Oxford is Basically a Zombie Movie

You face overwhelming odds, no one gets any sleep, too many people demand too much of your brain, and everyone is really pale. 'Nuff said.

Behold the zombie march.

At 6:00 in the morning last Wednesday, most of Oxford woke up super early to listen to the Magdalen (pronounced "maudlin," for whatever reason) Chapel Choir sing on "May Day," the first day of May and the beginning of spring or something.

It was kind of like a rock concert, except less screamy and more weary.

I give them credit; it's hard to sing high notes so early in the morning, but they pulled it off. I don't know if it was worth waking up so early in the morning, but I think I can safely say it was worth going to see a woman in a cow suit dancing to the chapel choir songs.

Advertising G&D's? Or just another cow enthusiast? You pick.

Cow-lady passed out coupons for G&D's, an incredible bagel/ice cream fusion chain, and so we went there afterwards. It's nice waking up so early in the morning. Pretty much impossible for me most mornings, but nice. You get to be thinking properly for the rest of the day, assuming you actually got a good night's sleep.

At G&D's.

I still haven't gotten the hang of the weather yet. Sometimes, it's almost as sunny as a nice day in California; later that day, it will be raining "like a rat out of hell," as a friend of mine is fond of saying. I don't know what it means, but it's cool, brah.

I swear, it was sunny when I left the Maths Institute 15 minutes ago...

There are also people taking full advantage of being allowed on the Third Quad lawn to play croquet during the Trinity Term by playing seemingly 24/7. I swear, every time I walk past the lawn, I see the same people playing. They're probably up to something.

Ah, the smell of procrastination. Not that I'm not a hypocrite in that.

Still, though, I'm actually really doubling down on work this term, though. I'm actually doing twice the amount of work I was doing the last couple terms by working almost constantly and only goofing off when I literally cannot do any more work. It's going fairly well, I think; I'm in the process of memorizing all the thirty-something algorithms we covered in lectures and I'm halfway done categorizing the Linear Algebra key concepts. I really need all the extra preparation, since I didn't do very well last term what with the six classes and all and near-total lack of sleep toward the end.

I gave a homily (basically a sermon) last Thursday at Oriel College Chapel. I prepared well for it, and it went pretty much exactly as I intended. People laughed at the right moments and listened intently during the rest. My secret was that I have ADHD, and if speakers don't use humor in sermons or in lectures, I often find it very difficult to pay attention. As such, I knew that if I would listen intently to a sermon, there wouldn't be anyone else who couldn't. So I never felt I had to be all serious-like just because I was in a thousand year-old university; I just wrote the homily from the heart, and it flowed out with humor naturally blended in. Organic; freshly-squeezed and full of zing.

I'm really grateful to God it worked out, and that He used me in that way. My mom pointed out afterward that it was interesting to think of all the famous theologians/saints/professors who had stood where I was standing and given sermons/homilies. That is pretty cool, but one really ought to follow suit rather than stand in awe of the situation and/or people who have gone before, since the only one that really, truly matters who preached before was Jesus, and I mentioned him once or twice. Maybe more. I also mentioned Tolkien.

I've recently started the Half-Life series (so good!!), and I'm already almost done with the series, but I'll try not to stay up too late tonight!

Dios les bendiga,

   John Khouri, Croquet Hooligan