Re-education in Social Gatherings

While it may seem that this blog often gets the worse side of my experiences here, I do have a lot of good moments. In particular, this week has been an extremely good one.

I have been experiencing a sense of lethargy and lack of initiative over the last couple of weeks. I think this is due primarily to the grind of school work and the monotony of it all. Additionally, despite all of the good, I was clearly coming down with some kind of cold (I'm guessing I caught it at St. Catz). About half way through the week, I was living on ibuprofen (Of course not to an excessive degree, I followed the warning label) to not remind me of my sore throat. The winding down of term also meant that I needed to focus and get travel plans for next break sorted out which honestly stressed me out given the struggle I face last break. Despite all of this, I was in a considerably good mood for most of the week.

Physically, I feel great. The Jillian Michael's work out made me feel a lot stronger and with greater endurance and in general more comfortable with my body. I began a new work out routine under the guidance of a friend of mine which involves a core and strength routine twice a week, archery fitness once a week, and then jogging whenever I want to fill in the time. I'm planning on making a more regulated schedule with jogging on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday and Strength/fitness on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, taking Friday off. Archery fitness this week was also special, as one of the members brought Champagne to celebrate the A team's first place win at BUTC championship. One of the coaches, Nat, then gave me a ride through town in her land rover, which was an experience in itself. When I jogged to fitness that day, I was amazed at how much endurance I had acquired. Despite feeling a bit too full from a snack I had had before, I ran much farther than I had in November. The weather had also improved dramatically here. It was warmer than it had been for a few weeks and the sun was even out. This likely contributed to my good mood as I saw a rainbow on my way back from archery on Friday morning and then had a lovely 30 minute jog later that day. Both fitness and weather have a huge effect medically speaking on one's mood and I really see the value in taking care of one's fitness as a form of anti-depressant. If anything, I've learned that I can't stop and that this life style change needs to be a permanent one.

Given the sort of wretched experience I had at social gatherings in the last week and the realization that the friendships that I was forming in both Archery and the role playing society were one's that I wanted to foster and were the parts of my life here in Oxford that I truly enjoyed, I made an effort to be more present in both (within in enough reason to make sure that I was doing my school work as well). This was also a good choice on my part. The society game on Tuesday was a lot of fun and then on Friday I went to the usual 5th week pub crawl (though slightly belatedly). It was really awesome to get to hang out more with the people who until then I had mostly only known through their characters. It also helped that the role playing society finally got a facebook group so that I could friend ALL the people. I even just went on a walk with one of my role playing society friends and chatted about life,philosophy, science, and travel while enjoying the beautiful weather.

As for archery, I went to all the shooting sessions during the week, with exception to the one outdoors on Saturday (do be explained soon) and then went to our annual dinner on Saturday night. Another highlight of this week was the ordering of my own bow which will arrive on Monday. I found that once you had ordered your own kit, it was difficult to feel motivated to shoot the club kit. Thankfully it is only two more sessions of shooting before I can start playing around with my new equipment. Annual dinner was also a lot of fun. My two close friends, Sara and Sarah, all got together to get ready and do some pre-drinking, followed by a reception of champagne, before walking to the Boathouse for a nice dinner and plenty of wine. Safe to say that after more than a few drinks, I was in a good mood. But despite that, it was good to talk to everyone and see everyone dressed up. It was the type of gathering that I wished St. Catz ball had been. I really cherish the people that make up my role playing society and archery families. These are the types of social experiences that I want to be having.

Other than all of this, which has made my week quite grand, I managed to stay on task enough to complete all my work in a timely fashion. I am constantly amazed by my own efficiency, needing little more than an hour and a half to physically write an essay and thus, having plenty of free time on my hands. On Saturday (I had a busy Saturday), I met with Sara and Ben and we made some decisions and actually started the planning process for break. It looks like Sara and I will be going to York for the weekend of St. Patrick's day, followed by a few days in Paris and then I will continue on the Barcelona where I will fly back to the States. After about 2 and a half weeks at home, I will fly back to London and go on the Archery Isle of Man trip. Then I will go to Loch Lomond in Scotland for a few days of hiking and nature immersion before ending the trip with a few days in Athens, Greece at Ben's aunt. I will be travelling alone for parts of this break and that is a bit nerve racking but also exciting. Hopefully, I can work out more of the details today given that my tutor has yet to give me this weeks assignment.

So, with all of this, I am in quite a good physical, mental, and emotional state. This trip has taught me all the things that make my life feel fulfilled and happy and allowed me to tailor my life around this. I look forward to another good week.

Adventures Await

KH