In which I sound like I haven't seen the sun in months

Spring has come to England (knock on wood)! Yesterday and today were absolutely gorgeous - it's like we left February behind and boom! March! Spring! I walked around without a coat or scarf for the first time since being here. Soph and I exchanged exclamatory texts about how happy we were with such blue sky and Lou and I sat on a bench on the quad and soaked in all the sunshine we could. My room gets direct sunlight from about 2:30-3:30 everyday and I took a lovely power nap today like a cat in the sun. I can tell that college is going to be really beautiful once all the flowers bloom - there are some purple daffodils which a) I wished I'd gotten a picture of, if it's nice tomorrow I will and b) really needed Papa's "Appalachian Spring" soundtrack.

We had the History black tie dinner last night which was a really fun time. Cocktails and a fancy French dinner with people who don't mind discussing history with me (and some of my favorite people to boot). Plus I got to dress up which never ever happens except for the two weddings I attended in the past year. I had the best duck I've ever had (sorry vegetarians) - my personal rule is to order duck when it's on the menu and when I'm not paying. It never steers me wrong.

My tutorial went well today - discussing the evolution of Paris as a city from the pre-revolutionary era to 1850. Next week is my last essay (dun dun dun) on art during the post-revolutionary and Napoleonic periods (yay).

I was emailed about my tutorial for next term the subject of which I had totally forgotten since we chose our courses like last March. I'll be taking General History 14, so world history from 1914-45 aka wars, Russian Revolution, Weimar Republic etc. Should be great. It's going to be interesting to go back to not having two reading lists a week. I'm looking forward to less work, especially since everyone says Trinity Term is the best. Apparently no one really works but instead everyone plays croquet on the quad (the one exception to the lawn rule) and drink Pimm's in the glorious weather. I can hardly wait.