Last week was so busy, but particularly the weekend was just nuts.
Our electives started last week which means I have class from 9-4, and a class meeting from 4-5 with a 1 hour lunch break from 1-2 on Mondays. I woke expecting that terrible storm, but other than a bit of wind and rain, it was fine. By the time I left for class it was COLD but the sun was shining. So much for the worst storm in 25 years. Anyway, class was good, but exhausting. I listened to a history of international environmental law from the 1600s until modern day for the first two hours and then rushed straight into my Governance, Policy, and Politics class where we talked about scales of environmental governance. After 2 hours of that, it was an hour lunch break (spent in the graduate geography lounge with other NSEPers) and then had a 2 hour lecture on data and mixed research methods in my research design class. Finally, we had our weekly class meeting which is when the head of NSEP comes to chat with us about administrative issues, grading rubrics, and just important info that we need to know but doesn't fit into a class. By the end of the day, I was brain dead. I think I did something that evening... but maybe not.
Tuesday I did a good deal of reading/work and then went to my Nature and Society course, which was being taught by the professor who I was planning to ask to supervise my research. I stayed after class to introduce myself and then went to have lunch with a friend. After lunch I did more work and then headed to an interview for a nanny position. I really liked the mom (didn't meet the daughter) but I think the job would involve a lot of time getting to and from their house and would also take away my morning reading time, which I am using more and more (the time between when I get up around 7:30 or 8 and the start of class on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 11). On my way home from the interview, I finally bought a bike helmet so that I am more inclined to use the bike I've borrowed (which I'm still finding I don't use that much... still debating on whether or not I'll purchase my own) and stopped at Marks and Spencers to splurge on tangelos and fresh bread. I also ended up buying one of their pre-made but unbaked pizzas with low fat mozzarella, balsamic onions, spinach, and butternut squash. It turned out to be an excellent decision for dinner.
That night I did more reading, and then Wednesday was another full day of class followed by a really great yoga session that evening and then more work because I knew the weekend would be particularly busy. On Thursday I had my reading group and then headed to do more reading (so so much reading). I also got fantastic news that the professor I want to work with for my dissertation is interested in my project and thinks it's feasible. I'm so excited because rather than food policy or security or anything, I just got approved to write my thesis on the commodification of horses as sport and pleasure/pet animals rather than as work animals or food animals (just look to last year's horse meat scandal in Europe to see how much our perception of the animal has changed!) and how that re-labeling/re-conceptualization process has had a large, positive economic impact as horses become transboundary actors. Basically I get to study horse importation at Oxford. This is definitely the life.
Finally Thursday evening I let my weekend officially begin. I headed over to my friend Cato's place for dinner with the rest of the NSEP crowd. I think there were about 15 of us total and we made a huge pot of vegetarian thai curry and rice which was delicious. We hung out and helped get the boys ready for a Halloween party that night (mostly just spraying them with fake blood) and around 10:30 or 11 I headed home while most people headed to the Halloween party.
Friday I had my very first riding lesson while here in England. The upside was I got to ride a decent horse and it was great to be on a horse and also I think I was by far the most experienced rider in the group and got the least number of critiques, though I did get told that while not wrong, I ride entirely too "American"... which to be fair, is very, very different than the European style. The down side was that the barn is nearly impossible to get to- I walk or bike to train station, take train, then have to take a ten quid ($16) cab ride. The barn requires that we wear protective vests while riding and I got fussed at for not wearing one correctly (I've never worn one and had no idea how it should fit). They are incredibly uncomfortable, particularly through the chest, and make it exceptionally difficult to get shoulders back. I think the guy teaching us was nice, but a bit misguided... he kept complimenting me for having my horse "on the bit" but I could feel that he was NOT on the bit some of the time... it would come and go but sometimes he had his nose in but didn't actually have engagement with his hind end. Also, the instructor told us that to find distances we need to look at the jump... so he kept telling me to look down (not directly but just by nature of the size jumps were doing) since we were jumping a mix of crossrails and 2'-2'3. Final downside... we don't tack or untack... handed the reins to mount and hand them off as we dismount... which is nuts to me. It might be nice on occasion, but I miss interacting with horses so it's not something I want regularly at all!
Still, even if I didnt agree with all of his teachings, he let the lesson run long (apparently unheard of at these types of riding schools) and by the time I got off my legs were shaking and felt like jello (I am STILL a tiny bit sore). Because our lesson ran late (which I was grateful for so not complaining!) our cab got tired of waiting on us and left so we had to call another one and wait for it. Because of this, we missed our train back and had to wait for the next one. Because of all this I was late for my friend Brittany's birthday dinner and by the time I got there (still in riding clothes), I was exhausted. I ate pretty quickly and didnt stay long, which I felt kind of bad about b/c I love birthdays and Brittany is awesome and one of the people I feel closer to in the program so I wanted her to have a fun night even though it probably didn't seem like it.
Saturday I got up and headed into London to see my friend Carrie, who I worked with in Prague, and her friend Marta. We met up at Victoria Station and then headed towards Buckingham Palace, then over to Big Ben and Westminster and then to ride the London Eye. I expected to be terrified since I am not a fan of heights, but the little pod things are totally enclosed and it was only a tiny bit scary but mostly just really cool. When we got off the Eye we wanted food and luckily, there was an awesome street food/food truck festival happening right there on the South Bank by the London Eye. While we were eating it started misting but it was pretty typical British weather... and then the wind started howling and it started POURING. We rushed under cover and I decided to grab the metro rather than walk back to Victoria Station to catch my bus back to Oxford. It was an easy metro ride, but at $7 (4.5 pounds) for a single, one way ride on the tube is just nuts.
I got back to Oxford, grabbed dinner and cleaned up my room and showered. Around 7:30, people started showing up for the pre-game for Halloqueen, which is a huge party that my college, St. Antony's, throws every year for Halloween and is normally one of the largest graduate parties on campus. I'd say 20-25 people came and my apartment in just not that big, so it was crowded, but so much fun helping the guys get make up on, get bras stuffed, and try to get "beards" made of eye shadow on the girls (we went too light with mine and it looks like bad bronzer!) After lots of getting ready, we headed over to the already packed party right around 9pm. Overall, the night was fantastic. There was lots and lots of dancing (including ridiculous dancing where girls and guys swapped stereotypical club dancing roles) and just fun to see everyone dressed so crazy. There was one incident where one of my friends got literally thrown out (I mean man-handled and all) because some girl complained that he was in the women's bathroom (which is labelled as a unisex bathroom so he wasn't doing anything wrong). I had to help hunt down some people to deal with that, but he got let back in and all was well.
Most of the group stuck together, but by the end of the night, people had trickled away to head home or to various after parties. A few of us (Brittany, katherine, Louis, Dennis, Lisa, Sophie, me and a guy named Andrew who is not in our department but I know from St. Antony's) came back to my place for an after party. We mostly played electronic music and danced and talked and just had a look time. Andrew left because the afterparty was "too euro" by which I think he meant too much electronic music and weird dancing. Everyone finally headed home around 3:30 or 4 but it was a fantastically fun night and I still can't get over how much fun the NSEP group has when we all get together.
Sunday (yesterday) was literally a day full of nothing but reading for classes today.
Today (Monday) was a crazy full day of classes and during my hour lunch break I had to run to the student run co-op to pick up my weekly vegetable and fruit box full of local/organic produce. After our class meeting a group of us headed out for tea/coffee at the Greens Cafe (a favorite of ours) and hung out and talked until it was time to head to a lecture on how and why businesses must change to be more environmentally sustainable. The lecture was less of a lecture and more of a panel with lots of audience participation, but it was still pretty good, if not what I expected. From there, we all headed our separate ways home. I got home and cooked dinner (using almost exclusively the produce I got today... i made a baked sweet potato topped with sauteed zucchini, onion, and mushrooms done with balsamic vinegar and then a dollop of hummus and I also roasted some carrots). Since then I've been reading for class tomorrow and writing this insanely long blog post!
This week will include lots more reading and class, yoga, a reception with the head of the geography department, another Thursday night NSEP dinner, and then Andie will be here visiting over the weekend!
Hope things are well back home!
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