second week...

So it's proably been noticed that I've been slacking off a bit with the posts now that classes are in full swing... sorry about that! Sleep is very important, and I've noticed many of my classmates getting sick, so keeping the immune system up is critical if I'm going to make it through the rest of the term.

Second week went pretty well (and was definintely easier to deal with than first). On Monday we submitted our first group assignment, and on Tuesday our first individual assignments, so there was a little stress in getting those out and learning to assignment upload system, but hopefully they both turned out alright.

Tuesday evening I went to a speech given by Bill Emmott, who is editor of The Economist magazine. His talk was on 'The surprising but thrilling strength of the global economy' and was quite interesting. There was a lot of questions about emerging markets like India and China, as well as plenty of discussion about the west and about oil prices and US/UK exchange rates (let's hope they get better before I have to repay that big loan!!!). Interesting stuff. It's a shame that it occurred the same night that Salman Rushdie was speaking at the Oxford Union, as it would have also been interesting. Seems to be the pattern here that there is really too many interesting things to chose from and you want to attend them all!

Wednesday evening we had out formal graduate dinner at St. Hilda's. This was the official welcome to the college and was attended by the graduate students, the college advisors as well as the Prinical of the college and other non-academic staff. The dinner was actually better than I had expected (based on previous Hilda's experiences), so that was a pleasant surprise. We had to wear our academic gowns as well, which was pretty amusing; unfortunately I didn't take any photos to share.

Thursday morning started bright and early at 515 for a rowing outing. They are still trying to sort out who really wants to row and who will slack off once they realize it means getting up early pretty often. It's also a big problem with slackers, because if one person fails to show, the entire boat can't go out. Pretty good incentive to get up, I think. The outing was pretty good, and they've got some more planned for the weekend!