God bless America(n schools).

Well the days go by, one by one, and most of the time nothing big happens! Which for us, is great! As some of you may know, AJ and I were not able to go on a honeymoon (yet) because he had finals the week following our wedding. So the day after we got married, we hopped on a plane back to Oxford, where AJ spent a week studying his little heart out. Seriously the first week of marriage was THE BEST. False, that is a lie. AJ spent all hours of the day studying and I tried to find my own way around the city. I was truly being neglected by my newly found husband. But we got through it though and find ourselves back to a somewhat normal schedule.


I never quite understood the intensity of Oxford University until I was living through it. I think most people will get a kick out of hearing just how wacked school systems are here.


First of all, Oxford University is divided up into 30ish colleges. Every student that goes to Oxford is also part of a smaller college that they live at and eat at. AJ is part of Keble college. There is Christ Church College where Harry Potter was filmed. Magdalene College which has their own park of deer. Yes, like the animal! It's crazy! So each college is known for something unique, which is kind of cool!


They have three 8 week terms. The first is Michaelmass, the second Hilary and the third Trinity. In between each term you get like a month break. BUT if your an undergrad, during that break you have to completely move out of your dorm.... hahaha um what's the point of that? Assuming that most undergrads come back to school after the break, isn't it easier to just have them stay in their dorms?


TESTS! The topic of my life for the past 3 weeks. First off, attire. When Oxford students go to take a test they have to wear what's called a subfusc. It's like....hmmm.... ah yes... no joke

this.

Except Oxford students get it even better! They get to wear a cute little carnation on their robes. Darling! Apparently they still wear this attire because it was what they wore back in the day (when Oxford first started). We heard the other day that if you show up to your exam in a suit of armor they will give you a glass of wine... hahaha they don't do that at Weber!! I wish you could've seen AJ in his sufusc.. I was such a proud little wife;)

Scoring of the test: AJ gets frustrated even talking about this because it's so stressful! So most of your grade goes off of your exams. The tests are around 3-4 hours and you have 12 questions. From those 12 you pick 3 to answer. So spending around an hour on each question... that tells you how hard the questions are. The highest grade is around 70%. A 100% is unheard of. Professors will put questions on tests they don't even know the answer to! So the person who answers most logically and convincingly will pass. It's purely ridiculous! This past week when AJ was taking his exams, all he was aiming for was a 40%. Which in the states, is failing. When he told me this, I was like "are you joking me?!? Freaking, get a better grade than 40!!" But when I said that I didn't understand just how hard the tests were. AJ came out of his exams looking totally discouraged, mad and frustrated. I guess the questions on the test were completely out of context and had nothing to do with what they had done previously on homework. And he wasn't the only one with those thoughts and feelings! Everyone in his program felt the same way. I truly started feeling bad for these kids. Here are kids who are used to getting 100's their whole life.... now all they want is a 40? Yikes! 

I'm very VERY grateful that I'm a student at WSU and they've treated me so well!! Anyway, we're glad that week of our life is over and now we get to have a somewhat normal life. Thank heavens!!