#-realize you Can have a busted circadian rhythm

[databent]

talking about having a circadian rhythm disorder is so odd because it is so hard to pin down where it falls as a disability. its like. im able bodied but its not as though it isnt still a physical disability. am i making any sense there idk. just. whatever. you know

[sight-seeking]

Day 4

June 25th 2017, Sunday

4:30am: I realize the reason I wake up so early is because the sun starts coming up at 4am. How do I know this? Windowed ceiling. My body can’t fight the sunlight. Without a sleeping mask (tucked deeply into the abyss that is my luggage) my circadian rhythm goes, “LIGHT EQUALS AWAKE NOW.”

5:30am: I finally get out of bed and start packing after lying awake. It’s time to end my stay in London this week. Even though I’ve been through a lot, I still want to come back here. There’s so much I haven’t yet seen. So much I’m ready to experience. Maybe I’ll spend another weekend here. Who knows.

8:00am: I finish packing and eating breakfast and I bid the Hostel ado. I take the Piccadilly line to the airport. I watch the neighborhoods of Greater London go by and I marvel at the buildings. I’m sure to the people who live there they seem boring and mundane. But to me, they are vivacious and new.

9:10am: I am at the airport again. The group flight with all the other students won’t arrive for a another thirty minutes so I sit down and relax. Now that I am fully charged, funded, and connected I no longer fear for my well-being. It’s an amazing feeling. But everyone back home is still asleep, so I’ll have to wait before I can call them.

10:00am: The group flight arrives at LHR. I see a couple of students wearing Georgia shirts and I gasp. I have found my people.

11:00am: After roll call, three coaches (buses) collect us for travel to Oxford. We take a while to load up because everyone started putting their luggage on the wrong bus. We have a laugh about it and quickly get things straightened out.

11:10am: We leave the airport and I end up falling asleep for most of the ride. What is it about buses and trips that take more than 30mins that make me fall asleep?

12:12pm: I wake up as we drive through a little place called Summertown. That is the cutest name for a town that I’ve ever heard. The town itself is also cute, and quaint. I look at some of the buildings for a while, but eventually I end up falling asleep again.

12:20pm: We arrive in central oxford. I wake up to the murmuring voices of the other students and look out the window to see what I will later find out to be The Bodleian Library. We all gawk at it. It is OLD and GORGEOUS. Bust of great scholars decorate the front wall and the stones are marked with age and English rain. We park in front of trinity college and unload.

Wait, just let me just clarify things here:

EVERYTHING IN OXFORD IS OLD AND GORGEOUS. THERE’S LIKE, 48 COLLEGES, THAT MAKE UP THE UNIVERSITY, OVER 20 LIBRARIES THAT MAKE UP THE BODLIEAN, AND HUNDREDS OF AMAZING SHOPS. I CAN SEE WHY TOLKIEN, CARROL, ROWLAND, LEWIS AND HUNDREDS OF OTHER WRITERS LIVED HERE AND WERE SO INSPIRED BY THIS PLACE, IT’S A FANTASY TOWN.

Words can’t do it justice, you just gotta trust me on this one.

12:40am: As we snap pictures of the college, we’re given our keys, room numbers, and pass codes. Everyone is told to go freshen up and meet back together at 5 for orientation and dinner.

12:50pm: I go to my room. It’s at the top of three flights of stairs with no elevator. I have to use my inner man-strength to lug all my stuff up the old stairs. By the time I’m at the top I’m thoroughly out of breath and ready to pass. I twist the key in and enter my room.

My room.

MY ROOM.

MORE LIKE AN APARTMENT. IT’S SO SPACIOUS. It’s got a neat little bed with towels folded at the end like a hotel. There’s an arm chair and coffee table by a closed up fireplace (probably to keep this old building from burning down. Classic England) Not to mention a nice desk and two laps, one over the bed and the other at my desk. Three windows look out to a neighboring building. There’s a side room with a large wardrobe, with a mini fridge inside. And to the right of that is one of the fanciest bathrooms I’ve ever seen.

I spend thirty minutes losing my mind over the room.

5:00pm: I go to the first orientation meeting and welcome. When I arrive with some other student, the room is accidently locked and disorganized. The program director has to come and unlock the door. We quickly start moving the chairs into rows. For the next hour, the director lays down the rules for the expectation of the college, and what we can/can’t do while we’re there. A select list of things include:

 All fire/smoke related things are prohibited. This campus is as old as dirt, easily flammable. The smoke detectors are super sensitive, and the alarms are super loud.

The only sport we can play on the lawn is croquet. And we can only play in the back lawns. We’re not allowed to step on the front lawns for whatever reason.

No red wine on the lawn. Apparently, it stains the grass and they don't like that, only white liquor allowed. *

*Apparently lawn maintenance was pretty high on their priority list.

6:00pm: The director finishes his lecture. We were going to have a BBQ dinner outside, but it turns out there was a ball at the college the night before. And it got so wild that the gardeners were still dismantling the decorations and trying to fix the gardens while we were arriving. They were still cleaning up and moving things out of the courtyard. We’re forced to eat in the dining hall. But no one complains because the hall is still BEAUTIFUL.

I meet some nice students in the dining hall. Well, I’ve been meeting nice students all week.

8:00pm: After dinner a lot of students mill about and look around the campus just to get used to it. A group of students have already scouted out the city and one girl suggests going to a local pub she found. Me and some other students opt to go with her.

8:30pm: We find this niche little pub under a bridge in the middle of the city. It’s called Turf tavern. The girl remarks that she would’ve found it if there hadn’t been such loud music coming from the alley the night before. As we walk into the tight alley, I see brightly colored confetti litter the dark street, making the place seem both ominous and whimsical. We turn a corner and see the pub. It’s a lot nicer than I thought, very well lit. The sun is still up for the most part at this point. In England this time of year it doesn’t officially set until 11pm and still rises at 4am. There are a lot of older people relaxing at outside tables

I remark to one of the girls that I don’t like beer. She suggests cider, which is sweeter. The pub has and apple and pear cider, so I order a pint. We get our drinks and sit down at the table. The cider is better(to me at least.) It still has that after taste that I suppose it present in beer, but it’s sweeter, and I can taste the pears. On girl get a harder cider, and which smells almost exactly like rubbing alcohol. Mine isn’t nearly that heavy. Everyone else gets a pint of beers. We all sit in the pleasant evening and talk about our travel experiences before the program. Most of the pub is actually outdoors and it’s very chill at that time. The girl who initially found it said that it had been louder and more party-like before.

9:00pm: We leave the pub and head back to the college. While we walk past the Bodleian, an even bigger group of students seem to be headed where we were leaving. They plan on going to the King’s Arms, a larger, more well-known pub. Half of our group decides to join them. I join the half that decides to go back to campus. Our tours and orientations start early in the morning, and I want to be open and ready for that.

10:30pm: I go to bed.