My Travel Adventures

I put a printout of my online visa in my passport before getting off the plane in Maputo; I had applied for it some two weeks ago and received it within a day. I was not sure then why the process went so smoothly, but I would soon find out why. Spotting my printout, the lady sorting people into queues asked me to stand by the side until she had sorted the rest of the passengers. When that was done, she pointed me to one of the glass cabins; I was not sure where to go, but glancing at my printout, I saw it was not a full visa but some kind of pre-approval receipt, so I went over to the pre-approved counter.

My second Hilary Term at Oxford was uneventful – thank goodness! Having taken both my optional classes last year, I was afraid I would not be able to stay disciplined and work on my thesis. Fortunately, my daily 500-word quota turned out to be quite effective and although it made every day a bit of a slog to get through, it got the job done. I only made a few excursions, which I will write about in subsequent posts: one to Cardiff and another to Amsterdam for my friend May’s birthday.

I spent the latter half of Hilary Term (the second term at Oxford) eagerly planning and awaiting a visit from a college friend. In the spare time between my having to write essays and complete assignments, I was starring places in google maps, searching for connections on trainline, and studying the histories of the places we would visit. I did, however, have time to do other things as well. For example, my housemates and I visited the Pitt Rivers Museum, a major anthropological and archaeological museum in Oxford. The collection was interesting enough, but the lack of any logical geographic or temporal categorisation nearly drove me up the wall.