Because it's interesting

First things first, just got an email to inform us p-grads that our results will be online on Monday 22! *stressss* I'm fairly sure I passed every module but I'd love one more distinction (I only have the one I got in Production and Design last semester). Not that it really matters but it's nice and would be a nice way to finish.

I'm definitely not going to get a distinction (that's above 70 here in the UK, weird) in my dissertation because 1) I've hardly been working on it, 2) it's not the most interesting subject in the world (at least, not to me but how much is natural interest and how much I'm biased by dread... I don't know) and 3) at the pace I'm going, I'll be pulling crazy all-nighters which means it'll be decent but riddled with typos.

It's ok. I just need a passing grade and then I out of Academia for a looooooooooong time. THANK GOD!

But speaking of the dissertation, I've been doing a bit of reading and I'm finding Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture really interesting. It's available for free online (under a Creative Commons licence of course :) ) and well worth a read. It's also very easy to follow rather than uber academic so never mind if your brain isn't wired for sesquipedalian prose, mine ain't either. It's been relatively easy finding good sources for pro-CC arguments but I can't seem to find the anti-CC arguments unless they are cited in pro-CC literature. Any help would be welcome...

One of the interesting things (to me anyway) that Lessig mentions is how Doujinshi culture works. Doujinshi are manga created by the average Japanese Joe, some of who have amazing artistic skills but nevermind that, that are sort of like fanfic but for manga. The rules are that your doujin cannot be a mere copy of a manga, it has to add something. Legally, it's copyright infringement but the reality is that the trade and sale of doujinshi is a huge market and there are very few cases where copyright holders sue. Part of the reason for this is that doujinshi helps manga's commercial success in Japan.

So, would derivatives such as fanfic help literature sell better?

My opinion is that for some genres such as Science-Fiction, Fantasy and Crime (Adult and YA versions of all), it probably would. This are genres that already have quite a lot of fanfic going so I'd say that shows there's community interest in getting involved and manipulating the lit. If you'd encourage that to go in certain directions, it could produce interesting results. I need to think more about this...
But I don't think it would help sell more memoirs or chick lit... I could be wrong of course but I just don't see it.

the update

So I haven't posted in forever. So sorry, got caught up in stuff.
First, the semester is FINALLY OVER! Thank all the Gods Humanity has ever worshipped! It was seriously starting to get long and exhausting. But we did learn an aweful lot like, I don't like to work in a team :p We spent a whole day watching everyone's presentations which was really interesting. I only had a very small idea of what everyone was doing so I was really surprised by how good everyone else's projects were.

That said, I thought some of them really weren't viable if it had been a proposal for real. But the ideas behind it were really intriguing. We don't know yet which group has the best proposal. I have no idea when we'll be told but I sure hope it's us in Education :D I think we had a very solid proposal. Maybe not the most exciting but in the real world, it's usually the safest option that makes it. Sad but true.

I think my favourite idea was the Trade Fiction division. They were going to do a range of lit in translation but they would translate best-selling novels from other countries rather than literary fiction which is what most commonly gets translated. It's a great idea but I thought it wasn't very realistic. It demanded a very high investment and the risk would have been really high. Still, I would have loved it if someone did that. Also, their presentation was really funny.

We're now in Dissertation/Major Project time but I have done very little work which is making me very stressed which makes me procrastinate even more. Not a good combination. I wish I had picked a Major Project rather than a dissertation. The schedule is more obvious :) Some people on the course are doing real projects for real publishers as in making actual books that are actually going to be sold in bookshops. It's scary but it sounds so awesome too and you have resources and money to do it. I would recommend to future students that they take one of these on (they are usually advertised by lecturers or they come and give a bit of a presentation and take CVs and stuff). I didn't go for it because I thought it was beyond my abilities but I wish I had now. It also counts as awesome work experience and looks amazing on the ol' CV.

I keep forgetting that the dissertation needs to be bound so I have actually a bit less time than the deadline. I really should be working harder :(

Sequel

Another post! Aren't you surprised? :D Me too!

I got another email from the person who asked about interviews. She asked another question and I figured it wasn't a bad one for the blog. Hey, if you email me, chances are I'll post it up. It's a fair exchange, right ;) ?

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I know you are well traveled, so if you had the choice would you study in Oxford again? And having gone through most of the program, would you seriously recommend it to other people? The thing is, I'm trying to decide if it worth my time and money (I'm financing it myself). Your honesty would be truly appreciated. Also, do you feel like you have any time for travel? My travel outside the U.S. consists of one backpacking experience through Europe. I would love to see more of the UK.

Yes, I would totally redo the course if I had the option again. In all honesty, this is probably the happiest I've been in my entire life. Sure it's hard sometimes and there's a lot of work and pressure. There are people in the course I don't like to work with (although they are not bad people, just people I have no chemistry with) and I can't wait to be done with it and in the real world again. But that's true of every academic course :D
We have a lot of fun as a group and although we're hardly ever all together anymore, when there's a large group of us in one place, we have a blast and that's as important as the modules themselves in a way.

Oxford itself is a very nice town. It has a nice, village feel rather than being a stuffy "old university" town. It's very pleasant and although I sometimes miss having a wide range of options for things to do in the evening or on weekends (England will seem very slow and sleepy in comparison to the US - everything closes ridiculously early!) but it's probably just as well budget-wise :) And London's practically next door anyway.

There is some time to travel too, I haven't but that's mainly because I'm trying not to spend my parents' money. I like to eat out with my friends so I find myself going through money very fast and I'd rather eat out regularly than take a really cool trip and have to be tight with the cash later. I figure I can always travel more later when i have a regular paycheck, lol.
But yeah, a lot of people from the course are traveling regularly all over Europe, either to go visit their families or do some tourism. It's also easy to travel within the UK, plenty of airports that Ryanair goes to and also, buses. A bit expensive to my taste and the train aren't very reliable but it's doable. And again, with London next door, you can usually get just about anywhere in the country easily enough.

The Dreaded Interview

Someone emailed me asking about the interview process. Fool that I am, I had forgotten my password for the gmail account in the "about me" box. I've just recovered it but I was too late to answer this reader in time for her interview. I'm SO SORRY! I'm such a doofus sometimes! Well, most of the time, I'll admit it.

But, it was a good question, so I'll answer it here anyway (can't believe I didn't do it sooner, after all my agony over it last year!).

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Yes, I had an interview before I was accepted at OBU. Mine was done by phone (at the inhuman hour of 7 am) as I was living in Peru at the time. Some people had to come to Brookes for a face-to-face encounter.

Let me tell you from the start that there really isn't much to worry about. The Lecturers are all very nice and informal, we were on first name basis with all of them since before the course began :) They're not looking to reject you, quite the opposite. If you're asked for an interview, you're pretty much there already!

They'll ask you things like:
- How do you define publishing?
- What do you feel are your strengths?
- What do you feel are your weaknesses?
- Why did you chose OBU?
- Why did you chose Oxford?

It's a conversation more than an interview, really. At least, it was for me.

Here is some general advice on how to do this (bearing in mind I've only done this once): relax, the lecturers are your friends and want you to succeed. It's hard to believe but I know these people and I can say there isn't one of them that isn't a good person. Leander might be scary but she's really a teddy bear (just don't tell anyone I said that...). Be confident, publishing is a business, a tough one at that, where people juggle big sums of money every day. Shyness is normal, they understand that (and most people in publishing are naturally shy), but it's very impressive if you manage to fight it off when it matters. They also know you're gonna be nervous. Speak with conviction, doesn't matter if you're wrong or if they disagree with you. They'll respect you more for thinking for yourself. Don't be arrogant though, they don't tolerate fools easily (especially not Leander - can you tell she's one of my fave lecturers yet?).

Oh, and don't prepare too much or you'll get stuck if your interviewer deviates from the script you've imagined. Take it easy, it's mostly a formality.

Research Proposals

So, Research Proposals are the devil.

We have to write a 2000w. proposal for our dissertation. Based on this paper, they will assign us a supervisor. The thing is, the proposal assumes you've done some research on the subject already: how are you going to research the topic, what resources do you have/need, what's your schedule, how much money etc. I mean, most of us just decided on a subject at the very last minute.

BTW, mine is "Open Access and Creative Commons: Giving your Work Away for Free" . Working title only :)

So here I am, trying to write a proposal that will be acceptable (it's not graded but if it sucks, they don't let you do a Master's but you can still do a post-grad diploma - that's the course minus the dissertation/major project).

I'm not especially interested in Rights but as the proper Humanities scholar that I am, I'm more interested in the social aspects of this topic as well as how I can think of making it profitable to publishers (because I want a good grade on this project ;D ).

I'm kind of looking forward to writing my dissertation but I'd enjoy it more if I didn't have the mammoth NPD project at the same time, let alone the DMP blog to fiddle and update regularly (as my faithful readers will know, not my strong point) and a looooong essay for Children's. Oh, and work experience, which is getting progressively more boring and routine.

*sigh* I can't wait to finish the course and get a real job.

Oh and, I will try to post something other than me whining. I was thinking maybe a post on the history of Children's lit or something like that, distilled from my class notes. I just have to work up some motivation to do something course related. I need a holiday...

Now it feels more like a Master's course!

Phew! Week 3 and already there's lots of work to be done. The way I see it, I have it pretty easy. All I have to do is read a couple of articles on Children's Publishing that Claire assigned, do a bit of research (more because I'm interested than because I have to) and do some NPD research. This last bit is not very stimulating but I think it's mainly because I'm not too thrilled with the project and the group.

Oh well!

On the other hand, the Magazine module looks tough although the Lecturer is usually so much fun. Boyfriend has to write a 3000 word essay on a cultural subject rather than straight publishing. It's on Men's Magazines (yeah, thooose) which is an interesting topic but involves a lot of research an 3000 words is a LOT!

We also have to hand in our official dissertation proposals next week or the week after that. I've barely even thought about mine. I think having NPD and dissertation work in one semester is exagerating. The NPD project could be a dissertation all on its own! It's that huge and stressful! I mean, it's very interesting from the point of view of getting experience of how it's supposed to work in a real company without risking real money on it but it's a lot of work that is a bit too much like the editorial project for my taste. I don't know, maybe I'm panicking prematurely but I feel it like this weight on my shoulders all the time, even when I'm not really thinking about it. I guess this is how a postgrad is supposed to feel.

Trial by fire and all that.

Another letter from a would-be student

Hey there!

I'm planning to apply for the Publishing course at Brookes in Sept '09. I wanted to know how the course is, how you find the course structure to be, the faculty and the uni? Also, how many people do they take in a class?? Is it really hard to get through to this course?? Do you know much about the other Publishing courses (UCL,Kingston,LCC,Stirling

,Plymouth and City?)

Thanking you,

Hi

I'm glad to help. I'll handle your questions in order :)

1. The course is very intensive. We learn a lot of stuff very quickly and by the end of the first semester we knew enough to work in any department and possibly publish a book on our own. There are 4 mandatory modules, 3 (Editorial Management, Marketing management, Production and Design) are taken in the first semester and the 4th (New Product Development) is in semester 2. Everyone, regarding which of the Publishing M.A. (straight M.A. in Publishing, European, Digital etc) they're doing, has to take these modules. Then in semester 2, you also have to take 2 other modules that you get to chose (Digital Media, Rights Management, Children's Publishing, Magazines and Independent study in which you pretty much get to make up your own module etc.). The classes are half lectures which the Lecturer teaching and the other half is seminars or workshops in which we do some practical exercises usually divided into smaller groups.

The Lecturers are all great and very helpful. There are a couple whose teaching style is a little lacking but they make up by being happy to answer questions and see you in private if you need more help. It's fairly informal and we call them all by their first names, so you see, it's really very friendly. Everyone's here to learn so it's not a problem that we're so informal. Some of the lecturers are born comedians so their lectures are hilarious as well as informative.

The uni has a computer room just for publishing in the Tonge building with all the software used in the publishing business. We mainly learn to use Adobe InDesign which is the most widely used now. There's also Quark but if we want to learn how to use it, we're on our own.


2. The mandatory modules are for everyone and there's no limit to the number that can be. This means that everyone taking any of the Publishing M.As. will be there. At this time, that's about 75 of us. Of course, some people don't show up to classes and prefer to learn on their own using the lecture slides and the part-time students don't take all the mandatory modules at the same time so they're only there for one or two modules every semester. It sounds like a lot of people in one room but it isn't that much really and the lecturers are very good at reaching even the people at the back (I know because that's where I usually sit :D). For the elective modules, we're in smaller groups. There's no limit to how many people can be in one class but they're usual self-limiting in that there's many modules and people have different interests and goals so the main group breaks up into smaller ones. Children's publishing and Rights Management are the ones with more people.

3. I didn't find the classes to be too hard but they do demand a certain amount of work and, in my opinion, it's important to go to every class. It's not really possible to start your assignments at the last minute, for one thing, because a lot of it is group work. You don't get to chose your group so you never know who is more or less reliable. There's some maths involved in Marketing and Production which some people have a hard time with but I was terrible in maths in school but found it fairly easy if boring. Another possible difficulty is whether you can learn software easily or not, then there's the design aspect where some people are just naturally better at it than others. But I've seen everyone's Design projects and was very impressed by them.

4. I know that the City and Kingston programmes are good. City especially has a good reputation. I looked it up a bit because I applied there too. I think the difference is in how theoretical vs. practical the programmes are. Otherwise they teach more or less the same things. City is in London so that's one thing to keep in mind as well.

Have a look through my blog at http://publishingu.blogspot.com

I talk mainly about what I'm learning and doing and things like that. I'm not a very regular poster but there might be something that could interest you.

I'll be happy to answer any other questions you have.

End of the semester crash

As of Friday, I'm on holidays. I hadn't realized how exhausted I was until I finally crashed yesterday and spent most of the day asleep. I'm still tired right now even though I went to bed early and woke up later than my usual.

Looking back at the semester, I realize just how far the lecturers have gotten us. I started the semester thinking one year was not enough to be any good at this. Now though, I realize I know more about certain aspects of publishing than my supervisors at work and I understand pretty much everything else that's going on, why they do certain things etc. I also have a decent knowledge of marketing (although I really do not enjoy doing that kind of work and will not go into that if I can help it) and I notice the clever things other people do to get you to buy their stuff. In fact, it's kind of taken over my brain. I'm always spotting things I tell myself "I gotta remember that for when I'm working". It's evil. I also know about production, how to order a book, what paper and what kind of press should be used etc., stuff most people in publishing don't know or care about because they have other people to do it for them.
And finally, I know how to make a book look good.

One of our project this semester was to design a non-fiction fashion book. I was skeptical at first. We'd never studied design before, let alone book design, were just learning the basics of Adobe InDesign and didn't exactly know what was expected of us. We had a look at all the projects on friday and it was AMAZING! Everyone's work was professional and the look fit the purpose of the book. You had all sorts of styles from the traditional, discreet catalogue to gorgeous, striking and elaborate. Some people had a very classy, discreet look and other very modern, eye-explosion stuff.
We're going to get a CD with all the projects to have a look at. I am really impressed with how far we have come in less than 4 months.

I'm slowly realizing that I know enough to completely create a book from scratch all by myself. Not a lot of people, in publishing even, can do that. This is really a very well rounded program and although I often complained about having to take marketing when I don't want to go into that, I can see why Brookes students get hired so easily. We have a good knowledge of what everyone else does and how hard/labor intensive it can be and makes us better at collaborating.

I'm really looking forward to next semester, starting in 02/09. I'm taking the mandatory "New Product Development" and two electives, Children's Publishing and Digital Media Publishing. It should be really interesting.

Answering Questions

I'm posting here a conversation I had through Facebook (oh, how I love thee Fb!) with Julie (check out her very informative comment on Books Don't Need to be Perfect, btw). She's currently an editor in South America considering coming to Oxford Brookes. Welcome to the blog Julie, hope you stay, I'd love your insight into the realities of working in publishing, in South America or elsewhere :D

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Hi Chantal. It's nice to hear from another south american young publisher :P ((Chantal: I am half Uruguayan))

I have lots, and lots, and lots of questions, the first one (two in fact) would be the obvious one(s): why did you go to Brookes? Why an MA in Publishing?
Oh, I am not sure if you want to write in spanish or english, so I just did in english, but whichever one is ok for me.

Thank you for your kind answer :)

Julia

To answer your questions, I've been meaning to go into publishing for at least the past five years (that's why I did my B.A. in English). [...] I figured with an M.A. I'd probably get interviews fairly automatically, not to mention better paid. The M.A. shows commitment and it counts as serious work experience too.

I looked up other places like City University London. I got interviewed as well. In the end though, Brookes won out because the lecturer who interviewed me was very informative, the program sounded great (they help you get work experience, seriously, within the first 2 weeks I was working at a local small publisher!), the lecturers are all currently working in the industry, they have guests over all the time and it's in Oxford ;) I found out when I got here that Brookes' is pretty much the best publishing program in the country and one of the best in the world too. Some of my coursemates are working for HarperCollins, Oxford University Press and other big names. The classes are very practical with one half being theory and the other all practice.

The price is steep for sure especially if you don't have a student loan (I don't) but I definitely don't regret it. Everything about England is expensive but I'm finding once you get into the rhythm of things, you can manage.

From a more human side of things, I've never been as happy as I am here. Yeah, there's some downsides (like costs and being away from family and friends) but the people in my course are so much fun. Everyone is very nice and although there's starting to be a couple of conflicts between some people (sometimes it's a downright "telenovela"), we go out together a lot, we can talk comfortably, we even help each other out when someone has financial problems. It's like nothing I'd ever gone through before. The lecturers are very friendly and available and hilarious (some of them make us laugh all through class). They're a little quirky sometimes (if you come and meet Leander you'll see what I mean :D) I honestly think OBU is the best choice when it comes to publishing programs.

From what you say I guess in South America is easier to get a job in publishing than in Europe (that kind of scares me, hehe). I got my current job without even meaning to, without even knowing what I was getting myself into. However, there are indeed fewer publishing houses. But there are also a lot of different kinds of always-available freelance jobs (translations, proofreading, evaluation of new material), and if you know the right people you'll almost always be required as a freelancer. Anyway, I am on the "lucky" side of the permanent staff of a publishing house, so I don't have to worry if there's job available or not :)

Which leads me to ask: what kind of work experience (what kind of tasks) have you had in Brookes? For how long? Are they paid? Are they compulsory for the masters?

Also, which of the masters are you taking? Why? I see at the website that there are different paths, like European Master in Publishing, Publishing and Language, International Publishing, etc, etc. It's kind of confusing to tell which one would be suitable for me (something related to language sounds perfect, but all of them are soooo appealing :P).

I started at the end of september at a small academic publisher. I'm doing mostly marketing there, every monday 9-5. What you'll be asked to do depends on the where you're working but everyone's been talking about lately about how they give us an aweful lot of responsibility for interns and they ask for and trust our judgement.

Work experience isn't paid but most of them will reinburse any traveling fees (bus etc) to and from work. Mine even pays for my lunch :) They're not compulsory and I know plenty of people aren't doing any but they are highly recommended. Of course, since you already work at a publisher, you don't really need more experience.

I'm doing the simple "M.A. in Publishing". The others are interesting but I plan on staying in the UK or go to North-America afterwards anyway. They're all good and really, mostly the same. Right now, semester 1, we're all doing our classes together. In semester 2, those in European etc have 1 module that's compulsory to them that my group doesn't have. It's really the only difference.

One last question that I thought of today: what about entrepreneurs? are there any students whishing to stablish their own publishing houses? Any special approach that you've seen?

Oh, there are quite a few who would like to start their own publishing house someday. Not right at the end of the M.A. I think but after they have some experience.

One of the girls in the course runs her own charity in Africa and is doing the course so she can use it to support it. Oh, now that I think about it there is one person who's studying so she can open her own company in Macedonia but she's been working in publishing for a long time.

Honestly, we learn so much, we could probably handle a small publishing house on our own but experience is really important so I don't think we'd do it so well. Better to work for someone else for a while.

Julie has a blog (in Spanish) at http://juliejolie.net in which she sometimes posts the funny things that happen to her as an editor.
I know I haven't posted about the paper issue. Sorry! In my defense though, I found a chapter of a book that ties in really well with that lecture. I'll read it through and come up with a decent post that's extra informative to make up for it.

And we're off!

Wooooo...

Today was Induction/Enrolment day. I was a little worried that something would go wrong at the last minute (as it usually does) but everything went super smoothly. I met up with people I had met at a pub outing and then again on monday when we had a Chinese buffet dinner (we owned that restaurant that night!).

I have to say, I'm very happy with my classmates! I've never been very comfortable talking to people but today, I was a perfect socialite. I talked to everyone! I was really comfortable with all these people. It felt perfectly natural to start chatting with someone I had never seen as if we were old friends.

The day started in the Buckley Building which houses the publishing center. It's a very modern building, all glass and white painted metal on Headington Road. I got there very early so I helped Ros Ockwell, the Senior Tutor, set up the cookies and booklets. Good cookies.

The room was fairly packed with all the Publishing programs students as well as art students (not that many of them really). They dissappeared after a while to go do their own things. Claire (with an "i") talked a while. She's really quite funny and...she quoted some silly things I'd said on the facebook group, which goes to show you really do have to be careful what you say online. It was the best thread ever, I was in tears reading it.

We laughed a lot during the prof's presentations. One of the more important things we learned today was that there is Claire and then there is Clare. Or the i-less Clare, if you will. This is crucial to our success at Brookes.

I won't bore you with a detailed retelling of what we're going to do because it wouldn't mean much to you in one dose. It'll come up anyway. We already have a little project to complete for next week but tomorrow it's IT workshops and such. We've recieved our schedule for the semester and it looks like it's going to be fairly intense. We have one day free (monday) so that'll be work experience day. Somehow, I'll have to find time and space for a part-time job AND homework in all of that. I might even have to actually work to get this degree (*le gasp*).

We finished the day with pictures and a social. We had wine and chips (and the cookies). We mingled, talked, laughed a lot. I got to talk to all the people I hadn't talked to before as well as the professors all of whom were great and not intimidating at all. Well, maybe Leander is a little scary...

I'm the kind who sticks close to the wall during social events and leaves as quickly as is polite. Today was the first time in my life when I didn't want to leave but I was starting to feel the effects of the wine and, regardless of what Leander says, I didn't want to make a fool of myself (not yet, anyway). I mean, these were all relative strangers!

If things keep going this way, I think I'm going to have one of the best years of my life. No exageration. Well, I might be a little giddy from the booze but I don't think so. I can tell classes are going to be hard but I'm feeling so motivated and eager to start. A very strange feeling indeed.

Summer reading

If you are ever in La Rochelle, go have some ice-cream at Ernest Le Glacier. It's on a little street by the port. It is awesome ice-cream. I'll have to write to them and suggest Lucuma ice-cream, though.

If you're in need of something to read this summer that is related to publishing, here's the list we were sent as suggestions by the uni:


Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies

MA in Publishing/International Publishing/Publishing and Language/ Digital Publishing/ European Master in Publishing
2007-8

Suggested preparation reading

General

Giles Clark and Angus Phillips, Inside Book Publishing, 4th edition, Routledge, June 2008.

Carole Blake. From Pitch to Publication. London: Pan. 1999.

Editorial Management

Gill Davies. Book Commissioning and Acquisition. London: Routledge. 2004.

Marketing Management for Publishing

Alison Baverstock. How to Market Books. London: Kogan Page, 2007. Fourth edition.

Jan Nathan and Thomas Woll: Publishing for Profit: Successful Bottom-Line Management for Book Publishers, 2006

Design and Production for Publishing

David Bann. The All New Print Production Handbook. Hove: Rotovision. 2006.

Erik Spiekermann and E M Ginger . Stop Stealing Sheep and Find out how Type Works. Berkeley: Adobe Press. 2003. Second Edition.

*Mitchell and Wightman. Book Typography A Designer's Manual Libanus Press. 2005. ISBN 0 948021 66 7* Website: www.libanuspress.co.uk

*Please purchase a copy of this book in advance of the start of term as you will need this for the first week*

Rare species: a Brookes related post!

I still haven't gotten word about where I'm going to be living. We've talked about it on the 2008 Publishing M.A facebook group. I was relieved to find out I'm not the only one who hasn't heard back about halls. There are also several who will be house hunting in September so if it comes to that, I might be able to move in with my future classmates.

By the way, I don't know if I mentioned it before but everyone in the program I've friended on facebook is very nice and friendly and most of us like the same things. Some of us are planning on meeting up during the first week of September, get to know each other in advance... Pretty cool.

Those who have gotten rooms in the halls are mostly in Cheney Student Village in the post-grad block. It'd be awesome if we could all end up in the same place! We could rewatch Firefly every night! Yay!

So, this keyboard is incredibly annoying.

Anyway, we went to Normandy and spent the day there. My cousin's children were there and they are so sweet and affectionate! I love them! I expected a horrible day but ended up regretting we were leaving. They are that cute!

Still, on the train back I was about ready to collapse. I have never been that tired! I was sure I wasn't going to make it! But I did and I hope never to feel that lousy again.
Yesterday, we went to the Arc de Triomphe and walked all the way down the Champs Elyses. We got home exhausted but it was worth it. I love Parisian buildings! They are so beautiful! Not the modern square boxes obviously but the older ones with the sweet little windows with tiny balconies.

I'm loving this city although crap hasn't stopped happening. The 14th, our luggage arrived but we weren't home. Then, the concierge and the plumber had to get into the house through the balcony to turn off the water and broke a lamp. I don't know what they did because it looked as though the thing had exploded! we found broken glass in the toaster!

Then of course, we had no water. We were filthy and couldn't shower... They cut it off again today. It sounds like it's back on but...

I still have no idea where I'm gonna live in Oxford. The Brookes PIP thing says no decision has been made yet. I joined the publishing M.A group on Facebook and it seems like a lot of us are going to be in Cheney postgrad accomodation. I hope I can be there too.

Speaking of the others, we've all friended each other on Fb. It looks like we all like pretty much the same things! It seems like all those years of not having anyone to share my interests with are at a spectacular end! Woohoo!

I hate parting with my (mother's) money

I'm still waiting for my final offer letter to come from Brookes. I sent my acceptance letter from Mexico a couple of weeks back through DHL. Yeah, I took a short vacation to Mexico with my mother, I'm so spoilt. I don't know what's up with it because apparently the university only got my deposit a short while ago.

I don't know if it's for all applicants or just those of us who are international but when you recieve your offer letter, you have to send back a letter saying you accept the offer and a 1000 GBP deposit fee. Then they send you the final offer. The money goes into paying part of your tuition of course. Thankfully, my mother is paying but I wish it had been explicitly written on the website. I figure other applicants who have to pay their own way might be surprised by it. City only asked for 500, by the way.

Don't get me wrong, I totally think deposit fees are a good idea. How else can they make sure you really come but by asking for your money? Still, I don't like to be asked for large amounts without good, advance warning. I like money. It's hard to part with it.