semester 2, day 3

Now Playing: Disney Robin Hood DVD (on Emmaline's DVD player, which has been installed in the common room).

This is absolutely hilarious: Twelve college students sitting around a room, cracking up over an ancient Disney film. "Oh, this is the best part!" *giggle giggle* "Haha! This is great!" *laugh laugh* "Hee hee! I haven't seen this since I was a kid!" *chuckle chuckle* (Most of the giggling and chuckling done by the boys...!)

Class at ten o'clock today: History of the English Language, team taught by the same professors who took Discovering Old English last semester. It's not a huge class, between twenty and thirty people. For tutorial, immediately after, I have the same professor who taught the Beowulf class, an eccentric blend of strictness and friendliness.

After class, I went running. I had to walk through the Botanic Gardens to get to the gym, the first time I'd been there since exams. Walking past the damp beds, I saw, to my surprise, long green spears of daffodils poking up through the wet leaves, and snowdrops on long white curving stems blooming under the dark bushes.

I walked back to Renwick, stopping to post a couple of letters on the way. Everyone was in the common room for communal lunch, but I took a shower, came down eventually, and ate an orange, sitting and listening to everyone talk.

This afternoon, Emmaline, Rachel, Naomi, Pamela, Rosemary, and I went to the Renwick boys' football match. (Anna, you'll be pleased to know that the Renwick football "kit" is black and lime green.) The match today was against RP pastors and students at the seminary. The six of us stood on the sidelines for two hours or so, watching the game. It was freezing cold. A strong northwest wind swept over the muddy grass. At first the teams were evenly matched, but the Renwick boys finally got a goal, and it went on from there. The match ended 4-0. I could not get warm when we were finally back at Renwick. Everyone else sat around the common room, talking, but I crawled upstairs and sat with my back to the heater, reading the ENL204 textbook.

At six o'clock, everyone in Renwick, with the exception of Deborah, who's on teaching placement, and Ian, who had a rugby match, went out to tea. We walked down to Benedict's, a nice restaurant on the way in toward the city centre. Rachel described the restaurant as being rather like a ship inside, and the description somewhat suits, if you think of a ship along the lines of the Titanic: a long curving staircase, heavy wooden panelling, ornate Gothic carvings on wooden screens, elegant floral designs painted on the ceilings, etc. We were seated at a long table and served by a garrulous waiter.

Back in Renwick, we decided to watch this DVD, Robin Hood. Quite funny, watching the boys watch it, and listening to Emmaline sing along with every song.