bad luck

this will be all about my horrible luck trying to find a grass court to play on, because that's pretty much what yesterday (tuesday) consisted of.

the day started off normally ... breakfast and then class. and what a boring class it was! i believe that it was the hardest to stay awake today than it has been for the whole time we've been here. during the break i went down and got a cafe mocha and a muffin from the tuck shop. yum. the reason i got the coffee is that it is freezing here! you'd think it'd be warm in the middle of summer but the highs are in the 50s MAYBE, and it has been rainy too. no fun!

went to lunch ... it was some eggplant thing, so afterwards we went downtown to grab something quick and cheap to satisfy our hunger, since we didn't really eat that much of the nastiness. i got a cornish pasty (think of a calzone), except with potatoes, cheese, tomatoes, and basil in it. it was way better than the dining hall meal.

after lunch number two we walked around to the different travel agencies downtown to try to find cheap tickets to paris for the weekend after next. everything was looking expensive, and when we realized that we will be missing four excursions over those 2 days (including one to a theme park), we decided that paris might not be the best option. i know ... i'm sad, but its ok. anyway, so that was about 45 minutes wasted shuffling from agency to agency. blah.

after my downtown jaunt, aaron and i went in search of grass court tennis. we walked to the close courts, right at university park, and started hitting. no sooner had we hit 2 balls then some guy came out and asked if we were members. they weren't public courts! arg! fine. we asked where the nearest public grass courts were and he told us how to get there. didn't sound too far. boy, were we wrong. we jogged for about 15 minutes and finally got to some courts (after stopping twice to ask for directions). when we did finally get there, we discovered that 1. the grass courts were closed b/c it was too wet (even though the others were open) and 2. it cost £5/person/hour to play. ridiculous. dejected and beaten, we walked all the way back to campus. lucinda (one of the program assistants) heard our story and said "there's no way you could've gone that far and back in that short of a time." when we described the area where we were, she was shocked to find out we really did walk that far. i guess it's about 1.5-2 miles away ... so i got some good exercise, if anything.

good news. it was time to eat now! we had a bbq out on the quad. ymmy hamburgers and chicken kabobs. it was delicious. after dinner, i convinced bill and andi to go down to university park and toss a frisbee with me! that was definitely a highlight of the day. we were actually kicking a soccer ball and throwing a frisbee at the same time, so you threw, kicked, caught, etc. all in rapid succession. we did that for about 45 mins to an hour, then went back to shower and change for the string quartet.

at 2000, we went to a string quartet performance at magdalen college in oxford. the quartet played music by dvorak and mozart. it was gorgeous music, and as much as i liked it, i almost fell asleep during the first portion. in order to avoid falling asleep and being rude, i left at intermission. of course, when i went back to catch a nap, i couldn't fall asleep. *sigh* anyway, when people came back they collected me and we went to a club called Pu Na Na (pronounced POO-na-na). it was a cool place, but the music was way too loud and there were too many people. i wasn't a fan. soon the tiredness overwhelmed me and i headed back to do laundry while everyone was still out (going to dublin on thursday). it was great timing, because the machines were all free (and, believe me, that never happens!) by the time i put my stuff in the dryer, it was almost 0200, so instead of trying to hang on another hour, i just put my clothes in and went to bed ... and got up early to collect it in the morning. i think that was a good call. thanks for reading today's post, and i will write again soon!

tennis deprived,

grant