landed

after approximately 11 hours of travel, i finally made it! hello, wadham college, it's lovely to meet you.

yeah. i'm living in a castle. no big deal.
wadham dorms are divided into "staircases," which basically means "buildings." they just have fancier names for everything here (my favorite being "water closet"). i'm in staircase 24.

we all have private (and huge) rooms, which is pretty snazzy, and each floor shares a bathroom. it's a pretty sweet setup.

after arriving (and only getting slightly lost on the way here), i got my room set up a bit and then went out to eat with a few other girls from the program. we found a delicious little italian place that wasn't too expensive where i proceeded to eat almost an entire pizza. yeah, i was hungry. airplane food just didn't really do much for me. then we came back to the college and i unpacked the rest of my stuff and skyped with mama until dinner. let me tell you about the hall where we have meals: i literally felt like i was at hogwarts. y'all, this place is insane. all 40 of us in the program eat at one long table in this massive dining hall with portraits of famous englishmen and stained glass everywhere. i kept expecting dumbledore to stand up at the front and welcome us to the new term. it was ridiculous. but i don't think i'll have any trouble getting used to it. after dinner i came back to my room and forced myself not to fall asleep before 8:30. jet lag is rough. anddd that was my first day in oxford! it was a long but good one.

but i have to say, what i didn't expect - or even think about at all, really - was how far out of my comfort zone i would be here. i don't know where anything is. i don't know anyone within at least a 3,000 mile radius. thank goodness they speak english here, but even the vocabulary is different. i knew it would be a big change, but i didn't expect it to so completely throw me like it has. and what made it even worse was realizing yesterday at lunch that i'm one of the only ones here who doesn't know anybody else in the program. the girls i had lunch with all knew each other already and made plans for weekend travel months ago. they even bought tickets for the harry potter premiere in london like weeks ago. and i had no idea any of this was going on. all because i couldn't ever find the stupid facebook group. frustration. so it's definitely been a struggle in the last couple of days not to let that get to me too much. but what it really has made me realize is how much i really need to lean into the Lord while i'm here. i left my comfort zone way back in texas, and there is no way i'm going to last five weeks trying to rely on my own strength or wisdom. i'm going to be completely lost and miserable if i don't run hard to Jesus. that's something i've really been working on for the last few months, but this will definitely push me more than anything i've ever experienced before.

i promise you that despite that anxiety, i am really, really loving it here! oxford is probably the coolest place i've ever been. for real. i'll post more about the town and my second day here soon! i love you all!