Winter in Oxford

Hello! December is already upon us (brrrr it’s chilly) and some time has passed since our last blog post. Oxford has just finished its Michaelmas Term (a.k.a. Winter semester) and it has gone by in a blur. Eight intense weeks of essays, essays, and essays. In fact, here is a haiku inspired by the past two months:

Michaelmas Term

Wearied winter fun –
All the bits in between those
Sixteen thousand words

Do we do anything except write essays? Well, now that you mention it… At the beginning of term, I directed a musical, Singin’ in the Rain, at the Oxford Playhouse, which Taro was also involved with through doing the marketing, helping to sell all of those >3000 tickets. It was an incredible experience working with such a talented group of people in the cast and crew and in a professional theatre. And we made it rain onstage! Here is the trailer which we filmed around Oxford:

 

After that excitement, the term was mainly catching up on sleep for me. Taro also sings in the choir at St Edmund’s Hall College and we both, of course, go to Oxford University Japan Society, OUJS!

Oxmas was a major event on the calendar, on 25th November, a month before Christmas. This is when Oxford students celebrate Christmas during the term time. I celebrated by doing Secret Santa with friends, making mince pies and sitting by a cosy fire, singing Christmas carols. Oxmas is very much looked forward to by many at Oxford, myself included! It is rather strange though because the build up to Oxmas is so far ahead of Christmas – one has to have a lot of energy to keep going with festive cheer!

So there’s a brief glimpse at what we’ve been up to. Now, it’s the holidays and we finally have time to breathe. We’ve got lots of exciting updates for you!  Hopefully we’ll be able to get lots of warm, wintery words typed up over the holidays.

またね

Naomi

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