One Minute at Oxford

Emma and I got back to Oxford at about 10:30 last night, picked up some yogurt and muesli at Sainsbury's, a pint of cider at the King's Arms, and a box of chips at Posh Nosh, and after a brief chat with Abby and Erika in the hallway (which was awesome, because everyone loves those moments where your favorite people meet each other and you get to stand back and watch the magic unfold), we fell into another alarmingly deep sleep. And then this morning, we ate our yogurt and muesli in my kitchen, I walked Emma down to Gloucester Green, and she took off for Heathrow. As the bus pulled away, I realized that the Strong Women in Ryan's Life Tour of 2008 (with Abby in Morocco, a bunch of my favorite female Rhodies in Israel, with Aviva in Mexico, with my mom in Boston, with Team Hertford in Oxford, and with Emma in Slovenia and Croatia) is officially done. I'm enjoying the odd feeling that it went just about perfectly, and that I'm still glad to be back at Oxford nonetheless. Also, the past eight weeks are about the first time in years that I have stories upon stories that I haven't had the chance to blog about - and with exams coming up, I probably never will. I'm sure that'll strike me as sad when I'm looking back on this vacation and can't remember what I did, but for now, it means that I'm probably having better conversations with real people, which is something I've gotten fond of on the SWiRLT08. I think this is, like, growth or something.