In which I am sassy and snobby about having already attended college for two years

I watched "Brideshead Revisited" (the 2008 movie) last night, mostly because Sophie basically refused to continue our friendship until I watched it. Though I was not that impressed by the movie (I want to check out the beloved miniseries and maybe the book), I got such a thrill (such a hip and happening turn of phrase) from watching the scenes filmed in Oxford. I couldn't find a screencap of the scene, but when Charles first arrives in Oxford, he walks away from the Radcliffe Camera on a street that I walked on yesterday. To say I geeked out a bit would be an understatement.

Other ways in which I geeked out yesterday: I overheard a girl in the lecture tell the girl next to her she was from Oregon. My family knows well that I have ears like a bat. Seeing as my killer hearing was combined with Oregon radar, well, I sat through the entire lecture waiting to attack her with questions. Turns out she's from Bend, goes to school in Boise, and also has an Oregon heart sticker on her water bottle. I learned all of this in a conversation which lasted all of a minute.

I haven't mentioned the lectures yet, have I? Ugh. So there are lectures for each British History course (I take VI) and they are on Mondays and Wednesdays at noon. They cover general topics like Conservative Politics or National Culture. Seeing as I don't have to take the exams at the end of term, I mostly sit there and doodle. But everyone else writes PAGES of notes. I write maybe a page and a half of information I think might matter while everyone else writes like four pages. Are they just bad at taking notes? The man does not say that many things which are useful. It's a mystery to me.

My tutorial yesterday went well. Even though writing the paper was excruciating, the final product turned out to be quite good according to my tutor. Plus he told me my definition of Chartism was right. WOO. "Can define Chartism in a correct manner" is totally going on my resume (not sarcasm).

My tutorial has unfortunately turned into a bit of a competition between me and my tutorial partner, Rob. I'm not sure he knows this. Maybe it's not so much of a competition as I am just determined to beat him by writing better papers. Rob is a fresher and took his A-Level (like AP tests) in the same time period as our tutorial covers, meaning he writes his essays out of a textbook. He also refuses to use any book which is not in the campus library (only about half on the reading list are). He turns in his papers on Thursdays (when they are due on Sundays) in order to have the weekend "off." All of this is infuriating to me because guess what? I don't have to take exams at the end of the term! All the work I do is for my personal benefit! I don't have to do it, but I do and this makes me better than you!

Anyways, I think you can understand now why being told I defined Chartism correctly was such a high point of my day yesterday. Also today Jarrai, one of the history freshers, told me that Alex, another history fresher, called Rob out on only doing two hours of reading when our tutor was SITTING NEXT TO HIM in the library. I may have high-fived Alex at dinner.

Next week's essay prompt: Who, in Britain, benefited from the British Empire? BRING IT ON.