Last night Matt, Chad, and I had a marvelous dinner at the Eagle Pub/RAF Bar (mentioned in one of my earlier posts) with the visitors from OSU. Unfortunately, about the time we needed to ride our bikes home, it began raining. This is what we looked like when we made it back to our flat.
The OSU visitors included: Dean Reid, who has actually retired from being the Dean of the College of Engineering, Architecture, and Technology but is still very much active in his duties with the Allen Scholars and other various positions tied to OSU; Mark Nelson, one of the Scholars applying to study here next year who is an extraordinary human being of ridiculous intelligence and talents and could have more than an entire blog post written about his life; and, Nick Copeland, another potential Cambridge student who I do not know as well, but since he is an Allen Scholar, I can safely assume he is also academically impressive. In my unprofessional and probably biased opinion, I'm fairly certain that both Mark and Nick will have no trouble with being accepted to the University and will become freshers next fall. (As you can probably guess, a fresher is someone who is a new student, like a freshman. I think the term is more often applied to undergraduates, but I'll go ahead and overgeneralize it to anyone that is studying here for the first time.)
It was good to see some familiar faces from good ol' Oklahoma. I'm so glad that I was allowed to tag along to dinner! My meal of fish and chips and sticky toffee pudding with custard was scrumptious, but I was definitely more thrilled with the conversations. That was the first time I had really extensively interacted with Dean Reid, and I was very inspired by his approachability and his genuine desire to ensure that his students have every possible opportunity to reach their goals. I found the dinner very heartening.
I tried my best to express our deep gratitude for the Allen Scholars program, but no matter how I say it, 'thank you' just never quite cuts it. I don't think Mr. Allen understands the magnitude of the impact that he has made in my life, not just Matthew's. If it weren't for his generosity, Matthew would have had to pay for a portion of his schooling at OSU, which means that we probably couldn't have afforded to get married when we did. We certainly would not have ever considered moving across an ocean to attend the number one university in the world. Bottom line, if it weren't for Mr. Allen and his investment, I wouldn't be writing this blog! Because Mr. Allen lives in Houston, I'm really looking forward to Matt's time at Baylor. I hope that we get the opportunity to attempt to explain to him, face to face, what a gigantic role he has had in our lives, both academically and personally.
Almost four years ago when we learned of Matt's chance to become an Allen Scholar, little did we know what was in store for us! We had this gut feeling that whatever it was, it was going to be big. I feel very privileged to be indirectly associated with this group of people. Through the extremely unselfish and giving spirit of one man, the Allen Scholar program presents a realm of academic opportunity that I am excited to have a front row look at. Why are we so highly favored? I really do thank God for blessing us in such a blatant and undeserved way.
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| Please don't judge us. We were soaking wet, which you can't really see because the picture is so dark, but we were. We were freezing, which you may be able to deduce by the bright red color of our hands. I was confidently rocking the head lamp so that distracted drivers had no choice but to notice me (and laugh at me, I'm sure.) And yes, Matt had his pants tucked into his socks. He already learned the hard way that leaving them untucked results in rips and grease stains from the bike gears. Don't ask me why he was throwing up the OSU pistols. Feeling nostalgic? |
It was good to see some familiar faces from good ol' Oklahoma. I'm so glad that I was allowed to tag along to dinner! My meal of fish and chips and sticky toffee pudding with custard was scrumptious, but I was definitely more thrilled with the conversations. That was the first time I had really extensively interacted with Dean Reid, and I was very inspired by his approachability and his genuine desire to ensure that his students have every possible opportunity to reach their goals. I found the dinner very heartening.
I tried my best to express our deep gratitude for the Allen Scholars program, but no matter how I say it, 'thank you' just never quite cuts it. I don't think Mr. Allen understands the magnitude of the impact that he has made in my life, not just Matthew's. If it weren't for his generosity, Matthew would have had to pay for a portion of his schooling at OSU, which means that we probably couldn't have afforded to get married when we did. We certainly would not have ever considered moving across an ocean to attend the number one university in the world. Bottom line, if it weren't for Mr. Allen and his investment, I wouldn't be writing this blog! Because Mr. Allen lives in Houston, I'm really looking forward to Matt's time at Baylor. I hope that we get the opportunity to attempt to explain to him, face to face, what a gigantic role he has had in our lives, both academically and personally.
Almost four years ago when we learned of Matt's chance to become an Allen Scholar, little did we know what was in store for us! We had this gut feeling that whatever it was, it was going to be big. I feel very privileged to be indirectly associated with this group of people. Through the extremely unselfish and giving spirit of one man, the Allen Scholar program presents a realm of academic opportunity that I am excited to have a front row look at. Why are we so highly favored? I really do thank God for blessing us in such a blatant and undeserved way.
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