Awash

The rain is continuing, making some of our planned activities unappealing. A sizeable group had planned to attend a rugby match, but freezing temperatures and heavy rain drove the less stoic of us to a cosy dinner at the Permit Room. At my end of the table, a few of the cohort with Indian and Pakistani heritage launched into an affectionate (and competitive) critique of the restaurant’s dishes compared to their mothers’ versions. That flowed into a discussion of the appropriate chai to serve when your parents come to visit, including cost, ease of brewing and sugar content. I couldn’t contribute but it made for fun listening. 

As always, the excitement of travel is dragged back to earth by one basic need - laundry. Having been away for over a week I had a backpack of washing to do.  This required a small logistical campaign—complete with supply runs for detergent, a search for a laundromat (Oxford boasts only one, astonishingly), and a scheduling puzzle worthy of military strategy. The lone laundromat was a half-hour walk away, with hours that seemed deliberately inconvenient. For a university town, this  seemed wrong, until it dawned on me that the colleges must have their own laundry rooms. A complex planning exercise to followed to secure laundry powder, and find time (35 minutes for a wash, an hour for a dry). A 5am trip to my college, complete with a backpack of clothing confirmed that Pembroke does in fact have a laundry. 

I felt like a proper student using my access card to let me in the smaller door in the giant wooden one at the wicket gate. Card swipe, quiet creak, a brief sense of trespass. Inside, the porter, cheerful and unflappable, directed me down what must be the most picturesque path to a laundry room ever - photos below. 

The days are fantastic however they are long - crammed with content and conversation - and I’m struggling  with the lack of downtime. My head is soooo full of intriguing ideas and information but there is just no space to process it. In the normal world, I’m extroverted and I like interacting with people, but right now I’m feeling overwhelmed and I want MY people, not these people. I do have a few special friends here that I know will be lifelong connections but in the midst of the this crowd of people I’m feeling alone. We’ve been provided with a ton of content in this session on resilience, living with ambiguity, being comfortable with paradox - handily all the things I appear to need this week. I’m getting ample opportunity to practice the theory- who needs case studies when you’ve got real life handing out assignments?