adorable - click on the link and have a looky.

Enjoy!

Earlier this academic year, I did my first transfer flight to Oxford. There are no direct flights out of Bradley, my local airport, so usually we drove down to New Jersey and I'd fly from there. As my third year rolled in, this got to be troublesome. And when my parents came to visit me, they did a transfer flight out of Bradley (through Canada) and survived, so I figured, why not give it a shot.

My regular airline is Virgin Atlantic. When I did my first transfer, I flew United down to Washington (IAD) and transfered to Virgin from there. The experience was not pleasant. It seemed as though neither airline had ever dealt with a transfer flight before. So, for my next flight, I decided to explore alternative options.

When I found out I'd be going home over the Easter vac (I don't usually), I decided to take a trip to San Francisco to see my friend and old neighbor Chrissie. My dad offered me his frequent flyer miles, which happened to be on US Airways. While I was looking up flights, I decided to see if the miles would cover Bradley to London, which they did - and left him miles to spare! My dad was happy for me to use them - he got the miles from his business trips and had no plans for redeeming them any time soon, so it worked out well. I got to fly round trip for $137 (the cost of fees), and it was very easy. I also liked dealing with a single airline much better.

Anyway, now it's time for me to plan my next trip back. I'll come back after my sister's wedding and return in August this time around. My dad didn't have enough miles for another trip on US Airways (he still has enough for a good local trip, though), but he had plenty of miles on Delta this time. I got a flight on Delta (actually, operated by Northwest) for $221. This time it's routed through Michigan, but I don't mind because my parents' flight through Canada was similarly routed. And on the way home I fly Business Class into Detroit, and First Class home to Bradley!

Yay for frequent flyer miles. I may have used most of them up now, but it's made my year much cheaper.

Off to the Hertford College library to copy verses out of the Bible. Yay!

A friend of mine gave me the above plant as a gift. I've had it a few days now, but (a) have no idea what it is and (b) no idea what to do with it. Any advice? Does it need to be planted outside? I really hope it doesn't need lots of sunlight.

Your wisdom, oh great Internets, would be much appreciated.

This morning, while getting in the rest of my eight hours (I usually get up for breakfast then go back to sleep), I had the weirdest dream - I just have to share it with you now.

I was watching the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and on the show, Will Smith was dressed up as a woman for some reason. The weirdest thing was that he was wearing a blue wig, as if this looked normal or something. He somehow ends up on Rosie O'Donnell's talk show, and she starts making fun of him for being dressed like a woman. He loses it, and end up being sent to jail.

In the next scene, when he's going to jail, I somehow realize that I am there at the jail with him - not actually in jail, but watching the scene take place. For some reason he keeps switching back and forth from being dressed like a woman to wearing a Spiderman costume. He claims he's there for a date with this big famous wrestler guy, who is bald and has a bleached blonde mustache.

Anyway, he gets sent to jail, and it seems weird because there's a lion in the cell next to him. The guard puts him in the cell (wearing the Spiderman costume) and takes off. At that point, Will Smith turns into a polar bear and is skinny enough to just walk out through the jail cell bars. I'm totally freaking out now. Then the polar bear grabs a Diet Coke and pushes it in my direction, sits like a dog and licks my face like it wants to be pet. At that point, the guard came in and got the bear and I woke up.

If anyone can figure this out, please explain!