Sunday: I went with Shane, Irene, and Emily to the Solemn Mass at St. Aloysius ("al-uh-wish-us"). Shane is on his way to being Catholic, while Irene, Emily, and I were just curious to experience the mass sung in Latin.

It was beautiful. I tried following along in the liturgy booklet since I know enough Latin to keep up but then I realized it was much more worshipful to just listen and watch. I love the solemnity of the music, the liturgy, the smell of the incense, the beautiful architecture, the reverent expressions. It's a seriousness that's bursting -- like the angels are about to bust out with joy.

But I think I prefer worship where the people literally are busting out with joy.

So I'm trying to decide how I'm going to do church here. I love the possibility of seeing new traditions (Hutton wants to go to the Quaker meeting with Jay next week) and slightly different ways of worship -- but, at the same time, I know I need to plug in somewhere and make it home. For a home church, I want something as much like New City as I can find over here. :)

After church we went to The Lamb and Flag pub for lunch (across from the Eagle and Child and much better) and Emily and I split a steak and kidney pie!!!!! I AM HARRY POTTER!!!!! :) It was actually really good, and I hardly even noticed the slightly squishy, strangely tough bits of not-meat that must've been kidney.

Monday: I went to my first tutorial. ::gasp::

After winding my way down High Street and through criss-crossing cobbled alleys, I finally arrive at Merton College on the other side of town and stepped into the Porter's Lodge to wait for my tutor. He showed up five minutes later: skinny, bespectacled, about 28 years old, well-dressed with a scarf and sweater and shiny shoes, and topped with a mop of dark hair and a five o'clock shadow. But he's from Boston. So no accent. (BUMMER.) He led me to a big old room where we sat huddled at a table at one end near the heater and talked about Shakespeare for an hour. I think it's going to be great, especially as we get used to each other.

Today: I had my second tutorial. It's my "C.S. Lewis in Context" tutorial and we were talking about George MacDonald's books Lilith and Phantastes. IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!!! My tutor is Emma Plaskitt and she is the SHIZ, man. I feel like I just sat there and talked about all of my favorite things and then she assigned me more of my favorite things. I can't wait to meet with her again in two weeks. My next assignment is to read Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday and Alice in Wonderland. WHOOO!!!

Today also involved all of us students having tea and treats in Simon's office and then Katie and I grocery shopping because I HAVE NO MILK.

Tonight: We are going to start reading Harry Potter out loud to each other because some of our group have NEVER READ IT. Katie has Book 1 and tonight we're cracking it open.