The last week has been... straining.
Sunday and Monday I wrote my last essay and slumped into bed at around 2 in the morning on both days. I don't know why this last one was so stressful, it was easier to write than the second one and I really like the text it was about, unlike the text for the first essay. Still, somehow I ended up much more exhausted after that one. Maybe because it was the last one.

On Tuesday I had the tutorial, and it was great. I think I never had a better discussion in my whole study-life. Just brilliant!
After that I treated myself to some nice clothes at the pre-Christmas sale every shop here seems to have.

Wednesday was uneventful apart from my first lecture, where our teacher brought us some 15th century paper manuscripts to look at. I love those old books, I think it's amazing to have something in your hands that has survived for 600 years or even more. After the lecture I met Mari for lunch and we went to a small Italian restaurant she had discovered some days before. Very yummy.
In the evening we went to a concert of Out of the Blue (switch on your speakers if you click the link :)!), a well-known a capella group only consisting of Oxfod students. They are so good! A hundred times better than Wise Guys. ;)
We had a lot of fun at the concert and ended up in the Turf Tavern for some hours. At one point we just decided to crawl out of the pub and back to college, and finally into bed.

Today I had an earlier morning as usual because Mari came by to deposit her suitcase in my room for a few hours. She left for Finland today already and had to do some last minute Christmas shopping. She lives in a student appartment complex quite far away, so she dropped her suitcase in my room and went into the city while I was heading for my lectures.
Only that my lecture got cancelled because the teacher is ill. I met my tutor on my way back to college and she told me nonchalantly "Oh by the way, you have Rector's Collection this afternoon, don't forget your gown".
Yeah great, a surprise last-minute test in front of the Rector was just what I needed.

My second lecture got cancelled as well, as I discovered when I arrived at the door, and grumbling to myself I asked Mari if she was up to another lunch. She was, and so we passed the time until she had to catch her bus. We fetched her suitcase, she set off to the bus station and I went to the post office. I realised yesterday that I have bought too many Christmas presents for you, I can't carry them all back with me in my suitcase, so I posted them today. Keep fingers crossed that they arrive in time! ;)

The afternoon I spent with pre-packing as much stuff as I could possibly pack, and now I just need to get hold of one or two other big paper boxes. Then I'll be all the ready for leaving on Saturday.

Rector's Collection went very well and was suprisingly short. I got called into the Rector's room where a small group of professors were assembled, my tutor told them what I have done during the term and how my supervisors graded my essays and tutorials, the Rector asked me two or three questions about the main focus of my work, and that was it. I even don't know if I was in there for 5 minutes srtaight or if it was even less. Thanks for scaring the shit out of me, dear tutor! ^^'

("Collections" are oral exams at the end or beginning of each term, and they are rumoured to be quite strict. So I thought "Rector's Collection" was the same thing only in the presence of the Rector. But it seems that those are a mere formality, as the signing of the College Register and so on. Phew! As a visiting student, I won't have to sit collections!)

What is left on my to-do list:
- Christmas party with my floorball team this evening

- do my laundry tomorrow in the morning
- organise some boxes to pack my stuff
- pack my stuff
- go to the last lecture of term
- Christmas party with my graduate seminar in some part of the city I haven't been to yet

- do the rest of my packing on Saturday morning
- shlepp my boxed stuff into the trunk room of the college
- be at the bus station around 12:30
- hop on my flight at 4:00 (BA; will I get a dose of Polonium too? *glows in the dark*)

I'm just so tired I wish I could drop in my bed and not get up until Saturday. Sadly, that's not an option.

See you soon! :)