7. Dorm Life

2018.07.25  Greetings from Stairwell 3, Room 2a. For a three-hundred-year-old building, this isn’t so bad.  The room is sparse, but comfortable, and what it lacks in amenities it more than makes up for in charm.  Tall arched windows that open wide.  Crown molding.  Twelve foot ceilings.

There are a few wrinkles.  The boiler has shut down twice since I’ve been here so I have yet to have a hot shower.  With temperatures ten degrees above normal, (hmmmmm) it is quite stuffy and warm.  Observation: this seems to bother me far more than it bothers most of my classmates.  Guess it’s because although Florida is miserably hot outside, it’s typically downright cold inside – all year long. Not so much here – and certainly not in a college dorm.  Or classroom.  Or dining hall. So by late afternoon, it can be pretty uncomfortable. So meet my new best friend:

My Best Friend

Here are the views from my two windows:

And here are a couple of shots from the room itself.

A very nice place to write                                     Bad bedspread but comfy bed!

And finally . . . sometimes you get a set-up that’s just too good.  That happened to me today.  Most of the Oxford Colleges, including Exeter, are open to the public from 2 to 4 PM  each day.  The larger and better known colleges, like Christ Church, where scenes from Harry Potter were filmed, require advance reservations and charge admission.  Exeter does not. People just wander in.  So I ran out to do a couple of errands this morning and returned to campus just before my 11:15 class. A group of tourists were standing around the gate, partially blocking my way, and looking at the “College is Now Closed” sign in disappointment.

As I edged to the front of the group and started to walk past, one man, assuming I suppose, that I was a rude American, called out, “Can’t you see the college is closed?”  I turned around, gave him my brightest smile and replied, “Actually, I go here.”

Cheerio!