8th week: when everything comes together.

Wow. 8th Week. What a relief. It wasn't easy but we made it. This week I had the hardest essay of term to do. Writing the last essay of term is hard enough as it is; you don't have the same drive you had at the beginning of term and you can smell the Christmas vacation approaching. That means all you really want to do is stop now, blow it, you'll be off soon anyway. But when the last essay is the most challenging you just can't do that. You still have to get through one more tutorial and you can't sit in front of someone passionate about Dante and tell them you actually couldn't be bothered with this one, because it was the last of term. No. That would be offensive and embarrassing. You have to keep going, try and give it the same amount of effort as you had for the previous seven weeks. So that's what I did. It was painful, but I gave it one last push and whacked out the final essay of term. Eighth-week syndrome showed though. It was a bit of a train wreck of an essay. Thoughts are confused and you can tell there has been a bit of a rush to finish it. It was done though, that was the main thing. And with the last essay complete all that was left was Christmas formal to look forward to!

Christmas formal is always a special occasion. "Formal hall" is what you call it when the canteen cooks a special meal in college and everyone gets dressed up for it. The Principal says a few words in Latin and someone bangs a stick. It varies from college to college but St Anne's is the most relaxed and we only have formal every two weeks or so, whereas some colleges have it every night! Anyway "Christmas Formal" is even more special than normal formal - you get more food and its christmassy! Not only that but it marks the end of term and is a great way to celebrate survival with all your friends. And the Principal gives a speech. It's all very Harry-Potter-esque and this year was even better than normal The Principal's speech was great and he told a Christmas story using people in college to play the main roles. It was hilarious and then all of high table (that's all the professors who sit on the high table at the end of the hall - like in Harry Potter) sung us a Christmas carol. There's nothing quite like seeing people in high places acting silly. It was really fun and reminded me why the Oxford experience is so special. That wasn't it though.

After Christmas Formal we had the Christmas College Bop (like what we had in 0th week, it's like a college disco.) It was so much fun to party with all my friends together. For the first time in term all the linguists were out, everyone had finished there work - or almost- and we could all have a care-free dance together, without any randomers or sleeze-bags around. It was just what I had been waiting for all term. Everyone I loved together, finally free from work (for now) and ready for a much-needed Christmas break. No more essays or deadlines for a few weeks - What a Christmas miracle!