Being an RA is... different

Actually have some free time today, so I figured I'd keep ya'll updated on my life as it stands right now.

About the University: Oxford is actually composed of 39 distinct colleges. The program takes place at Lady Margaret Hall (one of the colleges) which is way nice. It's set about a mile outside of the town center, and is beautiful (pics will be up later on). Harry Potter was filmed at Christchurch (another of the 39 colleges), apparantly, which was news to me, but people have been going fairly nutty over the fact since they got here. Our dining hall at LMH actually kind of looks like the one in the movies, which makes sense I suppose.

The students moved in on Tuesday, which was a pretty hellish day as it required me to be up at 3:45 to meet them at the airport. The planes ended up getting delayed so we sat around and ate a huge breakfast in Heathrow (on ASA of course), then got crackin'. Things went relatively well, despite some bottlenecking that occured when we tried to get 200 kids onto 6 buses in one of the busiest airport terminals in the world. I was going more or less non-stop for the rest of the day, hauling a large number of heavy suitcases all around campus and up many flights of stairs many times. As Oxford is old as hell, there are no elevators; needless to say, I got a pretty decent workout on move-in day.

The kids were all jetlagged, and I felt like I hadn't slept for a day after hauling all that luggage around, but there was still more crap to do. We took an open bus tour of Oxford which I didn't get a whole lot out of, just cause the amount of information thrown at us was mind-boggling. We had to do orientation and then floor meetings with the Spain vs. France game squeezed in. We have about 10-15 Spaniards in the program, so there was a source of conflict when it came time for the mandatory meetings (and a whole lot of disappointment when France won too).

In a program that is a minefield of brats (lots and lots and lots and lots of Manhattan trust fund babies) I managed to get a floor of very good kids. They all listen (so far) and are the complete opposite of jackasses, which not all the RAs are lucky enough to be able to say. It is only the first week, but we're definitely off to a good start.

Yesteday we did a photo scavenger hunt around Oxford with our respective floors, which was actually a lot of fun. The guys got really into it so it didn't feel like a chore or a lame activity. Afterwards I brought them to a pub that had great food so they could get the authentic pub cuisine experience in early. It went over extremely well, so all were happy.

So basically I'll be going a mile a minute at this job. The entire staff is all really nice (RAs and senior staff) and I can't forsee any sort of conflicts arising on that front. It's great to have such a good team of people to work with since it makes life so much easier in this kind of job. Everybody is always willing to jump in and help as much as they can, which is definitely necessary when trying to create a fun and activity-packed environment for teenagers. This is turning out to be a much more interesting experience than I was first expecting. I'm basically "on-duty" 24 hours a day, which can definitely be tiring. I can't even go somewhere to grab a pint if I have a free afternoon. Even when I'm out on the town without a specific task, I need to be acting responsible and all that for when the students might see me. Like I said, I only have 2 days off this month, and they told us to get the hell out of Oxford if possible since we won't want anything to do with ASA. They still don't want us drinking or doing anything illicit if there is a possibility of being spotted by our residents despite not being on duty. Damn. I guess I'll be hitting London for my first day off (the 5th). I've yet to decide how I'll spent my second (the 14th).

For now, I'm off. Gotta go develop my pictures from the scavenger hunt, and get planning some activities for later this week. Always more to do.

Love, Peace, Chicken Grease