Bloody Brilliant

Things have been going rather well here. I'm really having waaaay more fun than I thought I would.

My floor has been really great as they don't cause [too much] trouble and have been ridiculously enthusiastic about most things in general. I haven't had to write anybody up yet, which is nice and will hopefully remain the norm.

Last night I planned and ran (with the help of Diane and a few of the residents on my floor) a dance that went really well. I had the guys make up the playlist, and more or less let them take care of DJing just cause I know nothing about that sorta crap (I'm sure most of you are aware of my "eccentric" tastes in music). There was a suggestion for another dance with an 80s theme which I think is a very good idea. I just need to figure out where I can get 3 hours worth of 80s pop and dance music.

The first London trip we took was definitely on the stressful side. We had to take the kids to 3 different locations (loading them on to a bus between each one). The first stop was the Tate Modern which was amazing but we didn't have nearly enough time at (one hour, tops). After another hour of loading onto the bus and travelling to the next stop -Camden Market- we had one hour to shmooze around. Camden Market is really incredible. it's a gigantic (this can't be overstated) labyrinth of street vendors that sell everything from the cheapest crap to the most expensive crap. It is a very cool place, but once again, our time was far too short there. I was very impressed that the kids didn't get lost in the maze, and we managed to be mostly on time for Covent Garden. This is where things got especially sticky since Diane and I thought it would be a good idea not to give the kids the maps we were supposed to since the pickup point had changed slightly from the original plan. This was a dumb idea, to say the least, and ended up making life much more confusing, and ultimately delayed us getting out of London longer than we wanted. In the end, the kids never got more than 1 hour in each individual location, and had to spend the better part of the day sitting on a bus. I guess that's inevitable when you try to take 200+ kids to London. Oh, and I forgot to mention all this was during the day of London's quarter-final World Cup match with Portugal, as well as the Gay Pride March. weeee.

The next trip (on Tuesday) will be much more low key for me, since I will only have 30 kids to look after. I will be taking a walking tour of the East End which I'm told is extremely cool. Some old guy who has lived there his whole life is going to walk us around and show us all its interesting bits then sit us down in a pub and tell us stories. Apparantly, it's supposed to be the best of all the London trips we do and, unlike the others, involves no shopping. Paul (the program director) assigned me to it because I advised him on what Orthodox Jews can and can't eat. Lemme explain: Since the other two London trips fall on Saturday, the more devout of the Jewish crowd can't go since they can't ride on a bus during Sabbath, so they only get to go on the one Tuesday trip. Paul wanted to make sure they get the most special experience possible so he signed them all up for the East End tour. Since part of the tour involves us eating in a pub, he was unsure about what to do with meal options and I explained to him about keeping kosher and what the kids will or won't want to eat. Apprantly, he took this to mean that the Orthodox Jews here at ASA identify with me especially (they don't, as I'm a non-practicing Conservative Jew who never even mentions his religion) so he's having me tag along for whatever reason. I can't really complain. Less stress, more interestingness.

My first day off was a few days ago. Melissa, Diane, Christina and myself all headed into London for the day. We went to the Tate Modern (sans 90 students) to actually take a good look around. I really love that museum as there is a ton of awesome stuff to look at. After a good chunk of time we left and went to South Kensington to find a pub and relax. We found a nice little place and enjoyed a few pints before getting some curry for dinner. We then proceeded to dick around for a couple more hours before it was late enough to find a club. We ran into a good one at Convent Garden and danced our asses off all night. We then walked to the Oxford Tube (a bus that runs between London and Oxford 24 hrs. a day, so sweet) and passed out on the way home. We got in around 4AM or so, and after not nearly enough sleep, were up again for the daily staff meeting. While it definitely wasn't a restful (nor inexpensive) day off, it was a welcomed one nonetheless.

Basically, then, so far so good. A couple kids have already been kicked out for general dumbassery (read: getting too drunk to keep it together). One of the two incidents happened two nights ago and was an total and absolute train-wreck disaster. I have plenty of gritty details, but I won't bother sharing them on the blog since they are far too ridiculous to believe, and I'm still working here and everything so I don't wanna give away tooooo much off the juicy stuff (who knows who might be reading this?). Let's just say I'm very happy that my residents have been intelligent enough not to get detectably drunk before coming to check in at night. I got really lucky in not getting a floor of idiots.

I met the program director for Cambridge and I'm now really excited. Not only was he a very nice guy, but he informed me that there are only 29 kids attended the 3-week program (as opposed to the 230 we have here in Oxford). It will be ASA's first ever program in Cambridge and I get to be there for it (what an honor). It should be extremely laid back compared to what I'm doing now, and I think it will be a lot of fun helping it get off the ground. There will be only 3 RAs instead of 22, so I'm sure we'll all be getting nice and close. Cambridge is supposed to have a much more "small town feel" to it, as opposed to the relatively busy city bustle of Oxford. I'm excited to be able to see even more of England as well.

I'm getting hungry now, so I'm gonna take off. I have some small junk I need to do today while everything is quiet. There are 3 or 4 excursions today, none of which I luckily had to go on, so things are pretty low key around here and I wanna try to get some stuff done while I can. I need to start putting together my Presentation of English Slang that I'm supposed to have ready for Tuesday. Should be sweet. I'll tell you how it goes.

I love you all.